Hello everyone! Normally I would not update so quickly, but we have another birthday and because she's such a fantastic reviewer I wanted everyone to say a happy birthday to Princesslinleigh...and maybe thank her for getting you another update so quickly ;) Also thanks go out to Angel of the Night Watchers for editing this!
Enjoy!
Chapter 36 – The Miracles of Mab
Waking up on Saturday morning felt like a strange new world. Knowing what I was planning to do, that I was planning on working as a spy against Umbridge and whatever plans she would have against my brother – or at least plans worse than branding him with his own writing – almost made me feel giddy and uplifted compared to the entirety of the week before.
Of course I wasn't stupid, the thought of why she would be calling me a traitor was sure to play on repeat in my mind near constantly. I would probably be found out for my spying, or maybe I would end up having to save Harry and she would call me a traitor for that – either way, I couldn't see a scenario that wouldn't make this all worth the risk. As bad as it would be to be found out for working against her – while working with her. Her being upset enough to call me a traitor still meant that I brought something in her plans apart...and after seeing the writing on Harry's hand, that was enough motive for me.
I did get an earful by the time I had made it down to the common room, however. Adrien Pucey was absolutely livid with me – which I guess was fair considering Slytherin Quidditch tryouts were this afternoon and I had intentionally ripped the seeker's good hand open. I was surprised that it wasn't the team captain – Montague – to be sharing these angry feelings with me, but I guess Pucey's anger may have stemmed from the fear of my retaliation of his long-time girlfriend Alya. Still, I took it all in stride, not able to take the bounce out of my step while I moved to the Great Hall. It was almost a liberating feeling, knowing that I was now a spy. It was almost like I was doing something for once.
Maybe this was why people joined causes like the Order.
Maybe it really was a good feeling to make a difference...still didn't plan to be doing it often, but maybe it was. Besides, I didn't feel any want to fight in a war – wars were not really my style. I would, however, love to undermine and slowly strip down the power of certain individuals using cunning, stealth, and a lot of mischief.
"Oh yeah," I thought aloud, drawing the attention of the people around me. I had barely noticed that I had sat myself between Theodore and Lillian or that across from me sat Tracey and Daphne. Unlike most mornings, Crabbe and Goyle weren't anywhere near me. They must have stuck around Malfoy who predictably was not sitting anywhere near me this morning. Tracey had been freed from the hospital wing after my prefect rounds last night and had explained that Malfoy had not ratted me out to Pomfrey...something I would have to interrogate him for later.
"Oh yeah, what?" Lillian asked.
"I still haven't plotted my revenge," my eyes flickered over to where Parkinson, Bulstrode, and Alya sat several seats away from me. None were looking my way – a rarity of late.
"Is revenge really necessary?" Daphne asked nervously, her eyes following mine. "I mean, I know what they did was wrong, trust me, I do-"
"Do you?" I asked darkly. She cleared her throat.
"Yes, I do. But do you really want to exacerbate things by drawing attention to the rivalry? I mean, these aren't Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs you're revenging yourself with – these are Slytherins. They like revenge just as much as you do and they're not as noble about how they do it."
"Not to mention we happen to room with them and they have access to all our things," Tracey added. I looked at her, blinking my eyes as my mind started to race. It was so simple...it was so simple, how could I have not thought of it before? Fred and George would be ashamed it took me so long to come up with this plan and yet...it was so perfect, I couldn't even be upset that it had taken so long. It would be worth it in the end.
Tracey's brown eyes looking suspicious after my long thought process. "Audrey?"
"Yes," I said quietly. "They could go through my things, couldn't they?"
"Oh, Merlin, I made it worse," Tracey realized with wide eyes.
"Audrey, please don't set anything loose in our dorm room," Lillian sighed, sounding as if she already knew that there would be no stopping me.
"Set anything loose? You think so low of me? I'm much more intelligent than that." I scoffed, looking down the table at the girls again. This time they saw me watching and looked away nervously.
"Not too intelligent for revenge it would seem," Daphne sighed, at least she knew that their warnings were useless.
"Speaking of revenge," Theodore began slowly. "Is it true that you sent Malfoy to the hospital wing last night?"
He had said the magic word, any news on Malfoy was considered top priority in Slytherin House and while everyone was busy trying to pay attention, I was pleased that I could take the time to smile at the memory.
"Yes, I did," I said loudly, holding Alya's glare defiantly. "During prefect rounds, actually."
"Audrey," each girl from my dorm room sighed.
"Why would you go and do that?" Daphne frowned. Tracey just smiled, again having being there, and nodded at me in understanding. She'd heard the entire situation behind my attack as soon as she'd come back into our room while the others slept.
"He spoke out of place and it was my job to put him back in his place," I sneered just at the thought of what had been said. "It was no less than he deserved."
"And no more?" Theodore asked doubtfully.
"No, I could have done much worse and still been justified in my actions," I informed seriously. Tracey nodded to help emphasize my point. "Besides, it's not like anyone besides the Quidditch team cares." The girls threw nervous looks at one another before digging into their food. "What?"
"Theodore is trying out for the Quidditch team today," Daphne said quietly. I raised my eyebrows, looking over at Nott with surprise. He looked sheepish as he began to play with the food left over on his plate.
"You are?"
"Well, I just figured in trying out – it's not like I'm actually talented enough to do any good for the team," he sank a little more in his seat. "I just thought it would be a laugh, you know, get my broom out of the wardrobe for once."
"Theodore's great," Daphne defended quickly, placing her hand on Nott's shoulder. "He practiced all summer long, don't let him fool you."
My eyes narrowed on Daphne. "You know what he did all summer long then?"
She looked nervous, her hand recoiling from him as if he were suddenly made of snakes. "Well, I-"
"Oh, I don't mind," I said with a taunting smile. "Just as long as you don't say it was me that was shagging him this time."
"He plays a mad keeper," Daphne ignored the jibe with shifted eyes to Lillian. "He'll get on the team for sure."
"I told you, it's just for a good time, I don't think I'll get on the team," Theodore muttered into his eggs.
"You're being too modest, I watched him and saw him play with some of the other boys." Daphne waved him off. "You should have seen when-"
"And like always, you're not being modest enough," I hissed, standing up from my barely touched plate of eggs and ham. "I'll talk to you before your try-outs, Nott, I have much less frustrating things to be doing."
I thought about walking over to the Gryffindor table to go and talk to Fred and George – particularly about the new plan I had brewing – but it seemed like it would be detrimental to the role I had now decided to play. Since the role required my utmost Slytherin qualities, I needed to embrace them and begin hating the Gryffindors like I hated everyone else...overall an easier task than most would think. I particularly knew my favourite Gryffindors opinions on the new regimen that Umbridge was trying to enforce and I was acutely aware that to make my position work, I would have to pretend that I didn't like people who would surely go against her new movement. So going over to the Gryffindor table would definitely be a no-no.
Instead I decided to go to the library – it wasn't necessarily the most interesting place in the world to me, but at least it would give me something to do until I could catch Theodore without having Daphne there to bother me. Was it that she was trying to get back into my good graces or that she and Theodore were obviously moving forward to spend more time together that bothered me more? I couldn't really tell. It's not like I was jealous of her and Theodore in a romantic way, certainly not, Theodore was no more than a friend to me...but I may have been a little bit envious of all the time they had obviously spent together over the summer.
Bloody Hell, I was envious of Greengrass. I've hit a new low.
When I got to the library it took me a while to know what exactly I was looking for. I saw a lot of interesting books there – lots on magical beasts that I'd already memorized, potions for ponces, even the book the boys and I had found when we were trying to see whether or not Magic came from the body or the mind – a subject that I still wasn't quite clear on.
"There you are," I muttered while I grabbed a thick tome on pureblood family trees. It was thick and dusty save for the newer sections that seemed to magically insert themselves when new members were born. Strange book. More interested now that I saw the differences in the ages of each page, I began leafing through it while blindly finding a seat at a table. It was disturbing how all the different families interlocked somehow – that the Weasleys were relatives of the Prewitts and the Prewitts were relatives of the Potters and the Potter's were relatives of the Longbottoms and the Longbottoms were relatives of the Crouches who were related to the Rosiers who were related to the Malfoys and it all came back to the Black Family Tree...
I could see all of my friend's families written on the thick parchment. The Greengrasses, the Notts (Marilin Nott, Theodore's mother, had died in '88, she'd been quite pretty), the Rivers, the Moons, the Davis'...it was strange seeing pictures of some of the relatives. It seemed that all the moons had white blonde hair and light eyes, that all the Davies' had dark eyes, that all the rivers had dark hair. The Malfoys all had light hair too – it was disturbing to see how much the Malfoy I had maimed last night had been spawned from look-alikes born generations earlier. The picture of his paternal grandfather Abraxas made me realize just how much he had inherited from his father's side.
His mother, Narcissa Malfoy, did not look anything like any of the blacks. They all had dark hair and even with the pallor in contrast to their dark hair she still had the lightest skin. She really did look like she belonged in the Malfoy line, if I thought about it. It was disturbing how people would stay in such a close-knit circle.
Incest.
Flipping the page back to the Black Family Tree, I saw Sirius' name written beside another – Regulus Arcturus – who I knew to be his brother. The tree was filled with people, for each member of the family a picture was placed on the opposite page as well.
Focus, Audrey. Sirius was not what I had come to look for.
Flipping through the index I went to find the 'Selwin' section. Or was it Sellwyn? or Selwinn? It took a while of digging before I found the name, it was spelt 'Selwyn' and it had a long list of pureblood Slytherins – including a Jane Selwyn and Thane Umbridge with a line beneath it that read 'Dolores Jane Umbridge'.
"Typical," I sighed, pushing the book away from me and rubbing deep into my eye sockets. I was getting another headache. It had not come on fast but it was not exactly gentle – I would be able to survive without the moonstone in my bed so long as I wasn't annoyed or anything of the sort.
"Oh, look at my luck."
Well, now I'm annoyed.
"Hello, Montague," I sighed, closing my book tightly so that I didn't have to worry about him seeing which family tree I was looking through. "Can I help you find something? How about the exit?"
"Clever as always, Potter," he said simply, sliding to sit onto the table in front of me. I pulled my chair back with a loud squeal against the hardwood while he leaned close. "What are you looking at?"
Not surprisingly, he took hold of the book and rifled through the pages before snorting. "Funny, it's not like you'll be finding a picture of you in here," he flicked the 'PUREBLOOD' on the cover. "Don't you agree?"
"Wasn't looking for it," I said simply.
"Oh," he said slowly, leafing through the pages again. "You know, they don't normally show blood traitors in these either – or at least they shouldn't."
"What about bastards to humanity?" I asked innocently. "I should hope your picture isn't in there, then."
"You know what they do show?" he asked darkly, slamming the book down in front of me. The picture looking up at me was of a pale man, handsome features, long black hair and familiar gray eyes. "Dirty old dogs who belong in Azkaban."
My blood all but froze in my veins as I tried to keep my face placid. It could have just been a coincidence that he had called Sirius a dog, there was no reason that he would know that Sirius was an animagus – we had not even known that Sirius was an animagus, so why should he?
Voldemort, that's why.
The picture of Sirius still smiled up at me while Montague took the chance to lean ever closer. "Think they pinpointed him to London, did you hear?"
"Oh dear," I said nervously. "I guess that means no more midnight strolls."
"Best not go to grandmother's house late," he mocked. It would have been close to charming were that dangerous, rabid look not still in his eyes. "Or the big bad black wolf may get you."
Not a coincidence. Montague knew.
"Aren't you supposed to be off to the Quidditch field so you can practice teaching others how to lose to my brother and play badly?" I hissed out, my entire body feeling like it was boiling out of nervousness and anger.
"Playing dirty is not the same as playing badly," he smirked, raising his eyebrows as he noticed my reaction. "I could teach you how to play dirty."
"I'm sure you could, but I'm not interested in learning."
"I never said you would be interested in it," he said lowly, the dark look on his face fully mimicking that look he had on the train again. "You know, Malfoy isn't here to save you now – you made sure of that, didn't you?"
"I don't need Malfoy to save me," I said with a grin, taking my time to make a show and stretch my fingers and crack each knuckle of my left hand before resting it innocently underneath my chin. "Do I?"
"I guess not," he pulled away slightly, the memory must have been burnt to his mind just as badly as the trousers had to his genitals. "But you might want to keep him around if you have any thoughts on staying – what is it you prudes say – innocent?"
"Oh, I dare you to bring that little package near me again, Montague," I gritted through my teeth, no longer able to pretend to not care thanks to the way my heart was racing under my ribs. I knew I was safe. I knew it. I was. Montague could never hurt me. "I'd love to see what I can do under duress."
"So would I," he leaned in to breath into my ear. I couldn't help the fist I made with my hand, which made him place his own hand over it. He was growing more and more comfortable with my discomfort. "Careful, Madam Pince is watching us."
I couldn't tell whether or not he was lying, but I had no want to look away from his hand over my own. "I guess we'll have to wait for tomorrow."
"For tomorrow?" I repeated, making sure that my voice didn't waver like my knees felt they would have were I standing.
"Or the next day...or the next...or the one after that..." he pulled away and began walking backwards out of the library. "I guess you'll just have to wait and see."
Montague walked out of the library backwards and smirking the entire time. When he had finally gone I found myself able to take a breath. I don't know why I was so terrified, why my heart was hammering like I had run from Voldemort himself, but something terrible had just been said to me and my self-preservation was making sure I knew it.
Montague demanded me and he was not joking when he said he always gets what he wants. He would try again.
And he would lose, I tried to remind myself. Still, I shook.
I took the book he had left on the table, the picture of Sirius still looking right up at me from its open page on the table. I looked at the picture briefly, watching Sirius watch me – smiling, unlike all the others in his family tree. He seemed to find it amusing being in this book. I looked left and right before tearing the picture out. Maybe, just maybe, I would be able to save a few younger years from recognizing his face this way, or maybe I could stop people from recognizing that I would be speaking to him soon.
After sending a rather frantic and coded letter to Sirius, I could hear Daphne and Tracey's voices calling me from downstairs. We had all decided to go see Theodore's team tryouts and I was more than willing to go, even if it meant being close to Greengrass for the afternoon. Before I went down, however, I had unfinished business to attend.
Since it was clear that with my spy-status I could not willingly hurt a Slytherin, I would have to be more discrete in my vengeful tactics. Which I was more than willing to do while I placed the newly labelled jar on top of my still-packed clothes and closed the lid of my trunk.
That and an hour of primping was all it would take.
"Audrey, hurry up!" Tracey yelled from the door to the dormitories.
With one last proud look toward the trunk at the end of my bed, I skipped out toward the common room. I briefly wondered what people would say – if I had done enough to make people notice and pay attention enough to make my plan work. But I needn't have been worried, any work on myself was more work than I did in a month and the girls mouths all dropped when they saw me.
"Audrey..." Daphne asked slowly. "Are you wearing makeup? Are you...your hair is – why do you look so..."
"Why do you look pretty?" Tracey said bluntly. She may hang out in pureblood circles the girl had grown hard-shelled and blunt thanks to being a halfblood in those societies. I had never really asked who had been the muggle in her family, but since she lived with her father, I was left to assume. "I mean, you always look nice but now you look...pretty."
"Maybe I'll tell you later," I winked. "When we're watching the boys during Quidditch."
"Are you doing this for a boy?" Lillian asked almost giddily. She was always up for a conversation about boys and liking them. It was her forte to be some kind of matchmaker. "Because this is exactly how you play it if you are – aloof and coy and make yourself noticeable...honestly I can't believe it took you this long to discover makeup – is that makeup or a charm? – either way, you look fantastic."
"Thank you, ladies," I said simply, leading them through the dungeon and out onto the grounds. The air outside of the castle was cool, even in consideration of it being September. The Forbidden Forest in the distance was beginning to change colour, it's leaves making it look much more beautiful and quaint than any of the creatures that dwelled within it.
When we stepped into distance of the Quidditch pitch I felt my blood run cold. It wasn't like I hadn't known where we were headed, but seeing it – seeing the Quidditch pitch – made my stomach flop painfully. No, it didn't look anything like the last time I had been here: the tall tresses of loveage had gone and the pitch no longer wound around itself and hid all the dangers that were out to kill me. In fact, nothing but the tall goal posts were hidden within the stands now – but once upon a time, the dangers that were out to kill my brother had killed Cedric Diggory.
"All right, Audrey?" Daphne asked me carefully. Tracey and Lillian had looked over their shoulders to catch my mood, apparently I had stopped walking, and the other three girls had made sure that I was still following.
"Fine," I forced a smile. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"You know whatever charm you used made you look pretty enough to believe," Daphne frowned. "But I still don't buy it."
"So clever," I drawled, taking a deep breath and crossing my arms over my chest. I would not have any problem going into this pitch – you know why? Because I am Audrey Potter and nothing scares me...save water, dead bodies, deathly encounters, dark and confined spaces, or the idea of boys. Clearly.
"Come on, there are some seats right up here," Lillian pointed to some stands on the left, away from anyone who would be willing to taunt me for my brother's big-mouthery. I frowned, looking up at the stands and all the people who were sitting in it. All of the Slytherin girls had come this year, including a few Ravenclaw girls who weren't afraid to be seen with our crowd. A section of the stands were full and I was not afraid to sit by them and let them all know they didn't frighten me.
"No," I said loudly. "I'm not afraid to sit with them – I know who I am. Come on, let's go sit right there with them."
With uneasy looks from the three girls – particularly Tracey who had been hexed just yesterday by a Ravenclaw – I pushed past and lead the way, climbing the stands easily, getting comfortable in our seats before starting to talk about the turnout of Quidditch tryouts this year.
Nott was quite noticeable, he was over by the closest goal posts, looking to test his broom. There were only about six other boys with him – four older and two younger – considering there was only one position available that Nott wanted: he would be trying out for keeper today.
There was a bigger lot for beaters, however, including two second years who were trying not to seem intimidated by Crabbe and Goyle or the even more intimidating lot of seventh years who looked like they were just excited to hit something really hard. I immediately assumed these to be Montague's circle of friends.
We watched them all stretch and maintenance their brooms for a while, it was not anything interesting and I kind of found myself wishing that I had stayed in the dormitory longer. Maybe I could have made myself look more attractive with more time, maybe I could have thought over some smoother deliveries for everything I would end up lying about today.
"Alright, you lot!" Montague stepped forward, unfortunate captain of this year's team. "Last year we lost our seven year Quidditch cup streak to the Gryffindors – this year, I'm making sure we get a keeper who can keep that from happening and some beaters with better aim!"
A loud cheer came from the Slytherins in the stands and on the pitch, it was so loud that Tracey and I plugged our ears. We had never been much of the 'team spirit' kind of people and even though Slytherin wasn't necessarily known for it, we were considered anti-supporters.
"Now, the whole of you," he eyed the group that had assembled for the position of keeper. "Are here to try out for our last chance on the field. If a team does happen to get past our offensive, we need to be able to know our keeper can do his job properly. So I'm going to make sure that each and every one of you are up to the task. So, everybody mount your brooms and see if you can keep up!"
The Slytherin team all mounted their brooms and began flying around the pitch so quickly that I was surprised none of them had toppled off the other side of their brooms. I know I would have. Those who already had positions had come all dressed in their emerald Quidditch robes, making the new comers easy to spot from the old faithfuls on the team. And it was easy to spot that though Montague was the captain, he could not fly like Malfoy – as much as it pained me to say – and it seemed like Montague was having a real hard time reigning the bunthead in. I should have injured his hand worse to ensure I wouldn't have to keep watching his sorry arse.
Montague, Malfoy, Pucey and Warrington – what was left of the team – began cutting people as soon as they had finished an invisible air obstacle course that they seemed to have laid out for everyone to fly. These cuts ended up slicing those trying out in half. The two second years who had tried for beaters left along with a few older years. It was two violent looking seventh years, Crabbe, and Goyle who were left for that group. Out of the six trying for keeper three left, including a gutsy third year, a sour sixth year, and a seventh year who was sure to throw a temper tantrum on his way out.
Nott was still safe.
"We're going to do something a little unorthodox here," Montague's smirk was almost intimidating as he crossed in front of the seven people left to try out. "Instead of saving the goal posts, right now, I want to see if you can move quickly enough to defend them...when you're busy defending yourself."
He stepped back for a moment, moving to talk to the group of beaters while Malfoy moved forward to yell at the keepers. "The beater trys here will be aiming for your head while you guard the goals. The point of the exercise is not to get hit," his eyes found the quick flying fourth year. "You're first, twerp."
He was paired with the seventh year beaters who looked keen and ready to hit something and it seemed like they were pretty good at it considering after three fantastic dodges, the fourth year was hit in the shoulder and had to be taken to the hospital wing. I was too excited to be worried for him – there were only two keepers left now.
"I didn't know Quidditch could be exciting," I whispered over to Lillian, who let out a laugh.
"You should actually start coming to games...seeing Malfoy out there..."
"Ew," I frowned.
"Not ew," Tracey corrected. "It's really impressive, that boy can play. Overshadowed by your brother, sure, but he is still very good."
"It also helps that he's stunning," Lillian sighed. I rolled my eyes, watching as the next keeper was called up.
Nott was the next keeper. He had gotten on his broom and looked confident, but anyone who was watching would have seen his hands shaking. Crabbe and Goyle were merciless with him – it seemed like they had some sort of personal vendetta against my best friend and were I not to have known better and be on my new mission to be Umbridge's favourite, I would have ordered them to detention right then and there. Instead, I was forced to watch as they tried to dismount Theo from his own broom.
But even still, Nott managed to dodge them.
Nott had to veer harshly a couple times and almost slid off his broom when he once turned too far to the right and nearly spiraled, but he had managed to evade the bludgers that had been thrown towards his goal posts. I cheered.
But it was then that Montague decided to go back to his old ways. Montague, clearly not happy that neither of his beaters were doing a great enough job, chucked a quaffle toward Nott when he was already moving to the side to avoid the bludger Crabbe had aimed at his face. Because of the timing and the angle Nott had dived, he hadn't been able to catch the quaffle before it fell into the left side goal.
Which was a ridiculous test.
Still, not catching the quaffle would be a point against him, but I was glad to see he was safe and sound: as was Daphne, who had cut off the circulation to Lillian's hand with her tight hold and looked about ready to vomit.
The third and final keeper was able to dodge all the bludgers as well, sadly just as easily as Nott had been able to and – when the time came, since he knew what would come next – was able to catch the quaffle.
The Slytherins cheered. I frowned. Tracey swore. Daphne let out a groan. It was quite clear who had won between he and our friend. Slytherins didn't take comeraderie into account when making teams. It was not about friendship. It was about cold, vicious triumph.
"Well done, you lot, well done," Montague nodded to the six left at tryouts. "Go get some attention from the ladies over there while we deliberate."
A few of the boys came over to the stands while a few of the girls started climbing down the stands so they could make their way to the pitch and greet the players. It seemed like only Malfoy and Montague were needed for the deliberation because soon Alya was sucking face with Adrien Pucey. Knowing now that Alya, Parkinson and Bulstrode had all seen it fit to make their way onto the pitch, I was sure to pull the girls along so that we could congratulate our own player. But he saw me first.
"Audrey?" Nott asked with wide eyes as he walked over. "What happened to you?"
Apparently he had noticed my little transformation as well. I looked over my shoulder, sad to notice that no one else had been close enough to hear the exchange. I shrugged at Theodore, determined to still get my moment in the limelight. Lillian giggled.
"Doesn't she look fantastic? She's doing it to impress a boy!"
"Which boy?" Theo asked with a frown. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Luckily he knew well enough to believe me – I had no reason to doll up and try to impress some pompous, arrogant boy who was trying out for the Quidditch team.
"You did great, mate," I told him while I put my arm on his shoulder. "Really."
"Not well enough," he sighed. "He was better."
"Maybe they hate the fool," I told him seriously, looking over toward Montague and Malfoy, both of whom were throwing glances over to the older keeper try who was surrounded by Slytherin and Ravenclaw girls alike. He was basking in the glory. "He looks like a ponce."
"You're lying," Theodore snorted derisively. "But thanks."
"I think you did wonderfully, Theodore," Daphne smiled what would have been sweet in the past, but now all I could imagine was how fake it must have been. "You were very impressive."
"Daphne looked like she'd give herself a seizure, considering how nervous she was," Lillian giggled, moving forward so that she could nudge me with her shoulder. "Didn't she?"
"Seizure?" I repeated mockingly. "Ah, yes, that would explain the drool."
"Shut it," Daphne snapped, her cheeks burning pink.
Not really having much else to say, Daphne and Theodore made awkward sm/all talk that sounded much like ill-practiced flirting. It made me want to laugh and vomit all at once. It was nice seeing Daphne not knowing how to act around a boy, but it was disgusting to think that her flirting was working considering that Nott's cheeks seemed to have been dipped in permanent pink paint.
The group of us waited patiently until the potential players were all called back onto the field. The people who had gotten out of the stands didn't seem to care about decorum and stayed out on the field, too lazy to move back up to their seats in the stands. So neither did we. Instead I stayed leaning against the wall of the stands, keeping my eye keen on where the Slytherin Slags were standing just twenty feet away from us. It had now grown clear that Bulstrode had taken notice of my new appearance. I could only tell because she was openly gawking at me and shifting her eyes around to her friends to see who else had noticed the changes.
Good girl, Millicent, herd in the cattle.
"You weren't bad, Slytherins," Montague called out to the group before him. "But there were three that seem fit enough to survive the training we'll be initiating starting this weekend. This isn't the end for either group of you, winners or losers – if you can, try out next year for the team. If you are selected – expect to be put through torture just to get you in shape enough for practices..." his eyes flickered to Crabbe as he said this. Everyone noticed, so the Slytherins snickered.
"It's my pleasure to announce the new Slytherin beaters as Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle," he began, waiting as a dull cheer rose through the crowd. The other beaters were not happy. The taller one began blaming his partner, the shorter one started trying to hit the taller in the head with the bludger bat. So outwardly violent...what an inferior gender.
They should be like me and have subtle vengeance instead.
"Shut up!" Malfoy called loudly, his voice resonating enough to quiet down the stands who had begun to laugh at the display from the misplaced tryouts.
"And for Slytherin's new keeper: Theodore Nott."
Theodore's eyebrows shot up so high on his forehead that they had disappeared into his hairline. The group of us girls cheered and screamed as loudly as we could; if there were ever a time to show some team spirit or school pride, it was seeing my best friend be picked for our virtually unstoppable Quidditch team.
Montague pulled the new team aside and the entirety of the team seemed to share a few words with the three new additions. The older, nicer looking Slytherins were accommodating and took the time to clap the new players on the back supportively. They couldn't do it for long before Montague gave them the cue to leave. Like lemmings, they followed him.
Parkinson, Bulstrode, and Rivers all moved forward to congratulate Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle on a wonderful day – probably using more flirty and colourful language – while Theodore came running back to us, a grin splitting his face in two. I really didn't like Quidditch, but seeing my friend so happy was something to look forward to. It seems I'll actually have to start attending games, so long as I wouldn't have to sit beside Greengrass-Girl-Wonder over here, who was bouncing for joy beside me.
"I did it!" Theodore laughed, moving toward us with a smile.
"Well done, mate," I cried back to him. "And to think, you haven't even broken any bones yet."
It drew attention in a way I hadn't expected – particularly a blonde haired seeker's attention. His eyes narrowed on me for a moment before he left the group of fawners' at his side to move toward the lot of us.
"Potter?" He asked, looking insultingly perplexed. "What happened to you? Why are you here?"
Ah, it seems my little tricked had worked on Malfoy too. Which, considering his standards – either extremely high or extremely low – could have been insulting or a compliment. Still, I felt like kicking myself when my cheeks burned.
"What does it look like? I'm congratulating the new Slytherin keeper," I said loudly to distract from them, feeling more confident again when the group he'd left swiveled to watch me. Alya did not look pleased with what she saw...now was my time to shine. I was sure to raise my voice. "Oh, I also came to remind you we have rounds from now until dinner."
"Before dinner? After," Malfoy corrected with a shake of his head. " Why are you done up to the nines? Do you have a date?" His voice had dropped lower at the question, but I couldn't help but hear the darkness behind his tone. I rolled my eyes.
"Not that it matters, but no," I purposefully flipped my neat and tidy red hair over my shoulder. "I was just trying out the bit of new beauty potion I ordered. Why, do you like it?"
"Like it?" He frowned, looking down as he dug his broom into the ground. "Since when do you use beauty potions?"
"Since they're on sale and so simple," I said with a smile, my eyes flickering over his shoulder to the girls behind him again. Parkinson was whispering to both Rivers and Bulstrode. "It's just so simple, how could I not have tried? I just rub it through my hair, dab it on my face and voila: instant makeover."
I had the full attention of all the girls around me, now. Lillian and Daphne were sending each other suspicious glances and having a silent conversation of some sort. Tracey was watching me just as suspiciously, but the corners of her mouth were lifted inexplicably. Had she caught on to my plan? Certainly not, but she may have got the gist of what I was trying to do. The girls behind our group were moving forward to listen a little closer, Alya leading the group and hauling Pucey behind her.
Malfoy and Theodore were watching me carefully, not sure what to make of what I was saying versus my appearance. Blinded by beauty. Boys were idiots.
"Oh really?" Theodore asked carefully, his eyes flickering over to Daphne and measuring out her response to the conversation. "Who made it?"
I frowned, gritting my teeth and trying not to give away that I had no idea who made any kind of beauty potion. His eyebrow was raised. He was going to ruin everything if the Slytherin slags saw my best friend acting so suspicious toward me. "I think someone called Queen Mab."
"Queen Mab?" Tracey asked too loudly, her voice three times louder than mine and even more animatedly fake. Still, she was sure to send me a wink when her back was turned on the girls and continue with just as much enthusiasm. "Not that fantastic potions mistress from Sweden?"
"The very same," I offered her a dramatic smile. "I only got the jar today, I hope it will last until I can get more at Christmas...I don't know what I'd do without it now that I know what it's like to be this way."
By the time I looked over Malfoy's shoulder again, Alya and her posse had disappeared. I let out a cheer, slamming my shoulder against Tracey's with a laugh before I began to pantomime dusting off my hands.
"All in a day's work, ladies and gents," I sighed dramatically. "And I do such fulfilling work."
Theodore was the first in the group to catch on.
"Oh no, what did you do?" He accused immediately. "Audrey, please don't tell me that you did something stupid."
"I did nothing at all, thank you very much," I lied, shoving my nose in the air like Daphne had taught me so well. "It's them who may or may not do something stupid."
"Audrey," Lillian groaned. I shrugged my shoulders innocently.
"I said they may or may not, it's really their choice."
"They?" Malfoy repeated, his face holding his characteristic frown. I couldn't help but send him a wink – I was too happy to realize how civil we were being considering just the night before I had sliced open his hand with my mind.
"Come on then, let's go back to the common room." I began to walk toward the exit of the Quidditch pitch before I felt a hand on my shoulder. It seemed that Malfoy was not through with his interrogation, considering he spun me around again.
He measured me out for a second, looking at the 'new me' that had been dolled up and probably looked loads more innocent than I really was. He shook his head, his eyes narrowing again.
"Why the common room? You said we had patrol."
"And you knew well enough to try to correct me," I said simply, blinking my eyes as innocently as I could manage. I needed to get them back to the common room before I wasn't present for my own prank. "We do have patrol after dinner, you were right, so let's go."
"But why would y-" Theodore began, but I cut him off by throwing my hands in the air to silence him. He silenced immediately.
Merlin, maybe being attractive did stop people in their tracks – a simple hand movement and BAM: I had people's attention.
Were this not for a prank, I would seriously consider getting used to this feeling.
"Come on, then, get showered so we can go. I don't want to miss the show, do you?"
No one understood what I was referring to, but Malfoy and Nott seemed to agree that they deserved to clean themselves before they would be smelt in public. I gave them the time to shower, screaming in the door every minute for them not to take their time. I think I made it worse by aggravating them. If they knew what they could possibly be missing, they wouldn't be so tardy...but that would require ruining the surprise.
And I love surprises.
On our way up to the castle, I tried to rush people as well, but it was no good. Malfoy and Nott were talking animatedly about their thoughts of this Quidditch season, Lillian swooned over Malfoy behind them, Daphne swooned over Theodore beside her...and Tracey and I busied ourselves with rude impressions of them all the way back until the concrete wall in front of the Slytherin common room moved...
"GET IT OFF!" The scream sounded before we even had time to look inside, but I already knew that it was music to my ears. When we crossed the threshold and entered the common room, the sight in front of us seemed to leave everyone confused – until I burst into laughter. It took a few moments for people to understand what was happening before they began to join in.
In front of us Pansy, Alya and Millicent were all piled on top of the couch, trying to climb up each other's limbs so that they could try to get away from the hundreds of rats that were trying to climb up the leather couch and get them.
The screaming continued through our laughter.
Their faces were priceless – the way they were throwing themselves over one another, none of them trying to help anyone but themselves, was something worth memorizing. And the only thing I could think of to have made the moment better would have been if someone could catch it on film. I'd hoped someone had caught a picture before we'd arrived. By the hoarseness of their screams, I could tell they'd been at it for a long while.
"HELP, HELP US! GET THEM AWAY!"
"Help you?" I cackled from the other side of the common room, trying not to bend over or let tears fill my eyes – though I was laughing enough to be in a fit for days, I did not want to miss a moment of this idiocy. "Why would we do that?"
"Audrey, what did you do?" Theodore whispered to me, not sure whether to laugh or whether to be appalled. I don't blame him – watching them try to sacrifice each other to the rodents was rather disgusting in itself.
"What?" I asked innocently, not even stalling while I moved toward them. The rats moved out of my way while I crossed my arms in front of them and let my full smile show, just feet away from the girls' flailing limbs. "Oh dears, do you need help?"
"GET THEM OFF, POTTER!"
"I'm afraid I can't do that," I sighed, throwing a look over to the people behind me. While Daphne, Theodore and Lillian looked shocked, I could not ignore that both Tracey and Malfoy looked amused – it fueled the anger and satisfaction that was already pooling in my gut. "I would help, of course, were you innocent – but you aren't innocent, are you? No. You went into my things..."
I tutted as Parkinson screamed again. Another rat had gotten close to her foot. I took it off for her just so that I wouldn't be interrupted again.
"You did this?" Alya asked, her eyes furious.
"No, you did," I corrected with a smile. "That jar of Queen Mab did look like a nice jar of water, though, didn't it?"
"Audrey, what do you do?" Theodore asked again, he had walked up to my shoulder and placed his hand on it to get my attention. I spun around in his grasp to look at him with a sneer.
"Nothing more than they deserved," I hissed.
"That's not an answer," Malfoy, eyebrow raised, walked forward, his arms crossed over his chest. He stopped a few feet away, his eyes flickering to the girls on the couch before they fell back on to me.
"This summer at-" I stopped myself. "At home I had a rather unfortunate run in with a boggart. I decided to keep it. I didn't really know what I would do with it, but then again I didn't really know how to get these bints back for calling me a slag until I thought of it the other night. The jar was just waiting in my trunk, waiting for a victim – and I'd already been made such an example of..."
"MAKE THEM GO AWAY!"
"Oh, detention, you three," I added with a smile. "All of next week – for trying to steal another students' things."
I shuffled to the side so that I was facing Alya. I watched as one of the rats began to crawl up the front of her robes and let out a smile when she bent over to shake it off, putting the two of us face-to-face.
"By the way, next time you try to go through my things," I told her darkly, watching as her eyes widened fearfully. "I'd try remembering who I do and do not trust to throw me under the bus – off the broom – however you want to look at it."
"I'll get you for this," she hissed at me.
"Why? Why when I have a truce-present for you?" I smiled, moving my hand between our faces and not minding that my eardrums shook from the scream that emitted from her. In my fingers, fidgeting to be free – was a rat. I smiled while I shoved the rat into her hands and watched, quite pleased, when she fainted.
Not my longest chapter, but Audrey finally got her revenge – and got the attention of a certain Slytherin in the process. Yay! And what about Montague? Ugh, what a creep! To my wonderful reviewers:
xxz0eyxx: I'm glad you liked the chapter! And don't worry about the big wide world – it's wide enough you can hide in it for a while until you're ready. I can definitely write a flashback to the sorting hat when Audrey was sorting hat, but you can pretty much piece it together from the prologue of this and there is a chapter in Audrey Potter's Prelude where you can see it from Draco's POV. She was sorted first, Harry after. But I will be doing more first year flashbacks over the winter break :) The fluff starts in the next few chapters – you can already kind of see hints of it, I hope. Don't worry...it's coming! And never worry your reviews are boring me...they never are :)
Punk Rocker Fairy: Hi there. Yes, putting the letter "u" in favourite, colour, honour etc is Canadian/British spelling and I am Canadian. I'm glad you like the story and hope that this chapter was good, I updated pretty quickly!
Princesslinleigh: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Thought I forgot, didn't you? Of course not! I thought that this would be an exciting chapter to get out on your birthday, so I hope you like it. It had some Dreaco fluff and Montague drama! The Deathly Hallows even makes ME nervous...I don't know if I'm ready to put Audrey through everything I have planned. It's going to be so sad! Hope you liked the update and again, happy 19th!
Neve: Audrey is definitely going to try to get better with her wand! I can't let you know whether or not Audrey will be there when the DA gets caught, but I promise when that happens it will be exciting :) Thanks for the review.
Seers: Them going public for a relationship would definitely be fun, but I can't imagine Audrey going for it. I don't think you're vicious for wanting to hurt the girls that hurt Audrey at all! Did you like her revenge on them?
TheForrestAgain: Yes, Audrey can't help but think about him, can she? And look, he was even attracted to her...and she was flattered! So cute. What'd you think of her payback? Thanks for the review!
Novella Vialli: It's coming, I promise!
sara253xxx: I'm glad you liked it, thank you for the review!
sexichick: Draco is around constantly, don't you worry. I'm glad you like the 'Hoe Chang' thing and don't worry – things will come to a boiling point between those ladies. It will be fun ;) Thanks for reviewing.
xXMizz Alec VolturiXx: Thanks for reviewing, I'm glad you like it!
WulfLuvr22: You can't kidnap Draco, he's magic! Haha. The first time I ever heard the "it's all shits and giggles until someone giggles and shits" I was in shock and then laughed two minutes later like an idiot. Oh, it still makes me laugh every time. I'm glad you liked the last chapter, thank you for reviewing!
J.C Jackals: I know you were reviewing for chapter two, but if you ever make it this far, thanks for reviewing!
Apple: Glad you liked the quick update (this one was even faster!) did you like this chapter as well? I couldn't make Audrey be all alone, she's far too awesome to have everyone hate her. It's just not realistic for someone famous and charismatic and innocent (of the rumours) to be disliked by all. Audrey going spy will keep her in the thick of things...and since Draco is on the other side, it means she'll have more time with him...and yes, they should respect Cedric! Jerks. Thanks for the review :)
myblacktears: I can't say if she'll be in the Inquisitorial squad, but I wouldn't rule it out just yet. I'm glad that you like it, thanks for the review!
Well, so begins the drama. What do you all think?
I'd love to hear your thoughts in a REVIEW!
-Egypt