Chapter 87: 8th September 1991, Sunday: Part 2

George was broken out of his self-reflection after noticing that the little hammer had started glowing red-hot again, his fingers were sizzling from the heat. The pain was slowly rising but his attention was more focused on the electric shock that might be sent through his hand, the upcoming zap could result in him losing his grip. Before another stupid accident happened, George slammed a metal button on top of the alarm clock with his other 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, George released the red-hot hammer and placed his cooked 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. He was going to have to test the alarm another time, ideally somewhere nobody would mind the racket. He could only hope that the alarm clock wouldn't begin to melt or spontaneously set on fire for the time being. Whilst sucking on his thumbs, George heard the sound of frantic footsteps walking in his direction. He had a pretty good idea of who might be heading his way.

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 definitely 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. He didn't hesitate to run as quietly as he could to the opposite end of Row F and hide around the corner. He hid behind the tall bookshelf and carefully listened to the sound of the footsteps approaching.

Then George heard the librarian stop beside where he'd been seated before turning around and heading back the way she had come from. He guessed that she probably planned on heading him off at the main exit of the Library since that was the only way students could leave, there was a teacher's exit but the door was most likely locked. Luckily for him, she had no idea how well-practised he was at running away from trouble. George didn't hesitate to dash out of the library, he used the labyrinth-like maze of bookshelves to pass the librarian by without her noticing.

Once he left the Library, George planned on distancing 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. He saw no reason not to immediately head to the Great Hall and mingle with all of his fellow students. If the librarian was clever enough to track him there then she would officially be looking for a needle in a haystack. Rather ironically, the Great Hall had become George's safe haven.

Just before George entered the Great Hall, he hesitated at the entrance and instinctively pulled out the Calming Draught vial he had in his pocket. He stared at the vial intensely whilst debating whether or not drinking it was necessary, he had many reasons to either play it safe or take the risk. It didn't take long for him to place the vial back into his pocket and continue walking into the Great Hall. He decided to play it by ear and keep the vial on hand just in case something unforeseen occurred.

The first thing George noticed upon entering the 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. They must have been quite sore after his escape yesterday and had been eagerly waiting for him, there was no doubt that they would collectively apprehend him if he so much as stole a crumb from their table. To their astonishment, George casually placed his hands in the pockets of his robe and quietly whistled whilst walking toward the Slytherin table.

While leisurely strolling across the hall, George could feel many eyes burning into the back of his head. Regardless of what they might be thinking, he maintained his facade and acted completely ignorant. They should be happy since his reign of thievery had come to an end. He was re-entering society after being fully rehabilitated. 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. Although thankful for her timely assistance in acquiring Snape's potion book, he didn't want to talk to Gemma on a daily occurrence. Her habit of stressing him out with unrelenting teasing was simply too much to handle.

George kept walking until he reached the very end of the Slytherin table where there were a few empty spaces. For whatever reason, none of the first-years seemed to like sitting in full view of the professors. George personally kept his eyes on the table and avoided looking toward the professors, he was a little scared that eye contact might initiate some sort of reaction from any one of them. Then he sat down at the table and looked at the food on offer, saliva instantly started pooling in his mouth. This had been one of the main reasons why George avoided drinking the Calming Draught, he would finally be able to enjoy what he was eating.

In the centre of the table was a large ceramic bowl filled with baked mashed potato, 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 had no doubt it would be delicious. He picked up the ladle and started scooping up large portions of cottage pie and pouring it out onto his plate until a mound of mash had formed in front of him. Once his plate was on the verge of overflowing with gravy, he didn't hesitate to start digging in.

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. He closed his eyes and kept shovelling the food into his mouth, he was utterly overcome with an overpowering sensation of contentment.

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.  At first, George thought that someone had played a prank on him during his time in food heaven, but, his environment seemed to suggest otherwise. All the first years that had previously sat beside him had shuffled away without him realising, he was now alone at the end of the table.

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He wondered, "how could a mass exodus of the students occur around me without my senses picking up on it?"

George checked his watch and realised the alarming truth, he had massively underestimated how long he had been eating. 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 must have been so overwhelming that he had completely lost contact with the real world. George could only hope that this phenomenon was a one-off since he'd never blacked out whilst eating before. He still felt hungry nonetheless and instinctively looked toward the bowl to see if he could get more cottage pie.

To his utter shock, George's eyes went wide after seeing the entire bowl empty. Not only had he eaten all the food on his plate without noticing, but he had also subconsciously eaten the entire cottage pie. The only thing left was a couple of chopped carrots soaked in gravy in the corners of the bowl. The absurd amount of food he had devoured helped him understand why the first years had unanimously moved away, his terrible reputation must have taken another nose-dive. George felt that this would be a good time to leave before he garnered any more negative attention.

The bad luck associated with the Great Hall had struck yet again and George wasn't going to wait for it to get worse. Before getting up, he pulled out a plastic resealable bag from his leather sack and poured a handful of peas into it so he had something to enlarge once he left. He still needed to satiate his lingering appetite if he didn't want to rely on the Calming Draught. Tennis ball-sized peas didn't sound too appetizing but it was going to have to do, if only he hadn't eaten the whole pie.

On his way out of the Great Hall, George saw Theodore and his two friends sitting next to each other and quietly talking. They were the same two boys Theodore had been happily chatting with in the greenhouse before George had threatened him. George didn't want Theodore to have a negative opinion of him for any longer than necessary, perhaps now would be the best time to finally apologise. 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. It seemed that his eating rampage destroyed the potential for keeping his sensitive conversation private.

George decided to wait for another opportunity, he continued to leave the Great Hall without Theodore or his friends noticing. Instead of talking in there, he waited behind a pillar just outside the hall and planned to stay there until Theodore eventually left. Hopefully, Theodore wouldn't stay in the Great Hall to finish some homework. George sat down on the floor, crossed his legs and started to meditate to help focus his mind. He reflected on the cottage pie incident and realised pleasure could be just as distracting as any negative emotion, he would have to focus on controlling that part of his character as well.

There seemed to be no end to what could trigger George's uncontrollable instincts, living without a constant dependence on the Calming Draught wasn't going to be easy. On that topic, while George patiently waited, he drank a few drops of his Calming Draught. If he was going to talk to Theodore, he needed to put his best foot forward. After twenty minutes of meditation, Theodore and his two friends walked past George. His meditation was working a little too well since he didn't react to their presence, it was only due to hearing Theodore laugh at one of the boy's stupid jokes that George realise he'd missed them. Just as Theodore was about to reach the end of the corridor, George sprung to his feet and ran after him.

George caught up and placed a hand on Theodore's shoulder, he was of course very gentle to ensure that he didn't hurt the frail boy. He hunched over while panting as a shooting pain travelled through his stomach, he guessed that he had given himself a stitch after eating all that cottage pie. 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. The fear on the boy's face told George that he only had a few moments before Theodore would run off. He slowed his rapid breathing and held his hands in the air as a gesture of surrender.

Then 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 used you as a way to vent my anger and that was wrong. I was hoping that we could put that stupid and emotional mistake behind us and move on."

Theodore appeared to be surprised by George's words, but, his fearful attitude didn't seem to waver. 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, it was unfortunate their first dialogue since the incident had to end this way. George didn't bother chasing after him since he knew that would only make things worse.

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