Disclaimer: I disclaim! Disclaim you, disclaim your family, disclaim your cow, and most importantly disclaim Harry Potter.
However, I do jealously hold Kari, and all the other slytherin girls in her room, ask before you use them.
Chapitre III
Revalations and blackmail
Mandragora. Kari was memorizing the list for the potion that they were making in Potions, trying to remember the things that Neville had mentioned that he did wrong. She was heading for an unused classroom so she could study, this potion was worth a quarter of her final grade and if she could get a perfect on it, she would be able to pull her grade up. Mandragora, a teaspoon of Mugwort, stir three times in the clock wise direction...She opened the door to the classroom, still deep in thought. Add a dash of newts liver, a Ginny trying to suck Harry's face off... She paused. That didn't seem right. She focused in on what was actually going on around her instead of what was floating in her head and her jaw dropped. There was a brilliantly scarlet Harry with dropping his arms from around an equally red Ginny. Kari closed her mouth and grinned.
"Ginny, you look like a sunburned radish." She said, nodding hello at the both of them. She backed out of the room, looking up what was supposed to be going next in the potion. She shut the door with her foot and then paused. And burst out laughing. Ginny and Harry were hissing at each other, obviously trying to blame the other for their misfortune. Kari was holding onto the doorway to keep herself from falling over and gasping for breath. She ambled off and headed towards the library to check the last bit of the potion with Hermione to make sure that she got it right. She heard the door to the room open and close and then two sets of footsteps went in opposite directions. One caught up with her.
It was Ginny.
"Hallo." Kari said absently, ticking off the ingredients with her fingers.
"Ummmm, hallo Kari." Ginny began uncomfortably.
"You know, I was going to use that room to study." Kari remarked offhandedly. Ginny flushed a brilliant red again. "But the shock of you two completely branded the ingredients of the potion into my brain and all I have to do is run it by Hermione to make sure I got it right."
"Look," Ginny looked very uncomfortable. "Can you not tell anyone about this? Ron'll tease the both of us something awful." Kari made as if zipping her mouth shut.
"My lips are sealed." She said, smiling at her red headed friend. She gave Ginny a sly look. "Though it's not as though we can't tell, you two watch each other all the time and Harry bristles every time guys look at you. It's not that hard to figure out." Ginny looked embarrassed.
"Still, Ron's pretty thick, so I don't think he'll get it for a while."
"I'll say." Kari said rolling her eyes. "That boy is thicker than a board."
"Still not getting anywhere?" Ginny asked sympathetically.
"Circles."
"What?"
"I feel like I'm running in circles and getting nowhere. The faster I run, the faster I get nowhere." Kari said glumly. They had reached the library and Ginny patted her on the shoulder.
"I'm sure if you keep trying you'll finally get through to him." Ginny said, cheerful.
"I guess I can question the hickeys as to you're expertise." Kari said, raising her eyebrows and wiggling them lavisciously. Ginny clapped a hand to her neck and looked sheepish.
"Do I really have hickeys?"
"Nah, I'm just messing with you." Kari said, laughing. "See you later."
"Bye."
Kari strode into the library, looking for Hermione. Instead she ran into Ron. Literally. He helped her to her feet like a gentleman of course and she squinted up at him. "You know, for a guy as big as you are, you sure blend in a lot." Ron laughed.
"I'm invisible." He joked; holding his hands over his eyes and Kari strode forward to where Hermione was sitting.
"Hermione, I need you to tell me if I have the potion right." Hermione put down her books and looked up attentively. Kari rattled it off and Hermione applauded.
"Good! Now if only you can remember to stick to those instructions..." Hermione gave her a playful glare.
"Yeah, but they've been branded into my brain by some pretty memorable stuff." Hermione scrutinized her for a moment and Ron collapsed into one of the chairs.
"You walked in on Ginny and Harry." Hermione said, her voice weary. Ron sat bolt upright.
"WHAT!" Ron asked, but they both ignored him.
"Yup." Kira said, shaking her head. "Like vacuum cleaners I swear." She said exasperated.
"What about Harry and Ginny?" Ron wailed, waving his arms about.
"Well, I've got class in ten minutes, I have to go. Thanks Hermione!" Kari said, skipping out of the Library.
"What about Harry and Ginny?"
Kari laughed and left Hermione to deal with the enraged Ron and went to her class. Professor Flitwick was as excitable as ever and fell off of his chair when he was discussing the newest spell that Kari wasn't paying attention to. She'd ask Draco later. She twirled her wand absently around in her fingers, ignoring the feeling that by not paying attention in this class...ever... it was probably going to be a detriment to her school career. Whatever. Kari said, shrugging. Professor Flitwick assigned them all animals and she was handed a rather large raven to try and silence. She and the raven eyed each other balefully for a moment, not entirely sure what the other was going to do. Kari watched the other students for a moment and then Flitwick as he demonstrated the spell. She turned to the raven. It glared at her.
"You'll never master this stupid spell while staring at me." It cawed derisively. Kari goggled at the raven.
"I-uh-wha?" Kari blinked and then shook her head. She was obviously imagining things.
"Don't just ignore me, that's rather rude." The Raven cawed, pecking her hand. She screeched and fell out of her chair, landing on the floor with a thud. When the class saw she was holding a pecked hand that was beginning to bleed, they returned to their work and Flitwick waded his way through. "Fine, apparently you aren't willing to accept how strange your life is going to get yet, I only have one piece of advice for you. Remember the dreams. Record them, I don't care, but find a way to remember them." It pecked her once more as Flitwick tried to catch it and then flew at the window. Right as it would have reached the glass, it vanished. The class was silent.
"Professor?" Kari said in a trembling voice as she raised her hand slightly. "May I go see the Headmaster, I think I'm going mad."
"Nonsense, you've got a bite on your hand. Go see Madame Pompfry and she'll make you right as rain." His voice was forcibly cheerful, but there was also a steely edge of anxiety to it. The students caught it and began to murmur among themselves. "Wynne, accompany Mason to the Infirmary please." Brangienne rose and looked distastefully at Kari's hand that was dripping blood all over the floor from two large holes in her hand. The raven had taken a good part of her skin with him when he left.
"Must I Professor? She's making an awful mess." Brangienne said, and Kari started to cry as the shock began to wear off and her hand began to hurt.
"Now Wynne!" Flitwick said sharply and the whole class gasped, Flitwick had not snapped at a student that any of them could remember. He must have been extremely agitated by the Raven to get angry at a student. Brangienne took hold of Kari and dragged her out of the room in a huff, pulling her along the corridors. A steady stream of blood followed her as it dripped from her mutilated hand. Filch, the janitor, was going to kill her. Brangienne opened the door for her to the Infirmary, trying not to look at her year mate's damaged hand, but still looking queasy at the trail of blood. Kari was now swaying on her feet as the loss of blood affected her motor skills. The room was swimming in front of her and she lost control, pitching forward.
Strong, capable hands caught her and eased her onto the bed that had seemed so far away only seconds ago.
"...Care of Magical Creat...suppose..." There was a conversation going on over her head and it faded in and out as she was hit with waves of nausea and or pain.
"...Charms...Flitwick..." Someone was sounding outraged and the other sniffed.
"Could...guessed...nough sense to fill a pin..." Someone sat her up and made her take something vile tasting. "Could have at least bound it."
Her head was clearing a little and she looked down at her hand. It was still bleeding furiously, pumping blood out of her body. She looked into the basin that her hand was suspended over and nearly lost control of her stomach. There was at least a quart of blood in the bucket. Madame Pomfry was pouring a potion over her hand and frowning. Kari, as the blood was pumping out of her, began to feel the chill of the room and started to shake. The basin began to quiver and the liquid to slosh around.
"Here Child." Madame Pomfry said, handing her a white fluffy blanket. Kari tucked it around herself silently, watching the blood puddle in the basin from her left hand. It was a dark red, almost black, and was congealing on the spot. Kari was no expert in healing, but she was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to do that.
"Ummmm Madame Pomfry?" Kari asked, staring at her hand.
"Yes?" The nurse asked, agitated.
"Why isn't my hand healing?" Kari asked, trying to scratch an itch on her palm by rubbing it on the edge of the basin and accomplished nothing more than getting blood all over the inside of the basin.
"I don't know." She said and left for a moment. Kari watched the blood leak out of her hand and began to count the drops, doing arithmacy problems in her head to keep from panicking. It wasn't every day you watched your lifeblood drain out through two holes in your hand. Madame Pomfry put a potion next to her that smelled slightly of eggs and sighed. "I've never seen anything like this, it refuses to heal!" Madame Pomfry was almost crying with frustration. She handed Kari the egg smelling potion.
"What's this?" Kari asked, eyeing it distrustfully.
"A blood-replenishing potion. You're going to need it, seeing as your leaking out through your hand." Madame Pomfry's tone was brisk, but her eyes were worried. Kari gulped it down and then pulled a face at the taste. It tasted vile. "Ergh." Kari said pulling a face, but Madame Pomfry just ignored her, examining her hand. Eventually the elderly matron sighed.
"I'd better go get Dumbledore." She said and immediately vacated, ignoring Kari's protestations. A few minutes later, Dumbledore strode in. He was smiling.
"Shut it, you." Kari snapped as Dumbledore entered the room. He merely stopped in the middle of the floor, twiddled his thumbs for a moment and then stared out into space for a few seconds.
"I have become momentarily deaf to your insubordinate words and will merely write them off as the pain speaking. How is your hand." She smiled maliciously and held it out for him to examine, dripping blood all over the sheets. He raised a noble eyebrow and she retreated to the bowl, muttering.
"It won't heal, will it?" Kari asked shrewdly, judging the situation by Dumbledore's face. He frowned.
"There seems to be some kind of locking charm." Dumbledore turned her hand to the light so he could see it better. He prodded it with his wand and a line of sigils rose off of her hand like smoke and then dissipated just as quickly. His eyebrows shot up to his hairline. A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. "I expect that you have to do whatever the person bound you to." Dumbledore was smiling indulgently and Kari rolled her eyes.
"Whatever." She said, scrabbling at her bedside. "Oy, headmaster, do you have a spare bit of parchment and ink I could borrow?" She reached back and pulled her quill out of her bushy hair that she had impaled it in earlier. Dumbledore handed her the asked for items without an admonishment as to her disrespectful words, going down the 'if I ignore it, she will find out that it doesn't bother me and will stop' route. Unfortunetly, that never worked with Kari. She took the parchment and ink and began to write. She tucked her tounge into the side of her mouth as she wrote down every detail that she could remember about her dreams.
The bleeding slowed, then stopped.
"Well, that seemed to have healed it nicely." Dumbledore beamed at her and she snorted. She washed her hands off with the goblet of water that was by her bed and then dried them on her uniform robes. "Well, that's that. Give it a few days to heal, I don't think that the regular potions are going to work on these ones... What class do you have next?" Dumbledore asked, as she put her bag on over her head.
"Care of Magical Creatures." She said, putting her wand back in her pocket. Dumbledore broke into a smile.
"Perhaps you should take the next period off?" He suggested, smiling at her. She looked at him, looked at the just stopped bleeding wounds in her hand and her lips twisted into a sardonic smile.
"Perhaps I may." She gathered her stuff and headed to the library. She scratched the wounds on her hand distractedly and sat down with Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermione.
"Hallo." She said, sliding into the only vacant seat, taking off her book bag and slinging it onto the table. Hermione nodded welcome, Ron smiled, and Harry and Ginny actually looked away from each other long enough that they said hello with warm smiles on their faces.
"What's that?" Ron asked, pulling her hand into the light. Ginny slid her hand along Harry's arm to rest her fingertips lightly on her boyfriend's hand.
"I got a bad bite off of a flobberworm." Kari said flippiantly, but not withdrawing her hand from Ron's. Hermione looked from Ron to her to Harry and Ginny absorbed in each other and groaned.
"Dear Merlin, what am I? A fifth wheel?" She said, combing her fingers through her out of control curls. Ron dropped Kari's hand as if it were a branding iron and Ginny stuck out her tongue at the brainy girl. Harry merely looked amused and looked at Ron and Kari specutavely.
"Kari, hey Kari!" Padma was beckoning her from across the hall, trying to get her help on the arithmacy problem she was doing. Kari rose, her cheeks and nose burning a brilliant scarlet, avoiding Ron's eyes. She quickly answered Padma's question and the older girl grinned at her.
"You fancy Ron, don't you." She asked, grinning broadly at her bold compatriot. Kari flushed a deep crimson.
"Is it really that obvious!" She whispered, putting her head closer to the Ravenclaw's.
"Absolutely. Oh," Padma said nodding. She looked thoughtful. "I went with him to the Yule Ball in fourth year, I wouldn't recommend dancing with him." She smiled wryly and Kari giggled.
"That bad huh?" She asked, covering her mouth, and blushing when she looked over at Ron and saw he was looking at her too.
"Worse." Padma said and Parvarti chipped in.
"That's all right, you may want to warn Ginny, Harry's even worse." Parvarti smiled at her, putting her elbows on the table.
"You dated Harry?" Kari asked, shocked. She couldn't see the two of them as a couple.
"Kind of. I went to the ball with him fourth year because he had no one else to go with and he could trust me not to try and haul him off to molest him." She looked over where Ginny was poking Harry in the ribs. "I kinda wish that I had. He's rather handsome now." Parvarti smiled and Lavander Brown giggled.
"In a brooding dark sort of way. Sort of like Malfoy. Though not as mean of course." Lavendar tittered.
"Draco isn't mean." Kari said loyally, though she knew that her cousin could be cruel to people that he didn't like. The three girls shot her disbelieving looks. She shrunk into herself. "Well, he's never mean to me."
"Right." Parvarti and Padma said, both of them dripping doubt. Padma turned to her. "Soooooo? Are you going to ask him out?"
"Ummmm, no." Kari said, shifting in her seat uncomfortably.
"Whyever not?" Padma said, her eybrows vanishing into her dark hair.
"Because even if I did think that he would say yes, I'm too shy." She said, and Lavendar laughed.
"Girl, you don't have to worry about whether he likes you or not, it soooo obvious he wants you!" Lavendar said happily and Padma and Parvarti started giggling. Hermione came over.
"I agree. I'm one of his best friends and so I know, he does really like you." Hermione said, pulling up a chair.
"Why? I'm not as pretty as you or as smart, why doesn't he like you?" Kari asked, startled.
"One," Hermione ticked off on her fingers. "You're not, lets see, what are his words? Oh, an insufferable Know-it-all, two, you are pretty no matter what you think, and three, Harry thinks that we should go out, and that is a tell tale sign that it is a bad idea." All of the girls burst into giggles at this statement. Hermione rolled her eyes. "Honestly! He thinks that Sinestra should go out with Snape." The rest of the girls gaped at her.
"Are. you. serious?" Kari asked in a strangled voice. Parvarti and Lavendar looked deeply disturbed and Padma was shaking with disgust.
"Ewwwwwwww!" Parvarti and Lavender wailed, incurring the glare of Madame Pince.
"So." Kari asked slowly. "Just how mentally disturbed is Harry? Because I know that the Daily Prophet has been saying stuff like that for years, but I seriously think that could be constituted as proof." The girls all laughed. Kari checked her watch and sighed.
"Lovely as this talk has been, I have to get to my next class, I got to skivv off Care of Magical Creatures because Dumbledore didn't want me to have quite that much of an interesting day." She waved and then headed off to Ancient Runes.
"No, Ginny." Kari said exasperated. She liked her friend, she really did, but she was being completely insane.
"I agree with her." Padma said, putting in her two cents worth.
"Me too." Parvarti and then Lavendar piped up.
"C'mon it wouldn't be that hard!" Lavendar wailed.
"Oh c'mon Kari." Hermione said, looking at her as well.
"I enjoy my right to blackmail, but I only use it in cases of emergency." Kari said, sitting in her chair primly.
"Its to earn galleons for our seventh year trip!" Lavendar said, bouncing slightly. Kari eyed them distastefully.
"Exactly, so I see no reason why I have to do anything. I'm not one of your year mates." Kari said, crossing her legs, looking smug.
"Karrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii..." Parvarti whined.
"Make it worth my while, and I'll think about it." Kari said and Ginny rolled her eyes. Kari could tell what was going through her mind. 'Always a Slytherin'. Kari bared her teeth, if they were going to treat her as a Slytherin, then, by Merlin, she was going to act like one. Parvarti looked thoughtful.
"I can guarantee a way to get Ron to ask you out." Padma and Lavendar looked at Parvarti. She was leaning back in her chair.
"How?" Kari looked wary.
"How's this, I'll tell Hermione and she'll tell me if its a good idea or not." Kari looked thoughtful for a moment and then nodded. Hermione was very sensible. Parvarti leaned over and whispered in Hermione's ear. Hermione nodded.
"Its a good idea." She said, nodding. Kari sat for a moment, deep in thought, love for her cousin warring with her love for Ron.
"I accept." Kari said, getting up. "We will have a Malfoy kissing booth in the school festival."
The school festival was something that Dumbledore had come up with at the beginning of the term to help lift the spirits of the students at Christmas time. Kari was privately of the opinion that Dumbledore did it so he could see the psychological scarrage of his students. She had missed its announcement at the welcoming dinner, and hadn't found out about it until the girls brought it to her attention that she was their route to a winning display. Hermione must have mentioned her blackmailation of Draco and Parvarti and Lavendar, with their obsession of Malfoy must have had come up with the idea. Ginny and Hermione both thought the idea was hysterical. Now there was only the subject himself to win over.
"No. Absolutely not." Draco said, his pale face flushing scarlet. She watched him with an almost scientific fascination.
"For future reference, scarlet does not go with pale blonde." Draco looked at her, annoyed.
"Thank you. I know that." He said, acerbically, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Oh come on, you know you're gorgeous." Draco gave her a withering glare.
"Of course I know. I haven't been cutting a swath through the Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff girls for nothing."
"Hufflepuffs too?" Kari was momentarily pulled off track.
"They work well in groups." Draco shot her a I'm-being-a-bastard-just-for-you-smirk.
"Ewwwwwwww..." Draco laughed.
"Just kidding."
"Because we both know that you haven't slept with anyone yet." Draco tried to look offended, but just looked embarrassed.
"Haven't met anyone to catch my high standards." He mumbled, looking at the floor. For all he was a snarky bastard at times, he was also a sixteen year old boy.
"Soooo..." She shot him a I-can-be-just-as-evil-as-you grin. "Use this opportunity to find one."
"You are extremely evil sometimes." He sounded so proud. "No."
"I was hoping that it wouldn't have to go to this..." Kari said, her voice saturated with faux sadness and Draco eyed her with trepidation.
"What?" He asked, suspiciously.
"You know, the rhinestones may not even be enough for this. I may have to break out the big guns." A mischievous smile that would have made Snape hide underneath a cauldron. Thankfully, Draco had been hardened to her whiles.
"What?" Draco asked curiously. She grinned at him for a moment, giving him a look that made him feel like a cow ripe for the slaughter.
"Baby pictures." Kari said, her voice smothered in satisfaction. Draco looked at her, horrified.
"You wouldn't." He said this in a mortified whisper and Kari laughed
"Soooooo would. One owl to you're mother and I can have them here within a day." Draco was looking at her strangely. She looked at him curiously. "What?"
"I never thought I would see the day." Malfoy said, shaking his head.
"Huh?"
"I think that you have surpassed me in evil Slytherin cruelness." Draco said, a speck of awe coloring his voice. Kari looked rather flattered.
"Well thank you." She said, a somewhat surprised look on her face. "So, does that mean that you'll do it?" Malfoy gave her another look.
"Sure. Why not." He said, shrugging. Kari threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.
Parvarti and Lavendar would not stop squealing after that, and even Hermione and Ginny looked bemused.
hee hee hee...ginny the vixen...malfoy kissing booth...things are looking interesting! please please please read and review.