Of "Defenestration" and Other (Useless) Vocabulary Words

The only thing that was really memorable about March 6th was that it was a very windy day. None of the students at Hogwarts paid much attention to the announcements of the day ("Today is the first Hogsmeade weekend of March… A copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them was left in Professor Flitwick's room… Until further notice, all use of transfiguration spells has been halted due to a sudden increase in the number of wild dragons captured in the castle…). Besides the fact that students kept losing their homework in mysterious fires, Argus Filch had no real reason to stop them from enjoying a nice Hogsmeade weekend.

"I swear," Ron began, heading down the castle steps, "only Hagrid could make having a dragon as a pet popular."

"I don't know," Hermione said thoughtfully, "Owning a dragon might be against school rules, but at least students are transfiguring other animals instead of importing real dragons. Actually, a transfiguration spell like that must be really difficult to cast. It would almost be good practice for some of those rule-breaking types."

"Oh come on, Hermione. Not everyone who breaks the rules is a moron."

"No, but most of them are."

They both paused halfway across the grounds to see Malfoy running for dear life from a particularly nasty Hungarian Horntail, which, although it looked only about a year old, was enthusiastically spitting flames at him.

"Do you think we should help him?"

"Ah, he'll be fine. Crabbe and Goyle will probably be arriving any minute to save him."

"What if they don't know the correct spell for reversing the transfiguration?"

"The correct spell? We are talking about Crabbe and Goyle, right? The dragon'll probably eat them first and give Malfoy time to escape."

There was a slight pause, and Ron added, "By the way, have you seen Harry around? Wasn't he supposed to help Neville with his homework or something?"

"I don't think I've seen him; he'll show up, though."

- Earlier -

If he had had had any foresight on this particular morning, he might have realized that balancing on a two-inch wide section of wood with no handholds wasn't really a good idea. It wasn't really something any normal person would think about, but he supposed common sense dictated that if one was going to stand about on windowsills, one should know these things. However, this train of thought couldn't last, and as the ground rushed up to meet him, he said what he had really, really, hoped would not be his last words.

"Oh, sh-"

Ginny ran around her dorm room, frantically searching for her favorite necklace. She didn't think any of her fellow fifth years would have borrowed it, but it wasn't on the floor, on her nightstand, or tangled in her other jewelry. In desperation, she threw open her trunk. After a few minutes of digging around, she found the choker she had been looking for. Ginny spent another two minutes trying to put it on herself until a sudden gust of wind slammed the dorm room door shut, making her jump. Realizing what had made the noise, shescowled and strode over to the room's only window and closed it. Stuffing the choker in her pocket, she headed out of the Gryffindor common room and started down a staircase, taking the steps two at a time.

Ginny arrived at Honeyduke's only slightly out of breath, with her hair in a sloppy half-ponytail. Spotting her friend Violet up at the register, she walked up to the front of the queue, cutting in front of a bunch of third years.

"What took you so long?" Violet demanded.

"Oh, you know me… I couldn't find a shirt I really liked."

Violet looked at Ginny for a minute to consider the truthfulness of this statement. "That halter top does look really cute on you. Must be against some dress code or something."

"Who cares? None of the teachers are here today anyways," Ginny said grumpily.

Violet paid for her candy and flirted with the boy at the cash register, and then the two friends headed for the Three Broomsticks.

- The Three Broomsticks -

Neville looked around the room irritably. As far as he could tell, he was the only student in the whole place. That in itself was unusual for a Hogsmeade weekend, and was made even more unusual by the fact that there was supposed to be someone there. As far as Neville knew, there was no Quidditch practice that day, but he was sure that there was some reason his friend was running late. On the table lay an unfinished essay on the uses for manticore venom.

At the door, a bell rang. Harry walked into the shop and took a seat across from Neville. He had numerous scrapes and cuts, and several bruises on his arms. "Sorry I'm late," he said, grinning.

"What happened to you?" Neville asked, looking Harry up and down.

"Oh… er… I… fell out of a window, actually."

"What? How the hell did you do that?"

"Um… never mind… Look, there's Ron and Hermione! I'll go get some butterbeers." Harry got up and ran to the bar as the bell sounded again.

Ron and Hermione came over to sit at Neville's table, and Ron looked at him curiously. "Have you seen Harry anywhere?"

"Yeah, he just got here."

"Where has he been since breakfast?"

"He fell out of a window, apparently."

"Fell out of a window? How did he do that?"

"I dunno… that's all he said."

Soon the conversation was lost as Neville tried to reroute Hermione to the subject of manticores.

"The venom is highly useful in certain potions," she explained.

"Potions for what? Poisoning people? I don't call that useful."

Hermione sighed in exasperation and launched into a complicated discussion Neville was quite sure he wouldn't understand. The shop's bell rang a third time as Ginny and Violet entered. Ginny went to sit with another knot of Gryffindors but Violet came over to where Neville, Ron, and Hermione were sitting.

"Are you guys still working on that Care of Magical Creatures essay?" she asked. "Because I don't get it."

"Why didn't you come in here earlier?" Hermione asked, irritated.

"Ginny was laaaaaaaate," Violet whined.

"When did she get to Hogsmeade?"

"Oh, just a few minutes ago."

Ginny was in the middle of another conversation as Hermione walked over to sit next to her. The two girls were good friends, but as such, Ginny knew from her expression of dire seriousness that Hermione meant to discuss only one thing: homework.

"You know, you could really benefit from our study groups," she said as she took the empty seat between Ginny and another fifth year friend, Madison. Madison looked offended, and sighed pointedly, but Hermione showed no signs of moving so she stood up and stalked off. "You know, Hermione, there are people in the world that do things besides study," Ginny said exasperatedly.

"Really? I can't imagine why," Hermione replied sarcastically.

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend, Hermione. Even you can't turn that into time for doing homework."

"Honestly, you sound just like Ron sometimes."

"Well, I can't let you work yourself to death," Ginny said, playing with a paperclip she had found in her pocket.

"What's up with you?" Hermione demanded.

"Weather's strange today," said Ginny unconvincingly.

"Oh, come on…"

"It is! That's it. Really."

"No it isn't. Tell me."

"You promise to keep it a secret?"

"Of course. I'm not some little gossip like Parvati or Lavender."

Lavender, hearing Hermione's last comment, stood up from across the table and walked away huffily.

"You're just alienating people left and right today, aren't you, Hermione?"

"Quit changing the subject and trying to impress me with florid words."

"No, really, Hermione, I use words like 'alienating' every day."

"I didn't force you to read that Muggle Studies book."

"No, you just threatened to take points from Gryffindor, is all."

"Quit being dodgy and tell me the real story!"

"Fine…"