AN: IM BAAAAAAAA-AAAAAACK!!! Doesn't that just make everyone so happy! Finally you get to read the next chapter of my oh so very lovely poem/story! ITS AMAZING!
Stanzas 13-15
"This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing
To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core—"
Harry was stopped by an explosion of laughter. "What's the matter with you?" he demanded, glaring at Fred, George, and Ron who were piled up in a heap of giggles.
"You…you...you…" Ron started, but was laughing so hard he couldn't talk.
"YOU SAID BOSOM!" Fred blurted out, erupting in another fit of laughter. Harry swelled with anger and raised his wand again.
"I don't care if no one listens to my poem!" he screamed, "I just want you to be quiet or be dead!"
As Harry uttered the words to a deadly curse, Hermione jumped up and shouted, "Reflectionous!" A mirror was suddenly in her hand. The bolt of green magic, which was now spilling out of Harry's wand, struck the mirror and bounced off, hitting Neville (who had just walked in with Lavender and Parvati) and knocking him unconscious.
"Well," said Parvati, "I guess we'll be back in a few minutes."
The two girls carried Neville out of the room and back through the portrait whole. Harry seemed to have forgotten his anger, because he started his poem, for the bazillionth time.
"This and more I sat diving, with my head at ease reclining—"
"You're head doesn't look like its reclining." Ron seemed to have realized his mistake as soon as he made it. "Sorry Harry! Didn't mean it! Don't pay any attention to little old me! Just keep on reciting!" He laughed nervously. Harry continued,
"On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o're,
But whose velvet lining with the lamp-light gloating o're,
She shall press, ah, nevermore!"
"She?" Percy came out of a bedroom somewhere up stairs. It surprised Harry more than it angered him, because he knew Percy didn't even go to Hogwarts anymore. "That it my pillow, Harry, and I would appreciate it if you didn't call me she." Percy stomped down the stairs and snatched the pillow from Harry. Harry started at him, completely dumbstruck.
"Um, Percy, you might want to come sit with us for a while," Hermione said quietly.
"What? Why?" he asked.
"YOU HAD BETTER GO SIT WITH THEM OR YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND THAT PILLOW YOU'RE HOLDING!" Harry yelled.
"Wha—oh. I see. Hey, move over there Ron, make some room. Hello Professor. What's wrong with Harry?" he whispered to Fred. Fred just shrugged.
"Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer
Swung by seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.
'Wretch!' I cried, 'thy God hath sent thee—sent thee by these angles he hath sent thee
Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Hermione—'"
"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU HARRY? ITS LENORE, NOT HERMIONE!" Hermione was breathing heavily and her face was beat red. Her fists where clenched and she was standing up. Even Harry looked scared.
"Sorry, Hermione, wont happen again," He promised.
"Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore;
Quaff, oh, quaff this nepenthe and forget this lost—Lenore!'
Quote the Raven— "
Harry raised his wand in Raven/Malfoy's direction again. Raven/Malfoy fluttered his wings and picked at a few feathers with his beak before answering, "Forevermore."
"That's not what you say! Do it right, or you'll look like that pillow Percy is holding," Harry shouted.
Raven/Malfoy's eyes flashed, and Percy hugged his pillow a little harder. Apparently, he hadn't forgotten Harry's threat to turn him into the pillow.
"Nevermore," Raven/Malfoy spat.
"'Prophet!' said I, 'thing of evil!—prophet still if bird or devil!— '"
"I thought he blessed to have that bird above his chamber door," George remarked.
"Really, George, this is Malfoy we're talking about. How can it be a blessing to have in the same room as you?" Harry said. Raven/Malfoy flew over and pecked him on the head and then few back to the bust above the chamber door. "I suppose that means you want to be pillow?"
Raven/Malfoy cawed. It sounded strangely like, "I'll be good!"
"Yah, you'd better be good!
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—"
No one had interrupted Harry, but he stopped anyway. Something out of the corner of his eye distracted him. He looked up at the group of people sitting on the stairs. Ron seemed to not be able to sit still. He was moving his legs back and forth and biting his lip.
"What is wrong with you?" Harry asked.
"Nothing. Nothing at all. You just keep saying that poem of yours!"
"Something is wrong, and you know it. You just don't want to look like a baby in front of you're friends," Ginny protested from behind Madam M.
"Where did you come from?" Harry asked the girl.
"What do you mean? I've been here the whole time!" she shrieked.
"No you haven't. Ron and Hermione came first, then Fred and George. Madam M. came next, then Neville. Sirius and the girls came after that, and then they left with Neville. They came back and left again. Percy came just a few minutes ago. Nope, you were not here since the beginning, but now that you're here, you have to stay. Ron, sit still!" Harry demanded.
Ron looked nervous. "I can't," he said.
"Why not?" asked Harry.
He mumbled something.
"What?"
Mumble, mumble.
"WHAT?"
"I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!" Ron shouted.
Harry blinked at him. "Oh."
"Well, can I go?"
"Hmm, no."
"What?!?!?"
No. You have to wait for me to finish. I have three and a half more stanzas. If no one else interrupts, you should be able to go in about five minutes.
"'On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!'
Quoth the Raven—"
Harry looked up at the door, but there was no Raven/Malfoy. The was a slightly distraught chicken, but no Raven/Malfoy.
"Where did he go?" he asked the GOS (Group On Stairs.)
"I don't know," everyone answered together.
Harry searched their faces, each and every one of them.
"Where did Ginny go?" he said suddenly.
The GOS looked around. They seemed to have forgotten about Ginny, as well. "Huh," said George, "I don't know."
"Well, where ever she is, she wrecked my Raven!" cried Harry. "I suppose the chicken will have to do. Hey you chicken! Say 'Nevermore' or I'll eat you for breakfast!"
"Nevermore!" clucked the chicken.
Everyone in the room started to laugh, including Harry.
"The chicken…the chicken…the chicken is…is …is Malfoy!"
