By the end of the week the contingent of old men had moved around the castle to almost every class, in every year and spoken to a handful of students. Much to Harry's dismay he seemed to be followed by at least two of them at almost all times of the day. He saw a pair of them talking to Ron Weasley as he waved enthusiastically at Harry while he was passing the odd trio in the hall. The end of the week couldn't have come any faster as far as Harry was concerned. The old men were a little creepy and having Ron talking to them was starting to be even worse than possible.
The weekend saw a marked pick up in the spirits of the school, however, with the latest match up in Quidditch. Gryffindor was going to play Hufflepuff to see who would go up against Slytherin in the final match for the house cup. While Harry had done fairly well in the flying class that they had earlier on in the year, nothing of note really occurred; Neville had nearly broken his arm on a tight turn, but was fixed up in a jiffy by Madam Pomfrey. Harry didn't share the avid fandom for Quidditch that some of his other roommates seem to have. Most notably were Ron and Dean getting into an argument over the merits of football versus Quidditch.
"I just don't see the point." Ron complained as the boys made their way down the sloping lawn towards the stadium in the distance. Most of the school was already congregating in the seats to watch the match.
"I already explained the rules and the concept to you, Ron. It's the same as Quidditch." Dean was waving his hands around in the air in exasperation.
"It is not! All those people on the ground running about back and forth and not a single bludger in sight. You only get one ball and all the action is centered on a handful of players at a time. Honestly…" Ron shook his head as he tried once more to explain the subtle nuances in a single game of Quidditch; this was mostly the fact that there was always something to look at for the very short attention span of the redhead.
Neville shook his head as he walked with Harry behind the arguing pair. They had distanced themselves as much as possible from them so that they could talk without having the redhead overhear anything that they said. It wasn't that they didn't like Dean, but if Ron had noticed Harry not showing an interest in the sport he may have taken personal offense at it. Seamus was bringing up the rear a few feet behind them, but was more fascinated staring at the girls that were walking around them than to pay any kind of attention to where he was going, let alone the conversations going on.
"I don't think that either of them will ever truly agree on anything." Neville said as he swept his hand towards the pair that had just ducked into the stadium through a small veiled doorway.
Harry shook his head as well, grabbing Seamus and pulling him away from running off to flirt with another sixth year. He pulling on his robes also had the added effect of not allowing the Irish man to slam headfirst into a wooden post. "Cricket, now there's a wonderful sport if I do say myself."
Neville smiled a little as the three headed up with their dorm mates and their house towards the stands. The seats were nearly full. "I wonder what would happen if you throw in Cricket into the conversation and see what happens. I've seen a few matches played when I was younger so I know what it is, but I've never actually played in one."
Harry nodded a little as they entered into the stadium proper and headed up the long stairs that would bring them out onto the main seating areas. "Dad once bowled out a man when he was younger, still talks about it to this day."
The students pulled their heavy cloaks around their bodies and tightened the ties and the scarves around their necks. The winter weather hadn't let up this far north and it would seem that the match was going to be played in rather severe cold. There was already ice hanging from the stands and off the ends of a few of the brooms held by the players already out on the field or up in the air practicing before the match started. The worst was that the higher they climbed the colder the air seemed to get, and the brooms were flying even higher than that.
Harry took a seat with Neville and Hermione halfway up the stands almost right in the middle of the row. It wasn't the best viewpoint given the fact that the players were all down on the field still, but when the game actually started it was going to be nice to see them moving up around in the sky. Hermione had already conjured a small blue bell flame inside of a glass jar to keep them warm and was holding her hands against the glass when the pair of boys showed up. Nobody seem to pay any attention to the lone Ravenclaw sitting amongst the red and gold as they had seen her so often around Neville and Harry.
"There you two are the game's about to start. What took you so long?"
Harry rolled his eyes and jerked his thumb in the direction of Ron and Dean whom were still arguing. "Weasley and Dean didn't want to give up their quest in how to perfect the best looking hairdo. Add to that the fact that neither seems all that interested in listening to what anyone says and you get us being late."
Hermione looked confused so Neville explained as he sat down next to her. "Dean and Seamus were working on their hair when Ron got into an argument with Dean about football versus Quidditch." He pointed down to where the two boys were waving their arms around in the front row nearly knocking out a startled Parvati Patil whom glared at the two before moving. "They're still at it, although by the looks of it they might be winding down. They should just accept the fact that they're never going to agree and move on."
"I'm sure that they will keep at it for most of the game if not the entire thing." Harry shivered a little and put his hands against the warm glass that Hermione was keeping in her lap. "Nice spell work by the way."
Hermione beamed a little as she looked down at her own mitten covered hands grasping at the warmth of the glass jar. "Thanks, it's rather simple actually and I'm not sure why the entire stadium doesn't have some kind of warming charm on it, it would make much more sense for these stupid outdoor sports that they insist that we have."
Neville hid a small smile as he nodded slowly. "Don't let Ron hear you say that. He'll go on and on about how Quidditch is the best sport in the world." Hermione rolled her eyes that got the boy laughing a little.
Harry was looking around at the stadium and counting things on his fingers. "Carry the two….divide by twelve…." He was muttering to himself as he snapped his fingers. "It wouldn't be possible with a conventional warming charm, but perhaps some kind of ward might work, anchored to a stone buried in the middle of the field. Then with the ambient magic that is inherent in the field as well as the players and the brooms…"
"Huh?" Hermione turned in her seat to stare at Harry, but Neville pulled them both back down to where the players were coming out of the locker rooms.
"I think the game's going to start." Once he had said it the loud speaker system blared to life with the voice of Lee Jordan, the announcer for most of the Quidditch games since he had gotten there two years earlier.
"Welcome everyone to another thrilling game of Quidditch." There was a cheer that went up around the stadium as the players were moving out onto the field proper and lining up facing one another. "And here they are the lions of Gryffindor and the badgers of Hufflepuff." Lee's voice echoed around the stadium magically amplified and projected through several tubes installed so that everyone could hear his voice.
By the time the commentary had started most of the players had already mounted their brooms and had shaken off some of the ice that had started to form on their robes. Taking the time to slowly work their way around the stadium the two teams were squared off in the middle with the Hufflepuffs on the left and the Gryffindors on the right; this meant that the stands were situated just behind their teams so that they could cheer them on. The Ravenclaws and Slytherins could join either side if they choose to do so, or take seats in the raised stands on either side of the midfield line.
"Captain Oliver Wood for Gryffindor meets Hufflepuff Captain Lisa Rener at midfield for a handshake. Two Captains that you couldn't find more alike those two, wonder what they would be like on a date together."
"Jordan!" The voice of Professor McGonagall seated next to Lee rang through the magically amplified tubes that were situated in front of the boy.
"Just kidding Professor. And the quaffle is released, and the game is on."
Indeed Madam Hooch, the Quidditch referee and flying instructor, had tossed the large red ball into the air and the teams were scrambling for possession of it. Finally, one of the chasers from Hufflepuff had grabbed a hold of it and was speeding away towards the goal at the other end of the pitch and right towards Oliver Wood. Wood had moved quickly back to his own post on the field and watched as the chaser came closer and closer. His beaters, Fred and George Weasley, were doing a good job at trying to unseat the chaser, but she continued to come towards him with the ball clutched under her left arm.
"And Hufflepuff is making a daring drive towards the goals." Lee's voice came over doing the commentary once more. Many of the students had tuned him out for a while so that they could simply watch the game. "Rener's got the quaffle and she's heading towards Wood, looks like she's going for…no, a feint, but Wood is there to stop it anyway. Tough luck there, Rener, better luck next time."
Rener had tried to shoot for the left while making it seem like she was going for the right hoop. Wood hadn't fallen for it at all and had been able to block the shot easily with his broom. The quaffle was dropped into the waiting hands of Alicia Spinnet whom was waiting just below the hoops for the opportunity. She and Katie Bell spun around the hoops once and then took off towards the other end of the pitch. Angelina Johnson was running interference with the Hufflepuff chasers, but joined up in an arrow formation with the other two around the middle of the field.
"And the Gryffindor Hotties-"
"Jordan, I warned you!" McGonagall could be heard with a little frustration and annoyance in her voice.
"Sorry, Professor, just telling it like it is. Oh look, they're going for the goal. Johnson passes it to Spinnet, who passes it to Bell. Feint to Johnson, underhanded pass to Spinnet and the girls are going for the goal."
Up in the stands Harry had started to hum something under his breath, but it slowly got louder and louder until his companions on either side were leaning in to try and hear what it was. They had to lean in even if he was talking at normal voice because of the loud whistling that the wind was whipping around the stands produced. The cold air had made for a frigid looking group of students, but they were still on their feet and cheering loudly as the three Gryffindor girls passed the quaffle back and forth between them looking for the right shot.
"Harry?" Hermione asked as she had to nearly shout over the wind and the cheering of the crowd around her. "What's that tune?"
Harry simply smiled and continued to hum a little. Neville was leaning in a little more to try and get the tune. A light seemed to go off in his head as he started to laugh and nod. "Very appropriate." Suddenly, Neville was humming along with Harry as well.
"I don't get it, what-" Hermione broke off as she really listened to the tune that the two boys were humming and started to giggle. Before too long she had taken up the tune as well as those around the three were looking at them oddly.
"Spinnett takes a bludger to the arm and drops the quaffle. Rener has it and is shooting up the pitch towards the hoops. She passes it to Stevens and then to Cole, but the Weasley's are there to intercept. Not sure which one that was, but the bludger graces the tail of Cole's broom and forces him to drop the quaffle right into the hands of Johnson."
Harry had picked up the tune a little louder and a few of the muggle borns in the Gryffindor stands were humming along in between giggles. A very ingenious sixth year had taken a hold of his wand and used it to not only amplify the tune, but to also have it override Lee's commentary. Soon the song was blasting easily through the speaker system to the entire pitch and not just the humming version that Harry had started. Several students were looking around almost stupidly, but more than a dozen had figured it out and were singing along with it just as it went along.
Spinnett, Johnson and Bell were professionals on the pitch and had learned to block out everything around them save the movements of the other two and the bludgers that could come near them. Be that as it may they couldn't block out the sudden music blasting through the pitch that seemed for them alone. Katie had a small smile on her face as she hummed and tossed the quaffle to Angelina whom swooped in the left and passed it behind her back to Alicia. By now the three girls were moving in sync and slammed past the last defenses of the Hufflepuff lines and Alicia was able to put it through the middle hoop.
The cheer that erupted from the stands was enough to break the spell on the speakers and Jordan's voice came back on with more enthusiasm. "Not sure what that was, but it seemed to have worked. Gryffindor scores…what? Oh, apparently that was Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. Very appropriate if I do say so."
A few of the Professors looked pleased with the music selection, including McGonagall, but there were a few that were scowling about the sudden interruption to the game. Sprout shared a smile with her other Head of Houses except for Snape whom was sitting back with his arms crossed over his chest and sneering at everyone. Although Dumbledore was smiling at the interruption, there was an underlining hardness to his eyes and the smile didn't seem to quite reach them as he nodded politely at the people around him.
"Any sign of the snitch yet?" Neville called over the cheering crowds and the wind that had picked up a little more after that last goal.
Harry nodded and pointed at a small speck of gold about halfway down the pitch hovering a few inches off the ground. "Right there, been there for about three minutes now."
Hermione gasped as she turned her binoculars, something she had retrieved from her trusty bookbag at her side, towards where Harry was pointing. "I don't get it; both of the seekers are just circling the pitch up there. They could've ended the game five minutes in if they wanted to."
Neville shrugged as he was watching the lazy figure eights that the two seekers were making high above the pitch. Every so often the two would cross in the middle and seemed to exchange short words and then were off again. "Maybe they're stalling for something."
Harry shrugged. "Or they just don't see it. Neither of them are looking down on the ground so I don't expect that they would see it very well." He peeled his eyes away from the small gold fleck that was making it's own lazy figure eights near the grass and scanned the stands around them. "Have you seen Daphne today?"
Hermione nodded as her eyes were still glued to the binoculars that were following the path of the snitch on the field. "She was in the library this morning. She said that she wasn't going to bother coming down here considering most of her house was going to be here. I think she wanted to spend some time with her new friends in her own house for a bit. She didn't think it important to sit with her house and considering what would happen if she sat up here…"
Neville groaned and nodded a little. "We still get teased by a few of the older years about being friends with someone outside our own house. Ravenclaws not included of course, Hermione."
Hermione blushed a little and put her binoculars down into her lap and looked around again. She groaned a second later and tried to hide her face. "Speaking of Ravenclaws."
The crowd of Gryffindors were on their feet cheering as their team on the pitch was making a spectacular show of bouncing the quaffle between the chasers; unfortunately this opened up the aisles to the stairs on either side of the stands. A pair of girls dressed to the hilt in Ravenclaw colors had just crested the top of the stairs and had been looking around as if they were lost. Upon seeing the small trio still seating while the rest of the section was on their feet cheering they started to head in that direction. The two girls were roughly the same size height wise with one having long shiny black hair that was pulled back and held to her head in a ponytail with a blue ribbon; she was dressed in what appeared to be a short dress covered over in a thick cloak.
"H-Harry?" The girl's teeth chattered against the cold as she rubbed her gloved hands against one another. The pair of girls came up level with them now and had worked their way on either side of the black haired boy.
Hermione sighed and shook her head a little as she slid down, offering space to the black haired girl's friend. Marietta was much nicer than her friend and smiled and had already tried to thank Hermione for moving. "Cho Chang and Marietta Edgecomb." Hermione said as she indicated the two girls.
"Pleased to meet you ladies, but perhaps you should be seated or covered up a little more." Harry waved to the bench that he was seated on. Around them the crowd was starting to sit back down as well as the Gryffindor team had lost the quaffle and was currently in a large scuffle in the middle of the field.
"H-Harry, it's s-s-so n-nice to finally m-m-meet you." Cho tried to speak with her teeth chattering so much as she lowered herself on the bench next to him. She was sitting so close to him that it almost appeared that she was seated on his thigh.
Hermione and Marietta both rolled their eyes at the same time and then tried to hide the giggles that the coordinated movement seemed to bring. "Cho and Marietta are a year ahead of us and I believe that Marietta is the top of her class in Charms, isn't that right?" The indicated girl started to flush a little.
"Congratulations, perhaps sometime we can talk about the usage of charms in everyday life. I think it would be interesting to get the perspective-" Harry was speaking when Cho interrupted him quickly.
"E-Enjoying Quidditch, H-Harry? I-I play you know." Cho smiled a little, her face already red from the cold and a little stinging from the biting wind that was still blowing around the stands.
Harry shook his head a little as he tried to go back and forth between the two girls that were seated on either side of him. "I don't really play much of it, to be honest, you should talk to Ron about it though." He indicated the redhead that was back arguing with Dean about the merits of Quidditch versus football.
Marietta sighed as she saw that her friend was trying to engage Harry back into conversation. She had started to stand, stretching her legs out as she rubbed her hands against her thighs a little. "Well, now that you've found him, I think that I'm going-"
Harry's eyes had flashed gold for only a moment, but it was enough to make Marietta pause. She was the only one that had seen it, but she wasn't the only one that heard him speak. His voice was almost ethereal as he spoke. "Duck."
"What?" Marietta put her hands on her hips as she stared at Harry. "You're not making any-urk!" She squealed as Harry had jumped off the bench and had tackled her down to the floor along the aisle.
Cho was had just jumped to her feet to say something when a red blur flew past her and impacted with the bench that Harry was just seated on. The blur slammed into the wood and splintered it leaving a large hole in the back of the bench. The impact sent slivers of wood flying everywhere and forced the other students backwards a few feet. When Hermione and Neville were able to regain their footing they had already drawn their wands and were positioning them on the hole in the wood that the blur had made.
"Sorry about this, Miss Edgecomb. You do seem to be a rather nice young woman and-" Harry was prevented from saying more as he rolled out of the way, just in time to miss a red blur slamming up through the wood just beneath him.
The movement of the wood beneath him had weakened a little of the support and it started to creak as larger cracks started to form. Marietta had scrambled backwards towards the stairs, her weight pulling the cracks in her direction as she moved. The entire stand started to split in half from the movement of the people and screams were starting along the entire row.
Harry moved only a little, hopping up on the bench that used to be in front of him and running along it towards where the cracks were starting to reach Marietta. Instead of his wand flying into his hand a small silver cylinder topped with a round protrusion slid into his right hand from somewhere up his sleeve. He thumbed a small button on the cylinder and a green light came on in the protrusion at the end of it; a small whistling noise could be heard before the creaking of the wood finally stopped and the stands settled back again.
Instead of stopping to help Marietta up off the floor, Harry had rushed past her, the cylinder still in his hand as he took a leap towards the end of the stands. The red blur that had impacted before was arcing back towards the stands once more and it paused only briefly in the long slow arc that it was making. The blur turned out to be one of the bludgers from the game, but there was no one near it when it started to move back towards the stands once more. By this time the players on the field had stopped moving and even the Professors were on their feet to see what was going on.
The Gryffindors in the stands were moving chaotically around trying to find exits as well as hold onto some friends. Prefects were directing the younger years towards the stairs while the older years had their wands out and were trying to strike the ball. Every time a colored spell would come near the ball it would change direction or spin out of the way, but kept coming right back to a path that would take it back towards the stands. Eventually the seventh years started to erect complicated shield patterns along the wooden stairs to keep them holding should they be impacted when the bludger hit again.
Harry had stopped at the edge of the railing on the stairs, his feet perched precariously near the edge of the stands with nothing behind him, but empty air. Neville was helping Hermione and Marietta to stand while Cho was being pushed by the crowd towards the stairs. The three still in the stands watched as Harry was tracking the progress of the ball in the air and moving his hips a little to the left and the right. As they watched the ball changed position slightly to his changing weight; when he moved his weight to his right foot the ball would divert slightly to the right, same with the left.
Unlike the other students, Harry had worn his trainers today so the rubber gripped the wooden grains a little easier than his boots might have. This also allowed him some balance as they were hard soled shoes that didn't force him forward or backwards based on where the weight currently was. At a moment's notice he started to move, dodging to the left he took off along the top beam that formed the outer box of the stands. This beam took him down to where the front of the stands was located and he moved nimbly along it taking each step carefully.
The ball slammed past him and burst through the bottom of the stands through one of the benches. It must have struck another support beam because the entire structure started to waver a little. The three still standing in the stands watched as it started to tip forward a little, the view of the pitch altering a little to show them looking down at the grassy field and not a the sky as they should have been. They started to move back towards the stairs even as they watched as Harry wobbled a little where he was standing.
"Harry, NO!" Hermione screamed as the bludger came smashing back up through the beam he was standing on only a few feet from his feet. He wavered only once and then pitched over the side towards the field below.
When Harry had pitched over the side of the railing he had thumbed the dial and the button on the small cylinder causing the whistling noise to be heard again, but it was soon eclipsed by a loud tearing noise. The three students left on the stands hurried down in time to see Harry falling through the air with the corner of the Gryffindor banner clutched in his hand and slowly falling towards the ground. The problem became the fact that the banner was over twenty feet long, but the stands were easily fifty feet in the air. The bludger was coming back around when he ran out of the banner and was falling through the air once more.
In the few moments that this was all going on in the Gryffindor stands the rest of the stadium, as well as the players still on their brooms, hadn't moved very much. The Professor were stunned when Harry had tipped over the side and a gasp was heard reverberating around the stadium when he started to tear the banner down the side of it. By the time he had reached the end of the cloth the collective stupefaction of the crowd had nearly worn off and two players shot forward towards the Gryffindor stands. They were the closest and as Harry fell through the air one of them shot out a hand and grasped his left wrist to dangle him a good fifteen feet in the air.
"How ya doing, Potter?" Fred, or was it George, Weasley called down as he held the boy aloft. "Goy, you do need to loose some weight, you know."
"Start flying, Fred." Harry called up towards his rescuer even as he kept an eye on the bludger that was coming towards them again. George had positioned himself between the two and had swung his bat and knocked it off course, but only for a moment before it circled back around and headed towards them.
Taking the hint the two twins began to fly away from the bludger, but it was starting to catch up with them quickly. "Can't outrun it, Harry, got any bright ideas?" Fred called down as he was straining to hold the boy aloft. They were slowly drifting down towards the field and the grass below.
With his free hand Harry held the silver cylinder up and thumbed the on switch as well as the small dial that was below it. With a grin he slowly started to twist the dial. "Fly Higher, I've got an idea."
"Are you out of your mind?" Lisa Rener had joined in the small group that was now being chased by the bludger. The other players were trying to get it to divert from the path, but most of them had started to follow the twins around should they need to drop Harry at any moment. "Flying higher isn't going to get you out of the path of that rouge bludger, you know."
Harry laughed as wind whipped across his face blowing his black hair in all directions. "Who said I'm trying to get away from it." He called up to Fred whom was still holding him. "Higher, or pass me off. Allons-y!"
Harry could hear the twins laughter as they started to climb higher, making a long lap around the pitch with the bludger still following behind them. The group of players started to break up to divert away from the three people flying around and trying to get the bludger to continue to follow them. The ball was catching up to the pair on the brooms, but it was what Harry wanted. Slowly the red ball was coming closer and closer, and when it was within ten feet Harry thumbed the button on the cylinder and let it whistle for a moment.
"Come on, calibrate damn you." When it beeped in his hand he twisted the dial again and pushed the button down harder than before. "Just another few….seconds…" The ball was almost close enough for him to touch, but suddenly it started to drop back. "Gotcha!"
Harry's exclamation nearly caused Fred to drop him, but both twins turned around to watch the red ball that was previously trying to bash them in suddenly slow down. The bludger was still following them a little, but it had reduced speed and was starting to slowly turn away from them. In a moment the red ball had turned away completely. They were now flying almost level with the top of the stands and the ball peeled away when they had passed the Professor's stand.
Everyone watched as the ball peeled away from the pursuit to bury itself into the nearest bench along the stands that the Professor's were occupying only a moment before. Harry was able to take note of where the ball left a large impression and kept it for later as he watched the ball disappear into the depths of the stands. A noise behind him caused him to twist a little and look around back towards the hoops at the other end of the pitch.
A creaking and groaning sound came along with the snapping of wood and a few other things that finally spelled the end of the Gryffindor stands. In a last heaving motion the stands pitched forward and slammed into the three hoops that stood on the pitch. The metal hoops tore through the top of the stands and came out the other side completely unscathed while the wreckage of the stands tumbled down around it. Wood, fabric, and metal all screeched to a halt as it came to rest around the bottom of the three hoops in a large massive heap.
"You don't do things by half, do you, Potter?" George was flying next to him and gave a small smile. "Not even we in the many years that we've been here have ever been able to really bring down the house with our flying."
Harry rolled his eyes as he looked down at the grass still a number of feet below him. "Come on, thing one and thing two, get me down to the ground before Dumbledore, McGonagall and Snape have a collective coronary."
Indeed the collected staff was standing down on the pitch and staring up at the three people still in the air. The rest of the two teams had already landed and gone along to their dormitories as instructed. Most of the school was still standing on the lawn just outside the stadium, but the Professors couldn't see them as they had all been instructed back to the castle only moments before by Professor Dumbledore. As inconspicuous as possible, Harry slipped the silver cylinder back up his sleeve and felt it disappear from his hand.
"That's it, I've had enough!" Snape was shouting as the three slowly touched down back on Terra Firma. "Potter, you're going to be expelled for that little stunt. You caused that ball to nearly hit me in the chest, only a foot difference and I might have been killed. I'll see you arrested and thrown into prison for this."
Dumbledore hadn't done anything but stand there with his blue eyes twinkling a little throughout the entire rant by his Potions Professor. "Now then, Severus, I'm sure that it was not young Harry's intention to cause the ball to go astray, was it, young man?" He looked over his spectacles only to find that Harry had gone over and stood before Professor McGongall.
"Professor, if I might." Harry was speaking and concentrating solely on her, shutting out the other two. "The enchantments on the Quidditch equipment keep the balls protected so that before each game they are tested to be sure that they are not tampered with, is that correct?" At the woman's stunned nod he continued. "Therefore I would have had to not only break through the enchantments along the balls that protected them before or during the game in order to do anything to them, is that correct?" McGonagall had nodded again, but Harry wasn't done. "If that would be the case then the enchantments protecting the balls are either failing or I must have done something very wrong."
"Why would you come to that conclusion, Mister Potter?" McGonagall asked even as the other two were opening their mouths to say something.
Harry was pacing slightly with his hands clasped behind his back. "I'm only a first year student, not growing up knowing about magic, I don't know the limitations of such, if there are any to begin with. Therefore I would assume that since I've only had my wand for a few months now that I wouldn't know how to break any enchantments such as the protections surrounding the Quidditch equipment, and even had I done so then sending it to nearly kill myself would have been a rather foolish notion." He held up his hand that was now twirling his wand between his fingers. "Then again, the simplest answer was that someone else was trying to kill me."
Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling once more as he sidelled up towards the pair and seemed to almost physically push McGonagall out of Harry's sight. "Nonsense, my boy. I'm sure that you're just exaggerating or overly paranoid. Hogwarts is the safest place in Britain."
Harry merely shook his head and then dropped his voice. "The third floor corridor is out of bounds for anyone who does not wish to die a most painful death." To finish the imitation he even gave a solemn shake of his head. He had to admit that it was rather spot on and even the twitching of McGonagall's lips showed that she might have enjoyed it as well.
McGonagall recovered the fastest of the staff and coughed loudly to gain their attention. "Mister Potter, a full investigation will be conducted taking your statements into account." She waved her hands to the still remaining members of the house Quidditch team. "If the rest of you will escort Mister Potter up to the dormitories where you will be joining the rest of your house for dinner." The glare that she sent at Dumbledore made him close his mouth as the students filed off the field and up towards the castle.