Disclaimer: I own Hex, Maeve, and Peter, as well as Peggy and Robert. Tiny is also mine, as are Maggie McGonagall and the Healer's Garden, and so is Hank, although Hank is a useless sack of crap. I suppose Nymph Grass is also mine. JK Rowling owns Hogwarts, the rest of its inhabitants, and Mr. Weasley from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. (I love him and thought he should be in my fic :D) The names "Walkman" and "Nintendo Game Boy" belong to their respective manufacturers, and the Black Eyed Peas belong to themselves.
Introductory Remarks: Well, here it is, Chapter 7…in it, Hex starts to stir Hufflepuffs up. There is also quite a bit about study groups. I love study groups. :D ~ Ara Kane
Tycoon
There were gigantic golden pumpkins sitting on the greenhouse tables in Herbology that morning.
"Er, these aren't plants anymore," Harry observed, prodding at the one in front of him. Everyone was looking blankly at the pumpkins and giving Professor Sprout odd looks.
The teacher beamed. "We have a different sort of activity this morning, class. In honor of Halloween, we will use this lesson to carve our own jack o'lanterns!"
Hex chuckled, noticing the large spoon and carving knife set neatly beside each pumpkin. "Oh, boy. I haven't made one of these in ages." Actually, he had only made one or two in his entire lifetime.
"We made some every year before we all went away to school," Ron said.
"So is Halloween like the wizard Christmas?"
Hermione laughed. "Of course not. The magical world still celebrates Christmas, but it's only natural that Halloween be a major holiday, too."
"What about Thanksgiving?"
Ron gave him one of Ernie's you're-weird looks. "You're in England now, mate."
"I expect American wizards celebrate Thanksgiving, too," Hermione said soothingly, glaring at Ron. Caught in between the two, Harry sighed and rolled his eyes.
Following Professor Sprout's example, the class cut off the tops of their pumpkins and scooped out the seeds and flesh into a tray. Maeve giggled as Seamus Finnigan pretended to have pumpkin guts spilling out of him. "Now, now," the Herbology professor admonished him, "back to work."
"She's too nice," Hex murmured. "If that was Snape, he'd have taken fifty points off Gryffindor."
"D'you want Sprout to take points off Gryffindor?" Ron demanded.
The other boy frowned. "Of course not. I was just making an observation."
"Well, you make sure they're just observations, then," Ron snapped, turning his attention back to his pumpkin. Hex looked at the other Gryffindors in confusion. What is up with this guy? Both Harry and Hermione looked every bit as baffled as he.
After making sure everyone had a neat pumpkin shell (and bandaging Neville Longbottom's cut finger), Professor Sprout instructed her class to "let your imaginations go wild" and carve their pumpkins.
Hex watched Peter begin to carve an incredibly detailed snarling visage into his pumpkin. "That's real good. What's it supposed to be?"
The big boy shrugged, still focused on his handiwork. "Just a face."
"Cool. If I tried doing that with mine, it'll end up looking like Quasimodo." He pulled a face at everyone, making Maeve and Hermione giggle. Ron frowned and muttered darkly at his pumpkin.
Many of the others were making standard-looking jack o'lanterns with toothy smiles. Instead of using the knife, Hermione was using a Severing Charm on her pumpkin. Dean Thomas was carving a Gryffindor lion's head. Hex sighed and watched his friends work before inspiration struck. "A-ha."
Chuckling to himself, he carved his pumpkin (the usual way) and added features with bits of dried black Wirtleweed from the compost heap. Hex twisted a particularly long stalk to resemble glasses, attached this to his pumpkin and carved in the final touch with a flourish. "Hey, Harry," he said, turning the pumpkin around. "Check it out. It's your long-lost twin."
The stunt earned Hex a laugh from the class, admiring coos from Parvati and Lavender, and twenty points for Hufflepuff. Professor Sprout was still gushing about his "show of creativity" that night after dinner, as she distributed toasted pumpkinseeds to the Hufflepuffs. "You must do one of Professor Dumbledore for Halloween," she giggled.
"I'll need a lot of grass," he said. (A/N: No pot humor intended! I just want to make that clear, even though this is a PG-13 fic!)
Professor Sprout laughed heartily. "I'll make sure you get all you need, my boy. Now, back to work!"
Peter grinned as the teacher left. "Why don't you do one of Professor Snape?"
"Then you'll see my head hanging in the Great Hall," Hex said as they searched for a free spot in the common room. "Hey, mind if we join you?" he asked the other fifth year Hufflepuffs, who were sitting at a table with their homework and a bowl of pumpkinseeds.
"Go right ahead. The seats are free," Justin said in a friendly voice, coloring as Maeve smiled and sat down beside him. There were welcoming smiles on some of the others' faces as well. Hex supposed the pumpkin incident kind of convinced them that he was an OK guy.
"Are you doing the Potions homework?" Susan Bones, Maeve's Potions partner, asked them. "We're having a little trouble figuring it out."
"Perhaps we can all work on it together," Peter suggested quietly, "since we're taking the same class."
"Great idea, Pete," Hex said. It was good to see the normally shy boy trying to relate to other people. "How about it, you guys? We might just work better if we put our heads together."
Ernie, Robert and Hannah still looked doubtful, but decided to bite. "Why not?"
Sure enough, by working together, they were done in no time. "I didn't know you were good at Potions, Hex," Justin observed in admiration.
The other boy shrugged and smiled modestly. "Snape hates me, but he can't fail me."
"Can't he?" Ernie asked. "He's a teacher. He can do whatever he wants."
"No, he can't. He can take points off or kick you out for bad behavior; but if he fails you just because he doesn't like you, even if you aced the test, he's being unprofessional and you can protest."
The wizard-born Hufflepuffs in the group looked scandalized. "We should report you for inciting us to rebellion," Hannah said.
Hex chuckled. "You sound just like your sister. Look, all I'm saying is we have rights as students and we can go tell Dumbledore if these are being violated. He'll understand and he can help. That's his job."
Ernie's normally ruddy face was pale. "I can't listen to any more of this. Excuse me, I think I'll go to bed," he said, gathering up his things and going up to the boys' dormitory. Robert and Hannah weren't too far behind.
Susan smiled and shook her head as she gathered up her things. "You Americans are strange."
Hex burst out laughing. "Thank you." He took his Walkman from his bag and proceeded to take it apart with the tool kit he had brought with him from Brooklyn.
"What are you doing?" Maeve asked, peering over his shoulder. She smelled like baby powder.
"Fixing this thing. I think I must have dropped it or something, it's not working properly."
Despite Hex's controversial stand on Snape's professional behavior, their little study group came together again the next afternoon to work on Professor McGonagall's essay ("Present a well-known case of transfiguration gone wrong. Explain the mistake/s made and how these could have been corrected."), and practice the charms for Professor Flitwick's test the next day.
"Studying together really does help, doesn't it?" Maeve asked. She looked pleased as her charmed quill wrote down everything she had said.
"It sure does," Justin said. The quill wrote his words down, too. "I got my first good mark from Snape today. Father will be ever so pleased."
"If we do well enough, we could be in the running for the House Cup," Susan said.
"We'll never be in the running for the House Cup," Ernie said glumly. "Hufflepuff has been in last place for centuries."
Hex waved his wand and the black-and-yellow-striped Hufflepuff scarf on the table folded itself neatly. "You know, Ernie, when you believe too much in things like that, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Haven't you heard of the old saying, 'It ain't over 'til it's over'?"
"I'm only stating a fact. Hufflepuff House has been in last place for centuries. Nothing special ever happens to us, except for last year when Cedric Diggory made the Tri-Wizard Tournament."
"And two years ago, when Cedric beat Gryffindor at quidditch," Hannah said.
"Cedric Diggory's only one guy. Think of the things we can all do." Hex waved his wand again, causing a bowlful of leftover pumpkinseeds to remove their own shells.
Again, it was only a matter of time before Ernie and his friends fled, accusing Hex of trying to corrupt them. "Man, those guys are paranoid," Hex observed, helping himself to some pumpkinseeds.
"A lot of bad things are happening in the magical world," Justin said, shaking his curly head. "When you're afraid, you tend to cling to familiar things."
"Well, when you do nothing, nothing happens. Hey, check this out." The other boy took his Walkman from his bag and handed it to Maeve. "I fixed it."
Justin gaped as Hex fitted the earphones to Maeve's ears and played some music for her. "Does it really work?"
"Sure. Hear for yourself."
Justin's eyes widened as he tried the Walkman for himself. "This is brilliant! How did you do it?"
"I fixed it."
"But Muggle electronics can't run in Hogwarts!"
Hex shrugged when the other boy finally handed over his Walkman. "They can now." (A/N: Don't have a hissy fit just yet! The canon basis for this comes up in the next chapter!)
Justin grinned. "Listen, if I ask Mother to send me my stereo, can you fix it so it'll work here? I can pay you fifteen Sickles for the job."
"I can try, but if I break it, I'm not liable, all right?"
The other boy held out a hand for Hex to shake. "Done."
By the next weekend, there was music in the Hufflepuff common room (at least when Professor Sprout wasn't in it) and Hex was fifteen Sickles richer. The word soon spread among the Muggle-born Hufflepuffs that the American fifth year could fix just about anything and Hex's underground electronics repair business was born. He found himself repairing more stereos, electric shavers, and even a Nintendo Game Boy.
Hex also ran a side business supplying batteries to those who forgot to send home for their own. These he purchased during his weekends in Hereford.
"It's about time you came back!" Maggie exclaimed when Hex finally returned to The Healer's Garden with their lunch that Saturday. "I am famished!"
"Sorry," Hex said sheepishly, setting the take-out bag on the counter. "I needed more batteries."
She looked up from the package of sausage rolls she was unwrapping. "Business going well?" Maggie caught on after only a few of these mysterious errands and was sworn to secrecy so Professor McGonagall wouldn't find out.
He grinned. "It's going great. I hope to have enough for a halfway decent broomstick before the first quidditch match."
"Ah!" Maggie beamed. "You made Beater after all?"
"Yeah. I'm not too happy dealing with those Bludgers, but I haven't been hit by one yet."
"And has your schoolwork suffered from all your new activities?" his boss asked him sternly, looking and sounding a lot like her sister.
"Uh, I don't think so," Hex said. "Us fifth years have something like a study group, so we do our homework together; and I finish the repair jobs on my own time."
"Good. I hope you remember that you are at Hogwarts to study above all else."
"Don't worry. I don't want to go back to Brooklyn."
"And we'll try our best to make sure you don't go back," she told him firmly, then went back to the sausage rolls. "Now, let's eat. I need help with the new batch of soap and the Halloween display, and I've got something you must deliver to Professor Dumbledore."
The school went down to breakfast on a crisp and cool Halloween morning to find the Great Hall already decorated for that night's feast. Silvery cobwebs trailed gossamer streamers from the rafters, and the student-made jack o'lanterns hung overhead, waiting to be lit. Directly above the teachers' table was the jack o'lantern Hex had made to look like Professor Dumbledore, with its masses of hair made from dried Nymph Grass supplied by Professor Sprout. "What's that?" Malfoy asked loudly as he and the other Slytherins entered the hall. "A ball of hair?"
"That, Mr. Malfoy," Professor Sprout said in an uncharacteristically icy voice, "is a jack o'lantern made by one of your fellow students. Five points from Slytherin." As she passed by the Hufflepuff table, she rewarded Hex with a giggle. "The resemblance is uncanny, my boy!"
"You did that?" Malfoy scoffed as he sat down at the Slytherin table. "It looks like something that creature of yours coughed up."
"And here I was worrying it didn't look enough like you," Hex drawled, helping himself to some toast. All the Hufflepuffs within earshot laughed as the pale Slytherin glowered and turned away.
"Did you see Sprout take points off Slytherin?" a sixth-year said. "It's about time she started asserting herself."
"And it's all thanks to Hex and his magic jack o'lantern," Justin teased as he joined them. He'd brought his stereo down from the common room. "Anyone fancy a bit of music while we dine?"
"Is it all right to be playing that in here?" a second year asked dubiously.
"It won't hurt anyone," Justin assured her. "Besides, it's advertising for Hex."
"Thanks, man," Hex said humbly. "I'm touched."
The other boy grinned, cranked up the volume, and in a short while the phat beats of the Black Eyed Peas were attracting attention from all the other tables in the Great Hall. "Rapid!" a first year Ravenclaw said as he passed. "I can't get mine to work. How does yours run?"
"Hex here fixed it," Justin said. "Fifteen Sickles and he can sell you batteries, too."
"He fixed my Game Boy," a first year Hufflepuff ventured in an effort to help Justin's sales pitch.
Beside him, Peter chuckled and Hex could feel his cheeks begin to warm. It was embarrassing, but worth it because as the owls came in that morning with the mail, quite a few students from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor were writing home for their own things. (A/N: Of course, Slytherin students are all purebloods and have no use for Muggle filth.) "You're going into service for money?" Malfoy sniffed. "How vulgar."
"Shut up, Ferret-face." Hex jumped as a Great Grey owl swooped down and dropped an envelope onto his plate. "Hey, I have a letter!"
"Who sent it?" Maeve asked curiously.
He slit open his envelope and unfolded the paper inside. "It's from Tiny, my boss back home."
|
Dear Hex, What's with the new name? Is it some wizard code name or something? I checked the Internet after you were gone and there is absolutely nothing about Hogwarts on it. It's like the place doesn't exist. But I guess it does, if you're writing me from there and got an owl to deliver it. Hope they're treating you right over there. After you left, one of the neighbors called the cops and Hank was arrested. About time, I say. When people ask me where you'd gone, I tell them you went to a group home. (School is kind of like the same thing, isn't it?) Seems to satisfy all the gossips. It was good to hear from you. Take care and let me know how things turn out for you at school. I don't know how this is going to get to you — guess I'll leave it in a dish of birdseed and hope an owl finds it. Tiny |
Just as Hex was finishing Tiny's letter, Maeve poked him in the ribs. "Look, the Gryffindor quidditch team is back from practice," she whispered.
They watched as a group of flushed Gryffindors in scarlet quidditch robes entered the Great Hall for breakfast. "Ron Weasley and Dean Thomas are on the team," Maeve observed. "I wonder who's the new Keeper?"
Harry took a seat right under his lookalike jack o'lantern, sharing a laugh over it with Hermione and the Weasley twins. Ron, on the other hand, was staring at the stereo blaring away on the Hufflepuff table, a most unreadable look on his face.
Everyone came back down to the Great Hall that evening for the Halloween banquet. "Whoa, this is off the hook," Hex said, looking around.
If the Great Hall looked cool in the morning, it was something else that night. The jack o'lanterns, finally lit, shed eerie, flickering light that glinted off the cobwebs and the golden plates waiting to be filled. Hordes of real live bats could be heard up in the rafters, hidden by the darkness of the bewitched ceiling.
"Nice, isn't it?" Maeve asked. "Just wait until Christmas. The decorations are twice as beautiful then."
"And twice as hard to clean up," a voice snarled behind them. Argus Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker, was walking by, accompanied by Mrs. Norris, a cat that hated students as much as he did. Both were glaring at the cobwebs hanging from the beams. "Cobwebs…bat droppings…rotting pumpkins…disgusting!"
Hex traded wry looks with his friends as they took their places at the Hufflepuff table. "Someone's not getting into the Halloween spirit."
"Mr. Filch doesn't like any holiday," Maeve said.
"Filch doesn't like anything," Peter added, "except maybe that cat of his."
"He's got to be the only one," Hex said, glaring at the dust-colored furball.
The school feasted on roast beef, ham, mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, pumpkin pies the size of cartwheels, loads of gravy, and other good things. Afterward, the ghosts provided a spot of entertainment. Nearly Headless Nick and the Bloody Baron engaged in a thrilling fencing duel, with Nick fighting bravely and winning even though his head swung off his neck halfway through the match. The Fat Friar sang a lovely duet with one of the female ghosts, and Peeves the Poltergeist even behaved himself long enough to sing a rude ditty or two before he started throwing things and Nick and the Baron had to drag him, cursing, from the Hall.
Hex laughed along with everyone else; and like everyone else, he fell silent as the doors to the Great Hall opened and an adult wizard strode in.
Hex had never seen him before. The newcomer was thin and balding, and his robes were rather shabby, but the look on his face was deadly.
By now, Dumbledore had stood up. "Arthur," he addressed the wizard. "What brings you here?"
"Ministry business, Professor Dumbledore," Arthur replied. "I won't take up too much time. If you will excuse me…" He made his way to the Hufflepuff table. "Which one of you is Hex Holmstrom?"
Hex's insides went cold and the entire Hufflepuff table gasped. He had no idea what he had done and wished he could hide, but everyone's eyes were on him, giving him away.
There was nothing else he could do. Ignoring Maeve's tug on his sleeve, he stood. "I am."
The wizard walked over to him and took his arm. "Arthur Weasley, from the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. I need to take you in."
Concluding Remarks: Oooh! Cliffie! Look out for the rabid mob! (No, really, there will be a rabid mob coming… :D) ~ Ara Kane
