I have the worst luck in the world.
I mean all I needed to do was walk down three levels to the kitchens safely without running into anyone that wanted to kill me. Sounds simple, right? Wrong. I know what you're thinking, and no Ryan did not catch up with us, it was worse. Way, way worse.
We ran into James and Rose on the way and they decided to walk with us there. Did I mention James looks really attractive when he's rambling about killing someone?
I know I'm pathetic, no need to tell me.
But seriously, I'm a little worried about it now. I don't know if he's going to be able pull off these 'little pranks'. I don't think he can resist the temptation to strangle him next time he sees Goyle. Just take what he's going on about now as proof of this: "…Then I'm going to cut out his eye balls and through them off a cliff so he can't get them back and magically re attach them and then I'm going to grate his face off with a cheese grater and then-"
Rose hesitantly patted him on the shoulder, looking quite terrified he was going to grate her face off. "James, deep breaths, yeah?" She spoke in a soothing tone, which did little to lessen his anger. He did shut up though which is always a plus. I don't really feel like listening to his murder plans, funnily enough.
I thought Rose had said she calmed him down? If this is his calm then that is definitely going to make our life together a little difficult. We'll manage though, I'm sure.
We were silent for a while before James turned to me, looking more defeated and exhausted than angry. It was a little heartbreaking, I almost preferred the anger and death threats. Almost. "Please tell me you have a plan."
I shifted nervously, while the plan was the best we could do given the circumstances, I knew he wouldn't be pleased with it. For starts since he was under suspicion he wouldn't be able to actually help with it. I mean he could plan but he couldn't risk getting caught and expelled. Also, while it would drive him crazy it wouldn't put him in the hospital wing like James wanted.
Best to let him know when everyone was there, so I'd have more people on my side. "Yeah, I do. Long story though, and I'm going to need a lot of help. I think It would be best to explain it to you all at one, makes it a lot easier, don't you think?"
"But Scorpius knows!" Yes James, imitate a young, whining child's going to help you. Great plan, congratulations. "He's my brother, I think I deserve to know now!"
"You will know, when we get there."
"Thea, pleaaase?" It was then that I made one of the stupidest mistakes of my life. Almost as stupid as agreeing to Fred's stupid plan in the first place. I glanced at James, who was pouting and giving me puppy dog eyes. Those should be illegal.
Thankfully, I was saved from a most likely disastrous attempt at saying no to James by our arrival at the kitchens. I sighed in relief and turned to James, smiling brightly at his annoyed expression. "Now, stop pouting and help me convince everyone to help, okay?"
"Help? Everyone? How many people are we talkin-"
He trailed off, completely forgetting about what he was saying the minute he opened the door. "James?" He didn't reply, instead he just stood there in the doorway in shock. I sighed impatiently and shoved him out of the way, "Honestly, you'd think you've never seen a kitchen in your- Oh. Wow."
I understood James shock the moment I walked into the kitchen; even though Maddy, Vicky and Tilly hadn't showed up yet the kitchen was still packed with people, enough of them that the house elves appeared to be having nervous breakdowns trying to bring everyone food.
How is it possible for Scorpius to have gathered so many people in less than an hour?!
It was times like these that it really shocked me just how many people were part of Al's family. It seemed to me that every member of the Weasley/Potter family and their closest friends were present. Well, excluding Lucy of course. She was much too busy talking down to everyone and telling people off to help get revenge for her cousin.
I expected ten, give or take, but including the three who still hadn't shown up there was at least twenty people here.
Well, I guess that solves that problem.
The room turned completely silent the minute they noticed the three of us standing in the doorway. I shifted uncomfortably at all the attention and attempted to hide behind Molly, who was handling it a lot better than I was. She turned to the assembled group with a forced smile, "Okay, if this is going to work we're going to have to make some things clear, okay? First of all, you came to Thea for help, which means she's in charge of the plan. We will obviously all get a say in the planning but what she says goes."
"But I'm older than both of you!" I rolled my eyes at the immaturity and peeked over Molly's shoulder to see James Finnigan standing with Sam Thomas, who both looked rather annoyed with Molly's speech.
Frank Longbottom, who was sitting on one of the tables with Scorpius, Rose, Louis and some Slytherin kid (who everyone seemed to be glaring at), spoke up; "Which obviously doesn't make you any more mature, now does it?"
Sam narrowed his eyes, "Cause you would know. You're only in fifth year!"
Lorcan rolled his eyes, "Age has nothing to do with maturity or one's ability to lead. If you recall your father was quite young when he fought in one of the most important battles in history against people twice his age."
The Slytherin boy I had noticed earlier cleared his throat, causing most of the room to turn and glare at him. I wondered if he had done anything to actually offend anyone here, besides being sorted into the house of the person they had come here to plot against. He blushed under the attention and spoke in a quiet, shy voice, "I thought we came here to form a plan, not to argue."
Jason narrowed his eyes, "I'm here to get revenge, though I can't imagine why you're here. To find out our plans so you can warn Goyle? Or just because you enjoy seeing people suffer, no matter for what reason?"
I stared at him in shock, suddenly hoping it would turn out to be him helping Rita, I'd rather it be him than someone close to the family I actually liked. I understood the wariness towards Slytherins after the Battle of Hogwarts but to judge someone purely based on their house was just pathetic. I turned to him and spoke for the first time since I had arrived, "I assume this is based off the fact that he is from Slytherin? Being sorted into Slytherin means you are determined, ambitious and clever, not that you are evil."
He scowled, "His father was a death eater."
This boy is seriously stupid. "So is Scorpius' father and he turned out pretty well. We don't all turn out like our parents, if we did you wouldn't be such an arrogant prat."
Dominique, or Dom, grinned at me, "I vote her for leader, I don't care if she's younger than me."
Before I could thank her Molly turned to the Slytherin curiously, "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but why are you here? I mean, I didn't know you and Al were friends…"
Jason muttered something under his breath about 'didn't even know Zabini had any friends', which was rude and incredibly uncalled for, but true all the same. I didn't know who he was, but I had seen him around the castle before, and he was always alone.
He shrugged, "We're not, but I'm in a few of his classes, and he's one of the only people from his family that doesn't treat me like I'm evil because of my father. He's also the only one who calls me Alec, instead of Zabini. Scorp told me about the plan and asked me to help and I always help a friend when they ask."
Sensing this fight wasn't going to end on its own any time soon I quickly changed the subject, "Thanks for agreeing, Alec, we're all grateful. Now if you'd all stop arguing for two seconds and actually focus on the reason we're here it would be greatly appreciated. We all care about Al and we all hate Goyle, correct? So the plan is-"
I was about start explaining my brilliant plan I was knocked to the floor as Maddy and Vicky came running inside, dragging a blushing Tilly after them. I groaned and rolled over, "Seriously, Maddy? Ever heard of knocking before you enter a room instead of running in and knocking people over?"
She helped me up, still grinning and not looking the slightest bit ashamed, "Sorry about that, didn't want to miss the explaining of the grand plan. Now, we'll just go and take a seat and you can continue explaining."
Louis blushed, "There's some room on the table over here."
I grinned and internally did a little happy dance as I watched Tilly walk over and sit beside him. Now all I have to do is hope he doesn't freak her out too much. "Anyway, as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, here's the plan. James and Scorpius can't be caught doing anything to him, like putting him in the hospital wing because otherwise they might get expelled. This also means that no one can just do something really bad to him either because they will automatically get suspicious and think James had something to do with it."
"So you're saying we can't do anything? This is my brother we're talking about!" Lily scowled.
"No, we're going to pull a lot of small pranks on him all the time so it drives him crazy. So that even if you do get caught it's for something little and no one gets in serious trouble. Now since James and Scorpius can't get caught doing anything so they can't help with the pranks so they can help me and Molly plan them."
Scott nodded, "That sounds like a good plan. How will we know when we need to help with one of the pranks?"
I thought for a moment, "Each prank will most likely be pulled off by a group of two or three so once we have one planned we will let the group know the plan and whoever thinks they could help with that plan can volunteer to be apart of it. That sound good?"
There was a gentle murmur of agreement and I sighed, relieved. "Brilliant, so we'll get started planning and we'll get back to you when we have our first full plan, yeah?"
James grinned, clearly relived to be able to help in some way, "Okay, so we have quidditch training straight after classes tomorrow so I'll tell you the password to the common room and you can meet us there afterward to plan?"
Molly leaned forward to whisper into my ear, "We can get there early and search their dormitory while they are at training, it's perfect!" before turning to James and letting him know we'd meet him there after dinner.
He smiled at me, "See you then."
There you go! I told you the last chapter was more of a filler and this one would be longer :) You will hear more about all the characters involved in the 'big plan' as the story goes on as most of them play an important role in the story at some point. You will also hear more from fred in the next chapter as well. Also a little more about the whole Louis/Tilly part of the story as well.
Don't forget to review and let me know what you think of it :)
