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Jade: And now, the answer to what you've all been wondering subconsciously, where have we been?
Masterharper: Hmm...our excuse...well, I've been in England (God save the Queen!).
Jade: And I've been in Texas (Deep in the heart of Texas!).
Masterharper: Now that we've answered the question nobody asked-
Jade: On with the show!
*
Puck's Children
Chapter 6
Riding an Upside Down Nimbus
*
"You're joking," the Ravenclaw of five years said in a disbelieving tone.
"No, I'm not," the youngest Gryffindor prefect replied.
"You're saying," Patrick's tone was thick with disbelief and seemed to ask for conformation with each word, "that Professor McGonagall, the Professor McGonagall, the Professor who hates with all her soul pranks or any kind of mischief, went to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" A few Hufflepuff first years that were passing them in the hall heard this and started whispering to themselves. By the end of the day, the story would go that McGonagall bought the entire shop's worth of pranks, killed the Weasleys, or something equally outrageous.
Ginny nodded, "Yeah, my brothers wrote to me about it right after she left."
"And she walked in on purpose?" Ginny grinned and nodded. "If you tell me she bought something, I'll never believe you about anything again.
"She didn't. Too bad too. That would have made their year. She was looking for information. You know those pranks that have been going on since the start of term? She wanted to know who sold things that could do that. Fred said that she seemed to want to know who had bought them." She was enjoying her tale so much that she nearly missed the concerned look that crossed Patrick's face.
"They don't keep records of that, do they?"
Deciding that Patrick was just afraid that he might be caught buying something someday, she dismissed the expression and shrugged. "No, they don't. Filling out paperwork and record keeping were never Fred and George's greatest abilities. Besides, no one sells things that can do what the pranks did." She smiled while she looked back on them. "Remember that blizzard last week? McGonagall had to pull Flitwick out of a ditch." She giggled in a most un-prefect like way.
"Yeah, I remember. Look, I'll see you later. I have to go look something up in the library."
"Sure. I'll see you in Herbology tomorrow." She became a little suspicious when Patrick went in the wrong direction to get to the library. Fortunately for Patrick, a young Gryffindor first year running down the hallway with his pants on fire wiped all thought of pursuing the minor mystery any further. Another first year came running after him, wand raised.
"Come back, Kyle! I didn't know it would do that! It's not a problem! I know a spell! It'll stop the fire real quick!" Ginny stared as the two ran by, comprehension taking a while to sink in. Then she sighed. It was her duty to help this Kyle and to stop the other boy from 'helping' his friend any more. Some days she wished she could trade her badge for a chocolate frog.
***
After he watched Ginny give chase to two first years Patrick paused. He made a mental note that when he made an excuse of going to the library, he should head in the direction of the library. Making sure the coast was clear, he walked over to a nearby statue. It was a rather ugly statue, of Oclo the Three-eyed. Patrick had never come across the name in history books so what made him worth turning into a statue was a mystery, a mystery he had no desire to solve. It was true that Oclo had three eyes, at least on the statue, unfortunately they were all different sizes, making the face hideous. Patrick reached up and poked the eye on the far left, which was shaped like a peanut. The eye sunk the rest of the way into the head. Sounds of stone scraping on stone echoed in the hallway for a few moments, then stopped.
After waiting a few heartbeats, Patrick turned around with a slightly haughty look on his face. Before him, where there used to be a regular stone wall, there were steps curving up to an unseen location. Whether or not it led anywhere could not be told from the bottom. Also before him, at the bottom of the stairway, was a slightly perturbed Slytherin first year.
She looked at him with suspicion. "How did you know I was back there?"
He smiled and spread his arms wide. "I know everything."
Fay snorted. "No, really, how'd you know?"
"If I told you everything how would I ever beat you when we fight?"
She raised an eyebrow in mock astonishment. "You think you can beat me anyway?"
Patrick snorted and waved his hand, dismissing the entire conversation. He continued in a more serious tone. "McGonagall went looking for our tricks at the Weasleys' shop."
Surprise flashed over Fay's face; she had it under control in less than a minute. "I didn't think she would do that at least till Halloween. What could possibly drive her to do that so soon?"
"Maybe the door thing annoyed her more than we thought or..." he trailed off looking at her to finish the statement. It took her a minute, but comprehension did come.
"She's extremely strict, and everything that is against the rules bothers her, so when people get away with things she stores it away. It builds up, bit by bit, until it explodes. And we," she paused taking a breath, "threw the stones that caused the dragon to wake."
"Yeah, and now we're going to have her and Snape on our tail the whole year."
She grinned, with no trace of fear ever crossing her face, "Makes it more of challenge. You're not turning chicken, are you?"
Patrick mirrored her grin. "You wish."
Suddenly, a blur ran between them, smoke billowing behind it, a tired Ginny running after him. She barely paid attention to her surroundings. A good thing too or she would have had many questions. She was focused on getting that boy to stop. He ran unusually fast for a boy his size. Then again, he had incentive.
Fay and Patrick watched her pass, staring at the unusual sight. Fay was the first to comment. "Your girlfriend has her hands full. Allen must have been practicing his Wingardum Leviosa charm."
Patrick looked at her with annoyance. "She is not my girlfriend. She is just a friend. And I told you if you ever said that again that I would-" He raised his wand.
"Come on, we have brooms to bewitch." With that she turned and sprinted up the stairs, Patrick hot on her heels.
The stone wall moved back into place. When Ginny passed through again, chasing Kyle, she didn't even notice it had changed.
***
The air was crisp. Colder than it usually was this time of year, to the dismay of the gathered Gryffindors and Slytherins. If Madame Hooch cared she wasn't showing it. Fay tried to concentrate on her while Gilda talked in low tones about how cold it was, how Hooch's hair was too spiky, and how she would bet her family's account at Gringotts that Fay would fall flat on her face as soon as she touched a broom. Fay didn't know if she should be angry or laugh out loud at that. Fay was quite possibly the only first year in the school that had a broom on Hogwarts grounds. It was in the care of her brother of course, to keep it from being confiscated. The rules prohibited first years from having brooms, not flying them. So all she had to do was ask her brother to bring the broom outside and she could fly to her heart's delight.
"Now then, stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'Up'" Fay complied, the broom seemed to hesitate for a moment and then did as it was told. She was one of the fortunate ones. Of course, she had planned it that way.
Kyle Armstrong's broom did exactly what it was told. It went up. And up. And up. It didn't stop until Madam Hooch said, "Accio Broom." That didn't work though, it just stopped going up. Gilda's broom seemed to catch on part of Gilda's uniform and rose as high as a third story window, with Gilda hanging from it squirming to get down, or get on the broom; it was hard to tell. One of the brooms did not go up at all. Instead it turned sideways, hard, tripping its girl and the one next to her. Allen Longfellow's broom seemed not to like Allen, the handle remaining on the ground while the brush moved up, resulting in Allen getting hit in the back of the head. He fell and didn't get up for some time.
Norina Ellis, whose broom had done what it was told correctly, was trying to help her twin brother, Norwood, get control of his bucking broom. They seemed to get it under control when the broom darted forward, knocking over a few other students, and dragging Norwood with it. He did let go after being dragged almost to the lake, where the broom began to celebrate it's newfound freedom by doing loop-the-loops that would have been very impressive if it had a rider. Vladimir Tudor, usually regal and composed, was running in circles like a little child. Fay thought he was chasing his broom until she saw the broom right behind him. Another student watched helplessly as his broom went flying for the school at high speed, smashing the window of the Charms classroom. His broom came back, only to turn around and head for another window.
Out of the twenty-two students that had come out for flying lessons, only five had gotten their broom to obey them. Only two of those hadn't been knocked over by the others. Fay looked around, her lips forming a smile as she watched her schoolmates' plight.
Right before Madame Hooch ordered her to go get some of the other professors for help she couldn't help but think, 'It's a good day for flying.'
***
Professor McGonagall was walking along the corridors; she had a free class period. Normally she would be grading papers, but she had finished that so she had decided to go for a stroll. The sun was shinning through the windows, the stained glass casting patterns on the wall. It was all very picturesque. And quiet. Blessed quiet.
Suddenly, the calm was shattered by the sounds of shoes hitting the hard floor. The stone walls echoed the sound, until it sounded like a large number of dragons were coming down the hallway. McGonagall was expecting at least a large seventh year boy to come sprinting around the corridor. Instead a small first year girl appeared holding one of the school's brooms. She almost crashed into McGonagall but managed to stop by pointing the broom in the opposite direction while commanding the broom to go forward. McGonagall raised an eyebrow but waited patiently while the girl caught her breath.
"Sorry Professor, but Madame Hooch needs your help. The students are having a hard time with the brooms."
Wondering why the child had run to tell her this caused a little of a delay in McGonagall's response. "Madame Hooch is an excellent instructor. I'm sure the problem, whatever it is, is entirely within her abilities to solve. I have work to do. And you, Miss MacGregor should not be running in the hallways. It is against the-"
"But Professor-" she pleaded.
"But nothing, Madame Hooch is capable of-" She was interrupted again, not by the girl, but by a racing broom hurtling through the glass window. The glass shards had barely begun to fall when the broom headed right toward McGonagall. She ducked, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Fay MacGregor did not. In fact, she looked up at the broom, smiling. The broom turned again. This time going though a different window. The glass was all over the floor. It was reflecting the light in a way that would have been pretty if it had not followed such destruction.
"What was that?" McGonagall demanded, as soon as the shock wore off.
"That," the girl said with an amused smile, "was nothing that Madame Hooch can't handle." With that, she mounted her broom and flew through the open window.
For the next few hours, the Hogwarts staff tried to get control of the brooms. Unfortunately none of the spells worked right. It did not end until Dumbledore himself came out and flicked his wand. The twenty odd brooms came down and settled in the nice and neat rows they had been in before the students had said "Up!" McGonagall was so distracted that she even forgot to take points from Slytherin for flying a broom inside the castle.
Jade: And now, the answer to what you've all been wondering subconsciously, where have we been?
Masterharper: Hmm...our excuse...well, I've been in England (God save the Queen!).
Jade: And I've been in Texas (Deep in the heart of Texas!).
Masterharper: Now that we've answered the question nobody asked-
Jade: On with the show!
*
Puck's Children
Chapter 6
Riding an Upside Down Nimbus
*
"You're joking," the Ravenclaw of five years said in a disbelieving tone.
"No, I'm not," the youngest Gryffindor prefect replied.
"You're saying," Patrick's tone was thick with disbelief and seemed to ask for conformation with each word, "that Professor McGonagall, the Professor McGonagall, the Professor who hates with all her soul pranks or any kind of mischief, went to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" A few Hufflepuff first years that were passing them in the hall heard this and started whispering to themselves. By the end of the day, the story would go that McGonagall bought the entire shop's worth of pranks, killed the Weasleys, or something equally outrageous.
Ginny nodded, "Yeah, my brothers wrote to me about it right after she left."
"And she walked in on purpose?" Ginny grinned and nodded. "If you tell me she bought something, I'll never believe you about anything again.
"She didn't. Too bad too. That would have made their year. She was looking for information. You know those pranks that have been going on since the start of term? She wanted to know who sold things that could do that. Fred said that she seemed to want to know who had bought them." She was enjoying her tale so much that she nearly missed the concerned look that crossed Patrick's face.
"They don't keep records of that, do they?"
Deciding that Patrick was just afraid that he might be caught buying something someday, she dismissed the expression and shrugged. "No, they don't. Filling out paperwork and record keeping were never Fred and George's greatest abilities. Besides, no one sells things that can do what the pranks did." She smiled while she looked back on them. "Remember that blizzard last week? McGonagall had to pull Flitwick out of a ditch." She giggled in a most un-prefect like way.
"Yeah, I remember. Look, I'll see you later. I have to go look something up in the library."
"Sure. I'll see you in Herbology tomorrow." She became a little suspicious when Patrick went in the wrong direction to get to the library. Fortunately for Patrick, a young Gryffindor first year running down the hallway with his pants on fire wiped all thought of pursuing the minor mystery any further. Another first year came running after him, wand raised.
"Come back, Kyle! I didn't know it would do that! It's not a problem! I know a spell! It'll stop the fire real quick!" Ginny stared as the two ran by, comprehension taking a while to sink in. Then she sighed. It was her duty to help this Kyle and to stop the other boy from 'helping' his friend any more. Some days she wished she could trade her badge for a chocolate frog.
***
After he watched Ginny give chase to two first years Patrick paused. He made a mental note that when he made an excuse of going to the library, he should head in the direction of the library. Making sure the coast was clear, he walked over to a nearby statue. It was a rather ugly statue, of Oclo the Three-eyed. Patrick had never come across the name in history books so what made him worth turning into a statue was a mystery, a mystery he had no desire to solve. It was true that Oclo had three eyes, at least on the statue, unfortunately they were all different sizes, making the face hideous. Patrick reached up and poked the eye on the far left, which was shaped like a peanut. The eye sunk the rest of the way into the head. Sounds of stone scraping on stone echoed in the hallway for a few moments, then stopped.
After waiting a few heartbeats, Patrick turned around with a slightly haughty look on his face. Before him, where there used to be a regular stone wall, there were steps curving up to an unseen location. Whether or not it led anywhere could not be told from the bottom. Also before him, at the bottom of the stairway, was a slightly perturbed Slytherin first year.
She looked at him with suspicion. "How did you know I was back there?"
He smiled and spread his arms wide. "I know everything."
Fay snorted. "No, really, how'd you know?"
"If I told you everything how would I ever beat you when we fight?"
She raised an eyebrow in mock astonishment. "You think you can beat me anyway?"
Patrick snorted and waved his hand, dismissing the entire conversation. He continued in a more serious tone. "McGonagall went looking for our tricks at the Weasleys' shop."
Surprise flashed over Fay's face; she had it under control in less than a minute. "I didn't think she would do that at least till Halloween. What could possibly drive her to do that so soon?"
"Maybe the door thing annoyed her more than we thought or..." he trailed off looking at her to finish the statement. It took her a minute, but comprehension did come.
"She's extremely strict, and everything that is against the rules bothers her, so when people get away with things she stores it away. It builds up, bit by bit, until it explodes. And we," she paused taking a breath, "threw the stones that caused the dragon to wake."
"Yeah, and now we're going to have her and Snape on our tail the whole year."
She grinned, with no trace of fear ever crossing her face, "Makes it more of challenge. You're not turning chicken, are you?"
Patrick mirrored her grin. "You wish."
Suddenly, a blur ran between them, smoke billowing behind it, a tired Ginny running after him. She barely paid attention to her surroundings. A good thing too or she would have had many questions. She was focused on getting that boy to stop. He ran unusually fast for a boy his size. Then again, he had incentive.
Fay and Patrick watched her pass, staring at the unusual sight. Fay was the first to comment. "Your girlfriend has her hands full. Allen must have been practicing his Wingardum Leviosa charm."
Patrick looked at her with annoyance. "She is not my girlfriend. She is just a friend. And I told you if you ever said that again that I would-" He raised his wand.
"Come on, we have brooms to bewitch." With that she turned and sprinted up the stairs, Patrick hot on her heels.
The stone wall moved back into place. When Ginny passed through again, chasing Kyle, she didn't even notice it had changed.
***
The air was crisp. Colder than it usually was this time of year, to the dismay of the gathered Gryffindors and Slytherins. If Madame Hooch cared she wasn't showing it. Fay tried to concentrate on her while Gilda talked in low tones about how cold it was, how Hooch's hair was too spiky, and how she would bet her family's account at Gringotts that Fay would fall flat on her face as soon as she touched a broom. Fay didn't know if she should be angry or laugh out loud at that. Fay was quite possibly the only first year in the school that had a broom on Hogwarts grounds. It was in the care of her brother of course, to keep it from being confiscated. The rules prohibited first years from having brooms, not flying them. So all she had to do was ask her brother to bring the broom outside and she could fly to her heart's delight.
"Now then, stick out your right hand over your broom and say 'Up'" Fay complied, the broom seemed to hesitate for a moment and then did as it was told. She was one of the fortunate ones. Of course, she had planned it that way.
Kyle Armstrong's broom did exactly what it was told. It went up. And up. And up. It didn't stop until Madam Hooch said, "Accio Broom." That didn't work though, it just stopped going up. Gilda's broom seemed to catch on part of Gilda's uniform and rose as high as a third story window, with Gilda hanging from it squirming to get down, or get on the broom; it was hard to tell. One of the brooms did not go up at all. Instead it turned sideways, hard, tripping its girl and the one next to her. Allen Longfellow's broom seemed not to like Allen, the handle remaining on the ground while the brush moved up, resulting in Allen getting hit in the back of the head. He fell and didn't get up for some time.
Norina Ellis, whose broom had done what it was told correctly, was trying to help her twin brother, Norwood, get control of his bucking broom. They seemed to get it under control when the broom darted forward, knocking over a few other students, and dragging Norwood with it. He did let go after being dragged almost to the lake, where the broom began to celebrate it's newfound freedom by doing loop-the-loops that would have been very impressive if it had a rider. Vladimir Tudor, usually regal and composed, was running in circles like a little child. Fay thought he was chasing his broom until she saw the broom right behind him. Another student watched helplessly as his broom went flying for the school at high speed, smashing the window of the Charms classroom. His broom came back, only to turn around and head for another window.
Out of the twenty-two students that had come out for flying lessons, only five had gotten their broom to obey them. Only two of those hadn't been knocked over by the others. Fay looked around, her lips forming a smile as she watched her schoolmates' plight.
Right before Madame Hooch ordered her to go get some of the other professors for help she couldn't help but think, 'It's a good day for flying.'
***
Professor McGonagall was walking along the corridors; she had a free class period. Normally she would be grading papers, but she had finished that so she had decided to go for a stroll. The sun was shinning through the windows, the stained glass casting patterns on the wall. It was all very picturesque. And quiet. Blessed quiet.
Suddenly, the calm was shattered by the sounds of shoes hitting the hard floor. The stone walls echoed the sound, until it sounded like a large number of dragons were coming down the hallway. McGonagall was expecting at least a large seventh year boy to come sprinting around the corridor. Instead a small first year girl appeared holding one of the school's brooms. She almost crashed into McGonagall but managed to stop by pointing the broom in the opposite direction while commanding the broom to go forward. McGonagall raised an eyebrow but waited patiently while the girl caught her breath.
"Sorry Professor, but Madame Hooch needs your help. The students are having a hard time with the brooms."
Wondering why the child had run to tell her this caused a little of a delay in McGonagall's response. "Madame Hooch is an excellent instructor. I'm sure the problem, whatever it is, is entirely within her abilities to solve. I have work to do. And you, Miss MacGregor should not be running in the hallways. It is against the-"
"But Professor-" she pleaded.
"But nothing, Madame Hooch is capable of-" She was interrupted again, not by the girl, but by a racing broom hurtling through the glass window. The glass shards had barely begun to fall when the broom headed right toward McGonagall. She ducked, noticing out of the corner of her eye that Fay MacGregor did not. In fact, she looked up at the broom, smiling. The broom turned again. This time going though a different window. The glass was all over the floor. It was reflecting the light in a way that would have been pretty if it had not followed such destruction.
"What was that?" McGonagall demanded, as soon as the shock wore off.
"That," the girl said with an amused smile, "was nothing that Madame Hooch can't handle." With that, she mounted her broom and flew through the open window.
For the next few hours, the Hogwarts staff tried to get control of the brooms. Unfortunately none of the spells worked right. It did not end until Dumbledore himself came out and flicked his wand. The twenty odd brooms came down and settled in the nice and neat rows they had been in before the students had said "Up!" McGonagall was so distracted that she even forgot to take points from Slytherin for flying a broom inside the castle.
