Chapter 10

"Hey, look guys! There's a Hogsmeade trip this weekend!" yelled Rose over her shoulder as she examined the bulletin board. It was Wednesday night, and the rest of us (me, Charlotte, and Kailey, that is) were sitting in the fluffy chairs by the fire working on homework. In the past week, I had learned several things about our little foreign friends. First: they did not particularly appreciate being called "our little foreign friends". Second: any exterior signs of timidity that Charlotte had initially shown were LONG gone. In fact, she was so exuberant and confident and overall outgoing that I wondered how I'd ever thought that she was shy. And third: neither of them knew what Hogsmeade was.

"What ees Hogsmeade?" asked Charlotte, looking up from the homework that she was undoubtedly acing. "Some sort of amusement park?" I could see Rose trying to stifle a snicker.

"Um, not exactly. It's actually a village a few miles out. You can go if you have a permission slip."

"What do you do there?" asked Kailey, looking interested.

"Oh, pretty much just hang around the shops or get some butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks or whatever. Big romantic opportunity." Here she waggled her eyebrows at Charlotte, looking purposefully at my brother, who was sitting across the room. Charlotte promptly turned a delicate shade of pink. It was my turn to cover up giggles. Each obviously really liked the other, but both were completely oblivious. I'd mostly gotten over my reservations about the weirdness of my friend liking my brother. And him liking her back.

"Anyway," she continued, "even if you don't go with a date it should be loads of fun. This'll be all of our first times; third year's the youngest they allow."

I smiled. "Didn't your uncle say he snuck into Hogsmeade in third year because the Muggles- I mean his aunt and uncle- wouldn't sign his form?"

Rose nodded enthusiastically. "Used his Invisibility Cloak and a secret passage into the Honeydukes cellar. But he won't tell us where it is."

Charlotte and Kailey were listening eagerly. Both loved hearing stories about the famous Harry Potter and his friends.

"He did give James the cloak. Of course, James being the pig-headed prat that he is, he won't share with any of us except in 'dire need', whatever that's supposed to mean." She gave a little laugh.

"You know what?" I said, sitting up straight in my chair. "Let's explore the castle. We could try and find your uncle's secret passage to Hogsmeade!"

Charlotte's eyes lit up. "Ooh, yes, let's! We can be, how do you say, ze spiers!"

Kailey nodded in agreement. "This'll be fun! Hogwarts is so much cooler than Rolaires; our building's so modern."

"Oh no," I said. "Rose has that look on her face again." She looked positively demonic.

Grinning, she said, "I say we get James's Invisibility Cloak. That way Filch and that horrid cat of his won't catch us."

"Isn't that called stealing?"

"Technically, we're family, so it's borrowing."

"Okay, when you put it that way…"

Kailey piped up. "But how're we supposed to get up to the boys' dorms? Didn't you say the staircases turn into slides or something?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, thinking. Then all of a sudden, Charlotte said, "Brooms."

"Wha?"

"Brooms. We could fly up on brooms."

Rose stared. "Charlotte, you're a genius!"

She blushed and smiled. "Thank you."

"No, thank you! C'mon, we've got to get down to the broom shed before it gets dark! And someone needs to distract James…" She eyed me.

"What? Why me? You're his cousin!"

"Because he would suspect something if I went just to talk to him. I never do that. And he knows Charlotte only as your brother's 'friend'." Here she inserted air quotes. "As for Kailey, well, I don't know if he even knows that she exists. No offense." Kailey shrugged.

I had a feeling that Rose had more reasons than she was letting on, but I decided not to bother asking. "Okay. Fine."

She continued explaining her plan. "Charlotte, Kailey, you two are going to come with me to get the brooms. We'll use mine and Will's. Al, you don't think he'll mind, do you?"

I shrugged. "Not if he doesn't know."

"Alright then. I just need to make a quick stop by the Ravenclaw tower and we'll be good to go."

"Ravenclaw?"

"Yes, I need to check something with Al. I mean, not you Al, Albus Al."

"That makes sense."

"Shut up." But she smiled as she said it. "You lot wait here until I get back, okay?"

"Hurry," said Kailey. "It's getting dark out."

About ten minutes later, she was back. "Okay. James is in detention with McGonagall."

I rolled my eyes. "How did he manage to get detention this time?"

"From what Albus said, he tried to spike some Slytherin's drink with love potion from WWW. Unfortunately, the bloke figured it out and reported it to Slughorn, who guessed that it was James and reported it to McGonagall."

I laughed outright. "That is so James."

She nodded. "So you're just going to wait here until he comes in and then you'll have to distract him." She thought for a moment. "Actually, you're going to have to distract the whole Common Room. How else are we going to get brooms in here and fly up to the boys' dorms with everyone watching?"

I goggled at her. "How the heck am I supposed to distract the whole Common Room?"

"I don't know; you're smart. Think of something." Ugh. Typical Rose.

She grinned. "Don't give me that look! Okay girls; let's get this show on the road. Have fun, Allie!" I stuck my tongue out at her. She just smiled again and motioned for Charlotte and Kailey to follow her out the portrait hole.

Okay. James would probably go talk to Will when he got back, so I headed for the circle of chairs where Will sat with two Weasleys, Fred and Louis. I think.

"Hey Will," I said, plopping into the chair next to him.

"Hey Allie," he said, looking at me suspiciously. "What do you need?"

"Nothing!" I said, putting on an innocent façade. "Is a sister not allowed to come talk to her brother without him assuming she have an ulterior motive?"

"Sure, a normal sister's allowed, but knowing you, you do have an ulterior motive."

I put a hand to my heart. "William Lancaster, I am shocked! Don't you trust me?"

He laughed. "No."

I smiled and turned to the Weasleys. "Fred and Louis, right?" They nodded. Now I remembered that Louis was the one who had strawberry blonde hair and no freckles on account of his French mother. Fred was Roxanne's sister, and he looked quite a bit like her with his dark hair and hazel eyes. I vaguely remembered that they had been James's partners in crime on the train. "Sorry. I'm not that great at keeping everyone straight."

Louis smiled. "'S okay. Hardly anyone bothers; it's nice of you to try."

"So, you done with homework?" Will asked.

"Almost. I've just got Charms left. I'm supposed to practice my Expelliarmus, couldn't quite get it in class." I eyed each of them teasingly. "Any volunteers?" All three visibly shrank back as I snickered.

"You know what?" said Will. "Do it on me." He held his arms out. "Hit me with your best shot." I did so, and he blinked. "Er, nothing happened."

I groaned. "See? This is exactly what happened in class! It was supposed to be a review, but noooo, of course I would have a block on this."

From behind me, a voice said, "That's because you're not doing the movement right."

I whipped my head around, a few strands of hair catching me in the face. "James?"

He grinned lazily. "Just got finished with McGonagall's detention. What're you lot up to?"

"Other than criticizing my Expelliarmus?"

He laughed. "Here, let me help you." He dropped his books onto the chair next to me and pulled out his wand.

"Nuh-uh. Not on me. Do it to Will; he already volunteered." Will glared at me. I simply smirked.

"Expelliarmus!" His wand flew out of his hand, and James caught it neatly. "See? You've got to lessen up on the flourishes and get to the basic movement. Here." He tossed Will's wand back to him and then grabbed my wrist, which suddenly burned like the Great Fire of London. "An all-around twist, then flick. And make sure your aim is right." He demonstrated again. "Now you try." He released my wrist and stepped back. "Go ahead."

"Okay," I said reluctantly. "Expelliarmus!" Twist and flick. His wand wiggled a bit but stayed in his hand. I sighed. "See? I'm hopeless!"

"Nah, you just need practice," said James.

"Yeah," said Will. "Why don't you have a go on Fred and Louis? They haven't been victims- I mean they haven't, uh, been subjects yet." I glared at Will. "What?"

"Alright, I'll be a brave Gryffindor." said Fred. He stood up.

"Honestly, it's just a disarming charm! And I haven't even gotten it right yet!" Fred just smirked. Oh, I'd show him. "EXPELLIARMUS!" Not only did his wand go flying, but he also stumbled backwards a few steps, tripped over a chair, and landed flat on his rear end.

He got up, brushing himself off. "JUST a disarming charm?" But no one was really listening to him.

"Wow, Al! That was brilliant!" said Will, giving me a tight squeeze. "Knew you could do it."

James pouted. "I was the one who helped show her how to do it! Don't I get a hug?" I grinned and obliged. Mmm, he did smell nice…

"What about me?" yelled Fred. "I was the one who actually got disarmed!" Laughing, I gave him a hug too.

"Yay, now I'm finished with homework!"

"Yay," said Fred half-heartedly. I rolled my eyes.

"Who wants to play Truth or Dare?"

"Aren't we a bit old to play that game?" said Louis.

"'Course not. Gather round, Will can go first."

Will looked at me. "You're not serious."

"Sure I am. Go ahead, say it."

He grumbled. "Fred, truth or dare?"

"Dare. I'm still being a brave Gryffindor." I snickered.

"Alright… I dare you to tell Filch that someone's set off some Dungbombs in the seventh floor corridor, make him walk all the way up, and then have him chase you all the way back to the Common Room."

Fred grinned. "On it." He headed for the portrait hole.

"My turn," I announced. "James, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"I dare you to really set off some Dungbombs in the Common Room."

"What?"

"Are you refusing the dare?"

"Of course not! But what about us? Those things really smell bad, you know."

"Bubblehead Charm," said Will.

"What?" I said, figuring it was one of those things I had missed out on from living in the Muggle world.

"Oh, that's brilliant, Will! Merlin, I can't believe I didn't think of that." He then turned to me. "The Bubblehead Charm creates a pocket of fresh air around your head.

"Cool! Who's got the Dungbombs, then?"

"That would be me," said Louis. "Bought a ton last time I went to WWW."

"Hang on. What exactly is WWW?" Another thing I had missed out on, probably.

"It stands for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. It's my Uncle George's store," started James.

"My dad," said Fred proudly.

"Yeah. It's like a joke shop; you can buy all sorts of prank equipment. All invented by Uncle George and Uncle Fred. They were twins. But Uncle Fred- well, he was killed in the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" I said. I couldn't imagine losing Will, much less a twin.

"It's fine. Anyway, it's really cool. We all went before school to stock up."

Just then, I saw three heads poking out of the portrait hole: one red, one blonde, and one brunette. The girls were back with the broomsticks.

I flashed them a "wait" sign behind my back. "Hey, Louis, why don't you go get the Dungbombs and we can go ahead and do the charm."

"Sure," he said, heading up the stairs to the boys' dorm.

"Okay, I'll do it," said Will. It seemed to be a moderately hard charm, probably too difficult for a third year. "Done."

I didn't feel any different, but when I tried to touch my head, I felt an invisible barrier stop my hand about a foot away.

Louis arrived with the Dungbombs, and Will performed the charm on him.

"Okay," said Louis. "I've put a trigger on every bomb so that they'll all go off when I detonate them with this." Here he lifted some sort of contraption. "Everyone take one Dungbomb and put it somewhere in the room. Try and spread them out."

I took mine and placed it underneath an occupied chair, resisting the urge to laugh evilly.

When we had all met back at our original chairs, Louis pulled out the detonator, grinning uncharacteristically wickedly. "Ready?"

"Yeah!" He pushed the button.

Every bomb in the room exploded simultaneously, releasing greenish brown gases and what I guessed was an awful smell. All the people in the Common Room began to panic, gagging and trying to run for the exit. The boys were laughing too hard to notice, but I felt the wind from someone rushing by and heard a girl's voice with a French accent whisper in my ear, "Thanks, Allie!" Then a few minutes later, just as the smoke began to clear, someone whooshed past me again, presumably on a broom, and whispered, "Meet us outside the portrait hole." After making sure that the boys were too busy congratulating themselves to pay me any attention, I slipped through the portrait hole and a hand slapped over my mouth.

My scream was muffled by the hand until I heard Rose hiss, "It's me, you moron. Stuff it!" She then released me and smiled. "It worked! We got it!" She held up a great fold of silver-ish, liquid-looking fabric.

"Wow… it's gorgeous," I breathed. "And it really works?"

Rose shook it out and dropped it over her head. I nearly screamed again as she completely disappeared. She pulled it off with a whoosh and reappeared.

"That's WICKED!" I said. "Great work, guys!"

Charlotte and Kailey came to stand next to Rose. Charlotte said, "Thanks. You deed a good job of deestracteeng James." I aimed a playful slap at her head, and she ducked, smiling widely.

"C'mon. Uncle Harry may not have told us where it is, but I think he wanted us to try and find it. He told us the password's Dissendium, and it's in some sort of statue."

"Great," said Kailey. "Let's do this!"

As it turned out, it was rather difficult to fit four thirteen-going-on-fourteen-year-old girls under the Cloak, so we all had to squish together and shuffle along. We were all watching our feet and trying not to trip when we ran into something. More like someone. Two Slytherin someones, to be exact.

"Whoa!" yelled Scorpius as he and Dimitri tumbled to the ground. "What was that?"

"Watch it!" hissed Rose as I stumbled onto her toe. She proceeded to bump into Kailey, who tripped over the hem of the robe and sent us all sprawling, fully visible again.

"What the-" Scorpius murmured, looking at each of us in turn. "What are you doing here?"

"More like what are you doing here!" said Rose, suddenly hostile. "This is the Gryffindor Tower!"

"Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"You're welcome, Lieutenant Sarcasm."

"Guys! Stop it. It's after hours, neither of us want to get caught, right? So let's just pretend we never saw each other and go along our merry ways. Okay?" That's me, always the peacemaker.

"Is that an Invisibility Cloak?" said Dimitri, staring at the Cloak in awe and effectively breaking some of the tension.

"Yes," I said, even while Rose pinched me, warning me not to say anything.

"Vere did you get it from?" he asked, still staring.

Rose pinched me hard. "Uh, I don't know. It's, um, a friend's."

"Oh," he said, looking rather disappointed. "Vell, I suppose ve'll just go…" He started to get up, pulling Scorpius with him.

"Hold up," said Rose, standing up quickly. Her face was set in a fierce scowl, and I had a feeling that whatever was about to happen, it wouldn't end well. "You still haven't told us why you were in Gryffindor Tower."

"Don't see how it's your business, Weasley," said Scorpius, glaring at her.

"Oh, trust me Malfoy, it's definitely my business. Maybe you were planning something against the Gryffindors."

His face became positively terrifying as he closed the distance between them. He now stood about two inches from her face. "You know, you really do expect the worst out of me. Did it ever cross your brilliant Gryffindor mind that maybe I'm not always the bad guy? Just because of my father and my house, everyone always assumes I have some sort of horrible, evil motive. Maybe if you would just bother to have a decent, civilized conversation with me-"

Rose interrupted. "Have you ever given me a chance to have a civilized conversation? Seems like every time you see me you try to insult me. And you still haven't said what you're doing here."

"For your information, we were here running an errand for McGonagall. I had detention with her tonight. Now if you'll excuse me, I'd like to finish that errand before I get in even more trouble." He pushed past Rose and stalked off towards the Common Room. It was officially the longest speech I'd ever heard him make.

Rose recovered quickest. "Come on, guys. Let's go." The rest of us stood up, Kailey grabbing the Cloak.

We were halfway down the hall when someone called, "Vait." We all turned around.

"I am sorry that that had to happen. It is kind of a touchy subject for him."

"Yeah, I've noticed. Thanks, though," I said, starting to follow Rose and the others again.

"Allie," he called, stopping me again. I motioned for the others to go on without me. They shrugged, but obliged.

"Um, you know about the Hogsmeade trip this veekend?"

"Yes," I said. This could not be going where I thought it was. It simply couldn't.

"I vas vondering, vould you like to go vith me?"

I'm sure I looked quite the idiot, standing there with my mouth slightly open and eyes as big as saucers.

"Sure," I said. "I'd love to." Oh, Rose was going to kill me.