A year in the life of Harry Potter
Chapter 30: August, 27
As Quentin came in to bring him his breakfast he didn't tell her about waking up during the night. After all he wasn't actually allowed to leave his bed.
"Slept good?" she asked.
"Yeah," he said.
"You seem to recover pretty fast," Quentin commented, watching him wolf down the fried eggs and toast. "Maybe she'll let you go on the express after all."
Harry shrugged carelessly. "Who knows?" He stopped eating. "Tell me about some of the children I will go to school with."
"Well, of coursthere's Draco," Quentin began. "He's a bit shorter than you and looks quite like a ferret, but don't tell him I said that!" She laughed. "Then there are Ronald and Ginevra Weasley*. Ronald's birthday is on September 2, but Dumbledore wouldn't allow him to start Hogwarts last year because if you're born after August 31 you have to wait another year. I can remember there being a huge row between the Weasleys and Dumbledore and the teachers. Finally the Minister, who was quite annoyed to be involved, decided that Ronald has to go in the same year as his little sister, Ginevra, who's birthday is on August 9."
"Who else?" Harry questioned, listenting intensively.
"Uh, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crab. They're two imbeciles. Draco treats them kinda like servants and they're his bodyguards, but, in fact, that's all they're good for to be honest."
"What about the teachers?"
"Daddy is the most disliked, at least by everyone who isn't in Slytherin. He treats us Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuff like idiots, but Gryffindor has it way worse, probably because he hates Gryffindor because of your father but at the same time loves it because of your mother. Then there's Professor McGonnagall. She's very strict but kinda favours the Gryffindors for she's their Head of House. But then, every Head of House favours their house, especially Daddy. So the other teachers have to somehow make up with Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor for the loss of points they get in potions, and for the amount of points the Slytherins get in that subject.
"The History of Magic professor is a ghost. He makes the subject totally boring by talking on and on about things you don't really need to know and even less understand, but once you start reading about the same thing in a book, you totally can't stop because it's so fascinating.
"Madam Hooch teaches the first years to flies brooms. She's strict like Professor McGonnagal, but then she has to be because she's the referee for Quidditch."
"Quidditch?"
"A game played in the broom high in the air," Quentin said, chatting happily about everything. She explained everything about it, the roles of the different players and the balls, the rules and fouls. "And," she said, gasping for air for she hadn't done nothing but talk for the last few minutes, "I'm beater on the Ravenclaw team since last year."
"Wow!" Harry exclaimed, amazed. "Had any injuries?"
"You bet," Quentin laughed. "Broken arm, rib, concussion, bruises, a broken nose..."
"And all in one year?!"
"Yeah. Broke my arm and rib during training when I first started, got the concussion during my very first game, the broken nose during the final game of the season and the bruises came naturally. But it's worse when you're a seeker because nearly everyone tries to knock you out."
"And Severus still lets you play???"
"No, but I'm quite good at throwing tantrums." Quentin exploded in laughter. "After I broke my arm he threatened to tie me up and watch over me during practice and the games, but I screamed down the whole castle and Dumbledore somehow managed to change his mind because no one had been able to get a minute of rest."
"How did you manage to scream down the whole castle?"
"I used a charm to make my voice louder and one to produce echoes," Quentin said. "So when I started screaming it could be heard about a few hundred meters away from where I was, but with the echoes, whenever I stopped, my scream would just start at the other end of the castle, and then I'd start again and so on."
Harry couldn't help giggling as he put the empty plate on his bedside table and took the glass of water. e gulped the liquid down. "Sounds funny."
"Yes, but not when you're trying to sleep. Daddy tried putting a silence spell on me but somehow it didn't work, maybe because I was too loud for it?"
"Too loud?" Severus snorted as he entered. "More a fact of me not being to concentrate because someone didn't let anyone in the castle sleep."
Quentin shook her head as her father took the plate and glass from Harry's beside table.. "Excuses, excuses. Nothing but excuses."
* I aged both Ronald and Ginny for the plot of the story