4. Declaration of War

"But he's so… MMM!" said Rochelle.

"Okay, Rochie, you have thirty more seconds to rant about Lukas, then SHUT UP!" said Cassie.

"No. But hahhhhhh you need to see him-"

"Silencio."

"THANK YOU!" said Lily D, Lily E, Emily, Sirius, James, and Remus as Rochelle continued to babble on without a voice. Soon, she smacked Cassie on the head.

"Ow!"

"Remus sighed. "It's only rule-abiding to give her back her voice." Groans were heard around the table as he muttered the countercurse,

"-HAAAAAAAAAH!" (she really should sort out that orgasm problem.)

"If I stab you will you shut up?" asked Cassie, annoyed.

James and Sirius, meanwhile, glanced at the Slytherin table eagerly.

"Should we wait til' tomorrow?" questioned Sirius.

"It's too good to wait for," said James excitedly.

"You're right."

"Aren't I always?"

Sirius decided to ignore that.

Emily sighed. "I neeeeeeeeeeeed a date to the ball!"

"Go with Peter," snickered Cassie.

"OVER MY DEAD BODY!" yelled Emily, pissed off at this point. People stared at the scene. "I'll find someone by tomorrow, that's how cool I am."

"I'll bet you ten galleons on that one," said Cassie.

"Be prepared to hand over the money then," said Emily, shaking hands with Cssie. Cassie snickered.

"I have a much sweeter bet than that," said Lily D. evilly. "If you have a date by tomorrow, I'll give you twenty galleons. If you don't, I get five galleons and. . ."

There was a cliffhanging pause.

". . .you have to go with Pettigrew."

"NO WAY!" shouted Emily at the top of her lungs.

"What? Don't think you can do it?" There was an evil, twisted pleasure in Lily's smirk.

"Deal," said Emily with gritted teeth as she shook hands with lily.

At that exact moment, a high pitched scream was heard from the Slytherin table. Eyes darted over there to see a student rising high into the air.

The body shot back down across the table, splattering food all over the Slytherins. And soon the body, Severus Snape, collided directly into Lucius Malfoy and they both toppled over.

Peter Pettigrew screamed bloody murder and ran out of the Great Hall, bumping into what seemed to be thin air. Soon two pairs of legs were visible. It happened so quickly people blinked and the four legs were gone.

Everything from Snape's past made sense now. He knew better than to think the four legs was a hallucination. He knew it was an invisibility cloak, and he knew exactly who was under it.

"That was bloody brilliant what you did to Snape," Cassie said to Sirius and James in the common room.

"Now, what makes you think it was us?" said James.

"Who else would do that?"

"Good question," said Sirius.

Emily ran all around the common room frantically asking guys to the ball. All were taken; John Patil, Erando Brown, Richard Goldbond, Terry Jordan, Jacob Johnson, Lloyd Bell, and Ronan Florington.

"DOESN'T ANYBODY NOT HAVE A DATE?" cried Emily.

"Oh you know I'd go with you, Em, but I have my mind on the yummy Lukas Lovegood," said Rochele. Emily frowned.

"But he's lame and said he isn't going most likely."

"I have my ways to get him to go with- wait, how'd you know what he said?"

"Uuuhh, I guessed."

"Emily-"

"I know all! Teehee! Uh, gotta go," and Emily darted off. Meanwhile, Cassie and Lily D sat in the back of the common room.

"A toast," said Cassie, "to Emily losing her bet."

"Cheers," said Lily, as their glasses of butterbeer that James and Sirius got them chimed together. They both laughed and walked up the stairs to their dormitory.

Throughout the next day, Emily avoided Lily and Cassie, determined to find someone dateless. As she ran across the corridors between classes, she ran into Cassie.

"So. . . got boy?" said Lily, smirking.

"Yep."

"Who?

"Teehee, I'M NOT TELLING YOU!" She made an effort to run away.

"Why, look, there's Peter. PE-"

"Shhh, ok so I didn't get a date." She handed Cassie ten galleons and Lily five. "But you really wouldn't do this to your friend, would you?' Emily's eyes had a cry for help in them hat made Cassie said, "Aww, Lil just let her have 'til the end of the day-"

"Nooo," said Lily. Emily brought out a fifty galleon coin.

"Well if your insist," said Lily, taking the coin. Relief spread across Emily's face.

Rochelle approached Lukas. "Hello," she said kindly.

He nodded slightly.

"This is odd. Aren't you due in Potions right now?" asked Rochelle.

"You appear to be stalking ,e."

"No. Never. Do you ever take off your sunglasses?"

"No."

"Well I say you start."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"DAMNIT I JUST WANT TO SEE YOUR EYES!" exclaimed Rochelle. He slowly removed his sunglasses. And they both stared into one another's eyes. It seemed to be forever until something interrupted the staring. His hand slowly laced with hers.

At that moment a boy ran into the library, where Rochelle and Lukas were. Lukas quickly let go on Rochelle, with so much force he caused her to fall onto the ground and hit her head against the wall. He instantly threw back on his shades.

"Who's the girl?" asked the boy. Lukas led him out of the library.

"She keeps stalking me," said Lukas coldly. As he left the library, Rochelle's eyes filled with hurt, a damn lot of it. Nobody saw her in classes the rest of the day.

"Where's Rochelle?" asked Cassie at dinner.

"Dunno," replied Emily. They both looked over at the Ravenclaw table. She wasn't near Lukas.

"Odd. . ." said Cassie, feeling a very bad vibe. She walked over to the Ravenclaw table to Lukas.

"Do you know where Rochelle is?" she asked.

Lukas raised his eyebrows. "Do I know you?" he asked.

"I'm Rochelle's friend Cassie. Do you know where she is?"

"Not a clue," he said, his head still not turning to look at Cassie.

"Okay, thanks," said Cassie, walking away.

"Who's Rochelle?" whispered Lukas's friend.

"The annoying girl stalking me. She obviously really wants to go to the ball with me."

"Well, are you gonna go with her? She's not that bad looki-"

"Not a chance." Cassie overheard it all. She flooded with emotions running fastly knowing this kid was going to hurt Rochelle. Badly.

Snape cut off James and Sirius in the hall.

"I know it was you," he said angrily.

"Hmm?" said James.

"It was you that did that to me."

"Did what?" asked Sirius innocently.

"YOU KNOW DAMN RIGHT!" Snape said, shaking with anger.

"Nope, sorry," said James, yawning.

"You will pay, Potter. You. Will. Pay."

"Right-o," said James boredly, as he and Sirius walked away, leaving Snape panting in annoyance.

"Would you go with anyone before going alone to the ball?" Lily D asked Emily.

"Yes."

"Go with Peter."

"No, I've told you a million-"

"You said anybody."

"Peter is nobody," said Emily.

"Good point," replied Lily.

Cassie walked into the cold, shadowy extra classroom. "Rochelle?"

"Cassie? What are you doing here?"

"Rochelle! What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

Rochelle sighed deeply. "It's nothing important."

"Come on, Rochie, I'm your best friend, you know you can always tell me things and I'll always listen. Is it about Lukas?"

"How'd you know?"

"Wild guess."

"Well today. . . I was in the library with him and we had a. . . moment. Staring into each other's eyes. It was as if there was nothing, nothing but us. I can still feel exactly the feeling it was with him holding my hand, fingers laced, like he liked me as much as I like him, but I was wrong. As soon as his friend walked by he dropped me. He let me hit my head against the cold wall. He didn't bother to ask if I was okay. H ejust left, telling his friend I'm a stalker."

". . .Wow. . ." said Cassie. "I-I don't know what to say. . ."

"I might as well go to the ball with Emily."

"Rochelle, can't you see he's trying to impress his friends? It's not like he doesn't like you. He does. There's a strong connection. He just chooses to ignore it. But when you two are alone, there's a force between you two that you can't let go of."

"So do you think he'd go to the ball with me?"

"I'm not sure. But I have a feeling a lot, and I mean a LOT is going to happen between you two, just. . . in secret. Now why don't you come to the kitchens with me? I'll sneak you some food. You must be starving."

"Ugh, need, date," mumbled Emily. She darted around the halls. Her eyes caught a glimpse of someone.

"Hey," she said.

"Hello," he said kindly.

"Are you going to the ball?"

"Yeah."

"Do you have a date?"

"No."

"Wanna go with me?"

"Well, I'm waiting for these girls to tell me if they'll go with me, but if they don't-"

"Screw it," said Emily, walking away.

"Wait!" She didn't wait.

Sirius walked to the men's room. On his way, he felt slime all over his hair.

"My precious hair!" he cried.

Lucius Malfoy smirked evilly. "I hear you're the one who's been messing with me and Snape. Well be warned, this is now war."

"Damn greaseball," said Sirius, trying desperately to fix his hair.