I still haven't finished my homework, actually, so it's been a while to write. Besides the fact that I have about five pages of a Tamora Pierce fic written in a notebook, and I don't have any clue where it's going. It's really fun to write, though! I'll be nice and get this chapter out, though, so here y'all are!
*** *** *** ***
The fourth task seemed to fly closer. The champions found out what it was going to be, and then Usagi spent more time reading her books, hoping to find something useful in them.
"I know I read about some type of protector guy in one of these books," Usagi muttered angrily, flipping through the pages of a particularly heavy volume. "I mean, Mamoru-baka had to have had some involvement with the Moon Kingdom, or he wouldn't be able to transform."
"Maybe he got hit on the head really hard when he was a kid, and so now he has some whacked-out transforming deficiency," Lee theorized, also looking through a heavy volume.
"Or maybe he's just a really good actor." Kelly was sitting there with her chin propped in one hand, writing some things on a piece of parchment.
"What are you doing?" Usagi queried, looking up from the dusty tome.
"Making spells," Kelly responded in a detached manner.
"For what?"
"You don't honestly think that I'd let you go into the maze with only the silly spells they teach us here! Anyway, I thought we should have a written record of all we've made already, in case a new generation of mischief makers happens to grace Hogwarts with their presence." Kelly seemed indignant that her antics should be questioned.
"Sorry," Usagi mumbled, turning back to the gigantic book. "I think this might be near where I found it!" she exclaimed after a few minutes. "Yes, this is it! See here? 'Four generals guard the Earth Kingdom, led by the one known as "Tuxedo Mask," in English.'"
"Oh, so he's really just some security guard?" Lee asked, laughing. "Can't wait to break the news to him!"
"Lu-na!" Usagi called to the cat that was hiding in the shadows. She'd been assigned to stay with Usagi and the other three for the rest of the year, just in case anything new came up. "You need to go tell the beloved Mamoru-baka that he just led the four generals way back when, okay?" Usagi had retained several of the American slang phrases from when she had lived there for a bit, and was brushing up on them since the next summer would be spent in Maine
"How delightful," the cat muttered dryly as she made her way up the stairs, "now I'm a messenger kitty."
The three that were in the room laughed. Kelly returned to making spells as Lee returned the books to the shelves.
Usagi, watching Kelly with a large amount of curiosity, asked her, "Do you think the spells they teach us here aren't trustworthy?"
Kelly blushed. "That's part of it," she admitted. "Another part is that the magical world knows about the standard spells. If we throw something in that's, well, unorthodox, they won't know how to react. You've seen how the judges looked when you debated with the dragon and transformed into a mermaid. If they think it's new, and weird, even, just as spectators, imagined what creatures and other wizards would say when you're against them! Besides, I'd feel better knowing you were using something I made."
Usagi was amazed at how worried her friend was, and found herself rather amused at the maternal attitude she assumed. And I already have two mothers, three if you want to count Mrs. Potter, she thought dryly.
As Hazeka flew into the room, jabbering something about stupid Weasleys, a thought struck Usagi. "I never told Dumbledore I can talk to animals!"
"I think he figured that out after the dragon," Lee said, reappearing. "What's got her so cooked up any ways?" He indicated Hazeka.
"Something about 'stupid Weasleys.' What did they do, Haze?" Usagi questioned anxiously.
They're trying to blackmail Ludo Bagman! she shrieked.
"Oh, dear. We'd better go rescue our crazy friends. Are we certain Mrs. Weasley didn't drop them on their heads when they were young?"
"Most likely hit each other with their rattles," Kelly said, tucking away her quill, ink, and parchment. "So what did they do?"
"They're trying to blackmail Ludo Bagman, stupid prats!" Usagi said angrily, dashing up the stairs.
"What fun! Why didn't they include me?" Lee remarked sarcastically to Kelly. Kelly shrugged, and both followed Usagi to find Fred and George.
When they found Fred and George at last, Usagi began to give them a very long, very impressive lecture on breaking school rules versus breaking the law. For the one second she stopped to breathe, they broke in and explained to her that they weren't blackmailing anyone, and that Hazeka most likely misheard, and so on, and so forth, until Usagi was calmed down. They headed back to the rather dusty Marauder headquarters. Fred and George had been rather withdrawn this year, and ever since Kelly and Lee had discovered the room, the royal trio had been spending time there with Harry.
"Ah, it's good to be back, isn't it Fred?" George said, stretching out on one of the couches they'd moved into the room.
"Sure is, Georgey," Fred replied, settling into a chair.
"I like our room better," Usagi confided to Kelly as she sat cross-legged on the floor.
"Me too," Kelly agreed, taking a seat on the chair behind Usagi.
As Lee sat on one of the three remaining chairs, he turned to Usagi. "Why do you always sit on the floor? It's wood, not even carpeted! You'd expect a chair to be more comfortable."
Usagi shrugged. "I always have to sit on the floor at home when we watch the telly. Mum lays on the couch and Dad and Shingo take up the chairs, so I get used to sitting on the floor."
"Ri-ight," Fred and George said in a 'you-are-so-obviously-crazy-it-isn't-even-close-to-being-funny-so-please-don't-talk-any-more-before-you-really-scare-us' type of voice.
Usagi pouted and crossed her arms over her chest defensively. Deciding to change the subject, Kelly interjected, "Why did you change your hair like that? You haven't put it back from the Yule Ball."
She looked surprised and answered, "I like it better this way. It's easier to deal with, as opposed to how ridiculously long it was before. And I was sick of bangs." She made a disgusted face at the thought of bangs.
"They're not that bad!" Kelly protested. She herself had bangs.
"I know," Usagi agreed. "I was just getting-"
"Can we talk about something that interests us all?" Lee interrupted. "Like, pranks!" "Yeah!" the twins encouraged enthusiastically. Clearly, the hair talk was not their thing.
"Well, I say the victim should be Malfoy," Usagi began, and the others nodded eagerly, "and for the perfect thing, I believe we need an accomplice."
~*~ ~*~ ~*~ ~*~
"You want me to help you?" Colin Creevy clarified for the last time. {A/N: When I hit the spell-check button for 'Creevy', the only word it came up with as 'Creepy'. I just thought that was funny…}
"Yes. All you have to do is follow them, take a few pictures, and report back to us," Kelly confirmed, shooing the eager boy out the door. "Honestly!" Kelly said, turning back from the door. "You'd think he was eight, the way he acts, instead of the same age as me!"
"Well, girls mature faster than boys," Usagi said primly. "A boy's maturity level at sixteen is the equivalent of a girl's at fourteen, I think it was. Or younger."
Kelly and Usagi giggled while the three boys shot them dirty looks. "What?" Usagi asked with wide-eyed innocence. "What did I say?"
They snorted disgustedly, and Usagi convinced them all to play wizards chess- Mischief Makers-style. Which basically meant a free for all of moving your pieces all over the place, and anyone else's pieces too. It was stupid to watch, seeing as how they were simply moving any pieces they felt like out of the five colors around the enlarged board, but extremely fun to play. You actually needed a strategy, as if you didn't pay attention and safely move your pieces, they could easily be thrown off the board.
"I'm back!" Colin announced to the fivesome as they threw the pieces at each other, having become frustrated with the game.
They immediately stopped and crowded around the boy, demanding to see the pictures. When they saw them, they grinned evilly. Seeing as how their normal grins were evil, this was very scary, so Colin left the pictures with them and ran off to talk with the still-sulking Ezma.
The pictures were discovered in the Great Hall at breakfast the next morning. They were enlarged to gigantic proportions and plastered as a collage, all of them moving around. The subjects? Malfoy and a certain blue-haired Ziklag student named Ami Mizuno. Their activities? Let's just say there had been some serious snogging going on at the Quidditch Pitch the previous night.
No one noticed right away, but then an anonymous Ravenclaw named Terry Boot (not so anonymous now, eh?) began jumping around the Great Hall in circles.
"Tic tacs, tic tacs, tic tacs, tic tacs!" This was accompanied by much chugging of the aforementioned mint/candy. "Tic tacs, tic tacs, tic- look up, everybody!" {A/N: Terry Boot's character is seriously underplayed here. To find out what he's really like, read SilverSickle17's fic.}
Following the instructions of the hyperactive Ravenclaw that had a questionable sanity level, the occupants of the Great Hall looked up. The student body laughed, minus two. Malfoy, who looked very angry, and Ami, who looked more mortified than she ever had in her life being the two. Most of the teachers weren't laughing. Moody was the only one who was, actually, and rather mirthlessly at that.
Dumbledore stood up, glaring stonily at all the students until they silenced. "I wish for whoever pulled this despicable prank to report to my office before dinner tonight." Only highly refined acting technique kept the MMs looking innocent and curious, just like the rest of the student body.
When talking resumed, Kelly whispered to Usagi, "Good thing we decided to use regular spells instead of those new ones we made up." Usagi nodded fervently in agreement. After a quick conference it was decided that the MMs would not turn themselves (or Colin) in. Instead, they hunted down Pansy Parkinson and had Usagi perform a newly invented spell.
"Onfesscay! Tell Dumbledore that you took the pictures and put them in the Great Hall," Usagi instructed when she caught the girl on the way to potions. After a moment, she stepped in front of the girl and asked, "Where are you going?"
"To Dumbledore, mudblood. Now get out of my way!" Pansy sneered.
Perfect! She sounded exactly like her old, non-spelled self! Usagi skipped off to potions, perfectly happy for once instead of fearing her half-brother's sarcastic remarks.
"Five points from Gryffindor for tardiness," Snape sneered as she entered the room, "and sit down before I make it more."
Usagi assumed her seat and had half-finished copying the recipe on the board when Pansy rushed in. Snape barely glanced at her before continuing writing.
"Oh, brother dearest," Usagi said sweetly. Harry glanced up, wondering why Usagi would address him so in front of the class. "Not you. Severus."
Scowling, Snape looked up. "Yes, Miss Tsukino?"
"I was just wondering why I got five points off for being late when Pansy here had none taken off, and she was five times as late as I was. Shouldn't she therefore have five times as many points taken off, as opposed to none?"
"Do you question my method of teaching?" Snape's voice was as cool as ice.
"No. I only question the fairness in these methods," Usagi retorted hotly.
"Five more points from Gryffindor for your insolence!" Snape hissed.
"Mother wouldn't be pleased with you, playing favorites as you are. Your father might've been Slytherin, but she was Gryffindor! You should treat your mother's house and the members of it with respect!"
"Twenty-five points from Slytherin for you lateness, Miss Parkinson," Snape said from between clenched teeth, his nostrils flaring, "and not another word on the matter!" The other Gryffindors cheered as Usagi resumed the seat she'd abandoned in the heat of verbal battle.
Aside from constant queries that were never answered about Usagi's relationship to Snape, that was the last exciting thing that happened until the time for the third task rolled around.
*** *** *** ***
Hyper Princess- I'll probably try to write the majority of it before I begin to post…
Firefly-chan- ::bows:: thank you for your approval!
Little One- hm… that sounds interesting… poor little Day Dream! I wish she'd come back… thank you.
LadyD- your queen sounds lovely, and I never meant to rival anyone else's. I just figured poor Kelly and Lee needed two mumsies.
Tenshi-chan- yes, I'm feeling bad for her too, which is why she is beginning to disappear.
Comet Moon- to some people, yes, but I decided I wanted this to be more of the Moon Kingdom fic, not Sailor Scouts, so I took them in and threw them out on their bums.
DevilsDarling- they seem to have gotten lost, seeing as how it's been more than a week since they should have recovered and I still hadn't posted.
Silver star- thanks! I will!
Stefanie- thanks! I'm planning on finishing it, although it might take a while. The support of all these reviews is really helping, too. I've read so many awesome fics with so few reviews, and really bad ones with tons of (good) reviews, it's hard to tell whether this is truly good or not.
Roninchica- you won't find out what Dumbledore's gunna do until the fifth year. I'm starting a whole Lee Jordan fic, actually, centered on Lee to give him more of a personality, and I'll try to work it into this story a bit. The Lee fic is linked into this one, and will most likely end where the HP books start. Yes, I've read through chapter ten of it, and it's awesome!
Jupi- there is no Sailor Earth or Sailor Moon that we'll learn about here. Is that enough?
OoklaTheMok- Snape will have importance to the plot once I get to year five. He didn't really in the fourth book, and I want to keep to the books for now. I've had the whole Mamo-baka thing figured out for a while now, but I had to work it in slowly. I guess if you don't read this story as it trickles in but all at once instead, it would make more sense. Thanks for thinking Usa and Kel being spellmakers works, as well as Usa not being Sailor M. is okay. Certain people don't really support that…
Bunni V- thanks! I don't know if I've checked it out yet, but I will soon if I haven't.
SailorArtemis2000- tankies!
Jessica Black- tankerdoodles!
Lilsaturnprincess- thanks, and it's okey day.
Jess- merci beaucoup, and I twill!
Angel of Ice- thanks, glad you think it's funny!
Usagipegasus- tankies! Yep she did!
Anneliese- thanks, you're welcome, and I hope you can!
Siren- it's just that the whole 'kitty stalks by moonlight' thing was Luna's pass. in the series, so I used it as the major things for the scouts. Thanks, and no it doesn't matter the language. I used pig latin this chapter.
The Kuro no Tenshi- yep!
Star0704- thanks, I will!
Sailor Capricorn- thanks, and I'm glad you liked the explanation of it ;-) good luck with your fic and the game! Oh, the April Fool's joke wasn't true? Darn it! J/k! I hate the one review per chapter thing, too. It makes it hard, in case you forget something you want to put in a review, and you've reviewed every single chapter…
Bobbin- I wanted to do something different… I was getting sick of corny ol' Mamoru and his equally corny speeches.
Jenny- ::bows:: thank you! No, she won't make the speech, and no, Chibi-Usa won't appear (at least, not yet. She might. Who knows?)
Silver_Star- yep, Lee really is. You should figure everything else out all in time… you've got a lot of competition with one of my friends at school. We were doing websites about ourselves in French class, and she didn't even put all Sailor Venus pics (*her* scout). Instead, it was mostly animated gifs and backgrounds and pics of Tuxedo Mask. And she memorized the little "Rain or shine I'm happiest when I'm with Tuxedo Mask. He makes me sing he makes me laugh, I just love Tuxedo Mask. She [Serena] really knows how to keep my Tuxedo Mask all to herself!" song that Rini sings, and now I know it she sings it so often. Talk about obsession! I won't be putting Chibi-Usa in, but I am not a pink haired demon! Well, maybe I am, but still!
Sailor Europa- I changed her hair cuz I'm sick of it being in odangos, and that's just weird for a real person. I'm turning her into a realistic person, is all. Outers… most likely will stay away, I wanted Lee to be the Earth prince, I don't feel like writing what everyone knows about the HP books (it's centered on Usa, not Harry), and I made second year so short cuz I felt like it. Questions are good! They give me more to work with.
Gaz Destiny- sounds like what I do, bugging my friends with phrases in different languages. It was a major ongoing joke for math class since sixth grade. Long story, really.
Serena602- thanks, here's more!
Does anyone else find the new ffn setup confusing? With the whole double upload thing? I do.