A/N: Sorry it took FOREVER to update. I (not the writer, but the typer) had this at Thanksgiving, but I've so busy lately. Alternatively, maybe I'm just trying to decipher Nat's handwriting- he, he! Here we go! However, it's up now!
Disclaimer: blah, blah, blah, I own nothing that you recognize, blah, blah, blah.
Slytherin Bombshell
Chapter 4: The Truth Hurts
A week later, Mariana Starbanks, Lauren Murphy, Jovanna Baker, Rose Copperfield and Anj'la Evans boarded the Hogwarts Express at Platform 9 ¾. The train's whistle blew and the train started to move as the girls settled themselves inside an empty compartment. Anj'la sat down on one of the scarlet cushioned seats and let out a sigh. They were finally on their way to Hogwarts. : Why am I just sitting here? : A small voice inside her head asked. Anj'la trusted this voice. It was the one that gave her all the pranks-err...ideas to use against Malfoy. She stood up and headed for the door.
"Where are you going?" Mariana asked, looking up from her Teen Witch magazine.
"To find Blaise and Quinn," Anj'la fluently lied.
"Okay!" Mariana said, throwing down her magazine and jumping to her feet. Lauren grabbed the magazine and began flipping through it. "I'm coming with!" she exclaimed. Mentally, Anj'la chided herself for not thinking up something else, something Mariana would think was boring. She wanted to be alone. Then again, if Mariana wanted to come, Anj'la would have to tie her down and nail her to the floor to stop her.
Anj'la opened the door and Mariana went zooming out. Technically, students were supposed to stay in their compartments, but no one followed the rule, and no one cared.
"Wait up, Anj!" Mariana called. "You're walking too fast."
"No," said Anj'la, turning around. "You're just sticking your head into every compartment we go by to say hi to one of your friends."
"But I had to say hi to Ginny and the twins, I haven't seen them all summer," Mariana informed her.
"It wasn't just them. That's not what I'm talking about, and you know it," Anj'la warned.
"So I have connections." Mariana shrugged, saying this very matter-of-factly.
"No!" Anj'la was practically yelling at this point. Either because of Mariana's 'connections' or another reason, everyone was (wisely) staying in their compartments. "All those people are not just 'connections,' they were FRIENDS. Normal Slytherins do not have that many… inter-house friends. Face it, Star; you are not a normal Slytherin!"
"I COULD BE!" Mariana yelled in a louder voice than Anj'la.
"Look," said Anj'la, her voice lower as she calmed down. "If you were normal, you would break up these friendships now." Lauren, Rose and Jovanna were the three who first ventured out into the hall to brave Anj'la and Mariana's wrath.
"Can't you two-" Rose stopped when she saw the livid look on Mariana's face, her eyes wide in horror. "Oh no, I recognize that look. It's the Mariana's not a normal Slytherin look. Back away slowly," she reminded the other girls. Slowly, they started to back away.
"NO, it's okay," Mariana said, turning. She stalked into the compartment behind her and slid the doors shut. Everyone heard, very distinctly, Mariana mutter 'Arohamora,' the spell that keeps a door locked and Alohomora useless. It was one of Mariana's favorites.
Anj'la let out a sigh and ran her fingers through her hair. : Ha, ha, now you've done it! : That annoying little voice told her. : So where you going to run to next? : Quinn and Blaise, I'm going to go find Quinn and Blaise, she told it in return.
When Anj'la finally found the two boys' compartment, they were intent on looking into a shoebox. They quickly slammed it shut when the door opened, but upon seeing Anj'la, they grinned.
"Go on now, shut the door," Quinn encouraged her. She did so, and crossed over to them.
"What's in the box?" she asked, somewhat suspicious.
"Our latest invention," Blaise said proudly.
"Blaise! Your voice got deeper!" Anj'la exclaimed. It was true. Over the summer, Blaise's voice had deepened to a low bass.
"Yah, Anj'la, don't remind me," he said glumly, hanging his head.
"Ahem, our newest invention?" Quinn said, bringing them back to reality. Anj'la cut him off.
"Star's being a git. She's so stupid. It's all her fault," she said, grinding her teeth.
"What's Mariana's fault?" Blaise asked, concerned.
"She can't face the fact that she's not a normal Slytherin." A hint of a tear came to Anj'la's eye but she blinked determinately and it disappeared.
"So why are you here?" Quinn asked.
"She locked me out." Anj'la was almost sobbing.
"This may cheer you up," Blaise said, tapping the top of the shoebox. Anj'la almost grinned. They fell for it! They actually fell for it! Quinn pulled the top off and Anj'la peered inside. There were a number of large white balls with multicolored spots inside. The boys both swelled with pride. Anj'la raised one eyebrow.
"What are they?" she asked.
"Try one," Blaise said, still beaming at her. Anj'la paused. "By the way, Anj'la, that was an order." Anj'la glared, but took one anyway. The candy was so big; she could barely get her jaw around it. After about 30 seconds of being sucked on, there was a loud *pop* and the candy shrank to about half the previous size.
"What the-" Anj'la never finished her sentence, as when she opened her mouth, huge amounts of dark green smoke with silver swirls in it poured out.
"Wow," Anj'la said, more smoke pouring out. "We gotta show this to Star." She grabbed the box and sprinted down the corridor to the compartment she had earlier been locked out of. Anj'la banged on the door.
"Mariana Starbanks, get your arse out here, or let me in!" she yelled at the door. It slowly opened and Mariana peeked out.
"I'm sorry I got mad. I still am, a little bit, though," she said sheepishly.
"Fine, whatever," said Anj'la, pushing her way into the compartment. Lauren, Jovanna and Rose followed.
"Try one of these!" Anj'la shoved one of the jawbreakers into Mariana's mouth. There was the loud *pop* and Mariana let out a loud cloud of green and silver smoke. Mariana instantly began blowing the smoke around the room as the others grabbed jawbreakers for themselves.
Blaise and Quinn opened the door and sat down. Blaise was the first to speak.
"So I take it the two of you are friends again?"
"Maybe," Mariana answered. Jovanna tilted her head to one side, studying Blaise.
"Blaise, your voice is deeper," she told him. He hung his head.
"Yah, I know." Quinn grabbed the shoebox.
"You selfish gits! There's only one left!" he exclaimed, glaring at the girls.
"Stop glaring at us like it's our fault you didn't make enough!" Rose insisted, her look cleverly convincing Quinn it was his fault.
"Anyway, don't get your robes in a loop," Anj'la told him. She waved her wand and said, "Duplico!" *Poof* There was instantly ten more of the colored balls. The boys grabbed one each.
"We have a few unpresented inventions of our own," Jovanna said, grinning. Mariana pulled out a small, gold box that was quivering slightly as Lauren continued. "We developed them at the end of last year and we couldn't show you in time."
Mariana opened the box. Inside of it were four smaller boxes, and the quivering was even more evident. She delicately lifted out one of the little boxes, almost reverently holding it in her hand. She opened it. Inside were many small, white objects with red spots. Mariana pulled out one of the balls, popped it into her mouth, and began to chew. She then breathed out a spurt of flame.
"How awesome is that?" Lauren grinned.
"Awesome," Quinn agreed.
"What'd I miss?" Blaise asked, having just been engulfed in a bunch of silver and green smoke. Mariana pulled out another box, which held the same item, but with blue spots. She ate one of those, but ice came out instead of flame.
"Comes in both the fire version and the ice version. Fire's cinnamon, ice peppermint," Anj'la told them proudly.
"Oh!" said Rose. "Have they seen the vanish-resistant rodents?"
"Now with wings!" added Jovanna cheerily. At this, Lauren slammed Mariana's magazine shut as loudly as you can shut a magazine.
"Honestly people, if you're going to talk about new items, you should really watch the door." She stalked over to the door, bent down, and pulled on two blobs attached to flesh colored strings. There were two very loud yells of objection from the other side of the door.
Fred and George Weasley entered. They nodded to Mariana, but their attention was focused on Lauren.
"Give them BACK!" George said, glaring at her. Anj'la jumped to her feet and grabbed the blobs.
"Oooh, what are they?" she wondered.
"Give them back," George repeated through gritted teeth.
"Tell us what they are, and maybe we will," Rose teased.
"GIVE THEM BACK!" both of the boys roared, pulling out their wands.
"In the immortal words of Ghandi whatever his name was, MAKE ME!" Anj'la screamed the last two words.
That was when the door slid open and a tall girl with short, curly hair and a Head Girl badge pinned to her robes entered.
"Would you lot be quiet, I'm trying to get some rest," she said in an imperial tone of voice.
"Who are you?" Lauren snapped.
"I am a Ravenclaw. I also happen to be Head Girl this year."
"Well," said Fred, holding his hand out, "If you'd kindly give us our ears back, we'll be going." Without thinking, Anj'la dropped the blobs into his hand and the Weasley twins made a hasty retreat. The girl, evidently deciding everything was fine, turned to leave, only to discover Rose was blocking her way. Blaise winked at Rose as he and Jovanna pulled out their wands and started muttering under their breaths.
"Where you going'?" Rose asked cheerfully.
"To catch up on my beauty sleep," the girl replied.
"You must not have had any beauty sleep in years," Lauren said smugly.
"Humph." The girl turned to leave, and shrieked as hundreds of winged hamsters, gerbils, mice and other small mammals with wings came flying at her. She rushed from the compartment to gales of laughter, not noticing her new and improved badge read Head Git.
"Not bad, not bad at all," someone said from the other end of the compartment. A tall boy with thick black hair and, in Anj'la's opinion, a very nice smile leaned up against the open doorframe. He looked uncannily like Mariana except for the hairstyle, and was very welcome to the others of the compartment.
"MATT!" Jovanna screamed. She ran over to him and gave him a huge hug and a peck on the cheek.
"Hey Jovanna," Matt Starbanks, Mariana's twin, replied.
"You two going out?" Mariana asked. "I didn't know." Rose glanced at her.
"How could you not know? He's your twin!" she exclaimed. Unlike most twins, Matt and Mariana were very close and were often able to 'sense' each other's thoughts.
"So?" Mariana asked. "He was at his godmothers all summer! How was I supposed to keep up with every little thing he does?"
"Good point," Rose confided to Lauren and Anj'la. Just then, the train gave a huge jolt, and Matt and Jovanna sat down.
"So, we have a few inventions we could tell you about," Anj'la prompted.
"It'd be quicker if we just show them the list," Rose suggested. "The new things are the rodents, which you saw," Blaise and Quinn nodded, and Matt just raised an eyebrow. "Then the other new things are the Speak-easy and the Boggart Bar."
'What the hell are those?" Matt wondered. Mariana reached into her bag and handed the boys each an order form. They read them.
Pranks/Sweets and other 'Advantages'
__ Dict-a-Quill- A quill with a memory-
if you write it once,
it will remember!
4 Galleons
__ Magical Mouth Mints- A mint that makes your tongue long,
forked and blue, the more consumed,
the stranger the tongue! Comes in packs of 6
15 sickles
__ Ele-Mints- Chose one of two, or breathe both fire and ice!
15 sickles for 6 of one: F:__ I:__
1 galleon for 4 of each
__ Speak-Easy- Actually talk to your friends and family
in a letter. Comes in pack of 5
1 galleon
__ Rodents- hamsters, gerbils, mice and other small mammals!
They come in small pills, just add water! (50 rodents per
Capsule) Try to vanish them and they multiply
By 17! Come in packs of 5 capsules.
1 galleon, 6 sickles
Now with Wings
__ Boggart Bar- Give your victim this and listen in that night!
They reveal things they might not want to! Retain
absolutly no memory of it!
1 galleon per bar
"Is that all?" Matt asked, amazed.
"YUP!" yelled the girls.
Typer's Note (from here on to be known as T/N) I'm really sorry this took FOREVER! But I was lazy, busy, and my on-line was screwed up. It's Winter break now, so there MIGHT be more chapters! Stay tuned, my New Year's Resolution will be once a week for a chapter, unless Nat (Author) doesn't make it that fast, then blame her. Send an email, or Review!!! Nat & me really luv y'all!