Hello once again audience! I'm back again with the fifth installment of Conspiracy of Ravens! In this chapter, I'm hoping to try and get out of the angsty and somewhat depressive feeling that the last chapter dropped us into. Enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer is in the first chapter!
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Caleb and Neville could currently be found talking animatedly as they walked through the halls of the large castle, just exploring to their hearts' content. They had been discussing, for about an hour now, ways of making a map of the school to help out the current and even future first years. Caleb gave the idea of maybe getting someone from one of the higher years to help them out, as they might know the castle a little better than they would. Neville gave a nod at that idea. He suggested that they maybe find someone who was actually able to draw, as both of them had discussed that neither of them had the skills needed to be an artist.
The boys had stepped onto a flight of stairs, following Lily's lead. Once all three of them were in the middle of the stairway, the stairs, in fine Hogwarts fashion, began moving away from their desired direction. With both boys giving a sigh, they just decided to explore the corridor that had appeared before them. While they were walking along, they noticed that the corridor itself seemed eerily abandoned for being inside of a school full of curious children. The hallway itself was darker, with the lack of torches along the walls. There were dustwebs in the corners of the doorways on both sides of the hall.
Right as Neville was about to suggest that they make their way back the way that they had come from, they both heard a small bark from Caleb's trusted companion. This made Caleb curious as the what Lily may have found. Caleb walked towards the area that they had heard her from, motioning for Neville to follow him. Once they turned around a corner, they saw Lily standing on her hind legs, scratching at the door at the end of the hallway. Giving Neville a shrug, Caleb walked forward and turned the handle of the door, finding it locked.
"Know any unlocking spells Neville?" Caleb asked with a smile, not being serious. Before Caleb could walk away from the door however, Neville had pulled out his wand and gave a muttered 'Alohamora'. The boys heard a clicking noise from the door, and Caleb gave the knob a turn again, finding the door unlocked.
"Huh.. Wasn't expecting a first year to know a neat spell like that.. I'll have to learn that one." Caleb mumbled to himself before opening the door and stepping through with Neville and Lily. Once they were a few steps inside, the door slammed shut behind them. Both boys ran over to the door, trying desperately to open it again, but the knob just wouldn't budge.
Caleb kicked the door in frustration before leaning against the archway leading to the door and giving a sigh. "Well that's just great! Let's hope there's another way outta here, eh Neville?" Caleb asked, rubbing his tired eyes with his palms, not noticing Neville staring fearfully over his shoulder. Caleb's shoulders sagged slightly at his rotten luck lately, turning slowly with his wand drawn, his eyes falling upon the gargantuan form of a huge three headed dog that was staring at them aggresively.
"Why is there a Cerberus in a school full of children?!" Neville asked frightfully, pointing at the huge beast as he backed up into the door to get as far away from the animal as he could. Both boys didn't notice Lily wasn't in view at the moment, being so distracted. Caleb stepped in front of Neville, smirking slightly and putting his wand away.
"Wands would most likely be useless against such a magical beast... Especially from two extremely undertrained first years.. With one being a muggleborn..." Caleb grumbled to himself, hoping for luck in that someone would come along and let them out before they overstayed their welcome in the beast's eyes.
Both of the boys started hearing a low growl from the Cerberus. Looking up at their middle head, they could see it baring its teeth in a menacing manner. Caleb could hear the sound of the doorknob being jiggled repeatedly behind him by Neville. Caleb was just trying to think of a way out of the current, crappy, situation that he found himself in. Caleb just decided to wing it and took a step forward, spreading his arms out in an inviting manner. Neville just gasped in surprise, but before he could do anything, the Cerberus lunged for his friend.
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Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Mindy were all sitting in the common room waiting for Caleb to come back so they could talk with him. Harry was tired of waiting, so decided to get up to look for him. The girls tried to explain to him about how it would be fruitless, with the castle being too big for one person to hope to find one other person in. Harry just shrugged and packed his books into his bag, getting ready to head over towards the door to exit the common room, when the door opened from the other side.
Caleb came walking in, limping slightly, soaked from head to toe. He looked to be smiling, but grimacing with every other step. Lastly, if one looked close enough, they would see that the liquid dripping off of him seemed to be more of an ooze, than an actual liquid. Caleb saw Harry standing in the middle of the room looking over him with a questioning look in his eyes. Actually, taking a quick second to glance around the room, he noticed everyone had ceased their conversations and were looking at him. He just shrugged and kept walking forward, patting Harry on the shoulder before heading upstairs to the dorm to take a nice, long, and hot shower.
Harry just stood there staring at the doorway to the dorms, wondering what had happened to his friend. He looked over to the girls, whose faces looked just as gobsmacked. Well, all except Luna's, she still had that somewhat dreamy look on her face, but her eyebrows were raised in surprise. He just shrugged and walked back over to his seat to wait for Caleb to come back downstairs and explain.
Neville walked in through the portrait of the fat lady, confused on whether he should be trembling in fear at the fact that they had survived a confrontation with a cerberus, or laughing at the obsurdity at the fashion that they left in. He was still smiling as he made his way upstairs to grab his bag, so he might get a start on his potion's essay. He wasn't really looking forward to it, but he decided to just get it out of the way instead of putting it off until the last minute. Which is more than he could say for a certain redheaded dunderhead that was sitting with a group at one of the tables, bragging loudly about how good he was, and how he was undefeated. He just shook his head and sat down in a quiet corner to begin his homework, thankful that nobody had noticed his entrance into the room.
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Harry and the group watched Caleb walk back into the common room, carrying his bag of books and start on his way over to the their table. Caleb sat down and just opened one of his books to begin reading without looking at the others. He would prefer not to see their looks of fear or disgust at how he had lost control of his magic. Luna herself had told them about how easily scared that the wizarding world was of people 'going dark' when something different happens around them that scares them. So Caleb just assumed, what with his features being so drastically changed and the way he had handled the situation, that his friends wouldn't really want to be friends with him anymore.
Caleb chanced a glance over the top of his book only to see all three girls were looking at him. Their eyes held no fear or disgust like he was expecting. They only held concern for his well-being. He couldn't help but crack a smile at the fact that he actually still had people to call friends. Upon glancing at Harry, the boy just gave him shrug and gestured to the girls.
"I'm guessing you all have questions to ask me?" Caleb said, looking at each girl in their eyes in turn.
The next thing he knew, he was being bombarded with questions from all three of them. He was taken aback at the sheer amount of questions being fired at him and he just burst out in laughter with Harry, laughing at the simple fact that even such an event couldn't change the girls' nature in any lasting way, apparently. He raised a palm, making the girls stop their tirade of questions and all three of them looked at eachother sheepishly, making the boys chuckle again lightly.
"Ok now.. Let me rephrase that. One question at a time, in turns. Yeah? And perhaps we should take this conversation somewhere a little more private than the house common room?" Caleb said, standing and gesturing towards the eavesdropping groups of students, who all quickly tried to act nonchalant after being pointed out by the boy. Harry gave a nod before standing up with Caleb, who smiled at him thankfully.
"Lets head to a place I found while exploring today yeah?" Caleb asked, pointing at the door of the common room's entrance, letting the girls lead as they walked out. Once out of the common room, and making sure they weren't being followed by any curious eavesdroppers and the like, he led the group to an empty classroom a few corridors away from Ravenclaw Tower.
After dusting off some chairs for themselves, they all seated themselves in some chairs around a small table, all looking at Caleb expectantly. He just smirked and gestured at Luna, who smiled and nodded at him.
"I believe we would all like to know what, and why, you were covered in when you came back into the common room a little bit ago." Luna asked. The others all gave light nods and were looking at Caleb for his answer. He smirked at them before giving his answer.
"I'll be showing all of you the answer to that in due time. I have to ask around a little bit about who was involved with it. Next question?" He replied mysteriously, pointing at Mindy.
Mindy raised an eyebrow questioningly at his answer but shook her head and spoke. "If you're magic has calmed down from the flying class, why haven't your hair and eyes changed back to their normal colors?" She asked, her eyes flicking from his eyes to his hair and back.
"I'll tell you what I told the professors. This was only the third time that I've lost control in that manner, but the circumstances have all been the same for the most part. The more out of control my magic gets, the more that changes about me. I will probably look like this for roughly a week, give or take a day or so. I will also be a bit tempermental, or more irritable until I change back as well." Caleb answered. He gestured at himself before continuing. "This, is kind of what I would consider my 'stage one' loss of control. This is the second time that I have dealt with this stage." He explained, his glowing eyes glancing from one person to the next. "The first time I lost control... I can only remember bits and pieces, and I'd rather not talk about that time." He finished quietly, looking at the table sadly.
They were all quiet for a few moments while Caleb was ready for the next question. After a few moments, Caleb gave a nod to Hermione.
"What did the professors and headmaster decide to do as form of punishment and such?" Hermione asked, making Caleb smile slightly in amusement. Leave it to Hermione to ask about school punishments and such.
"I don't really know. They didn't tell me what they would do to the first year lions for bullying Neville. All I know is that they gave Ravenclaw ten points PER person who tried to help Neville when he was floating away. They also gave me twenty points for defending him, even after he had left the area, but they removed ten points for resorting to violence." Caleb answered, making them all gain gobsmacked expressions at the number of points they had earned that day.
"Speaking of our red-clad herbology lover, he found me during my exploring of the castle and he did something that Luna would probably understand more than the rest of us." Caleb mentioned, piquing their interest. "He told me that he was, as the heir to his house, bringing me under house protection for 'services rendered' from me helping him." Caleb stated, looking at Luna as she gave a small gasp.
Luna went into an explanation of what that meant for both Caleb and Neville seperately. All of the others were thoroughly impressed with what Neville had down for Caleb and were congratulating him for it, while he just gave a shrug.
"I wasn't really doing it in order to be rewarded. Be it house points or gaining an ally in school or politically. I was just doing what I felt was right. I hate, Hate, HAte, HATe, HATE! bullies and people who think its ok to say things about people behind their back." Caleb replied, getting slightly louder each time he said 'hate'.
The quartet then continued questioning the american boy, with him explaining as best as he could. They then spent a little over an hour continuing the discussion he had had with Neville about making maps of the castle and its passages for first years and such. They were all just enjoying spending time with the whole group once again, just talking about anything and everything they could think of at the time.
The quintet returned to the common room a little while later in order to finish their homework and head up to bed for their classes, with tomorrow being monday.
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The next couple of weeks went by in a decent enough fashion. Caleb employed the meditation excercises from the book that Professor Flitwick had given him. It turns out that, with the help of his friends and the meditation, he had been able to keep his temper during the week-long wait until he changed back to his usual appearance. One morning during breakfast, Hedwig dropped by to visit Harry and deliver a message. It turned out that Hagrid had sent her to ask if he and his friends, perhaps, would like to go down for some tea and rock cakes.
Oddly enough, this is where the quintet could be found. The even decided to bring along Neville. Hargrid was ecstatic at having so many people over for tea, though they had to sit at the table he had outside be the fire pit because their numbers wouldn't fit in his tiny little shack.
Everyone was enjoying themselves. Talking, laughing, and watching as Fang chased Lily around the vast Hogwarts lawn. The girls were giggling to themselves from their own conversation, apparently talking about something girl related. The boys and half giant were talking about quidditch, as Neville and Hagrid were trying to explain the rules and what each player did for their teams and so on. Harry and Caleb were sceptical at the fact that there was such a fast paced sport on speeding brooms, let alone without adding somewhat intelligent balls of stone trying to knock the players off of their brooms.
They just chalked it up as something that needed to be experienced in person, rather than to have it explained. They then started talking about the dogs, and other creatures that Hagrid helps to care for himself in the forest. Caleb believed he had his answer, and decided to go on the offensive.
"So Hagrid, do you have any other dogs or dog-like animals under your wonderous care that we could meet? I do love animals, but dogs tend to hold the top spot in my heart." Caleb asked innocently, suppressing a smirk by taking a drink of tea from his pint sized mug.
"Hmm? Oh yeah! I've go' a beautiful beasty by the name o' Fluffy! Raised him from a pup I did!" Hagrid boomed happily. Apparently if the subject involved creatures with four or more legs, Hagrid was a happy man! A very large, and happy man, of course!
"Oh! I've met someone who was incredibly fluffy recently! It's not Lily, by the way. The friendly little guy was quite appreciative of the attention I showed him. Apparently he doesn't exactly enjoy being cooped up in his hiding place. Neville and myself have actually begun taking him bacon sandwiches on occasion!" Caleb explained, looking at Neville, who gave him a raised eyebrow and nodded.
"How'd you meet my Fluffy? You aren't supposed to be in that area of the castle!" Hagrid boomed fiercely.
"I never said he was in the castle Hagrid..." Caleb replied, smirking mischievously.
"Oh.. Bugger.. I suppose that you now know the Cerberus, Fluffy, is mine then?" Hagrid asked meekly, his shoulders sagging in defeat at being tricked somewhat.
"I suppose we do now, ol' buddy o' mine!" Caleb answered, patting Hagrid lightly on his shoulder. "You really should visit him occasionally, he seems to miss you. Neville and I enjoy our visits with him. And yes girls, before you ask I will be taking the rest of you with us to see him." Caleb stated, looking at the girls smugly. The girls gave a 'harrumph!' at being found out before they even got to ask anything, but smiled at being able to meet a cerberus.
The rest of their time at Hagrid's consisted of roasting marshmallows by his large fire pit, while drinking large mugs of tea and sharing stories from their time at school. All in all, it was a pretty great ending to a pretty great day.
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Harry, Neville, and Caleb could be seen walking through the castle early one morning. They were all three sweaty, battered, and bruised. Well... Harry and Neville were battered and bruised, not so much for Caleb though. Caleb had decided some time after his appearance had changed back to normal, if the other two boys had wished to join him in his daily workouts. Neville was a little apprehensive at first, not thinking it would help much when he had a wand at his disposal, but decided to give it a go anyhow. Harry, on the other hand, agreed with a gusto! He hated being scrawny like he was, being shorter then everyone in their group of friends besides Luna, who explained that most of the females from her family only grew to be around five foot eight at most.
During their workouts, Caleb walks them through a series of stretches so they don't hurt themselves, before helping them learn the stances. Once they learned the stances, he taught them the basic hand strikes, then the kicks. Neville seemed to catch on with the hand strikes better, while Harry did better with the kicking. Once they practiced their strikes, stances, and some sparring, they would do some cardio and basic workouts like pushups, crunches, and stuff similar to that.
The boys said their farewells, heading to their seperate towers in order to get a quick shower before heading down for breakfast. The girls seemed to know what they were doing, but decided that they would rather not become sticky messes every morning. Caleb understood and didn't bug them to join, but he explained both the pros and the cons of their workouts.
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Flashback to talking with the girls
"The cons could be considered somewhat short-listed. You'll most likely be sore after working out, depending on what we did that day. You'll become sweaty from the workouts. You could actually get hurt from doing some of the stuff that we enjoy doing, mostly the sparring and conditioning and such. Lastly, you have to wake up earlier to get a start on the workouts, if you want to catch breakfast to earn back some of your energy, at least." Caleb said, gesturing towards the bruises that Harry and himself were sporting.
"The pros are a little bit better in contrast, though. You'll be able to burn off the fat and calories that the not-so-healthy food selection during the meals builds up in your system. You'll have a higher endurance involving many things in your daily life, like staying up to study, or carrying around large stacks of books from the shelves to the table you were sitting at. (Caleb looked at Hermione and Mindy as he said that, making the girls blush cutely.) You'll be able to strengthen your magical core and endurance, since we also spend some of our time practicing some spells using the provided training dummies.
"All in all," he explained "it helps with your physical health, along with your appearance. Just look at Neville, he already seems a bit more confident in his spell casting and overall outlook on life. Though, it seems like he still has trouble doing the spells we learn in our classes.. Might have to ask him about that the next time I see him after class.." Caleb finished off, scratching his chin before giving a shrug.
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The boys met up with the girls in the common room, both freshly showered. They then headed down to the great hall to get a start on their day, as they had to deal with potions that day. Caleb tended to leave Lily in the common room nowadays, since he was a little more comfortable with his surroundings and was getting used to the students and teachers enough to not need her constant presence. This left Lily with time to explore the castle to her heart's content and whatever else a pomeranian got up to in their free time.
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Meanwhile: With Lily
Lily had decided to take an extended sleep this morning, seeing as Caleb had gone out for his morning routine like usual. It seemed, to her, like he was doing better for himself nowadays, having friends to fall back on and having fun in his schooling.
Once she woke up from a bit of a nap, she decided upon running off for a bit of a day of exploration. She popped down to the common room, finding only a few older looking students sitting around with books either in their laps, or writing with their weird feather pens. She made her way over to the exit of the room, and stood there for a few seconds, waiting for the door to open. When the door didn't open after a few minutes, she decided upon a different approach.
Walking over to one of the groups of female students who were talking and giggling to themselves, she stood upon her hind legs and propped her front legs on one of the girl's knees. The girl looked down and the group gave a unanimous 'Awww!' and began to pet Lily. She gave a light huff and let them pet her for a few moments before lightly biting the hem of the girl's robes, pulling her towards the door. The girl tilted her head at Lily in confusion for a second before she realized what she wanted from her. The girl got up and followed Lily to the door, opening it when they got to it. "Bye Lily! Don't get into any trouble!" She heard from the girl as the door popped closed.
Once out into the corridor, she just decided to go left, making her way down the hall. Walkin' fast. Portraits passed, and she's adventure-bound. The only noise she heard for several hallways and flights of stairs was the sound of her claws clacking against the stone flooring. She was about to turn around from a dead ended hallway that she had come across, before she heard the sound of someone crying. She was going to just leave, and head back downstairs to explore some more, but she decided instead to investigate who it was.
She made her way along the hall, listening for the sound and sniffing around to find the person. She found them in a small alcove behind a large suit of metal. Poking her head into the darkness, she saw a small girl sitting on a cushioned window sill, curled into a ball and crying. Lily thought for a few seconds before shaking her head. She hated it when people were crying, it reminded her of when her master had had his almost nightly nightmares and he would wake up crying. She walked over to the window and hopped into the empty area next to the girls feet. After a few seconds of the girl not noticing her, she leaned her head down and gently licked the girls hand, startling her on accident.
"Who's there! What do you... Oh... You're Beck's dog aren't you?" The girl asked, giving a sniffle and wiping her face and nose with a handkerchief that she had fished out of her robes. Lily just gave a slight nod and licked the girls hand again. "I'm guessing you heard me crying and came to see who it was, huh?" The girl said, straightening her hair a little and putting the 'kerchief away. "Thank you.. for.. you know... well, maybe you don't know." She said, looking away from Lily who gave a small huff and bumped the girl's hand with her head.
"Oh, you want some attention? I would be happy to pet you for a little bit. Seeing you makes me miss my pets from home a little bit. I have a cat and an owl, though they don't exactly get along." The girl continued rambling to Lily, who just layed next to her and let the girl pet her fluffy fur. This went on for a while, with Lily enjoying the attention whilst the girl just vented her frustrations out to nobody in particular.
"And I just... UGH! I don't know.. It makes me want to just hex everyone for everything and nothing at all, but I'm just a first year. That wouldn't go so well for me and I don't really know any ways to vent my anger and frustration without doing it on someone or something without getting into trouble." The girl continued. Lily just gave a small roll of her eyes and stood, surprising the girl who pulled a small watch out of her pocket and gave a gasp.
"Oh no! It's almost time for dinner! We should get you back to Beck, should we not?" The girl stated, standing and using the reflection of herself in the window to fix her hair a little before she knelt down next to the ball of walking fluff. "Would you like me to carry you to the Great Hall? As a sort of thank you for helping me sort out my feelings and such?" The girl asked Lily, holding her hands out towards the dog.
Lily just gave another huff before jumping into the girl's arms, adjusting into a better postion once the girl had a better hold on her, and they began walking down towards the Great Hall. After several flights of stairs and several halls, they made their way through the large double doors and the hall. The girl continued walking along until Lily saw they were approaching Caleb and his group of friends.
"Ah! There you are Lily! I was wondering where you had gotten off to. And it seems you made a new friend along the way. Thank you for escorting my companion, Miss?" Caleb tapered off, holding his hands out to retrieve Lily from the girl.
The girl gave a light smile and hugged Lily lightly before handing her over to her owner. "Greengrass. My name is Daphne Greengrass. Your fluffy companion found me sulking in a dark corner and decided to comfort me for a bit." The now named Daphne replied. She gave Lily a light pat on her head before starting to turn to walk away.
"Hey Greengrass, would you like to maybe study together either in the library or during class some time? You can never have too many friends, ya know?" Caleb asked, giving her a slight smile.
"I think I might like that. Until next time, Beck." She said, smiling at him and walking back to her table. It wasn't until he had sat back down that he noticed that Greengrass had been wearing Slytherin colors. He didn't personally mind, but he wasn't sure about everyone else.
They all finished their dinner, discussing their thought about the girl and opinions about whether they should trust her or not. It turned out to be a decent enough discussion, and they all agreed to at least give the girl a chance.
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It was a few days before Halloween that the quintet and a few new additions could be found in the library, studying at two tables that had been pulled together to help fit their new numbers. The current group consisted of students from every house, actually. There was Neville and Parvati Patil from Gryffindor. From Slytherin there was Daphne Greengrass and her bubbly friend Tracey Davis. Hufflepuff supplied Susan Bones, who had known Neville from their childhood from the pureblood balls and gatherings, who also brought a friend, Hannah Abbot. Lastly our usual Ravenclaw quintet was accompanied by Padma Patil, Parvati's twin.
Harry and Caleb shared a look with Neville, being the only boys out of the group and feeling horribly outnumbered. Caleb couldn't really even count Lily as an ally, with her being a female herself, but mostly for the fact that she was in Daphne's lap soaking up attention from all of the girls who were giggling around their table. Madam Pince had even come over to order them to be quieter in her precious library, but had lessened her ferocity when she saw Lily. The surly librarian even surprised the students when she stopped by to pat Lily on the head a few times and gave a rare smile.
All in all, the large group of students had had fun on that day. Daphne had been curious as to why the boys were all covered in bruises, to which Hermione explained Caleb's workout regimen to her. She perked up at the idea, having seen several kung fu movies with Tracey, as she was a half-blood. Harry, Neville, and Caleb were all very surprised when she asked them if she would be able to join them during one of their mornings, to gauge if she would be interested in joining them for a longer period.
The boys all shared an equal look of surprise, and Neville just shrugged and said he didn't mind, to which the other two said it was also fine with them. They all discussed that it would probably be best that she joined them after Halloween, as they were taking a light break in their workouts. Harry mumbled that it was more for them to allow their current bruises to disappear, making the group laugh at his good hearted grumbling.
Caleb had also been practicing his occlumency training from the tome that Flitwick had given him. He had made some headway into the book and the meditation he had learned previously hadn't been all too different from what was described in the book. He had decided that once he learned at least the start of occlumency, that he would share the book with the rest of the group. He could imagine how excited the girls would get at reading such an ancient tome. Caleb grew a wry smile at how much his life had changed since he had moved to Great Britain. He hadn't had very many friends growing up where he had in the states, and his only real friends wound up being his pets or video games.
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Halloween Day!
Harry woke up feeling somewhat confused. He was feeling happy at the fact that he had someone to celebrate Halloween with, but he also felt as if he shouldn't be celebrating the day that his parents had been murdered. He decided to just get ready for the day, and see how the day pandered out.
He made his way downstairs after finishing his morning shower, feeling somewhat better since he had been able to sleep in with no morning routine lately. He made his way over to the group's usual table, finding it oddly empty, and sat down in his normal chair. He shimmied into a more comfortable position and pulled out his Transfiguration homework to work on.
He finished his homework just in time for him to make his way down to breakfast. He was a little sad that his friends weren't around to talk to, but he was sure they were just busy somewhere in the castle. Caleb would sometimes disappear somewhere with Neville, while the girls went to do.. girly stuff. He heaved a sigh as he sat down for breakfast at the empty end of the Ravenclaw table and began filling his plate with toast, eggs, and bacon.
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Meanwhile, somewhere else in the castle
Hermione, Luna, Mindy, and Caleb were all working together to put up some decorations for the Halloween party that they had wanted to surprise Harry with. They had even grabbed Neville, Tracey, Susan, and Hannah to help them out so they could finish faster.
Caleb looked around the room they had confiscated for their party. He was beginning to like the way it looked and hoped that Harry liked it as much as they did, with as much work as they'd been putting in since earlier this morning to get it ready. Suddenly, Luna had a quick thought.
"Uh... Guys.. Shouldn't we have left some sort of note for Harry? We could have told him we were going to see Neville or something. Anything really." Luna asked, a frown marring her face.
The rest of the first years suddenly grew somewhat guilty at that thought, with Hermione grabbing Mindy and dragging her out of the room to find Harry quickly.
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Harry just heaved a sigh, closing the book he had in front of him before he stood to leave. He returned the book back to it's proper shelf and walked out of the library, not feeling in the greatest of moods. He was quite surprised when he was knocked off of his feet be a speeding blur of brown hair. He and the person on top of him were a singular body of tangled limbs, sprawled on the floor.
Harry groaned lowly, lightly trying to stand back up without hurting himself or the other person any further. He was surprised when the person atop of him hugged him tightly, making him tense a little, thinking he had done something wrong.
"Harry! We finally found you! We've been looking for you for about an hour now." Hermione cried out sadly. "We were doing something and forgot to leave you a note telling you we'd be by to grab you."
Harry was so surprised that it was Hermione that had run into him that he didn't really react to what she was saying until they had fully stood back onto their feet and brushed their robes down, straightening them somewhat. "Why were you looking for me?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, turning to walk with them slowly.
Mindy decided to reply while Hermione tried to tame her hair somewhat, with it being so bushy it was hard keeping it out of her face in a normal situation, let alone after being unceremoniously heaped onto the floor with someone else.
"We all forgot to leave you a note or tell you we would be doing something today, just to let you know where we were and such." Mindy said, giving him an apologetic smile. "We thought that you might have felt left out and might have even come to dislike that everyone besides you were hanging out for something." She finished as they rounded another corner and started down some stairs.
Harry and the girls went back to the common room to just kill time and do some of their remaining homework, all three of them sharing some laughs about the random things they were talking about.
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Caleb and the rest of the group of assorted firsties were putting the finishing touches on the decorations. Luna was busy talking to a small elf-looking creature, asking if she, the elf, would be able to bring a variety of finger foods, snacks, and puddings up from the kitchen for the party. The elf, who gave a squeaky reply of "Trippy bes right back with firsty Moon's wishes.", popped out of sight for a few minutes while they finished the last of the decor for the room.
When Trippy popped back in, she was joined by several other house elves who all had two platters of snacks each. They each laid the platters onto the tables that Trippy had conjured in the directed corner of the room, sorting them from cleanest to somewhat messiest snacks. Trippy then snapped her fingers, making several large bowls of different pudding appear on the remaining empty table.
Caleb and Neville began snickering quietly at how starry eyed Luna and Hannah became at the sight of such a variety of pudding. That was something the girls had become quick friends over, their love of the 'Snack food of Morgana herself' - pudding! They politely dragged both girls away from the pudding table, having to bribe them with a solitary bowl of the delicious substance. Tracey was looking back and forth in the hall, as if waiting for someone before she gave a shrug and closed the , all they had to do was wait for Mindy and Hermione to retrieve Harry at the appropriate time. They were also waiting upon the invited professors, somewhat exuberant at the chance of spending time with their favorite teachers.
The day before, Hermione and Luna had also asked everyone else if they wanted to maybe ask their heads of house if they had wanted to join them for the festivities. Caleb and Neville had just given a shrug before giving some nods. Susan and Hannah gave excited squeals before rushing off to ask Professor Sprout. Both Daphne and Tracey had both said there was no point in asking Snape, as he would probably just make a snide comment and not show up. Hermione saw to it that Luna, Mindy, and herself stayed behind during a charms class to ask Professor Flitwick. Neville had just gone to McGonagall's office, with Harry and Caleb tagging along just to do it. All three Professors said that they would attend if their schedules permitted, Though Sprout and Flitwick seemed to be excited at the prospect of being invited to spend time with some of their favorite students.
Harry, Hermione, and Mindy walked in through the door, with Harry's eyes bulging in surprise at the largely decorated room and several tables covered in snacks. Everyone gave him a light pat on the shoulder, showing him that he had friends that were there for him in his time of need. They were all surprised themselves when Harry burst out into laughter.
"Thanks everyone.. I was having trouble deciding whether I should celebrate Halloween or not, being the day my parents passed. But it seems like it would be a better idea for me to be happy instead of moping around." Harry said, wiping tears of happiness from his eyes. "I've also never celebrated any holidays before, so this is a new experience for me in every aspect." He mumled under his breath, not knowing that most of the others had actually heard him anyways, though they all shared a look that stated they should just let it drop from their.
They all decided to just start the party, and let the Professors join in whenever. They all grabbed plates and piled them high with snacks before they made their way over to a circle of comfy armchairs and sat talking and laughing with one another. Harry decided that he would start celebrating Halloween from now on, as long as he had friends, he would be fine.
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Well then! Hope you liked the small Lily part. This chapter was more of a filler chapter, as nothing of horrible importance really happened. There were some settled insecurities, some cemented friendships and a few cute snippets. Hope you enjoyed the fifth installment of Conspiracy of Ravens!
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