At Large

Disclaimer: I am in no way related to, or a part of the Harry Potter franchise.

There were very few hours in the day or night when Hogwarts was almost perfectly silent. Two of these hours spanned between two and four in the morning. The entire castle seemed to be gripped by sleep, however light or restless it may be.

Harry's eyes suddenly snapped open; in the dark and without his glasses the room was almost indefinable. He lay perfectly still. Something told him that he was awake for a reason. Reaching slowly he felt for his wand - it wasn't in its usual place. He moved his hand across to where he'd left his glasses but they were gone too. Nervous panic dragged him into being fully awake. Inch by inch he pulled himself into a sitting position making as little noise as possible. Something creaked near the end of his bed. He recognised the sound almost instantly, a hinge on his trunk he'd been meaning to fix for a while now. Throwing caution to the wind he leapt forwards hand outstretched. With a grim satisfaction he closed his fingers around a handful of cloth covered flesh.

"Ron! Wake up! I've got someone…" His shout was cut short by a fist flying out of the darkness and colliding with his forehead. For a few seconds stars danced on the edge of his vision, whoever it was managed to slip through his fingers as he released his grip in surprise.

"What the?! Bloody hell!" Ron, finally realising what was going on leapt for the door but a blue flash collided with him in mid air sending him back onto his bed and pinning him down to the mattress. "Lumos!" He managed to splutter lighting his wand. For a second Harry saw someone standing framed against the exit, but his befuddled mind wouldn't work fast enough to recognise him or her. Then the figure made a sweeping movement around their shoulders and disappeared.

"What's going on?" Neville asked from between his bed curtains.

"Neville, did you see who it was?" Harry turned to squint at Neville through the wand-light.

"Who what was? What happened?" Twitching the drapes aside Neville stared from Harry's open trunk to the door wide eyed. "Have you been robbed?" Harry gave one quick nod and turned back to Ron who was struggling to his feet.

"Any idea?" Ron gave up trying to stand and sat on the edge of his bed. He stuck his wand behind his ear while he reached for his shoes.

"Couldn't say mate, they certainly knew what they were doing though. What's missing?"

"My wand, my glasses and I think, maybe, my old cloak." As he spoke Harry gestured to the other beds in the room with his eyes. Very few people knew about his invisibility cloak and he'd like to keep it that way.

"Bloody hell, that’s not good is it?" Ron walked over to Harry's still-open trunk. "Should I see if anything else is missing?"

"Yeah, go for it." Harry slumped back onto his bed, feeling useless and frustrated.

"I'll go and get a teacher then, shall I?" Neville piped up.

"Whatever." Harry didn't bother to turn and watch Neville run across the floor. By now everyone was awake and staring at him. He couldn't see them but he could feel their eyes sweep over him.

Half an hour later Harry was sitting in Dumbledore's office. The yawns floating out of the paintings were infectious and he was finding it hard to stay awake now that the drama was over. Professor McGonagall was pacing the room decked out in a tartan dressing gown, her eyebrows were knitted together angrily and she looked ready to spit poison.

"So, Harry, are you sure you have told us everything about what happened?" Dumbledore looked at Harry over a spindly desk his head resting on laced fingers. The old wizard looked sharp eyed and awake, Harry doubted that the headmaster slept at all.

"Yes, I grabbed them, they punched me and then Ron got hexed or something." McGonagal's pacing came to a stop just behind Harry before she spoke.

"And did Mr. Weasley see anything?"

"No, well he didn't mention anything so… no he can't have done." Harry stifled a yawn and gave up trying to crane his neck around to speak to the head of Gryffindor face to face.

"Well then Harry, as you've helped us all you can I think maybe you should get back to bed. Don't worry about not having your wand for the time being it is a weekend after all. And about your glasses…" Dumbledore rummaged in his desk as he spoke and produced a pair of silver thick-framed spectacles with green lenses. "I'll give you these for now, I'm sure they're not as stylish as your old pair but they should be better than none at all."

"Um, thank you professor."

Harry stood outside Dumbledore's office for a long while. How could they be so calm about it? If the thief had wanted to kill him tonight they may well have succeeded. Now what was he to do? He had no wand and worse, the invisibility cloak was missing. He'd managed to steer around that subject with McGonagall. As long as they found his wand then the cloak wouldn't be far behind… or so he hoped. He put on the new glasses and walked through the school towards the Gryffindor tower. After a while he stopped and blinked. Taking off the glasses he looked at them properly for the first time. The lenses reflected his puzzled face back at him in shades of green. He put the glasses back on and carried on walking, curious - night vision.

By the time he reached the common room it was almost six, there was no sign of the sun yet but he could hear the sounds of birds singing somewhere in the distance. He was about to make his way back to be but a voice from the fireside stopped him.

"There's not much point going back up there. Everyone's been awake for the last hour and you look shattered." Hermione shifted Crookshanks from Harry's usual seat onto her lap. "You can sit here if you like, I'm not making much noise."

"Thanks." Harry collapsed into the chair and didn't speak for a long while. "I suppose you already know what happened?"

"Yeah Ron said," she pulled out a length of parchment and began scratching away at it with an ink-stained pen.

"Didn't you already do that essay?"

"Huh? No, no that was only a first draft." She put the paper to one side and looked at Harry. "What are you going to do about lessons? Not having a wand will effect all sorts things. Maybe not potions, or history of magic… but charms definitely." Harry laughed cynically.

"Well as long as I can still do potions…" He caught the look on Hermione's face; it was halfway between a frown and a grin.

"Maybe I could give you extra lessons?" She picked up her things and began to move towards the girls' dormitories.

"Extra lessons?" He turned in the chair to look at her, was it his imagination or had she just gone bright red?

"You've got the weekend to think about it." She took the stairs two at a time leaving him sitting by the fire feeling bewildered. He pulled off the glasses and began to study them again.

"Hi Harry." Neville appeared at the bottom of the boys' stairs. "Any news on the person who took your stuff?"

"Not yet." Harry returned the spectacles to his face.

"Well, I expect you'll catch them soon… everyone's been awake talking about it. I wouldn't like to be the thief when you're through with them."

Harry collapsed further into the chair while lifting a hand to his head, he felt a strong headache coming on which was probably something to do with being punched. He sat somewhere between sleep and wakefulness, trying to review the night's events in his mind. Why did everyone think he was going to tackle the thief? Why, for once, couldn't he just leave it to the teachers? He yawned suddenly breaking his concentration it was a while before he was able to find it again. Hermione, she was a problem too. The extra lessons might be a good idea if he couldn't get his wand beck but people might get the wrong idea about them… He yawned again but this time sleep took over before he could dwell on anymore problems.