Disney Hogwarts

Chapter 17: Wednesday, January 17, Great Hall Philip Edinburgh

Apparently, Aurora and I were the only ones who had fun at the dance last month.

Eric was particularly surly at breakfast, and ducked his head when Vanessa walked in with the Durmstrang group. She glanced over at him, but otherwise acted like he didn't exist, and even went to go sit with Hans, the Durmstrang champion, and his girlfriend, Anna, at the Hufflepuff table.

"Trouble in paradise?" I asked nonchalantly, picking at my eggs and toast.

Eric just groaned. "We haven't talked since the Yule Ball when she flew off the handle for asking Ariel to dance. I don't even like Ariel! I just felt bad for her since she was sitting by herself! Like, if I wanted to be with Ariel, don't you think I would've asked her out instead of my girlfriend?"

My eyebrows shot up. "Vanessa's your girlfriend? Why didn't you tell me, mate? Am I not your best friend?"

"Well...I thought she was, but clearly not anymore..." Eric began to bang his head against the dining table in frustration. I nudged his pumpkin juice out of the danger zone.

Charlie Printz walked over and took the seat across from Eric, shooting me a baffled look. I just shook my head. Better to let him get it out of his system so we could work on our, er...extracurriculars...in peace.

Charlie glanced around at the rest of the Gryffindor table, happily enjoying their meal. The Quidditch team were joking around, tossing a hackysack back and forth while a couple first years, Dash Parr and Lilo Pelekai, were putting some concoction in Phoebus de Châteaupers' pumpkin juice. No one would notice us now.

Charlie unraveled a large scroll of parchment and blurted, "Okay, so I've been looking at it, and I think I've found something new. I was talking to Milo Thatch about mapping out a few things, and he mentioned that he saw Rapunzel near the one-eyed witch statue on his way to Hogsmeade last time, and then saw her in Honeydukes a few hours later. And you KNOW her mom didn't give her permission to leave the castle. So you know what that means?"

Eric remained unresponsive. So I replied, "We found a new secret passage?"

Charlie grinned. "Exactly." He pulled out his wand, tapped the parchment, and murmured, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." As he did, a map of Hogwarts began to splotch onto the parchment as if fresh, red ink had been spilled. Slowly, cartoon drawings of a mouse, a duck, and a dog began to appear as well.

That part was my idea, because we could get in trouble if the professors knew what we were trying to make. But if they saw a silly duck, surely they would assume it was just a joke map. Charlie, of course, was the mouse, mostly because of his pet rat, Gus, and the fact that the idea of him being a mouse was an oxymoron; he got in more fights our first two years than Eric and I combined. Eric was the dog because of how loyal, friendly, and easygoing he was. Plus we all loved his old English sheepdog, Max.

And I was a duck because...well...Eric and Charlie had never explained that to me. When I asked what my character should be, they just said a duck was fitting. I don't know if that was a complement or an insult, but there it was on the map, a permanent fixture now.

Charlie unfolded the map to mark where the one-eyed witch statue was. "Eric," he continued, all business, "It would be sick if maybe the next time you tutor Ariel, you could ask her about it, because she and Rapunzel are thick as thieves--"

No amount of my frantic gesturing could've dissuaded Charlie in time. Eric's head shot up in a sort of panic. "No, I don't think I'm going to tutor Ariel again, I can't."

Charlie cocked his head. "What? Why not? I thought you were prepping her for the O.W.L.s, and the fifth years haven't had those yet. My cousin, Ferdinand, spent the whole Christmas break in a frenzy studying in his room. Only came out to talk to Snow when she came 'round to visit."