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“OUCH!” Ron yelped, retracting his hand from the shelf. A massive bubble of blood began blooming from the tip of his finger a moment before he started sucking on it.
“Ronald!” Hermione hissed in a low voice. “We are TRYING to sneak around the Restricted Section, remember?”
“I don't care!” Ron shot back. “Bloody book poked me!”
He went back to nursing his finger, pointedly ignoring Hermione's eye-roll.
“Books don't simply poke you,” Hermione muttered.
“Well, that one did!” Ron insisted, nodding towards a scuttling sound.
Everyone looked down towards Harry's feet to find a small maroon-coloured book that was indeed covered in thorns. The book moved quickly along the floor, flapping its pages to skim along. Harry barely had time to step out of its way.
The three of them had been sneaking into the Restricted Section for the past couple of nights to find anything useful on an upcoming Potions exam, but having little luck. The first night, they didn't even make it down. The second night, they ended up trapped in the Restricted Section until dawn before they could get away unnoticed. This, of course, meant no sleep at all that night. Tonight, they now watched helplessly as their thorny little problem headed out the gates into the main hallway.
“Great! It's getting away!” Harry complained, charging after it as quietly as possible.
“I'm not running after that thing!” Ron declared.
“Fine,” Hermione said. “You keep looking around here for what we need. I'll go help Harry.” She handed over the Invisibility Cloak before running after Harry. She found him just outside the library, hiding behind a statue. The book was nowhere in sight, but at the moment, she was more worried about Harry.
She slipped over beside him.
“It's just over there,” Harry said, pointing towards a patch of maroon on the floor in the far corner. “Only ...” He let it hang, watching a Prefect patrolling.
“Ron has the cloak,” Hermione whispered. “We can't use magic on books from the Restricted Section, so we actually have to catch it to put it back.”
“Got any ideas?” Harry asked.
“One, but I haven't practiced it much,” Hermione said. “It's called the Disillusionment charm, but we won't learn it for a couple more years.”
“Worth a shot,” Harry shrugged.
“Fine,” Hermione said. Fact was, they were out of options.
She tried the spell a couple of times, first on a corner of a nearby carpet, then on a small torch on the wall before finally attempting it on Harry. Once she was satisfied with the effect, she sent him out after the runaway book while she stayed behind the statue to keep watch.
Harry waited for the Prefect to disappear down another hall before making his move. Although it was rather hard to see him at the moment, others could still hear him if he wasn't careful. He slowly made his way to the maroon square on the floor, keeping an eye out for the Prefect just around the corner.
Incidentally, the charm helped conceal him from the book as well. It would be easy to reach down to pick it up, but Harry could see all the dark green thorns on it. He pulled off his Gryffindor scarf to wrap his hands securely before gently grasping the book. His fingers slipped in between the thorns to hold it tightly.
The book tried to flap, but it was held shut between Harry's fingers. It grumbled in protest.
“Sh!” Harry tried shushing it, knowing it was useless.
“Is someone there?”
Harry glanced around at the Prefect's voice just down the other hall. He heard hurried footsteps coming in his direction. He may have had a charm on him, but the book did not, so Harry took a chance.
As the Prefect hurried into view of some torches along the wall, Harry dashed as quietly as he could back to Hermione's side. Both had to wait several minutes while the grumpy Prefect looked around.
Hermione stayed in the dark behind Harry as they waited.
Finally, the Prefect got bored. Casting one more glance around, he took off back on his patrols.
Harry pulled Hermione along, back into the library. They slipped through silent bookshelves towards the stairs.
At long last, they found Ron—or rather, Ron's floating head—within the Invisibility Cloak. It was just in time, too, for Harry's charm was wearing off.
“I found it!” Ron said as Harry put the thorny maroon book back.
“Brilliant!” Harry exclaimed. “Let's get to the dorms before anything else happens.”
With the three of them under the cloak, it was easy to get back to bed, so long as they kept quiet.
