Harry Potter and The order of Phoenix-Unseen

ลำดับตอนที่ #18 : Chapter 9 : Clonusouts and Tryouts

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Chapter 9 : Clonusouts and Tryouts

                After Harry and Ron had a good laugh about Hermione, Dumbledore stood up to make an announcement for the year.

                “Hello students, welcome to another, or first, year at Hogwarts!” he said loudly. The hall burst into applause, Fred and George whistled and screamed sarcastically.

                “I hope,” said Dumbledore, “that you will all leave this year with your brains more full than how you arrived, and I hope you will all also go on to your next year in the first place.” He looked in the direction of Marcus Flint, the seventh-year Slytherin Quidditch team captain who had set a record of stupidity by staying back for three years. He just smiled a disgusting toothy grin while the people next to him patted him on the back.

                “I would like to introduce,” continued Dumbledore, “two new teachers this year.” Harry just noticed the two people sitting next to Dumbledore. “Our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher: Mrs. Arabella Figg!” The hall clapped loudly and Harry’s mouth opened wide. Why hadn’t she told him she’d be his new teacher? She stood up and waved. From the smile on her face Harry thought that the trial must’ve gone well. Even though she hadn’t old him, Harry was glad that Mrs. Figg was here, in case he had any more questions about the Order.

                “And,” Dumbledore went on, “our new potions teacher, Mr. Mundungus Fletcher!” Harry’s jaw, if it was possible, fell even more towards the ground. Professor Snape, one of Harry’s only reasons, besides Malfoy, not to love Hogwarts, was gone! He looked up and down the tables for him, but there was no sight of him. Ron was looking ecstatic, and Hermione didn’t have any expression, she was still reading, oblivious to all around her.

                This was turning into the greatest year of Harry’s life at Hogwarts. He was going to be with his mom, and Snape wasn’t going to be around to hate and punish him for no reason all the time!

                Mundungus Fletcher stood up and waved like Arabella did. His robes were not black, but yellow and fluffy looking. He had long curly blonde hair, and pale skin. The applause for him was even louder than it was for Mrs. Figg, he even got a few standing ovations. Everyone was happy to be rid of Professor Snape. He was the most evil and unfair teacher Harry had. Everyone was happy, that is, except for the Slytherins. Snape was the head of the Slytherin House, and always favored them. Professor Fletcher sat down.

                “Now that the announcements are out of the way,” said Dumbledore, “I invite you all to eat, drink, and make merry!” He smiled, and sat down. The second he sat down in his chair, huge bowls and plates of food appeared on each table. Harry took a little bit of everything, then a question came into his mind:

                “Hey Hermione, how was you summer with Viktor?” he asked. Hermione looked up at him, slammed her book shut, and said, red in the face,

                “I’d rather not talk about that right now Harry,” she retorted, with a stiffness in her voice. There was an awkward silence as they both stared at each other: Harry in shock, and Hermione glaring at him. Ron coughed loudly.

                “Well then!” he said, trying to change the subject. “ Ahem… uh… Hermione… uh… so, where’s Crookshanks? I haven’t seen her so far this school year.” Hermione stopped squinting and looked at Ron.

                “I packed him in a kitty cage,” she said. “She’s being brought up with the rest of the luggage, along with the rest of my books.”

                “Hermione,” said Ron, “you’re going to burn yourself out from studying before the time comes that you really have to cram.”

                “Oh, I’m not studying too hard now Ron, just building myself up slowly, I’ve decided on a little more than a book a day. Once the exams get closer, I’ll start really studying.”

                “Hermione!” said Ron, “Not even Percy studied that much the week before the tests! And he got an almost perfect score!”

                “Yes, well, he would’ve gotten a perfect if he’d started sooner,” she said. Ron turned away from her and rolled his eyes at Harry.

                “She’s crazy you know, she going to drive herself insane,” he said.

                “Hmph fa mph mf fum fa,” said Harry as he spoke with mashed potatoes spilling out of his mouth. Just then, a golden piece of parchment appeared in front of Harry. It was his schedule for next year. He folded it up, and put it in his pocket. Just then, he saw Fred and George leave the table and, remembering the meeting, he took a last swig of pumpkin juice, and ran off after them, spitting at Ron, “Shee ya tenite!”

                Harry soon caught up with Fred and George and they walked the rest of the way to the Quidditch field. When they arrived, Harry saw the other three members of the team Angelina Johnson, Alicia Spinnet, and Katie Bell. They were each standing there looking annoyed.

                “What took you so long?” asked Angelina. “You told us to meet you here just before the feast!” Fred and George looked at each other and smiled.

                “Yeah, oh, well, we decided we were more hungry than eager to get started. Thanks for your food Angelina!” said Fred. All three of them started angrily at the twins.

                “Anyway…” said George breaking the silence, “onto business! As all of you know, we are short a Keeper and a captain.”

                This was true, Harry thought. He hadn’t thought about it before but when Oliver Wood graduated, their previous captain and Keeper, they became short one player, and they never got a new one.

                “So,” started Fred, “we need to vote on our new captain, and have tryouts for the new Keeper.” He reached into his pocket and took out six pieces of tiny paper, and a small box. He passed out a piece of paper to each.

                “What’s this for?” asked Katie in a squeaky voice.

                “It’s a Muggle voting system, dad told me about it,” said Fred after each person had a piece of paper. “Each of you writes down who you think is the best person to be captain, put it in the box, then I’ll tally up the votes and whoever has the most votes is the new captain!”

                Angelina, Alicia, and Katie looked at each other awkwardly, thinking that there was no way that this would work, and something had to go wrong. Harry smiled, he knew that most wizards were brilliant, but had no common sense. He quickly wrote down: ‘Fred Weasley’ on the piece of paper, and put it in the box. The three girls looked at Harry as though he was a genius, then quickly copied him, and put their votes in the box. Fred and George did the same seconds after.

                “Alright!” said George, picking up the box and shaking it. “Let’s see!” he opened the box up, and looked extremely hopeful. He reached his hand inside the box, and pulled out a piece of paper, “One vote for…” he read the paper, and frowned, “Fred Weasley”.

                Fred looked very happy. He drew a red transparent sphere in the air with the words ‘Fred’ above it and made his vote fly into it. George reached his hand in for the next one

                “The next vote is for…” he smiled, “George Weasley!” He created a blue sphere with ‘George’ written above it in the air, and placed his vote inside it. He shot his tongue out at Fred who was looking sulky. It would definitely be between those two, thought Harry. They were excellent Beaters, and very talented when it came to strategy.

                George reached into the box and pulled out the next vote, as he read it, his eyebrows went up, “One vote for Harry Potter!” he said surprised. Harry was even more surprised than George was. Sure, Harry was a pretty good Seeker, but him… captain of the team? Harry didn’t think that would suit him very well. But there were still three more votes to go, thought Harry, maybe that vote was just a fluke.

                “Alright then,” said George after Fred created a yellow sphere and put Harry’s vote inside it, “the next vote is for… Fred.” he said blankly. Fred happily shot the vote into his red sphere. Good, thought Harry, his chances were getting less of becoming captain.

                “The next vote is for…” said George as Fred made a drum magically appear in front of him, and he started tapping it very fast, “…Harry.” Fred made a cymbal appear, and he whacked it creating a loud sound. Harry was now tied with Fred. Once more vote for him, and he was captain. Now that the initial shock of the thought of him being captain was over, Harry thought it wouldn’t be so bad. He pictured himself holding the Quidditch House cup with hundreds of cheering people all around him.

                “Okay… the last and final vote is for…” said George suspensefully  as he reached into the box, and took out the last piece of paper, “Harry Potter!” he yelled. He was apparently happy that at least Fred hadn’t made captain. He put the votes for Harry into the yellow sphere, and it exploded into a small fireworks display, destroying Fred and George’s votes.

                Harry was standing there with a look of shock on his face. He was now the captain of the team… but how? He voted for Fred, Fred and George obviously voted for themselves so… all three girls must’ve voted for him. Harry looked over at them to see that they were slightly giggling.

                “Alright Harry,” said Fred nicely to him, apparently over his shock, “since you’re captain, you make all the decisions… sure you wouldn’t rather let me do it?” he asked, Harry was about to speak when Alicia shouted,

                “No way Fred! Harry earned that position! Ever since he joined the team, we’ve only lost one game, and that wasn’t even his fault. He deserves to be captain!”

                “Alright, alright!” said Fred. “Anyway Harry, you do need to decide who’s going to be the next Keeper. Have anyone in mind?” Harry thought about Ron.

                “Yeah, your brother!” said Harry. Fred and George snorted.

                “Heh, Harry,” said George, “you can’t let your friendships interfere with your decisions! Ron’s okay, but we need someone awesome!”

                “Alright,” said Harry, “let’s just have tryouts this Friday. The best person gets the position.”

                “Sounds good,” said everyone at the same time. It was so perfectly synchronized, Harry thought they must have rehearsed. They all left back up to the Gryffindor Common Room. As Harry reached the painting of the Fat Lady who guarded the room, he saw one of his other friends, Neville Longbottom, curled up outside.

                “What are you doing Neville?” asked Harry. Neville sprang up.

                “I’ve forgotten the password to get in Harry! Hermione told me just a second ago, but I forgot it!” Neville looked pleadingly at Harry. Neville never did have much of a brain.

                “Password,” said the fat lady in the portrait.

                “I know, hold on a sec, I’ve forgotten it!” said Neville.

                “No dear,” she looked at Neville, “the password is: Password.” She smiled and swung open. Neville turned around and gaped at Harry in a dumbfounded surprise.

                “She’s been saying that for the past five minutes, and I didn’t figure it out!” said Neville as he waddled into the room. As Harry walked in, he saw a large group of people all standing together. He walked over to see what it was all about.

                They were all standing in a circle, with a small boy in the middle that Harry recognized as Aylar Dumbledore. There was a small animal in front of him that Harry had never seen before. In fact, people all around him were holding animals that he’d never seen before. Some looked like aardvarks, only with wings. Others had elongated faces with scaly feet, and one looked like a purple blob with red eyes. The creature in front of Aylar was long like a snake, but it had long golden mandibles instead of a face. He picked it up, and wrapped it around his neck. It licked him on the cheek.

                “I think I’ll call you a crake, a crab and a snake… combined!” he smiled and the people all around him clapped. He took a bow. What was going on? Aylar suddenly looked at Harry.

                “Harry Potter?” he asked, looking at the scar on Harry’s face.

                “Yes, that’s my name. What are you doing?” Harry asked.

                “Oh, just conjuring up some pets for people who don’t have any,” said Aylar. He smiled and waved his wand at all the animals. The people who were holding them looked as though they were in a state of pure bliss.

                “You want one Harry? I’ve got plenty more ideas left!” he said, tapping his head with his wand.

                “No, no thanks. I‘ve got an owl,” said Harry, amazed that a boy who hadn’t even started school yet could conjure animals right out of his wand. That was magic that was too advanced for some seventh years!

                “Oh, all right. But, if you ever need a pet to guard your room, I’ll happily make a vicious, spiked, fluffy ball for you!”

                “Harry!” said Hermione. “Did you already show the new first year boys where their rooms are?”

                Harry went red. He forgot that prefects had responsibilities: among those being to show first years where their dormitories are. Harry looked around and saw the four new boys standing around Aylar.

                “Come on guys,” said Harry to them, “I have to show you where you’re sleeping.”

                “But we want to see Aylar do more tricks!” said Joe.

                “Not today,” said Harry. “Maybe tomorrow. Come on, let’s go.” All five of the boys followed him up the stairs leading them to their room. Harry opened the door, and immediately the five of them shot in.

                “Have fun,” said Harry quickly, trying to get away from them.

                “Wait!” yelled Aylar. “You mean I have to share a room with these… others? I thought we all got our own rooms!”

                “No such luck Aylar,” said Harry. “Good night!”

                “Wait!” yelled Akshay. “Where can I plug in my computer?”

                “Muggle things don’t work here,” said Harry, becoming very impatient. Didn’t these kids know anything? He wanted to get way from them.

                “Wait, where can I put up my Kanji charts?”

                “You’re not putting them up on my part of the room!” yelled Chris.

                “Baka!” yelled Mike.

                “What did you call me?”

                “BAKA!”

                “Why you little!” yelled Chris, jumping off of his bed, and right onto Mike’s face. Harry decided it was time to leave, and let the boys figure this stuff out for themselves.

                “Good bye boys!” said Harry, quickly shutting the door. He breathed a sigh of relief as he turned away from their door, and took a step away. But, he felt suddenly weighed down at his feet, and he fell over onto the ground.

                “Ow!” yelled Harry, falling right onto his face. “What the?” Harry looked down at his feet and saw, holding onto his legs, the skinny first ear boy, Joe. He scrunched up his face, and suddenly excreted a horrible and incoherent statement from his mouth:

                “I LIKE THE PIEZ!” he yelled as loud as he could.

                “Okay…” said Harry, peeling Joe off of his legs, and throwing him back into the chaotic room, happy he wasn’t part of that group. Harry hoped that Aylar, appearing to be the smartest of them would whip them into shape.

                  Harry ran up to his room. He opened the door, and saw Ron sitting on his bed, shaking his wand up and down, as through trying to force something out.

                “Um, what are you doing Ron?” asked Harry.

                “Oh,” said Ron, still working on moving his wand, “just… trying to make a pet like that Aylar kid.” Just then, a silvery ball flopped out of Ron’s wand, stood on the floor for a second, then melted into a puddle.

                “Darn,” said Ron. He stopped shaking his wand, “that’s the third time that has happened!”

*   *   *

                Harry’s first day of classes was great. He woke up on time, came downstairs, ate breakfast, then hurried off to his first class: Care of Magical Creatures. When he arrived there, Hagrid was pacing back and forth by his hut, anxiously awaiting class. When he saw Harry, he smiled at him.

                “Hullo Harry! Can’t wait ter get started!” he said, beaming. Harry looked next to Hagrid and noticed there was a large box. The lid was sealed, so Harry couldn’t look inside it. But, he guessed it had something to do with the dragons.

                As he stood there, more kids came down, getting ready for class. Hermione and Ron were among the first. This was the first time Harry saw Hermione without a book so far this year.

                “Hermione!” said Harry when he saw her. “You’re not reading!” Rod nodded in agreement, and held back a laugh as he walked away from Hermione and over to Harry.

                “Don’t be stupid Harry,” said Hermione. “I’m not going to miss lessons because of studying, I’m only going to study after classes.” She smiled and walked over to Ron. More and more Gryffindor students came down to Hagrid’s hut.

                Most of Harry’s classes were with another House, and Care of Magical Creatures was with the Slytherins. Harry saw two Slytherins arriving, and recognized one as Tci, and the other as Malfoy. They were engaged in conversation, though Tci looked more interested in the grounds than he did with Malfoy’s blab. Then, when Tci saw Harry, he shot over, forgetting about Malfoy.

                As he ran, Harry heard some girls giggle. He looked around to see what it was that was causing it, then he looked more closely at Tci. He was wearing a black jacket, long red pants, and his Swand, but other than that, he had no shirt on. His chest and stomach were, for the most part exposed.

                “Hey Harry!” he said as he finally arrived next to Harry.

                “Err- uh… hi Tci…” said Harry awkwardly. He had never had a serious conversation with a Slytherin before, so this was quite new to him.

                “Brrr!” he shivered. “Kind of brisk today, eh Harry?” he said. Hermione and Ron laughed out loud.

                “Well, Tci, maybe it wouldn’t be as cold if you put a shirt on,” said Harry, using his usual voice and attitude he used towards all Slytherins. Tci looked down his front, then looked back at Harry with a confused look.

                “You mean, people wear shirts here… and robes?” he asked. All the people around him, except for Harry and Malfoy burst into laughter.

                “Yeah, Tci, that’s what most people in the world do,” said Ron, still laughing. Tci just shrugged.

                “Well, at Durmstrang,” he said seriously, “third years and up are encouraged just to wear a jacket to increase our mind power. We must use our mind all the time to keep ourselves thinking we are warm. It is like constantly making your brain lift weights, it helps your mind grow and become more powerful.” Everyone around him stopped laughing. Malfoy finally arrived over.

                “Hey Tci, why don’t you show all of them your Swand?” he said slyly.

                “Okay,” said Tci. He quickly reached into the quiver on his back, and pulled out the Swand. It looked exactly like a sword, except for the blade that had a picture of a wand on it. The rest of the blade looked like a highly polished mirror, and the handle was golden. Tci brandished it, and swung it around a few times, doing a few amazing moves. Everyone clapped when he put the sword back in.

                “Is that you wand?” asked Ron, amazed.

                “Yeah,” said Tci, “only, a Swand is much more powerful than a regular wand.”

                “Not to mention more rare and valuable,” said Malfoy, putting his hand on Tci’s shoulder. Tci rubbed it off. Malfoy, looking a little annoyed, went over and stood with Crabbe and Goyle.

                “You know Harry,” said Tci very quietly, bending over, “I really wanted to be in Gryffindor. I can’t believe the hat put me in Slytherin.” He stood back up, and gave a small shudder. Harry thought he might get to like Tci.

                Harry noticed that the entire class had now arrived, and Hagrid clapped his hands together very loudly.

                “A’ight everyone!” he said excitedly. “Today we’re gonna be startin’ a lesson that will take us through th’ res’ of th’ year!” He walked over to the giant box that Harry saw earlier, and threw off the lid. He grabbed from inside what appeared to be large eggs, each a different color with a different pattern on it. Harry recognized that they were:

                “Dragon eggs!” yelled Hagrid, “for th’ res’ of th’ year, yer gonna raise and teach yer dragon. Then, t’wards the end, we’ll see who has done the best job by having a lil’ competition.” He smiled, “Now I wan’ each of you ter come up, an’ pick an egg. Look at yer books if you want a specific kind. Today I just wan’ you to look at ‘em and read a few pages ‘bout ‘em, no getting’ ready to hatch or anything’ like that just yet.” He moved out of the way

                “Well what are yeh waitin‘ fer? Get one!” All of the kids came running up, and grabbed a random egg. Harry instead came up to Hagrid.

                “Hagrid,” asked Harry, “isn’t it illegal to have a dragon?”

                “Well, usually it is ‘Arry, but… Dumbledore made a few deals with the Ministry, said that kids should be trained to deal with everything even dragons.”

                “But, Hagrid,” said Ron who was next to Harry, “dragons don’t stay small forever! Where are we gonna keep them when they get… huge?”

                “Oh, me an’ Dumbledore got all that worked out, great man that Dumbledore is, got a special room all set up to keep ‘em good.” Their questions satisfied, Harry and Ron then went over to the box of eggs where the rest of the class had been. Ron took a red egg with yellow spots on it, and Harry took a golden egg that had no pattern on it. Nobody had bothered to consult their books on choosing, too excited to bother, but now they were all rushing to see what kind they had gotten.

                “Oh! I got an African Abysmall,” said Ron.

                “Yer quite luck there Ron,” said Hagrid. “Even though th’ African Abysmalls may start out bad, each one of ’em has a special power.”

                “Yeah,” said Ron, “but it says here that no one has ever found out what that special power is.”

                “Well, maybe ye’ll be th’ first,” said Hagrid.

                “What kind did you get Harry?”

                “I don’t know yet,” said Harry, looking through his book. Finally, he stopped on a page. “Here it is! Oh no, I got a Hungarian Horntail.” Last year, Harry had to fight one as part of the Triwizard Tournament, and it was a massive and terrible beast.

                “Well, you’re gonna have your hands full all year!” said Ron. “Hermione, what did you get?”

                Hermione was still looking rapidly through her book.

                “No, it can’t be!” she said. “Why didn’t I look more carefully before I chose?” she asked herself.

                “What is it Hermione?” asked Harry. He looked at Hermione’s egg that was a dark green with light blue stripes.

                “I wanted a Welch Green,” she said, “but that dragon’s egg is light blue with dark green stripes, not the other way around!”

                “Well than, what did you get?” asked Ron. Hermione finally stopped on a page, and pointed to a dragon that Harry couldn’t see,.

                “I got a… a… Transylvanian Three-Headed Terror!” she said, looking horrified. Ron and Harry laughed.

                “Geez Hermione!” said Ron. “And I thought Harry was gonna have a hard time, you’ll have three times as much trouble!”

                The rest of the class went okay, they all spent it researching their eggs. Harry didn’t have to ask Malfoy what he’d gotten, from seeing his egg, he knew he had gotten a Hungarian Horntail just like Harry did. Tci had a pure-black egg that Harry looked up and saw that it was a Mongolian Mutilator, a large dragon with an extremely fiery temper.

                When the bell rang, Harry, Ron, and Hermione went to their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class of the year. As it turned out, Mrs. Figg was just as good a teacher as she was a person. She spent the whole class trying to teach them basic defense spells: shields.

                According to Mrs. Figg, this was the first time she’d ever seen a shield spell used to inflict damage on someone. Neville somehow messed it up, and it hit Parvati right in the forehead. Highly embarrassed, Neville ran over, and apologized at least one hundred times. Parvati didn’t seem too angry though, especially after she put a hex on Neville that caused his nose to grow to the size of a beach ball.

                “Now now!” said Mrs. Figg after Parvati hexed Neville. “No cursing in class! Come on over Neville, I’ll show you how to do it right.” She spent the rest of the class tutoring him, and when the bell rang, Neville could do it better than any other student in the class. His shield was perfectly white and shiny, appearing exactly one foot in front of him like it was supposed to. As he strutted out of the classroom, looking especially smug, Mrs. Figg called Harry over.

                “Harry, could I see you for a minute?” she asked. Harry mouthed ‘see you in a minute’ to Ron and Hermione as they stepped out.

                “Harry,” she said, “we need to get Fawkes.” Harry looked at her, amazed at first, then realizing that they needed two more phoenixes to bring his mom back to life. Fawkes seemed like the perfect phoenix for the job. “I heard that Dumbledore has to go to the Ministry on Saturday on some business, so we need to get him this then. It will be one of the only times this year that he will be gone. I’ll meet you outside his office at ten o‘ clock at night, okay?”

                “Alright,” said Harry. This would be the first time he’d ever stolen anything from Dumbledore. Harry could only imagine what would happen if he got caught. He shuddered at the thought.

                Harry wasn’t really paying attention during his Charms class next period, even thought they were learning the exciting Clone Charm today. Harry was thinking about tonight, and what was going to happen. Just then, Hermione nudged him in the side.

                “Harry!” she whispered, ‘the Cloning Charm is one of the most important spells you’ll learn this year! Pay attention!” Harry swung his eyes over to Professor Flitwick who was talking.

                “… the Cloning Charm is unique from all other spells in magic due to one fact! Instead of it taxing your mind, it strains your body! The spell takes some of your energy, and uses that to create new material… the clone. Even if you are a smart wizard, more intelligent even than Dumbledore himself, you will not be able to perform this charm, you need a strong body to do it!” He pointed his wand at a pillow in front of him.

                “Clonusout!” he yelled. A white ray shot out of his wand, and hit the pillow. A hazy copy of the pillow appeared next to the original one. It was like a TV that was stuck on the black and white fuzz, it wasn’t coming in very clear. Professor Flitwick then grunted, quite loudly, and the blurry copy disappeared. He was breathing hard.

                “I… hope… you… now see… how much… energy… it takes…” he panted. “Now… you… try!” he collapsed on the pillow he was trying to copy. In front of every student was a small rock that they had to copy. Each of them pointed their wand at the rock and yelled,

                “Clonusout!” It was much easier than professor Flitwick made it look. Harry made about twenty copies of the rock before he even felt slightly tired. The bell rang, and everyone filed out, everyone, that is, except for Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas (two other Gryffindor boys). Each of them made a copy of sleeping Professor Flitwick, and then ran out. They shut the door loudly, and everyone put their ears to the door, not being able to wait to hear Professor Flitwick’s reaction. Suddenly, they heard him wake up.

                “AHH! HELP! DARK MAGIC!” they heard Professor Flit wick (or at least one of his copies) yell as they all walked away laughing, back to the Gryffindor common room.

TO  BE  CONTINUE


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