Chapter 6: The Howlers
Disclaimer: I am not JK Rowling. If I was, then this wouldn't be on Fanfiction.net. There for, Harry Potter does not belong to me.
"I found this in a secret cupboard in the fireplace in my room at home." Sarah muttered as she rummaged through her trunk. "I don't think my family knew it existed."
"That's very nice Silver… but you seem to have forgotten that we don't yet know what it is." Heather reminded her.
"I know that." Sarah said. "Just a minute. Let me find… aha. Here it is." She pulled out….
"A cloak???" Heather said incredulously. "And how is this supposed to impress us may I ask?"
"Put it on." Sarah said grinning.
Dubiously, Heather did. "Is something supposed to happen?" She said testily when she complied. Then she saw the stunned look on Zena's and Lily's faces. "What?" She asked.
"You… you're…" Lily stuttered.
"You're not there." Zena said. "I mean… of course you're there. It's just… you're invisible."
Heather looked down. She nearly screamed when she didn't see the rest of her body below her. "What the…"
"It's an invisibility cloak." Sarah said, laughing at the stunned looks on her friends' faces.
"Oh…" Heather looked up, a slow grin beginning to slink across her face. "And you've been keeping this from us…" She said indignantly. "When we could have used it so many times to sneak into the staff room."
Sarah grinned. "How did you think I got into the kitchen so easily the other night?" She asked.
"I was wondering about that." Lily said. "I just assumed you ran very fast."
"Someone's coming." Zena said suddenly. "Put it away." Hastily, they shoved the cloak back into Sarah's trunk, just before Kathy Weasley came in. As soon as she saw their faces, she sighed.
"I probably don't want to know." Kathy muttered.
"No, you don't." Lily agreed innocently.
The next morning, they were discussing how they were going to put the cloak to use, when an owl swooped down and dropped a letter in front of Sarah. School had been in session for two weeks so far, yet she had never gotten a letter, until now. She didn't mind. She didn't want to hear from her family anyway.
But this wasn't just any letter from home. It was a scarlet envelope, which was beginning to smoke as she stared at it.
"Uh oh." Zena and Heather said together. "You better get that open before it explodes."
"What is it?" Lily asked.
"A Howler." Zena said.
"What's a Howler?" Lily asked as Sarah reached for it.
Zena's reply was drowned out but the screech that emitted when Sarah opened the letter.
"SARAH QUENTIN MALFOY!!! HOW DARE YOU GET INTO GRYFFINDOR!!! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO THE FAMILY NAME!!! HOW DARE YOU NOT TRANSFER INTO SLYTHERIN AS SOON AS YOU GOT THE CHANCE!!! HAVE YOU NO DIGNITY??? AND HOW DARE YOU CONSORT WITH MUDBLOODS AND WEASLEYS??? YOU ARE NOT FIT TO CALL YOURSELF A MALFOY!!! YOU USELESS IDOITIC GIRL!!! YOU WILL GO STRAIT TO DUMBLEDORE AND TRANSFER INTO SLYTHERIN!!! YOU WILL STOP PLAYING THOSE SILLY PRANKS, AND YOU WILL NEVER EVEN TALK TO THAT MUBLOOD AGAIN!!!
With that, the letter puffed into smoke.
"That's a Howler." Heather said to Lily, who was staring, eyes very wide. She turned back to Sarah. "Well, what are you going to do?"
"Do?" Sarah looked at her as if she was crazy. "What do you mean, do? Are you expecting me to follow my mother's orders like a good little girl and go strait to Dumbledore to get a transfer to Slytherin?"
"Umm…" Heather looked down at the table a bit guiltily. It seemed that she was expecting just that.
"You should know me better by now." Sarah said serenely. "I am most likely not going to do anything about this." She nodded at the pile of ashes.
"Oh…" Heather said.
"Except…" Sarah got a thoughtful look on her face. "I might just send her a Howler back…" She grinned. "Yes… one that has a little charm in it, so when it burns up…" She trailed off.
"Sounds fun. I'll help." Lily said promptly.
"You think we could send some to the Slytherins?" Heather's eyes were glimmering with anticipation.
"Hmm…" Sarah grinned evilly. "Looks like we have some planning to do."
It took much longer than they thought. It wasn't very hard to get hold of some Howlers, and charming them was a cinch because Sarah and Lily were geniuses when it came to charms. Granger had given them advanced reading because they mastered them so fast, so they had a few tricks up their sleeves. The only problem was, they didn't yet know the charms they wanted to use. It took a few months to research them all. It was a few weeks before Christmas when they were finally ready.
"We don't want to send them all at the same time, else nobody will be able to hear the messages." Sarah said. "And we don't want to send too many, else it will stop being funny. I'd say…" She thought about it. "Four will do. That seems long enough. And we should put a different charm on each one."
"Now we just need to plan who to send them to." Lily said.
"Well, we don't just have to send them to Slytherins…" Sarah trailed off.
"Snape!" Zena said gleefully. She wasn't the best at potions, so she hated that class. Her specialty was Defense Against Dark Arts.
"The Potters and their friends!" Lily cried. "I mean… shouldn't we send some to our rivals to gloat over how much smarter we are."
"Lets send one to Dumbledore!" Heather said.
"Dumbledore never gets mail in the morning." Lily reminded her.
"What if we send Merlin with specific orders to give it to him at breakfast?" Zena suggested. Merlin was Zena's owl.
"That might work…" Sarah grinned again. "Lets make a list."
Monday morning, Merlin swooped down to the Slytherin table and dropped a letter in front of Serpen Malfoy. His eyes widened as he saw its' color. Who would send him a Howler? Knowing the consequences of not opening it, he quickly slit it open, and covered his ears.
"SERPEN CLAUDIO MALFOY!!!" Sarah's voice roared out in imitation of her mother. "HOW DARE YOU BE AN UGLY GIT??? YOU DISGRACE ALL WIZARDS BY EVEN EXISTING!!! YOU WILL GO AND KILL YOURSELF RIGHT THIS MINUTE SO THAT THE WORLD WILL BE A BETTER PLACE!!! YOU WILL STOP CRYING TO MOMMY EVERY TIME YOUR SISTER DOES SOMETHING CORRECT, AND YOU WILL APPOLOGIZE TO HER OR ELSE YOU WILL BE CARRIED AWAY BY A HUGE PURPLE BUNNY RABBIT!!!" As the letter vanished into smoke, a large purple stuffed rabbit popped out of nowhere and landed on Serpen's head.
The hall burst into hysterical laughter. Even McGonagall's mouth twitched, though she still gave the girls detention and took ten points from Gryffindor.
"What are they going to say when they see what happens tomorrow?" Lily muttered to Sarah.
Nobody expected a repeat performance as soon as the next day, but when somebody happened to see Merlin clutching a red letter among the rest of the mail owls, many people looked eagerly towards the Slytherin table. Merlin, however, did not head for them. He plopped the letter right in front of Severus Snape.
Snape glared at the letter, but opened it all the same. This time, it was Heather's voice that boomed out.
"SEVERUS SNAPE!!! WASH YOUR HAIR!!! I MEAN IT!!! DON'T YOU EVER LOOK IN A MIRROR??? I MEAN… IT IS SOOOO GREASY!!! HOW CAN YOU EXPECT TO TEACH WHEN YOU LOOK LIKE YOU HAVE A BUNCH OF BLACK SEAWEED ON YOUR HEAD!!! HELLO!!! SOOOO NOT COOL!!! DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT SHAMPOO IS??? I HOPE SO!!! LOOK… I'LL EVEN HELP YOU…" Snape's head was suddenly covered in sky blue soap bubbles as the Howler burned up.
The hall laughed even louder than they had the previous morning. Snape could be seen angrily muttering some words, and the soap bubbles disappeared.
"Malfoy, Weasley, Wright, Lupin, fifty points from Gryffindor, and another detention. I shall also be writing to your parents about this." McGonagall yelled.
"Go right ahead." Muttered Heather. "Dad won't mind, in fact, he'll be proud."
"My Dad will think it was a great joke as well." Zena said. "He and his friends where the worst troublemakers at Hogwarts in their day."
"My Mum won't mind." Lily said.
"And if my parents even bother…" Sarah let the sentence hang.
The other three grinned.
Everybody watched the ceiling eagerly Wednesday morning for Merlin to swoop down to the next victim. They were not disappointed.
Eyes widened as the red envelope landed in the middle of the table, between James, Sirius, Zach, and Danny.
The four looked at each other, but good naturedly opened the envelope.
"HELLO POTTER, POTTER, WEASLEY, AND LONGBOTTOM!!!" Lily's voice boomed. "OR SHOULD I SAY, DOGGIE, SCRUFFY, SHORTY, AND FRECKLES??? (BY THE WAY SCRUFFY, BRUSH YOUR HAIR) WELL, WELL, WELL, YOU CALL YOURSELVES PRANKSTERS, BUT YOU CAN'T EVEN THINK UP A GOOD PRANK TO GO WITH THIS!!! (SIGH) I THOUGHT YOU WERE TAUGHT BETTER!!! SHAME ON YOU!!! MAY YOU TURN PURPLE WITH GREEN POLKA DOTS UNTIL YOU HAVE REDEEMED YOURSELVES IN DETENTION!!!
True to the letter, the boys skin became purple with green polka dots.
"Oh man, now we have to get detention to get rid of these." James complained, not sounding very upset about it.
"This is horrible. We have to actually get in trouble." Sirius picked up on James's sarcasm.
"What ever shall we do?" James said.
Giggles rippled through the hall at these pronouncements. James grinned and muttered something incoherent to Sirius. The evil grin that spread across Sirius's face began to worry the girls.
They did not get detention that time, though they did lose ten points from Gryffindor. Perhaps McGonagall was just tired of trying to think up new detentions. That was what Heather thought.
Eager cheers greeted the four girls as the entered the hall the next morning. James, Sirius, Zach, and Danny were still polka dotted.
"I'm worried." Sarah whispered to Lily. "If they haven't gotten into trouble yet they must be planning something really big."
"Like what?" Lily asked.
"I don't know, but I'm still worried."
"Oh, come on Silver…" Lily smiled. "It can't be that bad." She said encouragingly.
"Are you willing to bet on that?" Sarah replied.
Lily didn't answer.
For the last time, Merlin swooped down with a scarlet letter. This time, he placed it right in front of Dumbledore.
The hall watched with bated breath as Dumbledore opened it.
"ATTENTION HOGWARTS STUDENTS!!!" This time, the voice of Zena echoed through the hall. "WE HAVE OFFICIALLY DECLARED TODAY THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF YOUR LIVES!!! IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT, DEAL WITH IT!!! THE MORNING ENTERTAINMENT WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY: SILVER'S GANG OF GRYFFINDOR (IF YOU HAVEN'T FIGURED THAT OUT ALREADY)!!! OH, AND NO MATTER WHO YOU ARE GREEN DOESN'T SUIT YOU!!!"
A fountain of green goo splashed out all over the hall. Nobody escaped getting at least a little on them, not even the members of "Silver's Gang" escaped. In fact, the four of them were probably splattered the most because they were trying to be covered. The goo sank in to everything it touched, staining it green. By the time it was finished squirting, almost all the Gryffindors were completely green, and Dumbledore was chuckling heartily, his silver beard completely green.
"Malfoy, Weasley… oh you know who you are. Get up here!!!" McGonagall yelled.
The four completely green girls scrambled up to the staff table. It had taken all their packages of WWW (Weasley Wizard Wheezes) Seven-Washings, Staining Green Goo, but it had been worth it.
"Detention you four. And fifty points from Gryffindor." McGonagall sighed. "Why do I even bother?" She muttered to herself. "You'll report here to me tonight." She addressed the girls again. "You'll be cleaning up this mess."
"Whatever." Sarah said, shrugging.
"Silver's Gang???" Sarah asked Zena that night as they scrubbed the floor. "Since when are we 'Silver's Gang'?"
"Well…" Zena said. "You're kind of the leader, if you haven't noticed. So it's only right that we're Silver's Gang. Besides…" She grinned. "You're the only one who has a nickname so far."
"But, do the others agree?" Sarah asked. "I don't want to…"
"It was Heather's idea." Zena said quietly. "She really admires you, though she'll never admit it."
"Oh." Sarah whispered. "But, what is there to admire about me?"
"Are you crazy???" Zena stared at her. "You're the best in the class when it comes to charms, you and Lily." She began.
"But I'm not the best at anything else."
"You always come up with really good pranks…" Zena continued.
"You always figure out how to make them work." Sarah pointed out. "And Heather comes up with some pretty good ones to. So does Lily."
"Yes, but you figure out when, where, and how they should be done." Zena argued. "And you're really brave, and nice, and smart, and you always seem to know what to do." She finished.
"It may seem like it, but I don't." Sarah said. "I just act like I do."
"But don't you see, that's what makes you a good leader. You act like you know what to do, and you accept the consequences. You're not afraid to be punished for your actions." Zena said.
"Miss Lupin, Miss Malfoy, no talking." McGonagall interrupted. Sarah didn't mind. She had a lot to think about.
AN: Did you like the howlers? This was a fun chapter to write, because I got to be very random. Remember to review.
