Dating Dungbombs
Review Answers:
*1.Your clue DOES say 'DANCE', doesn't it? If I am right, you should be ashamed of yourself for giving out such bad clues. - from Courtney Hall
Answer: Refer to the review answer of question 8.
*2.I can't wait to read the next chapter! - from harry's4me+notu
Answer: I should hope that you do - it took ages to write in before and after my holiday.
*3.I still reckon Draco and Lara are like the worst thing that ever happened - from Lut Lut (Louise)
Answer: Too bad! =)
*4.Have you guessed me yet? - from ????????????????
Anwer: I've drawn to the conclusion that it's either a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw or someone that's about to become a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw. So that pretty much covers everyone that I know.
*5.Who are you? Please tell me - I won't tell anyone else! - from ????????????????
Answer: Here are a few things you should remember before you post another review like that:
1) I'm not telling anybody who I am.
2) I'm not about to tell a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw or somebody who's about to become a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw who I am.
*6.Why haven't you updated yet? It's really interesting! - from Elen Of The Ways
Answer: I've been taking a holiday lately, so I wasn't really keen on spending it typing stuff on the computer. And thank you for the comment. I try. :)
*7.Are you from 7C by chance? - from wonderin
Answer: Actually ... You were close. We're from the 2003 7B. Now we're in ... Well I'm not sure ...
*8.Congratulations on your 101st review! By the way, what was the clue supposed to say? - from Courntey Hall
Answer: Thanks for the congratulations! And the clue ... It's supposed to say whatever you want it to say. *wink*
*9.Who the heck is Hello and Get Real? We're 8 besties at school. Splitting us up would be like ripping up the Australian Flag. It stays together! - from Rachel Gilding.
Answer: Interesting comparison, Rachel ...
And a note to Hello and Get Real: That was actually some good constructive criticism. I'll try and do something about it ...
*10.Thank you for not letting Harry stay with Ashlee! - from Stephanie
Answer: You're welcome :)
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Summary of the chapter: Argue, cube, Irish, Plooney, moment, shower, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures and Quidditch try outs.
A/N: It's finally Chapter 11! Sorry for not posting for so long - I was having a holiday. I hope the wait didn't make you delirious. :) Anyway, in this chapter, we have Harry's PoV ... Finally, something from a boy's PoV. Let me tell you - it was a bit hard, without making him sound like he was 'fruity'.
BTW, I will answer this question now so it doesn't pop up later: Why don't Ron and Hermione get their PoV's?
Well, here's the answer: I've looked over everything in the story and have noticed (yes, you'd think that maybe I would know my own story well enough ...) that Ron and Hermione don't really pay big parts. Ron hardly ever pops up and Hermione only comes occasionally to be a know-it-all and a prefect, come to think of it. So, they won't get their PoV's. That's my reason, and I'm sticking to it.
Also, the members of the Quidditch team will not be revealed in this chapter - I'll post it next chapter :)
And here's a bit that you should remember before reading the story: the girls decided to take off the charm that made boys unable to get to the girls dormitories and bathrooms, mainly because then the messenger boys wouldn't get multiple injuries that way.
Oh and before I forget ... it seemed like either a hacker or fanfiction.net has deleted the very first chapter. Which happens to be the prologue and introduction. Whoever has a copy will get an imaginary slice of chocolate cake with a glazed cherry and whipped cream!
Enjoy!
Until Chapter 12 ...
~~Blue - Author of Dating Dungbombs and Believer in Awkward Love Triangles ... Who's Back From Holidays!
P.S. I've included the English translation of the Hogwarts school motto ("Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus") in the chapter somewhere. An imaginary choc chip cookie with lashings of whipped cream will be given to the person who emails me first telling me where it is. =)
P.P.S. Hi everyone. =)
Chapter 11 - Harry's PoV: Rotting Vegetables and Rolling Heads
The sun rose up into the sky, pouring sunlight into the window. It seeped through the curtains surrounding my bed, waking me up. I opened my eyes - everything was blurry. I didn't have my glasses on. I sat up and felt around until I found my glasses and put them on. Everything immediately came into view. I got up, stretched and walked absent-mindedly to the window.
The water of the Great Lake lapped gently back and forth. The Giant Squid was there as usual - it's bandages had gone and it looked like it had fully recovered from it's sudden departure. Other people were on the lawns of Hogwarts. I looked around.
"Got a problem there, Potter?" a sudden voice asked from down below. I looked down. Draco Malfoy, with his evil smirk, looked up at me, with his pale and pointy face.
"No, actually. Just move along ..." I said. Malfoy glared at me and walked off with his cronies.
I went to the bathroom and took a shower then changed into my robes.
"Morning, Harry." Courtney said, stepping out of her dormitory.
"Hi, Courtney." I smiled. "Care to join me for breakfast?"
"Yeah, OK."
"STOP!" another voice suddenly said. Oh no.
Rachel stood in front of us, puffing out her chest.
"What, Rachel?" I asked, rolling my eyes.
"Where exactly do you think you're going?" she asked, frowning.
"Breakfast." Courtney replied.
"AND YOU DIDN'T ASK ME?!" Rachel asked, suddenly looking traumatised. Me and Courtney exchanged glances.
"Um ..." I said.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU NEGLECTED ME!" Rachel said sadly, trying to draw on the fake tears without much success. "After all, I AM important!"
"Really now?" Linda suddenly asked, rolling her eyes and walking down the stairs.
Courtney and I started snickering. Rachel's lip started curling. Lara came down.
"Look, it's curling!" she smirked, and walked off.
Everyone looked at me expectantly.
"What?" I asked.
"Um, we were just thinking that you were going to ... You know ..." Courtney piped up.
"What?" I asked.
"Follow Lara, looking like you had hearts in your eyes." Linda supplied.
"Oh." I thought about it.
After that horrible experience of the love potion and Ashlee, I had decided that Lara wasn't really my type. In fact, I thought that she was a bit too ... Um ... Morbid for my liking. So I guess Lara is just one jigsaw that I will never put together ... And I'm glad.
I sat down at the Gryffindor table, and started eating. Courtney sat down to my left. Soon after, Ashlee came into the Great Hall and sat down to my right. Then Rachel sat opposite me. Linda sat diagonally right and Louise sat diagonally left. Oh no. My escape routes were blocked.
"So, Harry ..." Courtney said after munching on a few pieces of toast. "Do you like The Matrix?" I looked around.
What was The Matrix? Oh no ... it must be some sort of muggle movie. Whatever it was, I haven't seen it.
"Um ..." This was perfect - they must have planned this! They planned to gang up on me and start asking me about all these different Muggle things that they knew that I wouldn't know anything about! The evil geniuses ...
"Well?" Courtney asked expectantly.
"Er, to tell you the truth, I've never really heard about The Matrix ..." I said, looking a bit worried. Courtney looked shoked. Her eyes bulged, and her mouth gaped. "Is anything wrong?" I asked her. It looked like she was having a heart attack.
"You. Don't. Know. The. Matrix." Courtney said slowly.
"Courtney?" Ashlee asked, suddenly worried. "Are you OK?" Courtney started choking on her own surprise.
"He doesn't know about The Matrix!" Courtney gasped in a soft voice, breathing jagged breaths. It sounded like she was having a nervous breakdown.
"Courtney!" Rachel asked. "Do you feel any pains shooting up your left arm?"
Courtney nodded. "Both arms!" she gasped.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" Rachel shrieked. "COURTNEY'S HAVING A HEART ATTACK!"
She got up and dashed out of the Great Hall. We all started blinking. So much for evil genius ...
"Good morning, everyone!" Karla skipped down the stairs, travelling past a rampaging Rachel. Once again, the Hall fell silent. "How are you today?" Karla asked Draco Malfoy.
"Oh take that good morning and shove it up your a-"
"Draco!"
"-S. What?" Malfoy asked. Lara rolled her eyes and started smiling ... In an evil sort of way.
"So ... What do you think of Draco?" Louise asked me.
"He's an idiot and looked better as a ferret." I replied dryly as I took a swig of my orange juice. Louise choked on her eggs. Her knife and fork clanged onto the plate. "What?"
"Idiot ... I-I-I ... Ferret ... Y-y-y ..." Louise stuttered in what I presumed in shock. I saw Ashlee looking at us both. She quickly ducked underneath the table.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"You insulted the precious Draco." she replied. "You're SO dead now."
"What do you mean -"
"I CANT BELIEVE THAT YOU SAID THAT ABOUT HIM!" Louise screeched. The Hall stopped to watch us. Even Professor Dumbledore had left his food.
"He should have stayed as a ferret." I said calmly, even though I felt like joining Ashlee underneath the table. Everybody's heads' turned to me.
"What's this all about?" Malfoy asked arrogantly, even though he knew perfectly well what the topic of conversation was. Now everybody was watching Malfoy.
"We were debating on what your time period should have been when you were an albino ferret." I said, smiling broadly. The Hall snickered. Malfoy's eyes narrowed.
SLAP! The Hall recoiled in shock. Louise had slapped me across the face. My cheek stung from where she had hit it.
"What was that for?!" I screamed.
"I can't believe how insensitive you are!" Louise shouted at me. "How could you call somebody an albino ferret and still not feel any guilt?!" The Hall looked at Louise, and her tomato red face. It was twisted in anger. Her hand was up in the air, looking like it was going to strike at any given time. I took a chance.
"Because it's Malfoy." I replied blandly. This girl has something disconnected up there ... There was a sea of rushing heads as they turned to look at me.
I looked up at the High Table in the corner of my eye, wondering if they were going to get out the straight jacket soon. The teachers all looked relatively calm, except Snape, who seemed like he was itching to get up and deduct 50 points for each insult that Louise and I had given so far.
"AR-RE-GAH!" She was about to slap me again when --
"What's going on here?" a voice asked. Louise stopped in mid-slap. The sea of heads turned to see Elizabeth descending the stairs, carrying her now essential pocket mirror. I saw Michael Corner turn an amazing shade of voilet in record time.
"Elizabeth." Louise said. The heads turned to look at her. "Do you think that Draco should be a ferret again? Or should he stay in his wonderful form now?" Malfoy looked at everyone in pride, even though Elizabeth would probably choose for him to remain an albino rat wannabe.
"Wonderful?" Elizabeth asked, taking a rare peek up from her mirror. "Like my complexion? Or my hair? Or my wonderfully shaped eyes? Or my--" The heads watched Elizabeth as she fixed up her hair again.
"NOT THAT AGAIN!" Michael Corner jumped up from his chair. The heads turned to see the newest person join in.
"What?" Elizabeth asked innocently. The sea turned to watch Elizabeth's reaction.
"THAT WHOLE 'WONDERFUL LITTLE ME, WORSHIP ME!' ROUTINE!" Michael screamed, spit flying everywhere. Nobody really seemed shocked at that revelation.
"IT'S NOT A ROUTINE!" Elizabeth replied back, attracting the attention of everyone once again. "IT'S THE TRUTH!"
"THAT'S NOT THE TRUTH!" the heads turned to see Michael losing it again. "IT'S BULLSH--"
"IT ISN'T AND YOU KNOW IT!" Elizabeth argued back, the crowd turning back to her. "YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS BECAUSE I'M ABOUT TO BE CROWNED QUEEN OF HOGWARTS!" Professor Dumbledore nearly spat out his orange juice when he heard this.
"YOU ARE NOT THE QUEEN OF HOGWARTS!" Michael screamed back, his face now a fantastic shade of purple. In fact, I think people were just looking at him just to see how purple his face could turn. "EVER SINCE WE'VE BEEN DATING AND THEN BROKE IT OFF, YOU NEVER GOT OVER YOURSELF!" At that, Michael stormed out of the Hall, with Elizabeth following him, trying to argue some sense into him.
"WAIT!" a new person, Luna Lovegood, popped up out of her seat with a notepad. Everyone went to take a look at her. "Slow down - this is gold! Dad will get me a new broom probably for this!" Everyone looked away.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Karla suddenly screamed, getting up. Now this just seemed like a stupid TV show where there are all these guest stars popping in for cameo roles. "You should all be happy, like me! There's no need to fight!" Karla danced around in a little circle. Apparently, she wanted us to turn into nymphs now.
The bell rang and we ended up in complete confusion.
~~Potions~~
We arrived in Potions after a few mintues and took our usual seats. It seemed like Rachel had recovered from her very recent 'freak-out' attack and made it back to the lesson without Madame Pomfrey following her with sedatives. Snape was late as usual, and the Slytherins were acting up again.
"How's your cheek, Potter?" Malfoy asked, smirking.
"Fine, not that you care. It's not as if you would care about anything for that matter ..."
"Don't attack me, Potter, just because you couldn't defend yourself against a girl with too much attitude." Malfoy snickered. I started glaring at him. He smiled evily back with satisfaction.
"Settle, settle." the chamber door flew open, and Snape glided in, his black robes billowing behind him. He seemed like he was in a bad mood. Why? Well, it seemed like his hair was greasier and his nose was bigger than before.
The Slytherins settled down, after Malfoy shot me one more death glare.
"Today, we're learning about the Meteor Potion." Snape eyed us all rather nastily. "Can anybody else except for Hermione Granger tell us what it does?" Hermione was slightly put off, pulling down her arm that was wildly waving around a few seconds ago.
The classroom was silent, except for Hermione who was making little squeaking noises, trying to restrain herself from jumping up and screaming the answer.
"Anybody?" he asked dully, clearing showing his passion for his work.
"The Meteor Potion makes the drinker spit out random flames for up to 72 hours after consumption." Malfoy drawled, without bothering to put up his hand.
"Very good, Mr Malfoy." Snape said, with what seemed to resemble a light smile. "15 points to Slytherin." Malfoy beamed arrogantly with pride. I rolled my eyes. He leaned over to Hermione.
"Here's some advice, Granger, and I ADVISE that you take it." he smirked. "Say the answer GRACEFULLY, so you don't show as much as a know-it-all you really are." Hermione turned red, and started gripping the edge of her table so tightly so that her knuckles were turning white.
All the Gryffindors, including me, were about to rise to her defence, when we noticed that Snape was subtley waiting for our defences so he could deduct any points.
"Well, today we are going to brew some Meteor Potion for our stocks." Snape looked at us all. "However, I am stupidly hopeful that you won't stuff it all up. Correct, Mr Longbottom?" Neville Longbottom started shaking in his chair was stuttering uncontrollably.
He waved his wand and the ingredients and method appeared on the board instantly. I picked up my Pickwood Root and started shredding it into little pieces. I noticed Louise quietly edging her chair towards me. Oh no.
"You're going to pay, Potter." she muttered, as she picked the leaves off her Matchstick Flower. "When you least suspect it, I'll strike revenge."
"Yeah." Ashlee whispered, laughing a little bit. "Be careful - you might find one day that your head is stuck in the toilet."
I started laughing silently as Louise's eyes narrowed with embarrassment and anger. I picked up some Bang Bugs and started crushing them into a fine blue powder.
~~Riverdance Extraordinaire!~~
I picked up my cauldron and moved it to the wall, where there was an open-mouth gargoyle statue protruding from it. I pushed the gargoyle's nose, and water poured out, filling my cauldron. I turned the water off and turned around, just to meet the horrible vision of Malfoy.
"Got enough water there, Potter?" he asked me nastily, as he charmed his cauldron upwards towards the tap and started filling it. "I think you're going to need more if you're going to use that as temporary ice to nurse that poor little cheek of your's."
"Shove it, albino boy." I said through clenched teeth.
"Don't you think that that is wearing a bit thin?" Malfoy asked back, his mouth twisting into a horrid smirk. "I'd honestly thought that you were more original than that."
"Honest?" I snorted. An honest Malfoy - that would be the day. "I thought that you would be more honest than that."
He scowled at me, and charmed some of his water to splash onto me. Urgh! I pulled out my own wand and charmed some of my own water - it flew into the air poured itself onto his head. His gelled hair fell downwards, making it look like he had decided to have a swimming adventure with the Giant Squid. I flicked my wand again, making more of my water turn into ice cubes. They floated through the air and slipped themselves down his shirt.
"ARGH!!" Malfoy jumped up and started doing some sort of weird jig, trying to get out the ice cubes. I started laughing and carried my cauldron back to my desk, watching Malfoy, who seemed to be a Riverdance impersonation involving screams and arms.
"That's it!" Karla jumped up happily, doing a same sort of jig, except ... less ... demented. "See, everybody? I told you all to be happy in the morning and none of you listened. Now Draco is doing it! Follow his example!"
"WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK THAT YOU'RE DOING?!" Snape reared up from his desk. Karla recoiled back to her desk. Malfoy was still jumping up and down, still trying (and failing) to get the ice cubes out.
"P-p-please, sir!" Malfoy wriggled around, making the ice cubes click together. "Potter charmed ice cubes down my shirt!" At this moment, all the Gryffindors started laughing and the Slytherins glared at me. The Ravenclaws were snickering politely, and the Hufflepuffs were chuckling silently underneath their Potions textbooks. Professor Snape rolled his eyes and charmed the ice cubes out with the simple Accio charm.
"Stop!" The Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs stopped laughing and the Slytherins started smirking. "Potter - 50 points from Gryffindor and detention tonight. Stay back after class so we can arrange it." We looked shoked whilst the Slytherins looked triumphant.
Damn it! Stupid Malfoy.
I continued working until the bell rang. Everybody packed up and rushed out - they obviously didn't want to stay any longer. Then again, who would actually WANT to stay and spend time with SNAPE?
"So, Potter." Snape's mouth turned into a malicious thin line. "Charmed ice cubes down Mr Malfoy's shirt, did we?" I had the maddest urge to say that it wasn't a 'we' effort, more of a Pottter effort, but I restrained myself. I decided to remain silent.
"Answer me when I speak to you, Potter!" Snape spat.
"Yes, sir." I said sarcastically. His eyes narrowed.
"You will report for detention at 9:30 tonight. Your duties will be scrubbing the dungeon clean, WITHOUT magic." Snape said, with obvious spite. "Now go, I don't want you to waste anymore of my time."
I picked up my bag and ran out of the dungeon, cursing under my breath.
~~Care of Magical Creatures~~
I made it to Care of Magical Creatures just before Professor Edusa did. The squat little witch adjusted her red square rimmed glasses before starting the lesson.
"Your Ploonies should now be healthy enough now for you to exercise it." she said, absent mindedly scratching her hand which was dotted with age spots. "You and your partner should now be able to take it for a walk around the grounds, then feed it."
We all mumbled in agreement.
"Well," Edusa continued, "go on!"
I got up and found Padma, who was my partner. She reached in and pulled out our Ploony. I got out a collar from inside the box also and fastened it around it's neck. The Ploony gave me what looked like a smile and then licked it's nose. I have to admit - it was kind of cute.
"So how did it go with Snape and the detention arrangement?" Padma asked me, as the Ploony walked to Hagrid's Hut.
"It was OK, I suppose." I shrugged. "I have to scrub down the dungeon without magic."
"That's horrible!" Padma looked shoked, her mouth bulging open.
"What do you mean?" I asked her, confused. After all, it was just a dungeon.
"The dungeon is actually a whole heap of rooms connected together, Harry!" Padma said matter-of-factly. She stopped walking in order to get our Ploony to scratch it's itch.
"You're joking, right?" I asked her.
"Nope." Padma looked grim.
"URGH!" I groaned. This was just great. "I can't believe it!"
"I can." Padma said, now walking again because the Ploony had finished scratching itself. "Snape's got it in for you. It's like common sense or something."
"And how long exactly did it take you to figure that out?" I asked her sarcastically.
"Hey, sorry!" Padma said, rolling her eyes. "Didn't know that the issue was that 'sensitive'!"
"Don't say that!" I objected. "It makes me sound like a girl ..."
"And that's a BAD thing?" Padma asked me, in a tone that obviously told me that I would have to think about my answer seriously.
I had a mental picture of myself with shoulder length black hair that currently had a sparkly butterfly pin in it. It matched my pouty red lips. My eyebrows were thin and my eyes were more almond shaped. I also had respectable wire rimmed glasses. THIS was scary.
"Well .." Oh great. She had caught me out. "I mean, it's not like being a girl is bad or-or something ..." Padma raised an eyebrow. She smiled evilly.
I can assure you now, from the viewpoint of a boy, that girls are all evil and play mind games with you. It's just common sense.
~~The Fight ...~~
It was nearing the end of the lesson, and Padma and I were feeding our Ploony. It ate as much as a human, and just as messily as -
"DRACO MALFOY!" Linda screeched, finishing my mental sentence.
I looked over, and saw a tomato covered Linda brandishing some left over lettuce leaves at a grim looking Draco Malfoy, who had some pieces of cucumber stuck in his hair.
"Tomato really isn't your colour." Malfoy taunted.
"Yeah?" Linda asked back, her arm with the lettuce pulling backwards. "Well, pale and sickly suits you perfectly well - since you DO go wondering the halls of Hogwarts at night time sucking victims dry!" With that, the lettuce flew from her hand and into Malfoy's face.
"ARE YOU BLOODY WELL STUPID?!" Malfoy screamed back, pulling the lettuce from his face.
"NO!" Linda crossed her arms. "But you should really stop talking to yourself in the mirror. It can't be going good to your ever expanding ego." She spun around and started walking away, but stopped to make one last insult. She did this just as Malfoy chucked the pieces of cucumber from his hair at her.
Linda started screaming - two pieces of cucumber had covered her eyes, making her look like those people who are trying face masks. I couldn't help it (and it looked like a majority of the class couldn't either) - I (or is it we?) started cracking up laughing. Linda was still screaming, and pulled off the cucumber pieces. Her and Malfoy's Ploony was chasing them both - trying to get it's food, which they used as weapons of mass destruction.
"STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU!" Hermione got up and screamed. They didn't listen - and Hermione ducked just as some tomato went whizzing above her head. "HEY!" Hermione got back up and didn't react quickly enough - some lettuce flew across the field and wedged itself into her frizzy hair.
Naturally, you would assume that Hermione would deduct points, but she calmly picked herself up and threw away the lettuce - which landed into Karla's face.
"THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE HAPPY!" Karla yelled, picking up some extra red onions. She threw it and hit Ron in the face.
"ARGH!" he yelled, frantically grabbing some of his own rations and throwing it blindly. It hit Padma square in the face.
"OK, CARROT HEAD, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Padma picked up some of our carrot and chucked it at Ron, who ducked. The carrot continued flying until it hit Pansy Parkinson on the back.
And that's how it all started - the giant Care of Magical Creatures Ploony Food Fight. Carrots, lettuce and various other Ploony rations flew through the air, landing on anybody that was participating. We were all screaming, and of course, something was bound to happen. Obviously enough, knowing our luck, something did.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I had an odd feeling that that phrase had popped up earlier today.
Everything stopped. Professor Edusa had woken up from her usual lesson snooze to find the 'classroom' littered with Ploony food. Her face was blotchy (OK, blotchier than before) and her glasses were askew.
"WELL?" Professor Edusa walked around, surveying us through her crooked glasses.
"Please, Professor!" Courtney said sincerely, the smallest of grins appearing. "Malfoy here was demonstrating his skills as a decorator. He decided that the place needed a lift, and he was the one to do it ..."
"Actually, Hall's friend DeGail was being a royal pain up the bum." Malfoy accidentally wiggled his rear as he said this - a truly disturbing sight. The girls recoiled back in horror and shut their eyes tightly.
"What do you mean?" Edusa pressed onwards, clearly not noticing Malfoy's comment and his horrible gesture that accompanied it.
"Well ..." Rachel pushed Malfoy forward. "Malfoy thought that it would be funny if she - I mean - he dumped some salad onto you while you were working." How this related to Linda being a pain, we didn't know.
"Really, now?" Edusa looked at us again. We (except for the Slytherins) were nodding in sincerity.
"She's lying!" Malfoy piped up, tugging at some left over cucumber. "DeGail was throwing it all at me!"
"IT WAS SELF-DEFENCE!" Linda protested. The Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs nodded like mad, whilst the Slytherins shook their heads.
"YOU STARTED IT!" Malfoy retorted.
"Poor ickle Malfoy." Ashlee said almost sympathetically. "He's obviously resorting to childish tactics."
"AM NOT!" he protested, sounding miraculously like an eight-year-old Dudley who didn't get his 'Thunder Chariots' Playstation game.
"Don't mind about him." Courtney cut in.
"You suck!" Malfoy continued. I rolled my eyes.
"He's trying to build up his self-confidence." Elizabeth chipped in, surprising us all by looking up from her mirror.
"No, YOU suck!" Malfoy said again.
"FINE, THEN!" Edusa looked at us all again, not even giving Malfoy a second look. "Stop it! Just for acting in such childish ways, you will all get detention until you learn true manners. Understood?" We all nodded grimly.
"Great one." Karla muttered to Malfoy, in one of her rare bouts of bitterness. He looked offended.
"Blame your stupid friend." he murmered.
"You will report here at 8pm to clean up the mess you have made." Edusa said.
The bell rang - and we all returned our Ploonies and their leashes to their crates. This was stupid - she didn't even bother deducting points!
~~Quidditch Trials~~
The Gryffindors and the Slytherins made our way to the Quidditch pitch. Malfoy and I ducked off to the change rooms.
"Your little friend there has an attitude problem." Malfoy remarked as we entered the change rooms.
"If you haven't noticed," I snorted, "she's actually taller than you are, and her attitude is better than your's." Malfoy scowled and saunted off to a stall to change.
"Actually, I believe that she tackles everything with gusto." he said from the stall.
"Yeah ... Your her favourite one to tackle, alright." I rolled my eyes. "Besides, do you even know what 'gusto' means?" I asked as I pulled out my Quidditch robes from my bag. Silence. His father was in the inner circle of Voldemort, yet he didn't know what 'gusto' meant. Sad. Very, very sad.
After we changed, I placed my wand inside my robes and walked out with Malfoy. I mounted my broom and kicked off the ground. The wind whipped my hair backwards and I enjoyed the usual adrenaline rush. I flew back down to everyone on the lawn.
"OK." I said, as I placed my broom on the ground. It started hovering. Some of the girls squealed a little bit. Seriously - it was only a broom!
"Let's get straight to business." Malfoy landed next to me.
"Yeah, Gusto." I smirked at him. He glared at me in return.
I looked up just to see Louise falling backwards, looking like she was utterly in love.
"What's WITH you?" Karla asked her quietly. Well, as quietly as Karla could - which was a tone of voice that everyone could hear.
"Don't you reckon that he looks SO good when he's bad?" Louise asked, misty eyed. Karla rolled her eyes. Malfoy held a superior sort of smirk on his face. I decided that if it weren't for everyone being here, I would have thrown up. Honestly.
"OK, if you want to join the Gryffindor Quidditch Team," a cheer rose up from the Gryffindor crowd as I said this, "line up here in a straight line."
"And if you want to join a more respectable team that will ultimately lead up to victory, line up HERE in a straight line." Malfoy drawled lazily. The Gryffindors glared while the Slytherins held their trademark smirks.
I noticed that Elizabeth wasn't coming. I snorted - she probably didn't want to get her hair messy. Other people who weren't joining in were Neville and Hermione. We separated and headed towards the Gryffindor goal posts. I gave each of them a broom, and pretty soon, we were flying around in the air. I noticed that some of the people were casually on their brooms, not even scared. Some looked like they belonged in the air. Others looked like that they'd rather face a Blast Ended Skrewt while they were under the full body bind instead of in the air. Others looked confident, but were still shooting precarious glances at the ground. I hovered in front of the group.
"OK, we'll start with some basic exercises." I said, eyeing them all. Lavender looked like she was about to fall off her broom. "Fly around the Gryffindor goalpost once as quickly as you can without injuring yourself."
They all nodded in agreement.
"On one." I said. "Three. Two. One."
The Gryffindors all sped off around the goalpost. Karla was doing this with a smile. Louise looked like she was sour, probably because she wasn't with Malfoy. Once the lap was finished, they all gathered around me in the air.
"That was good." I said, nodding. It looks like Lavender had finally managed to get a firm hold of the broom. "Now, I want you to fly, as quickly as you can, to the ground. Don't worry about your broom - they're all the same model. I'll meet you all down at the bottom."
I sped off on my Firebolt down towards the ground, my hair and robes flying behind me. My glasses were pressing into my face, because the wind was so strong. The ground was coming, closer, closer. Just when I was about to collide, I pulled my broom upwards and slowed down. I heard clapping and looked up. The tryouts were all nodding and clapping, impressed. I felt myself turning a bright radish colour.
"OK, go!" Everyone sped towards the ground. They were going so quickly that you could hear the air whipping around them.
Once they were near the ground, they pulled their broom upwards. Except for --
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!" Karla sped towards the ground and wasn't strong enough to pull her broom up. This ... Was not going to be good.
We watched in horror as Karla continued speeding downwards. Hair was flying everywhere, and so were her limbs. I sped off on my broom and went to try and save her. My broom charged across the field until I was directly underneath Karla, who was still screaming fanatically. I was about to fly upwards when she fell off her broom, crashing onto me. Have you ever had a teenage girl crash onto your nose? Well, before Karla fell, I would've been proud to say that I hadn't. Too bad she actually DID fall onto my nose ...
CRUNCH! Before I could do anything, I was on the ground, my broom underneath me. Karla was on top of my nose. Then everything turned black ...
When I came to, everyone in the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts were leaning above me, staring at my face.
"KARLA!" I said as loudly as I could. It ended up sounding drowsy.
"Marla?" Linda asked, her hearing problem striking yet again.
"Who's Marla?" Karla asked, looking around, still on my nose.
"That's what I was just thinking ..." Linda said.
"KARLA!" I shouted. Karla looked down at me.
"Oh, hello, Harry!" Karla said happily. "What are you doing lying on the ground like that? You'll get your pretty Quidditch uniform all dirty ..."
"I took you a while to work out ..." Courtney snorted, rolling her eyes.
"You know, I wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't decided to drop in onto my nose." My eyes narrowed.
"Oh, sorry, Harry!" Karla said, her face turning bright red.
Pain throbbed through my nose throughout this entire ordeal so far. It felt like it was broken. I touched my nose tenderly. OUCH! I got up. I needed to get to the hospital wing ...
"Are you OK?" Lavender asked me.
"I think my nose if broken." I said.
"Do you need to go to the hospital wing?" Parvati asked me.
"Yeah." I said.
I got up and headed for the hospital wing.
"What about the Quidditch try-outs?" Dean asked. I shrugged.
"Just do something." I suggested weakly. I walked around the castle until I found the hospital wing.
"Hello?" I said through the silence there.
"Potter!" Madame Pomfrey said, coming out from the back. "What happened to you?" She sat me down on one of the beds.
"My nose." I said. She pulled my hand from my nose.
"Oh dear." she tutted, and pulled out some purple liquid. "Looks like you've broken it."
"Yeah." I nodded as she brandished the liquid at me.
"Drink it." I looked at the liquid. It was smoking a little bit.
"Uh -"
"Drink it, Potter!" she said again. I shrugged and took a swig and started choking. It tasted like grass on toast.
Just after I swallowed it, I felt something in my nose move.
"ARGH!" I yelled, surprised.
"Don't worry, dear." Madame Pomfrey took the empty vial and put it in a tray. "It's just moving your bones around."
Staying calm while a nurse says that your bones are doing their own reconstructive surgery isn't really the easiest thing to do. I felt some more movement I was just getting used to it when I heard an immense CRACK! and the movement stopped. My nose even felt normal again.
"There you go, Potter." Madame Pomfrey smiled lightly. "Now go on, back to where you came from."
"Thanks." I said as I exited the wing.
I was in high spirits until I reached the Quidditch pitch again. It seemed like that everyone wasn't flying at all. The Slytherins were confronting the Gryffindors. It also looked like I had missed out on a lot. There was a Monter Plant sitting on the lawn - obviously Hermione's handiwork. And it looked like it was about to uproot itself from silent laughter. The Gryffindors and the Slytherins were crowded around in a circle. I wondered what was happening ...
I walked forward and looked inside of the circle. Neville and Malfoy were fighting. Malfoy looked like he was about to beat Neville into Hogsmeade. Nevilled looked like Malfoy was about to beat him to Hogsmeade.
"Well, Longbottom?" Malfoy asked. "Hit me!" Neville squealed in horror and recoiled back.
"Stop fighting!" Hermione was squealing. Nobody was listening. "RON!"
Ron, the fellow prefect, was cheering Neville on, instead of acting in an orderly manner like a prefect should.
"What is it, Hermione?" Ron asked, as Neville did a funny looking duck as Malfoy tried to punch him.
"GET BACK HERE, RON!" Hermione screamed at him. "YOU'RE A PREFECT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"
"I know!" Ron said, and cheered Neville again. "Isn't that wonderful?" Hermione clenched her teeth.
Well ... It wouldn't have been a complete day without the occasional punch-up ...
~~Lunch~~
I sat down at the Gryffindor table at lunch. Neville was sitting across from me - he was badly shaken. Luckily, nobody got hurt in the fight. Well, nearly ...
Hermione had pulled Ron back by the collar and started yelling at him, giving him the entire 'You're-a-prefect-try-and-looked-dignified-at-all-times' lecture. Ron defended himself, by merely stating that by cheering Neville on, he was displaying 'true Gryffindor pride'. At this, Hermione objected, Ron objected to her objection and it all ended up in a huge row. Hermione ended up storming away for Library and Ron had stomped off to the Gryffindor common room.
"Hi, Harry." Ron sat down next to me, interrupting my thoughts. His visit to the common room was apparently short-lived.
"Hi." I replied, then started piling my plate with food. "How's the Hermione situation?"
"I heard that!" Hermione strode into the Great Hall, looking dignified. "After all these years of friendship, Harry, I can't believe that you STILL take Ron's side!"
"I don't!" I said, trying to defend myself.
"See?" Hermione was slowly turning a trademark Michael Corner purple. "You're arguing AGAINST me, YET AGAIN! Can't you just defend me once in a while?"
"But-"
"See?" Hermione shrieked.
"How are you today?" Karla suddenly interrupted, skipping to the table and sitting herself next to Neville.
"NOT NOW, KARLA!" Hermione said, loosing her temper a little bit.
"Now, now, Hermione," Ron smirked, "you better take your own lecture to heart. 'You're a prefect after all, try and at least look dignified'. Right, Hermione?"
"ARGH!" Hermione jumped up from her seat and stormed out of the Hall.
"She should be happier." Karla shrugged and started eating.
"So, Harry ..." Ron said, attempting conversation. "Who got into the Quidditch teams?"
"Yeah, who got in?" Louise asked eagerly.
"I thought you didn't want to know - after all, you DO like Malfoy better than Quidditch. Don't you?" I asked her with a smirk. Louise started opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish.
"C'mon, Harry!" Dean asked, nearly shooting out chewed mashed potatoes at us all. I pulled out my napkin to shield myself from the onslaught.
"I'm not telling you all now." I said, and returned to lunch. Everyone looked back at me, doing a Louise - opening and closing their mouthes like goldfish. "I'll post a note inside the Gryffindor common room telling everyone who's in the Quidditch team tomorrow night, OK?"
Everyone nodded and started eating their lunch again. I heard a gasp of happiness from somewhere. I turned around and saw the rare sight of Malfoy spouting a smile. I wonder what that was all about ...
~~Pest Control~~
After dinner, I headed to the library with Hermione and Louise to do some studying. It was odd though - Louise never went to the library unless it was REALLY crazy in the common room either because Elizabeth was chasing Ron around the common room for stealing her pocket mirror or because she herself was causing the commotion. I told Hermione this, but she had shrugged it off.
"It's good that Louise is developing study habits; I mean we have some testing soon ..." she commented, as she led the way to the library.
"Hermione, that's only about, oh I don't know, SIX weeks away!" I said. Hermione scowled.
"You can never be too prepared, right, Louise?" she said simply, calling on Louise to back her up.
"Hmm?" Louise seemed to snap out of some sort of trance she was in. "Oh yeah."
I gave Hermione a pointed look. She shot one back.
Once we got to the library, Hermione headed to talk to Madame Pince as usual while I took a seat in a squishy arm chair near the window. I had picked out a book about Quidditch tactics that I had hidden underneath a bookcase so nobody else could find it.
'The best way to divert an enemy chaser from grabbing the Quaffle in the special Duck and Push method is to--'
"Psst!" I stopped reading a looked up. No one was there. I shrugged and returned to my book. "Harry!" the same voice said again. I looked up quickly. Was I going mad? I was just about to convict myself of losing my mind when I spotted the source of the voice - Louise.
She was standing behind a book stand devoted to History of Magic. She was urging me to go to where she was. I sighed, bookmarked my book and walked over to her.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"Can you get Draco's attention, Harry?" she asked pleadingly, motioning to a blonde head.
"Why?" I rolled my eyes.
"Please, Harry?" she pleaded, her eyes looking sickeningly desparate.
"Fine." I said, and she hugged me in happiness. I sauntered over to Malfoy as she watched and prodded him on his head, upsetting his silvery blonde hair.
Malfoy automatically reached up, his eyes still on the book he was reading, and gripped on my wrist.
"Don't touch the hair." he said slowly as he turned the page of the book with his free hand. I rolled my eyes.
"Shut it - someone wants to talk to you." I said dully. Malfoy still gripped onto my wrist.
"And who would that be?" Malfoy's head turned to read the second page.
"A secret admirer?" I sounded like I was asking, not saying.
"Name." Malfoy's head moved down the page.
"Go and find out." I said in a bored voice, jerked my wrist out of his grasp and walked off to continue reading 'Quidditch Tactics'.
I watched as Malfoy got up from his chair, fixed up his hair and looked around for anybody who was staring at him. I motioned for Louise to start moving.
"Where are they, Potter?" Malfoy asked as he approached my squishy arm chair. I jerked my head to the History of Magic bookshelf.
Even though he raised an eyebrow and let out an exasperated sigh, he moved to the bookshelf. Louise walked into the space next to it.
"Hi!" she said brightly. Malfoy groaned in what I assumed to be a sort of pain and walked along the bookshelves, ignoring her. Louise's face fell, but she tried again by walking into the next space between the shelves.
"Won't -" she tried. Malfoy kept on walking, trying to ignore her. She moved onto the next space.
"-you-" Tried, walked, moved.
"-talk-" Tried, walked, moved.
"-to-" Tried, walked, moved. And it kept on happening like this throughout the entire library.
"-me-"
"-please,"
"Draco?"
Malfoy stopped walking at last, surveyed Louise and pulled out his wand. Before she could do anything ...
"Stupefy." Malfoy whispered, and the tell-tale red beam fired from his wand and hit Louise on the head. She teetered backwards and fell, stunned.
"Mr Malfoy!" Madame Pince had looked up from her cataloguing and spied Malfoy acting suspiciously. He turned around, looking innnocent. Well as innocent as a Slytherin could be, which wasn't much. "What were you just doing?" Malfoy looked up at her, his face blank.
"Pest control." he said, and then walked out of the library.
~~Detention No.1 - Care of Magical Creatures~~
After dinner, I got up with the rest of our Care of Magical Creatures to stumble to detention with Edusa.
Louise even joined in. Before, Hermione had returned her back to her usual state after she accidentally tripped over Louise when she was looking for something about her Transfiguration homework.
The stench of the Plooney feed filled our nostrils as soon as we stepped outside. Parvati started choking on her own breath and had to go back into the Great Hall to stop herself from killing herself by suffocation. I held my nose as tightly as I could, but I could still smell the horrid stink of rotting vegetables mixed with the usually fresh smelling grass.
"What are you doing, just standing here?" Edusa stepped out of the Hall, and started walking briskly down to the pumpkin patch. Obviously the effect of the stink was the same amount of emotions she had aside from angry: none.
Hermione stepped forward and dragged Ron with her. She probably thought that being a prefect involved you braving mighty stenches and emotionless teachers.
"Come on!" Edusa barked from the core of the smell. "This isn't going to clean up itself!"
"Yeah?" Dean muttered. "Well, we're hoping it is ..."
"No wands!" Edusa added.
The remaining crowd looked at each other, stepped back inside for one last fresh breath and charged down the patch, holding our breaths. By the time we made it down there, our faces were blue. Hermione and Ron looked us all, breathing perfectly fine. Hermione pulled out her wand.
"Stenchous!" she charmed, and the smell was gone.
"A clever piece of handiwork there, Ms Granger." Edusa said, in one of her rare bouts of fairness. "10 points to Gryffindor." Hermione beamed.
"Then at night time, when we're all sleeping, we'll sneak in and --" I heard a voice. I turned around - it was Malfoy. But as soon as I saw him, he stopped talking. Hmm ...
"Now, you are all to clear up this mess. No magic. As a result, if I catch you using magic, you will get a further detention and 25 points taken away from your house." she eyed us all. "Am I understood?"
"Yes, Professor." we chorused as we nodded our heads.
"Good." she stood expectantly. "Well? Start work!"
We separated into little groups and started clearing up the mess. Hermione's group - which included Elizabeth, Dean and Seamus - tackled a patch of ground near mine. In my group, I had Louise, Ron and Hannah Abbott. I picked up a piece of lettuce. It had gone all soft and was stuck to a portion of tomato. Oh dear. This was going to be a loooong night.
"Eww." Ron wrinkled his nose as he picked up a stale piece of cabbage that was currently being attacked by grubs. "You'd think that MAYBE she could have cleaned it up herself with her wand ..."
"Well, Ron," Hermione said, obviously bursting to correct him at any point, "she probably wanted to punish us."
"Oh please, Hermione!" Ron rolled his eyes. Hermione started turning pink. "She's either a squib or a muggle in disguise. There CAN'T be any other option."
"You know, she could --" Hermione started but Ron cut her off.
"Come off it, Hermione." He threw the cabbage into a bag. Hermione scowled and returned to her decomposing tomato piece.
After about half an hour, all the vegetables were gone and everyone was exhausted. Even the smell had cleared up. We all smiled with satisfaction - finally we could go to sleep (or in Hermione's case, do homework). Well, except for me. I still had to go to Potions detention thanks to Riverdance Malfoy.
"What are we supposed to do with these?" Elizabeth asked the crowd. "This is NOT doing any good for my perfume!"
"I dunno ..." I looked around for Edusa. I spotted her snoozing in a set up lawn chair. "There she is. Do you think we should wake her up?" We all looked at each other. If we woke her up ... it would be like tickling a sleeping dragon. And you should NEVER tickle a sleeping dragon.
"Well, someone do it because I'm NOT going to stand around here carrying Plooney feed." Elizabeth ordered, keeping the feed a good two feet away from her. We all gulped.
"Looks like the Gryffindors aren't so brave anymore." Malfoy drawled, carrying his own garbage with a look of disgust on his face. "What's wrong? Scared the teacher will bite your head off?"
"No, but I know something else that's about to bite YOUR head off ..." Rachel muttered to herself. The Gryffindors chuckled a little bit. Malfoy scowled.
"Well, if you're so sure that she won't decapitate us, why don't YOU wake her up?" I asked him innocently.
"Fine." Malfoy said defiantly, even though he had a tingle of fear in his eye. He marched up to Edusa, while we watched closely - this was going to be good. He cleared his throat.
"Where's Colin Creevey when you need him?" Linda asked, looking around. "This is worthy of a Kodak moment ..."
"Excuse me." Malfoy whispered. Edusa merely uttered yet another snore. Her red square rimmed glasses were askew, and her hands were crossed over on her stomach. Malfoy cleared his throat rather loudly. "Excuse me." he said boldly.
"30 points from ... Mmm ..." Edusa snorted in her sleep and rolled over in her lawn chair.
"Well, that didn't work." Malfoy said hastily, backing away. "Oh well, looks like she'll never wake up, too bad ..." he said quickly. Hermione raised her eyebrow and cleared her throat.
"Gilderoy Lockhart is right in front of you willing to sign as much autographs as you wish and he's gotten his memory back AND he wants to propose." Hermione said rather loudly.
Edusa sprang up from her lawn chair and looked around, alarmed. We all started snickering. Hermione gave a small grin.
"Oh." Edusa's face sagged downwards. "Are you all done?"
"Yes, Professor." we said in unison.
"Good." she adjusted her glasses and fixed up her hair a bit. "Now, just put them in a pile here and you are allowed to go back to the castle."
We nodded and dropped our bags into a pile and made our trek back to the castle.
"How did you know Edusa had a thing for Lockhart?" Ashlee asked Hermione.
"Or is it the case that minds think alike ..." Ron snorted.
"Isn't it 'great minds think alike', Ron?" Elizabeth asked absent mindedly, applying some fruity smelling lipgloss.
"It normally is - but Edusa isn't really a great mind." Ron replied. We laughed.
"Well?" Ashlee pressed on. "How did you know that Edusa liked Lockhart?"
"Let's just say when I went to see her once, she was asleep again and was moaning 'Oh Gilderoy, of COURE I will marry you!', I pretty much got the general idea." Hermione chuckled. We all burst off into laughter.
~~Detention No. 2 - Potions~~
When we got inside the castle, the entire group of students headed off to their common rooms. I, however, made my way to the Potion dungeons to do my second detention.
My footsteps echoed as I walked through the hallways. The sounds bounced off the stone walls, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit scared. After all these years at Hogwarts, I still get scared a bit. I gave the smallest of breaths of relief when I saw the door marked 'Professor S. Snape'. I leaned forward and gave three hard knocks.
The sound of the knocks bounced off the walls too, and I jumped a little bit. I scolded myself mentally for being so scared of some stupid sound. The door creaked open, and the hook nose and greasy haired vision of Snape appeared, his lip curling in an evil sort of way.
"Welcome to detention, Potter." he opened the door further, and I stepped into the cold dungeon. Snape glanced at a clock that hung from the wall behind his desk. "It seems like this is one of those times in which you actually made it on time to your many detentions."
I nodded deftly - I'd gotten a bit used to Snape's often spiting. "Thank you, Professor." I said politely.
We both stood there for a moment - me nervously awaiting my toothbrush and pail, Snape contemplating me, wondering which colour toothbrush would suit we the best.
I looked up at the clock after we stood there for a few seconds. It read 8:50.
"Well?" Snape looked down at me, straight line that he called his mouth tightening. "Get to work!" He charmed up a pail of soapy water and a scrub brush.
I sighed, picked up the pail and brush and started working in a far corner. The water was warm at least. I dipped my brush inside the pail and started scrubbing the cold stone floor. I scrubbed the same stone five times as hard as I could, and only a little bit of grime had come off. This was going to be an even longer night ...
After about 2 hours, I had most of the dungeon covered. Snape was marking some third year test papers. I yawned a little bit and started scrubbing near the doorframe. I was certainly suprised after a bit when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Snape said, still concentrating on the papers.
The door creaked open, and Professor Dumbledore came in. He gave me a brief smile and walked to Snape, who immediately stood up from his chair.
"Headmaster." he said curtly, partly bowing his head. He looked around. "Would you like a chair?" Snape picked up his wand.
"No, no, never mind." Dumbledore waved his wand and a squishy arm chair that resembled the one that I had sat on when I was in the library appeared. Dumbledore settled into it.
"What is it that you wished to talk about, sir?" Snape asked, leaning back against his own chair, his head coming dangerously close to the suspended pickled things on shelves.
Dumbledore turned his head to see me, half watching and half scrubbing. "I think that Mr Potter should leave us and his detention tonight, Severus."
"Is that what you came down to discuss?" Snape raised his eyebrow.
"No, no, Severus." I could tell Dumbledore's eyes were tinkling. "The business I have to discuss with you has nothing to do with Mr Potter, so I don't think he'd want to be subjected to a boring discussion."
"Of course, Headmaster." Snape looked at me. "You are free to go, Mr Potter."
I nodded, trying to hide my happiness, and returned the pail and scrubbing brush. Dumbledore smiled at me and gave a small wink. I smiled back and exited the dungeon.
~~The Rolling Head~~
As soon as I was out of the dungeons, a rush of heat hit my face. I choked on my own breath and managed to steady when I reached corridor with the portrait hole. I was approaching the painting when I heard a scuffling behind me. I turned around sharply, hand immediately on my wand. What was that?
"Lumos." I said, the area instantly lighting up. Nothing. Very interesting ...
I kept on walking, now alert. I was prepared to stun anything that was following me. When the portrait hole came into view, I gave a sigh of relief. The fat lady in the pink dress was snoozing lazily. I cleared my throat. She jerked up.
"I wasn't sleeping!" she said insantly, then looked at me. "You're up late dear."
"Sorry." I said in some sort of apology. "I had Potions detention."
"Ahh." The fat lady smiled. "I was never really good at Potions, mind you."
"Um .." I looked around. "OK. Er .. Would you mind letting me in?"
"Oh yes, of course." She continued smiling. "Password?"
"Lemon Sickles." I said and she opened up.
"Goodnight, dear." she said.
"Goodnight." I said as I headed to the top of the staircase. The girls bathroom had the light on. Why was someone taking a shower at such a late time?
I shrugged my shoulders, and opened the door to my dormitories. I changed into my pyjamas and climbed into my four poster, taking off my glasses. My eyes closed, and I drew nearer to sleep ...
BUMP.
What the? I jerked upwards, grabbed my wand and stuffed on my glasses. The pulled open the dormitory door and peered out. Nothing. I cursed at myself for being so paranoid about a stupid noise. I turned around to go back to my bed when ...
BUMP, BUMP, BUMP!
I jumped and turned around. I didn't dare use lumos for the fear of what was creeping around. Then it happened.
The door to the girls bathroom opened after a knock on their door. I stiffened in fear - who was knocking on the door of the girls bathroom at this hour? Rachel appeared wearing a dressing robe after she opened the door. Her hair was all wet and she looked extremely annoyed that somebody disturbed her during her late night shower.
"Who is it?" I heard her ask just before ...
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!" somebody screamed in a high pitched voice. I jolted in shock. There was no one else awake ... who was that?
And then I saw it - a head, rolling down the stairs. And it was the one that was screaming. At this point, I couldn't hold it in any longer. I screamed like there was no tomorrow.
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!" I screamed, as I was joined in by Rachel who was following the head rolling down the stairs with her own.
"HARRY?!" she screamed in confused shock, jumping up and down in her robe.
"RACHEL!" I screamed. We both continued screaming until the entire Gryffindor student body was awake.
"What's going on here?"
"What the?"
"What's with all the screaming?"
"Why are the lights all turned on?"
"IS THAT A HEAD?!"
At that last remark, everyone silenced. Somebody, presumably Hermione, had lit the fireplaces again. We all rushed quickly, but cautiously, down to the head.
It was a sickening sight - a decapitated head on the carpet, it's platinum blonde hair shining, it's eyes closed. Strangely enough, there wasn't any blood. Very weird. Then I realised - it was Malfoy's head. Louise fainted when she recognised him. We all wanted to cheer, but the sight of a decapitated head stopped us all breaking out the party poppers and balloons.
"It's a SLYTHERIN!" somebody screamed.
"Emergency Procedure!" someone else yelled.
We all shook our heads, deciding that we would rather investigate this further ourselves. Us Gryffindors made a huge circle around Malfoy's head. It didn't move. Neville extracted himself from the crowd, as pale and sickly looking as the head. We all looked at each other and nodded in what seemed like a silent agreement. The entire crowd moved their heads downward towards the head. It still didn't move. We leaned in closer. Closer. Closer. We were about two inches away from the head when all of a sudden ... It opened it's eyes and started screaming.
The Gryffindors all jumped back in sheer fear and terror, screaming. Most of the girls ran off, trying not to faint. The head continued screaming and started rolling back and forth. This only made us more scared, and people gripped onto each other, freaking out. It only until Ron kicked something by accident that it stopped. Silence. I looked at the space where Ron had kicked. It was clear; nothing was blocking it. It was just thin air.
"Kick again, Ron." I said. Ron nodded and swung a heavy kick at the space.
"Ouch." Malfoy's head said. Some girls still recoiled backwards, but not with fear, but with shock. What the ...?
Ron raised an eyebrow in careful thinking. Then he kicked three more times.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch." Malfoy's head said again. We all sighed in relief. Ron bent down and pulled off something made of weird material. It was - an invisibility cloak. Once it was gone, Malfoy's entire body appeared. Ron was inspecting it, when he couldn't pull it anymore. I looked down - it was snagged on Malfoy's shoe. Ron gave another hearty tug and it came fully off.
"Now what in Honeydukes Marmalade Butterbeers is going here?" Professor McGonagall appeared, wearing a hair mask, her usual glasses and bun gone.
"Malfoy, Professor." Hermione said grimly, pointing to the dazed looking Malfoy.
"Whatever do you mean, Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked, her gaze lingering on Malfoy.
"It was an unprovoked attack!" Ashlee said, pointing her finger to the ceiling.
"An ambush, even!" Parvati Patil nodded.
"Malfoy sneaked into the Gryffindor common room." Ron said, shoving the Invisibility Cloak into McGonagall's empty arms, and ignoring both Ashlee and Parvati.
"Why?" she asked, still carrying the Cloak.
"He's a pervert!" Rachel cried, distraught. "I was taking a late shower because I couldn't sleep. He knocked on the door, I opened it, luckily while wearing my dressing gown where he tripped, fell down the stairs and now this." Karla was patting her back.
"Who would want to spy on Rachel?" three unknown Gryffindors said at once.
"What were you doing in this common room, Mr Malfoy?" McGonagall asked, calm.
"I .." Malfoy got up. "Don't know ..."
"You don't know why you managed to sneak into the Gryffindor common room, knock on the girls bathroom while someone was using it, trip and fall down the stairs, disturbing the peace and then lying?" McGonagall's nostrils flared.
"No?" Malfoy said hopefully. The nostrils flared wider.
"That will be 80 points from Slytherin and detention for the rest of the week for disturbing everyone on purpose and lying." McGonagall said. The Gryffindors all smiled with glee. "Now, everyone else here. I want you all asleep. Understood?" she looked sternly at us all.
"Yes, Professor." we said.
"And let me reassure you - if there are any other rolling heads tonight that intend on murdering you, you need not attend lessons tomorrow." she winked, and dragged Malfoy out of the common room with her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: There you go! Another chapter done and posted. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Tell me by reviewing or emailing me! I hope it was worth the wait!
Ahh ... I've been thinking lately. If we do Malfoy's PoV next, we will give away all the secrets of the gripping 'Plan EH'. So ... either review or email me with the answer to this question: WHO'S POV SHOULD IT BE NEXT? Please do not suggest yourself (yes, I'm speaking more directly to you, Rachel), but somebody we haven't heard yet. Someone like ... Ginny? Parvati? Lavendar? Take a pick of all the STUDENTS in Hogwarts (not Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco) and review or email the answer! The person with the most votes will get their PoV next!
~~BlueberryOrchidz - Who's back from her summer holiday!
Review Answers:
*1.Your clue DOES say 'DANCE', doesn't it? If I am right, you should be ashamed of yourself for giving out such bad clues. - from Courtney Hall
Answer: Refer to the review answer of question 8.
*2.I can't wait to read the next chapter! - from harry's4me+notu
Answer: I should hope that you do - it took ages to write in before and after my holiday.
*3.I still reckon Draco and Lara are like the worst thing that ever happened - from Lut Lut (Louise)
Answer: Too bad! =)
*4.Have you guessed me yet? - from ????????????????
Anwer: I've drawn to the conclusion that it's either a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw or someone that's about to become a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw. So that pretty much covers everyone that I know.
*5.Who are you? Please tell me - I won't tell anyone else! - from ????????????????
Answer: Here are a few things you should remember before you post another review like that:
1) I'm not telling anybody who I am.
2) I'm not about to tell a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw or somebody who's about to become a crazy maniac wielding a chainsaw who I am.
*6.Why haven't you updated yet? It's really interesting! - from Elen Of The Ways
Answer: I've been taking a holiday lately, so I wasn't really keen on spending it typing stuff on the computer. And thank you for the comment. I try. :)
*7.Are you from 7C by chance? - from wonderin
Answer: Actually ... You were close. We're from the 2003 7B. Now we're in ... Well I'm not sure ...
*8.Congratulations on your 101st review! By the way, what was the clue supposed to say? - from Courntey Hall
Answer: Thanks for the congratulations! And the clue ... It's supposed to say whatever you want it to say. *wink*
*9.Who the heck is Hello and Get Real? We're 8 besties at school. Splitting us up would be like ripping up the Australian Flag. It stays together! - from Rachel Gilding.
Answer: Interesting comparison, Rachel ...
And a note to Hello and Get Real: That was actually some good constructive criticism. I'll try and do something about it ...
*10.Thank you for not letting Harry stay with Ashlee! - from Stephanie
Answer: You're welcome :)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Summary of the chapter: Argue, cube, Irish, Plooney, moment, shower, Potions, Care of Magical Creatures and Quidditch try outs.
A/N: It's finally Chapter 11! Sorry for not posting for so long - I was having a holiday. I hope the wait didn't make you delirious. :) Anyway, in this chapter, we have Harry's PoV ... Finally, something from a boy's PoV. Let me tell you - it was a bit hard, without making him sound like he was 'fruity'.
BTW, I will answer this question now so it doesn't pop up later: Why don't Ron and Hermione get their PoV's?
Well, here's the answer: I've looked over everything in the story and have noticed (yes, you'd think that maybe I would know my own story well enough ...) that Ron and Hermione don't really pay big parts. Ron hardly ever pops up and Hermione only comes occasionally to be a know-it-all and a prefect, come to think of it. So, they won't get their PoV's. That's my reason, and I'm sticking to it.
Also, the members of the Quidditch team will not be revealed in this chapter - I'll post it next chapter :)
And here's a bit that you should remember before reading the story: the girls decided to take off the charm that made boys unable to get to the girls dormitories and bathrooms, mainly because then the messenger boys wouldn't get multiple injuries that way.
Oh and before I forget ... it seemed like either a hacker or fanfiction.net has deleted the very first chapter. Which happens to be the prologue and introduction. Whoever has a copy will get an imaginary slice of chocolate cake with a glazed cherry and whipped cream!
Enjoy!
Until Chapter 12 ...
~~Blue - Author of Dating Dungbombs and Believer in Awkward Love Triangles ... Who's Back From Holidays!
P.S. I've included the English translation of the Hogwarts school motto ("Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus") in the chapter somewhere. An imaginary choc chip cookie with lashings of whipped cream will be given to the person who emails me first telling me where it is. =)
P.P.S. Hi everyone. =)
Chapter 11 - Harry's PoV: Rotting Vegetables and Rolling Heads
The sun rose up into the sky, pouring sunlight into the window. It seeped through the curtains surrounding my bed, waking me up. I opened my eyes - everything was blurry. I didn't have my glasses on. I sat up and felt around until I found my glasses and put them on. Everything immediately came into view. I got up, stretched and walked absent-mindedly to the window.
The water of the Great Lake lapped gently back and forth. The Giant Squid was there as usual - it's bandages had gone and it looked like it had fully recovered from it's sudden departure. Other people were on the lawns of Hogwarts. I looked around.
"Got a problem there, Potter?" a sudden voice asked from down below. I looked down. Draco Malfoy, with his evil smirk, looked up at me, with his pale and pointy face.
"No, actually. Just move along ..." I said. Malfoy glared at me and walked off with his cronies.
I went to the bathroom and took a shower then changed into my robes.
"Morning, Harry." Courtney said, stepping out of her dormitory.
"Hi, Courtney." I smiled. "Care to join me for breakfast?"
"Yeah, OK."
"STOP!" another voice suddenly said. Oh no.
Rachel stood in front of us, puffing out her chest.
"What, Rachel?" I asked, rolling my eyes.
"Where exactly do you think you're going?" she asked, frowning.
"Breakfast." Courtney replied.
"AND YOU DIDN'T ASK ME?!" Rachel asked, suddenly looking traumatised. Me and Courtney exchanged glances.
"Um ..." I said.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT YOU NEGLECTED ME!" Rachel said sadly, trying to draw on the fake tears without much success. "After all, I AM important!"
"Really now?" Linda suddenly asked, rolling her eyes and walking down the stairs.
Courtney and I started snickering. Rachel's lip started curling. Lara came down.
"Look, it's curling!" she smirked, and walked off.
Everyone looked at me expectantly.
"What?" I asked.
"Um, we were just thinking that you were going to ... You know ..." Courtney piped up.
"What?" I asked.
"Follow Lara, looking like you had hearts in your eyes." Linda supplied.
"Oh." I thought about it.
After that horrible experience of the love potion and Ashlee, I had decided that Lara wasn't really my type. In fact, I thought that she was a bit too ... Um ... Morbid for my liking. So I guess Lara is just one jigsaw that I will never put together ... And I'm glad.
I sat down at the Gryffindor table, and started eating. Courtney sat down to my left. Soon after, Ashlee came into the Great Hall and sat down to my right. Then Rachel sat opposite me. Linda sat diagonally right and Louise sat diagonally left. Oh no. My escape routes were blocked.
"So, Harry ..." Courtney said after munching on a few pieces of toast. "Do you like The Matrix?" I looked around.
What was The Matrix? Oh no ... it must be some sort of muggle movie. Whatever it was, I haven't seen it.
"Um ..." This was perfect - they must have planned this! They planned to gang up on me and start asking me about all these different Muggle things that they knew that I wouldn't know anything about! The evil geniuses ...
"Well?" Courtney asked expectantly.
"Er, to tell you the truth, I've never really heard about The Matrix ..." I said, looking a bit worried. Courtney looked shoked. Her eyes bulged, and her mouth gaped. "Is anything wrong?" I asked her. It looked like she was having a heart attack.
"You. Don't. Know. The. Matrix." Courtney said slowly.
"Courtney?" Ashlee asked, suddenly worried. "Are you OK?" Courtney started choking on her own surprise.
"He doesn't know about The Matrix!" Courtney gasped in a soft voice, breathing jagged breaths. It sounded like she was having a nervous breakdown.
"Courtney!" Rachel asked. "Do you feel any pains shooting up your left arm?"
Courtney nodded. "Both arms!" she gasped.
"OH MY GOODNESS!" Rachel shrieked. "COURTNEY'S HAVING A HEART ATTACK!"
She got up and dashed out of the Great Hall. We all started blinking. So much for evil genius ...
"Good morning, everyone!" Karla skipped down the stairs, travelling past a rampaging Rachel. Once again, the Hall fell silent. "How are you today?" Karla asked Draco Malfoy.
"Oh take that good morning and shove it up your a-"
"Draco!"
"-S. What?" Malfoy asked. Lara rolled her eyes and started smiling ... In an evil sort of way.
"So ... What do you think of Draco?" Louise asked me.
"He's an idiot and looked better as a ferret." I replied dryly as I took a swig of my orange juice. Louise choked on her eggs. Her knife and fork clanged onto the plate. "What?"
"Idiot ... I-I-I ... Ferret ... Y-y-y ..." Louise stuttered in what I presumed in shock. I saw Ashlee looking at us both. She quickly ducked underneath the table.
"What are you doing?" I asked her.
"You insulted the precious Draco." she replied. "You're SO dead now."
"What do you mean -"
"I CANT BELIEVE THAT YOU SAID THAT ABOUT HIM!" Louise screeched. The Hall stopped to watch us. Even Professor Dumbledore had left his food.
"He should have stayed as a ferret." I said calmly, even though I felt like joining Ashlee underneath the table. Everybody's heads' turned to me.
"What's this all about?" Malfoy asked arrogantly, even though he knew perfectly well what the topic of conversation was. Now everybody was watching Malfoy.
"We were debating on what your time period should have been when you were an albino ferret." I said, smiling broadly. The Hall snickered. Malfoy's eyes narrowed.
SLAP! The Hall recoiled in shock. Louise had slapped me across the face. My cheek stung from where she had hit it.
"What was that for?!" I screamed.
"I can't believe how insensitive you are!" Louise shouted at me. "How could you call somebody an albino ferret and still not feel any guilt?!" The Hall looked at Louise, and her tomato red face. It was twisted in anger. Her hand was up in the air, looking like it was going to strike at any given time. I took a chance.
"Because it's Malfoy." I replied blandly. This girl has something disconnected up there ... There was a sea of rushing heads as they turned to look at me.
I looked up at the High Table in the corner of my eye, wondering if they were going to get out the straight jacket soon. The teachers all looked relatively calm, except Snape, who seemed like he was itching to get up and deduct 50 points for each insult that Louise and I had given so far.
"AR-RE-GAH!" She was about to slap me again when --
"What's going on here?" a voice asked. Louise stopped in mid-slap. The sea of heads turned to see Elizabeth descending the stairs, carrying her now essential pocket mirror. I saw Michael Corner turn an amazing shade of voilet in record time.
"Elizabeth." Louise said. The heads turned to look at her. "Do you think that Draco should be a ferret again? Or should he stay in his wonderful form now?" Malfoy looked at everyone in pride, even though Elizabeth would probably choose for him to remain an albino rat wannabe.
"Wonderful?" Elizabeth asked, taking a rare peek up from her mirror. "Like my complexion? Or my hair? Or my wonderfully shaped eyes? Or my--" The heads watched Elizabeth as she fixed up her hair again.
"NOT THAT AGAIN!" Michael Corner jumped up from his chair. The heads turned to see the newest person join in.
"What?" Elizabeth asked innocently. The sea turned to watch Elizabeth's reaction.
"THAT WHOLE 'WONDERFUL LITTLE ME, WORSHIP ME!' ROUTINE!" Michael screamed, spit flying everywhere. Nobody really seemed shocked at that revelation.
"IT'S NOT A ROUTINE!" Elizabeth replied back, attracting the attention of everyone once again. "IT'S THE TRUTH!"
"THAT'S NOT THE TRUTH!" the heads turned to see Michael losing it again. "IT'S BULLSH--"
"IT ISN'T AND YOU KNOW IT!" Elizabeth argued back, the crowd turning back to her. "YOU'RE JUST JEALOUS BECAUSE I'M ABOUT TO BE CROWNED QUEEN OF HOGWARTS!" Professor Dumbledore nearly spat out his orange juice when he heard this.
"YOU ARE NOT THE QUEEN OF HOGWARTS!" Michael screamed back, his face now a fantastic shade of purple. In fact, I think people were just looking at him just to see how purple his face could turn. "EVER SINCE WE'VE BEEN DATING AND THEN BROKE IT OFF, YOU NEVER GOT OVER YOURSELF!" At that, Michael stormed out of the Hall, with Elizabeth following him, trying to argue some sense into him.
"WAIT!" a new person, Luna Lovegood, popped up out of her seat with a notepad. Everyone went to take a look at her. "Slow down - this is gold! Dad will get me a new broom probably for this!" Everyone looked away.
"Stop, stop, stop!" Karla suddenly screamed, getting up. Now this just seemed like a stupid TV show where there are all these guest stars popping in for cameo roles. "You should all be happy, like me! There's no need to fight!" Karla danced around in a little circle. Apparently, she wanted us to turn into nymphs now.
The bell rang and we ended up in complete confusion.
~~Potions~~
We arrived in Potions after a few mintues and took our usual seats. It seemed like Rachel had recovered from her very recent 'freak-out' attack and made it back to the lesson without Madame Pomfrey following her with sedatives. Snape was late as usual, and the Slytherins were acting up again.
"How's your cheek, Potter?" Malfoy asked, smirking.
"Fine, not that you care. It's not as if you would care about anything for that matter ..."
"Don't attack me, Potter, just because you couldn't defend yourself against a girl with too much attitude." Malfoy snickered. I started glaring at him. He smiled evily back with satisfaction.
"Settle, settle." the chamber door flew open, and Snape glided in, his black robes billowing behind him. He seemed like he was in a bad mood. Why? Well, it seemed like his hair was greasier and his nose was bigger than before.
The Slytherins settled down, after Malfoy shot me one more death glare.
"Today, we're learning about the Meteor Potion." Snape eyed us all rather nastily. "Can anybody else except for Hermione Granger tell us what it does?" Hermione was slightly put off, pulling down her arm that was wildly waving around a few seconds ago.
The classroom was silent, except for Hermione who was making little squeaking noises, trying to restrain herself from jumping up and screaming the answer.
"Anybody?" he asked dully, clearing showing his passion for his work.
"The Meteor Potion makes the drinker spit out random flames for up to 72 hours after consumption." Malfoy drawled, without bothering to put up his hand.
"Very good, Mr Malfoy." Snape said, with what seemed to resemble a light smile. "15 points to Slytherin." Malfoy beamed arrogantly with pride. I rolled my eyes. He leaned over to Hermione.
"Here's some advice, Granger, and I ADVISE that you take it." he smirked. "Say the answer GRACEFULLY, so you don't show as much as a know-it-all you really are." Hermione turned red, and started gripping the edge of her table so tightly so that her knuckles were turning white.
All the Gryffindors, including me, were about to rise to her defence, when we noticed that Snape was subtley waiting for our defences so he could deduct any points.
"Well, today we are going to brew some Meteor Potion for our stocks." Snape looked at us all. "However, I am stupidly hopeful that you won't stuff it all up. Correct, Mr Longbottom?" Neville Longbottom started shaking in his chair was stuttering uncontrollably.
He waved his wand and the ingredients and method appeared on the board instantly. I picked up my Pickwood Root and started shredding it into little pieces. I noticed Louise quietly edging her chair towards me. Oh no.
"You're going to pay, Potter." she muttered, as she picked the leaves off her Matchstick Flower. "When you least suspect it, I'll strike revenge."
"Yeah." Ashlee whispered, laughing a little bit. "Be careful - you might find one day that your head is stuck in the toilet."
I started laughing silently as Louise's eyes narrowed with embarrassment and anger. I picked up some Bang Bugs and started crushing them into a fine blue powder.
~~Riverdance Extraordinaire!~~
I picked up my cauldron and moved it to the wall, where there was an open-mouth gargoyle statue protruding from it. I pushed the gargoyle's nose, and water poured out, filling my cauldron. I turned the water off and turned around, just to meet the horrible vision of Malfoy.
"Got enough water there, Potter?" he asked me nastily, as he charmed his cauldron upwards towards the tap and started filling it. "I think you're going to need more if you're going to use that as temporary ice to nurse that poor little cheek of your's."
"Shove it, albino boy." I said through clenched teeth.
"Don't you think that that is wearing a bit thin?" Malfoy asked back, his mouth twisting into a horrid smirk. "I'd honestly thought that you were more original than that."
"Honest?" I snorted. An honest Malfoy - that would be the day. "I thought that you would be more honest than that."
He scowled at me, and charmed some of his water to splash onto me. Urgh! I pulled out my own wand and charmed some of my own water - it flew into the air poured itself onto his head. His gelled hair fell downwards, making it look like he had decided to have a swimming adventure with the Giant Squid. I flicked my wand again, making more of my water turn into ice cubes. They floated through the air and slipped themselves down his shirt.
"ARGH!!" Malfoy jumped up and started doing some sort of weird jig, trying to get out the ice cubes. I started laughing and carried my cauldron back to my desk, watching Malfoy, who seemed to be a Riverdance impersonation involving screams and arms.
"That's it!" Karla jumped up happily, doing a same sort of jig, except ... less ... demented. "See, everybody? I told you all to be happy in the morning and none of you listened. Now Draco is doing it! Follow his example!"
"WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK THAT YOU'RE DOING?!" Snape reared up from his desk. Karla recoiled back to her desk. Malfoy was still jumping up and down, still trying (and failing) to get the ice cubes out.
"P-p-please, sir!" Malfoy wriggled around, making the ice cubes click together. "Potter charmed ice cubes down my shirt!" At this moment, all the Gryffindors started laughing and the Slytherins glared at me. The Ravenclaws were snickering politely, and the Hufflepuffs were chuckling silently underneath their Potions textbooks. Professor Snape rolled his eyes and charmed the ice cubes out with the simple Accio charm.
"Stop!" The Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs stopped laughing and the Slytherins started smirking. "Potter - 50 points from Gryffindor and detention tonight. Stay back after class so we can arrange it." We looked shoked whilst the Slytherins looked triumphant.
Damn it! Stupid Malfoy.
I continued working until the bell rang. Everybody packed up and rushed out - they obviously didn't want to stay any longer. Then again, who would actually WANT to stay and spend time with SNAPE?
"So, Potter." Snape's mouth turned into a malicious thin line. "Charmed ice cubes down Mr Malfoy's shirt, did we?" I had the maddest urge to say that it wasn't a 'we' effort, more of a Pottter effort, but I restrained myself. I decided to remain silent.
"Answer me when I speak to you, Potter!" Snape spat.
"Yes, sir." I said sarcastically. His eyes narrowed.
"You will report for detention at 9:30 tonight. Your duties will be scrubbing the dungeon clean, WITHOUT magic." Snape said, with obvious spite. "Now go, I don't want you to waste anymore of my time."
I picked up my bag and ran out of the dungeon, cursing under my breath.
~~Care of Magical Creatures~~
I made it to Care of Magical Creatures just before Professor Edusa did. The squat little witch adjusted her red square rimmed glasses before starting the lesson.
"Your Ploonies should now be healthy enough now for you to exercise it." she said, absent mindedly scratching her hand which was dotted with age spots. "You and your partner should now be able to take it for a walk around the grounds, then feed it."
We all mumbled in agreement.
"Well," Edusa continued, "go on!"
I got up and found Padma, who was my partner. She reached in and pulled out our Ploony. I got out a collar from inside the box also and fastened it around it's neck. The Ploony gave me what looked like a smile and then licked it's nose. I have to admit - it was kind of cute.
"So how did it go with Snape and the detention arrangement?" Padma asked me, as the Ploony walked to Hagrid's Hut.
"It was OK, I suppose." I shrugged. "I have to scrub down the dungeon without magic."
"That's horrible!" Padma looked shoked, her mouth bulging open.
"What do you mean?" I asked her, confused. After all, it was just a dungeon.
"The dungeon is actually a whole heap of rooms connected together, Harry!" Padma said matter-of-factly. She stopped walking in order to get our Ploony to scratch it's itch.
"You're joking, right?" I asked her.
"Nope." Padma looked grim.
"URGH!" I groaned. This was just great. "I can't believe it!"
"I can." Padma said, now walking again because the Ploony had finished scratching itself. "Snape's got it in for you. It's like common sense or something."
"And how long exactly did it take you to figure that out?" I asked her sarcastically.
"Hey, sorry!" Padma said, rolling her eyes. "Didn't know that the issue was that 'sensitive'!"
"Don't say that!" I objected. "It makes me sound like a girl ..."
"And that's a BAD thing?" Padma asked me, in a tone that obviously told me that I would have to think about my answer seriously.
I had a mental picture of myself with shoulder length black hair that currently had a sparkly butterfly pin in it. It matched my pouty red lips. My eyebrows were thin and my eyes were more almond shaped. I also had respectable wire rimmed glasses. THIS was scary.
"Well .." Oh great. She had caught me out. "I mean, it's not like being a girl is bad or-or something ..." Padma raised an eyebrow. She smiled evilly.
I can assure you now, from the viewpoint of a boy, that girls are all evil and play mind games with you. It's just common sense.
~~The Fight ...~~
It was nearing the end of the lesson, and Padma and I were feeding our Ploony. It ate as much as a human, and just as messily as -
"DRACO MALFOY!" Linda screeched, finishing my mental sentence.
I looked over, and saw a tomato covered Linda brandishing some left over lettuce leaves at a grim looking Draco Malfoy, who had some pieces of cucumber stuck in his hair.
"Tomato really isn't your colour." Malfoy taunted.
"Yeah?" Linda asked back, her arm with the lettuce pulling backwards. "Well, pale and sickly suits you perfectly well - since you DO go wondering the halls of Hogwarts at night time sucking victims dry!" With that, the lettuce flew from her hand and into Malfoy's face.
"ARE YOU BLOODY WELL STUPID?!" Malfoy screamed back, pulling the lettuce from his face.
"NO!" Linda crossed her arms. "But you should really stop talking to yourself in the mirror. It can't be going good to your ever expanding ego." She spun around and started walking away, but stopped to make one last insult. She did this just as Malfoy chucked the pieces of cucumber from his hair at her.
Linda started screaming - two pieces of cucumber had covered her eyes, making her look like those people who are trying face masks. I couldn't help it (and it looked like a majority of the class couldn't either) - I (or is it we?) started cracking up laughing. Linda was still screaming, and pulled off the cucumber pieces. Her and Malfoy's Ploony was chasing them both - trying to get it's food, which they used as weapons of mass destruction.
"STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU!" Hermione got up and screamed. They didn't listen - and Hermione ducked just as some tomato went whizzing above her head. "HEY!" Hermione got back up and didn't react quickly enough - some lettuce flew across the field and wedged itself into her frizzy hair.
Naturally, you would assume that Hermione would deduct points, but she calmly picked herself up and threw away the lettuce - which landed into Karla's face.
"THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE HAPPY!" Karla yelled, picking up some extra red onions. She threw it and hit Ron in the face.
"ARGH!" he yelled, frantically grabbing some of his own rations and throwing it blindly. It hit Padma square in the face.
"OK, CARROT HEAD, YOU'RE GOING DOWN!" Padma picked up some of our carrot and chucked it at Ron, who ducked. The carrot continued flying until it hit Pansy Parkinson on the back.
And that's how it all started - the giant Care of Magical Creatures Ploony Food Fight. Carrots, lettuce and various other Ploony rations flew through the air, landing on anybody that was participating. We were all screaming, and of course, something was bound to happen. Obviously enough, knowing our luck, something did.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" I had an odd feeling that that phrase had popped up earlier today.
Everything stopped. Professor Edusa had woken up from her usual lesson snooze to find the 'classroom' littered with Ploony food. Her face was blotchy (OK, blotchier than before) and her glasses were askew.
"WELL?" Professor Edusa walked around, surveying us through her crooked glasses.
"Please, Professor!" Courtney said sincerely, the smallest of grins appearing. "Malfoy here was demonstrating his skills as a decorator. He decided that the place needed a lift, and he was the one to do it ..."
"Actually, Hall's friend DeGail was being a royal pain up the bum." Malfoy accidentally wiggled his rear as he said this - a truly disturbing sight. The girls recoiled back in horror and shut their eyes tightly.
"What do you mean?" Edusa pressed onwards, clearly not noticing Malfoy's comment and his horrible gesture that accompanied it.
"Well ..." Rachel pushed Malfoy forward. "Malfoy thought that it would be funny if she - I mean - he dumped some salad onto you while you were working." How this related to Linda being a pain, we didn't know.
"Really, now?" Edusa looked at us again. We (except for the Slytherins) were nodding in sincerity.
"She's lying!" Malfoy piped up, tugging at some left over cucumber. "DeGail was throwing it all at me!"
"IT WAS SELF-DEFENCE!" Linda protested. The Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs nodded like mad, whilst the Slytherins shook their heads.
"YOU STARTED IT!" Malfoy retorted.
"Poor ickle Malfoy." Ashlee said almost sympathetically. "He's obviously resorting to childish tactics."
"AM NOT!" he protested, sounding miraculously like an eight-year-old Dudley who didn't get his 'Thunder Chariots' Playstation game.
"Don't mind about him." Courtney cut in.
"You suck!" Malfoy continued. I rolled my eyes.
"He's trying to build up his self-confidence." Elizabeth chipped in, surprising us all by looking up from her mirror.
"No, YOU suck!" Malfoy said again.
"FINE, THEN!" Edusa looked at us all again, not even giving Malfoy a second look. "Stop it! Just for acting in such childish ways, you will all get detention until you learn true manners. Understood?" We all nodded grimly.
"Great one." Karla muttered to Malfoy, in one of her rare bouts of bitterness. He looked offended.
"Blame your stupid friend." he murmered.
"You will report here at 8pm to clean up the mess you have made." Edusa said.
The bell rang - and we all returned our Ploonies and their leashes to their crates. This was stupid - she didn't even bother deducting points!
~~Quidditch Trials~~
The Gryffindors and the Slytherins made our way to the Quidditch pitch. Malfoy and I ducked off to the change rooms.
"Your little friend there has an attitude problem." Malfoy remarked as we entered the change rooms.
"If you haven't noticed," I snorted, "she's actually taller than you are, and her attitude is better than your's." Malfoy scowled and saunted off to a stall to change.
"Actually, I believe that she tackles everything with gusto." he said from the stall.
"Yeah ... Your her favourite one to tackle, alright." I rolled my eyes. "Besides, do you even know what 'gusto' means?" I asked as I pulled out my Quidditch robes from my bag. Silence. His father was in the inner circle of Voldemort, yet he didn't know what 'gusto' meant. Sad. Very, very sad.
After we changed, I placed my wand inside my robes and walked out with Malfoy. I mounted my broom and kicked off the ground. The wind whipped my hair backwards and I enjoyed the usual adrenaline rush. I flew back down to everyone on the lawn.
"OK." I said, as I placed my broom on the ground. It started hovering. Some of the girls squealed a little bit. Seriously - it was only a broom!
"Let's get straight to business." Malfoy landed next to me.
"Yeah, Gusto." I smirked at him. He glared at me in return.
I looked up just to see Louise falling backwards, looking like she was utterly in love.
"What's WITH you?" Karla asked her quietly. Well, as quietly as Karla could - which was a tone of voice that everyone could hear.
"Don't you reckon that he looks SO good when he's bad?" Louise asked, misty eyed. Karla rolled her eyes. Malfoy held a superior sort of smirk on his face. I decided that if it weren't for everyone being here, I would have thrown up. Honestly.
"OK, if you want to join the Gryffindor Quidditch Team," a cheer rose up from the Gryffindor crowd as I said this, "line up here in a straight line."
"And if you want to join a more respectable team that will ultimately lead up to victory, line up HERE in a straight line." Malfoy drawled lazily. The Gryffindors glared while the Slytherins held their trademark smirks.
I noticed that Elizabeth wasn't coming. I snorted - she probably didn't want to get her hair messy. Other people who weren't joining in were Neville and Hermione. We separated and headed towards the Gryffindor goal posts. I gave each of them a broom, and pretty soon, we were flying around in the air. I noticed that some of the people were casually on their brooms, not even scared. Some looked like they belonged in the air. Others looked like that they'd rather face a Blast Ended Skrewt while they were under the full body bind instead of in the air. Others looked confident, but were still shooting precarious glances at the ground. I hovered in front of the group.
"OK, we'll start with some basic exercises." I said, eyeing them all. Lavender looked like she was about to fall off her broom. "Fly around the Gryffindor goalpost once as quickly as you can without injuring yourself."
They all nodded in agreement.
"On one." I said. "Three. Two. One."
The Gryffindors all sped off around the goalpost. Karla was doing this with a smile. Louise looked like she was sour, probably because she wasn't with Malfoy. Once the lap was finished, they all gathered around me in the air.
"That was good." I said, nodding. It looks like Lavender had finally managed to get a firm hold of the broom. "Now, I want you to fly, as quickly as you can, to the ground. Don't worry about your broom - they're all the same model. I'll meet you all down at the bottom."
I sped off on my Firebolt down towards the ground, my hair and robes flying behind me. My glasses were pressing into my face, because the wind was so strong. The ground was coming, closer, closer. Just when I was about to collide, I pulled my broom upwards and slowed down. I heard clapping and looked up. The tryouts were all nodding and clapping, impressed. I felt myself turning a bright radish colour.
"OK, go!" Everyone sped towards the ground. They were going so quickly that you could hear the air whipping around them.
Once they were near the ground, they pulled their broom upwards. Except for --
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!" Karla sped towards the ground and wasn't strong enough to pull her broom up. This ... Was not going to be good.
We watched in horror as Karla continued speeding downwards. Hair was flying everywhere, and so were her limbs. I sped off on my broom and went to try and save her. My broom charged across the field until I was directly underneath Karla, who was still screaming fanatically. I was about to fly upwards when she fell off her broom, crashing onto me. Have you ever had a teenage girl crash onto your nose? Well, before Karla fell, I would've been proud to say that I hadn't. Too bad she actually DID fall onto my nose ...
CRUNCH! Before I could do anything, I was on the ground, my broom underneath me. Karla was on top of my nose. Then everything turned black ...
When I came to, everyone in the Gryffindor Quidditch tryouts were leaning above me, staring at my face.
"KARLA!" I said as loudly as I could. It ended up sounding drowsy.
"Marla?" Linda asked, her hearing problem striking yet again.
"Who's Marla?" Karla asked, looking around, still on my nose.
"That's what I was just thinking ..." Linda said.
"KARLA!" I shouted. Karla looked down at me.
"Oh, hello, Harry!" Karla said happily. "What are you doing lying on the ground like that? You'll get your pretty Quidditch uniform all dirty ..."
"I took you a while to work out ..." Courtney snorted, rolling her eyes.
"You know, I wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't decided to drop in onto my nose." My eyes narrowed.
"Oh, sorry, Harry!" Karla said, her face turning bright red.
Pain throbbed through my nose throughout this entire ordeal so far. It felt like it was broken. I touched my nose tenderly. OUCH! I got up. I needed to get to the hospital wing ...
"Are you OK?" Lavender asked me.
"I think my nose if broken." I said.
"Do you need to go to the hospital wing?" Parvati asked me.
"Yeah." I said.
I got up and headed for the hospital wing.
"What about the Quidditch try-outs?" Dean asked. I shrugged.
"Just do something." I suggested weakly. I walked around the castle until I found the hospital wing.
"Hello?" I said through the silence there.
"Potter!" Madame Pomfrey said, coming out from the back. "What happened to you?" She sat me down on one of the beds.
"My nose." I said. She pulled my hand from my nose.
"Oh dear." she tutted, and pulled out some purple liquid. "Looks like you've broken it."
"Yeah." I nodded as she brandished the liquid at me.
"Drink it." I looked at the liquid. It was smoking a little bit.
"Uh -"
"Drink it, Potter!" she said again. I shrugged and took a swig and started choking. It tasted like grass on toast.
Just after I swallowed it, I felt something in my nose move.
"ARGH!" I yelled, surprised.
"Don't worry, dear." Madame Pomfrey took the empty vial and put it in a tray. "It's just moving your bones around."
Staying calm while a nurse says that your bones are doing their own reconstructive surgery isn't really the easiest thing to do. I felt some more movement I was just getting used to it when I heard an immense CRACK! and the movement stopped. My nose even felt normal again.
"There you go, Potter." Madame Pomfrey smiled lightly. "Now go on, back to where you came from."
"Thanks." I said as I exited the wing.
I was in high spirits until I reached the Quidditch pitch again. It seemed like that everyone wasn't flying at all. The Slytherins were confronting the Gryffindors. It also looked like I had missed out on a lot. There was a Monter Plant sitting on the lawn - obviously Hermione's handiwork. And it looked like it was about to uproot itself from silent laughter. The Gryffindors and the Slytherins were crowded around in a circle. I wondered what was happening ...
I walked forward and looked inside of the circle. Neville and Malfoy were fighting. Malfoy looked like he was about to beat Neville into Hogsmeade. Nevilled looked like Malfoy was about to beat him to Hogsmeade.
"Well, Longbottom?" Malfoy asked. "Hit me!" Neville squealed in horror and recoiled back.
"Stop fighting!" Hermione was squealing. Nobody was listening. "RON!"
Ron, the fellow prefect, was cheering Neville on, instead of acting in an orderly manner like a prefect should.
"What is it, Hermione?" Ron asked, as Neville did a funny looking duck as Malfoy tried to punch him.
"GET BACK HERE, RON!" Hermione screamed at him. "YOU'RE A PREFECT FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"
"I know!" Ron said, and cheered Neville again. "Isn't that wonderful?" Hermione clenched her teeth.
Well ... It wouldn't have been a complete day without the occasional punch-up ...
~~Lunch~~
I sat down at the Gryffindor table at lunch. Neville was sitting across from me - he was badly shaken. Luckily, nobody got hurt in the fight. Well, nearly ...
Hermione had pulled Ron back by the collar and started yelling at him, giving him the entire 'You're-a-prefect-try-and-looked-dignified-at-all-times' lecture. Ron defended himself, by merely stating that by cheering Neville on, he was displaying 'true Gryffindor pride'. At this, Hermione objected, Ron objected to her objection and it all ended up in a huge row. Hermione ended up storming away for Library and Ron had stomped off to the Gryffindor common room.
"Hi, Harry." Ron sat down next to me, interrupting my thoughts. His visit to the common room was apparently short-lived.
"Hi." I replied, then started piling my plate with food. "How's the Hermione situation?"
"I heard that!" Hermione strode into the Great Hall, looking dignified. "After all these years of friendship, Harry, I can't believe that you STILL take Ron's side!"
"I don't!" I said, trying to defend myself.
"See?" Hermione was slowly turning a trademark Michael Corner purple. "You're arguing AGAINST me, YET AGAIN! Can't you just defend me once in a while?"
"But-"
"See?" Hermione shrieked.
"How are you today?" Karla suddenly interrupted, skipping to the table and sitting herself next to Neville.
"NOT NOW, KARLA!" Hermione said, loosing her temper a little bit.
"Now, now, Hermione," Ron smirked, "you better take your own lecture to heart. 'You're a prefect after all, try and at least look dignified'. Right, Hermione?"
"ARGH!" Hermione jumped up from her seat and stormed out of the Hall.
"She should be happier." Karla shrugged and started eating.
"So, Harry ..." Ron said, attempting conversation. "Who got into the Quidditch teams?"
"Yeah, who got in?" Louise asked eagerly.
"I thought you didn't want to know - after all, you DO like Malfoy better than Quidditch. Don't you?" I asked her with a smirk. Louise started opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish.
"C'mon, Harry!" Dean asked, nearly shooting out chewed mashed potatoes at us all. I pulled out my napkin to shield myself from the onslaught.
"I'm not telling you all now." I said, and returned to lunch. Everyone looked back at me, doing a Louise - opening and closing their mouthes like goldfish. "I'll post a note inside the Gryffindor common room telling everyone who's in the Quidditch team tomorrow night, OK?"
Everyone nodded and started eating their lunch again. I heard a gasp of happiness from somewhere. I turned around and saw the rare sight of Malfoy spouting a smile. I wonder what that was all about ...
~~Pest Control~~
After dinner, I headed to the library with Hermione and Louise to do some studying. It was odd though - Louise never went to the library unless it was REALLY crazy in the common room either because Elizabeth was chasing Ron around the common room for stealing her pocket mirror or because she herself was causing the commotion. I told Hermione this, but she had shrugged it off.
"It's good that Louise is developing study habits; I mean we have some testing soon ..." she commented, as she led the way to the library.
"Hermione, that's only about, oh I don't know, SIX weeks away!" I said. Hermione scowled.
"You can never be too prepared, right, Louise?" she said simply, calling on Louise to back her up.
"Hmm?" Louise seemed to snap out of some sort of trance she was in. "Oh yeah."
I gave Hermione a pointed look. She shot one back.
Once we got to the library, Hermione headed to talk to Madame Pince as usual while I took a seat in a squishy arm chair near the window. I had picked out a book about Quidditch tactics that I had hidden underneath a bookcase so nobody else could find it.
'The best way to divert an enemy chaser from grabbing the Quaffle in the special Duck and Push method is to--'
"Psst!" I stopped reading a looked up. No one was there. I shrugged and returned to my book. "Harry!" the same voice said again. I looked up quickly. Was I going mad? I was just about to convict myself of losing my mind when I spotted the source of the voice - Louise.
She was standing behind a book stand devoted to History of Magic. She was urging me to go to where she was. I sighed, bookmarked my book and walked over to her.
"What is it?" I asked her.
"Can you get Draco's attention, Harry?" she asked pleadingly, motioning to a blonde head.
"Why?" I rolled my eyes.
"Please, Harry?" she pleaded, her eyes looking sickeningly desparate.
"Fine." I said, and she hugged me in happiness. I sauntered over to Malfoy as she watched and prodded him on his head, upsetting his silvery blonde hair.
Malfoy automatically reached up, his eyes still on the book he was reading, and gripped on my wrist.
"Don't touch the hair." he said slowly as he turned the page of the book with his free hand. I rolled my eyes.
"Shut it - someone wants to talk to you." I said dully. Malfoy still gripped onto my wrist.
"And who would that be?" Malfoy's head turned to read the second page.
"A secret admirer?" I sounded like I was asking, not saying.
"Name." Malfoy's head moved down the page.
"Go and find out." I said in a bored voice, jerked my wrist out of his grasp and walked off to continue reading 'Quidditch Tactics'.
I watched as Malfoy got up from his chair, fixed up his hair and looked around for anybody who was staring at him. I motioned for Louise to start moving.
"Where are they, Potter?" Malfoy asked as he approached my squishy arm chair. I jerked my head to the History of Magic bookshelf.
Even though he raised an eyebrow and let out an exasperated sigh, he moved to the bookshelf. Louise walked into the space next to it.
"Hi!" she said brightly. Malfoy groaned in what I assumed to be a sort of pain and walked along the bookshelves, ignoring her. Louise's face fell, but she tried again by walking into the next space between the shelves.
"Won't -" she tried. Malfoy kept on walking, trying to ignore her. She moved onto the next space.
"-you-" Tried, walked, moved.
"-talk-" Tried, walked, moved.
"-to-" Tried, walked, moved. And it kept on happening like this throughout the entire library.
"-me-"
"-please,"
"Draco?"
Malfoy stopped walking at last, surveyed Louise and pulled out his wand. Before she could do anything ...
"Stupefy." Malfoy whispered, and the tell-tale red beam fired from his wand and hit Louise on the head. She teetered backwards and fell, stunned.
"Mr Malfoy!" Madame Pince had looked up from her cataloguing and spied Malfoy acting suspiciously. He turned around, looking innnocent. Well as innocent as a Slytherin could be, which wasn't much. "What were you just doing?" Malfoy looked up at her, his face blank.
"Pest control." he said, and then walked out of the library.
~~Detention No.1 - Care of Magical Creatures~~
After dinner, I got up with the rest of our Care of Magical Creatures to stumble to detention with Edusa.
Louise even joined in. Before, Hermione had returned her back to her usual state after she accidentally tripped over Louise when she was looking for something about her Transfiguration homework.
The stench of the Plooney feed filled our nostrils as soon as we stepped outside. Parvati started choking on her own breath and had to go back into the Great Hall to stop herself from killing herself by suffocation. I held my nose as tightly as I could, but I could still smell the horrid stink of rotting vegetables mixed with the usually fresh smelling grass.
"What are you doing, just standing here?" Edusa stepped out of the Hall, and started walking briskly down to the pumpkin patch. Obviously the effect of the stink was the same amount of emotions she had aside from angry: none.
Hermione stepped forward and dragged Ron with her. She probably thought that being a prefect involved you braving mighty stenches and emotionless teachers.
"Come on!" Edusa barked from the core of the smell. "This isn't going to clean up itself!"
"Yeah?" Dean muttered. "Well, we're hoping it is ..."
"No wands!" Edusa added.
The remaining crowd looked at each other, stepped back inside for one last fresh breath and charged down the patch, holding our breaths. By the time we made it down there, our faces were blue. Hermione and Ron looked us all, breathing perfectly fine. Hermione pulled out her wand.
"Stenchous!" she charmed, and the smell was gone.
"A clever piece of handiwork there, Ms Granger." Edusa said, in one of her rare bouts of fairness. "10 points to Gryffindor." Hermione beamed.
"Then at night time, when we're all sleeping, we'll sneak in and --" I heard a voice. I turned around - it was Malfoy. But as soon as I saw him, he stopped talking. Hmm ...
"Now, you are all to clear up this mess. No magic. As a result, if I catch you using magic, you will get a further detention and 25 points taken away from your house." she eyed us all. "Am I understood?"
"Yes, Professor." we chorused as we nodded our heads.
"Good." she stood expectantly. "Well? Start work!"
We separated into little groups and started clearing up the mess. Hermione's group - which included Elizabeth, Dean and Seamus - tackled a patch of ground near mine. In my group, I had Louise, Ron and Hannah Abbott. I picked up a piece of lettuce. It had gone all soft and was stuck to a portion of tomato. Oh dear. This was going to be a loooong night.
"Eww." Ron wrinkled his nose as he picked up a stale piece of cabbage that was currently being attacked by grubs. "You'd think that MAYBE she could have cleaned it up herself with her wand ..."
"Well, Ron," Hermione said, obviously bursting to correct him at any point, "she probably wanted to punish us."
"Oh please, Hermione!" Ron rolled his eyes. Hermione started turning pink. "She's either a squib or a muggle in disguise. There CAN'T be any other option."
"You know, she could --" Hermione started but Ron cut her off.
"Come off it, Hermione." He threw the cabbage into a bag. Hermione scowled and returned to her decomposing tomato piece.
After about half an hour, all the vegetables were gone and everyone was exhausted. Even the smell had cleared up. We all smiled with satisfaction - finally we could go to sleep (or in Hermione's case, do homework). Well, except for me. I still had to go to Potions detention thanks to Riverdance Malfoy.
"What are we supposed to do with these?" Elizabeth asked the crowd. "This is NOT doing any good for my perfume!"
"I dunno ..." I looked around for Edusa. I spotted her snoozing in a set up lawn chair. "There she is. Do you think we should wake her up?" We all looked at each other. If we woke her up ... it would be like tickling a sleeping dragon. And you should NEVER tickle a sleeping dragon.
"Well, someone do it because I'm NOT going to stand around here carrying Plooney feed." Elizabeth ordered, keeping the feed a good two feet away from her. We all gulped.
"Looks like the Gryffindors aren't so brave anymore." Malfoy drawled, carrying his own garbage with a look of disgust on his face. "What's wrong? Scared the teacher will bite your head off?"
"No, but I know something else that's about to bite YOUR head off ..." Rachel muttered to herself. The Gryffindors chuckled a little bit. Malfoy scowled.
"Well, if you're so sure that she won't decapitate us, why don't YOU wake her up?" I asked him innocently.
"Fine." Malfoy said defiantly, even though he had a tingle of fear in his eye. He marched up to Edusa, while we watched closely - this was going to be good. He cleared his throat.
"Where's Colin Creevey when you need him?" Linda asked, looking around. "This is worthy of a Kodak moment ..."
"Excuse me." Malfoy whispered. Edusa merely uttered yet another snore. Her red square rimmed glasses were askew, and her hands were crossed over on her stomach. Malfoy cleared his throat rather loudly. "Excuse me." he said boldly.
"30 points from ... Mmm ..." Edusa snorted in her sleep and rolled over in her lawn chair.
"Well, that didn't work." Malfoy said hastily, backing away. "Oh well, looks like she'll never wake up, too bad ..." he said quickly. Hermione raised her eyebrow and cleared her throat.
"Gilderoy Lockhart is right in front of you willing to sign as much autographs as you wish and he's gotten his memory back AND he wants to propose." Hermione said rather loudly.
Edusa sprang up from her lawn chair and looked around, alarmed. We all started snickering. Hermione gave a small grin.
"Oh." Edusa's face sagged downwards. "Are you all done?"
"Yes, Professor." we said in unison.
"Good." she adjusted her glasses and fixed up her hair a bit. "Now, just put them in a pile here and you are allowed to go back to the castle."
We nodded and dropped our bags into a pile and made our trek back to the castle.
"How did you know Edusa had a thing for Lockhart?" Ashlee asked Hermione.
"Or is it the case that minds think alike ..." Ron snorted.
"Isn't it 'great minds think alike', Ron?" Elizabeth asked absent mindedly, applying some fruity smelling lipgloss.
"It normally is - but Edusa isn't really a great mind." Ron replied. We laughed.
"Well?" Ashlee pressed on. "How did you know that Edusa liked Lockhart?"
"Let's just say when I went to see her once, she was asleep again and was moaning 'Oh Gilderoy, of COURE I will marry you!', I pretty much got the general idea." Hermione chuckled. We all burst off into laughter.
~~Detention No. 2 - Potions~~
When we got inside the castle, the entire group of students headed off to their common rooms. I, however, made my way to the Potion dungeons to do my second detention.
My footsteps echoed as I walked through the hallways. The sounds bounced off the stone walls, and I couldn't help but feel a little bit scared. After all these years at Hogwarts, I still get scared a bit. I gave the smallest of breaths of relief when I saw the door marked 'Professor S. Snape'. I leaned forward and gave three hard knocks.
The sound of the knocks bounced off the walls too, and I jumped a little bit. I scolded myself mentally for being so scared of some stupid sound. The door creaked open, and the hook nose and greasy haired vision of Snape appeared, his lip curling in an evil sort of way.
"Welcome to detention, Potter." he opened the door further, and I stepped into the cold dungeon. Snape glanced at a clock that hung from the wall behind his desk. "It seems like this is one of those times in which you actually made it on time to your many detentions."
I nodded deftly - I'd gotten a bit used to Snape's often spiting. "Thank you, Professor." I said politely.
We both stood there for a moment - me nervously awaiting my toothbrush and pail, Snape contemplating me, wondering which colour toothbrush would suit we the best.
I looked up at the clock after we stood there for a few seconds. It read 8:50.
"Well?" Snape looked down at me, straight line that he called his mouth tightening. "Get to work!" He charmed up a pail of soapy water and a scrub brush.
I sighed, picked up the pail and brush and started working in a far corner. The water was warm at least. I dipped my brush inside the pail and started scrubbing the cold stone floor. I scrubbed the same stone five times as hard as I could, and only a little bit of grime had come off. This was going to be an even longer night ...
After about 2 hours, I had most of the dungeon covered. Snape was marking some third year test papers. I yawned a little bit and started scrubbing near the doorframe. I was certainly suprised after a bit when there was a knock on the door.
"Come in." Snape said, still concentrating on the papers.
The door creaked open, and Professor Dumbledore came in. He gave me a brief smile and walked to Snape, who immediately stood up from his chair.
"Headmaster." he said curtly, partly bowing his head. He looked around. "Would you like a chair?" Snape picked up his wand.
"No, no, never mind." Dumbledore waved his wand and a squishy arm chair that resembled the one that I had sat on when I was in the library appeared. Dumbledore settled into it.
"What is it that you wished to talk about, sir?" Snape asked, leaning back against his own chair, his head coming dangerously close to the suspended pickled things on shelves.
Dumbledore turned his head to see me, half watching and half scrubbing. "I think that Mr Potter should leave us and his detention tonight, Severus."
"Is that what you came down to discuss?" Snape raised his eyebrow.
"No, no, Severus." I could tell Dumbledore's eyes were tinkling. "The business I have to discuss with you has nothing to do with Mr Potter, so I don't think he'd want to be subjected to a boring discussion."
"Of course, Headmaster." Snape looked at me. "You are free to go, Mr Potter."
I nodded, trying to hide my happiness, and returned the pail and scrubbing brush. Dumbledore smiled at me and gave a small wink. I smiled back and exited the dungeon.
~~The Rolling Head~~
As soon as I was out of the dungeons, a rush of heat hit my face. I choked on my own breath and managed to steady when I reached corridor with the portrait hole. I was approaching the painting when I heard a scuffling behind me. I turned around sharply, hand immediately on my wand. What was that?
"Lumos." I said, the area instantly lighting up. Nothing. Very interesting ...
I kept on walking, now alert. I was prepared to stun anything that was following me. When the portrait hole came into view, I gave a sigh of relief. The fat lady in the pink dress was snoozing lazily. I cleared my throat. She jerked up.
"I wasn't sleeping!" she said insantly, then looked at me. "You're up late dear."
"Sorry." I said in some sort of apology. "I had Potions detention."
"Ahh." The fat lady smiled. "I was never really good at Potions, mind you."
"Um .." I looked around. "OK. Er .. Would you mind letting me in?"
"Oh yes, of course." She continued smiling. "Password?"
"Lemon Sickles." I said and she opened up.
"Goodnight, dear." she said.
"Goodnight." I said as I headed to the top of the staircase. The girls bathroom had the light on. Why was someone taking a shower at such a late time?
I shrugged my shoulders, and opened the door to my dormitories. I changed into my pyjamas and climbed into my four poster, taking off my glasses. My eyes closed, and I drew nearer to sleep ...
BUMP.
What the? I jerked upwards, grabbed my wand and stuffed on my glasses. The pulled open the dormitory door and peered out. Nothing. I cursed at myself for being so paranoid about a stupid noise. I turned around to go back to my bed when ...
BUMP, BUMP, BUMP!
I jumped and turned around. I didn't dare use lumos for the fear of what was creeping around. Then it happened.
The door to the girls bathroom opened after a knock on their door. I stiffened in fear - who was knocking on the door of the girls bathroom at this hour? Rachel appeared wearing a dressing robe after she opened the door. Her hair was all wet and she looked extremely annoyed that somebody disturbed her during her late night shower.
"Who is it?" I heard her ask just before ...
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!" somebody screamed in a high pitched voice. I jolted in shock. There was no one else awake ... who was that?
And then I saw it - a head, rolling down the stairs. And it was the one that was screaming. At this point, I couldn't hold it in any longer. I screamed like there was no tomorrow.
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!" I screamed, as I was joined in by Rachel who was following the head rolling down the stairs with her own.
"HARRY?!" she screamed in confused shock, jumping up and down in her robe.
"RACHEL!" I screamed. We both continued screaming until the entire Gryffindor student body was awake.
"What's going on here?"
"What the?"
"What's with all the screaming?"
"Why are the lights all turned on?"
"IS THAT A HEAD?!"
At that last remark, everyone silenced. Somebody, presumably Hermione, had lit the fireplaces again. We all rushed quickly, but cautiously, down to the head.
It was a sickening sight - a decapitated head on the carpet, it's platinum blonde hair shining, it's eyes closed. Strangely enough, there wasn't any blood. Very weird. Then I realised - it was Malfoy's head. Louise fainted when she recognised him. We all wanted to cheer, but the sight of a decapitated head stopped us all breaking out the party poppers and balloons.
"It's a SLYTHERIN!" somebody screamed.
"Emergency Procedure!" someone else yelled.
We all shook our heads, deciding that we would rather investigate this further ourselves. Us Gryffindors made a huge circle around Malfoy's head. It didn't move. Neville extracted himself from the crowd, as pale and sickly looking as the head. We all looked at each other and nodded in what seemed like a silent agreement. The entire crowd moved their heads downward towards the head. It still didn't move. We leaned in closer. Closer. Closer. We were about two inches away from the head when all of a sudden ... It opened it's eyes and started screaming.
The Gryffindors all jumped back in sheer fear and terror, screaming. Most of the girls ran off, trying not to faint. The head continued screaming and started rolling back and forth. This only made us more scared, and people gripped onto each other, freaking out. It only until Ron kicked something by accident that it stopped. Silence. I looked at the space where Ron had kicked. It was clear; nothing was blocking it. It was just thin air.
"Kick again, Ron." I said. Ron nodded and swung a heavy kick at the space.
"Ouch." Malfoy's head said. Some girls still recoiled backwards, but not with fear, but with shock. What the ...?
Ron raised an eyebrow in careful thinking. Then he kicked three more times.
"Ouch, ouch, ouch." Malfoy's head said again. We all sighed in relief. Ron bent down and pulled off something made of weird material. It was - an invisibility cloak. Once it was gone, Malfoy's entire body appeared. Ron was inspecting it, when he couldn't pull it anymore. I looked down - it was snagged on Malfoy's shoe. Ron gave another hearty tug and it came fully off.
"Now what in Honeydukes Marmalade Butterbeers is going here?" Professor McGonagall appeared, wearing a hair mask, her usual glasses and bun gone.
"Malfoy, Professor." Hermione said grimly, pointing to the dazed looking Malfoy.
"Whatever do you mean, Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall asked, her gaze lingering on Malfoy.
"It was an unprovoked attack!" Ashlee said, pointing her finger to the ceiling.
"An ambush, even!" Parvati Patil nodded.
"Malfoy sneaked into the Gryffindor common room." Ron said, shoving the Invisibility Cloak into McGonagall's empty arms, and ignoring both Ashlee and Parvati.
"Why?" she asked, still carrying the Cloak.
"He's a pervert!" Rachel cried, distraught. "I was taking a late shower because I couldn't sleep. He knocked on the door, I opened it, luckily while wearing my dressing gown where he tripped, fell down the stairs and now this." Karla was patting her back.
"Who would want to spy on Rachel?" three unknown Gryffindors said at once.
"What were you doing in this common room, Mr Malfoy?" McGonagall asked, calm.
"I .." Malfoy got up. "Don't know ..."
"You don't know why you managed to sneak into the Gryffindor common room, knock on the girls bathroom while someone was using it, trip and fall down the stairs, disturbing the peace and then lying?" McGonagall's nostrils flared.
"No?" Malfoy said hopefully. The nostrils flared wider.
"That will be 80 points from Slytherin and detention for the rest of the week for disturbing everyone on purpose and lying." McGonagall said. The Gryffindors all smiled with glee. "Now, everyone else here. I want you all asleep. Understood?" she looked sternly at us all.
"Yes, Professor." we said.
"And let me reassure you - if there are any other rolling heads tonight that intend on murdering you, you need not attend lessons tomorrow." she winked, and dragged Malfoy out of the common room with her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: There you go! Another chapter done and posted. Did you like it? Did you hate it? Tell me by reviewing or emailing me! I hope it was worth the wait!
Ahh ... I've been thinking lately. If we do Malfoy's PoV next, we will give away all the secrets of the gripping 'Plan EH'. So ... either review or email me with the answer to this question: WHO'S POV SHOULD IT BE NEXT? Please do not suggest yourself (yes, I'm speaking more directly to you, Rachel), but somebody we haven't heard yet. Someone like ... Ginny? Parvati? Lavendar? Take a pick of all the STUDENTS in Hogwarts (not Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco) and review or email the answer! The person with the most votes will get their PoV next!
~~BlueberryOrchidz - Who's back from her summer holiday!