Chapter 24

October 31st,1991- The Kitchens, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Somewhere in Scotland

Dumbledore did, in fact, know that Hogwarts was a school. The problem was that he seemed to think that was only in theory, as Fred and George's most recent hijinks illustrated.

Patricia had to put down her fork so she didn't accidentally stab one of them in the eye while she yelled at them.

"You went into the corridor that is forbidden on pain of death! What were you thinking?"

"The door can be opened with alohomora," Fred complained. "If Dumbledore really wanted to keep people out he wouldn't have made it possible to get in with a first year spell."

"Don't you want to know what we found?" George cajoled.

Patricia growled at him. "Maybe," she said sullenly. "But I don't approve. And I still haven't decided if I should tell your mother or not."

Fred and George gasped dramatically and clasped their hands to their hearts. About half of the elves in the kitchen giggled behind their slim fingers. The other half shared wide grins.

"You wound us!"

Patricia rolled her eyes. "What did you find?"

"First of all, we were being careful," Fred insisted. "We didn't open the door all the way."

"We just opened it enough to look inside," George said, "while Lee was distracting Filch and his demon cat with conjured birds."

"And?" Patricia asked.

"It's a giant, three-headed dog!" Fred and George said in unison.

"Standing on a trap door," George added. "Looked like it was guarding it."

"There's something in the school that needs a monster to guard it," Patricia said flatly. "Fantastic."

She felt a strong urge to hit her head on the table, never mind the fact that she was sitting in front of a plate full of food. It was only the three of them and the elves in the kitchen though so she could possibly get away with it. Possibly.

Before she could decide if she wanted to give the twins fodder for jokes or not, a small elf named Dotty Apparited onto the replica High Table right next to Fred's pumpkin juice.

"There is being a troll in the dungeons!" she shouted in her high voice.

The kitchen went completely silent. Fred and George exchanged terrified looks.

Then there was a loud thunk.

Everyone jumped as Patricia, having pushed her plate out of the way, hit her forehead on the table several more times.

"Is missy Patty being alright?" Blinky asked tentatively.

"No, missy Patty is not being alright," Patricia groaned. "Missy Patty is wondering why there are two dangerous creatures in a school full of children."

All of the elves bit their tongues to stop themselves from correcting her. There were in fact three dangerous creatures in a school full of children.

They were wondering why this hadn't bothered them before. Maybe it was adding the second troll.

"Blinky and Pinky will be taking missy Patty and the Misters Weasley to their common rooms," Dotty ordered. "Dotty is being going to elf quarters to warn others!"

Dotty disappeared with a pop. Pinky, an elf with skin as pink as his name would have you think, similarly vanished with Fred and George in tow.

Patricia grumbled as Blinky took her hand and Apparited to the Ravenclaw common room. She still didn't like side-along Apparition.

Patricia sat in one of the few armchairs with a book that she wasn't really concentrating on and waited for the rest of the Ravenclaws to arrive. She knew the exact second when they did because Grace let out a high-pitched squeal and a split second later nearly knocked her out of the chair.

"Ow, ribs," Patricia complained.

"Why didn't you let us know you were alright?" Grace demanded, not loosening her hug in the least.

"House-elves have an aversion to being seen by large groups of people," Patricia reminded her.

"Told you," Violet said as she and Noe caught up with Grace.

Grace got a sly gleam in her eyes. She finally loosened her grip on Patricia to grab the front of Violet's robes and pull her onto the chair with them.

"Hey!" Violet exclaimed.

Grace laughed and Patricia and Violet soon joined her. Violet rolled off the chair and took Grace with her. Patricia sat up while they lay on the floor laughing.

"You are terrible," Noe giggled.

Penelope Clearwater looked over at the third year girls and, despite the situation, couldn't prevent the smile that came to her lips. "You four stop playing games and come finish your suppers!" she called.

"Coming, Penny!" Patricia said.

She looked down at Grace and Violet, who had become engaged in some sort of tickling contest. "Get up," she told them. "Before Davis decides to come see what's so funny."

Grace and Violet quickly sat up and fixed their robes.

"You are evil," Grace told Patricia. "Pure evil."

Patricia smirked, then grimaced when a headache began pulsing behind her eyes. "Come on," she said, trying to shake off what was becoming a regular occurrence, "or there won't be any pie left."

The four girls went to one of the round tables that had been piled with food from the feast by the house-elves and filled their plates. They spent the rest of the night talking quietly by the fire while they ate, and none of them suspected even for a moment that three first years had just faced a fully grown mountain troll and come out unscathed.

Those first years were Ronald Weasley, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. They were going to get royally pranked the next day for causing Patricia and the other Weasleys so much distress.