Yay! Chapter Five is here! This is officially the longest I've gone without writing... or writing anything fun, I should say, since I've been writing essays and other evil assignments for the past few months. But enough about me - you're here for the next chapter, right?
Before it begins, a big thankyou to all who reviewed my last chapter, excepting one reviewer who turned out to be a bitter acquaintance of mine who I'd rather not talk about.
Chapter the FifthThe next morning was one of excitement for Harry, Ron and Gohan as they discussed the adventure they had last night. Hermione wasn't speaking to them over it, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Gohan almost felt sorry for her - after all, he's an overachiever himself - but she was just so annoying.
The next week was filled with discussions on how to get revenge on Malfoy. Unfortunately, most plans fell back on Gohan using some form of 'dark magic' on Malfoy, which Gohan absolutely refused to do.
"What's the worst, most painful spell possible?" Gohan asked when Ron suggested that he blow Malfoy up for the thirtieth time.
"No idea. Why?"
"Well, multiply that by a thousand and you'll know a fraction of what my mother would do to me if I got expelled."
Ron was about to tell Gohan that he had to be exaggerating when their conversation was broken up by a swarm of owls delivering the daily mail. Gohan got his usual letter from his mother, but he couldn't read it, as like everyone else in the room, his attention was drawn to a long, thin package being carried by six owls. The package was dropped in front of Harry, followed closely by a letter, which Harry tore open and read with glee.
"It's my broomstick," Harry whispered to Ron and Gohan, "A Nimbus 2000. Let's go back to Gryffindor Tower and have a good look."
The three left the hall quickly, but before they could make it to somewhere private to unwrap the parcel, they were approached by Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy grabbed the package from Harry's hands and felt it, recognising the shape within immediately.
"That's a broomstick. You'll be for it this time, Potter."
"It's not just a broomstick, either," said Gohan, who had never found enjoyment in torturing people before he met Malfoy, "It's a Nimbus 2000. I'm not too familiar with broomsticks, but I think I read somewhere that Nimbus 2000s are pretty good..."
"What did you say you had, Malfoy?" Ron decided to add his two cents to the conversation, figuring Gohan could protect him if things got out of hand, "A Comet Two-Sixty? They're not even close to a Nimbus 2000."
Malfoy looked ready to make Ron regret getting involved when Professor Flitwick decided to turn up.
"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," Malfoy said. Of course, he was expecting Harry to get in trouble for this. He didn't.
"Ah, yes. Professor McGonagall told me about the special circumstances. A Nimbus 2000, right?"
The look on Malfoy's face was priceless as our three heroes headed upstairs. Once they were in the common room, Harry removed the packaging from his new broomstick and the three boys all stood back to admire it's black shiny handle and the perfectly aligned twigs that made up its tail.
"I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking the rules?" came a disapproving voice from behind them. Hermione, being her usually busybody self had followed them and was now looking disapprovingly at the broomstick in front of them.
At seven o'clock that night, Harry crept out of the common room, broomstick in tow, to begin his first training session. With not much else to do, Rob taught Gohan how to play Wizard's Chess, which was essentially the same as regular chess, except the pieces were alive. Gohan was normally quite good at chess, but his pieces, which he had borrowed from Fred Weasley kept offering their take on things, confusing him - not to mention that sometimes they wouldn't even follow his directions. Ron worked much more cohesively with his pieces, and it wasn't long before he had Gohan right where he wanted him.
"Checkmate. Another game?"
"Not right now," Gohan replied. He wasn't really used to coming in second best in anything, and had no desire to have his rear handed to him again, "Hey, Ron, what exactly is Quidditch?"
Rob looked at Gohan as if he'd grown a third arm.
"I mean... I know it's a sport and all, but how is it played?"
Ron still looked like Gohan was completely alien (which, of course, he is). "Alright. I'll try to explain the rules to you. It's pretty easy to understand. There are four positions on the Quidditch team: Chaser, Beater, Keeper and Seeker. Three Chasers, two Beaters, one Keeper and One Seeker. There are also four balls in play during the game: one Quaffle, two Bludgers, and the Snitch."
Gohan nodded. It seemed easy enough to understand so far.
Ron went on, "The Chasers pass the Quaffle around, trying to put it through any of the three hoops at the opposite end of the field. It's the Keeper's job to protect these hoops, because every time the Quaffle goes through, that team scores a point. The Beaters are there to protect the other players on the field from the Bludgers. The Bludgers are enchanted to attack the players. The Beaters fend them off with clubs. The Seeker, that's Harry's position, spends the entire game looking for a Snitch. It's his job to capture the Snitch before the other team's Seeker. This scores his team 150 points. The game continues until the Snitch is captured - the record for the longest Quidditch game is three months. Understand?"
Gohan nodded. He didn't really understand too well, but he was sure that once he saw a game, he'd know what was going on. Besides, it's not like he had to understand too much of the game to sit on the sidelines and cheer for Harry.
Two months passed in a blur for our three young heroes. Harry turned out to be quite well suited to Quidditch, and his time was taken up with a mixture of training and homework. Much to his relief, Gohan was finally starting to get somewhere with his magic and was finding mediocrity to be very therapeutic.
Their first lesson on the day of Hallowe'en was Charms, and Professor Flitwick had announced that the class was now ready to begin making objects fly. The class worked in pairs to try and get a feather airborne. Gohan and Harry worked together while Ron was stuck with either Hermione or Neville. He chose Hermione.
It was definitely harder than it looked. Harry and Gohan worked at their feather all lesson without any success, and Ron wasn't going any better.
"No, you're saying it wrong!" Hermione snapped at Ron as he tried once more to get the feather off the table.
"Then you do it then, if you're so smart," Ron replied.
Hermione ignored the bad grammar in Ron's challenge as she picked up her wand, "Wingardium Leviosa!" The feather rose two feet into the air and stayed there.
"Well done, Miss Granger!" Professor Flitwick started heaping praise on Hermione while the rest of the class groaned. More bragging rights for Miss Perfect [A/N: Can you tell I don't think much of Hermione?].
He wasn't sure why, but Gohan couldn't stand this much longer. He decided to take a risk and started transferring his ki to the feather, much like he had done to get his broomstick into his hand two months earlier. Within a few seconds his feather was jumping around on the table.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Gohan said, not really needing the incantation, but figuring it would make it look like he wasn't cheating to get his feather in the air. The feather shot straight upwards like a rocket, a good foot and a half higher than Hermione's.
"Marvellous, Son!" professor Flitwick exclaimed, "I've never seen someone make an object fly so fast! And the height is excellent for a first attempt! And..."
Hermione was not impressed.
"I'm not sure I should have done that..." Gohan muttered to Ron and Harry after class, "If anyone would've realised what really went on, I would have been expelled."
"Trust me, you did the right thing," Ron said, "Hermione's so annoying, it'd do her good to shut her up every now and then."
Someone pushed past Harry and Gohan and ran off down the corridor. It was Hermione, looking visibly upset.
"She must've heard you," Harry said to Ron. Ron tried to fob it off as though he didn't care, but you could see that he was visibly upset.
Hermione didn't turn up at any of the classes for the rest of the day. She wasn't at the Hallowe'en feast, either. Our focal trio overheard Parvarti Patil talking about how Hermione was crying in the girl's toilets, wanting to be left alone. This made Ron and Gohan feel even worse about what had happened. Ron was feeling so bad that he barely touched the food at the feast. Of course, in the case of Saiya-jins, an empty stomach outweighs a heavy conscience in terms of priorities, so Gohan had no problem inhaling as much food as he could get his hands on.
The feast had barely begun when Professor Quirrel ran into the hall. "Troll - basement... help..." and he fainted right in front of everyone. This caused the entire hall to fall into chaos as the teachers and prefects tried to usher the students back to the dormitories. Just as they were about to join the group being shepherded by Percy, Gohan and Harry came to a startling realisation.
"Hermione," they both said at the same time.
"What about her?" Ron asked, oblivious to the problem.
"She doesn't know about the troll," Harry explained.
"So?" Ron responded, "It's not our problem..."
But Gohan had already disappeared from the group and was seeking refuge behind a large stone gargoyle. Harry gave Ron a look and the two boys soon joined Gohan, waiting for the crowds to dissipate.
Soon the trio made their way along the corridor and hurried off to where Hermione was hiding, almost running into Professor Snape on the way.
"What's he doing here?" Gohan whispered as they hid behind yet another convenient statue.
"Search me," came the response from Ron.
The boys smelt the troll before they saw him, for trolls tend to give off an unholy stench. But soon enough the three boys found themselves staring at a hulking mass of troll, carrying a rather painful-looking club and heading straight for them. Fortunately, the troll didn't see them and happened to shuffle off into another room, allowing Ron to shut the door and lock him in.
"Isn't that the girl's toilets?" Gohan asked, pointing at the door that Ron had just locked. A scream, recognised as Hermione's, proved his point nicely. Not having time to unlock the door, Gohan kicked it down and our three heroes dashed toward their certain doom.
Hermione was crouched against a wall, trying to shield herself from the twelve-foot behemoth in front of her. Harry and Ron started throwing things at the troll in an attempt to give Hermione time to run, but she seemed paralyzed with fear. Out of desperation, Harry jumped on the troll's shoulders and jammed his wand right up the troll's nose, which caused the troll to become enraged, swinging his club wildly. Not wanting to see Harry get clubbed to death, Gohan went Super Saiya-jin. The resulting flash of light caused the troll to stop trying to kill Harry and stare at the young demi-Saiya-jin.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Ron's spell moved the club right out of the troll's reach as Gohan brought his hands together.
"Kame... hame... HA!!!!" Gohan's attack, while not strong enough to kill the troll, did knock it out, as well as the wall behind the it. Gohan powered down just as Professors McGonagall, Snape and Quirrel burst into the room. As Snape checked the troll, making sure it wouldn't leap up and kill them all, McGonagall began her verbal tirade on the four students.
"What were you thinking of?! You could've been killed! How..." McGonagall began, but was interrupted by the voice of Hermione.
"Professor, it wasn't their fault. They were looking for me. I thought I could deal with the troll by myself, so I came looking for it, and they saved me. Harry distracted the troll and Gohan and Ron managed to disarm him and knock him out with his own club. It was about to finish me off when they found me - they saved me."
Harry, Ron and Gohan couldn't believe it - Hermione was telling a lie to a teacher?
"Well, in that case...," McGonagall turned to Hermione, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a troll on your own?! Five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this! Now, head back to Gryffindor tower." McGongagall then addressed the three boys, "Now, I don't know how you managed to save her, but good job. You'll each earn Gryffindor five points..."
"You don't mean to tell me, Professor," the voice of Snape interrupted, as he surveyed the room, "that you believe that this damage was caused by a couple of first years using a levitating spell on a troll's club? I'd say Son here used some sort of illegal dark magic again."
Gohan's heart stopped momentarily. After all this, he was about to be expelled for sure...
"I'm well aware of what caused this damage, Professor Snape," McGonagall stated, "You aren't the only teacher in this school who is familiar with the effects of dark magic. However, the fact remains that had Gohan not resorted to this spell, Miss Granger would be dead. Therefore I believe, and I'm sure that Professor Dumbledore would agree, that a special allowance can be made for this infraction. If it concerns you so much, Professor Snape, then I will only award points to Mr Potter and Mr Weasley. Now, the three of you head back to your dormitories."
The threesome didn't speak to each other until they were back in the tower. Gohan was still in shock from his near-expulsion, but Harry and Ron began a strained conversation.
"She shouldn't have taken Gohan 's points back," Ron complained.
"Well, he did use an illegal spell," Harry replied.
"Yeah, so expel him, but give us the points," Gohan hoped that was a joke.
Once the boys entered the common room, Hermione approached them. There was an awkward silence, then Hermione muttered a single phrase, "Thank you."
From that point on, the threesome became a foursome and Hermione became the quiet voice of reason to the group. After all, who wouldn't try to befriend someone who saved them from certain death?
Well, that wasn't so hard. It only took me a couple of days to write. The next chapter will be written within the next six weeks, and if not, don't expect it until Christmas unless a miracle happens and I get some time to write. I didn't cover everything I wanted to in this chapter, so I already know what's going to happen in the next one, so it shouldn't take too long.