Author's Note: Thank you to the people who reviewed! In paticular, I would like to hug iloveeRW! huggles Yay! And thank you to whoever else is reading this and didn't review. Oh, and I enabled 'Anonymous Review' so if you don't have an account, but still read my story, please be sure to write me a little something! Anyways, enjoy the chapter, this one is mostly blah-blah too (sorry, but character establishment is very important to me) As always, peace out and power to the peoples!
Revenge Of The Misfits
Chapter 6
The next morning, Sarah awoke to a much more peaceful start, the clock chiming through the window she had forgotten to close last night. Fresh September air blew through, ruffling the girls' hair as they snored peacefully. Sarah rolled over, and fumbled for her glasses. Finally grabbing them, she picked up her digital watch and saw that it was 6 AM. She briefly considered going back to sleep, but decided to get ready early to avoid Pavarti's morning antics.
She took a quick shower to try not to wake her room-mates, and came out looking like a drowned rat. There was no water pressure, so Sarah stole Lavander's hair gel to get her hair in gentle waves around her shoulders. Then she layered on more eyeliner and black shadow before pulling on the much despised uniform. Since today was a bit warmer than yesterday, Sarah left her large black robe in her trunk, only wearing the normal gray sweater, skirt, and white blouse. She delibrately 'forgot' her tie, and quietly left the Gryffindor tower.
Sarah slowly wove her way through the main corridors, trying to remember the directions Ron gave her yesterday on how to get to the Great Hall. There was something about a tapestry with dancing trolls, and a bust of Godric Gryffindor, but to Sarah it was all hopeless. She remembered that the lake was on the north side of the castle, and found a window to look out of, deducing that to reach the Great Hall, she would have to turn left at the next hallway. Finally, she reached the huge marble staircase, which already was crowded with students talking before heading off to class. Sarah ran down the stairs, and slipped into the Great Hall, recognizing Harry at the Gryffindor table and took a seat across from him.
"Hello." he quietly said while eating scrambled eggs, and Sarah stabbed a piece of bacon with her fork. For the first time in her life, she really didn't have anything to say. I mean, what were you supposed to say to 'The Boy Who Lived?'
So they ate together in silence, watching a large eagle owl deliver a large package of candy to a Slytherin girl. Sarah wished she would get mail, but knew that she wouldn't for a while because James lived all the way in Paris, France, which wasn't exactly an overnight flight. Oh well. Maybe Aunt Marty might send her something from back home.
Sarah picked up her Herbology book, since she had that class first, and read the first chapter on the care of Venemous Tentaculas. Finally, the bell struck eight, and Harry left for the second floor without a word of good-bye. Sarah grabbed an apple, and headed out on the grounds. It was a beautiful day outside, the sky was blue and completely cloud free. The grass was still slightly damp with dew, and Sarah squelched across it towards the greenhouses. She reached them first, and took a seat in the second row of potted plants. A few minutes later, Ron and Semus joined her, still yawning from the early hour.
"G'morning," Seamus muttered, stifling a yawn. Sarah turned her attention to the plump woman who was standing up front. She had fly-away gray hair, which was pinned up mostly under a patched hat. She wore faded green robes, and worn dragon skin gloves too.
"Hello, class." she kindly called to them, and they answered:
"Good morning Professor Sprout." in unison. The woman smiled at them.
"Well, let's dig right in, shall we? Today we will be planting potting Mandrakes, or Mandragora. It is used to return people who have been transfigured or cursed to their normal states. Now, the cry of a grown Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it, so be sure to wear these earmuffs." Everybody grabbed the earmuffs, and yanked hard on the little grass stems, pulling up ugly, muddy, and extremely ugly looking babies. Sarah was revolted, and immediately stuffed it into a new pot. Ron was having a hard time with his, since it was fairly fat and wouldn't fit. The hour was pretty entertaining, but Sarah was glad when it was over. Sweaty and exausted already, Ron and Sarah stomped back up to the castle together.
"That was brutal," she moaned as they slowly climbed the staircase to the fifth floor to the History of Magic room. Upon reaching the door, Ron warned her that this class was extremely boring, and to be exta nice to Hermione so she would let them copy her notes. Sarah whole heartadly agreed with Ron that the class was boring, and fell asleep on her desk halfway through. At the end of the hour, Hermione had to poke her awake and drag her down the stairs to lunch.
"I hate Tuesdays." Sarah decided. Ron sighed.
"At least we have Dark Arts next!" He happily said, and Sarah immediately brightened on the prospect of seeing Professor Salotti again. She couldn't wait, and ate her lunch in ten minutes, rushing to the third floor leaving Ron behind in the dust.
Jumping up the stairs two at a time, Sarah ran up, only to suddenly feel the staircase begin to shift! Her foot sunk through a stair, all the way up to her knee.
"Oh crap!" the blonde witch exclaimed, and the staircase suddenly dislodged completely from linking the third and second floors, and floated up to the ninth and tenth. Sarah groaned, and tugged on her leg, but was unable to get it loose. Looking at her watch, Sarah saw that class started fifteen minutes ago, and the huge cathedral of staircases was empty of students who might help her out, or come this way. Sarah sighed, and shifted on to her bottom in to a more comfortable position. She rested her head on her arms, and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
By now, Sarah had fallen asleep from sheer boredom. She was dreaming that she was dancing with Draco while Professor Sprout played the bagpipes, and a house elf floated around the ceiling clutching on to a balloon.
Meanwhile, back in the commonroom, Ron was getting worried.
"Where could she be?" he asked Harry. "She missed the entire afternoon's lessons, and missed dinner! I hope she didn't get kidnapped or something." Ron stopped pacing across the red carpet. "Oh no, she was kidnapped!"
"What!" Harry blurted out. "When did you decide that?"
Ginny sighed in exasperation from next to Harry on the couch. "She probably just got lost or something. If you want, we can go look for her now."
Hermione was outraged. "No, we can't! It's past nine o'clock! It's against the rules!" Everybody rolled their eyes at this.
Harry was the first to speak up. "Fine. Ron can go, because he knows his way around the upper floors. I bet that a staircase moved on her, and she got lost. You can take the invisibility cloak too, just in case." Ron nodded, and ran up the stairs to fetch it.
Hermione crossed her arms and pouted in her armchair, the flames making ghastly shadows on her face. Harry pulled his Transfiguration essay towards him, and began to work. Ginny smirked at Hermione. "Looks like somebody's jealous!"
"Am not!" Hermione exclaimed in shock. Why would she be jealous of some random Scottish girl who Ron happened to be currently obsessed with? "Oh no...I am jealous!" Hermione moaned, and held her head in her hands. Behind them, the portrait hole swung open, and the Fat Lady shouted "Who's there?" to no answer.
Several floors above, Sarah was awake again, and trying to entertain herself. "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer! Take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall..." She enormously yawned, and checked her watch again. Nine-fourty. If she was found by a teacher or a prefect, she was going to be in a lot of trouble. Sarah took a deep breath again and started to sing again.
"Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall..."
Four floors below, Ron heard a horriable voice screeching out an extremely annoying song, and started to climb back up the stairs. He held his breath as a Ravenclaw prefect passed, listening to an iPod while patroling the corridors. The guy didn't even notice the vase mysteriously knocking over when Ron dodged around him.
Ron continued up the staircases, and finally found his friend. Sarah was flopped out sideways on the stairs, her right leg dangling down through the vanishing step. "Ninety-six bottles of beer!"
"Stop singing, you'll break a window!" Ron muttered, pulling off the invisibility cloak. Sarah screeched, and jumped slightly, tumbling off the step.
"Where'd you come from?" she gasped. "Is that an invisibility cloak? Wow..."
"I borrowed it." Ron absently told her. "Where have you been?"
Sarah blushed slightly. "Well, I fell down the stairs, and this damn step sunk through! And then the whole staircase floated up here, and I fell asleep, and here I sit." Ron blinked at the stupidity of the story. "Yup."
"Get up," he told Sarah in an annoyed voice, and grabbed her arm to help her. Then he tugged her foot from the vanishing step, and they walked up the stairs together.
"I think there's a passage down to the sixth floor behind a painting up here..." Ron told her, and Sarah followed him closely, looking around the tenth floor. It was really dusty, and the walls were mostly bare. The torches didn't give off any light, they just emitted smoke which blinded them further in the darkness.
"Urg!" Sarah disgustedly ripped through a cobweb with one hand, and pulled out her wand. "Lumos!" And the corridor was lit with a thin, silver white light emitting from her wand tip. Sarah peered around further, and bent down to tie her shoe. Hastily finished, she looked up, and met two big, yellow eyes.
"Aaaah!" She howled, and jumped backwards. A tabby cat was slinking around in the shadows, and Ron's eyes widened.
"Mrs. Norris! RUN!" he yelped, and bolted down the corridor. The cat hissed at Sarah, baring it's teeth, and she leaped up and ran after the wizard. She suddenly didn't see Ron anymore after she turned down the curving corridor, and felt something grab her ankle, pulling her down.
"Shh!" Ron said, crouching in a dusty corner. He pulled her down next to him, and draped the cloak over them both. They couldn't stand up, or their height would give them away by showing their shoes. So they both curled up under the cloak, while a new person walked down the corridor.
"Which way did they go, my sweet?" the caretaker asked the cat in a sickly voice. She was suddenly aware of how loud her breathing was, and Ron covered her mouth with his hand to muffle the sound. The cat was meowing as it padded towards them. Sarah really desired to jump out and kick the thing, but fought the urge and curled up closer to Ron. Couldn't the cat smell them?
The caretaker rounded the corner, and man was he ugly! His hair was long and greasy, but balding on the top. He was wearing old and moldy robes that once may have been forest green, and looked like he hadn't shaven or showered since the sixties. Both the teen's eyes were as big as saucers thinking of how much trouble they would be in if they were caught. Sarah didn't want to go back to the trailer park! She liked Hogwarts, and wanted to get to know all her new friends more! Ron was thinking of how his mother would kill him if he got expelled, and was reminded of the Howler she sent him in his second year.
Filch reached out with a gnarled hand, and grabbed at their corner, snatching off the cloak. "Ah HA!" he cackled, and Ron and Sarah exchanged horrified glances. They both had the look on their faces of a little kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Within seconds, the caretaker had grabbed them both, and dragged them down the corridor, with Mrs. Norris bringing up the rear. They went down a passage behind a statue, that came out in a musty hallway on the first floor. Filch, laughing crudely, opened a door which led to a room Sarah guessed was his office.
It was stacked with file cabinets, alphebetized by names. Some cabinets had a single name on them, an entire row was dedicated to 'Fred & George Weasley.' Ron snickered at this, and looked down it further. There was another bearing 'Weasley' on it, which housed everything else all the siblings had done to offend Filch. There were more that had the name 'James Potter' plastered on to two overstuffed drawers, and another one 'Sirius Black.' Ron smiled at this, and looked at a few other familiar names.
"Tresspassing, fleeing from a crimescene, out of bed after hours! And inappropriate touching!" Filch cackled, writing out slips of pink paper for them.
"What!" Sarah and Ron yelled at the same time. They both stared at each other, and stepped a foot back. "I got stuck in a missing step!" Sarah yelled. "It's no fair!"
"Week's detention for both of you!" Filch cackled. "And I'm calling your head of house!" The man motioned for them to follow, and led them up to the Headmaster's quarters. Sarah felt as if she might puke, she hadn't even lasted a whole day! Filch spoke the password to a gargoyle, who sprung aside to reveal a winding staircase.
They all descended it, and Sarah briefly considered turning around and running, but that would only worsen the matters. Finally, they reached a large door, which Filch knocked on and waited. It swung open to reveal Professor McGonagall in her bathrobe.
"This had better be good, for getting me up at this hour!" She snarled at the caretaker angrily.
"Headmistriss, these delinquiets have been caught on the tenth floor after hours, under an invisibility cloak! I don't know why they were up there, but I think I can guess!" The two students looked revolted, and squirmed in their armchairs.
"You may leave now, Mr. Filch." McGonagall told him. He looked disappointed, but obeyed and walked out, Mrs. Norris following behind. "Now, I doubt his odd suspicions are true, but-"
"We weren't doing anything wrong!" Sarah burst out. "I was stuck in a missing step, and Ron found me, and we were heading back to the common room! Honestly!" Ron nodded in agreement quickly, and McGonagall sighed.
"I understand that, but I must enforce the rules. You will recieve one detention each, and to make sure nobody else attempts this sort of thing, I am taking one hundred points away from Gryffindor."
Sarah's mouth fell open. "What!" Ron exclaimed hollowly.
"Each." McGonagall stated firmly, and pointed her wand at the door which swung open. Sarah opened her mouth in protest, but knew the headmistress would only punish them further if they stayed. Ron gloomily stalked out the door, and Sarah followed behind.
"Everybody's gonna hate us now..." he moaned. "We're out of the running for the House championship before it even started."
Sarah sadly sighed. "I'm really sorry. This is all my fault."
Ron gave her a weak smile. "No it's not. I told you to run, we should have been wearing the cloak to start with anyways. It's nobody's fault really."
"I doubt that's what the rest of the house will think." Sarah muttered, and Ron knew she was right. They climbed through the portrait hole to find a blessedly empty common room. They both said good night, and walked up the stairs and fell in to bed, not looking foward at all to tomorrow.
Ending Notes: Aaaww...now everybody'll hate them! Ouchie, two hundred points away from Gryffindor...oh well. I think this chapter's sorta fun, but I dunno. I'm just having them go through their first week of school, then I'll start up a few other things. Yep-de-doodle! Another chapter should be up tomorrow, or the day after that. Again, I remind you all, PLEASE REVIEW I AM BEGGING YOU REVIEW!