The end of October brought with it chilly air and windy days. Students were more often than not found inside the castle trying to pass the time.
The Inter-House Quidditch Team, however, was not among this lucky group. The last Saturday of October was the first round of matches for the year - Inter-House Chimaeras versus Hogwarts Dragons in the morning, Ravenclaw Eagles versus Slytherin Serpents in the afternoon, and Hufflepuff Badgers versus Gryffindor Lions that evening. Harry looked at Draco, who was shivering. And fuming over how he wasn't allowed to snipe at Ron during team time, but mostly shivering.
It had turned out that Madam Hooch was composing this year's team entirely out of first-year students, as a favor to Dumbledore. Not that anyone above first-year had bothered to show any interest in the team. Everyone was convinced that it was going to be Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff for the final match.
Harry had been surprised at how the tryouts had ended up, even over a month later. Draco had been over the moon when Harry made Chaser, and none of the other hopeful Seekers could hold a candle to Draco. Ron had tried out for Keeper, which Harry found surprising. Even more surprising was when Hermione Granger tried out for the position of Beater. She was hit by Bludgers more often than she hit them, but she at least had the guts to try out for the position she wanted... unlike Neville, who got sick from nerves before the Chasers could try out and ended up just watching the rest of the tryouts. Himeko and Daichi got into an argument before the beater tryouts, and started hitting the Bludgers at each other when they came up (together, for some bizarre reason), but they could always get the Bludger to go where they wanted it to.
Harry smiled at the memory, but then his imagination took over. He was hovering over near the goal posts, and some sandy-haired boy he didn't recognize was arguing with someone who looked like Cedric, only meaner. The Cedric-lookalike took the beater's bat from the sandy-haired boy, and hit a Bludger at Harry... who ducked and rolled on the ground. He felt the stares of the others on him, and blushed.
Draco snickered. "Practicing for when our beaters start arguing?"
Eventually, everyone settled into their positions in the air. Harry found himself as the center Chaser, playing opposite Professor Flitwick. Terry Boot and Morag MacDougal were facing Professors Sinistra and Babbage as the left and right Chasers. Himeko Nonohara and Kobayashi Daichi were Beaters, opposed by Professors Trelawney and Professor Vector. Ron Weasley and Professor McGonagall were the Keepers, while Seeker Draco found himself looking Professor Snape in the eyes.
A minute later, the balls were in the air. Ten minutes after that, the final score was 30-190, in favor of the Hogwarts Dragons. Professor McGonagall was seen congratulating Ron Weasley for his "surprisingly good skills at Keeping," while Severus Snape was giving Draco a bad-tempered glare for not realizing that the Snitch was floating three inches above his (Draco's) own head. Harry had been too busy trying to get the Quaffle past Professor McGonagall to listen to the commentary for the match (or to really pay attention to the rest of the game), and resolved to actually pay attention to the rest of the games for the day.
Shortly after the lunch break, the second game of the day began - Ravenclaw versus Slytherin. He sat next to Cedric Diggory for the match, and was joined shortly after by the Weasley Twins and Professor Dumbledore. The match had been going for a good five minutes when Harry noticed it.
There were supposed to be fifteen brooms in the air - two teams of seven plus a referee. So what was that blonde girl doing flying well above the game? Harry tried to get Dumbledore's attention and succeeded, but when he directed the older man's attention to where he'd seen the mysterious girl, Cho Chang flew right in between them and the girl in order to catch the snitch. The Twins and Cedric were convinced that Harry had seen the Snitch just before Cho caught it, and when Harry tried to get another look at the mysterious girl, she was nowhere to be found.
The final score of the Ravenclaw-Slytherin game was 280-350, with Ravenclaw winning after about an hour of play. The wind picked up, and Harry hurried inside of the castle to wait for the evening game, where Hufflepuff would almost certainly trounce Gryffindor. As he reached the great hall, however, he noticed something else.
Professor Quirrel was sitting at the staff table, scowling at Argus Filch. Harry couldn't see it from where he was standing, but Filch was currently busy trying to bind Quirrel's leg with gauze - as it had very recently been ripped apart by an angry cerberus.
"So why didn't you give the little runt a detention, Quirrel?" Argus grumbled.
"I t-told you, Filch, I couldn't r-recognize which student it w-was, and the magic b-binding the detentions requires that the name of the st-student be said quite clearly!" Quirrel winced in pain. "B-besides, it was much more important that I g-get the student out of h-harm's way!"
Filch gave Professor Quirrel a look that said quite clearly that he didn't believe a word of it. "Yeah, well if I had my way I'd have let the student have a round with the beast before rescuing him. Teach him a lesson he won't forget anytime this century."
Quirrel laughed. "Y-yes, but if you had your w-way there wouldn't be any s-students left to teach!"
Filch shrugged. "The smart ones would still be alive."
Quirrel laughed some more before he noticed Harry. "P-Potter! Is the g-game over already?"
Harry nodded. "Ravenclaw won."
"That's a s-shame; I'd bet S-Severus ten gallons that Slytherin would w-win."
Harry blinked. "Don't you mean ten galleons?"
"N-no, ten Gallons. T-ten gallons of apple j-juice." Quirrel sighed. "I do so l-love apple juice."
Harry filed this information away for later use. "Did a student really try to break into the third-floor corridor?"
Quirrel nodded. "Y-you've got good e-ears, Potter. Don't l-let them go to w-waste."
Filch slapped the injured leg, and Quirrel winced. "Dumbledore'd want to hear about this sort of thing, Quirrel. If a student knows about the Stone, there'll be all kinds of trouble."
Quirrel nodded darkly. "I agree, I should t-tell Dumbledore immediately."
Harry watched as the turbaned man limped towards the Quidditch pitch, but when the turban faced Harry properly, his scar began hurting. He winced in pain, and decided to go lie down and see if it would go away in time for the Gryffindor/Hufflepuff match.
It was dark when Harry woke up. Someone was shaking him and calling out his name.
He opened his eyes, and thought he saw Cedric Diggory sighing in relief. "Don't scare us like that, Harry. We'd thought Quirrel had caught you trying to get into the Third Floor Corridor."
Harry yawned. "I fell asleep? What time is it? Did Hufflepuff win the match?"
"Yes, eight in the evening, and yes. Two-hundred ten to seventy." Cedric blinked. "Dumbledore's been worried sick about you, but wouldn't say why."
"I had a headache and came to lay down for a bit. You said it's eight?"
Cedric nodded. "Yeah, and there's no food left in the Great Hall. I told Susan Bones to tell Professor Babbage that you weren't going to be in class tonight, so don't worry about missing Astronomy; we can fill you in later on whatever you may have missed."
Harry yawned again. "That's fine; I'll just blackmail the Weasley Twins into showing me how to get into the kitchens later."
Cedric laughed. "Just what would you blackmail the Weasley Twins, of all people, with?"
Harry blinked. He hadn't thought about that yet. "Well, the only think I know they were doing that they weren't supposed to be doing was being up and about after curfew..."
Cedric laughed again. "They're always up after curfew. Dumbledore's told the teachers that until Filch catches them out of bounds, they seriously injure another student, or they cause mayhem in any common room other than Gryffindor, they're permitted to keep being up after curfew. Thank you for that, Professor Icklibõgg."
Harry managed to stifle a yawn as he stood up from his bed. "Must be nice to be a Gryffindor."
Cedric frowned. "I wouldn't say that just yet. Legend has it that every year some Gryffindor gets roped into solving some sort of conspiracy that's wandered into the school. Last year the Weasley Twins caught Professor Icklibõgg selling his toenails as rare restorative items. Olliver Wood's third year here, he got convinced that there was something called the 'Pillar of Storgé' that he needed to destroy in order to... damn, I can't remember what the justification for that one was. Anyhow, there's always some sort of conspiracy that's going on at Hogwarts, and it's almost always a Gryffindor that ends up solving it."
Harry's stomach growled. "Do you know where the kitchens are, by any chance?"
Cedric shrugged. "Technically, students aren't supposed to know how to enter the kitchens, but there's no rule saying that they're not allowed in. Outside of our common room..."
Harry stared at the painting. Was Cedric pulling his leg? No, it would have been too much of a coincidence, since he'd found the Weasley Twins out here back after his detention with Snape. Tentatively, he reached up and tickled the pear.
To his surprise, the pear giggled and moved out of the way, revealing a smallish hole that Harry could enter easily. He could smell food, and his stomach was urging him forward. There was a bright light, and he thought he heard squeaky voices. When his eyes adjusted, Harry gasped.
He'd seen the old Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory movie (it being one of Dudley's favorites), and his first thought was that he'd walked into a room full of bald albino oompah-loompahs with batlike ears and towels for clothes. They were busy cleaning the dishes from dinner. Harry quietly poked one that didn't look like it was doing much of anything in the shoulder.
"Yes, yes, Master Wheezy, we has your... you're not Master Wheezy!" It squeaked. "Who is you?"
"Er, I'm Hungry Potter." Harry said, not thinking about what he was saying.
"Hungry Potter?" the thing asked, apparently not sure if it had heard right.
"Yeah, that's right." Harry said. "I am hungry."
The things started to gather around. "We house-elves has heard that Harry Potter would be coming to Hogwarts like James Potter, but we didn't knows that he has a brother!"
Harry blinked. "I have a brother?"
"Yes! Hungry Potter has a brother named Harry Potter!"
Harry blinked again. "Er, I'm not sure you heard me right. I'm Harry Potter. I'm also hungry."
"Master Hungry?"
"Yes. May I have something to eat?"
"Of course! Master Hungry is hungry! We house-elves must gets him something delicious to eat!"
Harry blinked a third time. "I'm not Hungry, I'm Harry! And I am hungry, too!"
"So THAT's why the House Elves keep asking about Master Hungry?" Dumbledore asked, laughing to the point of tears.
Harry was laughing fit to burst. "When I tried to tell them that I was hungry but not Hungry, they took the food away. I eventually just gave in and told them to call me Hungry Potter."
Holding back laughter, Dumbledore sighed. "It sounds like a bad Abbot and Costello routine. Just be glad they didn't turn seven thirteens into twenty-eight."
Harry laughed, despite having no conception of what Abbot and Costello was.
Author's Note: Filler is fun to write but not to read. Feel free to skip this chapter in later readings if you wish, the only real thing that happens is Harry enters the Kitchens for the first time.
If you're wondering why this isn't labeled as a crossover at the present time, I'm trying an experiment. Since this crossover is with a fandom that never gets crossed over with anything, I'm trying to get people to actually see this story. Seriously, until I came along, there were NO crossovers of anything with Hime-chan's Ribbon. Now there are two.