"This is your plan?" Hermione asked the disappointment in her voice obvious.
"It's genius!" Ron beamed brightly.
"Maybe when we were in 3rd year, but how are all three of us supposed to fit under your cloak Harry?" Hermione asked, pointing to Ron who had thrown the cloak over himself excited.
"We'll have to squish together, and walk slowly," Harry offered.
"I don't think that will work," Hermione replied trying to hide her smile as she again pointed to where Ron had been standing moments before.
Harry followed Hermione's gaze and saw a pair of worn runners, and a few inches of boney ankles standing in the middle of the room.
"Er-I forgot how tall Ron's gotten," Harry frowned.
"What's that?" Ron asked, running in circles in the common room unaware that his two friends could see his feet.
"You're going to need more than your cloak Harry," Neville's voiced as he came down the dark stairs starting the trio.
"Neville, I don't know what you're talking about," Harry responded nervously as he fiddled with his glasses.
"Harry I'm not daft, we all sleep in the same dorm, and Ron sucks at whispering," Neville responded, looking around in search of Ron.
"We're just sneaking to the kitchen," Hermione spoke, closing space between her and Neville so she could keep her voice down and not wake up the sleeping students.
"You wouldn't get out of bed tthis late to go to the kitchen Hermione," Neville dismissed shaking his head. "You're going to St. Mungo's aren't you? You're going to talk to my parents," he added excitedly.
"Neville, look- I don't know what made you think that, but-" Harry started.
"It was my idea, I'm coming with you," Neville cut Harry off as he crossed his arms, trying to look menacing.
Harry looked Neville up and down, he was wearing a set of white and blue stripped pajamas. His brown hair was flat against his face on one side from where he had slept on it before sneaking out of bed. He had one brown sock tucked over his left pant leg and a black sock with a hole exposing his big toe on his other foot. He didn't look like someone who was ready to sneak out of Hogwarts and into St Mungo's.
"Well he knows we're going now doesn't he," Ron's voice carried across the common room.
The three Gryffindor's look around, but couldn't see Ron anywhere.
"I know St. Mungo's better than the three of you, and if you're visiting my parents, I should be there," Neville added, his voice getting more confident, as he stood up taller.
"He does have a point," Hermione whispered nervously to Harry. "I've been to St. Mungo's once, I'm not even sure I'll be able to find the spell damage ward," Hermione added.
"Besides your cloak won't work there, the healers will be able to see you as soon as you walk in," Neville added.
"How will they be able to see us?" Harry asked.
"Everyone knows the wards prevent all cloaking magic," Neville shrugged.
"Do you think he's lying?" Harry whispered to Hermione.
"I'm not sure, I didn't read anything that said that, but then the book was nearly 100 years old, it's not up to date.." Hermione trailed off nervously as she bit her bottom look.
"Ginny was my friend too," Neville added, sensing his friends were on the fence.
"We might as well just take him with us," Ron voiced, pulling off the cloak and appearing behind Hermione causing her to scream.
"Shh," Harry scolded his two friends trying not to laugh.
"Excellent, so what's the plan?" Neville grinned.
"Well there's a few fire places we can floo with, we can't just walk out of Hogwarts, the wards won't let us," Harry began listing the options.
"So basically we don't have a plan," Hermione stated exasperated.
"We can use the fire place in the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey will already be asleep by now, if we take the back corridors there should only be one prefect on duty tonight," Neville spoke confidently as he plopped himself down on the couch in front of the trio.
Ron starred open mouthed at Neville, and Harry reached into his robes and pulled out his map.
"He's right," he said pointing to Madam Pomfrey's name, hovering above her bed. Another scan of the map showed that there was one prefect on duty on the side of the castle they'd need to cross, if they all walked slowly under the cloak they could make it to the hospital wing in 15 minutes.
"Excellent, let's go," Neville grinned hopping up from the couch and pulling out his wand.
"Do you want to er-change?" Harry asked, looking Neville up and down.
Neville looked down at his pajamas and mismatched socks, and made the trio promise not to leave without him before he quietly ran up the stairs.
"How much help will Neville be?" Ron whispered to Harry as he peered over his shoulder to look at the map.
"I don't want to bring him, I don't want anyone else to get in trouble, but he's right. He's our best bet for getting in and out of St Mungo's," Harry stated.
"Maybe his parents will be more willing to help their son then three strangers," Hermione added.
"I just want to find my sister," Ron sighed.
"And we will," Neville interrupted as he came down the stairs wearing the same pajamas only paired with bright red slippers.
"Er, Neville I was thinking maybe changing out of your pajamas?" Harry offered innocently.
"No, this is the perfect disguise," Neville beamed excitedly as he walked over to the door and waited for Harry to throw them all under the cloak.
Their idea of squishing together under the cloak didn't pan out as well as they had thought, they were a lot taller than they used to be, and Neville was a lot bigger than the three of them, causing them to do a sideways bent shuffle through the halls, taking them twenty five minutes instead of the fifteen they had anticipated.
Hermione skillfully silently, unlocked the door when they arrived and as soon as they closed the door behind them Ron yanked off the cloak and stretched out his limbs.
"That wasn't as fun as I thought it was going to be," Ron said, scanning the beds in the wing, and spotting an open box of Bertie's Bots beans, and made his way over to them.
"Ronald, how can you possibly be thinking about food," Hermione lectured. "Besides, those belong to someone, you can't just help yourself."
"Come on Hermione, he's sleeping he won't even notice, besides look he's a Slytherin," Ron pointed out as if that settled the matter.
"He looks like he's in first year," Hermione voiced shocked.
"Come on, let's go before you two wake up Madam Pomfrey," Harry said as they all made their way over to the fire place on the other side of the room.
"We wouldn't want that, now would we" a cold voice spoke from the now open doorway.
The four of them turned around to face Professor Snape's cold gaze.