The lack of reviews is really starting to get depressing, guys. No feedback for over four chapters doesn't exactly make me think that people give a damn if I keep wrighting or not… :'(

A friend of mine came up with a Slytherin Tradition. A prank in which a boggart is thrown into the Common Room near the beginning of the school year to scare the shit out of the first-years. I've been pretty much stuck on adding that into all of my ideas of Slytherin considering they're all portrayed as nasty little brats who only care about themselves so…

Prank gone too far

Phoenix grimaced as she lifted her arms over her head to put on a tank-top. Normally, she didn't wear more than a sports bra and shorts to bed when she slept indoors. But she didn't want to show more than she had to in front of all these pampered little children. Those of her group, she couldn't care less. Most, if not of them, all had seen her scars. Some of them were even with her when she got them. Others, though, were normal kids. Some were pampered little purebloods that probably hadn't even been scolded once in their lives.

"We can stay in here, you know?" Pansy offered.

"Things get ugly when I get cabin-fever." Phoenix chuckled. She turned around and looked in the mirror, assessing her back. She wasn't going to change what she wore but she wanted to know which scars would be the cause of the wide eyes. "And besides, I'm not going to hide from a bunch of spoiled brats that have never seen a scar before."

"I was actually talking about your arm." Pansy chuckled as she grabbed a wand. "Think Draco is sulking in his room or pretending he's dying because of the beating he got from Mad-Eye?"

"Don't care." Phoenix stated as they walked out of their room. "I preferred him when he was a cute rodent." Their room, within the hour, felt like home. A little bed was set up for when Diana returned and was on the opposite side as Phoenix's bedside table.

"You can't talk about him like that!" A 2nd year girl, one of those who worshiped Draco, shouted from down the hall. "He's your older brother. Give him respect!"

"I'll give respect to him when he earns it." Phoenix stated, looking over at her shoulder. "Besides, I doubt it will be long before my dear father disowns me."

When she turned more, the girl's eyes went wide in horror. She stepped back. "S-So it's… true then. You were k-kidnapped as a kid…"

"I wasn't raised spoiled rotten like Draco, no." Phoenix stated. "I spent my life earning everything I had and protecting my younger siblings. I will not automatically give respect to a coward who doesn't know how to attack someone unless his back is turned just because he was born a couple minutes before me."

The girl had nothing to say. When Phoenix and Pansy left, Phoenix couldn't help but wonder if the brat would act like her brother and attack her from behind. She didn't, though. She didn't even move. The pair walked into the Common Room where dozens of students, mostly first-years, were laughing and enjoying their day. Professor Snape and Blaise were off to the side playing Wizard's Chess.

Phoenix chuckled a little upon seeing the peaces destroying each other instead of them just being taken off the board. "This is chess, right?" She asked Pansy. "Goal is to take the king?"

Blaise's concentration popped like a bubble, his head snapping up to look at his cousin. "You've never played?"

"Always bored the hell outa me." Phoenix shrugged a one-sided shrug because her injured arm remained limp at her side. "I know the rules, though."

"If chess bores you then how do you stay awake in history?" Blaise asked seriously. "I got, like, ten hours of sleep and even I nearly fell asleep during that lecture on World War 2."

"Learning something or playing with something is completely different." Pansy stated. "Trust me, she already has a dozen books checked out at the library."

"Seven." Phoenix corrected.

"I do hope you're resting your arm, Phoenix." Snape called as he stood and waved his wand, levitating a pitcher over a glass and pouring himself some water. The glass floated over to him and he drank the entire thing at once. He looked back to Phoenix to see her with wide eyes. "What's-"

"Rick. Move your ass." Phoenix shouted suddenly, though she actually had her back facing everyone but Snape and Blaise.

Rick, actually Heinrick Gutwald a 6th year, bolted out of his seat and grabbed his girlfriend without a second thought. A second later, a bludger flew in.

"God I love Haki Masters." Rick breathed as his girlfriend started to freak out because the damn ball would have slammed right into them, sending them both to the Hospital Wing and probably keeping them there for days. "I owe ya, Angel."

"What else is new?" Phoenix chuckled. Then she turned, sensing something amiss. The ball was gone, replaced by a huge spider that made at least a dozen other students (most of them first-years) scream like banshees. "What the hell?" She spoke, confused.

"I'll handle this." Pansy growled out, livid as she went for her wand.

But then the spider disappeared and became a huge snake nearly too big for the room. Pansy, Blaise, and Snape all bolted to get rid of the thing they knew by then was a boggart but Phoenix got there first. She took off in a dead sprint so fast that a broom would look slow, launching herself into the air and kicking the huge snake in the head as it reached down to get a first-year.

"She's not on the menu, ugly." Phoenix shouted. Then she landed, skidding slightly and turning. Nothing was there. "Really?" She groaned, getting tired of this.

Suddenly, a scream filled the air that made Phoenix go rigid, her eyes wide. "NOOOO!" The agonized scream sounded like the dying breath. Phoenix turned slowly, sensing something behind her. Students screamed in horror and got out of the way as a woman appeared, dead in a pool of her own blood.

Draco ran faster than he'd ever done in his life, pulling his sister into his arms and stepping away. "She's not dead." He whispered to her, careful to not touch her wounded arm. "She's not dead. I swear it. And sense then, Father has never let her out of his sight. She's not dead."

"Boggart." Phoenix stated, slipping out of her brother's grip. "When it finds someone that fears nothing it takes the form of their worst memory." She stepped forward, wand in hand. "I fear nothing, so it shows me Mother."

The creature couldn't be taken care of by anyone but its target and it refused to take the form of anyone else's deepest fears, remaining the body of the fallen Narcissa Malfoy because it was getting a reaction out of so many.

"A boggart is a good tool for overcoming whatever fear you have. Fear is nothing but an emotion. Emotions can be ignored." Phoenix stated emotionlessly. She held up her wand, waving it slightly. "Riddikulus." She chanted.

The lifeless body of her mother changed to Draco but with the head of the white ferret he'd been for hours earlier that day. He ran around, his screams coming out as squeaks. Most of those still around burst into a fit of giggles.

"Ok, I wanna make someone piss themselves." Phoenix muttered, waving her wand again.

It took the form of Lucius Malfoy, yes, but he wore a pink frilly dress and had makeup on. He spoke, his voice a squeaky one expected of a man trying to sound like a woman. "Oh I look so pretty. I look so pretty and witty and DON'T CALL ME GAY I HAVE A WIFE!" He was skipping around blowing kisses and then skipping circles around Snape who looked like if he kept on trying to NOT smile, he'd explode.

Snape eventually lost the battle with his own emotions, nearly falling over as he laughed. Soon after he lost his senses, the boggart exploded. When everyone stopped laughing so much (some going to their rooms because they did in fact soil themselves) Pansy made a beeline for her room. Phoenix was there, curled up in the corner caressing her ring.

"I'll beat the hell out of whoever pulled that prank." Pansy stated as he sat down next to Phoenix. "We all agreed not to do it this year, knowing you'd get involved. Phobias are one thing but…. Yeah."

"You don't need to protect me. I know what form the thing takes. It's not going to change." Phoenix stated. Though, it sounded like she was talking more to herself.

"You don't need to protect me here, but that doesn't mean you're not going to kill the first person to try to hurt me." Pansy responded.

"That's different." Phoenix claimed.

"Not to me." She whispered.

Phoenix sighed, closing her eyes. "You're impossible."

"You're not one to talk."

Phoenix said nothing, both of them falling into silence. Eventually, they went to their beds, a brief 'goodnight' being the only things said before falling asleep.

Same thing, guys. It's still the weekend. If I get just ONE review, the next chapter will be up within the day. Promise. If not, it'll be up next Saturday. Spring Break is over for me and I have better things to do than work on a story that no one is reading.

Peace