Author's Note:
Thank you for reading Chapters 1-13, have a nice day.
Song: Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc.
Chapter 14. Feel Good Inc.
Their hearts stopped for good five seconds before screaming.
Everyone on the grounds could hear it. Firenze, Jamie, and Lisa all got full blast as they were hanging over the hole went it happened. The birds in the forest suddenly all took flight, frightened by it. A secretly, illegal hippogriff accidentally bit the hand that fed it instead of the ferret it so desperately desired. Even the ghosts abruptly jumped at the scream, and the school's phoenix was so startled by it, it burst into flames.
"OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT!" shouted Cat, clinging to Skye, and trying to push them further into the wall.
"A zombie hand!" shrieked Karen, skidding back to Cat and Skye.
"It's a part of a body! A human body! Someone buried a body bag under the Quidditch field!" Harry said between deep gasps for air, and skidding away from their discovery. All of the teenagers were piled on one end of the hole, backed against the wall cowering from a rotten hand.
"WHAT HAPPENED!" called from above. None of them answered, all to out of breaht and scared to answer. Harry spotted the broom; he reached over and grabbed it.
"Everyone, grab on!" Harry commanded, tucking the broom under him.
"Can this broom carry us all!" asked Karen.
"You want me to leave you here alone with the body while I fly the rest up and come back!" demanded Harry. Karen glanced at the body, became frightened, and wrapped an arm around his waist.
"Oh hell no, you're not leaving me alone with that thing even for a second!"
Skye passed Cat into his arms who wrapped her arms around his neck in front of him while Skye grabbed a hold of Karen from behind.
"Ready?"
"Just go, go, GO!"
And Harry flew them up out of the hole very easily, very carefully considering Cat was holding him so tightly it was almost like a choke hold, plus it was about as fast as the old broom could carry them up.
As soon as they reached the surface, Harry flew them over the side and they all collapsed onto the ground, sighing with relief, not realizing they had been holding their breath the entire time.
"Something disturbing down there?" guessed Prof. Firenze, stepping over to them.
"Yes…" wheezed Harry, on his back.
"Professor… we're going to need the headmaster."
Just like the eyeball, the human body found under the Quidditch field became the main topic for the rest of week. Unfortunately, the gossip on their centaur Professor did not let up, and only became a part of another rumor that he sent the four down there to bury the body, and they couldn't go through with the centaur's dastardly plans(to which Harry denied completely and hexed anyone who congratulated him on chickening out). The rumors became just as unbelievable as the truth, however, none of it seemed to bother the girls too much, for Karen, Skye, Cat, and Lisa all could worry about was not making their house teams.
"No way am I ever going to get on…" murmured Lisa Minne, separating and rearranging the peas on her plate. The younger Ravenclaw was sitting at the Gryffindor table, ignoring the unspoken laws, along with a Hufflepuff, Jamie Jettison, who seemed too busy stealing food off her plate to notice what she said. The Slytherin, Cat Crescendo, did not sit at their table anymore, and chose to sit with her new boyfriend at the table behind them which did not please Harry and Ron anymore than when she had sat at the table with them.
"Well…" began Harry who had no idea what happened to the Gryffindor table that used to sit only Gryffindors, "… Ron's a keeper. I guess he could help you…"
Ron choked on his food. Hermione looked up, and she began to slap him on the back, a little harder than necessary.
Indeed, Ron and Hermione were still on bad terms. Ron didn't talk to her most of the time they spent together, talking mostly to Harry, and whenever he needed to ask Hermione something, he made Harry do it for him.
"Harry, ask Hermione if you put bellock tentacles before or after you put in the cockroaches."
"Um… Ron wants to know if you put bellock tentacles before or after you put in the cockroaches."
"Tell him, he put the bellock tentacles up his arse for all I care."
"Um… Hermione says-"
"I know what she said!"
Harry was back in the place he often found himself in: a translator and peacemaker between two bickering, secretly-attracted-to-eachother friends. Although he dared not make the peace between these two now, for he wasn't there, and wasn't quite sure what happened. Ron told him he was only trying to pay her a compliment when she began beating him with her picnic basket. When he talked to Hermione, she told him Ron had physically trapped her and she had to use self defense to escape. None of the explanations sounded very logical, so Harry decided most gratefully to sit this one out excluding the occasional telephone operator he played between them.
"Harry, tell Hermione, I'm okay now," Ron choked out between thumps on the back.
"Hermione, Ron's okay, now."
"Oh, good," and she stopped. Ron gave her an evil glare, and turned back to Harry who said something about him and Lisa and help.
"I can't teach her; she's part of another house! What if she uses her powers for evil?" asked Ron.
"What if she - what evil? It's only Quidditch!" declared Skye.
"ONLY QUIDDITCH!" demanded Harry and Ron, bewildered.
"Oh, now you dunnit," muttered Hermione before crunching down on the potatoe chip of glory.
"How do you expect to get on the team with the kind of talk!" yelled Ron.
"Mr. Weasley! Quiet down there!" called out Prof. Mc Gonagall abover the Grand Hall's talk. Ron ducked as if he barely missed an arrow, and murmured something of a "yes, ma'am."
"I expect to get on with good skills and a good team effort," Skye shot back, irritably.
"Don't worry, Lisa. I've seen you, and you're a natural at it! I'm sure you'll do very well. Besides, you've got two weekends until your tryouts! You've got two weeks to get even better!" encouraged Jamie, patting her on the back.
Lisa smiled back and continued to eat dinner with a happier mood. Jamie looked at his watched and glanced at Skye giving her a knowing look. Harry noticed it but didn't think any of it, even as Jamie got up.
"Well, I'm going back early to study. See you," and he left.
"He hasn't eaten anything this week, the hole time he's sat at this table," muttered Hermione. "Do you think there's something wrong with him?"
"Oh, Jamie's just like that. I think he's trying to loose weight or something," replied Skye.
"Lose weight? He's already skinny enough as he is!" declared Ron.
"You know what I bet it is? I bet it's his Herbology grade! Yeah, I heard he's having trouble with his Devil's Snare."
"He's raising a Devil's Snare!"
Harry became lost in the conversation. He wondered what was peculiar about dinner on a Wednesday, but it all became clear as recounted the people who he sat with. He knew someone was missing, and it suddenly came to him.
"Where's Karen?"
"Hi, guys!"
They all looked up to a rather odd looking Karen. Her hair had blue streaks, tide up in a messy bun, and her school uniform looked rather the same apart from the rainbow stockings that changed every day.
"What happened to your hair!" Hermione asked, gleefully surprised.
"Cool, huh? It's the after effect of the hex someone gave me while I was in the bathroom vomiting."
"Why were you in the bathroom vomiting?"
"Oh, someone hexed me again. I've been hexed so many times to day, I'm surprised I haven't turned into an elephant."
"But then you'd have to join the Pookie alliance…" murmured Ron.
"The what?" wondered Karen, taking Jamie's spot.
"Who's been hexing you!" demanded Harry, who found himself very angry at this new information.
"Oh, I don't know. I think that guy with weird look on his face…" and just as Karen reached over to grab a piece of catfish, it transfigured into half a canteloupe. Karen's mouth fell open and a mix of extreme pain and grief came over her face. Her hand and her head fell at once, hitting the table with a loud thud. Harry couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
"You okay?"
"Stupid vomiting. Ruining my dinner."
"Tell me who the guy is, so I can hex him to oblivion," said Harry, digging in his robes fro his wand. Skye eyed him suspiciously wondering why he was so upset and if he somehow learned the need for vengence from Karen and Cat.
"Oh, I don't know. It may have been this guy…" motioned Karen to Ron(they exchanged looks of horror). "…or maybe that guy over there…" she motioned to a boy over at the Hufflepuff table as Zacharias Smith(Harry and Ron nodded in agreement). "…or I don't know, the guy behind me even…" jabbing a thumb back at Malfoy.
Harry was all too prepared to zap him, before Karen mumbled at last, "I really have no clue… my back was turned the whole time I got hexed."
"Oh…well, lemme hex him anyway-"
"You know what would make me happy?" asked Karen, just lifting her fore head from the plate and resting it on her hand, gazing lazily at the desserts that sat before her.
"Oh, what?" asked Harry, who wasn't really wondering what would make her happy, but she seemed so depressed having skipped the main meal, he wouldn't mind knowing.
Karen didn't answer right away. She picked up a spoonful of chocolate pudding and slapped it on the plate.
"If you kissed me."
Cat listened intently to the story Draco was telling about a muggle borne family that, in the Daily Prophet, had been executed by death eaters not too long ago. No, that was a lie; Cat wasn't listening to a word of it. She was too busy thinking about the dead body and how it got there.
"Draco…" she began, interrupting his laughter.
"Hmn?" he wondered.
"Why do you think someone buried a body under the Quidditch field?" asked Cat. Draco blinked at her and smiled nervously.
"To get rid of it, of course," he explained.
"Yes, but why would they want to get rid of it?"
Draco was embarrassed by the question. These thoughts were rather pointless.
"'Cause they were afraid they would get sent to Azkaban if 'caught with it!"
"Yes, but why were they afraid of getting caught? Because they themselves had killed the person? What? And who would do that? The body looked to have been buried there a long time ago. And the only person who could have access to the grounds at all times are the staff members!"
"It could've been buried there before. How long would you say it has been buried there."
"I already said a long time ago."
"No, I mean, an estimate. What estimate?"
"Mmm, I'd say about forty - fifty years ago."
"Merlin, that is a long time ago…" muttered Draco, taking a swig of pumpkin juice. "Why are you even bringing it up, anyway?"
"I don't know; I was just thinking about it," she mentioned. "All I can think about is the dead, rotting, wormy hand…"
"Please, dear, I'm eating…" grimaced Draco.
"Sorry…" Cat smiled to herself in evil delight.
"No, it's fine. So this weekend, you want me to introduce you to the team?" asked Draco, just as the main course disappeared and was replaced by desert.
"Oh, about that. You know, maybe Quidditch really isn't my thing…" Cat began, reaching for a ton of little cookie and setting them on her plate. Draco stopped what he was doing and looked at her surprised.
"What? What brought this on?" asked Draco, swirling his vanilla and chocolate pudding.
"Nothing, it's just, you know," laughed Cat nervously, "all that hard work each practice? I don't know if I can take it! I mean, I was never one for sports to begin with. I'm more of an artsy type -"
"Those mongrels, got to you, didn't they!" Draco jumped to conclusions.
"What? No, no, no, no, no noooo….." and then she looked at his hard glare, and muttered a "yes."
"I knew they would! Well, don't listen to them, they just don't understand," said Draco.
"Understand what? I think they knew the meaning of bribery and cheating," muttered Cat, biting into a cookie.
"Who cares what it is, as long as gets you what you want," Draco muttered back. Both of them refused to look at the other, like they were building a wall between them.
"What, like the ends justify the means sort of thing?" asked Cat. "I always thought that was sort of crazy."
"If you'll do anything to get what you want? Yeah, it might just sound crazy," replied Draco, "but my father calls it determination."
Cat turned to look at him with a skeptical expression.
"Determination."
Draco smirked at her.
"Ambition."
Cat stared at him.
"Who is your father?"
Lucky, not that many people heard her, maybe Ron or Hermione, or Lisa, or Skye.
Harry felt his face grow warm; his heart began running faster like on a tredmill in his chest. However, he didn't move. He didn't say anything; he was only just trying to calm himself in his head.
It's just a joke. Just a joke. She does that. Remember on the train? he asked himself. His blush was just beginning to fade, when he looked at her, into her eyes, and realized that she was not kidding. A cold and hot rush came over him again, and a feeling of butterflies mutating into fairies were fluttering about in his stomache and attempting to go up his esophagus.
Oh God, she's not kidding. But it's okay, I can just tell her no, he told himself. But as soon as he looked at her again, he realized he couldn't say no. The more he looked at her he couldn't help but feel an emptiness take over his brain. Suddenly, it really didn't matter. It was just a kiss, right? It was not like the fate of the world, or like they were going to be married. And wasn't it his duty? As a good friend, to try and make her happy?
Now that really does make me sound daft, he concluded in his brain. Nonetheless it didn't really matter. He would do it, if it weren't for everyone staring at him, he would do it. Mainly, 'cause he felt like it. He needed a good kiss after receiving another detention that day and the still overwhelming Damocles sword above his head.
Harry leaned over and she leaned over and they quickly, gained the attention of the group friends around them, and quietly and tenderly, he kissed her on the lips, very chaste and very slowly like two children who kissed in a pretend wedding.
There was a great shriek, about three other squeals when it was over. They both pulled away after a second, simultaneously, and Karen murmured a "thank you" and went to eating her pudding before it could disappear as well. Harry smiled to himself, quickly muttering a "your welcome" before going back to eating his desert as well.
Everything else became a fading blur of a teacher taking points away for kissing at the dinner table(more than likely Snape), and some girls urging Harry to kiss them too(which he completely ignored), and Ron and Hermione pestering him with questions and Skye who was just nudging Karen and who Karen nudge back until it was an elbow war between them. Nope, Harry did not think anything of anything and continued to sit delightfully enjoying dessert and even as they headed back to the Gryffindor Tower, he was still in a drunken mood of everything around him moving in a blur and he and Karen were the only two people in a vivid stand still, like their secret kiss that still seemed secret and childlike even though they were both 16 and did it in front of tens and hundreds of people in the Grand Hall.
Karen got into bed feeling pretty good with herself. She could not help it. Her hair looked nice, despite the cause of it, and luckily, she had turned back into a human before she left the bathroom so she didn't have to kiss Harry as a green hamster. Yes, in fact, she had endured many hexes that day, but none of it really mattered anymore. All that mattered was her nice soft bed and a good sleep before her potions test tomorrow.
"I didn't know you liked Harry, Karen," brought up Hermione, as Karen came in drying her hair.
"Oh, I don't… well, I do, but not in a really romantic sense," she explained. Hermione, who was sitting bed reading, dropped her book in her lap.
"But you just kissed him only thirty minutes ago at dinner! Right at the table!" exclaimed Hermione. Karen began making her bed.
"So? It was just a kiss," said Karen.
"Well, does Harry know that? I hope you're not leading him on," remarked Hermione, going back to reading. Karen was just tucking in the end of her sheets, and laying down the comforter.
"Oh, he knows. We talked about that night in the Forbidden Forest. You know, about being attracted to people, and it only being a physical thing," furthered Karen, smoothing out the rough parts.
"Oh yes. You know, you never really explained what happened," replied Hermione, turning a page in her novel. Karen climbed into bed and gave a heavenly sigh.
"Oh yes, I did. We were flooded out, skimmed across the lake, and winded up in the Forbidden Forest. End of story," murmured Karen, pulling the covers up to the round of her shoulders. Hermione looked at her, raising a brow. This broke Karen's sleepy kitten look with an unnerving spark.
"What?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and set down her book like before.
"You and I both know that something went on that NIGHT you spent in the forest together. What did you do?"
"We didn't do crap. Okay, so we were two half naked, hormonal teenagers, alone, by a fire, in the middle of the forest at night, but trust me. Harry and me aren't like that. We didn't do crap," rambled Karen, then she turned over, muttering under her breath, "Geez, you're just as crazy as Skye. Don't need no stinking birth control patch…"
"KAREN!"
SLAM!
There stood Skye in the door way looking mildy furious, and most importantly, giddy with some sort of sadistic joy in her pajamas.
"Oh my God, the party never ends…" muttered Karen pulling the covers over her head. Skye ran over and jumped onto the bed, getting ontop of her.
"Ach, gott, shiezenhowzen!"
"What was that at dinner? YOU KISSED HARRY!" squealed Skye, poking her form under the blanket in random places.
"Why won't the party stop? Someone stop the party. Take away the chips and dip and kick the bastards out of the house…" muffled Karen under the blanket.
"Huh?" wondered Skye. Hermione rolled her eyes once more and went back to reading.
"You know, you were upset with me and Harry before, and now you're all sunshine and daises about it," muffled Karen. Skye didn't really understand what she said, but just pretended it was nothing of real significance.
"Oh, well, right, anyway! I saw Harry down stairs just after dinner(you were in the bathroom)! He's so dazed, he looks like he's been hit by a two-by-four! All these girls keep pestering him about give-away kisses, and all the boys are asking him a bunch crap(I really didn't keep track of it), and most importantly, I think he's really in love with you and not just using you for sex!"
Karen exploded out of the covers, messing them up and knocking Skye back, suddenly standing in a old, soft t-shirt and flannel, plaid pajama pants.
"MUFFINS OF WAR!" shrieked Karen, hands curled into fists and bearing a strange resemblance to Ron beyond bad mood. Karen jumped from the bed and went running down the stairs to the common room.
"Where's she going? She can't possibly be going to the Boy's Dormitory?" said Hermione looking at Skye who was looking at her. Instantly, they both leaped out of bed and dashed after her.
"Did you see what happened at Dinner tonight?"
Cat tried to ignore the gossip as she brushed her teeth over the sink. The girls next to her were busy applying facial cleanser to their faces while they chatted.
"Someone kissed that Harry Potter, didn't they?"
"Ew, yes, and I was eating. It was most disgusting."
"How much do you think they paid her? I bet someone put her up to it. Gryffindors are always doing stupid things to each other. Remember the Weasley twins…"
"I think it was that jumpy girl, Kathryn? Karen?"
Cat stopped immediately.
"Yeah… BOOM!" The girls said in chorus, and began giggling uncontrollably.
Cat, for some reason - full of fury, turned around and spat all her toothpaste spit into their faces. She then stormed out of the bathroom before they could stop their grimacing and shrieking to hex her.
"Where are you going, Crescendo?" asked Pansy Parkinson as Cat shoved past her on the way down the Girls Dormitory steps.
"NONE OF YOUR FUCKIN' BUSINESS!"
And before Pansy Parkinson could fumble for her wand, Cat whirled around with a spell.
"Stupefy!"
Cat ran down and out of Slytherin, almost gleefully, leaving a very knocked out Pansy behind.