Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Chapter 7 – The Invisibility Cloak

The remainder of the Christmas holidays went by rather slowly for Harry. After taking the ball for himself and not making the usual rounds to charm all those important people in attendance – a fact that Cornelius greatly lamented greatly – he was forced to attend all the other get-togethers the Fudges attended. It was very similar to making calls as one did in the Victorian era, which didn't surprise Harry given the wizarding world was stuck in the past in many ways. The most important families were always ready to have tea and biscuits in the drawing room with guests who came and went all afternoon. Of course, there was a set hierarchy that determined who visited who. As the Minister of Magic, Cornelius and Aldora usually held court at their own home, though the Malfoys, Notts and Greengrasses all warranted visits, and Harry was there for every one of them. At one such gathering at the Fudges, Cornelius introduced Harry to his new Senior Undersecretary.

"Harry, my boy, this is Dolores Umbridge. She has just been promoted into my office."

"It is a great pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter." She said in a high-pitched voice and a sickly-sweet smile.

"The pleasure is mine, Madam Umbridge." He replied as expected, though it was anything but. This woman sent shivers down his spine. She was dressed from head to toe in pink with a bow in her hair, though it did nothing to hide the fact she resembled a toad. Clearly her girlish voice and manner of dress were an attempt to make herself more approachable, though they did anything but, and Harry left her side as quickly as possible, vowing to spend as little time with her as he could in future. The only other moment of note that holiday was on Christmas day, when Harry returned to his room after opening presents with the Fudges to find another present there on his bed. Harry wondered why this present had been left here for him instead of under the tree, but it quickly became clear that this was not a present for anyone else to see.

'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was returned to you. Use it well.' Read the note that accompanied the gift. Even more curious, Harry unwrapped the package and pulled out a rather old looking cloak. While he was always glad to have anything that gave him another link to his parents, Harry couldn't for the life of him figure out why someone felt the need to give one of his father's old cloaks to him, though it became apparent when he tried it on.

"Woah!" He exclaimed, seeing his head floating in mid-air when he looked in the mirror, his body having disappeared. Harry took the cloak off and his body returned until he put it on again. It was obvious what this was: an invisibility cloak. His excitement grew at the thought of what he could do with this cloak and he couldn't wait to show it to Ron and Hermione. School was about to become much more interesting this term.

-H/G-

Ron's reaction to the invisibility cloak was as expected, though Hermione's was much less enthused, which Harry supposed he should have seen coming.

"But you're not really going to use it, are you?" She asked, looking like she'd much rather it be a statement then a question.

"Not use it?!" Ron gasped. "What, do you expect him to just leave it at the bottom of his trunk? It's an invisibility cloak! They're very rare."

"Yes, but if Harry uses it at school he could get into a lot of trouble." She insisted. "What if he gets caught?"

"That's the whole point though, he won't get caught. Not if he's invisible." The two continued fighting, in hushed tones at least, given they were in the great hall at dinner, but Harry tuned them out. Of course he was going to use the cloak, not using it was madness! Though, he supposed, that Hermione had a point too. It could get him in a lot of trouble if he was caught, but he didn't intend to be. That very evening, after everyone had gone to bed, Harry crept through the Gryffindor common room, or he tried to, for not everyone had gone to bed. Ron and Hermione were waiting for him, blocking the path through the portrait hole.

"Really, Harry, did you expect to sneak passed us?" Hermione's lips were pursed.

"Yeah, mate, we knew you wouldn't wait to use the cloak." Ron, for once, agreed with Hermione.

"Fine." Harry sighed. "But I'm going out, Hermione. I promise I'll be careful, but I want to explore the castle when I can practically have the place to myself." He wanted to learn every passage, every hidden staircase, secret entrances, short cuts, and every other nook and cranny within Hogwarts. Knowledge is power, and he knew that eventually knowing the castle so well would come in handy.

"I know I can't stop you from going, Harry." She said. "But I can stop you going alone. We're going with you."

"What?" Both he and Ron gasped, shocked at what she was suggesting. Hermione sneaking out after curfew? They never thought they'd see the day.

"Oh please, even with the invisibility cloak you won't get very far without me. How did you plan to fool the Fat Lady?" The boys looked confused. "If the portrait hole opens from the inside at this time of night, what do you think the Fat Lady's going to do? She's going to run to Professor McGonagall, who will come to check that everyone's in their beds, only to find you missing."

"Yeah, but surely that Fat Lady's asleep by now." Said Harry. "I can sneak by quietly, I won't wake her."

"You two really need to read Hogwarts: A History." Hermione rolled her eyes. "The entrances to each of the common rooms are enchanted to try and stop students from sneaking out after curfew. Even if she is asleep now, the moment her portrait opens the enchantment will wake the Fat Lady up." Harry hadn't thought of that.

"Then how do you plan to get by her?" Ron demanded.

"The Confundus Charm. It will only confuse her for a few moments but if we move fast enough we can have the portrait hole closed again before she recovers. She won't remember why she woke up." It sounded like a good plan, certainly better than the nothing Harry was coming up with, so he quickly agreed and the three of them put the invisibility cloak on, glad it covered all three of them perfectly.

"Confundo." Hermione whispered at the exact moment they opened the portrait hole.

"Huh…what…?" They heard from the Fat Lady and knew it had worked. Dashing out quickly they closed the portrait hole and stepped back, waiting a few moments as the Fat Lady looked around in a daze before going back to sleep.

"Yes!" Said Ron, and both Harry and Hermione shushed him. Quietly as they could, the three took care not to wake the portrait up again as they made their way down the grand staircase. They spent an hour wandering around, taking in the castle, and trying to see if there was a pattern to how the staircases moved. Even Hermione seemed to be enjoying herself, though after an hour she said they should head back. They did have classes tomorrow, after all, and they didn't want to lose too much sleep. They were just heading down the last corridor before climbing back to the common when a large shadow crossed their path, stopping them in their tracks.

"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." It was Professor Snape, his voice was unmistakeable, and he seemed to have Professor Quirrell pushed up against the wall.

"S-S-Severus, I-I-"

"I know it was you who let the troll in on Halloween."

"N-n-no!"

"Don't lie to me." Snape had always been scary, but none of them had seen him like this; they could understand why Quirrell was shaking so badly. "You have not been the same since your sabbatical last year, and I will find out why."

"I d-d-don't k-know what y-you m-m-mean, S-Severus." Snape just stood there for a moment, looking at Quirrell.

"We will have another little chat soon, when you have had time to decide where your loyalties lie." With another withering look, Snape left. Quirrell stood there a moment before regaining his composure and leaving the same way. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked to each other, wondering what they had just witnessed.

"Quirrell let the troll in?" Ron asked as they continued on their way back to the common room. "But why?"

"We don't know for sure if he did." Hermione argued.

"Snape sure thinks he did." Harry argued back. "And he may be a right prick, but I can't see him accusing someone of something like that without evidence of some kind." Hermione had to concede that point, though she was about to add another one, only she got cut off as, for the second time that night, a shadow came out of nowhere, blocking their path.

"Bloody hell, it's Mrs. Norris!" Hissed Ron. The caretaker's cat was as mean as her owner and took just as much delight in catching students causing trouble. She meowed and seemed to be staring right at them, though there was no way she could see through the cloak. Apparently though, she didn't need to, for she had other ways to detect them.

"She can smell us!" Hermione hissed back.

"Come on, Filch won't be far behind her." Harry opened the nearest door and managed to get all three of them through it without losing the cloak's cover, though before he could shut the door Mrs. Norris ran in and continued to meow as she followed their steps.

"Mrs. Norris?" They heard Filch call, his cat's meows having drawn his attention.

"Run!" They gave up trying to remain under the cloak and took off down the hallway. A single door lay at the end of it, though it seemed to be of little help as it was locked.

"That's it, we're done for." Said Ron.

"Oh move over." Snapped Hermione. "Alohomora!" The door creaked open and the three ran through before quickly closing the door barely a moment before Filch arrived.

"He must think this door's locked." Ron said after several moments with his ear up against the wall, though they heard no one approaching.

"It was locked." Hermione reminded him.

"And with good reason." Harry added. "I think I know why the third floor's forbidden." His two friends turned around and saw, laying there in the middle of the room, a rather massive three headed dog. They watched with mounting anxiety as the dog's eyes opened and it began to rise to its incredible height.

"AHHH!" The three of them shouted when the first mouth opened to let out a loud bark. Moving as quickly as they could they ran back through the door and just managed to push it closed before one of the dog's heads could take a bite out of them. Once safe, they wasted no time in putting the cloak on once more and making their way back to the common room as quickly as possible.

"What do they think they're doing? Keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" Ron was the first to speak once they were safely inside their common room.

"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione asked with a roll of hers. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"I wasn't looking at its feet, I was a bit more preoccupied with its heads! Or maybe you didn't notice, there were three!"

"It was standing on a trapdoor, which means it wasn't there by accident. It's guarding something."

"Guarding something?" Asked Harry, his brain finally catching up with the adrenaline wearing off.

"Yes. Now, if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse, expelled." With a dignified huff, Hermione made her way up the stairs to the girl's dormitory, leaving the two boys standing there.

"She needs to sort out her priorities." Said Ron, and Harry nodded in agreement.

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