HP-Hogwarts Story So Far

Transcript Five

The Morning of the Ball

 

Kat woke up early the following morning. She had been worrying all night about what Joss had said and the riddle. She picked up the paper she had written the riddle on and shoved it in a pocket. She turned to go, but stopped halfway to the door, turned back and scribbled a note, which she left open on her bed... It read:

Joss,

I'm sorry I haven't spent enough time with you. I miss your friendship. I think it would be nice if you could haunt us in the 3rd year common room occasionally. I'm very stuck on your riddle, but I'm trying to work it out. Was it a book that I have to look for? And is it one that someone already has? I will come back later to see if you are here.

Kat.

Then she left for breakfast.

She wandered through the school. It was still quiet. Most students would still be in bed. She wandered into the 3rd year room and sat down at a table. There was no-one else here yet. A mug of coffee, some toast and a plate of beans and sausages appeared on the table in front of her. Kat pulled out the paper with the riddle on and stared at it. She pulled out a pencil and started to draw on the paper whilst trying to work out the words and absently eating her breakfast.

A few minutes later Marvo arrives in the room.

A house Elf comes over to him and he smiles at it and says 'Three Guess's' the elf nods and runs off.

He takes a seat next to Kat 'Oh, Hiya Kat. your up early'

He sees Kat is doodling on a bit of parchment.

'Oh, that reminds me...'

He takes a bit of slightly crumpled paper from his pocket, you notice it has slightly charred edges.

'Remember this? the picture you drew?'

He hands it over to Kat.

'I think I know what it is. looks if you turn it this way [he turns the parchment over] and sort of look at it sideways.... looks... It's a book, sort of flying like a bird, and that looks a bit like a scales, but I could be wrong there'

The house Elf arrives with a plate of Bacon. Marvo Smiles 'Good Guess' he says to the Elf as it scurries away.

Kat grins at Marvo, and looks a little guilty. Maybe she should hide the paper with the riddle on it. She glances at it. And then stares at it.

"Umm. Err." She looks at the picture that Marvo has just suggested might be a flying book. "Ummm. Ooo. Errr."

She looks back at the doodle. It was exactly the same picture. "Umm."

She realises that she's not really saying anything and that Marvo is staring at her as well as making a start on his bacon.

"It could be. But why would a book fly? And why would it have scales?"

Kat is being a little distant as she say's this. Obviously distracted by the drawing that has been duplicated on her note of the riddle.

'No no... silly [smile] Not Scales like a fish. Scales like...'

Marvo waves his arms at his sides and wobbles up and down

'..Like, you know... scales... for weighing things'

"Ah, those sort of scales. You mean this bit." She points to another part of the picture. She is still distracted, and mutters something about 'strange, drawings the same, how could I'.

Kat realises she has said something to be overheard. "Ummm."

She looks a little embarrassed. "Well I was doodling when you can in, and I drew that same picture again." Kat shows him the paper with the riddle and her drawing on. She hopes that he won't spot the riddle, but knowing how he never misses anything she waits for the interrogation...

Kali had spent the time catching up with his lessons, and he was slowly starting to move off the bottom of the class. The teachers kept muttering things about "raw ability" and "no control", and keeping him away from any of the more dangerous looking magic. He was having to take extra flying lessons, as that sort of thing really didn't come naturally to him. He could often be found sitting and brooding when the rest of the gang was off at Quidditch practise.

He still missed Glyndwr. At the back of his mind he was sure Marvo knew something, but things had been so hectic that he hadn't had a chance to corner the Gryffindor Prefect. Then there was the matter of this ball. On several occasions he had had to "disappear" at short notice when eager young ladies had been on the hunt for a partner.

Now he walked into breakfast, looking nervously from side to side. Seeing no lurking "single" females, he headed for the only occupied table and sat down. A bowl of steaming porridge appeared before him. He could see Kat and Marvo staring at some sheets of paper.

"Morning", he mumbled through gooey porridge. "Got anything interesting there?"

'What's this?' Asks Marvo as he points to the Riddle

" Umm. A riddle."

Kat watches Kali come in and say's "Hi ya! Still managing to avoid anyone asking you to the ball then? You not going to go?"

Kali blushes and looks round nervously to make sure no one has heard what Kat said. There is only a near-by house elf, but surely they wouldn't get him into trouble *twice...

He speaks in a whisper to Kat. "I don't think I really want to go, it's just I don't get on well in large groups... I keep seeing the girls standing in groups and giggling at me..."

Quickly changing the subject, he says "So what's all this about a riddle then?"

Kat whispers back, "I'm sure it'll be ok. Do you want me to ask one of my less giggly friends to ask you?"

Back in her normal voice Kat tries to pass over the riddle. "Oh, it's just a riddle. Pass it him, Marvo." Marvo passes Kali the paper with picture and riddle on it. "I've been trying to work it out, but I'm no good at riddles."

Shortly after Kali strolls in, a face which hasn't been seen lately appears in the common room. Ceridwyn looks bright and cheerful. She takes a seat around the group, and when her elf arrives with the food, begins munching on a Danish. Everyone in the room can't help but look at her, since they haven't seen in her in a couple of weeks. Ceridwyn thinks to herself,

"They're all wondering where I've been." She smiles slightly, takes a gulp of milk then says to the room, "How's it going with everyone? Sorry I've been away for so long, I was really sick, spent most of my time with Madam Pomfrey. I'm so glad it didn't affect my going to the Ball. Oh, everyone have their costumes I hope? Mine fortunately arrived with Aeon several days ago. It's nothing special, a sapphire dress with matching cloak, and a mask."

Ceridwyn decides that it would be more polite to address individual members. "Kat, how've you been? You look well, a bit pre-occupied this morning?" She said as she noticed the piece of paper Kat was hunching over. "Marvo, things coming along ok? Still going to the ball as a pirate?"

At this Ceridwyn can't conceal a tiny chuckle. Seeing Marvo's face however, she quickly becomes serious again. Seeing the new boy in the room and remembering how ill he looked made Ceridwyn feel queasy. She recovered, and to hide any signs of her thoughts she spoke. "Hi, Kali isn't it? You look great since last I saw you. Must've been something like to what I had. Good to see that you feel better. I hate to see others sick, since they haven't invented any magic potions to cure most ailments it just makes me anxious."

After having explained her long absence, Ceridwyn wondered if anyone even noticed her not being there. With that she thought, "Well at least now they know where I was, even if they didn't want to." And she picked up her Danish again.

Kat peered up to see Cer. "Hello stranger. Good to see you back. I heard you weren't well, but you seem to be looking better. I'm going as an Arabian princess. It was the closest I could get to match a pirate, and I figured that maybe pirate Marvo might have kidnapped me, had he found me in the middle of the dessert that is."

After Nathan had left Hogwarts, Morticia had found that she felt very tired and weary. It had been an awful time with her brother around. People were eyeing her because of her seeing Joss' death anyway, and now Nathan had screwed things up even worse.

She could have sworn that he'd done it on purpose! Anyhow, Morticia had looked so pale that Madam Pomfrey had decided to keep her in the infirmary for some more days. Now she returns to the dining room, looking better than she has since ever Joss died and much calmer - just one thing is striking about her: she's cut her hair which used to be long almost down to her waist. Now it frames her face like a black helmet, and in the neck it is a bit longer almost down to her shoulders. She sits down in the dining room, smiles at the others and munches some cookies.

"Got something interesting there, Kat? Have you seen Egreen? I need to talk to him because of the Ball."

'I know what you mean Kali, I wish I wasn't....'

Marvo glances at Kat and realises he almost made a 'fatal error'

'...erm...wasn't.... so EXCITED about the ball! It's effecting my schoolwork'

He smiles (sheepishly) at Kat

'So, a Riddle. where did you get it? The Daily Prophet'

Illessa's head snaps up at the word 'riddle' as she enters the room, quickly requesting some toast and coffee from a house elf, she hurries over intrigued, 'Riddle?' She asks as she approaches the table, 'can I have a look? I probably won't be much help, but I love that kind of thing, and it might give me something to think about while everyone's at the ball, I haven't really bothered trying to find a date, and I think pretty much everyone's taken now.'

Nimue walked quietly into the room and found a seat at the table. Her breakfast dish filled with warming porridge and plate of fresh fruit on the side. She looked as though she had come in from outdoors, a light sprinkling of frost lay upon her hair and her cheeks were pink. She had evidently been out with her hawk, as she was most mornings, sending him off with a letter to London.

During the intervening period Nimue had been immersing herself in her schoolwork and managing, despite their being in the same house, to avoid Marvo. Evidently by mutual agreement they had hardly been seen to acknowledge each other's existence since their trip to London.

For a day or so she had accompanied Achel in helping out Prof. Sprout after classes. Yet while the Professor appreciated Nimue's developing skills at communicating with dryads (tree spirits), it was evident that she and Achel distracted each other somewhat and the Professor looked about for some other useful task she might fulfil.

As Professor Snape had mentioned in the staff room that Miss Hawkwood appeared to have a longer attention span than a goldfish (unlike most of his students) as well as the ability to 'not bother him', Prof. Sprout suggested that Nimue might be useful to him in the long belated task of restocking his potions cupboard.

As this contained many exotic and rare ingredients, re-ordering was a time-consuming and somewhat nightmarish task. Each ingredient needed forms submitted in triple-triplicate to different Departments of the Ministry of Magic for various levels of approval before they could be ordered from the stockists, each of which had their own protocols. The rules were always changing (as they do). That Nimue's father did 'something' at the MoM made her an ideal choice as she cut through a bit of red-tape by sending the completed forms care of her father's assistant who always seemed to be able to ascertain the right desk for the forms to land on.

She didn't even mind the few teasing remarks about her aspirations to become 'teacher's pet'. No, what she liked about the assignment was that Snape's unpopularity meant that students avoided his office and she could stay there undisturbed late into the evening. Snape himself acted as though she was invisible and this also suited her. The only concession that was made was if the hour was late, he would accompany her to Gryffindor Tower. The memory of Joss' murder remained on everyone's mind.

However, there was no avoiding it tonight was the Ball and while she was worried about the socialising enough time had passed for her to begin to come to terms with things.

She was still somewhat on tenterhooks as to whether Achel would attend. They hadn't seen anything of each other for some days. He might have been sent away to the Amazon. Would she be a wall-flower?

Nimue was trying not to get drawn into whatever Kat and Marvo were doing but her ears perked up at Morticia's query as it followed her own concern about the absence of Achel. If Egreen was found, the whereabouts of Achel could be discovered.

"He and Achel have been spending a lot of time together somewhere but I haven't seen either of them for a few days. Hasn't he been in your House common room or anything?"

She noted that Morticia had done something very different with her hair and said "your hair looks great, have you your costume ready?"

"Well, maybe he'd be lost?" Kat laughed at the ridiculesness of a pirate in a desert. "How about she was kid-napped and taken to a sea port and sold to the pirates? Well that's what I'm going as anyway." She grinned at Marvo.

Marvo Blushes{tm} and mutters something about Pirates not getting 'that' lost.

Kat gave Marvo one of 'those' looks as he almost slipped up. As Marvo asked that question she knew she was being cornered and still tried to avoid tell him.

"The riddle, umm yes. Someone told me it last night." She tried to sound casual about it. "Really don't know what it means though."

Marvo whispers to Kat 'and was this someone 'corporally challenged'? [wink]

Kat looks shocked. "How did you know..." Then she realised how he knew and grinned. "Well maybe I shouldn't have hidden it from you. Yes it was Joss. I don't think anyone else except Nimue knows though. She couldn't actually tell me, but she left the riddle to help."