Disowned (Drarry/Pansmione)

Chapter Forty

Exams were absolutely the worst time of year, even for nerds like Draco and Hermione. The two of them were sleep deprived since they were studying so much. Thankfully, Draco got through the week and was ready for a well-earned break. Yet, nothing could go right for him, could it? Harry had realized with horror that 'Snape' was the cloaked stranger that Hagrid had won the dragon form, and now they all found out that Hagrid had told whoever it was how to get past Fluffy, and Dumbledore was gone, so now they had to stay up yet again to go down there and try to stop the thief themselves because they couldn't do it in the daytime. Marvelous.

The four Gryffindors waited in the Common Room for nightfall as Hermione went over her notes, looking for anything on the enchantments they might have to break. Draco was rolling his eyes at the whole thing, especially since they thought that it was Snape. How dumb did they have to be? The man wasn't a moron; he wouldn't go against Dumbledore now. Of course, no matter how many times he told them that, they didn't believe him. Draco did admit that he had no clue why Snape was staring at Harry so intently when the Snitch nearly choked him to death - which, by the way, no one had actually brought up when it happened. Hermione had only mentioned it later on. Even so, Snape wouldn't dare break Dumbledore's trust, so something had to be up.

"Better get the cloak," Ron whispered to Harry as Lee Jordan, the last person in the room, went up the stairs yawning. Harry disappeared up the stairs. Remembering that music was what soothed Fluffy, Draco ran up to get his flute.

"Oh, good thinking," Harry whispered when he saw it. "I'm rubbish at singing."

Draco and Harry returned down stairs and met up with Ron and Hermione by the passage.

"We'd better put the cloak on before we leave," Harry said. "If it doesn't cover all of us once we're out and Filch spots a foot or something - "

"What are you doing?" came a voice from the corner of the room. Neville peeked out from behind a large armchair holding Trevor, who seemed grumpy at being held.

"Nothing, Neville," Harry said quickly, shoving the cloak behind his back.

Neville gave them a look. "I'm not stupid. You're going out again!"

"No, no, we're not," Hermione said. "Why don't you just go to bed?"

Neville frowned. "You can't go out. You'll get caught and then Gryffindor will be in even more trouble."

"Neville, this doesn't concern you," Draco said.

"Yes it does!" Neville exclaimed. "I won't let you do it! I'll - I'll fight you!"

Neville ran to block the portrait hole from them. Draco sighed. This was pointless. Neville wasn't going to stop them and he was just wasting their time that they could be using to stop whoever it was.

"Neville!" Ron exploded. "Don't be an idiot, get away from that hole - "

"Don't call me an idiot!"

"Hermione, I think it's your time to shine," Draco said.

Hermione sighed and raised her wand while the boys bickered. "Neville, I'm sorry about this. Petrificus Totalus!"

Neville stiffened and fell straight on his face. Hermione moved forward to roll him over, but then gasped in horror.

"I can't believe I forgot again! I need to go see Pansy! I haven't interacted with her all day; she must be miserable!" Hermione cried. "Will you three be alright on your own?"

"We'll be fine," Harry said. "Besides, I don't think the cloak would cover all four of us."

Hermione gave each of them a quick hug for good luck before running out the portrait hole.