Julie Stone was a regular girl; she lived in an orphanage, had some friends, and every now and then would bang her head against the wall due to stress. . . . Normal!
Anyway, all her life Julie never seemed to quite fit in. She loved it, but her life...
Not a single soul, except Hermione, slept that night in Gryffindor Tower.
The sleeping girl, Harry, Ron, the twins, Lee Jordan, Ginny, and a few others had spent the whole night away in the common room. And as the rest of the group talked on and on about the recent events, Hermione fell asleep with her head on Harry's lap and legs on Fred's.
Professor McGonagall came back to the Tower at dawn to tell them that Sirius had again escaped—not that Hermione heard (or needed to hear) anything.
Throughout the day, Hermione started to notice—much to her annoyance—the 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.
Much to Hermione's nuisance, Ron had become an instant celebrity. Nuisance not because of jealousy, no that wasn't it. But because she had to endure Ron talking about what happened to him multiple times throughout the day and with each time another point was added to make it even more dramatic.
". . . .I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draft. . . . I woke up and one side of the hangings on my bed had been pulled down. . . . I rolled over. . . . and I saw him standing over me. . . . like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair—"
Hermione grimaced at this. How could Sirius fuckin' Black have bad hair? It was outrageous!
"—holding this great long knife, must've been twelve inches... and he looked at me, and I looked at him, and then I yelled, and he scampered."
"Then Ron wet his pants and came down to the common room shrieking," Hermione added to the group of second-year girls who grimaced at Ron and went away.
Ron glared at Hermione.
"Why, though?" Ron added—ignoring the curly-haired witch—to Harry "Why did he run?"
"He must've known he'd have a job getting back out of the castle once you'd yelled and woken people up," said Harry thoughtfully. "He'd've had to kill the whole house to get back through the portrait hole. . . . then he would've met the teachers. . . ."
