C H A P T E R F I F T E E N
THE FORBIDDEN FOREST
T
hings couldn’t have been worse.
Filch took them down to Professor McGonagall’s study
on the first floor, where they sat and waited without saying a word
to each other. Hermione was trembling. Excuses, alibis, and wild
cover-up stories chased each other around Harry’s brain, each more
feeble than the last. He couldn’t see how they were going to get out
of trouble this time. They were cornered. How could they have
been so stupid as to forget the cloak? There wa s no reason on earth
that Professor McGonagall would accept for their being out of bed
and creeping around the school in the dead of night, let alone be-
ing up the tallest Astronomy Tower, which was out-of-bounds ex-
cept for classes. Add Norbert and the Invisibility Cloak, and they
might as well be packing their bags already.
Had Harry thought that things couldn’t have been worse? He
was wrong. When Professor McGonagall appeared, she was leading
Neville.
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