T/N: I am SOOOO sorry this took forever. But really, it's not my fault. looks around wildly to blame it on someone Uhhh.... It's Grassfairy's fault, because when we had a shaving cream fight, he pulled on my arm and SPRAINED my elbow. Really. And does anyone know how hard it is to type with your arm in a sling? Did you even know it is possible to sprain your elbow? I didn't know that. So don't attack me, attack him!
Okay, so after it healed, I took a 3 month sabbatical... also known as SUMMER VACATION!!!!!!!!! But school's about to start, and Nat said if I didn't get this up, her friend would kill her- and me, most likely, so I decided to get it up!
Backs away from Grassfairy Don't hurt me, I'm the nicest person you've ever met, REMEMBER?
Anyway.... On with the story!
Disclaimer: I own nothing... that anyone else owns.
Slytherin Bombshell
At the end of last chapter, Harry had just found out Anj'la is his cousin...
Chapter 8: A Boring, Eventful Day
"Read this." He did. First, he was confused. Why was Anj'la letting him read this letter from her mum? But as he finished the letter, the meaning became all too clear. Harry numbly stared into the fire.
"Of all the possible people, you're my cousin."
"Oh, thanks, Potter, like I wanted to be your cousin too. But you didn't have to hurt my feelings," Anj'la pouted. "Oh, I've got to go. Don't tell anyone yet, I'll try to keep Mariana from finding out. See you later!"
Anj'la shoved the letter into her cloak pocket as she left the room. She glanced at her watch as she moved silently passed the Great Hall. Oh no, it was already 8:35. The lacewings needed to be added in two minutes. There was no way she could get to the potion that soon.
Anj'la took off in a dead sprint, hurling through the corridors. She nearly flattened little Professor Flitwick. What was he doing in the dungeons, anyway?
Anj'la dashed into the hall where they kept the potion. Thankfully, Mariana had not done anything to the potion. She was sitting in the corner... playing with sand? She looked up at Anj'la.
"You're almost late. You look terrible. What happened?"
Back in the hallway, Professor Flitwick was picking up all of his dropped books and dusting himself off.
"I really need to talk to Severus about some of his Slytherins. They're out of control."
Blaise let out a long sigh. It was almost time for class.
"Well, see you later," said Jovanna, as she and Lauren walked over towards the hallways leading to the North Tower.
"Wait- What are you doing- Where are you going?" Blaise yelled after them. Lauren only waved as the two of them climbed a set of stairs, hiding them from sight.
"I wonder what they're doing?" Quinn wondered. The three boys turned to Rose. "So... Rosie... What are they doing?"
"What do you think?" Rose replied, walking off. The boys followed. Rose stopped, rolled her eyes and leaned up against a wall.
"They aren't doing anything too bad." The boys relaxed a little at these words. "Remember the plan?"
"Ummm... No?" Matt said, grinning. Blaise and Quinn exchanged quick looks. They couldn't remember the plan either. That meant it was time to bother Rose to find out.
Four floors up, Lauren pulled out a small jar.
"Beautiful," she said, examining it.
"Yup," said Jovanna. "We really are horrible." Lauren looked innocent.
"How so?" she asked sweetly, slipping the jar into her cloak as some Gryffindors passed.
"Well," Jovanna said thoughtfully. "This cold is really bad. We're out here to infect the school for the next four weeks. We're willing to do this just so our absences won't look suspicious."
"Jov. We're Slytherins. It's what we do." Lauren hummed. "These cunning folk use any means to achieve their ends. The song from our first year? It goes something like that. If it's what we have to do to get our way, then we'll do it, no matter what it is." This seemed to be a suitable answer for Jovanna.
Anj'la most definitely did not want to tell Mariana about what had happened in the room off the Great Hall.
"Nothing happened, I just...just...lost track of time. Yah. I lost track of time, that's it," she lied. Mariana looked skeptical.
"Anj, you're as convincing as Draco truthfully pretending to lie, thinking he's telling the truth." Anj'la screwed up her face attempting to figure out what Mariana had just said.
Mariana sighed. "All I'm saying is that you're not convincing. You'd better add those lacewings."
"Err.... Okay," Anj'la said, adding the lacewings and stirring. Mariana really surprised her sometimes.
Anj'la moved away from the potion, clicking the timer on her watch. She looked up to find Mariana examining Anj'la's hairline.
"Anj'la, I think you're going bald."
"I'm not going bald, Star."
"Yes you are," Mariana said firmly.
"Leave me alone, Mariana. Please."
"Fine." Mariana got up and crossed the room, sitting in the lone corner of the room. The room had been circular, but Mariana had carved a corner out. Anj'la highly suspected she had used Fred and George Weasley's fireworks collection to blow out that corner, but nothing was ever proven. That was how Mariana worked. You knew it was her, but there was no proof.
"Star, put this in my bag." Anj'la tossed her coat to Mariana.
"Sure thing Anj," Mariana said as she opened Anj'la's bag and began to shove the coat in.
Once the coat was inside, Mariana noticed a wadded up piece of paper that had fallen out of the coat pocket. Mariana glanced behind her to make sure Anj'la wasn't watching her. She wasn't. Anj'la was studying the recipe. Mariana slowly smoothed out the paper, her practiced fingers keeping the paper silent. Her eyes speed-read the paper, widening in amazement. Her jaw dropped.
Jovanna and Lauren reached the fifth floor landing. Jovanna peered over the railings and jumped back.
"I don't know how Gryffindorks can stand being up this high. I'm not used to it. I'm used to being down in the dungeons," she said, shivering. Lauren looked down.
"You're right. That's unnerving. Let's get this over with, Jov." Lauren once again pulled out the jar.
"Wait. If we're standing here when we open the jar, won't we get sick?" Jovanna said, placing one hand on the jar.
"Ha," Lauren laughed. "I thought of that. When Anj'la and I brewed up this cold, I put a spell on it so it wouldn't affect any of us eight." Lauren was now wearing a smile that Jovanna had only seen once or twice before. The most recent time anyone had seen it was 2 years ago, when she hung Percy Weasley upside down by his ankles because he thought she was a first year. Fred and George, while they may hex Percy themselves, could not let others do it, so hexed Lauren 3 seconds later.
Lauren grabbed the lid of the jar and twisted.
Down in the Great Hall, Matt, Quinn, and Blaise were still trying to remember the plan, and were bothering Rose about it.
"Please?" asked Blaise.
"No," Rose replied.
"Please?" asked Quinn.
"No," Rose replied.
"Please?" asked Matt.
"No," Rose replied.
"Please?" asked Blaise.
"No," Rose replied.
"Please?" asked Quinn.
"No," Rose replied.
"Please?" asked Matt.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" Rose screamed. Matt grinned.
"That was an even number of times," he said. "Two negatives cancel each other out, which means you canceled it out 5 times. That means you'll tell us." Rose's shoulders slumped.
"Fine." Rose briefly outlined the plan to the boys. Quinn and Matt exchanged a quick look. If they had been anyone but Slytherins, they would have thought the girls had gone too far. Luckily for them, they were Slytherins, which mean that they didn't care. Not enough to lose sleep over at night anyway.
Mariana took a deep breath. Anj'la and Potter... Who would have thought? She took another deep breath and kept digging through Anj'la's bag.
Anj'la glanced up from her homework.
"Mariana?" Something suspicious was going on over there, Anj'la thought. Mariana had been too quiet for too long.
"Yes?" There, that proved it. That sweet, innocent voice... Mariana was up to something.
"What are you doing? Wait!" Anj'la cried, catching on. "IS THAT MY BAG?" Anj'la screamed, leaning so far forward she smudged her ink. Mariana's head spun around, looking distinctly guilty.
"Bag? What bag?" she asked, trying to look innocent. She caught Anj'la's glare, and changed her tactics. "Oooooh, this bag. Nope. Not yours. Mine. Yup, my bag, nothing to worry about. Anj'la, not believing her, rolled her eyes and continued her homework. Mariana just kept searching through the bag.
"Today... We have all of the classes we didn't have yesterday... Except for Defense Against the Dark Arts, which we have every day," Rose commented, glancing at the schedules.
"Oh no, we forgot detention," Quinn said with a grin, not sounding at all alarmed.
"Rosie, you should have reminded us," Matt teased. "Why didn't you?"
"I... forgot," Rose whispered. The boys all gasped loudly. The three of them fell over onto the ground, occasionally twitching. After about 30 seconds of this, Quinn sat up.
"Okay, I'm bored now." Blaise and Matt got up as well.
"Yah, me too."
"Agreed," they agreed.
When they arrived in DADA, they all sat down, Quinn in one corner desk, the other three like a ring from the rest of the class. Everyone else cleared to the other side of the room, except for the other Slytherins, who all felt that that would be too much like showing weakness. Quinn scowled. He abruptly waved his fingers at the other students of the class.
"Oogly-boogly!" he said loudly. The Ravenclaws gasped. Nothing happened, and Quinn smiled like his worst enemy had just been run over by the Knight Bus. He could use this to his advantage.
The bell rang just after Jovanna and Lauren slid into the classroom. They managed to slip into seats just as Umbridge entered the room.
"Good Morning, Class," she trilled.
"Good Morning, Professor Umbridge," the Ravenclaws chorused, the Slytherin side quiet. Umbridge's eyes singled out the students who had skipped her detention the previous night.
"You all skipped my detention last night," she said, pointing at the group.
"You had detention last night?" quipped Blaise.
"You should have told us, we would have thrown you a First-Ever-Detention Party," Matt said. Umbridge ignored them, while the rest of the class snickered quietly.
"You all have detention tonight, for skipping detention," she continued, pointing her pudgy finger in quinn's face.
"You-" Quinn pointed back, and Umbridge drew away. "Shouldn't have given us detention on the first day."
"Just come tonight, and no hard feelings, alright?" Umbridge said sweetly. "And bring your two other friends- who, I notice, aren't here. And why not?"
"Please, miss, they were throwing up all over the place," Joe Cornwallis said, shooting a glance at Matt.
"It was really gross. Evans threw up all over my cloak. I had to go back and get a new one," Jim Ryly said, rolling his eyes. Umbridge shuddered.
"Take them to Madam Pomfrey later, and bring them anyway," she decided.
"Just keep looking, just keep looking," Mariana sang softly to herself. "THAT'S IT?!?!" she finally screamed at Anj'la. Anj'la looked up from her long scroll of parchment covered in doodles.
"You are so... so... STRAIGHT!" Mariana yelled, throwing Anj'la's bag at her, narrowly missing the potion. Anj'la stood up.
"What's your point? Of course I like boys. You know who I like. If you meant that I'm boring, well, do you really think I'd keep my interesting stuff in my bag?" As Mariana thought about this, Anj'la turned off the timer, which had just gone off, and added more lacewings. Mariana reset the timer.
"FYI, Anj, I went through your bag."
"Duh. How stupid do you think I am?" Anj'la asked rolling her eyes. Mariana opened her mouth to respond, but Anj'la cut her off. "That was a rhetorical question." Mariana knitted her brows together.
"If you knew I was going through your bag, did you want me to find this?" she asked, waving the letter. Anj'la's eyes widened.
"Give me that!" she hissed, leaping towards Mariana. Mariana quickly Levitated the letter, smiling. Anj'la jumped up and down, trying to grab the letter, which hung inches out of her reach. To make matters worse, Mariana began to read the letter aloud.
"Dear Harry," she read. "I love you. I don't care that we are in different houses. My passion for you is over whelming; it consumes me day and night. I can't sleep for longing for you. I hope... err...That you will feel the same way in time. Love, Anj'la." Anj'la stopped jumping and planted her fists on her hips.
"Are we even talking about the same letter? 'Cause I don't remember writing that. In fact, I'm sure I never wrote anything of the sort."
"You did too write a love letter to Harry Potter," Mariana insisted.
"Did not!"
"Anj, you can't deny the proof," Mariana wheedled. "The letter's right here." She floated the letter down to hang right above Anj'la's head. Anj'la seized the moment and used the letter to pull herself up. It was not, as Mariana had insisted, a love letter to Harry Potter. It was the letter from her mum saying she was Harry's cousin. Anj'la dropped to the floor and glared at Mariana.
T/N: YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!! New chapter!!! Super sorry so Late, REALLY!! (see top for excuses... err... reasons)
Amo- thanks! SO nice to see people love the story!
AHelpless-Pyro911- yeah Paddyfoot!!!!! So glad you FINALLY reviewed!! ((j/k))
rebound/strictly Slytherin- I AM NOT A LAZY BUM!!!!!!
MKN- Nat said you grew a zillion inches and went out/ broke up with Amy... Nat keeps me updated about your love life, cause she has none!!!