When the
Christmas holidays were over the Hogwarts Express brought back the students who
had gone back to their families for Christmas. Ten people were missing, however
and the bad news was still to come.
Dumbledore told them on the morning
that term started again about these deaths and that Lord Voldemort and the Death
Eaters had killed them. He then continued to tell them who had died and Harry
almost got sick when he heard two of the names.
‘Two of Gryffindor’s finest,’
Dumbledore said. ‘Dean Thomas and Lee Gordon. There bodies taken from us and
now gone along with their families.’
Harry heard a clatter of cutlery
from the Weasley twins when Lee’s name was called out. Their best friend had
just being killed. Harry felt the same. One of his friends had been killed as
well. He felt hatred towards Voldemort for ruining his life. Killing his friends
and family. Killing the people who he had had a great relationship with. Now
they were gone. They weren’t coming back and he would never see them again.
Just then, what Harry thought was
one of the resident ghosts, walked through the doors to the Great Hall.
‘I’m not gone,’ said the
ghost. Only it wasn’t one of the resident ghosts. Yet it was still very
familiar. There were gasps around the Hall. It was Dean. Some people fainted
including one or two of the teachers. Dumbledore however was completely relaxed.
When he reached Harry, Ron and
Hermione he sat down beside Harry, smiled, said ‘Hi Harry! Good Christmas?’
and the looked up to where Dumbledore was standing.
‘But Voldemort was unable to take
the spirit of Dean that still lives inside most of us,’ continued Dumbledore.
‘Dean was given the chance to come back to us. Dean accepted this and was
given his body back though only as his friends remembered him. And, so I’m
glad to welcome Dean back. He will be partaking in all classes as before and
I’m sure you will all treat him as a friend as you once did.’
***
School
continued as normal for the next month. As Dumbledore had said, Dean attended
all the classes and remained a Gryffindor. People in the other houses weren’t
too sure of him however. They would whisper behind their hands as he walked by
and looked at him pryingly.
Harry and Ron were walking down to
breakfast on the morning of Gryffindor’s match against Hufflepuff when a
Ravenclaw girl came running by them seemingly thrilled. She stopped at them and
squealed ‘Have you heard? He’s back!’
‘You want him to be back?’ Ron
asked her bewildered.
‘Oh I can’t believe it,’ she
exclaimed and ran off again.
‘What’s she so thrilled about
and where was she when Dumbledore announced that at the beginning of last
term?’ Harry asked.
Just then, as they were crossing
the Entrance Hall to enter the Great Hall, a Hufflepuff boy came over to them.
‘Have you heard? He’s back,’
the boy said sounding very depressed.
‘Now that’s the sort of way we
like to here it!’ said Ron jokingly and him and Harry walked into the Great
Hall. ‘Honestly! Where have they all been for the last five months?’
In the Hall all the girls seemed to
be over the moon while the boys seemed to be down in the dumps. Harry and Ron
walked over to Hermione, Aoife and Ginny who were already sitting at the
Gryffindor table.
‘He’s back! He’s back,’
cried Ginny.
‘What’s up with you people
today,’ asked Ron. ‘Why are you all so happy about You-Know-Who being
back?’
‘No! Look!’ said Hermione
throwing a copy of the Daily Prophet to Harry and Ron.
‘I can’t believe it!’ cried
Aoife ecstatically.
Harry picked up the paper and
looked at the front page and there, near the bottom of the page, was an article
in the shape of a heart with a picture of Gilderoy Lockhart over it. It was
entitled ‘5 Simple Spells to an Irresistible You’.
‘I don’t believe it,’ said
Ron. ‘Don’t either of you remember that he was a complete phoney?’
‘Oh, Ron!’ sighed Ginny.
‘You’re so full of negativity. Don’t you know a good man when you see
one?’
‘Ok, there is something seriously
wrong with him and the three of you,’ said Ron. ‘He must have used
one of those spells he’s talking about on himself.’
‘Or maybe all of them,’ added
Harry.
There was a group of Gryffindor
boys sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table. It seemed as though they were
trying to get away from all the girls so Harry and Ron joined them.
‘Good luck today, Harry,’ said
Seamus followed by the rest of the group.
‘Do you know who’s commentating
from now on, after- well, you know?’ asked Dean.
‘I heard a rumour that Hermione
was going to take over,’ said Neville.
Ron called Hermione and beckoned
her up the table.
‘Yes,’ she said when she
arrived hugging a Daily Prophet.
‘Is it true that you’re the new
Quidditch commentator?’ asked Harry.
‘Well I was going to surprise the
two of you, but yes I am,’ she replied. She then looked down at the picture of
Gilderoy Lockhart in the paper, sighed, hugged it again and walked off back to
Ginny.
‘She can’t commentate in that
state,’ said Ron disgusted.
‘Don’t worry. We’ll fix
that,’ said Fred Weasley. ‘Just a simple memory charm.’
‘Just be careful,’ said Ron.
‘Don’t erase too much. Just the Gilderoy Lockhart stuff.’
‘Don’t worry Ron,’ said
George winking. ‘She’ll still remember her precious Ron when the match is
over!’
‘And do Aoife and Ginny while
you’re at it,’ said Harry.
As Harry, Fred and George headed to
go down to the Quidditch stadium Fred snuck up behind Hermione, who was
captivated in the picture of Lockhart, and muttered ‘Obliviate’.
Hermione looked up seeming dazed.
‘Why am I hugging this paper?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ said Harry
innocently, while George pointed his wand at the back of Ginny’s head and then
Aoife’s head and muttered ‘Obliviate’.
‘What are you doing to them?’
Hermione asked suspiciously.
‘Oh nothing,’ said Fred
innocently.
‘Are you going down to the pitch
now?’ Hermione asked. ‘I better head down too. I’m the new commentator.
Did you know that?’
‘Really,’ said Harry sounding
as though this was news to him.
‘Don’t tell Ron though,’ she
said. ‘I want it to be a surprise!’
They walked down to the stadium
along with the rest of the Gryffindor team. They left Hermione at the changing
room doors and then pulled on their Quidditch robes. They then waited for
Angelina’s pre-match prep talk but she was gazing up at the ceiling with a
happy smile on her face along with Alicia and Katie. Aoife was looking at them
as if they were pathetic.
‘Can’t you do anything for
them,’ Harry asked George.
‘Afraid not, Harry,’ he said.
‘I left my wand up in the school.’
‘This is ridiculous,’ said
Aoife. ‘We wont score any goals with them like this.’
They went out onto the pitch where
the Hufflepuff team were already standing. To their luck the Hufflepuff keeper
was a girl and she seemed to be just as captivated as the rest of the girls. The
new Hufflepuff seeker was Cetus Malfoy and unfortunately he wasn’t captivated
by the news of Lockhart’s return.
Harry and the rest of the
Gryffindor team mounted their brooms (Alicia, Katie and Angelina were falling
over themselves as they did so) and took off on Madam Hooch’s whistle along
with the Hufflepuffs.
‘And they’re off,’ Harry
heard Hermione’s voice boom around the stadium sounding very excited.
The girls never lost Lockhart’s
bewitchment – the Hufflepuff keeper started off by flying towards the school
instead of her own goals. That’s how Gryffindor scored their first goal.
Their next tow goals were just as
fluky as the first. For the second goal the ball fell into Angelina’s hands
but there was no sight of the Slanting Broom formation. Angelina just headed for
a Hufflepuff hoop and then though it, while the Hufflepuff keeper gazed,
mesmerised, at the sky.
For the second goal Katie handed
the ball through the hoop to the Hufflepuff keeper who took it and started
hugging and kissing it apparently thinking it was Lockhart.
Harry couldn’t stop laughing at
this and it took him a while to realise that the other Gryffindor’s weren’t
cheering at all but the Hufflepuff’s were.
Harry turned around to see Cetus
Malfoy holding something small and golden in his hands. He’d caught the golden
snitch. Harry’s heart sank. He had been sure they would beat Hufflepuff. Harry
let his broom float slowing down to the ground allowing it all to sink in.
‘It’s over,’ boomed
Hermione’s subdued voice. ‘Hufflepuff win the game.’
The shock of losing seemed to have
broken Lockhart’s spell for the three Gryffindor chasers as they came down to
the ground with a thud. They started to walk towards Harry but he quickly went
off to the changing rooms to get away from them. He hurriedly changed, then
transformed and flew threw a small window at the back of the room. He then flew
straight for Hagrid’s hut. For some reason, he thought Hagrid might be able to
console him.
When he got near the hut he saw
Hagrid coming out of the forest with Fang and then entering the hut through the
front door. Harry flew after them and transformed on the doorstep.
‘Hi, Harry!’ beamed Hagrid.
‘Ye know yer not mean’ to be transformin’ like tha’ in dayligh’.
Wha’ will people say if they see ye doin’ tha’? Grea’ game though,
weren’ i’?’
‘You obviously weren’t at
hit,’ said Harry.
‘Well, no,’ said Hagrid
guiltily, ‘bu’ I’m sure any game with Harry Potter in it ough’ to be a
grea’ one!’
‘We lost,’ said Harry.
‘Oh, dear,’ said Hagrid.
‘Well I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation. Did they cheat?
Hufflepuffs can be awful cheaters.’
‘No!’ said Harry a bit louder
then he had intended. ‘It was me. I wasn’t paying attention.’
‘Well not to worry Harry,’
chuckled Hagrid. ‘We all make mistakes from time to time.’
‘Not as bad as this,’ said
Harry.
Harry left Hagrid’s hut feeling
no better than before. He headed up to the Entrance where, unfortunately, Ron,
Hermione and Ginny found him.
‘Hi, Harry!’ beamed Ginny still
seemingly entranced by Lockhart. Harry ignored her but she obviously didn’t
mind for she went skipping outside with a big grin on her face.
‘Don’t be worried about the
match, Harry,’ said Hermione reassuringly. ‘We still have a chance. If we
beat Ravenclaw, and that’s quite likely, we’re still in with a brilliant
chance of getting to the finals.’
‘Yeh, but what’s everyone going
to say until then?’ asked Harry. ‘They’ll all think I’ve lost my touch
and they’ll be right. I won’t be allowed back onto the team.’
‘No they won’t be right.
You’ll just have to prove them wrong,’ said Hermione. ‘And of course
you’ll be allowed stay on the team.’
‘Besides,’ said Ron. ‘Next
time you won’t have anything to laugh at. I wonder how long that spell
lasts?’
‘Its only a simple ‘Love letter
spell’,’ said Hermione. ‘It will last 24 hours – long enough for you to
respond and tell him how much you love him. Of course by the time the spell
wares off it will be too late to take back what you just said and he’ll have
sent you a dozen roses bewitched to say ‘You’re mine’ every five
seconds.’ As she spoke Hermione’s voice steadily got angrier and angrier.
‘You seem to know an awful lot
about this spell, Hermione,’ said Ron. ‘Have you had experience?’
‘Krum,’ said Hermione rather
curtly. ‘He sent me a bewitched card in July. I couldn’t help myself. I had
to write a back and I spilled out everything. Of course when I realised what he
had done I sent him an envelope of Bubotuber puss and I didn’t open any more
letters from him. They stopped after a month or two. I hope you never do
something like that to me, Ron.’
‘Not if you’re going to respond
like that,’ said Ron seeming very alarmed.
‘Good,’ she said happily
kissing him on the cheek and the three of them headed up towards the Gryffindor
tower. Harry had forgotten all about the dreadful match until there was a drawl
from behind them. Draco Malfoy was coming out from behind a tapestry with Crabbe
and Goyle.
‘What happened today, Potter?’
he said, sneering. ‘Transfixed by Lockhart, were you?’
He laughed and disappeared behind another tapestry.