Chapter 6: Dr Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No Heat Fireworks
The next morning Alicia was shaken awake by Angelina. "What?" she grumbled blearily.
"It's eight o'clock," Angelina smirked, regarding Alicia's sleepy eyes and tousled hair sceptically.
"You're not going to go out like that, are you?" she asked, scandalised, a few minutes later when Alicia was dressed in her blouse with scruffy rolled up sleeves and undone tie, with her hair still a ruffled mess and heading for the door.
"At least let me do your hair."
Alicia sighed resignedly and sat down again. Five minutes later they left the dormitory last, with Alicia's pretty brown curls pinned up neatly.
Breakfast that morning was a quiet affair as Alicia was half asleep and not paying much attention to what she was eating. Angelina tried in vain to engage her in conversation about the details of the previous evening's excitement. Fred and George made numerous attempts to catch Alicia's eye but either from her sleepiness or her annoyance toward them, she ignored them completely.
"Come on, Ali. Talk to them," Angelina reasoned. "It's not really their fault that you got detention, is it?" she said fairly.
Alicia frowned and thought about it. "Oh alright. But they're going to have to make it up to me. I told them to be careful and I had to go after them when I overheard Snape. I couldn't just leave it, could I?"
Angelina smiled at Alicia's earnest face. What a loyal friend Alicia was. She herself probably would have just left the idiots to jolly well get caught.
"There you go," she said, "I knew you couldn't stay mad at them for long."
At that moment, a mousy haired boy in Slytherin robes approached their table. "A note from Professor Snape," he announced and handed the parchment to Alicia. She smiled and thanked him.
She opened the note, scanned it and groaned. "What?" asked Angelina.
"My first detention with Snape is tonight and I'm going to be sorting rotten Flobberworms."
She sighed. This was going to be a long day.
Fred and George caught up to Alicia just before Potions. "Hey, Ali! Angelina told us that you're going to forgive us," one of them beamed. "Knew you couldn't resist the Weasley charm." He smirked.
So it was Fred then. She punched him lightly on the arm and grinned. "Yes, I will but you'd better be on your best behaviour over the next few days or I might change my mind. Come on," she smiled and they followed her into Potions.
As soon as she entered, Alicia saw Snape give her a nasty glare. She quailed. Great, so it was going to be that kind of lesson. She sat down at the back of the dungeon with Fred, George and Angelina and kept her head down, not that she thought it would really help.
And she was right. It didn't. "Purple, Miss Spinnet? Can you tell me exactly why your potion is purple? Did I not tell you specifically that Boil Cure Potion is supposed to be red?" Snape sneered.
"You have clearly not followed my instructions carefully enough. I expressly said to add the crushed snake fangs before the Porcupine Quills. This is not acceptable."
"But sir," Angelina piped up, "Morrison's is much darker than Alicia's." She pointed over to where a large nasty-looking Slytherin boy stirred a distinctly tar like potion.
"Be quiet, Miss Johnson, unless you wish to join Miss Spinnet and the Weasleys in detention," Snape snapped.
Angelina shut her mouth quickly.
"Start again," Snape ordered.
"But sir, there isn't time," Alicia protested.
"Ah, a shame." As he swept away, she saw him scribble something in his book that looked suspiciously like a zero. Perfect. What a wonderful day this was turning out to be.
And the perfect day continued next lesson in Charms when Warrington and his senseless Slytherin cronies "accidently" set her eyebrows on fire, claiming they thought they were the slugs they were supposed to be levitating. What an idiot.
Alicia groaned as she traipsed over to the hospital wing to have them fixed.
She was almost relieved to get to lunch without a serious accident. She complained to Angelina as she gulped down her shepherd's pie in huge mouthfuls.
"Slow down, Alicia," Angelina warned, "Don't worry, the food's not going to disappear the second you stop!" Angelina looked half amused, half disgusted.
Alicia swallowed a particularly large mouthful and grimaced. "Sorry, your highness, I just need something to take my mind off things."
"Yes well, I don't think eating like a pig is the way to go. It's very unladylike; what will everybody think?" Angelina reprimanded her.
"Oh, I really doubt they'll care," Alicia shrugged. "I'm not the most interesting person around here." And she continued to shovel food into her mouth at an alarming rate.
Angelina gave up, sighing and muttering to herself.
"Charlie!" A tall, good looking red headed boy dropped into the seat beside him and started piling food onto his plate.
"Hey Bill," Charlie grinned at his brother.
"I heard you got a detention, saving the twins' scrawny butts," Bill said, trying to hide his smile.
"Well…" Charlie said slowly. "I have a feeling that it was kind of my fault."
Bill turned to look at him, surprised. Charlie looked guilty.
"How?" Bill asked.
"Well, I think someone may have overheard me telling Sam about…" he broke off as he suddenly realised that Bill didn't know about the map.
Charlie glanced at Bill who was looking at him curiously. "Oh, well I think someone may have overheard me talking about Fred and George's Hogsmeade party plans," Charlie covered up hastily.
"Yes, well you probably should have told me when you knew about their plans." Bill looked stern. "After all, I am a prefect."
"Oh shush," Charlie grinned, shoving his brother. "You're not really. You wouldn't stoop to Percy standards of actually obeying rules."
Bill smirked at this and gave a chuckle. "Still, even if it was your fault, it was good of you to try to warn them."
"Some friend of theirs apparently also knew about Snape and she tried to warn them too but she also got caught. I don't know why she didn't just leave them to their well-deserved fate."
"Ah, Fred and George are lucky to have such a loyal friend. Now off you go; Abbott told me to find you. You've got Quidditch practice now, you idiot!" Bill gave his head a swipe and sent him off to the dormitory to get changed.
Ten minutes later, dressed in his scarlet Quidditch robes and clutching his broomstick, Charlie headed out onto the pitch.
"Hurry up Weasley! You're late," the captain, Abbott called from where the rest of the team were gathered by the hoops at one end of the stadium.
Charlie jogged over to where they were standing.
"So, today we're going to be practising the Hawkshead Attacking Formation. Dancy, Wilkinson, you two will fly in this part of the triangle while I…"
Charlie wasn't really paying attention to what Abbott was saying as he gesticulated and demonstrated what he wanted his chasers to do.
Charlie's mind drifted elsewhere. He wondered how on earth he was going to get all his homework done. He thought about the enormous pile of work waiting for him in the common room. He considered skipping dinner to get it done. And then he remembered with a jolt that he had his first detention with Snape tonight. When am I going to do my homework? he thought in panic.
"Weasley!" A sharp tone broke into his thoughts. "Weasley, are you paying attention? This applies to you too. You have to know what each player on your team is doing when. You don't want to get in the way." The captain was looking at him crossly.
"Yes, yes sorry. Just got a bit distracted." He flashed him an apologetic look.
"Alright," Abbott said brusquely. "Let's put this into practice. Wood, up to the hoops. Montague, Bridge, go get your bats." They hurried off. "And Weasley-" Charlie turned. "-try and pay attention when you're flying at least. We don't need any more injuries."
Charlie obeyed and soared up into the sky.
At seven that evening, Fred, George, Charlie and Alicia arrived promptly at Snape's office for their detentions.
"What a pleasure to see you four." Snape gave a nasty smirk. "I trust you received my note and you will know what lovely jobs await you." He smirked again.
Charlie saw out the corner of his eye Alicia glowering at Snape. He couldn't help but chuckle quietly to himself.
"Isn't it a shame you didn't get away with your little plan?" Snape continued, his sallow face leering at them, clearly enjoying this. "Too bad your own flesh and blood ratted you out."
All four of them immediately frowned. Snape watched them with a smirk, enjoying the reaction he had created.
"Now, Spinnet, Weasley," Snape said briskly, motioning to Alicia and Charlie, "Get to work on these barrels," he ordered. "You two, off to the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey will be there and she will tell me if you try to use magic." He looked menacingly at the twins.
"I will be attending to duties on the fourth floor. You'd better have all these ingredients sorted when I come back in two hours' time," he said to Alicia and Charlie. And he swept out, his cloak swishing behind him.
Alicia groaned and moved forward to peer into the barrels.
"You're lucky, you are," George moaned. "We've got to clean out the hospital bedpans…without magic."
"I'd take that over this any day," Alicia said, looking with disgust at the enormous barrels of Flobberworms. "I'm pretty sure most of those are rotten. And we're not allowed to wear gloves."
"What about you, Charlie?" Fred asked, turning to his brother. "Which would you rather?"
"I'm not too bothered, to be honest. I've done both, they're both equally disgusting," he grinned, seeing the looks on the first years' faces. "It's not so bad, detention virgins, you'll get used to it. You two will especially," he said, looking at the twins in mock disapproval. "You've got years of rule breaking to come."
The twins grinned.
"What was Snape talking about before? Your own flesh and blood?" Alicia asked, still frowning.
The twins shrugged. "It's Snape, isn't it? Just try to wind us up I expect," said George.
"No, I don't think he can have been making it up…that's not his style," said Charlie thoughtfully. "Which means it must be true." Realisation dawned on his face. "And I think I know exactly who did it."
The twins nodded grimly.
"We'll get him later," Fred said, scowling in displeasure. "Come on, George, let's go."
And they left. Charlie sat down beside one of the barrels, dug his hand in and began sorting the slimy worms. Alicia just stood still behind him and when he turned to ask her what was wrong, he noticed her face was rather pale and tinged with green.
"Are you alright?" he asked, concerned. "Do you need to sit down?"
She didn't answer, just shook her head, looking rather faint. Charlie still looked at her, with worry in his eyes.
"Never seen a dead Flobberworm before? I can tell you, they're not much better alive either," he joked but it didn't seem to make her feel better.
He got up and pulled her over to a chair, away from the barrels. He sat her down and fetched a goblet from the cupboard nearby. "Aguamenti," he muttered, conjuring some water in the bottom of the goblet.
"Here," he said, handing it to her. "Drink."
She took it and drank gratefully. A little of the colour returned to her face and she smiled weakly.
"I don't feel too good. But I don't think it's anything to do with those Flobberworms."
Meanwhile, Fred and George scrubbed away at the bedpans in the Hospital Wing. "I cannot believe we have to do this," grumbled Fred. "It's practically slave labour."
"Hmm," said George, putting down his cloth. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" George asked, with a mischievous smile.
Fred stared at him for a moment, then a slow grin spread across his face. "No!" Fred pretended to look scandalised. "You wouldn't. Not when we're already in detention. Snape would blow a vein." His grin widened. "Perfect."
"Dr Filibuster, here we come!" George whooped.
An hour later, while most of the school were happily finishing dinner in the Great Hall, there was suddenly a low bang and the castle gave a small shudder.
"Did you feel that?" Robbie whispered to Sam as they sat eating dinner in the packed and noisy Great Hall.
"Yeah, what was it?"
Suddenly, the doors of the Great Hall opened with an almighty bang. Snape strode in, with a murderous look on his sallow face and hurried up to the teachers' table. Speaking furiously to McGonagall, he stormed from the room, McGonagall following a moment later.
A sudden whispering and hissing broke out around the hall. All at once, nearly everybody rose from their seats and rushed out to see the commotion for themselves.
Sam frowned and looked at Robbie. "Come on; let's find out what's going on." And they hurried out after the rest of the school. The other teachers exchanged curious glances but remained in the hall.
They followed the crowd and as they reached the top of the stairs, there was the distinct sound of "pop"s and "bang"s. Upon reaching the third floor corridor, an extraordinary sight met their eyes.
Enormous blue and red sparks flew through the air and each spark exploded into at least twenty more golden stars. Almost the entire school was gathered and were watching, whooping and laughing in awe. Snape stood at the doors of the Hospital Wing, apoplectic with rage. If looks could kill, everyone in the school would have died on the spot. Robbie and Sam pushed forward to where Charlie and Alicia were standing, looking extremely confused but amused at the same time.
"What's going on?" Sam asked, as soon as he reached them.
"I have absolutely no idea," Charlie replied, chuckling with glee, "But it's awesome." Then something dawned on him. "Hang on a second; I think I can guess who's behind this."
"Fred and George," four voices said in unison. And promptly burst out laughing. Even Alicia, who was still feeling unwell and should, by rights, have been disapproving. But she just couldn't help it.
And glancing over at Snape, whose eyes were bulging dangerously and whose face was twisted with anger, made it even more hilarious.
Alicia caught sight of McGonagall and found her reaction extremely surprising. McGonagall's lips appeared to be twitching as if she were trying to hold back laughter.
Then she gained control over herself.
"Come, come everyone, off you go," she said briskly. "Prefects!"
The crowd began to disperse as the students started to leave, still laughing and whispering about the spectacle they had just witnessed.
"Where are Fred and George?" Alicia whispered to Charlie. He glanced around.
"No idea."
They were nowhere to be seen.
"Miss Spinnet, Mr Weasley; over here, please," McGonagall called. Charlie and Alicia looked at each other in surprise.
"What does she want with us?" Charlie wondered aloud.
"She can't possibly…think we did it," Alicia said. "No, this is way too obviously 'Fred and George style'!"
"Now Mr Weasley, I believe you and Miss Spinnet were serving detention when this…incident occurred." McGonagall looked at them pointedly.
"Oh no, it wasn't us, Professor. I swear, we were just-" Alicia began hurriedly.
"No, no of course not," McGonagall interrupted. "I wasn't suggesting…I was just wondering if you had seen perhaps who had…you know, caused this commotion."
"Well…no, Professor," Charlie said, after a brief pause. Alicia looked at him. "We were working in the dungeons; we only came up here when we heard the noise." He flashed her a demure smile as if to prove his innocence.
McGonagall couldn't help but smile back. "Of course, of course. I understand. Well, thank you. You may go."
"Oh and Mr Weasley? Perhaps you two had better just go back to your dormitories for now. I get the feeling Professor Snape isn't quite in the mood for dealing with you right now." Again she looked surprisingly like she was desperately trying not to laugh.
"Thank you Professor," Charlie said, taking Alicia's elbow and steering her quickly away as Professor Snape and Madam Pomfrey came storming over.
"Come on, quick. Let's get out of here."
They hurried along the corridor and up the staircase at the end, in fits of laughter, barely noticing that the staircase they were walking up was moving. When they had stopped laughing and realised this fact, they looked at each other in dismay.
"I hate it when this happens," Charlie grumbled, running a hand through his hair. He turned to see Alicia looking expectantly at him.
"Wha- don't look at me," he said hurriedly. "I have no more idea of where we are than you do."
"Great. Just wonderful," Alicia complained. "I bet Filch or that dratted cat of his will find us up here after curfew and add to the list of detentions already piling up. What a wonderful rule-abiding first year I am," Alicia muttered to herself.
She glanced at Charlie who, she couldn't help noticing with a surge of irritation, was looking rather amused at her little tirade.
"Well, don't just stand there grinning. Where are we? It's nearly curfew." She looked up and down the dark corridor they were now standing in, wondering how on earth they were going to find their way back to the Common Room in under three minutes, in the dark.
"Correction, it's nearly your curfew," Charlie grinned.
She ignored him and started off down the dark corridor.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Charlie called, squinting into the darkness.
"Back to the Common Room," her voice floated back.
"But you have no idea where we are!" he reminded her, running after her.
"Well, I only have three minutes to get back, so standing around here's not going to help much."
"Don't you think it would be better just to go back the way we came?"
"Well, you could try but can you actually see your way back? And I'm pretty sure the staircase will have moved again by now."
She was right. Plus, they were halfway down the corridor anyway. He hurried to catch up with her.
He pulled his wand out of his back pocket. "Lumos," he muttered. His wand tip ignited with a bright glow.
"Show off," Alicia grumbled under her breath. He smirked.
He strode forward and led the way. Shortly, they came to a door which, when tried, appeared to be locked.
"One sec," said Alicia. "I want to try this one." She extricated her wand from her robes and pointed it at the lock.
"Alohomora," she said firmly. The lock clicked and the door swung open.
"Impressive," Charlie said, with a smirk.
"Thank you," she said and walked briskly through the door.
Passing through the door, they came into another passageway and halfway along it, stood a familiar looking statue.
"Isn't that-" Alicia ran up to the statue to examine it closer.
"The one eyed witch. The passage to Hogsmeade," Charlie said, coming up behind her.
"I believe it's Gunhilda of Gorsemoor, to be precise," Alicia corrected.
Charlie smiled to himself. "Is there anything you don't know?" he chuckled.
"Not a lot," she replied. "Come on, I know where we are now."
She rushed off and Charlie followed her. They hurried up the nearby staircases until they reached the portrait hole.
"Fortuna major," Alicia said to the Fat Lady, out of breath.
"Cutting it a bit fine, aren't you, dear?" the Fat Lady said, as the portrait swung forward to allow them in.
"That was close," Charlie said. "For you, of course," he added.
"Right, I fancy a bit of homework to relax me after that."
Charlie looked at her incredulously.
She grinned. "I was kidding." And she went to fetch her books from her dormitory and returned with the most enormous armful of parchment and books. Dumping them on an available table beside Angelina, she sat down and pulled out her quill and parchment.
Charlie followed her lead and fetched his homework hastily. He looked at his pile of assignments in dismay as he sat down beside his friends Shaun, Tom and Sam with a heavy sigh.
"Anyone seen Fred or George?" he asked them.
"No, mate," Tom replied. "'Fraid not."
"Or Percy?" Charlie growled.
"Yeah, he's over there," Sam said, jerking his thumb across the common room to where Percy was studying a book very closely, his nose almost touching the page.
Charlie got up, a grim expression on his face and strode over to his younger brother.
"You told on them?" he said, looking down at Percy with a disgusted expression.
Percy looked up from his book reluctantly and eyed Charlie with displeasure. He didn't even bother to look guilty.
"So what? They needed to be taught a lesson," he said, looking disinterested and turning back to his book.
"But Snape? Come on, Perce, really? We hate Snape," Charlie spat.
"I hoped that if they were caught early on in their rule-breaking by the likes of Professor Snape, perhaps it might knock some sense into their thick skulls. I will not be associated with those two knuckleheads! I won't! I have a reputation to uphold."
"What? A reputation of being a complete prat?" Charlie said. "You can't have thought that would actually work. It's Fred and George. They've been breaking the rules practically since they were born. They're not about to stop now just because of one little detention."
"It's your fault you know," said Percy angrily, knocking his glasses slightly askew as he got up. "You're the one who started them off on it! You're a bad example, with your constant…. disregard for the rules! You made them think that it's cool to be like that."
"Get over yourself, Percy. I may not be perfect, but at least I have a life," Charlie retorted, turning away and storming back over to his friends.
"I can't believe I'm related to that…git!"
"We don't believe it either, mate," Shaun said, chuckling at Percy who was now shouting at a group of first years, his chest thrust out pompously, looking extremely self-important.
Charlie flung himself angrily into his chair and pulled his homework towards him, muttering furiously.
By ten o'clock he'd managed to hurriedly scratch out six inches on Shrinking Solutions and filled out half his constellations chart for Astronomy. Quickly moving onto his Care of Magical Creatures essay on Crups, he sighed and rubbed his ink stained fingers. By eleven thirty, he'd finished all his essays and was contemplating starting his complicated Arithmancy homework, when Sam and Robbie (who had come into the Common Room earlier) came down from the dormitory in a sweater and pyjama bottoms and urged him to go to bed.
The Common Room was still not completely empty. In fact Alicia was still there, writing away feverishly accompanied by her friends Bella and Hannah. Angelina was curled up in an armchair by the fire with a book slowly slipping from her fingers as she slept.
A group of whispering fourth years were still gathered around someone's toad and were taking it in turns to practice enlarging it.
Everyone else had gone up to bed. Sensibly.
Fred and George, he assumed, had snuck in when he was engrossed in his essays. Glancing around again five minutes later, he saw that the whispering fourth years had dispersed and were now heading upstairs whilst Bella Davies and Hannah Kingsley disappeared up the stone steps to the girls' dormitories.
He looked over to see Alicia bend over Angelina and take the book from her fingers. She shook Angelina awake and took her upstairs.
So he was on his own then. He began his Arithmancy with a sigh. He was surprised when Alicia appeared again and sat back down and continued writing. He frowned. She looked exhausted and he wondered whether she was still feeling ill.
As she wrote, her tired eyes began to close.
He got up and walked over to where she was sitting. He gently took the quill from her shaking fingers and closed her Transfiguration book.
"You should go to bed," he said softly. "You're exhausted."
"No, no I'm really fine," she protested, her pale face looking weary and anxious.
"No, you're not," he insisted. "Please, you're not well. You need to sleep."
"I suppose you're right," she said, rubbing her tired eyes and getting up from her chair. "I am tired and I've got the most awful headache." She gathered up her books and made for the girls' dormitory, still surprised by Charlie's sympathy.
"Goodnight," she murmured, confused.
"Goodnight," he replied and went back to his Arithmancy homework. What a long day it had been.