Chapter 6
As the meeting was coming to a close, Madam Bones approached the girl huddled in a chair by the fire.
"Miss. Zonko," Bones said in a gentler tone than she usually uses. Once she was looking at her, Bones continued, "You can leave and rejoin your housemates if you'd like."
Nodding, the thirteen stood up and walked to the door, as though she was in a daze. Looking over her shoulder at Bones she said, "Thank you Mrs. Monopoly."
It was only after the door closed behind her, and her footsteps echoed off into the distance, that Madam Bones said into the quiet office, "What did she just call me?"
Remus and Sirius exchanged glances. They would have laughed, if the situation wasn't so serious.
Fred and George stood waiting in the Gryffindor common room. Waiting for her.
"She's coming!" the first year boy that Fred and George had asked to keep a look out said.
Fred and George sat at a table with Lee Jordan doing their homework. As soon as the portrait hole opened, and the mystery girl walked through, more than half of the people in the common room jumped up, and threw all of the pranking supplies they had at her. Water balloons, silly string, mesh balls filled with chalk. You name it. Fred and George decided that all of their complicated and intricate pranks weren't working, so why not go with something simple. They figured that they were thinking about it way too hard.
Stopping their torrent of water and silly string, they started laughing at her appearance. And Fred and George high fived each other, over the moon that they finally managed to get her with a prank.
They turned back to her to see her reaction, only there wasn't one. She didn't even stop in her slow trek through the common room, and up the girl's stairs case. Ignoring everyone as she went.
One fourth year boy shuddered as she passed by. It wasn't anything she said, or didn't say that made him shudder. It wasn't even the way she ignored them all.
It was the look in her eyes. The look of someone who was numb.
Little did any of them know that after everything that she has been through in just the last 24 hours, she was so exhausted in every sense of the word, that she wasn't really seeing anything around herself. She did feel numb. All she wanted to do was to crawl under her covers and go to sleep. Maybe sleep for a century.
Hermione entered the dormitory with the intention to check on her classmate. Hermione couldn't say that she was surprised when she found her asleep on top of covers.
Taking the time to clean as much of the silly string and using a heating charm to dry her, Hermione then pulled the covers over her, before turning around to deal with everyone in the common room.
No one saw the American, awake, until the next morning.
The whole of Gryffindor house and even students from other houses who saw Zonko on her way back to Gryffindor tower the day before, waited in the Great Hall with bated breath. Everyone was expecting her to be in the same state that was the day before. The complete opposite of her usual self.
… But she wasn't. She was happy, smiling, and laughing. It seemed like business as usual.
Only her close friends, and Fred and George, could tell that something was bothering her. McGonagall, Lupin, and Dumbledore looked on from their seats, their hearts hurting as they watched their student put on a fake smile that only they knew was fake, and pretend like she wasn't hurting on the inside.
As the day went on, and the teachers and other Gryffindors watched, they waited for a crack in her mask. To show, to tell them what was really going on beneath. But no dice.
That is, until after Transfiguration class.
"Don't forget to read chapters 12 and 13 for next week." McGonagall called out to the class as they all made a break for the door. "Miss Zonko, a word if you please."
Stopping in her tracks, the ravenette turned and approached the professor sitting behind the teacher's desk.
"Yes professor?"
McGonagall looked around to make sure that the rest of the students had already left. She looked at her student, the concern that's been bubbling beneath coming up to the surface and said, "Miss Zonko, how are you feeling? Are you feeling any better from yesterday?"
She stands taller projecting an air of nothing being wrong, shrugging she says, "Yeah, I just needed a good night's sleep. I'm okay now."
"Okay. Well, so long as you're sure." McGonagall said. She didn't seem convinced at all. But what could she do? Nothing. Unless she tells her, McGonagall can't actively do anything to help Miss Zonko.
"Oh, I wanted to ask," McGonagall said, "whose 'Mrs. Monopoly'?"
Zonko blinked up at her teacher, "What?"
"'Mrs. Monopoly', who is that?" McGonagall leaned forward, interlacing her fingers.
"Where did you hear that?" She slowly shifts away, uncomfortable with this topic.
"Yesterday." McGonagall explained, "Before you left the Headmaster's office to return to your common room, you called Madam Bones, 'Mrs. Monopoly'. Who is that?"
And just like that, all the color drains from her face as the ever present smile fades and slips away completely.
"I did w-what?" her voice cracking on the last word. Then, just barely above a whisper she says, "Please tell me I didn't really say that."
"I'm afraid so." McGonagall said.
Zonko's face falls, as stumbles back slightly. The back of her knees hitting the seat of a chair, and she falls into it. She then looked at her teacher, with a look of desperation in her eyes and said, "Please Professor, don't tell my mother. Please."
"Any particular reason why?" McGonagall probes, her brow frowned, concerned for the student
The Gryffindor sat thinking for a moment. No one's ever asked her that. What does she say? Does she lie, or tell the truth? Finally she decided on keeping her mouth shut. It seemed the best course of action. She didn't want to lie to her head of house. But at the same time, she didn't feel like she could tell her the truth.
It was too embarrassing.
McGonagall sighed at her stubborn student and said, "You are dismissed."
On the way up to the Gryffindor to drop off her backpack, Zonko was absently staring off into space trying to pull herself back together, when she was jerked out of her musings. Someone grabbed her by the arm and dragged her into an unused classroom.
"What the- get off me!" She said smacking at the hands on her frantically.
"Hey, hey! It's us!"
Looking up, she realized it was Fred and George who sequestered her.
"What are you two doing!"
"First of all, it's not what it looks like. But, you owe us an answer. And we've been patient but we don't think we can wait any longer." George explained calmly.
"Tell us your name, woman!" Fred burst out.
"Excuse me?" she backed up, still trying to calm herself down. Now that she knows that she isn't being kidnapped or anything else.
"Yesterday. We successfully pulled a prank on you." Fred said gleefully, bouncing on the balls of his feet.
"You agreed to tell us what your name is, if we pulled a prank on you." George explained.
She thought back to the night before, it was difficult. As the morning wore on, her memory of what happened in Dumbledore's office and after, became more and more blurry. Working through the whole mess was a struggle, but finally she looked up at Fred and George deadpanned.
"Silly string." She said, one eyebrow raised. "Really?"
"We decided to go with something simple, then with something complicated and convoluted." George shrugged.
"We thought that, this way you won't be able to turn our prank against us." Fred said, a slight pout on his face. Which quickly morphed into a proud look as he continued, "But it doesn't matter what kind of prank we pulled on you. You just said, a prank. So now that we have done it, will you please just tell us your name?"
She looked at the two of them, in contemplative silence for a moment. Letting the two boys she's been in a prank war with for the past couple of months stew for a minute. And just before Fred and George were about to lose their patience, she smiled.
"Okay." Zonko sighed dramatically. "I suppose. A deal's a deal, after all."
The Twins leaned forward, and smiled eagerly.
"My name is-"
"There you are!" Hermione said, the door swinging open and banging against the wall, to reveal Ron and Harry behind her.
Fred glared at them, muttering under his breath, "Nomen-blocker!" (AN: Nomen is Latin for Name)
"What happened to you?" Hermione asked, concerned. "You just disappeared."
The ravenette just jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the two knuckleheads behind her. Hermione then turned her ire toward the slowly backing up pair of redheads. Stalking toward them, like a lioness stalking its prey. Hermione's magic reacted to her emotions, showing itself in her hair, and eyes. Her amber eyes alight with an inner light, resembling fire. While her frizzy and untameable hair puffed up, with small bolts of lightning zipping down each curl.
It looked like one of those plasma ball lamps. Cool, but on a person… scary.
'She looks like an electric type pokemon.' Zonko couldn't help but think. Even if only to herself. She's depressed, not suicidal.
'Although, last night might have said otherwise.' she thought to herself.
"We just wanted to talk to her!" George threw up hands as a sign of peace.
"Right…" Hermione said slowly, not believing them at all. "Why did you want to talk to her?"
"We managed to pull a prank on her successfully, so we were going to ask, once again, what her name is." George said.
"A deal's a deal." Fred shrugged.
Zonko sighed, "He's right."
Hermione turned to look at her.
"A deal's a deal." she said, turning back to the twins. "My name is Ashoka."
"...What does that even mean?" George asked.
"Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing for the past couple months." Ron said.
Ashoka shrugged, "I don' know."
"Didn't you ask your mum about it?" Hermione asked.
"My mother doesn't tell me anything." she said.
As the silence stretched on, Harry interjected to save his fellow ravenette, "So, who did you call Mrs. Monopoly?"
Ashoka paled, "What?"
"Yeah, who's Mrs. Monopoly?" Ron asked.
"Where did you…"
"We heard you talking to McGonagall." Hermione said softly. She then turned to Harry and Ron and explained, "Mrs. Monopoly doesn't exist. There is however a Mr. Monopoly, and he is the mascot of the board game Monopoly."
They all look at Ashoka curiously, "So who were you talking about?"
"I-I," Ashoka's eyes darted between them.
"Hey, hey," Fred said, gently placing his hands on her shoulders, "it's okay. You don't have to tell us if you don't want to."
It took Ashoka a couple minutes to calm down, and when she did, she took one more deep breath and said, "It's okay. I don't know what her name is, I wasn't really paying that close attention. But I met her in Dumbledore's office yesterday. She had a monocle, she looked incredibly serious. I thought that all she was missing was a top hat, a waistcoat, and a white wig, and she could pull off a decent Mr. Monopoly cosplay. So I started calling her Mrs. Monopoly." Ashoka looked at her friends, slightly panicked. "But only in my head! I never actually use any of the nicknames that I come up with!"
"Really?" George asked, "Why not?"
"Because-" she could never tell them the real reason, so instead she said, "because I just don't."
"Okay…" Ron said.
"Hey, so," Fred said slowly, afraid how Ashoka would take this. "Do you have nicknames for us?"
"Oh! And what are they?" George interjected.
"Um…" She said, as her cheeks darkened.
"You don't have to tell us." Harry soothed.
"Yeah, I do… I do have nicknames for you guys." Ahsoka paused as she collected her thoughts. "I call Fred, Pippin. And George, Merry."
"...You gave me a girl's name?!" George said scandalized. "Hermione, this is not funny!"
Hermione had her head buried in her hands, her shoulders shaking with the strength of her laughter. While everyone else was amused to some degree, the only one who seemed to know why she was laughing however was Ahsoka.
"Merry and Pippin are characters in the book trilogy Lord of The Rings." Hermione explained in between her giggles. "Both characters are guys, George."
"And," Ahsoka added, "They are both the number one troublemakers in the entire series."
"Oh, well, thank you." George said, sitting up a little straighter.
"What about us?" Ron asked.
Ahsoka pointed at Harry, Hermione and Ron and said, "Luke, Leia, and Han Christian Anderson, respectively."
"Who?" Harry tilted his head to the side. Mirroring Ron.
"Luke and Leia are characters in a movie trilogy called Star Wars. And Han Christian Anderson was a famous author from Denmark." Ashoka said.
"Why not call Ron Han Solo?" Hermione asked, slightly confused.
"A couple reasons." She said, "first, because when I give a nickname to someone, that nickname is based off of something that reminded me of them. And when I first met Ron he was telling the story of how he and Harry had gotten to school last year. Nice by the way." Ahsoka held out her fist for Ron and Harry to bump it with their own. Which they quickly did, as she had shown them.
"We got into so much trouble for that." Harry shook his head. Ron shuddered as he remembered. Harry patted him on the back.
"And second, because well, I don't think you Hermione would appreciate the implications of the name, correlating with your own." Ahsoka said, giving Hermione a pointed look.
It took Hermione a couple seconds, because she wasn't into Star Wars that much, to understand what she meant. But when she did, she turned bright as a tomato, as Ashoka looked on with a smirk. The boys looked between the two, not understanding the implications.
The growling, gurgling noise sounding like a bear gargling listerine, made everyone look at Ron. Whose ears were bright red.
"We best get going, or we're going to miss dinner." Harry chuckled at Ron's expense. Ron glowered at him, but he was too hungry to complain.
All six of them walked down to the Great Hall together, laughing. As they sat down at the Gryffindor table, Lee slid over to Fred and George.
"Hey, where did you two go?" Lee asked.
"We finally got her name." George said.
Really?" Lee said, leaning in closer, "what is it?"
"Ahsoka." Fred grinned.