❝You're not going to take no for an answer, are you?❞
❝You should know the answer to that by now, Harry.❞
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Life has always been a bit disorganized for Novana Lupin. With her father's monthly transformations, the girl often found herself in the comp...
❝If we just do a bit of poking around —❞ ❝No, Ronald. We've done enough poking around.❞
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THINGS COULD'NT HAVE been worse.
Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall's study on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word to each other. Nova was trembling, her hand grasped tightly with Harry's as she worried about what was going to happen to them.
She knew there was no getting out of trouble here like how they did with the midnight duel incident. They were cornered.
Nova wished she hadn't been so carefree after getting rid of Norbert. If only she had remembered the Cloak, they wouldn't be in McGonagall's study fearing the worst.
There was no way McGonagall would accept them being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being in the astronomy tower which was out-of-bounds except for classes.
When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville. Nova didn't think it could get worse.
"Harry!" Neville burst out the moment he saw the two. "I was trying to find you to warn you! I heard Malfoy saying he was going to catch you, he said you had a drag—"
Harry shook his head violently to shut Neville up, but McGonagall had seen. She looked more likely to breathe fire than Norbert as she towered over the three of them.
"I would never have believed it of any of you. Mr Filch says you were up the astronomy tower. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."
It was the first time Nova had ever failed to look a teacher in the eyes. She was staring at her slippers, her grip still tight on Harry's hand.
McGonagall looked at them all as she spoke, "I think I've got a good idea of what's been going on. It doesn't take a genius to work it out. You fed Draco Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon, trying to get him out of bed and into trouble. I've already caught him. I suppose you think it's funny that Longbottom here heard the story and believed it, too?"
Nova had caught Neville's eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn't true. She hated the look of stun and hurt in his eyes when he made eye contact with her. Nova knew how hard it must have been for him to try and find them in the dark to warn them.
"I'm disgusted," Professor McGonagall snapped. "Four students out of bed in one night! I've never heard of such a thing before! You, Miss Lupin, I thought you had more heart. As for you, Mr Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this. All three of you will receive detentions — yes, you too, Mr Longbottom. Nothing gives you the right to walk around school at night, especially these days. It's very dangerous — and fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor."
