Sakura: Ah ok. I was trying to think of an analogy of some sort to use and that was about all I could come up with. Lol. Thanks for the review! Reviews are fun and happiful!
Illegitimate Carborundum need not apply - (blink) ...was that meant to be hurtful? Oops, sorry mate, it didn't quite work. A pity you couldn't come up with your own insults though... copying and pasting from a website isn't quite what I'd call original... isn't that counted as plagiarism?
Aidyl: Yay! You can understand it! Thanks!
Angela: That's for me to know, and for you to find out. Lol. :)
HGDM lova: Haha... cliff-hangers are fun! Unfortunately for you, there's gonna be quite a few more if I can help it. :D
: Indeed :D
The Great and Almighty Po: Dunno why, but I seem to like writing stories about the past. Lol oh well. Glad you think it's pretty good! Maybe after I'm finished this one, I'll do a fic in the present time.
Lauren: Yay thanx!
Thankyou to everyone who dropped in helpful or nice reviews. Reviews that are good are fun!
Food Fight!
Verity sat in class, dimly listening to Professor McGonagall go on about the NEWTs.
"This year is your most important," Professor McGonagall announced clearly. "This is the year you will study hard and push yourself further than you have before."
Verity stared out the window dully. She hadn't been able to get much sleep in the past week. Nightmares had been coming and going every now and then, keeping her awake. She blinked slowly, looking out the window at the blue sky sleepily.
"Now, onto Hogsmeade..." the professor's voice cut in. She glanced up at the teacher, who cleared her throat before continuing. "The next visit is next week, on Sunday." A chorus of cheers rang out from the students. "As usual, please behave yourselves."
Something hit Verity in the back of the head. "Ow!" she cried, pulling the folded note out of her brown hair and smoothing out the crinkles.
"Please come with me to Hogsmeade next week... I'll be good and won't curse anyone! xx James xx"
Verity raised an eyebrow and looked back at a very red-faced James. He pointed to Lily, who was sitting next to Verity. "For her" he mouthed.
Sirius, sitting next to him grinned and nudged him. Verity smiled, turning back to the Professor and passed the note to Lily, who gave a small sigh. She scrunched the note up and dropped it on the floor, while James, crestfallen, drooped his head in defeat and started to scribble down the notes the professor was writing on the board.
A small scrap of paper hit him in the forehead. He looked at it in astonishment.
"Fine"
"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" he shouted, jumping out of his seat and waving the paper above his head. A startled Professor McGonagall stared at him, as did all of the Griffindors and Ravenclaws.
"Mr Potter, are you quite alright?" the teacher asked slowly.
James blushed deeper. He could see Sirius, Remus and Peter trying not to burst into fits of laughter. "Yes..." he mumbled.
"Then please seat yourself and stop disrupting the class." she said sharply.
He sank back down, embarrassed, but pleased.
Verity and Lily sat in the Great Hall, giggling as they told the others of James's escapade during Transfiguration. James, sitting nearby, glared at them.
"Not my fault!" he called. "But will you really come with me?" he questioned Lily. "Cause if you're just playing with me, I'll set Sirius on you!"
Sirius glanced up from his meal, surprised. "What am I, a pet dog to you or something?"
James shrugged. "Almost." Then he turned back to Lily. "So... will you?"
Lily sighed, for the second time that day. "I said fine, didn't I?"
Sirius gave a short laugh and slapped James on the back. "Well done, mate! You got a girl to go out with you after two years straight of asking!" He then turned his attention back to the gathering of girls. "And speaking of going out, dya reckon you'd want to go out with me to Hogsmeade, Verity?"
She dropped the spring roll that she'd been eating. "What?"
Sirius shrugged. "If you wanted to..." he began eating his lunch again.
Verity turned a bright red colour that made Emily stare at her. "Verity's a tomato!" she giggled.
Verity went redder. "Shut up." she mumbled. Looking around for her bag, she realised she couldn't find it. Then, she spied it under the table a few seats along. She pulled her timetable out of her bag and looked at it. Arithmancy. Bleugh. "I have to go now…" she said automatically, "Arithmancy next."
Lily looked up. "Meet you there, I still want to eat."
Verity left the Hall and started to travel upwards along the majestic staircases, and upon finding the classroom, she sat down in her regular seat in the middle row. Pulling out her workbook and scroll, a scrap of paper fell from the book.
BACK OFF FROM SIRIUS OR I WILL RIP OFF YOUR HEAD AND SHOVE IT DOWN WHAT REMAINS OF YOUR THROAT
She blinked. "Violent..." she murmured, tossing the note out the window. Other students began to file in the room, and so did the teacher, thus beginning the lesson.
Miranda Cerritus was seated directly behind Verity and took the opportunity to throw things at her whilst the teacher wasn't looking. It was finally when Miranda's ink pot came flying through the air, dousing her in thick blue ink, she lost her patience.
"Quit it!" she screamed. "Aargh now I'm covered in ink!" she narrowed her eyes venomously at the blonde girl trying to look innocent from behind her.
"Oh dear..." Professor Vector said quietly, staring at Verity and the dark blue ink running over her arms. "I think you should go and clean up. Miss Cerritus, you should have been more careful than that, letting your ink well fall off your table as such. Five points from Ravenclaw."
Verity gathered her bags and ran from the classroom, down to the Girl's Toilets. Dumping her bag, she cast off her cloak. In frustration, she dumped her cloak in the sink and started to scrub at it.
Cleaning spells could probably remove the stains in a second, but spells weren't allowed in the corridors between classes and this was technically the case.
"Boo!" a scratchy voice echoed from behind her.
Verity jumped, clutching the wet material to her chest and swivelled around to see Moaning Myrtle floating near the ceiling. "Sod off!" she shrieked.
Myrtle shrugged. "Made you look..." she sniggered before disappearing into one of the cubicles. Verity let out a short breath and started scrubbing at her clothes.
Verity arrived at dinner fuming. The ink wouldn't come out of her cloak (which wasn't so bad considering the cloak was black and the dark blue ink wasn't considerably noticeable) but what really got her into a rage was that she'd just realised her hair was blue as well.
The blue haired girl stormed to Griffindor Table and sat down, piling her plate with pies, pastries and everything in sight except for the tripe. Lily gaped at her.
"You're blue!" she cried in amazement "Well, your hair is, at least...how?
Verity glared at her. "Miranda chucked her ink well at me. I think she is displeased with me."
Lily snorted. "No kidding..."
Verity started to pile her plate with food when someone came up form behind her. "Hi, Miss Blue," Sirius said. "So you coming to Hogsmeade?"
Verity hesitated. She knew Miranda could be terribly vicious towards people, she'd already seen that. She was sure the note was from her. She shrugged the manipulating blonde from her mind. "Uh, sure..."
He grinned. "Great!" he strode off to where the rest of the boys were and sat down to eat.
Lily gave a little sigh. "Oi, Verity, you-know-who's giving death glares to a particular someone..."
Verity looked up at the Ravenclaw table and noticed a little blonde girl staring at her in hatred, and wondered...
What had she started?
One fine Sunday morning, a week later, Verity and Lily met James and Sirius and set off towards Hogsmeade. James kept stuttering to the amusement of the two girls, while Sirius was quite cool and collected. Halfway they were joined by some more of the girl's friends.
"Honeydukes! Honeydukes!" Emily Apylbie was chanting over and over. "Chocolate Frogs! Sugar Quills! Peppermint thingos! Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans! Pumpkin Pastries!"
Verity half listened to Emily rave off about candy and chocolate, as she looked over at several banners hanging from some of the old buildings.
HOGMANAY FESTIVAL COMING SOON! DEMAND CHOCOLATE!
Emily was sure to catch sight of that. "Hogmanay! A festival held on the last day of the year where children everywhere are allowed to demand chocolate and other candies from the adults! ...Although they may be cancelling it in a few years because the stupid people up at the ministry say that it makes children disrespectful to their elders. Pah!"
"Oh... how awful..." Verity murmured absent-mindedly. She'd had several nightmares during the past week, disrupting her sleep terribly; all consisting of a tall thin man. He was hidden in the mist to Verity, and no matter how hard she ran, he wouldn't appear and closer, or anymore clearly to her. He was a mystery.
"We're here!" Emily cried. "I'm going to Honeydukes now see you later!" she called as she tore off down the street, her money jingling in her pocket.
Lily started to laugh. "Oh well... we're off too..." she looped her arm through James's. "This is bound to be a disaster, but at least I'm free of the nagging!"
So Verity was left alone with Sirius, in the middle of the main street in Hogsmeade. "So... what do you want to do?" Verity asked, uncertain.
"Well... I was hoping to give you these..." he swept one hand from behind his back and produced a bunch of big purple tulips. (A/N: yes Lydia, I'm looking at you...lol)
"Oh... thankyou!" she stammered. "That's really... sweet of you."
Someone pushed roughly past Verity, knocking her to the ground. With a little screech, she dropped the flowers and landed on her tailbone painfully. Moaning, she rolled around onto her stomach and tried to get up, but was pushed to the ground again.
"Oh! I'm soo sorry!" come the silky voice of Miranda. "Didn't see you there." she laughed scornfully, winking at Sirius, before striding off giggling.
Sirius helped Verity up. "I'm sorry," he apologised. "She's just being a bitch because we used to be dating but then we broke up because she was cheating on me; I think she's taking it out on you."
"Really? I didn't quite notice." Verity sighed.
"Well, let's have something to eat then," Sirius shrugged.
At the end of the day, Verity trudged back into the Griffindor Common Room, tired, but happy. Lily caught sight of her.
"So how was it?" she asked eagerly.
"How was what?"
"The date!"
"What date?"
Lily rolled her eyes. "You and Sirius, duh."
"Oh that... that wasn't a date, just a get together, really. How about you?"
Lily half-shrugged. "Turns out James isn't as big a jerk as I originally thought he was."
"Wow..."
Crystal Shore came through the portrait hole suddenly.
"Oi, all of you... dinner's coming soon. You better get down to the Great Hall."
Verity and Lily nodded, following Crystal down to dinner.
Crystal dropped behind Lily and moved closer to Verity as they walked.
"Hey... I heard you were going out with Sirius..." she murmured.
Verity rolled her eyes. "Why is everyone interrogating me?"
"I'm not interrogating you... just offering advice."
Verity stopped, as did Crystal. Lily didn't notice and kept going down the corridor. "What?"
Crystal bit her lip. "Just... he asked you out like last week... and people have been talking. Sirius is a heartbreaker. He's gone out with half the bimbos in the year... not that you are one, of course," she added hastily at Verity expression. "It's just... be careful, that's all. No-one wants to see you get hurt."
They continued down the silent corridors and entered the Great Hall. Lily was waiting, and waved energetically at Verity. "Lasagne!" she called.
Verity sat awkwardly on the seat, avoiding any glances her way.
People have been talking...
"Bet Miranda started that." she thought miserably. Throwing away any bad thoughts, she started shovelling food into her mouth, hoping for a more quiet night than day.
Things never really turn out how you want.
"Hiya, freak." Yes, it was Miranda.
"Sod off."
"Why should I?" she sulked. "You made Sirius leave me."
Verity turned in exasperation to the surly blonde behind her. "You did that yourself," she said curtly.
"You think you're so smart," Miranda hissed. "But just you wait... I'll have the last laugh."
"He who laughs last thinks slowest." Verity scoffed. Most of the people surrounding them stopped eating and started to stare.
"Go to hell."
"Ooh that really hurt my feelings."
"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit."
"Oh, sorry I thought that was you?"
Back and forth it went, quite like an annoyingly even tennis match. Back and forth, back and forth until...
"Did you know you're depriving some village of it's idiot?" Verity wondered aloud.
"You're just a schizophrenic bitch!" Miranda cried.
"Beats being alone."
Miranda picked up a glass and threw it at Verity, drenching her in apple juice.
Verity (and those who were gathered around, watching for entertainment) gasped, and retaliated by pitching her glass at Miranda. Miranda ducked, and the sticky substance splattered itself all over Lila Sapientia.
Lila screamed at threw her omelette at Verity, who also ducked, with the omelette therefore wrapping itself around Emily Apylbie, who reacted by hurling her dinner at Lila.
The flying plate and its contents flew through the air, hitting Miranda, who shrieked and threw it back. It hit Sirius.
"Omigod, Sirius I'm so - "
SPLAT.
Sirius, who actually seemed to be enjoying this, pushed Miranda's face into his pie. Miranda swung around blindly, whacking James fair across the side of the head. He picked up his pie and aimed for her, but unfortunately hit Lily.
Lily, coated with cream and bits of peach, hurled a tray of chicken drumsticks at James.
The chicken drumsticks flew off the plate (which actually did hit its mark, to the annoyance of James) but the food went flying everywhere, hitting nearly everyone on the Griffindor table.
The Griffindors retaliated upon one another, which soon spread to the entire hall. Shouts of "food fight!" echoed through the vast room.
The teachers were rushing through the hall, trying to stop it all, but to no avail.
Miranda was screaming with rage as she tackled Verity and pulled her to the floor. Verity struggled, trying to get away, but Miranda kept her down.
"Let me go!" she shrieked. "Sod off!"
Miranda held Verity's arms against the floor. "If I were you, I'd be very careful." she warned. "I'm not dumb. If you cross me again, I will hurt you badly."
Verity felt the pressure come off her arms and saw Miranda jogging off past the fighting students and their food.
A deafening bang exploded from the front of the hall. Professor McGonagall was at the front, surrounded by all the other teachers. They looked mad.
Uh oh.
Author's Note:
Sorry it took so long! Really, I am. Don't blame me, blame the education system and their evil tests and assignments! And English teachers and their love of debates. Debating sux! Haha Lydia you're next. :-)
Pleeeeease review! Reviews are really uplifting for writers. Yay!
Thanks to Lauren, Carmenand Lydia for checking this before I posted!
Little-Kity
