Disclaimer: The fine tapestry of plot and characters belongs to J.K. Rowling. I am merely pulling threads at will and weaving my own design in counterpoint to hers.
Chapter 15
Transforming the Great Hall
On the morning of the thirty-first, Harry awoke to the sound of mournful wailing. It was barely light outside. Grabbing his glasses from the nightstand, he started to wander out to the common room, then thought better of it and doubled back for his wand.
The embers from the banked fire illuminated the shadowy forms of furniture but not much else. A quick lumos spell ignited his wand tip and then one of the bracketed torches on the far wall. The sound seemed to be coming from the direction of Hermione’s room.
Gingerly he tiptoed around the sofa and narrowly missed a pile of books that had tumbled over from a small side table. He pressed his ear up to Hermione’s door but all seemed quiet. As he was about to turn away the wailing started again, only more loudly. Holding his breath, Harry slowly opened the door without crossing the threshold. Hermione was sound asleep under a mountain of bedclothes.
Turning towards the feeble morning light, he saw that the window was latched and that Crookshanks was pacing impatiently on the outside ledge. The cat’s eyes glowed spectrally as he turned and looked directly at Harry, softly howling in displeasure once more. With a well-aimed alohamora spell, Harry unlatched the window. Crookshanks delicately pushed the window open with his nose and then negotiated the various small puddles that had accumulated on the window sill. Jumping down to the floor, he streaked past Harry’s legs.
It must have started raining sometime in the night, Harry concluded, as he looked out over the somber, grey landscape. Stifling a yawn, he was about to return to bed when saw that it was nearly half past seven. His stomach suddenly reminded him that he had not had a proper supper the night before as the Great Hall had closed early at the request of the Decorating Committee.
Not bothering to wait for anyone else, Harry threw on his clothes and made his way downstairs. He was disappointed to see that the doors to the Great Hall were still firmly shut, although a covey of house-elves was busy arranging great trays of food on temporary tables in the entrance hall. He sat down on the top step of the landing, a spot that gave him a clear view of all the frantic activity without getting in anyone’s way.
Catching sight of him almost immediately, Dobby materialized at his elbow. It was somewhat disorienting to be almost at eye level with the elf’s protruding eyes, Harry thought.
“Welcome, Harry Potter, sir,” Dobby beseeched followed by his customary bow. “Can I get you something special this morning?”
“Not just yet, Dobby, but thanks anyway,” Harry mumbled absently. “How long has the Hall been closed?”
“Since last night, sir; many students, and even a teacher or two, have been toiling to prepare for tonight’s ball.”
“Do you mean to tell me that the Decorating Committee has been at it all night?” Harry inquired in amazement.
Dobby shook his head mournfully, “Most returned to their dormitories before midnight. Only one or two were dedicated enough to work beyond that.”
Slowly one of the Great Doors opened and an exhausted looking Luna Lovegood emerged followed closely by Lupin. Harry was startled to see that Lupin was still in his dressing gown and slippers.
“It’s all right that you called on me “ after all, I am in charge of Transfigurations,” Lupin spoke in a soothing tone. “It was perhaps a bigger undertaking than a student committee should have attempted on their own… Ah, here comes the headmistress.”
McGonagall was indeed hurrying over from the direction of the far hallway, sticking pins into her bun as she walked. She took Luna gently in tow and turned to usher her towards the Ravenclaw tower. Luna seemed to be saying something in protest, but her words were so soft Harry could not distinguish them.
“Don’t be daft, girl, do you think I got this far without learning how to delegate?” the headmistress replied in a softer approximation of her trademark briskness. “I’m perfectly capable of reading your schematics. Who do you think approved your ideas in the first place? I will make sure that the rest of the committee is put to task once they come down to breakfast. You, on the other hand, are going to get some sleep.” She gazed briefly at her personal hourglass, then continued, “I do not want to see you back here until quiet time ends at four o’clock.”
Harry could see Luna turn as if to object, but the headmistress cut her off, “I know that you think that today’s enforced quiet hours are solely for the younger ones, but I fully expected the older students to have the foresight to lie in a little later this morning. I did not expect any of you to work through the night. Now off you go; I will have Professor Flitwick check to see that my orders are being obeyed, do you understand?”
Harry could no longer keep Luna in sight as she rounded the far corner. He turned his attention once more to the entrance hall where he was disappointed to note that the doors to the Great Hall were closed once again. He was about to offer Lupin a good morning, but was caught short to see the man sitting hunched over the end of the nearest table with his head buried in his hands. Harry’s feeling that he was intruding upon a private moment increased as he watched McGonagall return and place her hand sympathetically on his shoulder.
Lupin looked up at her, his face unmistakably haggard. “I’m really all right, Minerva.”
“You don’t have to put up a front for me, Remus. I know what a strain having to take your potion daily has been putting on you.” Lupin made as if to reply, but she delicately interceded, “It’s hard to deny that the benefits outweigh the side effects, but you have to learn to pace yourself accordingly. Didn’t Poppy say that it would take a number of months for your body to adjust?”
The reference to Poppy Pomfrey, the school nurse, caught Harry by surprise. The Professor was always in such good spirits these days that he had practically forgotten about the werewolf bite that Lupin had sustained as a young child. There was still no cure for lycanthropy despite recent advances that had made it a more manageable condition.
Lupin nodded glumly, looking down at the tabletop as the headmistress continued, “You know how important it is to get proper sleep and nutrition… Oh, I sound just like I did when I was your Head of House. Come,” she offered as she urged him up, “go back and get some more sleep. I’ll have some breakfast sent up to your quarters later. We’ll be able to manage without you this morning, but I expect you back in time to patrol your House during the quiet hours from two to four today. You probably should not count on Neville’s assistance as he was up rather late working on the lighting cues. I expect he’ll be busy coordinating with the maestros this morning as well.”
“I’ll try to convince him to take a nap,” Lupin offered. “If I say it came as a direct order from you, it might work.”
She patted him reassuringly on the arm as she led him to the far staircase. “Do remind Tonks that she’s manning the Costume Office this morning. I don’t want anyone being barred from the ball tonight because they don’t have appropriate attire.”
“I will tell her, Minerva. I know that she was up late helping the boys from Hufflepuff rehearse for tonight.”
McGonagall chuckled briefly, then remarked, “Forgive me, Remus, but I just can’t picture dear Tonks teaching anyone a dance routine.”
“You mean because she can be such a klutz at times? She does go on about the torturous hours that her mother made her spend in dance classes as a child so she must have learned something.”
“Well, at least that explains where she gets her remarkable poise,” McGonagall conceded. “Just let her know that half past nine will be plenty early to open shop today; I expect that most people will have the good sense to sleep in this morning. Now go!”
She relayed some quick orders to one of the house-elves about who was to be admitted into the Great Hall before disappearing inside herself. Harry ducked behind the banister to keep from being discovered. Still feeling a bit guilty about not having made his presence known earlier, he checked that no one was looking in his direction and quickly retraced his steps back to his room as quietly as possible.
Retrieving the Marauder’s Map from his drawer, he spread it out on his bed and activated it with his wand. He knew that he only had a small window of time in which to perform the experiment he had in mind. “Map: show just Professor Lupin,” Harry whispered urgently. No dots appeared on the Map. “Map: show only teachers.” A small moving dot labeled “Nymphadora Tonks” appeared in the corridor outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom; it was moving toward the staircase that led to the entrance hall. Another dot labeled “Minerva McGonagall” was seen bustling about the Great Hall.
This was not getting him anywhere, Harry concluded. Desperate for some indication of where the private areas of the castle were to be found, he tried one last option. Having only read about his procedure, he was not certain that it would actually work. Tracing a complicated series of symbols along the map face, he commanded, “Map: show the last position of Professor Lupin.” A blinking dot bearing a tag for Remus Lupin appeared inside Lupin’s office. After watching it for a few moments, Harry concluded that it was not going to move.
Disappointed that the Map had not been able to provide him with much, Harry reluctantly wiped the surface and secreted it back in his desk drawer. No one was stirring in the seventh-year common room yet, but he was able to join a small procession of Gryffindors who were exiting through the portrait of the Fat Lady on the floor below.
Harry caught up with Ron later in the morning as he was coming down to breakfast. Ron suggested they spend a few carefree hours flying around the Quidditch pitch, maybe even strike up an impromptu skirmish with some like-minded individuals.
But before they had time to retrieve their brooms, the large front doors opened to admit the dripping form of Hagrid. He had come to inform the headmistress that the conditions were too wet for the bonfire that had been planned for tonight’s festivities. McGonagall wasted no time in ushering him into the Great Hall, all the while informing him that they could otherwise employ his talents.
Staring dolefully at the huge puddles from Hagrid’s footprints, the boys quickly decided that perhaps the day called for indoor activities instead. They passed Hermione working her way down the stairs amid a gaggle of younger girls. She was on her way to the Great Hall to review her lighting cues with Neville. She assured Ron that he had assisted them enough last night and needn’t accompany her today; she would just fill him in on the details later. Harry barely had time to notice that her hair had been styled in blonde ringlets before she disappeared in the crowd.
Back in their common room, Ron offered to break out his stash of butterbeers. One glance through the windows at the rain lashed sky made them decide to summon some hot cocoa instead.
“Do you think Ginny might want to join us?” suggested Harry hopefully.
“I think she said something about coordinating props with Neville.”
“What does Neville have that we don’t?” Harry pined dramatically.
Ron chuckled, but then added in a more serious tone, “It’s those announcer fellows that McGonagall lined up that they really want to meet.”
Harry had a sudden inspiration when he realized that the two of them were pretty much going to have the room to themselves. “Ron, what say we have an impromptu dueling match? Not with swords--” Harry laughed at Ron’s improvised antics. “”with wands. Like we did briefly in second year. I need to prepare for Lupin’s lessons and, well, Ginny hasn’t had much free time lately.”
“You’re telling me,” Ron commiserated. “I thought I was never going to get her and Mum away from the Costume Office yesterday afternoon so that we could have some family time together!”
“How is your mum?” inquired Harry, remembering his manners.
“She’s fine. Still can’t figure out what to do with Fleur half the time, yet I know she’ll miss her if Fleur ends up taking that flat in the city that she keeps talking about. And all the wedding plans are in complete limbo from day to day, don’t even get her started on that.”
“Sounds like you were able to have a nice long chat then,” Harry observed.
“Not really, she was anxious about making sure she was home before Dad “ even though she knows that the Ministry keeps him later and later every day. Too bad I couldn’t have invited them to the ball, though. After all those years Dad spent in the Muggle Artifacts office, can you imagine him having to come up with a Muggle costume? He’d have so many different ideas he could never narrow it down to just one.”
“How about an airline pilot with a little toy airplane?” Harry suggested recalling Mr. Weasley’s fervent desire to learn how aircraft stayed in the air.
“Just as long as he didn’t show up as one of those plugs or batteries that have him so enthralled!”
They bandied crazier and crazier notions back and forth for a while. It seemed to help them get into the rhythm of sparring “ in between bouts of laughter. They appropriated most of the furniture cushions for the middle of the floor and then made themselves a clear area. Admittedly, they were rather clumsy at first, but soon got the hang of it. Harry was surprised at the inventiveness of Ron’s spell casting; it seemed like he employed the simplest incantations in novel ways “ with rather unexpected results.
Luckily, they were able to find charms to repair most of the damage except for a few cracked fireplace bricks that they swept into the grate. The swaying of the hanging lamps subsided long before the others returned to the room. Harry concluded that he was going to have to find another place to practice with Ginny or the headmistress would have his head for destroying Gryffindor Tower.
As the quiet hour of two o’clock drew near, they could hear the heavy steps of fellow Gryffindors who were being systematically herded into their dorms below. Hermione and Neville were ushered in by Lupin himself who looked much more rested in his full Head of House regalia.
“I have the headmistress’ orders that quiet time is to be strictly observed until four o’clock at the earliest. The Prefects have been assigned to make sure that the younger students are all lying silently in their beds. With the high level of excitement, how many will actually be able to nap remains to be seen, but that was certainly the headmistress’ intention by setting aside quiet time today. I will expect everyone to remain within their common rooms at the very least.” Lupin took a moment to look at them each in turn, concluding with Neville. “As for Neville, you have direct orders from the headmistress and that does not include checking in on the younger ones. For the remainder of the afternoon, do not think of yourself as Head Boy “ those duties have been assigned to me temporarily.”
Reluctantly, Neville excused himself to his bed chamber and closed the door.
With his trademark grin, Lupin turned to the others and whispered, “That being said, I hear from Professor Flitwick that one of your sideboards has been converted into a magical ice box. Is that not true, Ronald?”
Hermione looked rather surprised when Ron solemnly nodded his head.
“Well, what are we waiting for?” Lupin urged in an undertone. “Let’s break out the butterbeer. I believe if you pull that velvet cord to the left of the fireplace “ that’s the one, Hermione “ we can get some sandwiches brought up. The headmistress is having the house-elves set up food in all the common rooms and you certainly don’t want to be overlooked.”
Harry obliged by placing a muffliato spell on Neville’s door so that he could rest undisturbed.
“I may need you to teach me that one if I need to keep the younger ones quiet,” Lupin admitted after taking a long swallow of butterbeer. “Now, tell me, how well can you hear noises from the rooms below?”
Harry admitted that the most you could distinguish was the tromping of footsteps on the stairs outside.
“What about those Extendable Ears that Fred and George designed?” Ron offered happily.
“I’ve got one better,” Hermione interceded with a mischievous grin. “A brand-new product that is just begging to be tested. Let me go set it up. Now I’m going to need some of your feedback for my report…” she trailed off as she rummaged through the shopping bag from Dervish and Banges.
Harry Potter and the Hero's Lament by L A Moody
Chapter Notes: The Decorating Committee runs into some last minutes challenges; Ron volunteers for a practice duel in Gryffindor Tower.