Discovering Hogwarts- Chapter Ten: Pirates
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Alice returned to her room after a long day of classes, sadly prepared to… do more work; because the professors had decided to assign them all a bunch of assignments that just had to be completed in order to be admitted to the Halloween Feast, and rumor has it, the surprise ball after.
What was she thinking of when she decided to attend Hogwarts? She must have been crazy…
Her temporary insanity was why she was currently on her bed, buried under piles and piles of books.
But Hermione, Rosalie, and Bella weren't doing too well either. She thought Hermione was still sitting at the desk in the corner of the room. Bella was probably still on her bed, frantically scanning through her notes- or maybe she went to find Edward, she didn't know. And she was almost positive Rose was still sprawled across the floor, because she could hear the furious scribbling of her quill.
She was beyond bored.
Because, trying to write an essay on the 'Goblin Wars' was not fun at all. Alice really wanted to interrupt the silence in the room, but she was scared because she valued her life and was afraid of the reaction she would receive from interrupting a studying Hermione.
According to Ron, it was not something she should ever hope to experience.
"I don't think I'm going down for dinner, I still have loads to do," Hermione called out from the corner of the room.
Alice, deciding it may be best if she didn't either as she didn't see her essay writing itself any time soon, responded, "Yeah, me neither."
"Sounds good," Rose agreed. "Stupid quill! Stop blotting ink all over the place!" she added, hissing at her innocent writing tool.
Alice sympathized for the poor quill.
"Okay. I'll go down and tell the Edward and the others not to wait up for us?" Bella suggested.
Alice thought she gave her somewhat of an answer, and Bella most likely took it as a confirmation, since the door closed soon after.
Awhile later, surprisingly out of the blue, Rosalie asked, "Where's Bella?"
"Umm… didn't she go down half an hour ago to talk to the guys?" Alice reminded her uncertainly.
Because she wasn't sure if she really did hear Bella say that she was going downstairs to find Edward or if it was only because she had read about the goblin king, Belgrok the Third, deceiving his neighboring kingdom by pretending to sign a peace treaty with the reigning monarch Queen Edwina, but really leading his entire army in to conquer the territory instead.
It was all really quite confusing.
"I think so," Hermione nodded. But, no more words were needed as the door opened to a very flushed-looking Bella.
"Oh, there you are," Rosalie said.
"Hey," Bella smiled, "I brought you guys some bread, in case you were hungry."
Alice's eyes lit up. "I love you, Bella!"
She quickly devoured the food and forced herself to return to the wonderful, blood-thirsty life of the most aggressive and successful goblin king in history. Belgrok was actually quite a fascinating fellow.
Alice stretched out in front of the fire in the Gryffindor common room and leaned her head against a pillow, scanning over her essay.
Not because she fancied not sleeping, but because she didn't want to wake up Bella, Hermione, or Rose. They had all finished their homework, so she came down to the common room as to not wake them up.
The common room had emptied out ages ago, but she liked the silence. Contrary to popular belief, Alice Cullen did enjoy moments of peace and quiet.
As she finished proofreading her essay, she-
"Having fun?" a deep- and surprisingly familiar- voice suddenly shattered the calm surroundings, interrupting her careful evaluation, and nearly scaring her to death.
"AHHH!" Alice screamed and jumped up, unexpectedly crashing into something hard, only to bounce forward. She was involuntarily leaning nearer and nearer towards the ground, when a pair of arms wrapped around her and held her in place.
This, of course, prompted her to scream again.
"Relax, Alice," the same voice whispered softly in her ear. "It's just me."
"Jasper?" she asked, confused.
He chuckled. "You weren't scared, were you?" he asked slightly amusedly.
She rolled her eyes, blinking a couple times. "What are doing up so late?!" she questioned him accusingly, choosing to ignore his remark. She was unconsciously leaning closer towards him as she waited for his answer… until she realized that he was still holding her and what it was that she was actually doing.
She jumped out of his arms faster than Crabbe or Goyle could swallow a cupcake, and whirled around to face him, hoping she wasn't blushing too noticeably.
In her defense, the common room really was quite chilly, and the fireplace didn't help matters at all.
"I could ask you the same question," he smirked.
Alice attempted to give him a pointed look, as her patience was running a little thin at 1:00 in the morning, after a long, dragging day of classes.
He merely laughed. "I didn't eat dinner, so I was gonna get some food."
"Oh," she said, taken aback. But then she realized that food was only available during mealtimes. "Wait. How do you-?"
Jasper grinned. "Are you hungry?"
Alice had decided to answer 'no' until her stomach growled involuntarily. Wonderful.
He chuckled. "C'mon," heading towards the exit and gesturing for her to follow him.
She briefly debated on whether or not to go with him, but ended up following him as the offer of food really was too much to resist. It was no wonder people thought she and Emmett were related. However, she just thought they knew how to enjoy food- and not in the gross Crabbe and Goyle kind of way, either.
"Where are we going?" Alice asked.
"It's a surprise," Jasper smirked.
"Isn't the Head Boy worried about getting caught?" She teased him after he had led her down through six floors and counting.
Under the dim lighting, she caught a glimpse of him rolling his eyes. "Don't worry," he assured her half-mockingly, leading her down a flight of stony steps that led to a brightly lit corridor decorated with cheerful paintings that were mainly of food.
"Are you feeling all right?" she asked him, now genuinely concerned for his mental welfare as he stopped in front of a large painting of a silver fruit bowl and tickled the huge green pear inside.
"Honestly, do you want to go up to the Hospi-"
Her eyes widened to the size of saucers when the fruit begin to squirm and giggle, suddenly turning into a green door handle. He seized the handle and pulled the door open, gently poking her inside.
"Merlin," she breathed. She looked around, gazing upon the enormous, high-ceilinged room, with mounds of glittering brass pots and pans heaped around the stone walls, and a great big fireplace at the other end. "Is this… are… are we in the kitchens?!"
"Well, you know, that's quite a possibility," he reasoned with a grin as they sat down at one of the long wooden tables.
"Oh, shut up," she said cheerfully, too excited to actually infuse any form of menace into her tone.
Immediately, three house-elves rush towards them, curtsying and bowing.
"Hey, Dobby, Eggo, Jim," Jasper greeted them with a smile.
The house-elves beamed at him, delighted that he remembered their names.
"Can we get sir and madam anything?" Eggo asked eagerly.
"Yeah, could you guys fix us some dinner, please? We kinda missed it."
"Of course, Mr. Hale! We shall be right back!" they replied, happily bowing and rushing off to acquire the necessary items that would prevent Jasper and Alice's starvation.
Alice cocked an eyebrow at Jasper. "This is amazing! Do you come here often?"
He smiled. "Yeah, Harry, Ron, and I found it in fourth year."
The house-elves soon returned with a fully stocked cart of tea, pumpkin juice, roast beef, pork chops, bacon, boiled potatoes, salad, and treacle tart.
Neither of them bothered to waste a single second on conversation, and started to shovel down food as if they hadn't eaten in years.
Although, Alice did feel slightly apologetic as she briefly glimpsed a couple of nearby house-elves watching them with a mixture of awe, horror, and fascination.
"That was great as always, Dobby," Jasper high-fived the house-elf with a pencil shaped nose; bat-like ears; and enormous, green, tennis-ball-shaped eyes when they had finished eating.
"Thank you sir! We has been trying to improve the treacle tart ever since the incident with Mr. Emmett," he said proudly.
Alice sat up a little straighter. Did that have to do with why Emmett suddenly developed an irrational fear of treacle tart?
"Ah," Jasper laughed. "Good job, guys. I'm sure Em will be glad to hear that he can finally eat the treacle tart now."
The house-elves grinned happily, as if their lives' goal had just been fulfilled.
"Thank you so much!" Alice smiled. "I'm pretty sure you guys just saved my life."
"It was our pleasure, madam. Any friend of Mr. Hale is a friend of ours!" Dobby replied gleefully. "Sir, "he added in a smaller voice, "a fews of us is not so sure about Lesson 18," he said, his voice full of disappointment.
"Don't worry about it. We'll go over it in the next class," Jasper assured him, much to Alice's bewilderment.
As they prepared to leave, many of the surrounding house-elves crowded in, offering them snacks and sweets to take back upstairs. They accepted them quite happily.
"What was that about?" Alice asked as soon as soon as they left the kitchens.
"What was what about?" Jasper replied, confused.
She rolled her eyes. "You know, when you guys were talking about the lessons."
"Oh, that," he nodded casually. "Harry, Ron, Emmett, Edward, and I come down here and teach them stuff whenever we have time, so they can sort of get a basic education. I dunno, it was Edward's idea at first, but we all went with it. Emmett's even teaching them how to sing and act."
Alice raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Emmett can sing?"
Jasper started laughing as well, "You should hear him." Then he added leaned in closer to her and added in an undertone, "It gives me nightmares."
Alice giggled, much to her surprise, as she was never one to giggle.
"But wow, that really is so nice of you guys!" she grinned, ignoring the strange occurrence.
He shrugged. "It's cool. They're pretty good students."
"Do you think I could help?" she asked hopefully.
"Sure," he grinned. "I know they would have way more fun if you were there."
Alice blushed, but was confused at what that meant. She was silently grateful that they were now walking through the more dimly lit corridors.
They quickly reached Gryffindor Tower and Jasper whispered the password to the Fat Lady to allow them entrance into the common room.
"It's already 2:15," Alice groaned as she checked the clock. "I'm never gonna get up tomorrow!"
He smiled. "You'd better get some sleep, then."
"Yeah," she yawned. "Night."
"Good night," he called up after her as she dashed up the stairs, a bright smile on her face.
"Happy Halloween, Alice!" Seamus Finnegan yelled as she passed him in the common room.
"You too!" she grinned, tossing a Chocolate Frog at him.
"Thanks!"
She hurried up to her dorm, and was just about to turn the handle when the door opened, allowing a frantic Rosalie to haul her inside.
"Whoa! What in Merlin's name is going on?" she asked, surveying the room in wonder; because even though it was once-upon-a-time, a normal room shared by four seemingly ordinary girls; looking at it now, it was almost impossible to believe that there wasn't ever a time when it wasn't a professional dressing room.
She followed Rose to the opposite end of the room, still utterly confused and took extra care to avoid the vast assortment of sweets littering the floor- after all, it was Halloween.
She laughed when she realized what Rose was doing. Sitting in the two chairs in front of the mirrors and vanities, were Bella and Hermione, and they did not look happy.
"Hey, girls!" Alice chirped excitedly. "What's up?"
Hermione and Bella shot her identical murderous glares.
"Where have you been?!" Rosalie asked agitatedly.
Alice groaned. "Trelawney was trying to convince me to attend the International Seer Convention. She kept going on and on about the great potential I had and how she was just dying to show me off to her old Seer friends."
Hermione laughed.
"What'd you tell her?" Bella asked.
"Nothing," Alice shrugged, grabbing a bottle of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion and began applying it to Hermione's hair. "Apparently when Harry came up to talk to Jasper about some Quidditch thing, Trelawney saw him and just about exploded with all the horrible details of his future. I don't even think she realized we left."
"I've always said that woman was mental," Hermione scoffed.
Alice nodded her head in fervent agreement. That was why she had never disagreed with Hermione on the subject of mental people.
"Too true," Rosalie nodded a little distractedly, as she was busy curling Bella's hair. "Alice, hurry up Sleekeazy-ing Hermione's hair. You need to start getting ready soon; there isn't much time left."
" 'Kay," Alice said nervously.
She always took forever to get ready.
After they had all been declared perfect by one another, Hermione, Bella, Rosalie, and Alice happily headed down to the Great Hall to meet Edward, Emmett, Jasper, Ron, and Harry.
Alice smiled at Jasper and Harry as the other couples greeted each other. The three of them decided to go in first.
The Great Hall was lavishly decorated with brilliant floating pumpkins and small containers of sweets that floated through the air.
However, rather than the usual House tables that filled the Hall, there were plenty of smaller tables set up that each sat ten instead.
"You excited?" Jasper asked laughingly.
Alice looked at him. He looked extremely handsome with his golden hair in casual disarray and a few stray strands falling into his crystal blue eyes. For his costume, he wore a white puffy-sleeved shirt with the first few buttons undone, a leather vest, brown breeches, and leather boots.
He was a pirate.
Alice had always liked pirates.
…
……
But, erm, in a completely platonic way as a friend, of course.
Right. Alice thought Jasper was a great friend. A great friend.
"Um… yeah! I'm-"Alice attempted to respond.
"Harry!" a shrill voice rang out from behind them. "I see you!"
Harry's expression was one of pure terror. "Hide me!"
Jasper and Alice began laughing uncontrollably.
"Sorry, mate. Is that Romilda Vane?" Jasper grinned as Alice dragged the both of them toward the refreshment table
"Yeah," Harry frowned.
"You think she's moved on to bigger plots than love potions?" Jasper sniggered.
"Oooohhh… love potions?" Alice asked, interested now.
Harry groaned.
"Oh yeah. Last year, this girl, Romilda Vane, was completely obsessed with him and tried to give him a love potion," Jasper explained.
Alice laughed, "Aww… someone's got a crush on Harry!"
A nearby girl scowled at her.
"Okay… a lot of someones have a crush on Harry!" Alice corrected, rolling her eyes.
Apparently, this was quite true. Harry was dressed nonchalantly in his Quidditch robes, with his normally messy hair looking particularly windblown. Even though Alice was sure this was how he looked regularly after Quidditch practices or games, it didn't stop every girl that they walked by from winking and grinning widely at him.
"Our little Harry has grown up so much," Jasper said mock-proudly, dabbing his eyes. "I mean, before, it was just Moaning Myrtle who fancied him; but now, there are actually real humans who like him!"
"Ha-ha," Harry rolled his eyes. "You guys are hilarious," he said sarcastically.
"Of course I am!" a familiar voice boomed.
Alice turned around, smiling at the sight of Emmett with Rosalie, Edward, Bella, Ron and Hermione.
"Hey guys!" Hermione smiled.
"Aww, how cute! You're embracing your inner pixie, girl!" Emmett exclaimed - in an extremely fake and high-pitched tone that was a perfect imitation of some of the Hufflepuff and Slytherin girls - referring to the beautiful blue pixie costume that Bella had selected for Alice.
"You know it!" Alice squealed, high-fiving Emmett, who apparently decided to be a martial artist. He looked more intimidating than ever in his traditional white uniform and black belt.
"So, having fun?" Rose asked, adjusting the sea shells on top of her long wavy hair. She looked great dressed as a sparkly mermaid.
Jasper shrugged in response to his sister's question.
"We should go dance," Edward suggested, sending a glance at Bella since Professor Dumbledore really did arrange for a ball to go along with the feast.
Bella's eyes widened in horror as Ron cheered. "Yeah, Bella! C'mon!"
Harry leaned in closer to the group and added in a whisper, "You know, the other day, Edward was laughing at how you couldn't dance."
"What?!" Edward yelled, terrified. "What are you talking about? Don't believe him, Bella!"
"Yeah," Emmett said seriously, although it was evident he was trying not to laugh. "You're not gonna prove him right, are you Bella?" Jasper added.
Bella raised an eyebrow, "Well…" She grabbed Edward and started for the dance floor.
Edward turned around behind her and grinned, mouthing a 'thanks' to them.
"Good job, team," Emmett nodded approvingly. "Now… who wants to dance?!"
A/N: Sorry for not updating, but I hope you enjoyed this chapter and review! :)