Chapter Five: Lessons in Acting
While Ron, Neville, and Seamus discussed why the school would have dog locked up inside it, Harish, Fred, and George wondered what the trapdoor could hold.
Both groups assumed the same thing: "Whatever's down there, it must either be valuable or really dangerous," Ron had said to Neville.
"Or both," Hermione had replied when Draco said the same thing.
The trio had put Draco and Hermione to work researching so that the twins wouldn't have to. Harish simply shook his head every time they grinned and asked the two first years if they had fun in the library. Hermione certainly did, at least. She would tell them what she had found in a book that day. Draco, who still couldn't stand to be around her, always looked at books on the other end of the library.
Hermione was slowly loosening up around the twins, almost like Harish did in their first year. When she learned that they had purposely sent Ron to get in trouble, she had freaked out, but after they explained that Slytherin wouldn't lose points, she didn't mind so much. It was Harish's personal goal to turn Hermione into a real Slytherin one day. A Slytherin that acted like she was a pureblood and didn't mind breaking rules at all. But that may take a while.
Now that school had officially kicked off, work started letting up slightly and most likely wouldn't increase again until close to the holidays. On the other hand, the Slytherin Quidditch teams were meeting more and more often. This left the third years busy with that while the first years researched for the Chamber of Secrets (as Hermione was informed of it so that she could help). As it got closer to Halloween, the first years' lesson became more interesting as they got past the basics.
On Halloween morning they woke up to the smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. In Charms it was announced that they would start making objects fly. Professor Flitwick put everyone in pairs. Blaise Zabini was Hermione's partner and Draco's was Pansy Parkinson. Draco was forced to attempt to focus while Pansy was flirting with him the entire class. He couldn't stand the simpering girl.
"Now don't forget the wrist movement we've been practicing!" Flitwick squeaked. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the incantation is important as well—never forget Wizard Baruffio who was 's' instead 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."
It was…slightly difficult, Draco had to admit. He and Pansy both swished and flicked but neither of them got any results. Beside them Blaise was having the same problem, but Hermione, who knew that she would have no trouble with the spell, tried to encourage Blaise. But it didn't seem to be working.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his arms around.
"You're saying it wrong," Hermione finally snapped haughtily. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa. Make the 'gar' nice and long."
"You do it then, if you're so clever," he snarled at her.
Hermione rolled up her sleeves, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
And her feather rose higher and higher.
"Oh, well done!" Flitwick said clapping his hands. "Well done! See here everyone, Miss Granger's done it!"
Pansy leaned over to whisper to Tracey Davis and Draco rolled his eyes, not understanding what they were all whispering about. If he had known he would've been laughing his head off about how ridiculous they all were. When class ended, Draco and Blaise exited the room together.
"She's a nightmare, really," he said. "The Mudblood thinks she's better than everyone else. 'It's wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa!' Honestly! No wonder she hasn't got any friends," Draco remained silent, knowing that if he said anything Harish would find out. He didn't even point out that Hermione was somewhat friends with Harish and the twins, because he supposed that didn't really count. Just as he was about to rebuke the boy, Hermione rushed past them, her head bent over. Draco caught a glimpse of her face as she passed and was surprised to see it glistening with tears.
"I think she heard you," Draco said to Zabini. He shrugged.
When Hermione didn't turn up in time for the next class and then for the rest of the afternoon, he began to get worried. Finally after hearing about Pansy talking about how Hermione had been crying in the bathroom all day, Draco went to go find her right after he told Harish where he was going, as the feast was about to start.
Sure enough, the minute Draco entered the girl's bathroom, he could hearing Hermione's sobs.
"Hermione?" Draco called hesitantly. He began to think of what he should say to cheer her up, but he had honestly no idea. He was bad at this.
"What do you want?" Hermione snapped.
"Um…" Draco trailed off. Yup, he was definitely bad at this. "I wanted to make sure you were all right."
The bathroom stall opened and Hermione's pale, tear-streaked face peered out at him. "Why? You can't stand me anyway."
"Well, you know…you're not all that bad. I mean…you were the only person that could make their feather fly." Hermione smiled looking cheered up at that. Draco continued on more confidently, "Blaise didn't really mean what he said, he was just annoyed that he couldn't cast the spell right. You just need to know how to read people right. That's how it works in Slytherin. Trust me, I've grown up with most of the people in our house. If you act like their insults don't bother you, then they won't insult you so much, see?"
Hermione nodded. "Thanks, Draco."
Suddenly the door swung open and Draco's nose scrunched up as it was assaulted by the most horrible smell. In the doorway stood a tall, grey creature with big ears and a small head wielding a club. Draco had no time to wonder how on earth a troll got into the school when it shoved its way into the room and swung the club right at his head.
STINKY-STINKY-STINKY!
Harish and the twins sat down in their usual seat as the feast begun. Food appeared on the golden plates and they happily dug in. The whole table filled up quickly all except for the two seats across from the trio.
"Where are Draco and Hermione?" the twins asked.
"Apparently Zabini upset her. I'll have to deal with him later. Draco was trying to get Hermione to stop crying when the feast started."
The twins shook their heads, silent for a moment. Harish raised his roll up to his mouth to take a bite out of it, but soon it fell back to his plate as his eyes pivoted to the doors which had just slammed open. Professor Quirrell came running in, his turban askew.
"Troll! Troll in the dungeons!" he shouted, running up to the staff table. "Thought you ought to know." And he fainted…more or less.
Everyone started screaming and Harish had to shout to the twins for them to hear him. "That faint was obviously fake!" He wasn't sure if they heard him or not, but soon Dumbledore was sending up several scarlet firecrackers to quiet everyone down.
"Prefects," he rumbled finally. "lead your houses back to your common rooms immediately!"
Instantly the prefects got up and called for their fellow housemates to follow them. Harish looked back to see Quirrell still lying on the floor as the rest of the teachers filed out, no doubt going to go find the troll. Harish grabbed the twins and the three of them ducked behind a tapestry that hid a sizeable alcove where he began whispering to them very fast.
"Okay, so we know that something's hidden in Hogwarts. That faint was obviously fake and the dungeons is nowhere near the third floor. We also know that Draco and Hermione don't know about the troll and are both too valuable to lose. I want you two to go fetch them and head to back here. If I'm not here within ten minutes of you arriving here to wait on me, send Draco and Hermione to the common room and come to the forbidden corridor."
"What are you—"
"Going there for?"
"I think that the troll is just a diversion."
"But you can't go there alone!" the both whispered.
"Just go! I need to make sure that he's not after whatever's down there!"
"Why?"
"Go!" and he ripped through the tapestry and tore off for the third floor.
When he reached the spot where it was located, he turned a corner by the door and pressed himself flat against the wall, breathing heavily. Heart pumping wildly and his hands shaking, he pulled out the cloak and hid himself properly.
Soon he heard footsteps and even though he was invisible, he pressed himself flat up against the wall. He poked his head around the corner just in time to see…Professor Snape? Harish's eyes narrowed as he wondered what his Head of House was doing there. The dark man looked around before trying the door, his eyes widened as he discovered that it was already unlocked. Then he went inside and shut the door behind him. There was a scrabbling sound coming from behind the door and then low growls of the giant dog. Harish pressed his ear against the wall and heard Snape groan and walk back over to the door.
Snape walked back out of the door, limping this time. There was a long gash along one of his legs that was beginning to ooze blood. Harish watched for another moment as Snape shut the door and when the sallow man turned around, Professor Quirrell was walking up. There he was!
He was walking up, no longer looking terrified and no longer pale. As Snape turned around, he looked scared again and stuttered, "Oh y-y-you were ch-checking the st-stone t-too?"
Snape's lips thinned. "Don't think that I don't know what you are up to," Snape said finally.
"W-what do y-y-you mean?"
"Let's just say that I'm watching you, Quirrell," and with a swish of the cloak he was walking back down the corridor. Quirrell stood there for another minute, staring at the door. His face was void of any fear once again. Roars could be heard in the distance, most likely coming from the troll. Harish pulled off the cloak when both of them had disappeared. Something odd was going on here.
TOO-TRUE—TOO-TRUE
After Harish ran off, the twins went to the bathroom to get Draco and Hermione. The two boys skidded around the corner to see the troll walk slowly up to the bathroom door.
"That is a—"
"Major dilemma?"
"Yeah," they breathed.
They bent their heads together, whispering, as they formulated a plan. The troll entered the bathroom and so did the twins as they heard a high pitched scream.
"Please tell me that was Hermione," George said leaning up against the doorframe.
"And not you, Draco," Fred finished, smirking.
Draco's face turned pink. "Who cares who screamed? Get this troll away from me."
The twins grinned at the same moment. "Yes, your highness."
"Your majesty."
"Shut up," Draco shouted as he ducked another blow from the troll's club.
Fred raised his wand and cried, "Accio club!"
The club shot out of the troll's hand and Fred continued to make the club zoom around the room. The troll watched it, spinning in circles. While it was distracted, George took a string with orbs on either end of it. He tapped each orb with his wand, causing a glowing blue circle to appear in the middle of both of them. Then he spun his wand in a circle. Mimicking the movement, the orbs spun in a circle around the trolls legs, tripping him. Then he waved his wand in a spiral movement and the orbs moved all around the troll, wrapping him completely in the string.
"Engorgio," George said, finally dropping the club. The string enlarged where it was twice as thick. The troll struggled against the rope to no avail. It was very strong.
"Wingardium Leviosa," Fred said, levitating the club over the trolls head and then he let the club go. It slammed into the troll's skull.
"What is that?" Hermione asked as George flicked his wand toward him and the orbs flew into his hand.
"Enfolding String. Invented it ourselves. Reducio," he replied. The rope shrunk back to string size. Then he tapped the orbs again with his wand and the glowing circles disappeared.
"Come on," Fred said. "We need to get out of here before teachers arrive. That troll was making a whole lot of racket."
So he led them to the alcove where they had agreed to meet Harish. On the way they had to duck behind suits of armour as Professor McGonagall passed, then Snape, and then Quirrell following up the rear. After they passed, they ran off to the alcove.
"You didn't run into Snape or Quirrell did you?" Harish asked as they slid in there. It was a bit cramped now as there were two more people.
"Snape was there too?" Harish nodded.
"Either he went to head him off, or he's trying to steal it as well. Honestly, Professor Quirrell was acting a bit more suspicious though."
"Should we head back to the common room now?" Hermione asked. She was squished between Fred and George.
"No," Harish replied. "We need to wait until we are sure the professors aren't around."
The twins nodded and Fred pulled the map out of his pocket. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered quietly.
The map spread out and Hermione, who had never seen it before, let out a gasp.
Harish peered at it over his friend's shoulder. "McGonagall, Quirrell, and Snape are still in the bathroom. Flitwick has returned to his office. Dumbledore is…not on here. Maybe he's in a hidden chamber?"
"Probably with whatever's on the third floor," George suggested.
"Yeah…It's all clear. Oh, and whatever's down there. It's a stone. Quirrell said something about 'checking on the stone' when he showed up."
The others nodded and they left for the common room. Before they entered, Harish made sure that the two first years knew not to mention this stone or the third floor. When they did enter, people asked him where they had been.
He simply shrugged and went in his dormitory. He pulled the curtains around his bed and fell asleep after many thoughts surrounding Snape and Quirrell.