IV) Harvest Day

"Oh Hermione you look absolutely outstanding!" Madeline exclaimed. They were showing off their dresses to each other. Ginny was also there. Hermione grinned. She was the last one to show her dress. Madeline had been so excited that she showed hers off first. Ginny had gone second and it turned out the dress Ginny had been the emerald one that Madeline had discarded at the dress store.

"I can't wait till the dance!" said Ginny, sitting on Hermione's bed eating some Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans.

"Hey don't eat 'em all!" giggled Madeline. She grabbed the box out of Ginny's hand, grabbed a handful and handed the box to Hermione, ignoring the shout of protest that came from Ginny. "We girls must keep our figures don't we?" Madeline said in a very silly English accent and striking the most absurd poise, earning more laughter from the girls.

It was Sunday night and they were having their own little slumber party in their dorm. Madeline was wearing some yellow pyjamas with monkeys holding cup cakes all over. The matching shirt was also yellow and had a single monkey that was frowning and rearing back, preparing to throw the cup cake in its hand and the words underneath said I'M NOT AMUSED. Ginny was wearing a long blood stone coloured nightgown that was very beautiful and her hair in two braids (done by Madeline) and Hermione had lost her pyjama top with her rich purple pyjama shorts, so she just wore a green tank top. Her hair was just thrown up in a messy bun.

Laughing, Hermione followed her lead, sitting on the edge of her bed so straight and perfect she said, "Ah yes, we must keep up tradition of our ways." To prove it she pursed her lips and threw her head back with her hand on the back of her head. Ginny was laughing so hard that she fell off the bed and onto the floor.

"OK guys; let's be serious for a second." Hermione said, finally catching her breath. "I want you guys to join me on stage at Halloween. Except…I decided just to go with one costume for the whole time and just have the lighting and stuff change, other wise it looks weird. "

Sense it was October; Madeline was wearing earrings with a single opal. She also had a bracelet made with pink tourmaline. She always followed the months and gems. Sometimes she would feel giddy and go by the days of the week. As an example sense today was Sunday, she might be wearing earrings with three gems: Amber, gold and topaz. Now as she nodded excitedly her braided ponytail swung back and forth. She had use two gold coloured elastics for it.

Today the ruling planet was the sun and it was a time for happiness. The best part? Tomorrow was Harvest Day! It was her favourite time. She had gained permission from her mother and Dumbledore to help with the Harvest Day dinner. Basically Turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie, carrots, mashed potatoes, gravy, freshly cut sun flowers from the meadow 'round the castle at the tables, pumpkins as decorations around the walls, banners and candles! Oh it was going to be fantastic!

"I'd love to Hermione!" said Madeline excitedly. She jumped onto the bed beside causing Ginny (who had just picked herself off the floor and sat down again) to bump off the bed again. "Hey not funny!" Ginny said, sticking out her bottom lip and glaring at Madeline.

Hermione was obviously working on not busting out laughing as her whole body was quivering ever so slightly, her hand over her mouth and her eyes already laughing. "Oh yeah?" said Ginny, "Well lets just see how much you laugh when your in that situation!" And with that, Ginny grabbed a pillow and started hitting Hermione with it. And at that point, the pillow war began!


Harry and Ron were [finally] finishing their Herbology homework when something from up the girl's staircase made them jump. They had heard a scream followed by a shriek and a sound of laughter. They looked at each other startled.

"What the bloody hell was that?!?" Ron gasped.

"I'm guessing it was the girl's seeing as it came from up the girl's staircase." Harry said reasonably rolling his eyes.

Ron wrote down on last sentence and closed the bottle of his ink. He stared up at the girls staircase and wore a thoughtful expression on his face. "Do you ever wonder what girls talk about when guys aren't around?" He turned his head to look back at Harry, but he was finishing his Herbology homework. "Harry!"

Harry jumped and looked up at Ron, "What?" he asked.

"I was asking if you ever wondered what girls talk about when guys aren't around." Ron said in a frustrated voice. Harry just shrugged.

Ron shook his head and reached into his bag. Pulling out some papers he asked Harry without looking up, "Who is this teacher anyway? I forgot. I think her name is Professor Em-K or something…"

Harry nodded. "Yeah that's right. Binns quit for some reason and she's the new History of Magic teacher. She seems pretty cool but every time I have her class I think she has a new hair cut! I think that's a little weird." Ron nodded his head agreeing.

"Why did Binn's quit anyway?" Ron asked.

"Binn's quit the post after he finally realized he had died years previously, plus he actually fell asleep in class once. You would think he would know he's dead I mean, entering and exiting the classroom through the blackboard all the time? But I'm guessing he just never payed attention." Harry shrugged and bent down to pull out his last bit of homework (two foot roll for Transfiguration).

At that moment a crash came from the staircase followed by thumps and yells and giggles and a whack off other noises. Within a few moments three objects appeared. The boys couldn't tell who they were because there was pillows and feathers going every direction. Suddenly one of them tripped and sent the rest sprawling to the floor. Once the feathers landed, and the three people got untangled, Harry and Ron were able to tell who they were.

"Ginny?"

"Madeline?"

"Hermione?"

"Uh, hi guys!" Ginny said slowly getting up. "What are you doing here?" Madeline and Hermione got up too, the three of them brushing feathers off their pyjamas.

"Just doing our homework." said Harry and Ron. The girls shrugged and started heading back up the stairs, though Ginny and Madeline snuck glances back at the boys and smiled at them, giving them a small wave before catching each other's eye, grinning, and hurrying up the staircase where Hermione was waiting for them.

Two hours later when the girls got ready for bed, Madeline noticed the piece of paper she had seen drop from no where. Unfortunately she hadn't had the time to read it.


Early the next morning Ginny's eye's fluttered opened and blinked in the pale sunlight coming through the window. Smiling slightly to herself she went to the window and threw it open welcoming and breathing in the dewy morning air, giggling slightly when a blue bird flew past and hit a window close by then flew off again.

She happened to glance down at the friendship bracelet Madeline had giving her a week ago ("No matter what, we will always remember eachother." Madeline had said) only to scream in shock.

Madeline's eyes flew open and she jumped up hitting everything in sight with the pillow in her hand, only to stop amidst feathers and other jumbled things, looking wild eyed and scared, breathing heavily. "What was the screaming all about?!?" she cried, seriously freaked.

Ginny said, "I'm not the one hitting everything like a maniac. Look!" And she stepped out of the slight shadow and showed Madeline and Hermione (who Madeline had woken up) her arms, face and neck. Her skin had turned raw red over night. It looked like it had been rubbed forever and would never heal. Along with Ginny's flaming red hair, she looked down right scary. That wasn't compared to her face. Her hair was messed from sleep, her face was raw, and she had a terrified look on her face. Fear matched nothing else and even as they watched her and wondered what to do, Ginny collasped in front of their eyes!


'Ugh, when is she coming down?' thought Bellatrix. She was hiding in the Gryffindor common room with an Invisibilty Cloak. Her master was already upset that she lost the paper but now she had to try and kidnap [Madeline] McGonagoll.

She had heard a slight shriek and lots of banging a few minutes before but now all was silent. Bellatrix's head dropped onto her legs. She had been on the watch all night. There had to be an easier way to get her! And she felt almost like throwing up again. She knew why though.

And she had it! Her head snapped up and she hurried through the portriat hole, ignoring the Fat Lady, ("Who's there? You shouldn't be out at this early hour!") and hurrying on to the dungeons where the Slytherin's were. She had to get to Draco and his friends. They were the key to the girl!It's not like students from her own house would care that she was in their common room, or in the castle for that matter.

Bellatrix grinned with malicious as she ran down the stone staircase.


Madeline and Hermione (with the help of Ron and Harry) had taken Ginny to the hospital wing before everybody had gotten up. Hermione suspected Ginny had collasped from the shock but Ron was worried it was much worse. I mean, who wakes up one morning with raw skin? Madeline expressed her thought that something had bitten her or whatever during her Herbology class the day before and now it was effecting her. Harry was just so scared that his face was white and he didn't speak.

Once they had left Ginny in Madam Pomfrey's care, they went back to Gryffindor Tower to get ready for the day. Madeline simply put on some ripped jeans and a t-shirt she usally used when she was painting and her hair was thrown in a messy bun with the tendrils pinned with some bobby pins. Hermione wore regular jeans with cute multi-colour sewn on patches, a pair of tan loafers, a simple orange alluring halter top (for Harvest Day), and her hair was in a ponytail.

Madeline hurried down to the kitchen to start cooking for the Harvest Dinner. Before hand, she took a quick detour outside and picked some special grain that Proffesor Sprout had growing especially for Harvest Day.

When she got into the kitchens, she saw the house-elves had already started getting all the ingredients together – besides the grain which was going to be turned into flour – but had refrained from starting as they knew Madeline had some original idea's in her mind, well, more original then what they did every year.

"OK everyone, I'm here!" Madeline called, setting the bundle of grain onto a table, "OK lets get started. You two," she pointed at two younger elves – one with blue eyes, the other with green orbs for eyes but that doesn't come into the story much – who immediately straightend up and looked at her, "can started with turning the grain into flour, we have alot of work to do today, plus while everyone is doings stuff after lunch we have to sneak into the Great Hall without being seen, there so we can decorate."

The two little house-elves (with the help of Madeline) got all the grain into the mini-mill that they had (A/N I have no idea how I thought of [mini-mill] but it sounds funny) so they could turn it into the best flour.

Madeline took ten minutes to get everyone sorted, making sure they knew what they were doing, and handed out the recipe for each group. However she turned to Dobby, the only house-elf left that she hadn't given a job.

"Alright Dobby, your coming with me," she said, "I'll put disslusionment charms on us so if anyone goes outside, they won't notice us....hopefully. However this means everytime we pick something we must put a disslusionment charm on that object too." Dobby nodded to show he understand what Madeline was saying.

"Alright everyone!" Madeline called out. All the elves stopped working for a moment to turn and look at her, "Dobby and I are going to go pick some things for the food and decorations, this will take a while so I hope nothing goes wrong here."

It took quite a while (even with Hagrid's help) to get all the pumpkin's [they needed] into the room just off of the kitchen. But once they got it everyone took a five minute rest. Or at least Madeline did. The other house-elves kept on baking; and now a warm delicious smell was seeping out from the kitchen and floating over the whole castle. It was a toasty sorta smell, with cinnamon and other yummy things.

By the time lunch came around Madeline had gotten all the decorations together so she was able to go to lunch. Before leaving the kitchen she took off her apron and washed her face and hands before going in the Great Hall for lunch, there meeting up with Harry, Ron and Hermione.

"Hey guys, how's everything sense I last saw you?" asked Madeline, helping herself to a generous helping of food. She was starving.

"Not much went on," said Hermione, "Madam Pomfrey said that you were right: Ginny did rub againts something during Herbology but it's happened before so Madam Pomfrey fixed her up fine. Oh look there she is now!"

They all twisted around in their seats and caught Ginny's eye as she walked towards them. She still looked a little pale with the exception of her cheeks which were a little flushed. She was also a little shaky but otherwise OK. She sat down next to Hermione and slowly started putting some food on her plate.

"Are you alright Gin?" asked Ron. Ginny just shrugged.

"Madam Pomfrey said I shouldn't be eating that much for the rest of the week 'cause to much food could get infected in my body then I would be worse off then when I started." And she did follow Pomfrey's word. Ginny only ate one piece of ham, handful of grapes, glass of pumpkin juice and a very small about of pudding.

Suddenly an owl flew over head and dropped a letter onto Madeline's plate. The letter was lavender in colour and smelled of lilac's... and now it also smelled of eggs. Madeline ripped it open and read:

Please meet me in the Entrance hall. We need to talk.

It was in writing she did not recognize and there was no signature saying who it was from. Well Madeline might as well go but at the same time, she had a horrible feeling about this. No one knew her favourite flower was lilac's... however that day she had found the note, she was taking a survey and one of the questions was 'What is your favourite flower?' and Madeline had been saying the answers in a loud whisper because the common room was empty... or was it?

"Whose it from Madeline?" asked Ginny.

"I don't know, there is no signature but I'm gonna go...Can one of you come with me? Just to be safe?" Madeline looked at each of them straight in the face.

"I will," said Ron immediately standing up. Harry rolled his eyes.

So Madeline and Ron headed into the Entrance hall in time to see Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle messing with little Dennis Creevy.

"Oi! Get your hands off him ferret!" Ron called out.

The trio raised their heads to look at him and ran off laughing. Madeline and Ron looked at eachother confused before hurrying to Dennis's side.

"Are you alright Dennis?" asked Madeline gently. She had taken a liking to him when they first met, and now they were good friends, even if there was a small age difference.

Dennis nodded, trembling from head to toe, but he had a weird look in his eye. Madeline tried to wave it off but found her worry of the whole situation was growing worse, eating her insides out.

"Lets take you back to Gryffindor tower so you can have a lie down OK Dennis?" suggested Ron. Again, Dennis nodded. As the three headed to the tower Madeline noticed that Dennis had become relaxed. To relaxed and she became very suspicious and wary of him. Though Ron, who was strutting a few steps ahead of them, appeared not to have noticed.

When they got in the common room, Dennis pulled out a small pouch and said, "I'm gonna quickly talk to my mom," and he threw a tiny handful of the powder into the fire place, making the fire turn green.

"No Dennis you really should lie down, you can talk to your mum later." Madeline said sternly. Dennis just grinned with an evil glint in his eye and Madeline realized her mistake.

"PETRIFACIS TOTALUS!" She shouted at the imposter, just as he shouted the same spell at Ron who was taken off guard, and fell to the ground. The imposter managed to jump out of Madeline's spell just as the Polyjuice Potion started to wear off. It was Bellatrix Lestrange.

She dodged Madeline's next spell and stunned her, grabbing tight hold of her she stepped into the fireplace and vanished into the fire. Unknowing that a boy, not much older then the real Dennis Creevy, had seen the whole thing and now was looking positivly scared. He had to tell Harry. But first, Colin really should take the curse off of Ron.

Colin was angry that Bellatrix had dared use his brother as a bait, but then, Colin reminded himself, that wasn't really his brother, oh no that was just Bellatrix in desguise using Dennis's form.

When Colin and Ron had told Harry, Ginny, and Hermione what had happended, they hastended to Dumbledore to tell him immediately; though wasting precious minutes in trying to find out what the password was and if it wasn't for McGonagoll coming along and saying the password ("Tootie Fruitie.") and letting them into his office, the five of them could have been there all night.

Dumbledore listeneded calmly as they told their story, though looking very grave, especially when Ginny showed him the note that Madeline had recieved at lunch (Madeline had just left it on the table so Ginny put it in her pocket). Finally he stood up and started pacing his office, clearly thinking hard.

"You say she already knew there was something wrong?" he questioned them.

"Well," started Harry, "Ginny first asked who the letter was from and Madeline just said there was no signature but she was gonna go. We never saw the letter so we had no idea where she was planning on going. Then Madeline asked if one of us could go with her so Ron volunteered, but the way she was talking and the look on her face just showed worry and so I was guessing something was up." while he spoke Ginny slightly moved closer to him and Ron looked at them with a knowing look in his eyes before glancing back at Dumbledore.

"We will need to send Hagrid to search out information for us. Meanwhile we will form our plan of attack and get miss McGonagoll back!" Dumbledore stared at them with a ferious hope and pride.