⤷ 11| TRUTHS AND LIES

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chapter eleven : truths and lies

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chapter eleven : truths and lies

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It was needless to say that 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 or not. June walked through the students, giving here and there a comforting squeeze to those who seemed terrified.

"Try to get some sleep," she told a first-year. "You're safe here."

When Professor McGonagall came back at dawn, June had managed to convince the first-years to go back to sleep.

"What's the news, Professor?" Fred asked, who jumped out of the chair he had been sitting in and was eying her intently. "Did you catch him?"

"I'm afraid he escaped again, Weasley," Professor McGonagall replied, trying to hide her tiredness.

Everywhere June went the next day, she 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 wall to mouse holes. Sir Cadogan had been sacked. His portrait had been taken back to its lonely landing on the seventh floor and the Fat Lady was back. She had only agreed to return her job 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.

Ron had become an instant celebrity. For the first time in his life, people were paying more attention to him than to Harry, and it was clear that Ron was rather enjoying the experience. Though still severely shaken by the night's events, he was happy to tell anyone who asked, what had happened, with a wealth of detail.

". . . I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draught . . . 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 . . . 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 scarpered."

June, who was sitting a few feet away from him, rolled her eyes. Every time he told it again, he seemed to exaggerate a bit more.

"It gets rather boring after a while, doesn't it?" she whispered to Harry, who was watching Ron, too.

Ron finished his story before her cousin could reply and sat down next to Harry.

"Why, though?" Ron asked. "Why did he scraper?"

"He must've known he'd have a job getting back out of the castle once you'd yelled and woken people up," Harry said thoughtfully. "He'd've had to kill the whole house to get back through the portrait hole . . . then he would've met the teachers . . ."

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