"This is all your fault."
Kay frowned and tossed her hair at Chime's misery filled face. "Well, at least you got it to levitate. That's the important thing."
"Levitate? I didn't just make it levitate, Scorch, I got it rammed down the bloody teachers throat!"
Kay bit her lip for a moment, struggling against the impulse to laugh, then shrugged and sighed, "Not my fault you got carried away, Chime."
They were both seated outside a rounded, highly polished door on a large platform before a spinning staircase. It reminded Kay slightly of muggle escalators, only grander, and more twirly. They had been sent there by a hysterical teacher, who after a huge bout of choking and coughing, finally brought up the offending item and ordered them to the head teachers office.
And here they were.
"It is too your fault! You were winding me up!"
"I was trying to get you psyched up enough to actually perform the spell, and it worked didn't it?" Kay grinned at Chime's exasperated face, "The feather flew didn't it? Powerful bit of magic there, Chime."
Chime looked ready to reach out and strangle Kay with her bare hands, but whatever she was about to say was cut off as the door finally opened with a tiny 'click.'
The old woman Kay had seen in the Great Hall the night before stood before them now, though the look on her face was not of a humble grandmother's. Briefly, her stern gaze swept the both of them, before holding the door open. "Come in."
Her atmosphere left in her wake was quite frightening as Kay and Chime meekly followed her in. The door closed with a resounding bang behind them, making Chime jump. Kay refused to jump. She stood still, taking in the place around her with one quick glance.
A beautiful, circular room was what she was standing in, and the midday sun spilled across one of the large windows over the floor, like a golden puddle. Portraits of men and women whom she didn't know snoozed gently in chairs or leaned on the side of their frame, eyes closed and breathing heavily.
Professor McGonagall walked briskly, her shoes tapping on the wooden floor to reach her desk, and nervously the two of the followed after her, to stand before her desk, and watched the stern Professor sink into her chair, then lean forwards, staring up at the two of them through calculating eyes.
She consulted a piece of parchment. "Miss Granger, and Miss Weasley, I presume?" she asked sharply, and Kay suddenly felt her legs buckle. Her eyes wide, she looked round at Chime, who gave an affirmative nod, then frowned at her.
"You're a Weasley??" Kay gasped, glaring at her, "And you didn't tell me!"
Chime simply looked at her like she had gone mad. "Yeah, so what?" she asked, a slight edge to her voice, and Kay thumped a palm to her head, unable to take it in. Chime couldn't be a Weasley, that would make her related to Ron, and she looked nothing like one!
"But, your hair…?" Kay shook her head, staring at Chime's beautiful thick, blue black hair. How could she possibly be related to Ron?
"What about it?" Chime sounded really hacked off now, and Kay was about to retort in the hardest way possible, when McGonagall interrupted, and she sounded slightly peeved as well.
"If you don't mind," she asked icily, "Perhaps we could get back to the topic at hand?"
Kay immediately turned back to her, mind spinning. McGonagall was regarding them both with a hint of curiosity in her eyes, but her words revealed none as she continued speaking.
"Tell me, if you please, which one of you was it that cast the spell?"
Chime, trembling from head to toe gave a tiny squeak. McGonagall looked at her.
"I beg your pardon, Miss Weasely?"
"I said," whispered Chime, her eyes darting over the room, "It was me."
McGonagall looked at her intently. "I see," she said gravely, and rustled some papers on her desk busily. "Then you shall be the one to explain to me how all this came about." Her piercing grey eyes looked right through Chime, who was trying very hard to remain eye contact with her. As she launched into a detailed description of events, Kay let her gaze wander round the room.
Next to the Head's desk was a golden perch, though there was nothing on top of it. Kay presumed it was for an owl or bird of some kind, when she thought she could make out some kind of inscription, on a plaque at the bottom. Intrigued, she strained to read what it was, but the writing was too far away, and too curvy for her to read.
Disappointed, she looked away from the perch and around at the walls, and the paintings upon them. They all featured important looking men and women, that much she had derived before, only directly in front of her, above McGonagall's head was a different portrait.
It wasn't so different because of the way it was painted, or of the clothes the man was wearing. Indeed, the robes did set him very much apart from all the others, as he was wearing robes of shining midnight blue, scattered with silver stars and planets. No, what made this man so different was, contrary to all his neighbours he was sitting up in the chair he was painted on, eyes looking right at her from over the top of his specs, and being very much awake.
There was something very discerning about being stared at from someone in a picture, but Kay wouldn't let herself be intimidated. She glared right back, and much to her surprise the man leant down, white beard tumbling over his arms as he felt around under his chair, never breaking eye contact with her. Then finally he smiled, brought up a bag of something, and took out… a sweet? Kay shook her head, widening her eyes as the man popped the sweet in his mouth and settled himself more comfortably in his chair, watching the goings on with interest.
"…as you know, harming a teacher is very serious, but it seems you have had a great deal to do with it as well, Miss Granger."
With difficulty, Kay tore her eyes from the chomping bearded man, who was smiling benignly at her and looked at the Professor.
"Sorry?" she blurted out, looking at the Professor with mild surprise, "What was that?"
From in front of her, she thought she heard a low chuckle. Her eyes swung back to the Portrait, and saw him push two sweets in his mouth at once, and grinning stickily.
"Miss Granger!"
McGonagall was looking at her sharply, and Kay felt rather annoyed. "What?" she asked, trying desperately to stop watching the man, who had taken it into his painted mind to start throwing sweets through the frame and into the next one. The sweets pinged of the large, bald head of a man dressed in brown, who obviously awoke abruptly, then picked the sweet off the floor of his painting, looking rather annoyed.
"Miss Granger, do pay attention!" McGonagall was on her feet, looking furious. Kay started, looking back at her. "It's him!" she shouted, in rage, pointing a finger at the portrait behind her, and slowly McGonagall turned around, sighing in frustration.
"Albus," Kay heard her say through what sounded like gritted teeth, "Do you mind? This is a serious matter!"
Albus put his head on one side, considering McGonagall through golden spectacles. "Ah, but Minerva!" he declared, looking thoroughly amused, "It is truly a privilege to be sitting on the sidelines, watching and not being the one who has to make all the decisions!" Amiably, he popped another sweet into his mouth, and spoke slowly, with his mouth full. "And from what the other portraits have told me, being a painting is even more boring than it sounds. I intend to enjoy it while the novelty is still fresh to me!"
McGonagall's back rose slowly up and down, and Kay could picture an incredibly frustrated face. "Twelve years, Albus!" she said, "Twelve years of being a portrait and the novelty still hasn't worn off?"
"No, Minerva, and it has yet to wear off for a long time. You'll understand when you become one." Albus' eyes twinkled merrily, and McGonagall turned her back firmly on him, facing Kay and Chime once more.
"It seems to me the whole thing was an accident," she spoke stiffly, "Now get out and be sure never to do it again."
Chime needed no further encouragement, in a flash she ran to the door and tugged it open, and after a moments consideration Kay followed after her.
"Oh, and Miss Granger?"
Kay halted, and looked over her shoulder. McGonagall was standing, and looking through her wire rimmed glasses with an unreadable expression on her face.
"Please try to remember that Miss Weasley is not Ronald Weasley."
Kay looked at her stonily for a moment, then turned and left without a word.
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Sorry about the short chappie, but I'm really tired and I wanted to get this up quickly... Yawns Please review, I need input!