How It All Goes Down
Halloween
- The following day Malfoy seems surprised that Harry and Ron haven't been humiliated or expelled. They think it was an adventure, and Harry tells Ron all about the secret packet Hagrid picked up at the bank.
- Neville and Hermione aren't as interested in talking about the dog and the trapdoor, and Hermione's actually giving them the silent treatment. Ron and Harry want to get Malfoy back for what he did.
- They're helped by what arrives in the mail that morning. Owls drop off a big box for Harry. It comes with a letter from McGonagall telling him not to open it till later: it's a fancy broomstick. It has instructions for his first training session too.
- They sneak out to open it but run into Crabbe, Goyle, and Malfoy. Malfoy figures out it's a broomstick and says he'll get in trouble. Ron retaliates that it's a really fancy one, a Nimbus 2000, and is way cooler than Malfoy's. Malfoy says Ron's family is too poor to afford one.
- Professor Flitwick, who sides with Harry, interrupts them. Harry says Malfoy helped him get it, and then he and Ron peace out.
- Hermione frowns on them for getting a prize for disobedience.
- Harry gets distracted all day and can't wait for his lesson that night at 7 pm. It's his first time on the Quidditch field. He gets in a little flying before Wood arrives to tell him more about the game.
- So, Quidditch has two teams, with seven players each, and three kinds of balls. There are three Chasers on each side and their job is to get one of the balls, the Quaffle, through the other side's hoop and score points. Each side has a Keeper who tries to keep the Chasers from scoring with the Quaffle (Wood is Gryffindor's Keeper). Then, each team has two Beaters who try to keep two other balls, the Bludgers, from knocking over the Chasers while they're going after the Quaffle. Then, each team has one other player, the Seeker, who flies about looking for the Golden Snitch. It's worth 250 points, so usually if one side's Seeker catches it they win the game.
- As Wood explains all this, he releases the different balls into the air and shows Harry what they're like.
- They practice Seeking a little with golf balls, and Wood tells Harry that with him on the team, they have a real shot of getting the house cup.
- Meanwhile, Halloween rolls around. Harry feels that Hogwarts is way more of a home to him already. In Charms class, they get to learn how to make stuff fly, starting with feathers. Harry and Seamus work together, as do Ron and Hermione. Ron's impatient, so Hermione shows him how to do it, saying 'Wingardium Leviosa!' and making her feather float.
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- As they're leaving class, Ron calls her a "nightmare," and Hermione overhears. Harry worries that she might be upset, and they don't see her for the rest of the day. They hear that she's hiding out in the girls' bathroom crying.
- At dinner in the Great Hall, everyone's just started eating the fabulous banquet when Prof. Quirrell comes in, freaking out. He cries that there's a troll in the dungeon, before fainting.
- Dumbledore tells all the students to go back to their dorms. As Percy is leading the Gryffindors back to theirs, Harry and Ron confer about Hermione and realize she isn't aware of the troll thing. They split off and go to look for her.
- On their way, they see Snape and wonder why he isn't with their other instructors. They're following him when they smell something really bad. They see the huge, stinky troll, and follow it to an open door. When it goes through, Harry and Ron follow and lock it in.
- Just when they're happy and relieved, they hear a big scream. They realize they locked the troll in the bathroom with Hermione.
- They run back in, even though they don't want to, and try to distract the troll. Ron tosses a pipe at it, and Harry tells Hermione to run away. Harry jumps on the troll's back and accidentally sticks his wand up its nose.
- Ron uses the spell they learned in charms to make the troll's club levitate and smack the troll in the head.
- They decide they just knocked it out. Profs. McGonagall, Snape, and Quirrell show up.
- McGonagall is really angry. Just when Harry and Ron think they're really going to get it, Hermione lies and says it was her idea to go after the troll. She says Ron and Harry came to her rescue.
- McGonagall scolds her, demerits her five points, and sends her away; then rewards Ron and Harry five points each and sends them back to their dorm.
- When they get back to the common room they thank each other and end up becoming friends.