𝐑𝐄𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐒-ℍ𝕒𝕣𝕣𝕪 ℙ𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕣❥

𝐏𝐎𝐀 𝟑

"But-"

"Oh, Ron, what's it to you if my timetable's a bit full?" Hermione snapped. "I told you, I've fixed it all with Professor McGonagall."

Just then, Hagrid entered the Great Hall. He was wearing his long moleskin overcoat and was absent mindedly swinging a dead polecat from one enormous hand.

"All righ'?" he said eagerly, pausing on his way to the staff table. "Yer in my firs' ever lesson! Right after lunch! Bin up since five getting' everthin' ready... hope it'sokay... me, a teacher... hones'ly..."

He grinned broadly at them and headed off to the staff table, still swinging the polecat. "Wonder what he's been getting ready?" said Ron, a note of anxiety in his voice.

The Hall was starting to empty as people headed off towards their first lesson. Ron checked his schedule.

"We'd better go, look, Divination's at the top of North Tower. It'll take us ten minutes to get there..."

They finished breakfast hastily, said goodbye to Ethan, Fred and George and walked back through the hall.

As they passed the Slytherin table, Malfoy did yet another impression of a fainting fit and Pansy also now did a fainting one.

The shouts of laughter followed Emily and Harry into the Entrance Hall.

As Emily walked by she heard people muttering her name and hiding their faces when she caught them talking about her, she didn't need to ask what they were speaking about, it was obviously about her father and brother.

The journey through the castle to North Tower was a long one. Two years at Hogwarts hadn't taught them everything about the castle, and they had never been inside North Tower before.

"There's -got-to-be-a-short-cut," Ron panted, as they climbed the seventh long staircase and emerged on an unfamiliar landing, where there was nothing but a large painting of a bare stretch of grass hanging on the stone wall.

"I think it's this way," said Hermione, peering down the empty passage to the right.

"Can't be," said Ron. "That's south. Look, you can see a bit of the lake outside the window..."

Emily was watching the painting. A fat, dappled gray pony had just ambled onto the grass and was grazing nonchalantly.

Emily was used to the subjects of Hogwarts paintings moving around and leaving their frames to visit each other, but she always enjoyed watching them.

A moment later, a short, squat knight in a suit of armour had clanked into the picture after his pony. By the look of the grass stains on his metal knees, he had just fallen off.

"Aha!" he yelled, seeing Emily, Harry, Ron and Hermione. "What villains are these, that trespass upon my private lands! Come to scorn at my fall, perchance? Draw, you knaves, you dogs!"

They watched in astonishment as the little knight tugged his sword out of its scabbard and began brandishing it violently, hopping up and down in rage.

But the sword was too long for him; a particularly wild swing made him overbalance, and he landed facedown in the grass.

"Are you all right?" said Emily, moving closer to the picture.

"Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back, you rogue!"

The knight seized his sword again and used it to push himself back up, but the blade sank deeply into the grass and, though he pulled with all his might, he couldn't get it out again.

Finally, he had to flop back down onto the grass and push up his visor to mop his sweating face.

"Listen," said Emily, taking advantage of the knight's exhaustion, "we're looking for the North Tower. You don't know the way, do you?"