The remainder of the Christmas holidays went by rather slowly for
Harry. After taking the ball for himself and not making the usual
rounds to charm all those important people in attendance – a fact
that Cornelius greatly lamented greatly – he was forced to attend all
the other get-togethers the Fudges attended. It was very similar to
making calls as one did in the Victorian era, which didn't surprise
Harry given the wizarding world was stuck in the past in many ways.
The most important families were always ready to have tea and
biscuits in the drawing room with guests who came and went all
afternoon. Of course, there was a set hierarchy that determined who
visited who. As the Minister of Magic, Cornelius and Aldora usually
held court at their own home, though the Malfoys, Notts and
Greengrasses all warranted visits, and Harry was there for every one
of them. At one such gathering at the Fudges, Cornelius introduced
Harry to his new Senior Undersecretary.
"Harry, my boy, this is Dolores Umbridge. She has just been
promoted into my office."
"It is a great pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter." She said in a highpitched voice and a sickly-sweet smile.
"The pleasure is mine, Madam Umbridge." He replied as expected,
though it was anything but. This woman sent shivers down his spine.
She was dressed from head to toe in pink with a bow in her hair,
though it did nothing to hide the fact she resembled a toad. Clearly
her girlish voice and manner of dress were an attempt to make
herself more approachable, though they did anything but, and Harry left her side as quickly as possible, vowing to spend as little time with
her as he could in future. The only other moment of note that holiday
was on Christmas day, when Harry returned to his room after
opening presents with the Fudges to find another present there on
his bed. Harry wondered why this present had been left here for him
instead of under the tree, but it quickly became clear that this was
not a present for anyone else to see.
'Your father left this in my possession before he died. It is time it was
returned to you. Use it well.' Read the note that accompanied the
gift. Even more curious, Harry unwrapped the package and pulled
out a rather old looking cloak. While he was always glad to have
anything that gave him another link to his parents, Harry couldn't for
the life of him figure out why someone felt the need to give one of his
father's old cloaks to him, though it became apparent when he tried it
on.
"Woah!" He exclaimed, seeing his head floating in mid-air when he
looked in the mirror, his body having disappeared. Harry took the
cloak off and his body returned until he put it on again. It was
obvious what this was: an invisibility cloak. His excitement grew at
the thought of what he could do with this cloak and he couldn't wait
to show it to Ron and Hermione. School was about to become much
more interesting this term.
-H/GRon's reaction to the invisibility cloak was as expected, though
Hermione's was much less enthused, which Harry supposed he
should have seen coming.
"But you're not really going to use it, are you?" She asked, looking
like she'd much rather it be a statement then a question.
"Not use it?!" Ron gasped. "What, do you expect him to just leave it
at the bottom of his trunk? It's an invisibility cloak! They're very rare." "Yes, but if Harry uses it at school he could get into a lot of trouble."
She insisted. "What if he gets caught?"
"That's the whole point though, he won't get caught. Not if he's
invisible." The two continued fighting, in hushed tones at least, given
they were in the great hall at dinner, but Harry tuned them out. Of
course he was going to use the cloak, not using it was madness!
Though, he supposed, that Hermione had a point too. It could get
him in a lot of trouble if he was caught, but he didn't intend to be.
That very evening, after everyone had gone to bed, Harry crept
through the Gryffindor common room, or he tried to, for not everyone
had gone to bed. Ron and Hermione were waiting for him, blocking
the path through the portrait hole.
"Really, Harry, did you expect to sneak passed us?" Hermione's lips
were pursed.
"Yeah, mate, we knew you wouldn't wait to use the cloak." Ron, for
once, agreed with Hermione.
"Fine." Harry sighed. "But I'm going out, Hermione. I promise I'll be
careful, but I want to explore the castle when I can practically have
the place to myself." He wanted to learn every passage, every
hidden staircase, secret entrances, short cuts, and every other nook
and cranny within Hogwarts. Knowledge is power, and he knew that
eventually knowing the castle so well would come in handy.
"I know I can't stop you from going, Harry." She said. "But I can stop
you going alone. We're going with you."
"What?" Both he and Ron gasped, shocked at what she was
suggesting. Hermione sneaking out after curfew? They never
thought they'd see the day.
"Oh please, even with the invisibility cloak you won't get very far
without me. How did you plan to fool the Fat Lady?" The boys looked
confused. "If the portrait hole opens from the inside at this time of
night, what do you think the Fat Lady's going to do? She's going to run to Professor McGonagall, who will come to check that
everyone's in their beds, only to find you missing."
"Yeah, but surely that Fat Lady's asleep by now." Said Harry. "I can
sneak by quietly, I won't wake her."
"You two really need to read Hogwarts: A History." Hermione rolled
her eyes. "The entrances to each of the common rooms are
enchanted to try and stop students from sneaking out after curfew.
Even if she is asleep now, the moment her portrait opens the
enchantment will wake the Fat Lady up." Harry hadn't thought of
that.
"Then how do you plan to get by her?" Ron demanded.
"The Confundus Charm. It will only confuse her for a few moments
but if we move fast enough we can have the portrait hole closed
again before she recovers. She won't remember why she woke up."
It sounded like a good plan, certainly better than the nothing Harry
was coming up with, so he quickly agreed and the three of them put
the invisibility cloak on, glad it covered all three of them perfectly.
"Confundo." Hermione whispered at the exact moment they opened
the portrait hole.
"Huh…what…?" They heard from the Fat Lady and knew it had
worked. Dashing out quickly they closed the portrait hole and
stepped back, waiting a few moments as the Fat Lady looked around
in a daze before going back to sleep.
"Yes!" Said Ron, and both Harry and Hermione shushed him. Quietly
as they could, the three took care not to wake the portrait up again
as they made their way down the grand staircase. They spent an
hour wandering around, taking in the castle, and trying to see if there
was a pattern to how the staircases moved. Even Hermione seemed
to be enjoying herself, though after an hour she said they should
head back. They did have classes tomorrow, after all, and they didn't
want to lose too much sleep. They were just heading down the last corridor before climbing back to the common when a large shadow
crossed their path, stopping them in their tracks.
"You don't want me as your enemy, Quirrell." It was Professor
Snape, his voice was unmistakeable, and he seemed to have
Professor Quirrell pushed up against the wall.
"S-S-Severus, I-I-"
"I know it was you who let the troll in on Halloween."
"N-n-no!"
"Don't lie to me." Snape had always been scary, but none of them
had seen him like this; they could understand why Quirrell was
shaking so badly. "You have not been the same since your
sabbatical last year, and I will find out why."
"I d-d-don't k-know what y-you m-m-mean, S-Severus." Snape just
stood there for a moment, looking at Quirrell.
"We will have another little chat soon, when you have had time to
decide where your loyalties lie." With another withering look, Snape
left. Quirrell stood there a moment before regaining his composure
and leaving the same way. Harry, Ron and Hermione looked to each
other, wondering what they had just witnessed.
"Quirrell let the troll in?" Ron asked as they continued on their way
back to the common room. "But why?"
"We don't know for sure if he did." Hermione argued.
"Snape sure thinks he did." Harry argued back. "And he may be a
right prick, but I can't see him accusing someone of something like
that without evidence of some kind." Hermione had to concede that
point, though she was about to add another one, only she got cut off
as, for the second time that night, a shadow came out of nowhere,
blocking their path."Bloody hell, it's Mrs. Norris!" Hissed Ron. The caretaker's cat was
as mean as her owner and took just as much delight in catching
students causing trouble. She meowed and seemed to be staring
right at them, though there was no way she could see through the
cloak. Apparently though, she didn't need to, for she had other ways
to detect them.
"She can smell us!" Hermione hissed back.
"Come on, Filch won't be far behind her." Harry opened the nearest
door and managed to get all three of them through it without losing
the cloak's cover, though before he could shut the door Mrs. Norris
ran in and continued to meow as she followed their steps.
"Mrs. Norris?" They heard Filch call, his cat's meows having drawn
his attention.
"Run!" They gave up trying to remain under the cloak and took off
down the hallway. A single door lay at the end of it, though it seemed
to be of little help as it was locked.
"That's it, we're done for." Said Ron.
"Oh move over." Snapped Hermione. "Alohomora!" The door
creaked open and the three ran through before quickly closing the
door barely a moment before Filch arrived.
"He must think this door's locked." Ron said after several moments
with his ear up against the wall, though they heard no one
approaching.
"It was locked." Hermione reminded him.
"And with good reason." Harry added. "I think I know why the third
floor's forbidden." His two friends turned around and saw, laying
there in the middle of the room, a rather massive three headed dog.
They watched with mounting anxiety as the dog's eyes opened and it
began to rise to its incredible height."AHHH!" The three of them shouted when the first mouth opened to
let out a loud bark. Moving as quickly as they could they ran back
through the door and just managed to push it closed before one of
the dog's heads could take a bite out of them. Once safe, they
wasted no time in putting the cloak on once more and making their
way back to the common room as quickly as possible.
"What do they think they're doing? Keeping a thing like that locked
up in a school?" Ron was the first to speak once they were safely
inside their common room.
"You don't use your eyes, do you?" Hermione asked with a roll of
hers. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"
"I wasn't looking at its feet, I was a bit more preoccupied with its
heads! Or maybe you didn't notice, there were three!"
"It was standing on a trapdoor, which means it wasn't there by
accident. It's guarding something."
"Guarding something?" Asked Harry, his brain finally catching up
with the adrenaline wearing off.
"Yes. Now, if you two don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of
you come up with another clever idea to get us killed, or worse,
expelled." With a dignified huff, Hermione made her way up the
stairs to the girl's dormitory, leaving the two boys standing there.
"She needs to sort out her priorities." Said Ron, and Harry nodded in
agreement.