Fred, George, Percy and Penelope
were all congregated in the Gryffindor common room along with Katie
Bell and Angelina Johnson [McGonagall let Penelope in – she says
that now, it's not House vs House, it's Book vs Book, and
everyone in said Book must stick together, no matter who they are],
experimenting with Dr Filibuster's fireworks. Since meyerpires
needed to be torn apart then burnt, they were creating a firework
from Dr Filibuster's that achieved this in one. It was very
efficient and saved you 50% of your galleons.
At least, that was
what Fred and George were doing. Percy and Penelope were sitting on
the floor near the fire, acting cutesy-wootsy [now that the entire
series was under siege, Percy decided it was okay to sit on the
floor, as long as he was in his pyjamas and not his uniform], in
their supposed last moments together. Fred and George looked at this,
disgusted. Bored waiting for their friend Lee Jordan, who was off
getting supplies for the many combatants, they fired a firework into
the direction of the fire [they felt repetition was necessary], and
watched gleefully as Penelope and Percy shrieked, Percy loudest of
all, and ducked for cover behind the couch.
Angelina, Katie, Fred
and George roared with laughter as they saw Lee Jordan come back, his
arms laden with merchandise and various supplies.
"Bring it on,
glitter boy," grinned Fred.
Madam Maxine and Hagrid stood
outside Hagrid's hut. With them was Draco Malfoy, Ginny Weasley,
Crabbe and Goyle, Colin and Dennis Creevey and Pansy Parkinson.
Accompanying them was Dumbledore, who was smiling over his
half-moon glasses, which rested on his crooked nose. Along with their
defence tactics, taught to them by Dumbledore himself [there was no
point in hiring a Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, since his
normal Headmaster duties did not matter in this particular
situation], Hagrid was teaching in a loud voice, as the students
assisted in training the magical creatures selected for the fight.
In
line were several Unicorns, the purest white, the entire Centaur
herd, looking pissed off, dozens of nifflers, contained in a field
where they were digging up lost treasures ["So that's
where my remembrall went!"], all of the Hogwarts Thestrals, all the
dragons from the series [Norberta, the Norwegian Ridgeback, the
Chinese Fireball, the Welsh Green, the Hungarian Horntail, the
Swedish Shortsnout] with Charlie Weasley standing by, looking
nervous.
"Alright, yer gonna have ta – "
"Hagreed, why
don't you leet Dumblydore speak?"
"Why?"
"Zee autherr
cannot continue to write like dees."
"Righ'." Hagrid
nodded to Dumbledore, who looked pleased.
"Excellent. Now,
nifflers look for shiny things. We plan this fight on a sunny day, so
the nifflers will attack the sparklers. Any questions?"
"What
if it rains?"
"Then we make it NOT rain. We're magic, you
know!" Dumbledore beamed at them. They set to work, and at the end,
they were each given a vile.
"What's this?" asked Cho,
looking at it apprehensively.
"Onion juice!" cried
Dumbledore, smiling as they all cringed.
"Why?"
"It'll
get into your bloodstream, so long as you drink it every night until
the fight. Don't you read Louis Sachar? Vampires hate
onions."
