It did know, however, that this was Saturday, and Saturday meant people coming in and out to get their brooms. And it had the vague feeling there was something important going on today. It knew something unusual was going on when it saw its first visitors for the day.
He had never seen the first person. It was a very short but old-looking man. He had seen the second once or twice, a young man with red hair, freckles, and glasses. The Broomshed suspected this was the brother of those two twin Beaters, Gred and Forge-or were they Fred and George?
"By why do we have to meet out here, Professor?" asked the young man. So this person was named Professor? It seemed a lot of people were named Professor. The Broomshed often wondered how they avoided getting confused.
They were entering the Broomshed now. "It's too dangerous to meet inside the school," said Professor. "There's a lot to suggest You-Know-Who has at least one spy planted there." Who was You-Know-Who? That was one thing that had always irritated the Broomshed. Everyone kept talking about You-Know-Who, and he sounded dangerous, but noone ever thought to say who You-Know-Who was.
There was another man approaching, another old-looking man, but he was tall, with long silver hair and beard. Instantly the Broomshed knew this was Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster. With him was a man whom the Broomshed suspected to be Professor Snape. They also entered the Broomshed, which surprised it, because they'd always passed it without entering. The other Professor and young man did not appear surprised to see they, nor they them.
"Mr. Weasley," said Dumbledore. "You wanted to see me?"
Mr. Weasley was the young man. Yes, he probably was Gred and Forge's older brother. He immediately began talking about a Ministry of Magic, someone called Fudge, some sort of Imperius curse, and You-Know-Who, while Dumbledore kept asking about someone called Voldemort. Mr. Weasley wasn't saying anything about Voldemort, but that didn't seem to bother Dumbledore. They also appeared to ask Snape about something. Growing bored, the Broomshed started to tune their conversation out. It ended after about half-an-hour, and all three left.
Not long afterwards, the Broomshed saw two more people, which he knew well. He saw Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin Seeker, very often. And the girl with him, Pansy Parkinson, he'd seen her here too, usually with Draco. They were hurrying towards it, and they leaned against the door with their ears pressed to the wood. A second later Pansy carefully pushed the door open slightly, then shook her head. "They're gone."
"Drats," said Draco. "Well, you said it was Percy Weasley, right? It's probably got something to do with the Ministry."
"Do you think they suspect the Dark Lord's controlling Fudge?" she asked anxiously.
"I don't know. But if they're meeting here, they must suspect a spy amoung the students. We'd best camouflage our Marks. Who are they not suspecting?"
"I think Professor Flitwick was down here with them. And..."
"And what? Who else?"
"Well," said Pansy catiously, "you know my sources aren't always accurate. I could very easily be wrong here, but...I think Snape was too." She was speaking barely above a whisper.
Draco's face darkened. "You're not wrong," he said softly. "I thought as much. Snape is just as much a traitor now as he was then. We were fools, all of us, to believe him." He sounded really upset, in a way the Broomshed had never heard him be before. He'd seen him mad after losing a game, but that was different from this. This was weird.
Just then there was the sound of someone softly approaching. "Lets get out of here," whispered Pansy, and they bolted.
The Broomshed recognized the newcomer as Cho Chang, Seeker and newly Captain of the Ravenclaw team. She seemed in a very good mood; as she entered, she hummed softly to herself, briskly snatching up her Comet Two-Sixty.
There was another member of the Ravenclaw team, Otto, approaching the Broomshed. He too entered and reached for his new Cleansweep Nine. He smiled as he saw her nearly skipping away. "Excited about the Ball tonight?"
Oh yes, the Equinox Ball. That was the important thing going on today he had had a vague feeling about.
"Yeah," she blushed.
"Who're you going with?" They were now exiting the Broomshed.
"Harry," she answered.
"Harry Potter?" he looked stunned.
"Yep," she was trying not to giggle.
"Hey, Otto! Could you come over here a second?" It was his girlfriend Sara.
"Mind if I'm a minute or so late?" Otto asked Cho quickly.
"You're early," she reminded him.
"Oh yeah. Coming, Sara!" He hurried over.
Cho gave up the struggle not to giggle. If it had been able to giggle, the Broomshed might have joined in; Otto jumped at Sara's every beck and call. Cho was no doubt thinking about how soon Harry would be leaping at her beck and call. Then she walked off, humming louder.
She had been gone about a minute or so when the two new Ravenclaw Chasers, Yvonne and Leslie, approached the Broomshed, babbling.
"And he turned as red as his hair!" The Broomshed could hear Leslie say.
"Well?" demanded Yvonne. "What did Granger say?"
"Well, she looked shocked, then considered it, then said yes. I don't think his feet hit the ground for half an hour after that."
"Really? I mean everyone knows he's been in love with her for a while now, but he's never been that obvious." The entered.
The Broomshed suspected that they were talking about Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He had seen them, usually in the company of Harry (who was Gryffindor Seeker, amoung other things), and knew well they both were crazy about each other, but would never reveal it. Ron had recently become the Gryffindor Keeper, and Hermione was a Prefect.
"Of course," Yvonne was continuing, "she looked none too pleased when he showed interest in that Delacour girl last year. She wants him too." The two girls had grabbed thier Cleansweep Nines.
"So who're you going with?"
"Well," Yvonne blushed furiously. "Don't laugh at me..."
"Who?" Leslie prodded.
"You know that little Creevay boy? Dennis?"
"Uh, yeah..."
"Well," they exited. "He asked me several days ago, and he was just so *cute* doing so, and I guess I was just a little desperate for a date, so..."
Leslie burst out laughing.
"Hey, you said you wouldn't laugh!" Yvonne chased her out of sight.
A minute or so after three boy approached the Broomshed, the final three members of the Ravenclaw team. They were chattering excitedly, but the Broomshed couldn't catch most of what they were saying until they entered. Then one of them, a boy called Fredrick, pulled out a book, what looked like a decomposing banana, and a number of other things the Broomshed didn't recognize.
"So what're you going to do with those?" asked the second boy, Sam.
"I've got a little plan for tonight, just to have a little fun, no real harm done, I got this book, you see, out of the Restricted Section of the library-"
"How? Who signed?" asked the third boy, Louis.
"Professor Trelawney. I managed to convince her the Fates had told her to." He snickered. "We'll brew the potion here, starting right after practice. Should be ready by tonight. It'll make everyone a little dirty, literally."
Sam and Louis both laughed as he hid the book, the decomposing banana, and the other ingredients under a stack of Shooting Stars. Then they grabbed their Cleansweep Sevens and hurried out. Then all was quiet.
"And then the Fat Lady said something I didn't understand at all," Ron Weasley was saying.
"What did she say exactly?" asked Harry Potter.
"She said, 'We need more special effects and dance numbers!'"
The Broomshed didn't understand why Harry burst into such laughter. Neither did Ron, apparently. "What?"
"It's a Muggle joke," said Harry. "I'm not quite sure what it means, but everyone always laughed when someone said that line. No doubt a Muggle-born taught it to her." They entered.
"So," said Ron, "happy to be going with Cho?"
"You bet," Harry grinned. "And what about you? You finally got Hermione."
Ron reached for his Cleansweep Five without responding.
Harry grabbed his Firebolt. After two years of being way too protective of it, he had finally started keeping it in the Broomshed, much to the Broomshed's delight. "Come off it, Ron. How did a arm snapped off your figure of Krum end on the floor?"
"What?" Ron turned red. "I don't know what you've talking about." He began walking out very quickly. Harry shook his head, chuckling very softly, and followed. The Broomshed briefly wondered where they were going with the Ravenclaws on the pitch, but noone else showed up. The Broomshed knew sometimes players just took their brooms to go flying through the sky, so that was probably what Harry and Ron were doing. When noone else showed up, it finally got to doze.
Several seconds later a cauldron flew through the air and landed at Fredrick's feet. He picked it up and carried it inside. Sam and Louis, meanwhile, had retrieved the book from the Restricted Section of the library, the decomposing banana, and the other ingredients.
They were silent except for repeating intructions as they brewed the potion. It was times like this the Broomshed wished it could read. About an hour after they had started, they bottled it and left, taking the cauldron with them.
A few minutes after they left, Harry and Ron returned and put away their broomsticks. Then they too were gone. Once again all was quiet.
"So, glad you volunteered to do the decorating?" asked Cho, as she stuck the flowers near the ground with her wand.
Hermione directed several ribbons of scarlet, green, blue, and yellow to the top of the Broomshed. "Well, I would like to ask you something. About Harry."
"I think I know what's coming." noted Cho.
"Are you just going to the Ball with him, or-"
"Well," said Cho. Her voice grew faraway. "At first I just accepted because I didn't see any reason not to. But now, well, I really want to spend more time with him. I think maybe I'm even interested, you know." She paused. "Um, you don't mind if I call you Hermione-"
"You want to date my best friend? You call me Hermione, Cho."
"Good. So, while were on the subject, what about you and Ron Weasley? Going to give the poor bloke a break?"
"What do you mean by that?" asked Hermione.
"You don't know? You never noticed?" Cho asked in astonishment. "Hermione, he's been in love with you for...I thought the way he behaved when he asked you, if nothing else, would've told you that!"
"He has? You mean that?" Hermione sounded as if this was something she'd wanted to hear, but never dreamed she would.
"Yes...and you?"
"Well, things haven't exactly been stupendous between us, you know that," said Hermione. "But you know, I turned down Viktor's invitation to Bulgaria because I knew Ron would have gotten upset. It's a stupid reason, I told myself. If I wanted to go, I should. But I thought of Ron, and how he'd look at me, and suddenly I didn't want to. I knew when he wrote to me after that we'd never be more then friends, and I didn't care. At all."
"Hey girls, we're ready!" called a voice.
Hermione and Cho both raised their wands. Then they and a whole bunch of voices yelled, "Wingardium dissipatia!"
The sparkles on still on the ground rose and scattered, until they hung in the air all around, like thick dust.
"Not very impressive." noted Hermione.
"They'll look better once the sun sets," explained Cho. "Speaking of which, we'd better go get ready."
"Do you want to get ready with us?" asked Hermione.
"You think I should? I'm not supposed-"
"Lavender isn't supposed to be in the Hufflepuff tower either, but she's getting ready there. And Padma's with us too."
They walked out of sight. Once again quiet descended.
A level of excitement seemed to raise all about, even though the Broomshed had no more visitors. Then a ton of people appeared to gather in the distance. Then music started.
Shortley into the music, a very frightened Professor Snape ran past, followed by a woman the Broomshed didn't recognize. She was wearing a very pink, very frilly dress, and a *lot* of jewelry. She was yelling, "The Fates have insisted! We must dance together or something drastic will happen!"
Then four students stolled over: two boys who the Broomshed believed to be Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas, and two indentical-looking girls on their arms, who the Broomshed thought were twins called Parvati and Padma, though it wasn't sure. Dean was wearing dark green robes, and the girl on his arm had red robes and gold cloak above them. Seamus was wearing orange robes, and the girl on his arm was wearing white robes.
"I wonder if Trelawney's gotten Snape to dance with her," commented the girl with Dean.
"Well don't ask me what she sees in him," replied Seamus. "Poor Professor Trelawney. She had to fall for Snape..."
"Poor Professor Snape," replied his date. "Even he doesn't deserve-"
"Hey!" said her sister, and the two girls began arguing over whether Professor Trelawney was a great teacher or a bad one. The foursome strolled out of sight, then out of hearing.
And then Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger came into view. His robes were white, hers a light blue-green. They stepped into the shadow of the Broomshed.
"So," he said softly, "what was it you wanted to tell me."
"It's-" Hermione started. She didn't seem able to continue .
"Well?" he was looking anxious.
"It's that-th-that I like you a lot Ron!" she blurted out in an unusually high-pitched voice.
Too high-pitched. "Hey who's that?" demanded a student the Broomshed didn't recognize.
"Oh great! Hide!" Ron pulled Hermione to the far side of Broomshed just in time to avoid the glare of the student. Seeing the door, Ron pulled Hermione in, then tried to close it quietly. The student walked around the Broomshed, but by some miracle didn't try the door. He walked away.
"Ron!" hissed Hermione angrily. "Don't you realize what you've done?"
"Gotten us out of the glare of a student?"
"We're in the Broomshed! You know what they do in here! And he heard me call you Ron, it won't be difficult for him to put the pieces together! Now everyone will think we did it!" That was all true; the Broomshed had seen a lot of stuff it would've preferred not to see in its time.
"What did you expect me to do?" demanded Ron. "If you hadn't yelled like that-"
The Broomshed had heard Ron and Hermione bicker before. Though then again, it thought as Hermione gave an exasperated sigh and pulled him to her, and they began kissing passionately, they usually hadn't ended their arguments like this.
"We're not doing it, though," she said after they'd kissed for a bit. "I mean, I suppose we can be guilty of some of the things we're going to get accused of, but..."
But then she was cut off when something came pouring the air, covering the Broomshed with disgusting muck. Was this supposed to be the prank Fredrick, Sam, and Louis were supposed to be playing?
There were sounds of screaming and groaning. Ron and Hermione dashed out of the Broomshed to see was going on, not even noticing the muck on the sparkles rubbing onto their robes.
Harry and Cho came running up, both covered with muck. "Ron, you are not going to believe this!" yelled the first. " Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson-"
But they were moving amazingly swiftly out of hearing, and the Broomshed did not catch anything else.
Perhaps if it had thought things over, with everything he heard in the following days, the Broomshed might have deduced that when Fredrick, Sam, and Louis had pulled their prank, Malfoy had accidently been jostled by a hysterical Pansy, and the muck had gotten onto his arm, and proved itself to be able to undue camouflage spells. The Dark Mark had been exposed, and Pansy had attempted to redo the camouflage, thereby incriminating herself. They had both talked, making a significant difference in the fight against Lord Voldemort.
But although it became aware that Ron and Hermione had become a couple, it never figured that out. Broomsheds aren't that smart.