Chapter 13

My Invisibility Cloak smelled like perfume.

You see, I had been keeping an eye on (no, not following, keeping an eye on) Allie on her date with that idiot from Durmstrang. Only, of course, for Will's sake. After all, he would want someone watching over his little sister, right? And for that purpose, I would of course need my Invisibility Cloak, right?

Which brought me back to wondering why the heck it smelled like perfume.

I had hardly even used it this year, much less while wearing perfume (which, for the record, I don't wear) or with a girl. Of course, one of my cousins could have "borrowed" it, but I had too many girl cousins to be able to find out which one of them had used it. Rose remained at the top of my suspect list, although I couldn't really rule out Lily. For a first year, she was disturbingly devious. Probably she had been spending too much time with me…

I was jerked out of my thoughts when I nearly tripped over a trio of giggling, shushing girls. Upon closer examination, I saw that it was the aforementioned cousin, Charlotte DuPont, and Kailey Hoskin. They appeared to be doing the same thing I was- following- I MEAN KEEPING AN EYE ON- Allie and Duncehead's date.

"Rose," I hissed. She jumped about three feet into the air before whirling around. I lifted a corner of the Invisibility Cloak. "Rose, it's me. James."

Her bewildered look was replaced by one of equal parts relief and confusion. "What are you doing? Why are you under the Cloak?"

Oh, crap. "Uh… Will asked me to keep an eye on Allie."

Rose didn't look as though she totally believed me, but went with it anyway. "Oh. Typical Will."

"Yeah. So why are YOU following them?"
Rose smirked, Charlotte and Kailey doing the same behind her. "We're keeping tabs on our best friend's first date. Got a problem with that?"

I shrugged. "Not really." I let the Cloak drop back into place. "Now c'mon, we're losing her."

"We?" But she allowed me to follow them following her. That is, until I saw Allie whisper something to Dimwit and the two of them slipped into a shop.

"Darn," I muttered. Only I didn't say darn. It felt odd that no one corrected or scolded me like Dad or Albus or Lily would normally have.

"It's all right," said Rose. "We'll just follow her in there."

"Zonko's?" I said. "But they'll definitely see us. It's always empty." It was true. Ever since WWW had opened a small branch in Hogsmeade, Zonko's had been struggling to stay in business. Somehow it had managed to hang on over the years, though.

"Never mind that; we'll go under the Cloak."

I cocked one eyebrow, a talent that I was quite proud of. "All four of us? We'd be lucky to fit two."

Rose opened her mouth like she was about to say something, but snapped it shut again. "Whatever. You and I'll go then."

I contorted my face into a mask of agony and shrank away from her, but allowed her to slip under the Cloak with me.

"Hang around here and look casual," Rose said, addressing Charlotte and Kailey. They nodded and immediately struck up a conversation about, from what I could tell, cheese.

I gave Rose a little shove. "Let's go, then." We shuffled forward, slipping through the door with practiced expertise. I spotted them almost immediately, in an aisle off to the side, Allie absently browsing through the shelves and both of them laughing at some unheard joke. My fists clenched automatically.

"James," Rose hissed. "Let go. You're pulling my hair."

I unclamped my hands. "My bad." I couldn't see her front, but I knew she was rolling her eyes now.

"C'mon, let's move closer. I can't hear them." We shuffled forward again, their voices growing louder and clearer.

"-had managed to get the dog out, so we convinced my dad to let us keep her. We named her Trixie after we found out she already knew loads of tricks. She can even stand up on her hind legs for almost a whole minute!" Allie smiled as she told her story, her mind obviously far away with her dog. Dimwit was smiling too. Ooh, I wanted to wipe that smile off his face…

"James!" Rose hissed again. "Hair!"

I muttered apologies, untangling my fingers from her curls.

"If you can't behave yourself and at least ACT like you aren't jealous, we're leaving!"

I spluttered. "What? Jealous- But I- Wait- Who would I be jealous of?"

I knew she was rolling her eyes here as she let out an irritated huff. "Dimitri, of course. In denial much?"

"What? Why would I be jealous of Dinklebrain?"

At this she turned around to look at me. "Dinklebrain? Really?" I shrugged. "Real mature, James. Anyway, it's obvious you're jealous of him because you like Allie. Even Lily and Hugo've figured it out by now."

"WHAT?" Suddenly, the chatter in the background stopped, and as I glanced at Allie and Doofus, they were looking around, confused. They'd clearly heard me, and I cursed under my breath. "C'mon, we've gotta get out of here," I whispered to Rose, and we started shuffling to the door.

Just as we opened it, however, Allie cried, "Hey!" and I knew she'd seen it.

"Run for it!" I hissed, and we darted out the door. Allie was just a beat behind us, with Dummy running after her, utterly confused. "Turn the corner!" But before we could make it, Allie put on a final burst of speed, reached out, and grabbed the Cloak.

As she yanked it off, I found myself fully visible again, about to run into Rose. I skidded to a stop and grabbed Rose's shirt to stop her from running further. Exchanging nervous glances, we slowly turned around to face Allie.

The look on her face was absolutely lethal, and her normally warm brown eyes were narrowed in fury. I didn't even know that Allie was capable of a glare that harsh; she must have been learning from Rose. At any rate, we both shrank back a little bit.

"What the heck were you two DOING?" she yelled, looking back and forth between us. "How long have you been following me?"

"Allie, I'm really sorry," said Rose. "We were just keeping an eye on you."

At this her expression grew, if possible, even more furious. "As much as I appreciate your concern, I'm not a puppy. I don't need you to 'keep an eye on me.'" Every word dripped with venom, and she turned to me. "And you! Here on my brother's orders, I'll bet. Well you know what? You can tell him…" She proceeded to colorfully inform me where Will could put his brotherly concern. And I'd thought she wouldn't be the type to curse me out. Well, we learn something new every day…

"Allie. Allie!" I managed to get her to stop screaming for about two seconds. "We really are sorry. We weren't trying to treat you like a kid, and Rose was just teasing you, you know that."

Allie opened her mouth, presumably to start yelling again, but Dimitri gave her arm a tug.

"Come on, Allie. Let's just go." She gave us one final glare, but allowed Dimitri (I've run out of appropriate insults that start with "D", okay?) to lead her away, still glaring. After about five paces, she turned her back to us and didn't look back.

Charlotte and Kailey tentatively crossed the street to where we were. When they were within earshot of us, Kailey murmured, "Is she gone, then?"

I nodded dumbly.

They both breathed sighs of relief. "For a secohnd zere I thought she was defeeneetly going to start 'exing you!" said Charlotte, her blue eyes wide.

"I'm surprised she didn't," muttered Rose. "S'pose she had the right to yell, though. We probably shouldn't've followed her."

"Yeah, I feel kinda bad," said Kailey. "We should apologize to her after she's cooled off a bit."

I just sighed, shoved my hands in my pockets, and began the long trek back to Hogwarts.