Chapter 11

Halloween

Since we discovered the fifth house, Ivy and I have spent the past couple of weeks reading Hogwarts: A History cover to cover repeatedly, trying to find the hint of a love triangle between Gryffindor and Slytherin.

On Halloween Day at breakfast, Ivy barged up to the Slytherin table.

"Hey, Ivy." I said.

"Don't 'hey Ivy.' me. I know what you did." Ivy snapped.

"What?" I asked.

"You know damn well what, Hannah. You told Malfoy of the You-Know-What!"

"You mean the tree? Calm down Ivy, I had to tell him!"

"Why?"

"He's my friend too, Ivy!" I said, grabbing a bottle of orange juice and trying to open it.

"You shouldn't be. He hates Harry, in case you haven't noticed!"

"And last time I checked, Ivy, I'm not Harry. So unless there is an ancient rule stating that you must hate all the people your twin hates, then nothings going to change."

"UGH! You Slytherins are impossible!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're all the same! You are so hard headed, you don't even notice the flaws in yourselves."

"Why don't you look at you Gryffindors! You are so pigheaded that you can't tell the difference between being stupid and being courageous!"

"UGH!" Ivy yelled stalking off to the Gryffindor table.

I was still having problems opening the bottle of orange juice I had. So, as a last resort I turned to Draco.

"Dracie?" I asked in a sweet innocent voice.

"Yes, Hannah?"

"Would you be my hero and do me a big favour? Pretty please with whipped cream, sprinkles and a cherry on top?" I asked.

"Sure, what?"

"Can you open this bloody bottle?" I said.

"Sure," Draco said taking the bottle and opening it "here you go."

"My hero." I smiled kissing his cheek.

"Oh, crap! We'd better get to Charms before Flitwick kicks our asses!" Draco said grabbing mine and his book bag and breaking into a run. I grabbed a quick piece of buttered toast and my juice and followed.

This Charms class, we were finally going to learn our first real charm.

"All right everyone, wands up!" Flitwick instructed "And swish and flick, alright, swish and flick! That's it, Ms Potter, you have it!"

I beamed, watching as Draco, Crabbe and Goyle stared at how I did my wand movements awestruck.

"Now, when you say the incantation: Wingardium Leviosa make the "gar" nice and long and try to emphasize the "sa" at the end. All right, give it a go, wands down."

"Wingardium Leviosa!" the class chorused in unison.

"Excellent, excellent. Now try to levitate the feathers in front of you."

I got out my wand and started by watching Draco try. He was failing miserably.

"Draco, stop, stop. You're going to poke someone's eye out. And you're saying it wrong. It's Leviosa not Leviosa."

"You do it then, you're so clever." Crabbe challenged.

"All right. Watch and learn how a Potter does it, boys." I said taking out my wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" I said, using the proper swish and flick methods.

The feather wound up flying over our heads to the Gryffindor side, where another feather was levitated. I looked down, and saw Ron with his head on his book and Hermione Granger looking very pleased with herself.

"Ms Potter and Ms Granger! I've never seen such a well performed Levitation Charm done by a first year. Twenty points each to Gryffindor and Slytherin."

As soon as the sentence was out of his mouth, there was a loud BANG! I flipped my head to the source of the sound, and there was a Gryffindor boy covered in soot. A smouldering mess where his feather was supposed to be.

"Seamus blew up his feather!" Ron yelled, trying to suppress laughter.

I couldn't control it like Ron could, I burst into a fit of giggles "Oh…my…GOSH!" I said, trying to stop laughing before I fell on the floor.

Crabbe looked like he wanted to throttle me. I looked over to Hermione Granger and smiled.

"Nice Charm." I said after class.

"Thanks, Potter. You too."

"Call me Hannah, Granger."

"All right. As long as you call me Hermione."

"How does 'Mione sound?"

"Better."

"Ok, you call me Hannah, and I call you Mione, Ok?"

"Done." she said "Hermione Jean Granger. But you can call me Mione. Gryffindor."

"Hannah Lillian Isabella Marie Potter. Slytherin. But you can call me Han."

We shook hands when my brother and Ron walked past us.

"She thinks she's so smart! That's why that girl doesn't have any friends."

"Don't talk about Hermione that way, Ron. It isn't nice."

Hermione mumbled something about "seeing me in Potions." and ran off.

"Ron!" I said.

"Hey, Hannah, what?"

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what, state a fact? Hermione doesn't have any friends."

"I just made friends with her, you idiot. I'll see you in Potions, Harry." I said, taking my book bag and walking down to Transfiguration.

After Potions at the end of the day, I noticed Hermione wasn't there, but Ivy was.

"Hello, Ivy." I said, trying to be civil after our fight early that morning.

"Hannah…I'm sorry for saying all those things about Slytherins."

I looked up "And I'm sorry for saying all those things about Gryffindors."

"Hug!" we said together.

"Let's never fight again, ok?" Ivy asked.

"Agreed! Let's get down to the feast. I'm starving."

Ivy and I walked arm in arm down to the Halloween feast. Hagrid must have grown a dozen pumpkins large enough for three men to fit in and there were live bats flying overhead. Not to mention the thunderstorm outside cast an eerie glow to the place.

"Well…I might see you after the feast in the Gryffindor common room." I said walking over to the Slytherin Table.

"Hey guys." I said sitting down.

"Hey, Hannah." Goyle and Blaise said together.

"What'd I miss?" I asked grabbing a roll.

"Nothing important." Draco said "Just the food arriving that's pretty much it."

"You two going to touch hands like at the start of term feast?" Blaise teased.

"BLAISE!" Draco and I shouted together, me turning a very bright pink.

"Hannah, you'll never guess who's in the lavatory crying!" Pansy said.

"Who?" I asked, a pit falling in my stomach.

"That Granger girl. What's her name? Harriet?"

"Hermione." I said. "Which lavatory to be exact?"

"The one off the Great Hall. Why?"

"Just asking. I'll be right back." I said, getting up and walking to the Gryffindor table, where Ron was laughing with Harry at what the Weasley twins were doing.

I slapped Ron in the back of the head.

"OW!" he yelled turning around "What the bloody hell was that for, Hannah?"

"First off, hey, we were never properly introduced on the Quidditch pitch. I'm Hannah." I said to the Weasley twins.

"I'm Fred and this is my twin brother George."

I shook hands with the twins and turned to Ron angrily.

"And second off. Why did you say that Hermione doesn't have any friends? Now, because of your stupidity, she's in the girls' lavatory crying."

"Sorry." Ron said.

"Oh, no, Weasley. Don't apologize to me. If I were you, the next time I saw Hermione I'd apologize to her. Or so help me, I'll slap you into next week."

"Ok, ok. Easy! I'll apologize, all right?"

I had just sat down at the Slytherin Table when Professor Quirell ran into the Hall screaming "TROLL!"

All eyes turned to Quirell as Professor Dumbledore asked what was going on.

"Troll…in the dungeon…thought you'd want to know." was all Quirell could say before he fainted.