A/N: Chapter 6. Abbie has her detention! But it doesn't go too well... for Malfoy, anyway! Also, some mysterious things start happening at the end of the chapter... involving Courtney. Of course. Always Courtney... Oh, and this Chapter contains some humour. Malfoy gets quite irritated, and Abbie, Albus, James and Fred have a good laugh. Thanks to my sister (Tari Oronra) again for reviewing, you're the best, sis! Oh, and what did I say? I didn't take a week to update! :D Enjoy the chapter!

Chapter six:

The Diversion

Abbie went down to the common room next morning to find three people waiting for her: James Potter, Fred Weasley, and his twin Roxanne Weasley. James was talking to Fred, who was holding a draw-string bag that was moving as though a dozen excited pigmy puffs were inside. Fred started nodding vigorously at James, who grinned evilly. Roxanne was, as usual, reading. Abbie looked from Fred to Roxanne. She had not believed it when she had first met them both and was told they were twins. Fred had flaming red hair and freckles, looking a lot like his dad, George, while Roxanne had dark hair and skin, resembling her mum, Angelina.

As Abbie approached them, Roxanne glanced up and smiled before fixing her eyes back on her book. Fred and James sprinted over to Abbie and Fred proudly held up the bag. Whatever was in the bag was trying hard to get out, for small lumps were appearing suddenly from inside the bag. Abbie stood on tiptoe and peered in the bag. Inside was what appeared to be many, round-headed, trumpet-nosed devices that were clambering on top of each other with their duck-like feet, trying to get out of the bag.

"Decoy Detonators!" Fred exclaimed happily, shoving the bag a bit further towards Abbie's face.

"They're very active," Abbie observed. From what she had heard about them, they stayed as still as rocks until they were chucked at something solid. It was only then that they would jump to life.

"Ah," Fred replied, still grinning. "Well on the way back from Hogsmead I dropped the bag. I lost a few who were smart enough to run away, but the majority of them are here!"

Abbie had also heard that students old enough to go to Hogsmead were only allowed to do so on specific weekends.

"When did you go to Hogsmead, may I ask?" Abbie raised an eyebrow suspiciously. There hadn't been any Hogsmead weekends yet.

"Ah," Fred said again, his grin faltering slightly to a weak smile, but then bouncing back, "Well what does that matter to you? James and I can do what we like, we are your superiors!" James suppressed a yawn, and Abbie suspected that they had gone last night. Fred quickly continued to try and hide James's giveaway. "Er, So! Um… What time are we, ah, starting the diversion?"

Abbie promptly replied, "Well my detention starts at five tonight, but don't set those things off straight after it's begun. It will look too suspicious. Maybe ten or fifteen minutes into it?" Abbie suggested. Fred and James, who were excited to get into the mischief as soon as possible, said in unison, "Ten."

The three of them headed down to breakfast, talking over plans. They entered the Great Hall to find Courtney waving to them from a seat at the Gryffindor table. Abbie hurried over, while Fred and James lingered, murmuring ideas to each other.

"Hi Courtney!" Abbie beamed, sitting next to her.

"Hello Abbie!" Courtney exclaimed, seeming very happy.

"What's up?" Abbie asked, smiling even more broadly when she saw how happy her friend was.

"Your detention with Malfoy. I can't wait to see the look on his face when you set off those Decoy Detonators! He'll be so furious!" Courtney laughed as she reached for the marmalade. Abbie cocked her head to one side, still smiling. Since when had Courtney wanted to break rules? Actually, before Hogwarts Abbie would have asked that of herself… But now Abbie was feeling quite rebellious, and laughed along with Courtney as she thought about what that night would bring. Even if, deep down, Abbie was feeling a tiny bit nervous…

That day's classes seemed to fly past and before she knew it, Abbie's detention had crept up on her. She stood outside Professor Malfoy's classroom ten minutes earlier than when she was due to talk over the plan with James and Fred. It was very clear, and Abbie didn't need to do much. Albus came five minutes later. He was only then told the plan, and seemed really nervous about it.

"We're breaking so many rules…" he muttered as Abbie checked the clock. They had one minute until the office door would open.

"Albus, you'd better hide over there until I'm inside, so you're not seen," Abbie suggested. "You guys should too…?" Abbie looked over to where Fred and James had been. They had mysteriously vanished.

"Okay… They are random…" Abbie stated. Albus ran for cover when the office door creaked noisily open.

"Ah, Miss Longbottom. You are early," was the drawled observation from Professor Malfoy as he appeared in the door way.

"Yes I'm early. Do I earn any house points for that? And I'm glad to see that I'm being called Miss again!" Abbie retorted. Malfoy did not reply, he just opened the door wider to let her in.

Malfoy's office was dimly lit, with only the light of a blazing fire. The window, which was behind the desk, had black curtains which were drawn tightly so no light could come in that way. The walls on either side of the office were covered with shelves. One wall's shelves were filled with jars, most of which had bubbling potions in them. The other wall was covered with Dark Artifacts such as a shrunken scull that had a live baby snake curled up in it, and a shriveled old hand that looked like it was dead. Abbie thought twice about this when she saw it curl into a fist and slowly open up again. She shivered and sat down in the chair opposite Malfoy's desk. Malfoy sat behind it, facing Abbie.

"So. Today in your detention, you will be sorting out some potions and animal organs that I recently obtained into these jars," Malfoy drawled, gesturing towards an assortment of differently sized jars in a box on one side of the room. "All of the parts and potions you will find over there," Malfoy pointed carelessly next to the jars at another box. This box was filled with many disgusting looking lumps of organs and dusty phials with potions in them. "I suggest you don't drink any of the potions for some are poisons. Though I wouldn't have any objections to you poisoning yourself. Of course the head master would sack me if I let you…"

It was then that Abbie began hoping that the diversion would come into action, even though it had only been five minutes ago that she had entered Malfoy's office. She, after all, had no desire to sort through rat kidneys and toad intestines. Abbie sat there, gazing at Malfoy though her eyes were glazed over. She was deep enough in thought about the diversion that she jumped when the teacher opposite her stated, "Begin."

Slowly, Abbie slid off her chair and over to the corner of the room where the boxes were. She carefully picked up one of the dusty phials. It had what looked like thick, black, mud in it. It was bubbling slightly, some of the bubbles as big as Abbie's thumb, others as small as the head of a pin. She took another, cleaner phial from the other box next to the first one. Feeling sick at the potion globbing into the clean phial, Abbie looked away, disgusted. Something in the shadow of the large shelves on the left wall caught her eye. A tiny, penguin like thing the size of her palm was sitting there, marching on the spot. Its feet that looked too large for its body were making a very soft pattering sound. It was black, with a white patch on its tummy and around its bead-like eyes. The most curious thing about it was the trumpet that seemed to be its nose, protruding from the front of its face. Seven more of the tiny creatures had crept up behind the first, and they all started marching on the spot. Abbie smiled. Green smoke began issuing in small amounts out of the Decoy Detonator's trumpets.

"Hurry up Longbottom, I don't have time for this dawdling!" Malfoy smirked as he spoke, and Abbie was sure that if she didn't hurry up she'd have at least twenty points taken from Gryffindor.

"Of course Professor! Anything you like!" Abbie replied sarcastically, bowing slightly to Malfoy. She knew her detention would be ending very soon. She quickly turned her back on him to hide the broad grin that was spreading over her face. She made to take another potion, (she had no intentions of touching the pickled pig's ear that was on the top layer of the box) but didn't have time to pour it into a clean bottle. At that moment, there was a loud HONK! Malfoy looked up, stunned. He had heard that noise before. Long ago, back when he was at school… Surely it couldn't be…

His thoughts were interrupted by another honk… then another, and then another, until the room was filled with honking noises that seemed to be coming from nowhere. Abbie had stood up by this time, and was putting on an act of mild surprise. She looked around the room, which was now being filled with thick green smoke, and said aloud, "Well, I didn't expect this, Professor! Green smoke! And, hark! Is that a penguin I hear? Well, I'd better be on my way! I don't want to be blamed for this awful event!" And with that, she scurried from the office, leaving a stunned Professor Malfoy to deal with the smoke.

By the time she had run half way down the hall, she had tears running down her face from laughter. A second later, Albus was at her side, he too laughing. By the time Fred and James had joined them, they were all in hysterics as Abbie tried to recount exactly what had happened in the office through her laughter.

The four of them walked to the common room together, not bumping into anyone, alive or ghost. Fred and James were very enthusiastic about the Diversion, and suggested that Abbie should get into more detentions so that they could do it again.

They didn't find Courtney in the common room, and decided that she must be in the library, and so waited for her. After a while, James and Fred headed off to the astronomy tower for their lesson. Albus and Abbie decided to go and see if they could find Courtney in the grounds, and talk about the Diversion as they walked. As they entered the grounds, Abbie and Albus found themselves laughing maniacally again. Something about the whole Diversion situation seemed so funny. They wandered around the grounds looking everywhere for Courtney, but they couldn't see her anywhere. After about fifteen minutes, they settled under a beech tree near the Black Lake and continued to talk about the Diversion. They laughed and talked and quite lost track of the time. It was dark when they finally stood up, deciding that Courtney must have gone to the common room by now.

They had almost reached the castle when Albus noticed it: a shaky figure heading to the same destination as Abbie and Albus.

"Abbie! Look. Who's that?" Albus muttered in an undertone to Abbie. They both looked back over to the figure, who was coming closer.

"I dunno, it looks like whoever it is came from Hogsmead. The village is in that direction," Abbie guessed, peering through the darkness.

"Look, they're starting to run! Abbie do you think it saw us?"

Abbie watched the person curiously. As the figure ran through a patch of light, Abbie gasped, "Albus, its Courtney! And look, she's limping slightly!"

Albus's eyes went straight to the form of an old tree. The large branches were flailing madly around, as though it was fighting invisible creatures.

"The Whomping Willow. I bet she got in a fight with it!" Albus exclaimed quietly, pointing to the tree.

"Oh no! We'd better go and help her!" Abbie began jogging towards the shape of her friend, Albus following behind. When they reached the castle, Abbie ran up to Courtney, who was bent double gasping for breath.

"Courtney! Are you ok? What happened?" Abbie exclaimed, sounding worried. Courtney looked up, still panting. Her eyes were red and she looked as though she'd been crying.

"It's… It's ok Abbie. Don't worry, I can… I can handle it…" Courtney panted.

Albus caught up to them, panting slightly but not as much as Courtney. Both he and Abbie looked worried, the happiness and laughter that the Diversion had caused seeping away.

"Was it the tree? The Whomping Willow, I mean?" Albus asked Courtney, his eyes widening with what was probably fear of the tree.

"Yes… Well, no. Sort of. It wasn't the actual tree, just what's in it… never mind, ignore that. You don't need to worry ok? Just promise you won't go in the tree." Courtney straightened up and stopped panting as much. She held out her hand. "Promise me," she repeated.

Blinking confusedly, Abbie shook Courtney's hand and nodded, "I promise." Albus followed suit, promising not to go in the tree, however that was even humanly possible. He decided it might be better to know why they were promising not to go inside a magical tree that would probably kill you if you stepped close enough to look at it.

"Courtney, please tell us why exactly we're promising this. I mean, how could we get into the Whomping Willow even if we wanted to? How is it even possible to go into a tree?" Albus asked, carefully choosing his words. He didn't want to further upset Courtney. Abbie glanced at him nervously. Apparently she didn't think that was an appropriate thing to say at that time. But all the same, Courtney answered.

"I… Don't think I should tell you here. Or, right now. It's just dangerous. Too dangerous. Even for me sometimes… Oh, don't worry as long as you don't go down there. And please don't ask me anymore questions!" Courtney sighed and looked pleadingly at her two best friends. Her eyes began shining with tears, but she fiercely rubbed them away.

They don't need to know! One part of her mind decided firmly.

But they're your friends, Courtney! Your only friends! The other part of her mind reasoned. You know that you'll have to tell them eventually; you can't keep them in the dark forever. There will come a time where you'll have wished you'd told them now and be done with it! Courtney shook her head.

Not yet. She thought. I don't have to tell them just yet.

Courtney smiled at Abbie and Albus. "Come on," she said, "let's head back to the common room. I want to hear all about your diversion, Abbie!" Her voice was light and carefree, but Abbie and Albus could tell that she still wasn't one hundred percent alright.

A/N: Yesss! A long chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! Please review if you have any suggestions. Also I'd love to hear feedback about anything I could improve on. Thanks!

Charlotte of Sandydowns _