Chapter Six
The following day I awoke feeling rather tired and glum. I couldn't explain it, but I just felt that way. Mike joined Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville and kinda left us girls alone. Hmm, I wonder why?
"Mell? Are you coming or what?" I checked my watch again.
"Hold on, I need to find my book."
"Hurry up, we're gonna be late for potions. Sara's already there. Come on."
"Ok, ok." The door opened and she came out, carrying an armload of books.
"Hm, that's new.now let's go!" I said, pulling her down the stairs of the girls' dorms and through the common room, bumping into someone who seemed also to have a lot of books. I tripped over my own feet and fell on my knees, hard. The person I bumped into fell on their hands first and right away started picking up books. I looked up at them. It was Hermione.
"Oh, I'm sorry, let me get that." I picked up a thick book called, Hogwarts, A History.
"Is this an interesting book?" I asked, handing it to her. She pulled her bushy brown hair away from her face to show big brown eyes that seemed to search me.
"Oh, yes, I found out everything there is to know about Hogwarts and then some."
"Potions, now, right?"
"Yes. I woke up a little late and skipped breakfast."
"Why don't you walk with us? We're going the same way."
"Well, all right."
We started off towards the dungeons. The bell was going to ring any minute, but we got there in just enough time. I slid into a seat next to Sara.
"Whew, that was close. I wouldn't want to be at the mercy of Professor Snape."
"Today we are concocting a sleeping potion. Get into groups and start immediately for it is a long task and will take the whole period. I have instructions here on my desk." Sara and Mell brought their cauldrons to meet with mine. We started pouring in ingredients.
Man, there was a reason why it was called the Sleeping Potion. There was a LOT of stirring involved and basically sitting, waiting for it to turn a certain color. About forty-five minutes later, Sara spoke up suddenly.
"Look, Ann," she hissed, "I found a gold Galleon on the floor. You know what I feel like?"
She whispered to Mell and we started singing "Uptown Girl" softly and bursting into little ripples of giggles. Now we were supposed to be doing this quietly.
"Girls!" a sharp voice echoed in the chamber. We stopped guiltily and turned around.
"Would you like to present your little joke to the entire class?"
I looked at my friends, shrugged, and said, "Sure." The class went kinda quiet, unusually quiet. Snape was silent a moment, then,
"Well, enlighten us."
We got up, grinning at each other. This song seemed to come up everywhere we went. Sara held up three fingers and put one down at a time.
"Uptown Girl, she's been livin' in 'er uptown world!" We sang the first verse and then the 'ahh's' and I'm sure everyone thought we were all crazy and Mike, who recognized the song from Avonlea, was actually singing along. (If that makes any sense at all.) We finished the song and the last notes reverberated off the walls of the dark chamber in the silence. Then the bell rang. Snape shook his head and I thought I heard him mutter something about Americans. Well, go ahead and shake your head, Billy Joel rocks.
During transfigurations class, we were assigned a project on the study of Animagy, the magic of humans turning into animals at will. Of course, the "dream team" was together. Sara, Mell and I pushed our desks together.
"Lunch, we go to the library. Like we do in Fairfield."
And in charms, yes, the Wingardium Leviosa charm today. Long had I wanted to make magic with my wand (pun intended) And today was really the first day I was going to use it. Well, I had held it carefully in my hands as if it were to explode if I touched it too long or too hard. I had never used it though. I walked into Professor Flitwick's classroom a little nervous, but terribly excited. I sat next to a red- haired kid that had to be Ron. That kid was so cute in the movie! But here he looked more like his description in the book: tall, gangly, big nose, big hands, big just about everything, and outrageously red hair. Mike sat down next to me. I felt even smaller than usual with two red giants beside me. Of course, Hermione was next to Ron.
"OK, class. Now today is when we will experiment with the levitating charm. Go into partners and remember the technique we've been practicing. Swish and flick! Swish and flick!"
"Swish and flick! Swish and flick!" I imitated, picking up my wand. Mike raised his a little hesitantly. Someone handed us a feather and we started. I looked around at everyone trying. I looked over at Hermione, who was trying to teach Ron to do it. Hermione stopped Ron, muttered the spell, and watched the feather rise slowly about four feet about her head.
"Miss Granger has done it! Look everyone!" Professor Flitwick clapped his little hands together jovially. I turned to my feather and pulled Mike to attention.
Ron looked grumpy, but I didn't blame him.
After class, I met up with Harry and Hermione. Harry introduced me to Ron.
"And that's Hermione." Ron added. "She's a little spoil-sport, thinkin' she knows everything!" Hermione gave Ron a piteous, hurtful look and rushed away, her face in her hands. I stared, open-mouthed.
"Well that wasn't very nice!" I turned back to Ron. He shrugged.
"She'll get over it. Girls are highly over-emotional."
"Hey!"
"Oh," he looked at me as if realizing that I was a girl, "Sorry, I meant SOME girls are over-emotional."
"You don't know what you're talking about!" I stomped off; thinking that Ron was a very cynical and rude character. I caught up with Sara and Mell going to the library during lunch. There I was fascinated by the shelves and shelves of books. It was almost like the Beauty and the Beast library, but more interesting readings. I peeked through books that looked especially interesting, when we were supposed to be looking up information.
"Ann!" Sara tapped me on the shoulder, "Come on, we have to go to class!" I hurried, tripping over my own feet on the way.
That night, we continued studying in the common room.
"Ann? Where's your transfiguration book?" Mell asked, looking around.
"I don't know. I've been looking for it."
"But we need it for the information in it, and you've got the special copy."
Sara pushed aside a pile of books on the table and made herself visible.
"Maybe you left it in the library."
"But we need that book, this part of the project is due tomorrow!"
"Then we simply have to go get it."
"During night hours?"
"Well, we have no other choice." I pushed in my chair and walked over to the entrance.
"Come on!" They followed quickly, checking that no one was there, or so they thought.
We crept out from the painting and around the corner. Going down the quiet corridors, I looked at the pictures, a little freaked out. I didn't like the way they kept moving. In the daytime, yeah, it was okay, but it was definitely not acceptable at night. Finally, we approached the library door. It wasn't locked, so we tiptoed in.
"It's over there!" I hissed, pointing to the table in the corner where we had been that afternoon. I ran swiftly over and retrieved the important book, coming back panting.
"OK, got it, let's go, quick!"
"Scared?" Sara looked down at me.
"NO." I whispered, glaring.
We crept again along the Charms corridor, straining our ears for any amount of sound. All of a sudden, I heard footsteps coming from around the corner. I stopped Sara and Mell and we hid behind a knight. When everything was quiet again, I led them slowly around the corner.
I clasped my hands to my mouth to keep from yelling out. Four figures stood in the darkness, just as scared as we were, it seemed. Sara touched my shoulder and I jumped.
Peering at the dark figures, I noticed something. One was really tall, the other three were shorter. One of the shorter ones wore glasses and had dark, tousled hair.
"H-Harry?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Is that you?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, whew." I gasped with relief. Of course, the others were Mike, Ron and Hermione.
"What are you guys doing here?" we said at the same time.
"We had some business out of the common room." We said at the same time again.
"Wait," Mell said. "OK, whew, OK, where were you guys going?"
Mike spoke, "Supposedly Harry had some trouble with Malfoy and he was having a wizard's duel with him in the trophy room. We were his seconds." He jabbed his thumb at Ron.
"And I was trying to stop them, but I got locked out of the common room because the Fat Lady left for a while. I had no choice, but to follow them." Hermione sounded really annoyed with her companions. She gave an exhale.
"We were getting a forgotten book in the library." I explained, "but let's get out of here because there's Mrs. Norris."
The custodian Mr. Filch's cat was peering at us with her yellow, glowing eyes. We looked at her and ran, knowing Filch would be here momentarily because he went wherever his cat went. We went back down the Charms corridor for the third time that night. I could hear Filch already.
"Don't worry, missy, we'll find the little culprits outta bed."
That made me run faster.
"In here!" I heard someone shout and another person pull on the door.
"It's locked!" Ron cried out.
"Oh move over!" Hermione pushed over to the front and pulled out her wand.
"Hurry!" I hissed, jumping up and down, looking down the hallway.
"Alohomora!" she cried and the door opened.
We packed in and shut the door. I pressed my ears against the door, hearing Filch pass by muttering to himself about Peeves.
"I wonder why it was locked. All the other doors are open." Mike whispered, looking around.
"It's for a good reason, believe me." Mell backed towards us, to the door. She had a scared expression on her face. It was the three-headed dog. The REAL one, with its long drools of spit and its three noses ever sniffing and its razor-sharp teeth. I gulped.
"It's the third floor corridor." Hermione whispered, "We're forbidden from here, like Dumbledore said at the first feast."
"It's Flu-
Sara stomped on my foot. She gave me a look that said they-don't-know-about- it-yet-so-don't-say-anything. Between death from monstrous creature or Filch, we chose Filch. We opened the door quickly and ran for whatever our lives were worth, arriving, finally, out of breath at the Gryffindor entrance. Thankfully, the Fat Lady was back.
"My, where have you all been?" she asked.
"Lemon drop-lemon drop," we all wheezed, gasping out the password. The painting swung open and we ran in, collapsing in the armchairs.
The following day I awoke feeling rather tired and glum. I couldn't explain it, but I just felt that way. Mike joined Harry, Ron, Seamus, Dean, and Neville and kinda left us girls alone. Hmm, I wonder why?
"Mell? Are you coming or what?" I checked my watch again.
"Hold on, I need to find my book."
"Hurry up, we're gonna be late for potions. Sara's already there. Come on."
"Ok, ok." The door opened and she came out, carrying an armload of books.
"Hm, that's new.now let's go!" I said, pulling her down the stairs of the girls' dorms and through the common room, bumping into someone who seemed also to have a lot of books. I tripped over my own feet and fell on my knees, hard. The person I bumped into fell on their hands first and right away started picking up books. I looked up at them. It was Hermione.
"Oh, I'm sorry, let me get that." I picked up a thick book called, Hogwarts, A History.
"Is this an interesting book?" I asked, handing it to her. She pulled her bushy brown hair away from her face to show big brown eyes that seemed to search me.
"Oh, yes, I found out everything there is to know about Hogwarts and then some."
"Potions, now, right?"
"Yes. I woke up a little late and skipped breakfast."
"Why don't you walk with us? We're going the same way."
"Well, all right."
We started off towards the dungeons. The bell was going to ring any minute, but we got there in just enough time. I slid into a seat next to Sara.
"Whew, that was close. I wouldn't want to be at the mercy of Professor Snape."
"Today we are concocting a sleeping potion. Get into groups and start immediately for it is a long task and will take the whole period. I have instructions here on my desk." Sara and Mell brought their cauldrons to meet with mine. We started pouring in ingredients.
Man, there was a reason why it was called the Sleeping Potion. There was a LOT of stirring involved and basically sitting, waiting for it to turn a certain color. About forty-five minutes later, Sara spoke up suddenly.
"Look, Ann," she hissed, "I found a gold Galleon on the floor. You know what I feel like?"
She whispered to Mell and we started singing "Uptown Girl" softly and bursting into little ripples of giggles. Now we were supposed to be doing this quietly.
"Girls!" a sharp voice echoed in the chamber. We stopped guiltily and turned around.
"Would you like to present your little joke to the entire class?"
I looked at my friends, shrugged, and said, "Sure." The class went kinda quiet, unusually quiet. Snape was silent a moment, then,
"Well, enlighten us."
We got up, grinning at each other. This song seemed to come up everywhere we went. Sara held up three fingers and put one down at a time.
"Uptown Girl, she's been livin' in 'er uptown world!" We sang the first verse and then the 'ahh's' and I'm sure everyone thought we were all crazy and Mike, who recognized the song from Avonlea, was actually singing along. (If that makes any sense at all.) We finished the song and the last notes reverberated off the walls of the dark chamber in the silence. Then the bell rang. Snape shook his head and I thought I heard him mutter something about Americans. Well, go ahead and shake your head, Billy Joel rocks.
During transfigurations class, we were assigned a project on the study of Animagy, the magic of humans turning into animals at will. Of course, the "dream team" was together. Sara, Mell and I pushed our desks together.
"Lunch, we go to the library. Like we do in Fairfield."
And in charms, yes, the Wingardium Leviosa charm today. Long had I wanted to make magic with my wand (pun intended) And today was really the first day I was going to use it. Well, I had held it carefully in my hands as if it were to explode if I touched it too long or too hard. I had never used it though. I walked into Professor Flitwick's classroom a little nervous, but terribly excited. I sat next to a red- haired kid that had to be Ron. That kid was so cute in the movie! But here he looked more like his description in the book: tall, gangly, big nose, big hands, big just about everything, and outrageously red hair. Mike sat down next to me. I felt even smaller than usual with two red giants beside me. Of course, Hermione was next to Ron.
"OK, class. Now today is when we will experiment with the levitating charm. Go into partners and remember the technique we've been practicing. Swish and flick! Swish and flick!"
"Swish and flick! Swish and flick!" I imitated, picking up my wand. Mike raised his a little hesitantly. Someone handed us a feather and we started. I looked around at everyone trying. I looked over at Hermione, who was trying to teach Ron to do it. Hermione stopped Ron, muttered the spell, and watched the feather rise slowly about four feet about her head.
"Miss Granger has done it! Look everyone!" Professor Flitwick clapped his little hands together jovially. I turned to my feather and pulled Mike to attention.
Ron looked grumpy, but I didn't blame him.
After class, I met up with Harry and Hermione. Harry introduced me to Ron.
"And that's Hermione." Ron added. "She's a little spoil-sport, thinkin' she knows everything!" Hermione gave Ron a piteous, hurtful look and rushed away, her face in her hands. I stared, open-mouthed.
"Well that wasn't very nice!" I turned back to Ron. He shrugged.
"She'll get over it. Girls are highly over-emotional."
"Hey!"
"Oh," he looked at me as if realizing that I was a girl, "Sorry, I meant SOME girls are over-emotional."
"You don't know what you're talking about!" I stomped off; thinking that Ron was a very cynical and rude character. I caught up with Sara and Mell going to the library during lunch. There I was fascinated by the shelves and shelves of books. It was almost like the Beauty and the Beast library, but more interesting readings. I peeked through books that looked especially interesting, when we were supposed to be looking up information.
"Ann!" Sara tapped me on the shoulder, "Come on, we have to go to class!" I hurried, tripping over my own feet on the way.
That night, we continued studying in the common room.
"Ann? Where's your transfiguration book?" Mell asked, looking around.
"I don't know. I've been looking for it."
"But we need it for the information in it, and you've got the special copy."
Sara pushed aside a pile of books on the table and made herself visible.
"Maybe you left it in the library."
"But we need that book, this part of the project is due tomorrow!"
"Then we simply have to go get it."
"During night hours?"
"Well, we have no other choice." I pushed in my chair and walked over to the entrance.
"Come on!" They followed quickly, checking that no one was there, or so they thought.
We crept out from the painting and around the corner. Going down the quiet corridors, I looked at the pictures, a little freaked out. I didn't like the way they kept moving. In the daytime, yeah, it was okay, but it was definitely not acceptable at night. Finally, we approached the library door. It wasn't locked, so we tiptoed in.
"It's over there!" I hissed, pointing to the table in the corner where we had been that afternoon. I ran swiftly over and retrieved the important book, coming back panting.
"OK, got it, let's go, quick!"
"Scared?" Sara looked down at me.
"NO." I whispered, glaring.
We crept again along the Charms corridor, straining our ears for any amount of sound. All of a sudden, I heard footsteps coming from around the corner. I stopped Sara and Mell and we hid behind a knight. When everything was quiet again, I led them slowly around the corner.
I clasped my hands to my mouth to keep from yelling out. Four figures stood in the darkness, just as scared as we were, it seemed. Sara touched my shoulder and I jumped.
Peering at the dark figures, I noticed something. One was really tall, the other three were shorter. One of the shorter ones wore glasses and had dark, tousled hair.
"H-Harry?"
"Y-yeah?"
"Is that you?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, whew." I gasped with relief. Of course, the others were Mike, Ron and Hermione.
"What are you guys doing here?" we said at the same time.
"We had some business out of the common room." We said at the same time again.
"Wait," Mell said. "OK, whew, OK, where were you guys going?"
Mike spoke, "Supposedly Harry had some trouble with Malfoy and he was having a wizard's duel with him in the trophy room. We were his seconds." He jabbed his thumb at Ron.
"And I was trying to stop them, but I got locked out of the common room because the Fat Lady left for a while. I had no choice, but to follow them." Hermione sounded really annoyed with her companions. She gave an exhale.
"We were getting a forgotten book in the library." I explained, "but let's get out of here because there's Mrs. Norris."
The custodian Mr. Filch's cat was peering at us with her yellow, glowing eyes. We looked at her and ran, knowing Filch would be here momentarily because he went wherever his cat went. We went back down the Charms corridor for the third time that night. I could hear Filch already.
"Don't worry, missy, we'll find the little culprits outta bed."
That made me run faster.
"In here!" I heard someone shout and another person pull on the door.
"It's locked!" Ron cried out.
"Oh move over!" Hermione pushed over to the front and pulled out her wand.
"Hurry!" I hissed, jumping up and down, looking down the hallway.
"Alohomora!" she cried and the door opened.
We packed in and shut the door. I pressed my ears against the door, hearing Filch pass by muttering to himself about Peeves.
"I wonder why it was locked. All the other doors are open." Mike whispered, looking around.
"It's for a good reason, believe me." Mell backed towards us, to the door. She had a scared expression on her face. It was the three-headed dog. The REAL one, with its long drools of spit and its three noses ever sniffing and its razor-sharp teeth. I gulped.
"It's the third floor corridor." Hermione whispered, "We're forbidden from here, like Dumbledore said at the first feast."
"It's Flu-
Sara stomped on my foot. She gave me a look that said they-don't-know-about- it-yet-so-don't-say-anything. Between death from monstrous creature or Filch, we chose Filch. We opened the door quickly and ran for whatever our lives were worth, arriving, finally, out of breath at the Gryffindor entrance. Thankfully, the Fat Lady was back.
"My, where have you all been?" she asked.
"Lemon drop-lemon drop," we all wheezed, gasping out the password. The painting swung open and we ran in, collapsing in the armchairs.