A Halliwell at Hogwarts: The Chamber of Secrets

III - Gilderoy Lockhart... Yeah, Definitely Doomed

The next morning Persephone and Hermione didn't wait for Harry and Ron. They took a seat at the Gryffindor table, which was laden with tureens of porridge, plates of kippers, mountains of toast, and dishes of eggs and bacon, beneath the enchanted ceiling (today, a dull, cloudy gray), and started eating their breakfast.

When Harry and Ron arrived in the Great Hall, Hermione had her copy of Voyages with Vampires propped open against a milk jug and Persephone was playing with little Sirius on her lap, giving him pieces of bacon from time to time.

Hermione was still disapproving of the way they had arrived and she made it clear with the slight stiffness in the way she said "Morning," to them.

On the other hand, Persephone didn't mind it. She found it a funny way to travel. However, what she didn't find funny was the fact that they had been almost killed by the freaking Whomping Willow. And what bothered her the most was that the two idiots had dismissed them without even explaining what had happened to them. As a consequence, she muttered a distracted "Good morning", without even looking at them.

To Harry and Ron's luck, the cold mood was lightened by Neville Longbottom that greeted them cheerfully. Neville was a round-faced and accident-prone boy with the worst memory of anyone Persephone had ever met.

"Mail's due any minute — I think Gran's sending a few things I forgot."

As he said that, there was a rushing sound overhead and a hundred or so owls streamed in, circling the hall and dropping letters and packages into the chattering crowd. A big, lumpy package bounced off Neville's head and, a second later, something large and gray fell into Hermione's jug, spraying them all with milk and feathers.

"Errol!" said Ron, pulling the bedraggled owl out 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 gasped.

"It's all right, he's still alive," said Hermione, prodding Errol gently with the tip of her finger.

"It's not that — it's that."

Ron was pointing at the red envelope. Persephone burst out laughing, but Ron and Neville were both looking at it as though they expected it to explode.

Ron glared at her.

"Are you having fun?!"

"Sorry, sorry... It's just—" she cleared her throat, "My deepest sympathy."

"What's the matter?" said Harry.

"She's — she's sent me a Howler," said Ron faintly.

"You'd better open it, Ron," said Neville in a timid whisper. "It'll be worse if you don't. My gran sent me one once, and I ignored it and" — he gulped —"it was horrible."

Harry looked from their petrified faces to the red envelope, with a confused face.

"What's a Howler?" he said.

"Just watch" said Persephone, resting her chin on her intertwined fingers.

Ron's whole attention was fixed on the letter, which had begun to smoke at the corners. "Open it," Neville urged. "It'll all be over in a few minutes —"

Ron stretched out a shaking hand, eased the envelope from Errol's beak, and slit it open. Neville stuffed his fingers in his ears. For a moment it seemed it had exploded; a roar of sound filled the huge hall, shaking dust from the ceiling.

"—STEALING THE CAR, I WOULDN'T HAVE BEEN SURPRISED IF THEY'D EXPELLED YOU, YOU WAIT TILL I GET HOLD OF YOU, I DON'T SUPPOSE YOU STOPPED TO THINK WHAT YOUR FATHER AND I WENT THROUGH WHEN WE SAW IT WAS GONE —"