The Adventures of the Half-Blood Princess

Part 4

"You're joking!"

It was after dinner when Harry told Anne what had happened when he left the grounds with Professor McGonagall.

"Seeker! It's incredible! First years never make their house teams! Harry, here, is the youngest team player---" Ron exclaimed excitedly.

"---in a century, according to McGonagall," Harry informed her. "I start training next week. Only don't tell anyone, Oliver Wood, who's the captain of the team, wants to keep it a secret."

"But I've never even played Quidditch. What if I make a fool of myself?" he said doubtfully just as Hermione came around the corner.

"You won't make a fool of yourself. It's in your blood," she assured him.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"I'll show you." Hermione led the boys and Anne down a long hallway to a room that contained many trophies and prizes. She then pointed to a case with a plaque inside.

"Whoa, Harry, you never told me your father was a Seeker too!" said Ron amazed.

"I didn't know," replied Harry sadly as he stared at the plaque.

Anne said nothing. She could sympathize with him. No matter how many stories she was told about her late mother, there were still a number of things she wanted or longed to know about.

"I'm telling you, it's spooky. She knows more about you than you," Ron said as the four of them climbed the staircase.

"Who doesn't?" Harry replied just as the staircase started to move. "What's happening?"

"The staircases change, remember?" answered Hermione.

The staircase stopped in front of an entryway to a door that opened to open darkness. The four stepped inside only to find themselves in dark empty passageway.

"Does anyone feel like we shouldn't be here?" asked Anne nervously.

"We're not suppose to be here. It's the third floor corridor. It's forbidden," replied Hermione.

A torch on the wall springs to life. At that moment, Filch's cat Mrs. Norris appears in the entryway blocking their exit.

"It's Filch's cat!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Run!" yelled Harry. The four take off running down the dark corridor with torches flaming up as they passed them. They get to a door at the end of the corridor. Harry grabbed the handle. "It's locked!"

"That's it! We're done for!" Ron moaned.

"Oh, move over!" Anne snarled. She pulled out her wand. "Alohomora."

The door swung open when the lock clicked. They bustle inside and shut it quickly.

"Alohomora?" questioned Ron.

"Standard Book of Spells, Chapter Seven," Hermione explained. She pressed her ear to the door listening. "Filch is gone."

"Probably thinks the door's locked," Ron muttered.

"It was locked," Anne reminded him.

"And for good reason," said Harry uneasy.

They turned around. There was a monstrous three-headed dog staring right at them. It growled and a made a lunge toward them.

The four of them screamed and bolted for the door. Once outside, they slammed the door shut as the beast snapped at them. They all flew out the corridor trying to get away from the nightmare they just encountered.

"What id they think they're doing? Keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" complained Ron once they were safe off the third floor.

"Didn't you see what it was standing on?" asked Hermione.

"I wasn't looking at its feet! I was more preoccupied with its heads!" ron snapped.

"It was standing on a trap door," Anne pointed out. Hermione was relieved to know that she wasn't the only one who noticed. "Which means it wasn't there by accident. It's guarding something."

Harry was puzzled. "Guarding something?"

"That's right. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed before either of you come up with another brilliant idea to get us all killed---- or worse, expelled." Turning on her heel, Anne scurried down stairs to the Slytherin common room.

"I agree with her," said Hermione as she clambered upstairs with the boys trailing behind her. "You two have caused enough trouble for tonight."

On Halloween morning, they woke to the delicious smell of baking pumpkin wafting through the corridors. Even better, Professor Flitwick announced in Charms that he thought they were ready to start making objects levitate.

"One of a wizard's most rudimentary skills is levitation, the ability to make objects fly. Do you all have your feathers?" Everyone raised their feathers in answer.

"Good. Now don't forget the wrist movement we've been practicing. The swish and flick. Everyone--"

"Swish and flick," they all annunciated.

"Good. And don't forget the incantation. Wingardium Leviosa. Off you go."

For almost everyone it appeared to be very difficult. Especially for Ron, who in frustration began shaking his wand vigorously.

"No! Stop, stop, stop!" Hermione intervened. "You're going to take someone's eye out. Besides, you're saying it wrong. It's Leviosa, not Leviosar."

"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron remarked briskly.

Hermione flicked her wand just as Anne flicked hers, and they both recited, "Wingardium Leviosa."

Both of their feathers rose off their desks and hovered aboe their heads.

"Oh, well done!" cried Professor Flitwick excitedly. "See here, everyone! Miss Borden and Miss Granger have done it!"

Ron, however, was in a very bad mood by the end of class. "It's Leviosa, not Leviosar!" he mimicked to Harry and Anne as they pushed their way through the crowd.

"She's a nightmare, honestly! No wonder she hasn't gotten any friends!" he exclaimed. At that moment, Hermione shoved past him with tears in her eyes.

"Ron, have you no common sense?" snapped Anne.

"So what?" said Ron, but he looked a bit uncomfortable. "You may be clever and brilliant, but you don't try to show off or rub it in our faces like her!"

"True, but you can be so insensitive," said Anne agitated before racing off after Hermione.