By Imp (With the
assistance of A small Bomb)
Note: Not much to
say. Tom has a run in with a group a Gryffindors waging war against Slytherin
and ends up slightly entangled in their problems. He meets another Slytherin
later on, and begins wondering if the first years are all as strange as the
ones he has so far been acquainted with.
~*~
Tom finally, after
wandering for quite some time around and through long corridors and traipsing
in and out of deserted classrooms, ran into a group of first and second year
Gryffindors, crouched behind a large statue of Albus Dumbledore, all intently
watching the opposite end of the hall.
"Hello." Tom
greeted them merrily.
They all jumped or
started like frightened rabbits, and one of them let out a quiet squeak. A boy
spun about and, seeing Tom, let out an exasperated breath.
"Parkington! You're
a Gryffindor, gosh, I was afraid you were that Quorrel girl." He said.
"Quorrel?" Tom
questioned blankly.
"Yes, one of the
new Slytherins. She's a fiend if I ever saw one – wait, duck down, quick
Parkington!"
Tom ducked
instinctively; a few seconds passed and the boy motioned to Tom that he could
rise now.
"What was that
about, Evan?" One of the other students asked the boy.
"One of the Slytherins,"
Evan said quickly and then turning back to Tom. "Parkington, I'm Evan Illani –
the first years have elected me to command their – what did you call it, Dana?
– oh yes, their war against the Slytherins and we've set a trap here for one of
the new ones –eh, what's his name again, Lauren? Oh, Avery. And – "
"Avery?" Tom broke
in, looking quite surprised.
"Yes – he's that
blond haired kid, the one with the odd eyes? They look almost violet, don't
they, Dana?" Evan responded happily.
"Uh oh…" Tom murmured,
his face suddenly a bit white.
"What was that?"
Evan said. "Oh, sorry – I haven't introduced you. Here, this is Dana
Wellington, a second year, she's our strategist and this, this is Lauren Penn,
second year and charms expert. Oh, uh, Parkington, what did you say your first
name was?"
"Tom." Tom said,
frowning at the ground and fiddling absently with his wand. If they were after
Devin – well he couldn't very well allow that, no matter which house they
belonged to, or he belonged to, or Devin belonged to, he couldn't just, as he
thought of it, betray the small trust he built up with Devin during the first
night. No, he just couldn't…
"Oh, Tom, well this is Li Chen, he's our decoy usually, he's a very good actor
you know, and he makes the most hilarious diversions – they work quite well.
Here is Senna Lorrel, she's another first year, but she very good at hexes and
we already managed to trick a Slytherin with her help."
Senna smiled
lightly at Tom and waved.
"And last – but of
course not the least, is Leonard Rayle – he's not here right now, he had
something other he had to do…"
"I think he's my
roommate." Tom said dismally.
"Really? Perfect!
He can give you all the details on our activities and plans, and get you into a
spot helping out our sabotage of the Slytherins practice brooms!" Evan cried
energetically, pulling a pad of paper from his pocket and jotting something
down quickly.
"He's not very
chatty." Tom cut in, glancing around the corner that the other Gryffindors had
been staring at.
"No, but that only
means you won't be stuck for hours with someone who won't shut up – next time
you see him, just tell him Illani wants him to explain… Ah, are particularly
good at anything? You know, that might help us give the Slytherins a run for
their money this year? I've heard that we Gryffindors haven't been too tough
the last few years…" Evan ended sounding regretful and hanging his head.
"I can make
anything explode." Tom said, a bit happier now that he had brought up
explosives.
"Anything?" Senna
asked shyly.
"Er, yes, I suppose
so." Tom glanced a bit uncomfortably as Senna's shining eyes and twisted his
hands around in his pockets.
"Capital!" Evan
cried, "We'll have those sneaking snakes crawling back to their holes by
Christmas!"
"Are they really as
bad as all that? The Slytherins, I mean," Tom wondered aloud.
"Oh, they're
worse," Evan muttered, frowning at his paper and chewing anxiously on what
seemed to be a mix between a quill pen and a pencil.
"Down here,
Parkington." Li said quietly, "If someone comes around the corner and sees you
standing there, they'll be bound to find us too."
"But –" Tom said,
thinking of the quickly vanishing prospect of lunch.
"Just sit down
here!" Lauren snapped, before whispering to Evan.
Tom sat, thinking
of what he would do if Devin came around the corner right then and was about to
run into the Gryffindors' ambush. Tom became determined not to let Evan spring
his trap, but he was not sure how he would do this without betraying the
Gryffindors' trust, or Devin's. It will be an "accident" he decided firmly,
beginning to think what he had originally thought of as a problem, could become
an extremely entertaining and funny incident.
~*~
An hour passed
uneventfully and Tom began wondering how long his fellow Gryffindors would sit
silently, waiting for a Slytherin they had no way of knowing would come. He
started to finger his wand impatiently, and then to twirl it… Finally he tapped
it against the stone hem of Dumbledore's robe and it startled the whole group
of patient first and second years by making a small popping noise and dying the
stone bright blue. Tom smiled in a way that seemed not quite apologetic and
went back to his musings, ignoring Senna who appeared to have some interest in
what he was doing.
"What are you
doing?" she finally whispered, looking over his shoulder intently.
"Thinking," Tom
said, giving her his most devilish smile.
"Shhh!" Evan
hissed, gesturing toward the end of the corridor urgently. "He's coming!"
Tom turned, startled.
He saw Devin's hair, something he didn't think anyone could miss, shining
briefly in the light coming from a stained glass window and heard the soft tap
of shoes on stone.
He tapped the
statue with his wand and rolled a small, round object into the hall; it began
popping and whistling, and then, before the Gryffindors could get over the
first shock of it, it started to scream one word.
"Slytherins!
Slytherins!" Its high shrill voice shrieked, more whistles issuing from its
small form.
"What in the world
is that?" Evan hissed, looking frantically at each surprised face behind the
statue, even Tom's face could have been interpreted as surprised, although it
reflected more his extreme pleasure at how well his invention was doing.
The small sphere suddenly
changed its cry as Tom casually tapped the stone on the floor, a meter from the
thing.
"Can't trick us!
Can't trick us!" It now called, slurring the words.
"Run! Quick!
Pretend you just came around the corner, or something – we can't let the Slytherins
know who was responsible for – I don't know! Go!" Evan gasped, slipping from
behind the statue and acting as though he had come from the classroom close by.
Tom sat quietly as
all the Gryffindors found a different way to appear inconspicuously in front of
Devin, who had stopped in amazement before the squealing, screaming ball.
"What is that?!"
Senna cried disgustedly; she had just walked up behind Evan as though she had
followed him, her face mirroring the look on Devin's face, although her look was
completely feigned. Tom sat still, hoping his new companions would not notice
they he had stayed behind, hiding, while they all saved themselves. "Is that thing
another stupid Slytherin trick?"
"I don't know what
the bloody thing is," Devin spat. "Isn't it one of yours?"
"Mine?" Evan
gasped. "Are you kidding; it's too idiotic to be anything a Gryffindor would
mess with!"
"Insulting me now,
are you, Illani?" Devin growled, drawing his wand from his pocket
threateningly.
"Oh no, I'm only
speaking the truth." Evan said, smiling as though daring Devin to do more than
threaten.
Tom had crawled
almost all the way to the bend in the corridor while the Gryffindors taunted
Devin, and now he sprang up yelling.
"The Headmaster!
He's coming!" He cried, motioning frantically for the other students to flee.
"Quick! The Headmaster is coming! Run!"
The Gryffindors
vanished without a thought as to how Tom had suddenly come from down the
corridor and how he had known they would run, if he really had fled and then
come running back. Devin slipped silently into an abandoned classroom before
anyone could spot him and got out an extra door and into the corridor leading
to the Ravenclaw common room. Tom, after seeing that his ruse had succeeded,
sat down contentedly on the floor, retrieving his invention, which had stopped
its screaming, as he did so.
"That was a
masterpiece…" He murmured, smiling distantly. " Never done better! Ha! That's a
new high for my scorebook… Didn't even do so good scaring Aunt Hildy…"
"Done what? What
was perfect?"
Tom was jolted out
of his happy reverie quite unexpectedly by a small, slightly haughty voice,
that seemed too near by to be true; he looked up to see a short, extremely thin
girl, with greenish-brown eyes, raven-black hair, and a half scowl, half glare
on her face.
"What?" Tom asked,
unsure of what she had said.
"Done what? What
have you done?" She repeated.
"Who are you?" Tom
inquired, eyeing his new companion cautiously.
"I'm Zora Quorrel
–" The girl said proudly. "Are you the boy who made the paper-flying things
fall on the Hufflepuff table the Sorting night?"
"Er, yes. Nice
aerial show they made before I had to crash them though. Pity I had to crash
them so soon…" Tom said, smiling now slightly.
"What did you do?"
Zora now repeated, her eyes flashing strangely.
"Oh, well, just
made some trouble, you know – very fun, you should try it – I-I have to go now,
though, I made an –er, appointment with a Professor you see – " Zora's intense
stare was beginning to unnerve Tom just a bit as he hastily tried to excuse
himself.
"Parkington!"
Tom scrambled to
his feet at the sight of Professor MacAlister coming around the corner with a
scowl on her face and a sharp word on her lips. Zora only stood where she was,
glaring venomously at the professor and sniffing disdainfully.
"Oh, hello,
Professor." Tom smiled.
"See me at my
office after supper tonight. I need to speak with you about your inopportune
aerial display last night." MacAlister said swiftly before striding down the
corridor and out of sight.
Tom frowned and
started off down the hall, before stopping suddenly and turning back to Zora.
" Do you know where
the Great Hall is?" He asked, hoping desperately that she did; he was feeling
extremely hungry.
"Of course, it's in
Hogwarts." Zora said, smiling condescendingly.
Tom's face fell.
"No, but could you show me how to get there?"
"Jump out the
window and you'll fall through the hole in the roof just outside it." Zora said,
pulling a watch with red and black stripes across it out of her pocket and
looking at it intently. "Good-bye." She said, vanishing just as quickly as the
frightened Gryffindors had into a side hall.
Tom glanced a bit
apprehensively at the window, but he was soon pulling it open and climbing into
a precarious perch on the windowsill, wondering absently to himself as he did
this, whether all the students at Hogwarts were as odd as the ones he had made
the acquaintance of, or if it was just the first years.
~*~
Note2: Are all the
students as strange as the few Tom has encountered? And will poor Parkington
really try to take Zora Quorrel's advice? Is Devin annoyed at Tom for becoming
a Gryffindor and will Tom take the Slytherins or the Gryffindors side in the
ongoing conflict between the two houses? Or will he perhaps have his own side
to the conflict? Of course, the answers arrive as we follow Tom and discover
more about how Hogwarts has changed, how the Wizarding world has changed, and
just what a different point of view we get from Mr. Parkington. Good night now -IMP