Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix- Chapter 18
Halloween was the best time at Hogwarts, only next to Christmas. There were black and orange streamers hanging on the walls and hovering in the air high up in the Great Hall. Ten Jack o' Lanterns hung above every table. The ceiling of the Great Hall, which was enchanted to look like the sky outdoors, was cloudy and ominous every once in a while a streak of lightning would light up the Great Hall accompanied by a crash of thunder. The food was terrific, as always, and the students were all talking loudly, enjoying themselves. Some were playing pranks on each other, scaring each other and generally goofing off. Hogwarts was a wonderful place to celebrate Halloween, being a large stone castle with ghosts floating around.
Harry was talking and laughing with Ron and Hermione when Fred started it. Harry was telling Hermione how Ron had saved a goal from 20 meters away, at practice the other day, when he felt a gooey mess hit his head. Harry turned and viewed the table suspiciously. His eyes travelled over all potentially guilty parties and landed at Fred who was grinning, trying to look engaged in George's conversation with Lee. Harry scooped some of the gravy on his plate onto his spoon and launched it back at Fred. Unfortunately, the glob of gravy hit Lavender instead. Hermione yelled at Harry for throwing food and Ron laughed at him. Harry apologised to Lavender but was rewarded with a bread roll in his direction. Harry ducked and it hit Ginny, who had been a little late for dinner and had just entered the Great Hall. Ginny glared up at the person who had thrown it. Unfortunately, she thought George had done it, as Lavender was sitting right beside George. Fred was grinning at this beginning to a food fight. Ginny leaned over Colin's shoulder and stole a spoonful of potatoes and threw them in George's face. George was shocked, he hadn't known that Fred had started it. George, like his twin, loved mischief, so he, naturally, threw his glass full of pumpkin juice at Ginny. Naturally he "missed" and hit Hermione. George had purposely missed to (hopefully) launch a full- scale food fight. Hermione's eyes flashed angrily and, dripping pumpkin juice, stood up and chucked a red beet at George. Due to the fact that she was shaking in anger, Hermione missed and hit a Ravenclaw student who was pacing innocently along to her seat. Hermione began stammering an apology. By now the whole Great Hall had fallen into silence and was watching what was happening over at the Gryffindor table. The Ravenclaw looked down at her robes and got angry; after all, beets do stain. Ignoring Hermione's apologies she took a whole cake and shoved it into Hermione's face. Suddenly Fred stood up and at the top of his lungs bellowed "FOOD FIGHT!" The whole Great Hall was thrown into chaos. Food, drink and desert were being whipped around. People were under tables, on top of tables, in the aisles and on chairs. The teachers were running around, trying to stop it, but with no luck. George hid behind Ron when he hit Professor McGonagall in the face with a cream pie. The fight lasted for twenty minutes. The teachers had retreated back to the teacher's table where Professor Dumbledore was still sitting with a slight smile on his face. McGonagall wasn't the only teacher to have been hit. Snape was covered in gravy when he got in the way of a Hufflepuff getting her revenge on a Slytherin for beating them at Quidditch only a few days earlier. Flitwick was covered in whipped cream, Trelawney, who had decided to venture down from her tower for one evening, was wiping chocolate from her robes, her face had flour on it. Dumbledore surveyed his teachers with an amused twinkle in his eye. It had been a while since anyone had seen that familiar twinkle. Finally he stood up.
"May I have your attention please! Please, quiet!" The Hall fell silent as their Headmaster addressed them. Harry briefly wondered if it was possible to put the whole school under detention.
"If you could all please put a halt to this interesting fight. Thank you for your co-operation. Don't worry, none of you are in trouble. I see the nervous looks some of you are wearing. Why should you be punished when all you were doing was having fun? Now that most of the food is strewn on the floor and on yourselves I suggest you all head up to your common rooms and get cleaned. Happy Halloween to you all!" With that last sentence and a smile their Headmaster sat down. On their way back up to the Tower Fred and George couldn't stop going on about how unfair it was that they got away with it.
"Not even an investigation to see who started it." George mumbled.
"Dumbledore is far too nice." Agreed Fred. Ron and Harry rolled their eyes at the pessimists. Hermione couldn't believe that they had got away with it, she was relieved.
* * *
Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed up for a bit longer than usual, as did most of the Gryffindors. They had got changed and cleaned up and were in the common room beside the fire. As the clock struck 2:00 Harry yawned and declared that he was going to bed. Ron and Hermione followed him up and at the top of the stairs Ron and Harry said goodnight to Hermione.
Harry crawled into bed and scanned the room. Neville, Seamus, and Dean were already fast asleep and Ron was tucked in bed, his eyes closed. Harry flipped over and closed his own eyes. Soon the sounds of Ron and Neville's snores lulled him to sleep.
* * *
Sometime during the early, early morning something woke Harry up. He looked at the clock and groaned. It was only 4:30. He rolled over to go back to bed when a spark of light caught his gaze. The spark grew into an orb. The orb was spewing bright white light. Harry couldn't take his eyes off it.
"Harry." He heard that voice again, hissing his name. Harry felt himself being drawn to the orb. He reached out to try to touch it, but the orb moved away. Slowly it moved to the door. Harry was suddenly filled with this need to touch it, to follow it. He crept forward, not taking his eyes away from the orb, not blinking. The orb floated silently down the stairs into the common room, occasionally calling his name. The common room was empty, but Harry didn't notice. His soul purpose was to follow that orb, all his attention on that orb.
"Harry." It called again. Harry followed the orb out of the Tower, the Fat Lady appeared to be asleep. Something tugged at the back of Harry's mind. How could the portrait open if the Fat Lady was asleep? Wouldn't she wake up? But the voice called his name again and all other thoughts disappeared from his mind. He followed it down the marble staircase, down the staircase leading into the dungeons and down the hall. The hall lead to Snape's classroom, but the orb turned right, before Snape's classroom, into another room. The room was pitch black, but as they descended into it the orb filled the room with the light. Just as the door was about to swing shut behind Harry a shrill voice called his name. The voice was different from the voice in Harry's head.
"Harry Potter!" Harry blinked and looked around. The room had fallen to darkness and the orb was no where in sight. The only light entering the room was from the doorway, where Professor McGonagall stood, lantern in one hand, the other on her hip. Her lips were drawn into a thin line.
"Harry Potter. Do you have any idea of what time it is? Get back to the Tower now! Consider this 10 points from Gryffindor for being out after curfew." McGonagall followed Harry back to the Tower to make sure that he went in. Harry was feeling dazed. He didn't know what had just happened. He remembered waking up and seeing a white light. The next thing he remembered was snapping out of a sort of dream and standing in that room in the dungeons. Harry was just getting his felling back, he felt cold and was shaking. He paced in front of the smouldering fireplace and wondered what to do. It was ten to five and Harry thought it would be rude to wake Ron and Hermione up. *Mind you*, he thought again, *they would be angry if you didn't tell them immediately*. He looked around the quiet common room and felt strangely exposed, like something he couldn't see was watching him. A feeling of cold and fear gripped him and before he could change his mind, Harry ran up the stairs to wake Ron up.
"Wa-who? What's wrong?" Ron muttered. Harry muttered an apology for waking him up after only a three hour sleep and felt foolish for bothering his friends. Harry backed away and was about to tell Ron to go back to sleep when Ron suddenly sat up, examining his face.
"What happened?" Ron whispered. Harry hesitated.
"Let's get Hermione and I'll tell you guys in the common room." Ron asked no more questions, he didn't even comment on the time, but just threw his housecoat on and slipped his slippers on. Harry remembered how cold he was and did the same. They both crept into the girls' dormitories and into Hermione's room. Being careful to not wake the Prefects or other girls that Hermione shared a room with they tiptoed to her bedside. Harry stood on the left of Hermione and Ron on the right.
"Hermione," Harry whispered softly. Ron carefully shook her arm. Hermione's eyes shot open and she opened her mouth to scream, her right arm shooting out to grab her wand. Harry covered her mouth and Ron grabbed her hand to stop her from getting her wand.
"It's okay, Hermione! It's us! Ron and me. It's okay." Hermione relaxed and they let go of her. In the small amount of light in the room they could see the worried look in her eyes. She opened her mouth again to question them, but Harry interrupted her.
"We'll see you downstairs and I'll explain everything to you then." Harry and Ron tiptoed out the door.
Halloween was the best time at Hogwarts, only next to Christmas. There were black and orange streamers hanging on the walls and hovering in the air high up in the Great Hall. Ten Jack o' Lanterns hung above every table. The ceiling of the Great Hall, which was enchanted to look like the sky outdoors, was cloudy and ominous every once in a while a streak of lightning would light up the Great Hall accompanied by a crash of thunder. The food was terrific, as always, and the students were all talking loudly, enjoying themselves. Some were playing pranks on each other, scaring each other and generally goofing off. Hogwarts was a wonderful place to celebrate Halloween, being a large stone castle with ghosts floating around.
Harry was talking and laughing with Ron and Hermione when Fred started it. Harry was telling Hermione how Ron had saved a goal from 20 meters away, at practice the other day, when he felt a gooey mess hit his head. Harry turned and viewed the table suspiciously. His eyes travelled over all potentially guilty parties and landed at Fred who was grinning, trying to look engaged in George's conversation with Lee. Harry scooped some of the gravy on his plate onto his spoon and launched it back at Fred. Unfortunately, the glob of gravy hit Lavender instead. Hermione yelled at Harry for throwing food and Ron laughed at him. Harry apologised to Lavender but was rewarded with a bread roll in his direction. Harry ducked and it hit Ginny, who had been a little late for dinner and had just entered the Great Hall. Ginny glared up at the person who had thrown it. Unfortunately, she thought George had done it, as Lavender was sitting right beside George. Fred was grinning at this beginning to a food fight. Ginny leaned over Colin's shoulder and stole a spoonful of potatoes and threw them in George's face. George was shocked, he hadn't known that Fred had started it. George, like his twin, loved mischief, so he, naturally, threw his glass full of pumpkin juice at Ginny. Naturally he "missed" and hit Hermione. George had purposely missed to (hopefully) launch a full- scale food fight. Hermione's eyes flashed angrily and, dripping pumpkin juice, stood up and chucked a red beet at George. Due to the fact that she was shaking in anger, Hermione missed and hit a Ravenclaw student who was pacing innocently along to her seat. Hermione began stammering an apology. By now the whole Great Hall had fallen into silence and was watching what was happening over at the Gryffindor table. The Ravenclaw looked down at her robes and got angry; after all, beets do stain. Ignoring Hermione's apologies she took a whole cake and shoved it into Hermione's face. Suddenly Fred stood up and at the top of his lungs bellowed "FOOD FIGHT!" The whole Great Hall was thrown into chaos. Food, drink and desert were being whipped around. People were under tables, on top of tables, in the aisles and on chairs. The teachers were running around, trying to stop it, but with no luck. George hid behind Ron when he hit Professor McGonagall in the face with a cream pie. The fight lasted for twenty minutes. The teachers had retreated back to the teacher's table where Professor Dumbledore was still sitting with a slight smile on his face. McGonagall wasn't the only teacher to have been hit. Snape was covered in gravy when he got in the way of a Hufflepuff getting her revenge on a Slytherin for beating them at Quidditch only a few days earlier. Flitwick was covered in whipped cream, Trelawney, who had decided to venture down from her tower for one evening, was wiping chocolate from her robes, her face had flour on it. Dumbledore surveyed his teachers with an amused twinkle in his eye. It had been a while since anyone had seen that familiar twinkle. Finally he stood up.
"May I have your attention please! Please, quiet!" The Hall fell silent as their Headmaster addressed them. Harry briefly wondered if it was possible to put the whole school under detention.
"If you could all please put a halt to this interesting fight. Thank you for your co-operation. Don't worry, none of you are in trouble. I see the nervous looks some of you are wearing. Why should you be punished when all you were doing was having fun? Now that most of the food is strewn on the floor and on yourselves I suggest you all head up to your common rooms and get cleaned. Happy Halloween to you all!" With that last sentence and a smile their Headmaster sat down. On their way back up to the Tower Fred and George couldn't stop going on about how unfair it was that they got away with it.
"Not even an investigation to see who started it." George mumbled.
"Dumbledore is far too nice." Agreed Fred. Ron and Harry rolled their eyes at the pessimists. Hermione couldn't believe that they had got away with it, she was relieved.
* * *
Harry, Ron and Hermione stayed up for a bit longer than usual, as did most of the Gryffindors. They had got changed and cleaned up and were in the common room beside the fire. As the clock struck 2:00 Harry yawned and declared that he was going to bed. Ron and Hermione followed him up and at the top of the stairs Ron and Harry said goodnight to Hermione.
Harry crawled into bed and scanned the room. Neville, Seamus, and Dean were already fast asleep and Ron was tucked in bed, his eyes closed. Harry flipped over and closed his own eyes. Soon the sounds of Ron and Neville's snores lulled him to sleep.
* * *
Sometime during the early, early morning something woke Harry up. He looked at the clock and groaned. It was only 4:30. He rolled over to go back to bed when a spark of light caught his gaze. The spark grew into an orb. The orb was spewing bright white light. Harry couldn't take his eyes off it.
"Harry." He heard that voice again, hissing his name. Harry felt himself being drawn to the orb. He reached out to try to touch it, but the orb moved away. Slowly it moved to the door. Harry was suddenly filled with this need to touch it, to follow it. He crept forward, not taking his eyes away from the orb, not blinking. The orb floated silently down the stairs into the common room, occasionally calling his name. The common room was empty, but Harry didn't notice. His soul purpose was to follow that orb, all his attention on that orb.
"Harry." It called again. Harry followed the orb out of the Tower, the Fat Lady appeared to be asleep. Something tugged at the back of Harry's mind. How could the portrait open if the Fat Lady was asleep? Wouldn't she wake up? But the voice called his name again and all other thoughts disappeared from his mind. He followed it down the marble staircase, down the staircase leading into the dungeons and down the hall. The hall lead to Snape's classroom, but the orb turned right, before Snape's classroom, into another room. The room was pitch black, but as they descended into it the orb filled the room with the light. Just as the door was about to swing shut behind Harry a shrill voice called his name. The voice was different from the voice in Harry's head.
"Harry Potter!" Harry blinked and looked around. The room had fallen to darkness and the orb was no where in sight. The only light entering the room was from the doorway, where Professor McGonagall stood, lantern in one hand, the other on her hip. Her lips were drawn into a thin line.
"Harry Potter. Do you have any idea of what time it is? Get back to the Tower now! Consider this 10 points from Gryffindor for being out after curfew." McGonagall followed Harry back to the Tower to make sure that he went in. Harry was feeling dazed. He didn't know what had just happened. He remembered waking up and seeing a white light. The next thing he remembered was snapping out of a sort of dream and standing in that room in the dungeons. Harry was just getting his felling back, he felt cold and was shaking. He paced in front of the smouldering fireplace and wondered what to do. It was ten to five and Harry thought it would be rude to wake Ron and Hermione up. *Mind you*, he thought again, *they would be angry if you didn't tell them immediately*. He looked around the quiet common room and felt strangely exposed, like something he couldn't see was watching him. A feeling of cold and fear gripped him and before he could change his mind, Harry ran up the stairs to wake Ron up.
"Wa-who? What's wrong?" Ron muttered. Harry muttered an apology for waking him up after only a three hour sleep and felt foolish for bothering his friends. Harry backed away and was about to tell Ron to go back to sleep when Ron suddenly sat up, examining his face.
"What happened?" Ron whispered. Harry hesitated.
"Let's get Hermione and I'll tell you guys in the common room." Ron asked no more questions, he didn't even comment on the time, but just threw his housecoat on and slipped his slippers on. Harry remembered how cold he was and did the same. They both crept into the girls' dormitories and into Hermione's room. Being careful to not wake the Prefects or other girls that Hermione shared a room with they tiptoed to her bedside. Harry stood on the left of Hermione and Ron on the right.
"Hermione," Harry whispered softly. Ron carefully shook her arm. Hermione's eyes shot open and she opened her mouth to scream, her right arm shooting out to grab her wand. Harry covered her mouth and Ron grabbed her hand to stop her from getting her wand.
"It's okay, Hermione! It's us! Ron and me. It's okay." Hermione relaxed and they let go of her. In the small amount of light in the room they could see the worried look in her eyes. She opened her mouth again to question them, but Harry interrupted her.
"We'll see you downstairs and I'll explain everything to you then." Harry and Ron tiptoed out the door.