𝐋𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 ;𝐑.𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐥𝐞𝐲

"I'm invisible and I'm not here. Cool."

"I can't see Lupin affording anything like this." Harry tells Ron just as the girls appeared in their room.

"Can't see my dad affording anything like what?"
"What are you too laughing about?"
Hermione had Crookshanks in her arms, and Ron hurriedly clutched Scabbers to his chest and stowed her away in his pocket.

Hermione paid no mind to Ron's protests of bringing her cat into the room and dumped him onto Seamus' bed.

"Oh, Harry! Who sent you that?'
'No idea,' said Harry. 'There wasn't a card or anything with it.'
To his great surprise, Hermione did not appear either excited or intrigued by this news. On the contrary, her face fell, and she bit her lip.

'What's the matter with you?' said Ron.
'I don't know,' said Hermione slowly, 'but it's a bit odd, isn't it? I mean, this is supposed to be quite a good broom, isn't it?'

Ron sighed exasperatedly.

'It's the best broom there is, Hermione,' he said.
'So it must've been really expensive ...'
'Probably cost more than all the Slytherins' brooms put together,' said Ron happily.
"Those things are like, a thousand galleons or something, of course it's expensive!" Rachelle stated the obvious.

'Well ... who'd send Harry something as expensive as that, and not even tell him they'd sent it?' said Hermione.
'Who cares?' said Ron, impatiently. 'Listen, Harry, can I have a go on it? Can I?'
'I don't think anyone should ride that broom just yet!' said Hermione shrilly.
Harry, Rachelle and Ron looked at her.

"What else is he going to do with it? Sweep the floor?" Rachelle scoffed.

But before Hermione could answer, Crookshanks sprang from Seamus's bed, right at Ron's chest.
'GET – HIM – OUT – OF – HERE!' Ron bellowed, as Crookshanks's claws ripped his pyjamas and Scabbers attempted a wild escape over his shoulder. Ron seized Scabbers by the tail and aimed a misjudged kick at Crookshanks which hit the trunk at the end of Harry's bed, knocking it over while Ron howled with pain.

Rachelle sighed at his incompetence and hoisted the spitting and hissing cat into her arms, promptly handing over the furry beast to Hermione, who strode out of the room with Rachelle at her heels after Ron demanded they bring the cat away.

Christmas spirit was definitely thin on the ground in the Gryffindor common room that morning. Hermione had shut Crookshanks in her dormitory, but was furious with Ron for trying to kick him; Ron was still fuming about Crookshanks's fresh attempt to eat Scabbers. Harry and Rachelle gave up trying to make them talk to each other, and he devoted himself to examining the Firebolt, which he had brought down to the common room with him.

For some reason this seemed to annoy Hermione as well; she didn't say anything, but she kept looking darkly at the broom as though it, too, had been criticising her cat.

At lunchtime they went down to the Great Hall, to find that the house tables had been moved against the walls again, and that a single table, set for twelve, stood in the middle of the room. Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall, Snape, Sprout and Flitwick were there, along with Filch, the caretaker, who had taken off his usual brown coat and was wearing a very old and rather mouldy-looking tail coat. There were only three other students: two extremely nervous-looking first-years and a sullen-faced Slytherin fifth-year.

Dumbledore wished them a happy Christmas and they sat down, Ron making sure that Rachelle and Harry were in the space between him and Hermione.

Rachelle and Harry were fighting over the roast potatoes when Professor Trelawney glided towards them as if on wheels. "She looks like a Christmas tree." Rachelle commented quietly on the bright green sequined dress that the Divination teacher had chosen to wear.