Sneaking

The next evening, Albus came running from the dormitory with an urgent look on his face. The Common Room was empty, except for Scorpius, who was still trying to finish his latest Defence Against the Dark Arts essay. He looked up, surprised. Albus rarely ran, and he had a worried look on his face.

"I've got a letter from Hagrid!" Albus exclaimed. "He wants both of us to go down to his cabin right away."

"What? Why?"

"He doesn't say. But it seems urgent. He wouldn't have asked us to come if it wasn't important."

Scorpius was sceptical. Something seemed wrong about this. Hagrid had always been the one to tell them to stay inside the castle at night. He had reinforced that earlier at dinner. What could be so important that he now wanted them to risk sneaking down to him at night?

"What if it is a trap?"

"How could it be? The letter is from Hagrid, I know his handwriting. And why would someone outside want us to go down to Hagrid's cabin? It's still inside the school grounds. It's just as safe as the castle."

That wasn't entirely true, Scorpius thought. Many things had happened at night in the grounds of Hogwarts. Not to mention the Forest.

"Well, I'm going. Are you coming?" Albus was already half-way towards the door before Scorpius could voice any of his objections. Scorpius knew that Albus would probably go down no matter what he said.

"I'm coming. I can't let you go alone. But I don't think it is a good idea."

***

The two were somehow able to sneak past several teachers on guard, but about halfway to the Entrance Hall, they spotted another familiar figure. What was Rose doing out in the middle of the night? Scorpius recognised her immediately, but he wasn't sure if they should let her know they were there. What if she reported them? He didn't want to get more detention and loss of House points. Albus however, had no doubt.

"Rose," he whispered loudly. Rose jumped, startled. She was clearly not supposed to be out and about either. She seemed relieved when she saw who it was.

"Merlin's beard, Al! You scared me half to death! What are you doing out here?" she whispered when they got over to her.

"I got a letter from Hagrid…" Albus started to say, but Rose interrupted him.

"You too? I got one as well. I wonder what he wants? It must be important. Lily and Hugo wanted to come too, but I didn't let them."

"You told them where you were going?"

"They were there when I got the letter. I had to say something, the truth is the easiest. At first, they also wanted to go down, but I said that I would take care of it alone. They promised they wouldn't tell anyone though."

"Well, we better be going then. Hagrid is probably waiting for us,"

"Yes. I just hope he has made sure the door is unlocked, if he wants us to come down."

Rose practically ignores me, as usual, Scorpius thought. She probably didn't do it on purpose. But it was still noticeable to him. Why did he even bother going along? Albus and Rose would be just fine on their own now. He could have just gone back to the dormitory to finish his essay. But he didn't want Rose to see him as a coward. He also didn't really like the idea of sneaking past the teachers again on his own.

Eventually, the three of them found themselves in the Entrance Hall undetected. The front door was, as Scorpius had suspected, locked tight, but there were no teachers there.

"Great. Now what do we do?" Rose asked, exasperated. She didn't really want to just give up and go back to bed, but there was no way they would be able to get that door open without anyone else noticing. They were already pushing their luck, sneaking around the school at night like this.

"We could try the secret passage," Albus said behind her.

"What secret passage? I thought all of those had been discovered?" Rose asked. How could Albus know a secret about Hogwarts that she did not?

"No, this is fairly new, I think. It goes from Firenze's classroom and out into the Forest."

"You want to go into the Forest at night?"

"It is not that far in," Scorpius interjected, trying to sound brave. "You can see Hagrid's cabin from the exit."

"This is a bad idea,"

"Do you have a better one?" Albus asked.

He had her there. She didn't want to just give up. Besides, Albus would probably just go on alone even if she turned back. And Hagrid's letter sounded pretty serious.

"… Fine. I'll not have you two Slytherins go and be brave while the Gryffindor remains behind."

Scorpius couldn't help a small smile. He liked that Rose called him brave.