And Then There Were None

It had passed two days since they arrived to their destination, and everyone was already weary of the whole trip. Hermione and Pansy had their usual quarrels, Seamus was sleeping in the quidditch pitch, with Ron hovering over him, goofing about, and Neville was throwing up by the nearest disposal can, still having that lingering taste of fish in his mouth. As for Harry and Draco, they were trying their best to keep their sanity around each other.

"How do you suppose we get some fun around here?" Ron yelled to Seamus, who suddenly woke up from his slumber. "It sure seemed more embellished than this in the letter."

Seamus yawned. "Dunno, mate. I guess we'll have to do something to last us for another two and a half weeks."

Ron flew around the pitch once more and landed by Seamus. "What do you suppose we do?"

"Let's play wizard's chess," Seamus grinned mischievously.

~~~~~~~~~*

"Bloody hell, never eat too much seafood my gran used to say."

Neville clutched his stomach and lay down by a nearby pasture of vegetation, and admired the sky. It was a splendid view indeed, him residing by a cliff with the water beneath him. He wondered how many days the party would have to stay there, seeming as he never got to read his letter because he'd left it in the Great Hall.

He didn't understand just why he of all people got picked to go on this trip at all. Or maybe he wasn't meant to be picked but got picked anyways randomly, just like how Pansy was picked randomly. Although he could never guess why either of them had been picked. Another thing that pondered him was Prof. Owen himself. He hadn't seen him since they arrived here. And where was Prof. Moody?

Seeming as if reminiscing by himself was getting a little creepy, he decided to head back to Ron and Seamus. "Maybe they stopped playing one of the many things I was bad at."

As he got up and brushed his pants, he felt a sudden rumble, and almost fell down. He had felt little vibrations like these while he was resting, but assumed that it was just a trick of his imagination. Something was terribly wrong. What he found to be lurking beneath him, cautiously waiting, turned out to be a pandemonium of feelings as it breached the surface of the sea. Terrified, yet surprised at the sheer size of it, Neville tried to scream, run, do anything to save himself, but trembled in place, backing away slowly and helplessly. He turned to run, but its great massive teeth were quick to sink in to the land and the only thing Neville was left to see was the inside of its mouth.

Thus sealing his ironic fate. Bass.

~~~~~~~~~*

Parvati meandered through the halls of the building over two times and still she could not figure out exactly where she was supposed to get anything to eat around there. She was quite bored, what with Lavender not there to gossip with anymore. Just as she was rounding the corner, she bumped smack into Hermione.

Parvati rubbed her head and exclaimed, "Hermione! I didn't see you there. Sorry 'bout that."

Hermione brushed off her clothes. "Oh it's quite alright, Parvati, I was rather in a hurry myself, trying to get all these books into our room and all," Hermione said as she started to pick up the many books she had borrowed. She had found a fantastic library on her journey around the place and cautioned Parvati to hand them to her gently because the pages and covers of these books were very delicate and ancient. She was fascinated to know just how this place came to be.

"Oh, hey Hermione," Parvati said while picking up the books. "I'm actually glad I ran into you. Do you know where I can possibly get something to eat around here, I mean so I don't have to die of hunger anytime soon?" Parvati mentioned, handing her the last book.

"Oh." Hermione giggled. "Sorry to give you the bad news, but I think I heard Prof. Owen saying we don't eat unless it's with everyone. So I'm guessing it's not till dinnertime. I guess he's a strong believer of teamwork or something.

Parvati whined, "But that's like almost three hours away!"

"You'll survive. Just do something else till then."

"Well... alright, I'll just go sightseeing by the ocean I guess, that is if I don't die on the way there."

Hermione grinned and yelled after her, "If Neville can survive this long then you can too!"

~~~~~~~~~~*

Harry was actually glad he came here, away from his "orthodox duties" to go through and adventurous horrors ready to jump out at him. He couldn't stand it anymore after last year with Umbrage and the whole Order of the Phoenix catastrophe especially with Malfoy tagging along. He was just about the most stupidest git he had ever known in his entire life. Dudley was like an angel compared to him, well not an angel...but something close to it. Harry looked out the window and sighed. "At least Ron and Hermione make things less painful."

"Well if you call mudbloods and weasels a help I guess 200 more of them would be like heaven for you," Draco drawled from the doorway.

Harry, who was caught off guard and annoyed at the same time, rolled his eyes. "Go away, Malfoy," Harry said peevishly.

"Well excuse me for trying to make a friendly conversation. There's nothing to do around this boring place anyways, plus you can't tell me what to do, Potter," Malfoy shot back at him while leaning by the balcony.

There was an awkward silence between them as both observed the calm setting about them. Both reminisced in their fancies as Harry swiftly broke the silence.

"You know, sharing a room with you is enough torment for me, Malfoy," Harry said, a bit piqued. "Just because we're on probation doesn't mean you have to stalk me wherever I go." Harry glared.

Draco cringed and turned to him. "Who'd want to stalk you, Potter?" Draco spat. "I'm not one of your Creeveys," Draco said appallingly.

Harry scoffed, "Yeah and I bet you just couldn't take a stroll to the other side of the building, where there's another balcony," Harry muttered.

"For your information, Potter," Draco fumed. "I would so willingly like to go sightseeing by the other balcony which has far much better view from here, not to mention I'd be far away from you, if only it didn't take a whole trip to get there.

Just as Harry was about to retaliate, a sudden shriek pierced the air from the other side of the balcony. The two boys looked at each other and hastily ran for the other side. They went through many hallways until they came to a halt at the balcony. It was Parvati. And there was a huge land erosion before her. Hermione was already there as well.

"Hermione!" Harry hollered. "What happened down there?"

"I don't know! I came here as fast as I could and found the cliff all broken down!" Hermione yelled.

"Hermione, I swear the cliff was bigger than this. I just came here last night for a midnight stroll because I couldn't sleep," Parvati pleaded.

Just then Prof. Owen came out. "Oh there you all are! I was beginning to think I was going to be the only one at the dinner---"Owen looked from one face to another. "Why, what's with all the long faces?"

"Oh professor it was terrible!" Parvati replied. "I was going to go and get some fresh air here, only to find myself almost slipping because the cliff was broken off somehow."

Owen looked relieved. "Is that all? Oh then it's nothing at all Miss Patil. This kind of thing happens all the time in this time of season and month. You see these are the days where the tides go up high enough to crash some land particles off, like erosion of some sort. It's nothing at all to be concerned about, it's just how the land develops more each decade or so. But all of you really should be careful around these places these days."

"Oh, that's why... but that's still no way to lose something as beautiful like this cliff," Parvati said remorsefully.

"Yes, you make quite the point, but what can you do. Some things are just not meant to be saved. It's all for the better," Owen said thoughtfully.

"Oh well, come on then," he started hastily, "the food's going to get cold. I hope you're all hungry, because you're in for a real treat!" Owen shouted back to them as he headed inside.

"Come on, Parvati, I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. Although, it is peculiar for these waves to go abnormally high, I'm sure it's just how the weather is outside of Hogwarts," Hermione said curiously. "Let's go inside and eat shall we? I'm famished myself."

As they all made their way to the dining room and too their seats, Ron and Seamus came in as well.

Ron wiped his forehead. "Wow. What a game,"

Seamus sighed after drinking a glass of cold pumpkin juice that was already on the table. "Yeah, that was one wicked way to spend the day. Giant wizard's chess, who knew? I told you it was going to be fun. Dean said his gramps played it all the time."

Malfoy smirked. "Well, while you and Seamus were doing that, Patil here had just gone through a whole trauma about a missing piece of the cliff. It's like crying over a missing jigsaw puzzle for god sakes."

"Shut up, Malfoy! You probably never even cried in your whole entire life because it'd probably turn into an icicle anyways due to the fact that you're a cruel heartless death eater!" Parvati spat.

"Wow, those are quite the bitter words from a petty person as yourself," Pansy drawled as she sat down next to Draco.

"Yeah, you wouldn't want to get in trouble for that potty mouth of yours," Millicent berated.

"Oh come on! Don't start another one of your fits, Pansy," Hermione venomly fumed.

"Eat dung Granger!"

"Stop it, both of you!" Owen chided. "I wouldn't want to have to put you two on probation like Mr. Potter and Malfoy here, now do I?"

"No professor," both replied in unison,

"Good," Owen replied, taking his seat. "Now then, let's start the feast---"

"Wait! Hermione interrupted as she looked around. "What about the others, professor?" Hermione asked.

Prof. Owen's face darkened. "Oh yes the others," he started monotonously. "It seems Prof. Moody won't be joining us for quite some days due an urgent message from Dumbledore. And uh...oh yes, Mr. Longbottom wishes to be left alone tonight because he's feeling a little under the weather."

"Oh...poor Neville, he must be really sick, I haven't seen him around lately," Hermione said remorsefully.

"Yes, it's a pity indeed, especially when he's gotten the privilege to come here. Weather changes are frequent and most unique around here; it's probably why he's gotten to be sick without notice. One day it'd be sunny like today and the next it'd be snowing. I take it Mr. Longbottom is not the outdoors type is he not?" Owen asked as if he already knew the answer.

"Yes, he really doesn't get out much," Hermione said with misfortune.

"Well then now if we haven't missed anyone else, let's get to the eating shall we?" Prof. Owen clapped his hands twice and a bountiful amount of food appeared before them. With all sorts of custard pies, candied apples, chicken legs and many other great things to eat, it was topped off with a big gigantic fish as the centerpiece of the whole feast.

Everyone's amazement went towards the gigantic fish, propped in the middle of the table, which was about ten times bigger than them and looked as if it could fit the whomping willow inside its enormous body. Everyone dove in and ate ravenously.

"Wow, this is great," Parvati said with her mouth full of fish and chicken.

It wasn't until after the fourth bite that Parvati noticed something was wrong with the food. Her chewing and chomping paused, and realized that it was just the wrong part of the fish she ate, so she grabbed a napkin to carefully dispose of the bones she accidentally ate. But what she found wasn't all bones, but what appeared to be an eyeball!??!!! She squealed and stood up from her seat abruptly with her napkin clutched in her hand.

"Parvati?" Hermione asked curiously. "What's wrong?"

Parvati's eyes widened in shock as she saw blood sliding down the side of Hermione's mouth. She also seemed to be holding a chicken leg, representing a bloody arm. She turned to see the others and they too were feasting on something that wasn't edible. Her vision changed abruptly and saw that the custard pie wasn't a custard pie, but a part of a brain filled with blood that was covered in pastry, in which the other part was being eaten by Ron. Then she saw that the mashed potatoes were the gizzards and innards of a person's intestines, and the candied apples were eyeballs on sticks. The pumpkin juice tasted like pumpkin juice but looked like what Banshees might drink upon. Malfoy was eating shepard's pie, which was really pieces of skin and muscles all tied up with veins. And Harry was holding a piece of what looked like finger with a familiar ring on it.

"Neville..."

"Oh my god," Parvati said as she brought a napkin to her mouth. She was about to be tremendously sick and faint right there in front of everybody. Couldn't anyone else see what she did, not to mention what they were eating? Why wasn't anyone disgusted like her? It was Neville...there was no mistake that that ring wasn't Neville's. He'd shown it to her as soon as he got it for Christmas from his gran last year.

She swallowed thickly. "May I please be excused, Professor? I think I ate something wrong."

Owen, who was engrossed in eating something unrecognizable, excused Parvati from the dinner table.

Parvati ran out the door with her napkin to her mouth making hurling noises as she disappeared in the hallway.

"Hmm, I wonder what's gotten into her," Seamus said as he bit off an arm.

Parvati rushed to the loo and threw up in one of the toilets. Swallowing hard and gasping she threw up some more. It wasn't until the third time she purged out the corruptions, when something unexpectedly sharp and peculiar was felt in her throat. She tried to swallow it down but it ended up just digging painfully into her inner throat deeper and deeper. With the similar metallic taste of warm blood engulfing her, she coughed and hacked like the dead, spraying little droplets of blood everywhere. Soon she couldn't breathe and everything was spinning and getting darker. She made a meager attempt to reach for the doorknob, but death reached her first. She tried to scream but heard nothing except a silent wisp in her inevitable fate.