Towers - Fred Weasley

25

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WHEN EBONY HAS GONE DOWN TO BREAKFAST ON THE MORNING OF THE THIRTIETH OF OCTOBER, she found that the Great Hall had been decorated overnight. Enormous silk banners hang from the walls, each of them representing a Hogwarts house – red with a gold lion for Gryffindor, blue with a bronze eagle for Ravenclaw, yellow with a black badger for Hufflepuff, and green with a silver serpent for Slytherin. Behind the teachers' table, the largest banner of all bore the Hogwarts coat of arms: lion, eagle, badger and snake united around a large letter 'H'.

"It's a bummer all right," George says gloomily to Fred and Ebony. "But if he won't talk to us in person, we'll have to send him the letter after all. Or we'll stuff it into his hand, he can't avoid us for ever."

"Who's avoiding you?" Ron asks, sitting down next to them.

"Wish you would," Fred replies, looking irritated at the interruption.

"What's a bummer?" Ron asks George.

"Having a nosy git like you for a brother," says George.

"You three got any ideas on the Triwizard Tournament yet?" Harry asks. 

"Don't bring me into this. I have a bet against them." Ebony states, smiling.

"I asked McGonagall how the champions are chosen but she wasn't telling," George says bitterly. "She just told me to shut up and get on with Transfiguring my raccoon."

"Wonder what the tasks are going to be?" says Ron thoughtfully. "You know, I bet we could do them, Harry, we've done dangerous stuff before ..."

"Not in front of a panel of judges, you haven't," Fred tells them. "McGonagall says the champions get awarded points according to how well they've done the tasks."

"Who are the judges?" Harry asks.

"Well, the Heads of the participating schools are always on the panel," Hermione explains, and everyone looks around at her, rather surprised, "because all three of them were injured during the Tournament of 1792, when a cockatrice the champions were supposed to be catching went on the rampage.

"It's all in Hogwarts: A History. Though, of course, that book's not entirely reliable. "A Revised History of Hogwarts" would be a more accurate title. Or "A Highly Biased and Selective History of Hogwarts, Which Glosses Over the Nastier Aspects of the School"."

"What are you on about?" Ron asks.

"House-elves!" says Hermione loudly. "Not once, in over a thousand pages, does Hogwarts: A History mention that we are all colluding in the oppression of a hundred slaves!" Ebony rolls her eyes.

"Well then, I'll see you boys this evening. I have to go to class--" She's held back by Fred who gives her a look of worry.

"Fight back."

"I will." She smiles at him reassuringly and walks her way out of the Great Hall. She has a couple of hours before she will be met with Derrick in Ancient Runes, she has time to think of a way out.

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NOBODY HAD BEEN VERY ATTENTIVE IN ANY CLASS DURING THE DAY but Ebony had one more to go. An hour of Ancient Runes which usually would've been two. She walks inside the classroom, instead of sitting at her usual spot, she sits down in the back right corner. More people enter but nobody sits down next to her, so when Derrick walks inside and there is no other seat left, he sits down next to her.