Chapter 20: Alexis's Plan and Sinistra's Assignment
"You know, at my school, we always had a Halloween party." Alexis blurted out across the square library table on the 31st of October. Ron, who was sitting opposite her, raised his eyebrows. The girl shut her Transfiguration book and leaned in so that she could be closer to Harry and Ron. Hermione was off at Snape's detention and wouldn't be back for at least an hour.
"We'd have loud music, costumes, and loads of food, and- and it was the most awesome thing ever!"
"What kind of food?" Ron leaned in as well and Harry had to grin. Ron could never refuse the description of a good snack. Harry went back to his scroll of parchment, but he couldn't help overhearing.
"We had cakes and- well, just a bunch of stuff," Alexis whispered with much elaboration. Even though Harry wasn't looking, he could sense Ron beginning to drool. "And punch," Alexis continued. "There were always at least ten different kinds of punch, all different colors and flavors. One year, when I was thirteen, someone spiked the purple punch, and about half the students got drunk. We had the most hysterical time."
"They need to do something like that at Hogwarts!" Ron exclaimed, grinning madly. Madame Pince shushed the group of sixth years loudly and Ron lowered his volume a few notches. "Think about it; everyone going crazy, like- like one of those… raves."
Harry put aside his scroll, his curiosity getting the better of him. He pulled his chair closer to the table. "What did you say?"
"We want to have a Halloween Party." Alexis explained, her face just over a foot from his as they schemed.
"Halloween is- Alexis; today is Halloween. It's the feast tonight!"
"You popped my bubble." Alexis said, wrinkling her nose. "It isn't like I didn't know that. We don't have to go to the feast. I bet no one wants to go to the feast."
"The feast is amazing!" Ron muttered as his eyes clouded up.
"You guys are horrible."
"It's true," Harry protested.
"But- But- a rave!" Alexis urged, borrowing some of Ron's vocabulary. "Who wouldn't come?"
"The house-elves would be too busy, and- Alexis, look, who's going to come to a party if we don't have food- or music, for a matter of fact." Harry shrugged at her. "The Halloween feast is something people look forward to!"
"Urgh!" Alexis moaned, then, moments later, she began a new chain of thought. "Hey Ginny!" she hissed to the neighboring table where Ginny and her boyfriend were working. "Dean!" The two looked up.
"Wait- I need-" Alexis looked around wildly. "Oh no, I didn't bring that- Ron- paper?" Without waiting for and answer, she ripped off the bottom half of Ron's Herbology essay parchment. He stared at her, dumbfounded.
"Oh come on!" Alexis hissed as she scribbled. "You probably weren't going to get down to the twelve inch mark anyway!" She held up Ron's paper for those at the other table to see. They looked at her quizzically.
"Oh come on," she pleaded, batting long eyelashes. "It would be the first ever- and think of how much fun we'd have!"
"Okay, why not?" Dean said, just as Madame Pince shushed them again. Ginny and Dean turned away, both of them smiling, but in a rather hesitant way.
"What? Alexis, let me see; it is my paper!" Ron took the parchment fragment from his friend, reading the question it held.
'Do you guys want to start up a band? Ginny-Keyboard, Dean and Me- Guitar, Ron-Drums?'
Ron turned very pale.
"What?" Alexis said, her smile disappearing instantly. Harry snickered at Ron's expression.
The redhead shook his head wildly. Alexis finally connected.
"Dummy! We can have a New Years Eve party! And we need a band if we want an actual party! There isn't another drummer in this school!"
"I- I'm horrible! We could hire someone- Fred and George are really into music- they'd know someone who would play!
"You'll do fine," Alexis smirked. "Anyway, we can't afford pay someone. Unless- well- if you got rich overnight?"
Ron went rather red.
"See?" Alexis smiled to herself, reopening her book. "Oh, we are going to have so much fun!"
"Hey, girls like bands, remember?" Harry elbowed his friend, smiling viciously.
"Quiet!" Madame Pince warned them again from the checkout desk.
Malfoy, sitting a few tables to the left, smirked in his usual manner. "Garcia on guitar?" he said loudly. "Weasley on drums? Now this will be-"
"If you don't shut those mouths this instant-" Madame Pince huffed, getting to her feet. The 5th and 6th years all stared very guiltily at their work. "If you don't be quiet-" the Librarian finally noticed their state of silence, and looking rather ruffled, she reseated herself on her chair.
From across the room, Draco Malfoy threw a crumpled piece of parchment at Alexis, and it bounced off her head. She grabbed it off the floor and raised it above her head for a throw, looking furious, but then quickly lowered her arm as Madame Pince moved to scratch the back of her neck. Glaring, she turned away from the blonde Slytherin, looking around for her bag. Not finding it, she stuffed the paper in Harry's bag, who gave her a bemused expression.
"You should always bring your own materials to study hall," Harry preached, trying to sound like Hermione. "Bringing everything that you will need is important because-"
"Oh, shut up."
Madame Pince slammed down the book she was reading. "This is a QUIET study! In the LIBRARY!"
……………………
The decorations in the Great Hall were spectacular as usual, and they stunned even Alexis. Once again, Hagrid's pumpkin garden had produced dozens of glorified specimens. The larger of the pumpkins were placed along the tables and in the entrance hall, their gigantic, orange eyes flickering in the dimmed light. The smaller gourds scattered the tables, and mini pumpkins were animated to speak to students as they ate. The ceiling of the Great Hall cooperated eagerly with the occasion, and thunderclouds blew threateningly over the heads of the Hogwarts students. The occasional brown leaf was charmed to flutter over the tables, and live bats flitted their way between the great stone arches.
Harry found himself seated beside Hermione and Alexis, opposite Ron, Ginny and Dean. Smack-dab in the middle of their group was another one of Professor Flitwick's animated pumpkins, and it continually made random comments as the students made their way through the feast.
Ginny yelped when it stated rather obnoxiously, 'boo', as she was taking a sip of her drink. The pumpkin grinned at her reaction, then returned to its original, inanimate state. Ginny and Hermione had been cleaning out Harry's book bag, which was littered with the junk of the first two months of the school year; why they had decided to do it during the Halloween feast, that was something they were not able to explain.
"Look at this," Hermione stated exasperatedly, holding up a rather wrinkled sheet of parchment. "Since when have you had this?"
"Oh- that's the hangman game from the opening feast." Alexis explained for Harry as she shoveled turkey into her mouth. "What was it- oh! That one took you forever to guess, remember Ron?" Ron twitched but did not reply verbally. The paper stated 'I shall die by sticking myself with a pin'; it had been Ron's downfall.
"Do you need this?" said Hermione sarcastically to Harry. "Is this something that you need? No, those Herbology notes on lemongrass that you threw out were something that you needed, but not this!" She triumphantly crumpled the hangman paper into a ball and stuffed it into the trash bag, which she and Ginny had placed under the table. Alexis and Harry smirked at each other.
"About the band; what songs will we play?" said Dean to Alexis. The girl had been very detailed about her plans earlier during the meal, but there were still some things to be discussed.
"Oh... I don't know." Alexis grinned, her mouth rather full with green beans. "We can cover some stuff- we have time. But first, we have to think of something to call ourselves. Any ideas?"
"Wizard Band with the Crappy Drummer," Ron stated dully.
"Oh come on," Ginny rolled her eyes. "You'll get better, Ron."
"You can't be that bad," Alexis said. "Stop putting yourself down." Harry found himself flinching. He glanced at Hermione to see her expression, but her face was hidden, once again, in his book bag. She groped through its contents, pulling out various sheets of used and unused parchment, as well as a crushed candy bar, which Alexis grabbed and began to unwrap.
"Harry!" Hermione had pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper. "Don't waste good parchment; you could still have used this." Harry recognized what she was holding.
"I didn't bunch that up; Malfoy did," said Harry. Then to Alexis: "He threw it at your head in study hall, remember? And then you put it in my bag because you'd forgotten yours."
Alexis grunted.
"Well," Hermione began to carefully unfold the paper. "It's still useable; look, it's almost a foot and a half of paper!" The girl smoothed the parchment out on the tabletop.
"No; wait," Alexis grabbed the sheet away from Hermione. "He did write something on it—'Hey Garcia..." her voice trailed off, but her lips still silently formed the words as she read.
Harry tried to read over her shoulder, but she had already finished. Alexis let out a scream of rage; "WHAT the HECK!" She re-crumpled the paper and threw it down in the isle between the Hufflepuff table and their own. "He is SUCH a retard!"
"What? What did he say?" Hermione retrieved the paper from the floor and read it aloud as Alexis huffed in her seat.
"Hey Garcia,
I can't wait to come and throw tomatoes the first time that you perform in public. I'll notify some others as well; people who won't be too happy with your little 'New Year's Eve party'.
-Malfoy"
"That's- he's very rude." Ginny said as Harry took the note from Hermione and scanned it over.
"Who's he going to tell!" Alexis fumed over her dinner.
"If he tells a teacher-" Ron stopped in the middle of his sentence, just as Professor McGonagall came and stood behind Dean.
"Enjoying the feast?" she said to the six of them. Hermione and Harry had the decency to nod; the others just stared up at the deputy headmistress with rather shocked expressions. Harry saw Alexis glare icily at Malfoy, who was watching intently at the Slytherin table.
"I have been informed by a teacher that one of his students learned of an unauthorized New Year's Eve party that this group of student has been trying to organize."
"YOU SUCK, MALFOY!" Alexis had immediately jumped from her seat and flicked a rather rude hand signal in the Slytherin's direction. He and his cronies burst into loud guffaws, clutching their stomachs. The pumpkin on their table picked the same moment to once again state 'boo'. The Gryffindors couldn't help grinning, all except for Hermione, who looked completely horrified. McGonagall's face had flushed a deep red at Alexis's outburst, and she towered over them as the seething girl retook her seat and the others tried to hide their smiles behind cupped hands and napkins.
"Well- well- in all my years at Hogwarts-" McGonagall gasped.
"It's just a small get-together! Not the entire school!" Alexis said defensively, ignoring what she had done in front of the divination teacher. "Maybe- maybe one hundred people- two hundred tops- We're getting a band together, and it would be sooo much fun! Please?"
Hermione buried her head in her hands. Everyone else focused their attention on Alexis- their eyes flitting from her to McGonagall and back.
"I never- " the professor realized that all the attention from the staff table was fixed on their small group of seven people. Harry saw the headmaster's eyes twinkle slightly in a smile. She lowered her voice to barely above a whisper. "I am going to have to-" McGonagall stopped for breath. "I'm going to have to speak with the headmaster about this- this party. I will inform you on our discussion." She walked off rather shakily, leaving Alexis fuming.
"What was that about?" Lavender Brown asked Alexis, but the girl went unnoticed.
"I- I can't believe that he tattled!" Alexis exclaimed.
Dean groaned; "I think giving Malfoy the birdie blew it for us."
"Maybe it's a sign that he told." Hermione said calmly. "Really; I never thought that they would like the idea."
"Yeah- Hermione's right." Ron said, looking almost hopeful. "See- it's a sign; I'm not meant to be in a band. I can't play worth-"
"Oh, shut up." Alexis grabbed a slice of pie as the deserts appeared on the table. "Even if we can't have a party, we'll still do the band."
………………………
After dinner, Alexis insisted that Ron play his drums for her, and all the Gryffindors were forced to live with the sickening din that his practice session provided. The 6th years were to have astronomy at midnight. Some went to bed to sleep the few hours until the class, (if they were able to; for Ron continued his deafening racket) but several stayed up and read books, play board games or do homework until it was time to make their way up to the Astronomy tower. The boys all found themselves in this situation, for their dormitory was being used for Ron's drum-playing fiasco, and no one dared venture inside. Neville still managed to fall asleep, draped over one of the armchairs by the fire. His mouth hung open, and his snores could be heard across the common room from where Hermione and Harry were sitting on the wide window seat, tediously working their way through Harry's charms essay.
"Why do they even teach us magical cooking?" Harry moaned as he crossed out another sentence in this essay. "I could live on frozen muggle dinners; it would take so much less effort."
Hermione didn't reply, she took the parchment from Harry once more and reread the paragraph that they had been working on. She tickled her forehead with the feather of her quill, leaning close to the paper in the dim light. "It just doesn't make sense," she said in a final way. "We don't even know if there is a way to make a cream sauce with a flick of your wand; Professor Flitwick will know that you just made that part up. He hasn't taught us how to do it yet and you're not specifying any particular way…"
"Oh- I don't give a damn." Harry took the paper back from Hermione, glaring at it and accidentally leaving a large splotch on one corner when his quill dripped. "Maybe he'll remember my summoning charm in fourth year and give me an 'acceptable'."
"We should ask Ron about it; he'd know." Hermione leaned over and drew a large question mark over Harry's third paragraph. The boy scowled.
"How did he ever learn everything about cooking? No normal sixteen-year-old can make beef goulash perfectly."
"His mother, he told me. She used to make Ginny and him help cook when all the others were off at school; she said that she didn't want them sitting around the house all year."
Harry grinned. "Ronald Weasley, four star cook."
Hermione laughed softly. "He really does seem to like cooking, but he'd turn beet red if he heard you say that."
"It's his special talent," Harry joked.
"No, I think it is one of his talents," Hermione said seriously. "Everyone's got something that they can do naturally and really enjoy. For instance, I enjoy studying.. Parvati is amazing at anything to do with hair.. Neville-"
"He can sleep through anything." Harry chuckled. "He can sleep anywhere- and in any position."
"See-" Hermione grinned. "Everyone has a talent."
"Alright, oh-so-studious one," Harry mocked. "What's my special talent?"
"Your talent?" She looked out the window. After a moment she answered. "Flying- you love to fly, and you've been able to do it since the first time that you tried."
Harry smiled for a second; then the expression vanished from his face. "Alexis is much better than I'll ever be."
"That isn't true!" Hermione exclaimed, her face astonished. Harry stared back at her for several moments, his eyes unblinking, willing her to tell him that what he said was true.
"Harry-" she moved closer, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "She may be a good quidditch player, but she could never replace what Gryffindor has come to see in you. And she doesn't have a brain when it comes to empathy, or compromise, or any thing that you have. Alexis is pretty- she sings- she plays quidditch- she's American, but she can be- she can be pretty self-worshipping and inconsiderate at times."
Harry grinned finally, breaking the tension. "You can say that again. With Jack-"
"Oh my gosh; don't get me started!" Hermione exclaimed, pretending to bang her head on Harry's shoulder. "Somehow, even though it's a bit evil of me, I hope that he gets sick of her."
Several minutes later, Alexis walked into the common room by way of the boys' dormitory staircase. Harry and Hermione, who had left their discussion of 'special talents', had moved on to other homework.
"He doesn't know how to count!" Alexis exclaimed when she saw them sitting in the window seat. "He can't even keep a steady beat! No talent whatsoever! Why didn't you guys tell me?" She plunked herself down, looking distraught. Hermione tried to portray a soothing smile, but her lips twitched as they bent upward.
"I'm sure he'll get the hang of it," Harry said. "You can teach him."
"That's the point- I can't teach worth crap!" Alexis stared down at her hands, giving Hermione time to shoot Harry a knowing glance. "Look," Alexis continued. "I'm going to go to bed for an hour before Astronomy. Ron has as well. Hermione, wake me up fifteen minutes before?"
"Alright."
With these words, Alexis left Harry and Hermione to themselves in the now peaceful quiet of the common room.
…………………………
"We're going to be late," said Hermione to Harry and Ron at ten-till-twelve that same night. "What is she doing!" The girl paced back and forth, fingering an envelope that she was carrying. Harry just stared languidly at the fire.
"I just- have- to get-" Alexis came tumbling down the stairs. Her robes were draped over her shoulder and her she carried her open book bag in one hand. Alexis cursed as several of her books fell out of the bag and onto the steps. She tripped on her robes, managing just barely to catch herself on the railing. "Lavender and Parvati are coming. I just have to- do my hair." She huffed.
"Alexis!" Hermione grabbed a piece of parchment as it fluttered to the floor, having spilled from Alexis's bag with her books. "We don't have time! It's- it's eleven fifty-two! And we need seven minutes to get to the tower! I timed it in third year!"
"I'll just be a second-" she dashed back up the steps, pulling her robes on over her shoulder and leaving her book bag lying on the floor in the middle of the Common Room. A minute passed. The three others began to pick up Alexis's school supplies from where they had fallen from her bag. Then they heard footsteps; three people running down the stairs.
"Hermione says that we're going to be late?" They heard Parvati Patil's voice question.
"Yeah-" Alexis answered. "Are you sure that this looks alright?" Harry guessed that she meant her hair.
"It's fine Alexis; you're gorgeous enough without it done up."
That was Lavender Brown's voice, thought Harry.
"Lav- your shoe's undone."
"I know, but Hermione says that we'll be late-"
At that moment they came into view, Alexis in the lead, Parvati close behind, and Lavender, the latter two carrying their book bags and other supplies. Alexis's hair was up in a bun, and Lavender's shoe was, indeed, untied, and at the moment, right as the other two came off the staircase, she tripped on the undone lace.
Books spewed everywhere as Lavender tumbled down the last few stone steps, finally coming to a stop on the carpet, palms down.
"Lav!" Parvati immediately went to her friend's rescue, kneeling down and straitening the girl's skirt, which had flown up during her fall. Seeing Harry and Ron, there with their eyes wide open, focused on her, Lavender went bright red.
"Lav, are you alright?" Alexis dove down on the floor, helping the girl to her feet.
"Here- let me help." Harry had stepped forward. He took Lavender's bag and began collecting the books, which had flown from it during the girl's fall.
"Thanks, Harry." Lavender limped upward, leaning on Parvati for support.
"Are you alright?" Hermione, Parvati and Ron all asked at once.
"I- I think so…" Lavender picked up a book from the carpet and handed it to Harry, who placed it in her bag.
"No- look: you're bruising." Alexis was examining the girl's wrist, which held several bruises. Harry could see them clearly.
"Oh blast." Lavender looked at her wrist, then glanced at Parvati, who stared back with rather serious eyes.
"Hang on- how did you bruise that part of your wrist?" Alexis's expression had changed. She glanced from Lavender's arm to her face and back again, suspicion obvious. "Lav- you landed plam-down. What's this from? No, really, it looks like-"
Lavender winced and pulled her arm away when Alexis fingered one of the bruises. "I think that I… hit my arm on the stair."
"Lav- don't lie to me." Alexis stared at the girl, but Lavender only turned her eyes away.
"Alexis…" It seemed like Hermione had wanted to say something, but her voice trailed off.
"You know what? I think that I am getting a bit dizzy. I better head to the Hospital Wing." Lavender took her bag from Harry, avoiding his eyes- avoiding all their eyes. She left the common room and Parvati followed, but not before shooting a "it's her business, you know," at Alexis. The two girls were gone before Harry could blink.
"Why did you have to pick on her!" Hermione glared at Alexis after Lavender and Parvati had left. "She fell down the stairs, Alexis! It's very possible that-"
"I'm going to bed," Alexis interrupted, leaving Hermione to glare at her silently. "Screw Astronomy." She grabbed her things from where Hermione had placed them earlier and left the Common Room by means of the Girls' Dormitory Staircase.
……………………………
Harry, Hermione and Ron entered the Astronomy tower at five past twelve. They slipped in and sat in the back seats while Professor Sinistra's head was down, and they all breathed a sigh of relief when she called their names for attendance, not having missed them earlier. Harry watched Hermione curiously as the Professor went through the other names on the list. The girl was still holding the same envelope with which he had seen her earlier.
"Hermione, what's that?" Harry whispered, gesturing at the envelope.
"Oh, it's our homework assignment."
"Very funny." But then he saw that she had been serious. "Hermione- tell me that we didn't-"
"The picture? The one that had meaning to you?" Hermione said, her brow knotted as she looked into his eyes. "It's due today, Harry. Surely you remembered...?"
"No- I- I didn't. Not until now."
Ron snorted with laughter. "Harry, she said we'd be working on this for weeks! Even I- look- I brought a picture of my family. The one taken when we were all in Egypt, the summer before 3rd year." Ron pulled a rather crumpled, old newspaper clipping from in-between the pages of his textbook and showed it to Harry.
"I brought my family as well-" Hermione opened her envelope and presented him with a picture of her mother and father. Harry guessed, by route of the palm trees in the background, as well as the sign that said "bienvenue" ('welcome' in French), that the photo had been taken on one of the family's vacations to France. He handed the picture back to Hermione as his spirits fell.
"Look- you keep photos in your wallet, don't you?" Ron said, trying to be helpful. "You could use one of those…"
"Yeah- but- I don't think that I have any in there anymore."
"Let me see." Hermione held out her hand, and Harry couldn't refuse handing his wallet to her.
"I don't think that you'll find anything," he said.
"Well, we can't possibly let you fail the assignment..." Hermione said, her mind made up as she opened the leather folds. However, the look of hope on her face vanished when she drew a single picture from Harry's wallet. "And we really can't use that one, now can we?" her voice cracked and Ron grabbed the snapshot from her.
"This is the one that-" Ron stopped in mid sentence, ginning like mad. He showed the picture to Harry as Hermione continued to look madly through the wallet. Harry had to grin as well.
"Herms- is that the only one in there?"
"Harry, you know how much I hate that picture…" Hermione continued to look through the wallet, pulling out several notes of muggle money and the wizard coins that Harry had become used to carrying around with him. "Oh look! -No… that's just a receipt…" she slammed another wad of paper on the desk, as well as the now empty wallet.
"Is it the only thing…?" Harry took the photograph from Ron.
"Yes, Harry; it's the only picture in your wallet."
"You've got to let him use it, Hermione," Ron stated blatently. "You said yourself that we can't let him fail the assignment. Even if we don't know what it's for, it can't be tremendously embarrassing."
"Look, Hermione." Harry laughed. "If you don't want me to use the picture, I won't. I don't care if I get a bad grade on one assignment; I can bring something next class."
"Fine!" said the girl abruptly, resting her head in her hands. "Use the stupid photo; just don't- show it to anyone."
Harry grinned. "Thanks, Hermione."
Ron smiled as well, tipping his chair backwards on its two hind legs; "Really, I bet the only person to see it will be Professor Sinistra."
"Ron, don't tip your chair," Hermione said curtly, but the boy only grinned.
At that moment the teacher reached their group to collect the photos. She took Ron's, as well as Hermione's, without more than a nod. When she reached Harry, however, his picture drew a genuine smile to her face. "Mr. Potter, you won't believe how happy I am to see a photo of something else than someone's parents. This is of you, is it not, Miss Granger?" Hermione turned slightly red and sank lower in her seat, nodding meekly. Harry visualized the picture; the one he had taken during quidditch tryouts, and smiled. Ron grinned just as hard as Harry, thinking of how much Hermione disliked the picture, his chair wobbling dangerously on its two hind legs.
Sinistra continued; "Yes, I always thought it would be wonderful to have someone who really cared about me paste my picture among the stars. What a beautiful sky this photo will make. The whole world will be able to admire it."
Harry could have sworn that his heart skipped a beat, and Hermione, sitting next to him, turned an even brighter red. Their reactions however, were nothing compared to the tremendous crash that echoed throughout the room when Ron, who never thought it possible, finally lost balance and fell out of his chair.