The Girl Who Saw Tomorrow » Harry Potter

1.21 | Pig's Face

When October started, the downpour of rain became increasingly relentless. So much that the strong winds swept the water into the corridors and students became prune to walking near the walls. Meanwhile, Filch the caretaker's duties only increased tenfold, and as a result, so did his anger.

As if in an act of blessing, the morning of the first weekend of October dawned with bright blue sky, still windy yet luckily with no signs of grey clouds.

However, there certainly was one above Margaret's head when she realised, much to her horror, that she needed a guardian's signature on the Hogsmeade form which they had received a week prior, which she had shoved it in her bag without much thought after the events of the previous weekend.

She proceeded to moodily stare at the ceiling for solid ten minutes before dragging herself out of the bed to the adjoined bathroom sluggishly.

"I don't think I'll be able to come," Margaret mumbles to Harry, Hermione and Ron during breakfast later that morning. The three of them paused whatever they were doing and looked at her in sort of confused surprise.

"Why not?" Hermione asks, disconcerted.

"I don't have a parent or a guardian to sign my form," she tells them dishearteningly, sloshing some milk in her bowl and grabbing the box of Cherry-Owls cereal. "I didn't realise until this morning-"

"Oh, wait, no," Harry interrupts, shifting on the bench to shuffle through the pockets of his trousers. Since it was the weekend, they were all in their casual clothing. He took out two folded parchments and unfolded them. "Aha! Here; Siri- Snuffles signed it for you."

"He did what?!"

Margaret hurriedly grabbed one of the papers, and sure enough, her name was scribbled on the top and a scrawly, barely recognisable signature scribbled on the bottom.

"But- But... How...?"

Harry gave her kind of a sad smile and waved the other parchment. "If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't be going either."

"No," she says, shaking her head, "I mean how did he get an extra form?"

"Oh," Harry says, his eyebrows crunching. He hadn't thought about that. "I don't know how he got it actually..."

Hermione perks up suddenly. "I reckon McGonagall may have something to do with it."

Margaret looks up in surprise. "McGonagall? Because she's in the... You-Know-What?"

Ron made a funny sound between a snort and a scoff. "Is that what we're calling it now? You-Know-What?"

"Doesn't matter," Hermione replies to him, "but to say - yes, I'd believe so. Either way, it means you can come with now."

"Yeah," Margaret smiles, looking down at Sirius's signature, feeling a pang in her chest. She couldn't remember the last time someone older, someone like a guardian, had willingly been kind to her. There was a stamp of Hogwarts next to it, showing that her slip had been approved by the Headmaster.

After breakfast, students of the third year and above lined up in front of Filch, who matched their names with the long list of names of the ones who had received the permission from their parents or guardians to visit the village.

When the four of them reached the caretaker, he took a great sniff of Harry before nodding to himself and letting them pass.

"Er- Why was Filch sniffing you?" Ron asks as soon as they set down the wide drive towards the towering metal gates.

"I s'pose he was trying to detect the smell of dungbombs," says Harry with a small laugh. "I forgot to tell you..."

Harry went on to recount his story of writing to Sirius and how Filch had said that he had received a tip-off that Harry was ordering dungbombs and had demanded to send the letter.