"She is a bitch," Jim declared as he sat down angrily at the Gryffindor table in the great hall. "I can't believe I wanted to sleep with her."

Matt laughed.

"It's not funny. You know, she wouldn't even be that pretty if she didn't have that red hair," Jim proclaimed. He pulled out his potions book. "There has to be something in here to make her hair fall out or something."

"Oooo, give her Medusa snakes for hair," Matt added. "There is a potion for that."

"Yeah, in the restricted section of the library," Jim replied dully. Professor Snape had mentioned it during one of their classes a few years ago and Jim hadn't really given it much thought before now. He thought for a moment whether he'd be able to get it and how much trouble he could really get in if he did it. "It would be worth it though, wouldn't it?"

"Your funeral if she finds out it was you, Jimmy" Tychus added skeptically.

"Hmmm, that's a point," Matt added. "Are you sure you want to risk it? She is dangerous."

"We all know there were extenuating circumstances around her killing that professor," Jim said dryly, the school had been rife with rumors about the new students. "Sounds like all hell broke lose and it could have simply been self defense. Besides, I'm confident she's all talk."

"That mouth can be pretty lethal," Matt added with a smirk. "Oink oink."

Jim shot Matt a look before pulling out his Defence Against the Dark Arts homework. "So...," he began to formulate an idea in his head. "I'm thinking I need to read around some of the topics on this week's homework," he grinned as he placed his book on the table. "I'll get permission from Professor Lupin and get that potion," he summed up proudly.

Tychus shook his head slowly, knowing it was a bad idea. "Awful lot of trouble for a pretty girl," he added.

Jim frowned. He didn't want to think of her as 'a pretty girl'. She was a bitch. Pure and simple. She deserved taking down a peg or two.

Tychus saw that determined look in Jim's eye and decided to support him. "Oh, hell, Jimmy. So, this potion, if I remember it has to be ingested. How do you even hope to make her eat it?" he asked.

Jim let a small laugh escape from his lips.

Tychus narrowed his eyes. "You know what I mean."

"She'll sense it from you in a second if she reads your mind," Matt added sceptically. "Which you know she will."

"We need someone who doesn't know the plan to distract her," Jim smirked and he looked across the room towards Ariel's table.

The following day...

"You bitch!" Ariel screamed at Sarah as she headed towards the Slytherin table. "I know it was you."

Sarah looked towards the brunette and vaguely recognized her as one of pig-boy's friends - his former? girlfriend no less. She stood, "what was me?" She could feel the brunette's rage and accusations but not the reason for them without looking deeper - something she wasn't sure she wanted to do knowing she'd slept with pig-boy.

"Don't try and deny it," she said coldly. "You were seen."

Sarah could tell Leah had told Ariel it was Sarah - but still not what it was. There was no love loss between Sarah and Leah - they'd seen each other around a number of times at the Academy but nothing more. Leah wasn't fond of Nova and thus Sarah had never had reason to make friends with her either. "I still don't..." she raised her arm as she sensed Ariel was about to slap her and blocked her.

Ariel's anger flared at being denied her attack. "You liar," she shouted. "You wrote on the toilet walls about me!"

Sarah laughed. "I wouldn't do anything so childish." She released Ariel's hand.

"You are the only person in this school who dislikes Jim," Ariel surmised as she debated with herself whether or not to try going for that slap again.

"What does pig-boy have anything to do with this?" she asked confused. She remained on guard ready for Ariel's slap.

Ariel tutted. "I can tell you are lying by the very fact you are denying it. We all know you can read minds. You would know why I'm angry even if you hadn't done it," Ariel said angrily and thought back to the words she had read on the wall.

Sarah's mouth dropped as she finally saw in Ariel's mind why she was angry. "'Jim Raynor pays Ariel Hanson for sex'," she said the words that had been written. She found herself stifling a giggle.

"You bitch!" Ariel repeated and took a swing for her again.

"Wait wait wait," a Hufflepuff student with pink hair came running over. "Leah is lying," she told Ariel.

Sarah, still holding Ariel's wrist, looked at the pink haired girl and had no idea who she was.

"Jim's friend, Matt, broke up with Leah, so she's taking it out on Matt and his friends," the pink haired one explained.

"Are you sure, Mira?" Ariel asked although she kept looking at Sarah.

"It was probably Leah that wrote that and tried to get the psych... the redhead involved because she knows her and Jim have a thing," Mira explained with a smirk.

"We do not have a thing," Sarah corrected her coldly.

Ariel looked intensely at Sarah. "Keep away from Jim," she warned. "He's a nice guy and I don't want to see him get hurt."

Sarah said nothing and simply looked back at her.

Ariel turned and left, followed my Mira.

Sarah sat down and took a swig of her pumpkin juice. The students at this school were children. As far as she could work out: Jim dated Ariel and Matt dated Mira, the pink haired one. Then Matt dated Leah and they broke up. So Leah took it out on Matt and his friends. Ariel and Mira were still friends with Jim and Matt and thus all became targets of Leah. Leah also disliked Nova - so, as Nova's best friend, Sarah herself became another target of Leah's vengeance (probably). Sarah laughed to herself - Leah was more unstable than she was.

Jim made it outside the great hall and removed the invisibility cloak. "Done," he said proudly to Tychus and Matt as he shook the empty vial; it's contents now mixed in Sarah's pumkin juice.

Matt knew Jim owed him one, and he owed Leah a HUGE one for lying to Ariel and he now owed Mira one for lying to her too.

Jim threw the cloak over his shoulder and swaggered proudly back to his dorm.

I went with Lupin as the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, not because I want this set during Harry Potter's third year, but because I think he'd be more willing to give Jim permission to use the restricted section more than other DADA teachers. Plus I like Lupin.