CHAPTER TWO – IN WHICH RON AND HERMIONE RECOUNT THEIR SUMMERS AND HAGRID
RECOUNTS HIS TRIP TO ALLY THE GIANTS UNDER DUMBLEDORE'S BANNER
Chapter 2
"Ron, Hermione – you owe me stories as I remember." Said Harry at Breakfast the next morning. The post had come and gone, Neville had had to be escorted from the room once he had read the letter his Grandmother had sent. He wouldn't tell anyone why or what was written in the letter. But Professor Mcgonnagall had had to escort him to Dumbledore's office in great floods of tears. The three of them had been whispering about it for a few minutes, and the shock and concern had finally worn off
"Ron can go first" said Hermione obviously avoiding having to recount her summer.
"Fine" said Ron, who seemed indifferent to the idea. "But its fairly boring, Harry. Nothing interesting happened"
"Hey!" said Hermione, kicking Ron under the table,
Harry looked confused, and then slowly raised one eyebrow.
"Alright, alright" said Ron, "I really didn't want to tell Harry quite yet."
"Oh. It's not that important then" said Hermione
"No, no but…" pleaded Ron, but Hermione started making shovelling actions with her hands.
"Tell me what?", said Harry inquisitively
"Oh it's nothing important Harry" said Hermione, before Ron could respond. "He only asked me to go out with him, and I only happened to agree" she said sarcastically.
Harry sat there with his mouth open.
"Really? Ron"
"Yes Ron, he's really quite sweet most of the time"
Ron was blushing furiously.
"But I thought you and Victor Krum, were… you know… together."
"Oh Victor was cute, but when I told him I wouldn't go back with him… well he hasn't sent me an owl or anything. So he really couldn't have liked me that much."
" 'Kay " said Harry finishing the conversation, Hermione was getting emotional and he didn't want to probe any further.
"Shame really, I wanted to play Quidditch against him sometime" muttered Harry, finishing his Breakfast and standing up.
"C'mon we've got lessons." He said to the other two, Ron was grinning and trying to hide it, Hermione was fluttering her eyelids at him.
"By Merlin's Beard " said Harry "It's going to be really unbearable around here, isn't it". But no one was paying attention.
Harry spent all of the next lesson, potions with Professor Snape and the Slytherin's, considering this revelation. Ron had asked Hermione one year previous to go with him to the Yule Ball but Hermione had turned him down in favour of Krum, the tall Bulgarian Quidditch player who had been one of Harry's opponents in the Tri-wizard tournament. At the time Harry had assumed that Ron had asked Hermione to save himself from the embarrassment of going alone, maybe though Harry had been missing something, the occasional distracted stare, enthusiasm at the mention of her name. If there had been anything like that, then Harry had missed it.
Since it was the first lesson of term, Snape was being particularly enthusiastic in his giving and taking of points. So far Gryffindor was down ten points, whilst Slytherin was up twenty-five. Harry kept confusing his beetle eggs and tarantula eyes, he'd already had to make his potion three times and it wasn't coming out the right colour.
Unluckily for Harry, this particular potion was especially hard and Snape had assigned them into pairs to do the work. Neville was Harry's partner, which would be bad under normal circumstances, not that Harry didn't respect Neville he was just a bit clumsy, but Neville hadn't returned from Dumbledore's office and Harry was having to do all the work by himself.
The potion should if brewed correctly produce a flame when splashed on any incendiary material that burned a fiery gold rather than a dull red in the presence of dark magic. As such, it was known commonly as the Phoenix Warning, rather than the name that Snape and some of the Slytherins insisted on using – Inflamus Vulgarus, or the Ugly Flame referring to the puke green ashes it produced.
Draco Malfoy, who had been getting extra potions tuition over the summer when he had been forced to remain at the school at Dumbledore's request. He was working with of the more attractive Slytherin girls who seemed more taken with Draco, than with helping with the potion. None the less Draco, had already perfectly reproduced the potion as Snape had instructed, even Hermione who was working with Ron were struggling to keep up with Draco's pace.
Suddenly Professor Flitwick rushed into the room,
"Professor Snape, the Headmaster needs you to join us in the great hall."
The diminutive teachersaid this with such gusto, that Snape was speechless.
"D-d-draco… You're in charge, but no messing about. That includes you Mr Potter."
Snape followed Flitwick from the room at an accelerated pace.
"Well that was unexpected" said Draco, "but not necessarily without its highlights."
He stood up and stalked over to the desk, where he stood and stared at Harry.
Harry ignored him and deliberately continued dissecting his tarantula to get at the eyes – year five students were expected to be able to extract simple components.
"Harry, Harry, Harry. However do you think you're going to get through the cranium with a feeble wrist action like that, you might even call it limp wristed."
"Go away Malfoy"
"What do you intend to do about it Potter"
"Just, go away Malfoy."
Harry went back to his work. He didn't notice Malfoy reach inside his robes.
"Loco Vitae"
A blue glow surrounded Harry's work the scalpel floated from his hand and spun in the air, the dissected tarantula healed and drew itself up onto to its hind legs, the beetle eggs floated and spun in a complicated twisted helix. Harry stared amazed, he couldn't see anything else he was transfixed.
"HHARRRYYYY!!!!" Hermione's shrill scream burst his bubble.
Malfoy was laughing, wickedly. Harry couldn't understand why, but then without any explicit warning apart from Hermione and Ron's frantic shouting and arm waving, the powerful charm went sour, the dull and soft blue glow became a harsh red scarlet, the colour of blood.
The tarantula began to dance a grim fandango, the beetle eyes collapsed and expanded, throbbing viciously, the potion boiled and sputtered. Harry tried to pull away, but he couldn't, his body was held in place and the muscles in his arms and legs began to spasm, he couldn't breathe and he felt his consciousness slipping.
The scalpel stopped spinning and flew towards Harry's head, where it stopped, pressing but not drawing blood.
"I will not be swept aside by you Harry Potter. Not by you, not by my father, not by Dumbledore, not by anyone. I will be heard, I will claim my birthright!" Draco Shouted.
Harry collapsed backwards and everything fell into darkness.
"Harry"
Something intruded in the darkness
"Harry, are you ok?"
Blurry shapes came into focus and Harry was nearly blinded by the light.
To one side Ron was sitting nursing his hand, his normally bright and cheery face twisted into pain. Directly above him were the worried faces of Hermione and Parvati.
"When you passed out, I was so worried" Parvati's face was a picture of concern. "I sent Lavender to get one of the teachers."
Harry sat up, he was getting used to getting knocked out.
"What's wrong with Ron's hand."
Hermione blushed and smiled "The Brave fool hit Draco. I think he did more damage to his hand than to Malfoy but it stopped him. Malfoy's nursing a nasty lump I'd wager, I can't tell though, Crabbe and Goyle pulled Ron off him before anything serious could be done." Said Hermione "Are you Ok?"
"I think so, what in Merlin's name did he do"
"It's a seriously difficult charm, he must have been working on it for months. It beguiles its victim with its beauty before the dance becomes violent, and then, well its up to the caster what happens, you're just lucky Malfoy hasn't gone completely over the edge, otherwise it could have been very messy."
Harry reached up and felt his forehead; he took Parvati's hand off of his head. "Please, don't do that."
Parvati pulled away, looking slightly pained. Harry realised that he probably could have been a little less careless and abrupt in what he said. Hermione gave him a look that confirmed this.
"I'm sorry, Parvati. I didn't mean to be so rude, I just want to be left alone for a while"
Hermione and Parvati left Harry leaning against one of the wide tables and went to fuss over Ron. Hermione gave Ron a hug and he stood up, still cradling his hand.
"Oh stop complaining you complete wimp, you can't have hit him that hard, he's still conscious" she said taking his hand in hers.
"Is Harry Ok?"
"Oh, you know Harry, he'll probably be up and taking another stupid risk in a couple of minutes."
At that moment Lavender returned followed by Professor Snape and Bateson.
Snape looked at the situation and said firmly "Where's Potter?!"
"Here, Sir" said Harry struggling to his feet, supporting himself with the table. The Auror Bateson rushed over and helped Harry stand straight. "That's forty points from Slytherin Malfoy, and Twenty points from Gryffindor, Weasley, I don't care what the reasons but no one strikes anyone else in any of my lessons. Both of you will be doing detention. Cernd take Harry to Madam Pomfrey, he's probably just overacting but Poppy better take a look at him anyway. As for you two…"
"Are you ok Harry?" said Professor Bateson, helping Harry from the room. "Everyone keeps asking me that, and to tell the truth I'm not sure. I think Malfoy did something to my head, I can't focus on anything and my heads all dizzy."
"Well the lack of focus I think I can fix, and if it's the spell I think it is, its like being subjected to a mild form of the Imperius curse. It allows the caster to control objects and people over a small area, if allowed to develop too far the spell can start to control the thoughts of the victim, but it takes a wizard or witch with a very strong will to control the spell."
Bateson took Harry's Glasses out of his pocket and passed them to Harry who put them on.
"Oh right thanks. Yeah that sounds like Malfoy, before I passed out I heard him shouting and screaming about being ignored, swept aside or something. He spoke of father…" Harry would have continued but Bateson cut him off
"I'm not surprised, he didn't stay here over the summer by choice. When we raided Malfoy manor for dark magic, Lucius Malfoy used his own son as a diversion so that he could slip away, apparently Draco wasn't old enough to join the service of Voldemort, but that didn't deter him from attacking several fully fledged Aurors."
"Draco attacked Aurors?"
"Yes, that boy has a lot of potential, he seriously hurt my groups healer with a curse before we managed to get him under control. We were going to put him in Azkaban, horrible as that sounds, but Dumbledore stopped us and took him into the school, I understand Severus has been looking after him all summer."
"But why would he attack Aurors?"
"Who knows, Dumbledore reckons that Lucius has been twisting his mind towards darkness, its well known that Lucius was, and we suspect still is a Death Eater. Come on, the Infirmary just round here."
"Harry Potter Again!"
Poppy stood there hands on hips.
"All right get him on the bed and I'll see what's wrong"
Harry sat down and relaxed as Poppy rushed round him, checking for bruises and lumps. He'd been here so many times before that he barely noticed.
Bateson had rushed off, on the excuse that he really should be at Dumbledore's council.
Once Harry had been checked over and Madam Pomfrey was absolutely sure that there was nothing wrong with Harry she sent him back to lessons. He had transfiguration with Professor Mcgonnagall, but as in Potions, she too had to go, the entire class were sent back to the Gryffindor tower until they were sent for.
When Harry got there the rest of Gryffindor had already arrived, Fred and George were sitting in a corner flirting with Angelina and Alicia, Ginny and her friends were gathered round the fire and some of the second-years were throwing Carrot darts at each other, one of the weasleys creations, you could throw them and they never hit the thing you threw them at. If Filch knew they had them, then they would be in detention in minutes.
Hermione was probing for opinions.
"Harry, I've asked Ron and he thinks I'm just be paranoid. Do you think there's a connection between Neville departure at breakfast and the sudden council that Dumbledore has called?"
"Hermione, I was once told, that very little around here happens by coincidence, and this is also my experience."
"Hermione, are you bothering Harry with your strange theories." Ron had wandered over and now joined in the conversation.
"Well unlike some people, Harry at least thinks about those kind of things. I mean all you spend your time thinking about is Quidditch, Chudley cannons this and Chudley cannons that. Sometimes I think that if you could, you'd spend all your time looking at broomsticks.
Harry backed away, Ron was about to get slaughtered by Hermione. Before the shouting match could ensue though, Harry came up with a bright idea.
"I know, lets use the invisibility cloak to find out what is happening at the council."
"That's a brilliant idea." Said Ron.
Hermione though was more sceptical,
"Do you know what they'd do to us if they caught us, I mean Ron you've already got to do one detention for hitting Malfoy. Anyway it's a stupid idea anyway, with all these Aurors about don't you think someone will notice if you try to slip into the council unannounced."
"Well you can stay here then Hermione, Me and Ron will go."
"Oh no, you don't. I need to go or you two will get into trouble."
All three of them headed for the boys staircase.
When they got up to the dormitory, Dean and Seamus were sitting on one of the beds playing wizard chess.
"Isn't this great." Said Seamus
"Even better than the time that troll was around, no lessons, no teachers, we can get away with anything" said Dean
"I don't see what was so great about the troll" said Hermione emerging from the stairwell.
"Sorry Hermione" said Dean, "Didn't see you there"
Harry went over to the trunk and got out the cloak, "We're going to spy on the teachers. So you didn't see any of us, ok?"
"Yeah fine, just don't get into trouble. Gryffindor's lost enough points this morning with Snape's foul mood and Malfoy's temper tantrum, it'd be a shame to lose our title."
Dean and Seamus went back to their game of Wizard chess and Harry got out the Marauders map, once activated Harry could clearly see that all the teachers and a lot of other people had gathered in the great hall. "Look here, Neville's with them." And indeed Neville was, right under Harry's there was a small black spot labelled Neville Longbottom. "Alright lets go," said Ron impatiently. The other two agreed and Hermione and Ron slipped under the cloak with Harry. There wasn't much room and Ron kept stepping on Harry's shoes. It was really difficult getting down the stairs and out into the corridor undetected, but once they were out of Gryffindor tower, it was an easy job to traverse the school to the Great hall. More difficult however was the issue of how to get into the Hall undetected, the Great arched doorways always creaked and whined when the doors were opened.
"Hang on" said Hermione, getting her wand out,
"I know just the spell"
She pointed her wand at the great hinges on the doors and said
"Lubricatus", a jet of black liquid sprayed from her wand onto the hinges, then she stepped forward, dragging the other two along with her and silently opened the door, just enough to allow them to squeeze into the hall.
The hall was nearly empty except for a large group of people sat in a circle were the teachers table normally was. Dumbledore stood in the middle of the group as though he were addressing the gathered people. Snape, Mcgonnagall and the other teachers, even Hagrid were sat to the left of Dumbledore, and on Dumbledore's right, sat a large number of people, some of whom Harry recognised, such as Bateson, the Auror and Arthur Weasley, Ron's father. Sat directly in front of Dumbledore, completing the circle sat Neville, who looked petrified and upset. Ron leant backwards on the door, and it clicked loudly into place. All eyes shot towards them.
"Ahhhh… the final people have arrived, uninvited but not unexpected." Dumbledore said. "Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and I suppose Miss Granger as well. Please do come in, take off your cloaks and place them aside, there's no need for deceit here."
Harry lifted the cloak over his head and moved towards the circle of people. Dumbledore stepped aside, revealing three unoccupied seats.
Three of them sat down, looking rather embarrassed. Professor Mcgonnagall leant over and said "I expect to see you in my office after this council" with a scowl on her face. Then she leant back and regained her normal composure. Then Dumbledore began to speak and the council began.
Chapter 2
"Ron, Hermione – you owe me stories as I remember." Said Harry at Breakfast the next morning. The post had come and gone, Neville had had to be escorted from the room once he had read the letter his Grandmother had sent. He wouldn't tell anyone why or what was written in the letter. But Professor Mcgonnagall had had to escort him to Dumbledore's office in great floods of tears. The three of them had been whispering about it for a few minutes, and the shock and concern had finally worn off
"Ron can go first" said Hermione obviously avoiding having to recount her summer.
"Fine" said Ron, who seemed indifferent to the idea. "But its fairly boring, Harry. Nothing interesting happened"
"Hey!" said Hermione, kicking Ron under the table,
Harry looked confused, and then slowly raised one eyebrow.
"Alright, alright" said Ron, "I really didn't want to tell Harry quite yet."
"Oh. It's not that important then" said Hermione
"No, no but…" pleaded Ron, but Hermione started making shovelling actions with her hands.
"Tell me what?", said Harry inquisitively
"Oh it's nothing important Harry" said Hermione, before Ron could respond. "He only asked me to go out with him, and I only happened to agree" she said sarcastically.
Harry sat there with his mouth open.
"Really? Ron"
"Yes Ron, he's really quite sweet most of the time"
Ron was blushing furiously.
"But I thought you and Victor Krum, were… you know… together."
"Oh Victor was cute, but when I told him I wouldn't go back with him… well he hasn't sent me an owl or anything. So he really couldn't have liked me that much."
" 'Kay " said Harry finishing the conversation, Hermione was getting emotional and he didn't want to probe any further.
"Shame really, I wanted to play Quidditch against him sometime" muttered Harry, finishing his Breakfast and standing up.
"C'mon we've got lessons." He said to the other two, Ron was grinning and trying to hide it, Hermione was fluttering her eyelids at him.
"By Merlin's Beard " said Harry "It's going to be really unbearable around here, isn't it". But no one was paying attention.
Harry spent all of the next lesson, potions with Professor Snape and the Slytherin's, considering this revelation. Ron had asked Hermione one year previous to go with him to the Yule Ball but Hermione had turned him down in favour of Krum, the tall Bulgarian Quidditch player who had been one of Harry's opponents in the Tri-wizard tournament. At the time Harry had assumed that Ron had asked Hermione to save himself from the embarrassment of going alone, maybe though Harry had been missing something, the occasional distracted stare, enthusiasm at the mention of her name. If there had been anything like that, then Harry had missed it.
Since it was the first lesson of term, Snape was being particularly enthusiastic in his giving and taking of points. So far Gryffindor was down ten points, whilst Slytherin was up twenty-five. Harry kept confusing his beetle eggs and tarantula eyes, he'd already had to make his potion three times and it wasn't coming out the right colour.
Unluckily for Harry, this particular potion was especially hard and Snape had assigned them into pairs to do the work. Neville was Harry's partner, which would be bad under normal circumstances, not that Harry didn't respect Neville he was just a bit clumsy, but Neville hadn't returned from Dumbledore's office and Harry was having to do all the work by himself.
The potion should if brewed correctly produce a flame when splashed on any incendiary material that burned a fiery gold rather than a dull red in the presence of dark magic. As such, it was known commonly as the Phoenix Warning, rather than the name that Snape and some of the Slytherins insisted on using – Inflamus Vulgarus, or the Ugly Flame referring to the puke green ashes it produced.
Draco Malfoy, who had been getting extra potions tuition over the summer when he had been forced to remain at the school at Dumbledore's request. He was working with of the more attractive Slytherin girls who seemed more taken with Draco, than with helping with the potion. None the less Draco, had already perfectly reproduced the potion as Snape had instructed, even Hermione who was working with Ron were struggling to keep up with Draco's pace.
Suddenly Professor Flitwick rushed into the room,
"Professor Snape, the Headmaster needs you to join us in the great hall."
The diminutive teachersaid this with such gusto, that Snape was speechless.
"D-d-draco… You're in charge, but no messing about. That includes you Mr Potter."
Snape followed Flitwick from the room at an accelerated pace.
"Well that was unexpected" said Draco, "but not necessarily without its highlights."
He stood up and stalked over to the desk, where he stood and stared at Harry.
Harry ignored him and deliberately continued dissecting his tarantula to get at the eyes – year five students were expected to be able to extract simple components.
"Harry, Harry, Harry. However do you think you're going to get through the cranium with a feeble wrist action like that, you might even call it limp wristed."
"Go away Malfoy"
"What do you intend to do about it Potter"
"Just, go away Malfoy."
Harry went back to his work. He didn't notice Malfoy reach inside his robes.
"Loco Vitae"
A blue glow surrounded Harry's work the scalpel floated from his hand and spun in the air, the dissected tarantula healed and drew itself up onto to its hind legs, the beetle eggs floated and spun in a complicated twisted helix. Harry stared amazed, he couldn't see anything else he was transfixed.
"HHARRRYYYY!!!!" Hermione's shrill scream burst his bubble.
Malfoy was laughing, wickedly. Harry couldn't understand why, but then without any explicit warning apart from Hermione and Ron's frantic shouting and arm waving, the powerful charm went sour, the dull and soft blue glow became a harsh red scarlet, the colour of blood.
The tarantula began to dance a grim fandango, the beetle eyes collapsed and expanded, throbbing viciously, the potion boiled and sputtered. Harry tried to pull away, but he couldn't, his body was held in place and the muscles in his arms and legs began to spasm, he couldn't breathe and he felt his consciousness slipping.
The scalpel stopped spinning and flew towards Harry's head, where it stopped, pressing but not drawing blood.
"I will not be swept aside by you Harry Potter. Not by you, not by my father, not by Dumbledore, not by anyone. I will be heard, I will claim my birthright!" Draco Shouted.
Harry collapsed backwards and everything fell into darkness.
"Harry"
Something intruded in the darkness
"Harry, are you ok?"
Blurry shapes came into focus and Harry was nearly blinded by the light.
To one side Ron was sitting nursing his hand, his normally bright and cheery face twisted into pain. Directly above him were the worried faces of Hermione and Parvati.
"When you passed out, I was so worried" Parvati's face was a picture of concern. "I sent Lavender to get one of the teachers."
Harry sat up, he was getting used to getting knocked out.
"What's wrong with Ron's hand."
Hermione blushed and smiled "The Brave fool hit Draco. I think he did more damage to his hand than to Malfoy but it stopped him. Malfoy's nursing a nasty lump I'd wager, I can't tell though, Crabbe and Goyle pulled Ron off him before anything serious could be done." Said Hermione "Are you Ok?"
"I think so, what in Merlin's name did he do"
"It's a seriously difficult charm, he must have been working on it for months. It beguiles its victim with its beauty before the dance becomes violent, and then, well its up to the caster what happens, you're just lucky Malfoy hasn't gone completely over the edge, otherwise it could have been very messy."
Harry reached up and felt his forehead; he took Parvati's hand off of his head. "Please, don't do that."
Parvati pulled away, looking slightly pained. Harry realised that he probably could have been a little less careless and abrupt in what he said. Hermione gave him a look that confirmed this.
"I'm sorry, Parvati. I didn't mean to be so rude, I just want to be left alone for a while"
Hermione and Parvati left Harry leaning against one of the wide tables and went to fuss over Ron. Hermione gave Ron a hug and he stood up, still cradling his hand.
"Oh stop complaining you complete wimp, you can't have hit him that hard, he's still conscious" she said taking his hand in hers.
"Is Harry Ok?"
"Oh, you know Harry, he'll probably be up and taking another stupid risk in a couple of minutes."
At that moment Lavender returned followed by Professor Snape and Bateson.
Snape looked at the situation and said firmly "Where's Potter?!"
"Here, Sir" said Harry struggling to his feet, supporting himself with the table. The Auror Bateson rushed over and helped Harry stand straight. "That's forty points from Slytherin Malfoy, and Twenty points from Gryffindor, Weasley, I don't care what the reasons but no one strikes anyone else in any of my lessons. Both of you will be doing detention. Cernd take Harry to Madam Pomfrey, he's probably just overacting but Poppy better take a look at him anyway. As for you two…"
"Are you ok Harry?" said Professor Bateson, helping Harry from the room. "Everyone keeps asking me that, and to tell the truth I'm not sure. I think Malfoy did something to my head, I can't focus on anything and my heads all dizzy."
"Well the lack of focus I think I can fix, and if it's the spell I think it is, its like being subjected to a mild form of the Imperius curse. It allows the caster to control objects and people over a small area, if allowed to develop too far the spell can start to control the thoughts of the victim, but it takes a wizard or witch with a very strong will to control the spell."
Bateson took Harry's Glasses out of his pocket and passed them to Harry who put them on.
"Oh right thanks. Yeah that sounds like Malfoy, before I passed out I heard him shouting and screaming about being ignored, swept aside or something. He spoke of father…" Harry would have continued but Bateson cut him off
"I'm not surprised, he didn't stay here over the summer by choice. When we raided Malfoy manor for dark magic, Lucius Malfoy used his own son as a diversion so that he could slip away, apparently Draco wasn't old enough to join the service of Voldemort, but that didn't deter him from attacking several fully fledged Aurors."
"Draco attacked Aurors?"
"Yes, that boy has a lot of potential, he seriously hurt my groups healer with a curse before we managed to get him under control. We were going to put him in Azkaban, horrible as that sounds, but Dumbledore stopped us and took him into the school, I understand Severus has been looking after him all summer."
"But why would he attack Aurors?"
"Who knows, Dumbledore reckons that Lucius has been twisting his mind towards darkness, its well known that Lucius was, and we suspect still is a Death Eater. Come on, the Infirmary just round here."
"Harry Potter Again!"
Poppy stood there hands on hips.
"All right get him on the bed and I'll see what's wrong"
Harry sat down and relaxed as Poppy rushed round him, checking for bruises and lumps. He'd been here so many times before that he barely noticed.
Bateson had rushed off, on the excuse that he really should be at Dumbledore's council.
Once Harry had been checked over and Madam Pomfrey was absolutely sure that there was nothing wrong with Harry she sent him back to lessons. He had transfiguration with Professor Mcgonnagall, but as in Potions, she too had to go, the entire class were sent back to the Gryffindor tower until they were sent for.
When Harry got there the rest of Gryffindor had already arrived, Fred and George were sitting in a corner flirting with Angelina and Alicia, Ginny and her friends were gathered round the fire and some of the second-years were throwing Carrot darts at each other, one of the weasleys creations, you could throw them and they never hit the thing you threw them at. If Filch knew they had them, then they would be in detention in minutes.
Hermione was probing for opinions.
"Harry, I've asked Ron and he thinks I'm just be paranoid. Do you think there's a connection between Neville departure at breakfast and the sudden council that Dumbledore has called?"
"Hermione, I was once told, that very little around here happens by coincidence, and this is also my experience."
"Hermione, are you bothering Harry with your strange theories." Ron had wandered over and now joined in the conversation.
"Well unlike some people, Harry at least thinks about those kind of things. I mean all you spend your time thinking about is Quidditch, Chudley cannons this and Chudley cannons that. Sometimes I think that if you could, you'd spend all your time looking at broomsticks.
Harry backed away, Ron was about to get slaughtered by Hermione. Before the shouting match could ensue though, Harry came up with a bright idea.
"I know, lets use the invisibility cloak to find out what is happening at the council."
"That's a brilliant idea." Said Ron.
Hermione though was more sceptical,
"Do you know what they'd do to us if they caught us, I mean Ron you've already got to do one detention for hitting Malfoy. Anyway it's a stupid idea anyway, with all these Aurors about don't you think someone will notice if you try to slip into the council unannounced."
"Well you can stay here then Hermione, Me and Ron will go."
"Oh no, you don't. I need to go or you two will get into trouble."
All three of them headed for the boys staircase.
When they got up to the dormitory, Dean and Seamus were sitting on one of the beds playing wizard chess.
"Isn't this great." Said Seamus
"Even better than the time that troll was around, no lessons, no teachers, we can get away with anything" said Dean
"I don't see what was so great about the troll" said Hermione emerging from the stairwell.
"Sorry Hermione" said Dean, "Didn't see you there"
Harry went over to the trunk and got out the cloak, "We're going to spy on the teachers. So you didn't see any of us, ok?"
"Yeah fine, just don't get into trouble. Gryffindor's lost enough points this morning with Snape's foul mood and Malfoy's temper tantrum, it'd be a shame to lose our title."
Dean and Seamus went back to their game of Wizard chess and Harry got out the Marauders map, once activated Harry could clearly see that all the teachers and a lot of other people had gathered in the great hall. "Look here, Neville's with them." And indeed Neville was, right under Harry's there was a small black spot labelled Neville Longbottom. "Alright lets go," said Ron impatiently. The other two agreed and Hermione and Ron slipped under the cloak with Harry. There wasn't much room and Ron kept stepping on Harry's shoes. It was really difficult getting down the stairs and out into the corridor undetected, but once they were out of Gryffindor tower, it was an easy job to traverse the school to the Great hall. More difficult however was the issue of how to get into the Hall undetected, the Great arched doorways always creaked and whined when the doors were opened.
"Hang on" said Hermione, getting her wand out,
"I know just the spell"
She pointed her wand at the great hinges on the doors and said
"Lubricatus", a jet of black liquid sprayed from her wand onto the hinges, then she stepped forward, dragging the other two along with her and silently opened the door, just enough to allow them to squeeze into the hall.
The hall was nearly empty except for a large group of people sat in a circle were the teachers table normally was. Dumbledore stood in the middle of the group as though he were addressing the gathered people. Snape, Mcgonnagall and the other teachers, even Hagrid were sat to the left of Dumbledore, and on Dumbledore's right, sat a large number of people, some of whom Harry recognised, such as Bateson, the Auror and Arthur Weasley, Ron's father. Sat directly in front of Dumbledore, completing the circle sat Neville, who looked petrified and upset. Ron leant backwards on the door, and it clicked loudly into place. All eyes shot towards them.
"Ahhhh… the final people have arrived, uninvited but not unexpected." Dumbledore said. "Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and I suppose Miss Granger as well. Please do come in, take off your cloaks and place them aside, there's no need for deceit here."
Harry lifted the cloak over his head and moved towards the circle of people. Dumbledore stepped aside, revealing three unoccupied seats.
Three of them sat down, looking rather embarrassed. Professor Mcgonnagall leant over and said "I expect to see you in my office after this council" with a scowl on her face. Then she leant back and regained her normal composure. Then Dumbledore began to speak and the council began.