• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

　"Excellent, are we carrying on?" said Fred Weasley brightly.

　"Everyone back upstairs!" said Percy, hurrying into the common room and pinning his Head Boy badge to his pajamas as he spoke.

　"Perce -- Sirius Black!" said Ron faintly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

　The common room went very still.

　"Nonsense!" said Percy, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron -- had a nightmare --"

　"I'm telling you --"

　"Now, really, enough's enough!"

　Professor McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait behind her as she entered the common room and stared furiously around.

　"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"

　"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" said Percy, puffing himself up indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare --"

　"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

　Professor McGonagall stared at him.

　"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"

　"Ask him!" said Ron, pointing a shaking finger at the back of Sir Cadogan's picture. "Ask him if he saw --"

　Glaring suspiciously at Ron, Professor McGonagall pushed the Portrait back open and went outside. The whole common room listened with bated breath. "Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" "Certainly, good lady!" cried Sir Cadogan.

　There was a stunned silence, both inside and outside the common room.

　"You -- you did?" said Professor McGonagall. "But -- but the password!"

　"He had 'em!" said Sir Cadogan proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

　Professor McGonagall pulled herself back through the portrait hole to face the stunned crowd. She was white as chalk.

　"Which person," she said, her voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

　There was utter silence, broken by the smallest of terrified squeaks. Neville Longbottom, trembling from head to fluffy slippered toes, raised his hand slowly into the air.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: SNAPE'S GRUDGE

　No one in Gryffindor Tower slept that night. They knew that the castle was being searched again, and the whole House stayed awake in the common room, waiting to hear whether Black had been caught. Professor McGonagall came back at dawn, to tell them that he had again escaped.

　Throughout the day, everywhere they went they saw signs of tighter security; Professor Flitwick could be seen teaching the front doors to recognize a large picture of Sirius Black; Filch was suddenly bustling up and down the corridors, boarding up everything from tiny cracks in the walls to mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been fired. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor, and the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her. They paced the corridor in a menacing group, talking in grunts and comparing the size of their clubs.

　Harry couldn't help noticing that the statue of the one-eyed witch on the third floor remained unguarded and unblocked. It seemed that Fred and George had been right in thinking that they -- and now Harry, Ron, and Hermione -- were the only ones who knew about the hidden passageway within it.

　"D'you reckon we should tell someone?" Harry asked Ron.

　"We know he's not coming in through Honeyduke's," said Ron dismissively. "We'd've heard if the shop had been broken into."

　Harry was glad Ron took this view. If the one-eyed witch was boarded up too, he would never be able to go into Hogsmeade again.

　Ron had become an instant celebrity. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention