Chapter 12: The Terrifying Flight and Midnight Encounter

The morning in the Great Hall was a bit noisy that day. It seemed that flying lessons were about to begin. Ravenclaw was combined with Hufflepuff, which meant that Gryffindor and Slytherin would have classes together. As Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, they sighed, wondering if there would be another petty squabble between the lion and the snake. However, most students were more interested in flying on broomsticks than anything else.

In truth, Leo had never ridden a broomstick. He hadn't even seen Quidditch, let alone knew the rules. His days had been filled with research until now, with the occasional visit to the library with Hermione.

(A broomstick, huh... I wonder what it's like. Well, I can use flying magic, so I'm not that interested.)

The Great Hall that day buzzed with discussions about broomsticks and Quidditch. Some Slytherin students at their desks seemed to be blatantly displaying their ignorance, but couldn't they be a bit quieter?

On the day of the flying lesson, Gryffindor and Slytherin classes had already ended. As expected, there had been some commotion, apparently due to a dispute between Harry Potter and a noisy Slytherin named Malfoy. Aside from that, there were reports of students being unable to control their broomsticks, and Leo had heard many negative comments.

Leo went out to the courtyard, where he stood alongside Ravenclaw students. He appeared as usual, but to anyone who knew him, it was clear that his mind was in turmoil and tension filled him. 

(This is unbelievable. What's wrong with this broomstick... It's not normal at all. All these brooms have holes in their magical patterns. It's doubtful if anyone can fly properly on something like this. The only ones who can fly on these broomsticks are those who can instinctively control them to fill these gaps.)

Usually he was able to see magic that was normally invisible, Leo was terrified of flying on these flawed broomsticks.

"Why are you dawdling?" 

Madame Hooch, with her sharp eagle-like eyes, instructed the students. 

"Everyone, stand next to your broomstick. Hold out your right hand, say 'Up!' and try to get it to rise."

The students shouted "Up!" but most broomsticks only moved slightly, and some didn't move at all.

(Sure. That's annoying, so I'll just use the Levitation spell).

Seeing others beginning to succeed, Leo chose to silently use the spell to bring the broomstick to his hand. Even in the subsequent flying lesson, Leo couldn't bring himself to fly on such flawed broomsticks. Instead, he stayed mounted on his broomstick and used a Levitation spell to fly. It was a day of fear that he had never experienced since coming to Hogwarts.

In the deep of the night, Leo continued to work on improving the traps for the Philosopher's Stone defense. He hurriedly worked to complete the improvements to Flitwick's trap today.

In the middle of the night, while continuing his work, he sensed intruders entering the first room.

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I, Hermione Granger, was furious. 

Today was the day for flying lessons, and I had been looking forward to my first flight on a broomstick. But once again, there was some ridiculous trouble with the Slytherins. And to make matters worse, the so-called hero, Harry Potter, was acting recklessly without paying any attention to our concerns, and those around him seemed to regard it as perfectly normal behavior. Couldn't they use a bit more common sense?

To top it all off, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley were planning to completely disregard the rules by dueling with Slytherin's Malfoy in the middle of the night. They didn't seem to care about the consequences, like how many points Gryffindor would lose if they were caught. 

I knew I had to stop them, so I waited in the lounge for those two idiots to come back down. But when they finally did, they wouldn't listen to reason, no matter how logically I argued.

(How can they be so careless? If they just stopped to think for a moment, they'd realize it's a trap by Malfoy!)

I left the lounge, giving them one final warning, but when I tried to return, the portrait of the fat lady was gone. I had been locked out. This was a disaster. I met up with Neville, who also couldn't get in, and we decided to keep an eye on those two to make sure they didn't do anything even more foolish.

As it turned out, my worst fears came true. There was no duel, just another one of Malfoy's traps. And now, we were currently on the run from Mr. Filch, the caretaker. 

Today was simply a day of bad luck.

Yes, at that moment, I thought this was the worst it could possibly get.

In order to evade Filch, the four of us hurriedly entered the nearest door we could find. We were in such a rush that we didn't even bother checking where we were.

Inside, we waited for Filch to move further away. But when we tried to leave, the door wouldn't budge. In fact, it seemed like it had locked itself without any physical contact.

As we stood there bewildered, we heard voices from behind us.

"Who's there?" "What?" "Intruder?"

"Kyaaaaaa!"

I turned around and all I could do was scream.

There, with three heads and enormous size, was a giant dog... a Cerberus.

Harry and Ron were desperately trying to flee or somehow open the door, while it seemed that Neville had passed out.

"Children." "Minor." "student"

For a while, Cerberus didn't attack us. Or rather, did that thing speak since we got here? I gathered my courage and decided to try to talk to it.

"Um... Can you understand human speech?"

"Understand." "Speak." "Amazing?"

It seemed that we could communicate. Plus, I didn't sense any immediate threat from it.

"You won't attack us, will you? We want to get out of here. Can you help us?"

"No attack." "Can't leave." "Don't know."

Harry and the others appeared to have calmed down as they observed the interaction with Cerberus. However, it seemed that Cerberus wasn't inclined to attack, but it also didn't appear to know how to exit.

For a while, they attempted to open the door using the unlocking spell "Alohomora" in hopes of escaping, but it proved ineffective. Cerberus either had no interest in them or had fallen asleep.

"Communication." "Wait" "Arrival."

Cerberus woke up and seemed to be responding to someone's call. Who could be coming?

The door from the outside swung open. They were relieved to finally have a way out, but their relief quickly turned to apprehension. Professor McGonagall stood there with a look of intense anger on her face.

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Sensing an intruder, Leo promptly used magic to synchronize with Cerberus's vision in the first room to assess the situation.

(The trap improvements aren't yet perfect... An intruder at this moment... could it be that the Dark Lord has learned of my involvement and is moving swiftly to seize the Philosopher's Stone?)

However, to his surprise, Cerberus's vision revealed Hermione Granger, not the Dark Lord. There were also Neville and Harry Potter, along with an unidentified male student.

(Why Hermione!? Well, I've made sure Cerberus won't attack students, but still...)

While he could open the door and confront them directly, it posed a problem that Leonard Taylor was associated with this plan. For now, he decided to contact Professor McGonagall, the Gryffindor house head.

"Putabitrans Thought Send."

He used thought-sending magic to relay this information to McGonagall.

((Professor McGonagall, this is Leonard Taylor. I sensed an intruder while working on our protection plan. Upon investigation, it turns out that four Gryffindor students have entered. Your attention to this matter would be greatly appreciated.))

McGonagall, who was about to go to sleep, was suddenly startled by a voice inside her head. Without even changing into her robes, she hurried to the fourth-floor corridor.

Upon opening the familiar door, she found Potter, Weasley, Longbottom, and surprisingly, Granger.

"You guys... Do you understand what you're doing? Sneaking out of the dormitory in the middle of the night! Furthermore, trespassing into restricted areas! Do you have any intention of following the rules? One misstep, and you could have been killed."

"But... Professor, we were just..."

"No excuses, Mr. Weasley! Gryffindor, fifty points deducted. Fifty points per person. Let this be a lesson, you will not engage in such behavior again. Understood?"

The four of them received the verdict in shock. Hermione, in particular, seemed on the verge of tears. Leo couldn't fathom any reason why Hermione would act this way without a cause, so he signaled to McGonagall to hold off for a moment.

(("Professor McGonagall, it's Leo Taylor. For the sake of our protection plan, could you please confirm the circumstances of our intrusion? Besides, it's hard to believe Hermione would intrude without a plan."))

McGonagall regained some composure upon Leo's statement. Considering Hermione's behavior in their previous classes, it was indeed hard to believe she would commit such a flagrant breach of school rules.

"Miss Granger, please explain how this situation came to be. Depending on the circumstances, we might reconsidering the deductions."

Hermione proceeded to explain the sequence of events leading up to their intrusion into the room. She recounted how Harry and Ron had headed for a duel with Malfoy, their attempt to stop it, the disappearance of the fat lady in the portrait, and their subsequent rendezvous with Neville, among other details.

After hearing everything, Professor McGonagall let out a heavy sigh.

"Really... Potter, Weasley, I'm quite astounded. Miss Granger is right; a little thought would have sufficed. You will each lose 50 points. Mr. Longbottom, you need to be more vigilant. However, you are better off than these two, so I'll deduct 25 points. Finally, Miss Granger, you were caught up in their actions, but a breach of the rules is a breach of the rules. I'll show some leniency, and deduct 15 points."

Leo couldn't help but feel sorry for Hermione. A deduction of 140 points in just this instance. For someone as earnest and committed to earning points as she was, this was a significant blow. Moreover, she was mostly caught up in the situation. The four of them were led back to the common room by Professor McGonagall. Leo, on the other hand, resolved to regain his focus and complete the construction of the trap's magical formula by the day's schedule. He concentrated his "Eye" for this purpose.

(Perhaps I should think of a way to cheer up Hermione for the next time we meet.)

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Author's Note: 

Leo doesn't have any talent with brooms. He's on par with regular students.

I've made the Hogwarts brooms worse than in the original work. There are hardly any brooms that can fly properly.

"Putabitrans Thought Send."

"Putabitrans Thought Send" is an original magic. It's just for sending thoughts. The name was a bit tricky to come up with.