Book of Memories

Chapter 20: THE REVIVAL

Harry woke up the next morning, still alive, though he half wished it would just end as he never felt more scared in his life. He wasn't surprised to hear Ron tell him that Hermione had asked Neville, Dean, Seamus and Ron if she could sleep in their dormitory. They all agreed but she had nearly shattered her bed in the process. He wouldn't have minded...

Having found out that Wormtail was going to eventually try the unthinkable, Ron told Harry that he and Hermione agreed to follow Harry wherever he went. Neville, if possible, looked to be shaking more than the previous night.

Harry felt Dumbledore was quite right about keeping the attempted theft silent. The school was in enough panic, especially with the threat of Voldemort rising again. The Daily Prophet article had spread around the school as well and most everyone had taken to practicing Professor Trelawney's famous tragic look whenever they looked at Harry.

Harry arrived quite late into the Great Hall that morning and felt hundreds of eyes following him, Cho running up to him, crying, as he sat down between Ron and Hermione. He had kept his word to Dumbledore that he wouldn't tell anyone (except Ron and Hermione of course) about Wormtail's attempted theft but word had spread throughout the entire school about Harry's dream during breakfast that morning faster than you could say "help me." Unfortunately, this did nothing but send everyone in the Great Hall into hysterics.

Dumbledore had not done a thing but then Harry remembered he had been in the Great Hall not thirty seconds. He couldn't do anything yet... but he had obviously heard about the dream as Dumbledore caught his eye when Harry was walking in and simply shook his head. This further upset Harry.

Hermione had something else on her mind though as Hedwig dropped another small, grubby package in front of Harry.

"OPEN THE STUPID THING!" she roared.

"Fine, fine."

Harry picked it up, a dull twinkle in his eye. It wasn't very heavy. It was still barely an inch high and three inches wide. He suddenly remembered the small box his handsome, golden wristwatch had come in as he continued to weigh it in his hand.

Harry picked up a knife to carve the plain white paper off as it was wrapped very tightly around the box. The box itself was white as well and he opened it. Inside the package was a letter and some more paper, which was so thin you could almost see through it. The present was evidently inside it.

He pulled it out and took the paper off. What was inside it made him drop it onto the table with a clatter and stand up suddenly from his seat, a hand over his mouth, eyes wide in astonishment. Ron and Hermione did exactly the same thing. Neville, Dean and Seamus, who were all watching as Harry revealed the contents, followed suit.

"Oh my God," breathed Harry.

"It's a bracelet," said Dean.

"But there's a small bit of fire swirling all around the band," said Seamus.

"Touch it already," said Hermione.

"But it's on fire! It's going to burn his hand!" said Ron.

"It hasn't burned the paper, has it?" Hermione scoffed.

Receeding back to their seats, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Dean and Seamus watched as Harry picked it up. Indeed, it didn't burn his fingers. He held it in his hand and still, it did not burn. Harry went to put it on his left wrist, the band ominously growing and shrinking on it's own as he moved it over his hand. As soon as he stopped moving it, the band shrunk once more to fit perfectly and the small bit of fire consumed the entire, silver band at once. And still, it did not burn. The bracelet glowed like fire, scary and beautiful at the same time.

"Wow."

Harry put his other hand on it, causing the band to grow to full size and he slid it off easily. He held it looked at the note that came with it.

"Read it already," said Ron overcome with anticipation, staring at the fiery bracelet. Harry read it aloud.

Harry! Professor Dumbledore said it would be okay if

I gave this to you. Your mom owned it. We're not sure

what it does, it doesn't seem to do anything but we

do know that the fire around the band don't burn

and it grows and shrinks as you put it on. It won't

grow over six inches though. It doesn't scratch, it

doesn't fade, get it as wet as you like and try to

break it all you want. You just can't ruin it.

Happy Christmas,

Hagrid

His mom's... Lily Potter once owned this. He put it on again and felt a mother's warmth rush through his hands up to the rest of his body. It was a great feeling to say the least. Harry turned his hand, palm facing down and made a fist to get a better look at the strange bracelet. Once before he had been sent something, the Invisibility Cloak, but that was sent anonymously. Perhaps Dumbledore figured there was no stopping Harry from finding the Staff of Cybele? Had he found out that Harry knew about it? It wasn't too far fetched -- Dumbledore knew lots of things. But how was this going to help...

Harry turned his hand over and opened his fist but he jumped at what had appeared in it. Hermione screeched. A small ball of fire fell out of his hand. It hit the ground and fizzled.

"I've read about a lot of things," Hermione said, a look of awe on her face, "but I've never heard about a bracelet that creates fireballs." After she finished, she kept looking at it, speechless. It was definitely a first.

Harry didn't put much thought into what he did next, he just wanted to know if he could make a bigger fireball and it only seemed natural. He closed one hand into a fist and folded his other hand over it. Immediately, he felt a lot of heat, though not enough to cause discomfort, suddenly erupt in his closed fist. Slowly, he opened the fist and separated his hands...

A humongous ball of fire was expanding between them, crackling and spitting. The six of them didn't seem to notice the entirety of the Great Hall, some standing on the tables to get a better look, including the professors, were staring. Harry flicked his hands outwards and the now three foot wide ball of fire dropped to the ground, fizzling. They didn't seem to do any damage, they just seemed to be for show.

Professor Dumbledore came over (who looked to have forgotten all about Harry's dream), followed closely by Hagrid and Professor McGonagall.

"Potter!" shrieked Professor McGonagall.

She looked both half scared to death and very happy at the same time. Harry took note of the small patch of wet hair in Hagrid's tangled beard. Professor Dumbledore was simply beaming.

"Yeh finally found out what it does!" said Hagrid.

"More like he just opened it," scowled Hermione.

"Jus' - just opened it?" Harry felt himself go as red as the bracelet.

"Er -- thought it was another rotten 'present' from the Dursleys," he said, suddenly very interested in his feet.

"Your mother kept a load of interesting artifacts," said Dumbledore. "Most of them were destroyed. I believe she called that one a Phoenix Bracelet. I hesitated in letting you have it because I was not sure myself what it does. It's possible it does more than just conjure fireballs. I daresay, they probably don't fizzle when they hit something alive so do be careful," he added, eyes glittering.

Everyone mindlessly marveled at the beautiful fire dancing around the band for a few minutes. It was dazzling and shocking at the same time and you couldn't help but wonder what else it might be able to do. Harry wasn't as interested in the way it looks as he was interested in who it's previous owner was. Everything he got from them was like having a part of them returned.

"But can't I just make it look like an accident!" Harry pleaded with Hermione after breakfast had ended. He was referring to Pettigrew.

"No," said Hermione sharply. "But it may just come in handy if we meet anything bad down there tonight."

Harry was at least pleased to hear she hadn't backed out of trying to retrieve the Staff of Cybele. He was not pleased to hear Professor Trelawney say later in the day that he was going to die within the next month. Harry gave her a very angry look, brandishing his mother's bracelet at her. He occassionally took a few seconds to marvel at it, twisting it and watching the fire that consumed the band dance around. It hypnotized him.

They finally worked up the nerve to mention Pettigrew to Professor Snape one afternoon. After class ended, Harry casually crossed over to Snape's desk and motioned for Ron and Hermione to leave. If they stayed, it might look like they were interrogating him. So, as Snape was packing up to leave --

"It's just a shame you didn't get Pettigrew expelled, Professor," said Harry casually.

Snape then did something Harry thought he would never see. He gave a short-lived smile but went straight back to looking his usual, pale self.

"I never liked Peter," Snape said quickly, coldly and quietly. He stopped stuffing things back onto the shelves and stared into space for a moment, then realized what he was doing (or wasn't, for that matter) and started putting jars away again. He didn't seem to want to talk. At all.

Harry needed to say something fast otherwise the conversation would be over. He searched around for a few things. Maybe mention that... that it wasn't all bad how Snape followed them around?

"I guess it wasn't so bad, you following them around. Could have managed to have Pettigrew expelled... would have saved a lot of us some trouble," said Harry.

Now that he had said it, Harry almost felt angry that Pettigrew never got expelled.

"What do you want, Potter?" growled Snape.

This wasn't working. Maybe it was better to just say it outright?

"I just want to know why you hated -"

"You may go, Potter, you'll be late for your next class," said Snape hastily, his voice dropping off as he finished speaking.

"But, it's lunchtime..."

"Then I'm sure you're hungry," Snape said, pointing a longer finger at the door of the classroom.

Harry, slightly disgruntled that Snape wouldn't tell, wasted no time in preparing for getting the Staff of Cybele that night. They took the Invisbility Cloak, all their wands, the Sneakoscope ("I don't know, just in case," Ron insisted, "because what if someone's around us and knows we're there?"), the Marauder's Map of Hogwarts so they could see if anyone was coming, the Dragonback and the last bit of nerves they had remaining after the dementor incident. They all thought they were doing it against their better judgement.

The journey down to the third floor was uneventful. Snape's dot on the map snored away in it's office. Peeves was bobbing up and down on the first floor. The dot labeled Argus Filch was in it's office and Harry could swear he was oiling the chains he kept in case the old punishments, hanging students by their wrists in the dungeons, were ever brought back.

"All right," said Harry when they finally got inside Fluffy's old room, "don't think of anything."

"Oh! I almost forgot!" Hermione blurted out. She pulled out three vials of the Mind-Blanker potions they had made.

"Brilliant!" said Ron as it hit Harry, too.

"Take this and your mind won't wander off on anything except what you're doing. I made it this morning, weak enough so that you won't forget anything important but strong enough so that it works."

"I'm starting to think Dumbledore knows we're doing this," said Harry.

"No way," Ron insisted. "He'll have our heads. And give yours to Pettigrew."

"Don't remind me..."

"Shut up, you two, and let's go," Hermione snapped.

They flew the Dragonback down the trap door once again, lit their wands and peered around. It was, thankfully, empty. There were no strange sounds, no animals to speak of and no bone-chilling feelings produced by nearby dementors. Unfortunately, three bad encounters down here, all progressively worse, weren't put to rest by the Mind-Blanker potion -- they were just too strong. Not caring what Ron and Hermione would say, Harry clutched the Order of Merlin plaque, giving the Dragonback to Ron, who took it with glee, just to get rid of the sick feeling in his stomach that, even with the potion, they were going to see something even more horrifying than reliving Harry's death. He couldn't think of anything more terrifying, a testament to how scared he felt. He didn't want any more dementors causing him to hear his parent's screaming, terrified voices, the thought of Wormtail wanting him dead hanging over his head... or did he?

Harry felt a rushing warmth seep through him. He then took a few seconds to look at the Phoenix Bracelet his mother had once owned, checking to see if it was a dream or not that he had actually gotten something from his mother. He marveled at the fire consuming the gorgeous, silver band that danced all around. It was a sight to behold. Harry realized he now had three items from his parents: an Invisbility Cloak, a Warmth Cloak (that he originally thought was just a normal cloak) and a Phoenix Bracelet, two of which being very rare items indeed.

Harry's heart skipped. He felt braver.

"Right," he said, "let's go."

Ron suggested Harry conjure a small fireball just in case. If all else failed, they could scare whatever they saw by pelting it with tiny balls of fire and run for it, or at the very least, toss a huge Hagrid-sized one at it and confuse it.

They tried dearly not to think about any of that as they crossed the flying key room, the giant chess board, the troll room and exited through the potions room into the last dark, stone floored chamber. It was empty. There was no basilisk. There was, however, something they hadn't seen before. The Book of Memories was standing on a stone pedastal in the middle of the room. It was completely dark except for the light of their wands.

Ron made a run for it but Hermione put a hand out in front of him.

"What if it's cursed or something?" she said. Ron hadn't thought of that.

"Well Miss Know-Everything, how do you suggest we -" asked Ron but he was interrupted by Harry.

"Oh forget both of you," said Harry as he walked up to the pedastal, perhaps feeling a bit more daring than he should have.

At first, he got a good look at it and it was exactly as he saw it last time close-up. The front cover, perfectly flat and untextured, was made of pure gold. The same words Harry saw last time, "Libri Intus Memoriae," still made no sense to him. A silver string extended out from the top of the spine, a place-holder for the pearly-white pages.

He put a hand on the side of the front cover in an attempt to open it but before he could move another muscle, the front cover opened itself, going through his hand as if it were a ghost. As it passed, it sent shivers up and down his arm, making his hand so cold it went numb. But that wasn't all.

His eyes forced themselves shut and an image flashed across them. There were no screams, just his father, a horribly frightened look on his face, staring directly at Harry. Startled, Harry pulled his hand away and jumped back. The book closed. His eyes opened.

"What the..." he spluttered. "Did - did you see that? It passed through my hand and I - I saw..."

He didn't have to finish the sentence as they knew perfectly well what he saw. Ron and Hermione stepped closer. The three of them stared at it as if it were going to grow fangs and bite them. Then they remembered they shouldn't think of that because it just might happen.

Pull yourself together, Harry told himself, this is no time to be seeing images of your parents.

"You don't want to open it," Hermione whispered, breaking the unsettling silence. "You want to use a spell. Here, let me."

Harry, his hand still feeling like he dipped it in a bucket of sub-zero water, still disturbed at the image he saw, didn't argue the point. He held his numb hand with his other hand, a feeble attempt to put feeling back into it and backed away, trying to forget what he saw. Hermione took her turn.

She put her hand on the book, concentrating on using the retrieval spell and the book stayed closed. Instead, a faint, golden glitter escaped the pearly-white pages, lighting up the room a little better.

Hermione put her other hand out exactly as she read to do, closed her fist and, her voice a little shaky, she said, "Relatum id res. Convulsum id adsuetus nihil. Eloco nihil non hactenus non temere."

Nothing happened. She looked at Harry and Ron, the golden glitter fading away as she removed her hands. Both of them shrugged, confused.

"Try again," said Ron.

Hermione positioned her hands again (the golden glitter reappearing) and said the words again. Still, nothing happened. She became slightly agitated, the golden glitter disappearing as she pulled her hand away.

"Harry, you try," she said, stamping her feet at her failure. "This is a lot harder than anything we've done so far and it doesn't help being on this potion!"

"No way," Harry refused. "My hand's going to be numb for hours and I'm not touching that thing again. I'd just love to know why it only affects me..."

Hermione grunted and stamped her feet again. "Urgh! What are we going to do!" she growled.

"Keep trying!" said Harry and stupidly pointing both hands at the book. "I'm not wasting my time down here. This is going to work or I'm going to die trying!"

"Don't say that," said Ron softly, looking at Harry and wishing Harry hadn't said that.

"If we go back, we risk getting caught," said Harry, acting as if he was ignoring Ron but wishing he hadn't said it, too. "We might as well try while we're down here. If Dumbledore knows we're doing this..."

"Okay," said Hermione. "But only once more and then you're trying next time." She set her hands in place one last time, the faint, golden glitter reappearing, and said, "Relatum id res. Convulsum id adsuetus nihil. Eloco nihil non hactenus non temere."

Instantly, the faint, golden glitter became a blinding white glow. After a moment, the book's cover opened and the pages fluttered as if a wind were blowing hard on it. As that happened, misty, gray smoke escaped the pages and wrapped around Hermione's outstretched hand. Her, Harry and Ron gaped at it, eyes wide in astonishment, all three of them fearing it might turn into something to kill them.

The misty, gray smoke stretched out left to right from Hermione's hand, forming an object. To their great relief, it wasn't forming a monster. It wasn't even scary but it was definitely strange. The smoke became more and more solid, stretching out farther and farther until it stopped at about four feet long, tip to tip. The misty smoke twisted and shaped and became strangely like a staff. Hermione dropped it at once as the smoke turned into wood, finishing it's transformation. The bright, white glow from the Book of Memories died out and it closed.

All three of them stared at the strange staff on the floor. Hermione quickly dropped her hands. Harry was the one who found his voice first.

"So it's true," he said, his voice hoarse with shock. "The staff... and it's just as Mr. Ollivander described it."

"Do you realize this thing hasn't been seen in several - thousand - years?" said Ron, staring, awestruck.

The staff was exactly as Mr. Ollivander had described, down to every last detail except one: It was only four feet long. At the very top, what appeared to be a skunk's mouth had it's jaws over a crystal that was the purest of whites. The mouth was attached to the body of a squirrel, which stretched all the way down to the bottom, ending in a squirrel's tail. But it didn't look very well-kept. It was dingy, the markings on it were hard to make out. The handle looked rusty -- if that was possible -- and the crystal was scratched in many places.

Suddenly, something hit Harry. It was't a squirrel at all.

"It's a badger," he said. "That's Hufflepuff's animal. Weird. Well, pick it up," he added, looking at Hermione.

"Are you crazy?" said Hermione furiously. "I'm likely to kill all of us if I grab it wrong! You remember what Mrs. Weasley said? 'You could end up striking yourself dead if you don't control it!'"

"You actually remembered that?" Ron asked flatly.

"Great. Now that we have it, what do we do with it?" said Harry. That was a very good question. Should they tell Dumbledore? But there was another question as well. "It doesn't look to be in very good condition and all the books said it was to be seven feet long."

"No," said Hermione hastily, "one book I read said it was four. With all them saying different things about how it looks, I'm not surprised."

"How about we just put it back," said Harry. Ron and Hermione stared at him. They knew very well it was his dearest ambition to use the the staff to revive Sirius and here he was saying to just put it back. But he wasn't thinking that alone -- and that was the problem. "We know it's here, that's great. And we can get it but I'm starting to think of other things and... any minute, you know..."

Ron and Hermione nodded. They felt it too -- the potion was wearing off.

"We should fly out with the Dragonback," said Ron quickly. "And hurry."

There was a faint pop and they all turned to look at it's source. The pedastal had vanished and so had the Book of Memories. They exchanged terrified looks. Any minute...

They heard a soft growl, but couldn't make it out.

Hermione closed her eyes and hesitantly picked up the staff.

"Hurry up!" shouted Ron.

Hermione put her other hand where the Book used to be and said, "Reconditum id res. Id insertare nihil. Eloco nihil non hactenus non temere!"

It only took one try and thankfully, it worked. The staff was engulfed with the same misty smoke that had brought it into existence and the staff disappeared from their sight within seconds.

No sooner had Harry engorged his broomstick then they all heard another growl, a terrible growl, louder than the last one, that sounded horribly inhuman. It was soft yet blood-curdling, it made their skin crawl, their blood run cold. The three of them mounted the Dragonback and let Harry fly as fast as his Quidditch-born reflexes and daring would allow.

Scared but calming themselves down, one by one they climbed off the Dragonback and out through the trapdoor as soon as they reached it. They threw the invisibility cloak on themselves and leaned against a wall inside Fluffy's room.

"I didn't want to say it down there but I was thinking of a Nundu and how you said they were the most dangerous creatures known," said Harry, looking at Hermione.

"You actually remembered that?" she snapped.

"Well, we got out safe, didn't we?" said Harry. He was quite right, of course. Had he not hastily suggested they leave...

They opened the door to head back. Apparently, someone didn't want their night's surprises to end. Wormtail was standing just outside.

"I-I know you're there," he said, his robes askew. "B-but you have to trust me!"

At that moment, Hermione pulled out the Sneakoscope. Looking down, Harry and Ron noticed it, too. It wasn't buzzing, spinning or doing anything of the sort it would do if someone nearby should be lieing. Ron mouthed something that looked a lot like, "It's not broken, is it?" Hermione scowled.

Harry knew very well it wasn't broken as he had used it the day before in Herbology to make sure Professor Sprout wasn't lieing to Neville that his grade so far this year wasn't as good it was the previous years. But she was lieing. She just wanted Neville to try harder ("It comes so easy to him," she finally admitted, "and he barely works!").

"What is it, then?" spat Harry.

"M-my old master," stuttered Wormtail, "you can't let him have that book..."

So, after all this time, it was Lord Voldemort that Wormtail was referring to.

"What about all those times I saw you trying to steal it?"

"Someone else w-working for the Dark Lord! I ran! W-why else do you think I've been so frightened! I heard about the Dark Lord's new plans a-and I thought about who had once shown me great mercy. You, Harry! You spared my life when I thought it was about to end... Y-you saved me..."

Harry had a terrible kind of struggle going on inside him. Here stood the man who had changed his life for the worse, forever. Yet here also stood the man who was telling undeniable truth and he was about to spit out something very important. Harry didn't know whether to kill him or kiss him.

"If I didn't save you that time," said Harry furiously, the usual rage beginning to course through him again, "Lord Voldemort would never have come back."

"Wonderful," said Hermione, sounding just as furious as Harry. "Now tell us what Voldemort is up to." Ron and Harry stared. She had said the name. They tried not to stare too long as Hermione would eventually take notice.

"He needs the body of one wizard a-and the blood of another," sputtered Wormtail. "I knew you were looking for the Staff! So last night I... I purposely let you see. Dumbledore doesn't know about that. The blood will be yours, I know that! And the body... the body... will be --" but who it was going to be, Wormtail couldn't say. It was painfully obvious from the way Wormtail broke out crying that it was going to be him.

"How are they going to get my blood?" said Harry, some of his rage leaving, letting him talk a little more calmly. "And who the hell is going to do it! Voldemort is in no shape and his Death Eaters aren't exactly up to the job of breaking into the school. There's no one they can disguise themselves as..."

Dumbledore would definitely be sure to check for impostors. Hermione assured them that it was possible to check for Polyjuice Potion: a True-Seeing potion was made for that. They pondered it for a moment. If they were all safe inside Hogwarts, how can someone possibly...

"Dementors," Wormtail murmered slowly. "They are on his side..."

"Oh my God," said Harry, Ron and Hermione in unison, terrified as if they heard the blood-curdling growl again. They dropped the Invisibility Cloak on accident and stood transfixed at each other. Harry felt as if someone slipped an ice dragon down his back.

Again not caring what anyone thought, Harry clutched the Order of Merlin plaque and feeling slightly, ever so slightly, calmer. But it wasn't going to do much good considering what Wormtail just said -- he felt the effect fading.

"The stubborn and stupid Minister of Magic never removed them from Azkaban! The dementors j-joined the Dark Lord as soon as he asked during his time! Y-you have to help me!" said Wormtail, clutching Harry's hand.

Indeed, dementors had Apparated on school grounds just the previous year, plunging everyone into a panic. Teachers conjured Patronus', Harry made his own that scared away quite a few dementors... But now that Voldemort no longer had the mark of ancients, that wouldn't be possible... would it?

For now, Harry couldn't think of anything at the moment except for seeing a hoarde of dementors charge into the school, performing the dementor's kiss on anyone they came across.

It was when Ron and Hermione clutched Harry's upper arm in fear, with Wormtail falling to the floor because his knees would no longer support him, did Harry feel like a few notes of phoenix song had cut through the air. It had always come at his darkest hour and it always ensured him a victory. It was the sound of hope and was still the most beautiful and welcome thing he had ever heard.

But there was just one problem: there was no source. There was no Fawkes and the Phoenix Bracelet on his wrist was just... no, it was when he looked down at the bracelet to see where Wormtail had fallen that he heard it. Looking at it again, he remembered that it used to be his mother's. Even in death, the very thought made him feel stronger. He couldn't explain it to himself if he tried, he just liked to get things his parents once owned. It made him feel better. It warmed him. It made him feel like he had parents.

They're counting on you, Harry, he thought to himself, they're counting on you.

And then Harry understood something... but there was another terrible struggle going on inside of him. Dumbledore had threatened to expell him but it was only to keep him in line, to keep him out of harm's way as, right now, he so very was. Dumbledore's words rung in his ears. "Remember, if the time should come when you have to make a choice between what is right and what is easy..."

It would be easy... to keep it quiet, pretending that nothing was going to happen... and then wait idly by while Voldemort's plan continues. It would be easy to tell Dumbledore what Wormtail had told them... but Wormtail didn't seem to think that Dumbledore would do much... and he would certainly not get Harry involved. It would be easy... to sit in the corner of a dark room... crumpled up on the floor... wishing to disappear.

Sirius would have to wait. The right thing to do was to take matters into his own hands and do the unthinkable.

"We have to take the Staff somewhere else," said Harry.

"Where?" asked Hermione.

"I don't know," Harry replied, feeling very anxious and not sure if what he was about to say is really the right thing, "but it's either wait and let Voldemort do whatever he's got planned or at the very least, prevent him from getting the Staff. I, for one, don't want a horde of dementors coming here again. Dumbledore's not going to like it but I don't care. He probably expects me to do something but he just doesn't know what. Now would you lot let go of me, I can't feel my fingers -- thanks."

"What, we're just going to... to take the Staff... and run?" asked Ron, staring disbelievingly at his crazy hero.

"Yeah," said Harry firmly, "that's the plan. And when this whole thing blows over, then I can revive Sirius."

Ron, Hermione and Wormtail looked at Harry like he had just lost his mind. Everyone agreed to it, but no one, not even Harry, thought it was going to do any good. No one but them would know it had been retrieved from the Book and no one would know it was up in their dormitory. The book was highly unprotected except for it's own defense, which seemed to be that it projected memories someone was thinking of. Of course, they reasoned, whoever wanted to steal it, wouldn't know... would they?

Their heads couldn't take anymore. Harry, Ron and Hermione put the Invisibility Cloak back on themselves. Wormtail headed off to wherever he stays at night and the trio headed back to Gryffindor Tower, the Fat Lady giving them a good telling off for coming back so late.