Preparations for Disaster
Harry was talking with the Weasley twins and with Ron before the two of them disappeared.
At that moment, Malfoy rushed into the Great Hall and looked directly toward where Harry was, widening his eyes when he confirmed that he was still inside the castle. His cheeks were no longer swollen; only slightly red. Even so, his fury showed perfectly in his gaze.
When Percy had gone to the infirmary he had already felt a bad premonition; but seeing Harry Potter eating calmly at the Gryffindor table made it seem like nothing had gone well. Neither of them had been expelled.
Draco approached Harry, and Harry set his utensils aside for a moment, watching him approach with a clearly annoyed expression.
"Why are you still here? Why haven't you been expelled? Why haven't they expelled that monstrous brother of yours," Draco asked quickly.
Harry, instead of answering the question, looked at him slightly. "It seems your cheeks are a bit red, Malfoy. Could it be that you hit yourself?" he asked sarcastically with a smile.
This made Draco even angrier.
"This cannot be. Fine then, Potter; I challenge you to a magic duel," he suddenly said, as if activating a secondary plan he clearly had prepared in case the first one failed. "Only wands; no contact," he added quickly, not skipping over the most important part.
Harry observed him carefully. Having a brother who always invented dumb plans and dragged him into them was excellent training for spotting obvious traps… and this was exactly that. Surely another stupid plan to try to get him expelled.
Harry didn't want to fall for such an obvious trap, so he was about to refuse; but Ron spoke before he could.
"Of course he accepts. I'll be his second," the redhead said quickly, while Harry turned to look at him. Ron, of course, was much more interested in getting a chance to fight Draco Malfoy, just like Percy had done in the flying lesson, than in paying attention to his friend's expression. "Who's yours?" Ron added, looking at Draco.
"Crabbe," Malfoy said after glancing at his followers for a moment. "It will be at midnight. Trophy Room. It's always open. I hope you won't be cowards." He added a self-satisfied smile before walking back toward the Slytherin table, as if he truly believed his evil plan was brilliant and would get Harry Potter in trouble. At least a little. Although of course; he would also have to plan something for Percy Jackson.
Harry let out a sigh as he looked at Ron.
"I have no idea what a wizard duel is; although the name already explains quite a lot. But what does it mean that you're my second," Harry said seriously. He already knew his friend had dragged him into this; and if it really ended up being a duel, he would look like a coward or make Ron look bad.
"Well… a second is the one who will fight for you if you happen to die during the duel," Ron explained. "But don't worry; since we're first-year students, at most we'll shoot sparks and we won't hurt each other. That only happens in real duels," he added quickly.
Harry looked at him slightly. "Sparks?" he said with a comical smile. Ron definitely didn't know that Harry had long been capable of doing much more than sparks. Not at the level of adult wizards, of course; he still lacked power and practice. But with his illusion spells alone he could easily make Draco Malfoy wet his pants.
He had even managed to scare his godfather Sirius several times with Percy's help. Well… more like Percy forced him to help scare Sirius after Sirius fell for one of his pranks. And Sirius really seemed to enjoy messing with Percy; it had turned into a constant prank war between the two.
Harry wasn't a big fan of pranks, but he always ended up between them. Helping one side or the other, depending on who grabbed him first.
"Excuse me," a voice suddenly said from the side, pulling Harry out of his thoughts, which had started drifting a bit. Even when he teased Percy for having that same problem. After all, they had been raised together; they weren't so different.
The one who had spoken was Hermione Granger, who seemed to have been listening to the conversation they had just had with Draco Malfoy.
"I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were talking about," she said, looking at Harry with a serious expression.
"I expected nothing less," Ron muttered under his breath, although loud enough to be heard, with a slight mocking tone directed at Hermione.
She ignored him perfectly.
"You can't go wandering around the castle at midnight. If they catch you, they'll take even more points from Gryffindor; and we really already have far fewer since… your brother's fight. I think it would be very selfish of you," she said seriously.
Normally Harry would take the girl's words calmly; but the fact that she practically blamed Percy for the lost points really annoyed him. Although… she wasn't wrong.
"And I think it's none of your business," Harry said with an irritated, serious expression before standing up and turning around to leave the Hall without looking back.
"Bye," Ron added with mocking tone toward Hermione as he followed his friend.
She watched them go, her face adopting a clearly angry expression.
…
During the night, Harry was lying on his bed staring at the ceiling. After hearing Ron's conversations about the duel, he couldn't stop thinking about it. Although to be honest, Harry didn't know much about the subject; duels were something common in his daily life at home against Percy. Although Percy usually used a sword, since he wasn't very good with magic.
That is why Harry believed he could easily defeat Malfoy. But what was slightly bothering him was that Percy wasn't in his bed. Same with Neville. He didn't even know where the two of them had gone. He remembered that Percy had gone to the infirmary to see Neville… and then they both disappeared.
The worst part was that, knowing Percy's luck, it was more than obvious he would get into trouble at any moment; that was why Harry got out of bed, ready to go look for him.
Ron saw him get up and stood as well.
"Eh? There's still time before the duel, Harry. Do you already want to go there?" Ron asked while looking at him. He couldn't sleep either; although unlike Harry, it was more because of the excitement of the duel than actual concern.
"No. Percy still hasn't come back. I want to go check if he didn't get himself into trouble," Harry said.
"Is that so?" Ron replied while glancing toward Percy's empty bed. "Well… then we can go find him and later go to the duel location; we'll have time," he added, nodding with determination as he got ready to accompany his friend.
"Fine," Harry said, knowing that maybe he wouldn't be able to avoid facing Malfoy if things ended this way. He didn't really mind that much; maybe he could even give him a beating so he'd stop being so annoying.
The two of them went down the spiral staircase after putting on their robes and grabbing their wands. They arrived at the Gryffindor common room… but of course, someone was waiting for them there.
Among the black shadows cast by the armchairs illuminated by the embers of the fireplace, a figure stood with arms crossed.
"I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry."
The two stopped and, obviously, recognized the voice. Harry let out a tired sigh toward the floor before looking at Hermione.
Hermione had a stern face and a pink robe, watching them with absolute severity.
"If you leave right now, I'll go tell the prefect," she said quickly.
Harry was beginning to feel the same way Percy did whenever Harry threatened to tell their mother about the trouble Percy caused… although Harry never actually did unless it was really important.
"Percy still hasn't returned, so I'm going to look for him," Harry said calmly, making it clear that it wasn't about the duel but about a real problem.
"Then why don't you tell a professor? Or the prefect himself?" Hermione asked, as if she didn't believe a word.
"Because I know my brother… and I know him well. I'm sure he's getting into trouble, and Neville is possibly with him," Harry replied. He trusted that Percy would be fine; he always was. Well… he was always rescued at the last moment if he wasn't. But Neville was another story.
"Come on, Harry; you don't owe her explanations," Ron said with annoyance toward Hermione before turning to leave the common room.
…
While Harry, Ron, and Hermione were arguing, Percy was standing right in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady. Next to him was Neville, with an extremely sleepy expression, his face drooping; he was slightly nodding off as if he were about to fall asleep standing up.
Percy turned toward his friend and looked at him intently.
"Do you really not remember the password? It's been almost two hours since we've been here waiting for someone to come out," Percy said with a serious look.
"I don't remember…" Neville said with teary eyes, believing that he would sleep on the floor outside the common room that night. Both of them had arrived about two hours ago, after they got delayed in the kitchen, where they had a small party celebrating Neville's wrist recovery. Although, obviously, that was just an excuse to eat as much as they could.
After separating from Grover, they walked toward Gryffindor's tower. And then they discovered a devastating truth:
Neville didn't remember the password.
Sometimes Percy thought Neville didn't lose his head only because it was attached to his neck.
And Percy wasn't one to complain too much either; he hadn't paid attention to learning the password since he always entered with Harry.
So they stayed standing in front of the Fat Lady, who seemed to be giving them some sort of dramatic performance while waiting for them to remember the correct word.
"Damn it… next time I'll write it on my hand," Percy said angrily, turning to look around while thinking about what on earth to do.
"What if we look for Professor McGonagall?" Neville asked, exhausted. Unlike Percy, standing for so long made his legs hurt; he wasn't trained like Percy, so he was clearly out of shape.
"Don't be an idiot, Neville. I already got in trouble, and my punishment is still pending until that old man comes up with something. If I break another rule, I definitely won't be saved from whatever Snape is trying to do," Percy said seriously. "Let's just look for a place to sleep where they won't find us. As long as we get through the night, we'll be fine," he added, starting to walk down the hallway, thinking about where they could hide without Filch or his cat finding them.
The classrooms were out of the question, so he had to find a good spot.
Neville, tired, could only nod and follow him. As they turned the corner, at that exact moment, the Fat Lady's portrait opened from the inside while voices spilled out. Or rather, one voice: Hermione's.
"…You're going to lose all the points I barely managed to recover in Professor McGonagall's class," Hermione said as she came out behind Ron and Harry.
"Go away," Ron said, annoyed from hearing her nonstop.
"Fine. But I warned you. Remember everything I said when you're on the train tomorrow, heading back home," she said before turning around to enter again through the Fat Lady's portrait… but it was already closed, and the Fat Lady was nowhere in sight. She had gone to get something to drink from a friend after singing for two straight hours.
"And now what am I supposed to do?" Hermione said in a high-pitched tone.
Harry and Ron, already tired of her chatter, kept walking; but she quickly ran after them and caught up.
"I can't stay here waiting for Filch to catch me. And if he catches me while I'm following you, I'll tell him the truth; that I was trying to stop you," Hermione said before continuing behind them.