Ron stands at the portrait doorway, blocking the way for the crowd.
"Nobody's going anywhere," Weasley says sternly.
"But we must answer!"
"No, you can't do that. - Ron's brows furrow. Do you think I don't want to?" He casts a spell at the advancing rats a couple of times."
"Ron is right, - Hermione confirms. - Let the director deal with the culprits. In addition, we don't know exactly who started all this," saying this, she looks at the guys, but with her right hand she calmly restrains the living creatures.
"Besides,- Ginny says, - then they won't let us go to Hogsmeade."
At this time, one rat imperceptibly creeps up to her leg, and, baring his teeth, is about to bite.
"Be careful!" Harry yells and kicks the rat with his foot.
"Oh!" Ginny recoils.
"You can't leave it like this! The rats have even entered our rooms."
"Sinybrus!" shout Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas.
"What did you do?" Ron asks indignantly.
"Sent away somewhere," Hermione answers for them.
"To those who sent them, most likely," Finnigan says gloatingly.
"Well done!" several boys and girls say.
"You shouldn't have, - Harry says. - Seamus, Dean, you know someone has to finish first. It might have been fun at first, but it's gotten too far."
"Go to your bedrooms, everyone," Hermione says sternly.
The children cannot leave the living room without grumbling and lamentations. And Ron and Hermione go to reconnoiter the situation.
All the next night the Gryffindors do not sleep. They listen. The walls of the school are constantly rustling and all sorts of incomprehensible and suspicious sounds are heard.
But not only they have no sleep, other faculties also have no sleep. And the entire teaching staff does not sleep in company with the rest. They are on duty.
"Professor McGonagall, as far as I can see, no emergency has happened yet," Sarp says.
"Yes, everything is fine."
"I came to replace you. Have some tea in the teacher's room, where Madam Pomfrey spilled it on everyone."
"Thank you, Professor Sarp, I'm really a little tired."
"And grab Professor Trelawney, she's in the northern corridor. It will also be replaced soon."
"All right, Mr. Sarp."
But still, before dawn, Hogwarts falls into a dream. The guys are sleeping quietly and peacefully in their beds, the teachers are also quietly on duty, however, they don't have sleep in any of their eyes. Silence fills Hogwarts with a full mistress.
For breakfast, the students are lethargic, they eat almost nothing at the table and often yawn. Some even stay in the bedrooms to inspect the dream.
"Girls, are you going to have breakfast?" Will asks.
"I'm already having breakfast, - Paige says grumblingly, - in my dream…"
"So you don't go. Amanda?"
"I don't want to eat."
"Well, as you wish," Will opens the door and steps out the door.
"Sabrina, since you're going to the cafeteria, grab a couple of buns," Amanda asks from under the covers.
"Okay," Will says, and closes the door on the other side.
The Muggle girl wants to eat, so she walks quickly. She does not think about anything and does not look around. Classes should start in a couple of minutes.
At the entrance to the dining room, George offers Zacharias Smith gum.
Will wishes good morning. Zacharias nods.
"Hi, Sabrina, - George greets. - How are you?"
"In the best way."
"Zacharias, chewing gum is only for shoes, so don't put it in your mouth in any way.
Will asks what kind of chewing gum.
"Superboots chewing gum sticks to shoes to walk on walls and ceilings and see the world upside down…"
George wanted to say something else, but Zacharias turns green and tries to spit something out.
"Still took it in his mouth!" Weasley says.
"Do you have an antidote?" Will asks with concern.
Smith looks at the redhead with hopeful eyes. He shakes his head.
"Let him be patient. It will pass by itself, - and adds smiling, - maybe!"
In desperation, Zacharias takes out his wand, but instead of conjuring, he only manages to emit a lowing noise.
Something white detaches from his wand and flies at Will and George, who duck down in time. Smith didn't do it on purpose. He tightens his throat as if in a fever, continuing the parody of a cow, and his wand damages school property. Holes appear on the walls.
Zachariah's hand with the wand twitches in all directions.
Finally, he spits out the gum-superboots. It spreads like a green goo across the floor, knocking George and Will off their feet. And all three of them, by express delivery of this very chewing slurry, roll out into the dining room right at the feet of the director, who heads into the corridor to deal with what was heard from there.
Mr. Goodden glances down the corridor, then at the green lane, then at the guys.
"Mr. Director, - Zakharias begins to justify himself, - we are not hooligans, really."
"Well, of course, you just wanted to fix the interior and at the same time master a new method of movement. And pretty funny!"
"Yes, do you want to join us?" George offers and scoops up the goo, which immediately flows through his fingers.
"Minus five points to each," the director says calmly and leaves.
Although there are almost no students in the cafeteria at this moment, by the first lesson everyone already knows about this incident.
"It's strange, it doesn't seem like anyone is whispering, but everyone knows everything," Will is indignant.
"Still, it would be necessary to manage to enter the dining room so elegantly and greet the director in an unconventional way, being at his feet, - Paige chuckles, - having previously arranged horror in the corridor. And this is all at once."
Will throws wormwood, dried toadstools into the cauldron ...
"Wait! What are you doing?" Paige stops her friend.
"In terms of? What's wrong?" she doesn't understand.
"It's not like that at all. Look at the list."
"Oh yes!"
Paige scratches be feather. Her friend starts over.
Will throws everything and throws it into the cauldron. Paige stops squeaking with her pen.
"So, my dear friend, you have already thrown each ingredient into the cauldron ten times."
Will moves away from the boiler.
"Come on then. I can't concentrate."
Paige gets to work.
"I'm hungry, and it's still a long time before dinner, - she mutters as she prepares the potion. - I hope I haven't forgotten anything."
The Muggle Girl checks the list.
"Sorry, I overheard, - interrupts George. I'm going to the kitchen after class. Do you want with me?"
"I was joking. I do not want to eat. But thanks anyway," Paige says hastily, but her stomach is rumbling.
"George, we'll go," Will decides.
Having handed over their porridge-potion, against which the paste looks more appetizing, and having received modest marks for it, the girls, together with a red-haired friend, go for food. Paige walks off to the side.
George leads the girls to the same fruit painting. He tickles the pear and, laughing, it turns into a pen. Will enters first. The rest follow her.
In the spacious kitchen with a high ceiling, house-elfs work to the fullest.
"Who is this?" involuntarily breaks out from Paige.
"Are you kidding me? House-elfs not recognized?" George says and looks at the girls in bewilderment.
"That's exactly what I meant, - Paige nods at a brownie in a striped towel passing by. - I think I've seen him before. How are you?" she asks the house-elf.
"Thank you miss, Cinny is doing well."
"I'm glad...to see you...again," Paige says through gritted teeth.
"Hey guys," Hermione walks up to them.
"Hello. Do you still care about your little houses-elfs?" George asks.
"Yes, I check how they live."
"Understood, - says George. - Are you still trying to guide them on the right path?"
Hermione nods meaningfully.
"Good luck to your spew," George wishes.
Hermione returns to the houses-elfs. She had long ceased to pay attention to spew instead of S.P.E.W. And especially the way George plays the fool. He has it naturally!
"Enie, go there between the stove. There you will be offered hot," says George.
Paige nods and walks between the kitchen stoves, which are huge, even slightly taller than herself. The ovens are almost at the level of the girl's head, where something is being prepared. On top of kitchen stoves are also not empty. In pots and pans, everything boils and mixes itself.
The passage itself between the stoves is narrow. The chefs of this kitchen did not need much space, and the size of the stoves does not interfere with them. They flicker, moving magically as they can.
Looking up at the top of the kitchen stoves, Paige almost recoils in surprise. From above, a brownie appears from the air and, having poured something into the pan, immediately disappears. Another appears before the Muggle girl, having checked the cake in the oven, he also disappears.
Paige stops at the wall and doesn't have time to say anything to the elfs, as they themselves seat her on a stool at a small table. The girl's knees rest on it. A plate of food is placed in front of her. The girl thanks these beautiful creatures from the bottom of her heart.
Even in this part of the kitchen, Hermione's calls are heard:
"You deserve the best! Freedom is your legal right!"
Houses-elfs will just feed Paige. Then one of them takes her by the hand and leads her somewhere.
"Your friends told me to bring you."
The girl looks back at those houses that remained at the table, and thanks them again, not forgetting to say how delicious everything is.
Elf pulls on Paige's hand as they walk.
"Something happened?" she asks.
"It's just that the headmaster is coming over here soon, - George replies. - We don't want him to see us here."
"Won't we run into him on the way out?" scared asks Will.
"No, Sabrina, Mr. Goodden prefers to enter civilly through the front door. Although who knows."
The main kitchen doors are as huge as the kitchen itself. They are double-leaf, charcoal-colored with a three-dimensional pattern and ring-handles.
As soon as they exit, Paige moves forward.
"Do you want to join an Society for Promotion of Elfish Welfare?"
"Of course," Will says in a colorless voice.
Hermione handed her the S.P.E.W. badge.
"It's the badge of the society," she says.
"What society?" Will asks.
"To protect the rights of elves."
"Yeah, well, you already said it."
Will takes the badge.
"What about you, Enie?"
Asking this, Hermione has to call out, because Paige is already way ahead.
"Yes, yes, I want to."
Paige has begun to avoid George, but if she has to talk, she just speaks politely.
Will, on the contrary, does everything to bring them together. She changed the scrolls of a friend and the Weasleys, and Paige had to go out at night looking to change them. Then she lingered in the corridor and George chatted her up. But all this Will is not enough.
"Neville, do you know the glue spell?" she somehow asks.
"Well, yes, in principle I know ..."
"Such that it was possible to glue two mantles together, so much so that you can't peel them off. Can you?"
"Basically, I can."
"Great! Come with me."
The guys hid behind the statue. There are quite a few guys standing nearby, but the conspirators are only interested in two. George and Paige.
"Are you sure?" Neville asks.
"Of course, these two need help, otherwise they can't cope on their own."
"OK."
Paige throws right at George, and when she wants to move away, they both find that instead of two mantles, one has four sleeves.
"I decided that it would be more interesting this way," Longbottom says mischievously.
"It's better than I wanted. Excellent, Neville!"
Will pats him on the shoulder.
One day Paige breaks down:
"WHAT YOU DO?" she demanded of her friend.
"What are you doing? - in turn asks Will. - Why are you pulling away from George? He's a great guy!" she says.
"What about our secret? It needs to be saved!" Paige answers.
"What is our secret here?"
"He's a wizard and he needs a sorceress. And then I can't lie to him!"
"We already lie to everyone!"
"Why all this if the school year ends and we don't see each other anymore?"
"Maybe you will get married in the future!"
"What?! I don't want his last name. What a foolish last name."
"We don't really know his last name."
Their neighbor flutters into the room.
"Amanda, do you know George's last name?" Will asks.
"Which one exactly?"
"Such a redhead."
"And this bully. Weasley is his last name, Weasley."
"Weasley?" Will and Paige are surprised.
"Well, yes, Weasley," Amanda takes the scrolls and goes out of the room.
"Sounds familiar," Paige says.
"Yes, - Will agrees. - I remember it was in a book for kids about wizards."
"Why are you directly pushing me into it without asking permission?"
"Why don't you want to?"
"Because it doesn't make sense. He is older than Enie, and I am younger than her by a year," Paige is indignant.
"And what?"
"And the fact that there is a huge wall between us!"
"There is no wall. You made it up!"
"Yes, I'm small compared to him."
"What nonsense? You are talking nonsense!"
"Why do you believe it so fiercely?
Will keep silent, Paige looks at her expectantly.
The first sit on the bed, the second sits on the other side.
Because you remind me of someone!
"Whom?" Paige asks incredulously.
Will's face changes. All her ardor fades and she says:
"Me!"