Hogwarts Herald

The morning after encountering the three headed dog, Ron & Harry were quite excited about their adventure. Neville, on the other hand, just wanted to stay away from them and the danger they seemed to bring along with them, and Hermione just wants to forget it ever happened. She decides that these are not the type of boys she needs to associate with. It is at this point that I began wondering to myself if perhaps Hermione was sorted into the wrong house. After all, Gryffindor is “where dwell the brave at heart”. Perhaps someone of her intelligence and love of learning would have been better suited to Ravenclaw, with the Wise old Raven as their mascot, rather than the brave lion. Anyhow, back to the story. Ron & Harry are spending their free time trying to figure out exactly what might have been in the safe that was now being guarded by a giant monstrosity at Hogwarts.

“It was a horrible sight. Twelve feet tall, its skin was a dull, granite gray, its great lumpy body like a boulder with its small bald head perched on top like a coconut.”

Suddenly, without warning at breakfast one morning, Harry gets his second bit of mail. First a large, long parcel gets dropped unceremoniously onto the table. Immediately after that is an envelope with specific instructions to not open at the table. It’s Harry’s broomstick. Best of all it’s a Nimbus 2000, the best broomstick there is. First years are not technically allowed broomsticks so Professor McGonagall doesn’t want the whole world knowing that he’s got it.

Bolting up to the dormitory to look at his new treasure, Harry and Ron are intercepted by Draco Malfoy. Draco can identify the package and is still trying to do anything possible to get Harry kicked out. So, when Professor Flitwick enters the hall at the sound of their agruing, the first thing he does is snitch. I have always hated snitches, especially since they are usually up to no good at all. Fortunately Prof. McGonagall had already alerted the rest of the staff to the special circumstances surrounding Harry’s appointment to the Quidditch team. As he makes out scott free ha cannot resist one last taunt over his shoulder, “It’s really thanks to Malfoy that I’ve got it!”

Classes pass slowly that day as he eagerly awaits opening up his broom and his first Quidditch practice. Finally the time comes and he meets up with Oliver Wood, the team captain, to learn the basics of Quidditch. 7 players, 3 balls, 6 scoring posts, and a LOT of flying. And Harry, as the seeker, is the most important player. If the seeker catches the Golden Snitch (small gold ball with delicate wings) he earns his team 150 points and almost always wins the game. The game doesn’t end until the Snitch is caught and the record game was 3 months long. Harry is a natural. They spend about a half hour in the air with Wood throwing golf balls and Harry catching them every single time. When his first practice is over he is off to his room, preparing for more practice with the whole team, three days a week.

So the days pass into weeks, and in the blink of an eye Harry is at school for two whole months. So far the best two months of his life. Hermione is still not speaking to Harry or Ron, and classes are difficult but fun. Quidditch practice takes up most of his spare time, and Harry is loving life. Suddenly it was Halloween morning, and Prof. Flitwick announces that it is time to learn to make things fly. The students are paired up, and Harry is matched with Seamus Finnigan. Ron, unfortunately, is paired with that know-it-all Hermione Granger. She shows him how to do the spell, trying valiantly to help him. He tells her to do it herself it she’s so smart, and of course, she does. When exiting the class Ron makes a very hurtful comment about how horrible she is, only to be nearly knocked over by her crying and making her way past him. He tries to shrug it off, but of course he knows he’s been unkind.

That night they are just starting the annual Halloween feast when Prof. Quirrel, turban askew, runs into the great hall and yells out “Troll in the dungeons!!!” Professor Dumbledore leaps into action, instructing the prefects to lead the students back to their individual houses. On their way back, however, Harry and Ron remember hearing that Hermione had gone into the girls bathroom to cry and didn’t want to be disturbed. It strikes them that this means that she doesn’t know about the troll. So, they sneak away trying to find the girls room to warn Hermione. Although they are not terribly fond of her, they don’t want her to be troll food either. While making their way to the bathroom, they encounter the troll itself. In a stroke of genius, they lock it into a room that it just stumbled into. Moments later though, they hear a scream! That room is the girls bathroom. They have just locked Hermione in with a troll!!! Going back into the bathroom they use what wits and skills they have and distract the troll. Eventually incapacitating it with a wand up the nose and his own club upside the head. It seems Hermione did teach Ron the proper “swish and flick” movement after all.

The teaching staff hears the ruckus and comes flying into the girls room to find three first year students and an unconscious troll. Then something miraculous happens, just as Harry and Ron are about to be punished, Hermione, Hermione Granger, miss rules and order, tells a flat out lie. To a teacher. She tells the teachers that she had thought she could defeat the troll, cause she’d read all about them, and Harry and Ron were trying to stop her. Then they beat the troll when it got the better of her. Like all good liars, Hermione put enough truth in her story to make it entirely believable, and since she is not known for lying, they all accept what she said. She lost the house 5 points, but Harry and Ron each earned 5, netting them a total of 5 measly points for capturing a mountain troll.

The best thing about the entire situation, they had a new best friend, and she finally had friends.