Jane Fizzle and the Philosophers Stone

Chapter 12

    As they enter November, the weather turns very cold. The mountains around the school become icy gray and the lake like chilled steel. It looks very weird in the common room when the lake is frozen. Every morning, the ground is covered in frost. Robin can be seen from the upstairs windows defrosting broomsticks on the Quidditch field, bundled up in a long moleskin overcoat, rabbit fur gloves, and beaver skin boots.

    The first year girls and boys from Slytherin are currently out in the courtyard after their Friday classes, playing a card game Rachel brought with her. They're all bundled up, Bill making a small fire to keep them warm.

    "Eww, what is that?" Avery asks after a few rounds of Go Fish, pointing to this balck void on the stone floor of the courtyard, the others looking over where Avery's pointing.

    "I'll go and see," Vasper says, standing up and walking over to it. He bends over it and is about to touch it when Mickey comes running over and pushes him out of the way.

    "Noooo! Don't go near that thing!" Mickey yells at him, grabbing Vasper by the shoulders and moving him back to where the Slytherin first years are, all of them looking at Mickey in a weird way.

    "Why, what?" Jane asks.

    "That's the Moldy Sandwich," Mickey answers. "It's been here ever since Mason and James were in first year."

    "Whoa, eww, really?" Bill asks. "What kind of sandwich is it?"

    "Well, it was a ham and cheese, but now it's a mold and cheese sandwich. Rumor has it, it was left out here on Halloween of 2008, and no one has picked it up since," Mickey says in an eerie voice, waving his fingers in a creepy way.

    "Yo, are you talking about the Moldy Sandwich?" James asks, walking over with Philip and another 5th year in Hufflepuff, Jane not knowing her.

    "Yeah," Mickey nods. "Vasper almost touched it."

    The three other fifth years gasp in horror. It's the first time Philip showed another emotion other than rage. "I was there when it happened," Philip says.

    "Wait, really?" Bill asks. "You never told us this story before."

    "Because it's disgusting," Philip scoffs, rolling his eyes.

    "I'll tell you!" James says loudly, raising his arm up in the sky. "It all happened during Halloween in 2008. Us Slytherins and a few others were eating our sandwiches outside during lunch, and we sort of forgot about one of them when we cleaned up. We remembered it during the Winter Holiday, and when we came back, it started to get moldy and smelly."

    "And we thought how funny it'll be to see how long it would stay there without us cleaning it, and no one dares to even go near it now," Mason adds, chuckling. The first years are hanging onto every word the fifth years are saying, looking back and forth between the three as they add more things about the Moldy Sandwich.

    "They say that it changed mold colors during the different seasons," Philip smiles, the first time he smiled in front of Jane and the others.

    "And you can smell it before you walk out here on warmer days," the Hufflepuff girl adds.

    "Wouldn't it be funny if one of us ate a corner off it?" Bill asks the first years, all of them gagging in disgust and disagreeing with him.

    "That thing is a biohazard, I ain't going near that thing!" Eden shakes her head, looking grossed out.

    "You better get that thought out of your head, Bill Cipher," Philip says in a threatening voice, pointing a finger at him.

    "It's just something funny to think about, gosh," Bill says quickly, holding his hands up defensively.