Late at night, Harry's eyes suddenly snapped open. After observing his dorm mates for a moment, confirming they were all fast asleep, he cast a Muffliato Charm on himself and opened his trunk.
Humphrey's two heads were sound asleep, but the middle one was awake. Sensing Harry's presence, it excitedly flicked its tongue. "Master, are we off to the Forbidden Forest? I'll wake them up!"
"No, I'm here to get the book I asked you to watch over," Harry replied with a hiss, shaking his head.
"Don't worry, Master," Humphrey declared confidently, "the book's safe right under that rock. Even Hermione didn't spot it!"
Harry retrieved 'Unlocking Other Minds' from under the rock, wiping off the slime Humphrey had left on it. "Odd," Harry mused to himself, "for a magic book, it doesn't even have a self-cleaning charm."
(Draco Malfoy: "Why would you add a self-cleaning charm to an ordinary Dark Arts book? Our family library has permanent temperature-control and cleaning charms, and house-elves look after it daily—there's not a speck of dust. Besides, if one gets damaged, there's always a spare. So, you could add a self-cleaning charm, but there's just no need.")
Harry grabbed 'Unlocking Other Minds' and his Invisibility Cloak, gave the snake head a quick pat, and then slipped out of the dormitory. At night, Humphrey preferred to stay in his rocky burrow rather than climb out of the trunk for fun, so Harry felt quite safe leaving the trunk in the dorm.
After leaving the Gryffindor common room, Harry headed towards the side of the castle. He'd overheard Penelope, a fifth-year, mentioning this spot earlier in the day. Every year, fifth and seventh-year students, wanting to do well on their OWL and NEWT exams, would find a corridor in the castle to secretly practice magic. This year, they'd chosen a corridor on the side of the castle with many empty classrooms as their practice spot. Prefects usually wouldn't patrol here; it was an unspoken, unofficial nighttime hangout for the older students and prefects.
But Harry wasn't going to that specific corridor. He planned to find an empty classroom nearby, because the magic he intended to study was, to some extent, not exactly legal.
Meow! A cat's yowl suddenly echoed through the corridor, followed by the sound of many footsteps.
"Don't even think about running! I've finally caught you today, and I'm going to make sure... Mrs. Norris, after them!"
Filch's excited voice grew louder; he was already fantasizing about how he'd punish these young wizards. Harry made sure his Invisibility Cloak completely covered him, then stood pressed against the wall. To be extra safe, he cast a Silencing Charm on himself too.
Thump-thump-thump! Several floating hands and heads scurried past Harry. He recognized one of the heads as Penelope, the Ravenclaw prefect. "Looks like the older students were practicing Disillusionment Charms today," Harry thought, "but somehow, Filch found them."
Just as the last arm floated by, Filch and Mrs. Norris finally arrived. "My sweet, which way did they go?" Filch gasped, out of breath, to Mrs. Norris. Mrs. Norris sniffed the air, then hesitated and let out a tentative meow towards Harry's direction.
"Blast it!" Harry cursed under his breath. "Shouldn't have stroked Humphrey just now. All that raw meat makes his scent far too strong!"
Filch looked over, confused. There was nothing there but a wall. But then Filch quickly remembered the disembodied parts. He charged forward, wildly waving his arms, sweeping them across the wall. Harry, sensing trouble, had already darted away.
"My sweet, are you sure there was someone here?" Filch asked, puzzled. This time, Mrs. Norris didn't hesitate, chasing off in the direction Harry had gone.
"Oh, for Merlin's beard!" Harry had an urge to punch the castle when the staircase in front of him suddenly vanished. Filch's footsteps were getting closer behind him. Just as Harry was about to cast a spell on Filch, the caretaker suddenly let out a shriek.
"Who threw that Dungbomb?! Weasley, I knew it was you lot again!" Filch roared, chasing off in another direction.
Once Filch was gone, George appeared seemingly out of nowhere. "Harry?" George called out into the air. "I know it's you! Come on, Fred can't distract Filch for long."
Harry promptly stepped out from under his Invisibility Cloak. Seeing the cloak in Harry's hand, George raised an eyebrow and said, "Cool," then gestured for Harry to follow him. Harry followed George to the fourth-floor corridor, where there was an ugly, humpbacked witch statue.
"Dissendium!" George said to the statue, and a dark passage appeared. Once inside, Harry used a charm to light the passage and began to look around. Harry noticed his golden skull lying on the ground, next to a pile of what looked like creature heads, and the passage continued downwards.
"Those are rat heads," George explained, noticing Harry's gaze. "Fred and I were trying to replicate the golden skull with them."
"Why not use magic-rich heads?" Harry asked curiously.
"Because we don't have that kind of money," Fred suddenly appeared and answered Harry's question. Then he said to George, "That old fool Filch couldn't catch me. I led him down to the dungeons."
Looks like Fred knows the castle very well, Harry thought, raising an eyebrow. Otherwise, he couldn't have gotten from the dungeons to the fourth floor so quickly.
"I wonder how Filch found out," Fred said, puzzled.
"Who else?" George replied. "This morning, those silly girls told Lockhart all the castle's secrets. Filch was hiding behind the armor in the corridor then."
"It seems our plans with Harry need to be brought forward," Fred declared righteously. "We can't just stand by and watch girls being fooled by Lockhart anymore."
"Isn't it more like you can't stand by and watch Angelina being fooled?" George said sardonically.
Fred, annoyed, swatted George, and George returned the blow without hesitation. The two brothers started bickering as if no one else was there.
After a bit of playful wrestling, the Weasley twins turned their attention to Harry, asking why he was out alone so late. Harry didn't answer their question directly. Instead, he asked, "How are your experiments coming along?"
"Haven't even started yet," George said. "Fred and I just got enough rat heads, and we were planning to try it out today."
"But then Filch went mad, trying to catch everyone, so we went out to rescue people," Fred added.
"Well, thank you both, truly," Harry said sincerely.
The Weasley brothers exchanged a look, and then Fred said awkwardly, "No problem, Harry. Uh, Ron mentioned you two seemed to have a bit of a disagreement..."
"No disagreement, really," Harry stated plainly. "We're just not suited to be good friends. While I don't frequent the library, I don't mind studying. Ron, with all due respect, prefers wizard chess."
"George and I know that, of course, but he is our brother, after all—" Fred said with a wry smile.
George tugged at Fred, stopping him from saying anything more. Fred understood the meaning in George's eyes: Just let it be.
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