After leaving Dumbledore's office, Charlie headed to the Great Hall with a spring in his step.
He pushed open the heavy oak doors, and a delicious aroma greeted him.
The rich scent of roast beef mingled with the malty fragrance of fresh bread, instantly whetting Charlie's appetite.
He went straight to the Hufflepuff table and sat down beside Ernie.
Ernie was in the middle of an intense discussion with Justin. Both of them were red in the face.
"Our next Quidditch Match is against Gryffindor."
Ernie prodded the mashed potatoes on his plate with a fork, his voice tinged with obvious worry.
"Their new Seeker, Harry, is fast and good. Do we really stand a chance?"
Charlie loaded food onto his plate as he listened carefully.
Justin swallowed a mouthful of Pumpkin Juice and shook his head.
"Don't be so pessimistic. We've got Cedric."
Across from them, Cedric Diggory smiled gently.
His blond hair glimmered in the candlelight, and his gray eyes brimmed with confidence.
"Don't worry. I'll give it my all."
Cedric's voice was calm and firm.
On his first day at school, he had gone out of his way to greet Charlie. They hadn't talked much, but Charlie had a good impression of the polite, mild-mannered upper-year student.
Justin lowered his voice conspiratorially.
"Harry's definitely good, but there's no way he can beat Cedric right now."
"What makes you say that?"
"He and a few others were caught sneaking around at night by Professor McGonagall. They lost a whole ninety points!"
"Ninety points?" Ernie's eyes widened.
"Yep! Even the Gryffindors can't stand them now. Harry's bound to do badly in the match."
Charlie chewed on his roast beef, puzzled. Didn't Harry have an Invisibility Cloak? How had he gotten caught? The kid was hopeless.
As they were talking about Harry, his voice came from the neighboring Gryffindor table.
"Neville, are you all right?"
Charlie turned to look and saw Harry bending over to help Neville Longbottom up from the floor.
Poor Neville was pale, his legs stiff and straight. He had clearly been hit with the Leg-Locker Curse.
Nearby, Draco Malfoy stood with Crabbe and Goyle, his platinum-blond hair especially striking in the candlelight.
A smug sneer curled his lips, and he still held his Wand.
"Malfoy," Harry snapped.
"Why did you curse Neville?"
Malfoy shrugged, looking utterly unconcerned.
"I just wanted to see how the Leg-Locker Curse worked. Longbottom made a perfect target, didn't he?"
Hermione hurried over, crouched to check on Neville, then raised her Wand.
"Finite Incantatem!"
Feeling returned to Neville's legs, but his face turned even redder.
"Malfoy, that was too much!" Harry clenched his fists, his green eyes burning with fury behind his glasses.
"Too much?" Malfoy scoffed.
"Potter, you're always surrounded by idiots like him. Tell me, what's it like hanging around with a bunch of losers?"
The Slytherin students around them snickered.
Crabbe and Goyle laughed so hard they doubled over.
Neville lowered his head, his hands clenched into fists.
His friends were standing up for him, but there was nothing he could do.
The helplessness made his chest tighten.
Charlie put down his knife and fork and shook his head helplessly.
He couldn't stand bullies, but if Neville kept getting picked on without fighting back, there was no point in standing up for him.
A person had to learn to fight for himself.
Hermione tugged Neville toward the exit.
"Let's go to Professor McGonagall and have her settle this."
"I don't want to get into any more trouble," Neville said, his voice trembling.
The Gryffindors around him sat down in silence. You could never help someone who had given up on himself.
"Be brave, Neville!" Ron urged him, but it didn't do much good.
Seeing this, Malfoy burst out laughing.
"I have to say, Longbottom, compared to those reckless Gryffindors, you really are the cautious one. So cautious you're a coward."
Neville clenched his fists. Once again, he had caused his friends to be humiliated along with him.
He really was stupid. As a child, he had nearly been mistaken for a Squib, so he had never been confident in himself.
That lack of confidence showed whenever he tried to do magic, making it even harder for him to learn anything.
He didn't mind being humiliated; he was used to it by now. But he didn't want Malfoy mocking his friends because of him.
Neville remembered what Charlie had once told him: The tougher you are, the less likely people are to mess with you.
At that moment, all the taunts inside him came together. Neville's fists clenched tighter and tighter, and his face grew redder and redder.
Malfoy kept taunting him. "Longbottom, hurry up and ask your grandmother to withdraw you from school—"
Before he could finish, Neville suddenly snapped.
With a roar, he charged at Malfoy.
His right fist slammed into Malfoy's left eye.
"Ah!"
Malfoy shrieked and fell to the floor, clutching his eye as he rolled around.
The entire Great Hall fell silent in an instant.
Everyone was stunned. Was this really the same timid, cowardly Neville Longbottom?
"Go, Neville!"
The Gryffindor table erupted in cheers.
Seamus Finnigan jumped up and shouted, while Dean Thomas clapped enthusiastically.
To Gryffindors, if you were bullied and didn't fight back, they looked down on you.
But if you fought back, they'd respect you from the bottom of their hearts, no matter how it turned out.
"Malfoy!"
The Slytherins exploded when they saw their leader get hurt.
Pansy Parkinson shrieked as she rushed over, while the other Slytherins pulled out their Wands.
"Help Neville! Take down the Serpent House!"
The Gryffindors weren't about to back down either, and everyone got to their feet.
Spells began flying everywhere.
"Leg-Locker Curse!"
"Tarantella Dance!"
"Densaugeo!"
Spells of every color crisscrossed the Great Hall, and tables and chairs went tumbling.
Shouts from students and the explosions of spells blended into a din.
Charlie watched with great interest. You didn't see a scene like this every day.
[Your Majesty incited his attendants into a massive brawl. That's rotten to the core. Tyrant Points +10]
Charlie blinked. Why was it him again? Were they just pinning every mess on him?
He ignored the stupid system and prepared to keep watching.
Suddenly, a red flash grazed his ear.
A dancing spell.
Charlie whipped around. Ernie, sitting beside him, had started dancing uncontrollably, his legs twitching while his arms flailed wildly in the air.
"No, no! I don't want to dance! Somebody help!"
Ernie's face was beet red, and his voice quavered on the verge of tears.
Charlie's expression darkened.
How dare they attack the kid who did his homework for him?
What had Ernie ever done to them?
He slowly set down his knife and fork and drew his Wand from inside his robes.
Its black shaft gleamed coldly in the candlelight.
"Finite Incantatem!"
An invisible wave of magic spread from the tip of his Wand, instantly covering the entire Great Hall.
All the spells in the air dissipated at once. Ernie stopped his ridiculous dance, and the other students who had been hit by spells returned to normal as well.
The Great Hall fell into deathly silence.
Everyone turned to look at Charlie, their eyes full of shock and disbelief.
Charlie slowly stood up and raised his Wand toward the ceiling.
His voice rang out through the silent hall.
"Arboreal Descent!"
The magic erupted in an instant.
The tables and chairs in the Great Hall began to shake violently, green light shimmering across their wooden surfaces.
Then they began to grow, twist, and transform.
Thick vines burst from the table legs and climbed upward, wild and fast.
The chair arms turned into flexible branches, waving wildly through the air.
In the blink of an eye, the entire Great Hall became a sea of vines.
The students who had been fighting moments ago were instantly bound by the vines, unable to move.
Malfoy hung upside down in midair, blood still dripping from his nose.
Pansy was wrapped up like a dumpling, with only her head poking out.
Even Harry, Ron, and Hermione were gently encircled by vines. They were unharmed, but couldn't move either.
Charlie put away his Wand, sat back down, and resumed cutting his beef.
"Keep it down while you're eating."
Before you continue