Chapter 85: 7th September 1991, Saturday: Part 4

George hastily hopped up the staircases, skipping several steps on every bound, until he reached the second floor. There were still many Ravenclaw and Gryffindor students that were heading down to eat their breakfast whilst he passed them by, all of them stopped in their tracks and watched as he jumped five steps at a time. He made his way into the girl's bathroom and finally stopped once he reached the pillar of sinks, he leaned against it whilst gasping for air. Even for George, hopping from the Great Hall to the girl's bathroom was incredibly exhausting on an empty stomach. His stomach growling only got louder and a sharp pain started to churn his guts. He 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 and into his stomach. Chewing would only be a waste of his valuable time. He fed the sausages into his mouth at an absurd rate, the grease from the sausages 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.

Because George had swallowed so much air in the process of inhaling the sausages, he finished the feast with a large burp that reverberated out of the bathroom and into the corridor. He licked his dry lips and suddenly found himself gagging for a drink. All those little piggies had left him feeling incredibly parched. 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. Only then was his stomach appeased as the aching sensation began to fade.

George wiped the water dribbling down from his lips with his robes whilst he looked at his reflection in the mirror, he wondered how he was able to eat so much food every single day without throwing up. He lifted his shirt and saw that his stomach had only bulged a tiny amount, he had no idea where all that food went. He had far exceeded what any eleven-year-old should ever need to eat in one go. Snape was bound to notice eventually if he ever planned on eating to his fill in the Great Hall. The other option was stealing food and that had become infeasible as his escape from moments ago had quite clearly shown him. That method was far from sustainable since the prefects seemed to hold a grudge against him for bending the rules. Maybe next year the rules would be changed so students can't eat at other houses' tables.

For now, if George was to continue stealing food, the older students would eventually apprehend him, he was far from being able to match sixth years in magical ability. The only thing he had left was to start attending his meals like every other student except he would secretly smuggle a large portion of the food in his pockets whilst eating some of it there and then. That way he could leave early and finish eating the food he had so discreetly scavenged in private. The only problem was trying to fill his pockets with mounds of food with every first-year silently judging him. George could only hope that the attention he brought four days ago on himself had died down, all he wanted was to eat in peace at the end of the Slytherin table. If things got bad enough, he would even consider sitting next to Gemma if she agreed.

George was brought out of his wandering thoughts by Myrtle who had flown out from one of the toilet cubicles, she didn't look very impressed to see him as 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 thought that she shouldn't be still mad from yesterday since that was a small matter of overstepping his boundaries, it had to be something else. He looked towards the ground in contemplation before clicking his fingers, he realised what he had done wrong, thinking about food had distracted him too much.

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

Myrtle still looked very angry as she loudly proclaimed, "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?"

George acted all submissively before Myrtle's threat, he fell to his knees and clasped his hands together in prayer. He learnt pretty quickly what made Myrtle happy, she desired the authority and recognition she never got whilst she was alive. Grovelling at her transparent feet had become his guaranteed get-out-of-jail-free card, it worked no matter how many times he did it. Some of Myrtle's fits of anger, just like this one, were most likely fake and she simply wanted to watch him beg for mercy, she was more than a little sadistic. Luckily for George, his pride was cheap and always ready to be thrown in the mud.

George looked up at Myrtle whilst nervously pleading, "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 seemed 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. This made him wonder if ghosts somehow had some sort of sixth sense when it came to hexes and curses. Perhaps she could see spells like how he could see enchantments. It would be something he would have to test on Myrtle in the future, yet another thing to add to the to-do list. 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. It's funny to see that bullies are still using that same old spell even now, I guess things never change.

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 nodded at Myrtle whilst using his most charming smile, "thank you, Miss Warren. I don't know what I would have done without you."

In truth, she hadn't done anything and George hadn't learnt anything from her. But, he needed to make sure that Myrtle thought he had become dependent on her advice, that way she would feel reassured that he would never leave her. 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 while asking George, "why don't you eat in the Great Hall like everyone else? I don't like you using this place to pig out."

This wasn't the first time he'd done this, George had very briefly used the girl's bathroom as a hiding spot to eat many times before. None of the Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw students would ever think to look for him in here. Myrtle had hated his, less than civil, swallowing method and had stopped him from ever eating here again. So technically, he'd broken one of her rules. Luckily, George had the all-powerful excuse to back him up.

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 turned 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 back 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. Myrtle had proven her abilities yesterday when she helped him brew the potion. She might have other knowledge from her school days that'll help him since she died in the third year.

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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, she wasn't hiding any of her annoyance, "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."

George knew it was a long shot, Myrtle wasn't a professor at the end of the day. At least he now knew that conjuration wasn't going to solve all of his problems. Regardless, there had to be a way of magically creating food since it was so abundant at Hogwarts. He decided to push Myrtle a little further before committing to returning to the Library, some flattery might help jog her memory.

George pleaded, "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..."

Myrtle's irritated voice interrupted his begging, "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.''

Here we go, George was liking the sound of this spell. He had read about it before but the spell hadn't come to his mind, he didn't consider growing food as an option until now. He pulled one of the ration packs out of his sack, which had been gifted by Dominic, and tore it open. The ration pack was only made for soldiers or lost hikers when there was nothing else to eat, there was predominantly dried and canned food inside with lots of calories. George had been saving this food for if he ever needed to leave Hogwarts in a rush, this experiment was worth wasting a bag on. He pulled out a cracker and held it out towards Myrtle.

He asked as innocently as possible, "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 to regain her composure, "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 and said, "thank you, Professor Warren."

Even though his head was pointed toward the ground, George could tell that Myrtle was smiling. 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 intensely, "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. He had successfully inflated her ego to the point it was about to burst, hopefully, his effort would pay off.

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 had 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. He was content knowing all he had to do in the future was to sneak a little bit of food out of the Great Hall and enlarge it.

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 completely gone. 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 worn off. He tried to think back, but he couldn't remember the exact time he regained the ability to move his legs. He had been curious to see if the curse would wear off faster on him but now he had lost his opportunity to document his findings, all he knew was it took less than an hour.

George just shrugged his shoulders and kept walking, he knew that he wouldn't have to wait long before someone tried to jinx him again. He 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.

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