Note: I know that Ruby's bookstore was probably shut down by the GSA, but
I'm going to pretend that it wasn't, and Pigwidgeon and Crookshanks weren't
mentioned in either the prologue or chapter one. Sorry 'bout that. Also,
one of my reviewers, Lani, asked me how Adam was able to find out that
Adrianne is a witch, when Uncle Vernon had said that since they were
underage, they couldn't use magic. Well, my answer is that she wanted
Uncle Vernon to know that even though Harry was underage, he had friends
who weren't. And I'm going to say that the Ministry of Magic got rid of
the law about underage use of magic because the students have to be able to
protect themselves against Voldemort. I mean, come on---Voldemort's been
brought back to power. Somehow, I doubt that Cornelius Fudge, the Minister
of Magic, is going to be stupid enough to deny the students the right to
defend themselves. He may be a stupid git, but he isn't *that* stupid.
Also, he wasn't so angry about the alarm clock being blown up, because
neither Adrianne or Hermione was injured.
Anyway, on with the story!
Chapter 2: An Encounter With Snape
A couple of days later, as Adrianne and the others were eating breakfast, they heard a couple of owls hooting overhead. A moment later, Jemima, Adrianne's barn owl, and Hedwig, Harry's snowy white owl, landed gently on the kitchen table in front of them.
"Jemima!" squealed Adrianne happily. Jemima let out a hoot of happiness at the sight of her mistress, and both she and Hedwig looked extremely proud of themselves. "You and Hedwig both made it!" Then she noticed that there was an envelope attached to Jemima's leg. "And it looks as though you stopped at home for a short while," she said, chuckling. She gently removed the envelope from Jemima's leg, and opened it. It was from her mother, and it read:
"Dear Adrianne,
"Hope you made it to America all right. I'm assuming that your friends went with you, since Hedwig was with Jemima. Give your uncle a hug and a kiss for me. Love, Mom. P.S. I'll bring you back something from Ireland."
Adrianne got up, and gave Adam a huge hug, and then kissed him on the cheek, standing on her tiptoes to do so.
"Mom said to do that," she explained, grinning at her uncle, who had a completely perplexed look on his face. Adam blinked, and then grinned down at his niece.
"Well, at least Alina didn't forget about me," he replied. "Hurry up and finish eating. The rest of the team and myself need to go by one of the safehouses for a while, and I thought you and your friends might want to come along."
Adrianne blinked.
"Where's the safehouse at?" she asked, confused.
"It's at a bookstore." Adrianne grimaced. "What?"
"Uncle Adam, when we leave, we're gonna have to forcibly drag Hermione out of there," Adrianne informed him. "Otherwise she'll never leave."
Across the table, Hermione made a face at her. Adam chuckled.
"It won't be that bad," he said.
Adrianne wolfed down her breakfast and stood up.
"I'm ready," she said. Everyone else stood up as well, and they put their dishes away in the sink.
* * *
About fifteen minutes later, Adrianne buckled herself into the van that they were going in. Beside her were Ron and the twins, staring around at everything, their eyes wide with amazement at all the gadgets in the car.
"Wicked!" said Ron in a low voice.
"It's a good thing Dad isn't here," said George to Adrianne.
"Why's that?"
"Because he wouldn't be able to keep his hands to himself."
Adrianne snorted. On the other side of the twins, on the driver's side, were Harry and Hermione. They looked just as impressed as the Weasleys, but Adrianne could tell that they weren't impressed by the fact that it was a muggle item---they were more impressed by all the gizmos that the van sported.
Shalimar and Emma got in the very back of the van, and sat there, giggling about something. Jesse sat up front with Adam, and Brennan squeezed in beside Adrianne.
"Now I know what a sardine feels like," Adrianne grumbled. She could barely move. Brennan smirked down at her.
"Don't worry," he teased. "We shouldn't come to any sharp turns. But be warned; if we do, I don't just squish, I zap." As if to prove his point, blue electricity sparked around his fingertips.
Adrianne's eyes grew huge, and she unbuckled as fast as she could. Then she climbed over the seat into the back seat.
"Adrianne, what are you doing?" Emma asked, confused, as Adrianne sat between her and Shalimar.
"Staying away from Brennan. I refuse to be squished next to a guy that can power a small city with a single zap." Suddenly, Adrianne yelped and nearly jumped out of her seat.
"What's wrong?" asked Emma, concerned.
"Something just shocked me!"
Emma and Shalimar exchanged a grin, and in front of Adrianne, Brennan pulled his hand back, whistling innocently.
* * *
They finally arrived at the bookstore. Mercifully, Brennan and Adrianne hadn't killed each other. Adrianne had been extremely pissed when she found out that Brennan was the one who shocked her, and had immediately retaliated by kicking the back of his seat as hard as she could. That was a mistake. Brennan got back at her by shocking her again, only this time with more power.
Adam had finally pulled over to the side of the road, and made Adrianne switch seats with Jesse. Then he made Emma switch seats with Brennan, so that Brennan and Adrianne couldn't kill each other.
Adrianne, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the twins stared around the bookstore in amazement. There were as many books, if not more, than there were in the library at Hogwarts.
"So this is what a muggle bookstore looks like," Ron muttered. "I wonder what kind of books they have here?"
Adrianne shrugged.
"Probably all kinds," she replied. "Muggle bookstores are generally like that. They have numerous categories for books, like action, romance, drama, and lots of others." She glanced over at Hermione, and cracked a grin.
Hermione had a look in her eye that indicated she couldn't wait to start looking through the books.
"Maybe we'll be able to find some information for some of our homework," she said. "After all, muggles write about so many different and unusual things, some of which are completely common to the wizarding world. Like J.R.R. Tolkien. He wrote about wizards and magical rings and elves and dwarves and goblins and other things found in the wizarding world."
"I don't recall J.R.R. Tolkien ever writing about warlocks and veela and Quidditch and schools of witchcraft and wizardry," Adrianne muttered out of the corner of her mouth, and both Harry and Ron laughed. Hermione, however, looked annoyed, and she stomped off.
Shaking her head slightly, Adrianne went over to the fantasy section, and in just a few minutes, she was lost in a story about a young princess named Elora Danaan. Suddenly, Shalimar came up to her.
"What are you reading?" she asked curiously.
" 'Shadow Moon', by George Lucas and Chris Clairemont," Adrianne replied, looking up at the blond feral. "It's really good. Have you ever seen the movie 'Willow'?" Shalimar nodded. "Well, it's basically a sequel to that. It's part one of a trilogy about Princess Elora Danaan that takes place twelve years after the movie, when she's thirteen."
"How come they didn't just make a movie of the sequel?"
"Because 'Shadow Moon' was published just a couple of years ago. Also, like I said, it's part one of a trilogy, and I don't think that any of the 'Willow' fans out there would want a repeat of the Disney animated movie 'The Black Cauldron'."
"What was wrong with that?"
"Have you ever read the Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander?"
"No."
"Well, the Prydain Chronicles were five books about the adventures of an Assistant Pig-Keeper named Taran, a princess named Eilonwy, and a fortune- telling pig named Hen Wen. The five books were 'The Book of Three', 'The Black Cauldron', 'The Castle of Llyr', 'Taran Wanderer', and 'The High King'. Anyway, the mistake that Disney made was they crammed all five books into an animated movie that was only about an hour and a half long, maybe two hours long at best."
"Ugh."
"Yeah. Well, Disney did one thing right with the movie, though."
"What's that?"
"They didn't turn it into a musical. They had background music, but they didn't have the characters breaking into song and dance numbers."
"Well, that's good."
Aurora closed the book she held, and put it back.
"You know what I love most about being in America?" she said.
"What?"
"No Professor Snape."
"Who?" asked Shalimar curiously.
"Severus Snape. He's one of the professors at Hogwarts, and he's definitely the most unpopular one. He teaches potions, he's Head of Slytherin House, and he continually pisses off the students in Gryffindor, which is the House that me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in by favoring the students in his House, mainly Draco Malfoy." Adrianne stuck out her tongue. "Skinny-assed prick pimp from hell." Shalimar fought back a laugh. "Anyway, back to the original subject: Professor Snape. Not only does he piss off the Gryffindors, he also pisses off members of the other Houses." Seeing the blank look on Shalimar's face, she explained, "There are four Houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Gryffindor's the best; we're always kicking Slytherin's ass at Quidditch. As I was saying, he pisses off members of the other Houses."
"What's he look like?" Shalimar asked.
"Uh, shoulder-length greasy black hair, eyes that are so brown they're nearly black, sallow skin, a hooked nose, and he wears nothing but solid black robes. In other words, he looks like what he is...a complete slimeball."
"A slimeball who can take points away from Gryffindor," an all-too-familiar voice said from behind Shalimar and Adrianne.
Adrianne shrieked and spun around. Standing behind her was Professor Snape in all his greasy black hair, hooked nose, sallow skin, and black-robed glory. His dark brown eyes glittered.
"Uh, hi, Professor Snape," Adrianne said, smiling nervously. "Um, how long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to hear your description of me," Snape replied, his upper lip curling slightly. If he had been looking that way at anyone else, they would have been running away in terror with their tails tucked between their legs. But Adrianne didn't scare easily, and so she stood her ground.
"Well, I'm not at Hogwarts right now, so you can't take any points away from Gryffindor," she said bravely. "Also, we're in America, and I have freedom of speech." Then she shrugged. "Besides, you've got to admit that it was a fairly accurate description."
Snape's lip curled even more, and Shalimar decided that it was time for her to step in. She stepped forward, and Snape glanced over at her, noticing her for the first time. As he took in the way she was dressed, his lip curled even more, only this time with contempt. And that made Shalimar even madder.
"I think you should leave Adrianne alone," she said. "Otherwise you're gonna have to deal with me." Snape smirked at her.
"Why should I be afraid of a mere muggle?" he sneered. That was a mistake. Shalimar's eyes flashed yellow for an instant, and then became their normal brown again. Snape stepped backwards, a faint look of alarm on his face. He muttered something about needing to find a particular book, and quickly walked away.
Adrianne made a face at his back, and then turned, heading towards Harry and Ron, who were standing nearby, talking about fictional books that were about witches, or rather, the muggle interpretation of what witches were supposed to be like.
"Muggles have the weirdest ideas about witches," Ron was saying to Harry as Adrianne approached. "Why would they think that witches wear pentagrams?"
"Because the pentagram is the symbol for Wicca, which is a fairly common practice here in America," Adrianne said before Harry could reply. "It represents the five elements, only four of which I can remember; water, fire, earth, and air. And Wiccans are also known as witches. Oh, and you guys aren't gonna believe who I just ran into."
"Who?" Harry asked curiously.
"Professor Snape." Both Ron and Harry's jaws dropped open.
"You're joking, right?" demanded Ron, turning white as a sheet. Adrianne shook her head. "Oh, bloody hell. Bloody, buggering hell! That's all we need, isn't it? Professor Snape!"
"We've got to warn Hermione!" said Harry worriedly.
"Warn me about what?" Harry, Ron and Adrianne nearly jumped out of their skins; Hermione had just come around the corner. She eyed the three of them suspiciously. "Warn me about *what*?" she repeated.
"Snape's here," Adrianne replied. Hermione turned even paler than Ron had, and dropped the books she was holding.
"Are you sure?" she asked worriedly.
"I'm positive," Adrianne said grimly. "And I just made it out of a first- hand encounter with him. I, um, kinda pissed him off by saying that he looks like a complete slimeball. I didn't call him that to his face, but he was standing right behind me when I said it."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all flinched.
"Did he yell at you?" Harry asked.
"No. He merely announced his presence by saying that he was a slimeball who could take points from Gryffindor."
"That's almost as bad," said Ron, and Harry and Hermione both nodded in agreement. "But at least he announced his presence, instead of just coming up behind you and tapping you on the shoulder."
"If he'd done that, I think I would have had a heart attack," Adrianne said, grinning in spite of herself. "If it hadn't been for Shalimar coming to my rescue, I don't know what would have happened. But Shalimar came to my rescue, and scared Snape off." She grinned at the looks on her friends' faces.
"Snape got scared off by a *muggle*?!" Ron said incredulously.
"Well, Shalimar's not an ordinary muggle, remember?" Adrianne reminded him. "All she had to do was turn her eyes yellow for an instant, and Snape left quicker than a crowd at a really bad movie." Suddenly, she thought of something. "We'd better tell Fred and George about Snape."
A moment later, they had located the twins, and explained the situation. Fred and George glanced at each other, and then they both grinned evilly.
"Sounds to me like we need to play a prank on dear old Snapie," said Fred gleefully. He and George huddled up and began whispering with each other. A moment later, they turned back to the others, grinning.
"We've got a plan," George informed Adrianne and the others. He and Fred began whispering their plan to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Adrianne, and a moment later, the four younger witches and wizards began to grin.
Fred and George began walking through the bookstore, searching for Snape, and a moment later, they spotted him standing in front of a section on chemistry. He was looking through one of the books with a look of amazement on his face.
"Incredible!" they heard him say. "The perfect muggle version of Potions!"
Fred and George grinned at each other. Then they pulled out their wands.
"Dyus scarleta," whispered Fred. A red shield appeared on the back of Snape's robes.
"Symbolis Gryffindor," whispered George, and a golden lion appeared on the shield.
Fred and George glanced over at each other, and nodded.
"Quillus gigante," Fred whispered, and gave a practiced flick of his wrist. An instant later, a giant quill appeared behind Snape.
George whispered, "Lions for the cup." Immediately, the quill began writing on the back of Snape's robe, below the shield, and a moment later, the twins saw golden letters flashing across the back of the Potion Master's robes.
Suddenly, Snape lifted his head, and Fred and George's wands quickly disappeared into their sleeves. Snape turned around, and sneered when he saw them.
"What are you two doing here?" he demanded.
"We're staying with Adrianne here in America for the summer," Fred replied. "Us and Ron and Harry and Hermione."
Snape's upper lip curled at the mention of Harry. It was a well-known fact that he and Harry despised each other.
"By the way, Professor Snape, it's awfully considerate of you to support the Gryffindors this year," said George, poker face in place. The sneer on Snape's face transformed into a look of utter confusion.
"What?"
"Well, sir, you've got the Gryffindor slogan on the back of your robes, and below that, it says, 'Lions for the cup'," replied Fred. Snape glanced over his shoulder, and his eyes widened when he saw the slogan and the words on his back. He spun back around to face the twins, a look of absolute fury on his face.
"You two---" he spat, unable to say anything else. Fred and George gave him innocent looks.
"Who? Us?" they said in unison.
"Change my robe back!" Snape demanded. The twins looked over at each other, grinned, and then took off running.
* * *
Adam was just coming out of the hidden room when he saw two red-headed shapes headed in his direction. It was Fred and George Weasley. They were running as fast as they could to get away from something.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Adam said, getting their attention. "I don't think Ruby would be too happy if the two of you destroyed his bookstore. Calm down."
Suddenly, a man dressed in black robes marched towards them, a furious look on his face.
"I want you two to undo whatever it is that you did to my robes!" he demanded, shoving his shoulder-length greasy black hair out of his face. His eyes were so dark they were nearly black, and he had sallow skin that his robes didn't exactly flatter.
Adam eyed him warily.
"Is there a problem?" he asked. The man looked over at him, and his lip curled in contempt.
"There is a problem, but it's not one that concerns you, muggle," he snapped.
"Well, if it has to do with these two, then it is my problem," Adam retorted icily. "Seeing as they're staying with me for the summer."
The man paused for a moment, a confused look on his face.
"They said that they were staying with their friends," he replied.
"Yeah. My niece invited them to come stay with her when she came to visit me for the summer," Adam said. "Now, what's the problem?"
"These two troublemakers played a prank on me that changed the back of my robes!" the man snarled, and turned around. Adam fought back a grin. There was a red shield on the back of his robes, and a golden lion on the shield. Below the shield were the words "Lions for the cup!" The man turned back around. "You see?" he said angrily. "I demand that they change my robes back!"
--No wonder this guy's so pissed off-- Adam thought wryly. However, he didn't say that. He turned towards Fred and George.
"Guys, I think that he's gone through enough," Adam said seriously. The twins started to protest, but Adam raised his hand to silence them. "No discussion. Now, I want you two to *fix his robes*." He gave them the slightest of winks to make sure that they'd get it.
They got it.
"Oh, all right," replied the twins at the same time.
"We'll fix his robes," said Fred, pretending to sound reluctant.
"Please turn around, Professor Snape," said George.
Snape turned around, and the twins pointed their wands at his back.
"Priori incantatem," said Fred clearly, while at the same time, George muttered, "Quillus gigante."
To Adam's amazement, a giant quill appeared behind Snape.
George muttered, "Gryffindors rule, and Slytherins drool."
Adam watched as the quill began writing on Snape's back, and a moment later, the words "Gryffindors rule, and Slytherins drool" appeared there.
He fought back a grin, and said, "There. Your robe is back to normal."
Snape immediately spun around, and stormed out of the bookstore. As soon as he did so, Adam and the twins began laughing.
Suddenly, Adam saw Adrianne, Harry, Ron, and Hermione approaching. They had huge grins on their faces.
"Fred, George, we saw what you replaced the earlier prank with," Adrianne said gleefully. "That was great! And thank you, Uncle Adam, for not giving away the second prank. That makes it even sweeter."
"Glad to be of service," Adam replied, grinning.
"I wonder if Snape'll ever realize what you two did," said Ron thoughtfully to the twins.
They started laughing again.
to be continued...
* * *
A/N: Woo-hoo! I've gotten chapter 2 finished! Now to start chapter 3! As always, please R&R. Flamers will be pelted with dungbombs, and then they'll get their sorry arses kicked to the Bog of Eternal Stench.
And would somebody *please* R&R my story "Eternal Love---Unedited". And please don't do what emmafan did, which was to write "yuck" as the entire review.
See ya!
Anyway, on with the story!
Chapter 2: An Encounter With Snape
A couple of days later, as Adrianne and the others were eating breakfast, they heard a couple of owls hooting overhead. A moment later, Jemima, Adrianne's barn owl, and Hedwig, Harry's snowy white owl, landed gently on the kitchen table in front of them.
"Jemima!" squealed Adrianne happily. Jemima let out a hoot of happiness at the sight of her mistress, and both she and Hedwig looked extremely proud of themselves. "You and Hedwig both made it!" Then she noticed that there was an envelope attached to Jemima's leg. "And it looks as though you stopped at home for a short while," she said, chuckling. She gently removed the envelope from Jemima's leg, and opened it. It was from her mother, and it read:
"Dear Adrianne,
"Hope you made it to America all right. I'm assuming that your friends went with you, since Hedwig was with Jemima. Give your uncle a hug and a kiss for me. Love, Mom. P.S. I'll bring you back something from Ireland."
Adrianne got up, and gave Adam a huge hug, and then kissed him on the cheek, standing on her tiptoes to do so.
"Mom said to do that," she explained, grinning at her uncle, who had a completely perplexed look on his face. Adam blinked, and then grinned down at his niece.
"Well, at least Alina didn't forget about me," he replied. "Hurry up and finish eating. The rest of the team and myself need to go by one of the safehouses for a while, and I thought you and your friends might want to come along."
Adrianne blinked.
"Where's the safehouse at?" she asked, confused.
"It's at a bookstore." Adrianne grimaced. "What?"
"Uncle Adam, when we leave, we're gonna have to forcibly drag Hermione out of there," Adrianne informed him. "Otherwise she'll never leave."
Across the table, Hermione made a face at her. Adam chuckled.
"It won't be that bad," he said.
Adrianne wolfed down her breakfast and stood up.
"I'm ready," she said. Everyone else stood up as well, and they put their dishes away in the sink.
* * *
About fifteen minutes later, Adrianne buckled herself into the van that they were going in. Beside her were Ron and the twins, staring around at everything, their eyes wide with amazement at all the gadgets in the car.
"Wicked!" said Ron in a low voice.
"It's a good thing Dad isn't here," said George to Adrianne.
"Why's that?"
"Because he wouldn't be able to keep his hands to himself."
Adrianne snorted. On the other side of the twins, on the driver's side, were Harry and Hermione. They looked just as impressed as the Weasleys, but Adrianne could tell that they weren't impressed by the fact that it was a muggle item---they were more impressed by all the gizmos that the van sported.
Shalimar and Emma got in the very back of the van, and sat there, giggling about something. Jesse sat up front with Adam, and Brennan squeezed in beside Adrianne.
"Now I know what a sardine feels like," Adrianne grumbled. She could barely move. Brennan smirked down at her.
"Don't worry," he teased. "We shouldn't come to any sharp turns. But be warned; if we do, I don't just squish, I zap." As if to prove his point, blue electricity sparked around his fingertips.
Adrianne's eyes grew huge, and she unbuckled as fast as she could. Then she climbed over the seat into the back seat.
"Adrianne, what are you doing?" Emma asked, confused, as Adrianne sat between her and Shalimar.
"Staying away from Brennan. I refuse to be squished next to a guy that can power a small city with a single zap." Suddenly, Adrianne yelped and nearly jumped out of her seat.
"What's wrong?" asked Emma, concerned.
"Something just shocked me!"
Emma and Shalimar exchanged a grin, and in front of Adrianne, Brennan pulled his hand back, whistling innocently.
* * *
They finally arrived at the bookstore. Mercifully, Brennan and Adrianne hadn't killed each other. Adrianne had been extremely pissed when she found out that Brennan was the one who shocked her, and had immediately retaliated by kicking the back of his seat as hard as she could. That was a mistake. Brennan got back at her by shocking her again, only this time with more power.
Adam had finally pulled over to the side of the road, and made Adrianne switch seats with Jesse. Then he made Emma switch seats with Brennan, so that Brennan and Adrianne couldn't kill each other.
Adrianne, Harry, Hermione, Ron, and the twins stared around the bookstore in amazement. There were as many books, if not more, than there were in the library at Hogwarts.
"So this is what a muggle bookstore looks like," Ron muttered. "I wonder what kind of books they have here?"
Adrianne shrugged.
"Probably all kinds," she replied. "Muggle bookstores are generally like that. They have numerous categories for books, like action, romance, drama, and lots of others." She glanced over at Hermione, and cracked a grin.
Hermione had a look in her eye that indicated she couldn't wait to start looking through the books.
"Maybe we'll be able to find some information for some of our homework," she said. "After all, muggles write about so many different and unusual things, some of which are completely common to the wizarding world. Like J.R.R. Tolkien. He wrote about wizards and magical rings and elves and dwarves and goblins and other things found in the wizarding world."
"I don't recall J.R.R. Tolkien ever writing about warlocks and veela and Quidditch and schools of witchcraft and wizardry," Adrianne muttered out of the corner of her mouth, and both Harry and Ron laughed. Hermione, however, looked annoyed, and she stomped off.
Shaking her head slightly, Adrianne went over to the fantasy section, and in just a few minutes, she was lost in a story about a young princess named Elora Danaan. Suddenly, Shalimar came up to her.
"What are you reading?" she asked curiously.
" 'Shadow Moon', by George Lucas and Chris Clairemont," Adrianne replied, looking up at the blond feral. "It's really good. Have you ever seen the movie 'Willow'?" Shalimar nodded. "Well, it's basically a sequel to that. It's part one of a trilogy about Princess Elora Danaan that takes place twelve years after the movie, when she's thirteen."
"How come they didn't just make a movie of the sequel?"
"Because 'Shadow Moon' was published just a couple of years ago. Also, like I said, it's part one of a trilogy, and I don't think that any of the 'Willow' fans out there would want a repeat of the Disney animated movie 'The Black Cauldron'."
"What was wrong with that?"
"Have you ever read the Prydain Chronicles, by Lloyd Alexander?"
"No."
"Well, the Prydain Chronicles were five books about the adventures of an Assistant Pig-Keeper named Taran, a princess named Eilonwy, and a fortune- telling pig named Hen Wen. The five books were 'The Book of Three', 'The Black Cauldron', 'The Castle of Llyr', 'Taran Wanderer', and 'The High King'. Anyway, the mistake that Disney made was they crammed all five books into an animated movie that was only about an hour and a half long, maybe two hours long at best."
"Ugh."
"Yeah. Well, Disney did one thing right with the movie, though."
"What's that?"
"They didn't turn it into a musical. They had background music, but they didn't have the characters breaking into song and dance numbers."
"Well, that's good."
Aurora closed the book she held, and put it back.
"You know what I love most about being in America?" she said.
"What?"
"No Professor Snape."
"Who?" asked Shalimar curiously.
"Severus Snape. He's one of the professors at Hogwarts, and he's definitely the most unpopular one. He teaches potions, he's Head of Slytherin House, and he continually pisses off the students in Gryffindor, which is the House that me, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are in by favoring the students in his House, mainly Draco Malfoy." Adrianne stuck out her tongue. "Skinny-assed prick pimp from hell." Shalimar fought back a laugh. "Anyway, back to the original subject: Professor Snape. Not only does he piss off the Gryffindors, he also pisses off members of the other Houses." Seeing the blank look on Shalimar's face, she explained, "There are four Houses at Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Gryffindor's the best; we're always kicking Slytherin's ass at Quidditch. As I was saying, he pisses off members of the other Houses."
"What's he look like?" Shalimar asked.
"Uh, shoulder-length greasy black hair, eyes that are so brown they're nearly black, sallow skin, a hooked nose, and he wears nothing but solid black robes. In other words, he looks like what he is...a complete slimeball."
"A slimeball who can take points away from Gryffindor," an all-too-familiar voice said from behind Shalimar and Adrianne.
Adrianne shrieked and spun around. Standing behind her was Professor Snape in all his greasy black hair, hooked nose, sallow skin, and black-robed glory. His dark brown eyes glittered.
"Uh, hi, Professor Snape," Adrianne said, smiling nervously. "Um, how long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to hear your description of me," Snape replied, his upper lip curling slightly. If he had been looking that way at anyone else, they would have been running away in terror with their tails tucked between their legs. But Adrianne didn't scare easily, and so she stood her ground.
"Well, I'm not at Hogwarts right now, so you can't take any points away from Gryffindor," she said bravely. "Also, we're in America, and I have freedom of speech." Then she shrugged. "Besides, you've got to admit that it was a fairly accurate description."
Snape's lip curled even more, and Shalimar decided that it was time for her to step in. She stepped forward, and Snape glanced over at her, noticing her for the first time. As he took in the way she was dressed, his lip curled even more, only this time with contempt. And that made Shalimar even madder.
"I think you should leave Adrianne alone," she said. "Otherwise you're gonna have to deal with me." Snape smirked at her.
"Why should I be afraid of a mere muggle?" he sneered. That was a mistake. Shalimar's eyes flashed yellow for an instant, and then became their normal brown again. Snape stepped backwards, a faint look of alarm on his face. He muttered something about needing to find a particular book, and quickly walked away.
Adrianne made a face at his back, and then turned, heading towards Harry and Ron, who were standing nearby, talking about fictional books that were about witches, or rather, the muggle interpretation of what witches were supposed to be like.
"Muggles have the weirdest ideas about witches," Ron was saying to Harry as Adrianne approached. "Why would they think that witches wear pentagrams?"
"Because the pentagram is the symbol for Wicca, which is a fairly common practice here in America," Adrianne said before Harry could reply. "It represents the five elements, only four of which I can remember; water, fire, earth, and air. And Wiccans are also known as witches. Oh, and you guys aren't gonna believe who I just ran into."
"Who?" Harry asked curiously.
"Professor Snape." Both Ron and Harry's jaws dropped open.
"You're joking, right?" demanded Ron, turning white as a sheet. Adrianne shook her head. "Oh, bloody hell. Bloody, buggering hell! That's all we need, isn't it? Professor Snape!"
"We've got to warn Hermione!" said Harry worriedly.
"Warn me about what?" Harry, Ron and Adrianne nearly jumped out of their skins; Hermione had just come around the corner. She eyed the three of them suspiciously. "Warn me about *what*?" she repeated.
"Snape's here," Adrianne replied. Hermione turned even paler than Ron had, and dropped the books she was holding.
"Are you sure?" she asked worriedly.
"I'm positive," Adrianne said grimly. "And I just made it out of a first- hand encounter with him. I, um, kinda pissed him off by saying that he looks like a complete slimeball. I didn't call him that to his face, but he was standing right behind me when I said it."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione all flinched.
"Did he yell at you?" Harry asked.
"No. He merely announced his presence by saying that he was a slimeball who could take points from Gryffindor."
"That's almost as bad," said Ron, and Harry and Hermione both nodded in agreement. "But at least he announced his presence, instead of just coming up behind you and tapping you on the shoulder."
"If he'd done that, I think I would have had a heart attack," Adrianne said, grinning in spite of herself. "If it hadn't been for Shalimar coming to my rescue, I don't know what would have happened. But Shalimar came to my rescue, and scared Snape off." She grinned at the looks on her friends' faces.
"Snape got scared off by a *muggle*?!" Ron said incredulously.
"Well, Shalimar's not an ordinary muggle, remember?" Adrianne reminded him. "All she had to do was turn her eyes yellow for an instant, and Snape left quicker than a crowd at a really bad movie." Suddenly, she thought of something. "We'd better tell Fred and George about Snape."
A moment later, they had located the twins, and explained the situation. Fred and George glanced at each other, and then they both grinned evilly.
"Sounds to me like we need to play a prank on dear old Snapie," said Fred gleefully. He and George huddled up and began whispering with each other. A moment later, they turned back to the others, grinning.
"We've got a plan," George informed Adrianne and the others. He and Fred began whispering their plan to Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Adrianne, and a moment later, the four younger witches and wizards began to grin.
Fred and George began walking through the bookstore, searching for Snape, and a moment later, they spotted him standing in front of a section on chemistry. He was looking through one of the books with a look of amazement on his face.
"Incredible!" they heard him say. "The perfect muggle version of Potions!"
Fred and George grinned at each other. Then they pulled out their wands.
"Dyus scarleta," whispered Fred. A red shield appeared on the back of Snape's robes.
"Symbolis Gryffindor," whispered George, and a golden lion appeared on the shield.
Fred and George glanced over at each other, and nodded.
"Quillus gigante," Fred whispered, and gave a practiced flick of his wrist. An instant later, a giant quill appeared behind Snape.
George whispered, "Lions for the cup." Immediately, the quill began writing on the back of Snape's robe, below the shield, and a moment later, the twins saw golden letters flashing across the back of the Potion Master's robes.
Suddenly, Snape lifted his head, and Fred and George's wands quickly disappeared into their sleeves. Snape turned around, and sneered when he saw them.
"What are you two doing here?" he demanded.
"We're staying with Adrianne here in America for the summer," Fred replied. "Us and Ron and Harry and Hermione."
Snape's upper lip curled at the mention of Harry. It was a well-known fact that he and Harry despised each other.
"By the way, Professor Snape, it's awfully considerate of you to support the Gryffindors this year," said George, poker face in place. The sneer on Snape's face transformed into a look of utter confusion.
"What?"
"Well, sir, you've got the Gryffindor slogan on the back of your robes, and below that, it says, 'Lions for the cup'," replied Fred. Snape glanced over his shoulder, and his eyes widened when he saw the slogan and the words on his back. He spun back around to face the twins, a look of absolute fury on his face.
"You two---" he spat, unable to say anything else. Fred and George gave him innocent looks.
"Who? Us?" they said in unison.
"Change my robe back!" Snape demanded. The twins looked over at each other, grinned, and then took off running.
* * *
Adam was just coming out of the hidden room when he saw two red-headed shapes headed in his direction. It was Fred and George Weasley. They were running as fast as they could to get away from something.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Adam said, getting their attention. "I don't think Ruby would be too happy if the two of you destroyed his bookstore. Calm down."
Suddenly, a man dressed in black robes marched towards them, a furious look on his face.
"I want you two to undo whatever it is that you did to my robes!" he demanded, shoving his shoulder-length greasy black hair out of his face. His eyes were so dark they were nearly black, and he had sallow skin that his robes didn't exactly flatter.
Adam eyed him warily.
"Is there a problem?" he asked. The man looked over at him, and his lip curled in contempt.
"There is a problem, but it's not one that concerns you, muggle," he snapped.
"Well, if it has to do with these two, then it is my problem," Adam retorted icily. "Seeing as they're staying with me for the summer."
The man paused for a moment, a confused look on his face.
"They said that they were staying with their friends," he replied.
"Yeah. My niece invited them to come stay with her when she came to visit me for the summer," Adam said. "Now, what's the problem?"
"These two troublemakers played a prank on me that changed the back of my robes!" the man snarled, and turned around. Adam fought back a grin. There was a red shield on the back of his robes, and a golden lion on the shield. Below the shield were the words "Lions for the cup!" The man turned back around. "You see?" he said angrily. "I demand that they change my robes back!"
--No wonder this guy's so pissed off-- Adam thought wryly. However, he didn't say that. He turned towards Fred and George.
"Guys, I think that he's gone through enough," Adam said seriously. The twins started to protest, but Adam raised his hand to silence them. "No discussion. Now, I want you two to *fix his robes*." He gave them the slightest of winks to make sure that they'd get it.
They got it.
"Oh, all right," replied the twins at the same time.
"We'll fix his robes," said Fred, pretending to sound reluctant.
"Please turn around, Professor Snape," said George.
Snape turned around, and the twins pointed their wands at his back.
"Priori incantatem," said Fred clearly, while at the same time, George muttered, "Quillus gigante."
To Adam's amazement, a giant quill appeared behind Snape.
George muttered, "Gryffindors rule, and Slytherins drool."
Adam watched as the quill began writing on Snape's back, and a moment later, the words "Gryffindors rule, and Slytherins drool" appeared there.
He fought back a grin, and said, "There. Your robe is back to normal."
Snape immediately spun around, and stormed out of the bookstore. As soon as he did so, Adam and the twins began laughing.
Suddenly, Adam saw Adrianne, Harry, Ron, and Hermione approaching. They had huge grins on their faces.
"Fred, George, we saw what you replaced the earlier prank with," Adrianne said gleefully. "That was great! And thank you, Uncle Adam, for not giving away the second prank. That makes it even sweeter."
"Glad to be of service," Adam replied, grinning.
"I wonder if Snape'll ever realize what you two did," said Ron thoughtfully to the twins.
They started laughing again.
to be continued...
* * *
A/N: Woo-hoo! I've gotten chapter 2 finished! Now to start chapter 3! As always, please R&R. Flamers will be pelted with dungbombs, and then they'll get their sorry arses kicked to the Bog of Eternal Stench.
And would somebody *please* R&R my story "Eternal Love---Unedited". And please don't do what emmafan did, which was to write "yuck" as the entire review.
See ya!