Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Harry and Ron were still at Hogwarts the next day, looking tired but perfectly cheerful. Harry's cheeriness though, unbeknownst to Malfoy, was more facade then he'd care to admit. He made a miscalculation and it almost got him and his friends in serious trouble, not to mention it was dangerous. Had he been alone, it would have been less of a big deal. Maybe it was his more John like side, but if he had let Ron, or Hermione or Neville get hurt, he wouldn't have forgiven himself. That being said, there was still some joy in him. It was like a new case. There was something to solve at Hogwarts, when he had almost given up hope anything truly interesting would happen.
In the meantime, Harry filled Ron in about the package that seemed to have been moved from
Gringotts to Hogwarts, and they spent a lot of time wondering what could possibly need such heavy protection.
"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron.
"Or both," said Harry.
But as all they knew for sure about the mysterious object was that it was about two inches long, they didn't have much chance of guessing what it was without further clues.
Neither Neville nor Hermione showed the slightest interest in what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared about was never going near the dog again.
Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron. Ron said she was a bossy know-it-all, and that they were better off, but he was intrigued by her intelligence. It was rare someone his age was so bright. However, for the time being, that wasn't really important. All they really wanted now was a way of getting back at Malfoy, and to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a week later.
As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone's attention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six large screech owls. Harry was just as interested as everyone else to see what was in this large parcel, and was amazed when the owls soared down and dropped it right in front of him, knocking his bacon to the floor. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel. Harry ripped open the letter first, which was lucky, because it said:
DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.
It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don't want everybody
knowing you've got a broomstick or they'll all want one. Oliver Wood
will meet you tonight on the Quidditch field at seven o'clock for your
first training session.
Professor M. McGonagall
The parcel itself had a return address written on it to Mycroft's home, which made Harry wonder how the man even found out about this. Still, it surprised him very little that Mycroft would purchase a broom for him, the best model at that. Despite it all, there did seem to be some fascination in his uncle with the sport. Harry maintained a perfect poker face as he handed the note to Ron, before cleaning up the mess a bit that the broom landing made.
"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."
They left the hall quickly, wanting to unwrap the broomstick in private before their first class, but halfway across the entrance hall they found the way upstairs barred by Crabbe and Goyle. Malfoy seized the package from Harry and felt it.
"That's a broomstick," he said, throwing it back to Harry with a mixture of jealousy and spite on his face. "You'll be in for it this time, Potter, first years aren't allowed them." Ron couldn't resist it.
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Harry Potter and the Hounds of Hogwarts
قصص الهواة**ON HIATUS** What happens when a boy wizard is raised by a highly functioning sociopath? Harry Potter ends up adopted by Sherlock Holmes, how will his story change?
