AN: So here we are, another chapter. There was a bit of a wait for this one as I kind of got carried away with my not-so-side-project-anymore (Rebuild) but here it is anyway, Chapter 9.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter!
Chapter 9, The Curse of Halloween.
By Wednesday afternoon Frances was thoroughly knackered. She only had two extra classes this year, but after the long lazy summer her body wasn't quite used to the early starts just yet. Ancient Runes and Arithmancy were her new subjects. Most of her classmates had been put off taking Ancient Runes by the tome sized textbook, and as Arithmancy involved logic and problem solving, rather than fun incantations or other more direct magical activities, her friends had taken the other options for third year. The only person in her classes she personally knew was Hermione, so they had agreed to work together.
By lunch time she was sat at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall, waiting for her friends to join her for lunch, and her head was full to bursting with all sorts of numbers and magical symbols. When Cassandra came to sit beside her she had to move her gigantic tome that took up the seat next to her onto the floor.
"How were your new classes?" Cassandra asked as she sat down.
"Fascinating, although I'm not sure if even I will be able to finish reading that thing," she said, indicating the book at their feet. "How were yours?"
"I absolutely loved Divination," Cassandra said excitedly. "We're going to learn how to read tea leaves and crystal balls and all sorts of different ways of telling the future, I've already started adding to my notebook. Professor Trelawney...
"She doesn't care about that Cas, tell her about the Hippogriff!" Hannah interrupted.
"Oh, well in Care of Magical Creatures..."
"In Care of Magical Creatures Professor Hagrid showed us a Hippogriff, absolutely amazing creature, and he let Harry fly him, and then Malfoy tried to stroke it and it kicked him and he's in the hospital wing now."
"Take a breath Hannah," Susan said laughing. "I don't know why you didn't take the subject Frances, you would have loved the Hippogriff."
"I'm sure I would have," said Frances, laughing at Hannah's outburst, "but there's just something incredibly fascinating about learning another language, an ancient magical language. And haven't you ever wondered why certain wand movements have certain effects, or why potions ingredients react in different ways, it's all connected you see, like a mathematical pattern, all you have to do is find the pattern and, what?" She asked when she realised all three of her friends were staring at her.
"I've never seen you so passionate about school work before, it's rather scary." Cassandra said.
"You haven't heard her discussing the International Warlock Convention or the Goblin Wars with Padma Patil," Susan contributed. Frances blushed. She did get a little carried away sometimes but she just loved learning all the ancient lore. Cassandra was the same when she talked about the stars.
"There's nothing wrong with being passionate about stuff," she said, "at least I don't waste my time with things like Quidditch or who ever is on the front of the latest edition of Witch Weekly." It was Hannah's turn to blush. She had a bit of a habit of becoming slightly obsessed with Witch Weekly's latest hot topic, although she'd never revealed her obsessions to her friends, so Frances didn't realise she was actually making fun of her.
"I think you need a hobby." Cassandra announced. "You're not into Quidditch, or anything that doesn't involve reading for that matter, but there must be something you can do for fun."
"I have fun!" Frances protested. "I have fun when I'm hanging out with you guys."
"Yeah, so much fun that you usually ditch us to go to the library. You've never even been to a Quidditch match!"
"That's because the library is quieter when everyone's down at the pitch." Frances countered.
"I'll make you a deal. You come to the first Hufflepuff match, and in return I'll do all of my homework for the rest of the year without complaining."
Frances shook her head, "you should be doing your homework without complaining anyway, how do you expect to become a good witch?"
"I'm already skilled in Astronomy and Divination and Charms is easy. I don't really care about the other subjects."
"You won't be saying that in two years time when we're studying for our OWLS."
"No, I'll be too busy studying. Come on Frances just this once come watch the game with us, you never know, you might actually enjoy it."
Frances wanted to frown at her friend and tell her no, but Cassandra was pulling puppy dog eyes at her and she was finding it hard to refuse her. "Oh alright then, I'll come to the match," she finally said.
The girls were incredibly busy for the first two months, with the extra classes and homework they were finding little time to just hang out. The first time Frances really had a chance to let herself relax was on their first Hogsmeade visit on Halloween. They had such a good time browsing through all the shops, buying tons of sweeties and supplies for school, and relaxing in the Three Broomsticks drinking butterbeer. It was the sweetest drink she had ever tasted, almost sickeningly so, even the froth had such a strong creamy taste. The day out had been fun and they were all tired when they got back to the castle but it wasn't over yet; they still had the feast to attend.
Cassandra had a feeling of foreboding as they made their way to the Great Hall. Frances told her she was being silly but she couldn't help feeling that she might just be right. There wasn't exactly a great track record when it came to the Halloween feast, what with the troll in first year and the basilisk attack last year. She wondered if there was some sort of curse, after all it wasn't just witches and wizards who celebrated all things supernatural on 31st October. How did the muggles find out about Halloween anyway?
She didn't have time to ponder this question as they soon arrived at the Great Hall. As always it was a spectacle to behold; all floating pumpkins and colourful streamers hanging from candles. There were about a hundred charmed bats flying around and she was sure the eery singing was coming from the transfigured cats. Halloween was an almost bigger occasion than Christmas in the wizarding world and Frances loved it, especially here at Hogwarts, were the tables were full of candy and chocolate and all the yummy things muggle children have to dress up and do party tricks for.
It was one of those rare occasions were everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, from the least likeable Slytherin to Dumbledore himself, who was laughing merrily at a story Hagrid was telling and sloshing pumpkin juice down his beard. Professor McGonagall was attempting to look stern as she watched the antics of the Weasley twins but she didn't seem inclined to do anything about it. Even Filch cracked a smile, but at what no one could say. Once all the food was gone and everyone had headed off to bed Frances and the girls were still buzzing. They had sneaked some pumpkin juice down from the hall and were now heating it up at their hearth.
"See, I told you nothing was going to happen," Frances told Cassandra. There had been no disasters of any kind, no troll, no basilisks, nothing.
"I was only being cautious, you never know with this place."
Frances shook her head. "Hogwarts is the safest place you can be, with Dumbledore here anyway. What could have gone wrong?"
"You mean besides the obvious?"
That brought about a few laughs, not because the events of the previous years had been funny, just the fact that such events were considered obvious in the first place. Hogwarts was a rather strange place and you never knew what was going to happen. So far this year had been pretty quiet, and it sort of made Cassandra feel uneasy, like she was just waiting for something to go wrong. Not only that but for the last few weeks the stars had been telling her that something was coming, something or someone and she hated not knowing what or who. As it turned out she didn't have to wait long to find out.
Before the girls had even had a chance to finish their drinks there was a nock on the bedroom door. Hannah, who was the closest to the door, got up to answer it. It was a sixth year girl named Rebecca Rivers. "We've all to go back up to the Great Hall, Dumbledore's orders," she said. Still dressed in their pyjamas and slippers and feeling completely confused the girls followed the rest of their house mates back upstairs. Once inside the Great Hall they were met with a troublesome scene. What looked like the entire student body of Gryffindor house were huddled together and talking frantically to one other. Some looked panicked, others scared, and at the other end of the hall the teachers were gathered together, discussing something that seemed to be rather distressing. Frances spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione over in one corner. "I'll be right back," she said to her friends.
"What's going on?" She asked when she reaches her Gryffindor friends.
"Oh, hey Frances," Ron said distractedly.
"We can't get into out common room!" Hermione exclaimed. "The lady in our portrait was attacked!"
"Attacked? By who? A Slytherin?"
"No, er, it was," she shot a worried glance in Harry's direction, unsure if she was allowed to say.
"You may as well tell her Hermione the whole school's gonna find out soon enough."
"Well, it was, it was Sirius Black," she said.
"What!? Here in the castle? How?"
"We don't know, but we think," she looked at Harry again, but didn't finish her sentence.
"We think he's after me," Harry said quietly.
Frances didn't know what to say. Why did these sort of things always happen to him? Before she could ask however Dumbledore shouted to get everyone's attention.
"I am afraid, for your own safety, you'll have to spend the night here," he informed the students. He told them all that the staff were going to do a thorough search of the castle and in the mean time the prefects would be in charge. Before he left with the other Professors he conjured large purple sleeping bags for everyone to sleep in.
Cassandra climbed into hers and rolled on her side to face Frances. "Told you something was going to happen," she whispered to her friend.
The attack was all that anyone could talk about for days. The Slytherins took great joy in commiserating rather loudly that Black hadn't gotten into the common room, and the Ravenclaws were trying to figure out how he could have possibly gotten into the castle in the first place. Most of the Hufflepuffs were trying to ignore the whole situation and hope it would blow over but it wasn't in Cassandra's nature to just let things be.
"What if he comes back?" She asked one evening.
"Then he'll get caught," Frances said without looking up from her book.
"Yeah Dumbledore will be ready for him this time," Hannah added.
"But we won't be, what if he sneaks up on us, and there aren't any teachers about?"
Frances marked her place on the page and looked up at her friend. "There isn't much we can do Cas, we're just kids."
"I know that. We should practice, you know, defending ourselves and stuff. Like if he came at me I'd just cast incendio and burn him or something."
"Lovely, and you want to practice that on us?" Frances asked sarcastically.
"Yes, I mean no. I mean we should practice protego and stuff, you know, the stuff Professor Lupin's been teaching us."
"Well, even though I think that it's highly unlikely that we'll be in that situation, I think it's a good idea. You never were very enthusiastic about homework but remember when we practiced the counter curses in first year? That was fun, and we all got top marks for that assignment." She turned to Susan and Hannah to see if they were game and to her delight they were both nodding enthusiastically.
With the help of some older students the girls managed to clear a space in the middle of the floor, and by the time they were ready to start about 10 others wanted to join in too. Cedric Diggory enchanted a chair with a spell to make it indestructible and placed it in the middle of the circle they had formed. Taking it in turns the students cast the first spell that came to mind, the one they were most likely to cast if they were suddenly faced with danger. As she had said Cassandra cast incendio, a blazing trail of fire escaping from her wand and setting the chair alight. Thanks to Cedric's spell the chair remained unharmed. Frances used stupefy which of course had no effect on the chair other than to topple it over and Rebecca Rivers used a blinding spell that only managed to disorientate everyone, thus ending the practice.
Although it had been intended as homework everyone had actually really enjoyed their little practice session. It reminded Frances of a game some of the girls used to play in the playground back in muggle school, except they were using real magic. It had been a long time since she had put her books aside and just had fun. It was easy to forget that she didn't just go to school with these people, that they lived together, and were like family. Not just Cassandra and Susan and Hannah, but all the Hufflepuffs.
She remembered what it had been like the previous year when she had been left out from her immediate group of friends, and wished she had made that realisation sooner. She knew that if she had just asked for it the other Hufflepuffs would have taken her in. That's what it meant to be a Hufflepuff, they looked after one another. Today was a firm example of that, with the threat of Sirius Black looming over them they could have easily tried to ignore the situation and hope it would go away, try to stay out of trouble as Hermione would put it, but they didn't. They were going to stick together, like a family.
The weather was chilly and cold with promises of rain on the day of the Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor match, and the presence of the dementors only added to the gloomy atmosphere. Frances was trying to be optimistic about the whole thing, really she was, but she would much rather be back by the hearth in her bedroom, finishing her ancient Egyptian book or in the library finishing her transfiguration homework. When she told her friends this they would only shake their heads and remind her that she'd never even seen a Quidditch match before, therefor, how did she know she wouldn't like it.
Cassandra had explained the rules of the game to her and she thought it was rather unfair how one team could score all the goals but still loose the game because the other team's player caught the snitch. She remembered her own snitch, tucked away in the her grandad's box under her bed back home and wondered if he'd been a seeker. Had he played on the Hufflepuff team when he was at Hogwarts? She didn't have any time to think on the subject as they had reached the stadium.
The stands were a sea of red and yellow, the Gryffindor's all chanting in unison: "GO GO GRYFFINDOR! GO GO GRYFFINDOR!" The other side of the stadium was quieter but not any less excited. The buzz in the atmosphere was contagious and as the girls took their seats Frances found she was beginning to enjoy herself, just a little. It was still freezing cold and it had begun to rain but being huddled together in the stands with her friends she actually didn't mind.
Moments later the teams made their way onto the pitch. She could see Harry with his Gryffindor team mates and had to remind herself she was supposed to be supporting Hufflepuff. She didn't really know any of the players except Cedric, never the less she joined in when the students began cheering and clapping as the captains shook hands. Once Madam Hootch blew the whistle the players took to the sky and the game began.
As soon as the match started the rain went from light drizzle to pelting down, and within an instant the players were soaked to the skin. Frances tried to follow the Hufflepuff team, but her attention kept being drawn to Harry. He seemed to be having a really hard time. It looked as though he was struggling to see, which made him unsteady on his broom. At the other side of the stadium the Gryffindor's were cheering and she guessed they must have scored. Drawing her attention back to her own tran she gasped when one of the Hufflepuff chasers got hit by a bludger sent by one of the Weasley twins. The game continued for a while longer, Gryffindor scoring again putting them 50 points in the lead, when Madam Hootch blowed the whistle.
"Is it over?" Frances asked.
"No, someone's called a time out," Cassandra explained.
"Why don't they just call it off and reschedule for another day, they can't play in this weather, Harry can't even see!"
"You're supposed to be supporting Hufflepuff remember."
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Still can't they call a rain check?"
"Quidditch doesn't work like that, sometimes a game can last days if no one catches the snitch, and it certainly doesn't matter if it's raining a little."
"A little!?" Frances exclaimed, just as thunder clapped and a bolt of lighting shot down from the sky. "This isn't a little!"
Before Cassandra could say anything more the whistle had blown again and the game had resumed. Frances scouted the field until she spotted her friend, who seemed to be ok now. She watched as he dived in and out of the other players with confidence and determination. She figured he wanted to find that snitch as soon as possible so they could all get back inside. Cedric was on his heel the entire time, climbing higher and higher. Harry flew so high that Cedric started to fall back, but the Gryffindor seemed unaware.
He was now so high that the spectators couldn't see him through the rain and the clouds. When he didn't appear again for some time Frances started to grow worried. "He's a good flyer, he'll be fine," Cassandra said trying to reassure her friend. Telling herself that she was right Frances turned her attention back to the game. Gryffindor had scored another goal and the Hufflepuff beaters were trying their hardest to fend off the bludger from two of their chasers. It looked like it was going to be a grim defeat until there was a sudden uproar all around them.
"Cedric Diggory had caught the snitch!" Came Lee Jordan's voice over the tannoy. "But what's this, there appears to be something falling from the sky! Wait, not something, someone! It's, it's Harry Potter!" The entire stadium gasped and an eery silence feel as Harry plummeted to the ground, his broom crashing beside him and splintering into pieces. Frances could do nothing but stare at the spot where he had landed. Madam Hootch was running onto the pitch, closely followed by Professor McGonagall. She couldn't make out what was going on, but she continued to watch none the less, until Lee Jordan's voice announced that he was alive. "Oh thank Merlin." Frances whispered.
