34 chapter 33.

"My book!" Luna squealed with delight when Harry, Loki and Lisa handed her the book the next morning.

"Glad you're happy," Harry smiled as the younger girl took the book and hugged it to her chest. "but we would prefer it if you didn't tell anyone that we brought it back to you."

"Oh, why?" Luna asked in a slightly confused voice as she looked at them. "Are you worried about the lippy-flipperwaters?" She asked.

"Partly," Lisa responded with a straight face, not even blinking at the odd creature name. "but also other reasons that we'd rather not mention."

"Oh, fair enough." Luna replied, nodding before smiling at the three again. "I have to go now if I want to get breakfast, but first I think I had better put my book away. Goodbye Harry Potter, goodbye Lisa Swan, goodbye Loki." She said, giving the trio a wave before she turned and merrily skipped away. Loki and Harry watched as Luna skipped along the hallway, Loki made a small noise to Harry who nodded before they both turned to Lisa.

"We want one." Harry said.

"No." Lisa said in an amused tone before walking off.

"Well, why not?" Harry demanded before following after Lisa.

"What the fuck?!" Draco blurted out as he narrowly dodged a green spell that had nearly crashed into his head but had thankfully hit the wall behind him instead. He was fairly positive that he had not just dodged a killing curse, but it did look quite like it.

"Get back here! You little blonde brat!" A fuming Snape shouted as he chased after him, throwing spell after spell at him.

"What did I do?!" Draco shouted before letting out a yelp as he narrowly avoided a purple coloured spell. He was honestly not sure what was going on, all he knew was that this afternoon his head of house had approached him and saw something sticking out of his pocket. Draco was fairly sure that he had nothing in his pocket beyond a couple of galleons but when Professor Snape checked his pockets, he found a wand. More specifically, Professor Snape's wand, how it ended up in Draco's pocket was a major mystery to Draco. Unfortunately for him, Professor Snape didn't seem to be in a questioning sort of mood and had instead opted to go for the 'shoot first and ask question's never' method of sorting this out.

"You stole my wand!" Snape shouted as they turned a corner, Snape ended up skidding into a wall but quickly put himself back into the chase a mere second later. "And my money!" He added as he shot another spell at Malfoy.

"I didn't!" Draco denied as the spell, a stinging hex, crashed into his rear, causing him to yelp in pain and increase his speed.

"Yes, you did! You have money in your pockets!" Snape argued.

"I'm a Malfoy!" Draco yelled as a spell flew over his head. "I always have money in my pockets!"

"My wand was in your pocket!" Snape pointed out.

"I don't know how it got there!"

"What an idiot you are, Malfoy!" Snape yelled as the duo ran past the great hall, not even noticing that they passed Harry, Loki and Lisa. The trio watched the duo rush past them and out of sight. The three of them looked at each other for several seconds before shrugging and walking into the great hall.

"So, quidditch practise today?" Lisa asked Harry.

"Yeah," Harry nodded. "hopefully it doesn't rain." He added just as a scream was heard, Snape had apparently managed to get Draco.

"I do hope the headmaster will properly punish Professor Snape." Madam Pomfrey said, shaking her head as she looked down at the unconscious form of Draco Malfoy who had the displeasure of being in the hospital wing. She was about to walk away when two students, Crabbe and Goyle, entered the hospital wing. "Yes, are either of you two injured or sick?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We're here to see if Draco is okay." Goyle said just as the two of them stopped next to Draco's bed.

"He looks dead." Crabbe said as he gestured to Draco. "Think the Professor might have killed him." He added in an unsure voice.

"Bastard." Goyle said under his breath, sounding both annoyed and disappointed.

"Draco is alive," Madam Pomfrey continued. "the boy will be leaving the hospital wing in a day or two and will be as healthy as can be." She said, Crabbe and Goyle stared at her for several long moments.

"Damn it!" Crabbe and Goyle blurted out, both boys instinctively raising a fist and slamming it down, only to blink when they saw what they had hit. Goyle had managed to get Draco's face while Crabbe had hit somewhere much lower. The two boys stared at Draco before staring at each other before finally staring at Madam Pomfrey. "What about now?" They asked.

"Ah, Mr Malfoy, please take a seat." Dumbledore said as he was sat with Professor Snape standing on his right and Professor McGonagall standing on his left. Sitting opposite him was Lucius Malfoy, who had just sat down and crossed his legs.

"Thank you, Dumbledore." Lucius said in a polite voice. "Now, might I know why my son and heir is currently in the hospital wing?"

"Ah, yes," Dumbledore nodded. "you see, last night Professor Snape was attacked during a night time patrol of the castle." Dumbledore began explaining.

"Oh, are you alright, Severus?" Lucius asked Snape.

"I'm fine," Snape assured him. "no part of me was harmed." He added.

"Except your tail bone." Professor McGonagall said.

"Well, okay that part was harmed, but..."

"And your legs."

"Yes, but..."

"And your arms."

"I..."

"And your head."

"Okay, we get it."

"Not to mention your..."

"We get it!" Snape cut her off before turning to Lucius. "When I was attacked I had some money and my wand stolen. Today I found came across Draco and saw that he had money in his pockets."

"He's a Malfoy." Lucius pointed out. "He always had money in his pockets."

"And he also had my wand." Snape added, ignoring Lucius's comment.

"Oh, really?" Lucius frowned.

"Yes," Snape confirmed. "the boy denied knowing about it but he's been losing his wand all year and claimed to not know how. So I wasn't really ready to believe him. And I...I admittedly lost my temper." Snape admitted, sounding somewhat apologetic.

"I see." Lucius said, his frown deepening.

"Now, Mr Malfoy," Dumbledore began. "I understand if you wish to press charges against the school but..."

"No, Severus is a friend of mine." Lucius said with a sigh as he stood up. "There will be no charges."

"Oh," Dumbledore blinked. "are...are you sure?" He asked, expecting Mr Malfoy to be much more difficult.

"You forget that I had to live with the boy," Lucius said as he straightened out his clothes. "trust me, I get it." He pointed out before walking out of the office.

"Well," Dumbledore said several seconds later. "that went better than I thought it would." He said with a smile.

"Yes, but that still doesn't change the fact that Severus had chased a student around Hogwarts while flinging spells at him." Professor McGonagall pointed out.

"It was Malfoy." Snape reminded her, sounding like he thought that that was all the excuse he needed.

"It doesn't matter who it was or even the reason why, you're a teacher and are expected to show professionalism and that does not mean chasing a student around the school." Professor McGonagall replied. "Now, since I know that Albus won't punish you properly..."

"What makes you think that?" Dumbledore frowned.

"Past history," Professor McGonagall said before turning to Snape. "I think I shall have you do lines."

"Lines?" Snape blurted out with disbelief. "I'm in my thirties!"

"Well, when you act like it then you can be treated like it." Professor McGonagall responded. "I would take away your wand but you will need that for lessons, so you will report to my office tomorrow after classes or else."

"Or else what?" He asked, only to have Professor McGonagall give him a very dangerous look that caused him to gulp slightly.

"You don't want to know 'what'." She told him.

"Harry," Lisa said in an exasperated voice. "do we really have to be doing this?"

"Shush," Harry said quietly, whispering his words, Loki nodded in agreement "don't want to wake the portraits." He said as he gestured to the sleeping portraits around the hallway.

"Why are we sneaking to the kitchen now?" Lisa whispered as she and Harry snuck out through a darkened corridor at night. She and Harry were silently walking with Loki perched on Harry's shoulder. "It's midnight."

"You can't have a midnight snack in the day." Harry said with an air of authority.

"Fine, but why are we having a midnight snack?" Lisa asked.

"Because Loki's hungry." Harry said with Loki nodding in agreement.

"And that's our only reason for breaking the rules?" Lisa raised an eyebrow, even though Harry couldn't properly see it thanks to it being dark.

"Lisa, I've been breaking laws for as long as I can remember, school rules aren't that much of a bother." Harry replied. "Plus, worst case scenario is I get expelled which I can handle given that I managed to live on the streets when I was younger. And if you were expelled then you can just get your rich parents to get you private tutors or send you to another school."

"That doesn't mean I want it to happen." Lisa pointed out. Harry was about to reply when Loki interrupted by whispering into Harry's ear.

"Oh, my near silent gosh," Harry quietly gasped as he turned to Lisa. "you can come with us!" He said with a grin. "Yeah, yeah! You can come with us!" He whisper-shouted.

"What? Where?" Lisa blinked.

"Wherever we want!" Harry grinned. "Oh, this is just a win-win situation, isn't it?"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, if we do get caught then us three can go and do whatever we want if they expel us! But if we don't get caught then we get a midnight snack!" Harry said, grinning hard enough to hurt his jaw.

"You're impossible." Lisa said in a tone that was a mix of amusement, fondness and exasperation.

"Thank you!" Harry smiled at what was clearly (to him at least) a massive compliment. "Now," Harry said as they neared a corner. "we just quietly sneak down to the kitchens, grab a snack, then bribe or if necessary, threaten, the house elves into staying quiet."

"We're not threatening them." Lisa told him in a firm voice.

"Spoilsport." Harry said as they rounded the corner and arrived at the moving stair cases. "Well, I guess we will just..." Harry trailed off as he, Lisa and Loki found themselves face to face with someone.

The person in front of them had a gaunt, sunken face, waxy skin, yellow teeth, and long, matted hair. He was dressed in Azkaban prison clothes and a long grey coat, in his right hand was a cheap but dangerous looking knife. The man's grey coloured eyes had grown wide upon noticing the trio in front of him.

"AAAAHHHH!" The trio screamed upon realising that they were face to face with Sirius Black, the infamous mass murderer that had escaped from Azkaban to murder Harry. The situation was not helped at all when Sirius Black - infamous mass murderer, killer of muggles and right hand man of the dark lord Voldemort - screamed like a girl.

The screams woke up the nearby portraits, some of them screamed as well while others began shouting and the select few with the ability to stay calm left their portraits to get help. The trio and Sirius Black screamed for several more seconds before they stopped to give their voices a rest. After a brief pause and a bit more staring, they screamed again.

The screaming eventually stopped when Harry and Lisa both bowed to their instincts and reacted, Harry kicked him in-between the legs just as Lisa punched him in the throat. Sirius had an odd reaction as he simultaneously choked and bent over in pain before falling on the floor, the trio rushed away only to stop a small distance away when Harry grabbed Lisa by the arm as soon as they were out of sight of the portraits.

"I brought some masks." Harry said as he pulled out a trio of bandanas, he then gestured to where Sirius Black was.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Lisa asked.

"If you think I'm saying VDB then yes." Harry said as he began putting his bandana over his face, Loki did the same and Lisa joined them a second later. "And now...we shall VDB this fucker!" Harry said in a high-pitched before the trio rushed back to where they had left Sirius Black.

"Do we have any weapons?" Lisa asked in a low-pitch voice.

"Yep." Harry responded as he pulled a beater bat, a book, a broomstick and a blanket from his pocket which was able to fit all of that thanks to an expansion charm. Harry handed the bat to Loki, the broomstick to Lisa and took the book for himself. The trio arrived just in time to find Sirius Black struggling to get to his feet. "VDB!" Harry shouted in his high pitch voice as they tossed the blanket on him.

"What the f..." Sirius was interrupted as the blanket fell over him and the VDB began