Saturday, October 31, 1994 - Evening
‘Harry, Cedric, I suggest you go up to bed,’ said Dumbledore, smiling at both of them. ‘I am sure Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are waiting to celebrate with you, and it would be a shame to deprive them of this excellent excuse to make a great deal of mess and noise.’
Rowling, J.K. “Chapter 17. The Four Champions.” Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Pottermore Limited.
The Great Hall was deserted. Harry walked across it with Cedric Diggory. The Tri-Wizard Champions had just been released from the trophy room. Dumbledore had sent Cedric and Harry of to celebrate with their houses in their common rooms.
Harry watched Cedric stride away to the staircase down to the Hufflepuff common room. As Cedric disappeared Harry started to feel an even greater weight press down on him.
This was not supposed to happen.
So many supposedly unbreakable rules had been broken tonight and the headmaster and the ministry officials all seemed to be happy to let it happen.
Harry stepped into the Gryffindor common room and a wall of noise hit him.
“WHY DID YOU DO IT POTTER?”
“WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, YOU ARE GOING TO DRAG US ALL DOWN WITH YOU!”
“YOU’RE A CHEAT POTTER!”
The angry yells were repeated over and over. Finnegan was red faced and screaming at him.
Ron stood in the middle of the room and yelled at Harry.
“WHY DIDN’T YOU LET ME IN ON THE SECRET?”
“YOU’RE A CHEAT POTTER! WE CAN’T KEEP YOU AROUND HERE ANYMORE!”
A year 6 prefect walked up to Harry and gave him a rolled-up scroll.
“This is your notice of expulsion from Gryffindor. The house has voted on this, and the majority has ruled that you are now out of this house. You might be accepted back if you comply with the list of requirements on this notice. Your things are in this bag. Take your trunk and get out.”
Harry scanned the room. He couldn’t find Hermione or Ginny. Some year six and seven girls were blocking the doorway to the girl’s dormitories. The quidditch team was being held in a corner by the senior prefects pointing their wands at them.
Harry knew that this was the cause of the heavy premonition that weighed down on him as he walked back to the Gryffindor Tower.
Harry stared at Ron. Ron glared back, his face red and lips quivering with anger. Harry felt something change in him, it was almost physical, Ron was now out of his life forever.
The portrait door closed behind Harry as he trudged away and down the stairs.
The Great Hall was fully dark now. He turned to the entrance hall; it was not so dark, but the main doors were locked. Harry wrapped himself in his school robes. He lay down in a corner and made the bag with his clothes and books into a hard sort of pillow. An hour slowly passed; the cold was really hurting Harry now. Black thoughts of hurt and betrayal filled his mind. He turned over and suddenly stiffened, someone was coming.
The school janitor, Mr Argus Filch, shuffled into the entrance hall along with his cat Mrs Norris. Harry sat up.
“Hello! Hello! Hello! What have we here, my sweet? Potter! What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in bed?”
“Mr Filch! I’ve been expelled from Gryffindor. They voted me out. I don’t know what to do or where to go.”
“Oh! Aah! Well! That’s bad. What has Professor McGonagall said about this?” Filch seemed to have a note of concern in his voice.
“I don’t know. I haven’t seen her. I don’t know if she knows about this.” Harry slumped down on the floor again.
“Well! You can’t stay here. Come with me. Headmaster is the only one who can help you now. He will probably see you in the morning.”
Filch led Harry of into a part of the castle that Harry had never seen before. As they walked along a corridor opened in what was a previously a plain wall. Filch shuffled along the corridor to a locked door. He opened the door with a key and handed the key to Harry.
“You can stay here tonight. These rooms are one the guest suites. A Hogwarts house-elf will bring your meals here. You can’t eat in the Great Hall until this is fixed.”
Filch stared at Harry for several seconds. “Getting chucked out of your house is hard. That is what happened to me. More years ago than I can remember. I couldn’t graduate, I couldn’t leave. Eventually, I lost my magic. Headmaster Dippet allowed me to stay and work as a janitor. I’m still on the roll of students expelled from their house.”
Argus Filch gave Harry a tour of the rooms. The main room was a sitting room with two comfortable armchairs and a three-seat couch. A small table occupied a wall with two high backed chairs. There was a small kitchen with tea making facilities. The one bedroom had a double bed and an ensuite bathroom.
After the tour of the rooms Harry turned to Filch. “Thank you very much for this Mr Filch. I didn’t have any hope left. It’s still bad, isn’t it?”
“It’s still bad, Potter. You will need a lot of help to survive this. I don’t know where that help is going to come from.”
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