If anything good came out of Jimmy O'Bannon's extended stay in the hospital wing, it gave him a chance to tackle the mountain of homework his teachers had gleefully piled on him. Now that mountain had become . . . well, maybe not a molehill, but something in-between. At least he had a bit of free time to catch up on his correspondence.
First he wrote to Mom and Dad, saying the usual stuff. "Everything's fine at Salem . . . Lots of homework to do . . . blah, blah, blah." Just like with Voldemort's return and Cedric Diggory's death, he wasn't about to mention anything having to do with Slytherins at school or getting his brains scrambled by Isaac Pinder. What his parents didn't know they couldn't freak out about.
Next he wrote to Mireet Miradeaux at Beauxbatons. With her he got more candid, expressing his concern over Cecilia's and Serinta's presence and how stressed out everyone at Salem seemed.
He mentioned the same things in his letter to Fred and George. O'Bannon was halfway done with it when Artimus entered their dorm room.
"Hey, Art." O'Bannon turned in his seat.
"Hey, Jimmy." Artimus shut the door behind him. "How are you feeling?"
"My head tingles a bit, but Nurse Gillwick said I was well enough to get kicked loose. She wants me to wait a day or two before going back on the ice, though."
"Good, good." Artimus shuffled toward his desk, grabbed the chair and brought it over to O'Bannon's desk.
"Something on your mind, buddy?"
Artimus blew out his cheeks. "Oh yeah."
He took out his wand and cast a Muffling Charm on the room. O'Bannon held his breath and slid his chair around to face Artimus. This could only mean one thing.
His friend had big news about the Slytherin hags.
"So what's up?" O'Bannon couldn't hide the anxiousness in his voice.
Artimus paused. "I had a pretty lengthy conversation with Cecilia Malfoy in the library."
"And . . ." O'Bannon leaned forward.
"Well . . ." Artimus worked his jaw from side-to-side. "You're probably gonna be surprised by this. But . . . I know you didn't have any good experiences with the Slytherins while you were at Hogwarts, but . . . Cecilia actually doesn't seem that bad."
O'Bannon blinked. He ran Artimus' words through his head. "Cecilia actually doesn't seem that bad."
"Huh?"
"I'm serious, Jimmy. She told me her grandparents on her mother's side are both Muggle-born. It caused this big scandal in her family. The rest of the Malfoys wound up disowning them, cut them off from the family fortune. She despises Draco and his parents. I . . . I don't know. I feel bad for her."
O'Bannon leaned back in his seat. Artimus stared at him, his eyes pleading with O'Bannon to believe him.
"I don't know, man." He shook his head. "What if she's lying?"
"She's not," Artimus blurted.
"Art, all due respect man, I was around those people for a year. You don't know them like I do."
"She's different from the ones you talked about. Trust me on this."
O'Bannon chewed on his lip. He'd like to trust Artimus on this. But he never saw first hand how the Slytherins acted. Lying, cheating, abusing other students, saying the word "Mudblood" as casually as regular people say the word "the."
"Do you know what one of the attributes is that gets someone sorted into Slytherin?"
"According to you, it's being an asshole."
O'Bannon grinned briefly. "Yeah, there's that. But one thing that all Slytherins have in common is cunning. They'll say anything, do anything, to achieve their goal. Even make up some bullcrap sob story to make you feel sorry for them."
"I don't think it was a bullcrap story." Artimus' voice had a noticeable edge.
"Think about it. If Fred and George's theory is right, and Draco's dad did send Cecilia and Serinta here to mess with me because of that hockey game, wouldn't it make sense for one of them to try and get close to a friend of mine? Make you think she's on our side and then . . . wham!" O'Bannon punched his open palm.
The corners of Artimus' nose wrinkled. "Yeah. And of course, it would be me since I'm the dumbest friend you have."
"I never said you were dumb." O'Bannon's arms shot up over his head. "I'm just saying you don't know these Slytherins like I do."
"Of course not. I mean, you are the great Hogwarts expert after all."
"Art, what the hell's gotten into you?"
"What the hell's gotten into you?" Artimus sprang out of his chair. "You asked me to find out anything I could about Cecilia. But when I do, and when it turns out she's not the epitome of evil like you wanted her to be, I all of the sudden have no idea what I'm talking about!"
"For God's sake, will you be reasonable?" Now O'Bannon stood.
Artimus responded with a sardonic laugh. "Look who's talking."
He turned away from O'Bannon and stomped toward the door. "Maybe you should get someone else to do you're dirty work if you don't think I'm up to it."
"Art!"
Artimus ignored him. He flung open the door and bolted into the hallway . . . almost running over Jared.
"Whoa! Art. You okay?"
O'Bannon heard no reply from Artimus.
Jared turned to him. "What is it you told me the kids at Hogwarts say? 'Did you two have a row?'" He said that last part with a horrible British accent.
O'Bannon just glared at him.
"Hey. Peace, man." Jared held up both hands and entered the room. "So what was all that about?"
O'Bannon detailed his argument with Artimus. When he finished, Jared slowly bobbed his head from side-to-side.
"Um, Jimmy. Do you promise not to go off on me if I give you my opinion?"
"Yeah, sure."
Jared paused a second before continuing. "Well, just maybe you should consider the possibility that Cecilia is telling the truth."
O'Bannon's growl could have matched that of a dragon.
"Hey, I'm not saying I believe her. I'm just saying we should consider it. Who knows? If she is telling the truth and she does hate the rest of the Malfoy family, maybe we could turn her into an ally."
O'Bannon looked to the window, watching the branches of a tree swaying in the breeze. Jared did have a good point. A spy in the Malfoy family would be a huge benefit for the Order of the Phoenix and their American counterparts, the Guild of the Light.
But that would only be possible if Cecilia's telling the truth.
Considering she was a Slytherin and a Malfoy, that was a Hungarian Horntail-sized "if."
"All right. I'll consider it. But Cecilia Malfoy telling the truth is not something I'd bet the ranch and the dog on."
Jared gave him a queer look. O'Bannon rolled his eyes and explained the old Muggle phrase to him.
"So," Jared said. "You gonna go make nice with Artimus?"
"I will later. Probably best to let him cool off right now."
"Sounds good to me. Now that that's settled, let's get Rosa and head to dinner. I'm friggin' starving."
They headed for the girls' dormitory, where they found Rosa in her room. O'Bannon filled her in about hiss argument with Artimus as they walked to the Communal Hall.
"Well, maybe you should have given his point of view a little more consideration," Rosa said, constantly scanning around her for any sign of the perverted garden gnome Feetish.
"All I said was I have more experience dealing with Slytherins than he did. It was just a fact. I wasn't implying he was an idiot."
"Well, sometimes you do tend to . . ."
"Hey, let's not rehash this, okay?" Jared turned to them. "It's not like this is the first time any of us have argued. Artimus will cool off, you'll both apologize, and peace will reign over Salem."
Rosa frowned. "Maybe peace in our little corner. Did you know today I had to stop Hillary Hysinth from hexing Emile Latendresse. Hillary was going on about how Emile keeps flaunting all her expensive jewelry around the not-so well-to-do students."
"Oh yeah, that's a reason to hex someone." O'Bannon shook his head.
"What do you want, man? Girls are insane." Jared chuckled.
Rosa punched him in the shoulder.
They entered the Communal Hall and sat at one of the middle tables. O'Bannon started to cut into a hunk of roast pheasant when his ears picked up familiar female laughter from the Communal Hall's entrance. He whipped his head around.
Rana Rollingsworth nearly stumbled she was laughing so hard.
"That has to be the funniest thing I've ever heard," she said to the boy next to her.
That boy was Gregory Lancemore.
O'Bannon clenched his knife tightly. His eyes narrowed on Lancemore as he and Rana walked between the crowded tables. A maelstrom of fear and anger battered his insides.
Are they together? No, they can't be. If they were, Rana wouldn't have sent him the sort of get well card she did.
But what if Lancemore had said something, done something, to win her over after she sent it?
Son-of-a-bitch.
"Hi, Jimmy." She smiled wide and waved to him as she neared. "You feeling better?"
"Fine," he answered through clenched teeth, his focus more on the grinning Gregory Lancemore than on Rana.
"Glad to hear it," Lancemore said. "I heard Isaac really nailed you."
O'Bannon nodded, his lips tightening. They can't be together. They can't be together.
He'd know that for sure if he asked Rana to the Halloween Dance. But that was something he had to do when they were alone, not here in the Communal Hall, not with most of the students and faculty watching.
Rana and Lancemore walked past him.
"Hey, there's a spot over there." Lancemore pointed to a table further down . . . and put a hand on Rana's back.
"That's it." O'Bannon slammed down his knife and got up.
"Problem, Jimmy?" Jared stared at him with a concerned expression.
He ignored his friend and started over to Rana and Lancemore, fists balled, his breaths coming quicker.
"Rana," he called out just as she started to sit down.
She stopped and looked around Lancemore. "Yes, Jimmy?"
He halted a couple feet from them, trying to block out Lancemore from his vision.
"Will you go to the Halloween Dance with me?"
For a split second, O'Bannon thought he'd been hit with a Body-Bind Curse. He couldn't move, couldn't breathe. He felt so cold.
Finally he managed to move his eyes. Students from one end of the Communal Hall to the other stared at him. So did everyone at the faculty table, including Miss Venatici and Headmistress Esmeralda.
Oh crap. What did you do, O'Bannon? He could just picture Rana saying, "I'm sorry, Jimmy, but I'm going with Gregory."
Tremors took hold of his arms and legs. He was going to get turned down in front of the entire school. Why not? Nothing had gone right for him since he returned to Salem. Nobody believed him about Voldemort's return, Isaac Pinder bashed him over the head with a hockey stick, and one of his best friends was pissed at him.
Now the girl he really liked was going to tell him no, tell him she was going with this schmuck Gregory Lancemore.
"I'd love to."
O'Bannon blinked. He gazed dumbfounded at Rana's pretty face. "I'm sorry, what?"
Rana giggled. "I said I'd love to go to the dance with you. Thanks for asking me."
His legs quivered, more from shock than anything else. She said yes. She actually said yes. Something actually went his way.
"Um . . . great . . . great." Crap, what do I say now? "I can't wait. Looking forward to it . . . um, I'll catch you after dinner."
"You got it." Rana gave him another warm smile.
O'Bannon looked over his shoulder. Jared smiled slyly and gave him a thumbs-up. Rosa grinned wide and grasped her cousin's shoulders.
When he turned back around, he noticed a scornful look on Gregory Lancemore's face.
O'Bannon locked eyes with him and smirked. Screw you, Lancemore. This time I got the girl.
TO BE CONTINUED