“Stop moving!”

“I’m na!”

“Both of you hush!  If we’re heard, we’re dead!”

Niamh, Hermione, and Harry pushed the wooden crate that held Norbert along a dark corridor under the invisibility cloak.  Hermione had performed a Hovering Charm on it so they wouldn’t have to lug it up and down stairs.

“Get off my foot!”

“I’m na on yer foo’, Ni!”

“Then…aw, bloody hell, it’s Mrs. Norris!!”

The three students looked down in horror at the cat, who was standing on Niamh’s invisible foot and looking up at them.  Harry hissed, “Get on, Norri.  Doan tell Filch we were ‘ere, k, m’girl?”

The cat looked up at him then meowed.  Harry smiled and whispered, “T’anks, Norri.”

Mrs. Norris meowed again and they moved on, the cat padding softly after them.  As they went Niamh whispered, “How did you do that?”

“Oh, quite taken ter me, tha’ cat is.  We understan’ each other.  Doan we, Norri?”

The cat meowed once more then bounded off into the shadows.

“I hope she’s not going to get Filch,” muttered Niamh.

“Na.  She’s ‘ad plenty o’ chance to do tha’ ter me when I’ve been ou’ at nigh’.  She woan get ‘im.”

“I hope your right, Harry.  And when have you been out at night?”

“Heh.  ‘Ere an’ there.”

“We’re almost there!”

The three of them instantly fell silent as Hermione hissed those words.  They climbed to the top of the tower and shed the invisibility cloak.  A few minutes later they turned Norbert over to Charlie’s friends and, with wide grins, began to descend from the tower.  At the last moment Niamh hissed, “The cloak!”

Looking at each other in horror, they turned to sprint back up the stairs when lamplight fell on them.  Turning, they all quavered at the sight of Argus Filch.

Niamh hissed, “Harry, you arse.  That cat gave us away!”

Mrs. Norris suddenly appeared behind Filch and gave Harry a sorrowful look and a soft meow.  Harry nodded vaguely at her and hissed back at Niamh, “Filch goes abou’ the school on ‘is own.  Norri did’n betray us.”

Niamh spat, “Well, we’re still in trouble.”

“Good point, tha’.”

Filch frowned at them and said, “Sneaking out of your dormitories at night, eh?  Well, we’ll be seeing Professor McGonagall and Snape about this, won’t we?  Come along.”

Harry and Niamh exchanged a horrified glance then turned to Hermione, who looked equally horrified.

“Why’d you have to drag us into this, Mione?”

Hermione sighed and said, “I couldn’t handle Norbert on my own and Ron had been bitten.  There was no one else I knew who’d help.”

Harry sighed and said, “She’s got a poin’, Ni.  Leave off ‘er.  We’re gonna ‘ave detention anyway.”

“Yeah.  For something we got dragged into!”

Harry rolled his eyes and said, “Drop ‘i, Ni.”

“Alright, alright.  Sorry, Mione.”

“It’s okay.  I’m mad at myself right now.  I can’t believe we forgot the cloak!”

“SHHH!” hissed both Niamh and Harry, clamping their hands over her mouth.

Hermione mumbled something that sounded like “What?” behind their hands and the two rolled their eyes.

It was going to be a long night.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/

“Out after curfew is one thing, but telling Mr. Malfoy some cock-and-bull story about a dragon?  I did not expect that from you, Miss Granger.”  McGonagall’s eyes shifted to Harry and Niamh, both of whom bristled visibly.  Or Niamh did.  The only reaction Harry showed was a light in his eyes that came and went quickly.  Niamh, however, glared at the Transfiguration teach with barely disguised fury.

“Ni, calm down.”

“Harry, she’s implying that we told Malfoy about the – the you-know-what!”

“Ye think I doan know that?  I’m more worried abou’ Snape!”

McGonagall frowned at them and said, “And you two will be serving detention with Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy.”

Draco, who has already been in the room with McGonagall, cried, “What!”

Harry blandly said, “Detention, Malfoy.  Surely ye know wha’ that is?  Or are ye actually that daft?”

Draco glared at Harry and looked ready to launch himself at the other boy’s throat but stopped quite suddenly and backed off – from both the cold look Harry had given him and McGonagall’s glare.

“And you, Mr. Potter.  Fifty points from Slytherin!”

Harry looked at her and simply nodded.  He’d get the points back in the next Quidditch match.  So what if he got brown-nosed by the other Slytherin’s?  Most of them only paid attention to him because he was The Harry Potter or because he was the Seeker who had won them the match against Gryffindor.  He’d been kicked and beaten down on the streets.  He could take whatever the Slytherins could dish out and more.

“As for you Miss O’Feir and Mr. Malfoy, fifty points as well.  Same for you, Miss Granger.  Now back to your dormitories!  I will send notice when your detention shall be.”

The four of them trailed out under McGonagall’s stern gaze, not saying anything until they were out of her office.

Draco sneered at them and said, “Hanging around with Mudblood’s.  How low can you get, Potter?”

Harry bristled inwardly and sneered, “Ye’d take kindly ter remember that these two Mudblood’s are the smartest students in the year and c’n hex yer sorry arse before you knew what’d ‘appened.”

The two boys scowled at each other, eyeing each other with contempt.  Niamh and Hermione smartly stayed out of the conflict.

After a few moments Draco turned away from their locked gazes and Harry smirked.  As the blond turned and walked off he said, “See you in the dorm, Potter.  Tell your raven ‘Hello’ for me.”

Harry bristled visibly this time and clenched his fists until blood ran.  As soon as Draco was gone he spat bitterly on the ground and snarled in a soft voice, “Ye touch a feather on Jardin, Malfoy, an’ it’ll be the last thing ye touch fer a long while.”

Behind him Hermione and Niamh exchanged glances then moved forward, each placing a hand on Harry’s shoulders.  He tensed at the touch then relaxed, looking at each of them in turn.  Niamh gently pried open his fist to look at his hand, her eyes softening when she saw the cuts his fingernails had made in his palm.  She turned her face up to him and said, “You shouldn’t let him get to you like that, Harry.  He does it deliberately.”

Harry scowled at her and snapped, “Ye think I doan know that?  Bloody ‘ell, Ni, tha’s the reason I want ter break his sodding head against the stones!”  He looked down at his bloodied palm and added, “I’ve never been so…so…angry in me life.”

Niamh frowned.

“Not even to Argil?”

Hermione blinked in confusion whilst Harry shook his head, closing his eyes.  He softly said, “Na.  Not even Argil.  I did’n like ‘im but…”  His eyes opened and he glared off in the direction where Draco had vanished.

“But I never hated ‘im.”

Hermione gasped, “Hate is a strong word, Harry.”

“There’s no other word fer it, Hermione.  I hate ‘im.  I hate Draco Malfoy.”

Niamh and Hermione exchanged another glance then Harry said, “We’d better ge’ back, Ni.  ‘Fore Filch catches us again.”

Niamh nodded and the three of them said goodnight, heading they’re separate ways.  Harry left Niamh to return to Arx Serpens on her own as he went to get the invisibility cloak.  When he returned, he went immediately into the boy’s dormitory, only pausing long enough to curl his lip in a sneer at Draco’s sleeping form.  Niamh watched him from her chair in the common room as he stood there, watching with other boy with the utmost contempt.  A moment later the door closed and he was gone.  Niamh sighed and curled up in the large, overstuffed chair, running her fingers over the soft, emerald green fabric.  Calling out to Jardin, she silently asked a question.

Could Harry go Dark?

No answer tempted her question.  She supposed the raven was too far away, high up in the Owlery, or flying out in the night.  Unlike Harry, she was not bound to the bird and could only speak to him when he was near.

Tucking her hands under her cheek, Niamh watched the fire until the dancing flames sang her to sleep with their soft crackling.