Harry Potter and the Protectors of Hogwarts

x. of a hogsmeade trip interrupted

"She let you do what?" Ron yelled, as they sat in the common room that night, huddled around the table near the fireplace, doing their homework.

"She didn't tie me up like she said she would. But she did lock me in a cage. I waited for ages, but nobody came to fee me. Killian went off, to check on you lot, she wouldn't tell me what you were facing, but she came back looking amused. We got bored of waiting, I got annoyed really, I mean come on it couldn't have been that bad really. So she took out a few chocolate frogs and other sweets and stuff and shared them with me. I even found Agrippa," Harry rubbed it in. Ron had been looking for Agrippa for years, Harry remembered Ron mentioning it on their very first trip in the Hogwarts Express.

Ron who still had a limp from twisting his ankle, muttered under breath.

"I thought Killian would be a good teacher. I didn't think she'd try to murder us," he complained.
Hermione stayed quiet. She'd hardly said a word since Killian's lesson. They'd heard from Parvati that her, Hermione's, boggart would turn into a centaur. Harry was surprised by this, but he did remember that Hermione's failed plan to let the centaurs take care of Umbridge. He had stopped himself from laughing just in time, by the look on Hermione's face.

"I wish I was the prisoner. Why couldn't I have got the green dot? I could have sat there in the cage, doing nothing, eating chocolate frogs," Ron muttered dreamily.

"And pumpkin pasties," Harry added.

"And pumpkin pasties..."

"And liquorice wands," Harry said, suppressing his laughter.

"And-" Ron abruptly cut himself off and stomped off to the dorms leaving all his stuff behind. Harry, Neville and Ginny gave into their laughter behind him.

Ron came down seconds later, chomping on a chocolate frog, his pockets bulging.

The weekend passed quickly. They went down to visit Hagrid who tried to feed them rock cakes, which they refused as politely as they could.

When they asked about Grawp, he told them that Dumbledore had helped relocate him to some mountains. The giants had definitely sided with Voldemort, because they had immediately attacked the other convoys that Dumbledore had sent out. This news disheartened them, all wondering how much damage the giants would do under Voldemort's command.

They left Hagrid soon after, when Ron said that giants didn't need much prompting to cause much damage anyway; it was just in their nature. Harry was about to furiously point out that Hagrid wasn't dangerous. But Ron already went ahead and said, "Lucky Hagrid is only half-giant. And that he respects his father's memory and Dumbledore's trust to do anything."

Harry snapped his mouth shut. It had been the most mature thing he had ever heard Ron say. Sort of.

Monday morning they only had single potions before lunch. Snape was still in a bad mood and he snapped at anyone who put their hands up to ask a question, even the Slytherins. Or so Hermione reported. Hermione that there had been an explosion half way through lesson, but it came from outside the classroom so Snape left to investigate. He'd come back after ten minutes, muttering angrily to himself.

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful.

In Defence Moody showed them a cleaving spell, a spell miners used to when trying to create a new tunnel. Of course the backlash also created cave-ins, so they were told to be careful if they ever used the spell. They also learned a tree uprooting spell, a spell that literally dragged the tree up from the roots. Harry knew these were dangerous spells, but he wondered what they had to do with defence.

"Killian told me the results of the maze," Moody started just before the end of the class. "Pathetic. You've handled all them creatures before, there should have been no problem. I suppose the troll was a bit too much, but Owl team handled it well. But the boggart and the pixies and the small arachnids, barely bigger than your feet, you could have stepped on them. I repeat, pathetic. First years could have done better. Now, I'm gonna give you all a project. You're all gonna go back into your teams. Next lesson until Christmas. You're all gonna encounter the maze twice more before Christmas, with all them obstacles and more. In your group come up with a possible list what creatures you're gonna encounter and how to defend against them. Learn everything you can. Meet once a week outside of lesson. Compare your lists, work together, devise a plan. What strengths? What weaknesses? Work them out together. Improve on them. Dismissed!" he barked.