THE FORBIDDEN FOREST
rounding them. “I bet there’s a book somewhere in here telling you
how to get past a giant three-headed dog. So what do we do,
Harry?”
The light of adventure was kindling again in Ron’s eyes, but
Hermione answered before Harry could.
“Go to Dumbledore. That’s what we should have done ages ago.
If we try anything ourselves we’ll be thrown out for sure.”
“But we’ve got no proof !” said Harry. “Quirrell’s too scared to
back us up. Snape’s only got to say he doesn’t know how the troll
got in at Halloween and that he was nowhere near the third
floor — who do you think they’ll believe, him or us? It’s not exactly
a secret we hate him, Dumbledore’ll think we made it up to get
him sacked. Filch wouldn’t help us if his life depended on it, he’s
too friendly with Snape, and the more students get thrown out, the
better, he’ll think. And don’t forget, we’re not supposed to know
about the Stone or Fluffy. That’ll take a lot of explaining.”
Hermione looked convinced, but Ron didn’t.
“If we just do a bit of poking around —”
“No,” said Harry flatly, “we’ve done enough poking around.”
He pulled a map of Jupiter toward him and started to learn the
names of its moons.
The following morning, notes were delivered to Harry, Hermione,
and Neville at the breakfast table. They were all the same:
Your detention will take place at eleven o’clock tonight.
Meet Mr. Filch in the entrance hall.
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