Chris Kempster – exercise 7th December 2012 387
The Banishment
Harry sat at his desk, chewing on a fingernail, detention again! He saw Malfoy approach and take the seat next to him looking as nervous and uncomfortable as he himself felt.
The billowing black robes heralded the entrance of Severus Snape who was about to oversee the detention of the two boys.
Draco was a little older than Harry as his birthday came before his. They were both in the same house, the sorting hat had decreed and no one would dare countermand its choice, the two Ravenclaws were anxious about this detention.
'What did you do this time?' asked their Head of House'.
'Nothing!' chorused the two boys.
'What didn't you do then?' asked Snape
Draco the bolder of the two, 'we didn't mix our potions properly for Professor McGonagall.'
'Ah!'
'We did try but didn't have the heart to make the poison to eradicate the fairies from the greenhouses. There must be another way.' Piped up Harry.
'I am sure there is, so why don't we go to the library and see what we can find.' Suggested Snape.
Off they trouped and spent the next hour going through an assortment of spell books looking for a solution. Eventually as their time was running out Draco called to the others, 'I have it!'
They sat round the table and looked at the book Draco had found. There it was in black and white a banishing spell that would rid the greenhouses of this particular pest.
They wrote the spell down, this particular book could not be removed from the library, and off they went. Before going to the Ravenclaw Common Room they went out to the greenhouse and banished the fairies.
The next day when they were having breakfast in the great hall they saw Professor McGonagall approach Hagrid and say something in his ear that made him smile.
The boys learned later that she had found all the fairies gone when she went to the greenhouse armed with the poison to kill off the infestation but had not needed to use it after all.
Draco and Harry never told anyone about the banishing spell they had used but were glad that no one, not even a fairy, was hurt.
The End – or not!