mavis weasley || harry potter [2]

FIVE || Classrooms

Things started to go downhill from breakfast in the Great Hall. The four long House tables were laden with tureens of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast, and dishes of eggs and bacon beneath the enchanted ceiling (today, a dull, cloudy gray). Before Harry and Ron arrived, Mavis and Hermione were already at the Gryffindor table. Mavis was eating eggs with a pounding headache from the day before as Hermione sat with her copy of Voyages with Vampires propped open against a milk jug. There was a slight stiffness in the way she said "Morning" to Ron and Harry as they sat down next to the girls. Mavis greeted the boys to the best of her ability with her headache. As Neville began to talk, she put her head down in between her arms, closing her eyes. 

Neville Longbottom was a round-faced and accident-prone boy with the worst memory of anyone Mavis knew.

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

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 as Mavis grabbed the envelope.

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

"That's not what Ron's referring to," Mavis said fearfully.

She looked at the red envelope in her hand and then at Ron. They had a Howler.

"What's the matter?" said Harry

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

"I can't do this right now," said Mavis, looking around the very crowded Great Hall.

"You better open it, Mavis," 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."

"What's a Howler?" Harry asked.

"Come on, Ron, we have to open it," said Mavis.

But Ron's whole attention was fixed on the letter, which had begun to smoke at the corners.

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

Mavis slit the letter open as Neville put his fingers in his ears. A roar of sound filled the huge hall, shaking dust from the ceiling. 

"MAVOURNEEN AND RONALD WEASLEY—"

Mavis had anticipated this coming; she had watched Fred and George open Howlers before. But nothing could prepare her for the sheer boom of her mother's voice.

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

Molly's yells, a hundred times louder than usual, made the plates and spoons rattle on the table, and echoed deafiningly off the stone walls. People throughout the hall swiveling around to see who had received the Howler, and Ron sank so low in his chair that only his crimson forehead could be seen. Mavis put her head back into her arms, not only to cover her own crimson face, but to try to save her head from an even worst headache.

"—LETTER FROM DUMBLEDORE LAST NIGHT, I THOUGHT YOUR FATHER WOULD DIE OF SHAME, WE DIDN'T BRING YOU TWO UP TO BEHAVE LIKE THIS; YOU TWO COULD'VE KILLED HARRY—"