A Hogwarts Legend: Chaos Begins [4] (SLOW UPDATES)

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen - "You'd make a great hat."

Through the gates, flanked with statues of winged boars, and up the sweeping drive the carriages trundle, swaying dangerously in what is fast becoming a gale. Leaning against the window, I can see Hogwarts coming nearer, its many lit windows blurred and shimmering behind the thick curtain of rain. Lightning flashes across the sky as our carriage comes to a halt before the great oak front doors, which stands at the top of a flight of stone steps. People who have occupied the carriages in front are already hurrying up the stone steps into the castle; Harry, Ron, Hermione, Elinor, Maya, Neville and I jump down from our carriage and dash up the steps too, looking up only when we're safely inside the cavernous torch-lit Entrance Hall, with its magnificent marble staircase.

"Blimey," says Ron, shaking his head and sending water everywhere, "if that keeps up, the lakes going to overflow. I'm soak - ARGH!"

A large, red, water-filled ballon has dropped from out of the ceiling onto Ron's head, and explodes. Drenched and spluttering, Ron staggers sideways into Harry, just as a second water bomb drops - narrowly missing Hermione, the bomb bursts on Elinor's head. I throw my hands up to stop the water from hitting me. Instead, the water hits Maya, who splutters and curses. People all around us shriek and start pushing each other in their efforts to get out of the line of fire - I look up, and see, floating twenty feet above us, Peeves the poltergeist, a little man in a bell-covered hat and orange bow-tie, his wide, malicious face contorted with concentration as he takes aim again.

"Why didn't you stop the water, you bitch?" Maya hisses.

"No one knows what my powers are, except the people I've told," I mutter. "I kind of want to reveal it in a more dramatic way. I'm one for theatrics."

"PEEVES!" yells an angry voice. "Peeves, come down here at ONCE!"

Professor McGonagall, deputy headmistress and Head of Gryffindor house, has come dashing out of the Great Hall; she skids on the wet floor and grabs Hermione around the neck to stop herself falling. "Ouch - sorry, Miss Granger -"

"That's all right, Professor!" Hermione gasps, massaging her neck.

"Peeves, get down here NOW!" barks Professor McGonagall, straightening her pointed hat and glaring upwards through her square-rimmed spectacles.

"Not doing nothing!" cackles Peeves, lobbing a water bomb and several fifth-year girls, who scream and dive into the Great Hall. "Already wet, aren't they? Little squirts! Wheeeeeeeeee!" And he aims another bomb at a group of second-years who have just arrived.

"I shall call the Headmaster!" shouts Professor McGonagall. "I'm warning you, Peeves -"

Peeves sticks out his tongues, throws the last of his water bombs into the air, and zooms off up the marble staircase, cackling insanely.

"Well, move along, then!" says Professor McGonagall sharply to the bedraggled crowd. "Into the Great Hall, come on!"

Harry, Ron, Hermione, Elinor, Maya and I slip and slide across the Entrance Hall and through the double doors on the right, Ron muttering furiously under his breath as he pushes his sopping hair off his face.

The Great Hall looks its usual splendid self, decorated for the start-of-term feast. Golden plates and goblets gleam by the light of hundreds and hundreds of candles, floating over the tables in mid-air. The four long house tables are packed with chattering students; at the top of the Hall, the staff sits along one side of a fifth table, facing their pupils. It's much warmer here. Harry, Ron, Hermione, Elinor, Maya and I walk past the Slytherins, the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs, and sit down with the rest of the Gryffindors at the far side of the Hall, next to Nearly Headless Nick, the Gryffindor ghost. Pearly white and semi-transparent, Nick is dressed tonight in his usual doublet, with a particularly large ruff, which serves the dual purpose of looking extra festive and ensuring that his head doesn't wobble too much on his partially severed neck.