"Madame Pomfrey has them all in the hospital wing," Ron said in a hushed voice. "Practically burned to the bone."
"That's ridiculous, Ron," Hermione said. "We'd have heard about it before now."
"Yeah, but didn't you hear?" Ron said. "Kelly Rourke over in Ravenclaw saw them when she went by to get something for her acne."
"And they're saying Draco did it?" Harry asked. "That's a little bit much, even for him."
"What is supposed to have happened?" Hermione asked Ron, who was becoming something of their group gossip.
"Fred and George say it was some kind of fight?" Ron said.
"What do Fred and George know about it?" Harry asked.
"Well, they heard the explosion, didn't they?" Ron said.
"What were they doing on that side of the school?" Harry asked.
"This isn't their doing, is it?" Hermione asked in a dreadful state of concern.
"No!" Ron said quickly. He paused for a moment. "They WERE going to do something...but then...BOOM...and they say SNAPE took MALFOY to his office!!"
"Hang on," Harry said. "If you have this from Fred and George, why listen to the gossip that was just going about?"
"Well it pays to hear things from more than one source you know," Ron said.
Then the heads of the houses and Dumbledor filed in. All eyes were on them as the heads of the four houses sat and Dumbledor stood at his place and tapped his glass to call attention to him.
"No doubt you have all heard something of this morning's events," he declared. "First, there was a fire in the Slytherin common room early this morning. About fifteen students were injured by either the blaze or the chaos that followed. We are fortunate that the most severe injury was a nasty knock on the head and that the poor girl who received this injury shall be back to her feet by tomorrow morning."
Dumbledore paused for a long moment and gazed about the room, the attention was tightly on him.
"This was the result," he said in a very serious tone. "Of what was meant to be a harmless prank. Unfortunately, it appears to have gotten quite out of control."
"Hecate should have let Malfoy fry!" an angry voice called from the Slytherin table.
"There will be no more of that!" Dumbledor said tightly as Snape turned a very severe gaze on the Slytherin that had spoken out of turn. "And, there shall be no more of this either. I am not opposed to a harmless prank now and again, but I'm afraid that priviledge has been lost now."
Fred and George looked somewhat apopoleptic about this situation. Then again, they hadn't been caught for a while yet. Dumbledor's gaze passed over them for an instant and then he returned to his announcement.
"From this point on," Dumbledor said. "The penalty for any prank played on school grounds shall be most high indeed. And the penalty should said prank result in injury of a student will be expulsion from the school. Should the identity of the students who participated in the prank be unknown, then all houses shall lose weekend priviledges until such time as those involved reveal themselves."
At this Fred and George choked.
"That said," Dumbledor concluded. "The students responsible have been dealt with, and points have been deducted bringing the Slytherin house down to nothing."
There were several cries of dismay from the Slytherin table along with whispers of disbelief from the other tables.
"However," Dumbledor said. "In light of the actions of several students in this crisis I deem it fit that Vito Malaghieri receive fifteen points for organizing the older Slytherins in handling the situation until Professor Snape arrived, and I award five points each to the four students that helped him. Finally, I shall award Kodachi Hecate fifty points for the act of protecting another housemate, even at a cost to herself. This brings Slytherin to a total of eighty-five points."
There was some scattered applause for those heros from the Slytherins, who seemed still shell shocked from the loss of one hundred sixty-seven points. Surprisingly enough, some of the applause came from the Gryffindor table.
"Harry," Ron said, looking to his clapping friend. "What are you doing? You're clapping for Slytherin!"
"Does it really matter," Harry asked. "She's...sort of a friend. Why shouldn't we clap for her."
"He's right," Hermione said. "We're the house of the brave, we should applaud bravery, and she joined in." Ron shrugged, but joined into the applause as it spread over the Gryffindor table.
Hearing the applause for their housemates coming from their prime rivals, the Slytherins picked up and tried to match the sound of the applause coming from the otherside of the table. Quickly the applause spread to the tables of Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff as well, bringing a smile to Dumbledor's face.
"This is as I would like to see you behave always," Dumbledor said. "The four virtues of our school are ambition, bravery, intelligence, and loyalty. The belief of the founders was that greatness depended on possessing all four of these virtues, though, they disagreed, as the houses still disagree, as to which was the most important." He smiled again, but then turned serious.
"We are in a tense situation here, I am aware of this," Dumbledor said. "With Sirius Black and the dementors about the school. This is all the more reason to stay unified. Support your rival houses, even as you compete with them. There may come a time, Gryffindors, when your life may depend on a Slytherin."
That was accompanied by a rather knowing smile that made Harry wonder for a moment.
"There remains just one matter of note," Dumbledor said. "Madame Pomfrey has informed us that, while they are quite well-healed otherwise, that two of the Slytherin Quidditch team members need a few days yet to finish growing back the skin on their hands before she will allow them to get on a broom. As such, the first quidditch match will be between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff rather than Gryffindor and Slytherin."
Many on the Slytherin table were surprised not to hear groans of frustration coming from the Gryffindor table. To all appearances it was as if they had expected that.
"And now that the morning's business is attended to," Dumbledor said. "Let us attend to finishing our breakfast." So saying he sat down and began to eat.
"Malfoy blew up his own housemates," Ron said in amazement. "Always knew there was something off about him."
"I don't think he really meant it to be so bad," Harry said. "Even Draco isn't that bad."
"That's right," Hermione said. "Even if he did want to hurt someone he's smart enough to know that if he was trying to hurt people they'd have him expelled quicker than you could blink."
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Sun, 29 Dec 2002 10:50)
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