DISGUISED INTENTIONS
III
Its only Saturday and Amelia and Constance's prank on Pebble had already reached the whole school. Pebble sat in the Great Hall eating lunch while trying to ignore the stares that she was getting, "Everyone has talking about your pink undergarments." whispered Audria.
"Thank you very much for that fine analysis." said Pebble.
"So what? We're girls, did they expect us to wear men's undergarments?" stated Beatrice, "Tell me Audria, do you not have any pink undergarments."
"I'd rather not discuss that, its a personal matter."
"What is wrong with pink undergarments?!" hissed Pebble.
"Well..." started Audria, her cheeks reddening from the subject, "You see red may represent either blood, love, insensity or lust and having pink undergarments, which is a lighter shade of red, it just shows your- lets just say... desire for sexual insteraction?" she said carefully whispering the last words.
"MY DESIRE FOR WHAT!?" yelled Pebble, almost spitting the residue of her food in her mouth.
"Quiet down Pebble!" buzzed Audria.
"So?! Audria, those are old sayings! For goodness sake, how long will it take for all of you to dig yourself out of this... this stricting and outdated hole of prejudice perception your great grandparents threw you into?!" defended Beatrice.
Pebble smiled, this was the exact reason why she loved Beatrice, she was truthful to an extent, her morals are modern and suited current situations and she would take extreme lengths to protect her friends. Audria however was old fashioned, but she was kind and collected, she seemed to be the only person the that would make any sense to the strangers outside their circle because like Beatrice, Pebble too was modern but she did not disregard old customs like Beatrice does.
"Im going to accept your judgement Beatrice, you do have the right to your own speech..." sighed Audria as she sank in her seat.
Beatrice then smiled at her, expressing thankfulness. No matter how far their arguments went, it always ended well, "Then I hope you will forgive me for this..." giggled Beatrice before walking away to jog to jog towards the end of the Great Hall.
Audria quickly turned to Pebble and questioned, "What is she going to do?"
"I have not the slightest idea..." replied Pebble, her eyes widening when she saw Beatrice charming the doors to close. There were no teachers around and so there was no force that could stop whatever she was planning. The Great Hall were filled with hungry students and once they noticed what Beatrice was doing they all turned to her attention. She then stood on the Ravenclaw table and shouted, "I'm sure you've all heard of Amelia and Constance's prank on Pebble."
Beatrice saw that Pebble was blushing, yet she continued, "And you dared judge a girl who owns a pair of pale crimson undergarments, well guess what? I too own a pair." smiled Beatrice, she then commenced her speech, "Every girl in this room who says they don't own a pair are pure liars."
Pebble heard girls in the Great Hall denying Beatrice's accusation, and the boys next to them started giving them weird looks as if to say, "Do you own one?" Beatrice then smiled as if trying to hide a devilish plan, "To girls who do own a pair or more then prepare yourselves, you are just about to take part in my little experiment." she smiled deviously.
"Oh no... I don't like the sound of this... I don't like the sound of this at all." said Audria.
Beatrice winked at Pebble and energetically shouted, "To those girls who do own a pair of pink or lustful crimson type of undergarment, please stand up!!" And with her command, the majority of girl students in the Great Hall stood up. Pebble, Audria and other male students shot their eyes wide open while some smiled in content as they watch the girls who were standing reddened. "Alright... to those girls who own more than one pair, would you PLEASE raise your hands up and wave them excitedly!" again with Beatrice's command a number of girls shot their hands out and moved them crazily, those girls included Amelia and Constance.
Pebble laughed at the sight and to her surprise, so did Audria. Beatrice took pleasure of her work before she spoke again, "I suppose that's my case rested." she smiled before immediately opening the door and bolting for her precious life. Once the girls were all seated again they all turned to Audria and Pebble, their faces expressing nothing but embarrassment and pure anger, "We better get out of here." suggested Pebble before running after Beatrice with a handful of food.
**
It's been almost two days since Beatrice's experiment and finally the anger around them started cooling down. Poor Headmaster Dippet was bombarded with complaints that day and he had, at the time, no power to disregard it- as it was simply a matter of girls being girls- and so he had no choice but to punish Beatrice to satisfy his students- although she was one of his very few favourite students. Unlucky Beatrice became subjected to a number of detentions and was temporarily isolated from the rest of the students outside class hours to avoid any further trouble, but Headmaster Dippet was so lenient to her that he allowed her to enjoy Hogsmeade weekends.
However in the meantime, Pebble had her uneventful dinner with Audria who spoke to her like she was her mother, "You shouldn't slouch the way you do. You will grow old with a mountain on you back."
"Yes mother..." Pebble joked.
Her eyes wandered around the Slytherin table as she chewed her food and to her luck, she caught Tom Riddle's gaze. She looked at him plainly, expressing nothing but boredom, then when she remembered his offer she turned away, feeling slightly scared and uneasy. She tried to distract her mind with her food but there was no getting away, she tried looking for something to focus on- perhaps she could distract herself with her patrolling schedule sheet. Yes, that always got her thinking... but when she reached for her pocket, it was empty. Pebble started frantically moving around, perhaps she dropped in on the floor, or maybe she was sitting on it. As she was about to stand up and leave, an intensely red rose appeared before her eyes, "For my future wife." greeted an all too familiar voice.
Pebble's brow arched, her lips curved into a wide smile then slowly she reached out for the flower, "Thank you Gilroy." she smiled, ignoring his 'future wife' remark.
In his other hand he held another rose, "And this is for the famous Audria." he smiled as he handed the flower to her.
Gilroy has been spending dinner with Pebble since they got back to Hogwarts, presenting her and both her friends with gifts as if he was courting all of them. Pebble quickly whispered before Gilroy could seat, "If you're trying to remind me about it, don't worry I haven't forgotten." she smiled, "Now if you mind, I would like to have my dinner without you by my side every evening."
"Alright, but I just came to remind you that you will be patrolling with Patrick Lynch tonight at ten o'clock." he smiled as he revealed her patrolling paper, "You should always be careful where you leave your things."
Immediately Pebble snatched the parchment from his hand and returned to her cold dinner.
"What was that about?" asked Audria.
"Its nothing." lied Pebble, "Do you have the night off?"
"Yes but I think I will go and visit Beatrice, she must be going crazy in that small room."
"I bet she is." laughed Pebble, "In the meantime... I better go, I still have some homework to do and I'd like for them to be completed before I patrol with Lynch." she said before waving goodbye.
Pebble walked out of the Great Hall feeling slightly relieved, she wanted to get away, she wanted to think, and when she reached the dungeons, she felt a feeling about it she never felt before... it was as if she was at home.
"Grimshaw!" yelled a voice behind her.
Pebble turned around to face both Constance and her faithful pet Amelia, "Well this is no, surprise. You two are too predictable."
"How dare you pull a stunt like that." spat Constance.
"I see you're blind too." mocked Pebble, "If you haven't noticed, it was Beatrice that exposed the two of you, but I'm willing to take the blame if it mean seeing red faced hypocrites."
"You have no idea what I'm capable of." threatened Constance.
"I'm in Slytherin for a reason." said Pebble revealing her wand and twirling it confidently, "What you're willing to do, I will do ten folds worse." she smiled smugly.
"Is that so?" laughed Constance, "Well then... STUPEFY!"
Pebble blocked it with ease, she might not be good in potions and herbology and many others but she and Riddle were the Fifth year's star students in Defence Against the Dart Arts and Charms, "Is that all you can do?" mocked Pebble, "Being a seventh year, I expected more from you." she said sounding disappointed.
Other spells started flying out in the air, but every single one of them was blocked by Pebble's swift and quick moves. However as she kept blocking Amelia's attacks, Constance who was behind her took advantage of Pebble busy state, "Expelliarmus!" Constance yelled, she shrieked in joy when she saw Pebbles wand fly away from her hand. As Pebble threw herself on the floor after her fragile wand, she found a figure she didn't expect standing right infront of it. She stopped dumbfounded when Pebble saw Riddle's curious face. Unaware of his presence, Amelia and Constance continued to assault their unarmed enemy, they both shouted in unison, "Crucio!" the heaving of Pebble's chest stopped when she heard the unforgivable curse- that was the end of her- she thought. But luckily Tom Riddle had quick wits and immediately figured out what was going on, before their unforgivable curse reached Pebble, Tom Riddle waived his wand and formed an invisible barrier that repelled their attack.
When Tom Riddle revealed himself from the shadows, both Amelia and Constance's face stricken, he stepped infront of Pebble as if to defend her and said to both Amelia and Constance, "An unforgivable curse... If Beatrice got isolation for a simple experiment, I wonder what punishment you would have to be subjected to." threatened Riddle. His simple remark made both of them flee away from their own house. After seeing them leave, Riddle turned around to find Pebble still on the floor. He seized her wand and offered her a hand but she ignored it- she already felt helpless, unworthy and inferior, she's been saved twice now and it hurt her pride to see that she herself could not save her own life from social embarrassment and now from death. She stood up stubbornly ignoring his assistance and immediately snatched her wand from his grip. She left him without a word of gratitude nor a sound of acknowledgement.