The ending tides
Harry walked into the great hall, his excited eyes unable to catch every detail of the decorated halls. Paper bats flew up abve, raining sweets from time to time, large pumpkins danced around the edges and brightly colored lights flew around, humming the melodies of a thosand holiday themed songs that had no right to sound so good together. Up ahead at the teachers table, Dumbledore was chatting with McGonagall, laughing heartily in his pumkin-colored robes, Flitwick was busy enchanting more paper bats and even Snape, grumpy as he was, enjoyed the festivity, a small smile on his lips.
The four house tables were packed full with students and candy. Everyone was chatting and lauging and generally having a good time, even the Slytherins and Gryffindors seemed to have shunned their mutual hatred, just for today.
At Ravenclaw table, the food was already on his plate, just begging to be eaten. Marshmallows and candied apples, pudding and so much more, a real diabetes trap. The cooks had outdid themselves for this feast, together with the sweets, there were also various meats of the finest cuts, soups, salads and fish.
The Hogwarts cooks were -of course- House-elves, children sized magical creatures with extrodinary magical power who served Wizards and Witches since before the invention of wands. Harry’d read up on them in the Ravenclaw common room, they were truly fascinating creatures, without wands they were a magnitude stronger than wizards and yet they freely served them for some unknown reason.
The Potters too had a House-elf, Dooky, which Harry had discovered a week ago. Dooky was a relatively big house-elf and had been quite eager to serve him after he’d called her. From her, he learned that he owned a property in London, which she’d been maintaining ever since his parents died all those years ago.
Back to the feast, everything was going smooth, students chatting, laughing, telling stories and all in all being lively. It went on for a couple of hours, before Prof. Under suddenly sprung up, screaming at the top of her lungs, “How dare you! You wretched half-breed! I will make you pay for that!”
She was screaming at Hagrid, who was looking at her confused, apperently none the wiser to what he did than the students were. No one was able to ask a question, as Prof. Under had taken out her wand, pointed at the giant of a man and, with bellowing rage, called out, “CRUCIO!”
Hagrid screamed a blood curdling scream of pure agony, wretching on the ground in pain and misery. It only lasted for a second or two before Dumbledore stepped in after he shook off his shock but it felt like an eternity of screams, which made everyone pale.
Harry heard one of the older students say that what she had just cast was one of the three unforgivables, curses so vile that casting any one of them landed you straight in Azkaban. What she had cast was apperently the torture curse. His face drained of whatever color it might’ve still had when he heard that, how could anyone cast a spell like that and on someone so nice as Hagrid no less.
After that showing, Prof. Under was taken to Azkaban by Aurors. Prof. Dumbledore himself was the replacement for her till the school year was over.
The rest of the school year passed without futher incident. At Christmass, Harry got a lot of presents but the most important one was an Invisibility cloak that had once belonged to his father, which he might or might not have used a few dozen times to sneak into the library after it closed, to read ahead. By the end of the year, he was halfway through the charms and DADA books for second years and full way through the second year transfiguration book.
Harry knew now that he wouldn’t be able to practice any of the spells at home, since they were forbidden to do so, which meant that he wouldn’t be able to work ahead at home anymore. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, he could still read ahead. The practical practice was what he would lack.
The end of term exams went well, he got an O(outstanding) in Charms, Transfiguration, DADA and Astronamy and EE(Exceeds expectations) in all other subjects. Before he knew it, it was time to go back home. Cho promised him to write him letters during the summer vacation and he promised it back. He’d have to use her owl though since he didn’t own one. And so, his first year at hogwarts ended and he returned home, not knowing what adventures awaited him next year…