Beauty and the Beast: Hogwarts Edition
Chapter Three- Christmas Day and the Following Morning
By Kalison A.
--
Disclaimer- I only own what my mind comes up with.
A/N- I will take this opportunity to mention that this is a mystery. I will not be revealing the identity of the Beast until I feel ready no matter what you ask. Harry and Ron will not be playing much of a part in this story.
--
Hermione woke up the next morning, and looked around the room, wondering where the name of Merlin she was. Then the events from the previous evening came flooding back to her. How she had spent all evening to find the first year, Nathanial Iucundus, how she had bargained for his release with her own imprisonment. She sadly took in the pile of gifts in the corner of the room remembering that it was Christmas day and that she would not be able to see any of her friends that were still at the school. Heck, she would give anything to see even Ferret Boy's face. She wondered if Nathanial had gotten back to the Gryffindor tower okay.
--
Nathaniel was running about the Gryffindor Tower trying to find some one who would believe his story about the Head Girl being trapped in the Tower in hs place. He was finally subdued by the remaining fifth year and second year who had decided to convince him, successfully, or so they thought, that it was just a nightmare.
--
Hermione gathered
the strength to walk over to gifts and open them. She open Harry's to
find a card wishing her a Merry Christmas and the latest edition of
Hogwarts:
A History.
She open Mrs. Weasley's Gift next, which contained some brownies and
a royal blue knitted sweater with a silver tree on it,
reminiscent to the crest of Gondor, in the Lord of the Rings.
'Harry
must of slipped that there are such things as movies to Mr. Weasley
and that I immensely enjoyed fantasy books, The Lord of the
Rings in particular.'
Ron's
gift was a book about Charms. Her parents sent her a nice assortment
of knitting yarn, along with a new pair of knitting needles. Lupin
had sent her book about Animagi. Lastly she opened Ginny's gift,
dreading that it might be something to do with Quidditch. Instead she
found a nice V-necked, floor length, sparkly midnight-blue formal
dress.
'Ginny must have been looking in my wardrobe again.' She hung up the dress in a closet that she had found while sitting on the bed, thinking, of what was to happen to her.
--
The small population of the school was dinning, lunch, in the Great Hall, all the teachers, including Trelawny and the newest staff members Professors Unda (Potions, and Slytherin's newest Head of House), Caelum (Transfiguration), and Incendius (Defense Against the Dark Arts). All sat at one table with the three Griffindors, two Hufflepuffs, and the one Slytherin that had remained at school for break. All enjoyed their meal, and none noticed that Hermione was not among them.
--
It was late afternoon by now and she still had the slight problem of deciding whether or not to join the Beast for dinner. She was now on the bed reading the Animagus book.
She was startled out of her reverie by a sharp pounding on her door.
"Ms. Granger! I thought I told you that you are to join me for dinner!" He bellowed.
"I'm not hungry!"
He tried a different approach, "It would give me great pleasure if you would join me for dinner. Please."
She stood her ground, "No, thank you."
"You can't stay in there forever."
She rebuffed, as obstinate as ever, "Oh, yes I can!"
"Fine, go ahead and STARVE!" He said a-growling and a-bellowing at the end.
--
Dinner came and went. Professor
Trelawney stayed in her tower, but the rest of the schools
inhabitants, that were not too busy chasing Peeves around for dumping
ink on their cat, ate a peaceful dinner, that involved lots of
laughter and Wizard Crackers.
McGonagall noticed Hermione's
absence, but thought nothing of it. She thought that perhaps she had
taken ill.
--
it was about midnight, when Hermione gathered the courage to sneak out of her room in search of the kitchens. She discovered that, while on her room's right the 'dungeon' tower room, that the kitchen was, in fact on the other side, across from which was a dinning room. She could now see all nine of the doors, four on each side and at the end, the forbidden room.
She left her room and made her way to the kitchen where she made herself a sandwich with the few materials that she could find. Upon finishing her sandwich, she peered into the dinning room, noticing how dusty it was; she left and was once again entranced by that soft glow that emitted form the room at the end of the hallway.
She approached it cautiously, recalling vaguely what had occurred last time that she was heading to the room. She opened the door and carefully navigated her way to a table on which a rose floated in a bell jar. She removed the bell jar, carefully setting it down and was about to touch that beautiful dark red rose, when a shadow swooped down and covered the rose with the bell jar, a possessive and angered look on his face. His blue, nearly black, eyes flashing with a hint of fear, black cloak still swirling, as he turned to face her.
"Why have you come here?"
"I'm sorry. I..."
"Do you realize what you could have done! I thought you would have realized that this room is off limits."
"I didn't mean any harm!"
"Get out! Get! Out!"
Hermione ran, grabbing a cape off a rack in her room, her red skirt inhibiting her as she ran through the school, seeing not a soul. She no longer cared where she ran, just as long as she kept going. She ran straight into the Forbidden Forest, where it was rumored that a pack of wolves now lived in. She kept running, until she tripped over a tree root. She heard the wolves growling, as she desperately tried to stand. She grabbed a fallen tree branch and stood, ready to face the inevitable. The wolves pounced; she swung her branch, until it was wrenched from her grasp. She was then knocked down by another wolf. She was struggling as the wolves scratched and bit at her.
ROAR!
She looked up, hope shining in her eyes. The wolves paused, as the newcomer continued to roar, holding a wolf inches from his face. He then hurled that wolf away as the others decided that he was a bigger threat than the girl was. He valiantly fought, as the wolves scratched and bit and tore rents into him. He swung at one wolf, and flung the leader into the tree. Seeing their leader fallen, the wolves, turned tail and ran. He stood there, snorted twice, and collapsed.
She considered fleeing, but instead removed her forest green cloak and laid it on top of him. She then levitated him back to the castle, up the stairs, into the tower, and into the Fourth room on the right side of the hallway, in which there was a chair and a fire place. She placed him in the chair and started the fire. She tried to heal the wounds that littered his body, but the deepest ones resisted the spell. She walked into the kitchen and filled a shallow basin with water, grabbed a cloth, and summoned some bandages.
When she returned to the room, he was conscious and was licking the scratches on harm. She sighed, and set the materials down on the floor and soaked the cloth in the warm water. She reached up to clean the cuts, but he kept moving his arm out of her reach. She reached higher with a sudden jab.
"OUCH! That hurts!" He exclaimed.
"If you wouldn't move, it wouldn't hurt so much!"
"This wouldn't have happened if you hadn't run away!" He glared at her.
"If you hadn't frightened me, I wouldn't have run away!"
"Well, you shouldn't have been in the far room!" He smirked; she couldn't come up with a reply.
"Well, you should learn to control your temper! Now hold still, this might sting a little," She applied the cloth to his scratches.
He sharply drew in breath.
"And thank you for saving my live."
Where his ears deceiving him, did she just thank him? "You are welcome."
--
She woke up early the next morning. She got dressed and made her way to the sitting room with her book. She curled up on the window seat, legs tucked under her bottom. As she sat there reading, a figure stood in the door way, looking at her with fresh eyes, as if for the first time.
--
A many of floors below, the rest of the school was dinning upon their breakfast, and the wise Head Mistress noticed a certain Gryffindor's absence, as did the rejected Head Boy, yearning for the girl to return so as to continue his wooing.
--
A/N- Yes, another note. The Professor's names are Latin, as is the first years.
Iucundus- Pleasant
Unda- Water
Caelum- Sky
Incendius- Fire
I guess that this is all till I update. If you read, please review. I do accept anonymous reviews!