Marauders' Godson Book 1: Sorcerer's Stone

Chapter Ten

Filch took them to McGonagall's office to wait for her verdict. Ron, Ruby, and Onyx instantly collapsed on the floor while Hermione stayed standing, pale. Edward began to pace.

He was pretty sure he was the only one that wasn't freaking out. He was also pretty sure that he was the only one trying to think of a way out of this, except telling the truth.

Ron noticed that he was thinking and made a shushing gesture to Hermione, Ruby, and Onyx.

After a while, McGonagall returned. To Edward's surprise, Neville was with her.

"Edward!" Neville exclaimed the moment he saw them. "I was trying to find you to warn you, I heard Malfoy saying-"

Edward shook his head slightly, and Neville silenced at once.

"I would never have believed it of any of you," McGonagall fumed. "Especially you, Potter. Mr. Filch says you were wandering the grounds. It's one o'clock in the morning. Explain yourselves."

Edward looked up at her and sighed mournfully. "I suppose we'll have to tell the truth."

"What?" Ron demanded.

"No!" Ruby exclaimed.

"It's my cat, Shadow," Edward lied anxiously. "He's missing."

Ron and Ruby stared at him with surprise, and Neville looked confused. Hermione's eyes widened a bit, but she quickly said, "No, Edward!"

McGonagall looked at him, then his friends, and quickly Ron and Ruby looked embarrassed and anxious. Ruby's was a bit more believable, but the deputy headmistress didn't say anything. She just narrowed her eyes.

"I've been looking for Shadow for days," Edward explained worriedly, "and I promise I wasn't looking for him after dark, just during class breaks. I told my friends, and they were helping me." He looked at Hermione, Ron, and Ruby. "Why were you looking after dark, on the grounds?" he demanded, making his voice sound scolding but also faintly upset. "You could have gotten caught! You have gotten caught!"

McGonagall raised an eyebrow at Hermione, her expression icy.

"We thought he would be on the grounds," Hermione said, her voice convincingly miserable. "Ron wanted to look right away," she added, glaring at Ron. Edward knew she was actually annoyed that he'd dragged her down to see a hatching dragon.

"Edward loves that cat!" Ron growled.

"Hermione only went to make sure we didn't get caught," Ruby told Edward, faking an annoyed expression. "We're sorry -- that we got caught. We were really close to finding Shadow."

"Then why was Mr. Malfoy talking about a dragon?" McGonagall asked sharply. "And why were you two out of bed?" She glared at Onyx.

"We noticed that Hermione, Ron, and Ruby weren't in the common room," Edward told her, making his tone faintly anxious, "so we went to look for them. They could have been hurt."

"Ruby, you're grounded!" Onyx told her furiously.

"WHAT?" Ruby shrieked, truly angry.

"Ed told you not to look after dark!"

"Silence," said Professor McGonagall, and they stopped shouting. "And Mr. Malfoy's story of a dragon?"

"I'm not sure," Edward admitted. It was true -- he had no idea how Malfoy had found out about Hagrid's illegal pet. "Hermione?"

"Malfoy caught us looking," she replied, looking down at her feet. "So we told him we were looking for a dragon."

"We were hoping he would get caught," Ruby snorted. "It didn't work, obviously."