Chapter 21
Grawp
The story of Fred and George's flight to freedom was retold so often over the next few days that Harry and Emma could tell it would soon become the stuff of Hogwarts legend: within a week, even those who had been eye-witnesses were half-convinced they had seen the twins five-bomb Umbridge on their brooms and pelt her with Dungbombs before zooming out of the doors. In the immediate aftermath of their departure there was a great wave of talk about copying them. Harry and Emma frequently heard students saying things like "Honestly, some days I just feel like jumping on my broom and leaving this place" or else "One more lesson like that and I might just do a Weasley."
Fred and George had made sure nobody was likely to forget them too soon. For one thing, they had not left instructions on how to remove the swamp that no filled the corridor on the fifth floor of the east wing. Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually, the area was roped off and filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across it to their classrooms. Harry and Emma were certain that teachers like McGonagall or Flitwick could have removed the swamp in an instant but, just as in the case of Fred and George's Wildfire Whiz-bangs, they seemed to prefer to watch Umbridge struggle.
Then there were the two large broom0shaped holes in Umbridge's office door, through which Fred and George's Cleansweeps had smashed to rejoin their masters. Filch fitted a new door and removed Harry's Firebolt to the dungeons where, it was rumoured, Umbridge had set an armed security troll to guard it. However, her troubles were far from over.
Inspired by Fred and George's example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of troublemakers-in-Chief. In spite of the new door, somebody managed to slip a hairy-snouted Niffler into Umbridge's office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects, leapt on Umbridge when she entered and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers. Dungbombs and Stink Pellets were dropped so frequently in the corridor that it became the new fashion for students to perform Bubble-Head Charms on themselves before leaving lessons, which ensured them a supply of fresh air, even though it gave them all the peculiar appearance of wearing upside-down goldfish bowls on their heads. In fact, Emma now had taught almost everyone in the school apart from Slytherin how to decorate their Bubble-Head Charms to how ever they wanted it to be. It was common now to see her standing somewhere in the school surrounded by many students who were begging her to show them how too, though it was clear that everyone had refused to teach the Slytherin because they always wore plain ones.
Filch prowled the corridors with a horsewhip ready in his hands, desperate to catch miscreants, but the problem was that there were now so many of them he never knew which way to turn. The Inquisitorial Squad was attempting to help him, but odd things kept happening to its members, Warrington of the Slytherin Quidditch team reported tot eh hospital wing with a horrible skin complaint that made him look as though he had been coated in cornflakes; Pansy Parkinson, to Hermione's delight, missed all of her lessons the following day as she had sprouted antlers.
Meanwhile, it became clear just how many Skiving Snackboxes Fred and George had managed to sell- and just how often Emma snuck out of school to get fresh supplies for everyone- before leaving Hogwarts. Umbridge only had to enter her classroom for the students assembled there to faint, vomit, develop dangerous fevers or else spout blood from both nostrils. Shrieking with rage and frustration, she attempted to trace the mysterious symptoms to their source, but the students told her stubbornly they were suffering from 'Umbridge-itis'. After putting four successive classes in detention and failing to discover their secret, she was forced to give up and allow the bleeding, swooning, sweating and vomiting students to leave her classes in droves where they would meet Emma in the Room of Requirement to practise some real Defence Against the Dark Arts.
But not even the users of the Snackboxes could compete with the master of chaos, Peeves, who seemed to have take Fred's parting words deeply to hear. Cackling madly, he soared through the school, upending the tables, bursting out of blackboards, toppling statues and vases; twice he shut Mrs Norris inside a suit of armour from which she was rescued, yowling loudly, by the furious caretaker. Peeves smashed lanterns and snuffed out candles, juggled burning torches over the heads of screaming students, caused neatly stacked piles of parchment to topple into fires or out of windows' flooded the second floor when he pulled of all the taps in the bathrooms, dropped a bag of tarantulas in the middle of the Great Hall during breakfast and, whenever he fancied a break, spent hours at a time floating along after Umbridge and blowing loud raspberries every time she spoke.
None of the staff but Filch seemed to be stirring themselves to help her. Indeed, a week after Fred and George's departure Harry and Emma witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could had sworn they heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth "It unscrews the other way."
To cap matters, Montague had still not recovered from his sojourn in the toilet; he remained confused and disorientated and his parents were to be observed one Tuesday morning striding up the front drive, looking extremely angry.
It was a Saturday evening when Emma came limping into the common room, looking like she was in agony. Everyone came running up too her, asking her what was wrong.
"It's nothing" Emma grimaced. Just then, they all saw the blood on her leg and it was a lot.
"Sit" Hermione commanded and Emma grimaced in pain as she sat down on a chair. Hermione gently lifted up her trouser leg and everyone gasped. Her leg had whips marks all over and they were bleeding badly.
"Emma" said Ginny "what happened?"
"Fine, if you must know, Umbridge had Filch whip me a thousand times for helping Fred and George escape. Filch was angry because he couldn't catch anyone so he made it two-thousand. Honestly, it's not as bad as it looks" Emma lied about the last part. The fact was that it was worst than it looks.
There were angry murmurs that went around the Gryffindor circle.
"You need to go and see Madam Pomfrey" said Hermione. Emma glared but then sighed. Yes, she did and there was no point in saying otherwise.
"Fine" she grumbled. Lee and Harry helped her up and guided her out of the portrait whole accompanied by Ginny, Ron and Hermione.
"Oh my goodness" said Madam Pomfrey, and ushered them to a bed where Emma sat down, wincing.
She then began her magic on Emma's leg and after a painful hour, she was finished.
"Now, if you're going anywhere, you have to use these" said Madam Pomfrey, handing her crutches. Emma muttered something that they couldn't understand and took them.
"Thanks, Madam Pomfrey" she said and walked as best as she could with the crutches out of the hospital with everyone tailing worriedly along behind her.
"If George knew..." Lee started but Emma whirled around, looking slightly scared and worried at the same time.
"If you tell him, I swear you will regret it. I do not need a worried George on my case" she said, rubbing her leg because she had put too much weight on it.
"Fine" said Lee, holding up his hands "I won't tell him."
"Good" said Emma and began to walk back to Gryffindor Tower.
When they got back, Hermione, Ron, Harry and Emma sat in the corner.
"It's just occurred to me, how did Fred and George got their premises?" asked Ron.
"Well, yes, that occurred to me, too" said Hermione. "I've been wondering whether Mundungus has persuaded them to sell stolen goods or something awful."
"He hasn't" said Harry and Emma together curtly.
"How do you know?" said Ron and Hermione together.
"Because, well, Harry gave them the Triwizard winnings last June and I've been helping them sell so they earn more money" said Emma, felling that now was the moment to confess because there was no good to be gained in keeping silent if it meant anyone suspected that Fred and George were criminals.
There was a shocked silence.
"Oh, Harry, Emma, you didn't" Hermione moaned.
"Yes, we did" said Harry mutinously. "And we don't regret it, either. I didn't need the gold and they'll be great running a joke shop."
The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May. Although Slytherin had been narrowly defeated by Hufflepuff in their last match, Gryffindor and Emma were not daring to hope for victory, due mainly (though of course nobody said it to him) to Ron's abysmal goalkeeping record. He, however, seemed to have found a new optimism.
"I mean, I can't get any worse, can I?" he told Harry, Hermione and Emma grimly over breakfast on the morning of the match. "Nothing to lose now, is there?"
"You know" said Hermione, as she, Harry and Emma walked down to the pitch a little later in the midst of a very excitable crowd "I think Ron might do better without Fred and George around. They never exactly gave him a lot of confidence. No affiance" she added to Emma who merely smiled.
Luna Lovegood overtook them with what appeared to be a live eagle perched on top of her head.
"Oh, gosh, I forgot!" said Hermione, watching the eagle flapping its wings as Luna walked serenely past a group of cackling and pointing Slytherins. "Cho with be playing, won't she?"
Harry merely grunted. Emma guessed they hadn't made up yet.
They found seats in the topmost row of the stands. It was a fine, clear day; Ron could not wish for better, and Harry and Emma found themselves hoping against hope that Ron would not give the Slytherins cause for more rousing choruses of 'Weasley is out King'.
"And their off!" said Lee Jordan. "And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well... he's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot- and- and..." Lee swore very loudly. "And he's scored.
Harry, Hermione and Emma groaned with the rest of the Gryffindors. Predictably, horribly, the Slytherins on the other side of the stands began to sing.
"Harry" said a hoarse voice in Harry and Emma's ear "Hermione...Emma..."
They looked round and saw Hagrid's enormous bearded face sticking between the seats. Apparently, he had squeezed his way all along the row behind, for the first and second-years he had just passed had a ruffled, flattened look about them. For some reason, Hagrid was bent double as though anxious not to be seen, though he was still at least four feet taller than everybody else.
"Listen" he whispered "can yeh come with me? Now? While everyone's watchin' the match?"
"Err... can't it wait, Hagrid?" asked Harry. "Till the match is over?"
"No" said Hagrid. "No, harry, it's gotta be now... while everyone's lookin' the other way...please?"
Hagrid's nose was gently dripping blood. His eyes were both blackened. Harry and Emma had not seen him this close-up since his return to the school; he looked utterly woebegone.
"Course" said Emma at once "course we'll come."
He, Hermione and Emma edged back along their row of seats, causing much grumbling among the students who had to stand up for them. The people in Hagrid's row were not complaining, merely attempting to make themselves as small as possible.
"I appreciate this, you three, I really do" said Hagrid as they reached the stairs. He kept looking around nervously as they descended towards the lawn below. "I just hope she doesn't notice us gone."
"You mean Umbridge?" said Emma. "She won't, she's got her whole Inquisitorial Squad sitting with her, didn't you see? She must be expecting trouble at the match."
"A little trouble won't hurt" Hagrid muttered.
Emma winced as they entered the forest. Even though she had spent most of her life in here, it still wasn't her most favourite place to be.
"Hagrid, why are you armed?" said Harry. It was then, did Emma see Hagrid's crossbow over his arm.
"Just a precaution" Hagrid said, shrugging his massive shoulders.
The path they were following was becoming increasingly overgrown and the trees grew closely together as they walked further and further into the Forest that it was as dark as dusk. This didn't bother Emma, though, because she had excellent site in the dark. The only thing that changed for her was the colours.
They were soon a long way past the clearing where Hagrid had shown them the Thestrals =, but Harry and Emma felt no sense of unease until Hagrid stepped unexpectedly off the path and began wending his way in and out of trees towards the dark heart of the Forest.
"Hagrid!" said Emma, fighting her way through the thickly knotted brambles over which Hagrid had stepped with ease, and remembering very vividly what had happened to her on the other occasion she had stepped off the Forest path. "Where are we going?"
"But further" aid Hagrid over his shoulder. "C'mon, Emma... we need ter keep together."
Emma sighed and whipped out her wand before stepping in front of Harry and Hermione. She used it and her hands to snap everything in their path to make it clear for them to walk. She knew that Hermione and Harry were impressed by her strength but she knew that was only because they had forgotten that she was a vampire; again.
"Hagrid, would it be all right if I lit my wand?" Emma asked. She didn't have a problem but Harry and Hermione were.
"Err... all right" Hagrid whispered back. "In fact..."
He stopped suddenly and turned around, Emma walked right into him and was knocked over backwards. This shocked; not many things could knock her over. Harry caught her just before she hit the Forest floor.
"Maybe we best just stop fer a moment, so I can... fill yeh in" Hagrid said. "Before we get there."
"Good!" said Hermione, as Harry set Emma back on her feet. Emma waved her wand and a multicoloured light floated up in the air just above their heads like a star. Hermione and Harry gasped in awe but she merely rolled her eyes.
"Right" said Hagrid. "Well...see...the thing is..."
He took a great breath.
"Well, there's a good chance I'm going ter be getting the sack any day now" he said. "And I can't leave without telling someone...because I'll- I'll need yeh three ter help me. An' Ron, if he's willin'."
"Of course we'll help you" said Emma at once.
"What do you want us to do?" asked Harry.
Hagrid have a great sniff and patted Harry and Emma wordlessly on the shoulders with such force that Harry was knocked sideways into a tree but Emma merely wavered slightly.
"I knew yeh'd say yes" said Hagrid into his handkerchief "but I won'... never...forget...well...c'mon...just a little bit further through here...watch yerselves, now, there's nettles..."
They walked on in silence for another fifteen minutes. Emma, with stinging pain everywhere from nettles, had just opened her mouth to ask how much further they had to go when Hagrid threw out his right arm to signal that they should stop.
"Really easy" he said softly. "Very quiet, now..."
They crept forwards and Harry saw that they were facing a large, smooth mound of earth nearly as tall as Hagrid that they though, with a jolt of dread, was sure to be the lair of some enormous animal. Trees had been ripped up at the roots all around the mound, so that it stood on a bare patch of ground surrounded by heaps of trunks and boroughs that formed a kind of fence or barricade, behind which Harry, Emma, Hermione and Hagrid now stood.
"Sleepin'" breathed Hagrid.
"Thank God" Emma breathed. "I do not want to have to save lives today."
Harry could hear a distant, rhythmic rumbling that sounded like a pair of enormous lungs at work. He glanced sideways at Hermione and Emma, who were gazing at the mound. Hermione's mouth was slightly open and Emma's eyes were wide. They both looked utterly terrified.
"Who is he?" they asked together, turning to look at Hagrid.
Harry found this an odd question... 'What is it?' was the one he had been planning on asking.
"Why, Hagrid, did you have to bring a giant back?" asked Emma in a disapproving tone, despite to the look on her face.
"I knew if I just got him back" said Hagrid, sounding close to tears "an'- an' taught him a few manners- I'd be able ter take him outside an' who everyone he's harmless!"
"Harmless" said Hermione shrilly, and Hagrid made frantic hushing noises with his hands as the enormous creature before them grunted loudly and shifted in its sleep. "He's been hurting you all this time, hasn't he? That's why you've had all these injuries!"
"He don' know his own strength!" said Hagrid earnestly. "An' he's getting better; he's not fighting so much anymore..."
"So, this is why it took you two months to get him!" said Emma distractedly. "Oh, Hagrid, why did you bring him back if he didn't want to come? Wouldn't he have been happier with his own people?"
"They were bullyin' him, Emma, 'cause he's s small!" said Hagrid.
"Small?" said Hermione, Harry and Emma together.
"I couldn' leave him" said Hagrid, tears now trickling down his bruised face into his bear. "See- he's my brother!"
Emma sighed. She couldn't argue with Hagrid anymore once he'd said that. She could leave Harry even though it basically put his and her life on the line. She had made herself his protector and, when he made best friends with Hermione and Ron, she made herself their protector to.
"Fine, I'll help" she grumbled. "After all, I can't argue with you seen as I've been through your situation and I can't just leave and never look back because I just don't do that. So I guess I'm in."
Harry and Hermione looked at her with expressions of incredulous on their faces but Hagrid beamed at her.
"What does looking after him involve, exactly?" Hermione sighed. She wasn't about to leave Emma to do all the work by herself. She maybe a vampire, but she couldn't do everything.
"Just talkin' to 'im and stuff" Hagrid said cheerfully. It didn't seem to bad. "Now, I'll wake 'im up- introduce yeh..."
"Wha- no!" Hermione said. "Hagrid, no, don't wake him, really, we don't need..."
But Hagrid had already stepped over the great tree trunk in front of them and was proceeding towards Grawp. When he was about ten feet away, he lifted a long, broken bough form the ground, smiled reassuringly over his shoulder as Harry, Hermione and Emma, then pocked Grawp hard in the middle of the back with the end of the bough.
The giant gave a roar that echoed around the silent Forest; birds in the treetops overhead rose twittering from their perches and soared away. Emma placed herself in front of Hermione and Harry, crouching into an unmistakable protective crouch. Harry didn't like this once bit but he also knew that it would be impossible to move her seen as she had strength that was about twenty times his.
Grawp, without warning, pushed himself to his feet with surprising speed and agility.
"Oh my!" Emma heard Hermione squeal, behind her.
All righ', Grawpy?" Hagrid shouted up to him "I've brought some friends ter meet yeh. Remember, I told yeh I might? Remember, when I said I might have ter go on a little trip an' leave them ter look after yeh fer a bit? Remember that, Grawpy?"
Hagrid pocked Grawp in the knee, causing him to look down at them.
"This" said Hagrid, hastening over to where Harry, Hermione and Emma stood "is Emma, Gawp" Emma Potter. She might be coming ter visit yeh if I have to go away, understand? And this, this is Harry. Harry Potter. He also migh' be comin' to visit yeh. And this is Hermione, see? Her..." Hagrid hesitated. Turning to Hermione, he said "Would yeh mind if he called yeh Hermy, Hermione. On'y it's difficult name fer him ter remember."
"No, not at all" squeaked Hermione.
"This is Hermy, Grawp! An' she's gonna be commin' an' all! Isn't that nice? Eh? Three friends fer yeh ter- GRAWPY, NO!"
Grawp's hand came out if nowhere and grabbed Emma, pulling her up to his face.
Hagrid was about to hit Grawp when Emma called down "Wait Hagrid."
She looked at Grawp with the softest expression and said slowly and gently "Hello, Grawp. How are you? My name is Emma Potter."
Grawp looked confused before he said in a rumbling voice "Hello."
Emma smiled at him and said "Please can you put me down."
Gawp slowly lowered her down and set her on the ground where Harry and Hermione pulled her in to a hug. They had obviously been scared for her.
"I'm okay" she whispered to them and they let her go.
"Well, I reckon tha's enough fer one day" said Hagrid. "We'll- err- we'll go back now, shall we?"
Harry, Hermione and Emma nodded. Hagrid shouldered his crossbow again and led the way back into the trees.
Nobody spoke for a while, not even when they heard the distant crash that meant Grawp had pulled over the pine tree at last. Hermione's face was pale and set. Emma's face was full of delight. Harry could not think of a single thing to say. What on earth was going to happen when somebody found out that Hagrid had hidden Grawp in the Forbidden Forest? And he had promised that he, Ron, Hermione and Emma would continue Hagrid's totally pointless attempts to civilise the giant. How could Hagrid, even with his immense capacity to delude himself that fanged monsters were loveably harmless, fool himself that Grawp would ever be fit to mix with humans?
"Hold it" said Hagrid abruptly, just as Harry and Hermione were struggling through a patch of thick knotgrass with Emma trying to help behind him. He pulled an arrow out of the quiver over his shoulder and fitted it into the crossbow. Harry, Hermione and Emma raised their wands; now that they had stopped walking, they, too, could hear movement close by.
"Oh, blimey" said Hagrid quietly.
"I thought we told you, Hagrid" said a deep male voice "that you are no longer welcome here?"
A man's naked torso seemed for an instant to be floating towards them through the dappled green half-light; then they saw, thanks to Emma's light, that his waist joined smoothly into a horse's chestnut body. This centaur had a proud, high-cheekbone face and long black hair. Like Hagrid, he was armed; a quiverful of arrows and a longbow were slung over his shoulders.
"How are yeh, Magorian?" asked Hagrid warily.
The trees behind the centaur rustled and four or five more centaurs emerged behind him. Harry and Emma recognised the black-bodied and bearded Bane. Band gave no sign that he had ever seen neither Harry nor Emma before.
"So" he said, with a nasty inflection in his face, before turning immediately to Magorian. "We agreed, I think, what we would do if this human ever showed his face in the Forest again?"
"'This human' now, am I?" said Hagrid testily.
"What would you like to be called? The half-human, half-giant?" Emma whispered to him. Hagrid ignored her and carried on what he was saying.
"Jus' fer stoppin' all of yeh committing murder?"
"You ought not to have meddled, Hagrid" said Magorian. "Our ways are not your, nor are out laws. Firenze has betrayed and dishonoured us."
"I dunno how yeh work that out" said Hagrid impatiently.
"Isn't it obvious, Hagrid?" Emma said, turning to face him with a disbelieving look on her face. "They believe that they should be a free race and not be used as common mules for humans. Dur." She rolled her eyes at him.
"Ah, the vampire understands" said Bane in a nasty voice.
"I shall let you pass today, Hagrid" said Magorian smoothly "because you are accompanied by your young..."
"They're not his!" interrupted Bane contemptuously. "Students. Magorian, from up at the school! They have probably profited from the traitor Firenze's teachings."
"Nevertheless" said Magorian calmly "the slaughter of foals is a terrible crime- we do not touch the innocent. Today, Hagrid, you pass. Henceforth, stay away from this place. You forfeited the friendship of the centaurs when you helped the traitor Firenze escape us."
"I won' be kept outta the Forest by a bunch o' old mules like yeh!" aid Hagrid loudly.
"Hagrid" said Hermione in a high-pitched and terrified voice, as both Bane and the grey centaur pawed at the ground. "Let's go, please let's go!"
Hagrid moved forwards, but his crossbow was still raised and his eyes were still fixed threateningly upon Magorian.
"We know what you are keeping in the Forest, Hagrid!" Magorian called after them, as the centaurs slipped out of sight. "And out tolerance is waning!"
Hagrid turned and gave every appearance of wanting to walk straight back to Magorian.
"Yeh'll tolerate 'im as long as he's here, it's as much his Forest as your!" he yelled, as Emma- surprisingly- place her hands on his back and lifted him up, carrying him a little way before dropping him when she was sure he wasn't going to go back.
At least, they rejoined the path and, after another ten minutes, the trees began to thin; they were able to see patches of clear blue sky again and, in the distance, the definite sounds of cheering and shouting.
"Was that another goal?" asked Hagrid, pausing in the shelter of the Trees as the Quidditch stadium came into view. "Or d'yeh reckon the match is over?"
"I don't know" said Hermione miserable. Her hair was full of twigs and leaves, her robes were ripped in several places and there were numerous scratches on her face and arms.
"It's probably over" Emma added. She had much worse than either Harry or Hermione seen as she went first. She had bruises, cuts and stings on her legs and arms. Her long, red hair that was usually all the way down her back, was now only half way because of all the leaves, twigs and knots there were in it. "Look, there's people coming out already- if we hurry, we'll be able ter blend in with the crowd and no one will know we were gone.
"Good idea" said Harry. "Well...see you later, then, Hagrid."
"I don't believe him" said Hermione in a very unsteady voice the moment they were out of earshot of Hagrid. "I don't believe him. I really don't believe him."
"Me neither." Emma's voice was surprisingly a higher pitch than usual.
"Calm down" said Harry.
"Calm down" Emma said feverishly. "A giant! A giant in the Forest! And we're supposed to give him English lessons!
"Always assuming, of course, we can get past the herd of murderous centaurs on the way in and out!" Hermione added.
"I-don't-believe-him!" they said together.
"We haven't got to do anything yet!" Harry tried to reassure them in a quiet voice, as they joined a stream of jabbering Hufflepuffs heading back towards the castle. "He's not asking us to do anything unless he gets chucked out and that might not even happen."
"Oh, come off it, Harry!" said Hermione angrily, stopping dead in her tracks so that the people behind her had to swerve to avoid her. "Of course he's going to be chucked out and, to be perfectly honest, after what we've just seen, who can blame Umbridge?"
There was a pause in which Harry and Emma glared at her, and her eyes filled slowly with tears.
"You didn't mean that" said Harry quietly.
"No..well...all right...I didn't" she said, wiping her eyes angrily. "But why does he have to make life so difficult for himself- for us?"
"I dunno" replied Emma.
Weasley is out King
Weasley is our King
He didn't let the Quaffle in
Weasley is out King
"And I wish they'd stop singing that stupid song" said Hermione miserably "haven't they gloated enough?"
A great tide of students was moving up the sloping lawns form the pitch.
"Oh, let's get in before we have to meet the Slytherins" said Hermione.
Weasley can save anything
He never leaves a single ring
That's why Gryffindors all sing:
Weasley is out King
"Hermione..." said Emma slowly.
The song was growing louder, but it was issuing not from a crowds of green-and-silver-clad Slytherins, but from a mass of red and gold moving slowly towards the castled, bearing a solitary figure upon its many shoulders.
Weasley is out King
Weasley is out King
He didn't let the Quaffle in
Weasley is out King
"No?" said Hermione in a hushed voice.
"YES!"said Harry and Emma loudly.
"HARRY! EMMA! HERMIONE!" yelled Ron, waving over the silver Quidditch cup in the air and looking quite beside himself. "WE DID IT! WE WON!"
They beamed up at him as he passed. There was a scrum at the door of the castle and Ron's head got rather badly bumped on the lintel, but nobody seemed to want to put him down. Still singing, the crowd squeezed itself into the Entrance Hall and out of sight. Harry, Hermione and Emma watched them go, beaming, until the last echoing strains of 'Weasley is out Kind' died away. Then they turned to each other, their smiles fading.
"We'll save out news till tomorrow, shall we?" said Harry.
"Yeah" Emma agreed.
"Yes, all right" said Hermione wearily. "I'm not in any hurry."
They climbed the steps together. At the front doors both instinctively looked back at the Forbidden Forest. Harry and Emma were not sure whether or not it was their imagination, but they rather though they saw a small cloud of birds erupting into the air over the tree tops in the distance, almost as though the tree in which they had been nesting had just been pulled up by the roots.