Dating Dungbombs
Review Answers:
1. Lutty wutty (hieverybodyhidrnickgotohellhotmail.com) said:
Put in Ashlee's nose
She wants to be violent
She wants us to think of more violent things
A: I'm sorry, but Ashlee's nose plays no major part in this chapter. Violence? Tsk, tsk, Lutty wutty!
2. harry's4menotu said:
THAT WAS FRIGGIN HILARIOUS!
A: Thank you. :)
3. !c3 An93l said:
Writing isn't about how many reviews you get, it's how it makes you feel
Pressered people will not review
Something about a la-la pro.
A: In response to 1 refer to Review 4.
In response to 2: If you haven't noticed, not EVERYBODY who has reviewed is actually one of the characters in the story or affiliated with the characters in the story.
In response to 3: What in the world is a la-la pro?
4. Hey-lo said:
Update please, I like the story
What exactly is a la-la pro?
Of course you can pressure people into reviewing! You type: 'Review or I wont update!", and that makes people review. See? So, "!c3 An93l", you really can pressure ppl into reviewing. :P So there.
A: 1 - Thank you. :) Here is a new chapter.
2 - No idea
3 - I have no futher comment but 'there you go'.
5. the hope conspiracy said:
I got my own song!
I'm waiting for a new chapter
A: 1 - Hehe, yeah.
2 - It's here!
6. Rachel Gilding said:
You didn't write the chapter in pronoun form
I already have a 'candy-sticked mini'
A: 1 - What?
2 - Candy-sticked, eh? I must say that I have never heard of one of those before ...
7. courtney said:
After the song in Hogsmeade, I say something like "Well that was fun singing" (A/N: It's actually "Yeah, but wasn't singing just soo cool?") but in the song, it actually doesn't have me mentioned at all, so I didn't sing the song.
I'm stronger, then, because I didn't give in
A: 1 and 2 - Did you know that you didn't HAVE to have your name there to indicate that you're singing? It's easier for writer's; we assume that people will be smart enough to pick up that they're singing as well without being actually directly mentioned.
8. lutty-lut-lut said:
Great chapter, my PoV next, please
Next chapter had better come soon or your head will met the toilet
A: 1 - Sorry; it's Courtney's PoV in this chapter!
2 - Another death threat? We all know that I get enough ...
9. ???????????? said:
FERRETS RULE! (A/N: Then something that I presume is a different language: 'I QUIERO HURONES')
Can you tell me who you are? I want to know!
If you are wondering, I have NOT gone mad!
A: 1 - Erm ... yeah ...
2 - No, I'm not telling anybody. Just read the story and enjoy it!
3 - Sure you haven't
10. fairy said:
Your story is so funny! I love it! Keep up the great work!
A: 1 - Aww, thanks! :D
11. nerds said:
This story is good except for all that arguing!
Harry is too poor in this story; give him some proudness and not feel stupid
A: 1 - Thanks for the comment; and I'll see what I can do for the arguing thing
2 - Hmm ... I agree, now that I think about it. I'll try and do something about it in the next chapter (if I don't forget).
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Summary of the chapter: Rags, germs, ball, spill, deflate, clone, purple and fireworks.
A/N: Hi everyone! Welcome to the new chapter of Dating Dungbombs - where this chapter belongs to ... Courtney! Yes, that means that boy germ rebellions and anti-swearing rules will be put right into effect.
Everything seems to be normal now, after the Easter Incident. We have a partial full lesson plan. That means lessons before lunch and after dinner. Nothing in between. Oh, and Astronomy is actually rather short. Astronomy is a bit of a boring subject to tell you the truth when you're not interested in it.
And due to the usual confusion of the gender of Blaise Zabini - in "Dating Dungbombs", Blaise is a BOY.
Anyway, enough with my rambling - read on!
Blue - who fully supports the 24hr teacher strikes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, otherwise I would shower in $50 notes. I don't own Monopoly. The Parker Bros. do. I do not own 'The Lord of the Rings' - that is J.R.R. Tolkein's. I do, however, copyright these characters (even though they are real people) in fanfiction form so they can't be used in other fanfictions. So go find your own dysfunctional bunch. I don't own Coke, Pepsi, Sunkist, Solo and Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds. I merely own cheap rip-offs; Corke, Pepseye, Sunblist, Solowe, Maybselline Wet Shine Diamontes and Maybselline Peach Crush Powder.
P.S. You flame me and I will personally hex you to Hogsmeade and back.
P.P.S. 9 Days till 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' is released in Australia!
P.P.P.S. Hi Stephanie!!!
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Chapter 12 - Courtney's PoV: Scary Surprises
I yawned as I slowly opened my eyes. Light was sifting through the window. I groaned and got up. I looked around; and there were a few empty beds. I yawned again and looked out of the window. The giant squid's tentacles were floating gently on the surface of the lake. A few students were sitting on the grounds, talking. I was starting to look at something else when I heard a fumbling noise behind. Originally dismissing as Karla turning around in bed, I decided that maybe I should check it out. I turned around.
"Who are you?" I asked, watching a little figure carrying a sack. The figure moved into the sunlight and I saw it was a house elf. The sack it was carrying was overflowing with dirty robes and socks. The elf also seemed to be blinking an awful lot. Maybe it was the Sun.
"Blinkie is sorry!" the house elf squeaked in terror. "Blinkie was only doing the laundry and .. and .."
"Oh." I blinked myself. "Sorry for being so rude." I apologised. Blinkie's eyes welled up. I'm not exactly sure why (after all, if you blinked at the rate as this house elf did, your eyes would never be dry and find the need to well up) until the elf started crying out in sadness.
"Blinkie is sorry! Blinkie never meant for you to apologise! Blinkie should be punished for making a student sorry!" At that, Blinkie dropped the dirty laundry sack, grabbed the nearest lamp and started bashing herself on the head with it. My eyes widened.
"Blinkie!" I said, running forward and wrestling with her for the lamp. Karla turned over in her sleep and Rachel mumbled a little bit before continuing snoring. Blinkie continued sobbing and bashing. For such a little figure, Blinkie could sure hold her ground. "BLINKIE!" I repeated, this time a little louder. Blinkie stopped.
"Blinkie is sorry." Blinkie sniffed, wiping her nose with her hand and blinking rapidly. "Blinkie had to punish Blinkie. Blinkie is a house elf and so Blinkie must be punished for being so rude to a student."
"Oh." I blinked. "OK." Blinkie finished sniffling and looked around the room.
"Is there anything that you're looking for?" I asked Blinkie, sitting on my bed.
"Oh, yes!" Blinkie cracked me a crooked smile. "Blinkie is looking for dirty laundry." I got up and looked around. I picked up a few of my dirty socks and was about to give them to Blinkie when I stopped.
"Wait ... if I give you these, will you be set free?" I asked, the sock dangling from my hand. Blinkie shook her head.
"Blinkie's master is Professor Dumbledore." Blinkie said. I smiled.
"Oh, OK." I gave Blinkie the socks. Blinkie bowed until her nose touched the floor.
"Blinkie thanks you for your kindness." Blinkie said, approaching the door. I smiled and Blinkie smiled back. Blinkie was almost gone when --
"Blinkie, wait!" Blinkie turned around. I was holding some black rags that were on the foot of Lara's bed. Blinkie walked towards me and I stuffed the rags into the laundry bag. She smiled again, clicked her fingers and disappeared.
I walked to the bathroom, had a shower and then got changed into my uniform. I grabbed my books for the first three subjects morning, stuffed them into my bag and then walked out of Gryffindor tower towards the Great Hall for breakfast.
I sat down and started piling my plate with eggs, bacon and kippers.
"Morning, Courtney." Louise smiled, after drinking some of her orange juice.
"Morning." I said, cutting up my bacon. I stabbed the bacon with my fork and brought it up to my mouth. As I was chewing, I looked around the Hall.
Ashlee was conversing (rather loudly) with Linda, who seemed to be getting more eggs. Louise was talking to Hermione (something about History of Magic) and Lara was at the Slytherin table again, talking to Malfoy (BOY GERM INFESTED!).
I swallowed my bacon just as Karla skipped down into the Great Hall. She took a seat next to me.
"Good morning, Courtney!" she said cheerily, pouring herself some orange juice.
"Good morning, Karla!" I said back in an equally cheery voice.
We started talking - I barely noticed Ron coming down into the Hall. That is, until he decided to sit next to Karla. As soon as he sat down, Karla stopped talking and started screaming.
"ARGH!" she said, instantly getting up from the bench. I watched them, along with about 10 other people.
"What?" Ron asked, looking around. "Did you find a bug in your food or --"
"NO!" Karla said, backing towards me.
"Then what?" Ron looked confused as he continued searching the area where Karla just sat.
"YOU!" she said, pointing a finger accusingly at Ron. Ron looked shocked.
"M-M-Me?" he stuttered, taken aback.
"YOU HAVE BOY GERMS!" Karla said, as if sitting within a 10cm circle would result in instant death. I was surprised to see Ron relax, as if he didn't even care if Karla died or not!
"No I don't, Karla." he said, resuming with his breakfast. Karla looked appalled. Decidedly having enough, she grabbed Ron's plate, his fork ("OI! I was using that!") and his glass of his orange juice and thrust it all into Ron's arms. Ron looked shocked and confused.
"Move!" she ordered, pointing toward the the doors that lead to the outside of the castle. Ron looked at her as if she were insane. How could he think that? It's obvious that he's crawling with boy germs - how could he put Karla's (and every other girl's) safety at risk?
"Are you serio-"
"MOVE!" Karla's finger poked toward the door. Ron looked at her again and then sighed. He set his food down back on the table for a few seconds while he got his bag and then picked up the food again, moving toward the direction of Karla's finger. He stopped at about 30cm and sat down. Karla shook her head.
"Further." Ron looked at her incredulously, picked up his stuff again and started walking. This time he walked about a metre. Karla continued shaking her head. "Further." About 5 metres. "Further." About 10 metres. "Further." This time, Ron rolled his eyes and walked right to the doors.
"How about now?" he asked somewhat sarcastically.
"Further." Karla called. Ron's mouth fell down. Seeing the look on Karla's face, Ron opened the doors and stepped out.
"Now?" He shouted.
"Further."
"Karla, I'm out of the door -"
"FURTHER!" Ron sighed, took about 5 steps.
"NOW?" He yelled.
"Further." Ron leaned forward and clsoed the door.
"How about now?" I heard Ron yell.
"That's good!" Karla said, satisfied. She sat back down and started eating again. I smiled - she did a good job.
We all started talking again when Harry entered the Hall. He was about to sit down next to Karla for his food when she shook her head. Harry sighed, picked up his things (after piling his plate) and walked out of the Hall. Before the door closed, I saw Harry settle down on a clump of comfy looking grass next to Ron.
I continued eating.
"What have we got after breakfast?" Rachel asked after she walked down the stairs and seated herself next to Karla.
"I have Arithmacy, Potions and Care of Magical Creatures." Hermione jumped in, without looking up from the book she was reading: "Potions Prepared! An Advanced Guide to Brewing the Perfect Bottle".
"Well we have Divination instead of Arithmacy." Elizabeth said, re-applying her lipgloss slowly and carefully with her Wet Shine Diamontes (as mentioned before; "Charmed to stay on longer, glossier and wetter than wet").
Hermione snorted. "I still reckon that Divination is a load of codswallop." she turned a page.
"Yeah, well it's a bludge period." Ashlee said, smirking in a Malfoy like manner. She turned off to talk to Louise.
"I agree." Rachel said, shrugging. Hermione looked horrified.
"Bludge?" she narrowed her eyes. "Even though Divination is a load of Ploony dung, it is still a lesson!"
"Well sorry!" Rachel said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Hermione frowned. She pulled out her wand from inside her robes and aimed it at Rachel.
"Parli non Entschuldigungen." She said, before stuffing her wand back into her robes. "Speak no more fake apologies, Rachel." Hermione said nastily, the bell ringing only a few seconds later.
Divination
We climbed our way to the north tower where Divination was held. When we opened the door, the usual blast of smelly hot air hit us. Little tables littered the room. And the usual robed figure with too many jewels and way too big glasses.
"I knew you were coming soon." Professor Trelawny said in what she presumed would have been a mystical way. We all rolled our eyes. However, Lavendar and Parvati both squealed in delight. The fire was crackling merrily in the room - making us desparate for air. We all sat down at the little tables in groups of three and waited. In my group there was Karla and Ashlee.
"I think I'm going to die." Linda squeaked, tugging at her collar.
"May I assist?" Malfoy butt in, smirking in his usual way. Linda's eyes narrowed. Malfoy merely kept on smirking. She leant in to him.
"You're dying in Care of Magical Creatures, ferret boy." she said in a hostile tone. I can't believe it. Linda was stupid enough to actually lean in to a BOY! That's how germs spread! I can't believe that Linda is practically voluntarily making herself sick. I think I'm going to be sick ...
"Today we will continue our work with crystal balls." Professor Trelawny continued, a little louder than usual to drown out Linda and Malfoy arguing. "The fates have informed me that our crystall ball work is essential for the half yearly test, which, I may have to add, isn't very far away."
"Genius!" I heard Parvati exclaim to Lavendar, who was nodding intently and watching Trelawny closely.
"Look deep inside the mist of the ball and see if you can gaze into the future." Trelawny adjusted her shawl and waited, her eyes four times their size in her glasses.
I cleared my throat and looked in. It was just swirling white stuff to me. Nothing interes-- WAIT! What was that? I leant in and looked closely. Yes! Yes, there was a shape. It was very unclear at first, but then it started to clear up. My eyes widened. What that a ...?
"What is it, Courtney?" Karla asked me tensely. I gulped and turned a little pale. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.
"Courtney?" Ashlee asked, staring at my face, which was currently turning sheet white. I opened my mouth to talk and Ashlee and Karla leant in closer, but no sound came out.
"Ahh ... I know that face." Professor Trelawny had seen me and zoned in. "Now; what do you see, child?" I blinked, gulped and then opened my mouth.
"A head." I said. "A severed head." Ashlee and Karla started laughing whilst Professor Trelawny looked mortified.
"In that case, you're not doing the exercise properly." Ashlee chuckled, doing a bad impression of Professor Trelawny's so-called 'mystical' voice. "You're probably looking at Malfoy's snotty little head." she jerked her thumb over to Malfoy. He shot Ashlee an angry look. Ashlee and Karla kept on laughing. It was only Professor Trelawny who looked like she had seen Death himself. Then again, with Trelawny's Grim predictions ...
"This is no laughing matter!" Professor Trelawny said. Ashlee and Karla stopped laughing and looked at each other. "My dear, you have seen --"
"The Grim!" Karla said softly, rolling her eyes and cutting off Trelawny.
"-- The Grim!" Professor Trelawny finished dramatically. Ashlee and Karla looked at each other seriously for a few seconds and then started cracking up. Trelawny's huge eyes narrowed to the size of a normal eye. "How can you laugh in the face of the Grim?" she asked. I saw Ashlee - she seemed to be holding back a huge urge to say "Easily".
"Becareful if you lie in the face of the Grim." Trelawny warned, looking particularly at Ashlee. "Bad things can happen ..." With that, she breezed off to help Elizabeth, Ron and Louise.
"What a load of tosh." Ashlee said, pulling the crystal ball toward her gaze. She squinted her left eye. "If you squint your left eye, unfocus the other one and stick your tongue, this blob here kind of looks like ... Oops, no wait, lost it."
Karla dragged the ball into her line of view. She stuck her tongue out to one side and tilted her head. "No ... This looks more like one of those muggle Monopoly pieces ..."
"Monopoly?" Linda's head perked up. "I remember asking this girl where her necklace came from once. She said Monopoly, but then it must have been a pretty big game piece." I started laughing.
"I bet Linda didn't even hear what she said ..." I joked. Ashlee and Karla started laughing again.
"What?" Linda's asked, her face inquisitive. We all cracked up this time. Linda blinked then turned back to her crystal ball.
We were wiping our tears when Karla shoved the crystall ball at me.
"I saw fog." she said. I looked into the ball, still smiling. Then I froze.
What was THAT? I leaned in closer to get a better look.
"Don't tell me it's another Grim." Karla said, pulling out her copy of "Unfogging the Future". I shook my head.
"This isn't a Grim." I said, watching closely.
"Well if it's anything, then it's a Grim from Trelawny's point of view." Ashlee scoffed. I shook my head again.
"Oh, useless, Courtney!" Karla set down her book. "What do you see?" her red hair was reflecting the fire.
"Us."
Ashlee and Karla blinked. For a few seconds, I don't think any of them believed it.
"What?" Ashlee asked flatly.
"Look;" I shoved the ball under Ashlee's nose, "can't you see it?" Ashlee looked closely, but shook her head.
"Just looks like swirly stuff to me." she said. I pushed the ball to Karla.
"How about you?" Karla looked closely.
"Nothing." she said. I frowned, pulled the ball back and looked again.
How could they both miss it? It was so clear - like a colour TV screen. I watched, my brows furrowing.
"What's going on?" Ashlee asked as she leant in closer.
"It's us. We're standing in front of a cauldron." What were we doing? "Ashlee, you're adding some green stems. Karla, you're throwing in something that looks like oil."
The crystal ball forms of us were stirring. Crystal ball me was getting out a ladel. Crystal ball Karla was pulling out a vial and detached the cork that was in it. Crystal ball Ashlee seemed to be putting away the rest of the ingredients. The potion was a funny looking one - it sort of looked like oil. Crystal ball me dipped the ladel into the pot and brought out some of the thick potion and carefully emptied the ladel into the vial. After Crystal ball me filled the vial, Crystal ball Karla put on the cork lid. Crystall ball Ashlee was back, rubbing her hands in an evil like manner. As the vision was fading, I saw Crystal ball me put the vial into my robes. Then it completely disappeared into the blue and white swirls.
"What happened?" Karla asked enthusiastically.
"We brewed a potion." my eyebrows knitted together. "It looked like oil and I ladeled it into a vial. Ashlee looked evil and Karla originally gave me the vial."
We looked at each other in silence and kept on doing so for a few minutes. We were unusually subdued for the rest of the lesson; in which I looked at everybody else and what they were doing.
Lara seemed to be staring intently into the ball, until I saw her take her mascara and look intently at her reflection to apply some properly. Ron had picked up the crystal ball and was examining the bottom of the stand that the ball was sitting on with one eye. Elizabeth was happily looking into the ball - she was obviously captivated with her own reflection.
I stared at my copy of "Unfogging the Future" without really seeing it. What was this all about? I shut my eyes tightly and tried getting the image out of my head. The bell started ringing and I packed my bag silently.
Potions
We filed into Potions in our usual sullen manor that we take on whenever entering the dungeons.
"So did you see anything in the crystal ball?" Rachel asked Louise. Louise scoffed.
"Yeah, sure I did. And my dad is a rampaging Hippogriff." she said as she rolled her eyes.
"I didn't see anything." Linda said, pulling her Potions book out of her bag. "It was all the same swirly stuff there."
"Well I saw something in the crystal ball." Elizabeth was combing her hair. My ears perked up.
"What was it, Elizabeth?" I asked casually.
"It was the most wonderful thing that I've ever seen!" Elizabeth sighed, in one of her rare bouts where her comb isn't actually at work.
"What?"
"My reflection!" Elizabeth let out a huge breath and continued combing, with a dreamy expression on her face. I rolled my eyes. This wasn't what I was searching for. I was about to lean over to Lara and ask her if she saw anything, but that was when Snape stormed into the dungeon, his cape billowing out after him.
"Comb away, Miss Fields!" Snape snapped. Elizabeth looked momentarily mortified, but then decided to put it away, since Snape's eyes were flashing.
Snape stood at the front of the class, surveying us all. "Today, we're going to learn how to brew the Acne Potion."
He started pacing the length of the classroom. "Now, can anyone tell me what the properties of the Acne Potions are?" To absolutely nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand shot up into the air. If it went any faster, Harry's (who was sitting next to her) hair would have been blown back by the wind.
"Pick ME!" Hermione mumbled to herself. Snape looked at everyone else in the classroom.
"Nobody?" he asked, ignoring the waving arm in the air. If Hermione could have taken flight; it would have just been there. "Well, since nobody will tell me, I will have to you." Hermione put down her hand, looking slightly disappointed.
"Nice try, Hermes." Ron patted her back. I recoiled in shock. How could Hermione just let that happen? A boy TOUCHED her and she didn't even scream at him like any other sane person would have. In fact, Hermione looked like she was glad to be getting comfort for Ron. How disgusting is that? I would never ask a boy for comfort - after all ... I wasn't THAT desparate to get some moral support.
"An Acne Potion obviously gives you acne or pimples. It immediately causes an excess of oils to be released onto the skin, therefore making the develop an oily appearance. Give this potion a few seconds, and pimples would have formed everywhere." Snape explained, interrupting my thoughts. "Sometimes, Acne Potions go horribly wrong; resulting in the drinker to have strong acne problems for the rest of their life." I personally thought that this talk was exceptionally boring, but Elizabeth seemed to be completely engrossed. When Snape mentioned the bit about 'strong acne problems for the rest of their life' bit, her mouth fell open and she let out a shocked sound.
"This is horrifing ..." she muttered to herself, fumbling desparately for the concealer she kept in her bag; the potion reminded her to check if she still had flawless skin.
"Some famous witches and wizards which have drank faulty Acne Potions are Tameron Diaz, Maconna and April Lavine." Snape said, his arms crossed behind his back."
Elizabeth pulled her concealer frantically out from her bag, sighed in relief, and started applying some as Snape looked down at the Potions textbook.
"All you need to know about brewing the Acne Potion is now on the board. Now becareful, as an unfinished Acne Potion will result in boils for seven days." Snape flicked his wand and words magically appeared on the blackboard. He looked at the class impatiently. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
We all immediately sprang to life and started gathering all the necessary ingredients and equipment for the potion.
"Daisy stalks, crawly solution, mud flower, 5 powdered bump bugs, 100% virgin olive oil, fly wings and pus from pus bulbs." I repeated to myself, walking towards the ingredients table.
I pulled out the ingredients and then put them on the tray that you would find in muggle Food Technology classrooms. It took ages to collect the ingredients - the bump bags were wickedly fast, the crawly solution would start turning blue if moved too much and the mud flower would randomly spit bits of mud and mulch at you.
Sitting back down, I started brewing my potion with Karla. Snape was watching us closely.
"I wonder what that thing in the crystal ball was about." I said as I started grinding the bump bugs into powder.
"I don't know." Karla was mixing the crawly solution with the pus. It turned into a goopy orange colour. Karla made a face.
I started boiling the water. "It's weird - I've never seen anything in Divination before. Why did I start today?" I pulled the stalks off the mud flower and threw them into the scrap bowel. I chucked the mud flower petals into the water.
"Maybe it actually WAS the future!" Karla joked, adding some of the olive oil to her goopy orange ... thing.
"Hahahha, yeah right." I rolled my eyes and looked at the board.
AFTER BOILING WATER AND ADDING MUD FLOWER PETALS, ADD IN POWDERED BUMP BUGS.
I threw in the bugs and watched as the water turned a green colour.
WATER SHOULD TURN GREEN. THEN ADD DAISY STALKS.
Karla picked up the daisy stalks. As she did, I had the strangest sense of deja vu. I watched her with a slight frown on my face. She threw the stalks in one by one. That's when I remembered where I saw it; in the crystal ball.
"KARLA!" I said, tugging at her arm. Karla threw in the last daisy stalk.
"Yes, Courtney?" she asked, giving me a smile that made her look like she was 5 years old.
"Karla, the crystal ball had us brewing the Acne Potion!" I said, tugging at her arm harder than before. Her eyes widened.
"WHAT?!" her voice echoed around the dungeon and people started looking at us, but I didn't care. "Ashlee!" she pulled Ashlee over by the collar. Ashlee was choking.
"What?" she asked, rubbing her neck.
"We were brewing the Acne Potion in the crystal ball." I told her. An evil look spread over Ashlee's face. She started rubbing her chin in a mock (well I'm hoping it was fake) expression of pure evil.
"Oh, this should be interesting." Ashlee said evilly.
"Diabolical genius." I said, a Draco Malfoy like look coming over my face. I leaked the olive oil into the potion and read the board.
POTION SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BE FINISHED AFTER OLIVE OIL IS ADDED. PUT IN VIAL, CORK AND PUT AT FRONT TABLE.
"Maybe we could just keep some for ... future plans." I said, leaning into Karla.
"We can't." Karla gestured her head towards Snape, who was still watching us steelily. "Snape will see us."
I sighed. "OK, OK, we'll brew some more tomorrow." Karla pulled out the vial, laddled some potion into it, corked it and then put it on the front desk. Snape was still watching us as I poured out the rest of the potion.
"What's going on over there?" Snape barked. Ashlee jumped and ran over back to her seat.
However, it wasn't Ashlee that Snape was talking to. I looked over - it was Lara and Malfoy. They were conversing over a large piece of paper. It looked a bit like a blueprint. When Snape had noticed that they hadn't finished brewing their potion, he looked over.
"MALFOY! FATHERSOME!" Lara and Malfoy jumped. In fact, they might have jumped too much. For as soon as Lara and Malfoy had jumped, their cauldron had begun to teeter dangerously. Too dangerously. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
Lara and Malfoy looked up from the blueprint with looks of horror upon their faces. The rest of the students were watching in silent shock. Snape's eyes widened and his face paled (well even more than it already was). We all knew perfectly well that if this unfinished Acne Potion spilt on anyone, then they'd be cursed with boils for an entire week. Lara and Malfoy both got up, turned around and came running toward us in a form that reminded me of the muggle movie "Mission: Impossible" when the guy started running from the aquarium.
We students looked at each other and started fleeing for the door. Snape, however, wasn't very lucky. No sooner had he stepped from the teachers desk had the potion spilled upon him. Almost half of it. We all looked horrified. Not as horrified as Snape though. He had this face of pure astonishment.
Why?
Well ... boils WERE appearing on his face.
And arms.
And hands.
"Nice look." Louise snorted.
"MR MALFOY!" Snape roared. Malfoy recoiled. Lara tried hiding behind me. "MISS FATHERSOME!" Lara shut her eyes tightly.
"Oh dear, we are in trouble." Linda whispered.
"DETENTION!" Snape shouted. "TONIGHT! 8PM IN THE DUNGEONS!"
The bell rang and there was a mad rush for the corridor. Snape still looked like he had been hit with one BAD hex and was on a rampage. Lara and Malfoy looked like they were on death row. It was OK - considering it's Malfoy - but bad for Lara.
Care of Magical Creatures
We all made our way to the pumpkin patch where Care of Magical Creatures was being held. Professor Edusa wasn't there yet, so we all settled down on the grass and started talking. The Ploonies were still in their pen and were happily playing with each other.
After a few minutes, Professor Edusa (if you could call her a professor) came down, holding down her hat and adjusting her red square glasses. Age spots dotted her face, which I'm sure reminded us all of a bulldog. She made her way to the front of the class with her usual grumpy look and set down the big pile of papers and books on the grass.
"Alright, in this lesson we will try and teach your Ploony some tricks." Professor Edusa waved her arm unimportantly to the pen of the jumping Ploonies. "Some of the tricks are sit, lie down, roll over and speak. The tricks that Ploonies can do end up distantly relating them to domestic dogs, being why Ploonies are so sociable." Professa Edusa smoothed (unsuccessfully) her hair and sat down in a chair that she had conjured with her wand.
"You may now start." she said, picking up the papers and books, pulling out a quill.
We all looked at each other and exchanged looks; how in the world were we going to teach our Ploony tricks?
I sighed and found my partner - Blaise Zabini - after I collected our Ploony. I squirmed as I came near him. Blaise was a BOY. I shuddered - I could see all those horrible germs crawling on him. I didn't want to get infected. It's a terrible thing to get infected with boy germs. I shuddered again.
Blaise was standing on the grass, his hands in his pockets, looking at his surroundings with a bored expression on his face.
"Blaise." I said stiffly. He grunted in acknowledgement. I let go of our Ploony's collar and let is sit down. It looked up enthusiastically at us.
"You can go." he said roughly. A rare show of kindess from a boy, let alone a Slytherin. Needless to say, I was shocked. Pulling the Ploony over to me as I walked off (a good 5 metres) to stay away from the boy germs, I sat down and looked at the Ploony.
"Sit." I said. The Ploony only looked at me with its big brown eyes and licked its nose. I got my hands and tired pushing the back part of the Ploony's back down. It looked at me and licked its nose again. Again, I pushed. Again, the Ploony licked its nose. I was about to give to Ploony over to Blaise when I witnessed yet another Care of Magical Creatures fight.
It was Linda and Malfoy and they both obviously had different views on how to train animals.
"You DON'T sends sparks at an animal to train them to sit IF THEY ARE NATURALLY AFRAID OF BRIGHT LIGHTS!" she yelled at Malfoy. Malfoy rolled his eyes and sent some sparks into Linda's face, making her recoil and then blink.
"Are YOU naturally afraid of bright lights? You know, if you were related to a Ploony, I wouldn't be surprised." Malfoy smirked.
"Well those little voices in your head must be spreading lies about people." Linda said innocently. "You know Malfoy, you should really get some help. I mean, if you were related to a Ploony, I wouldn't be surprised." Malfoy looked like he was grinding his teeth.
"Obviously you're talking gibberish - LINDA - you must be blinded by my good looks." Malfoy said egotistically. Linda looked appalled - and for good reason.
"Sure, if you could call an albino, hair slicked ferret good looking, DRACO." Linda's eyes narrowed. Malfoy opened his mouth but was cut off.
"What are you two doing?" Professor Edusa had awoken from her usual sleep and was prowling around the grounds.
"Ploony training techniques." Linda said nicely, an innocent grin on her face. Edusa looked skeptical - Malfoy was throwing Linda death glares. Finally after a little bit, she returned to her lawn chair and started snoring again.
"Courtney." Blaise said, coming towards me. In record time, I stepped back. He looked confused. He stepped forward again. I stepped back again. Step forward. Step back. Step forward. Step back. Steps forward. Steps back. In the end I think Blaise gave up. With the distance of 5 metres between us, Blaise started talking. "Have you gotten any progress with the Ploony?" I looked at the Ploony.
"Sit?" I asked nicely. It liked its nose and I shook my head. "Nope." Blaise rolled his eyes and sat back down.
I was about to start training the Ploony again when -- "OW! THE THING BIT ME, THE SON OF A BITH!" I looked up, shocked. Malfoy had just swore. SWORE. Swearing is so bad for you!
"You said the 'B' word!" I shouted, horrified at such a terrible deed. Karla's head jerked up.
"Who said the 'B' word?!" she asked, with the same look upon her face as me.
"He said the 'B' word!" I pointed at Malfoy, who looked shocked at the reaction.
"I can't believe that you said the 'B' word!" Karla screeched at him. Malfoy walked back slowly. I think that he deserved all that shouting.
Meanwhile, Edusa had woken up to the screaming of Karla.
"Alright then." she coughed, looking a bit confused. "Right well, you should have taught your Ploony the basics in training. Now for homework, I want you all to write a 12 inch essay on your experiences today. Due Monday."
Oh this was great - we hadn't even done anything. I looked angrily at the Ploony.
"SIT!" I yelled at it. It blinked, licked its nose and then sat down. I smiled at it, satisfied. Now, onto the next trick ...
"OK, that's enough!" Edusa adjusted her glasses and grunted a little bit to herself. "I'm sure by now you would have taught your Ploony the assortment of tricks. Now, I want you all to feed your Ploony and give it a walk. This is to be done individually and not neccessarily with your partner. The person who is not doing the duties will do bookwork." Edusa mumbled to herself again, sat down on the lawn chair and in a manner of seconds had fallen asleep again.
"YEAH!" Linda and Malfoy screamed, grabbing their bags and walking towards their group. Malfoy shoved the Ploony's leash (still attached to the Ploony) into Linda's hands and then walked off to join Blaise. Linda sighed, shook her head, and started feeding the Ploony.
"Did you get your Ploony to work properly?" Louise asked Rachel as they walked their Ploonies together. She shook her head. "Susan was shouting at it and sending sparks at it, but then stopped when Linda started fighting with Malfoy." Linda looked up. Her Ploony didn't really seem to be hungry, so she started walking it.
"What?" she asked as her Ploony walked energetically.
"Nothing." Rachel smirked, poking Louise in the ribs. They were both laughing and accidentally bumped into Elizabeth, who was now applying blush with one hand and walking her PLlony with the other. There was a scream and for the second time that day, everything was going in slow motion (from Elizabeth's point of view, I'm sure). After Rachel and Louise had bumped into Elizabeth, her blush had wobbled dangerously and had no sooner fallen out of her hands. In slow motion, the blush slowly swished in the air until it landed onto the dirt brown ground; cracking opening. Peachy coloured powdered spilled out and littered the ground like lice. Elizabeth's mouth gaped wide open as her favourite blush scattered onto the dirt, as if she was in a cosmetics battleground graveyard.
She dropped to her knees and looked at the scattered grains.
"NO!" she wailed, leaning over the blush. She couldn't cry - no - she WOULDN'T cry. Her powder had already been ruined. There was no reason to ruin her mascara as well! She looked at the ground. Maybe there was some kind of hope to get it back together ...
"Oops, sorry!" Linda said cheerily as her Ploony (accidentally, I'm sure) trod onto the remaining fine particles. Elizabeth screamed and clawed at her hair. Now she would NEVER get her blush back!
I frowned and elbowed Hermione. "Isn't there some sort of spell that --" Hermione smiled and started doing some sort of weird victory dance.
"I know a spell to fix this and you don't ..." she sang happily, skipping around.
Karla ignored Hermione and slowly made her way to Elizabeth. She gently patted Elizabeth's shaking back.
"It's OK." she said. Elizabeth shook her head, her perfectly straight hair (which was slightly knotted due to her clawing) swishing. She soon stopped, however, as she realised that this would get her hair even more messy.
"It's NOT OK!" she sobbed, looking at the remaining powder. She wailed again.
"It's only powder." Rachel tried. Elizabeth stopped sobbing. She got up, not even bothering to brush the dirt off her knees.
"Powder?" she asked, a look on her face that was a mixture of anger, sadness and grief. She also seemed to have a voice to match the face.
"Erm ... Yeah." Rachel said, looking around a little bit.
"Just powder?" Elizabeth asked, her voice still the mixture of anger, sadness and grief. Rachel blinked.
"I advise you becareful with your answer." Ashlee said.
"Um. Yeah." Rachel said, clearly ignoring Ashlee.
"That was not 'just powder', Rachel!" Elizabeth yelled, her voice rising. Rachel jumped back a bit. "That was Maybselline Peachy Crush Powder, Rachel!" Elizabeth spat out Rachel's name in disgust. She advanced towards Rachel a bit. Rachel stepped back, like I had with Blaise.
"OK." Rachel squeaked.
"Maybselline Peachy Crush Powder that is so rare to get that it is NO LONGER STOCKED IN SHOPS, Rachel!" Elizabeth was shaking in anger, no longer seeming to care that her hair was going to be ruined.
"C-C-Can't you just get another one?" Rachel asked. Ashlee slapped her forehead and I shook my head. Rachel's head is obviously empty.
"Another one?" Elizabeth's eye was twitching. "Maybselline Peachy Crush Powder cannot be replaced!" Rachel jerked back.
"M-M-Maybe you could go without make-up, perhaps?" Rachel suggested weakly. I shut my eyes. This girl was a goner.
"Go without? GO WITHOUT?" Elizabeth looked like she had just been asked to deprive herself of Wet Shine Diamontes ("Charmed to stay on longer, glossier and wetter than wet") for a month. "ARE YOU INSANE? GOING WITHOUT IS WORSE! NO - WORSE THAN WORSE! HORRIBLE! TERRIBLE! STUPID!"
"Rachel-like ..." Lara muttered as she spectated with Malfoy. She whispered something to him and he smirked again. My mouth dropped open. MALFOY. THAT git. MALFOY! Why would you associate with that idiot? He's a ... BOY! I felt like I was going to be sick. I turned my head so I wouldn't have to look at them.
"Surely," the word came out as a squeak, so Rachel cleared her voice, "SURELY, you could go natural one day?"
Oh dear. That was when Elizabeth grabbed her wand. She whipped it out of her robes and pointed it right in the middle of Rachel's eyebrows. Rachel's head jerked back again.
"Take that back." Elizabeth spat, her brown eyes glinting with danger. "Now." Rachel pursed her lips. She wanted to apologise; she really did; (obviously anybody would when someone is pointing a wand in between their eyes) but for some reason, her mouth wouldn't say it. She opened her mouth and even mouthed out the words, but no sound was coming out. All this made her look like she was some form of demented human goldfish. Elizabeth sighed.
"Then you leave me with no other choice." Elizabeth did a funny movement with her wand. "Andragoras Maniecurse!" Her wand emitted a bright white light that went all over Rachel.
"AHH!" Rachel screamed, looking at her hand. It didn't look ... human. In fact, it looked far from human. It looked ... scaly, almost snake-like. The scales were purple and looked like excess nails. My eyes widened. Oh my goodness - she couldn't have turned into ...?
"AHH!" Rachel screamed again. She seemed to have wanted to scream more, but she got cut off. By what? How about ... flames?
That's right. Rachel was spitting out flames instead of words of abuse (thank goodness, I can say). Elizabeth jumped back, just avoiding the flames. Rachel's eyebrows were furrowed. That's when I heard it: something that sounded like a balloon deflating. Where was that sound coming from?
"Hahahaha!" Lara laughed. "Rachel's ego is deflating!" So THAT'S where the noise came from ...
There was silence for a little while until ... RIIIIIP!
I jumped a little bit when I heard the noise and looked around for the source. It was Rachel's robes. They had ripped and had fallen to become merely flimsy pieces of material. Why?
She had a tail. A scaly one. A scaly purple one.
And; she had wings. WINGS! She had scaly, purple wings, and they were flapping like crazy. Rachel took another look at herself and emitted more flames.
"What did you do?!" I hissed at Elizabeth, who dodged another round of flames.
"Dragon transformation spell. It kind of ... went bad." she muttered.
"DRAGON transformation spell?!" I yelled at her. Elizabeth rubbed her ear. "You might as well have charmed us some gravestones!"
"Courtney!" she objected. "Not so loud!" I rolled my eyes - honestly; I wasn't THAT loud!
"Well then, why DID you try to make her turn into a DRAGON?" I asked.
"It was the first one that came to my mind!" she said. Rachel opened her mouth on her scaly face and spat out more flames.
"Well bright one then!" Ashlee said sarcastically. More flames. "You know most witches would have been happy with a toad, but NO! YOU had to go the whole way!" Elizabeth opened her mouth but I cut her off.
"And you seemed to have failed as well." I said. Rachel looked at her hands again and, once more, there were flames.
"Well what are we going to --" Louise hopped out of the way as Rachel spat out more flames, "--do?" I looked around. Everyone seemed to have run off for fear of being set on fire.
"OK, OK," I said, getting my bag and grabbing Rachel's one as well. "I'll take her to the Hospital Wing." I frowned as I looked at her scaly, purple body. "Let's hope that Madame Pomfrey can do something about this ... thing." I grabbed her arm.
Rachel's scaly, purple face scowled. "No way am I going to the Hospital Wing!" she objected, spitting out fire afterwards in disgust. She shook my hand out my arm defiantly and crossed her own arms.
I heard Lara sigh then turn around. She had conjured up a needle and was looking at it in a form of awe. Lara waved it around a little bit. Rachel gulped.
"You know, Rachel, I've heard that Dragon's Blood is quite useful in many things. 12 to be exact." Lara approached Rachel as she emitted some smoke out of her nose (Rachel's nose; not Lara's). Rachel's eyes widened. She gripped my arm like there was no tomorrow
"Take me to the hospital wing!" she pleaded, shaking my arm furiously. "Take me to the hospital wing!" she repeated desparately.
"Ahhh ... Why the sudden change of heart?" I asked triumphantly.
"TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL WING OR I'LL SET YOU ON FIRE!" she yelled, flames errupting from her mouth and onto the ground, setting the grass on fire. Karla frowned and put it out with some water from her wand.
I walked with Rachel to the Hospital Wing. She had crossed her arms and was looking at everything angrily. I had retrieved her ripped robes and covered her with them so as not to embarras her - who would actually voluntarily walk the halls of Hogwarts as a scaly, purple, fire breathing, smoking snorting (I also have to add 'naked') dragon? Most definately Rachel. After all; this must have been doing wonders for her ego.
We finally reached the Hospital Wing. I opened the door and knocked on the back of it. Rachel's wings flapped a little bit.
"Out in a minute!" I heard Madame Pomfrey's voice echo from somewhere inside.
In a few seconds, she appeared, wiping her hands with a normal dish towel. She was looking at her hands and looked up. Her eyes went wide. Rachel gave her a weak dragon smile.
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!" Madame Pomfrey screamed, running back to where she came from, arms waving about.
"What can we do?" I yelled at the place where she had run off to.
"Um, erm ... You can't do anything!" she yelled, obviously scared of looking at Rachel. Fire roared through Rachel's nose. "It wears off by itself after a little while. You're lucky that the spell wasn't done properly!"
Rachel looked stunned. All I can say is: hahaha!
Lunch
I sat down at the Gryffindor table a little while later for lunch. Rachel had followed me and sat down. Everyone was staring at her; after all, she WAS still scaly and purple. As Rachel had entered the Great Hall, the clatter and chatter immediately died down and everyone instantly started staring at her. Only the Gryffindors gave her some sympathy, even though they were a bit scared of her. After a while, however, everybody in the Great Hall seemed to accept it and only gave her occasional weird looks (with the exception of the Slytherins).
Meanwhile, Ashlee had company ...
"Hi, Harry." Ashlee said as she sat down next to him. Honestly, another boy! Why would you want to subject yourself to such a horror as sitting next to a BOY?!
"Hi, Ashlee." he smiled. Then Harry saw what was in Ashlee's hand, and he looked confused. "Why have you got a doll in your hand?"
"Doll?" Ashlee looked astonished. "This is not JUST a doll - this is Aragorn from 'Lord of the Rings'!" she held up the male doll, which seemed to be dressed in some sort of warrior uniform. He had a dagger on his weapons belt, wavy black hair and a long sword which was in one of his hands. Ashlee seemed to be enjoying the doll immensely. For some reason, 'Araworm' (or whatever his name was) seemed very familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where I had seen him before.
I was going to say something about 'dolls should be boys' and 'why you would want a boy for a doll in the first place', but Rachel asked me to pass the sausages. Since Rachel was part dragon, I shut up and passed her the sausage platter. As I did so, I accidentally knocked over the pepper shaker. Ground pepper sprinkled everywhere.
"Oops, sorry, Rachel!" I said as I mopped some of it up with my hand. I looked up; Rachel hadn't said anything in return and I thought it was a bit rude to do so. But when I looked up, Rachel had her face in the air and her eyes were scrunched up. Then I realised it - she was about to sneeze! My eyes enlarged. Before I could jump away, Rachel sneezed, sending flames everywhere and reeling back a bit from the force of the sneeze.
Immediately, everybody in Gryffindor straightened their backs and shrunk back. The flames had reached the sausage platter, and the sausages had been set on fire.
"Barbeque!" Ashlee joked cheerfully, spearing a sausage and blowing out the flame. Linda grabbed her wand and put out the fire. Rachel glowered at Ashlee (who smiled back) and speared a sausage rather forcefully.
I continued chewing on my salad until I saw a plastic head with wavy black hair come into my line of view. I blinked. It seemed to be trying to eat my slice of tomato.
"What is that?" I asked calmly as I poked a leaf of lettuce with my fork.
"Aragorn!" Ashlee smiled, shoving the doll into my face.
"OK, well, that's great," I said sarcastically, "but how about you just show it to Harry instead?" I suggested. Ashlee nodded enthusiastically.
She shoved Harry's plate of food away ("OI! Those chicken legs tasted nice!") and instead placed Aragorn in its place.
"Don't you just LOVE my Aragorn doll?" she asked happily. At that precise moment, Ashlee sounded EXACTLY like Karla.
"No." Harry batted away Aragorn and pulled back his plate. Ashlee looked mortally offended. Then she seemed to have an idea.
"Well, then I'll prove to you all the wonderful things about Aragorn!" Ashlee waved Aragorn carefully at Harry.
"Oh no." Harry moaned to himself.
"Aragorn is courageous! Aragorn is strong! Aragorn isn't afraid to fight!" At that last statement, Ashlee waved Aragorn's body around so that his plastic sword was hitting Harry's goblet. Harry looked at the sword and the goblet then cleared his throat.
"I'm going to use that now." he picked up the goblet and placed it to the other side of him; the side where Ashlee wasn't. This, however, didn't deter Ashlee.
"Aragorn is KING! Aragorn is in 'The Lord of the Rings'! Aragorn is COOL!" At this, Ashlee poked Harry in the arm with the sword that was still attached to Aragorn's hand. Harry reached over and moved the doll.
"Hey, can I see Aragorn for a second?" Harry asked, suddenly curious. Ashlee regarded him for a few seconds before handing Aragorn over.
"Be gentle." she said as she finally started her now cold lunch. She kept her eyes on him as if she were an eagle.
Harry smiled as he moved Aragorn's head. "Do you like Louise?" he asked. Harry moved the head so the head was shaking. "Do you like Linda?" the same movement.
"What?" Linda asked, looking up from her food.
"Are we going to ignore the deaf girl?" Harry asked the doll. He moved the head so it looked like Aragorn was nodding.
Hermione was watching the doll. "Er, Harry, I don't think you're supposed to do that." she remarked, setting down her copy of "Amazing Arithmacy!: The Funny Shapes Become Funky Shapes!".
"Don't be stupid!" Harry laughed. "Is Hermione wrong for the first time in her life?" he asked the doll. Another nodding movement. Ashlee was still watching him and was about to pounce on him (probably to yell at him for being so brutal on Aragorn the king, courageous, strong, etc), when ...
CRACK!
Aragorn's head came off in Harry's hand. Harry turned to a pale Professor Snape colour. Ashlee looked like she had just eaten rotten eggs. I went quiet. Rachel stopped eating. This was not good.
"ARAGORN!!!" Ashlee screamed, tackling Harry and pulling out Aragorn's head from Harry's hand. She had a look of pure anger on her face. Without any hesitation, Ashlee lunged forward and started choking Harry. "YOU HURT ARAGORN! YOU KILLED ARAGORN! YOU ANIMAL!" she screamed repeatedly.
"No wait, Ashlee, I can fix this!" Harry choked, his glasses askew and his hair messier than ever. Ashlee stopped strangling him.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yes!" he said. Harry got up, fixed his glasses and whipped out his wand. I looked at Rachel quickly. She looked like she was going to sneeze again. "OK, Repair-ARRRGH!" Rachel had sneezed in the middle of Harry's spell and had sent flames everywhere, like one where it was extremely close to Harry's arm. She had sent herself backwards a bit from the force of the sneeze (again). And the spell?
BOOM! CRACK! BANG!
Since the spell was cast wrongly, obviously the spell was going to do something different. In this case, it would be to blow up something. Ashlee looked in alarm as Aragorn exploded; throwing pieces of plastic everywhere. Ashlee yelped as she dodged a piece of Aragorn's boot. She seemed to be having a mental breakdown. I'm not exactly sure if that was before or after the arm that held the sword landed right onto her plate. Or before or after Aragorn's head landed into her goblet (but she didn't really seem to notice that).
Ashlee blubbered as she picked up Aragorn's severed arm (sword still attached). She brought it up and started whacking Harry's arm with the sword (arm still attached). She dropped it soon after, sobbing into her hands.
"It's just not the same!" she moped. I cleared my throat funnily; I had an idea.
"Why don't you, er, take a drink to calm your nerves, Ashlee?" I asked, trying not to laugh. She nodded, obviously too distressed to say anything.
Ashlee picked up the goblet, opened her eyes and started screaming. A high, ear piercing scream that echoed throughout the entire Great Hall. Even Linda looked scared.
"What is it, Ashlee?" Ron asked tentatively.
"Aragorn!" she stuttered sadly, thrusting the cup under Ron's nose. Ron looked down and he was obviously restraining himself from laughing himself stupid.
Ashlee looked around the Great Hall, trying to find the scattered and twisted remains of Aragorn. "Accio Aragorn bits!" she said repeatedly, and random bits zoomed into her open hands. Finally, she seemed to have all of them. "OK, we're going to fix this!" Ashlee said, as if failure was not an option.
"How are you going to do that aside from the 'Repairo' spell?" Linda asked her.
"I know a simple gluing charm!" Ashlee said triumphantly. She cleared her throat and held her wand high. Oh no - Rachel had those face spasms again. She was going to sneeze! "Glu-ARRGHHHH!"
Yep, I knew it. I opened my eyes to see Ashlee's Aragorn bits on fire. Rachel was rubbing her nose and there was a stench of burning plastic in the air. If Rachel wasn't half-dragon, then Ashlee would have not seen the bad side of strangling her.
"Ashlee ..." Harry said in a solemn tone. "Look, if you get really that depressed, how about me and Rachel chip in to get you a new one?" he asked softly. He was obviously expecting the 'Nothing could ever replace the original Aragorn!' routine, but he most certainly did not expect Ashlee suddenly happy again.
"OK!" she said brightly, returning to her food.
Some people are very weird ...
Astronomy (A/N: I'm not exactly sure how many lessons Hogwarts has everyday, so I'll just skip to the last lesson of the day - which is at nightime)
We made our way to the Astronomy Tower to look at the stars. Professor Sinistra was already waiting for us and only slightly recoiled at Rachel - most of her scales had disappeared and her skin was slowly turning less purple. She still, however, had wings.
"Alright, tonight we will observe the clusters and nebulas in the sky." Professor Sinistra said. "Identify what you see and make observations, like colour; shape and brightness." She sat down at her desk and started marking papers.
Things were going well, with one possible exception. Rachel was sitting at the windowsil (Professor Sinistra didn't want her setting fire to the papers) and she still was sneezing a fair bit as well; and I don't think we wanted to get toasted just yet. Her wings were also flapping a bit, causing some wind to be blown onto our faces.
The lesson was nearly over (I had one more colouration of a nebula to go) when something interesting happened - Rachel sneezed again. Flames blew out everywhere. But this time, she had sneezed too hard. Right after she had sneezed, she was sent back a bit from the force of the sneeze. And - since she was sitting on a windowsill - she obviously went out. Not out the door; out the window. Good thing she still had wings, though.
So there Rachel was out in the sky, flapping madly so she wouldn't plunge into the lake, scales and all. That was when Lara had looked into the telescope.
"ARRRGGHHH!" she screamed, withdrawing herself from the position in front of the telescope. "IT'S A U.F.O!" Malfoy quickly sat down and looked into the telescope.
"OH MY GOODNESS, IT IS!!" Malfoy jumped away, clutching his chest for breath.
Rachel scowled at us through the window. Her wings flapped her closer to the window. "That's not funny." she said, crossing her arms. She was about to pop out another insult when she sneezed again, sending more fire into the air.
"WOAH, FIREWORKS!" Lara said as she looked back into the telescope. She tilted the telescope. "ARGH! ITS THE U.F.O. AGAIN!"
Rachel rolled her eyes and then lowered herself a bit. She looked confused. Then she looked scared. Rachel looked at her back and then gulped.
"Guys, erm, I think one of you should take my hand." she said, quickly extending her hand. I looked at her skeptically.
"Why?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"My wings are shrinking." she replied. I lunged forward and grabbed her, but Rachel was too heavy.
"KARLA!" I yelled and Karla gripped my legs. Ashlee then held onto Karla's legs. And so everybody else did the chain and started tugging.
"MY WINGS ARE GONE!" Rachel yelled. We all pulled and then Rachel got back into the Tower, perfectly normal once again. No more scales, no more purple skintone and obviously no more wings.
"Alright, pack up - it's time that you all go back to your dormitories!" Professor Sinistra said. We placed our analysis sheets on her desks and forwarded out; ready for some decent sleep.
Attack of the Butterflies
After doing my homework, I took a shower, brushed my teeth and changed into my pyjamas. I walked down the stairs that led to the dormitories and looked around the common room. Harry, Ron and Hermione were finishing their Care of Magical Creatures Homework. Some first years (they were the weakling ones that had bags with wings so they wouldn't have to carry them) were talking about Potions and some older looking students were discussing DADA.
I said goodnight to Hermione, scowled at Harry and Ron (they had boy germs, after all) and was about to go to bed when the portrait hole opened and Lara walked in, brushing herself off.
"So how did it go?" I asked about her detention.
"Bad." Lara said, wiping something that looked suspiciously liked pus out of her uncontrollably curly dark hair. "He made us re-do our potion, but the bad thing was that every so often the boils on his face would burst and pus would go flying everywhere." I made a repulsed face.
"That sounds disgusting." I said, still with the repulsed face. "Why did he keep them in the first place?"
"I don't know." Lara shrugged as we ascended the stairs to the dormitories. "Maybe he did to just spite us." I snorted.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he did." I laughed. Lara gave me one of her rare smiles and opened the door to the bathroom.
"I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed. I'm too tired for anything else." she said, and then went inside.
I was sitting down in beg with the covers waist up and reading a book ("Ploonies and You: Handling it Honourably or Horribly") when I saw ... IT. Lara, it was. In hot. Pink. Pyjamas. With. Lighter. Pink. Butterflies. A disturbing sight, I assure you. My mouth dropped open, as well as everybody else's in the room. Ashlee screamed. Linda hid under her pillow. Karla dropped her issue of "Wicked Witches". Elizabeth stopped applying her overnight stay hair spray. Louise looked up from the library's copy of "Muggle Madness!: A Day in the Life of a Muggle" and her eyes went wide. Rachel, however, didn't looked shocked at all. In fact, she barely looked up from her "Make-Up and Magic: Advantages" book.
"What?" Lara asked, fiddling with her mass of shoulder length curls. Obviously something was wrong; it was just that we didn't know where to begin. So Linda tried.
"What the heck?" she said with a look of confusion.
"Well I couldn't find my usual black pyjamas, so I had to borrow Rachel's spare pair." Ah, yes, Rachel. Clearly it was her - after all, who else would have that ... that monstrosity?
"What happened to your usual pyjamas?" Elizabeth asked.
"I don't know." Lara said, scratching the top of her head. "Maybe the house elves took them or something ..." Then I had a flashback.
"Blinkie, wait!" Blinkie turned around. I was holding some black rags that were on the foot of Lara's bed. Blinkie walked towards me and I stuffed the rags into the laundry bag. She smiled again, clicked her fingers and disappeared.
Oh dear.
Oh well; I don't suppose it matters. After all, there are a lot a scary surprises in Hogwarts.
-----------------------------------
A/N: There's another chapter for you all! I hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to review! The new chapter is coming with Louise in the spotlight! It's another Hogsmeade weekend (Hmm ... I really should put in another normal day, shouldn't I?) and expect something interesting happening ...
Well that's all from me so far until the next chapter. That reminds me - the next chapter is the 13th one which means ... bad luck! Well, hopefully not anyway.
Until Chapter 13 ... (Ooh, unlucky number!)
--Blue - I love 24hr teacher strikes. :)
Review Answers:
1. Lutty wutty (hieverybodyhidrnickgotohellhotmail.com) said:
Put in Ashlee's nose
She wants to be violent
She wants us to think of more violent things
A: I'm sorry, but Ashlee's nose plays no major part in this chapter. Violence? Tsk, tsk, Lutty wutty!
2. harry's4menotu said:
THAT WAS FRIGGIN HILARIOUS!
A: Thank you. :)
3. !c3 An93l said:
Writing isn't about how many reviews you get, it's how it makes you feel
Pressered people will not review
Something about a la-la pro.
A: In response to 1 refer to Review 4.
In response to 2: If you haven't noticed, not EVERYBODY who has reviewed is actually one of the characters in the story or affiliated with the characters in the story.
In response to 3: What in the world is a la-la pro?
4. Hey-lo said:
Update please, I like the story
What exactly is a la-la pro?
Of course you can pressure people into reviewing! You type: 'Review or I wont update!", and that makes people review. See? So, "!c3 An93l", you really can pressure ppl into reviewing. :P So there.
A: 1 - Thank you. :) Here is a new chapter.
2 - No idea
3 - I have no futher comment but 'there you go'.
5. the hope conspiracy said:
I got my own song!
I'm waiting for a new chapter
A: 1 - Hehe, yeah.
2 - It's here!
6. Rachel Gilding said:
You didn't write the chapter in pronoun form
I already have a 'candy-sticked mini'
A: 1 - What?
2 - Candy-sticked, eh? I must say that I have never heard of one of those before ...
7. courtney said:
After the song in Hogsmeade, I say something like "Well that was fun singing" (A/N: It's actually "Yeah, but wasn't singing just soo cool?") but in the song, it actually doesn't have me mentioned at all, so I didn't sing the song.
I'm stronger, then, because I didn't give in
A: 1 and 2 - Did you know that you didn't HAVE to have your name there to indicate that you're singing? It's easier for writer's; we assume that people will be smart enough to pick up that they're singing as well without being actually directly mentioned.
8. lutty-lut-lut said:
Great chapter, my PoV next, please
Next chapter had better come soon or your head will met the toilet
A: 1 - Sorry; it's Courtney's PoV in this chapter!
2 - Another death threat? We all know that I get enough ...
9. ???????????? said:
FERRETS RULE! (A/N: Then something that I presume is a different language: 'I QUIERO HURONES')
Can you tell me who you are? I want to know!
If you are wondering, I have NOT gone mad!
A: 1 - Erm ... yeah ...
2 - No, I'm not telling anybody. Just read the story and enjoy it!
3 - Sure you haven't
10. fairy said:
Your story is so funny! I love it! Keep up the great work!
A: 1 - Aww, thanks! :D
11. nerds said:
This story is good except for all that arguing!
Harry is too poor in this story; give him some proudness and not feel stupid
A: 1 - Thanks for the comment; and I'll see what I can do for the arguing thing
2 - Hmm ... I agree, now that I think about it. I'll try and do something about it in the next chapter (if I don't forget).
-------------------------------
Summary of the chapter: Rags, germs, ball, spill, deflate, clone, purple and fireworks.
A/N: Hi everyone! Welcome to the new chapter of Dating Dungbombs - where this chapter belongs to ... Courtney! Yes, that means that boy germ rebellions and anti-swearing rules will be put right into effect.
Everything seems to be normal now, after the Easter Incident. We have a partial full lesson plan. That means lessons before lunch and after dinner. Nothing in between. Oh, and Astronomy is actually rather short. Astronomy is a bit of a boring subject to tell you the truth when you're not interested in it.
And due to the usual confusion of the gender of Blaise Zabini - in "Dating Dungbombs", Blaise is a BOY.
Anyway, enough with my rambling - read on!
Blue - who fully supports the 24hr teacher strikes.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, otherwise I would shower in $50 notes. I don't own Monopoly. The Parker Bros. do. I do not own 'The Lord of the Rings' - that is J.R.R. Tolkein's. I do, however, copyright these characters (even though they are real people) in fanfiction form so they can't be used in other fanfictions. So go find your own dysfunctional bunch. I don't own Coke, Pepsi, Sunkist, Solo and Maybelline Wet Shine Diamonds. I merely own cheap rip-offs; Corke, Pepseye, Sunblist, Solowe, Maybselline Wet Shine Diamontes and Maybselline Peach Crush Powder.
P.S. You flame me and I will personally hex you to Hogsmeade and back.
P.P.S. 9 Days till 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban' is released in Australia!
P.P.P.S. Hi Stephanie!!!
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Chapter 12 - Courtney's PoV: Scary Surprises
I yawned as I slowly opened my eyes. Light was sifting through the window. I groaned and got up. I looked around; and there were a few empty beds. I yawned again and looked out of the window. The giant squid's tentacles were floating gently on the surface of the lake. A few students were sitting on the grounds, talking. I was starting to look at something else when I heard a fumbling noise behind. Originally dismissing as Karla turning around in bed, I decided that maybe I should check it out. I turned around.
"Who are you?" I asked, watching a little figure carrying a sack. The figure moved into the sunlight and I saw it was a house elf. The sack it was carrying was overflowing with dirty robes and socks. The elf also seemed to be blinking an awful lot. Maybe it was the Sun.
"Blinkie is sorry!" the house elf squeaked in terror. "Blinkie was only doing the laundry and .. and .."
"Oh." I blinked myself. "Sorry for being so rude." I apologised. Blinkie's eyes welled up. I'm not exactly sure why (after all, if you blinked at the rate as this house elf did, your eyes would never be dry and find the need to well up) until the elf started crying out in sadness.
"Blinkie is sorry! Blinkie never meant for you to apologise! Blinkie should be punished for making a student sorry!" At that, Blinkie dropped the dirty laundry sack, grabbed the nearest lamp and started bashing herself on the head with it. My eyes widened.
"Blinkie!" I said, running forward and wrestling with her for the lamp. Karla turned over in her sleep and Rachel mumbled a little bit before continuing snoring. Blinkie continued sobbing and bashing. For such a little figure, Blinkie could sure hold her ground. "BLINKIE!" I repeated, this time a little louder. Blinkie stopped.
"Blinkie is sorry." Blinkie sniffed, wiping her nose with her hand and blinking rapidly. "Blinkie had to punish Blinkie. Blinkie is a house elf and so Blinkie must be punished for being so rude to a student."
"Oh." I blinked. "OK." Blinkie finished sniffling and looked around the room.
"Is there anything that you're looking for?" I asked Blinkie, sitting on my bed.
"Oh, yes!" Blinkie cracked me a crooked smile. "Blinkie is looking for dirty laundry." I got up and looked around. I picked up a few of my dirty socks and was about to give them to Blinkie when I stopped.
"Wait ... if I give you these, will you be set free?" I asked, the sock dangling from my hand. Blinkie shook her head.
"Blinkie's master is Professor Dumbledore." Blinkie said. I smiled.
"Oh, OK." I gave Blinkie the socks. Blinkie bowed until her nose touched the floor.
"Blinkie thanks you for your kindness." Blinkie said, approaching the door. I smiled and Blinkie smiled back. Blinkie was almost gone when --
"Blinkie, wait!" Blinkie turned around. I was holding some black rags that were on the foot of Lara's bed. Blinkie walked towards me and I stuffed the rags into the laundry bag. She smiled again, clicked her fingers and disappeared.
I walked to the bathroom, had a shower and then got changed into my uniform. I grabbed my books for the first three subjects morning, stuffed them into my bag and then walked out of Gryffindor tower towards the Great Hall for breakfast.
I sat down and started piling my plate with eggs, bacon and kippers.
"Morning, Courtney." Louise smiled, after drinking some of her orange juice.
"Morning." I said, cutting up my bacon. I stabbed the bacon with my fork and brought it up to my mouth. As I was chewing, I looked around the Hall.
Ashlee was conversing (rather loudly) with Linda, who seemed to be getting more eggs. Louise was talking to Hermione (something about History of Magic) and Lara was at the Slytherin table again, talking to Malfoy (BOY GERM INFESTED!).
I swallowed my bacon just as Karla skipped down into the Great Hall. She took a seat next to me.
"Good morning, Courtney!" she said cheerily, pouring herself some orange juice.
"Good morning, Karla!" I said back in an equally cheery voice.
We started talking - I barely noticed Ron coming down into the Hall. That is, until he decided to sit next to Karla. As soon as he sat down, Karla stopped talking and started screaming.
"ARGH!" she said, instantly getting up from the bench. I watched them, along with about 10 other people.
"What?" Ron asked, looking around. "Did you find a bug in your food or --"
"NO!" Karla said, backing towards me.
"Then what?" Ron looked confused as he continued searching the area where Karla just sat.
"YOU!" she said, pointing a finger accusingly at Ron. Ron looked shocked.
"M-M-Me?" he stuttered, taken aback.
"YOU HAVE BOY GERMS!" Karla said, as if sitting within a 10cm circle would result in instant death. I was surprised to see Ron relax, as if he didn't even care if Karla died or not!
"No I don't, Karla." he said, resuming with his breakfast. Karla looked appalled. Decidedly having enough, she grabbed Ron's plate, his fork ("OI! I was using that!") and his glass of his orange juice and thrust it all into Ron's arms. Ron looked shocked and confused.
"Move!" she ordered, pointing toward the the doors that lead to the outside of the castle. Ron looked at her as if she were insane. How could he think that? It's obvious that he's crawling with boy germs - how could he put Karla's (and every other girl's) safety at risk?
"Are you serio-"
"MOVE!" Karla's finger poked toward the door. Ron looked at her again and then sighed. He set his food down back on the table for a few seconds while he got his bag and then picked up the food again, moving toward the direction of Karla's finger. He stopped at about 30cm and sat down. Karla shook her head.
"Further." Ron looked at her incredulously, picked up his stuff again and started walking. This time he walked about a metre. Karla continued shaking her head. "Further." About 5 metres. "Further." About 10 metres. "Further." This time, Ron rolled his eyes and walked right to the doors.
"How about now?" he asked somewhat sarcastically.
"Further." Karla called. Ron's mouth fell down. Seeing the look on Karla's face, Ron opened the doors and stepped out.
"Now?" He shouted.
"Further."
"Karla, I'm out of the door -"
"FURTHER!" Ron sighed, took about 5 steps.
"NOW?" He yelled.
"Further." Ron leaned forward and clsoed the door.
"How about now?" I heard Ron yell.
"That's good!" Karla said, satisfied. She sat back down and started eating again. I smiled - she did a good job.
We all started talking again when Harry entered the Hall. He was about to sit down next to Karla for his food when she shook her head. Harry sighed, picked up his things (after piling his plate) and walked out of the Hall. Before the door closed, I saw Harry settle down on a clump of comfy looking grass next to Ron.
I continued eating.
"What have we got after breakfast?" Rachel asked after she walked down the stairs and seated herself next to Karla.
"I have Arithmacy, Potions and Care of Magical Creatures." Hermione jumped in, without looking up from the book she was reading: "Potions Prepared! An Advanced Guide to Brewing the Perfect Bottle".
"Well we have Divination instead of Arithmacy." Elizabeth said, re-applying her lipgloss slowly and carefully with her Wet Shine Diamontes (as mentioned before; "Charmed to stay on longer, glossier and wetter than wet").
Hermione snorted. "I still reckon that Divination is a load of codswallop." she turned a page.
"Yeah, well it's a bludge period." Ashlee said, smirking in a Malfoy like manner. She turned off to talk to Louise.
"I agree." Rachel said, shrugging. Hermione looked horrified.
"Bludge?" she narrowed her eyes. "Even though Divination is a load of Ploony dung, it is still a lesson!"
"Well sorry!" Rachel said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Hermione frowned. She pulled out her wand from inside her robes and aimed it at Rachel.
"Parli non Entschuldigungen." She said, before stuffing her wand back into her robes. "Speak no more fake apologies, Rachel." Hermione said nastily, the bell ringing only a few seconds later.
Divination
We climbed our way to the north tower where Divination was held. When we opened the door, the usual blast of smelly hot air hit us. Little tables littered the room. And the usual robed figure with too many jewels and way too big glasses.
"I knew you were coming soon." Professor Trelawny said in what she presumed would have been a mystical way. We all rolled our eyes. However, Lavendar and Parvati both squealed in delight. The fire was crackling merrily in the room - making us desparate for air. We all sat down at the little tables in groups of three and waited. In my group there was Karla and Ashlee.
"I think I'm going to die." Linda squeaked, tugging at her collar.
"May I assist?" Malfoy butt in, smirking in his usual way. Linda's eyes narrowed. Malfoy merely kept on smirking. She leant in to him.
"You're dying in Care of Magical Creatures, ferret boy." she said in a hostile tone. I can't believe it. Linda was stupid enough to actually lean in to a BOY! That's how germs spread! I can't believe that Linda is practically voluntarily making herself sick. I think I'm going to be sick ...
"Today we will continue our work with crystal balls." Professor Trelawny continued, a little louder than usual to drown out Linda and Malfoy arguing. "The fates have informed me that our crystall ball work is essential for the half yearly test, which, I may have to add, isn't very far away."
"Genius!" I heard Parvati exclaim to Lavendar, who was nodding intently and watching Trelawny closely.
"Look deep inside the mist of the ball and see if you can gaze into the future." Trelawny adjusted her shawl and waited, her eyes four times their size in her glasses.
I cleared my throat and looked in. It was just swirling white stuff to me. Nothing interes-- WAIT! What was that? I leant in and looked closely. Yes! Yes, there was a shape. It was very unclear at first, but then it started to clear up. My eyes widened. What that a ...?
"What is it, Courtney?" Karla asked me tensely. I gulped and turned a little pale. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all.
"Courtney?" Ashlee asked, staring at my face, which was currently turning sheet white. I opened my mouth to talk and Ashlee and Karla leant in closer, but no sound came out.
"Ahh ... I know that face." Professor Trelawny had seen me and zoned in. "Now; what do you see, child?" I blinked, gulped and then opened my mouth.
"A head." I said. "A severed head." Ashlee and Karla started laughing whilst Professor Trelawny looked mortified.
"In that case, you're not doing the exercise properly." Ashlee chuckled, doing a bad impression of Professor Trelawny's so-called 'mystical' voice. "You're probably looking at Malfoy's snotty little head." she jerked her thumb over to Malfoy. He shot Ashlee an angry look. Ashlee and Karla kept on laughing. It was only Professor Trelawny who looked like she had seen Death himself. Then again, with Trelawny's Grim predictions ...
"This is no laughing matter!" Professor Trelawny said. Ashlee and Karla stopped laughing and looked at each other. "My dear, you have seen --"
"The Grim!" Karla said softly, rolling her eyes and cutting off Trelawny.
"-- The Grim!" Professor Trelawny finished dramatically. Ashlee and Karla looked at each other seriously for a few seconds and then started cracking up. Trelawny's huge eyes narrowed to the size of a normal eye. "How can you laugh in the face of the Grim?" she asked. I saw Ashlee - she seemed to be holding back a huge urge to say "Easily".
"Becareful if you lie in the face of the Grim." Trelawny warned, looking particularly at Ashlee. "Bad things can happen ..." With that, she breezed off to help Elizabeth, Ron and Louise.
"What a load of tosh." Ashlee said, pulling the crystal ball toward her gaze. She squinted her left eye. "If you squint your left eye, unfocus the other one and stick your tongue, this blob here kind of looks like ... Oops, no wait, lost it."
Karla dragged the ball into her line of view. She stuck her tongue out to one side and tilted her head. "No ... This looks more like one of those muggle Monopoly pieces ..."
"Monopoly?" Linda's head perked up. "I remember asking this girl where her necklace came from once. She said Monopoly, but then it must have been a pretty big game piece." I started laughing.
"I bet Linda didn't even hear what she said ..." I joked. Ashlee and Karla started laughing again.
"What?" Linda's asked, her face inquisitive. We all cracked up this time. Linda blinked then turned back to her crystal ball.
We were wiping our tears when Karla shoved the crystall ball at me.
"I saw fog." she said. I looked into the ball, still smiling. Then I froze.
What was THAT? I leaned in closer to get a better look.
"Don't tell me it's another Grim." Karla said, pulling out her copy of "Unfogging the Future". I shook my head.
"This isn't a Grim." I said, watching closely.
"Well if it's anything, then it's a Grim from Trelawny's point of view." Ashlee scoffed. I shook my head again.
"Oh, useless, Courtney!" Karla set down her book. "What do you see?" her red hair was reflecting the fire.
"Us."
Ashlee and Karla blinked. For a few seconds, I don't think any of them believed it.
"What?" Ashlee asked flatly.
"Look;" I shoved the ball under Ashlee's nose, "can't you see it?" Ashlee looked closely, but shook her head.
"Just looks like swirly stuff to me." she said. I pushed the ball to Karla.
"How about you?" Karla looked closely.
"Nothing." she said. I frowned, pulled the ball back and looked again.
How could they both miss it? It was so clear - like a colour TV screen. I watched, my brows furrowing.
"What's going on?" Ashlee asked as she leant in closer.
"It's us. We're standing in front of a cauldron." What were we doing? "Ashlee, you're adding some green stems. Karla, you're throwing in something that looks like oil."
The crystal ball forms of us were stirring. Crystal ball me was getting out a ladel. Crystal ball Karla was pulling out a vial and detached the cork that was in it. Crystal ball Ashlee seemed to be putting away the rest of the ingredients. The potion was a funny looking one - it sort of looked like oil. Crystal ball me dipped the ladel into the pot and brought out some of the thick potion and carefully emptied the ladel into the vial. After Crystal ball me filled the vial, Crystal ball Karla put on the cork lid. Crystall ball Ashlee was back, rubbing her hands in an evil like manner. As the vision was fading, I saw Crystal ball me put the vial into my robes. Then it completely disappeared into the blue and white swirls.
"What happened?" Karla asked enthusiastically.
"We brewed a potion." my eyebrows knitted together. "It looked like oil and I ladeled it into a vial. Ashlee looked evil and Karla originally gave me the vial."
We looked at each other in silence and kept on doing so for a few minutes. We were unusually subdued for the rest of the lesson; in which I looked at everybody else and what they were doing.
Lara seemed to be staring intently into the ball, until I saw her take her mascara and look intently at her reflection to apply some properly. Ron had picked up the crystal ball and was examining the bottom of the stand that the ball was sitting on with one eye. Elizabeth was happily looking into the ball - she was obviously captivated with her own reflection.
I stared at my copy of "Unfogging the Future" without really seeing it. What was this all about? I shut my eyes tightly and tried getting the image out of my head. The bell started ringing and I packed my bag silently.
Potions
We filed into Potions in our usual sullen manor that we take on whenever entering the dungeons.
"So did you see anything in the crystal ball?" Rachel asked Louise. Louise scoffed.
"Yeah, sure I did. And my dad is a rampaging Hippogriff." she said as she rolled her eyes.
"I didn't see anything." Linda said, pulling her Potions book out of her bag. "It was all the same swirly stuff there."
"Well I saw something in the crystal ball." Elizabeth was combing her hair. My ears perked up.
"What was it, Elizabeth?" I asked casually.
"It was the most wonderful thing that I've ever seen!" Elizabeth sighed, in one of her rare bouts where her comb isn't actually at work.
"What?"
"My reflection!" Elizabeth let out a huge breath and continued combing, with a dreamy expression on her face. I rolled my eyes. This wasn't what I was searching for. I was about to lean over to Lara and ask her if she saw anything, but that was when Snape stormed into the dungeon, his cape billowing out after him.
"Comb away, Miss Fields!" Snape snapped. Elizabeth looked momentarily mortified, but then decided to put it away, since Snape's eyes were flashing.
Snape stood at the front of the class, surveying us all. "Today, we're going to learn how to brew the Acne Potion."
He started pacing the length of the classroom. "Now, can anyone tell me what the properties of the Acne Potions are?" To absolutely nobody's surprise, Hermione's hand shot up into the air. If it went any faster, Harry's (who was sitting next to her) hair would have been blown back by the wind.
"Pick ME!" Hermione mumbled to herself. Snape looked at everyone else in the classroom.
"Nobody?" he asked, ignoring the waving arm in the air. If Hermione could have taken flight; it would have just been there. "Well, since nobody will tell me, I will have to you." Hermione put down her hand, looking slightly disappointed.
"Nice try, Hermes." Ron patted her back. I recoiled in shock. How could Hermione just let that happen? A boy TOUCHED her and she didn't even scream at him like any other sane person would have. In fact, Hermione looked like she was glad to be getting comfort for Ron. How disgusting is that? I would never ask a boy for comfort - after all ... I wasn't THAT desparate to get some moral support.
"An Acne Potion obviously gives you acne or pimples. It immediately causes an excess of oils to be released onto the skin, therefore making the develop an oily appearance. Give this potion a few seconds, and pimples would have formed everywhere." Snape explained, interrupting my thoughts. "Sometimes, Acne Potions go horribly wrong; resulting in the drinker to have strong acne problems for the rest of their life." I personally thought that this talk was exceptionally boring, but Elizabeth seemed to be completely engrossed. When Snape mentioned the bit about 'strong acne problems for the rest of their life' bit, her mouth fell open and she let out a shocked sound.
"This is horrifing ..." she muttered to herself, fumbling desparately for the concealer she kept in her bag; the potion reminded her to check if she still had flawless skin.
"Some famous witches and wizards which have drank faulty Acne Potions are Tameron Diaz, Maconna and April Lavine." Snape said, his arms crossed behind his back."
Elizabeth pulled her concealer frantically out from her bag, sighed in relief, and started applying some as Snape looked down at the Potions textbook.
"All you need to know about brewing the Acne Potion is now on the board. Now becareful, as an unfinished Acne Potion will result in boils for seven days." Snape flicked his wand and words magically appeared on the blackboard. He looked at the class impatiently. "Well, what are you waiting for?"
We all immediately sprang to life and started gathering all the necessary ingredients and equipment for the potion.
"Daisy stalks, crawly solution, mud flower, 5 powdered bump bugs, 100% virgin olive oil, fly wings and pus from pus bulbs." I repeated to myself, walking towards the ingredients table.
I pulled out the ingredients and then put them on the tray that you would find in muggle Food Technology classrooms. It took ages to collect the ingredients - the bump bags were wickedly fast, the crawly solution would start turning blue if moved too much and the mud flower would randomly spit bits of mud and mulch at you.
Sitting back down, I started brewing my potion with Karla. Snape was watching us closely.
"I wonder what that thing in the crystal ball was about." I said as I started grinding the bump bugs into powder.
"I don't know." Karla was mixing the crawly solution with the pus. It turned into a goopy orange colour. Karla made a face.
I started boiling the water. "It's weird - I've never seen anything in Divination before. Why did I start today?" I pulled the stalks off the mud flower and threw them into the scrap bowel. I chucked the mud flower petals into the water.
"Maybe it actually WAS the future!" Karla joked, adding some of the olive oil to her goopy orange ... thing.
"Hahahha, yeah right." I rolled my eyes and looked at the board.
AFTER BOILING WATER AND ADDING MUD FLOWER PETALS, ADD IN POWDERED BUMP BUGS.
I threw in the bugs and watched as the water turned a green colour.
WATER SHOULD TURN GREEN. THEN ADD DAISY STALKS.
Karla picked up the daisy stalks. As she did, I had the strangest sense of deja vu. I watched her with a slight frown on my face. She threw the stalks in one by one. That's when I remembered where I saw it; in the crystal ball.
"KARLA!" I said, tugging at her arm. Karla threw in the last daisy stalk.
"Yes, Courtney?" she asked, giving me a smile that made her look like she was 5 years old.
"Karla, the crystal ball had us brewing the Acne Potion!" I said, tugging at her arm harder than before. Her eyes widened.
"WHAT?!" her voice echoed around the dungeon and people started looking at us, but I didn't care. "Ashlee!" she pulled Ashlee over by the collar. Ashlee was choking.
"What?" she asked, rubbing her neck.
"We were brewing the Acne Potion in the crystal ball." I told her. An evil look spread over Ashlee's face. She started rubbing her chin in a mock (well I'm hoping it was fake) expression of pure evil.
"Oh, this should be interesting." Ashlee said evilly.
"Diabolical genius." I said, a Draco Malfoy like look coming over my face. I leaked the olive oil into the potion and read the board.
POTION SHOULD IMMEDIATELY BE FINISHED AFTER OLIVE OIL IS ADDED. PUT IN VIAL, CORK AND PUT AT FRONT TABLE.
"Maybe we could just keep some for ... future plans." I said, leaning into Karla.
"We can't." Karla gestured her head towards Snape, who was still watching us steelily. "Snape will see us."
I sighed. "OK, OK, we'll brew some more tomorrow." Karla pulled out the vial, laddled some potion into it, corked it and then put it on the front desk. Snape was still watching us as I poured out the rest of the potion.
"What's going on over there?" Snape barked. Ashlee jumped and ran over back to her seat.
However, it wasn't Ashlee that Snape was talking to. I looked over - it was Lara and Malfoy. They were conversing over a large piece of paper. It looked a bit like a blueprint. When Snape had noticed that they hadn't finished brewing their potion, he looked over.
"MALFOY! FATHERSOME!" Lara and Malfoy jumped. In fact, they might have jumped too much. For as soon as Lara and Malfoy had jumped, their cauldron had begun to teeter dangerously. Too dangerously. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion.
Lara and Malfoy looked up from the blueprint with looks of horror upon their faces. The rest of the students were watching in silent shock. Snape's eyes widened and his face paled (well even more than it already was). We all knew perfectly well that if this unfinished Acne Potion spilt on anyone, then they'd be cursed with boils for an entire week. Lara and Malfoy both got up, turned around and came running toward us in a form that reminded me of the muggle movie "Mission: Impossible" when the guy started running from the aquarium.
We students looked at each other and started fleeing for the door. Snape, however, wasn't very lucky. No sooner had he stepped from the teachers desk had the potion spilled upon him. Almost half of it. We all looked horrified. Not as horrified as Snape though. He had this face of pure astonishment.
Why?
Well ... boils WERE appearing on his face.
And arms.
And hands.
"Nice look." Louise snorted.
"MR MALFOY!" Snape roared. Malfoy recoiled. Lara tried hiding behind me. "MISS FATHERSOME!" Lara shut her eyes tightly.
"Oh dear, we are in trouble." Linda whispered.
"DETENTION!" Snape shouted. "TONIGHT! 8PM IN THE DUNGEONS!"
The bell rang and there was a mad rush for the corridor. Snape still looked like he had been hit with one BAD hex and was on a rampage. Lara and Malfoy looked like they were on death row. It was OK - considering it's Malfoy - but bad for Lara.
Care of Magical Creatures
We all made our way to the pumpkin patch where Care of Magical Creatures was being held. Professor Edusa wasn't there yet, so we all settled down on the grass and started talking. The Ploonies were still in their pen and were happily playing with each other.
After a few minutes, Professor Edusa (if you could call her a professor) came down, holding down her hat and adjusting her red square glasses. Age spots dotted her face, which I'm sure reminded us all of a bulldog. She made her way to the front of the class with her usual grumpy look and set down the big pile of papers and books on the grass.
"Alright, in this lesson we will try and teach your Ploony some tricks." Professor Edusa waved her arm unimportantly to the pen of the jumping Ploonies. "Some of the tricks are sit, lie down, roll over and speak. The tricks that Ploonies can do end up distantly relating them to domestic dogs, being why Ploonies are so sociable." Professa Edusa smoothed (unsuccessfully) her hair and sat down in a chair that she had conjured with her wand.
"You may now start." she said, picking up the papers and books, pulling out a quill.
We all looked at each other and exchanged looks; how in the world were we going to teach our Ploony tricks?
I sighed and found my partner - Blaise Zabini - after I collected our Ploony. I squirmed as I came near him. Blaise was a BOY. I shuddered - I could see all those horrible germs crawling on him. I didn't want to get infected. It's a terrible thing to get infected with boy germs. I shuddered again.
Blaise was standing on the grass, his hands in his pockets, looking at his surroundings with a bored expression on his face.
"Blaise." I said stiffly. He grunted in acknowledgement. I let go of our Ploony's collar and let is sit down. It looked up enthusiastically at us.
"You can go." he said roughly. A rare show of kindess from a boy, let alone a Slytherin. Needless to say, I was shocked. Pulling the Ploony over to me as I walked off (a good 5 metres) to stay away from the boy germs, I sat down and looked at the Ploony.
"Sit." I said. The Ploony only looked at me with its big brown eyes and licked its nose. I got my hands and tired pushing the back part of the Ploony's back down. It looked at me and licked its nose again. Again, I pushed. Again, the Ploony licked its nose. I was about to give to Ploony over to Blaise when I witnessed yet another Care of Magical Creatures fight.
It was Linda and Malfoy and they both obviously had different views on how to train animals.
"You DON'T sends sparks at an animal to train them to sit IF THEY ARE NATURALLY AFRAID OF BRIGHT LIGHTS!" she yelled at Malfoy. Malfoy rolled his eyes and sent some sparks into Linda's face, making her recoil and then blink.
"Are YOU naturally afraid of bright lights? You know, if you were related to a Ploony, I wouldn't be surprised." Malfoy smirked.
"Well those little voices in your head must be spreading lies about people." Linda said innocently. "You know Malfoy, you should really get some help. I mean, if you were related to a Ploony, I wouldn't be surprised." Malfoy looked like he was grinding his teeth.
"Obviously you're talking gibberish - LINDA - you must be blinded by my good looks." Malfoy said egotistically. Linda looked appalled - and for good reason.
"Sure, if you could call an albino, hair slicked ferret good looking, DRACO." Linda's eyes narrowed. Malfoy opened his mouth but was cut off.
"What are you two doing?" Professor Edusa had awoken from her usual sleep and was prowling around the grounds.
"Ploony training techniques." Linda said nicely, an innocent grin on her face. Edusa looked skeptical - Malfoy was throwing Linda death glares. Finally after a little bit, she returned to her lawn chair and started snoring again.
"Courtney." Blaise said, coming towards me. In record time, I stepped back. He looked confused. He stepped forward again. I stepped back again. Step forward. Step back. Step forward. Step back. Steps forward. Steps back. In the end I think Blaise gave up. With the distance of 5 metres between us, Blaise started talking. "Have you gotten any progress with the Ploony?" I looked at the Ploony.
"Sit?" I asked nicely. It liked its nose and I shook my head. "Nope." Blaise rolled his eyes and sat back down.
I was about to start training the Ploony again when -- "OW! THE THING BIT ME, THE SON OF A BITH!" I looked up, shocked. Malfoy had just swore. SWORE. Swearing is so bad for you!
"You said the 'B' word!" I shouted, horrified at such a terrible deed. Karla's head jerked up.
"Who said the 'B' word?!" she asked, with the same look upon her face as me.
"He said the 'B' word!" I pointed at Malfoy, who looked shocked at the reaction.
"I can't believe that you said the 'B' word!" Karla screeched at him. Malfoy walked back slowly. I think that he deserved all that shouting.
Meanwhile, Edusa had woken up to the screaming of Karla.
"Alright then." she coughed, looking a bit confused. "Right well, you should have taught your Ploony the basics in training. Now for homework, I want you all to write a 12 inch essay on your experiences today. Due Monday."
Oh this was great - we hadn't even done anything. I looked angrily at the Ploony.
"SIT!" I yelled at it. It blinked, licked its nose and then sat down. I smiled at it, satisfied. Now, onto the next trick ...
"OK, that's enough!" Edusa adjusted her glasses and grunted a little bit to herself. "I'm sure by now you would have taught your Ploony the assortment of tricks. Now, I want you all to feed your Ploony and give it a walk. This is to be done individually and not neccessarily with your partner. The person who is not doing the duties will do bookwork." Edusa mumbled to herself again, sat down on the lawn chair and in a manner of seconds had fallen asleep again.
"YEAH!" Linda and Malfoy screamed, grabbing their bags and walking towards their group. Malfoy shoved the Ploony's leash (still attached to the Ploony) into Linda's hands and then walked off to join Blaise. Linda sighed, shook her head, and started feeding the Ploony.
"Did you get your Ploony to work properly?" Louise asked Rachel as they walked their Ploonies together. She shook her head. "Susan was shouting at it and sending sparks at it, but then stopped when Linda started fighting with Malfoy." Linda looked up. Her Ploony didn't really seem to be hungry, so she started walking it.
"What?" she asked as her Ploony walked energetically.
"Nothing." Rachel smirked, poking Louise in the ribs. They were both laughing and accidentally bumped into Elizabeth, who was now applying blush with one hand and walking her PLlony with the other. There was a scream and for the second time that day, everything was going in slow motion (from Elizabeth's point of view, I'm sure). After Rachel and Louise had bumped into Elizabeth, her blush had wobbled dangerously and had no sooner fallen out of her hands. In slow motion, the blush slowly swished in the air until it landed onto the dirt brown ground; cracking opening. Peachy coloured powdered spilled out and littered the ground like lice. Elizabeth's mouth gaped wide open as her favourite blush scattered onto the dirt, as if she was in a cosmetics battleground graveyard.
She dropped to her knees and looked at the scattered grains.
"NO!" she wailed, leaning over the blush. She couldn't cry - no - she WOULDN'T cry. Her powder had already been ruined. There was no reason to ruin her mascara as well! She looked at the ground. Maybe there was some kind of hope to get it back together ...
"Oops, sorry!" Linda said cheerily as her Ploony (accidentally, I'm sure) trod onto the remaining fine particles. Elizabeth screamed and clawed at her hair. Now she would NEVER get her blush back!
I frowned and elbowed Hermione. "Isn't there some sort of spell that --" Hermione smiled and started doing some sort of weird victory dance.
"I know a spell to fix this and you don't ..." she sang happily, skipping around.
Karla ignored Hermione and slowly made her way to Elizabeth. She gently patted Elizabeth's shaking back.
"It's OK." she said. Elizabeth shook her head, her perfectly straight hair (which was slightly knotted due to her clawing) swishing. She soon stopped, however, as she realised that this would get her hair even more messy.
"It's NOT OK!" she sobbed, looking at the remaining powder. She wailed again.
"It's only powder." Rachel tried. Elizabeth stopped sobbing. She got up, not even bothering to brush the dirt off her knees.
"Powder?" she asked, a look on her face that was a mixture of anger, sadness and grief. She also seemed to have a voice to match the face.
"Erm ... Yeah." Rachel said, looking around a little bit.
"Just powder?" Elizabeth asked, her voice still the mixture of anger, sadness and grief. Rachel blinked.
"I advise you becareful with your answer." Ashlee said.
"Um. Yeah." Rachel said, clearly ignoring Ashlee.
"That was not 'just powder', Rachel!" Elizabeth yelled, her voice rising. Rachel jumped back a bit. "That was Maybselline Peachy Crush Powder, Rachel!" Elizabeth spat out Rachel's name in disgust. She advanced towards Rachel a bit. Rachel stepped back, like I had with Blaise.
"OK." Rachel squeaked.
"Maybselline Peachy Crush Powder that is so rare to get that it is NO LONGER STOCKED IN SHOPS, Rachel!" Elizabeth was shaking in anger, no longer seeming to care that her hair was going to be ruined.
"C-C-Can't you just get another one?" Rachel asked. Ashlee slapped her forehead and I shook my head. Rachel's head is obviously empty.
"Another one?" Elizabeth's eye was twitching. "Maybselline Peachy Crush Powder cannot be replaced!" Rachel jerked back.
"M-M-Maybe you could go without make-up, perhaps?" Rachel suggested weakly. I shut my eyes. This girl was a goner.
"Go without? GO WITHOUT?" Elizabeth looked like she had just been asked to deprive herself of Wet Shine Diamontes ("Charmed to stay on longer, glossier and wetter than wet") for a month. "ARE YOU INSANE? GOING WITHOUT IS WORSE! NO - WORSE THAN WORSE! HORRIBLE! TERRIBLE! STUPID!"
"Rachel-like ..." Lara muttered as she spectated with Malfoy. She whispered something to him and he smirked again. My mouth dropped open. MALFOY. THAT git. MALFOY! Why would you associate with that idiot? He's a ... BOY! I felt like I was going to be sick. I turned my head so I wouldn't have to look at them.
"Surely," the word came out as a squeak, so Rachel cleared her voice, "SURELY, you could go natural one day?"
Oh dear. That was when Elizabeth grabbed her wand. She whipped it out of her robes and pointed it right in the middle of Rachel's eyebrows. Rachel's head jerked back again.
"Take that back." Elizabeth spat, her brown eyes glinting with danger. "Now." Rachel pursed her lips. She wanted to apologise; she really did; (obviously anybody would when someone is pointing a wand in between their eyes) but for some reason, her mouth wouldn't say it. She opened her mouth and even mouthed out the words, but no sound was coming out. All this made her look like she was some form of demented human goldfish. Elizabeth sighed.
"Then you leave me with no other choice." Elizabeth did a funny movement with her wand. "Andragoras Maniecurse!" Her wand emitted a bright white light that went all over Rachel.
"AHH!" Rachel screamed, looking at her hand. It didn't look ... human. In fact, it looked far from human. It looked ... scaly, almost snake-like. The scales were purple and looked like excess nails. My eyes widened. Oh my goodness - she couldn't have turned into ...?
"AHH!" Rachel screamed again. She seemed to have wanted to scream more, but she got cut off. By what? How about ... flames?
That's right. Rachel was spitting out flames instead of words of abuse (thank goodness, I can say). Elizabeth jumped back, just avoiding the flames. Rachel's eyebrows were furrowed. That's when I heard it: something that sounded like a balloon deflating. Where was that sound coming from?
"Hahahaha!" Lara laughed. "Rachel's ego is deflating!" So THAT'S where the noise came from ...
There was silence for a little while until ... RIIIIIP!
I jumped a little bit when I heard the noise and looked around for the source. It was Rachel's robes. They had ripped and had fallen to become merely flimsy pieces of material. Why?
She had a tail. A scaly one. A scaly purple one.
And; she had wings. WINGS! She had scaly, purple wings, and they were flapping like crazy. Rachel took another look at herself and emitted more flames.
"What did you do?!" I hissed at Elizabeth, who dodged another round of flames.
"Dragon transformation spell. It kind of ... went bad." she muttered.
"DRAGON transformation spell?!" I yelled at her. Elizabeth rubbed her ear. "You might as well have charmed us some gravestones!"
"Courtney!" she objected. "Not so loud!" I rolled my eyes - honestly; I wasn't THAT loud!
"Well then, why DID you try to make her turn into a DRAGON?" I asked.
"It was the first one that came to my mind!" she said. Rachel opened her mouth on her scaly face and spat out more flames.
"Well bright one then!" Ashlee said sarcastically. More flames. "You know most witches would have been happy with a toad, but NO! YOU had to go the whole way!" Elizabeth opened her mouth but I cut her off.
"And you seemed to have failed as well." I said. Rachel looked at her hands again and, once more, there were flames.
"Well what are we going to --" Louise hopped out of the way as Rachel spat out more flames, "--do?" I looked around. Everyone seemed to have run off for fear of being set on fire.
"OK, OK," I said, getting my bag and grabbing Rachel's one as well. "I'll take her to the Hospital Wing." I frowned as I looked at her scaly, purple body. "Let's hope that Madame Pomfrey can do something about this ... thing." I grabbed her arm.
Rachel's scaly, purple face scowled. "No way am I going to the Hospital Wing!" she objected, spitting out fire afterwards in disgust. She shook my hand out my arm defiantly and crossed her own arms.
I heard Lara sigh then turn around. She had conjured up a needle and was looking at it in a form of awe. Lara waved it around a little bit. Rachel gulped.
"You know, Rachel, I've heard that Dragon's Blood is quite useful in many things. 12 to be exact." Lara approached Rachel as she emitted some smoke out of her nose (Rachel's nose; not Lara's). Rachel's eyes widened. She gripped my arm like there was no tomorrow
"Take me to the hospital wing!" she pleaded, shaking my arm furiously. "Take me to the hospital wing!" she repeated desparately.
"Ahhh ... Why the sudden change of heart?" I asked triumphantly.
"TAKE ME TO THE HOSPITAL WING OR I'LL SET YOU ON FIRE!" she yelled, flames errupting from her mouth and onto the ground, setting the grass on fire. Karla frowned and put it out with some water from her wand.
I walked with Rachel to the Hospital Wing. She had crossed her arms and was looking at everything angrily. I had retrieved her ripped robes and covered her with them so as not to embarras her - who would actually voluntarily walk the halls of Hogwarts as a scaly, purple, fire breathing, smoking snorting (I also have to add 'naked') dragon? Most definately Rachel. After all; this must have been doing wonders for her ego.
We finally reached the Hospital Wing. I opened the door and knocked on the back of it. Rachel's wings flapped a little bit.
"Out in a minute!" I heard Madame Pomfrey's voice echo from somewhere inside.
In a few seconds, she appeared, wiping her hands with a normal dish towel. She was looking at her hands and looked up. Her eyes went wide. Rachel gave her a weak dragon smile.
"AAAAARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!" Madame Pomfrey screamed, running back to where she came from, arms waving about.
"What can we do?" I yelled at the place where she had run off to.
"Um, erm ... You can't do anything!" she yelled, obviously scared of looking at Rachel. Fire roared through Rachel's nose. "It wears off by itself after a little while. You're lucky that the spell wasn't done properly!"
Rachel looked stunned. All I can say is: hahaha!
Lunch
I sat down at the Gryffindor table a little while later for lunch. Rachel had followed me and sat down. Everyone was staring at her; after all, she WAS still scaly and purple. As Rachel had entered the Great Hall, the clatter and chatter immediately died down and everyone instantly started staring at her. Only the Gryffindors gave her some sympathy, even though they were a bit scared of her. After a while, however, everybody in the Great Hall seemed to accept it and only gave her occasional weird looks (with the exception of the Slytherins).
Meanwhile, Ashlee had company ...
"Hi, Harry." Ashlee said as she sat down next to him. Honestly, another boy! Why would you want to subject yourself to such a horror as sitting next to a BOY?!
"Hi, Ashlee." he smiled. Then Harry saw what was in Ashlee's hand, and he looked confused. "Why have you got a doll in your hand?"
"Doll?" Ashlee looked astonished. "This is not JUST a doll - this is Aragorn from 'Lord of the Rings'!" she held up the male doll, which seemed to be dressed in some sort of warrior uniform. He had a dagger on his weapons belt, wavy black hair and a long sword which was in one of his hands. Ashlee seemed to be enjoying the doll immensely. For some reason, 'Araworm' (or whatever his name was) seemed very familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on where I had seen him before.
I was going to say something about 'dolls should be boys' and 'why you would want a boy for a doll in the first place', but Rachel asked me to pass the sausages. Since Rachel was part dragon, I shut up and passed her the sausage platter. As I did so, I accidentally knocked over the pepper shaker. Ground pepper sprinkled everywhere.
"Oops, sorry, Rachel!" I said as I mopped some of it up with my hand. I looked up; Rachel hadn't said anything in return and I thought it was a bit rude to do so. But when I looked up, Rachel had her face in the air and her eyes were scrunched up. Then I realised it - she was about to sneeze! My eyes enlarged. Before I could jump away, Rachel sneezed, sending flames everywhere and reeling back a bit from the force of the sneeze.
Immediately, everybody in Gryffindor straightened their backs and shrunk back. The flames had reached the sausage platter, and the sausages had been set on fire.
"Barbeque!" Ashlee joked cheerfully, spearing a sausage and blowing out the flame. Linda grabbed her wand and put out the fire. Rachel glowered at Ashlee (who smiled back) and speared a sausage rather forcefully.
I continued chewing on my salad until I saw a plastic head with wavy black hair come into my line of view. I blinked. It seemed to be trying to eat my slice of tomato.
"What is that?" I asked calmly as I poked a leaf of lettuce with my fork.
"Aragorn!" Ashlee smiled, shoving the doll into my face.
"OK, well, that's great," I said sarcastically, "but how about you just show it to Harry instead?" I suggested. Ashlee nodded enthusiastically.
She shoved Harry's plate of food away ("OI! Those chicken legs tasted nice!") and instead placed Aragorn in its place.
"Don't you just LOVE my Aragorn doll?" she asked happily. At that precise moment, Ashlee sounded EXACTLY like Karla.
"No." Harry batted away Aragorn and pulled back his plate. Ashlee looked mortally offended. Then she seemed to have an idea.
"Well, then I'll prove to you all the wonderful things about Aragorn!" Ashlee waved Aragorn carefully at Harry.
"Oh no." Harry moaned to himself.
"Aragorn is courageous! Aragorn is strong! Aragorn isn't afraid to fight!" At that last statement, Ashlee waved Aragorn's body around so that his plastic sword was hitting Harry's goblet. Harry looked at the sword and the goblet then cleared his throat.
"I'm going to use that now." he picked up the goblet and placed it to the other side of him; the side where Ashlee wasn't. This, however, didn't deter Ashlee.
"Aragorn is KING! Aragorn is in 'The Lord of the Rings'! Aragorn is COOL!" At this, Ashlee poked Harry in the arm with the sword that was still attached to Aragorn's hand. Harry reached over and moved the doll.
"Hey, can I see Aragorn for a second?" Harry asked, suddenly curious. Ashlee regarded him for a few seconds before handing Aragorn over.
"Be gentle." she said as she finally started her now cold lunch. She kept her eyes on him as if she were an eagle.
Harry smiled as he moved Aragorn's head. "Do you like Louise?" he asked. Harry moved the head so the head was shaking. "Do you like Linda?" the same movement.
"What?" Linda asked, looking up from her food.
"Are we going to ignore the deaf girl?" Harry asked the doll. He moved the head so it looked like Aragorn was nodding.
Hermione was watching the doll. "Er, Harry, I don't think you're supposed to do that." she remarked, setting down her copy of "Amazing Arithmacy!: The Funny Shapes Become Funky Shapes!".
"Don't be stupid!" Harry laughed. "Is Hermione wrong for the first time in her life?" he asked the doll. Another nodding movement. Ashlee was still watching him and was about to pounce on him (probably to yell at him for being so brutal on Aragorn the king, courageous, strong, etc), when ...
CRACK!
Aragorn's head came off in Harry's hand. Harry turned to a pale Professor Snape colour. Ashlee looked like she had just eaten rotten eggs. I went quiet. Rachel stopped eating. This was not good.
"ARAGORN!!!" Ashlee screamed, tackling Harry and pulling out Aragorn's head from Harry's hand. She had a look of pure anger on her face. Without any hesitation, Ashlee lunged forward and started choking Harry. "YOU HURT ARAGORN! YOU KILLED ARAGORN! YOU ANIMAL!" she screamed repeatedly.
"No wait, Ashlee, I can fix this!" Harry choked, his glasses askew and his hair messier than ever. Ashlee stopped strangling him.
"Really?" she asked.
"Yes!" he said. Harry got up, fixed his glasses and whipped out his wand. I looked at Rachel quickly. She looked like she was going to sneeze again. "OK, Repair-ARRRGH!" Rachel had sneezed in the middle of Harry's spell and had sent flames everywhere, like one where it was extremely close to Harry's arm. She had sent herself backwards a bit from the force of the sneeze (again). And the spell?
BOOM! CRACK! BANG!
Since the spell was cast wrongly, obviously the spell was going to do something different. In this case, it would be to blow up something. Ashlee looked in alarm as Aragorn exploded; throwing pieces of plastic everywhere. Ashlee yelped as she dodged a piece of Aragorn's boot. She seemed to be having a mental breakdown. I'm not exactly sure if that was before or after the arm that held the sword landed right onto her plate. Or before or after Aragorn's head landed into her goblet (but she didn't really seem to notice that).
Ashlee blubbered as she picked up Aragorn's severed arm (sword still attached). She brought it up and started whacking Harry's arm with the sword (arm still attached). She dropped it soon after, sobbing into her hands.
"It's just not the same!" she moped. I cleared my throat funnily; I had an idea.
"Why don't you, er, take a drink to calm your nerves, Ashlee?" I asked, trying not to laugh. She nodded, obviously too distressed to say anything.
Ashlee picked up the goblet, opened her eyes and started screaming. A high, ear piercing scream that echoed throughout the entire Great Hall. Even Linda looked scared.
"What is it, Ashlee?" Ron asked tentatively.
"Aragorn!" she stuttered sadly, thrusting the cup under Ron's nose. Ron looked down and he was obviously restraining himself from laughing himself stupid.
Ashlee looked around the Great Hall, trying to find the scattered and twisted remains of Aragorn. "Accio Aragorn bits!" she said repeatedly, and random bits zoomed into her open hands. Finally, she seemed to have all of them. "OK, we're going to fix this!" Ashlee said, as if failure was not an option.
"How are you going to do that aside from the 'Repairo' spell?" Linda asked her.
"I know a simple gluing charm!" Ashlee said triumphantly. She cleared her throat and held her wand high. Oh no - Rachel had those face spasms again. She was going to sneeze! "Glu-ARRGHHHH!"
Yep, I knew it. I opened my eyes to see Ashlee's Aragorn bits on fire. Rachel was rubbing her nose and there was a stench of burning plastic in the air. If Rachel wasn't half-dragon, then Ashlee would have not seen the bad side of strangling her.
"Ashlee ..." Harry said in a solemn tone. "Look, if you get really that depressed, how about me and Rachel chip in to get you a new one?" he asked softly. He was obviously expecting the 'Nothing could ever replace the original Aragorn!' routine, but he most certainly did not expect Ashlee suddenly happy again.
"OK!" she said brightly, returning to her food.
Some people are very weird ...
Astronomy (A/N: I'm not exactly sure how many lessons Hogwarts has everyday, so I'll just skip to the last lesson of the day - which is at nightime)
We made our way to the Astronomy Tower to look at the stars. Professor Sinistra was already waiting for us and only slightly recoiled at Rachel - most of her scales had disappeared and her skin was slowly turning less purple. She still, however, had wings.
"Alright, tonight we will observe the clusters and nebulas in the sky." Professor Sinistra said. "Identify what you see and make observations, like colour; shape and brightness." She sat down at her desk and started marking papers.
Things were going well, with one possible exception. Rachel was sitting at the windowsil (Professor Sinistra didn't want her setting fire to the papers) and she still was sneezing a fair bit as well; and I don't think we wanted to get toasted just yet. Her wings were also flapping a bit, causing some wind to be blown onto our faces.
The lesson was nearly over (I had one more colouration of a nebula to go) when something interesting happened - Rachel sneezed again. Flames blew out everywhere. But this time, she had sneezed too hard. Right after she had sneezed, she was sent back a bit from the force of the sneeze. And - since she was sitting on a windowsill - she obviously went out. Not out the door; out the window. Good thing she still had wings, though.
So there Rachel was out in the sky, flapping madly so she wouldn't plunge into the lake, scales and all. That was when Lara had looked into the telescope.
"ARRRGGHHH!" she screamed, withdrawing herself from the position in front of the telescope. "IT'S A U.F.O!" Malfoy quickly sat down and looked into the telescope.
"OH MY GOODNESS, IT IS!!" Malfoy jumped away, clutching his chest for breath.
Rachel scowled at us through the window. Her wings flapped her closer to the window. "That's not funny." she said, crossing her arms. She was about to pop out another insult when she sneezed again, sending more fire into the air.
"WOAH, FIREWORKS!" Lara said as she looked back into the telescope. She tilted the telescope. "ARGH! ITS THE U.F.O. AGAIN!"
Rachel rolled her eyes and then lowered herself a bit. She looked confused. Then she looked scared. Rachel looked at her back and then gulped.
"Guys, erm, I think one of you should take my hand." she said, quickly extending her hand. I looked at her skeptically.
"Why?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow.
"My wings are shrinking." she replied. I lunged forward and grabbed her, but Rachel was too heavy.
"KARLA!" I yelled and Karla gripped my legs. Ashlee then held onto Karla's legs. And so everybody else did the chain and started tugging.
"MY WINGS ARE GONE!" Rachel yelled. We all pulled and then Rachel got back into the Tower, perfectly normal once again. No more scales, no more purple skintone and obviously no more wings.
"Alright, pack up - it's time that you all go back to your dormitories!" Professor Sinistra said. We placed our analysis sheets on her desks and forwarded out; ready for some decent sleep.
Attack of the Butterflies
After doing my homework, I took a shower, brushed my teeth and changed into my pyjamas. I walked down the stairs that led to the dormitories and looked around the common room. Harry, Ron and Hermione were finishing their Care of Magical Creatures Homework. Some first years (they were the weakling ones that had bags with wings so they wouldn't have to carry them) were talking about Potions and some older looking students were discussing DADA.
I said goodnight to Hermione, scowled at Harry and Ron (they had boy germs, after all) and was about to go to bed when the portrait hole opened and Lara walked in, brushing herself off.
"So how did it go?" I asked about her detention.
"Bad." Lara said, wiping something that looked suspiciously liked pus out of her uncontrollably curly dark hair. "He made us re-do our potion, but the bad thing was that every so often the boils on his face would burst and pus would go flying everywhere." I made a repulsed face.
"That sounds disgusting." I said, still with the repulsed face. "Why did he keep them in the first place?"
"I don't know." Lara shrugged as we ascended the stairs to the dormitories. "Maybe he did to just spite us." I snorted.
"I wouldn't be surprised if he did." I laughed. Lara gave me one of her rare smiles and opened the door to the bathroom.
"I'm going to take a shower and then go to bed. I'm too tired for anything else." she said, and then went inside.
I was sitting down in beg with the covers waist up and reading a book ("Ploonies and You: Handling it Honourably or Horribly") when I saw ... IT. Lara, it was. In hot. Pink. Pyjamas. With. Lighter. Pink. Butterflies. A disturbing sight, I assure you. My mouth dropped open, as well as everybody else's in the room. Ashlee screamed. Linda hid under her pillow. Karla dropped her issue of "Wicked Witches". Elizabeth stopped applying her overnight stay hair spray. Louise looked up from the library's copy of "Muggle Madness!: A Day in the Life of a Muggle" and her eyes went wide. Rachel, however, didn't looked shocked at all. In fact, she barely looked up from her "Make-Up and Magic: Advantages" book.
"What?" Lara asked, fiddling with her mass of shoulder length curls. Obviously something was wrong; it was just that we didn't know where to begin. So Linda tried.
"What the heck?" she said with a look of confusion.
"Well I couldn't find my usual black pyjamas, so I had to borrow Rachel's spare pair." Ah, yes, Rachel. Clearly it was her - after all, who else would have that ... that monstrosity?
"What happened to your usual pyjamas?" Elizabeth asked.
"I don't know." Lara said, scratching the top of her head. "Maybe the house elves took them or something ..." Then I had a flashback.
"Blinkie, wait!" Blinkie turned around. I was holding some black rags that were on the foot of Lara's bed. Blinkie walked towards me and I stuffed the rags into the laundry bag. She smiled again, clicked her fingers and disappeared.
Oh dear.
Oh well; I don't suppose it matters. After all, there are a lot a scary surprises in Hogwarts.
-----------------------------------
A/N: There's another chapter for you all! I hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to review! The new chapter is coming with Louise in the spotlight! It's another Hogsmeade weekend (Hmm ... I really should put in another normal day, shouldn't I?) and expect something interesting happening ...
Well that's all from me so far until the next chapter. That reminds me - the next chapter is the 13th one which means ... bad luck! Well, hopefully not anyway.
Until Chapter 13 ... (Ooh, unlucky number!)
--Blue - I love 24hr teacher strikes. :)