Chapter 84: 7th September 1991, Saturday: Part 3

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. He wanted the letter to be generally positive and light-hearted so that they wouldn't be worrying about his welfare. Although Amanda didn't write certain things specifically, he knew that she must have been extremely concerned he wouldn't be comfortable in his new living environment. That is just how most mothers seemed to behave.

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. This was something that Amanda had prepared on George's behalf just to be sure he had no problems writing home. 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, he didn't know where the Owlery was located. Gemma only showed him around his classrooms and the Slytherin Common Room, they hadn't the time to go anywhere else.

Regardless of where the Owlery was located, George had no plan of scouring the castle for Gemma or anyone else since today was all about relaxing. This meant avoiding any-and-all confrontations. He would simply have to walk in the general direction he presumed the Owlery was in, he had plenty of time so it didn't matter if it took a few minutes. George pulled out a vial of Calming Draught and kept it in his robe pocket just in case he ran into any stressful situations on his journey.

Although George wasn't bothered by anyone on his search for the Owlery, it took him over two hours of constant walking just 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. There were plenty of occasions where he was tempted to ask a student or teacher as he walked by them but, since he wasn't under the effect of the Calming Draught, he didn't feel in the mood for putting on an act. Coming off that potion definitely was having some withdrawal effects since he was feeling more irritable, keeping to himself seemed like the best decision.

The long walk wasn't completely pointless since it was a good opportunity for George to clear his head and enjoy some light exercise which he hadn't had the opportunity to do since he came to Hogwarts. Once he 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. For the time being, he needed to focus on giving his letter to Blinkie.

Now that he was standing in the Owlery, 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, it was a wonder why the house elves allowed this to happen. George 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 looked up and realise that, due to the angle he was standing, he couldn't see into any of the cubbies more than five levels up.

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 he 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 as if to pretend he hadn't seen him. A normal owl would fly down to its owner after being called but Blinky was no ordinary owl. It had been spoilt far too much for the month it lived at the Linwood house and George's poor treatment of it seemed to have elicited a negative attitude. He 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.

He thought to himself, "there was no way I need to drink a Calming Draught just to confront my own owl. I need to put that little piece of sh... ball of fluff in its place".

George looked up toward the cubby his owl was residing in and made up his mind. If the owl wasn't going to come to him then he was going to go to the owl. He placed the letter in his pocket and started to climb up the wall using the cubbies as footholds like a climbing frame, he apologised in his head to Flitwick for breaking his promise so early. The ledges were covered in owl droppings which George couldn't avoid touching on his way up, to say it was disgusting would be an understatement. 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. He 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 nice bowl of owl stew for tea, or, you deliver this letter home and receive a treat from Ellie. What it's going t…"

The moment that 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 and 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. It seemed that the incentive to go back home into Ellie's warm embrace was more than enough to get it flying. With a slight temper and a rumbling stomach, George descended the Owlery which covered his shoes and hands in another layer of owl poop.

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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 leather sack and vigorously cleaned his hands until they were spotless. This was one of the many reasons why he needed to prepare for everything. His mood was lifted after realising that he could now finally go to the Great Hall and get something to eat, there was only one thing he needed to do first. George didn't have a good history in the Great Hall and stealing food wasn't stress-free, he needed to take some precautions in case anything went wrong.

Although this wasn't completely necessary, George pulled out the vial he had prepared earlier and drank a third of a normal dose, that would hopefully put him on for two or three hours. He felt the cool and numbing sensation travel down his throat and knew that he was ready to go and collect, what would hopefully be, a bountiful harvest.

Besides learning magic, the food was the greatest reason to attend Hogwarts in George's humble opinion. Most meals guaranteed great variety whilst maintaining superb flavour, Hogwarts' house elves were truly the culinary geniuses of the wizarding world. He couldn't take pleasure in eating due to the small dose of Calming Draught but he could still objectively give his opinion, like a food critic, on the quality of the ingredients and the pungency of its flavour. He was looking forward to the day he wouldn't need the Calming Draught any longer, he would finally be able to fall back in love with food again.

George's method for acquiring food today was not going to deviate from any of the previous days. The end of the Hufflepuff table was going to be raided once again. George's pattern pending Formula One pit stop strategy had been incredibly successful in guaranteeing him quick meals without drawing any attention from either students or staff. That being said, the strategy had been forced to evolve. The Hufflepuff students only took a day to understand George's shenanigans, they deliberately shielded their food with their bodies during Wednesday's lunch. This caused no problems for him since he could simply walk over to the Ravenclaw table and take their food instead, this idea started the rotary system.

George kept randomly changing the house table he would raid, all houses except Slytherin were susceptible to having their food pinched. He had taken a large loaf of bread from the Gryffindor table yesterday so today he was going to go back to Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw's food would be his breakfast tomorrow. George peeked his head from around the large metal doors leading into the Great Hall and scouted out the food he had on offer, things looked good at first glance. 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. He would like to eat more since he had gone without breakfast but reaching for another platter was too risky.

The good luck didn't end there since 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 felt that his strategy of changing tables after every meal must have been more effective than he had initially assumed. Either that or they had just simply grown to accept his thievery. He bolted towards the Hufflepuff table and threw his hand down the middle of the loop of sausages, this was shaping up to be his fastest run yet. He scooped up all the sausages and immediately 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!", behind him.

Before the spell had even managed to hit George, he had already processed what was going to happen and prepared for it accordingly. He twisted his body to one side and held his spare hand out in front of him like a rugby player ready for a tackle. Due to his extensive research, George knew that Locomotor Mortis was a spell that bound the user's legs together. It's a spell intended for wizards who want to prevent their victims from running away without harming them. Within a second of him hearing the spell being cast, he suddenly felt a powerful force pulling his legs together. The sensation felt like his lower body had been bound together like an Egyptian mummy, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't resist having his legs glued together.

Unable to continue running, George 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, he could have been a model in another life.

More importantly, this prefect was looking directly toward George with their wand outstretched, and a smug smile plastered on their annoying face. He immediately realised that he had misinterpreted the Hufflepuff student's nonchalant attitude, they had been baiting him into stealing their food. Unluckily for them, he was as nimble as he was fast. The somersault was performed perfectly as he landed right back on his feet, even the sausages had remained firmly in his grasp the entire time. George managed to keep his momentum whilst hopping out of the Great Hall, his speed had accelerated after their failed attempt at capturing him.

Since George was a freak of nature, he could hop faster than most could run. It was a shame for them that the Hufflepuff prefect didn't know that or they would have probably bound his entire body instead. George couldn't hear the noise of any students following him as he presumed they were stunned by his gymnastics. Regardless of what they may be doing, he didn't take any risks as he immediately changed his heading towards the moving staircases. George wasn't willing to risk anything as he knew that any one of his hiding spots may have been compromised, so he needed to go to his only remaining 'safe house' in Hogwarts.

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