The Staff Room at Midnight

The Staff Room at Midnight

The rumor had been going around all day. It spread like wildfire throughout the ancient castle of Hogwarts. The students didn't know what to think of it, but they were still eagerly anticipating someone to confirm it was true. The most eager of all students were the Gryffindor trio, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger.

The rumor was that all the teachers and staff were going to have a party in the staff room tonight when all the students were up in their dormitories. Hannah Abbot and Ernie Macmillan from Hufflepuff swore that they had seen Hagrid exiting The Three Broomsticks, lugging two huge barrels of alcohol that looked like FireWhisky behind him that morning. Harry had asked Hagrid what he was doing tonight, but Hagrid merely said, "now see 'ere, 'Arry, the staff's just going ter have a big meetin' tonight ter discuss educational issues." However, he had said all this very fast without looking at Harry.

Around 7 o'clock that evening during dinner, Professor Dumbledore rose up from his chair at the Staff Table and cleared his throat. Silence fell instantly. This was unusual; Dumbledore never made announcements during dinner. The students in the four houses had their heads turned towards the aging old wizard, giving him their full attention.

"As you all know, students are not permitted to walk about the castle later than 9 o'clock." He paused, his eyes twinkling over Harry and Ron. "But tonight, we will make the rule no later than 8 o'clock for all students."

There was an angry muttering spreading throughout the Great Hall.

"We have to be in by eight?"

"That's too early, we should ..."

"But what's he playing at?"

Dumbledore waved his arm and silence fell once again.

"Any student who does not follow these rules immediately will have a detention with Mr. Filch. I have decided to let the old punishments come back."

Filch looked as if Christmas had come early. He was smiling broadly, a menacing gleam in his eyes.

When dinner ended, Harry, Ron, and Hermione made their way up the marble staircase leading up to Gryffindor Tower. Once they were in the common room, they started wondering why Dumbledore set the new rule.

"...maybe Dumbledore's finally gone 'round the bend," Ron was saying.

"Ron, I think Dumbledore has always been 'round the bend, he just never tried to go back," Harry said.

"I think the teachers are doing something tonight that they don't want students to know about," Hermione said thoughtfully.

Harry and Ron silently agreed. What on earth can they be doing that's so secretive? Harry thought, brow furrowing in contemplation.

Just then, Fred and George walked in, both looking frustrated. They plunked down into the couch across the armchairs.

"Ol' Filch says he'll hang us by our thumbs down in the dungeon if he sees us with these," George said, pulling out a couple of long, fleshy pieces of string out of his pocket.

"Oh, the Extendable Ears?" Ron asked. "I thought they weren't on Filch's list of forbidden things."

Fred grinned and said, "No they're not, but Filch has had it in for us ever since we blew up that toilet in the teacher's lounge."

"Good times bro, good times," George said, clapping his twin on the back. "Say, you wouldn't want the Extendables, would you?" he asked, looking at Harry and Ron.

Harry shrugged. "I guess so, but I can't think of any use we'd have for them."

"Well, take them anyway. We certainly don't have any use for them," Fred and George replied, walking away.

Harry pocketed the fleshy string and started on his Divination homework.

******

Later, when Harry was done his homework around 10 o'clock, he walked up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. He wasn't tired at all, but he had a quiddich match tomorrow and he wanted to have a good sleep. As Harry was getting undressed, his hand brushed against something in his pocket.

"Oh, it's just the Extendable Ears," he muttered, throwing them on his bedside table.

Harry jumped into bed thinking he'd use the Extendables to listen in on Snape ... perhaps when he was -

Harry's eyes widened. He had a brilliant idea. What if he, Ron, and Hermione used the Extendable Ears to listen to the teachers in the staff room tonight? They could use his Invisibility Cloak and take along the Marauder's Map with them, and they wouldn't get into trouble- it was perfect.

Harry ran out of the dormitory and down the stairs, spotting Ron sitting in an armchair talking to Hermione.

"Guys, guys!" Harry yelled as he ran toward them. "Guess what? I know how we can figure out what the teachers are doing tonight!"

Ron was excited to hear Harry's news, while Hermione was a bit skeptical.

"Well, tell us already!" Ron said.

"We can use the Extendable Ears! We'll sneak out under my Invisibility Cloak and slip the ear under the door of the staff room and we can hear everything the teachers are saying!"

Ron whooped in amazement. "That's brilliant, Harry! What do you think, Hermione?"

"Well ... I'm not sure ... This isn't exactly one hundred percent safe, you know," she answered, biting her lip. "But it sounds as good a plan as any, so I'll go along with you two."

"Ok, now I figure we'll take along the Marauder's Map, just in case. I think we'll have to wait 'till the rest of the house falls asleep, though," Harry stated. "I reckon we should go around 11 o'clock. Agreed?"

"Agreed," replied Hermione and Ron. The trio went upstairs into their respective dormitories and pretended to go to bed.

At approximately 10:50, Harry took out his Cloak and map and went down the dormitory stairs into the common room.

Hermione was already there, waiting in front of the fireplace, reading Potion Making for the Experienced Wizard. She looked up when she saw Harry and said, "Where's Ron?"

"Here I am," Ron said as he walked downstairs.

"Well then, let's go." Harry said.

They all covered themselves with the Invisibility Cloak and went through the portrait hole.

Harry checked his map; there were three dots labeled Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley standing close together in front of Gryffindor Tower. Harry was surprised to see Albus Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, Severus Snape, Rubeus Hagrid, Argus Filch, and the rest of the Hogwarts professors all in the Staff Room.

As they walked down the corridors, they grew more and more excited at the thought of listening in on the teachers.

When they reached the Staff Room door, Harry checked the map, and was relieved to see that the coast was clear.

Hermione took the Cloak off of her and pressed her ear up to the door. She frowned.

"They've put a Silencing Spell and a Locking Spell on the door."

Harry took out the Extendable Ear and gave one to Hermione, one to Ron, and put one in his ear. The other end of the Extendable squiggled under the door.

A moment of silence, then-

"WOO HOO! Go, Minerva!"

Harry looked horrified. Ron was going very pale, and Hermione was bright pink. It looked like she was crying from trying to keep her giggles quiet.

"Did you just hea-"

"I think we did, mate," Ron muttered, regaining some of his composure.

"What are they doing?" Hermione asked, finally being able to breathe again.

"Do we really want to find out?" Ron said.

"Well, let's go in, then," Harry suggested, picking up his cloak again.

"What? Harry we can't-"

"Pleaseeeeeee, Hermione!" Ron pleaded. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Right then, get under the cloak," Harry instructed.

They huddled under the cloak once again, and Hermione raised her wand and muttered a quick, "Alohamora". They heard a tiny click and saw the door open a crack.

Harry pushed the door open. What the young Gryffindors saw made their mouths drop open.

Snape was dancing holding a mai tai, Dumbledore was swaying drunkenly in his chair, McGonagall was holding a martini and flexing her muscles to a china cabinet, and Flitwick was hanging upside down on the wall. He was surrounded by other professors, who were all cheering.

"Come on, Flitwick! You can make it!"

"Yeah! You can do it! Only 15 more seconds!" another yelled.

As Harry tried to pull his jaw back into place, he saw- Lucius Malfoy? He was also holding a drink in his hand- it looked like a shot of Odgen's old FireWhisky. He was laughing hysterically, singing a song by The Weird Sisters.

Without warning, there was a mighty CRACK. Hagrid had toppled over and was now unconscious on the huge table. Nobody seemed to notice, either because they were too drunk or- well, because they were too drunk.

Harry took off the Cloak and closed the door, which was still ajar. He heard Ron and Hermione bickering about something and was just about to go tell them to be quiet when- Harry's mouth dropped down. He stood transfixed on the spot.

There was Professor Minerva McGonagall, one of the strictest teachers in Hogwarts, with her hair down holding a bottle of wine, sitting on Albus Dumbledore's lap. It seemed like he was fighting to stay awake because of all the wine he had, but she was blushing madly and giggling like a schoolgirl.

Harry just stood there, not believing what he saw, seeming comatose. He finally snapped out of it when he heard someone call his name. He whirled around and came face to face with Hermione.

"Harry, I want you to tell Ron to stop grabbing at his heart, pretending to die. He seems to think that Professor Snape dancing is a bad sight."

Harry looked around the room to find Snape. "Well, I don't really blame him. Look."

They looked in Snape's direction only to find him doing a rather dangerous-looking tango with Madam Hooch. There were arms and legs flailing everywhere amidst the other professors trying to get out of the way.

Harry shook his head and went to find Ron. He found him sitting at a table still clutching his heart. Harry rolled his eyes and said, "Well, can't blame you, mate. They do look rather...menacing like that."

Ron took a shuddering breath and nodded. "Look, they're too drunk to even notice us," he said as Professor Sinistra passed by without a glance.

The trio stayed there for a couple minutes more, inwardly laughing at all what all the teachers were doing. Harry was looking around to find Lucius Malfoy again when he saw something that made him choke on his Butterbeer.

In the far corner of the room stood Draco Malfoy accompanied by Blaise Zabini. They were looking around with interest too, as if trying to remember everything they were seeing right now.

Harry was about to tell Ron they should go when Draco locked eyes with Harry, smiled, and winked.

END