CHAPTER THREE
THE MEETING



After lunch, the long tables in the Great Hall held plates of food that had hardly been touched after Dumbledore's most unnerving announcement. The students were sent up to their houses to do homework, study for tests, or tidy up the dorms a bit. Although, the Gryffindors did none of these. Fred Weasley had borrowed Harry's invisibility cloak to sneak down to the kitchens where the house-elves worked and retrieve some snacks. The rest of the Gryffindors were waiting impatiently in the common room. Though everyone had lost their appetites during lunch, they were now coming back and they were all starving.
Seamus and Dean were playing a game of Exploding Snap in the corner of the common room, while Ron was trying to convince Hermione that homework was not an important matter right now, let alone studying for the finals three months in advance.
"Really, Ron. No wonder you're not doing very well! You're just too lazy!" said Hermione, throwing her arms up in exasperation.
"I'm not that lazy! And I'm doing just fine. You're imagining things." Ron replied, now heading up the spiral staircase to the boys' dorm to get his chess set. Hermione spun around to face Harry, startling him some at the look of immense frustration on her pinkish face.
"I really don't know how he can be so ignorant about these things! What does he think he's going to do after he graduates from Hogwarts? If he ever does, that is!" Hermione said all in one breath, almost talking to herself.
"Well Hermione, not everybody has to be a perfect 'A' student, you know." said Harry, choosing his words carefully, "It's not like Ron's failing."
"Yes, but he doesn't even try to do well! I bet if he put more effort into his work, he would get some of the top marks in the class..." Hermione said as she started pacing around slowly.
"Hermione, if he put more effort into his work, he'd be just like you."
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Hermione stopped and stared hard at Harry, not angry but a little annoyed at his statement. Harry really didn't know how to answer. He didn't want to hurt Hermione's feelings, but wanted to get her to understand...
George suddenly appeared out of no where, startling Harry so that he almost jumped out of his skin, but saving his life at the same time. "It means that Ron doesn't want to end up being just like Percy, a brainiac, the teacher's pet, Prefect, head boy. He's just trying to avoid all that rubbish. Really, Hermione, are you that blind?" Harry had thought that George said too much... but that was his problem now. He could handle it. Hermione didn't like to boss him around like she did Harry and Ron. Though, Hermione was a little miffed that George had called being a Prefect rubbish (as she was one herself).
Just after Hermione turned and stomped up the staircase to the girl's dorm, the portrait swung open and Fred appeared carrying the invisibility cloak and two trays of food. Everyone leapt up from wherever they were sitting and crowded around Fred, trying to get a glimpse of what he had brought.
"Hey! Give me room to breath will ya?" he said, raising the two trays in the air. The crowd around him stood on their tiptoes, some able to grab a few morsels which looked like some form of fudge cut into small squares. Fred pushed past them and put the trays on the table, which suddenly became the gravitational pull in the room.
"Here you go, Harry" Fred said, handing Harry back his invisibility cloak.
"Thanks. It took you long enough. Did you have any trouble?" Harry asked, folding his cloak over his arm.
"Bloody place was swarming with professors... Every single one was out patrolling the halls. I almost ran into Snape twice! That bloke was rampaging around like a bat out of Hell! And then I terrified the house-elves out of their skins by suddenly appearing out of nowhere. They almost didn't give me anything because they were afraid I was going to bite their hands off if they handed me anything." Fred glanced around, perhaps to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "But you know what was really whacked? The professors seemed to be on to something, like they had something real important that was causing them a bit of trouble. It was mostly just a lot of frantics and cursing... You ever heard Flitwick curse? Funniest thing...!"
Harry raised an eyebrow. Come to think of it, he'd never heard swearing from any professor besides Snape. There must have been some kind of trouble...
Ron came back down the spiral staircase with his chess game under his arm. "Hey, Harry! How about a game?"
"Ron! Get over here!" Harry beckoned his friend over. Ron gave him a confused look and jogged up. "Tell him, Fred."
Fred told Ron how he had seen the professors in quite a peculiar frenzy. He then added that he'd seen several of them carrying around strange glowing objects, each about the size of a bludger.
"I couldn't really catch sight of one, but they were the strangest things..." Fred paused, going deep into thought over the ordeal.
"What'd Fred get for us?" Ron asked, seeming to lose interest. He stood on his tiptoes over the crowd, trying to get a glance.
Harry looked at Ron, a bit annoyed. "I haven't a clue, but-"
Suddenly, the door to the common room swung open and Professor McGonagall came through the portrait hole. She looked rather stressed, strands and wisps of hair sticking out everywhere. She also looked like she had been walking very quickly, her face slightly flushed.
Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and stared at McGonagall, the common room becoming uncomfortably quiet. Harry, Ron, and Fred exchanged suspicious glances. McGonagall took a deep breath to steady herself. "The Headmaster is calling a meeting. Everyone please come with me." She tried to make her sentences short to keep from wasting breath. Everyone slowly stood and walked forward, following the professor out of the Gryffindor common room and silently heading down towards the Great Hall.
Halfway there, they ran into Peeves the Poltergeist who thought the whole ordeal about the Abaddon was rather amusing. He began flying around frantically in circles shouting "THE ABADDON IS COMING!! THE ABADDON IS COMING!!", all the while flying through students and making a few girls shriek. He then did a couple loop-the-loops and cackled insanely, "Ohhh! What are the poor ickle kiddies going to do!! The Abaddon is coming!"
"Peeves!! You know this is a serious matter! Think what would happen to you if this castle were to be blown away." said McGonagall, in a tone that assured the students that she was kidding, but intended to scare Peeves.
Peeves did indeed go even paler than he already was and scowled at the thought. Not thinking of anything clever to shoot back at her, he turned and zoomed down the corridor, opening and slamming doors on his way making the group of students jump. McGonagall kept a stern face as she led the Gryffindors the rest of the way. Of any of the Professors, she was probably bothered by Peeves the most often. She got extremely frustrated very quickly and he loved to see her red in the face. Of course, she always managed to make him bugger off saying something brilliant that he couldn't answer to.
As they entered the Great Hall through the huge oak doors, the other three houses were already seated at their tables, talking quietly amongst each other. The Gryffindor students sat at their own table, looking around for the Headmaster who, oddly, hadn't arrived yet. Dumbledore was usually the first person to arrive for meals and such. He was most likely still off with the other professors, doing whatever they had been doing for the past three hours.
Just then, the four house ghosts glided through the wall next to the entrance, and as the last one passed through, the door opened again and the other professors came through, looking slightly disgruntled. All of their robes were hanging off their shoulders in odd fashions, giving the impression that they had been at rigorous work. They all wearily trudged up to the staff table and took their seats. The students stared uneasily at them, worried that perhaps the meeting would spill yet more bad news at the image the professors were presenting.
Dumbledore came through the doors then, looking much more tidy than the other staff and took his place in front of his throne-like chair, gazing out at the students with a rather troubled expression. He let out a great sigh that seemed to send shivers down everyone's spine. He blinked a few times, making sure that everyone was quiet, though he wasted his time. Everyone had become deathly silent the moment he came in.
"I imagine that you're wondering what has been going on while you were in your dormitories. Your professors and I have been working very hard to find out more information on exactly what kind of trouble this Abaddon will be causing us. This situation is not going to be as easily controlled as we thought it would be. It is very rare that a single Abaddon will be able to cover several locations in its short lifetime. Though on some occasions, one will last up to several weeks and can cause astronomical damage."
The professors shifted uneasily in their seats while the students stared, aghast. "It is possible that this problem cannot be avoided and that we must take desperate measures to ensure everyone's safety. This may include evacuating the school grounds." Dumbledore paused, seeing as some of the students were once again acquiring that look of partial sickness. "I do suspect that the Abaddon will not be coming within our vicinity. Although, we must still take precautions and continue to work on keeping it as far away as possible. From what I can see from our speculations, it should only last a couple of days and will only cause minimal damage." Dumbledore knew that there was another option that fate could take, possibly turning the outcome of this natural disaster around and making it into the worst Abaddon earth had seen in 1,000 years. Yet, this was not exactly something he wanted to reveal to the students. Besides, the chances of that occurring were almost one in a million. Dumbledore wasn't one to keep important things from people, but this piece of information did not need to be told just yet.
"Classes will be canceled for the rest of the week. By that time, the Abaddon will have hopefully passed."

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