An Alarming Shock

For the first time in five days, George woke up peacefully. He leaned forward and saw that he was once again alone in his dorm room. His alarm clock said the time was currently ten o'clock. Since he wasn't in a rush, George walked over to the large window next to his bed and stared out into the Black Lake. He watched the seaweed waving with the current and the fishes dipping in and out of the corals.

The next big deadline was in October which felt like one hundred years away compared to the deadlines he'd just been up against. For now, he could afford to take it easy. George sat there by the window and let time pass him by for a total of fifteen minutes before he started planning out his day. Flitwick kindly reminded him of his self-given assignment, George felt today would be a good opportunity to finally fix his alarm clock. Also, he could start the process of repairing his relationship with Theodore.

Having planned out his day; George got washed and dressed, picked up his alarm clock, and headed to the Library. Following Flitwick's advice, George headed to the nearly-empty Charms department in the Library. Row F was a section containing all of the Hogwarts books specific to the research and education of Bewitchment Charms. There were over three hundred painfully long books in total.

George took a book off the shelf, blew the dust off the binding, and opened it to the first page. After a few hours of intense skim reading, he found a book relating to a specific type of bewitchment used on muggle clockwork mechanisms. He read through the entire book and quickly understood what he needed to do. George merely had to cast a spell on the magical emitter, which happened to be the hammer that struck the bells, with the corresponding element.

George pulled out his wand from his sleeve and held it an inch away from the alarm clock. Before commencing the enhancement, he looked left and right down the long table to check if there was anyone else around. Technically, students are not allowed to cast spells in the Library without the Librarian's permission. Since the spell wasn't going to make any noise, George saw no reason not to quickly cast it whilst nobody was around.

He whispered the words, "Inpulsa", and a blue light emitted from the end of his wand.

The light was bright enough to illuminate George and the shelves behind him, he had to squint his eyes to observe the spell's effect. There was an electrical bolt continuously travelling from the tip of his wand to the end of the hammer, a quiet sizzling noise was being produced. Seeing that the spell was working as intended, George averted his eyes to spare himself from being blinded by the light.

George kept sustaining the spell with his magic because the book stated that the duration the bewitched item is exposed to the conjuration would determine the amplification. He guessed that thirty seconds would be suitable for the first amplification, it was no time at all compared to brewing a potion. Whilst holding the wand with his right hand, George kept his eyes on his wristwatch, he counted the seconds as they went by. Surprisingly, after twenty seconds, he started to smell something unusual.

The odour smelt like burning oil which didn't make sense since the lights in Hogwarts were mostly candles, there shouldn't be any oil burning near him. George squinted his eyes and had another look at the alarm clock, the little hammer had started glowing bright red as if it was about to melt. In response, he instantly stopped casting the spell. The hammer continued to glow bright red whilst a small wisp of smoke came out from the clock face.

George put away his wand and picked up the bewitchment book. He started frantically waving it in the direction of the alarm clock to cool it down and disperse the smoke. After a few stressful seconds passed, the hammer cooled and returned to its normal brass colour, the smoke stopped pumping out around the same time. George put the book down on the table and slumped into the back of his chair dejectedly.

Knowing that it was very easy for negative emotions to fester, George concentrated on having a more optimistic outlook. He could still faintly hear the clock ticking which meant it hadn't been completely fried. George picked up the clock, which was still warm to the touch, and reset the alarm to go off one minute from now. He nervously waited whilst his fidgeting leg bounced up and down, his eyes followed the second hand's every movement.

Once a minute passed, the alarm went off and the little hammer started repeatedly whacking against the two bells. The ringing sound echoed through the otherwise silent Library. George jumped in surprise after hearing the noise. He quickly lunged forward and pinched the little hammer in between his fingers which prevented it from striking the bells.

Silence once again returned to the Library, George sighed in relief after remedying his stupidity. So much for having a relaxing day, he'd let himself relax too much and had consequently become complacent. George was broken out of his self-reflection after noticing the little hammer beginning to glow red-hot again. His fingers were sizzling from the heat. Before another stupid accident happened, George slammed a metal button on top of the alarm clock with his opposite hand to cancel the alarm.

With the few surviving nerve cells in the tips of his thumb and index finger, George could tell that the hammer no longer wanted to swing back and forth. Now that the smell of oil have been replaced with his cooked flesh, he released the red-hot hammer and placed his fingers in his mouth. Even though he'd only held the hammer for a couple of seconds, his fingertips had turned white and had started to blister.

Whilst sucking on his thumbs, George heard the sound of frantic footsteps walking in his direction. Irma Pince, the Hogwarts Librarian, was famous for her no-nonsense approach to following the rules. Setting off an alarm in the Library, regardless if it was accidental, would result in detention if he was caught. Since that was indeed the case; George immediately stood up, pocketed the alarm clock, placed the old bewitchment book back on the shelf, and headed in the opposite direction of the incoming footsteps.

Once he left the Library, George distanced himself as far from the crime as possible. He made his way down to the ground floor and checked his watch, he saw that it was midday and lunch had started half an hour ago. The first thing George noticed upon entering the Great Hall was the reaction from the Hufflepuff table. All of the sixth and seventh-year students simultaneously looked in his direction as if they had developed some form of sixth sense.

To their astonishment, George casually placed his hands in the pockets of his robe and quietly whistled whilst walking toward the Slytherin table. Since the Slytherin table had never had any food stolen, they didn't spare him a glance. George kept his head down as he walked past Gemma and her friends, they were loudly talking to each other which made it easy for him to go unnoticed.

George kept walking until he reached the very end of the Slytherin table where there were a few empty spaces. Then he sat down at the table and looked at the food on offer, saliva instantly started pooling in his mouth. In the centre of the table was a large ceramic bowl filled with baked mashed potatoes. A portion of the dish had been spooned out with a ladle revealing the juicy mince and gravy underneath.

It appeared today that Hogwarts was serving cottage pie and George could hardly wait. He picked up the ladle and started scooping up large portions of cottage pie and pouring it out onto his plate. Once his plate was on the verge of overflowing with gravy, he didn't hesitate to start digging in. And for the next few minutes, George was in a state of ecstasy. Having spent six days unable to enjoy the astonishingly well-made food prepared at Hogwarts, the unequalled flavour was overwhelming his taste buds.

Everything other than the food entering his mouth left his mind, time and space simultaneously ceased to matter whilst his gluttony took over. The bliss was only ended by George's fork scratching against an empty plate. He opened his eyes and saw that the food he'd just piled up seemed to have vanished in mere moments. Also, all the first years that had previously sat beside him had shuffled away without him realising. He was alone at the end of the table.

George checked his watch and realised the alarming truth. The time was currently ten minutes later than it had been when he sat down, what felt like a matter of seconds had been several minutes. His reverie of the delicious food had been so overwhelming, he'd completely lost contact with the real world. The bad luck associated with the Great Hall had struck yet again and George wasn't going to wait for it to get worse.

On his way out of the Great Hall, George saw Theodore and his two friends sitting next to each other. They were the same two boys Theodore had been happily chatting with in the greenhouse before George had threatened him. He was about to interrupt their conversation, but he saw that there was still quite a large portion of first-years staring in his direction. George decided to wait for another opportunity, he continued to leave the Great Hall without Theodore or his friends noticing.

Instead of talking in the hall, George waited behind a pillar and planned to stay there until Theodore eventually left. He sat down on the floor, crossed his legs and started to meditate to help focus his mind. While George patiently waited, he also drank a few drops of his Calming Draught. After twenty minutes, Theodore and his two friends walked past George.

Just as Theodore was about to reach the end of the corridor, George sprung to his feet and ran after him. He caught up and placed a hand on Theodore's shoulder. Theodore's scrawny body jumped after his touch, he turned around quickly and locked eyes with George. A moment later, Theodore bounced backwards out of his grip. George slowed his rapid breathing and held his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender.

He spoke reassuringly, "I'm not here to hurt you, I just wanted to say sorry. I treated you terribly a few days ago and it's been weighing on my conscience. I was hoping that we could put that stupid and emotional mistake behind us and move on."

After a moment of the two of them staring at each other, Theodore turned around without saying a word and continued to run away from him. George sighed while watching Theodore disappear from view. He looked to his left and right and noticed the two boys, who had been talking to Theodore, hadn't run away with him.

They were both boys who were quite short for their age, but they had large physiques to compensate. Their hair and eyes were the same light brown colour. The main physical difference separating them was their hairstyles, one's hair was long and well-combed and the other's hair was very short like a military buzz cut.

George spoke to them politely, "I remember you two guys from the greenhouse, I rudely butted into your conversation with Theodore. I meant what I said to Theodore and I'm sorry for being such an arse. Can you guys forgive me?"

The two boys glanced at each other with a knowing smile before turning back to George.

The boy with the buzz cut said, "don't worry about it, we would have reacted the same in your position. We heard about the accident you had in the Great Hall during the Sorting Hat Ceremony, it sounded like you fried your brain pretty good. That, plus all the pressure of being a muggle-born in Slytherin would drive anyone crazy."

George held out his hand, "I was starting to think I wouldn't have a single friend in the Slytherin house. As I'm sure you're already aware, I'm George Linwood."

The boy with the buzz cut shook George's hand, "nice to finally meet you, George. I'm Grant Rylan and my cous…"

The boy with the long hair interrupted, "I'm Quinton Thane. I was wondering when I would finally get the chance to talk to the infamous George Linwood."

George shook Quinton's hand and he had a significantly firmer grip than Grant, it felt like Quinton was testing his strength. George matched the boy's strength and slowly increased the pressure from there until Quinton stopped squeezing. As unusual as the 'handshake' was, George was far too distracted thinking about their names, they seemed familiar to him.

Quinton shook his aching hand a few times, "weirdly strong, eats like a starved animal and sleeps all through the day. Maybe Theodore was right about you."

Their names finally clicked in George's mind, "I share my dorm room with you guys, right? I can't believe I've only just met you two."

"You have to be joking? Are you trying to tell us that you've only just worked that out? It's been like a week", Grant sarcastically asked.

George retorted, "how could I have known? You've never been around when I go to sleep or wake up. This is literally the first time we've met."

Quinton rebutted, "that's because you go to sleep before anyone else and always wake up late. I had to tell Theodore to throw a shoe at you just to make sure you didn't miss breakfast."

Hearing Theodore's name reminded George why he was talking to these two in the first place. He recalled what Quentin had said just before he'd realised who they were.

George asked, "what was that you were saying about Theodore? Something to do with him being right about me."

Quinton and Grant both smirked after hearing George's question, their attitude appeared to be far more relaxed than his.

Quinton leaned forward and spoke quietly, "Theodore seems to think you're some sort of monster posing as one of the students. Get this, he told us your eyes turned red during the Sorting Hat Ceremony. We thought that he was joking at first, but we quickly realised he was genuinely terrified of you, he really thinks you're not human."

George asked nervously, "you don't believe him, do you?"

The two boys chuckled before Quinton said, "we're not idiots. Of course we don't believe him, who would? Theodore's just a bit freaked out after your breakdown, give him a few more days and he'll probably be fine."

George asked apprehensively while scratching the back of his head, "do you think you guys could, I don't know, talk to Theodore for me? Maybe try and help him understand. I don't like the idea that I'm sharing a room with someone who's petrified of me."

Grant stepped forward and reassured, "no problem. We've already been trying to convince him that Hogwarts is one of the safest places in the country. Don't worry about it, we'll keep an eye on him."

Quinton and Grant were proving themselves highly useful, and George was sensing an opportunity to make some valuable allies.

He asked, "I need to go to the Library and finish some homework I've been putting off. Do you guys want to join me?"

Grant looked like he was about to say something, but Quinton spoke before he had the chance, "look... George. You seem alright, but we can't be seen hanging around with you."

Grant quickly spoke after Quinton, "it's our parents, our mother's actually. It's hard to explain…"

Quinton jabbed Grant's ribs with his elbow and whispered, "we're not supposed to talk about that."

Grant didn't back down, "his problems are far worse than ours, it's not like he's going to go around spreading rumours. We should at least explain why we can't be seen talking to him."

Quinton appeared to be debating what decision to make, his face was scrunched up whilst he looked towards the ground. However, Grant didn't have the patience to wait and took the initiative whilst Quinton was indecisive.

Grant turned to face George, "we can't draw attention to ourselves because…"

"Not here", Quinton interrupted whilst covering Grant's mouth.

Quinton pointed towards a dark narrow corridor, "we'll talk down there."

George, Grant and Quinton walked down the dark corridor until they were completely shrouded in shadow.

Quinton took a deep breath before elaborating, "Grant and I are cousins, and our mothers are sisters. We're also half-bloods since our fathers are muggles. You've probably already started to notice that Slytherin students don't like wizards with muggle parents."

George concurred, "yeah, I learnt that day one and that's why I don't hang around the Slytherin common room. But you're only half-bloods, surely it can't be that bad for you."

"It's for the best that you keep your head down, there are lots of people in Slytherin who are going to find any excuse to have you kicked out of the school. You should keep your eye out for Draco Malfoy, his father hates muggles and has a lot of influence in the ministry", Grant recommended.

Quinton looked quite uncomfortable, "we can talk about Malfoy another day. Anyway, you'd be right to think that half-bloods wouldn't be treated as badly but it's different for us…"

Quinton nervously checked over his shoulder, "I can't tell you which but our mothers used to be part of a very elite pureblood family. Both of our mothers didn't like the way their parents treated muggles, so they ran away from home and hid in the muggle world. That's where they met our fathers. Our grandparents found out about our mothers getting married to muggles and disowned them."

George rubbed his chin, "so you're worried that your mother's pureblood family might 'do' something to you guys whilst you're at Hogwarts."

Both Grant and Quinton nodded their heads simultaneously.

Grant smiled awkwardly, "you're currently the most talked-about first year in Slytherin, there are a lot of powerful people keeping a close eye on you. Our mothers made us promise not to draw any unnecessary attention to ourselves so we could avoid getting into trouble. That's why we can't be seen being friends with you."

Quinton apologised, "we can still talk in private, but not in the Great Hall or the common room. I know this is really uncool of us, but we don't have a choice."

George reassured them calmly, "I totally understand, say no more. I would have done the same in your position. As long as you guys promise me to keep an eye on Theodore, I don't mind acting like Billy-no-mates."

Grant looked at George in disbelief, "you're okay with us pretending not to know you?"

George merely shrugged his shoulders, "yep, that's fine with me."

Quinton asked hesitantly, "can you keep everything we just told you a secret?"

George chuckled, "who am I going to tell, my imaginary pure-blood friends? Your secret is safe with me."

Quinton relaxed after hearing George's guarantee. The dark corridor fell into an awkward silence as nobody knew what to say next. George felt he'd done enough to secure their friendship.

He clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "well, I better be off before someone sees us."

Grant and Quinton anxiously smiled and nodded their heads.

George turned around and looked down the corridor, "I'll leave first. You guys should leave a minute after me so nobody sees us together. Sound like a plan?"

Quinton kept nodding, "sounds good."

Without another word, George left the dark corridor and immediately headed towards the moving staircases without looking back. Although digging into his two new friend's family trees sounded fun, George had a more pressing matter to attend to. He had to concentrate on fixing his alarm clock since he'd been feeling it getting hotter for the past few minutes. If he'd talked to Quinton and Grant any longer, the clock might have burnt a hole right through his pocket.

On his way up the moving staircases, George pulled the alarm clock out and saw the little hammer glowing red-hot. Stopping the alarm right before the clock was about to activate left the overcharged enchantment in a primed state, it was clearly not designed to hold a load for long. If George didn't let the alarm discharge in the next couple of minutes, it was going to blow up in a shower of sparks. There was only one place he could go where no one should be able to hear.

Once George arrived back at the girl's bathroom, Myrtle couldn't even get a word out before he set the alarm and activated it. Then a lightning bolt the length of a car shot out of the clock and struck one of the cubical doors. As a result, the door was set on fire. George had to quickly pull a plastic jug of water out of his enchanted sack and douse the fire before some sort of magic fire alarm was set off.

As one could imagine, Myrtle had more than a few grievances with her bathroom being set alight. Luckily, after George explained how inept he'd been in 'enhancing' the bewitchment, she seemed to find the funny side. Just as he'd anticipated, Myrtle did not help him at any point during the several hours he attempted to stabilise the alarm clock's bewitchment. Instead, she spent the entire time giggling to herself whilst floating above his head.

Even without Myrtle's help, George did eventually find out what he'd done wrong in the Library. It turned out that he'd been massively overestimating the amount of power needed to amplify the alarm clock. Overcharged by a factor of ten, the alarm clock's bewitchment was on the verge of collapse which was why it was getting so hot. Unfortunately, fixing this issue was not as simple as creating it.

Since he did not want to discard Remus's present and the fact he didn't have another alarm clock to replace it, George opted for the laborious task of attempting to repair the clock. To those who were mad enough to do so, removing electrical charge required a slow and extremely delicate process of draining the bewitchment of the excess energy with a spell of the opposite element.

After three tedious hours of the magical equivalent of watching paint dry, the clock stopped getting hotter and instead started to cool down. The cooling process resulted in the clock's hammer becoming brittle. Small bolts of electricity arced from out of the newly-formed hairline cracks. According to George's memory, this meant that the bewitched item had reached its limit and could no longer be modified in any way without the artefact disintegrating.

With no other option, George wound the alarm clock so that it would activate after a minute just like he'd done in the Library. He was gritting his teeth and squinting his eyes as the small hammer started rattling back and forth, the loud ringing noise filled the bathroom. Myrtle flew to her window sill and plugged her ears with her fingers, her wicked smile suggested she was banking on a spectacular failure. The sparks of electricity grew larger and larger as the hammer continued to strike the bells in quick succession.

Just as the small bolts of lightning were starting to hurt George's eyes, the ringing stopped and a bright blue ball of electricity emanated from the little hammer and slowly flew toward him. George felt almost giddy in anticipation for the glowing orb to reach his skin, he willingly held his hand out so he could see how the intensity might have changed. The orbs course changed slightly as it homed in on his hand.

Once the orb made contact with his fingertip, George was overwhelmed with extremely violent pain. As if he had just touched an exposed mains wire, he felt like a bolt of lightning travelled down his arm, through his chest, and down his leg. All of his muscles simultaneously spasmed which caused him to leap into the air from a seated position. His back violently hit the burnt door of the cubicle as he fell against the toilet. His head hit the basin with a loud bang.

If he had been a cartoon, George would have had birds flying around his head as he was overcome with nausea and temporarily didn't know where he was. His entire body felt fuzzy and numb. His right hand, which had touched the orb of electricity, spasmed uncontrollably.

Myrtle called out, "hello… George? Are you alright? You better not have died, not here. I'm not sharing the toilet, so you'll have to find somewhere else to haunt."

George unsteadily climbed to his feet whilst using the toilet to pull himself up, his legs felt very numb and were barely under his control. He slowly walked forward, pushed the cubicle's door to one side, and was greeted by a curious Myrtle looking back at him. Any concern that she may have had for his welfare vanished the moment she laid eyes on him, she immediately broke out into hysterical laughter.

Somewhat dazed, George couldn't understand what had gotten into her to induce this reaction. Since it had to be something to do with his appearance, he went over to the pillar of sinks so he could see his reflection. Once he reached a sink and stared into the mirror, he immediately realised what was so funny. All of the hair on his head was standing on its end, including his eyebrows.

It was at that moment George realised exactly what had happened and how powerful his alarm clock had become. All he had been hoping for was to simulate the effects of touching an electric fence and yet he had managed to achieve the sensation of sticking a fork into a mains socket. Before he could think any further, George reached down into his robe and pulled out the half-drank vial of Calming Draught.

George downed the rest of the potion, and the cool minty clarity travelling down his throat helped him decide on one thing. This was the end of messing with magic he didn't understand for today. The alarm clock hadn't been the only thing that had fried his brain, the past gruelling seven days were just as responsible. He had pushed himself to his limit and exceeded it today just because he'd become accustomed to working every waking minute. This way of life was not sustainable.

From what he'd observed of his decaying abilities, George's best judgement told him the right medication wasn't a potion or a distraction, but instead rest and relaxation. As painful as it might be, he needed to spend the rest of the afternoon planning a relaxing schedule for the following week with a focus on doing absolutely nothing.