chapter six : flight of the fat lady

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June arrived in the Great Hall right before the Halloween feast would begin. She slid onto her usual seat next to Angelina and Alicia, and in front of the twins.

"Right on time," Fred said, patting his stomach. "Food should be nearly here . . ."

As soon as the words rolled from his tongue, dinner appeared and the five of them dug in.

"Halloween feast is by far the best feast there is," Angelina said between bites.

"I don't know," Fred replied. "The Welcoming feast is surely not bad either."

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and tables to do a spot of formation gliding; Nearly Headless Nick had a great succes with a re-enactment of his own botched beheading.

Angelina, Alicia, Fred, George and Juniper left the Hall, all in a good mood. The five of them followed the rest of the Gryffindors along the usual path to Gryffindor Tower, but when they reached the corridor which ended with the portrait of the Fat Lady, they found it jammed with students.

"Why isn't anyone going in?" Fred asked curiously.

"I'm going to see what's happening," Juniper said and she pushed her way through the crowd. She stopped abruptly upon seeing the portrait.

The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely.

"Let me through, please," come Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. "What's the hold-up here? You can't have all forgotten the password — excuse me, I'm Head Boy . . . Juniper what's the fuss?"

And then a silence fell over the crowd, from the front first, so that a chill seemed to spread down the corridor. Juniper could feel Percy freeze beside her and they exchanged a quick worried look.

"Somebody get Professor Dumbledore. Quick," Percy said, in a sharp voice.

People's heads turned; those at the back were standing on tiptoe.

"What's going on?" Ginny asked, from somewhere behind June.

Next moment, Professor Dumbledore was there, sweeping towards the portrait. Dumbledore took one quick look at the ruined painting and turned, his eyes somber, to see Professor McGonagall, Lupin and Snape hurrying towards him.

"We need to find her," Dumbledore said. "Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady."

"You'll be lucky!" a crackling voice said.

It was Peeves the poltergeist, bobbling over the crowd and looking delighted, as he always did, at the sight of wreckage or worry.

"What do you mean, Peeves?" Dumbledore said calmly, and Peeves's grin faded a little. He didn't dare taunt Dumbledore. Instead he adopted an oily voice that was no better than his cackle.

"Ashamed, Your Headship, sir. Doesn't want to be seen. She's a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between trees. Crying something dreadful," he said happily. "Poor thing," he added unconvincingly.

"Did she say who did it?" Dumbledore said quietly.

"Oh, yes, Professorhead," Peeves said, with the air of one cradling a large bombshell in his arms. "He got very angry when she wouldn't let him in, you see," Peeves flipped over, and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. "Nasty temper he's got, that Sirius Black."

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Professor Dumbledore sent all the Gryffindors back to the Great Hall, where they were joined ten minutes later by the students from Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, who all looked extremely confused.

"The teachers and I need to conduct a thorough search of the castle," Professor Dumbledore told them as Professors McGonagall and Flitwick closed all doors into the Hall. "I'm afraid that, for your own safety, you will have to spend the night here. I want the Prefects to stand guard over the entrances to the Hall and I am leaving the Head Boy and Girl in charge. Any disturbance should be reported to me immediately," he added to Percy, who was looking immensely proud and important. "Send word with one of the ghosts." Professor Dumbledore paused, about to leave the Hall, and said, "Oh, yes, you'll be needing . . ."

One casual wave of his wand and the long tables flew to the edges of the Hall and stood themselves against the walls; another wave, and the floor was covered with hundreds of squashy purple sleeping bags.

"Sleep well," Professor Dumbledore said, closing the door behind him.

"Juniper! Cedric!" Percy called. "You guard the entrance to the Entrance Hall."

Both of them nodded and slipped through the students towards the entrance. When they arrived at their spots, Juniper started telling Cedric in a low voice what had happened.

"So Sirius Black got into Hogwarts?" Cedric whispered, as they watched the students fall asleep.

"Yeah."

"How?"

June shrugged. "I don't know."

The two of them stood quietly next to the entrance. Both of them were watching the students sleep.

Once every hour, a teacher would reappear in the Hall to check that everything was quiet. Around three in the morning, when many students had finally fallen asleep, Professor Dumbledore came in. June watched him looking around for Percy, who had been prowling between the sleeping bags, telling people off for talking. The black haired looked at her friend next to her, who tried to hide a yawn.

"Don't fall asleep now, will you," June whispered, nudging him gently.

"I won't," Cedric said, yawning.

The two of them watched Professor Dumbledore and Percy talk before the door of the Hall cracked open and Professor Snape slid into the Hall. He strode over to Professor Dumbledore and started a conversation that June couldn't hear. The black haired leaned against the wall, she herself had trouble too to stay awake.

"So . . . First Quidditch match of the season in coming up . . . Against Slytherin . . ."

"Shut it, Diggory, I'm not telling you a thing."

"Can't blame me for trying."

Juniper rolled her eyes. "Didn't expect that from you." She glanced at him. "I thought you were more of a fair player."

"I am," Cedric said, yawning, "but the tiredness is killing me and I wanted to start a conversation."

"You could've simply asked me how I'm doing or something like that."

"How are you doing?"

"Well, today — no — yesterday was my birthday and the day my uncle and aunt died. Plus Sirius Black, my uncle mind you, broke into Hogwarts to probably kill Harry. So yeah, besides from that, I'm fine."

"That sucks," Cedric said, blinking a couple of times. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Thanks and yes, it does."

By the time morning came, June had trouble keeping her eyes open and she was glad that Dumbledore decided everyone could go back to their common room. She and the other Prefects got the day off to catch on some sleep and when June finally woke up, it was already one o'clock in the afternoon.

She soon found out that the Fat Lady's tipped canvas had been taken off the wall and replaced with the portrait of Sir Cadogan and his fat grey pony. Nobody was very happy about this. Sir Cadogan spent half his time challenging people to duels, and the rest thinking up ridiculously complicated passwords, which he changed at least twice a day.

"He's barking mad," Seamus said angrily to Percy. "Can't we get anyone else?"

"None of the other pictures wanted the job," Percy replied. "Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer."

The weather worsened steadily as the first Quidditch match drew nearer. Undaunted, the Gryffindor team were training harder than ever under the eye of Madam Hooch, who had to keep Harry safe from Black. Then, at their final training sessions before Saturday's match, Oliver gave them some unwelcome news.

"We're not playing Slytherin!" he told them, looking very angry. "Flint's just been to see me. We're playing Hufflepuff instead."

"Why?" chorused the rest of them.

"Flint's excuse is that their Seeker's arm's still injured," Wood said, grinding his teeth furiously. "But it's obvious why they're doing it. Don't want to play in this weather. Think it'll damage their chances . . ."

There had been strong winds and heavy rain all day, and as Wood spoke, they heard a distant rumble of thunder.

"There's nothing wrong with Malfoy's arm!" Harry said furiously and June nodded in agreement. "He's faking it!"

"I know that, but we can't prove it," Oliver said bitterly. "And we've been practicing all those moves assuming we're playing Slytherin, and instead it's Hufflepuff, and their style's quite different. They've got a new captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory . . ."

Angelina, Alicia and Katie giggled while June just frowned.

"What?" Oliver said, frowning at the light-hearted behavior.

"He's that tall, good-looking one, isn't he?" Angelina said.

"Strong and silent," Katie continued.

"I don't know why you're worried, Oliver," Fred said, "Hufflepuff are a pushover. Last time we played them, Harry caught the Snitch in about five minutes, remember?"

"We're playing in completely different conditions!" Oliver shouted, his eyes bulging slightly. "Diggory's put a very strong side together! He's an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you'd take it like this! We mustn't relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin are trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!"

"Oliver, calm down!" Fred said, looking slightly alarmed. "We're taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously."

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The day before the match, the winds reached howling point and the rain fell harder than ever. It was so dark inside the corridors and classrooms that extra torches and lanterns were lit. The Slytherin team were looking very smug indeed, and none more so than Draco.

"Ah, if only my arm was feeling a bit better!" he sighed, as the gale outside pounded the windows.

Juniper kept glaring at him, which seemed to shut him up for a while. However, the black haired knew Oliver was right and in the following days she tried not to worry too much. She knew they couldn't lose from Slytherin or they wouldn't hear the end of it.

The morning of the match, June was up before anyone else. Knowing she couldn't sleep further, she stood up and got dressed. She put her black hair in a ponytail before taking her Nimbus Two Thousand and leaving her dormitory. She descended the stairs to the common room and was surprised to see Harry already sitting in front of the fireplace, his broom laying on his lap.

"Can't sleep either?" June spoke up, sitting next to him.

Harry jumped up. He had obviously been lost in his thoughts. He then smiled at her while nodding at the window.

"It's the weather. It keeps on storming."

"It worries me too," Juniper confessed. "At least we know beforehand we'll be soaked to the bone."

"That's not a comforting thought," Harry replied dryly.

"We'll make it, Harry, we always do."

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Published 06.09.2020

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