A/N: Look, a new chapter. I apologize for taking so long to post this. It's not the greatest chapter, but it's something.
Chapter 11:
"James…James," James heard a whisper. He bolted up and looked around into the darkness. He couldn't see a thing.
"Who's-" he started to say. A hand jumped out of the dark and covered his mouth.
"Quiet," the owner of the hand hissed.
"What's going on, Scott?" It couldn't possibly be time to get up yet! James could hear the grandfather clock downstairs ring twice.
"You'll see," Scott said mysteriously. "Follow me and don't wake anyone else up."
James yawned in quiet protest, but padded softly down the cold stairs behind Scott. He could hear voices whispering at the bottom. Waiting for him in the common room were Noah, Ryan, Adam, and Tyler. Noah and Ryan were in the middle of a very quiet argument, Adam was looking bored, and Tyler... well, Tyler was asleep in an armchair.
"What's going on?" James asked.
"Shhh!" The collective whisper came from all five of the other boys' mouths.
"Start of term prank!" Noah said, looking painfully excited. "Ryan, you and James take the third and fourth floors. Scott, you and…" Noah glanced over at Tyler, who was currently snoring. "Well, you can take the fifth floor by yourself. Adam and I can handle the first two floors."
The boys trudged out of the common room, leaving the sleeping Tyler behind. James was feeling more and more confused by the second. Still, he followed Ryan down to the third floor.
"What are we doing?" James asked finally. They had been walking in silence for quite a while, stopping at every suit of armour so Ryan could cast a spell.
"You'll see tomorrow," Ryan said tiredly. "I don't see why we have to do this at two in the morning," he added.
"Um… won't we get caught?" James asked quietly.Ryan laughed. "Nah…the teachers don't expect anyone to be up at this time of night right before the start of term. No one is patrolling. Why? You worried about getting caught?"
James shook his head, but then realized that Ryan couldn't see him in the darkness, "No, just curious."
"I don't know why Noah insisted that you come along," Ryan said after awhile. "It's not like you can do much."
"Hey!" James protested. "I can do magic too you know!"
Ryan rolled his eyes. " Sparks don't count."
"Yes they do."
"I don't think so."
"Yes."
"Whatever."
"I won," James said happily.
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Argh! I give up with you," Ryan said before stopping to charm another suit of armour.
"Ryan?" James asked.
"Yeah?"
James stifled a yawn. "We almost done?"
"Just...about…," Ryan said, finishing the charm on the last one. "Now we're done."
"Good, now we can…" James stopped in middle of the sentence and groaned.
"What?"
"Walk the long way back…"
"No, we don't," Ryan said simply as he started to walk determinedly down the corridor. James had to run to keep up.
"What do you mean no? What are we going to do, grow wings and fly? Or how about we just apparate?"
"Or how about we skip right to Option C and take the secret passage," Ryan said, pulling back a tapestry to reveal a small corridor.
"That works, too," James murmured in awe.
Barely ten minutes later James and Ryan reappeared in the common room.
"Should we wake him?" James asked, pointing at Tyler, who was now drooling and muttering something about pink killer marshmallows.
Ryan just shook his head. "Leave him. He'll be fine 'til morning."
James yawned and started up the steps.
"'Night, James," Ryan said quietly.
"G'night Ryan," James replied, shutting his door as the clock struck three.
"Where's Evan?" Kenzie asked the next morning. She and Cass were sitting in the Common Room waiting to go to breakfast."He'll get down here soon, I hope." Cass muttered, staring longingly at the door.
"I swear he takes longer than my mother to get ready to leave." Kenzie grumbled. "And that's saying something."
"Now Mack," Evan said, appearing at the bottom of the stairs. "Isn't that being just a little harsh? Surely your mum takes longer than I do. I believe she was the one that almost caused us to miss the train yesterday."
Kenzie rolled her eyes and Cass giggled.
"Now, I don't know about you ladies, but I'm starving. How about we go to breakfast?"
The girls agreed and the three set off for the Great Hall. They wandered around the dungeons for ages, trying to find the way.
"Does anyone know where we're going?" Kenzie asked in frustration.
"Not a clue." Cass said with a sigh.
Suddenly, several screams could be heard from above.
"How about we follow the screams?" Evan asked unnecessarily before taking off in the direction of the noise.
"Mr. Higgens, do you realize how much chaos you and your friends have caused?" Headmaster Barrington asked.Noah smiled and looked out into the entrance hall. Students were being chased by suits of armour that were shouting random words at them. It was mass panic. "Yes, sir, I do believe I have a small idea."
"Good, then I think you should understand when I that this was unacceptable and you need to fix it."
"I'm sorry, sir."
Professor Barrington looked a bit baffled. "You're sorry why?"
"I can't fix it."
"What do you mean you can't fix it?"
"It will wear off by the end of the day. There's not a counter-curse."
The professor sunk back into his chair. "Fine." he said with a little shake his head. "Mr. Higgens, you and your accomplices," He pointed to Ryan, Scott, Adam, and James, "shall receive two nights of detention and have letters sent home to your families."
The boys groaned.
"Now boys, don't complain. I could have taken off house points, and seeing that
you are all in the same house, that would have been devastating. But, if you
still think I am being unfair, I can certainly take a few points from each of
you. Let's say about 50 each. That should cover the fact that you snuck out of
bed last night and charmed over 50 pieces of antique school property."
"No….no, the detention alone is fine, sir." Noah stuttered, paling at
the idea of losing over 150 points on the first day. "Come on, guys." He yanked
his friends' arms. The boys scurried back to the Gryffindor table before they
got into deeper trouble.
"Boys!" Cass groaned when they had finally made it to the Great Hall.
Evan stopped laughing long enough to reply. "Relax, even I have to admit that was a good prank."
Kenzie nodded in agreement. "Charming the armour was pretty smart."
The three sat down at the Slytherin table. Kenzie could see Noah and his followers talking to Headmaster Barrington at the head table. After a few moments the boys left and the professor stood up.
"Attention!" He called out. The students immediately quieted down. "I have to ask that no one panics about the suits of armour. The people in charge of the prank have been caught and informed me that it is completely harmless. Unfortunately, it will not wear off until this evening." The students groaned. "The staff and I ask that you just try your best and ignore the armour the best you can. Now, your Heads of House will come around and hand out your schedules and you may head off to class."
The man that had met them at the boats the night before was now working his way down the table handing out schedules to students. As soon as Cass looked at hers, she groaned.
"What?" Kenzie asked.
"We've got half our classes with the Gryffindors."
"What?!" Evan exclaimed. He grabbed his schedule to look for himself.
"Potions, Charms, Defence, and Transfiguration."
"Four classes with James, just great." Evan muttered.
"Maybe it won't be so bad…" Kenzie said trying to be optimistic.
"Who said it wouldn't be so bad?" Evan asked that night after dinner. "Oh, shush." Kenzie said irritably. "It was an honest mistake. I didn't think he'd actually do anything.""I tried to warn you." Cass said. "Look on the bright side; at least you don't have three eyes anymore."
"Who in the world tries a random spell out of the book on a person on the first day of class?" Evan muttered. He tossed his bag on the floor.
"Obviously Mr. Potter," Kenzie replied. "Cass, didn't you tell us to ignore him?"
"Yeah, he'll back off eventually, I hope." Cass said, shaking her head. "If not, I could talk to him. Or we could try and get him back. He's being a real git. Wait 'til his mother hears."
Evan laughed. "Revenge-that might be nice."
Kenzie agreed. Getting a little revenge on James for the nasty stuff he had done in the past two days might not be too bad at all.
