A Hogwarts Legend: Changing Paths [3]

Chapter Twenty Three

Unedited

Chapter Twenty Three - "I can almost taste the sexual tension."

Ron has to hold onto the fence to keep himself standing, he's laughing so hard and I cover my mouth to hide my laughter. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle spin stupidly on the spot, staring wildly around, Malfoy trying to wipe his hair clean.

"What was that? Who did that?"

"Very haunted up here, isn't it?" says Ron, with the air of one commentating on the weather.

Crabbe and Goyle are looking scared. Their bulging muscles are no use against ghosts. Malfoy us staring madly around at the deserted landscape.

SPLATTER!

Crabbe and Goyle catch some this time. Goyle hops furiously on the spot, trying to rub it out of his small, dull eyes.

"It came from over there!" says Malfoy, wiping his face, and pointing.

Crabbe blunders forwards, his long arms outstretched like a zombie. A stick hits his back; I double up with silent laughter as Crabbe does a kind of pirouette in mid-air, trying to see who's thrown it. As Ron and I are the only people Crabbe can see, it's us he starts towards, but Crabbe stumbles - and his huge, flat foot catches the hem of the Invisibility Cloak, as the Cloak slides off Harry's face.

"This backfired," I mutter.

For a split second, Malfoy stares at him.

"AAARGH!" he yells, pointing at Harry's head. Then he turns tail and runs, at breakneck speed, back down the hill, Crabbe and Goyle behind him.

Harry tugs the Cloak up again, but the damage is done.

"Harry!" Ron says, stumbling forward and staring hopelessly at the point where Harry has disappeared, "you'd better run for it! If Malfoy tells anyone - you'd better get back to the castle, quick -"

"See you later," says Harry, throwing the Cloak over me, and without another word, we tear back down the path towards Hogsmeade.

Will Malfoy believe what he's seen? Will anyone believe Malfoy? Nobody knows about the Cloak - nobody except Dumbledore. My stomach flips - Dumbledore will know exactly what has happened, if Malfoy says anything -

Back into Honeydukes, back down the cellar steps, across the stone floor, through the trapdoor - Harry pulls off the Cloak, tucks it under his arm, and we run, flat out, along the passage ... Malfoy will get back first ... how long will it take him to find a teacher? Panting, a sharp pain in my side, we don't slow down until we reach the stone slide. Harry hides the Cloak in a shadowy corner, then starts to climb, as fast as he can, me following quickly. Harry reaches the inside of the witch's hump, taps it with his wand, sticks his head through and hoists himself out; pulling me out after; the hump closed, and just as we've jumped out from behind the statue, I hear quick footsteps approaching.

It's Snape. He approaches Harry and I at a swift walk, his black robes swishing, then stops in front of us.

"So," he says.

There's a look of suppressed triumph about him. I try to look innocent, all too aware of our sweaty faces and Harry's muddy hands.