—— ϟ ——
Running to the great ring after hearing some commotion Noel made her way down and stood next to Harry, just like it had looked like when it was just like the night when Trelawney had been sacked. Students were standing all around the walls in a great ring (some of them, Noel noticed, covered in a substance that looked very like Stinksap); teachers and ghosts were also in the crowd. Prominent among the onlookers were members of the Inquisitorial Squad, who were all looking exceptionally pleased with themselves, and Peeves, who was bobbing overhead, gazed down upon Fred and George, who stood in the middle of the floor with the unmistakable look of two people who had just been cornered.
"So!" said Umbridge triumphantly, whom Harry and Noel realized was standing just a few stairs in front of them, once more looking down upon her prey. "So... you think it amusing to turn a school corridor into a swamp, do you?"
"Pretty amusing, yeah," said Fred, looking back up at her without the slightest sign of fear.
Filch elbowed his way closer to Umbridge, almost crying with happiness. "I've got the form, Headmistress," he said hoarsely, waving the piece of parchment Harry had just seen him take from her desk. "I've got the form and I've got the whips waiting... Oh, let me do it now..."
"Very good, Argus," she said. "You two," she went on, gazing down at Fred and George, "are about to learn what happens to wrongdoers in my school."
"You know what?" said Fred. "I don't think we are." He turned to his twin. "George," said Fred, "I think we've outgrown full-time education."
"Yeah, I've been feeling that way myself," said George lightly.
"Time to test our talents in the real world, d'you reckon?" asked Fred.
"Definitely," said George. And before Umbridge could say a word, they raised their wands and said together, "Accio Brooms!"
They heard a loud crash somewhere in the distance. Looking to the left they ducked just in time — Fred and George's broomsticks, one still trailing the heavy chain and iron peg with which Umbridge had fastened them to the wall, were hurtling along the corridor toward their owners. They turned left, streaked down the stairs, and stopped sharply in front of the twins, the chain clattering loudly on the flagged stone floor. "We won't be seeing you," Fred told Professor Umbridge, swinging his leg over his broomstick.
"Yeah, don't bother to keep in touch," said George, mounting his own. Fred looked around at the assembled students, and at the silent, watchful crowd. "If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley — Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes," he said in a loud voice. "Our new premises!"
"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat," added George, pointing at Professor Umbridge.
"STOP THEM!" shrieked Umbridge, but it was too late. As the Inquisitorial Squad closed in, Fred and George kicked off from the floor, shooting fifteen feet into the air, the iron peg swinging dangerously below.
Fred looked across the hall at the poltergeist bobbing on his level above the crowd. "Give her hell from us, Peeves." And Peeves, whom Harry had never seen take an order from a student before, swept his belled hat from his head and sprang to a salute as Fred and George wheeled about to tumultuous applause from the students below and sped out of the open front doors into the glorious sunset.
Noel peered around to gaze at Katie's expression, she was looking at the sky sadly but cheered alongside everyone else.
The story of Fred and George's flight to freedom was retold so often over the next few days that Noel knew it would soon become the stuff of Hogwarts legend. Fred and George had made sure that nobody was likely to forget them very soon.
For one thing, they had not left instructions on how to remove the swamp that now filled the corridor on the fifth floor of the east wing. Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually the area was roped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across it to their classrooms.
McGonagall or Flitwick could have removed the swamp in an instant, but just as in the case of Fred and George's Wildfire Whiz-Bangs, they seemed to prefer to watch Umbridge struggle. Then there were the two large broom-shaped holes in Umbridge's office door, through which Fred and George's Cleansweeps had smashed to rejoin their masters.
Inspired by Fred and George's example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of Troublemakers-in Chief. In spite of the new door, somebody managed to slip a hairy-snouted niffler into Umbridge's office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects, leapt on Umbridge on her reentrance, and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers.
Filch prowled the corridors with a horsewhip ready in his hands, desperate to catch miscreants, but the problem was that there were now so many of them that he did not know which way to turn. The Inquisitorial Squad were attempting to help him, but odd things kept happening to its members.
Warrington of the Slytherin Quidditch team reported to the hospital wing with a horrible skin complaint that made him look as though he had been coated in cornflakes. Pansy Parkinson, to Hermione's delight, missed all her lessons the following day, as she had sprouted antlers. Meanwhile it became clear just how many Skiving Snackboxes Fred and George had managed to sell before leaving Hogwarts. Umbridge only had to enter her classroom for the students assembled there to faint, vomit, develop dangerous fevers, or else spout blood from both nostrils. Shrieking with rage and frustration she attempted to trace the mysterious symptoms to their source, but the students told her stubbornly they were suffering "Umbridge-itis."
After putting four successive classes in detention and failing to discover their secret she was forced to give up and allow the bleeding, swooning, sweating, and vomiting students to leave her classes in droves.
But not even the users of the Snackboxes could compete with that master of chaos, Peeves, who seemed to have taken Fred's parting words deeply to heart. Cackling madly, he soared through the school, upending tables, bursting out of blackboards, and toppling statues and vases. Twice he shut Mrs. Norris inside suits of armor, from which she was rescued, yowling loudly, by the furious caretaker.
He smashed lanterns and snuffed out candles, juggled burning torches over the heads of screaming students, caused neatly stacked piles of parchment to topple into fires or out of windows, flooded the second floor when he pulled off all the taps in the bathrooms, dropped a bag of tarantulas in the middle of the Great Hall during breakfast and, whenever he fancied a break, spent hours at a time floating along after Umbridge and blowing loud raspberries every time she spoke.
None of the staff but Filch seemed to be stirring themselves to help her. Indeed, a week after Fred and George's departure Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, "It unscrews the other way."
To cap matters, Montague had still not recovered from his sojourn in the toilet. He remained confused and disorientated and his parents were to be observed one Tuesday morning striding up the front drive, looking extremely angry.
On the last week of May, it was the last Quidditch game of the season. Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw. Luna and Noel decked out in their Ravenclaw gear walked up the stands, talking excitedly about the game. Noel felt for Ron, she knew he had potential from the occasional games she's seen and he just seemed like he needed to warm up to his position, but no matter, she was here to wish Ravenclaw a good game.
Lee Jordan, who had been very dispirited since Fred and George had left, was commentating as usual. As the teams zoomed out onto the pitches he named the players with something less than his usual gusto. "Bradley... Davies... Chang,"
"And they're off!" said Lee. "And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well. . . . He's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot — and — and —" Lee swore very loudly. "And he's scored."
Noel cheered alongside the Ravenclaws, the Slytherins had begun to sing Weasley is Our King.
As the game continued, Ron's ability to save the goals took a complete 180, he had started to save every other goal at first and then he saved each goal that one of the Ravenclaw chasers threw. Although Noel wanted Ravenclaw to win the Quidditch cup this year, she was happy for Ron. She knew that he'd been beating himself up this quidditch season and it seems like he's finally gotten his grove.
She was also glad that the Gryffindors stole the song the Slytherins had a tendency to sing whenever Ron had played bad, the Gryffindors were now singing to celebrate their victory.
The following day, Harry and Hermione had persuaded him to join them in studying under the beech tree on the edge of the lake.
Ron was not particularly keen on this idea at first; he was thoroughly enjoying being patted on the back by Gryffindors walking past his chair, not to mention the occasional outbursts of "Weasley Is Our King," but agreed after a while that some fresh air might do him good.
They spread their books out in the shade of the beech tree and sat down while Ron talked them through his first save of the match for what felt like the dozenth time.
Harry looked up from his textbook exasperatedly, but over Ron's shoulder he caught sight of Noel. Waving her over, Noel sauntered towards them, in the usual flowy- but also clumsy way she always walked, she tripped on a tree root and then apologized to it. Harry held in his laugh and smiled at her as she sat down with them.
"Hello! Ron. I am at a loss for words, I mean the match was great! You finally got a hang of it eh?" Noel said excitedly.
"Yeah, I guess I did, didn't I?" Ron said, ruffling his hair. Harry felt as if someone had spilt acid in his stomach, he knew Noel had a thing for quidditch players and maybe she was being nice but the fact that Ron had ruffled his hair like James did to catch the girls attention, it stirred something in him.
"Are you alright?" Noel asked, placing a hand on his arm.
Harry snapped out of his daze, "Yeah, it was a great match Ron."
"Well, I mean, I'd already let in that one of Davies's, so I wasn't feeling that confident, but I dunno, when Bradley came toward me, out of nowhere, I thought — you can do this! And I had about a second to decide which way to fly, you know, because he looked like he was aiming for the right goal hoop — my right, obviously, his left — but I had a funny feeling that he was feinting, and so I took the chance and flew left — his right, I mean — and — then, when Chambers came at me about five minutes later — what?
"Did you see the look on Chang's face when Ginny got the Snitch right out from under her nose?"
"I suppose she cried, did she?" said Harry bitterly.
"Well, yeah — more out of temper than anything, though..." Ron frowned slightly. "But you saw her chuck her broom away when she got back to the ground, didn't you?"
"Er —" said Harry.
"Well, actually . . . no, Ron," said Hermione with a heavy sigh, putting down her book and looking at him apologetically. "As a matter of fact, the only bit of the match Harry and I saw was Davies's first goal."
Ron's carefully ruffled hair seemed to wilt with disappointment.
"You didn't watch?" he said faintly, looking from one to the other. "You didn't see me make any of those saves?"
Harry saw Noel frown from the corner of his eye and sent him a questioning look.
"Well — no," said Hermione, stretching out a placatory hand toward him. "But Ron, we didn't want to leave — we had to!"
"Yeah?" said Ron, whose face was growing rather red. "How come?"
"It was Hagrid," said Harry. "He decided to tell us why he's been covered in injuries ever since he got back from the giants. He wanted us to go into the forest with him, we had no choice, you know how he gets. . . . Anyway . . ."
Harry told the two of them that Hagrid had met his brother when he was on his mission to persuade the giants to be on their side. He had brought him back here and was now a resident in the forbidden forest. Hagrid feared that he'd be sacked so he made Hermione and Harry promise that they'd check up in Gwap occasionally and teach him English.
"No," said Ron, as though by saying this he could make it untrue. "No, he can't have..."
"Well, he has," said Hermione firmly. "Grawp's about sixteen feet tall, enjoys ripping up twenty-foot pine trees, and knows me," she snorted, "as Hermy."
Ron gave a nervous laugh. "And Hagrid wants us to...?"
"Teach him English, yeah," said Harry.
"He's lost his mind," said Ron in an almost awed voice.
"Yes," said Hermione irritably, turning a page of Intermediate Transfiguration and glaring at a series of diagrams showing an owl turning into a pair of opera glasses. "Yes, I'm starting to think he has. But unfortunately, he made Harry and me promise."
"Y'know..." Noel started uncertainly, "Hagrid shouldn't have made you promise to do anything before you knew what you were getting into. I mean a giant! That's— that's crazy."
Ron nodded in agreement, "Well, you're just going to have to break your promise, that's all," said Ron firmly. "I mean, come on... We've got exams and we're about that far," he held up his hand to show thumb and forefinger a millimeter apart, "from being chucked out as it is. And anyway... remember Norbert? Remember Aragog? Have we ever come off better for mixing with any of Hagrid's monster mates?"
"I know, it's just that — we promised," said Hermione in a small voice.
Ron smoothed his hair flat again, looking preoccupied.
"Well," he sighed, "Hagrid hasn't been sacked yet, has he? He's hung on this long, maybe he'll hang on till the end of term and we won't have to go near Grawp at all."
"Norbert?" Noel whispered to Harry, her head tilted. Harry grinned and the two turned to each other as he told her all about their first year.