Chapter Four- Pom-poms, Freaks, and Broomclosets

The Great Hall was again filled with bustling students. Three of Ginny Weasley's friends sat and gabbed about nothing. Brooke Aspen, an energetic Muggle-born girl with glasses, waved gold and scarlet pom-poms.

"I can't wait for Quiddtich to start!" she said, excited.

Christine O'Rielly sighed and pulled her long brown hair back off her shoulders. "Brooke, calm down. It will start soon enough."

"The first match is next weekend. We have a week after tryouts to get it together."

"You made an awesome Seeker last year, but Harry's back. But you'll make an even better Chaser," Angela Flortesky said.

"Yay!" Brooke exclaimed.

She threw her pom-poms into the air. They landed on Ron's head. He glowered at Ginny.

"Ginny!" he yelled, "keep your friends under control!"

"Sorry!" said Brooke, retrieving the pom-poms.

Meanwhile, Evangeline approached the Slytherin table, looking slightly upset. Whispers broke out. Malfoy yipped and pointed at her.

"She broke my nose!"

Cassandra spun around and stared at her.

"Well, I fixed it, didn't I?" Evangeline asked.

Malfoy began to speak, but stopped when he couldn't think of anything.

"What do you want?" Cassandra asked, acidly.

"In case you were interested," Evangeline began to explain, "I would like to adopt one of those kneasle kittens your Spawn of Satan just birthed. I found them to be quite interesting."

"Er . . . well, I suppose you can have one. Only because I'm overrun with them. Wait outside my common room after dinner. I'll bring one out." Cassandra answered.

"I don't get to choose?"

"Be lucky she's even speaking to you!" Malfoy said.

"Fine after dinner then . . ." said Evangeline, walking away.

After Evangeline left Malfoy said, "What are you doing?!"

"Don't worry," Cassandra reassured, "I'm giving her the one I hate. It's always sick. I can't figure out what's wrong with it. Let her figure it out."

Evangeline sat down in her usual spot beside Annie. Fellow Ravenclaws glared and mouthed swear words at her. Annie sat quietly with ice on her left eye.

"Hey . . . " she dared "feeling any better?"

Evangeline looked at her, eyes filled with tears. She nodded toward the other Ravenclaw students. "Does it look like it?"

"Oh . . ."

Evangeline sighed and buried her face in her arms. Angela, at the Gryffindor table, pointed to her.

"What's with her?"

Ron turned around to look behind him. "I bet those Ravenclaws are peeved about those seventy points she lost in the past two days. They're probably giving her a hard time. Personally, I thought it was funny."

He and Harry both stood. Hermione looked up at them, nervously.

"Don't make her . . . er . . . mad"

"Don't worry so much, Hermione,"

Harry and Ron walked over to the section of the Ravenclaw table where Evangeline and Annie were sitting. A few heads turned as they did so.

"Go away!" Evangeline said, muffled for within her robe sleeves.

"But . . ." Harry started.

"Yeah, we're just--" Ron began.

"I'm warning you," Annie interrupted, taking the ice off her eye to reveal a large shiner. "Look what she did with out her fist!"

Ron gasped. "Blimey, she used magic on you?"

Harry looked quite surprised as well.

"Without her wand . . ." Annie added.

"Whoa . . ." Harry simply stated.

"How do you do that?" Ron asked, curiously.

Evangeline looked up, crying. She blushed. "Because I'm a freak! No one in my house likes me!"

"Hey!" Annie said, defensively.

"Except you," she smiled, "They all hate me because I'm from the U.S., because I'm a troublemaker, because I'm a freak!"

She wiped tears from her eyes. Ron sat beside her and looked at her sympathetically.

"Everyone thought Hermione was a freak the first couple weeks. You'll fit in eventually."

She blushed. "Really?"

Harry smiled. "Yeah don't worry about it."

As Harry, Ron, and Annie attempted to comfort Evangeline, Dumbledore stood up from his seat at the head table in the loud Great Hall. "If everyone could return to their seats, I need to discuss some things."

Harry and Ron returned to their table. The Great Hall became filled with utter silence.

"All right, to begin with, as some of you may already know, this applies to third years and older, the first Hogsmeade weekend is this coming Saturday. Which leads to the second thing on my list . . . I, along with my associates," He waved a slender hand to the other professors at his table, "have decided to reinstate the Yule Ball. I am aware that it is a tradition of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, but the holidays get boring without an extra bit of excitement. So those of you who are forth years and older may pick up dress robes while in Hogsmeade." His eyes twinkle, "Now without further ado, let's eat!"

Food appeared on the tables in front of the hundreds of students. The students began to chatter and eat. Evangeline, who was starting to cheer up, rolled her eyes.

"Ah, man, I hate dances!" she complained.

"Why?" Annie inquired, "They're so fun. I had a blast at the last Yule Ball we had,"

"Because I always sit alone while everyone else couples off and dances."

"Don't get up set," said Annie, " we'll find dates or something . . ."

A small class, consisting of students from all four houses, sat in Professor McGonagall's Transfiguration classroom. McGonagall, a thin older woman, stood at the front of the class. She looked over the rim of her eyeglasses at the class. Cassandra and Malfoy whispered to each other at the back of the class.

"Today we are going to turn stools into pigeons," McGonagall explained. "Miss Pierce, since you seem to be so talkative, why don't you show us how this is done."

Cassandra blushed. "Of course, Professor."

"This should be good," Evangeline laughed. "You know she never pays attention."

"Yeah, but she's pretty good if she likes the class," Annie said to her.

Cassandra closed her eyes and concentrated (which could be dangerous ). She opened her eyes again.

"Transformerous Mesadonus!"

She tapped her stool with her wand. It popped and turned into a very confused mourning dove. McGonagall shook her head.

"Well, I see you have attempted your homework. Good enough. Mr. Malfoy, how about you?"

He smirked. "Of course. Tranformerus mesadonus!"

His stool also turned into a dove. McGonagall rolled her eyes.

"Now, everyone please try to turn your stools into pigeons. Malfoy, Pierce, please come here,"

They headed to the front of the class. Chants of "Tranformerus mesadonus!" are heard throughout the classroom. Poor Neville kept getting a ghastly combination of a stool and a stork.

"Expecting, Longbottom?" Malfoy sniggered.

Neville turned red and continued his work. Evangeline waved her wand and said the spell. A small cooing pigeon appeared.

"What is the point?"

"It's a warm up exercise," said Annie, "the hard part is turning them back."

"This all leads up to the tests to see if you have the discipline to become an Animagus," Harry said, holding on to his pigeon tightly.

Hermione held on to a brace of pigeons. "Please, this is just beginning work. For fifth years. Soon we will be doing advanced Transfiguration."

After class, Evangeline confronted Cassandra in the corridor. Cassandra looked slightly weak.

"You forgot," Evangeline reminded.

Cassandra blushed. "I . . . er . . . was doing something . . ."

Malfoy turned the corner and smiled slowly at Cassandra. "Hmm . . ."

"Ah . . . well I still want my kneasle,"

"Ok, follow me," Cassandra directed.

Evangeline followed Cassandra and Malfoy down the long halls leading to the Slytherin common room. She ran over in her head why Cassandra had missed their prior engagement. Cassandra entered the common room and returned with a thin, raggedy kneasle kitten. Its white fur was matted, and it barely opened its large violet eyes when it was passed to its new owner.

"Here," Cassandra said, thrusting the poor creature into Evangeline's arms.

"Thank you," Evangeline replied.

She looked at Malfoy and shook her head. She pretended to gag.

"Ugh . . ."

She walked away, grateful to be away from those two. Annie passed Evangeline in the hall. She looked at Evangeline's new pet.

"What is that?"

"It's a kneasle kitten," Evangeline said, petting her kitten.

"It looks hideous!"

The kneasle vomited on Annie's robe.

"Gross! I just had this washed!"

"Sorry," Evangeline apologized,"the poor thing's sick. It looks like it's dying. Probably never fed. I'll have to look up kneasle in our Care of Magical Creatures textbook. It probably just needs a simple potion."

"If you call potions simple," Annie muttered, as she left to clean her robe.

Evangeline sat against the wall with the kneasle on her lap. She scratched it behind the ears.

"Hrm. . . what to name you . . . How 'bout Nessus?"

The small animal purred.

"Ok, I guess you like that. Come on, we'll find out what's wrong with you,"

She picked her self up and carefully cradled the creature in her arms and headed to the Ravenclaw common room.