Percy Jackson and the Hound of Hogwarts [Book 3]

38) The Party

This chapter is dedicated to Haley. RIP

There was a party in the Gryffindor common room, and it was amazing. Fred and George had gotten a bunch of food from Hogsmeade, and everyone was having a blast.

Everyone except for Hermione.

She sat in a corner, a large book propped in her lap. Harry and I walked over to her.

"Did you even come to the match?" Harry asked, his brows furrowed.

"Of course I did," Hermione said, her voice strangely high-pitched. "And I'm be very glad we won, and I think you did really well, but I need to read this by Monday."

"Come on Hermione, come and have some food," I motioned towards the party, then glanced at Ron, wondering if he was happy enough to make up with our friend.

"I can't, Percy, I've still got four hundred and twenty-two pages to read!" Hermione sounded a little hysterical. "Anyway..." she glanced at Ron. "He doesn't want me to join in."

At that very moment, Ron loudly said, "If Scabbers hadn't just been eaten, he could have had some of those Fudge Flies. He used to really like them—"

Hermione started crying. She gripped her massive book tightly, and ran up the stairs into the girls dormitory.

I wheeled on Ron, "Can't you give her a break?"

"No," Ron said plainly. "If she just acted like she was sorry — but she'll never admit she's wrong, Hermione. She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on vacation or something."

The party ended that night when Professor McGonagall came into the common room insisting we went to bed. She gave a look to me and the rest of the demigods who weren't supposed in the Gryffindor tower at all. Connor, Travis, and I, who were in here often, just gave her a grin. Seamus immediately proposed a sleepover, and McGonagall said it was fine with a sigh.

After some time at the Hermes cabin, you get used to cramped quarters. Several of the smaller kids had to share a bed, so Seamus and I were both fine with sharing a bunk.

That night, however, I had a dream. It was just a flash. A bright moon hovering overhead, and a loud, ringing howl.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" (I got this exactly from the book.)

The howling was interrupted, and I woke up, Seamus shooting up beside me. Our instincts were on overload, and it was struggle enough for us to not pull out our swords. We scrambled out of the hangings and Seamus called, "What's going on?"

The door slammed, Harry ripped his curtains back, and Dean Thomas lit his lamp.

Ron was sitting up in his bed, his eyes wide with terror. His hangings were torn from one side.

"Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!"

"What?"

"Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! Woke me up!"

"You sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" Dean questioned. I sat back hard on Seamus' bed. Both of us were forcing the instinctive need to fight something down, breathing heavily to calm ourselves.

"Look at the curtains! I tell you, he was here!"

Everyone scrambled to get downstairs. The curtains had been torn, and now everyone was freaking out. Doors opened all around us, sleepy voices pouring out. We didn't see anything, and Hogwarts was quiet. Still, she seemed confused, which made me confused, and my head soon started to hurt.

"Are you sure you weren't dreaming, Ron?" I looked tiredly up at my friend.

"I'm telling you, I saw him!"

"What's all the noise?"

"Professor McGonagall told us to go to bed!"

Some of the girls had come downstairs, wrapped in bathrobes and night gowns. Boys stated coming down soon, too.

"Excellent, are we carrying on?" Fred Weasley grinned.

"Everyone back upstairs!" Perry said, pinning his Head Boy badge to his chest as he rushed down.

"Perry — Sirius Black!" Ron said weakly. "In our dormitory! With a knife! Woke me up!"

The common room went silent suddenly.

"Nonsense!" Perry said, startled. "You has too much to eat, Ron — had a nightmare—"

"I'm telling you—"

"Now, really, enough's enough!"

McGonagall was back. She slammed the portrait shut behind her as she entered and stared around at everyone furiously.

"I am delighted that Gryffindor won the match, but this is getting ridiculous! Perry, I expected better of you!"

"I certainly didn't authorize this, Professor!" Percy said indignantly. "I was just telling them all to get back to bed! My brother Ron here had a nightmare—"

"IT WASN'T A NIGHTMARE!" Ron bellowed. "PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!"

McGonagall stared at him, "Don't be ridiculous, Weasley, how could he possibly have gotten through the portrait hole?"

"Ask him!" Ron pointed a shaky finger at the back of the portrait. "Ask him if he saw—"

McGonagall, glaring suspiciously at Ron, pushed the portrait open and went out.

"Sir Cadogan, did you just let a man enter Gryffindor tower?"

"Certainly, good lady!" Sir Cadogan cried.

Everything went silent. I found myself tapping my foot against the ground nervously, twisting Riptide — in pen form — in my hand.

"You — you did?" McGonagall's eyes were wide. "But — but the password!"

"He had 'em!" Sir Cadogan said happily. "Had the whole week's, my lady! Read 'em off a little piece of paper!"

McGonagall came back in, staring at us, her face white as a sheet.

"Which person," she said shakily, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"

For a moment, silence followed, then with a small squeak, Neville slowly lifted a trembling hand into the air.

Dudes. It has been eventful. Yesterday a friend came over and we hang out for like ten minutes, but then another friend was like 'Wanna carve pumpkins at my church?' And we were like 'Yeah.' And we went to his church and joined the 9th-10th group, but we didn't help cause there were a bunch of people around the table, so we played this weird game where you had to throw pool balls. That was fun. Also, I got another 86. And I'm Word Certified! Hee hoo! I say hee hoo a lot and I don't know why. Um, the same friend came over today. We watched Adventure Time, and he fixed my CoD, and then we took him home, and now we're getting McDonald's. Earlier there was a spider in my sister's shoe and she was super freaked out. It's been a pretty good day, all things considering. Today marks the one year anniversary of when Haley was killed. I miss her tons, but it's all right. I just told my step-mom I ate McDonalds on the day of her death and now I think she's sad. It's weird.

Anyway, I hope you guys have had a good Thursday. I will see you on Saturday.