Chapter Fifteen: Halloween Spirit
The Great Hall looked dazzling. Carved, gruesome-looking pumpkins floated above the tables, candles flickering inside them and highlighting the faces that had been cut into the sides. Live bats circled above and swooped down on the students, shrieking ( That¡¯ll be Snape if he¡¯s an Animagus ), and skeletons of Clabberts ¨C little monkeylike creatures that had glowing lights at the end of their tails ¨C had been borrowed from the DADA department and bewitched to walk around and hand out Halloween cards or sweets up and down the tables. They were really quite annoying, as they pranced about the place how monkeys tended to, sometimes landing in a bowl of chips or crashing a jug of juice if they were drunk enough, and shrieking as loudly as the bats when they were. We got our little sense of victory when Frances looked over, stunned, as to how Jim had gotten his wand back when it had been sunk far out in the lake. Jim waved it in the air and laughed. I bet he¡¯s real ticked off now. He thought he had me.
By the time the feast was over, I was chock full of cake, sausage, pumpkin pie, juice and crisps. Jim was still hungry, the thin frame that he was, and asked me if I could go down to the kitchen with him.
¡°The kitchen? How did you manage to find out where the kitchen was?¡± Gran told me. I¡¯ve never actually been there, but I can remember what she¡¯s said about it. She says that a ton of house elves runs it, and that they do all the cleaning in the castle and they¡¯ve been the ones putting fire in the fireplaces for us. They work in secret, see. Anyway, it¡¯s in the dungeons. Come on. Get a cup of tea with me or something. I groaned. Like I said, I was chock full. But I went with him like a friend would.
We went through the familiar route into the dungeons. We passed my short cut to the third floor, and then into the more unfamiliar routes where the senior Potions classes usually headed. Then we went beyond even that, past a vanishing door that had the Slytherin symbol on it ( Who wouldn¡¯t expect to find something like that in this dreary old place? ) and past at least a dozen suits of armour lining the passageways. I was just about to ask Jim about his memory when he stopped in front of a large portrait.
This must be it, I guess. Gran told me about the portrait with all the fruit in it. I¡¯ve just got to tickle the pear¡ He tickled the pear, and it wiggled in the canvas and a door opened nearby, bringing with its opening a smell of soapsuds. We stepped through it, and entered one part of Hogwarts that we had never seen before.
The kitchen was enormous. It was as big as the Great Hall. Right in the center it had four long tables and one overlooking them all, just like the Great Hall. All around were sinks, giant cupboards, shelves, piles pf dirty plates and cutlery, piles of clean plates and cutlery, a whole lot of soapsuds, and house elves.
I had seen house elves before, once when I had accompanied Pop to a Ministry member¡¯s house. I was five then, and currently the house elves were about as large and frightening like I remembered them as they were paid to do work. The short, brownish, long-nosed, large-eared forms saw us, and immediately rushed forward to greet us even though their hands were covered in suds from the dishwashing.
¡°Young miss! Young master!¡± They seemed happy to see us. ¡°How joyful for you to have come to us to settle your hungers! What would young miss and young master like? Pork? Eggnog? Souffl¨¦, Danish, chocolate slice, more dessert??¡±
Er, some tea and biscuits would be nice, if it¡¯s not a problem, Jim said, uncertain of these house elves¡¯ behavior towards us.
The crowd of eager servants drew in an audible breath of awe, and one of them said in his squeaky voice, ¡°Young master can speak through minds! We respect you most highly for your disability to speak, sir!¡± They bowed so low that they were all in danger of falling head over heels onto the floor.
¡°These guys know their history well enough,¡± I said. ¡°What, you¡¯re a king now, are you?¡± Jim grinned, a bit red from the praise he was getting.
¡°Tea and biscuits!¡± bellowed the elves to those who were soapsuds-free. Three seconds later about ten of them were bustling a single tray under our noses, and a few were taking it in turns to make our tea.
Lucky I didn¡¯t say ¡®hurry¡¯, Jim said, impressed at the speed of the service. It took us a while to persuade the elves that we were fine with just our tea and biscuits, and slightly put out they returned to their washing and drying and putting away.
Jim sipped his tea and sighed. It¡¯s convenient having these happy little guys. You can come here at any time at all and they¡¯d just be begging to serve you with anything. ¡°Yeah¡¡± I was watching the elves bustle about, remembering what I had thought earlier. ¡°You know, one day someone who comes to this school is going to bring up the subject of house elves not getting paid to do work, and they¡¯re going to put on a rally about it or something. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s fair.¡± Don¡¯t worry too much over it, Kora. Look, they¡¯re practically chatting happily. Maybe it¡¯s not so good with house elves outside, but here at Hogwarts they look more than content enough. He was right. I dropped the thought, and we sat there silently for a while.
Time flew by. All of a sudden my watch was reading eleven p.m., although it had only felt like half an hour has passed. Jim yawned and stood up. I guess we have to get up to the dorm. They might go crazy wondering where we are. We said goodnight to the elves and, with difficulty, left the kitchen.
It was now dark on the third floor when we got out of the short cut. It was as if we hadn¡¯t even left the dungeons. We lit our wands and started to find our way to the staircase up to our tower, but on the way Jim suddenly pushed me aside so that I whammed inconveniently into the wall of the corridor.
¡°Ow! Jim, do you mind watching where you¡¯re going ¨C¡± There¡¯s someone coming. ¡°Who cares, Jim, it¡¯s not like we¡¯re going to get in trouble.¡± Oh, yes it is, we¡¯re not exactly supposed to be out after ten and we were certainly not supposed to be in the kitchens. Hogwarts can be dangerous at night. ¡°That¡¯s why teachers patrol it, isn¡¯t it?¡±
I shut up anyway. Jim was looking around the corner of the corridor seriously, so I peered around him just the same.
Someone definitely was coming, I could see movement from within one of the corridors nearby. Jim didn¡¯t surprise me by saying, Hey, there are two people coming. ¡°Yeah, well, even teachers can be afraid of the dark, Jim. Maybe one needs the other to hold his hand or something.¡± I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if it was Snape. His thought was dry, and I backed him up immediately. ¡°Don¡¯t be silly, he¡¯s an adult.¡±
We could hear them talking. It was so quiet on that floor that we could¡¯ve heard pretty much from there way up to the fifth floor where the Muggle Studies rooms were. Judging from the absence of Snape¡¯s dull voice, I knew that he wasn¡¯t there. Actually, neither people coming up didn¡¯t sound like any of the teachers I knew.
It became apparent why that was a few seconds later. All we needed to see were the pearly white bodies, the transparent mid sections, and those century-old ruffled robes...
They were ghosts. One was the Hufflepuff ghost, The Fat Friar, and the other was a famous little ghost that haunted the deepest darkest dungeons in the whole of Hogwarts. She was a depressed little old lady that everybody called Howling Helen, and sometimes we would hear her howling and bawling rattling the pipes coming up from where she was.
Whoa, Jim said. Ghosts were common enough around old, dreary castles, but it was what they were talking about that really pulled us in.
¡°¨C not if we can help it,¡± the Fat Friar was saying. ¡°I mean, it does help that we stay away from the Baron when he¡¯s in one of his moods.¡± Howling Helen sniffed in a miserable sort of way, and said back in a dull, scratchy voice from all her howling, ¡°Yes...it really reminds you of the time that boy nearly banished him from the castle. Imagine that! Being chased away from your own home by an outsider...¡± ¡°Yes, hmm...¡± The Friar looked thoughtful. It was only when they were passing our corridor when he suddenly said, ¡°That boy...he was that Richard boy, wasn¡¯t he?¡±
My heart got caught somewhere between my throat and my lungs. What were they talking about my father for? Jim had tensed as well ¨C the wall was up so that I couldn¡¯t receive any of what he was thinking, but my shoulder was touching his so I could feel him go rigid just as well.
¡°Yes, now I remember...Rastrick, that¡¯s the name. All those years down in the dungeons...I can hardly remember any of our more brighter students.¡±
¡°Yes, he was very bright, but he was a little on the crazy side of his family. You remember that, don¡¯t you, Helen?¡± ¡°Oh, yes, of course I do. Now that you¡¯ve mentioned it, everything¡¯s coming back to me...oh, how everyone used to hate that poor boy.¡±
The Fat Friar made a rude noise that carried down the whole floor. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t use the word ¡®poor¡¯ to describe him. He was a maniac! Everybody hated him because he was simply...well, no word fits him better than...see, even I can¡¯t find one for the likes of him. All I know is that it was wrong of his father to send him to Hogwarts in the first place.¡± They were getting further away from us. I grabbed Jim by the sleeve and began to pull him forward.
Hey ¨C what are you doing? I hissed, ¡°We¡¯re following them.¡± Why? ¡°I want to hear what they¡¯re saying!¡± We¡¯ve already heard what they¡¯ve got to say, now we¡¯ve got to get back to the dorm before we get in trouble! ¡°I never knew that my father attacked a ghost here. My Pop never told me!¡± He probably didn¡¯t tell you a lot of things! I mean, he probably didn¡¯t tell you for a good reason. Kora! ¡°Shhh!!¡±
I felt obsessed. I had to eavesdrop on their conversation, even if I never did care about Richard in the first place. I just felt like I had to, even if we did get caught. Silently, we crept behind them in the darkness of the corridors. They kept talking, and eventually we could hear them again.
¡°Pity though, isn¡¯t it,¡± Howling Helen was saying, ¡°how he ran away like that in just his first year here? Usually that¡¯s enough to stop any student really from learning anything to do with magic, but...I don¡¯t know how he came to be that powerful in just a short while.¡± ¡°You know those Rastricks, Helen. Once a Rastrick always a Rastrick. That boy was no ordinary boy. I don¡¯t suppose that you know his daughter is currently attending Hogwarts?¡± ¡°Is she really? Well I didn¡¯t know that.¡± ¡°Well, she¡¯s in first year now, just like Richard had been before he ran off. Kora, her name is. Some call her the Curse, because she just might turn out to be one, really, since the Sorting Hat put her in Gryffindor. Frankly, I¡¯m glad that she didn¡¯t turn up in my House, otherwise I would have turned over in my grave!¡± The Fat Friar laughed at his own depressing joke. Howling Helen sniffled. ¡°I suppose the Bloody Baron was happiest to see that boy go.¡± ¡°Of course he was. Mind you, it didn¡¯t show, but one would be happy if one¡¯s would-be assassin banished himself from the castle. I still wonder how he managed to curse a ghost! Makes you feel unsafe in this world, doesn¡¯t it?¡±
I let them drift off, and looked at Jim. ¡°Right. That was ¨C¡± I didn¡¯t say what I was going to say next. At the moment of looking behind me my throat had clogged up and forced any further words from coming out. Jim was looking back at me with wide eyes, and Snape was behind him, his long silky hands on his shoulders.