Harry stared at the dot. Mr. Crouch was supposed to be too ill to go to work or to come to the Yule Ball—so what was he doing, sneaking into Hogwarts at one o’clock in the morning? Harry watched closely as the dot moved around and around the room, pausing here and there…
Harry hesitated, thinking… and then his curiosity got the better of him. He turned and set off in the opposite direction toward the nearest staircase. He was going to see what Crouch was up to.
Harry walked down the stairs as quietly as possible, though the faces in some of the portraits still turned curiously at the squeak of a floorboard, the rustle of his pajamas. He crept along the corridor below, pushed aside a tapestry about halfway along, and proceeded down a narrower staircase, a shortcut that would take him down two floors. He kept glancing down at the map, wondering… It just didn’t seem in character, somehow, for correct, law abiding Mr. Crouch to be sneaking around somebody else’s office this late at night…
And then, halfway down the staircase, not thinking about what he was doing, not concentrating on anything but the peculiar behavior of Mr. Crouch, Harry’s leg suddenly sank right through the trick step Neville always forgot to jump. He gave an ungainly wobble, and the golden egg, still damp from the bath, slipped from under his arm. He lurched forward to try and catch it, but too late; the egg fell down the long staircase with a bang as loud as a bass drum on every step—the Invisibility Cloak slipped—Harry snatched at it, and the Marauder’s Map fluttered out of his hand and slid down six stairs, where, sunk in the step to above his knee, he couldn’t reach it.
The golden egg fell through the tapestry at the bottom of the staircase, burst open, and began wailing loudly in the corridor below. Harry pulled out his wand and struggled to touch the Marauder’s Map, to wipe it blank, but it was too far away to reach—
Pulling the cloak back over himself Harry straightened up, listening hard with his eyes screwed up with fear… and, almost immediately—
“PEEVES!”
It was the unmistakable hunting cry of Filch the caretaker. Harry could hear his rapid, shuffling footsteps coming nearer and nearer, his wheezy voice raised in fury.
“What’s this racket? Wake up the whole castle, will you? I’ll have you, Peeves, I’ll have you, you’ll… and what is this?”
Filch’s footsteps halted; there was a clink of metal on metal and the wailing stopped—Filch had picked up the egg and closed it. Harry stood very still, one leg still jammed tightly in the magical step, listening. Any moment now, Filch was going to pull aside the tapestry, expecting to see Peeves… and there would be no Peeves… but if he came up the stairs, he would spot the Marauder’s Map… and Invisibility Cloak or not, the map would show “Harry Potter” standing exactly where he was.
“Egg?” Filch said quietly at the foot of the stairs. “My sweet!”—Mrs. Norris was obviously with him—“This is a Triwizard clue! This belongs to a school champion!”
Harry felt sick; his heart was hammering very fast—
“PEEVES!” Filch roared gleefully. “You’ve been stealing!”
He ripped back the tapestry below, and Harry saw his horrible, pouchy face and bulging, pale eyes staring up the dark and (to Filch) deserted staircase.
“Hiding, are you?” he said softly. “I’m coming to get you, Peeves… You’ve gone and stolen a Triwizard clue, Peeves… Dumbledore’ll have you out of here for this, you filthy, pilfering poltergeist…”
Filch started to climb the stairs, his scrawny, dust colored cat at his heels. Mrs. Morris’s lamp like eyes, so very like her masters, were fixed directly upon Harry. He had had occasion before now to wonder whether the Invisibility Cloak worked on cats… Sick with apprehension, he watched Filch drawing nearer and nearer in his old flannel dressing gown—he tried desperately to pull his trapped leg free, but it merely sank a few more inches—any second now, Filch was going to spot the map or walk right into him—
“Filch? Whats going on?”
Filch stopped a few steps below Harry and turned. At the foot of the stairs stood the only person who could make Harry’s situation worse: Snape. He was wearing a long gray nightshirt and he looked livid.
“It’s Peeves, Professor,” Filch whispered malevolently. “He threw this egg down the stairs.”
Snape climbed up the stairs quickly and stopped beside Filch. Harry gritted his teeth, convinced his loudly thumping heart would give him away at any second…
“Peeves?” said Snape softly, staring at the egg in Filch’s hands. “But Peeves couldn’t get into my office…”
“This egg was in your office, Professor?”
“Of course not,” Snape snapped. “I heard banging and wailing—”
“Yes, Professor, that was the egg—”
“—I was coming to investigate—”
“—Peeves threw it, Professor—”
“—and when I passed my office, I saw that the torches were lit and a cupboard door was ajar! Somebody has been searching it!”
“But Peeves couldn’t—”
“I know he couldn’t, Filch!” Snape snapped again. “I seal my office with a spell none but a wizard could break!” Snape looked up the stairs, straight through Harry, and then down into the corridor below. “I want you to come and help me search for the intruder, Filch.”
“I—yes, Professor—but—”
Filch looked yearningly up the stairs, right through Harry, who could see that he was very reluctant to forgo the chance of cornering Peeves. Go, Harry pleaded with him silently, go with Snape… go… Mrs. Norris was peering around Filch’s legs… Harry had the distinct impression that she could smell him… Why had he filled that bath with so much perfumed foam?
“The thing is, Professor,” said Filch plaintively, “the headmaster will have to listen to me this time. Peeves has been stealing from a student, it might be my chance to get him thrown out of the castle once and for all—”
“Filch, I don’t give a damn about that wretched poltergeist; it’s my office that’s—”
Clunk. Clunk. Clunk.
Snape stopped talking very abruptly. He and Filch both looked down at the foot of the stairs. Harry saw Mad-Eye Moody limp into sight through the narrow gap between their heads. Moody was wearing his old traveling cloak over his nightshirt and leaning on his staff as usual.
“Pajama party, is it?” he growled up the stairs.
“Professor Snape and I heard noises, Professor,” said Filch at once. “Peeves the Poltergeist, throwing things around as usual—and then Professor Snape discovered that someone had broken into his off—”
“Shut up!” Snape hissed to Filch.
Moody took a step closer to the foot of the stairs. Harry saw Moody’s magical eye travel over Snape, and then, unmistakably, onto himself.
Harry’s heart gave a horrible jolt. Moody could see through Invisibility Cloaks… he alone could see the full strangeness of the scene: Snape in his nightshirt, Filch clutching the egg, and he, Harry, trapped in the stairs behind them. Moody’s lopsided gash of a mouth opened in surprise. For a few seconds, he and Harry stared straight into each other’s eyes. Then Moody closed his mouth and turned his blue eye upon Snape again.
“Did I hear that correctly, Snape?” he asked slowly. “Someone broke into your office?”
“It is unimportant,” said Snape coldly.
“On the contrary,” growled Moody, “it is very important. Who’d want to break into your office?”
“A student, I daresay,” said Snape. Harry could see a vein flickering horribly on Snape’s greasy temple. “It has happened before. Potion ingredients have gone missing from my private store cupboard… students attempting illicit mixtures, no doubt…”
“Reckon they were after potion ingredients, eh?” said Moody. “Not hiding anything else in your office, are you?”
Harry saw the edge of Snape’s sallow face turn a nasty brick color, the vein in his temple pulsing more rapidly.