Chapter 8: A Thrill of Two Sneaks
The Gryffindor team marched onto the Quidditch Pitch, broomsticks slung over the shoulders as their scarlet robes billowed wildly behind them. The Slythern Quidditch team waited patiently, standing in a semi-circle with their green robes blowing around them.
The Gryffindor team formed the rest of the circle, all of the players forming a ring around the crate that carried the quaffle, bludgers, and the Golden Snitch.
The crowd in the stands cheered wildly, their colors separated into red and green. Charlie swallowed and peered into the sneering face of Slytherin Quidditch captain Trevor. Charlie had not forgotten their confrontation two days ago and vowed to do anything in his power to take down the Slytherin team off of their pedestal.
"Captains, shake hands," ordered Madam Hooch, the referee for this match. Gryffindor Quidditch captain Mark Smith stepped forward along with Trevor Tallis and the two rivals tried to crush the other's hand.
They stepped back as Madam Hooch opened the crate with a flick of her wand; the quaffle and bludgers soared out of the crate and the game began!
Gryffindor chaser Charles Taylor seized the quaffle and shot off towards the Slytherin goalposts. Gregory Hughes, the Slytherin keeper, slowly gauzed Taylor's movements. Taylor maneuvered skillfully around Slytherin beater Anthony Ellis, flung his arm back, and rocketed the quaffle towards the middle goal hoop and scored.
Charlie skirted the ground in search of the golden snitch; he couldn't have asked for better weather as the sky was a light blue with a gentle breeze. Charlie soared higher into the air all the while keeping his eye on the Slytherin seeker Peter Williams.
Gryffindor chaser Anna Hall had taken a brutal bludger in her right shoulder from Slytherin beater Ellis who had a nasty smirk across his face.
Gryffindor beater Jackson Clark hit over a bludger at Slytherin chaser Richard Evans which whacked him directly in his back, causing him to fall forward on his broomstick, instigating a steep dive. Evans' face was contorted in pain and rage as his broomstick hurtled towards the ground. At the last second, Evans pulled out of his steep dive though he was clutching his throbbing back.
Charlie circled the Quidditch pitch and flew over the sea of red that he knew were the Gryffindors. However, flying over them, he saw the familiar face of Hermione, cheering him on. Charlie felt another fire rise deep inside of him as he took off at lightning pace to find the golden snitch first.
The score of the match now stood at 70-60 to Gryffindor. Tallis had possession of the quaffle; he flew directly over Hall who tried to block him and soared headlong into Gryffindor keeper Mark Smith. Smith eyed Tallis as he sped towards the Gryffindor goalposts. Tallis' eyes never left Smith's. Tallis faked throwing the quaffle through the right hoop but instead circled the quaffle behind his back and it soared through the left goalpost.
As the sea of Slytherin green cheered loudly, Charlie's eyes darted all around the pitch. Charlie kept muttering to himself, 'for Hermione, for Hermione.' Instantly, Charlie spotted the golden snitch; it was flying higher into the air directly in the center of the pitch.
Like a speeding bullet, Charlie raced forth like never before. The wind whipped back his scarlet robes with a powerful force, his short red hair flying behind him. Charlie outstretched his hand; he was getting closer and closer to the snitch.
Suddenly, a great fire erupted from out of the treetops of the Forbidden Forest. Charlie saw the fireball spurt towards the sky and disappear in a wisp of black smoke out of the corner of his. Charlie didn't notice Slytherin keeper Peter Williams had now caught up with him.
Charlie stretched out his arm a little farther and his arms closed over the tiny fluttering ball. Just as this happened, Williams' fist collided violently with Charlie's nose. As blood spurted down his face and onto the golden snitch, Charlie let go of his broom in a howl of pain.
Charlie faltered and then slipped off his broom, his body in freefall, plunging towards the hard surface of the earth. He heard screams and off in the distance a whistle shrilled loudly; he had no control over his body. His limbs were twisting and turning as he hurtled closer and closer towards the ground.
Then, out of nowhere, Gryffindor keeper Smith caught Charlie's forearm and let him down slowly onto the ground with the golden snitch still in his hand. Charlie smiled wide, realizing he had ended the game with a Gryffindor win of 220-70.
The rest of the Gryffindor team landed around him and hoisted him up, clapping him on the back with their congratulations. The sea of red and gold cheered wildly, waving their Gryffindor banners in victory.
"Okay, okay, settle down, we need to take Weasley to the hospital wing. I think his nose is broken," roared Smith, a wide smile still plastered across his face, elated his team had won the first match of the season.
Charlie got cleaned up at the hospital wing while his team went back to Gryffindor Tower to celebrate. Charlie was sitting up on one of the beds in the hospital wing seconds after Madam Profrey fixed his nose and cleaned the blood off of his face.
The doors of the hospital wing opened slowly and Hermione's head appeared in the doorway.
Charlie smiled widely and reassured her, "I'm fine, you know. You can come in." He waved his hand, beckoning for her to enter.
Hermione sighed and sat on the bed next to Charlie. "You know, that was a pretty spectacular catch. You caught the snitch right in front of the Slytherin seeker's eyes. I bet he was furious," laughed Hermione.
Charlie chuckled and added, "Yeah, furious enough the snap my nose." Charlie shook his head and looked over at Hermione.
She was smiling and he wondered how she was handling the death of her parents. She seemed completely fine, her hair windswept and her cheeks rosy.
"You know, I think Adam was more afraid for you than I was," Hermione commented. "After you fell off your broom," she added, seeing the puzzled look on his face. "He clutched onto me so tightly that I lost all feeling in my left arm."
Charlie threw his head back and laughed. "You were worried for me," Charlie asked innocently.
"Of course I was! You were flying so high and then all of a sudden, your body was flying towards the ground," Hermione exclaimed. "But Charlie, as glad as I am that you are okay, I also wanted to talk to you about something."
Charlie's breath hitched in his throat as his heart rate quickened. "Right before you caught the snitch; I saw fire shoot out of the forest."
Charlie let out a slow breath, understanding Hermione wanted to talk to him about the dragon and not about where their relationship was headed.
"Yeah, I saw it too," Charlie replied. He ran his hand over his short red hair, deep in thought. "I mean, it's not that serious that Professor Roberts is secretly hiding a dragon in the forest, is it?" Charlie asked.
"It's not a problem, no, until other students find out. You saw how both Adam and Josh reacted when they thought a dragon was in the forest. Imagine what would happen if students actually knew there was a dragon in the forest. Professor Roberts said he would notify Headmaster Dumbledore and I can hardly believe that he would know of the dragon and do nothing about it," replied Hermione.
"So are you saying we should go tell Dumbledore ourselves?" Charlie looked apprehensive. Although he knew Headmaster Dumbledore was kind and gentle, talking directly to Headmaster Dumbledore unnerved him greatly.
"Well, that's what I was thinking, yes." Hermione nodded her head in confirmation to Charlie's question.
"Hermione, do you think that maybe we could just ask Professor Roberts about this," Charlie said.
"And what, have him feed us another lie? He already said once that the dragon would be taken care of. I don't see as to why he would even tell a couple of students the truth about that dragon anyway."
Charlie looked out of one of the hospital's windows, thinking wildly. "Unless, maybe we can sneak into his office and see if he has anything on the dragon in there."
"Are you insane?!" Hermione half-asked, half-yelled, with a furious look on her face. "You and I are Gryffindor Prefects! We can't just go searching into professor's offices! That is a blatant invasion of privacy and would breach the grounds of trust the professors hold with the prefects!"
"Hermione, think about it this way. All we are doing is going into his office and searching for any clues as to what his connection might be to the dragon. You obviously think he won't tell us the truth about the creature but it discomforts you to know that the students might risk themselves in search of the dragon as long as it stays in the forest.
"As the days go by, the risk that the dragon being discovered gets higher and higher. You saw evidence of that today when the dragon shot out the great ball of flame right in the middle of a Quidditch game! We don't even know if no one else saw it," reasoned Charlie.
Hermione looked unsure of herself as her eyebrows furrowed together. Her hands were wringing and twisting her Gryffindor scarf she now held in her hands.
"Well, we could still go to Headmaster Dumbledore -," Hermione started.
"And do you think he has time for two fifth-year students," asked Charlie. "He's not even at school all the time. I know he wasn't at breakfast this morning," Charlie continued.
Hermione sighed in exasperation as her options of seeking answers about the dragon started narrowing down.
"How are we going to coax Professor Roberts out of his office and what if he walks in while we're still in there," asked Hermione.
"That's simple, I'll tell Adam and Josh to make conversation with him and we'll just cast a Disillusionment Charm on ourselves," Charlie replied.
Hermione scoffed. "Do you have all of the answers, Charlie Weasley?"
"As long as you have all of the questions, Hermione Granger?" Charlie smiled at Hermione while she smirked back at him. "Just think about it, we're doing this for the safety for the younger students."
Hermione slowly nodded her head in understanding. But Charlie was running high on anticipation after his Gryffindor win and he was eager for another thrill.
Charlie and Hermione decided to set their plan into motion the following weekend. Down at breakfast on Saturday morning, Charlie spotted Professor Roberts in the Great Hall, eating a plate of eggs. Charlie noted that Hermione actually sat with him, Adam, and Josh which greatly pleased him.
The four reiterated their plans again after Hermione had decided both Adam and Josh were to know about the dragon if they were to help with their plan.
Adam and Josh both planned to ask Professor Roberts extra help with their Patronuses while Charlie and Hermione were to sneak into his office. Charlie estimated they would need at most ten minutes to scour his office.
Satisfied and confident in Adam and Josh, both Charlie and Hermione rushed out of the Great Hall as discreetly as they could and hurried up to Professor Roberts' office.
Once outside Professor Roberts' office, Charlie tried opening the door but it wouldn't budget. Hermione scoffed and said, "You really didn't think he would leave it unlocked, did you?"
Charlie blushed a deep red but didn't reply. Hermione took out her wanted and muttered ALOHOMORA and the door clicked and swung open. Before Hermione could walk in, Charlie lightly grabbed her arm and cast the Disillusionment charm on both of them just as a precaution.
The pair walked into his office as the door slowly shut behind them. At once, Charlie started ruffling through the papers on his desk while Hermione quickly looked at the spines of their professor's book on his bookshelf.
"He has a lot of books on Animagus transformation and dragons," called out Hermione. Charlie moved away from his desk after finding nothing out of the ordinary. Charlie looked over at a wall and gasped.
Charlie's sudden intake of breath startled Hermione and she dropped her book in alarm. She looked over at what Charlie was staring at and gasped herself: one of Professor Roberts' office walls was covered in pictures of the dragon they saw in the forest. The pictures were from all different angles; it seemed to Charlie as if Professor Roberts had a strange obsession with this one dragon.
Abruptly, the door to Professor Roberts' office banged open, causing both Charlie and Hermione to jump in alarm. Framed in the doorway was Professor Roberts, his breaths short and his wand aloft. He noticed the book lying on the ground and wildly searched his office.
Twice his eyes roamed directly over where Charlie and Hermione were standing; both of them had squeezed their eyes shut, worried the whites of their eyes would give them away. Charlie felt a sudden movement and peeked out of the corner of his eye and heard rather than saw Hermione whisper a quiet REDUCTO. One of Professor Roberts' office windows shattered, causing him to jump in alarm.
He ran over to the window as Hermione grabbed Charlie's hand and the pair darted out of his office. They ran all the way to Gryffindor Tower and outside of the Fat Lady Painting, Charlie took off their Disillusionment charms.
"That was close, Charlie," gasped Hermione, clutching at her sides. Charlie nodded in agreement when suddenly, he started laughing.
Hermione looked over at Charlie as if he were insane but then started laughing herself. Together, they walked into Gryffindor Tower.
After learning that both Adam and Josh were attacked by Peeves, a ghost infamous for playing tricks on students, Charlie and Hermione quickly forgave them. The pair later learned that Peeves took hold of both of their goblets filled with Pumpkin Juice and threw it back into their faces.
In the commotion, Professor Roberts had suddenly stood up and dashed out of the Great Hall. Hermione assumed he placed a silent alarm on his office door, altering him to any intruders.
As Christmas was quickly approaching, Charlie kept wondering to himself what Hermione was going to do for the holiday.
After dinner one night, Charlie asked, "Hermione, are you planning on staying at the castle for Christmas?"
"Yes, I am. I don't think I could stomach going home," Hermione replied.
Charlie smiled and told her, "I have a plan."
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Well, here is the finished product of Chapter 8! I am so thankful to you all who have read my story thus far. As always, Chapter 9 is now a work-in-progress and feel free to rate, review, and share with your friends!
