Child of Hogwarts: Part I

Chapter Twenty-One - The Drowned Diary

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

The Drowned Diary

Harry and Ron both woke late on Boxing Day, after their interrupted sleep the night before. To Ron's great relief, Harry was much better this morning, as he had predicted. His headache and nausea had gone, though Ron said he was still looking a bit peaky. The boys headed down to breakfast, where they found much of the remaining students trickling in on the later side as well, many bleary-eyed and still yawning.

'What's up with you?' Ron asked George as he and Harry sank onto the bench opposite the twins at the Gryffindor table.

George groaned. 'Keep it down, won't you Ron?' he said with a wince. He and Fred were both looking wan, and Fred pushed his eggs away, a tad green behind the ears.

'They thought they'd have a little Christmas revelry,' offered Percy from the other end of the table, who was quite chipper and talking in an unnecessarily loud voice. George winced again.

Harry was confused. 'What do you mean?' he asked, looking between Percy and the twins. Percy smirked in a satisfied sort of way.

'They got hold of a bit of Firewhisky last night,' he said. 'I caught them at it with their friends 'bout three in the morning.'

'Yeah, well, you already took points, didn't you,' said Fred weakly. 'No need to rub it in.'

Percy's grin grew more pronounced. 'I ought to have gone for McGonagall about your two,' he said, waving a fork sternly at Fred. 'You're lucky I didn't want to disturb her Christmas. Not so much fun this morning though, is it boys?' He looked very smug indeed as he watched both twins trying to choke down their porridge.

Ron laughed.

'Where's Hermione got to?' Percy asked, turning to Ron and Harry. They frowned.

'She's in hospital wing,' Harry said. 'Had a bit of an accident yesterday. We'll go up and see her after breakfast – bring her some of her things. We'll have to ask Ginny to get them from the dormitory.'

Ginny came in at that moment, muttering a good morning to them all. She agreed to bring them Hermione's school bag.

A little scroll of parchment suddenly appeared against Harry's glass of pumpkin juice. He unrolled it with a grin, recognising Dumbledore's narrow, slanted handwriting.

'Brilliant!' he said, as he finished reading the missive.

'What's up?' asked Ron through a mouthful of eggs.

'Dumbledore and McGonagall want to have lunch,' Harry said, taking a slice of toast. 'In Hogsmeade. The note said to meet them in the entrance hall at midday.'

As he finished eating, a second scroll popped into place in precisely the same spot. Harry stared, feeling his heart sink a bit. He recognised the script on this missive as well.

'What does Snape want with me?' he wondered aloud, reaching for the note. Ron grimaced in sympathy.

Potter – you will meet me tonight in my office at 8 p.m. sharp. Do not be late. SS

Harry had a nasty feeling about this.

'What does he want?' asked Ron, trying to read the note over Harry's shoulder.

Harry shrugged. 'He doesn't say, just to meet him tonight. Maybe my last Potions essay was rubbish or something, and he wants me to pickle rat liver to make it up.'