A wonderful week began with detention and cleaning duty.
During lunch break, Harry sighed, lamenting the loss of his free time as he and Neville, along with the two Weasleys, accepted cleaning tools from Filch, who was grinning with sinister delight.
"No magic allowed," Filch said, his smile twisting into something wicked. "Those trophies should be spotless when you're done."
Harry could feel the man's pure malice, and he disliked him from the moment they met.
"Filch is a Squib," George Weasley explained as they walked to the trophy room. "No idea why Dumbledore keeps him around. He's always picking on students—especially us."
"Isn't that because you two are always playing pranks?" Neville couldn't help saying. Though he'd only just met them, he'd already heard plenty about the famous Weasley twins.
"Well, you're not wrong," Fred said with mock seriousness. "But come on, we just like having fun."
It had only been a day since the incident, and after drinking Madam Pomfrey's special potion, he was already back to full energy, practically bouncing with life.
"Fun things? You mean that Portable Swamp of yours?" Harry said darkly, remembering the prank that nearly got them killed.
He'd trusted those two, but they'd turned out to be far less reliable than Leonard.
"Hey, we didn't expect that either!" Fred protested. "The swamp was still in the testing phase. It worked fine before, but for some reason, it failed when we tried it on the Three-Headed Dog."
"Because that was a Three-Headed Dog," Hermione suddenly interjected. "It's an xxx-class dangerous creature with strong magical resistance. Even if your gadget wasn't aimed directly at it, its struggle still disrupted the effect."
"Hermione? What are you doing here?" Neville asked curiously.
"Professor McGonagall sent me," Hermione said through clenched teeth. "She said that even though I reported the situation in time, I didn't stop you from doing something so reckless. I didn't lose any points—and even gained some—but I still have to serve punishment."
"So you're cleaning too?" Fred asked.
"No," Hermione crossed her arms. "Professor McGonagall told me to supervise you."
"You could've just not told her," Harry muttered. "Then we wouldn't have lost points or had to clean."
"And then what? Someone would have to scrape you out of the Three-Headed Dog's dung the next day?"
Leonard's calm voice came from behind them, startling everyone.
"Whoa!" Neville jumped and turned around. "Leonard, how do you walk without making any noise?"
"You were just talking too loudly," Leonard said evenly. "I was the one who asked Hermione to find Professor McGonagall yesterday. I wasn't sure I could handle the danger in that room alone."
"But didn't you take down the Three-Headed Dog instantly?" Harry asked.
"That wasn't taking it down—just holding it back," Leonard replied, giving Harry a sidelong glance before looking toward the Weasley twins, who were visibly excited to see him.
"You must be Leonard!" the twins said, shaking his hand enthusiastically. "Thanks for showing up in time yesterday—otherwise, we'd have been doomed."
"You should thank Hermione," Leonard said, pulling his hand back. "If she hadn't found me, I wouldn't have known you two were crazy enough to sneak into the Headmaster's forbidden corridor."
"We just didn't think it'd be that dangerous," Fred admitted. "After all, Dumbledore said the Forbidden Forest was off-limits too, and we go there all the time."
"You can tell that to Professor McGonagall," Leonard said dryly. "Might help with her low blood pressure."
"Hahaha..." The twins didn't know what low blood pressure was, but they could tell it wasn't a compliment. They scratched their heads and laughed awkwardly.
"So, Leonard, what brings you here?" Harry asked curiously. "Did you get punished too?"
"Why would I be punished? I didn't do anything wrong," Leonard said, giving Harry a strange look.
"Then why are you here? Hardly anyone visits the trophy room. Most people don't like looking at other people's achievements," George remarked.
"True," Leonard said with a faint smile. "Most people don't like seeing others' achievements—but they do love seeing their own."
As they chatted, they arrived at the trophy room. Leonard pushed open the door.
"Their own achievements?" George and Fred froze for a moment, then exchanged looks of exasperation. They had a feeling they knew exactly what Leonard meant—and where those 'achievements' came from.
Following him to the newest trophy display, they found Leonard's name engraved on the plaque.
"But why isn't the reason written?" Hermione said regretfully.
"Not writing a reason is fine, right?" Harry muttered.
Hermione shot him a cold glance. "They should write the reason, so people in the future know someone had to be saved by Leonard."
Harry was at a loss for words. Pretending not to hear her, he kept polishing the spotless new trophy.
"Huh? Wait, there's another Leonard trophy right here—also for Special Contribution. Same name?" George exclaimed, staring at the one beside it in surprise.
"That one's mine too. Before I saved you lot, I'd already saved someone else. You've probably seen him in the Hospital Wing," Leonard said. Hogwarts trophies were made surprisingly fast—probably conjured directly with magic.
"You mean Malfoy?" Fred said regretfully. "Would've been better if you hadn't saved him."
"Yeah, Malfoy's been giving you trouble nonstop. Why'd you save him?" Harry added.
"How can you say that?" Hermione began indignantly. "Even though Malfoy is nasty, hateful, arrogant, looks down on Muggle-born wizards, and calls people names…"
Her voice trailed off. She'd meant to defend him, but after listing all of Malfoy's faults, she suddenly lost the urge. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became.
"Exactly! Why did you save him?" Hermione huffed.
"He's just a student who doesn't know any better," Leonard said, narrowing his eyes.
If Malfoy's two cronies hadn't been there, Leonard definitely wouldn't have let him go.
The problem was, those two were present—and Malfoy had even warned them beforehand, saying, "If anything happens to me, it's Leonard's fault." No matter how he looked at it, it just wasn't the right time to make a move.