Dining With Mine Enemy

Harry grunted and turned over in his comfortable bed in the boy’s dormitory of the Gryffindor common room. Without realizing it, he twisted a little too far over to the right and his torso fell off the bed, taking the rest of his body along with him.

Harry’s head hit the floor with a hard thud. His drowsiness was being overcome with the sharp pain from the goose egg that was now developing on the top of his head. Flopped on the floor, Harry reached up to his nightstand to look for his glasses but came up with his wand instead. “That will do.” He said to himself. “Accio, glasses.” Harry’s glasses flew towards him and landed in his hand. Pulling the arms out, he put them on his face. His vision cleared immediately.

Harry noted the time and realized that he had woken up only about fifteen minutes earlier than usual. Since he was already awake, he decided to get a head start on his day, which was a first. He quickly dressed in his robes and made his way down to the common room. Hermione was already dressed and studying in one of the three comfiest chairs by the fire. She looked up when Harry entered the common room. “Harry?” She questioned closing her Potions book. “You’re up early. I was just waiting for you and Ron to get up so we could all go to the Great Hall and eat breakfast before class.” Harry laughed. “I figured as much. Same thing every morning.”

Suddenly, there was a loud thud with shook the ceiling right above where Harry and Hermione were sitting. “Blimey, that hurt!” Ron’s voice echoed down to the common room. Harry laughed. Hermione looked at Harry with question. “Sounds like he fell out of bed.” Harry commented. “I did the same thing earlier this morning.” Hermione giggled.

Within moments, the disgruntled Ron came trudging down the stairs to the common room, his hand clasped over the back of his head. “Morning Ron!” Greeted Harry and Hermione. “Yeah, morning to you too.” Immediately, Ron’s expression changed from pain to excitement. “So are we headed down to breakfast? I’m starving!” “When aren’t you hungry Ron?” Hermione questioned back. “Well, right after I’m full.” Ron smiled as he saw Hermione sigh. “Typical Ron.” The three of them exited through the fat ladies portrait and made their way to the Great Hall.

Smells of toast, eggs, bacon, and other breakfast items floated through the halls like an air freshener, making Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s stomachs growl immediately. They were less than one floor away from their breakfast feast when Peeves the poltergeist floated around the corner. “Ah I see petty Potter and his pathetic pals are going to breakfast. Why don’t you just eat your friends whole like the snake you are Potter? “ Harry sneered at Peeves and reached inside his robes searching for his wand but Hermione grabbed his arm before he could. “He’s not worth it Harry. Assaulting a Hogwarts ghost, even an annoying one like Peeves,” at this Hermione looked towards Peeves and rose her voice, “will send you on the fast train to detention. Let’s just go a different way.” “But we’re so close to the Great Hall now Hermione! Taking the long way will well… be longer! Really you guys I’m starving!” Ron piped in. Hermione glanced over at Ron with an angry look on her face and Ron froze in his tracks and lowered his head. Hermione had obviously won. She grabbed the sleeves of both Harry and Ron’s robes and dragged them down a different corridor, leaving Peeves to gloat at his accomplishment. “Petty Potter and his pathetic pals are petrified of pleasant little Peevesey! Hahaha!”

Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked down an almost deserted corridor. Most people would take the quick route, which was a staircase covered by an antique tapestry on the third floor that took them directly across the way from the Great Hall. This different way led them along until it reached the changing staircases, which were very unpredictable and could make one very late for breakfast, or classes for that matter. In the six years they had been enrolled in Hogwarts, there were only a number of times they actually needed to take these stairs. With the help of the Marauder’s Map, they were able to find every single shortcut to their classes, which was helpful if you needed a few extra minutes to finish up the last night’s homework.

The three descended the first set of stairs without fail. By the looks of it, none of the stairs were moving at that moment. Ron was becoming increasingly impatient and was also becoming increasingly irritating to both Harry and Hermione. Ron would continuously sigh, or grunt and Harry remembered what it had been like when Ron’s curse backfired and slugs were coming out of his mouth and how quiet it had been that day. Very peaceful and relaxing.

They had now moved onto the second set of stairs when they began to move. “Oh now where are we going?” Ron shouted to the ceiling. They were so close to their exit and now they were being directed towards a lone door that was protruding slightly from the stone wall. “Well, I guess this is our next stop.” Hermione said and she walked up to the strange door. “I don’t ever remember a door being here.” Harry questioned. “Well of course you don’t Harry.” Hermione said. “You hardly use these stairs anymore to begin with, and second, it is almost completely blended in with the wall. Same colour, texture, everything!” Hermione turned the knob on the door and it opened smoothly. “It’s really dark in here. Lumos.” Hermione said producing a small light at the tip of her wand.

They all walked in, lit their wands, and examined what they could see. It seemed to be an old storage closet that had been forgotten about for a long time. Just then the door slammed shut behind them and made a small clicking noise. They were locked in. Hermione ran up to the door, pointed her lighted wand towards the keyhole and said, “Alohomora.” Nothing happened. “Alohomora… Alohomora!” Still nothing. “Ugh, this just is not my morning.” She said as she slumped down the door to the floor and rested her head in her folded arms. Harry went over and comforted her. “I have a paper due and a quiz today in Ancient Ruins and now I’m stuck in a dusty old storage room. This is not happening!” And she started to cry. “Well what about me!” Ron whined. “I’m here starving and this never would have happened if we didn’t take those stupid stairs.” Hermione started to sob even louder. She knew that Ron was blaming this all on her. “Stop blaming her! This is no ones fault Ron!” Harry screamed. “Well, sorry if I want to find someone to blame when we get locked in a freaking storage closet!” And with that Ron stormed off to the furthest corner away from Harry and Hermione.

About an hour had passed with no luck. Harry had taken a shot with the Alohomora spell, but nothing happened and no one seemed to walk up to the door, even though they doubted anyone even saw it. They had missed breakfast and classes were going to start soon. Hermione had calmed down and was trying to think of how to escape. The better question was how did they get locked in the closet in the first place? Harry looked up as he heard some footsteps approaching them. It was Ron. He had his hands behind his back and he looked down at them apologetically. “Listen guys, I’m sorry about what I said earlier. You know how cranky I get when I’m hungry. This was just a rough morning for me.” “It was a rough morning for us all.” Harry said. Just then, a burst of white light opened directly across the room from them, momentarily blinding Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They quickly covered their eyes and saw three silhouettes enter. “It’s a, it’s a door!” Hermione cheerfully peeped. “I didn’t see a door when I was over there.” They were far enough from the door that the figures emerging couldn’t hear their conversation. “Quick, close the door.” One of the silhouettes whispered to the other two. “NO!!!!!” Harry, Ron, and Hermione screamed, but it was too late and the door slammed shut and finished off with a small click.

“Who’s there?” A familiar, but unwanted voice returned back at them. A figure stepped closer to them, his lighted wand held high. “Ugh! Potter, Weasly, and the mudblood! Great!” Draco Malfoy walked into a lighted circle made by the four of their wands, followed closely by Crabbe and Goyle. Harry felt sick as his enemy’s sneering face became illuminated in the light. “What are you three doing in here?” Malfoy hissed at them. “For your information Malfoy,” Harry hissed back, “We have been locked in here for over an hour and now you’re locked in too.” “You lie!” Draco screamed. “Crabbe, Goyle, open the door and show these idiots that there is no way it is locked!” Crabbe and Goyle walked up to the door and twisted the knob, but the door stayed firmly closed. They wiggled it and tugged it but to no avail. “Oh you bumbling idiots, let me through!” Malfoy screamed. “Alohomora!” He tried the doorknob himself but still nothing. “Well this is great, absolutely fantastic!” Malfoy threw his hands up in the air. “We don’t like this anymore than you do Malfoy. As I have already said, we’ve been here for over an hour!” Harry replied. “We are just going to wait until someone needs something from this storage closet or someone figures out a way to unlock it from in here.” Malfoy walked to the other end of the room just like Ron had earlier and sat down with his lackeys, completely paying no attention to Harry, Ron, and Hermione.

A few more hours slowly ticked by and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were beginning to feel the hunger pains set in. There was nothing that they could do. Both of the doors that had appeared to let them in had now disappeared. Hermione used the Aguamenti charm and produced water from the end of her water, so the three of them didn’t get thirsty or dehydrated, but no wizard is able to make food with a wand. It’s one of the wizarding rules that applies to magic. You can summon food if it’s already made and placed somewhere else, but you can not create it. Hermione had tried over a dozen times to summon something up from the kitchens, but it failed. She figured that it was a charm that Dumbledore must have put on the kitchen so as to not have any midday snackers taking away from their meals. “Great.” Ron groaned as they continued to sit and think.

Time meant nothing anymore. There were no outside noises that anyone heard in the room. Numerous times they went and searched for a possible door and they could see Draco doing the same thing. Finally Harry knew what he had to do. He got up and walked over to the other side of the room. “What do you want Potter?” Draco sneered. “Look Draco, I don’t want to have to admit this, but the only way we can get out of here is if we all work together and come up with some sort of plan.” “Never!” Draco raged and spit on Harry’s shoes. Harry’s Langlock spell hit Malfoy before he even knew it himself. One minute he was standing talking to Malfoy, and the next, Malfoy’s tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth. Everyone stood still waiting for a reaction. “Glarpjmoudop!” Draco blubbered out as a spell came flying out of his wand aimed towards Harry. Harry bolted to his left and dodged it, but now standing directly in the line of fire, was Ron. The spell hit Ron with full force in his chest. He shuddered for a moment, then he retched and threw up a huge greenish blue slug. “Oh, not again.” Ron whimpered throwing up more slugs.

Crabbe and Goyle had tried to pull their wands on Harry after that but Hermione had used the Expelliarmus spell on both them and Malfoy and was now in possession of all their wands. Malfoy was a little peeved at this but since he was unable to say the spells anyway, it didn’t make that much of a difference. Ron had found an empty desk in the corner and was sitting in it, lifting up the top and throwing up slugs into the bottom whenever he needed. Slowly but surely, the desk was beginning to fill with the wiggling creatures. “Well Ron, you already know that you just have to wait for it to stop. That’s all we can do, which is good because we cannot get out of here to bring you to Madam Pomfrey’s anyway.” This had happened once before during their second year at Hogwarts. After an unfortunate accident with the Whomping Willow, Ron’s wand had been snapped in two pieces. He tried to mend it with masking tape but not every one of his spells worked the same after that. Ron had tried to curse Malfoy but his spell backfired, causing him to throw up slugs like he was now.

Malfoy’s curse would wear off in a few hours but for the time being, the silence was pleasant. “So,” Crabbe said. “Why are you guys in here anyway?” Harry had never heard either Crabbe or Goyle speak a word unless it was to insult someone or because Draco told them to, so this came as a bit of a shock. “We, we um were going down to breakfast when the staircase changed and brought us to a door we hadn’t seen before. We walked inside to see where we were but the door mysteriously shut behind us and we were locked in.” Hermione answered. “What about you three?” Goyle answered this time. “We were skipping out on Transfigurations class and wanted to lie low until next period when we had a spare.” Hermione’s brow furrowed. “Why did you choose to hide in a closet on the second floor when Transfigurations is all the way up on the sixth? Wouldn’t you want something a little less far?” “What are you talking about?” Crabbe piped in. “This door that we came through was on the sixth floor, why are you saying this is the second. We’re not stupid, we know our way around the school.” “No,” Hermione said. “I think we are in one of the enchanted rooms. I can’t see any other reason why our lock picking spells haven’t worked or why you guys were able to get in here from a completely different floor than we did.” “Enchanted rooms? I’ve never even heard of such things.” Goyle said. “Don’t worry.” Harry laughed. “Hermione is practically the only one who has ever read Hogwarts: A History. That’s how she knows so much about them.” Everyone had a good laugh at that, except for Draco and Ron. Draco couldn’t laugh and Ron was too busy hurling up slugs to get the joke.

Harry, Crabbe, and Goyle continued through the hours in conversation while Hermione tried to remember as much as she could about enchanted rooms. Everyone had eventually congealed in the same area. Hunger was still a huge issue but Ron’s slug problem gave no one an appetite for the moment. Ron had needed to move to a new desk. He had filled up the first one completely with slugs. Every so often the desk would move from the force of a particularly large slug, or the lid would be propped open by a curious slug wanting to see the outside, but eventually it retreated back in.

Everything was surprisingly calm until Hermione screamed and jumped to her feet. “I’ve got it!” She smiled and Harry remembered how two years ago, she had had large rabbit teeth in place of her new shaved down ones. “Enchanted rooms are unpredictable and can pop up anywhere to unsuspecting students. But, there are certain rooms that will pick out two people or more and trap them inside until they learn a lesson with one another.” “You should learn not to turn your back on a Slytherin Granger!” Malfoy’s voice said from the circle. His tongue-tying curse had obviously worn off and he was now holding his wand again. Hermione looked to the pocket in her robes and noticed that all three of her confiscated wands were missing. Malfoy was handing the wands back to Crabbe and Goyle. “Now that play time is over, we can get back to business.” Malfoy pointed his wand at Harry and he automatically felt the Leg Lock curse take effect.

A frenzy started. Spells flew everywhere and bounced off of every possible surface it could. Before long the entire room was filled with ricocheting spells of all different speeds and colours. “Protego!” The shield charm bursted out of Hermione’s wand and wrapped itself like cellophane around the fighting students. The flying curses died down and everyone looked towards Hermione. No one had ever seen a shield charm that big before. It covered six people. The most Harry had ever seen was two. After it was quiet, everyone checked their damage. Harry still had the Leg Lock curse and had also erupted in boils. Both Crabbe and Goyle’s fingernails and hair were growing at an increasing rate. Malfoy’s tongue was once again tied and his skin was turning a sickly green. Ron was still throwing up slugs but that seemed to be the extent of his damage. A piece of Hermione’s hair was singed a little at the end but other than that, she was the only one to remain unscathed.

“This is ridiculous!” She screamed. “The only way we can get out of here is to learn our life lesson! The room will not appear to anyone else again until it feels that we have accomplished our goal, do you hear me?” No one spoke. That was the loudest anyone had ever heard Hermione scream, and it was scary. Goyle laughed, “Why should be believe you? For all we know, you’re just trying to get us all to be friends so we don’t kill each other in here.” Hermione’s face was filled with anger. She stomped over to Goyle and picked him up by the collar. “Now listen you. I’m tired, I’m hungry, I’ve missed my quiz, and I’m PMSing. So I wouldn’t talk to much if I were you.” Goyle looked confused. “What’s PM…” “SHUT UP!” Hermione interrupted screaming. “All I really want is to get out of here, and the easiest way to do that is to learn a lesson! I personally don’t care if you kill each other because that way, at least we will have something to eat!” Even though Goyle’s hair had grown to chin length and covered most of his face, you were still able to see the terror plastered over it.

Just then Hermione’s face relaxed and she dropped Goyle who fell to the floor with a huge thud. “Ouch.” He whimpered. Hermione turned and looked at Ron. His slugs had started to let up now. Good thing too because he was just about finished filling the third desk. She had started staring at Ron. He noticed her a minute later. “What, what are you looking at me like that for Hermione?” “I know how we are going to solve our problem.” Ron’s began to look frightened. “Wha..wha..what are you going to do?” Hermione smiled. “Oh, it’s simple actually. We are going to eat you.” Ron’s face lost all its colour, making his red hair stand out even more. “No! You can’t! I’m not tasty! I’m thin and I don’t have much muscle at all! Please Harry snap her out of this!” Harry couldn’t move because his legs were still locked together. Instead he started to scream. “Hermione! You can’t eat Ron! We are not cannibals!” Hermione looked back at Harry with a questioning look. “What are you talking about? We are not actually going to eat Ron silly. No, we are going to do a team building exercise and create a meal using Ron’s discarded slugs.” Harry breathed a sigh of relief. “Wow Hermione. You really had me going there for a second. That’s a great idea.” Harry looked over at the Slytherins and he could tell that they really wanted no part in this. “Look,” Harry said. “If we can do this properly then the room will let us out. The faster we get this done and over with, the faster we can get out of here. You get it?” The three Slytherins looked at each other as if deliberating for a moment, but eventually they all nodded their heads in agreement. “Alright then. Let’s get started.”

“All you guys have to do is to do what I ask you to do without question. This will be a team building lesson and if you can all listen to my instructions and follow them as quickly as possible, we will be out of here before dinner starts.” Hermione ordered. Everyone nodded. Ron’s slug problem had now worn off and he was able to relax knowing that something good could come out of this. “Alright, so first I need a pot.” Ron got up and immediately started searching for a pot in the vast space. “Hermione, what if something we need isn’t here?” Ron asked. “That won’t happen Ron,” Hermione answered, “because these rooms are sort of like the Room of Requirement. Whatever you need will be provided for you. You just have to look.” “Found a cauldron. That will do.” Harry said pulling a large black cauldron out a dusty cabinet that stood beside where he sat and slid it over to Hermione. Hermione filled the cauldron with water from her wand and used a Hot-Air charm to boil it. It worked within a minute. “Okay, next I need a few slugs. Crabbe can you pick up three of them for me?” Crabbe looked at Goyle and Malfoy. Both had an expression of disgust on their faces, but what other choice did they have. Crabbe sighed and stood up. He made his way over to the first desk Ron filled, closed his eyes and stuck his large hand inside, pulling out two large wriggling slugs. “Alright great job Crabbe, now drop them in the pot.” Crabbe quickly walked over and threw them in. They made little screeching noises when they hit the water, but they were immediately dead so they felt no pain. Crabbe however was not enjoying the slug slime that now covered his hand. He aimlessly wiped his hand on his robes, leaving a large trail of slime behind.

“Okay, now I think we need some salt.” “I’ll look for it.” Ron volunteered. He searched everywhere he could possibly find but there was no luck. Harry looked around the room from where he was sitting and noticed a small beaker labeled NaCl. “Pssst. Pssst. Ron!” Harry said. Ron turned and looked at Harry. Harry nodded his head in the direction of the beaker. Harry wasn’t sure if Ron knew that NaCl meant table salt, because Ron picked up the beaker and looked at it questioningly. “Perfect!” Hermione took the beaker from Ron and sprinkled a few pinches of salt into the boiling pot.” Just then, the outline of a door emerged from the stone wall directly behind Crabbe and Goyle. “Yes, it’s working!” Harry cheered. “Now we just have to get everyone to add something and we can get out of here.” “Okay, now I need a knife and tongs to use on the slugs. Goyle can you get those for me?” Goyle bolted up and began searching for something to use as a knife and tongs. “Well, I found a dissecting scalpel and a pair of salad tongs.” He handed them over to Hermione. “It doesn’t matter if they are sterile, we really aren’t going to eat them anyway.” Immediately everyone noticed that it was no longer just the outline of a door, it was a real door. The only thing missing was the doorknob. “Yes, one last person and we’re outta here!” Ron cheered. “Okay Draco, you are the last one. All you have to do is find us a tray to put the finished slugs on so I can “prepare” them for the meal, okay?” Draco turned his head away from Hermione and ignored her. His tongue was still tied, but it didn’t take a genius to figure out what he would have said if it weren’t. “Oh come on Draco!” Ron pleaded. “You are the last one, this is the last thing. No one really has wanted to help, but we all have to same goal. To get out of her and get as far away from each other as possible once again. Just man up and help!” Draco still kept his head turned, nose up in disgust.

No one knew what to do. Just then Crabbe and Goyle picked up Malfoy by the shoulders, similar to what Hermione had done earlier, except that Hermione wasn’t two people and she also wasn’t as large. Both Crabbe and Goyle stared at Draco in the eyes. “Listen Draco, we have been stuck in here for god knows how long. There is no reason why you cannot get up off your lazy arse and find us a freaking tray. Do you get it?” Harry had never seen Malfoy so frightened since the time they had seen Voldemort in the Forbidden Forest during their second year. It’s one thing to be screamed at by your enemies, but it’s a completely different story to be screamed at by your friends. Especially if those friends are your gigantic followers. Malfoy nodded his head and steadied himself when he was let go. He brushed himself off like nothing happened and strutted away to find a tray.

He came back moments later with a silver tea tray in hand. He handed it to Hermione who was ready with the slugs. She placed the boiled slugs on the tray and sliced them delicately with the knife. When she had finished the platter actually looked presentable enough to eat. Everyone turned to the door in anticipation. The door shook slightly and the doorknob materialized into sight. Ron walked up to the door. “The moment of truth.” He spoke as he lay his hand on the doorknob and gave it a slight twist to the left. He felt the knob give weigh under the pressure and the door opened. Everyone cheered and slapped high-fives, well except Malfoy who could only high-five. “And not a moment too soon.” Harry said as he realized that Malfoy was now completely green with his curse, Harry’s boils had erupted to the size of golf balls but the good news what that his Leg Lock curse was wearing off and he could now at least pull them apart. Crabbe and Goyle’s hair now reached to the smalls of their backs and their fingernails were the length of a 30-centimeter ruler.

Ron was the first to go through the door, followed by Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and lastly Hermione who was helping Harry out of the room because his Leg Lock curse hadn’t completely worn off yet. As soon as Harry walked through the door, his legs buckled for a moment and he was able to stand up on his own. Harry also noticed that everyone else’s ailments had vanished as well. “Oh, petty Potter and his pathetic pals got out of my trap. How sad for poor little Peevesey.” They all turned around and noticed Peeves once again floating above their heads. “Oh and he found some stragglers in the room too. How nice of petty Potter. It’s too bad that my game ended short. Usually when I lock someone in that room, Dumbledore has to come looking for them and let them out himself. Pity.” Hermione’s jaw dropped. “So it was you who locked us in there all day!” Peeves smiled. “Yes I did. I just asked the stairs for a little favour and they politely obliged to move when I asked them to.” Peeves began to laugh hysterically. Draco, who was now freed from his tongue-tying curse, interrupted his laughter. “I was trapped in a room with those Gryffindor idiots all day. You just wait until I tell the Bloody Baron this Peeves. Then you will be sorry!” Peeves stopped laughing immediately and his face took on that of shock. “You wouldn’t dare.” He challenged. “Wouldn’t I?” Malfoy responded with a grin. Peeves looked at everyone one last time, gave a shiver and floated away.

Everyone stood silently in the hall. Hermione turned and went to say something but Malfoy interrupted. “Crabbe, Goyle, let’s get out of here before the stink of mudblood, halfblood, and blood traitors is lodged in my nose forever.” And with that he walked away down the hall with his loyal subjects trailing happily along beside him. “Well, so much for a learning experience.” Ron commented. “There should be some sort of rule to that states, “You mustn’t lock Gryffindors and Slytherins alone in the same room at one time.”” Harry joked. “I’m convinced that if we just explain what happened today that we will be excused from detention.” Hermione said. Harry looked at her and grinned. “Yeah, but they would never believe us.” “Why?” Ron and Hermione asked in unison. “Because,” Harry said, “who would believe that Malfoy and I were actually able to work on something together, let along be stuck in the same room as each other for an entire day!” All of them laughed. “Harry’s right. That story would be a stretch.”