Supercilious [On Hold]

The First Day

The next morning as Lucille met Harry in The Common Room, Hermione had already left for breakfast and Ron was still showering.

Harry filled her up on what had happened, but he first rubbed the back of his neck and asked, "Uhm, do you--by any chance know--have a house elf?"

"Yeah, 3 of 'em Dobby, Terry, and Ricky. Why do you ask?"

"No reason."

He then told her, that his aunt and uncle had him locked up and weren't giving him proper food, Ron, Fred, and George came to save him, and that is how he ended up with the Weasleys for the summer.

"You know," Lucille said softly, "I always thought you had solid living conditions, a pampered life--being The Boy Who Lived, but your relatives are horrible if you don't mind me saying that."

"I don't."

Just then Ron came downstairs, and the three of them made their way to the Great Hall.

As Lucille took the side beside Hermione, her copy of Voyages with Vampires propped open against a milk jug, and Harry sat beside Lucille and Ron got on Hermione's other side, Hermione gave the boys a stiff, "Morning," she was still disapproving than Lucille thought.

 Neville Longbottom, on the other hand, greeted them cheerfully. 

"Mail's due any minute—I think Gran's sending a few things I forgot."

As Lucille reached for her pumpkin juice, sure enough, there was a rushing sound overhead, and a hundred or so owls streamed in, circling the hall and dropping letters and packages into the chattering crowd. A big, lumpy package bounced off Neville's head and, a second later, something large and gray fell into Hermione's jug, spraying them all with milk and feathers.

"Errol!" said Ron, pulling the bedraggled owl out by the feet. 

Errol slumped, unconscious, onto the table, his legs in the air and a damp red envelope in his beak.

"Oh, no—" Ron gasped.

Lucille who had just taken a sip, promptly choked on her pumpkin juice, Harry whacked her on the back several times. Howler, Ron had got a Howler.

Meanwhile, "It's all right, he's still alive," said Hermione, prodding Errol gently with the tip of her finger.

"It's not that—it's that."

Ron was pointing at the red envelope

"What's the matter?" said Harry.

"She's—she's sent me a Howler," said Ron faintly.

"You'd better open it, Ron," said Neville in a timid whisper. "It'll be worse if you don't. My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and"—he gulped—"it was horrible."

Harry looked from their petrified faces to the red envelope.

"What's a Howler?" he said.

Since Ron was focused on the Howler Lucille answered, "It is difficult to explain, but it is like a shouting letter."

 The letter had begun to smoke at the corners.

"Open it," Neville urged. "It'll all be over in a few minutes—"

Ron stretched out a shaking hand, eased the envelope from Errol's beak, and slit it open. Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears and Lucille grimaced. A roar of sound filled the huge hall, shaking dust from the ceiling.

"—STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE—"