Part 3: Taking Time
The next morning at breakfast, schedules were pasted out and the girls met at the lake to compare their classes. Arma had invited Harry and Ron to join them. She had also asked Hermione but she politely declined, preferring to sit in the proper place to eat breakfast. Ryan and Tempest had come skipping along with Nox and Leva had Fidel. It had been Luna's idea to eat by the lake, and Padma Patil followed her there, hoping to meet the famous Harry Potter. "So what classes do we have in common Harry?" Padma asked, batting her lashes as he approached her and Luna. "Um..." Harry blushed and turned away. He saw Nox and Leva linking arms and skipping toward them. Fidel had linked arms with Leva, and Ryan and Tempest had linked with Nox. Together, they made one long line of skippers singing "We're Off to See the Wizard". (If you don't know what song that is you need to crawl out from under your rock before the world decides to run a marathon and leave you behind.) "You guys are dorks!" Arma shouted to them from Harry's right. "Yeah well, so are you!" Nox shouted back.
After the singing group had joined the others, they each pulled out their assigned schedules to compare them. After some checking, booing, cheering, debating, looking over, and more cheering and more booing, they had come to a conclusion. Gryffendors and Hufflepuffs would have charms together first. While Slytherins and Ravenclaws were in Herbology. According to their schedules, their classes changed from day to day throughout the week. Two houses would share one class period with another, switching off and on from Gryffindors and Slytherins, to Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, and so on and so forth. Today, their first periods were Gryffindor and Hufflepuff in charms with Slytherin and Ravenclaw in Herbology. They would have a lunch our around noon and then supper at five, after which they were free to do what they wished. They all agreed to meet here by the lake every morning to depart for their classes together, but to eat lunch and dinner with their houses unless they could help it.
When the time came, the group parted their separate ways, Slytherins and Ravenclaws staying on the grounds while the rest headed indoors. The first period passed relatively uneventful, well as uneventful as a school for magic can get. Second period was much the same save for Professor Severus Snape, the potions master, being ungodly unfair to Harry, which resulted in much discussion about it later amongst those who sat with him. (Ron, Hermione, Arma, Nox, Ryan, and Tempest, and of course Harry himself) Wanting to share the story with those who were not there, the group decided to meet again at lunch by the lake. Their rant about Professor Snape lasted surprisingly long considering they repeated the same insults over and over again with no signs of boredom with the subject. (had Hermione been there, she would have stormed off in annoyance, since everyone would have ignored her plea to change the subject) Again the time came to depart and they went off their separate ways. Yet again, their classes were for the most part, uneventful, but slightly better and no one brought up the topic of Snape again at dinner, when they all met, yet again, at the lake.
A few weeks past by with no change in events. Reports to the immortals didn't hold much info and were rather short because of that fact. Everyone began gradually making more friends inside their house and was now spending only mornings by the lake. Which they cherished and dreaded the coming of winter, afraid that meeting here would become a burden from the cold. Week after week moved them along through September into October. With not much change in the mood, Nox, Arma, Luna, and Leva were growing ancy with all their homework. On the day of Halloween, which was Leva's birthday and Nox had planned to throw her a surprise party. (haha i'm listening to "This Is Halloween"!! XD) Her and Arma were just on their way to potions. They had felt the urge of nature and told the others to head to class with out them. Turning the corner outside the potions room, the girls were just in time to witness a meeting between Harry and Malfoy. They were standing close to each other, whispering. Behind Draco, just close enough to hear, stood Crab and Goyle, his cronies. And on Harry's right stood Ron, who was listening carefully to the conversation.
As casually as they could, Nox and Arma deliberately walked behind a group of Ravenclaw girls, of which Luna was not present, and made a bee line to the suit of armor directly behind Harry where they could hear what was going on. They leaned against the suit, pulling out a book. Pretending to read it, their ears pricked to listen for what was being said between the five boys. "So I'll meet you tonight. In the trophy roommate midnight." That was Draco. He was planning something vile and Harry and Ron were caught up in the middle. "Be there and we'll settle this then." Draco skulked off with out another word. His cronies followed, leaving Harry and Ron alone with only a piece of metal hiding the girls from view. "Should we do it Ron? We might get in trouble." Harry sounded nervous. "We'll be fine. Besides, what would Malfoy say when we didn't turn up?" Ron had successfully persuaded Harry and the two mossied off to the potions room.
Arma turned to Nox after closing her book and replacing it in her bag. "A midnight meeting huh?" She said casually. "Wonder what it's about." Nox nodded her agreement and they made their own way to the potions room. 'I bet Draco wont show' Nox thought to herself. She wondered if she should warn Harry, but her thoughts were pushed to the back of her mind when Professor Snape entered the class room, slamming the door behind him and silencing any discussions. "Today we will be making wiggenweld healing potions." He announced to the class. A few seats down, Nox heard Hermione shift in excitement. She did not know what a 'wiggenweld healing potion' was, except that it healed things. Next to her, Arma cupped her chin in her hands and placed her elbows on the table, preparing for a lecture.
Twenty minutes later, Snape was finally done flapping his mouth, of which Arma could just barely make out a long droll of words. Her eyelids fluttered open and closed. Snape always putting her to sleep. Finally, she heard the words "get out the needed ingredients and begin with step one on the board. Instantly, she snapped awake and bent under her desk to retrieve her potions materials. The rest of the class did the same, and within five minutes, everyone, save for Neville, were getting around to light a fire under their cauldrons.
Arma slid her box of matches open. Being a first year, none of them had yet learned to conjure fire, and so used matches. Drowsily, she struck her match against the side. Crack! It broke in two. The upper half of the match fell to the table top and Arma glared down at it. She lightly threw the other down and struck another one. This one broke as well. "Errrrggggg!" She groaned in agitation. Nox glanced over to her. "What's the problem?" she whispered. "My matches are friggen janky." Arma growled as a response. Nox sighed. "Here take mine." She handed Arma the box and proceeded with her potion, which was already lit and boiling. Yet again, the match was struck and broken. Without thinking, Arma slammed Nox's box onto the table causing quite a few people to jump and turn around. Again, Nox sighed and slid the box across the table top toward herself. She struck another one and began to lower the lit match to Arma's cauldron, but was interrupted. "Nox," Snape drawled. "I hope your not trying to do Arma's work for her... are you?" Nox froze just a few centimeters from Arma's kindling. "No… she was just having trouble with her matches and I was helping." Snape smiled slightly. "I'm sure that she can light her own fire, she is a big girl." The Slytherins giggled to themselves. They always laughed when he made fun of Gryffendors. Arma sat glaring, bloody murder, at Snape but, with him being a teacher, she contented herself with glaring down at her unlit fire. 'I wish it would light right now just to show him a thing or two.' She thought to herself. Pffffwoooosh! A fire sprang up underneath her cauldron, leaving her and Nox, who had been watching her closely, dumbstruck. They both looked up at Snape, who had turned away and missed the event. He was reading a few papers on his desk which they guessed were their essays they had turned in earlier.
Arma smirked, and glanced down at the papers. By a closer look she could see that the one on top was Malfoy's. Glaring extra hard and thinking clearly of Snape's most current insults to her and her friends, Malfoy's paper suddenly burst into flames and Snape leapt away, crashing into a few jars behind him. He whipped out his wand and gave it a complicated wave. The fire died down but then sprang back up, singeing his eyebrows. Nox glanced over to Arma who was smiling mischievously to herself. Each Gryffendor, as well as Nox, Ryan, and Tempest burst into a spleen splitting laughter. Snape, who was preoccupied with the fire, was unable to quiet down the rumpus. He had tried a number of spells but finally resorted to a bucket of water, which he kept handy for incidents such as this. Unfortunately, the fire only leapt higher and Arma and Nox were reminded of a similar incident involving a tree house a few summers ago.
They were playing together with Luna, Leva, Rose, and May in the tree house behind Arma's house. It was a beautiful summer night, they had decided to sleep in there. For a light source they had the bright idea to bring lanterns. One of them however, was missing a candle and they had replaced it with pine needles. (this part of the story was actually an experience of mine… it actually happened.) During the course of this adventure the flames of one of their lanterns suddenly grew out of control. They decided to get some water and pour it on the flame (Smart aren't we!!) in order to put it out. Unexpectedly, the fire burst up even higher resulting in many screams from the ten year old girls. "Dirt!!" Luna shouted. "We need dirt!!" Rose and Leva flew down the ladder to retrieve said dirt. Arma's father rushed outside to see what the screaming was all about. "Girls what's wrong?" he called up to them, not seeing the two on the ground.
"Rose! Leva! Where's the dirt?" Nox called down. "We can't find any!" Leva called up. "Your on the ground!! How in the world can you not find any!!" May shouted down. Arma's father looked around confusedly before climbing the ladder. "What are you doing?" They heard Leva shout up. "Oh yeah!! Hang on we found a bucket to put it in!!" After climbing up and throwing the dirt onto the fire, which actually worked, they gave a full explanation to Arma's father. "Okay, no more lanterns, but if you clean this up now, you can still sleep out here." The tree house fell silent save for an ominous dripping noise. "Where's the water coming from?" Arma's father asked looking around. "It's not water." May said shaking her head and pointing at the lanterns. "It's wax."
The girls were jolted out of their reverie by Snape shouting. "Dirt! Dirt! Where did I put the Goddamn dirt!!" He rushed into the ingredients closet and reemerged with a large jar of dirt. Frantically, Snape throw a clump of it onto the flames, which, with Arma's consent, finally put out the fire. Snape picked up Malfoy's paper, revealing it to be the only damaged one. Nox smirked over to Arma. "Nice." She whispered to her. The rest of the class went by fast with small fits of giggles bursting up randomly. When the period was finally over, they rushed to their next class, anxious to get it over with so they could eat lunch at the lake and relay the events of potions.
First year Gryffendors and Ravenclaws gathered excitedly outside the Herbology greenhouses. They were waiting for Professor Sprout to open the doors. In the very back of the group, Arma was whispering into Leva's left ear. They both had huge grins on their faces and Harry assumed that Arma was relaying their last potions class to Leva. Although why she was being so secretive about it he did not know. As he was wondering this, the doors of the green house finally opened to reveale a large class room lined with so many plants, it was impossible to count at the time. There were vines crawling up the walls and escaping through windows in the roofs. Outside, they crissed and crossed, tangled, and knotted with very small puncture holes leaving in impossibly small amounts of sunlight. It reminded him vaguely of his cuboard back at the Dursely's.
"Hurry up! Hurry Up!" Professor Sprout was instructing. "Get inside before these plants die of sunlight." Finally, everyone was packed inside, being sure to stay as much in the center as possible. The doors closed of their own accord and the light was dimmed dramatically. They could just barely see Professor Sprout hand two large boxes to the two students closest to her. "Pass these around, inside are goggles, they'll help you see in the dark." A few minutes later the entire class had retrieved a pair of goggles from the boxes, put them on, and were now waiting patiently for their instructions. Near the back, Arma and Leva were whispering quietly to each other. "Nox would love it in here." Leva said, loking around through her goggles. Nox preffered dark places, she never slept with any sort of light, unless it was natural and could not be helped. She also slept more in the day than the night, the other girls had caught her on more than one occasion napping on a feild in the warm summer sun. However, at night she was the most active and ready to get into trouble. She also held a soft spot for the gardens. She was always trying to persuade someone to take a walk with her, but was just as ready to take one on her own.
"Heh yeah." Arma smiled, remembering that particular evening in the treehouse she had recalled earlier. Luna's eyes fluttered open. She sat up with an uneasy feeling sinking in. Looking around the dark treehouse, she counted heads and realized that... Nox was missing. Frantically, she shot out of her sleeping bag and shook each girl awake. "Nox is missing!" She whispered urgently to them. "We need to go find her, I think somethings wrong." Arma rubbed her eyes sleepily. "Maybe she just went to the bathroom, she'll be back in a minute." Yawning, she turned back towards her sleeping bag. "No, Arma, something is wrong, I can feel it." Arma looked her in the eye and realized that she was right, something was wrong. "Okay, let's go, but don't wake my dad." Luna nodded and the girls retrieved a flashlight.They descended the ladder and aimed the light on the ground, searching for foot prints. There they were! Heading from the ladder straight into the forest. Tightening together and holding hands with Luna leading the pack, they creapt into the shadows. The beam of the flashlight illuminated dark bushes and thick tree trunks. They could hear the hooting and russling of the nocturnal inhabitants. Beyond the flashlight's beam, the girl's could see nothing but got the feeling that something else could see them. RUSSLE RUSSLE CRACK! The girl's spun around, their feet almost lifting off the ground. "Nox?" Luna's voice echoed back to them through the silence that had settled in. 'That's weird,' Arma thought. 'Woods don't usually echo.' Without warning, a black shadow dropped down between them sending screams from the girls as they scattered away and Luna dropped the flashlight. Hollow laughter rang through the trees and the girls watched as the beam of light, which had been pointing horizontaly across the ground, was now being lifted to piont directly downward. Slowly, the beam's potition changed again. It rotated to face upward where it flashed across the face of... Nox. She laughed heartily and the beam shook. Luna stood up angrily. "What was that?" She shouted. "We were worried about you! Why did you leave the treehouse, you could have gotten hurt." Luna glared at her through the darkness. "Sorry to scare you." Nox's voice sounded truly sorry and Luna ran to give her a hug. "I only left to get some fresh air and to think, you know I love the forest." Luna nodded but Arma was still angry with her. They had, after all, been waken from their sleep. And for what? To be scared out of their wits by the very person they had been worried about? "We were in a tree house. The air is pretty fresh in a tree, Nox." Arma said, crossing her arms stubbornly. Nox shrugged a smile and suggest they return to bed before Arma's dad came to check on them again. Arma ablidged, still somewhat angry, but overall forgiving. A few paces before the end of the forest, however, Arma realized that the feeling from before had not completely disappeared. She glansed back into the shadowed trees. Watching them, were two bright red eyes. Lettling out a gasp, Arma fell over, knocking over Rose and May. "Hey!" May shouted as she hit the ground. Arma looked at Luna and Nox, then pointed dumbly at the eyes, only... there weren't any. What she had seen, be it reality, a dream, or simply her imagination, was gone with out a trace.
"I'm still mad at her for that trick she played on us." Arma whispered to Leva. "Yeah, that was pretty mean, I still don't know why she was out there, a breath of fresh air seems more like a cover-up. By- the- way, what was it that you saw when we were leaving?" Leva asked. "Nothing, it was just my imagination." But Arma was still not quite sure that it had been. Hadn't it?
When class was over, the first years filed out, talking excitedly about their lesson. Arma and Leva were the first ones out, surprisingly, with Harry, Ron, Fidel, and Hermione right behind them. They climbed the steep hill back up to castle, talking avidly the whole way, both about the herbology and potions lessons of that day. Crack! Leva looked down, and realized that she had stepped on an i-pod. "Hey, some one must have dropped it." She picked up the music device and held it for the others to see. It had a silver plastic case, which is what had cracked, that covered the touch pad as well. "Maybe it'll have some contacts on it so we can see who the owner is. (i-pod nanos let keep phone numbers on it) Leva pressed the center button down to wake it up, but nothing happened. "Maybe the battery is dead." Fidel offered. "No," Hermione said from the back of the small group. "It wont work here at Hogwarts, none of the electronics do. There's to much magic in the air for the electricity to travel." Leva looked at her confusedly. "Yes they can, I listen to mine all the time." Hermione gave her an odd look. "That can't be possible, I read it in Hogwarts a History, your i-pod must run on magic." Leva glared at her. It was her i-pod she would know if it ran on magic. "No! It was muggle made, it's electronic, not magictronic!" The others laughed at her pun but her and Hermione stood glaring at eachother. "No, you must be mistaken, it can't possibly work here if it's electronic." Hermione's voice was cold as ice, but Leva's glare was even colder. 'I'll show her a thing or two.' She thought. Her grip tightened on the i-pod, and suddenly, music was blaring through the head phones attached to it. Leva looked down at the screen, which was alight and branishing the words: Daddy's Little Defect, Sugarcult, Start Static. She smiled up at Hermione, who stormed off toward the castle ahead of them. "Oh! wait! I forgot something!" said Arma, stopping. "I'll be right back! You go on ahead!" She turned and ran back to the greenhouse. None of the others moved and were still standing where Arma had left them when she returned.
"Leva!" Arma shouted excitedly. "What?" When Arma had finally reached her, she leaned over and whispered something in her ear. A look of realization crossed Leva's face and then she smiled malichiously. "What's going on through your heads?" Ron asked, raising his flaming red eyebrows. "Nothing." The girls jeered in unsion. A bell in the school rang and the small group of students rushed off to their next class.
Meanwhile, on the second floor of the castle, Luna and Nox sat in charms, listening to one of professor Flitwicks opening lectures. These didn't usually last very long and were quite interesting if you listened. But right not Luna was having a very hard time doing this. Obscuring her view of poor little Flitwick, were a dozen very tall stacks of paper. Luna leaned left and right in order to see around them. (forget standing up, they nearly reached the ceiling!) Next to her, Nox was having the same problem, as were Tempest, Ryan, and Padma. Luna had already tried raising her hand to tell him, but alas, he could not see her just as she could not see him. Raising her voice did not seem to work either, because poor little Flitwick could not figure out who the noise was coming from.
Luna resigned herself to slouch in her chair and simply not know what the lesson was for today. She would not know what they were supposed to do, and then would fail whatever test they had on it, and then fail the class, and then- there was a loud WHOOSH!! and suddenly the papers were all over the floor. Flitwick stood there, dazed. Then, still not seeing the students that were previously covered, flicked his wand and the papers stacked themselves back up exactly where they were before. 'Grrr no, don't put them there! We can't see!" WHOOSH!! the papers were on the floor once more. "Well now, that's odd." Flitwick said in his squeaky voice. He moved to put them back, but Luna interrupted him.
"Um, sir." At the sound of her voice, Flitwick looked up and gave a jump when he realized that there were students there. "Er, yes Luna?" "Maybe it would be better if you put them somewhere else, so they don't blow away again." Flitwick nodded and then made another flick of his wand, sending the papers to a corner on the other side of the room.
Nox looked over to the left side of the room where most of the Slytherins were sitting. Malfoy was staring back at her, the look on his face told her that he had just been using simple math, putting two and two together to make four. He remebered what had happened in potions, made the connection that it had been Arma Snape was yelling at, and therefore, it had been Arma who set the fire. Now here they were, A large stack of papers obscuring Luna's view, and so it had been Luna who had sent the papers flying. He already knew about the immortals and that they belonged to them, he abviously thought that these were just our immortal powers acting up or something. But that was the thing, immortals didn't have these kind of powers. The only accounts of that ever happening, were the elders. So, she supposed that it was their generation who would be the new elders. 'Rose and the others must be having the same problem.' She thought to herself. Rose was a year younger than them, so was May, and Coro. They would probably be coming here next year, as the other half of the immortal's last hope. However, she wasn't sure where Rorrim and Raine were.
Luna sat, now watching Flitwick as well as listening to him, feeling quite pleased with herself. She wasn't sure why, but she felt that it had been her doing that sent the papers everywhere. 'Nox did tell me about her potions class with Arma earlier.' She thought. 'I was agitated, maybe the same thing happened to me.' She sat in wonderment about it for the rest of the class. (of course until their hands-on period where they practiced making a teapot flip in mid air, then she was flicked her wand in wonderment, this resulted in sending Crabbe's wand back into his face, leaving a large purple bump)
Finally, the period was over and everyone rushed off to lunch. The group met at the lake again, shouting out tails of flying papers, undead i-pods, and flaming essays. Ron also informed the group that Hermione had locked herself in the bathroom, refusing to come out. "Why?" Tempest asked. "Because she heard me say something about the fact that she has no friends and spends too much time reading books." He bowed his head in shame and the others whitnessed the immense reddening of his ears and the back of his neck.
"Good job!! No one wants to hear that!!" Tempest shouted back. "You idiot! Where were you when you said that?" Ron turned even redder. "In the library." The others in the group dropped their jaws while Arma and Harry laughed (they had been with him). Ryan brought his hands together in a clap, first slowly then faster, starting the rest of the group in an applause. "Good, job, you win the stupid award!!" He said, slapping him on the back. Everyone laughed along with Ron. Leva looked up at the sky. 'I hope we can stay like this for ever.' She thought, smiling.
Lunch ended shortly after, and they departed again to their classes. A period went by before Arma remembered something very important. It was break now, and she looked up and saw Nox, Tempest, and Ryan approaching her in the courtyard. "Hey, did you ask Sprout?" Nox asked when they reached her. "Yeah, she said it was fine." Nox smiled. "Good! Now we just need a food source." She rested her hand against her chin and stared off into space thoughtfully. "Maybe we can somehow snitch some food from the kitchens." Ryan offered. "But how do we get into the kitchens?" Tempest asked. "I don't know, maybe there's some portrait or something covering the door." Arma said, she glanced at Tempest for second, then jumped back from her facial expression. "Arma," Tempest cooed. "Is your house common room behind a portrait?" Arma turned red at realizing what she had said and then shook her head figurously. "NO!" Ryan and Nox smiled aswell. "Oh come on, Arma, tell us the truth." Nox jibed and the three of them drew closer.
"Hey!" A male voice said from behind them. The three slytherins turned to face two older red haired Gryffendors who looked exactly the same as eachother. "No, they're not." Arma said, coming up beside Nox. "They're my friends, don't worry." One of them scowled down on the first years. "I've never heard of a gryffendor being friends with Slytherins." Nox glared up at him. "Well we are! So get used to it!" The other twin smiled and laughed. "Are you laughing at me?" Nox seemed about ready to punch him in theface, so Arma decided that it was time to step in. "Um... this is Fred and George Weasley." She introduced, pointing at the cooresponding twin when she said their name. "This is Nox, Tempest, and Ryan. Nox is one of my best friends, so be nice." "Oh! Are you that one girl whose related to the Malfoys?" Fred asked. "Ron told us about you. He said you didn't like Malfoy. Is that true?" Nox made a so-so motion with her hand. "He's an ass most of the time, but when his friends aren't around, he's nice."
An idea popped into Arma's head. "Hey! Do you guys know where the kitchens are?" George looke puzzled but ammused at the same time. "Yeah why?" Tempest spoke up first. "We're throwing a surprise birthday party for one of our friends!" She shouted and punched the air with excitement. "Shhh!" Ryan and Nox tackled and then looked around for Leva. "Don't shout it, she might be around." Nox whispered. "Yeah," George laughed. "You don't want to pull a Ron."
"What about me?" Ron asked, he had just joined the group with Harry and looked around at them all searchingly. "Nothing." Fred laughed. "Hey," Nox began. "We're going to throw Leva a surprise party tonight during the Halloween feast. We got permission from Sprout to have it the Greenhouse, but she's going to shaparone." Harry and Ron looked excitedly at each other, then turned back to her. "Are we invited?" "Of courese!" Said Arma, she looked up at the twins, "Your invited too, but only if you show us where the kitchens are." The twins nodded, but then the bell rang. The group stopped and Arma, Harry, and Ron grudgingly headed off to their next class, Arma shouted over her shoulder. "I'll tell Luna about it, we have the same class!"
Neither the twins nor the slytherins moved and George gave them a quizzical look. "We have a free period now." Ryan explained. George's face lit up into a smile. "That's cool cuz so do we!" Nox and the other two smiled back. Fred and George agreed to show them the kitchens now, so they could move the food into the greenhouse. Since it was late in the day, none of the classes would be using the first one, which contained all of the domestic plants, such as singing poppies or what not.
The twins led them into the great hall and back behind the long table where the teachers usually sat. They entered through a wooden door into a long hallway. On the wall hung a large painting of a bowl of fruit. Fred reached up, just above Nox's head, and tickled the large pear in the center. It wiggled and giggled for a moment until they heard a click and the painting swung open on hidden hinges. The twins entered with the other three right behind them. Ryan, being the last of the group, stepped over the threshhold into a large room, filled with tiny creatures wearing an odd assortment of ties, tea pot covers, pillow cases, and other such things. One of them looked up at Fred and smiled. "Good day Master, nice to see you again!" It's voice was squeaky and high. Ryan didn't think that he could stand a voice like that for more than a few house at a time. It would give him a major headache.
Fred knelt down and spoke to the creature. "We need a bunch of food for a private party we're having later, do you think you could quickly cook us up some?" The creature nodded excitedly and rushed off among the other creatures just like him. "What are they?" Tempest whispered. "They're house elves." George answered. "Haven't you ever seen one before?" Tempest and Ryan both shook their heads. "I think one of my teachers had one." Nox said, trying to remember clearly. Fred and George exchanged puzzled looks but didn't say anything. "Why do they wear those clothes." Ryan asked. "Go to the library and check out a book on magical creatures, it'll tell you everything about house elves. It'll give you a much better explanation than us, trust me."
The house elf came back with several trays covered with lids. Fred and George took them and then handed a few over for the others to hold. After thanking the elves, the five students backed out of the kitchens and then took a short cut, courtesy of Fred and George, to the grounds. From there they tried to stay out of sight from any teachers or Slytherins. Finally, they came to the first greenhouse door. They had no trouble opening it and were soon staring around the interior. Inside, the sun shone through the uncovered walls down at the brightly coloured blossoms. In the far corner, Tempest heard the unmistakable sound of a chorus. A group of red blossoms could be seen swaying and bouncing to the beat of the song.
"Singing Poppies." said George, he shook his head in amusment and placed his tray on the center table. As some lilacs began making bell noises as a harmony, the others set down their trays around his. Taking a quick peep, Ryan lifted the lid of his to reveal several honey buns, lolly pops, cauldron cakes and other sweets. A look at the others revealed a two course meal for a dozen people. "How did they know we needed so much food?" Tempest asked in wonder. "They just know those kinds of things I guess." Fred shrugged.
By now, at least three more groups of plants had joined the choir with various sounds, such as string basses, drums, and trumpets. A particularly loud cone shaped flower blasted into Tempest's ear. She lashed out as a reflex, but someone caught her hand. "Don't hurt my flowers." Professor Sprout said. She let go of Tempest's hand and smiled. "Just ignore them and they'll stop." Tempest nodded and turned away from the flower. It blasted into her ear again, attempting to get the same reaction. BUt not even it's shadow crossed her face.
"So!" Professor SProut clapped her hands and rubbed them together. "What shall we do first? This is a birthday party, it has to be special!" She bussled over and began flicking her wand at the table. Plates appeared along side cups and utensils. She then began to place various items of food onto the different plates, organizing them into the five food groups. "How about some streamers!" Her wand flicked again and long rolls of brightly coloured paper shout out of the end. The streamers fastened themselves to the ceiling. The sun shone through them, almost like a suncatcher, making the greenhouse brighter than even before. A chorus of 'ooes' and 'awes' escaped the flowers when Sprout was finally down and the greenhouse looked like the end of a rainbow. "Hey, where's the gold?" Fred whined sarcastically. "Sorry lad," Sprout answered back, just as sarcastically. "But you missed it, the last chum just took it."
A couple periods later, Arma was leading Leva and Fidel onto the grounds for supper. "But Arma, i want to eat my dinner first!" Arma sighed with annoyance. SHe wanted to tell her so badly, but that would ruin the surprise. "You'll eat soon enough, don't worry!" It was Leva's turn to sigh, but she continued to follow Arma. Fidel walked behind her wearing a smirk on her face. Fidel already knew what was happening. Arma had whispered it to her in Herbology when Leva had been occupied with a plant trying to bite off her hand.
Leva was dragged into the first greenhouse for God knows what crazy thing Arma had planned. But when she stepped through the doorway, she found something she never would have expected. Luna, Nox, Harry, Ron, and several others jumped out from behind random pots and tables covered with... not plants... but food. ANd the center of the middle table... stood a tall five layered cake. (Sprout had conjured it earlier). Around she noticed that the different plants and flowers were making music. Not classical music like they did in Alice in Wonderland, but the music she liked. Currently they were singing "Hate Every Beautiful Day" by "Sugarcult". Proffessor Sprout cut the cake into several generous slices and passed them around for everyone to enjoy.
After the cake was eaten, the students started on the other food they had retreived from the kitchens. "Presents!" Arma shouted holding up a cardboard box. Just below the lid of the box, Leva noticed six one inch holes. Holes in a box were usually meant for something to breath, which meant that whatever was in it was alive. A smile spread across Leva's face from ear to ear. Arma set the box down on the table in front of her and Leva aproached it. Inside the box, she could hear a soft meow. Closing one eye, she put the other to one of the holes. On the other side, she saw a blue eye searching her equaly blue eye. She pulled away from it, then excitedly lifted the lid off. a small black kitten looked up at her. It's huge eyes were electric blue just like her's. "Aww." Leva axclaimed. She set the lid down and reached her hands inside the box. She grasped the kitten around it's middle and lifted it out so she could give a big welcoming hug.
"We thought you would like." Arma said smiling at her and Luna and Nox nodded, also smiling. "Oh!! I do I do I do!!" Leva rubbed her face against the kitten's. INresponse, it purred in her ear. "But how did you get it?" Leva asked, hugging the kitten close to her chest. "Her." Nox said, winking. "She's a girl. And Proffessor Sprout gave her to us actually. Right proffessor?" Proffessor Sprout nodded. "I found her on the outskirts of the dark forest the other day. She looked all beat up, so I took her in. Then, when your friends here told me you had a thing for cats, I told them to give her to you. She needs a good home, and from what I've heard. Your better than some of the nasty little brats livin' around here these days." Leva smiled and squeezed the kitten for a second, to show she loved it already.
"What'cha gonna name it?" Fidel asked from behind her. "I'm not sure." She said. "It has to be a very special name, so I want to take my time." The room fell silent as Leva gazed lovingly at her new kitten. "Well," Proffessor Sprout began. "I need to use the toilet, any one?" Ron, Harry, and Leva nodded. Leva placed her kitten in Arma's arms and exited the greenhouse with Sprout, Harry, and Ron. They made the long track back to the school in the darkness in silence. When they approached the door, it was opened for them and Professor Quirille (sp?) stumbled out. In the pale light, he looked paler and more feerful than usual. "Oh! Prof-fessor S-sp-p-p-prout!" He spluttered. "Is something wrong Quirille?" She asked him. "There i-is a t-troll in the d-dungeons!" He said, his eyes were now popping from their sockets in fear and he pulled her inside. Forgetting the students, Sprout rushed in after Quirille. BOOM! The castle shook, and Leva could see dust puffing from the stones. Her and the other two scrambled inside to see what the comotion was. "A troll?" Ron exclaimed. His face was almost as pale as Quirille's and he gulped loudly. "Quirille said that it was in the dungeons." Harry stated, forgetting he had to pee and wanting to rejoin the party as soon as possible.
Another crash from around the corner told them that the troll was no longer in the dungeons, but very close by. "It's near the Girl's Toilet." Leva whispered. They could now smell a ranky stentch creep across the hall, making them gag. "Hermione!" Ron shouted. Harry and Leva turned to shush him but he continued anyway. "She doesn't know! I bet she's still in the bathroom!" With another thought, the three first set off at a sprint toward the girl's bathroom... and the Troll.