CHAPTER TEN
what lay underneath the dog and the trapdoor. All Neville cared
about was never going near the dog again.
Hermione was now refusing to speak to Harry and Ron, but she
was such a bossy know-it-all that they saw this as an added bonus.
All they really wanted now was a way of getting back at Malfoy, and
to their great delight, just such a thing arrived in the mail about a
week later.
As the owls flooded into the Great Hall as usual, everyone’s at-
tention was caught at once by a long, thin package carried by six
large screech owls. Harry was just as interested as everyone else to
see what was in this large parcel, and was amazed when the owls
soared down and dropped it right in front of him, knocking his ba-
con to the floor. They had hardly fluttered out of the way when an-
other owl dropped a letter on top of the parcel.
Harry ripped open the letter first, which was lucky, because it
said:
DO NOT OPEN THE PARCEL AT THE TABLE.
It contains your new Nimbus Two Thousand, but I don’t
want everybody knowing you’ve got a broomstick or they’ll
all want one. Oliver Wood will meet you tonight on the
Quidditch field at seven o’clock for your first training ses-
sion.
Harry had difficulty hiding his glee as he handed the note to Ron
to r ead.
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