An American at Hogwarts

Chapter Twenty-Two

"Alexa. Are you all right? I'm sorry such an upsetting thing is happening during your first few months here. This usually doesn't happen," he said.

"Yeah, usually the things that come in and almost kill people in the school wait until a little later in the year," joked Fred, although I could tell he was actually telling the truth by the way Percy tensed up.

"That is not something to be joked about," ordered Percy angrily. He wasn't very intimidating, which really didn't help his authority.

"Don't worry Perce, I'm kinda used to this stuff. I was just hoping you could better explain to me what exactly is happening," I said.

"I could certainly try," nodded Percy. I could tell he was excited to be the one in charge, answering all the questions.

"So, tell me if this is right. A convicted murderer named Sirius Black snuck into the castle, past teachers and dementors and who knows how many magical safeguards, made it all the way up to one of the dorms in the highest tower, slashed up a portrait, and has escaped or hidden where no one has found him yet? How the hell is that possible?"

Percy looked taken aback, but he quickly recovered. "Sirius Black is a dangerous man, but our teachers are more than a match for him. I'm not sure how he got in, but I'm sure it will become obvious and be quickly stopped by the time you wake up in the morning." Percy gave me a soft smile, then bent down to lightly squeeze my shoulder. "Don't worry too much. You are perfectly safe. Now, get some sleep. I'll be calling lights out in just a few moments."

With that, Percy walked off to check on the next group of people.

"Wow. That was the best non-answer I've heard since Senator Stern went to jail," I said, turning back to my friends.

"Percy's good at answering around questions," Lee agreed.

"Well, he's certainly going to make a good politician once he graduates then." I shifted to lay on my stomach in my sleeping bag, resting my head on my hands.

"The lights are going out now!" Percy yelled from across the room. "I want everyone in their sleeping bags and no more talking!"

The candles all went out at once, but of course there were still whispers all around the Hall. I was tired enough, however, that I decided to go right to sleep. I was just starting to slip into dream land when I felt someone lightly shake my shoulder.

I closed my eyes and groaned into my pillow before turning over to see what was wrong. I expected one of my friends to be trying to talk to me about everything happening, but instead I came face to face with a terrified-looking Cassidy, who had somehow managed to sneak over here with some of her friends without Percy noticing.

"Cassidy?" I asked sleepily. "What's up?"

"I'm sorry Alexa, I just... I'm scared. What if Sirius Black gets in here?" she asked. Even in the dark, I could see the fear in her wide eyes.

I rolled over so I could face her better. "Cassidy, don't worry. We're going to be okay. All the teachers know what they're doing, and he could never get in here before somebody stopped him."

Cassidy nodded a little, but I could tell she was still afraid. And honestly, who wouldn't be? It wasn't normal to be calm in situations like this.

I sat up and made a note of where Percy was on his rounds, then shook the rest of my friends awake.

"Okay Cassidy, here's the thing: we're safe. We really are. So, this isn't some terrifying thing where we have to stay here and sleep on the floor and stay awake the whole night. This is a massive full-school sleepover where we get to have fun and I can finally show you guys some of my muggle movies. Now, circle up. We're going to need all the sleeping bags together to make a fort that Percy's not going to notice from where he's standing.

Cassidy's eyes lit up, and all of our friends started working together to make a little low to the ground tent that we could set up my laptop in.

"Alexa, this is the best idea you've ever had," giggled Alicia as we put the last pieces in place.

"Yeah, why didn't you think of it earlier?" teased Lee, giving me a nudge as we set up the last of our fort. There were enough blankets muffling our noise that I was pretty sure no one would be able to hear my laptop on low volume.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Shut up," I said, rolling my eyes. "Okay Cassidy. Since you know the muggle world too, it's your call. What movie should we watch?"

Cassidy paused, giving the question the consideration it was due. Finally, she decided.

"High School Musical," she said with a smile.

"Oh, hell yes Cassidy. That movie is my childhood," I said, already starting to pull the movie up on my laptop.

"What does that even mean?" asked Angelina, confusion written all over her face.

"Oh, don't worry. You'll soon see." I grinned and shushed everybody as the movie began. We were all squished together under like twelve sleeping bags on a stone cold floor, hiding in the Great Hall trying to stay absolutely silent as we all hid from a potential murderer in the castle, but for the next hour and thirty-eight minutes it felt like we were all normal teenage best friends watching a movie together in our blanket fort.

It was awesome.

We finished the movie without being caught by Percy. Everybody loved it, even though the wizard kids didn't understand everything that was mentioned, and before we went to bed we made plans to get together and watch the next two. Cassidy wanted to watch them before we went to bed, but all of the rest of us were so tired we had to let her down.

As I moved my sleeping bag back into sleeping position, I had to smile to myself when I saw Cassidy already passed out in her own sleeping bag. My plan had worked; she wasn't scared anymore.

The rest of the night passed without incident, and I woke up the next morning to sunlight streaming in through the windows of the Great Hall, and the noise of hundreds of people starting to move and talk again.

"Man, this really is a magic sleeping bag. All night on cobblestone and I'm not even a little sore."

After a long morning of trudging back to my dorm and then back to the Great Hall again for breakfast, it was time to start our Monday classes. I was hoping the teachers would cancel lessons with everything that had happened, but apparently we weren't going to get that lucky.

I dragged through all my classes, but I still got back into the normal rhythm of school pretty quickly. Tuesday night was astronomy, and like usual I was almost asleep on my feet for that class. I had stayed late to talk to David about his progress getting a sample, and I was walking back to the tower on my own through one of the secret passages when another familiar, sparking circle of golden light appeared in front of me.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me, not again," I groaned, stopping and waiting for the circle to finish materializing.

I was getting another visit from a more annoying kind of wizard. I mean, I don't know what I expected. I'm sure my dad got a letter home about a murderer breaking into the school, and I'm sure the first thing he did was drag Strange out of bed to come check on me.

This was going to be fun to explain at one in the morning.