A/n: I am soo sry!!!! This chapter is really, really short, but the next chapter will be much longer b/c Jennifer will have to get all their stories and sort it all out, yadda yadda yadda…
IMPORTANT: I changed this chapter some after I already posted it, so I posted it again, so if you've already read this chapter, you might want to read the end again~
Disclaimer: Of course I don't own anything!
It was the week before Christmas Holidays that Professor McGonagall gave a test that would either make or break their grade. Little did Alicia, Lori, Megan, Morgan, and Jennifer know it would do much, much more.
"That test was hard," Lori said as they made their way to the Great Hall.
"Tell me about it," Morgan agreed.
"I really hope I didn't fail," Megan said worriedly.
"I thought it was ok," Jennifer said.
"Me too," Alicia agreed.
"Just because you two are great at Transfiguration doesn't mean you have to rub it in our faces," Lori said in a fake angry voice.
"Oh, I think it does," Jennifer said jokingly. Lori stuck her tongue out. By that time they had reached the Great Hall and took their seats at the Gryffindor table. Across from them Kevin, George, Michael and Joseph sat talking.
"Where's James?" Alicia asked them as she sat down.
"Oh, James forgot something of his and he went back to the classroom to get it," Joseph replied, then turned back to the guys. They were talking about Quidditch, need I say more?
Jennifer was sitting next to Alicia and noticed that she wasn't eating, but looking around the Great Hall.
"What's the matter?" she asked. Alicia stopped searching the other tables and turned back to their table.
"I don't know, something feels wrong," she answered.
"What do ya mean?" Megan asked she was sitting on the other side of Alicia.
"I don't know, it's just, weird, this feeling I have," Alicia replied as she began looking around the hall again.
"Well, I'm sure it'll pass," Jennifer said unconcerned.
"Yeah, probably," Alicia said, but she didn't sound as convinced.
~*!*~
The week passed fairly normally, but when Friday came, trouble came with it. That was the day they found out their test scores from the test they had taken Monday.
~*!*~
"Yes! I got a 99!" Lori exclaimed as she received her paper.
"Indeed you did, Miss Yates, congratulations," Professor McGonagall said sternly.
"I got a 98," Jennifer said.
"What'd you get, Morgan?" Megan asked.
"95, what about you?" she answered.
"Same," Megan said.
"I got a 99, too," Alicia said.
"That's so cool, I made the same grade as Alicia in Transfiguration," Lori said.
"That's definitely a first," Jennifer said.
"Oh, shut-up," Lori said. The bell rang, and as they gathered all their things the professor said above all the noise:
"Have a wonderful Holiday, oh, and Miss Yates, would you please stay behind."
The friends exchanged looks.
"We'll wait for you; just don't take too long, we wouldn't want to be late for Herbology, now would we?" Jennifer said sarcastically. They had another test to take in Herbology.
"Ok, see ya in a minute," Lori said as her friends excited the classroom. The four girls stood near the door hoping to catch some of the conversation, but Professor McGonagall must have put a Silencing charm on it, because they couldn't here anything.
"I wonder what Professor McGonagall could want," Alicia said.
"Yeah, Lori isn't exactly her most favorite student," Jennifer said.
"Maybe she has another detention that we didn't know about," Megan suggested.
"Probably," Morgan agreed. There was no time for further discussion because Lori came out of the room looking rather angry.
"What'd she want?" Jennifer asked a little worried.
"She thinks I cheated on that test!" Lori said.
"No way! You spent like all night studying for that test with Jennifer, why would you cheat on it?" Alicia asked.
"That's what I want to know! I explained that to her and everything, but she says that she knows when someone's cheated and won't believe me," Lori said outraged.
"Who does she think you cheated off of?" Morgan asked.
"Oh, this is the best part; she thinks I cheated off Alicia!"
~*!*~
Jennifer assured Lori that they all believed she didn't cheat on the test. Innocent until proven guilty, right? They all agreed to that, and Alicia even suggested that McGonagall made a mistake.
Professor McGonagall, however, said that her cheating detection spell never lied, so Lori had to go to detention for the first week of the hols. Lori was extremely angry, and nobody ever bugged her about it. The girls were much smarter than that, and the guys, well the guys didn't exactly know what was going on.
Alicia still said she felt like something was wrong, the other girls said not to worry, and that it was probably nothing. Oh how wrong they were…
~*!*~
It was 1 o'clock A.M. on the first Tuesday of the holidays that Megan woke Morgan up to talk to her.
"Ok, what is it you want to talk to me about at this hour?" Morgan asked as she finally awoke properly.
"Ok, well, you have to promise not to tell," after receiving an affirmative she continued, "I have this huge crush on that Gryffindor seventh year we ran into a few days ago," Megan said.
"You mean that one with brown hair and blue eyes who's really, really tall?" Morgan asked. Megan nodded.
"He is sooo cute!" Megan said.
"I guess," Morgan said.
"Ooh, I think Morgan has a crush," Megan said. Morgan smiled a little.
"Ok, so maybe I do…"
"Tell me!" Megan said.
"Fine, but you have to promise not to tell anyone, not even Jennifer," Morgan said.
"Well duh!" Megan said.
"Ok, I like James, I think he's really cute," Morgan said.
"I knew it!" Megan said a little too loud.
"Shh!" Morgan said.
"Sorry, anyway, I knew that flying lesson had gotten to you," Megan said.
"Whatever," Morgan said. They chatted awhile longer about their crushes and then Megan brought up a subject they had rather been avoiding.
"So, do you really think that Lori is innocent…"
~*!*~
Lori's detention changed everyday, sometimes she was scrubbing the dungeons, sometimes she was polishing trophies. This time she had been scrubbing the walls of a very long corridor where Peeves had taken the liberty of writing 'BEEP' everywhere. She hadn't finished until 2 in the morning. So by the time she had gotten back to the dormitory all the other girls were asleep.
She would have gone to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow, but, unfortunately, she heard something crinkle. She lifted her head up and saw a slightly wrinkled note sitting innocently on her pillow. It read:
It would be a curious plot twist if it wasn't you who cheated, but Alicia, think about it…
Who in the world would send her a note like this? The idea of Alicia cheating almost made Lori laugh out loud; notice the 'almost'. She stuck the note on the dresser beside her bed and proceeded to go to sleep, but found that she couldn't. She began to think about it. It would be much easier for Alicia to cheat of her…but then again, Alicia had a hundred average in that class…but maybe that's just it, she didn't know any of the answers and was afraid of failing…
Thoughts like these entered her head, and try as she might to dismiss them they continued to linger. Finally she fell asleep, still in doubt about the whole thing, and that is never a good thing.
~*!*~
Thursday afternoon Megan ran up to the girls' dormitory to get her book, she had to prove Jennifer wrong about something or other, she had picked it up and was about to leave when she saw a small note sitting on her pillow. She backtracked and picked the note up off her bed. She couldn't quite make sense of it.
"Be careful who you trust?" she muttered to herself, she shrugged and put it back down on her bed. Then she ran back down to the common room.
~*!*~
The day before Christmas Eve (Sunday) dawned a lovely morning, perfectly concealing what the day held. The girls woke up normally; they got dressed as they usually do, and then headed down to the Great Hall, just like every other morning.
Nothing extremely odd happened that morning. Lori went to the library (gasp) which rather shocked her friends, and Jennifer had begun to take up the rather strange habit of talking to her pet, Karrots. The others were all concerned for her well being, she didn't seem to notice.
Anyway, by about 1 o'clock, Lori was still in the library (gasp); Megan was in the Great Hall having a late lunch, which most people had decided to do that day; and Jennifer, Morgan, and Alicia were in the common room, Jennifer was reading, Morgan was finishing up a letter to her parents, and Alicia wasn't really doing anything.
Lori had spent just about all morning thinking about that little note she had received. She didn't know what to make of it. She had been trying all week to get it out of her mind, but it was one of those things that the more you try not to think of it, the more you do think of it. It had been eating away at her, and it was slowly starting to make more and more sense. How she was going to get around to mentioning this to Alicia she had no idea. She wasn't afraid of Alicia getting mad at her, no, no Lori was definitely not that type of person, but it wasn't something you just all of a sudden ask your friend. It would sound completely ridiculous:
"Hey, Alicia, I think you cheated off me, so how's your day been?"
No, she definitely couldn't go about it that way. But then again, she couldn't just sit here and let it drive her insane. Yes, she would have to talk to Alicia about it.
Meanwhile…
Megan had been peacefully eating her lunch when a 6th year Ravenclaw who was staying over the break approached her.
"Excuse me," she said.
"Yes?" Megan asked.
"Well, I've heard a rumor that the little red-headed Gryffindor 1st year has a huge crush on my boyfriend," she said.
Megan nearly chocked.
"What? Where did you hear that?" she asked.
"I don't know her name," the girl said it like it was above her to know such a lowly person's name, "some girl about your age, everyone is talking about it, and I want to know if it's true."
Megan didn't even hear the question. She was too angry. She hopped up from the Gryffindor table and hurried out of the hall and towards the common room. She tried to calm herself down, saying she was jumping to conclusions, but how could she not? Morgan was the only person she had told.
By this time Lori, too, was hurrying towards the Gryffindor common room. She had to tell Alicia about that note, she was slowly losing her sanity (what there was left of it anyway) thinking about it.
So when Megan reached the portrait hole, Lori was pretty close behind her. They were about to give the password when the very two people they wanted to see came out, Jennifer included. The three of them had been on the way to the Owlery to send Morgan's letter.
"Um, Morgan, could I possibly talk to you, really quick?" Megan asked trying to remain calm.
"Uh, sure, Megan," Morgan said a little confused.
"Yeah, Alicia I need to talk to you too," Lori said. Jennifer watched the two groups separate.
"Oh that's great, nobody wants to talk to me," she said sarcastically, but none of the others heard her. She only had to wait a moment, though, to be glad nobody had wanted to talk to her because out suddenly the whole hall was full of shouting.
"STOP LYING! I KNOW YOU TOLD BECAUSE HIS GIRLFRIEND KNOWS! HOW COULD SHE KNOW UNLESS SOMEONE TOLD HER?!" Megan screamed.
"I'M NOT LYING! I THOUGHT YOU KNEW ME BETTER THAN THAT MEGAN! I DID NOT TELL ANYBODY, I DON'T KNOW WHO DID," Morgan yelled back.
Across from them…
"THAT'S RIDICULOUS! I'VE TOLD YOU LORI, I DID NOT CHEAT OFF OF YOU!" Alicia shouted.
"WELL I CERTAINLY DID CHEAT OFF YOU!" Lori screamed back.
"YES, I'M SO SURE," Alicia yelled sarcastically.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU THINK THAT I'D CHEAT OFF YOU! I'M NOT A COMPLETE IDIOT!" Lori yelled back.
"WELL YOU SURE ARE ACTING LIKE ONE!" Alicia screamed. Then it turned into an insult contest. A few of Lori's were way above a PG rating.
Between all the yelling you couldn't really hear what the people were saying, but Megan must have caught something Lori said, and it must have been bad, because she turned to her and started yelling at her along with yelling at Morgan every now and then. Then Alicia started yelling at Megan to shut-up because she couldn't hear herself think through all the yelling and to mind your own business. Then Megan started yelling at her as well as Morgan and Lori. Megan, however, was not the only one who was yelling at multiple persons, the other three were as well.
Jennifer had long last track of who was yelling at whom, because now it seemed like everyone was just yelling for the fun of it. Her ears were beginning to throb when they all yelled "FINE!" and huffed off in different directions. Alicia to the Owlery; Morgan to the library; Megan to the Quidditch Pitch; and Lori right back to the common room. Jennifer was left alone in an empty hallway.
For a moment, she was too shocked to do anything. Then she headed after Alicia, might as well go in alphabetical order…
A/N: Ok, well I think that chapter's good to go. The next chapter might take awhile to come out so be patient, and review please!~
Beauty Full
