𝐈. 𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 | 𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏

nine

A  few  embers  were  still  glowing  in  the  fireplace,  turning  all  the  armchairs  into  hunched  black  shadows.  They had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the  chair  nearest  them,

"I  can't  believe  you're  going  to  do  this,  Harry." A  lamp  flickered  on.  It  was  Hermione  Granger,  wearing  a  pink  bathrobe and a frown.

"You!" said Ron furiously.

"Go back to bed!"

"I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy — he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this." Lilith couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering. She frowned at the girl, thinking of how Annabeth would join them instead of scolding them.

"And you! Why are you encouraging them!" Hermione exclaimed, point at Lilith.

"I'm making sure they don't get into trouble!" Lilith defended herself.

"Come  on,"  he  said  to  Ron.  He  pushed  open  the  portrait  of  the  Fat Lady and climbed through the hole. Hermione  wasn't  going  to  give  up  that  easily.  She  followed  Ron  through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.

"Don't  you  care about  Gryffindor,  do  you  only care  about  your-selves, I don't want Slytherin to win the House Cup, and you'll lose all  the  points  I  got  from  Professor  McGonagall  for  knowing  about  Switching Spells."

Lilith disliked the girl at the moment, something she's never done too often. But the way the girl was bragging, and Lilith actually thought that Hermione was the one being selfish, thinking that they were going to lose the points Hermione earned.

"Go away."

"All  right,  but  I  warned  you,  you  just  remember  what  I  said  when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so —" But  what  they  were,  they  didn't  find  out.

Hermione  had  turned  to  the  portrait  of  the  Fat  Lady  to  get  back  inside  and  found  herself  facing  an  empty  painting.  The  Fat  Lady  had  gone  on  a  nighttime  visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor Tower. "Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.

"That's  your  problem,"  said  Ron.

"We've  got  to  go,  we're  going  to be late." They   hadn't   even   reached   the   end   of   the   corridor   when   Hermione caught up with them.

"I'm coming with you," she said. "You are not."

"D'you  think  I'm  going  to  stand  out  here  and  wait  for  Filch  to  catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up." Lilith couldn't believe her ears at the moment, how selfish of her! The fact that she would blame them for something she did on her own, she was the one who decided to follow them!

"You've got some nerve —" said Ron loudly. "Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply.

"I heard something." It was a sort of snuffling. "Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark. It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.

"Neville!" Lilith exclaimed, running over to the boy to help him off the ground.

"Thank  goodness  you  found  me!  I've  been  out  here  for  hours,  I  couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."