A Fair Bit Of Trouble
By Molly The Monster
Setting: the corridors of
Hogwarts, sometime in 1970
Prompts: custard, house elf, curtain
"I can pack a punch better than you!"
"Look what you did!"
"I said I was sorry!"
"Sorry? What's sorry going to do about this mess?"
Alice Logan looked up and around the hall, trying to see where all the commotion was coming from. She was sitting on a windowsill, her Potions book open on her lap. She was trying to memorize the ingredients for a very basic Potion that Professor Slughorn was certain to test them on the following week. At the moment, the long, velvet curtains were drawn halfway so that no one would see Alice sitting there. The eleven year old didn't feel particularly like going back to the common room. No, she much preferred being tucked away in a random part of the castle. Not that she really had the option of going back to the common room. She'd settled for the windowsill when she realized she was completely lost.
After drawing back the curtains, she finally was able to spot the source of the argument. She recognized Thorfinn Rowle and Antonin Dolohov, two particularly nasty Slytherin boys in her Transfiguration class. The other one's name she didn't know, though she was certain that he was in Gryffindor House, like her.
The one whose name she didn't know looked significantly smaller than Rowle and Dolohov, even if they boys were all about the same height. Dolohov's face looked absolutely menacing, like he could devour the Gryffindor boy whole. Rowle stood next to him, not looking quite as angry as his friend, but menacing nonetheless. Gryffindor looked to be trembling, but Alice couldn't quite tell from her distance. He was tall, skinny, with curly brown hair and a thin, delicate face. His eyes were as wide as the full moon, and he was staring at Dolohov's chest.
It was at that point that Alice realized that Dolohov's chest was covered in a yellow goo, more than likely custard. From the looks of it, Gryffindor had gotten the custard all over Dolohov and Dolohov wasn't feeling entirely too forgiving today.
"I didn't mean to! Honestly!" Gryffindor squeaked, his eyes darting around the hall, though Alice wasn't entirely sure what he was looking for.
Rowle and Dolohov laughed. "I'll teach you to watch where you're going," growled Dolohov with a nasty smile. His hand went straight for the inside of his robes, undoubtedly searching for his wand.
Before Alice could even think about it, she sprang from her place behind the curtain, and made her way to where the action was. Instinctively, she stood in front of Gryffindor so that she was facing Dolohov and Rowle. She was even shorter than Gryffindor, which made her about half the size of Rowle and Dolohov. She placed her hands on her hips and stood up straight, doing her best to look like she wasn't afraid, though she was practically quaking on the inside.
"Leave him alone," Alice demanded, trying her best to keep her voice steady and even. "He said he was sorry!" Somehow, her voice sounded a lot stronger than she felt.
An amused smile formed on the lips of both Dolohov and Rowle. Dolohov snorted, his arm still inside his robes, probably gripping his wand, momentarily forgetting that he was about to curse Gryffindor. "Who sent the house-elf?" asked Dolohov with a laugh, obviously mocking her height. Rowle responded with his own bout of laughter.
Alice felt her face blush, but she was determined to ignore it. She forced herself to stand up even straighter.
"Why don't you run along, girl? This is big kid stuff," said Rowle.
Alice wasn't quite sure what came over her, but she raised her fists in the air. "I may be a girl, sure, but I can pack a punch better than you!" announced Alice.
"Miss Logan!"
The shrill voice could only belong to one person. Alice momentarily froze. She realized how this must have looked. She turned her head to see Professor McGonagall marching down the hall toward the group of four. Alice tried to say something, but she couldn't think of anything. She lowered her hands, clasping them behind her back. She tried giving Professor McGongall an innocent smile, but it probably just made her look all the more guilty.
"Professor!" said Dolohov, removing his hand from the inside of his robes, leaving his wand in there. "Thank Merlin! Thorfinn and I were just walking when he threw this custard all over me and she started threatening us and–"
"Save it, Mr. Dolohov," said Professor McGonagall in her usual stern voice. She pulled out her wand and waved it at Dolohov and the custard disappeared. "Now, the four of you return to your respective common rooms, please. And I will see you each at five o'clock tomorrow in my office for detention."
"But Professor–" Dolohov began, but Professor McGonagall gave him a sharp look.
"You need to learn to solve your problems in a civilized manner," the Transfiguration Professor told the four first years. "I'll see you all tomorrow."
"Yes, Professor," they all said in unison.
Alice wasn't sure if she should wait for Professor McGonagall to dismiss them, so she just stood there, as did Gryffindor, Rowle and Dolohov.
"What are you waiting for?" snapped Professor McGongall. "Back to your common rooms."
Alice didn't need any more words. As soon as Gryffindor bolted down the hall, she retrieved her Potions book and followed, thankful that Dolohov and Rowle were headed in the other direction.
"Thanks," said Gryffindor with a smile when Alice finally caught up to him. "That was really brave. I thought he was going to kill me!"
Alice smiled back. "It's no problem. I wasn't sorted into Gryffindor for nothing!" said Alice proudly, though she knew her display of courage didn't accurately reflect how she felt on the inside.
"I'm Frank, by the way. Frank Longbottom," said Gryffindor, holding out his hand for Alice to shake.
"I'm Alice," she told Frank, taking his hand and shaking it.
The two walked down the corridor, mostly in silence. Alice was thankful to have found him, or else she might never have found her way back to Gryffindor tower.
After several minutes, Alice realized that they hadn't climbed any stairs, and she was fairly certain that the Gryffindor common room was up six or so flights of stairs.
"Frank," said Alice, looking around. She didn't recognize where they were, "where exactly are we going?"
"I don't know," said Frank. "I was following you." Alice stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. Frank's face fell. "I was a bit lost when I ran into Dolohov and Rowle. I thought you knew where you were going."
"I was sitting on the window sill because I couldn't remember how to get back to the common room," Alice informed her companion.
"Oh, bugger."
"Well, Frank. It seems as if we've run into a fair bit of trouble then, haven't we?"
Yay! So this is my first Frank/Alice story. I love them a whole lot, so I was excited when I got them for Rani Jashalithie's How I Met You challenge. Which this was for. Haha. Anyway, this is probably the fastest I've ever written anything. It only took me about an hour to crank out. And it's shorter than anything I've ever done. It's only about 1,000 words, which is so short for me! But I had fun with it.
Wow. It's like, two stories in two days! That's got to be a record for me! Granted, the other one was pretty much written already, but whatever.
Anyway, this story is dedicated to chewinggumandpencils, Emullz, lowi, Rani Jashalithie, SlightlyCrazyYetSane and XxNeONxX for reviewing my last one-shot, Antics Of A Drunk Werewolf. You guys rock!