survivor | HARRY POTTER

-Chapter 4-

To say things were amusing the following morning would be an extreme understatement. Things started off, per usual, in the Great Hall, where things started to go downhill for both Harry and Ron. The four long house tables in the Hall were laden with turrets of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast and dishes of eggs and bacon, beneath the enchanted ceiling, (today a dull, cloudy grey.)

Alyssa, Millie, and Jess sat across from Harry, Ron, and Hermione; Millie had fallen asleep with her face in her porridge, and Alyssa was grinning whilst taking photos with Jess's pink Polaroid Camera. Harry was watching her with amused eyes whilst both Ron and Jess were piling food onto their plates, knowing that they wouldn't get much of a chance to eat at lunch with the way lessons ran. Hermione, to no ones surprise, had her nose stuck in one of Gilderoy Lockhart's books, and was sighing dreamily whenever a large, winking photo of the wizard appeared on one of the pages.

Despite the girl's... infatuation, with the pristine Professor, there was a slight stiffness in the way she was acting towards Harry and Ron, and was obviously still mightily displeased with them flying a car to school the previous day. Neville, on the other hand, greeted everyone extremely cheerful, and looked like he was on cloud nine the second Millie smiled at him. "Post's due any minuet. I think Gran might be spending on a few things I forgot."

Alyssa had only just finished buttering herself some toast when there was a loud rustling sound overhead and a hundred or so owls streamed in, circling the Hall and dropping letters and packages into the chattering crowd. A huge brown own landed in front of Jess and herself, two letters clamped in its beak.

A, did you have fun over the last few weeks of summer? We hope so, the whole family miss you terribly. Dan does too, he just doesn't want to admit it. We wanted to check up on you and see how you were, I know Jess's parents are worried about you two, so we thought we'd send this. After everything that happened last year we just wanted to make it extremely clear that if you get in any danger this year, we'll personally kill you if you return home in one piece. Honey misses you. Lots of love,
The Spinners.

"Charming." Alyssa raised an eyebrow, turning to Jess and skimming over her letter, which contained the usual 'no danger, no boys, blah blah blah' speech they had to endure every year. "Extremely." Jess agreed. Millie, who had woken up and now had porridge dripping from her chin, laughed as she opened a parcel an owl had dropped in front of her, smiling when she saw a stuffed elephant inside. "Yay! Since Jess tried to kill my last one last year my mum brought me another!" Millie looked so full of childlike wonder Alyssa couldn't help but feel bad for her, knowing that some way or another, that elephant wouldn't survive the school year.

A big, lumpy parcel bounced off Neville's head, and a split second later, something large and grey fell into Hermione's jug, spraying them all with milk and feathers. Jess glared ferociously at the grey, feather coloured intruder as Alyssa grimaced and spat feathers out of her mouth. "Extremely charming."
"Errol!" Ron cried bemusedly, pulling the bedraggled owl from the jug 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 whimpered, Hermione sending him a reassuring look. "It's alright, look, he's still alive." She said, poking the owl with her index finger and frowning when it made an extremely odd puffing noise. "It's not that, it's... that." To everyone's surprise, Ron was pointing at the red envelope, which looked rather ordinary to the others, but both Ron and Neville were staring at it as if it were a bomb about to explode.

"What's the matter?" Harry frowned as Alyssa leant forwards to get a closer look. "She's - shes sent me a howler." Alyssa suddenly went very still, silence enveloping them, before she burst out laughing, burying her face in her hands to muffle the noise. Harry looked startled as he stared from the letter to the Ravenclaw and back again, his eyebrows raised and emerald eyes impossibly wide. "Forgive me when I say I don't follow." Jess frowned.
"I'm confused." Millie shrugged.
"What else is new?"