Dumbledore sat at his desk, writing letters to the parents/guardians of the Hogwarts Gang, informing them of the troll incident and the inter-house unity that was going on. He had been very surprised when the four Heads of house had told him about the inter-house unity between about half of the first years and that the group had defeated the troll by all using the Full-Body Bind. After finishing the last letter, to Mr. and Mrs. Macmillian, he sent out the nineteen letters and then sat back down at his desk. The voice of Godric Gryffindor interrupted his thoughts. "We strongly approve of all that is occuring, Albus. It's wonderful that twenty students from different houses are friends."
Dumbledore looked up at the portrait in mild surprise and then glanced at the three other portraits next to the one of Godric. "And what do the rest of you think?"
"We agree with Godric," said Helga Hufflepuff. "It's about time that there was some inter-house unity occuring between all four houses."
"And not just for something like the Tri-wizard Tournament," added Rowena Ravenclaw. "Because that was the last time there was any inter-house unity, and it certainly wasn't anything like the group we have now."
"With the way things are going, I predict that the unity won't end with this group," said Salazar Slytherin. "Students in future years will band together despite house differences, and I'm sure some of the older ones will be more open with their friendships with students in other houses."
Dumbledore smiled. "That is wonderful." He gave a start, however, when the four portraits informed him that there was to no longer be any house tables other than at the beginning and end-of-term feasts. Instead, there would be tables that would sit up to twenty, and students could sit at whichever table they wished. This would allow friends from separate houses to sit with each other, though it wasn't against the rules to sit at a house table that wasn't your own. Dumbledore agreed to it, however, and made arrangements for the Great Hall to be changed as told.
The next morning, all the students were surprised by the new seating arrangements. The Hogwarts Gang was very pleased with it and immediately took seats at one of the tables. After some hesitation, the rest of the students sat down, and there was a mixing of houses as friends and relatives in different houses sat together.
The day after that, a Howler arrived for Alex, who made a face at the inconvience but opened it anyway.
"ALEXANDER THESUS CARROW, YOU HAVE ANGERED ME AGAIN! HOW DARE YOU FRATERNIZE WITH UNSUITABLE STUDENTS, GO FACE A TROLL, AND BE A PART OF INTER-HOUSE UNITY! IT'S ENOUGH OF A DISGRACE THAT YOU'RE IN GRYFFINDOR WITHOUT YOU HAVING TO BE FRIENDS WITH RAVENCLAWS AND HUFFLEPUFFS. THE ONLY PEOPLE THAT YOU SAY YOU'RE FRIENDS WITH THAT I APPROVE OF ARE DAPHNE GREENGRASS, BLAISE ZABINI, AND TRACEY DAVIS, AND EVEN THEY ARE STARTING TO BE QUESTIONABLE SINCE THEY'RE ASSOCIATING WITH IMPROPER STUDENTS ALSO. YOU ARE IN MORE TROUBLE THAN BEFORE AND YOUR PUNISHMENT WHEN YOU GET HOME IS HARSHER. I EXPECT YOU TO STOP BEHAVING IN SUCH A HORRIBLE MANNER AND ACT LIKE A PROPER PUREBLOOD, AND NOT A BLOOD TRAITOR LIKE THE WEASLEYS, OR YOU'LL BE SENT TO DURMSTRANG!"
Everyone stared at Alex, who unconcernedly brushed the ashes of the Howler off the table and resumed eating his toast and eggs. "How can you be so calm about this?" asked Susan.
"I'm not, but I'm not about to show my anger and disgust in front of all the other students and the teachers," he replied. "If it was just you guys it'd be different."
Another owl appeared a few seconds later and left a Howler, this one from his Aunt Alecto.
"ALEXANDER THESUS CARROW, WHAT IS THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU BEING IN GRYFFINDOR RATHER THAN SLYTHERIN, FRATERNIZING WITH MUDBLOODS, HALFBLOODS, AND BLOOD-TRAITORS, AND SUPPORTING INTER-HOUSE UNITY? I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER AND I RAISED YOU TO BE BETTER THAN THIS! YOU ARE A COMPLETE AND UTTER DISGRACE TO THE FAMILY AND I HAVE HALF A MIND TO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE YOU AS MY NEPHEW. HOWEVER, YOU ARE STILL YOUNG AND CAN BE TAUGHT TO MEND YOUR WAYS, SO I WON'T. THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME ANY LESS ANGRY WITH YOUR BEHAVIOUR, THOUGH, AND WHEN YOU RETURN HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS, YOUR FATHER AND I WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOU LEARN THE ERROR OF YOUR WAYS!"
An angry expression appeared on Alex's face, which he quickly hid as he brushed the ashes of Aunt Alecto's Howler to the floor. The rest of the Hogwarts Gang exchanged looks and after classes, took Alex up to the Founders' room so he could vent. After he threw his quill pens and parchment across the room and said some very uncomplimentary things about his father and aunt, he calmed down enough to pick up what he threw and sit down.
At dinner time, Daphne and Tracey each got a Howler from their parents, shouting about how they were a disgrace to the family for being friends with 'Mudbloods' and that Alex must have corrupted them, for they certainly hadn't acted like this before attending Hogwarts. Tracey couldn't help looking embarrassed and uncomfortable, though she said firmly that she wasn't going to give up her friendships. Daphne was extremely angry, like Alex, but vented in private and declared, "Alex hasn't corrupted me, he just made me see reason."
The first Quidditch match of the year, Gryffindor against Slytherin, occurred. The Hogwarts Gang supported Gryffindor, even the ones in Slytherin, for they were too annoyed with their housemates' behavior against them. While the Gryffindor Chasers and Keeper were very good, their Seeker wasn't. He was a second year named Cormac McClaggen. While he was a good flier, his body size made him more suited for Keeper, and he kept criticizing the way his teammates were playing. Fred and George Weasley were extremely annoyed and only refrained from hitting a Bludger at him because they needed him in action to catch the Snitch.
However, the twins should have just hit him with a Bludger, for thirty-seven minutes into the match, Cormac started trying to lecture Oliver Wood on proper goalkeeping and didn't notice that the Snitch was in sight. Terrence Higgs, the Slytherin seeker, went streaking after it and by the time Cormac noticed, it was too late. Higgs caught the Snitch and Slytherin won the match, one hundred sixty points to ninety. The Gryffindors were completely disgusted and Wood shouted at Cormac as Lee Jordan unhappily announced the results.
The week after that was the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw match. Emily was extremely nervous about the match and couldn't help having dreams about doing terribly and getting kicked off the team. All her friends supported her and hoped that she did well, though naturally the Ravenclaws in the group wanted their house to win.
The match started off fairly well and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw each scored two goals. Emily flew around, searching for the Snitch, constantly tailed by the Ravenclaw Seeker, a boy named Edward Sands. Partway through the match, though, her broom started acting oddly and she had to work hard not to be thrown off. In the stands, her friends stared at her in consernation and Hagrid wondered out loud if someone wasn't tampering with the broom.
At these words, Diana borrowed Hagrid's binoculars and started scanning the stands. "Oh no!" she gasped. "Snape is staring at Emily and muttering. He could be jinxing her broom."
Marcy shook her head. "Quirrell's doing the same thing, Di." She lowered her binoculars and handed it to Hermione so she could look. "I wager that one of them is cursing the broom and the other is doing the countercurse. Given my gifts, I believe Quirrell's the one doing the cursing. I'll deal with this." She got up and swiftly made her way to the row behind Quirrell. She knocked into him and then, to be on the safe side, went on to Snape, where she used "Aguamenti" to make his robes wet. He yelped and began examining his robes while Marcy quickly ran off so she wouldn't be spotted.
Up in the air, Emily, who had been unseated but still held on to her Nimbus, was able to clamber back on again and resumed her search for the Snitch. She was diving after it, Edward Sands behind her, when suddenly the Snitch disappeared right under her outstretched hand. She was puzzled by this until she felt something moving about in her sleeve two seconds later. She reached in with her left hand and withdrew the Snitch, which had obviously flown into her sleeve. "I've got the Snitch!" she shouted happily.
Edward looked disappointed, but congratulated Emily as Lee Jordan announced that Hufflepuff had won, two hundred points to eighty. The Hufflepuffs cheered loudly over their win, and even the Ravenclaw members of the Hogwarts Gang joined in despite their disappointment that Ravenclaw had lost.
While visiting Hagrid an hour later, for he'd invited the Hogwarts Gang for some tea to celebrate Hufflepuff's victory, they told them about Quirrell and Snape. "Rubbish!" he snapped. "Why would Quirrell want teh jinx Emily's broom?"
"Well, someone was jinxing it," said Ernie impatiently. "He and Snape were the only ones that were staring at Emily's broom and muttering. Since Marcy can tell when someone's good or evil, it's only natural to assume that Quirrell's the culprit, since she says he's evil and Snape isn't really."
Hagrid made a protest, which the others refused to listen to, and somehow the conversation turned to the three-headed dog at Hogwarts. Hagrid dropped a mug when he heard this and demanded, "How do yeh know abou' Fluffy?"
It turned out that he had gotten the dog from a Greek chappie he'd met in the pub last year and named Fluffy and lent it to Dumbledore. When asked why, he refused to tell and said that it was a matter between Dumbledore and Nicolas Flamel.
"Oh, so there's someone named Nicolas Flamel involved, is there?" asked Terry with interest. Hagrid looked furious with himself for the slip.