Disclaimer: The world of Hogwarts and any recognisable characters, descriptions, scenarios etc, belong to JKR and the concept and some dialogues of the character Wicked Witch belong to the makers of Gossip Girl
Author's Note: I just realised a word is missing from the end of the last chapter it's supposed to read 'and remembered well'. But I have edited it now.
Also I wanted to say thank you, for my first reviews, Annabelle- I had a look at the website you mentioned and the rules were very good I'll be keeping them in mind to improve my writing and rawrTiffy. It was much appreciated.
It had been a week since Wicked Witch's hit on Lily and Marlene and both girls had firmly upheld their silence to the world about their dilemma and to each other about everything else. Though anybody who wanted to be somebody the school desperately searched for facts. Their methods were diabolical and it was a wonder no one had heard a word so far. The lower years stuck to harassing them continually hoping for them to finally break; they'd pester them with questions. Their ways were simple, but proving to be a pain for the two, the students persevered; whether they had to block the entrance to toilets when the girls needed to go to grabbing their bags to haul them down and keep them pinned for as long as they could to try and get what they wanted. Clearly, their idea was attrition. While the older, more experienced students were more creative, some stole polyjuice potion or veritaserum from Slughorn to find a clue, others would accio their mail and read through it to find results. But by the end of the week even the most devout Gryffindor's who prided themselves on loyalty were now beginning to tear apart the girls' dormitory to find answers. For everyone it was a direct and no-nonsense "either you tell us, or we find out"
'I don't understand Wicked Witch's obsession with Evans and McKinnon's fall out, friendships end all the time', said a first year brunette to her sandy haired tutor as Lily Evans walked into the library with her friend Kathryn Everett. Although Lily and Marlene were not talking, there was no strain on anyone else's friendships with the girls in the group.
Remus looked up at the girls who had sat down nearer to his table for that direction was far more secluded than anywhere else was and Lily was still being continually harassed. He felt for the girl, he really did. 'Evans was always under the radar of Wicked Witch, she's very good friends with a Slytherin Severus Snape (the girl looked at him in surprise at 'Slytherin'). I even remember the first blast she made about her; it was only a few weeks into the term. It was quite a shock to the system, Lily was the first first year to get a mention from Wicked Witch. I'll show you how it went.'
'Wait, what do you mean when you say "show me"?' the young girl asked, confusion etched on her face
'Wicked Witch invented a way for us to revisit her comments privately, it's quite simple and ingenious at the same time. All you do is hold up your want at anything, name the person or people the blast was about plus any other detail that can help you narrow it down and flick it'. He answered patiently
'But I don't want Lily to know I'm talking about her, she'll think I'm just like those people that destroyed her dorm' said the girl worriedly, 'She's a prefect and a fifth year, I don't want a fight with her'
'Lily Evans is among the nicest people you'll meet around here.' He said simply and he took out his wand and whispered quietly 'Wicked Witch first ever blast about Lily Evans, Severus Snape, 1971'.
Suddenly silvery smoke erupted slowly from the length of Remus' wand only lasted a few inches into the air a quiet commentary started. 'Spotted: A Gryffindor and a Slytherin sitting under a tree doing the blasphemous deed of t-a-l-k-i-n-g (and in the silvery smoke appeared a picture of Lily and Severus sitting with homework spread out under one of the many trees in the field. It was captioned: We knew water lilies attracted toads, but tiger lilies and snakes?)? Looks like Lonely Boy has it going on with Gryffindor's flower. Wonder what L's boy's name is, but, ugh, who cares.'
'That's not so scandalous' said the girl
'When you're a first year it's pretty incredible to be mentioned on there and a Gryffindor and a Slytherin in such close cahoots with each other, yeah it is pretty scandalous simply because it's pretty much unheard of'. Remus told her
'So this was it, she made friends with Snape and she was suddenly Hogwarts' elite?'
'No, that was just a mention, but it put her on the radar and she was mentioned in passing every other month or so. Near the end of second year was when she really rose to fame. It was when she started dating Sebastian Aldringham, one of Wicked Witch's targets, which immediately put her under constant speculation, you could say. They dated all through our third year and broke it off somewhere near mid fourth year but they've been on and off several times since then. When they started dating Aldringham was a fourth year and he was also the Ravenclaw keeper along with being from a prestigious family.' Remus told
'She was a second year dating a fourth year? Wow.'
'Lily was always very pretty and very clever too. She met Aldringham at Slughorn's parties, you'll hear of them (he added seeing the first years' confused face) and they hit it off' Remus elaborated
'And was Marlene known at all or was it just Lily that was so famous in Wicked Witch's eyes?'
'No Marlene's mother is from a very old pureblood family so she was generally known at Hogwarts and just based on that she was a shoe in for Wicked Witch's attention, but it wasn't till fourth year that Marlene came to fame. She cursed a bunch of sore loser Slytherins after they hexed her older brother after a Quidditch match that Gryffindor won. All of their group has been mentioned at some point, there's obviously Lily and Marlene, then there's Alice Prevett who's been dating Frank Longbottom in the year above since third year, she broke a Slytherin's nose after he insulted her muggle-born friend Mary McDonald. Mary and Dorcas Meadows caused the draught of the living death to explode in Slughorn's classroom and killed all his beloved rare plants during a detention they were serving with him in second or third year, it was pretty funny. And then there's Kathryn who for a dare had to confound Mulciber, one of the so-called 'hardcore' Slytherins in our year last year to dance to this obscene song in the Great Hall. It was hilarious.'
'How early on were you and your friends mention by her? I know she calls you guys her favourites.'
'You see Ella, while Lily was the first first year to be mentioned by Wicked Witch, Sirius was the second. That's the blast she made immediately after the one about Lily. She mentioned how he was irony personified, calling him the 'black sheep of the Black family'. James came right after that, he like Marlene was a shoe in just due to family reputation. But Marlene's family reputation is nothing compared to the Potters. They're one of the oldest, richest, most powerful pureblood families. You saw his house; well it's more of a bloody mansion, in Sirius' start of term picture. His father's in the Wizarding politics, he was the English ambassador to Bulgaria during Grindelwald's time and now he's on the board of governors of Hogwarts, the advisory cabinet to the Minister for Magic and the Wizarding Congress, that's our law making body around here. Believe me, it's not just Wicked Witch's media James is under. His family makes all these massive donations to St. Mungos where his mother was the chairwoman before retired.'
'Can you show me?' she asked eagerly, clearly she was no longer interested in he potions work.
'Sure' Remus smiled and he said the appropriate things to find the blast
It started where Lily's blast ended. 'Wonder what is L's boy's name, but, ugh, who cares. But while we're on the subject of first years breaking tradition here we have it Hogwarts, the black sheep of the Black family. Always an outcast I see (and the smoke changed to show Sirius sat there at the Gryffindor table in the spotlight like Lily and Marlene had at the start of term feast). But Gryffindor has welcomed Slytherin's most unwanted with open arms, at least Golden Boy Potter has with suggestive mess of bed-hair, wink wink girls, but with friends like these, who needs armies (and the smoke changed from Sirius to James kicking an older, perhaps a second or third year Slytherin where it hurt and the boy doubling over in pain)? You know you love me XOXO Wicked Witch'
'They all made it back to back?'
'Pretty much, after that any pranks James, Sirius, Peter and I pulled were broadcasted'. Remus looked at his watch, 'Ella it's getting late and I have to meet my friends before dinner, you haven't got much more to do, just the conclusion so let's work on that okay, you've had enough story time' he smiled.
It took another half or for Ella to perfect her essay and Remus to proof read it a number of times before he was completely satisfied with it. He left with a quick goodbye realising that he had read the time wrong earlier and that he was late for his rendezvous with his friends. Remus had just reached the centre, a junction that was the busiest area of Hogwarts aside from the Great Hall that seemed to have quite an audience, he pushed past to see what the matter was and stopped near the front to see writing on the wall. Bold and italicised written in purple was the rhyme:
'Riddle riddle on the wall, who'll be the first to fall?
Fall from grace that is…You know you love me
XOXO Wicked Witch'
'What could that be about', Remus wondered aloud as he continued his brief journey from the library to the statue of the one-eyed witch where James and Sirius stood waiting for him.
'Where have you been?' James asked as Sirius opened up the secret passageway to Honeydukes
'Library, I was tutoring this first year about potions and I just lost track of time' he answered
'You lost track of time doing potions?' Sirius said incredulously as he clambered down into the passageway
'No I was in there to help her do potions, but she saw Lily Evans and Kathryn Everett come in and asked about Wicked Witch's interest in her friendships and I told her about Wicked Witch's history with Lily and then she asked about us…'
'Oh speaking of the Witch did you see her little message about riddles? Wonder what that's about.' Said James as he turned around to seal the passageway behind his two friends
'We'll find out at dinner, it's not like she waits a while to spill things. Why is Pete not here?' said Sirius
'Detention, remember, he set some kid on fire in the hallway, that was funny.' Chucked Remus and the three friends walked along the passageway to Honeydukes.
Had the boys waited so much as a minute longer they would have seen two Gryffindor girls walking down the hallway deep in discussion
'I was hoping they would have sorted whatever it was out by now' said Alice
'They've never gone thins long without speaking to each other' Dorcas said, 'civilly, I mean', she added at Alice's look. In truth Marlene had been somewhat of a bully towards Lily lately and never failed to insult her.
'I'm guessing there's a guy involved' Alice said
'But they've never let any guy come between them before, remember when Lily went on a couple of dates with Jake Lawrence and then found out that Marlene liked him she broke it off'.
'Fact is that they still care about each other. No matter how mad Marlene is at Lily for whatever it is that she's done she'd die before letting anything happen to her best friend'.
'What are you suggesting?' Dorcas looked at Alice seeing an idea in her eyes
'I think we need help from Potter and Black' she said simply and Dorcas stopped in her tracks
'No, Alice, we're not that desperate, they can't be trusted, remember that time they charmed Mary's broom to fly to the whoomping willow in first year'
'Dorcas they were aiming for Snape' Alice explained
'And he's a friend of Lily's, and it's still wrong'
'Dorcas when it comes to Snape and friend of Lily's is not a friend of ours, especially when his friends attacked Mary last year, the only muggle-born in the world he's willing to defend is Lily, and I appreciate that but I don't like the fact that it ends there.'
'I know what you mean, but it's not only the prejudiced they attack, remember that Hufflepuff Kathryn dated?'
'Yes, and as I recall he cheated on her so they humiliated him'
'As I remember Wicked Witch then used it as something to imply that Kathryn was inadequate, if they'd just told her then she could have dealt with it privately, but no they had to announce it to the world, and Kathryn's a private person'
'Dorcas their methods are wrong but the intention is generally pure' said Alice, keen to convince her friend, 'with the occasional spot here and there' she added seeing Dorcas' look when she had said pure.
'Well if you're intent upon using them, remember the prank they played on the Slytherin boys last year where they were locked in a broom closet till they made out with each other-'
'The one at the end of year feast that Wicked Witch broadcasted live-'
'Yeah, we could use that, but not quite the same, just till they've reconciled-'
'And not have it broadcasted and then we can send Wicked Witch the message that they're back and she can lift her little gossip curse'
'But we need the others for it, I know that Lily and Marley want to keep the fight between just them but it's affecting us all'
'I know, we'll get them before dinner and then we'll need to find the guys but that will probably have to be in a place where neither Lily nor Marlene can see us' Dorcas finished and the girls stalked off to find their other two friends that had to be included to make this plan work.
Thank you for reading.
I apologise for this chapter being predominantly dialogue and about the past but I think it's important to set in perspective why the students are the way the are in relation to each other.
Review please, you know you want to! ;)
