"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious."

― Sun Tzu, The Art of War


Charms passed quickly, it was a relatively peaceful lesson spent taking notes from Flitwick's lecture. No frustrating practical and no opportunities to gossip. For this reason Rose and Alice packed up a few minutes before the bell as subtly as possible, they poised themselves ready to catch Alesha - who was sat a few seats over from the door - before they lost her in the labyrinth of stone corridors that made up the castle. They also really wanted to avoid Helen.

At the sound of the bell, the girls sprung into action. Alice leapt over Pippa's chair, leaving their fellow dorm mate bewildered as they navigated through the mass of students eager to leave.

"Alesha" called Rose, waving frantically at the dark haired Ravenclaw.

"Hi" she smiled warmly at the Gryffindors," I really do apologise for Helen." She lowered her voice before continuing, "her Father died at the start of the summer, I'm sure you've heard, but she's been behaving oddly since, understandably. But that stunt with the Daily Prophet and the posters...well, I can't justify it. I'm so sorry."

"Thank you" Rose smiled softly, "It's not your fault. We were just wondering if you knew why she's targeting me, or if you could take a guess at how to remove the posters. Nobody's has any success yet. I would owl my Mother but she'd go to McGonagall and worry about bullying, etc. Any chance you can find out what the hell that sticking charm is."

Alesha bit her lip, "I don't know why she's doing this. But I do know what the charm is."

"Excellent" Alice said.

She shook her head, "Not excellent. It's one of mine. I've been working on perfecting a charm, to stick these 3D stars and solar system to my ceiling and for some stuff for my little sisters room at home. I can stick the tips of the invisible thread to the paint just fine. But because the charm is specifically for very small items like the thread, I haven't worked out how to remove them yet..."

"Oh."

"Yeah" she grimaced, "Helen knew about it and used my charm instead of a regular sticking charm, because of that difficulty. We argued about it at lunch actually."

"I hope things are okay between you soon" Rose tried to offer some consolation. She got on well with Alesha and felt uncomfortable seeing Alesha feel guilty about her charm being abused. As much as she disliked the Skeeter's, she didn't want to contribute to Alesha's failing friendship.

"Thanks, but this isn't the only thing she's done in the last few weeks. I'm don't know what's going on with her anymore," she shook her head, "but I digress. You don't want to hear about all of that. Violet's been helping me with the charm. Hopefully we'll solve it soon. You'll be the first ones to know when we do."

"That's a relief" Alice replied, " you and Violet are both smart enough to get figure it out."

"Yeah" Rose agreed "thank you so much."

"It's the least I can do" Alesha grinned, "I have to go. I promised I would meet Violet in the library actually."

The pair watched the Ravenclaw rush off, and they started the journey down the corridor themselves. Ignoring the posters which still adorned the walls.

"Violet's in the same house as Malfoy isn't she?" asked Alice.

Rose turned to her, "yeah. She's only a year above us."

Alice laughed bemusedly.

"Oh Merlin" Rose laughed catching on, "how did he not know who Alesha was if they're dating!"

"Does he not interact with anyone outside of fifth year?"

"Evidently not. Or else he wouldn't be so clueless."

"Maybe we should ask him to flirt with her. He can find out for himself who why he doesn't tempt her."

Rose smirked, "I thought I was supposed to be the devious one."

"Didn't you know?" Alice chuckled, "It's always the quiet ones you have to look out for."

The girls continued their banter up to the common room. They had a free for their last lesson and decided to get some homework done by the fire before dinner.

Time passed quickly and after dinner they resumed their studies, accompanied by a few more fifth years. More and more work was piling up as the Professors prepared them for OWLs.

The groups concentration was broken by Pippa who came bounding into the common room yelling, "SHE SAID YES!, SHE SAID YES!, WE'RE HAVING A CHRISTMAS BALL!"

All work was dropped immediately as the students swarmed around the prefect, clamouring for details. Pippa held up a handwritten notice.

CHRISTMAS BALL

14th December

6:30pm - 12:00am

Dress code: Dress robes

Only 4th-7th years may attend.

[SPEAK TO YOUR HOUSE PREFECTS TO SIGN UP TO THE COMITTEE,

IF YOU WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN THE ORGANISATION OF THE EVENT.]

Disappointed sighs of the younger house members were drowned out by the squeals and cheers of older witches and wizards.

"THAT'S JUST LESS THAN A MONTH AWAY!" cried Alice, "I'll owl Mum immediately for a catalogue from Diagon Alley. She can get dress robes sent to Dad or to Hogsmeade for a fitting. Everyone will go to the village, we need to be original."

"Alice", Rose placed her hands upon the shorter girls shoulders, "as much as I agree. Calm down. We'll find gorgeous, one of a kind dress robes. You'll look stunning and Kyle Boot will be speechless."

She took a deep breath, "yes, yes, your right. I just want this to be perfect, it's our first ball and probably our only! Anyway, who will you be going with Rosie?"

"Most likely Al" she shrugged.

"Unacceptable! We'll find you the perfect date. We have a few weeks."

"Thanks" Rose laughed, "good luck with that, the majority of the students think I'm spoken for."

"It'll blow over" she insisted. "How are the odds of James and Cara going together?"

Rose glanced around the room, her eyes sought out the troublemaking trio who were situated on the bottom steps of the boys dormitory. Cara was telling a story, her hands flying around as she gesticulated. Both boys were fully engaged and howling with laughter, however on closer inspection one could see the clear differences in their attention. Fred merely laughed and rolled his eyes or commented when appropriate. James had his eyes fixed upon her every movement, even through his raucous laughter and unlike his cousin he did not seem to be interrupting at all.

She turned her attention back to Alice and grinned, "from what I can see, I need to write to Uncle George so he can increase the favourable odds."


"the worst thing," he told me,
"is bitterness, people end up so
bitter."

- Charles Bukowski, You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense


Helen Skeeter was curled up between the friendlier plants in greenhouse two. She shivered as the cold Novemner breeze bit at her skin. She couldn't risk hiding in her usual spot behind the statue. If Scorpius Malfoy found her there, well, it wouldn't go down well. But he had deserved it, the ignorant git and so did Weasley. It was a shame that she couldn't go after the other entitled princes and princesses of the castle. Swanning around, the children of war heroes. Even the children of reformed death eaters. Who was deluded enough to believe in that word, reformed.

There were things that the history books ignored, gossip that was sugar coated. People payed off or threated or ignored when they exposed the truth. Like her aunt. It wasn't fair and it wasn't right. If their parents were untouchable than she would get to them through her class mates, their children. They all deserved what she was giving them. Danny and Mara understood, she knew that Karen wasn't convinced. Alesha, could screw herself. She didn't need friends who thought she was insane. She was right, her aunt had shown her the truth over the summer and together they could get the rest of the world to see it too.

Helen hauled herself to her feet, smoothed down her hair and used the glass panes of the greenhouse to perfect her appearance. She wiped her tear streaked cheeks and cleared the mascara stains from her pale skin. Glancing down once more at her Aunt Rita's latest parcel, she hugged the contents to her chest before slipping it into her school bag. She had work to do.