The Disgraced of the House of Black - A Multi-Character Fanfiction - Part One

46. Pang

The moment the door shut behind Sirius, Althea released a relieved breath, but there was no time to recover herself. The next moment, hundreds of footsteps reached her ears. Althea's heart rate instantly skyrocketed as she quickly vaulted over the couch and quickly curled under the blanket there, burying her face between the pillow and the back of the couch. Her heart hammering, she listened as several Gryffindors came into the Common Room.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" a voice called.

"I'm telling you, I saw him!" Ron shouted.

"What's all the noise?"

"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!"

"Excellent," a cheery voice Althea was almost sure belonged to Fred or George said. "Are we carrying on?"

"Everyone back upstairs!" Percy bellowed.

Deciding she couldn't very well continue pretending, Althea let out a fake yawn and sat up, mumbling, "What's going on?"

"Perce!" Ron shouted, rushing over to him with wide, terrified eyes. "Sirius Black! In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

Everyone fell silent. Althea could hear the pounding of her own heart.

"Nonsense!" Percy retorted, looking startled. "You had too much to eat, Ron - had a nightmare -"

"I'm telling you-" Ron insisted.

"Now, really, enough's enough!" McGonagall shouted, rushing into the Common Room. "I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Percy, I expected better of you!"

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy insisted. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare -"

"It wasn't a nightmare!" Ron yelled. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

There was a short silence as McGonagall stared at him.

"Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?" McGonagall said finally.

"Ask him!" Ron cried, pointing to the back of the portrait. "Ask him if he saw -"

Althea was shaking. She hadn't moved off the couch. She had forgotten about the portrait. What if he somehow knew she had been awake? What if one of the ghosts had seen? What if a student came down before she saw them and saw-

"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor Tower?" McGonagall asked.

"Certainly, good lady!" he replied cheerfully.

"You - you did?" McGonagall said in shock. "But - but the password!"

"He had 'em!" Sir Cadogan said proudly. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

When McGonagall reappeared, she was white as chalk.

"Which person," she began, her voice positively quivering with anger. "Which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

There was a tiny squeak. Althea glanced over and instantly felt more sorry for Neville than she ever had in her life as he raised one shaking hand.

That night seemed to drag on for ages to Althea. She, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting on the couch, but her eyes kept trailing to Neville who was sitting alone in a corner, looking more miserable than she had ever seen him before.

When dawn came, however, and they had been told that Sirius had escaped, Neville almost instantly jumped to his feet and dashed from the Common Room. With a small sigh, Althea got up and, without a word to her friends, followed him. When she had at last caught up, he had already reached the top of the Astronomy Tower and had broken down into sobs.