Dark Pasts { A Harry Potter Story }

Chapter 16 - Rumours and Elves

Harry, Ron, and Hermione went up to the Owlery that evening, but I stayed behind in the common room, where we were preparing a party. Fred and George had nicked enough food from the kitchens for a feast. There were mountains of cakes and flagons of pumpkin juice and butterbeer on every table. Lee Jordan had even let off some Filibuster's Fireworks while Dean had drawn some impressive banners depicting Harry zooming around the Horntail's head on his Firebolt. Some showed Cedric with his head on fire.

I was grabbing a butterbeer when I bumped into Harry, who had just entered the common room with Ron and Hermione.

"Hey, where were you?" he asked.

"Here, in the common room," I said uncertainly.

"Oh," he said. "Listen, I want to thank you for your help. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Hermione helped you a lot," I said.

"Yeah, but still," he said. "Couldn't have done it without you."

We smiled at each other. "Well, it was my pleasure."

"Blimey, this is heavy," Lee Jordan said as he walked past us, picking up the golden egg which had been resting on a table. "Open it, Harry, go on! Let's see what's inside!"

"He's supposed to work out the clue on his own," Hermione said. "It's in the tournament rules. . . ."

"I was supposed to work out how to get past the dragon on my own too," Harry muttered so that only we heard him. Hermione and I grinned guiltily at him.

"Yeah, go on, Harry, open it!" several people echoed.

Lee passed Harry the egg, but the moment it was opened, the most horrible, screechy wailing filled the room. I covered my ears.

"What the — "

"Shut it!" Fred bellowed.

"What was that?" Seamus said after Harry closed the egg. "Sounded like a banshee. . . . Maybe you've got to get past one of those next, Harry!"

"It was someone being tortured!" Neville said. "You're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"

"Don't be a prat, Neville, that's illegal," George said. "They wouldn't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing . . . maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower, Harry."

"Want a jam tart, Hermione?" Fred said.

She eyed the plate he was offering her doubtfully.

"It's alright," he said. "I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch — "

Neville, who had just bitten into one, choked and spat it out, causing Fred and George to laugh.

"Just my little joke, Neville. . . ."

Hermione took a jam tart. "Did you get all this from the kitchens?" she asked the twins.

"Yep," Fred said, grinning. "'Anything we can get you, sir,'" he said in a house-elf imitation, "'anything at all!' They're dead helpful . . . get me a roast ox if I said I was peckish."

"How do you get in there?" Hermione asked.

"Easy, concealed door behind a painting of a bowl of fruit. Just ticket the pear, and it giggles and — " he stopped abruptly, looking at her suspiciously. "Why?"

"Nothing," she said with a glance in my direction.

So she wanted to go and have a look at the kitchens. George understood immediately.