Chapter 11 – Dragon Weed & Fireworks

Professor Payne had marched James right out of the girl's toilet and up to Professor McGonagall's office where they waited for her. Payne wouldn't let James get a word in to explain what had happened. It was only when McGonagall had arrived that he could finally tell them what had really happened. However he missed out the part about hearing voices in the corridor. He was pretty sure if he told them that they might think he was barmy.

"Likely story Potter," Professor Payne seethed after finally listening to what James had to say. "You were caught red handed."

"I was stopping the statue," James pleaded back.

"Lies! You set the statue on her as revenge for grassing you up," Payne said vehemently.

"Professor Payne thank you for your help but you can leave now," Professor McGonagall said sternly.

Payne shot her a look of frustration and with a huff turned and left her office.

"You believe me, don't you professor?" James asked, sounding desperate.

"No Mr Potter I don't believe you would seek to harm another student in that way. But that statue didn't just get up and start attacking a student by itself. Maybe it was a prank gone too far?"

"Maybe. But it wasn't me who did it. Honestly."

"OK Mr Potter. I think it's time for bed. We can discuss this more tomorrow. You may return to your dormitory now."

James trudged back to the Gryffindor common room and when he entered he saw lots of students were still up.

"What happened James?" Anwar asked as he jumped up from his chair.

"Did you really set a statue on Polly?" a second year asked as everyone started to gather around him.

James recounted the story again and after what seemed like a hundred questions, mainly asking him if he had done it, he escaped up to his dorm.

"Has Polly been back?" James asked Noah who was getting changed for bed.

"No she got taken up to the hospital ward. I don't think she's hurt though. Just in shock."

Once again James couldn't sleep and lay awake thinking about what had happened. Who had set the statue on Polly? And what was the voice that he kept hearing?

The next day everyone was still talking about the attack on Polly and a lot of students seemed to be giving James a wide berth now including Polly.

"I think she's avoiding you," Noah said.

"She doesn't think I did it does she?" James asked sounding worried.

"Well it kind of does look that way. I mean you had reason to."

"You don't think I did it do you?" James asked.

"Oh of course not. You're rubbish at spells. You'd never be able to do that," Noah said trying to give his friend reassurance but instead just insulted him.

"Thanks," James said sarcastically, but at least he had one person on his side.

At breakfast as several owls swooped into the Great Hall carrying post, James recognised one of his family's owls, Parsons, swooping down towards him and dropping a letter right next to his bowl of cereal. James instantly knew the writing was his mum's and ripped it open and began to read it.

Dear James,

Are you OK? Professor McGonagall told us what happened at Halloween.

'Great' James thought to himself. Now his parents know and will be worrying about him.

I hope the girl is alright. McGonagall said she was more shaken up than anything. It's absolutely terrible. But I hear you stopped the statue. Well done. I'm so proud of you but you mustn't go getting yourself in danger being a hero. Leave that to the teachers.

James was relieved that McGonagall mustn't have suggested in any way that James was responsible for the statue attacking. At least that meant she must now believe his story and no longer thought it was a prank of his gone wrong.

I haven't told your father yet. He hasn't been home for a couple of days. Things have been crazy at the Ministry. He's under a lot of pressure as they still haven't caught the creature that killed that Muggle. I don't think he needs any extra worry right now. As long as you're OK.

Please write back soon and let us know how you are.

Lots of Love

Mum xxx

P.S. Maybe don't use anymore of the pranks your uncle sent you. McGonagall also told us about the Ghostly Ghouls. I will be having words with George.

James was comforted by the letter from home. Right now with everything that was going on he was feeling more home sick than ever. A lot of students were still avoiding him like he had some sort of plague. How could anyone think he was behind the attack? Greta took pleasure in winding James up as much as possible, jokingly telling people not to make eye contact with him or he might hex them and turn their skin to pus or some other horrible infliction.

To escape all the odd glances and the whispering everyone seemed to do whenever he passed them James headed out alone to go and see Hagrid who always offered a friendly ear. But when he got down to Hagrid's hut he wasn't in but he did find Burns, who seemed to be doing some maintenance around the grounds.

"Oh hi I was looking for Hagrid," James said, almost startling Burns who had his back to him.

"He's gone down to London to do some shopping," Burns replied putting down the crate and sack he was carrying.

James thought the idea of Hagrid shopping in London was rather odd as he instinctively thought of clothes shopping and couldn't imagine Hagrid perusing clothes rails for one thing there couldn't be many shops that catered for his size and secondly he always seemed to wear the same scruffy clothes.

"He needed to get some special food for a bunch of the creatures he's got or something," Burns said clarifying and James got the comical notion of Hagrid clothes shopping out of his head.

"Do you know when he'll be back?" James asked.

"He hasn't got any lessons today so I think he's gone for the whole day," Burns replied.

"Oh," James said disappointedly.

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Burns asked, noticing how down James looked.

"It's nothing important. I just wanted a chat," said James.

"I tell you what I'm nearly done here. Why don't we go back to my cabin and I can put the kettle on and we can have a cup of tea. I've also got some fruit scones from the kitchen we can have," Burns suggested and James thought it was a much better prospect than heading back to the castle and facing all the gossiping students. Plus fruit scones from the kitchen would certainly be tastier than the homemade rock cakes that Hagrid usually offered him.

Burns' cabin was much similar in size to Hagrid's hut only it seemed to have a separate bedroom but it was just as cluttered as Hagrid's. There were crates stacked up everywhere and Burns had hastily moved a few items as James entered to try and tidy the place up a bit and free a chair for him to sit on.

After the tea had been made and Burns had provided some scones with jam and cream they had both tucked in.

"So what did you want to talk to Hagrid about?" Burns asked after finishing a big mouthful of scone.

"Oh nothing really. I just wanted a chat to take my mind of school life," James replied.

"I heard about the statue attack. Must be worrying. Did you know the girl who was attacked?" Burns asked.

"Erm yeah she's in my year. I was the one who actually stopped the statue," James said meekly.

"You were?" Burns said in surprise. "Well then you're a hero. I'd have thought you'd want to be up at the castle taking in all the praise," Burns said before taking another bite of his scone.

"Yeah well the thing is some people seem to think I was the one who set the statue on the girl in the first place. We haven't exactly been getting along," James said looking down at the table and expecting Burns to start judging him.

"Oh I see," Burns said. "Well that's nonsense. Who would send a statue to attack someone just cos you don't get along with them? I mean if that were true Hagrid would have set about twenty on me already," Burns joked and James was surprised to hear that Burns was well aware of Hagrid's animosity towards him. "Look I'm sure in a few days it will all blow over and everyone will have forgotten about it and moved on to discussing something new. Just keep your chin up and ignore them. That's what I do."

James was pleased to hear Burns' words of advice and felt better for having spoken to him. He also felt bad for Burns having an enemy in Hagrid when he had done nothing wrong except take on the groundskeeper duties. As far as James could see Burns was actually a really nice person and Hagrid's dislike of him was uncalled for.

Over the next few days people seemed to eventually come to their senses and realised James had nothing to do with it. Though Polly was still avoiding him, no matter how hard James tried to talk to her.

"You should just leave her," Noah suggested. "She'll talk to you when she's ready."

James thought that might be never.

It was a rather wet day as students ran down to the greenhouses to avoid being drenched. As James hung up his cloak to dry and took a place around the desks in his Herbology class he noticed Polly standing as far away from him as possible, like she always did in class now. He should have been grateful that he no longer had to put up with her rubbing it in all the time about how good she was at magic but right now he would have been glad to have her talk down to him because at least she'd be talking to him again.

"Afternoon class," Professor Longbottom said as he removed some extremely mud encrusted gloves. "Who can tell me anything about Dragon Weed?"

After the class had come up with all sorts of answers, most of which were completely wrong, Professor Longbottom brought over a specimen of it.

"OK now keep back class," the professor said as he carefully placed a plant on the table which looked very mundane. It had about half a dozen large green leaves and three thick stems about a foot high and nothing else.

Everyone had taken a step back at Longbottom's initially warning but now everyone looked on feeling disappointed as some students moved back towards the desk.

"No keep back, it may look harmless but just watch," Professor Longbottom warned them and the students stepped back again as the Longbottom reached for a spray bottle of water and gave the plant a quick, light shower.

Suddenly the stems of the plants turned to flames and a few sparks of fire shot into the air. After burning for a brief while the stems returned to their original green form. The class were thoroughly impressed.

"Now at the back of the room are some flame retardant gloves and aprons. Please everyone put them on and you can all have a go at watering some Dragon Weed," Professor Longbottom said and there was a scramble to get the equipment as everyone was extremely excited to tackle such a unique plant.

Soon the greenhouse was lit up as numerous plants started to burst into flames and helping to warm up the rather chilly classroom.

"These are so cool. I wonder if we can have one in our dorm," Zander asked as he watered his Dragon Weed for the sixth time and watched it ignite.

As the class was nearing the end and students were packing away, James went to put his flame retardant clothing back when he passed right by Polly. She looked a little startled and stepped back. But James thought this had gone on long enough and sensing she wouldn't be able to run away from him during a lesson, this would be the perfect time to try and clear the air.

"Can we talk please Polly?" James asked.

Polly continued to back away and banged into the desk behind her, knocking over some of the plants as she did.

"Please Polly. I didn't have anything to do with that statue attacking you. You have to believe me," James pleaded.

Polly had gone white as a sheet and didn't say anything but had a look of terror in her eyes. "Leave me alone!" she begged and a few students started to turn to look at the pair of them to see what was going on as Polly turned away from him and went to pick up the plants she had knocked over.

James was suddenly conscious of how many people were staring at him and what it must look like to them with Polly cowering away from him in fear.

"OK but just know I would never do anything to hurt you," James said as he reached out to give Polly a hand up righting the plants.

But James arm inadvertently knocked over a beaker of water as he moved sending water spilling all over the desk. Suddenly the tipped up Dragon Weeds in front of Polly burst into flames. Polly screamed having just managed to move her hands out of the way in time or she would have been burnt. All of a sudden the wooden desk was a blaze and other students started to scream.

"What's going on?" Professor Longbottom shouted over the commotion and suddenly saw the flames. "Velare!"

A kind of thick blanket emerged out of no where in the air above the fire and fell down on to it, extinguishing the flames before the blanket suddenly disappeared again, leaving behind a cloud of smoke and a large, blacked scorch mark on the desk.

"What happened?" Longbottom demanded to know.

"It was James," Polly immediately said without hesitation and Longbottom could see how scared she looked.

"It was an accident Sir, honest. I just knocked over the water," James said but Professor Longbottom seemed to have already made up his mind.

"Ten points from Gryffindor and detention Potter."

James spent the rest of the day fuming. Not only was Polly even more scared of him now and it seemed there was going to be no way to reconcile with her, but all the other students were back to giving him a wide berth, worried that he might try and attack them if they did anything that crossed him. And what made it even worse was that Professor Longbottom had scheduled their detention for Thursday evening – Bonfire Night. Meaning not only had he missed the Halloween Feast but now he was going to miss the fireworks display too.

He reached the greenhouses at eight o'clock that evening and found Professor Longbottom tending to some plant.

"Ah James, put some gloves on and you can help me repot these Phantom Plants."

James looked around the greenhouse. There must have been at least a hundred of the distinct grey flowered plants to repot. It was going to take all night. And it was not helped by the fact that Phantom Plants liked to randomly turn invisible so it was hard to tell which pots were empty and which still needed a plant putting in them.

The only upside was that at least inside the greenhouse he could still see some of the fireworks through the glass ceiling. Every now and then out the corner of his eye James would see the sky light up above him and look up to see various multi-coloured shapes shooting across the sky. There were dragons breathing fire, fairies dancing and unicorns galloping amongst many other amazing sights.

The night wore on and James' gloves and robes were now thoroughly covered in mud.

"Look James I know what happened was an accident and you think I was probably being harsh on you with this detention but I can't be showing you any special treatment just because I'm friends with your parents," Professor Longbottom said as James started on repotting yet another plant but didn't make any attempt to reply. He was still in a mood about missing the fireworks.

They continued to work in silence for a bit before Longbottom attempted a conversation again.

"James I know it must be hard coming to Hogwarts and being the son of Harry Potter. But you don't need to act out to get attention. Your father wouldn't want you doing that."

"I haven't been acting out!" James snapped back. "The fire was an accident and I was stopping that statue from attacking Polly, not setting it on her!"

"I know James I never said you had," Professor Longbottom replied, sounding a little taken aback by James' outburst.

"And I wish everyone would stop comparing me to my father! Some of you teachers are so obsessed with him. I know you practically worshipped him at school. It's pathetic! You're pathetic!"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth James instantly regretted them. They had been said in anger and he didn't mean any of it. He liked Professor Longbottom as a teacher. In fact he was one of his favourites. But now he could see a severe look of disappointment in his teacher's eyes.

"I think this detention is finished now. You may go back to your dormitory," Professor Longbottom said looking down at the desk, no longer able to make eye contact with James.

"Professor I'm…" James went to apologies.

"I don't want to hear anymore. Just go now."

James said no more and got up to leave.

"I will be speaking to Professor McGonagall about this in the morning," Professor Longbottom said, his back to James as James exited the greenhouse.

On the walk back up to the castle all James could think about was the trouble he'd be in now. McGonagall would probably give him another detention and would no doubt tell his parents about his behaviour. And then he'd get a letter from them saying how disappointed they were with him. He debated going back down to the greenhouse to plead with Professor Longbottom to not tell the headmistress but he'd probably only make things worse.

That night it took James a long time to get to sleep. Instead he lay awake with worry about the fury he would receive from McGonagall and his parents. When he did eventually get to sleep he had very odd nightmares about hearing that strange voice again and plant vines wrapping themselves around him as he slept in bed and trying to strangle him and something was moving across the floor. And no matter how hard he tried to call out for help, no sound came out of his mouth as the plant engulfed him.

The next morning over breakfast James had to endure listening to everyone at the Gryffindor table talking about how amazing the fireworks had been last night. James looked up to the teacher's table and wondered if Professor Longbottom had told Professor McGonagall yet about his outburst. He briefly caught McGonagall's eye and she smiled back at him meaning she probably hadn't heard yet or he'd be getting a much sterner look. He noticed Professor Longbottom wasn't at the table so they probably hadn't seen each other yet this morning. Or maybe Professor Longbottom had changed his mind and wasn't going to say anything? James could live in hope.

Suddenly the doors of the Great Hall burst open and the caretaker Filch came bounding up between the rows of tables, his feet pounding on the stone floor. He reached the table right in front of Professor McGonagall, out of breath, and took a second to straight himself up and get his words out.

"It's Longbottom, Professor," Filch gasped. "He's dead!"