SMILE » n. longbottom

lix

"EERINESS AT THE LONGBOTTOM MANSION, PART TWO"

In a spare room in the spacious mansion was a single bed with three windows on one wall, a door opposite of the windows, and all of the other walls in the room consisted mainly of board and batten wall paneling. A dark oak surrounded the entire room, in the corner of the walls was a door which opened to a small bathroom which fit in the bare necessities. At the foot of the bed was a crate which stood with long legs, a woven top had been decorated with it.

On the bed was a couple sheets of blankets, a fitted sheet already on the mattress. Alana set her luggage down on her bed, and she sat down on her bed, looking out the window that stared out into the forests behind the Longbottom Mansion. The room seemed plain to say the least, but Alana didn't want to expect any better. She was a guest in their house, and she must act as one.

Neville stood in the doorway, looking into the room. He stared out the window with her, from the doorway as well. He finally spoke up, "It's a nice room, isn't it? It's generally barely used, it's supposed to be a guest bedroom. I suppose my great-aunt had cleaned it up for you," he looked to the pile of sheets beside Alana, "oh, and fixed you some clean blankets as well."

"Oh, that's nice of her. It's a nice room," she stated. She looked out again into the forest that seemed to be staring back at her through the window of the Longbottom Mansion. The snow clouds from above coated the lush greenery with what could look like powdered sugar, delightful thick powdered sugar.

A minute had passed, it seemed, and the door creaked open a bit. The two turned their heads to look for the cause of the noise. It was Enid, Neville's great-aunt, who was holding a completely wooden tray that had two cups of presumably hot chocolate in them. The cups were almost filled to the brim with the drink but a floating hill of whipped cream sat on the surface of it. And a few shavings of chocolate appeared to be sitting quietly on top of the hill.

"Well, dears, I have your hot chocolates!" she cried out, Enid set the tray on top of the bed, careful for it not to tumble over and let the drinks fall. "Enjoy! Oh, and, supper will be ready in about seventeen minutes. I hope you're hungry!" Enid left the room, shutting the door behind her. Inside of the room, the two picked up the cups of hot chocolate and began to drink some of it.

Perhaps in the opposite side of the mansion were the other occupants of this abode: Augusta and Algie. They were both sitting down in the library of the mansion, minding their business. All was quiet for a few minutes until the entrance doors to the mansion's library creaked open and in came the old lady, Enid. Now all of the adults in the mansion were in the same room.

And, of course, it was up to who had just entered the library to tell the rest of the adults about Neville's arrival and the arrival of his guest as well. Enid closed the doors behind her.

A stern and tall old lady whispered about, not looking up from the book that she held in her hands, "Well, look who's come to join us. Has Neville and his guest arrived, Enid?"

The smaller stout woman nodded, sitting down in a chair, "Yes, and well you couldn't guess it. The guest is ... a girl."

The stern old lady known as Augusta Longbottom, Neville's grandmother, did not look up from her book this time, nonetheless. "Well, that's curious," she kept on reading her book. In her seat, Enid turned her head suspiciously, as if concerned with how the stern lady would react to the news of the guest. Augusta continued on as if she were rephrasing or simply thinking about the subject: "Neville's brought a girl over for Christmas."

Algie looked up from his seat, looking at Augusta, "Well, I don't see the issue at hand! Infact...," the man sat up, readjusting his sweater. "...Infact, I'm proud for him." On the table in between the three of them was newest newspaper of the Daily Prophet, something the household keeps about.

On the front page was the colored print of a lady wearing a very particularly pink wardrobe, with the face of a toad. The headlines above the moving image, 'DOLORES UMBRIDGE APPOINTED HOGWARTS HIGH INQUISITOR AND HEADMISTRESS OF HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY'. A long title in fact, but who minds? The date in the corner was not in fact the newest paper that the Daily Prophet has flown out but in fact the newest newspaper of the Daily Prophet that the household has kept.

The first paragraph quickly summarized the title again, but this time more going into detail about Dolores Umbridge. A quite from her stood out from the rest of the paragraphs, the words appearing to be written down by hand, as if the pink lady were rewriting it again and again and again.

Algie looked down at it, and it seemed as it a circuit clicked in his head. He looked to Enid, who seemed curious about what her husband could be thinking about. He spoke, "Dear, this newspapers old. Has there been any more owls with new ones that you've seen?"

Enid shook her head, standing up to pick up the newspaper that lay on the table. She picked it up, looking at the date in the corner, "Why... I haven't seen any owls from the Daily Prophet. You know what? I'll contact their customer support right now to make sure that they're sending out owls in the first place."

Before the stout lady could turn, Augusta looked up from her book, "Don't waste your time, dear. I've unsubscribed our house from that newspaper. That's why the date on that newspaper isn't today."

The other adults looked at each other before the stout old lady turned her head to Augusta and asked: "But, why? I thought you liked the print..."

Augusta chuckled, and she closed her book, setting it down on the side table beside her. The tall lady stood up from her chair and took the newspaper from the other lady's hands. She turned to a particular page in the newspaper, she held the page out for the two of them to see.

In the middle was a image of Albus Dumbledore, behind the moving image of the previous headmaster was a simple black background. The title around the picture was, 'DUMBLEDORE AND HIS ARMY'. Augusta shook the paper pointing at the paragraphs that surrounded the round bunch of the title and moving image. Her words hissed through the air, "These particular columns about Dumbledore and 'his army' barely are about the two. Every other sentence seems to be about Dumbledore's failure at the school or even the role of James-and-Lily's boy in the so-called 'army' that Dumbledore seems to be owning or at least managing."

Augusta continued on, but dropped the newspaper on the table in between the three of them. She sat down on the chair from which she sat up from, and picked up her book from the side table, "The information that the Daily Prophet gives out isn't even about the titles they present but the text that they print is rather about the people within it. It's a ploy to give people lesser or greater statuses within the wizarding community." The stern old lady continued to read her book as she focused on the page which she left at.