Chapters 91-100

House-Cup 2000

Minerva McGonagall waited until the last whispers had died away. Then she drew her wand and flicked it. The House Cup appeared out of thin air and floated serenely above the dais of the High Table, its red, blue, green and yellow gems gleaming in the light of the myriad candles that hovered below the ceiling.

‘Now it is time to award the House Cup.’

Another flick of the wands, and the decoration of the Great Hall switched to shades of silver and blue.

‘The points at the end of this year stand thus: In fourth place, Slytherin, with minus thirty-seven points. In third place, Gryffindor, with minus two points. In second place, Hufflepuff—’

The sound of explosions in the Entrance Hall cut her off.

	BANG! The students jumped.
BOOM! The students shrieked.
	WHAM! The teachers were on their feet.

‘STAY WHERE YOU ARE!’ shouted the magically amplified voice of the Headmistress, who was already hurrying towards the Entrance Hall hard on the heels of Professors Snape and Weasley.

Hermione whipped out her wand and ran after them, distantly aware that the Hall was completely silent for a moment. Barely a second later a new noise started: A multitude of small pops and cracks, puffs and snaps drifted into the Great Hall from outside.

Suddenly the high voice of a Slytherin First Year echoed through the Great Hall: ‘The hour glasses! The hour glasses have exploded! And all the gems are turning into POPCORN!’

Hermione skidded around the corner of the entrance door—and quickly jumped back, stumbling backwards into a crowd of excited students. But it was too late. Already a wave of fluffy flakes and crisp puffs was rolling against her knees, quickly rising higher. The warm fragrance of caramelised sugar wafted overhead.

In the Entrance Hall only the heads of Headmistress McGonagall and the Professors Snape and Weasley were still visible above a sea of popcorn. Still the hourglasses kept overflowing, releasing a steady stream of puffed corn. Within moments the sweet tide had reached the dais of the High Table.

Now there was no restraining the students anymore. No one stayed seated. Squealing and screaming they plunged into the sea of popcorn, stuffing themselves with one hand and throwing puffed projectiles at the other students with the other hand. Professor Flitwick bobbed along on a wave, while Professor Sprout was greedily shovelling popcorn into her mouth.

Within minutes the Great Hall was in complete, popped and candied chaos.

oooOooo

Fred and George! was the first idea that shot through Hermione’s mind when she realised that the white flood posed no imminent danger for the lives and limbs of the students.

Then: Not Fred.

An unexpected pang of sadness squeezed her heart amid peals of laughter and cries of delight. She inhaled deeply and her stomach growled. Frowning she cast a quick diagnostic spell. It was real popcorn—a complete transfiguration of the hourglass gems.

Definitely a Weasley product, she thought, and shoved a handful of popcorn into her mouth. Crunchy. Sweet. Tasty.

In spite of herself the corner of her mouth curled into a wide grin. With a bit of effort, she managed to wade to the door and hang on to the frame, withstanding the white currents. In the Entrance Hall Minerva and her two colleagues had reached the hourglasses. Their wands pulled, they each faced a glass.

A moment and a stunning spell later, the flow of popcorn stopped.

oooOooo

It took the better part of an hour to restore order to the Great Hall, to Evanesco the popcorn and to treat students and teachers who had overindulged with a Stomach Soothing Syrup.

At last everyone was seated again and Headmistress McGonagall was back at the rostrum, slightly worse for wear, her neat bun dishevelled with the odd puff of popcorn still adorning her pepper-and-salt hair or falling from the folds of her robes.

The House Cup, filled to the brim with popcorn that had miraculously evaded the Evanesco-ing, still floated above the dais.

‘I was about to list the House points each of our four Houses earned this school year and to award the House Cup before I was interrupted.

‘As of this second, the House points stand thus: zero points for Gryffindor, zero points for Hufflepuff, zero points for Ravenclaw and zero points for Slytherin.

‘And now…’ the Headmistress’ voice cut like a knife through the hush in the Hall. ‘Now I want to know who is responsible for the destruction of three valuable magical hourglasses and the annihilation of gems that were a few thousand Galleons worth.’

‘Step up and explain yourselves,’ she hissed.

In the silence that followed, you could hear the occasional leftover popcorn puff dropping to the floor.

Hermione looked down at the students and wondered if the pranksters would accept the responsibility for sabotaging the House Cup ceremony. Sudden activity at the Slytherin table caught her eye. When Hermione saw who was standing up, she winced.

Alina!

But before Alina could climb over the bench and step into the aisle, students were getting up at the other tables, too, until at last a group of thirteen students huddled together in the middle of the hall.

‘What is the meaning of this?’ the Headmistress asked, her voice icy.

Ebenezer Sibly-Style from Slytherin, Barret Cruddace from Gryffindor, Johannes Flamel from Hufflepuff and Cato Cornell from Ravenclaw stepped in front of the others. After exchanging a look with Ebenezer, Barret Cruddace took another step forwards.

‘We did it. All of us.

‘You keep talking about House unity. But you don’t really believe in it. You keep pitching us against each other, especially Gryffindors against Slytherins. It’s always us against them. How are we supposed to ever trust each other that way?

‘And that House Cup. If all of us had a fair chance, it might be fun. But it’s really only about prejudices and mistakes.

‘We’re sick of that. That’s why we did it. You can keep your stupid Cup.’