Quite the Appetite

After a short walk, George arrived at the Library and sat down in a quiet corner where there weren't any other students around. He opened the envelope and pulled out two different pieces of paper.

One letter was folded very neatly and was covered in beautiful curly handwriting, this letter had to have been written by Amanda. The other was bright pink and covered in glitter and ribbons which sparkled almost as brightly as the chandelier above him. The handwriting was barely legible and had to be written by Ellie. George placed Ellie's letter to one side and started to read Amanda's letter. The letter read as follows;

Dear George,

Even though you would normally spend every waking hour in your room reading your vast collection of books, the house seems quieter without you around. Dominic and I can't wait to hear about all the adventures you have been on, the friends you have made and all the magic you've learnt.

Mr Lupin told us that you were having a very good time and had already made some friends after a single day. I hope you weren't hiding anything from him, you can always tell us if anything's wrong. He has been visiting the house more frequently and Dominic had arranged for him to start practising for his driving test.

Dominic has been in constant communication with those two boys we met at the Gringotts Bank, he's considering hiring the younger one as his personal accountant. He would have written you a letter, but as you know, he struggles to express his feelings on paper. Ellie, on the other hand, insisted on writing her own letter to you.

Know that we are all missing you dearly and can't wait to see you again.

Love from

Amanda and Domonic

George neatly folded up the letter and placed it to one side, he proceeded to read Ellie's sparkly letter. The letter read;

Dear George,

What's it like learning magic? Have you learnt anything cool yet? Mr Lupin said that there's a forest with loads of magical creatures inside, have you seen any? What's the castle like? Mr Lupin said that the staircases move, that sounds quite dangerous so you should be careful.

I know you're not meant to do magic at home but don't forget to bring some cool stuff back with you at Christmas. I would like a dragon egg so if you could look around for one, that would be really nice.

Love from

Your favourite sister

Ellie

P.S.

Mum told me that I should write I miss you LOTS so there it is, I hope that's enough. Don't forget the dragon egg. Bye-bye.

While contemplating the best way to respond, George pulled out a piece of paper and a normal ballpoint pen from his enchanted sack and laid them out on the table. He shook the pen a few times before writing a response. He wrote;

Dear Amanda and Dominic,

You need to keep your eye on Ellie because that owl barely made it to school on time. She has been fattening it up like a turkey at Christmas. Nonetheless, I received your letter and was happy to hear back from you. Although it's only been a week, the days have gone by incredibly fast. There is simply so much to do and see that it's almost overwhelming.

Mr Lupin was indeed correct, I am truly having a brilliant time at Hogwarts. Not only have I made a few unexpected friends, but the professors are equally as friendly. I'm friends with two people called Neville and Hermione, and a girl in the fifth year called Gemma who is a Prefect.

That being said, I do miss every member of the family and wish I could tell you these things in person. I'm looking forward to receiving your letters in the future provided Ellie doesn't turn Hoot into a bowling ball. Also thank Mr Lupin for me, it was very nice of him to visit.

Love from

George

The rest of this letter is exclusively for Ellie's eyes only!

Dear Princess Ellie,

Since you ask so many questions, I will go through them one by one.

Firstly, learning magic is very fun, but also very hard. It takes lots of practice and I have to spend most of the time in the Library so I can fully understand how to perform the spells properly. I haven't learnt how to cast any spells yet since it's only the first week, but I will have learnt a trick or two by Christmas.

There is indeed a forest near the school but students aren't allowed to enter so I haven't seen any creatures that may lurk within. I'll talk with the Groundskeeper at some point so I will be able to tell you more next week.

The castle is really big and is very easy to get lost in. It's just like something from a fantasy movie but in real life, it's hard to put it into words. There are moving staircases but I don't think they're dangerous, they seem to only move in the direction you want them to most of the time.

Finally, I will try to bring you something home that doesn't break the rules, but I can't guarantee a dragon egg. Don't worry though, I'll make sure that you're not disappointed when Christmas comes.

I miss you lots and can't wait for our next tea party.

Yours sincerely,

Sir George

P.S.

Stop feeding Hoot so many treats or he'll explode!

Once he finished writing, George read through everything he'd written multiple times to check if he had made any mistakes or said anything that may have negative repercussions. Once he was satisfied, George folded up the piece of paper and put it inside a new envelope with the Linwood's address already written on it. Then he stood up and made his way out of the Library with the letter in hand.

There was only one problem he had now, George didn't know where the Owlery was located. Although he wasn't bothered by anyone on his search for the Owlery, it took him over two hours of constant walking to finally find it. It turned out that the Owlery was at the top of the West Tower which happened to be the last tower he checked. Once he'd reached the Owlery, the sun had gone down and his stomach was rumbling like crazy. It was now ten minutes to dinner and he couldn't wait to snatch himself another meal.

George was greeted with mountains of white faecal matter that nearly came up to his knees. There was evidence of years of owls living in this tower without a single person ever cleaning it out. He was standing in a large spherical room with dozens of owls varying in species seated inside cubbies all the way to the ceiling. He looked around and couldn't see Blinkie amongst the owls on the first three floors.

He had no choice but to call out, "Blinkie!", and hope that little deviant stuck its head out of one of the holes.

Just as George had hoped, an owl with bright orange eyes and black feathers sticking out of its brow stuck its head out of a cubby near the ceiling and look down at George. Soon after the owl recognised him, it moved its little head back inside the cubby. George felt anger building up inside of him, but he was quick to take deep breaths and think of the 'Bob Marley talk' with Myrtle to calm himself down.

George looked up toward the cubby his owl was residing in and made up his mind. He placed the letter in his pocket and climbed up the wall using the cubbies as footholds like a climbing frame. The ledges were covered in owl droppings which George couldn't avoid touching on his way up. All of the owls he passed by stared at him intensely, some of them even tried to nip at him as he went by. George simply concentrated on singing 'Three Little Birds' out loud until he reached the ceiling.

After an arduous and dirty climb, George finally was staring down Blinkie. The coward had retreated into the back of the cubby as if it had finally realised its mistake. George pulled out the letter and held it out toward the bird whilst making his demands.

"Now listen carefully, I'll only be saying this once. You have a grand total of two options. You either stay here and I enjoy a bowl of owl stew for tea, or, you deliver this letter home and receive a treat from Ellie..."

The moment the word 'treat' and 'Ellie' left George's mouth, the owl's eyes immediately widened and focused on the letter. George's reflexes kicked in as he jolted his head to the right to dodge the owl zooming toward him. It snatched the letter out of his hand and immediately flew out of the Owlery. With a slight temper and a rumbling stomach, George descended the Owlery which covered his shoes and hands in another layer of owl poop.

Once he reached the ground, George scraped his shoes against the floor and dragged his hands against one of the few clean stone walls. He pulled a plastic container full of wet wipes out of his enchanted sack and vigorously cleaned his hands until they were spotless. Although this wasn't completely necessary, George pulled out the vial he'd prepared earlier and drank a third of a normal dose. He felt the cool and numbing sensation travel down his throat and was now ready to collect a bountiful harvest.

George peeked his head from around the large metal doors leading into the Great Hall and scouted out the food he had on offer. At the end of the Hufflepuff table was a large platter with a chain of sausages coiled like a snake, there must have been over three dozen ripe for the taking. The Hufflepuff students didn't appear to be on guard in the slightest, they were all quite happily talking to each other whilst eating their breakfast.

George bolted towards the Hufflepuff table and threw his hand down the middle of the loop of sausages. He scooped up the whole chain and turned around to leave, he briefly looked at the Hufflepuff students to find that none of them was looking in his direction.

Just as George was about to run out of the hall, he heard the voice of an older boy saying, "Locomotor Mortis!".

Within a second of him hearing the spell being cast, George suddenly felt a powerful force pulling his legs together. Unable to continue running, he fell to the ground whilst flying forward under his momentum. He curled his body and positioned his spare hand to catch the floor. Then he pushed off the ground to help guide his body into a forward somersault, this briefly allowed him to look backwards whilst his legs were suspended in the air.

George briefly saw that a Hufflepuff student wearing a prefect badge, who looked to be in their sixth or seventh year, was sitting at the end of the table. They had handsome chiselled features with grey eyes and neatly combed brown hair. More importantly, this model Prefect was looking directly toward George with their wand outstretched and a smug smile plastered on their annoying face.

The somersault was performed perfectly as George landed right back on his feet. He managed to keep his momentum whilst hopping out of the Great Hall, his speed accelerated after their failed attempt at capturing him. George couldn't hear the noise of any students following him. Regardless of what they may be doing, he didn't take any risks as he changed his heading towards the moving staircases.

George hastily hopped up the staircases, skipping several steps on every bound, until he reached the second floor. He made his way into the girl's bathroom and finally stopped once he reached the pillar of sinks. His stomach growling only got louder and a sharp pain started to churn his guts. George saw no reason to not start eating his bountiful harvest before the pain got any worse.

George grabbed the sausage at the end of the chain and slipped it into his mouth like an extremely wide piece of spaghetti. He tilted his head back until he was facing the ceiling and opened his throat to allow the sausages to glide down his oesophagus. He fed the sausages into his mouth at an absurd rate, the grease acted as an excellent lubricant. Within fifteen seconds, all the sausages had disappeared inside of George, the only evidence left was the shiny grease on his fingers.

Since he'd swallowed so much air in the process of inhaling the sausages, George finished the feast with a large burp that reverberated out of the bathroom. He licked his dry lips and suddenly found himself gagging for a drink. He twisted his body around and placed his head underneath one of the taps, and turned it on to allow cold water to flow into his mouth. He glugged and glugged until he had drunk roughly five pints of water.

George was brought out of his food coma by Myrtle who had flown out from one of the toilet cubicles. She didn't look very impressed to see him. Her brows knitted together and her lips were pressed shut. She flew beside him and waited without saying a word. She clearly wanted George to say something, but he wasn't sure what. He looked towards the ground in contemplation before clicking his fingers.

Then he looked back up to Myrtle with puppy dog eyes, "sorry for burping so loudly, it was awfully rude of me. I will strive to be more considerate in the future."

"So why did you do it in the first place? You can be so disgusting at times that I wonder why I allow you to visit here. Maybe I made a mistake?", Myrtle loudly proclaimed.

George nervously pleaded, "please. I won't ever do it again, Miss Warren. I wasn't thinking, actually, it was their fault. Look at what they did to my legs, I can't separate them no matter how hard I try."

Myrtle smirked whilst looking down at George. Her anger appeared to have been cast aside as she examined his legs. She flew down until her body was halfway through the floor to have a closer look. She poked and prodded at George's legs, but her hands kept passing right through them. After examining George's feet for a few seconds, Myrtle raised back up out of the ground until she was at his eye level.

She looked rather smug, "that's the Leg-locker curse alright, I've seen my fair share of those. I'm sorry but you're just going to have to wait until it wears off, it should only take an hour or less to fade away. If it was one of the older students who cast it then it might take longer."

George used his most charming smile, "thank you, Miss Warren. I don't know what I would have done without you."

Myrtle returned the smile coyly and flew back into the air. She landed on her favourite spot which was the sill of the round window above the green toilet cubicles.

She looked out of the window forlornly, "why don't you eat in the Great Hall like everyone else? I don't like you using this place to pig out."

George hung his head and responded with a slight annoyance in his voice, "it's the Slytherin's table. I can't sit down and eat without everyone staring at me in disgust like I'm a rat stealing their food. I barely got away with a few scraps before the older students attacked me."

Myrtle whipped her head around and shouted, "a few scraps! You must be joking. You got away with half a pig."

George acted defensively, "I have a large appetite, it's not my fault. I would like to have eaten a little more if I had the choice."

Myrtle just said, "you're weird", and turned around to look outside the window.

Since they were on the topic, George had an idea and felt like Myrtle might be able to save him some time scouring the Library.

He asked her, "Miss Warren. Do you know a way to conjure food so I don't have to go to the Great Hall?"

She turned her head aggressively toward him, "no I don't. Conjuration isn't taught until the sixth year so I never learnt it. Even if I did know, it wouldn't help. You can't digest conjured food because it would vanish over time. You would have known that if you had gone to the Library, so stop bothering me."

"But you're the smartest person I know. There must be a spell or incantation in that brilliant mind of yours. Anything that might produce so much as a crumb...", George begged.

Myrtle's irritated voice interrupted him, "alright, alright. I might know a spell that could help you, it's taught to second years so it shouldn't be too hard for you to learn. It's the Engorgement Charm. It makes things swell up and I think the school uses it on food for special events like Halloween and Christmas.''

George pulled one of the ration packs out of his enchanted sack, which had been gifted by Dominic, and tore it open. He pulled out a cracker and held it out towards Myrtle.

He asked innocently, "could you teach me, Professor Warren?"

Myrtle looked as if she was about to say no, but, hearing George say professor caused the words to be stuck in the back of her throat.

She let out a little cough whilst covering her mouth, "since you asked so nicely... I might be able to spare some time out of my busy schedule to teach you a thing or two."

George bowed his body at a ninety-degree angle, "thank you, Professor Warren."

He raised his head and caught Myrtle hiding her smirk and replacing it with a stern expression similar to Snape's.

She declared in a confident voice, "that doesn't mean I'll be easy on you. If you can't learn fast enough to keep up with my high standards, then you'll be on your own. Do I make myself clear?"

George nodded, "yes, Professor Warren. I will try my best not to disappoint you."

Myrtle smirked yet again, deliberately this time, with her head held high. She slowly floated down from the window and hovered slightly above George so he had to continue looking up at her.

Myrtle proudly declared, "very well. First, you have to learn the incantation, it's Engorgio! You have to remember to emphasise the 'GOR' in EnGORgio or the spell won't work. Now say after me. Engorgio!"

George left the girl's bathroom with a cracker the size of an A4 booklet and a big smile on his face. He'd now learnt a new spell and solved his food problem all within the space of an hour. It was record time compared to the arduous journey to brew the Calming Draught. Speaking of which, the potion was wearing off since he felt really happy. Because he only drank a few drops, the negative side effects were not present. He felt fine to return to his dorm room and fall asleep without taking another dose.

It was only after walking halfway down the corridor, George realised his legs were back to normal. The curse that bound his legs together had warn off. He had been so distracted whilst learning the Engorgement Charm from Myrtle that he had forgotten to move his legs now and then to see if the curse had faded.

George ate the massive cracker on his way back to the Slytherin's common room whilst constantly yawning. Even though he had only been awake for just over six hours, George felt exhausted after such an intense week. He fell asleep in his bed hoping that he would feel more energetic tomorrow.