I haven't written a short story in so long as i have been a little wrapped up in novels but i realised a few weeks ago, i really miss the wonderful work of JK Rowling but i'm not much of a Harry fan. It occurred to me I should write a short story about Hogwarts but about the students that don't make the headlines. The world JK Rowling is just too fantastic and amazing and inspired and brilliant to let lie so i hope she won't be annoyed that i borrowed it for this and maybe a few more stories in the future. Happy reading! xx
The cold winter sun dipped below the horizon giving way to a
chilly dark than enveloped Hogwarts. The approach of Christmas had the students
buzzing excitedly as they ambled slowly back from dinner. Will stopped on the
stairs and looked back for the bright orange hair of the Weasley twins,
“Boo!”
Will jumped and spun around to see the twins gleeful faces
“Still coming to the game?” asked the one of the left. He
still couldn’t tell the difference between them
“Yeh, I’ll be there” Will replied
“Good” said the twin on the right, reaching out and clasping
Williams hand in a firm grip and shaking it. Turning on his heels and following
his brother off into the crowd. William dug his hand into his pocket and
released the scrap of parchment as he re-entered the stream of students
bustling from the great hall.
Will following the crowd as far as the next set of stairs when
he took a sharp turn to the left away from the crowd and headed down an empty paneled
corridor lined with suits of armor and moving paintings. He counted the suits,
fifth on the right and ducked into the alcove behind it. He checked his
perfectly parted dark brown hair in the mirror finish of the armor and rubbed
at the sparse stubble on his cheeks. Hazel eyes and an aquiline nose that was
perfectly straight despite an incident with a bludger the previous year.
He paused to listen for footstep as he drew his wand and
scored the edge of the panel directly behind the armor from left to right. As
his wand touched the corner of the panel the surface of the wood shimmered and
he dove through it hend first.
“Lumos” he muttered as he dug out the scrap of parchment,
holding his wand in his teeth he unfolded the note and smoothed it on against
the wall.
‘Ten past midnight, swimming pool, 5 sickles, bring a Pen’
He smiled at the last sentence before poking the note with
his wand.
“Flagrate”
With the words burnt of the parchment William left the
smoldering note and continued down the tunnel to emerge from a small door
behind a fireplace in the library at the bottom of the Ravenclaw tower. The
tunnel was one of Hogwarts many mysteries because despite the exit being
several floor above the entrance the tunnel contained no stairs and did not run
at any form of slope.
In the small library below the Ravenclaw common room were
several bookshelves, a small grated fire and a large landscape painting of
Hogwarts. The Ravenclaw tower part of the painting swung open and Will jumped
down and made for the stairs to take him up to the common room as the door in
the picture shut silently on its magical hinges. He preferred this route even
when he wasn’t being secretive as he was one of the unlucky few Ravenclaw
students who struggled with the entry riddles.
As usual his friends found him sitting comfortably by the
window that looked out over the grounds flipping casually through a book about
Goblins. Tim sat at the table opposite him and Penny perched on the window sill
with Gwen.
“Struggling with the Arithmancy essay?” asked Tim
Will smiled and tapped a roll of parchment in his satchel,
“Too easy,” he teased before snapping the book shut.
Tim huffed as he slumped down into the chair opposite his
nonchalant friend and moodily unrolled the parchment his essay was scrawled on.
Will left Tim to grumble about the essay as he took Penny’s
hand and led her out onto one of the balconies on the side of the tower,
grateful of the magical barrier extended
over the balustrade to the towers walls projecting the pair from the frigid
December air.
Both students crossed their arms and leaned out over the
drop until their heads passed the barrier into the chilly wind.
“News?” asked Penny, her short black hair snapped in the
breeze and she reached up with a hand to push it back from her face.
Will turned his head towards her and looked into her green
eyes,
“You’re playing” Will said with a smile, “five sickles, half
past eleven is when I’m leaving.”.
Across the grounds they could see the lumbering form of
Hagrid in the fading light, he carried a lantern in his right hand and a shepherded
a flock of what looked like sheep except they had six legs.
“Who else is there? Do you know?” Asked penny.
“One or two of the usual crowd probably, that one with the glasses
from Hufflepuff, the twins obviously and that fifth year from Slytherin who
seems rather pompous but is actually quite nice.”
They stood leaning out over the balcony chatting until
Hagrid had delivered his curious flock to their pen and had disappeared from
view again.
“Half eleven, Ravenclaw library” he whispered into her ear
as they parted, William gathered up his stationary and walked up the stairs to
the room he shared with Tim and two of the other boys. The room was decorated
with the Ravenclaw colors of Blue and Bronze, the boys had piled their
broomsticks with several Quaffles and box
of practice snitches that left a yellow tail as they flew. The walls were
covered in dents from broom handles and the Quaffles had left red smudges where
it had bounced on the white plaster.
He knelt down by his trunk at the foot of his bed and poked
the rib under the lock with the tip of his wand. A small drawer popped open
silently at the bottom and he slid it open. In the deep drawer were three bags
one gold, one silver and one bronze, there were also several sets of dice, an
exploding wizards chess prototype from the Weasley brothers and several decks
of magic-proof cards. An unopened bottle of Ogdens Old Firewhiskey he won of a
man in the Hogs Head but had no desire to drink, a box of Bitterleaf cigars and
a collection of books on breeding banned magical creatures that he had won of
Hagrid in installments.
He loosened the strings of the silver bag and poured five
sickles into his palm, he transferred them into a pouch with a silencing charm
and tucked it into his pocket. He also selected one of the decks of cards and
pushed the draw shut. He had sold most of what he had accumulated over the term,
mostly back to its original owners but he hadn’t found a buyer for the
Firewhiskey. The cigars he suspected the cigars would fetch a good price from
the older students after their exams, the only trouble was advertising without
the teachers getting wind of it.
He took a seat in one of the wing back chairs by the fire
and began to read a book on movement charms for Professor Flitwick’s class the
next day however soon he became bored and took to chasing the slowest of the
practice snitches around the room on foot. In the girl’s dormitories Penny was
working through an essay, she had her stack of five sickles on the corner of
the desk next to a clock. Her roommates slowly trickled past her and got into
bed, only Gwen noticed the mischievous look on her face walked past. Penny and
Gwen had initially not liked each other when they met on the Hogwarts express
by had quickly become friends after being sorted into houses and discovering a
mutual mistrust of Berties every flavor beans.
She glanced at the clock, quarter past eleven. She scooped
up the sickles and made for the door. She crept down the stairs slowly, ears
pricked for prefects and teachers. In the common room the fire had burned low,
one student was asleep on his essay, a group of fifth year years sat in a
corner, one in tears and the other comforting her and an oblivious house elf
was clearing ashes from an extinguished fireplace. Her heart was pounding as she
slunk through the shadows and disappeared down the steps to the library.
She found Will flipping through a book by Evander Wilton’s
about the social order of Giants.
“Lets go” he whispered, shutting the book softly and
replacing it. She followed him as he led to her to the painting and tapped the
main Entrance with the tip of his wand. The small door opened silently and he
took her by the hand and lead her down the tunnel, he could tell how nervous
she was by her silence. She had never been so quiet on midnight excursion.
They emerged on the paneled corridor and began and their way
to the swimming pool. To avoid the great hall they had to go the long way round,
they knew the Christmas decorations were due soon and he didn’t want to run
into an army of busy house elves. The pair bounded as quietly as possible up
and down endless flight of stairs until they saw the telltale blue glimmer
through the windows at the end of the corridor.
On the other side of the deep blue pool the two Weasley
twins were stood around a table with stacks of multicolored clay chips in front
of them.
“Very nice lads” commented Will as he walked around the warm
water. He pulled out his purse, counted the 5 sickles and slid them over in
exchange for ten red, ten blue, five white and five black chips.
“Cards?” asked the left twin and Will dug them out of his
pocket and threw them over.
Penny took a seat next to him and bought in aswell but
instead of relaxing she took too nervously shuffling her chips and chewing her
lip.
Soon they were joined by the spectacled Hufflepuff and
Slytherin who appeared as relaxed as Will, though he suspected it was an act as
it was only the Hufflepuff second game.
“Only six?” asked Will,
“our brother Ron said he would come, and another Hufflepuff”
Soon a very nervous looking redhead appeared, he looked
similar to the twins but allot younger.
“Your that one that hangs around with Potter aren’t you?”
said Will
“Yeh” nodded Ron as he fumbled with his chips and sat down
next to his brothers.
When the final player arrived the Right twin started
proceedings,
“Standard Hold ’em rules, Galleon to the winner, eleven
sickles to second”
He then shuffled and cut the cards and dealt two per player.
Within the first hour Ron had been goaded into a big pot by
his brother and surrendered his entire stack. The Slytherin faired little
better after locking horns with the left twin. The twin had flopped a nine high
straight and played the Slytherin to an All-in bluff. Penny knocked out the
right twin next and Will took the late coming Hufflepuff with a set of Jacks.
The right twin had taken over the role of croupier as the
other knocked out players had headed back to their dormitories. Will’s next
hand came five and seven of hearts, he called and waited for the flop. King of
clubs, three of diamonds, ace of clubs, he folded, the next hand came around, a
pair of kings. But the Flop came with two nines and he saw from the gleam in
the twin’s eye that he had something big. He was proved right when he raked in
half of Penny’s chips and showed three nines. He kept drawing good hands but
calling to see the flop was whittling away his chips.
The next hand came five of clubs, two of heart,
“useless” he mumbled as he flicked them away. He shuffled
his chips and watched as penny raised and the left twin called. The flop came
two of clubs, five of spades, five of hearts,
In his head Will was screaming and cursing but outside he
remained totally deapan.
‘That’s it!’ he resolved internally. Penny won the pot with
pocket queens and raked in more chips. Will now had the smallest stack.
Ace of Hearts, Ace of Spades, he had to put the cards down
and look again.
He bet half his stack, ‘go for broke’ he thought. Penny
folded, the twin looked at the chips Will had just pushed and looked at his
card again.
‘I’ve come on too strong’ thought Will, ‘Should of played
slowly, he’s got nothing, he’s going to fold, pretend your bluffing’. Will’s
mind raced, a slight panic look must have flashed across his face when the
twins hand brushed his chips as suddenly the twins confidence bolstered and he
defiantly pushed his whole stack into the middle of the table
“All-in” he announced.
‘No, No, No!’ protested Will’s conscience, ‘Damn, you can’t
back out now though’
“I’ll see you” he declared, he trying not to let his voice
betray his inner panic. Pushing his chips across the table and flipping his
cards over,
“Pair of aces all in against…..” the right twin announced as
he waited for his brother to show his cards, “King of Clubs, Jack of Clubs.”
The right twin tossed a card into the burn pile and turned
over the three of clubs, the nine of clubs and the seven on diamonds. A
expectant looked passed between Will and the twin as the fourth street hit the
table, ten of spades.
‘That’s nothing’ thought Will, ‘still ahead’
As the right twin lifted the river card of the deck and
began to turn in Will glanced a club in the top corner,
‘No!’ his mind screamed ‘what if it was your imagination,
you’re just scaring yourself’. His heart was in his mouth as the twin placed
the card on the table and lifted his hand. Wills eyes were fixed on the top
right corner of the card, a club, the twin had rivered a flush. His eyes went
to the pile of chips that used to be his but something caught his attention.
The single club in the middle of the card surrounded by white.
“Four of a kind beats ace high flush” said the right twin as
he pushed the stack over towards Will.
His nerves dissipated as he scraped his chips together and
stacked them. One on one poker with Penny was easy enough, he had taught her to
play in first year so he knew everything she would do. He considered letting
her win but the lure of another galleon of prize money was too much and he took
the last of her chips at ten to four in the morning.
“Excellent game lads” he remarked to the twins as he tucked
his cards into his pocket and dropped his prize money into his purse. They left
as one twin was transfiguring the poker table back into a towel rack and the
other twin was releasing tiny brightly colored fish into the swimming pool that
immediately vanished as they left the jar.
With their pockets heavier that when they had arrived Will
and Penny made their way back to the Ravenclaw tower,
“How did you find that tunnel of yours?” asked penny as they
risked a dash across the Great Hall as they,
“All of the common rooms have a main entrance and a secret
entrance. For it to be secret it has to be discreet and unique.”
Will paused at the far side of the great hall and looked
back to check no one had seen them before continuing talking
“Ravenclaw is the only house with a small library so I
reasoned that to be unique so Ravenclaw secret entrance would be in the
library. I looked every day for three months tapping until one day the back of
the fireplace opened.”
“Really?” Penny demanded
“No” Laughed Will, “I was bored as usual when I poked the
painting with my wand. If you poke the clouds in winter the painting snows and
if you poke the lake the mermaids appear, or the tentacly thing. Depends where
specifically the tip of your wand is.
Penny nodded as they walked, only pausing to dive into an
empty classroom as Filch stomped past moaning about students out of bed.
They next day at breakfast Will bumped into the twins,
“What’s the plan for next time?”
“Ask Pen” said the left twin with a wink, clapping him on
the shoulder.
They looked over to see several teachers staring at them
“They know we ‘re up to something, they just have no idea
what” laughed Will as they went their separate ways.
Will sat down at breakfast next to Gwen who was gossiping
with some Gryffindor fourth years, Gwen prided herself on knowing nearly every
whisper at Hogwarts. As he sat down she turned to him,
“Do you know anything about those?” she enquired pointing to
a series of vibrantly colored dots that covered the arms and faces of a ground
of embarrassed looking Gryffindor boys.
“Did they by any chance go Swimming?” responded Will, a
smile spreading across his face
“How did you know?”
“Wet hair!” he declared, his eyes roving along the hall to
find the Weasley twins bent double and howling with laughter before scampering
off, Madame Pomfrey in hot persuit.
No comments:
Post a Comment