Being Friends
As November rolled in, it started getting much colder. Everything turned an icy grey and Hagrid could be seen defrosting the broomsticks downstairs.
The Quidditch season had begun. Harry would have his first match on Saturday after weeks of training: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. He hadn't seen Fi and Felan since Halloween and had this bad feeling that they had been caught...or forgotten or that it was cleaning week.
It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermione as a friend. He couldn't have gotten through all of his homework without her. And also, she lent him Quidditch Through the Ages, which turned out to be very interesting.
Everything was going so smoothly with school and Harry's new friends, that he forgot that times like this lead to bad things. And it was the day before the Quidditch match that something happened. You couldn't consider it bad or good, just something in between.
"Harry!" an arm wrenched Harry into the boy's bathroom and the door was shut and locked.
"Felan!" Harry growled. "What's going on here?" he asked.
"Something's wrong with Fi," Felan said. "Something strange,"
"Something strange is always wrong with Fi," Harry said. "It's the way she works."
"No, something stranger!" Felan said. "She won't come out of her room, Harry. Not even for a bit of a runaround. I even tried bribing her with rabbit and she wouldn't come out."
"What?" Harry asked. "She always comes out for rabbit," he said. "Did you try deer?" Felan nodded.
"And fish, and those little beans you gave us. Nothing's working."
"That's weird," Harry said.
"Not, it seems, weird enough. Keavy gave this to me, I can't make sense of it. See if you can." Felan gave a piece of paper to Harry and Harry looked at it. "She drew it. Fi, I mean."
"It's a castle," Harry said.
"I see that," Felan deadpanned. "But not only is it a very good castle, it also seems to be three dimensional and that moss growing off of the rocks just jumps off of the paper there," Felan said. "And Fi can't draw."
"Not to save her life," Harry said. "What's this at the bottom?" he asked.
"Oh, that's a bit of a scribble she did. It looked like she was about to write something but stopped right in the middle." Harry looked at it closely and tried to read it but it was crossed off too many times.
"This is a bit..."
"Scary?" Felan asked. "Strange? Why the hell didn't she tell us?" he asked.
"I was going to say remarkable, but I think you've got it down." Harry said. "How would she know how to draw a castle like this?" he asked.
"Keavy said there were more drawings, all on the floor. It's all she's been doing: drawing, drawing, drawing." Felan said.
"I know a way to get her out," Harry said. "It's possibly the only way to get her out."
"What?" Felan asked eagerly.
"A fight," Harry said.
"Tried," Felan said.
"With Marlaina?" Harry asked. Felan raised an eyebrow.
"That sounds promising." Felan said.
"And if that doesn't work...the match!" Harry said.
"What match?" Felan asked.
"Well, I really wasn't going to tell you because you two were probably going to do something wrong, but, I've got a Quidditch match tomorrow." Harry said.
"TOMORROW?" Felan yelled. He calmed down. "What time?"
"Be at the pitch about an hour before noontime," Harry said.
"But...classes!"
"Play sick," Harry said. "You've done that quite a few times, it should be no problem."
"Fine," Felan said. "If Marlaina calling her out doesn't work, I'll drag her to the Quidditch game." he said.
-------------------
The next morning was bright and cold. The Great Hall was full of delicious smells and the students were chattering excitedly about the Quidditch match. But for some reason, Harry didn't seem hungry, or like talking.
"Here, Harry, have some breakfast." Hermione said, putting a crumpet on his plate. Harry shook his head.
"Not hungry,"
"Just the crumpet?" Hermione wheedled.
"No," Harry said. He'd never exactly felt this way before about something, and wasn't sure how to act. He felt nervous, terrible, anxious, sad and somehow responsible for the way Fi was acting, all in one day. Not to mention, in just two hours he would be walking onto the pitch.
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Felan ran up to Marlaina that day (accidently shoving Violet--who was carrying a plate of ribs-- to the ground), realizing he was probably supposed to ask her this yesterday.
"What, boy?" she snapped when he tapped her shoulder.
"I need you to help me," Felan said. Marlaina kept walking. "Hey! Wait up!" she stopped.
"Why would I need to help you when I already know what it is and I know I'm not going to?" she asked. "I've got too many duties to help you with Fi," Marlaina said.
"But, Marlaina. This is an emergency." Felan said. "It's urgent! I promise, once you get to her room you'll completely understand. I was just there this morning after all," he said. Marlaina sighed and dropped the woven basket she had been carrying on the ground.
"Fine," she said. "If it's as bad as you say then..."
"It is, trust me!" Felan said. They went into the caves and followed the passageway until they faced an entrance hole covered by a blanket. "Here," he pushed Marlaina in and she fell through. What she saw astounded her. The room was surgically clean, well, to Fi's standards anyways. Everything was brushed up and put in it's rightful place, there weren't any stinky dead things around, and that pile of clothes that used to be in the middle of the floor: gone.
"What are you doing here?" Fi asked from a corner. Marlaina looked around the room with wide eyes. There was silence for a moment as Fi put yet another drawing in a small pile a few feet away from her.
"What is this?" Marlaina asked.
"My room," Fi said. "What do you want? People just don't go barging into my room for no reason at all...well, unless your Felan." Marlaina gasped.
"You actually called him by his name!" she said.
"What of it?" Fi asked.
"I've never heard you do that before!" Marlaina said. "It's obvious whatever's doing this to you is serious, so I've come to expel it out of you," she said. Fi rolled her eyes and got to her feet.
"First of all, nothing is wrong with me at all. Second of all, how do you plan on expelling it out of me?" she asked.
"Well," Marlaina bit her lip. "I've come to fight you," she said.
"Fight me?" Fi asked. "Try,"
"Pick your weapon," Marlaina asked.
"I say...chobos," Fi said.
"Fighting staff," Marlaina said. Both girls glared at eachother for a minute, then both said "Rock, paper, scissors!" They held out their hands and played a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, ending in both of them choosing rock. They played again, and both chose scissors.
"FELAN!" both girls yelled. Felan poked his head through the blanket.
"Need a referee?" he asked.
------------------
By eleven o' clock, the whole school seemed to be crammed into the stands around the field. Hermione and Ron joined Neville, Seamus and Dean up in the top row, holding a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined. It said "Potter for President" with a Gryffindor lion underneath.
On the way into the lockers, Harry saw a large black wolf and a large gold wolf walking in from the forest. They solemnly walked into the Gryffindor stands and Harry walked into the locker room. Now he was even more nervous. What if they did something bad?
After they changed into their robes, Wood cleared his throat for silence.
"Okay, men," he said.
"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson.
"This is it," Wood said.
"The big one," said Fred Weasley.
"The one we've all been waiting for," said George.
"We were on the team last year," Fred said. "We know his speech by heart."
"Shut up, you two," Wood warned. "This is the best team we've had in years. We're going to win, I know it." he glared at them as if to say "Or else".
Harry followed Fred and George out of the locker room and hoped his knees weren't going to give way, he walked into the field to loud cheers. He saw the two wolves (who had obviously been kicked out of the stands) lying on the grass and barking at each other.
Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the center of the pitch, waiting for the two teams with the broom in her hand.
"Now I want a nice, clean game." she said, "From all of you," Harry noticed that she seemed to be talking to the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint. Harry thought he looked as if he was troll-bred. "Mount your brooms!" Harry clambered onto his broom and when Madam Hooch gave her whistle, all fifteen brooms rose up into the air. They were off.
"And the Quaffle goes to Gryffindor!" The Weasley twin's friend, Lee Jordan was doing the commentary. "Neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver's--back to Johnson and--no, the Slytherins have the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes-- Flint flying like an eagle up there!" Harry looked around but didn't see the Snitch anywhere in sight.
"GRYFFINDORS SCORE!" Gryffindors cheered and Slytherins groaned. When Angelina scored, Harry saw the wolves down on the grass bark happily until something caught his eye, and apparently Felan's too. Felan (the golden wolf) barked happily and started chasing the Snitch until it rose too high in the air. Harry zoomed down, but the Snitch was nowhere to be found, the Slytherin Seeker also went down to look for it but it wasn't there.
"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan said. "Chaser Pucey ducks two bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell speeds toward the--wait a moment--was that the Snitch?" Harry saw it, by Adrian Pucey's ear. Harry saw it, Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it. They both hurtled towards the Snitch until,
WHAM! Harry was blocked by Marcus Flint. He could almost see stars in front of his eyes for a moment as people started yelling at Marcus Flint. Then his broom gave a sudden lurch. It started zig-zagging and raising higher and higher into the air. He looked down to where people were pointing up at him and where Felan was pushing Fi against the wall to keep her from either changing or running into the middle of the field. The broom started jerking back and forth, like it was trying to buck him off, and it rolled around several times. Harry just managed to stay on as the broom went around and around.
Hey, he could almost see the caves from here! Okay, aside from the point... Hey, is that Marlaina down there? How'd she get here? And why is she looking at Wood that way?
Suddenly the broom rolled over once more and managed to throw Harry off. Then it just stopped, nothing else happened, it just floated there. Harry grabbed the handle and threw his leg over. He looked over the pitch and there it was, the golden Snitch. Unfortunately, at that time, Terence Higgs also saw it.
The two Seekers both shot forward with their arms stretched forward for the Snitch. Also unfortunately, the Snitch was right by Felan's tail, and Fi decided to cheat. She grabbed the Snitch with her mouth and started running towards the Hufflepuff stands. Felan grabbed the end of Terence Higg's broom and pulled him back as Fi ran around the field a few times with the Snitch in her mouth and Harry chasing her.
He could vaguely hear Lee Jordan egging "that giant yellow dog" on, to check if Terence was still back there. That just happened to be when Fi stopped and released the Snitch. Harry turned back around to see the Snitch right below him, he reached out his arm to grab it when the broom went wonky again and landed straight up in the grass. Harry was taken off guard and was flipped off flat against the wall. He fell to the ground, head first and then fell over on his stomach.
Fi looked at him and Harry saw her smile as if to say "Hey, that was cool. Do that more often," or maybe, "Look under you, fool,". It was probably the latter, because at that moment Harry felt something twitter underneath his stomach. He reached a hand under him and found the Snitch.
"Harry Potter's got the Snitch!" Lee yelled. "GRYFFINDOR WINS!" Fi took this as her cue and ran off to the other side of the field to avoid the large mob of Gryffindors. Felan let go of Terence's broomstick and followed her, sending the Slytherin Seeker flying in the air. Twenty minutes later, Lee Jordan was still shouting happily that Gryffindor had won and the fans were...still mobbing, and the Slytherins still groaning. But Harry didn't hear any of this because he had been whisked away back to school by Hermione and Ron.
"Where're we going?" Harry asked, still a bit whoozy from dropping head-first into the ground.
"Common room, we've got something to tell you." Ron said. Was this the way? Harry didn't know, everything was still kind of fuzzy to him.
-----------------------
"You totaled the car?" Dymphna asked.
"It was a complete accident!" Katerina said.
"You totaled my CAR?" Dymphna asked again.
"I'm very, very sorry," Katerina said.
"I can't believe you totaled my car!" Dymphna yelled.
"Now, Dymphna, just calm down," Katerina said. "It's okay, you can buy another one."
"But you totaled my car!" Dymphna yelled. "How is it going to be okay? You totaled my car!" Katerina raised a finger to quiet her screaming flatmate.
"But, Harry won the Quidditch Match," she said.
"He did? Oh that's wonderful!" Dymphna said. "It was on account of technicality, wasn't it?" she asked.
"No, actually it was on account of cheating." Katerina said. "But he won,"
"What's happening now?" Dymphna asked.
"I don't know, they won't let me in." Katerina said.
------------------------
Harry may have been half-blind on account of his glasses and being hit on the head, but his nose was still fine. And his nose told him something smelled weird around this part. Then the staircase moved.
"Why's the staircase moving?" Harry squeaked.
"The staircases change, remember?" Hermione asked. No, he couldn't. He must've been tuning out during that part. The staircase stopped in front of a door and the three kids ran up to the door before the staircase could change again. Ron opened the door and they went inside.
Hm...something smells...
Harry heard a meow from behind him and they all turned around.
"It's Filch's cat!" Hermione said.
"Run," Harry said. They ran to the end of the corridor where there was a door, Ron tried to pull it open.
"Locked," he said.
"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She tapped the lock with her wand and whispered, "Alohamora!" The lock clicked and the door swung open. They piled into the room and shut the door quickly. They pressed their ears to the door to listen.
"Which way did they go, Mrs. Norris?" Filch was saying. "There's no one around here, oh well." They heard his retreating footsteps and the door shut. Harry sniffed the air and turned around.
For a moment, he was sure that he had walked into a nightmare (possibly Katerina's)--this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.
They weren't in a room, persay, they were in a corridor. The third floor corridor, that one that was forbidden.
"Oh, holy sh--"
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, turning around. Ron turned around also. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. One that Harry was sure he'd seen in one of Teacher Olivia's fairy tale books. One with three huge heads, six rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching in their direction; and three drooling mouths, saliva hanging from yellowish fangs.
It growled. Ron whimpered and the door was wrenched open from the other side.
"Oh, damn. I thought this was the way out," said a voice. They all fell backward and Harry slammed the door shut. He looked at the person.
"Marlaina?" he asked. "What're you doing here?"
"I swear, are the Fianna always this thick?" she asked. "Probably why my sisters went to the Black Furies,"
"But I thought..." Harry shook his head. "Nevermind. Why are you here?" he asked.
"Who's this?" Hermione asked.
"A friend," Marlaina smiled. "Who's this?" she asked, nodding in Hermione's general direction.
"A friend," Harry said.
"Hm, can't say much about your taste in mates, Potter." Marlaina growled.
"Has the whole world just gone crazy or something?" Harry asked. Marlaina shook her head.
"No, just you." she said. "But really, Harry," she whispered, "a human?" she mouthed out. "What kind of Garou are you?" she asked.
"The one that goes to magic school," Harry deadpanned.
"Yes, that's true. How's that going for you by the way?" she asked.
"Excuse me," Hermione said. "But who are you?" she asked.
"Marlaina Foley, how are you?" Marlaina said. She didn't wait for Hermione's response, she just turned back to Harry. "Anyways, Harry. I was just wondering if you were coming back any time soon, because my sisters and brothers are coming and they want to meet you." she said.
"Not until two moons," Harry whispered.
"Two moons?" Marlaina yelled. "Fine, but you better be there. My cousin Marine is coming all the way from the Czech Republic Black Furies to see you. And my sister Enoch from the Ireland Furies, and Verna from France, and Jerima from Spain, and Furr and Turi..."
"I get it," Harry said. "I'll be there." he said.
"New I could count on you," Marlaina said. "By the way, where'd you get the hellhound?" she asked with a predatory smile.
----------------------
"Can't believe they're keeping something like that, locked up in the school!" Ron said. "If any dog needs exersize, that one does!" Hermione looked deep in thought and Harry was still recovering from being shocked a few too many times in a day. Three werewolves visiting Hogwarts regularly? The school would never recover.
"I've figured it out!" Hermione said.
"Figured what out?" Ron asked.
"Where I heard the names that girl was saying before!" she said. Harry paled.
"What girl?" Ron asked. "Oh, right, that girl."
"Yes, the names she was referring to. Fianna, Black Furies, Garou, Foley?" she said. "Any of them ring a bell?" she asked. The boys shook their heads. Harry really wasn't sure about how Hermione new the name Foley. "It was in History. Remember? Grindelwald killing off werewolves? Any of it ring a bell?" the boy shook their heads. "Honestly, don't you two read?"
They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.
"Pig snout," Harry said. The portrait swung forward and they scrambled into common room.
"How do you know that girl anyways?" Hermione asked. "She doesn't look like she goes to Hogwarts," Harry tried to think of a way to get out of this.
"She goes to Hogwarts," Harry said slowly. Sometimes...
"What house is she in?" Hermione asked. Harry did some quick thinking.
"Hufflepuff," he said. Wait, why was Wood there?
"Harry, I have to talk to you," Wood said in a kind of defeated voice. Harry was going to ask what it was about when Wood grabbed his arm and half-dragged him to a corner of the common room.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"Slytherin, they say that those dogs that were there--they said that they were planted," Wood said.
"Planted?" Harry asked. "Like we put them there?" he asked.
"Exactly," Wood said. "They're getting a rematch,"
"Rematch?!"
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A/N: And here ends the Chapter of the Twelfth. Part two is coming soon, it was just too long to put all into one chapter so in less than a week it should be ready.
In the next chapter: Having a Holiday, the Author changes the beginnings of the titles! Christmas rolls around and with it, the arrival of the Wendigos. Some Summer in December, the outcome of the fight (Marlaina Foley vs. Fiona Faoiltiarna), a broken nose, Nicole Ganymede (et al) and Christmas at Hogwarts. Plus, we invite a new muse to the ranks. (Slaith: Who got cut this time?) (Mairi: Not me) (Nori: Definitely not me, though I did get my name changed.)
LONG LIVE AND PROSPER! FREE DVDS TO ALL REVIEWERS!! (And if you fell for that one, I've got a bridge to sell you.)
PS: I got bored and decided to put my tribute to the Series of Unfortunate Events movie into the story. If you look closely, you might find it.
As November rolled in, it started getting much colder. Everything turned an icy grey and Hagrid could be seen defrosting the broomsticks downstairs.
The Quidditch season had begun. Harry would have his first match on Saturday after weeks of training: Gryffindor vs. Slytherin. He hadn't seen Fi and Felan since Halloween and had this bad feeling that they had been caught...or forgotten or that it was cleaning week.
It was really lucky that Harry now had Hermione as a friend. He couldn't have gotten through all of his homework without her. And also, she lent him Quidditch Through the Ages, which turned out to be very interesting.
Everything was going so smoothly with school and Harry's new friends, that he forgot that times like this lead to bad things. And it was the day before the Quidditch match that something happened. You couldn't consider it bad or good, just something in between.
"Harry!" an arm wrenched Harry into the boy's bathroom and the door was shut and locked.
"Felan!" Harry growled. "What's going on here?" he asked.
"Something's wrong with Fi," Felan said. "Something strange,"
"Something strange is always wrong with Fi," Harry said. "It's the way she works."
"No, something stranger!" Felan said. "She won't come out of her room, Harry. Not even for a bit of a runaround. I even tried bribing her with rabbit and she wouldn't come out."
"What?" Harry asked. "She always comes out for rabbit," he said. "Did you try deer?" Felan nodded.
"And fish, and those little beans you gave us. Nothing's working."
"That's weird," Harry said.
"Not, it seems, weird enough. Keavy gave this to me, I can't make sense of it. See if you can." Felan gave a piece of paper to Harry and Harry looked at it. "She drew it. Fi, I mean."
"It's a castle," Harry said.
"I see that," Felan deadpanned. "But not only is it a very good castle, it also seems to be three dimensional and that moss growing off of the rocks just jumps off of the paper there," Felan said. "And Fi can't draw."
"Not to save her life," Harry said. "What's this at the bottom?" he asked.
"Oh, that's a bit of a scribble she did. It looked like she was about to write something but stopped right in the middle." Harry looked at it closely and tried to read it but it was crossed off too many times.
"This is a bit..."
"Scary?" Felan asked. "Strange? Why the hell didn't she tell us?" he asked.
"I was going to say remarkable, but I think you've got it down." Harry said. "How would she know how to draw a castle like this?" he asked.
"Keavy said there were more drawings, all on the floor. It's all she's been doing: drawing, drawing, drawing." Felan said.
"I know a way to get her out," Harry said. "It's possibly the only way to get her out."
"What?" Felan asked eagerly.
"A fight," Harry said.
"Tried," Felan said.
"With Marlaina?" Harry asked. Felan raised an eyebrow.
"That sounds promising." Felan said.
"And if that doesn't work...the match!" Harry said.
"What match?" Felan asked.
"Well, I really wasn't going to tell you because you two were probably going to do something wrong, but, I've got a Quidditch match tomorrow." Harry said.
"TOMORROW?" Felan yelled. He calmed down. "What time?"
"Be at the pitch about an hour before noontime," Harry said.
"But...classes!"
"Play sick," Harry said. "You've done that quite a few times, it should be no problem."
"Fine," Felan said. "If Marlaina calling her out doesn't work, I'll drag her to the Quidditch game." he said.
-------------------
The next morning was bright and cold. The Great Hall was full of delicious smells and the students were chattering excitedly about the Quidditch match. But for some reason, Harry didn't seem hungry, or like talking.
"Here, Harry, have some breakfast." Hermione said, putting a crumpet on his plate. Harry shook his head.
"Not hungry,"
"Just the crumpet?" Hermione wheedled.
"No," Harry said. He'd never exactly felt this way before about something, and wasn't sure how to act. He felt nervous, terrible, anxious, sad and somehow responsible for the way Fi was acting, all in one day. Not to mention, in just two hours he would be walking onto the pitch.
---------------------------
Felan ran up to Marlaina that day (accidently shoving Violet--who was carrying a plate of ribs-- to the ground), realizing he was probably supposed to ask her this yesterday.
"What, boy?" she snapped when he tapped her shoulder.
"I need you to help me," Felan said. Marlaina kept walking. "Hey! Wait up!" she stopped.
"Why would I need to help you when I already know what it is and I know I'm not going to?" she asked. "I've got too many duties to help you with Fi," Marlaina said.
"But, Marlaina. This is an emergency." Felan said. "It's urgent! I promise, once you get to her room you'll completely understand. I was just there this morning after all," he said. Marlaina sighed and dropped the woven basket she had been carrying on the ground.
"Fine," she said. "If it's as bad as you say then..."
"It is, trust me!" Felan said. They went into the caves and followed the passageway until they faced an entrance hole covered by a blanket. "Here," he pushed Marlaina in and she fell through. What she saw astounded her. The room was surgically clean, well, to Fi's standards anyways. Everything was brushed up and put in it's rightful place, there weren't any stinky dead things around, and that pile of clothes that used to be in the middle of the floor: gone.
"What are you doing here?" Fi asked from a corner. Marlaina looked around the room with wide eyes. There was silence for a moment as Fi put yet another drawing in a small pile a few feet away from her.
"What is this?" Marlaina asked.
"My room," Fi said. "What do you want? People just don't go barging into my room for no reason at all...well, unless your Felan." Marlaina gasped.
"You actually called him by his name!" she said.
"What of it?" Fi asked.
"I've never heard you do that before!" Marlaina said. "It's obvious whatever's doing this to you is serious, so I've come to expel it out of you," she said. Fi rolled her eyes and got to her feet.
"First of all, nothing is wrong with me at all. Second of all, how do you plan on expelling it out of me?" she asked.
"Well," Marlaina bit her lip. "I've come to fight you," she said.
"Fight me?" Fi asked. "Try,"
"Pick your weapon," Marlaina asked.
"I say...chobos," Fi said.
"Fighting staff," Marlaina said. Both girls glared at eachother for a minute, then both said "Rock, paper, scissors!" They held out their hands and played a quick game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, ending in both of them choosing rock. They played again, and both chose scissors.
"FELAN!" both girls yelled. Felan poked his head through the blanket.
"Need a referee?" he asked.
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By eleven o' clock, the whole school seemed to be crammed into the stands around the field. Hermione and Ron joined Neville, Seamus and Dean up in the top row, holding a large banner on one of the sheets Scabbers had ruined. It said "Potter for President" with a Gryffindor lion underneath.
On the way into the lockers, Harry saw a large black wolf and a large gold wolf walking in from the forest. They solemnly walked into the Gryffindor stands and Harry walked into the locker room. Now he was even more nervous. What if they did something bad?
After they changed into their robes, Wood cleared his throat for silence.
"Okay, men," he said.
"And women," said Chaser Angelina Johnson.
"This is it," Wood said.
"The big one," said Fred Weasley.
"The one we've all been waiting for," said George.
"We were on the team last year," Fred said. "We know his speech by heart."
"Shut up, you two," Wood warned. "This is the best team we've had in years. We're going to win, I know it." he glared at them as if to say "Or else".
Harry followed Fred and George out of the locker room and hoped his knees weren't going to give way, he walked into the field to loud cheers. He saw the two wolves (who had obviously been kicked out of the stands) lying on the grass and barking at each other.
Madam Hooch was refereeing. She stood in the center of the pitch, waiting for the two teams with the broom in her hand.
"Now I want a nice, clean game." she said, "From all of you," Harry noticed that she seemed to be talking to the Slytherin Captain, Marcus Flint. Harry thought he looked as if he was troll-bred. "Mount your brooms!" Harry clambered onto his broom and when Madam Hooch gave her whistle, all fifteen brooms rose up into the air. They were off.
"And the Quaffle goes to Gryffindor!" The Weasley twin's friend, Lee Jordan was doing the commentary. "Neat pass to Alicia Spinnet, a good find of Oliver's--back to Johnson and--no, the Slytherins have the Quaffle, Slytherin Captain Marcus Flint gains the Quaffle and off he goes-- Flint flying like an eagle up there!" Harry looked around but didn't see the Snitch anywhere in sight.
"GRYFFINDORS SCORE!" Gryffindors cheered and Slytherins groaned. When Angelina scored, Harry saw the wolves down on the grass bark happily until something caught his eye, and apparently Felan's too. Felan (the golden wolf) barked happily and started chasing the Snitch until it rose too high in the air. Harry zoomed down, but the Snitch was nowhere to be found, the Slytherin Seeker also went down to look for it but it wasn't there.
"Slytherin in possession," Lee Jordan said. "Chaser Pucey ducks two bludgers, two Weasleys, and Chaser Bell speeds toward the--wait a moment--was that the Snitch?" Harry saw it, by Adrian Pucey's ear. Harry saw it, Slytherin Seeker Terence Higgs had seen it. They both hurtled towards the Snitch until,
WHAM! Harry was blocked by Marcus Flint. He could almost see stars in front of his eyes for a moment as people started yelling at Marcus Flint. Then his broom gave a sudden lurch. It started zig-zagging and raising higher and higher into the air. He looked down to where people were pointing up at him and where Felan was pushing Fi against the wall to keep her from either changing or running into the middle of the field. The broom started jerking back and forth, like it was trying to buck him off, and it rolled around several times. Harry just managed to stay on as the broom went around and around.
Hey, he could almost see the caves from here! Okay, aside from the point... Hey, is that Marlaina down there? How'd she get here? And why is she looking at Wood that way?
Suddenly the broom rolled over once more and managed to throw Harry off. Then it just stopped, nothing else happened, it just floated there. Harry grabbed the handle and threw his leg over. He looked over the pitch and there it was, the golden Snitch. Unfortunately, at that time, Terence Higgs also saw it.
The two Seekers both shot forward with their arms stretched forward for the Snitch. Also unfortunately, the Snitch was right by Felan's tail, and Fi decided to cheat. She grabbed the Snitch with her mouth and started running towards the Hufflepuff stands. Felan grabbed the end of Terence Higg's broom and pulled him back as Fi ran around the field a few times with the Snitch in her mouth and Harry chasing her.
He could vaguely hear Lee Jordan egging "that giant yellow dog" on, to check if Terence was still back there. That just happened to be when Fi stopped and released the Snitch. Harry turned back around to see the Snitch right below him, he reached out his arm to grab it when the broom went wonky again and landed straight up in the grass. Harry was taken off guard and was flipped off flat against the wall. He fell to the ground, head first and then fell over on his stomach.
Fi looked at him and Harry saw her smile as if to say "Hey, that was cool. Do that more often," or maybe, "Look under you, fool,". It was probably the latter, because at that moment Harry felt something twitter underneath his stomach. He reached a hand under him and found the Snitch.
"Harry Potter's got the Snitch!" Lee yelled. "GRYFFINDOR WINS!" Fi took this as her cue and ran off to the other side of the field to avoid the large mob of Gryffindors. Felan let go of Terence's broomstick and followed her, sending the Slytherin Seeker flying in the air. Twenty minutes later, Lee Jordan was still shouting happily that Gryffindor had won and the fans were...still mobbing, and the Slytherins still groaning. But Harry didn't hear any of this because he had been whisked away back to school by Hermione and Ron.
"Where're we going?" Harry asked, still a bit whoozy from dropping head-first into the ground.
"Common room, we've got something to tell you." Ron said. Was this the way? Harry didn't know, everything was still kind of fuzzy to him.
-----------------------
"You totaled the car?" Dymphna asked.
"It was a complete accident!" Katerina said.
"You totaled my CAR?" Dymphna asked again.
"I'm very, very sorry," Katerina said.
"I can't believe you totaled my car!" Dymphna yelled.
"Now, Dymphna, just calm down," Katerina said. "It's okay, you can buy another one."
"But you totaled my car!" Dymphna yelled. "How is it going to be okay? You totaled my car!" Katerina raised a finger to quiet her screaming flatmate.
"But, Harry won the Quidditch Match," she said.
"He did? Oh that's wonderful!" Dymphna said. "It was on account of technicality, wasn't it?" she asked.
"No, actually it was on account of cheating." Katerina said. "But he won,"
"What's happening now?" Dymphna asked.
"I don't know, they won't let me in." Katerina said.
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Harry may have been half-blind on account of his glasses and being hit on the head, but his nose was still fine. And his nose told him something smelled weird around this part. Then the staircase moved.
"Why's the staircase moving?" Harry squeaked.
"The staircases change, remember?" Hermione asked. No, he couldn't. He must've been tuning out during that part. The staircase stopped in front of a door and the three kids ran up to the door before the staircase could change again. Ron opened the door and they went inside.
Hm...something smells...
Harry heard a meow from behind him and they all turned around.
"It's Filch's cat!" Hermione said.
"Run," Harry said. They ran to the end of the corridor where there was a door, Ron tried to pull it open.
"Locked," he said.
"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She tapped the lock with her wand and whispered, "Alohamora!" The lock clicked and the door swung open. They piled into the room and shut the door quickly. They pressed their ears to the door to listen.
"Which way did they go, Mrs. Norris?" Filch was saying. "There's no one around here, oh well." They heard his retreating footsteps and the door shut. Harry sniffed the air and turned around.
For a moment, he was sure that he had walked into a nightmare (possibly Katerina's)--this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.
They weren't in a room, persay, they were in a corridor. The third floor corridor, that one that was forbidden.
"Oh, holy sh--"
"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, turning around. Ron turned around also. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. One that Harry was sure he'd seen in one of Teacher Olivia's fairy tale books. One with three huge heads, six rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching in their direction; and three drooling mouths, saliva hanging from yellowish fangs.
It growled. Ron whimpered and the door was wrenched open from the other side.
"Oh, damn. I thought this was the way out," said a voice. They all fell backward and Harry slammed the door shut. He looked at the person.
"Marlaina?" he asked. "What're you doing here?"
"I swear, are the Fianna always this thick?" she asked. "Probably why my sisters went to the Black Furies,"
"But I thought..." Harry shook his head. "Nevermind. Why are you here?" he asked.
"Who's this?" Hermione asked.
"A friend," Marlaina smiled. "Who's this?" she asked, nodding in Hermione's general direction.
"A friend," Harry said.
"Hm, can't say much about your taste in mates, Potter." Marlaina growled.
"Has the whole world just gone crazy or something?" Harry asked. Marlaina shook her head.
"No, just you." she said. "But really, Harry," she whispered, "a human?" she mouthed out. "What kind of Garou are you?" she asked.
"The one that goes to magic school," Harry deadpanned.
"Yes, that's true. How's that going for you by the way?" she asked.
"Excuse me," Hermione said. "But who are you?" she asked.
"Marlaina Foley, how are you?" Marlaina said. She didn't wait for Hermione's response, she just turned back to Harry. "Anyways, Harry. I was just wondering if you were coming back any time soon, because my sisters and brothers are coming and they want to meet you." she said.
"Not until two moons," Harry whispered.
"Two moons?" Marlaina yelled. "Fine, but you better be there. My cousin Marine is coming all the way from the Czech Republic Black Furies to see you. And my sister Enoch from the Ireland Furies, and Verna from France, and Jerima from Spain, and Furr and Turi..."
"I get it," Harry said. "I'll be there." he said.
"New I could count on you," Marlaina said. "By the way, where'd you get the hellhound?" she asked with a predatory smile.
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"Can't believe they're keeping something like that, locked up in the school!" Ron said. "If any dog needs exersize, that one does!" Hermione looked deep in thought and Harry was still recovering from being shocked a few too many times in a day. Three werewolves visiting Hogwarts regularly? The school would never recover.
"I've figured it out!" Hermione said.
"Figured what out?" Ron asked.
"Where I heard the names that girl was saying before!" she said. Harry paled.
"What girl?" Ron asked. "Oh, right, that girl."
"Yes, the names she was referring to. Fianna, Black Furies, Garou, Foley?" she said. "Any of them ring a bell?" she asked. The boys shook their heads. Harry really wasn't sure about how Hermione new the name Foley. "It was in History. Remember? Grindelwald killing off werewolves? Any of it ring a bell?" the boy shook their heads. "Honestly, don't you two read?"
They reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.
"Pig snout," Harry said. The portrait swung forward and they scrambled into common room.
"How do you know that girl anyways?" Hermione asked. "She doesn't look like she goes to Hogwarts," Harry tried to think of a way to get out of this.
"She goes to Hogwarts," Harry said slowly. Sometimes...
"What house is she in?" Hermione asked. Harry did some quick thinking.
"Hufflepuff," he said. Wait, why was Wood there?
"Harry, I have to talk to you," Wood said in a kind of defeated voice. Harry was going to ask what it was about when Wood grabbed his arm and half-dragged him to a corner of the common room.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"Slytherin, they say that those dogs that were there--they said that they were planted," Wood said.
"Planted?" Harry asked. "Like we put them there?" he asked.
"Exactly," Wood said. "They're getting a rematch,"
"Rematch?!"
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A/N: And here ends the Chapter of the Twelfth. Part two is coming soon, it was just too long to put all into one chapter so in less than a week it should be ready.
In the next chapter: Having a Holiday, the Author changes the beginnings of the titles! Christmas rolls around and with it, the arrival of the Wendigos. Some Summer in December, the outcome of the fight (Marlaina Foley vs. Fiona Faoiltiarna), a broken nose, Nicole Ganymede (et al) and Christmas at Hogwarts. Plus, we invite a new muse to the ranks. (Slaith: Who got cut this time?) (Mairi: Not me) (Nori: Definitely not me, though I did get my name changed.)
LONG LIVE AND PROSPER! FREE DVDS TO ALL REVIEWERS!! (And if you fell for that one, I've got a bridge to sell you.)
PS: I got bored and decided to put my tribute to the Series of Unfortunate Events movie into the story. If you look closely, you might find it.