~O~O~O~
Sierra woke up the next morning, groaned, went to roll over and fell off her bed. Grumbling, she sat up and glared at her blankets, which were in a giant tangle around her feet. Just her luck, she wouldn't be able to move an inch without tripping unless she managed to free her legs. Sighing, she got right on the job, grumbling about stupid sheets and unpredictable sleeping patterns. She almost had her legs free when someone knocked on the bedroom door. Knowing that Cat and Michaela were already downstairs and eating breakfast, Sierra popped her head over the bed.
"Come in!" she called out. The door opened to reveal Madam Delacour standing there. Sierra smiled. "Oh good, while we're talking you can help me finish untangling my legs." she pointed to her feet. Madame Delacour chuckled and went to go help Sierra out of her self-made trap.
"'Ou are tryeeng to 'elp Dame Potter and Monsieur Weasley get togezer, non?" she asked, focusing on the knot of blankets around Sierra's feet. Sierra blinked.
"Yeah, my friends and I are, but I think Dorea and Bill are getting closer to that stage just fine on their own." Sierra said. Madam Delacour smiled and chuckled before looking up at Sierra.
"Ma Fleur ees tryeeng to make Monsieur Weasley her Mate, mon cherie." Madam Delacour said, a slightly sad tone to her voice. Sierra looked at her, confused. "Every man zat Fleur has met zat ees attractive, kind, and polite she 'as attempted to Mate. Monsieur Weasley ees not ze first man she has chased after." she sighed, looking at at Sierra's now understanding eyes. Madam Delacour could feel it too. "Ze love between Monsieur Weasley and Dame Potter ees so pure, so powerful, zat I know zat whatever Fleur tries weell not work." Sierra's jaw dropped. Did Mdam Delacour mean that -?
"Are you telling me that they're...?" Sierra trailed off, knowing that Madam Delacour would understand what she meant. The half French-Veela looked up from the now untangled bedsheets and nodded.
"Zat ees why I am telling 'ou, do not let ma Fleur, ma fille, succeed." the motherly half-Veela said, planting a kiss on Sierra's forehead. "Take care, and remember zat ze bond between zose two weell not be broken by ma Fleur's tryeengs." With that, the woman stood, turned on her heel, and left Sierra on the floor with plenty to think about, and plenty more to wonder about.
~O~O~O~
Bill was sitting in the circle, in between Lily and James like they had requested him to sit, eating his breakfast of a few pancakes, some sausage, and some scrambled eggs, and talking to James about how he and Lily had removed the blocks on Dorea, when the Great Hall doors opened and Dorea walked in. Heads turned and jaws dropped as they saw the girl walk towards the circle. Today, Dorea was wearing a crimson, asymmetrical sleeveless shirt that appeared to be made of silk, a little black skirt that was folded slightly, black kitten heel boots that reached her knees, skin coloured nylons, and her hair was straightened, her bangs almost covering her right eye and flipping out a little at the ends. She was wearing bare minimum makeup, consisting of eyeliner, mascara, and a touch of concealer to hid the dark circles that came with her lack of sleep. Yet it was none of this that caught Bill's attention. What caught Bill's attention was the necklace, bracelet, and ring set that Dorea was wearing with the outfit. Lily smiled at her daughter and sat her down in Bill's lap. Bill could only stare at Dorea in shock, he never thought Dorea would ever actually wear the jewellery he made for her as his final NEWTs project for Arithmancy and Ancient Ruins. He grinned and squeezed her tightly, making her squeak a little and look up at him.
"I didn't think you'd like them." he muttered, blushing a little. Dorea grinned up at him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
"How could I not love them? They're beautiful." she whispered in his ear, paused, and kissed his cheek in thanks. Bill felt his face burn bright red as Lily giggled and James laughed, while Dorea turned back and grabbed the plate of food her mother had helped Bill prepare for her. Bill felt his face stretch into a silly grin as he touched the tingling skin were Dorea had kissed him. She kissed him! She kissed him! James slapped Bill's shoulder and grinned at the man.
"If you were anyone else I'd be threatening you to take care of my daughter properly, but I know that you will." James grinned, confusing Bill. Making sure that Dorea wouldn't hear what he was about to say(she was deep in conversation with her mother over something or other), he mockingly glared at James.
"I'm afraid that I don't know what you're talking about." he muttered, not noticing that he was hugging Dorea close to his chest, not knowing that his heart was pounding wildly at the contact he had with Dorea, not knowing that he was slowly falling in love with the petite girl. He didn't see the murderous glare that Fleur was sending Dorea, or the thumbs ups that Michaela and Charlie were both sending Lily, their co-conspirator. Umbridge cleared her throat and held up the book. Dorea turned with a small piece of bacon sticking out of her mouth to look at the toad, her nose scrunching up in distaste. The toad really needed a fashion check... She eyed everyone with distaste before speaking.
"Would someone like to read?" she asked in a sickly sweet voice. Sirius raised his hand, waving it wildly.
"I will! I will! I will!" he shouted, making everyone that knew that man-child laugh at his actions. Umbridge scowled, and levitated the book over to Sirius. While she was under arrest, she hadn't been chained up like the Minister had. Mainly because only one person could be held by someone's magical chains at once. Sirius flipped open to the next chapter and grinned, knowing that this one would be good.
~CHAPTER TEN HALLOWEEN~ he read. Ron immediately groaned, stood up, and walked t the Gryffindor table. He wasn't going to get screamed at by his mother, have books thrown at him by Hermione, getting whacked over the head by Dorea, and beaten up by Susan. Hell, those girls in that circle were scary as hell.
~Malfoy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Dorea and Ron were still at Hogwarts the next day, looking tired but perfectly cheerful.~
"Of course he was surprised, he didn't expect either of you to able to get away." Blaise snorted from his seat next to Theo. He had gotten sick of Malfoy's complaining and decided to sit with his friend in the circle, much to the surprise of the others there. They apparently didn't think that more than three Slytherins could be friends.
~Indeed, by the next morning Harry and Ron thought that meeting the three-headed dog had been an excellent adventure, and they were quite keen to have another one.~
"It's a Potter thing, we chase after adventure and danger." James shrugged. Hermione glared at Dorea.
"Told you that you go looking for trouble." she grumbled. Dorea threw Hermione an affronted looked.
"I don't go looking for trouble, it sits around and waits for me to stumble into it!" she shouted, waving her hands wildly. James and Lily both had the duck to avoid getting hit accidentally by Dorea.
~In the meantime, Dorea had 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.~
Lily grinned and opened her mouth to speak, only for it to be covered by Dorea's hand.
"It took us months to figure it out, you don't get to say anything!" she growled, making Lily's grin widen, but she nodded all the same. Unknown to Dorea or Bill, she had charmed their clothing to stick together until after the reading this day was done with, meaning Dorea would be stuck in Bill's lap no matter what she tried.
~"It's either really valuable or really dangerous," said Ron.~
"Or both, Ron." Bill said. Sirius grinned and waggled his eyebrows at Bill.
~"Or both." said Dorea.~
The two both blushed as Fred wolf whistled, though many boys in the Hall that had a crush on Dorea were currently glaring at Bill, with many girls that found Bill attractive glaring at Dorea. He/She was going to be theirs, dammit!
~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.~
"Good." Nicholas and Perenelle sighed, hoping against hope that Dorea and Ron didn't go to far into danger to save their Stone. They had been friends with the Lady and Lord Potter of their time, and they knew just how much danger those with Potter blood running through their veins could cause.
~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.~
"Damn right I wasn't! I still think you three are short a few screws for the end of the year!" Neville said, jokingly getting hit over the head by Dorea.
~Hermione was now refusing to speak to Dorea and Ron, but she was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus.~
Said two flinched as Molly and Lily opened their mouths to scold them. Hermione, however, decided to save her friends from the earfull and humiliation.
"I really was a stuck-up know-it-all, Mrs. Weasley, Mrs. Potter." she said, causing both redheaded mothers to stop the scolding before it even began.
~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.~
Those who knew what the package that Dorea received that week cheered loudly, the Quidditch players and fans being much louder than the others.
~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. Dorea 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 her, knocking most of her bacon to the floor. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when another owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.
Dorea 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 McGonagall~
"Uh, being carried by six screech owls isn't exactly inconspicuous, Minnie." Remus said, making the Transfiguration professor glare at him.
"And I thought you were the most sensible of your little group. Minnie indeed." she sniffed angrily, making Sierra brighten.
"So that's how you sniff angrily!" she said, imitating McGonagall the exact way that the elder woman had just moments ago.
~Dorea had a ton of difficulty hiding her glee as she handed the note to Ron to read.
"A Nimbus Two Thousand!" Ron moaned enviously. "I've never even touched one."~
"With good reason." Malfoy snickered, only for Dorea to send him an icy glare, seeing as she had heard what he said.
~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 Dorea and felt it.~
Michaela fell over in laughter, making Dan shake his head at the girl.
"Out of the gutter, Michaela." he reminded. Michaela grinned up at her childhood friend.
"Past the gutter, it's in the sewer!" she hollered, making everyone who understood what she meant either grin wildly and laugh with her, or shake their heads in shame at the actions of the perverted 15 year old.
~"That's a broomstick," he said, throwing it back to Dorea 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."~
"Unless you're Dorea bloody Potter." Parkinson grumbled. Dorea smiled sweetly and batted her eyelashes at the pug-like girl.
"Youngest seeker in a century, puggy." she reminded, making everyone who understood what she meant snort in laughter.
"Greatest seeker Gryffindor's ever had." Oliver added, grinning as he remembered watching Dorea fly around on the Nimbus before he even began practising with her. She had looked stunning, her hair flying behind her, that look of freedom on her face...
"That wins every match that isn't interrupted by soul-sucking monsters." Angelina added, making both Oliver and Dorea deflate at the mention of that match in the final year that Oliver had been captain.
~Ron couldn't resist it.
"It's not any old broomstick," he said, "it's a Nimbus Two Thousand. What did you say you've got at home, Malfoy, a Comet Two Sixty?" Ron grinned slyly at Dorea. "Comets look flashy, but they're not in the same league as the Nimbus."~
All the Quidditch fans and players nodded in agreement, a Nimbus was much better for a Beater or a Seeker, where speed was more necessary that durability. But for Keepers and Chasers, where they were constantly getting bludgers hit at them or other players nearly hitting them, they needed the durability just as badly as they needed speed. In that section, while Cleansweeps were slower than Nimbuses, they had equal amounts of durability that the Nimbus line lacked.
~"What would you know about it, Weasley, you couldn't afford half the handle," Malfoy snapped back. "I suppose you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig."~
Everyone who like the Weasleys stood up and glared at Malfoy, Dore still stuck against Bill. When they tried to separate, they found that they couldn't, much to Dorea's anger. She preferred the ability to get up and walk around as she pleased, thank you very much! Giving up, the both slouched down on the couch, Dorea resting her head against Bill's chest and sliding down as much as she could so her head was closer to his stomach. Lily giggled at the two while everyone else in the circle didn't have the same reservations, several of them falling onto the floor and rolling around in laughter. Once Sirius regained his control, he sat back on the couch and continued reading, James and Remus rolling around at his feet. Dorea glared at her mother.
"You did this, didn't you?" she asked. Lily smiled at Dorea cheekily.
"Don't worry, you two will be unstuck at the end of the day." she sang. Sirius began to read before Dorea could say something else.
~Before Ron could answer, Professor Flitwick appeared at Malfoy's elbow.
"Not arguing, I hope, boys, Miss Potter?" he squeaked.~
"Now why would we do that?" all the Gryffindors and Slytherins in the circle chorused, making the rest of the Hall snort in laughter.
"Besides the fact that your houses hate each other for no apparent reason?" Luna asked dreamily. Daphne stood up, walked over to Dorea, gave the girl a hug, and then walked back to her seat with a completely straight face.
"Did that look like we hate each other?" she deadpanned, and while everyone was busy picking their jaws off the floor, Dorea snatched the book from Sirius and picked up where he left off.
~"Potter's been sent a broomstick, Professor," said Malfoy quickly.
"Yes, yes, that's right," said Professor Flitwick, beaming at Dorea.~
Dorea had an odd look on her face.
"I don't think you realize how odd it is to re-state something from the past in the third person." she muttered. Sirius pouted, stole the book back, and continued reading before Dorea could steal it from him again.
~"Professor McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. And what model is it?"
"A Nimbus Two Thousand, it is," said Dorea, fighting not to laugh at the look of horror on Malfoy's face.~
There were no reservations now as Dorea nearly flipped Bill over in her laughing fit.
~"And it's really thanks to Malfoy here that I've got it," she added quickly, before it looked like a last minute thought.~
"Very Slytherin of you, Potter." Theo commented. Dorea shrugged.
"Almost sorted into Slytherin, remember?" she reminded, making James flinch a little at the idea. A Potter in Slytherin... It had never been done! Ravenclaw, yeah. Hufflepuff, sure. Gryffindor, of course! But Slytherin? No!
~Dorea and Ron headed upstairs, smothering their laughter at Malfoy's obvious rage and confusion at Dorea not getting in trouble.
"Well, it's true," Dorea chortled as they reached the top of the marble staircase, "If he hadn't stolen Neville's Rememberall I wouldn't be on the team "~
At that moment every single Slytherin turned and glared at Malfoy.
"It's your fault that we haven't won against Gryffindor for the past 4, almost 5, years?" a seventh year growled. Sirius smiled happily as Malfoy was dragged from the Hall by a group of seventh year boys, the last of them to exit the Hall closing the giant doors behind him. Parkinson suddenly looked worried.
"What do you think they'll do to him?" she asked. Bulstrode snorted.
"Who cares?" she asked, waving her hand towards Sirius to make him continue reading.
~"So I suppose you think that's a reward for breaking rules?" came an angry voice from just behind them.~
Hermione buried her face in her hands. Oh, she had been absolutely horrid back then!
~Hermione was stomping up the stairs, looking disapprovingly at the package in Dorea's hand.
"I thought you weren't speaking to us." said Dorea, a little angry. Hermione had ignored Dorea every night in the dorms, and now that Dorea's pointed out the reason why she's on the Quidditch team she shows up to talk?
"Yes, don't stop now," said Ron, "it's doing us so much good."~
Ron winced as he was hit in the head by a plate thrown by Fay.
~Hermione marched away with her nose in the air.~
Hermione closed her eyes and bowed her head, letting her hair cover her face. Merlin, she had been horrible about everything back then!
~Dorea had a lot of trouble keeping her mind on her lessons that day. It kept wandering up to the dormitory where her new broomstick was lying under her bed, or straying off to the Quidditch field where she'd be learning to play that night.~
All the Seekers in the room sighed in contentment, remembering when they started Quidditch training. The other Quidditch players nodded in understanding, they knew exactly what Dorea was talking about. It was so hard to focus on anything else when you've got a new broom upstairs...
~She bolted his dinner that evening without noticing what he was eating, and then rushed upstairs with Ron to unwrap the Nimbus Two Thousand at last.
"Wow," Ron sighed, as the broomstick rolled onto Ron's bedspread.
Even Dorea, who knew absolutely nothing about the different brooms, thought it looked wonderful. Sleek and shiny, with a mahogany handle, it had a long tail of neat, straight twigs and Nimbus Two Thousand written in gold near the top.~
Every single Quidditch fan or player got dreamy looks, Dorea's the most evident due to her memories of flying on that broomstick. Molly had to whack Sirius in order to get him to read again.
~As seven o'clock drew nearer, Harry left the castle and set off in the dusk toward the Quidditch field. She'd never been inside the stadium before. Hundreds of seats were raised in stands around the field so that the spectators were high enough to see what was going on. At either end of the field were three golden poles with hoops on the end. They reminded Dorea of the little plastic sticks Muggle children blew bubbles through, except that they were fifty feet high.~
The muggleborns and raised all nodded in agreement, having thought exactly that when they saw them for the first time. To demonstrate what Dorea meant for the purebloods, Lily conjured up the bubble soap and a wand for her, James, Dorea, and Bill so they could star blowing bubbles all over the place. Needless to say, the wizards and witches started having fun enchanting the bubbles to take different shapes, colours, to fly all over the room, to never pop. Many of them were quite creative, Charlie hade one into an Unbreakable and animated dragon and handed it to Michaela to play with, Bill made a kitten for Dorea, and James made a bouquet of flowers for Lily, just to name some of the ideas that people came up with.
~Too eager to fly again to wait for Wood, Dorea mounted her broomstick and kicked off from the ground. What a feeling - she swooped in and out of the goal posts and then sped up and down the field. The Nimbus Two Thousand turned wherever she wanted at her lightest touch.~
Those who knew how well the Nimbus handled drooled at the description, wishing that they were flying around right now.
~"Hey, Potter, come down!"
Oliver Wood had arrived. He was carrying a large wooden crate under his arm. Dorea landed next to him.
"Very nice," said Wood, his eyes glinting. "I see what McGonagall meant you really are a natural. I'm just going to teach you the rules this evening, then you'll be joining team practice three times a week."~
"Three times a week -" Fred started.
"- How we miss you!" George finished. The three Gryffindor chasers nodded in agreement, while Dorea and Oliver blinked in surprise.
"I didn't mind the amount of practices, but the ones in the rain were horrible." she stated, while Oliver was just staring at the chasers and beaters in surprise.
"You do know that we're going to have to practice even more in order to beat the Bulgarians, right?" he asked, making those five groan while Dorea grinned wickedly.
"And we're gonna have to make up new strategies, new moves, how to react if those strategies and moves are broken by another player..." she listed, causing all five that were groaning to slam their heads on the table in front of them. Bill laughed and wrapped his arms around Dorea, only to notice that she hadn't eaten a bite of her breakfast. Bill poked her side, making her jump a little a squeak in surprise.
"Sweety, you've gotta eat." he whispered, pointing to the 3 waffles, the orange slices, scrambled eggs and bacon that were sitting on the plate in front of her. Dorea looked at the food like it was a mountain and sighed.
"I'm not really hungry, Bill." she whispered back. Bill snuggled up to Dorea, resting his head on her shoulder.
"Try to eat, for me?" he asked sweetly. Dorea blushed at the feeling of his breath on her neck, picked up a fork and ate a bit of her eggs. Sirius smirked at his goddaughter, mentally approving Bill for her, and continued reading.
~He opened the crate. Inside were four different-sized balls.
"Right," said Wood. "Now, Quidditch is easy enough to understand, even if it's not too easy to play. There are seven players on each side. Three of them are called Chasers."~
The Chasers in the room all cheered.
~"Three Chasers," Dorea repeated, as Wood took out a bright red ball about the size of a soccer ball.
"This ball's called the Quaffle," said Wood. "The Chasers throw the Quaffle to each other and try and get it through one of the hoops to score a goal. Ten points every time the Quaffle goes through one of the hoops. Follow me?"~
McGonagall smiled as the muggleborn first years and the second years who still didn't understand the game were paying close attention, so as to remember this for the matches that they would watch this year. The misfits had already learned this from Oliver last night, and the Dursleys, minus Dudley, weren't paying attention. Dudley, on the other hand, was genuinely interested in a sport that his cousin played well in, a sport played 50 feet in the air.
~"The Chasers throw the Quaffle and put it through the hoops to score," Dorea recited. "So - that's sort of like basketball on broomsticks with six hoops, isn't it?"~
Hermione nodded, in that sense, it really was.
~"What's basketball?" said Wood curiously.~
"It's a muggle sport with two nets, one ball, and five players per team. I really don't understand the positions, but pretty much the idea is the get the basketball through the opposing team's net to earn 2 points, 3 if you're behind a certain line. At the end of 40 minutes, the team that has the most points wins." Hermione said, shrugging. "There are a ton of other rules that go along with it, like rules on travelling, double-dribbling, fouling, boundaries, and on almost everything that there is in the game, but I don't want to get into that at the moment." Many of the purebloods looked confused at the well known muggle terms, but didn't question them.
~"Never mind," said Harry quickly.
"Now, there's another player on each side who's called the Keeper~
Now the Keepers in the Hall started to cheer for their position.
~- I'm Keeper for Gryffindor. I have to fly around our hoops and stop the other team from scoring."
"Three Chasers, one Keeper," said Dorea, who was determined to remember it all. "And they play with the Quaffle. Okay, got that. So what are they for?" He pointed at the three balls left inside the box.
"I'll show you now," said Wood. "Take this."
He handed Dorea a small club, a bit like a short baseball bat.~
"How'd she do?" George asked, leaning forwards. Oliver grinned.
"She'd make a fair Beater with a bit of training, but she just doesn't have the stature for the position." he said, making Dorea shrug.
"I even took the potions to cancel the effects that malnutrition had on my body, and all it did was make my chest grow bigger." she stated solemnly having seriously hoped before she had taken that potion that she would grow at least a few extra inches. Oliver groaned and facepalmed, he really did not want to hear her say something like that! Ron groaned just as loud.
"Could you stop talking like that? It feels dirty..." he whined, glaring at his younger pseudo-sister. Dorea smiled impishly at Ron.
"Well, maybe if you hid Seamus' PlayWitch better than just under your pillow, I wouldn't talk like this to begin with." she replied, making Molly send Ron a hex for reading a magazine that she specifically banned from her household so as to keep Ginny innocent to the dirty world of adult men.
~"I'm going to show you what the Bludgers do," Wood said. "These two are the Bludgers."
He showed Dorea two identical balls, jet black and slightly smaller than the red Quaffle. Dorea noticed that they seemed to be straining to escape the straps holding them inside the box.~
"That would be because they are."
"Well I know that now, don't I?"
~"Stand back," Wood warned Dorea. He bent down and freed one of the Bludgers.
At once, the black ball rose high in the air and then pelted straight at Dorea's face. Dorea swung at it with the bat to stop it from breaking her nose, and sent it zigzagging away into the air -~
"Pretty decent, you'd probably make a good reserve for our team." Fred said seriously. If there was one thing he and George took seriously besides their pranks, it was their Quidditch positions and how to play them.
~it zoomed around their heads and then shot at Wood, who dived on top of it and managed to pin it to the ground.
"See?" Wood panted, forcing the struggling Bludger back into the crate and strapping it down safely. "The Bludgers rocket around, trying to knock players off their brooms. That's why you have two Beaters on each team~
The Beaters now cheered for their positions, the Weasley Twins standing and doing their 'Beater Dance', which consisted of jumping up and down and hitting imaginary bludgers out of the air.
~- the Weasley twins are ours - it's their job to protect their side from the Bludgers and try and knock them toward the other team. So - think you've got all that?"
"Three Chasers try and score with the Quaffle; the Keeper guards the goal posts; the Beaters keep the Bludgers away from their team," Dorea reeled off, understanding it perfectly so far.~
The ones who were having the sport explained to them as well nodded, beginning to see why this sport was such a big deal to wizards.
~"Very good," said Wood.
"Er - have the Bludgers ever killed anyone?" Dorea asked warily, hoping she sounded offhand.~
"Reasonable question, no need to be ashamed." Oliver shrugged, not really caring. He had asked the same question when he had begun to play as Keeper, though his was more along the lines of 'Will those bloody things kill me?'
~"Never at Hogwarts. We've had a couple of broken jaws but nothing worse than that. Now, the last member of the team is the Seeker. That's you. And you don't have to worry about the Quaffle or the Bludgers -"
"- unless they crack my head open."~
"Or break my elbow after being fixed." Dorea grumbled darkly. "Still haven't strangled Lockhart for what he did to my arm, either..."
~"Don't worry, the Weasleys are more than a match for the Bludgers - I mean, they're like a pair of human Bludgers themselves."~
Fred and George sniffled dramatically.
"Why Ollie Pop, we're so complimented!" the said, Oliver groaning.
"Why do you call me that again?" he asked. George grinned wickedly.
"Because we caught your girlfriend licking your lollipop in a broom closet remember?" he snickered, everyone in the circle either laughing themselves so hard that they nearly wet themselves, or looking distinctly ruffled and affronted at George's language.
"So she stacked the Wood and decided to polish his wand?" Dorea asked innocently as she recovered from her hysterics, only to send almost everyone further into them. Molly glared at the Twins. They had tainted Dorea's purity. Bill, on the other hand, was clearly about to die from laughing so hard. Dorea was so pure, but she could talk so dirty at the same time? Who knew?
Once the hysterics calmed down and Oliver stopped grumbling about laps, Sirius started reading again albeit chuckling. He, the Twins, and those Gryffindor boys had corrupted his goddaughter, but still left her with some sense of innocence! He was so proud. Michaela, on the other hand, was glaring at Dan.
"So you yell at me for the gutter, but not her?" she growled. Dan shrugged and looked at Michaela.
"She is clearly good friends with a bunch of guys, while the only guys friends you have are me and Dante, and Dante's gay." he muttered. Michaela, still glaring, huffed and turned away, instead picking up a conversation about dragons and how to take care of them with Charlie, while playing with her bubble dragon. It was just so cute!
~Wood reached into the crate and took out the fourth and last ball. Compared with the Quaffle and the Bludgers, it was tiny, about the size of a large walnut. It was bright gold and had little fluttering silver wings.~
The Seekers all grinned at the mention of the Snitch.
~"This," said Wood, "is the Golden Snitch, and it's the most important ball of the lot. It's very hard to catch because it's so fast and difficult to see. It's the Seeker's job to catch it. You've got to weave in and out of the Chasers, Beaters, Bludgers, and Quaffle to get it before the other team's Seeker, because whichever Seeker catches the Snitch wins his team an extra hundred and fifty points, so they nearly always win.~
"He's saying that like the seekers are the most important part of the game." Cat said, a little confused. Krum shrugged.
"Vell, you do need at least one Seeker to play the game, but it vould be very boring to vatch two people fly around for what can be hours, searching for the golden Snitch. I think that there is a muggle game called golf that's around as boring." he stated, making Cat nod in understanding. That made much more sense now.
~That's why Seekers get fouled so much. A game of Quidditch only ends when the Snitch is caught, so it can go on for ages - I think the record is three months, they had to keep bringing on substitutes so the players could get some sleep.~
"That would be brilliant to play." Dorea moaned, drooling a little at the thought of playing that match. Hermione nodded.
"And to watch. Could you imagine how high the scores must have gotten before the game ended?" she asked, looking at Ron. He nodded.
"The scores were 15,530 to 15,540. Greatest match in the history of Quidditch." he said, drooling as he remembered the headlines from when he was 4.
~"Well, that's it any questions?"
Dorea shook her head. She understood what she had to do all right; it was doing it that was going to be the problem.~
Cho snorted.
"You're Dorea bloody Potter, having you on a Quidditch team ought to be cheating!" she huffed, while Dorea smiled for the compliment.
"Why thank you!"
~"We won't practice with the Snitch yet," said Wood, carefully shutting it back inside the crate, "it's too dark, we might lose it. Let's try you out with a few of these."
He pulled a bag of ordinary golf balls out of his pocket and a few minutes later, he and Dorea were up in the air, Wood throwing the golf balls as hard as he could in every direction for Dorea to catch. Dorea didn't miss a single one,~
Everyone cheered.
~even the final two where they were thrown in two different directions at once, and Wood was clearly more than ecstatic.~
Oliver nodded while Krum was staring at Dorea in shock.
"She was brilliant, and that was only her first training session!" he announced. Krum groaned loudly and looked pitifully at Dorea.
"Please never play professionally." he requested. Dorea smiled at him.
"Depending in the outcome of our match depends on whether I play professionally or not."
~After half an hour, night had really fallen and they couldn't carry on.
"That Quidditch Cup'll have our name on it this year,"~
Dorea shifted in her seat, a little uncomfortable. Wood smiled sadly at Dorea.
"It wasn't your fault, you couldn't play because you were in the hospital wing. None of us blame you for that." he said softly, leaning over and touching Dorea's knee. Bill felt a wave of possessiveness and anger towards Oliver, up until he removed his hand. Once it was gone, Bill only felt confused. Why had he reacted like that?
~said Wood happily as they trudged back up to the castle. "I wouldn't be surprised if you turn out better than Charlie Weasley, and he could have played for England if he hadn't gone off chasing dragons."~
"Why thank you, Ollie." Charlie grinned, making Oliver groan.
"Not you too!"
~Perhaps it was because she was now so busy, what with Quidditch practice three evenings a week on top of all her homework, but Dorea could hardly believe it when she realized that she'd already been at Hogwarts two months.
The castle felt more like home than Privet Drive ever had.~
Michaela looked down at her lap sadly. She understood what Dorea meant, having to face similar treatment with her own father, siblings, and step-mother. Her only escape was her clan, and even then she wasn't treated equally because she was half human. Upon seeing her downcast expression, Charlie wrapped his arms around Michaela, looking slightly at her clan mark. It was beautiful, so she belonged to the dragon keeper clan that moved from Romania to France a few hundred years ago.
~Her lessons, too, were becoming more and more interesting now that they had mastered the basics.~
Everyone except the first years nodded, while those who hadn't pouted. They hadn't gotten to the more exciting stuff yet!
~On Halloween morning they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors.
Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects fly, something they had all been dying to try since they'd seen him make Neville's toad zoom around the classroom.~
Dorea chuckled, remembering Seamus' attempts that day. Well, she had found a use for that hat, after all...
~Professor Flitwick put the class into pairs to practice. Dorea's partner was Seamus Finnigan (which was a relief, because Neville had been trying to catch her eye).~
"Sorry, Neville!"
"It's alright, I probably would've cut you instead of levitating the feather, anyway."
~Ron, however, was to be working with Hermione Granger. It was hard to tell whether Ron or Hermione was angrier about this.~
"I was!" both said, then turned to glare at each other as Dorea laughed.
~She hadn't spoken to either of them since the day Dorea's broomstick had arrived.
"Now, don't forget that nice wrist movement we've been practicing!" squeaked Professor Flitwick, perched on top of his pile of books as usual. "Swish and flick, remember, swish and flick. And saying the magic words properly is very important, too - never forget Wizard Baruffio, who said 's' instead of 'f' and found himself on the floor with a buffalo on his chest."~
Bill snickered at Charlie's sheepish expression while Flitwick sighed.
"I did warn you, Mister Weasley, but you had to go and have the buffalo destroy my classroom." he squeaked, making everyone who thought it hadn't been true either stare at Charlie in shock, or in Dorea's case, point and laugh at him while Michaela attempted to calm him down.
~It was very difficult. Dorea and Seamus swished and flicked, but the feather they were supposed to be sending skyward just lay on the desktop. Seamus got so impatient that he prodded it with his wand and set fire to it - Dorea had to put it out with her hat.~
"Well, that's one use for those hats." Ron shrugged from his table.
~Once Seamus saw Dorea levitate it an inch or so above the desk, he made a deal with Dorea for her to help him get it right and not blow something else up in his face and he wouldn't tell professor Flitwick that she managed it.~
Hermione looked at her lap - and she had been about to brag about how she had done it first, before she heard what Ron said, at least.
~Ron, at the next table, wasn't having much more luck.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" he shouted, waving his long arms like a windmill.~
Everyone who had seen that laughed, remembering the face he had made while doing it.
~"You're saying it wrong," Dorea heard Hermione snap. "It's Wing-gar-dium Levi-o-sa, make the 'gar' nice and long."~
"You don't have to be rude about it, dear." Lily said kindly, knowing how Hermione was. The kind that turned to books to be their friends and didn't really have any social skills. Hermione blushed and looked at a window.
"I've gotten better after that Halloween." she said. Bill perked up.
"Say, how did you three become friends? Right now it looks like you hate each other." he said. Dorea grinned up at him.
"It's in this chapter, you don't have to worry about that much longer." she said, making Bill sigh. At least he would find out the answer in the next hour. His eyes then narrowed on Dorea's plate. She had eaten half of a waffle and the eggs, but nothing else. Bill poked Dorea's side and glared at her a little.
"Eat before I feed you again." he threatened, making Dorea blush a little and continue eating her waffle. In truth, she was still a little full from eating one of the cakes that had been under preservation charms last night.
~"You do it, then, it you're so clever." Ron snarled.~
"Wrong thing to say, and I know it!" Ron shouted out before anyone could hit him.
~Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her gown, flicked her wand, and said, "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Their feather rose off the desk and hovered about four feet above their heads.
"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick, clapping. "Everyone see here, Miss Granger's done it!"
Ron was in a very bad mood by the end of the class.~
"Because almost everyone else listened to Hermione and did it as well." Parvati sniggered, grinning widely as Ron glared at her. Payback for ruining her Yule Ball experience.
~"It's no wonder no one can really stand her," he said to Dorea as they pushed their way into the crowded corridor, "She's a nightmare, honestly."~
"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!" Molly screeched. Hermione waved her wand, tying Molly down and silencing her.
"Yeah, it was a little rude, but he didn't want me to hear it." she said sadly. Ron groaned out something that sounded like he was saying "Sorry", having been hexed black and blue by the girls that shared a dorm with Hermione and Dorea.
~Someone knocked into Dorea as they hurried past her. It was Hermione. Dorea caught a glimpse of her face - and was very startled and angered to see that she was in tears.~
"O 'at's 'hy 'e 'it 'e" Ron muttered through fat lips. (translation: "So that's why she hit me.")
~"I think she heard you."
"So?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "She must've noticed she's got no friends."~
Hermione winced a little at the mention.
~Dorea just glared at Ron before whacking him violently over the head with her Charms text.
"You!" Whack. "Are!" Whack whack whack. "A!" Whack. "Prick!" Whack. "And!" Whack whack. "Will!" Whack. "Apologize!" Whack. "To!" Whack. "Hermione!" Whack whack. "When!" Whack. "You!" Whack. "See!" Whack. "Her!" Whack whack whack, whack whack.~
The Weasleys all started laughing - so that's how Dorea got Ron to learn how to be as tactful as he was today, by whacking him over the head with books.
~Hermione didn't turn up for the next class and wasn't seen all afternoon. On their way down to the Great Hall for the Halloween feast, Dorea and Ron overheard Parvati Patil telling her friend Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls' bathroom and wanted to be left alone. Ron looked still more awkward at this, even more so as Dorea's glares intensified, but a moment later they had entered the Great Hall, where the Halloween decorations put Hermione out of their minds.~
Molly shook her head, but Hermone shrugged.
"I didn't see the Halloween feast until Third Year, so I can't accept or deny why you forgot about me." she said. Dorea smiled.
"The description will probably be next." she replied, making Hermione nod.
~A thousand live bats fluttered from the walls and ceiling while a thousand more swooped over the tables in low black clouds, making the candles in the pumpkins stutter.~
"Understandable. I forgive you two." Hermione nodded, feeling a bit of awe as she thought about it. She then looked at Dumbledore. "Will we be having the vote to celebrate Samhain or Halloween soon this year?" she asked. Dumbledore nodded.
"The vote will be next week in your first class on Monday." he stated, making everyone nod. Every year, the school held a vote to see what would be celebrated that year, muggle holidays or wizarding holidays. The muggle holidays always won by a vote or two, but otherwise they were relatively equal and a close contest.
~The feast appeared suddenly on the golden plates, as it had at the start-of-term banquet.
Dorea was just helping herself to a baked potato when Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Professor Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."~
"There was a WHAT in the dungeons?" everyone who hadn't been in Hogwarts that year shouted, horrified by the idea. A troll in the dungeons? Bill, however, narrowed his eyes on the book. Why hadn't Quirrel been at the feast, could he have let the troll in? But what for? Unless... Unless he wanted the Stone, which was probably hidden in the Third Floor Corridor! Bill's eyes flicked to the Flamels, who were muttering to each other. Yes, that was probably it... Now to test the defences...
~He then sank to the floor in a dead faint.~
People started shouting that he was a coward, making Sirius to wait before he could continue reading.
~There was an uproar while Dorea looked at Quirrel curiously. Did people normally faint falling forwards?~
"No, no they do not." Madam Pomfrey growled, mentally berating herself for not noticing that.
~There was an uproar. It took several purple firecrackers exploding from the end of Professor Dumbledore's wand to bring silence.~
"Wait, why purple?" Percy asked, a little confused. He hadn't spoken much since he had found out Umbridge had been spiking his juice with the potion form of the Imperius Curse, and his behaviour had been a little... Quirky. Dumbledore chuckled and pointed at Remus.
"That one," he said, smiling a little. "Would always turn something in my office purple. Like Lady Potter, he could always guess me password." he said, while James and Sirius 'psshaw'ed.
"We could all guess your password, Dumbles." they said, waving off Dumbledore's accusations. Sirius' gaze darkened a little.
"Except Peter." he growled. There was a bit of an awkward silence before Sirius turned back to the books, continuing that the more exciting part of the chapter.
~"Prefects," he rumbled, "lead your Houses back to the dormitories immediately!"~
"The more people in a certain place would mean a stronger scent, and the dormitories have their entrances enchanted that people or creatures intending harm without the password cannot enter." Dumbledore explained to Amelia, who looked as though she was about to say something. She nodded, looking out at the students. Astoria leaned onto her older sister's shoulder.
"But where did the Slytherins go?" Astoria whispered to her sister. Daphne shrugged.
"We went to the library instead."
~Percy was in his element.~
Percy had the decency to look sheepishly at the plate in front of him when people started whispering.
~"Follow me! Stick together, first years! No need to fear the troll if you follow my orders! Stay close behind me, now. Make way, first years coming through! Excuse me, I'm a prefect!"~
"He really was in his element." Sierra said, shaking her head. Did Percy really believe that, just because he was a prefect, meant that the troll would leave him alone if he came across it?
~"How could a troll get in?" Dorea asked as they climbed the stairs.
"Don't ask me, they're supposed to be really stupid," said Ron. "Maybe Peeves let it in for a Halloween joke."~
"Nopesie nope nope! I was helpings the professors to try and finds the beastie!" Peeves sang, dumping a wastebasket onto Ron's head. He took Ron's suggestion as a bit of an insult, why he had do things that would hurt someone if they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, he would never do something that would hurt people if they were in the right place at the right time.
~They passed different groups of people hurrying in different directions. As they jostled their way through a crowd of confused Hufflepuffs, Dorea suddenly grabbed Ron's arm, terror dancing in her eyes.
"I've just thought - Hermione."~
"She doesn't know!" Dante shouted, panicking a little. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Didn't know, didn't being the key word there." she corrected, making everyone who had been thinking the same thing blush. Oops...
~"What about her?" Ron asked, confused.~
"Charming." Susan growled, sending a Stinging Hex at Ron, who yelped as it hit his cheek.
~"She doesn't know about the troll."
Ron bit his lip.
"Oh, all right," he snapped. "But Percy'd better not see us."~
Everyone nodded in approval.
~Ducking down, they joined the Hufflepuffs going the other way, slipped down a deserted side corridor, and hurried off toward the girls' bathroom. They had just turned the corner when they heard quick footsteps behind them.
"Percy!" hissed Ron, pulling Dorea behind a large stone griffin.
Peering around it, however, they saw not Percy but Snape. He crossed the corridor and disappeared from view.~
Everyone except Bill, Dorea, Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore, and the Flamels looked at Snape suspiciously. What was he doing there when he should be with the others?
~"What's he doing?" Dorea whispered. "Why isn't he down in the dungeons with the rest of the teachers?"
"Search me."
Quietly as possible, they crept along the next corridor after Snape's fading footsteps.
"He's heading for the third floor," Dorea said, but Ron held up his hand.
"Can you smell something?"
Dorea sniffed and a foul stench reached her nostrils, a mixture of old socks and the kind of public toilet no one seems to clean.~
People gagged at the description, sometimes Dorea's descriptive abilities weren't exactly favourable.
~And then they heard it - a low grunting, and the shuffling footfalls of gigantic feet. Ron pointed - at the end of a passage to the left, something huge was moving toward them. They shrank into the shadows and watched as it emerged into a patch of moonlight.~
"Sounds a bit like a muggle horror movie." Bill whispered, having gone to see one with the other Weasley children for Dorea's birthday this past summer.
~It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut. It had short legs thick as tree trunks with flat, horny feet. The smell coming from it was incredible. It was holding a huge wooden club, which dragged along the floor because its arms were so long.~
Everyone who knew what a troll looked like nodded in agreement, while Ron, Dorea, and Hermione scrunched their noses. They didn't want to see another troll in a bathroom ever again, thank you very much.
~The troll stopped next to a doorway and peered inside. It waggled its long ears, making up its tiny mind, then slouched slowly into the room.~
Hermione froze, remembering hearing the troll walk in.
~"The key is in the lock," Dorea said, looking at the door. They really shouldn't lock it in, though, since that was...
However, Ron had already edged towards the open door, clearing praying that the troll wasn't about to come out of it. Before Dorea could stop him, he managed to grab the key, slam the door, and lock it.
"Yes!"~
"No!" Hermione, Ron, and Dorea all shouted, Ron seriously regretting those actions. Then again, if he hadn't done that, he never would've become friends with Hermione to begin with.
~Flushed with his victory, Ron grabbed the key and began to run back up the passage, leaving Dorea behind in pure horror. That room was -Dorea's thoughts were cut off by a sound that made not only hers, but also Ron's, heart stop - a high, petrified scream - and it was coming from the chamber that Ron had just locked up.
"Nooo..." Ron groaned, pale as the Bloody Baron.~
Nick raised an eyebrow.
"Impressive, I never thought someone alive could achieve becoming that pale." he said. Dorea shrugged.
"There's a muggle saying that goes ' as pale as a ghost', it's talking about someone or something that has all the colour drained from it." she explained. "I guess I just morphed it to something that would fit Hogwarts."
~"It's the girls' bathroom!" Dorea shrieked, angry and terrified.
"Hermione!" they shouted together.
It was the last thing that Ron wanted to do, Dorea as well, but what choice did they have? Wheeling around, Ron sprinted back to the door, reinserted the key and turned it, fumbling in their panic. Dorea pulled the door open and they ran inside.
Hermione Granger was shrinking against the wall opposite, looking as though she was about to faint from a mixture of shock and terror.~
Hermione nodded, she almost did.
~The troll was advancing on her, knocking the sinks off the walls as it went.
"Confuse it!" Dorea said desperately to Ron, and, seizing a tap, he threw it as hard as he could against the wall.~
People snickered as they remembered what Dorea said before about being able to speak troll. "Oh yeah, it's real easy. And trolls understand basic things too - shouting, running, throwing faucets and pipes at their heads, to name a few things..." So that's what she meant.
~The troll stopped a few feet from Hermione. It lumbered around, blinking stupidly, to see what had made the noise. Its mean little eyes saw Dorea. It hesitated, then made for her instead, lifting its club as it went.~
Lily and James both paled, squeezing Dorea rightly as Bill hugged her closer to him. The same thing repeated itself over and over in their heads; She got away alright, she lived through this, she got away alright...
~"Oi, pea-brain!" yelled Ron from the other side of the chamber, and he threw a metal pipe at it. The troll didn't even seem to notice the pipe hitting its shoulder, but it heard the yell and paused again, turning its ugly snout toward Ron instead, giving Dorea time to run around it.
"Come on, run, run!" Dorea yelled at Hermione, trying to pull her toward the door, but she couldn't move, she was still flat against the wall, her mouth open with terror.~
No one blamed Hermione for reacting like that - how would they react if they had been in the loo and suddenly a troll came bursting in?
~The shouting and the echoes seemed to be driving the troll berserk. It roared again and started toward Ron, who was nearest and had no way to escape.~
Seamus and Dean, both of whom were sitting near Ron, grabbed his shoulders tightly and squeezed them, reassuring themselves that Ron was alive.
~Dorea then did something that was both very brave and very stupid:~
The Gryffindors groaned, understanding exactly why they had a reputation of being reckless now.
~She took a great running jump and managed to fasten her arms around the troll's neck from behind. The troll couldn't feel Dorea hanging there, but even a troll will notice if you stick a long bit of wood up its nose, and Dorea's wand had still been in her hand when she'd jumped - it had gone straight up one of the troll's nostrils.~
"Firstly, eeew. Secondly, so that's what Ron meant by practice when you did that to Vernon." Lily muttered into Dorea's stomach, having leaned down and pressed her head against her daughter's abdomen to reassure herself that Dorea had been alright.
~Howling with pain, the troll twisted and flailed its club, with Dorea clinging on for dear life; any second, the troll was going to rip her off or catch him a terrible blow with the club. Suddenly the troll grabbed one of Dorea's flying ankles, hoisting her so that she was dangling upside down. It swung its club to where her head would have been, had she not tucked into a tight ball.
"DO SOMETHING!" she screamed, dodging another blow from the troll.
Hermione had sunk to the floor in fright; Ron pulled out his own wand - not knowing what he was going to do he heard himself cry the first spell that came into his head: "Wingardium Leviosa!"~
"You can't do that spell!" several people shouted, making Ron groan.
"Couldn't, people, couldn't!" he shouted back, making them blush and shut up, letting Sirius continue.
~The club suddenly out of the troll's hand, rose high, high up into the air, turned slowly over - and dropped, with a sickening crack, onto its owner's head. The troll swayed on the spot, dropped Dorea onto the ground, and then fell flat on its face, with a thud that made the whole room tremble.~
"A troll about to kill your best friend is an excellent source of motivation." Ron stated knowingly to the disbelieving stares he was receiving.
~Dorea slowly got to her feet. She was shaking and out of breath. Ron was standing there with his wand still raised, staring at what he had done.
It was Hermione who spoke first.
"Is it - dead?"
"I don't think so," said Dorea, "I think it's just been knocked out."
She bent down and pulled her wand out of the troll's nose. It was covered in what looked like lumpy gray glue.~
"Ew, troll booger." James said, crinkling his nose.
~"Urgh - troll boogies."~
James and Dorea smiled at each other.
~She wiped it on the troll's trousers.~
"So that's why she asked for a disinfecting charm during dinner in the Common Room." Alicia mutter, shaking her head slightly. George suddenly nodded.
"Better option than your own trousers, or in your case, skirt." he stated, Dorea nodding in agreement. Everyone else, however, was still a little numb to what was going on around them, unless it was the book. Dorea, Ron, and Hermione fought a troll in their first year... And lived.
~A sudden slamming and loud footsteps made the three of them look up. They hadn't realized what a racket they had been making, but of course, someone downstairs must have heard the crashes and the troll's roars. A moment later, Professor McGonagall had come bursting into the room, closely followed by Snape, with Quirrell bringing up the rear. Quirrell took one look at the troll, let out a faint whimper, and sat quickly down on a toilet, clutching his heart.~
Dorea, Ron, and Hermione all glared icily at the book. Coward, they all thought, Cowardly bastard.
~Snape bent over the troll. Professor McGonagall was looking at Ron and Dorea. Dorea had never seen her look so angry. Her lips were white.~
"I was angry because they just risked their lives to, what it looked like, find the troll!" McGonagall shouted to defend herself. "I hadn't known that Miss Granger was not at the Feast!"
~Hopes of winning fifty points for Gryffindor faded quickly from Dorea's mind.~
People sent her inquisitive looks, all of which Dorea ignored.
~"What on earth were you thinking of?" said Professor McGonagall, with cold fury in her voice. Dorea looked at Ron, who was still standing with his wand in the air. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"
Snape gave Dorea a swift, piercing look. Dorea looked at the floor. She really wished Ron would put his wand down.~
Ron blushed and scratched the back of his head.
"I was in shock that I had just knocked out a mountain troll..." he said, Dean and Seamus nodding understandably. Anyone would be frozen after that, especially if they were a first year.
~Then a small voice came out of the shadows.
"Please, Professor McGonagall they were looking for me."
"Miss Granger!"
Hermione had managed to get to her feet at last.
"I went looking for the troll because I - I thought I could deal with it on my own - you know, because I've read all about them."
Ron dropped his wand. Hermione Granger, telling a downright lie to a teacher?~
"Had you told my the truth I wouldn't have given out any punishments." McGonagall said, making Hermione look down at her lap.
"I know that now, but we didn't know you as well back then, we thought that - well, that you would punish Ron for being the reason I wasn't at the feast in the first place." she muttered, George wrapping an arm around her to calm her down. In return, Hermione buried her face into his shoulder. McGonagall's eyes softened at the sight, Hermione was, in all honesty, one of her favourite pupils, and the idea of her punishing Ron for that would be reasonable.
~"If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Dorea stuck her wand up its nose and Ron knocked it out with its own club. They didn't have time to come and fetch anyone. It was about to finish me off when they arrived."~
"That bit was true, though." Hermione said from George's shoulder.
~Dorea and Ron tried to look as though this story wasn't new to them.~
"Surprisingly, it didn't." McGonagall stated, glaring at Snape, who had suggested that Hermione was lying and that Dorea had chased down the troll instead of it being Hermione.
~"Well - in that case " said Professor McGonagall, staring at the three of them, "Miss Granger, you foolish girl, how could you think of tackling a mountain troll on your own?"
Hermione hung her head. Dorea was speechless. Hermione was the last person to do anything against the rules, and here she was, pretending she had, to get them out of trouble. It was as if Snape had started handing out sweets.~
Snape glared at the hopeful eyes.
"Never going to happen." he stated, making Dorea laugh. She knew that was going to happen the moment someone would even suggest the idea, even back in her first year.
~"Miss Granger, five points will be taken from Gryffindor for this," said Professor McGonagall. "I'm very disappointed in you. If you're not hurt at all, you'd better get off to Gryffindor tower. Students are finishing the feast in their houses."
Hermione left.
Professor McGonagall then turned to Dorea and Ron.
"Well, I still say you were lucky, but not many first years could have taken on a full-grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this. You may go."~
"Only five points each for knocking out a mountain troll?" Remus asked. McGonagall blushed.
"When the shock of the matter passed, I awarded Gryffindor 50 points in total as to reward them for their bravery." she explained. Snape huffed. Only McGonagall would award her House points for doing something so reckless and dangerous.
~They hurried out of the chamber and didn't speak at all until they had climbed two floors up. It was a relief to be away from the smell of the troll, quite apart from anything else.
"We should have gotten more than ten points," Ron grumbled.
"Five, you mean, once she's taken off Hermione's." Dorea corrected.
"Good of her to get us out of trouble like that," Ron admitted. "Mind you, we did save her."
"She might not have needed saving if we hadn't locked the thing in with her," Dorea reminded him.~
"If I hadn't, Dorea. You didn't have time to stop me." Ron corrected. Dorea shrugged.
"Po-tae-toe, po-tah-toe." she said. Bill's eyes once again found their way to Dorea's plate, where half her food was still resting on it, uneaten. Bill growled a little, sliced up her waffle some more, and held a piece up to her mouth.
"I warned you, now eat." he said, seeing Dorea's bright red face at the idea of once again being fed by, not that he knew, her love. She slowly opened her mouth, her eyes never leaving Bill's as he began to feed her.
Neither noticed the way that Fleur was nearly ripping her seat apart - and the worst thing was, her mother had gotten rid of all her love potions when she was asleep, meaning she didn't have anything to make Bill fall in love with her with!
Sirius smiled a little at the two before he continued reading, Bill still feeding Dorea her breakfast.
~They had reached the portrait of the Fat Lady.
"Pig snout," they said and entered.~
"Was that because I would make her laugh so hard that she opened the entrance?" Tonks asked inocently, changing her nose to that of a pig's. "Because that's the only thing I can think of."
~The common room was packed and noisy. Everyone was eating the food that had been sent up. Hermione, however, stood alone by the door, waiting for them. There was a very embarrassed pause. Then, none of them looking at each other, they all said "Thanks," and hurried off to get plates.~
People shook their heads. They should have known that Hermione wouldn't become their friend in some normal way.
~But from that moment on, Hermione Granger became their friend. There are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other, and knocking out a twelve-foot mountain troll is one of them.~
Sirius closed the book as snickers rang through the Hall. He held it out to Arthur, who happily accepted it. He flipped to the next page and raised an eyebrow at the title.
~O~O~O~O~O~