Harry Potter 01 - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Hermione the harness they’d rigged up, so they could suspend Norbert between them. They all helped buckle Norbert safely into it and then Harry and Hermione shook hands with the others and thanked them very much.
    At last, Norbert was going … going … gone.
    They slipped back down the spiral staircase, their hearts as light as their hands, now that Norbert was off them. No more dragon – Malfoy in detention – what could spoil their happiness?
    The answer to that was waiting at the foot of the stairs. As they stepped into the corridor, Filch’s face loomed suddenly out of the darkness.
    ‘Well, well, well,’ he whispered, ‘we are in trouble.’
    They’d left the Invisibility Cloak on top of the tower.

 
     
— CHAPTER FIFTEEN —
     
The Forbidden Forest
    Things couldn’t 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. Hermione was trembling. Excuses, alibis and wild cover-up stories chased each other around Harry’s brain, each more feeble than the last. He couldn’t see how they were going to get out of trouble this time. They were cornered. How could they have been so stupid as to forget the Cloak? There was no reason on earth that Professor McGonagall would accept for their being out of bed and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone being up the tallest astronomy tower, which was out-of-bounds except for classes. Add Norbert and the Invisibility Cloak and they might as well be packing their bags already.
    Had Harry thought that things couldn’t have been worse? He was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading Neville.
    ‘Harry!’ Neville burst out, the moment he saw the other 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 Professor 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 Hermione had ever failed to answer a teacher’s question. She was staring at her slippers, as still as a statue.
    ‘I think I’ve got a good idea of what’s been going on,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘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?’
    Harry caught Neville’s eye and tried to tell him without words that this wasn’t true, because Neville was looking stunned and hurt. Poor, blundering Neville – Harry knew what it must have cost him to try and find them in the dark, to warn them.
    ‘I’m disgusted,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘Four students out of bed in one night! I’ve never heard of such a thing before! You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. 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.’
    ‘Fifty?’ Harry gasped – they would lose the lead, the lead he’d won in the last Quidditch match.
    ‘Fifty points each ,’ said Professor McGonagall, breathing heavily through her long pointed nose.
    ‘Professor – please –’
    ‘You can’t –’
    ‘Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do, Potter. Now get back to bed, all of you. I’ve never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students.’
    A hundred and fifty points lost. That put Gryffindor in last place. In one night, they’d ruined any chance Gryffindor had had for the House Cup. Harry felt as though the bottom had dropped out of his stomach. How could they ever make up for this?
    Harry didn’t sleep all night. He could hear Neville sobbing into his pillow for what seemed like hours. Harry couldn’t think of anything to say to comfort him. He knew Neville, like himself, was dreading the dawn. What would happen when the rest of Gryffindor found out what they’d done?
    At first, Gryffindors passing the giant hour-glasses that