Chapter 26

Time to Make Trouble

"I heard an interesting piece of news on our favourite Flying teacher yesterday." Rangi informed James as they wandered up to the castle after a hard afternoon of Quidditch practice.

"Yeah?" James asked,wondering what it could be, "How is Professor Flint?"

"Still hiding in the Hospital, luckily for me." Rangi said with a wince.

"He's not seriously injured, is he?" James asked with wide-eyes, "The crash didn't look too bad."

"Don't worry. The only thing still injured is his pride." Smiled the Quidditch Captain, "I think..." He added after a moment's pause.

"So what did you find out yesterday." James inquired.

Rangi shifted Philip's broomstick from one shoulder onto the other. He had been using his brother's broomstick since the match not wanting to be caught red-handed with the Flying teacher's disguised broom.

"I was serving detention with Liberius after class and I overheard him talking to Longbottom about how Flint's been asked to get to shut down the Club." Rangi told James.

"They know about that?"

"Oh sure, I mean, not the details of course but there's always been students selling things, making bets and gambling. It's only been a couple of years since it was really organised the way it is now." Rangi replied, "No-one's been able to stop it because Leopold and the others run it so smoothly."

James noticed how Rangi lowered his voice slightly at the name of the Club's leader even though there were no teachers in sight.

"Apparently," Rangi continued, "McGonagall gave Flint the job of uncovering the underground student black market to distract him from Quidditch matters. At least that's what Liberius seemed to be getting at."

"So McGonagall knows he's been sabotaging us?" James asked in amazement.

"Well, she's definitely getting suspicious." Rangi agreed, "Which may also mean she's guessed that the incident at the match was my revenge..." He considered nervously.

James changed the subject, "Did you win anything in the match?" He asked suddenly.

Rangi smiled and glanced around his shoulder quickly, "Well, now that you mention it, I did win a couple of Galleons."

"What do you mean by a couple?" James asked suspiciously, he knew Rangi didn't make small bets.

Rangi smiled broadly, "Let's just say I won't have to write home for extra allowance any time soon. Oh and guess what?" He added excitedly, "Leopold gave me silver membership!"

"Nice!" James enthused.

"What about you? I presume you placed a bet after all the trouble you went to get in?" Rangi asked.

"Oh... Yeah." James said slowly, he wasn't sure whether to tell Rangi about Valkyrie or not after his other friends' disappointing reactions.

"And?" Rangi prompted watching James carefully.

"Yeah, I did. I didn't win money though." James told him.

"So what did you get for your efforts?"

"A snake." James admitted.

He waited warily to see Rangi's reaction but to his surprise the excitable Captain's face split into a sudden smile.

"That's cool." Grinned Rangi.

"You think so?" James asked hopefully, "Blue and Alex were kind of creeped out."

"Really?" Rangi frowned, "I mean, I know snakes our a bit too 'Slytherin' but it's not our fault they have such a bad-ass animal as their symbol or whatever."

James smiled, finally having found someone who understood.

"I mean, not as bad-ass as a lion." Rangi continued, "But I mean could you really get away with a pet lion even when security about pets is so slack?"

At this point Rangi trailed off and began looking thoughtful so James decided it was time he interrupted.

"Well anyway, that's what I won!" He said hurriedly pulling Rangi out of his thoughts, "From that Slytherin who always has cages and things."

"Yeah, his uncle owns a pet store or something, so he sells things on here. He can be pricey but you can trust the information he gives you about the animals most of the time." Rangi told James.

There were always students selling things in the Club. It was definitely the best place to sell goods even if you did have to pay a percentage to the Club. At least you were guaranteed customers and you were safe from teachers' eyes.

Rangi continued to bombard James with questions about Valkyrie. James was delighted to have finally found somebody who didn't turn away in disgust and told him everything as they climbed the castle's many stairways to reach the Gryffindor tower. After that they climbed some more stairs so that James could show Rangi his new pet. Rangi was very impressed with the snake and James could tell immediately that Valkyrie liked him a lot more than Blue or Alex.

As Rangi peered through the glass at her, she lifted her head lazily and surveyed him for a while before giving a soft hiss.

"Can I hold her?" Rangi asked eagerly.

"Sure." James smiled.

"How's she settling in to Hogwarts life?" Rangi asked.

"Okay." James replied, "I have to feed her live worms though. She hates them but I can't let her loose to hunt and grass snakes won't eat anything frozen."

James had managed to convince Blue to get him a book from the library on snake care seeing as he had been banned from the Hogwarts library since his very first year. At that moment, Alex walked into the dorm followed by Blue himself. Blue was laughing but Alex looked tormented.

"Rose says hi." Blue informed James waving a sheet of paper at James.

It was clear he had received a letter from Rose in France.

"Tell me what she said about me?" Demanded Alex.

"Nothing." Blue laughed unconvincingly as he glanced at the writing.

"Let me see!" Alex snapped snatching at the letter but Blue held it out of his reach, "If she's writing about me I want to read it."

Rose and Alex had never got along well.

"You can't." Blue told the his frustrated friend.

"Why not?" Snapped Alex, "Give it to me! Why won't you let me read it?"

Blue laughed again, "No, Alex. I mean you physically can't. Rose and I write to each other in French."

Finally, he showed Alex the letter.

"What? But then no one can understand you!" Alex pointed out with bewilderment staring at the writing on the page.

At this moment, a peculiar thought struck James. Blue was continuing to laugh as he watch Alex's outraged face.

"I can't believe you two don't like Valkyrie." Rangi interrupting when Blue's laughing had died down and Alex had finally given up his attempts to make out what Rose had been writing about.

He was still holding the snake carefully and Valkyrie looked very content to have made a new friend.

Blue shrugged.

"She's just kind of scary-looking." Grimaced Alex surveying the snake that had wrapped itself around Rangi's wrist with distaste.

"Alex, she's a grass snake! How can anyone be scared of a grass snake?" James demanded with exasperation, immediately thinking of Albus.

So far, it seemed he hadn't followed through with writing to their parents. James didn't really care if he did. If James and Albus were in charge of looking after their own owls then there was no reason he couldn't keep the snake.

"Whatever." Shrugged Alex lying down on his bed lazily.

"Neither of you are interested in joining the Anti-Slytherin League?" Rangi asked curiously as he gently stroked Valkyrie.

"Huh?" Alex asked as Blue quickly buried his head behind a large book.

"I think Lysander Flint's up to something so I formed a club." Rangi explained as he continued to play with Valkyrie, "We're hoping to pull a prank on him to see how he reacts."

"Only if it includes revenge on Tybalt Tyne." Alex replied, "I've been mad at him since Halloween and getting on the Quidditch team has made him cockier than ever!"

"What happened on Halloween?" Rangi asked as Alex scowled.

"He hexed me and blasted me straight through a window!" Alex pouted.

"Ouch! That guy's got some temper." Rangi said looking up from Valkyrie, "Wait! What were you doing when this happened!"

Alex frowned as he tried to remember, "We were in the Three Broomsticks and Tyne was with a bunch of Slytherins and they were whispering together and I asked what they were doing and then BAM!"

"Whispering, huh? Suspicious..." Rangi said pensively, now stroking Valkyrie's head like an evil mastermind strokes a cat.

James sighed and removed the snake from his arms.

"James. This is prove that they didn't want someone poking about." Rangi said with determination, "We have to come up with something that'll cause trouble for Flint and his friends!"

"Or it could prove Tybalt Tyne is a jerk - but as it happens, I actually have an idea." James said with a smirk as he remembered the idea that had struck him earlier.

Rangi looked at him alertly and even Alex raised his head sleepily. James made sure the door was shut and there was no sign of their roommates before he continued,

"Lysander doesn't want anyone snooping around, right?" He started mysteriously.

Rangi nodded.

"Meanwhile Professor Flint is on the look out for Rankin's club."

Again, Rangi nodded, a slight frown forming between his eyebrows.

"So what if we made it look like the Club was somewhere inside the Slytherin common room or dorm, or that Lysander is involved." Suggested James with a smile.

"How would we do that?" Rangi asked a grin forming on his lips.

"We could plant a letter in Flint's office and make it look like it fell out Lysander's bag when he was visiting one day."

"Excellent!" Rangi grinned, his eyes gleaming, "But how could we get the letter into Flint's office?"

"I can get Valkyrie to do it." James told him, smiling at the green snake that was now draped around his neck.

"How?" Rangi asked, sounding puzzled.

James could feel Blue's eyes boring into the back of his head as he avoided Rangi's questioning eyes.

"She's just... Really well-trained." James lied.

"Cool." Rangi shrugged, "But let's not make the letter accuse Lysander. Flint can ignore something that incriminates Lysander but he can't let anyone hurt his precious kid."

A few minutes later they had drafted a note.

"You have to admit, it's pretty good." James grinned showing it to Blue.

"I don't want to get involved." Blue said without looking up from his book.

"But we need you to be the one to write it!" James insisted, "Knowing Professor Flint, he probably has the rest of our hand writing on file!"

"Then he'll have mine too." Blue said looking James in the eye, "He knows we're all friends and he knows we all hate him."

"Fine." James said turning away.

"Don't worry about it James, I can handle this." Rangi smiled and he disappeared from the room, reappearing a minute later with a long black quill.

James watched as Rangi hastily scrawled out the message onto a new piece of parchment and then, with a flick of his wand, the letters suddenly changed. Rangi's distinctive scrawled writing suddenly formed neat, elegant and curved letters. The writing was completely unrecognisable.

Rangi grinned and held up the quill to James, "Next time you see your Uncle George, ask him for one of these!"

James was very impressed. He made a note in his head to ask George about it at Christmas.

James reread the letter one more time to make sure nothing would give them away. It was prefect.

"This," He thought to himself, "Is definitely going to catch Flint's eye."

'Lysander,

You still haven't paid me the money you lost on the match. This is your warning. I want my money. You better give it to me soon or I'll have to come and get it. I'm not afraid of you or your father.

Also, let Tybalt know that his money from last night is under the rug in the common room. I'll be watching so if you take it, I'll know.

Remember, this is your only warning.'

This is an important little note to say;

a.) I never put a disclaimer on this story but that doesn't mean I own Harry Potter or anything. So, here it is; I do not own Harry Potter or the wizarding world, all rights to their respective owners. I am not writing this fanfiction for profit but for my own personal enjoyment and I am uploading it here in the hopes that it can provide others with entertainment too.

b.) I like to keep things Canon however I have made certain changes. I try to stay true to everything in the books however anything released outside of the series I have taken more freedom with (eg. my Next Generation of Weasleys), this is strictly for plot reasons or because I didn't know about it when I started writing and I now have my own ideas. Obviously you can't please everyone but I hope everyone can accept these changes. These generally consist of changes to the spouses and children of characters that are not mentioned in the epilogue - eg. George. I just wanted to clarify this for anyone who is confused especially those who didn't read 'The Secret Treasure of Hogwarts'. It's not really relevant right now but Christmas is coming up in a few chapters so I wanted to establish this now.

Sorry that this note is so long!

ASG