Totally Awesome | George Weasley

Finding Out After The Fact | Chapter 6 | Book 1 Ch 6

     The rest of the year went by uneventfully to the point where it seemed almost boring to the average students, and in this case, Arwen and her friends fell under the category of 'average students'. No one had the slightest clue that anything abnormal was going on around Hogwarts until the very end of the school year when it was revealed.

     Voldemort, the dark lord himself, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, You-Know-Who, had been at Hogwarts all year, hidden on the back of Professor Quirrel's head, concealed by the professor's turban. His goal being to get the Philosopher's stone hidden behind multiple challenges in the closed off portion of the third floor.

     Or at least that's what Dana, one of Arwen's other roommates, had said. She'd heard it from the Ravenclaw she sat next to in their Ancient Runes class, who had heard it from an older Ravenclaw, and after that point Arwen lost track of who was saying what.

     Other rumors included that Quirrel had wanted the power of the Philosopher's Stone for himself, or had been under the Imperius Curse, or had been body swapped with the Troll from Halloween and the Troll, in Quirrel's body, stupidly wandered over to the third floor.

     Arwen had realized in her first year to never trust the word of anyone when it came to rumors about anything happening, so she was keeping out of the debate.

     It was only a matter of time before the End-Of-Year feast happened, something no one in Hufflepuff was particularly looking forward to this year, especially seeing as they were in second to last place, only beating out Gryffindor because those students kept losing points due to being reckless idiots.

     " Another year gone!" Dumbledore said to start his speech." And I must trouble you with an old man's wheezing waffle before we sink our teeth into our delicious feast. What a year it has been! Hopefully, your heads are all a little fuller than they were... you have the whole summer to get them nice and empty before next year starts."

     This got some laughs from the students and some disappointed head-shakes from the faculty.

     " Now, as I understand it, the house cup here needs awarding and the points stand thus: In fourth place, Gryffindor, with three hundred and twelve points; In third, Hufflepuff, with three hundred and fifty-two; Ravenclaw has four hundred and twenty-six and Slytherin, four hundred and seventy-two."

     " And how many of those points were granted through favoritism?" Lee muttered under his breath.

     " Yes, well done, Slytherin," Dumbledore continued once the Slytherins' cheering had died down." However, recent events must be taken into account."

     That caused any remaining cheering to immediately stop.

     " First - to Mr. Ronald Weasley..."

     Every head in the entire hall turned to stare at Ron.

     "... For the best-played game of chess Hogwarts has seen in many years, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

     Every Hufflepuff immediately groaned and began grumbling to each other as Gryffindor celebrated moving up to third-place.

     " My brother, you know!" Percy could be heard telling anyone who breathed." My youngest brother! Got past McGonagall's giant chess set!"

     " Second - to Miss Hermione Granger... for the use of cool logic in the face of fire, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

     " What were you saying about favoritism, Lee?" Naomi asked with a frown.

     " Third - to Mr. Harry Potter, for pure nerve and outstanding courage, I award Gryffindor house fifty points."

     This brought up the grumblings of Ravenclaw house as well whose hard-earned points had now been pushed back to third place while Gryffindor tied with Slytherin.

     " There are all kinds of courage," Dumbledore spoke over the mutterings." It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. I, therefore, award ten points to Mr. Neville Longbottom."

     There was silence for a good two seconds, before everyone erupted into noise from cheering at Slytherins loss to shouts of upset for every other house who had to be pushed back a rank in the House cup, to Slytherins upset about loosing, and everything in between - at least a quarter of the yells mostly came from people who had forgotten to eat earlier that day and just wanted the feast to start because they did not care about house points at this point.

     " Which means, we need a little change of decoration."

     With a clap of Dumbledore's hands, all the banners in the great hall changed from Green and Silver to Red and Gold as Snakes got replaced by Lions, granting Gryffindor got their first win of the House Cup in years.

A/N: I forgot how mildly infuriating this win would seem to anyone who isn't one of the book protagonists. However, that's the first book done! Every other book ( except maybe the 6th one) will have a lot more content.

I hope you have an absolutely wonderful rest of your day!

- Alex