Credits: Countless thanks to Jax and Erisana Sylverbranch (love the new name, btw!) for the reviews, and everybody who reads this.
Chapter Five: Your Attention, Please!
"That's it!" Ralph shouted irritably, suddenly fed up. The fair-haired boy heedlessly tossed the clumsy log away into the pool, splashing Simon.
"Oof!" Simon protested at that unexpected shower.
Ralph, not in any mood to be apologetic, ignored the other as he dragged himself out of the pool.
"Whaddya s'pose these are for, anyway?" Fred asked thoughtfully, running his fingers up and down one of the spears he and George had "borrowed". George shrugged. "I think...I think they're like those sharp things prehistoric Muggles used to kill stuff. I forget what they're called," he said, then added as an afterthought,"They taught us about them in Muggle Studies, remember?"
The troublesome Weasley twins were interrupted by a rude trumpeting sound. "What the-?!" Fred yelped.
George, too, was visibly startled but then shrugged again. "I dunno." He turned to face his brother, his eyes gleaming mischievously. "But we should prolly go check it out."
"Yeah," Fred agreed, grinning.
"You found those wands yet, Potter?" Draco demanded bitterly.
"No," Harry responded sharply, crawling on his hands and knees beside Ron.
"You could help too, Malfoy!" Ron sneered, standing up.
Draco faced the two Gryffindors with a sour expression. "I could," he consented haughtily. He was going to say something more, was interrupted by the call of the conch. Ron and Draco forgot their differences long enough to chorus, "What was that?" and look expectantly at Harry, who knew about Muggle ways, for an explanation.
The Boy Who Lived just shrugged as stood. He suspected the noise came from a trumpet or something like that, but where would stranded Muggles get a trumpet from? "Don't look at me. I've got no idea what they're doing," he said earnestly.
Ron sighed resignedly. "Maybe we'd better go see."
"Jack!" Hermione called heatedly. "Jack!"
The redheaded hunter emerged from the forest. "What?" he asked, eyeing Hermione.
"Why," the witch demanded, "are you hunting those innocent animals?"
Jack's eyebrows went up. "The pigs?"
"Yes, the pigs!"
"Food," Jack replied coldly.
Hermione snorted. "There's fruit. I really don't see why - " she was cut off by the long, low call of the shell.
"Another assembly," Jack muttered with a hint of bitter disgust in his voice.
*An assembly?* wondered Hermione.