𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐃𝐀𝐑𝐊𝐍𝐄𝐒𝐒

Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Fall

The Great Hall, as it often times was, was full of activity and the dull roar of the students. It was an early morning near the beginning December, but the grounds outside were still brown and gray, just waiting for the wintry whiteness of snow to formalize the conversion of autumn to winter.

Inside, the Hall, a familiar group seated themselves at the end of the Gryffindor table and helped themselves to the delicious food attractively adorning the golden platters across the expanse of the large table.

"Harry, you should really go and see Madam Pompfrey about your hands," Hermione admonished Harry again, for about the third time that morning. Considering they had only been awake for an hour now, Hermione's harpinghad quickly grown sorer than Harry's bruised and swollen punching the wall last night had not exactly been the best thing last night.

"I'm fine, Hermione. I already told you, it's nothing. Now, just lay off, will you?" Harry snapped, glaring at her from across the table.

Hermione frowned, slightly taken aback by Harry's tone of voice, but chose to remain silent for the moment. The chocolate-haired girl had become used to this, nowadays. Did Harry really think the dark circles under his eyes and all his yawning during the day went unnoticed? Maybe to Ron...but not her...

"How'd that happen, anyway, mate? You were fine before we headed to sleep," Ron asked, peering across the table at Harry as he shoved his mouth full of various breakfast foods.

Harry shrugged briefly, nibbling distractedly at a piece of dry toast. "Dun remember," he muttered.

Hermione opened her mouth to retort, but Ron elbowed her and Harry added, "I'm going to head to Hagrid's for tea early. I'm not hungry."

Hermione glowered at Ron and Ron nodded to Harry. "Alright, mate. We'll be there soon."

Nodding, Harry threw his toast onto his plate before standing and making his way out of the Great Hall, the voices growing steadily dimmer as he made his way outside, into the crisp air and light fog covering the grounds.

He didn't notice a pair of twinkling blue, if not weary, eyes follow him out of the room. Then again, he often didn't...

Harry, Ron, and Hermione left the hut together, as they normally did; their stomach still full of Hagrid's over-boiled tea. As usual, the visit had been uneventful. Ron, however, was situated in the middle between the bushy-haired girl and the green-eyed boy. He had made sure of this arrangement purposefully—he knew that he had to separate his best friends or they would bite each other's head off about something. Hermione was looking decidedly sour, and Harry was brooding silently about something, or at least appeared to be, but was as silent as the grave. This came as no surprise. Harry, over the course of a few years, had grown significantly secretive, although this was the worst Ron and Hermione had ever seen...

Ron was, for once, was not in a fight with either of them, and he wanted to keep it that way, so he kept his mouth smartly shut. Instead, he looked ceiling-ward and wondered how Gryffindor would fare in the next game. They hadn't been practicing as much but, then again, no one had. It wasn't safe to be outside for too long...especially in the twilight...

As the trio made their way down the cold and slightly crowded halls, each were lost in a fog of their own thought—so much so that not one noticed the translucent poltergeist hovering in front of them, grinning madly.

Peeves, seeing he wasn't spotted, chuckled softly to himself and waited for the pre-occupied friends to pass beneath him before dropping the flowerpot he had been holding in his silvery hand. He had been waiting for such an opportunity like this all day—and now, finally, he had found one. He, of course, didn't want to hit either prefects or the Boy-That-Lived. Dumbledore wasn't as forgiving when it came to people being hurt; in fact, the aging wizard was down right mean. Things broken, missing, moved, etc, was tolerable—better than if anyone actually was physically damaged. The Headmaster hadn't even punished him when he dropped water balloons a few years back, although he had gotten quite a talking to. So, he wasn't going to start now, especially with such precious cargo.