Inklings of Celebrity
Chapter Six: Negativity
A/N: Yes to Meliae on her request; it will be later on in the story. By the way, as a way of explanation for relationships in this fic, Dilandau loves Selena, but she only thinks of him as her best friend. Harry has a crush on Selena, and Hitomi and Van are very much together. The DragonSlayers are for now single... heh heh heh. Enjoy and review.
During the autumn, the Gryffindors had daily Quidditch practices. Both Van and Dilandau had joined, with Van as the Seeker; Harry was their new team captain. The only problem with this situation was the fact that Van and Dilandau would try to hit each other frequently with Bludgers. This resulted in quite a few headaches and bruises, not to mention possible brain damage, between the two.
In fact, they'd even go at each other on their broomsticks with their swords drawn, resulting in the cancellation of quite a few Quidditch practices. One day, it was even more interesting than usual, as they bothered to use their wands. Using magic was not their first nature (violence was), so this made things more interesting.
Especially since they were both very magically strong duelers. Padma Patil, who had been spying on the practice, accidentally got such a bad case of Hair Extremity that she refused to be seen until she was cured. Harry sometimes wondered if he should kick the fighters off the team, as they weren't exactly benefiting from the two. He had a talk with Folken, the only teacher who could remotely discipline Dilandau.
Folken had a word with the two about divulging their more embarrassing secrets to the school if they wouldn't stop. After this, the team won most of their games, winning back almost as many House points as Dilandau had ever lost for Gryffindor. The Slytherins were indignant about this, and seriously thinking of cheating on their upcoming game with the Gryffindors.
However, Professor Snape, as their Head of House, was much too scared of Professor deFanel to comply with this request. Owing to this, the Gryffindors won by more than a hundred points; the Slytherin team had not been having recent practices, and always greatly underestimated their opponents.
After the game, Van was wandering aimlessly around in some hallway. Draco Malfoy, who'd been looking for the Seeker who beat him, found him looking at an odd picture. He slithered up to him, sneering, "So, you're the showoff who won the game. Let me tell you something, your life will be made miserable in a very short while." He continued with a string of insults, starting with Mudblood and continuing from there, calling Van's friends also equally unflattering names. This put Van into a rage- Hitomi was being particularly bashed.
"My life?" Van replied softly. He shook with head with a slight smile. "I think not." Before Draco could react, three of his ribs were broken, along with an arm, while another arm was dislocated. He was then pinned up against the stony wall. "Just one question- strangling or breaking your neck?" Van smiled, eerily, while the boy on the wall stared in fear.
Van moved his hands up to Draco's neck, where he squeezed lightly. "Strangling isn't easier, but you'll look much prettier. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Draco kicked out weakly, but didn't try to fight back. Fear was written plainly over his pointed face.
"No," he gasped. Van withdrew his sword, cutting a small line on Draco's cheek; history seemed to almost repeat itself. At that opportune moment, Selena came running down the corridor.
"Van, there's a Gryffindor party, and we need you there," she called, coming closer. That was when she saw the boy pinned against the wall. He looked like Dilandau from far away. "WHAT THE HELL? THAT BETTER NOT BE DILANDAU, VAN!" she thundered, her hand on her sword. As she got closer, she then realized it was the Slytherin she'd noticed before.
He shook his head. "Just some irate guy who's decided that you're a slut, albino and a few other things," he replied, making Selena explode with anger. Professor McGonagall stood in the shadows, unseen by the students and too shocked to know what to do.
"Stand him up, Van," Selena calmly ordered. He protested, but did what she said. Her hand moved backwards, and the sound of a bone-cracking slap filled the hallway, echoing. The teacher had taken control of herself and appeared, her eyes blazing.
"That will be enough, you two!" she barked. She wasn't quite sure what had happened, but it seemed that Van was trying to kill the fellow for insulting his friends. The female student, who had been looking for the Quidditch Seeker, had found out what Draco had been saying and had decided to get him back.
Selena and Van stood, staring at the professor as if wanting to see the Cruciatus curse performed on her. Draco's shallow, ragged breathing was the only sound to be heard in the corridor. "Never has this school had such a violent act committed. Your punishment will be severe! We'll be going to Dumbledore's office now, to see about expelling you," her voice said icily.
They shrugged, while McGonagall magically made a stretcher appear for the poor Mister Malfoy. While she made them follow her to the infirmary (she didn't trust them enough to leave them alone), they grinned at other. After Draco had been dropped off to Madam Pomfrey, they continued on their way to the office. Students along the way looked curiously at them, only to be met with three solid glares.
At the statue to Dumbledore's office, McGonagall spoke the password, "Unicorn horn." It moved to let them in with a creaking noise. Dumbledore looked up, his eyes twinkling. "What's the problem?" he asked merrily, "Have these students tried to kill someone?"
"That is exactly why they are here," replied the professor sternly. Dumbledore's expression cleared, and he gave the two his traditional piercing glare. They both stared stonily back. Gaea hadn't been disrupted just over piercing glares. "You may leave, Minerva." He gestured to the students to sit down.
"What exactly has happened?"
Selena answered serenely, "Some student's been insulting all of us, so Van went at him, then I found them. I then found out what he was calling me, and slapped him. I believe I broke his jaw, or possibly tore some nerves."
"You would kill someone for your friends' sake?"
"Yes," they answered simultaneously.
"You do know I have no choice but to expel you."
Van shrugged. "My home needs me anyway. Besides, there's something I need to tell some people." Dumbledore sighed, realizing that there was probably no punishment made that would probably serve to discipline the odd new Gryffindors. Possibly Azkaban, but the students were underage.
"I know you're trying to find a way to discipline us, but let me tell you, there isn't a way. We've seen things that people in any world would retch at," Selena said practically.
Dumbledore decided that there was only one thing to do. "Your house will lose all the points they've accumulated, and it will be spread evenly throughout the other houses. An expulsion will not be necessary, yet. However, I will write a letter to your parents about this." He'd let the students give them a miserable time.
Selena smirked. "Our parents? They're all dead. You won't find records of us anywhere." She paused. "I did think that Slytherin would lose points for name-calling and swearing. I guess I was wrong. Come on, Van."
The two of them glided out of the office, chatting about the way Van had flown during the Quidditch game. When they emerged in the Gryffindor common room, the party was still roaring. The Gryffindors saw Van, and were about to drag him into the center of things, but he shook his head.
Professor McGonagall entered shortly next. "Your house points have all been taken away, due to an attempted murder tonight by two Gryffindor students," she announced sorrowfully. All heads riveted towards the two new arrivals in the room, while groans were heard in the background.
After the head of house left, people began to be extremely rude towards the Lady and the King. Only a few students believed it hadn't been them, and even they were mean. After a while of this, Hitomi and the Gaeans were extremely annoyed, and stormed out of the Common Room, jeers following them.
For the rest of the week, both Gryffindors and Slytherins were particularly nasty towards the Gaea group- who didn't actually care. Seeing this, the school moved on to practical jokes and burnings of homework. Until Dilandau was irritated with the whole Mystic Moon and slapped anyone who did anything. He even set a new record of Most Detentions in One Month While In Hogwarts, Most Slaps By One Person in Hogwarts, and Gryffindor went into negative points.
What happened eventually was that they were dubbed as the 'bad' group, people stayed away from them and vice versa. To the teachers' surprise, they didn't bully anyone, even getting Draco to stop teasing Neville. This worked out wonderfully for the whole school, except for Malfoy, of course.
One day at breakfast, Ginny Weasley came down looking very agitated. She hadn't been doing very well in anything lately, and the Chamber of Secrets had left a mark on her forever. As she slumped down at the breakfast table, alone as usual, someone noticed her. Viole felt concerned for her, not knowing why, and went over to cheer her up.
"What's the matter?" came a voice by Ginny's ear. She jumped, expecting to see Ron, but instead saw a handsome boy with long wavy brown hair. "You don't look well." Ginny burst into tears suddenly and told her life story. Viole just sat there, listening and saying comforting things. When she was finished, he said, "People have been treating you badly just because of that? And you say no one even died?"
She shook her head. "Look, I can't even count the destruction I've done. Don't worry about it, people can be extremely odd at times," he replied soothingly.
Ginny sniffed. "Have you ever killed anyone before? I feel as if I have, sometimes," she confided.
"You want the real truth? I have. I'm not actually quite sure how many people are dead because of me." She stared up at him with a surprised expression, but believed him.
"This is such a great beginning, isn't it?" she asked, her tear-streaked face breaking into a smile. "I'm Ginny Weasley, by the way. Nice talking to you."
"And to you," the DragonSlayer replied. "I'm Viole. And you should really come over to sit with us." He pulled her up before she could protest, and dragged her towards the corner where the group of fifth-years usually ate. They looked up, greeting her warmly after introductions.
The days following that, Ginny never sat elsewhere but next to Viole. Viole was always attentive to her, and Harry was all but forgotten. Ginny hung around with Viole, the other DragonSlayers, Van, Hitomi, Selena and Dilandau. They never minded that she was younger than them, and she reminded Van of Merle, at times.
They shared most of their secrets with her, and she shared hers equally with them. When Selena and Dilandau procured jewelry for any Hogsmeade trips, it was divided between all ten of them. All the money dazed Ginny, who'd only seen that much when Bill had taken her on a tour of Gringotts. She spent most of her money, but even then still had enough to last her for probably two years.
After a few weeks, Hermione noticed that Ginny was good friends with Selena, and decided to do a little interrogation. The next day, she found Ginny in the library. "Ginny, can I talk to you?" she whispered. Ginny agreed, and they went by the lake to talk.
"Anyways, you've found a lot of new friends now, haven't you?" Hermione said, leading up to her topic. Ginny nodded. "But you know, they are the bad crowd, according to all of Hogwarts. Who knows what they might get into?"
"They aren't! They just happen to have strong beliefs, aren't afraid of doing things, can fight and they're all really loyal!" Ginny exclaimed. She wondered why Hermione had wanted to talk. Probably to tell her not to hang around with them, she'd get into bad stuff, yadda yadda.
Hermione sighed. "Well, you never know. Especially with Selena. How could she know how to fight, and why does she hold such a mysterious power over the boys? It could be dark magic, even. You know how she and Van tried to kill Malfoy."
"It's not magic. She knows them all very well, and she's learnt how to fight throughout her life. Van and her were trying to kill Malfoy over some things he said, and you know he would deserve it." Hermione looked in surprise at Ginny. She was confident and determined now, extremely different from her previous self.
"She once told me she's a real Lady." Hermione steered the two of them away from a tree they'd been about to hit.
"She is, her brother's a knight; but why the sudden interest?" The redhead looked suspicious now.
Hermione thought fast. "Well, you know, she is in my dormitory, and I've been thinking I should get to know the girls in my dorm better. And since you're friends with her, I thought I might want to know a bit about her first. I don't want to offend her." She was pleased with her excuse and quick thinking.
"You won't," Ginny spoke shortly and with an air of conclusion. She gave the impression that the conversation was over. "There's Dilandau," she said, changing the subject. "I was going to ask him to teach me sword fighting, and I may as well do that now. Bye, Hermione." Ron's sister skipped off quickly, leaving Hermione to stare at her retreating back in surprise.
A/N: Chapter 6, and kudos to everyone that reviewed. I'm not actually sure, but I think I'll put Allen and someone else we know in Hogwarts later. Just to visit, though- I'll create a Hogwart's Guardian Day. Although I know the points-losing idea is from the 1st Harry Potter book, it's the only thing I could think of without getting Van & Selena expelled in the plot. Enjoy & Review!