Chapter Eight

Ginny caught up with Sarah just as she got to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Come on, Sarah. Let's go listen in!" Ginny trilled, heading to her dorm, Sarah scowled.

"You can, I don't want to." She folded her arms. Ginny sagged, wheedling,

"Oh, come on! Think about what we could find out!"

"I've had enough Jareth for today, thank you!"

"Think of the blackmail material! You need to listen in on his thoughts, we can compare notes!" Ginny gave her a puppy dog expression.

"You raise good points." She tilted her head. "Alright, but only if I get to use any material we get on Jareth. You can use Des's; I don't really know him all that well."

"What is this? Some sort of 'Etiquette for Blackmail'. You get stranger by the minute Sarah darling."

"No, I meant that I would help you and laugh at his humiliation and everything but I probably wouldn't set out to humiliate him for myself."
"Same for me with Jareth. So, do you remember how to invade their minds?"

"Ginny! Don't call it that!"

"Why?"

"It sounds… Wrong." She shrugged at Ginny's look.

"Sarah, dear, we are taking advantage of their relaxation and spying on a heart to heart between brothers. If it sounds bad that's because it is."

"We are not! We are taking advantage of their complacency and protecting ourselves by listening to a conversation that may reveal hidden threats to our persons."

"Well, when you put it like that…"

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(JarethDes)

Where'd that pesky idiot go? Hmmm… Aha! Got him!

Jareth and Des were facing each other sitting on the edge of two desks in the DADA classroom. We tuned in mid-rant.

"- is she bi-polar or what! I was about ready to rip the snots head off! You're lucky at least Ginny's reasonable! I haven't done anything unprovoked!"

Yeah, yeah I've got it so easy, I'm her friend, her advisor, her protector, wouldn't be surprised if she turned round and thanked me for being such a good brother! As if she needs another one! At least Jareth can help Sarah! What can I do? At least I got rid of those boyfriends of hers.

Urgh, I bet he doesn't even appreciate what he's got with the witch. I'd give anything to talk to Sarah like he does with that human, probably a huge convoluted plot to destroy her, must be a descendant of his father or something, can't believe she was so trusting. Thinking he was her friend! She's as trusting as Sarah! What's up with Humans? Sarah gave her friendship to a flea-ridden delusional fox, an idiotic monster and a pusillanimous dwarf! What the hell's wrong with me! Women! They're all so irrational!

"Ginny's not so reasonable. Bet she's practising a castrating spell right now!"

"You're so paranoid, Des. Besides, it's not like you can't just… move along whatever plan you've got."

What the hell is he talking about?

If he kills her Sarah will be angry.

"What plan?"

"Oh, you know very well!" Des looked blank.

"I assure you I don't!" Jareth rolled his eyes.

"Whatever."

My brother is certifiably insane.

My brother has such a low opinion of me if he thinks I haven't figured this out.

"Why did you bring Sarah here?" Jareth looked innocent, admittedly he didn't pull it off well.

"I don't know what you mean. Sarah brought herself." Des looked at him levelly.

"Oh yeah, she brought herself here! That explains the convenient crystal oh so conveniently dropped by a conveniently nearby Goblin that conveniently decided to mess up her bedroom with convenient bog water that was on hand and conveniently blamed the King the crystal was connected to who was conveniently in a place no-one else (allegedly) could get her out of and who also is smitten, manipulative and doesn't take no for an answer even when it destroys the castle! And then she conveniently made friends with my Angel, your younger brothers human!"

"Now that last bit wasn't planned! Anyway, that seems a bit of a long-shot! How was I supposed to know she had such a temper?"

"Oh, right so the watching her since she was six didn't give you an understanding of her character and the bad day she had was just a convenient coincidence!"

Yeah right, how old does he think I am?

Well, he is mybrother.

"Sarah is… unpredictable at best. It was not so much a plan as a… gamble. Although since she only had two choices I believe it was fairly safe, she has always been quite combative."

"So you did bring her here."

"Obviously."

"She is going to be really p***** off with you."

"I wasn't planning on telling her, not that there's much to tell really. Besides I wasn't planning on telling her!"

You *******!

"Sarah?"

"What the hell?"

You need to get a grip on that temper darlin'.

"Ginny?"

Present, and boy are you in for it!

"How in the Underground is this possible?"

You can do it to me but I can't do it to you? She snarled. Just wait 'til I get my hands on you!

"Sarah! How… You're not a witch!"

No? Really? I hadn't guessed. God, Jareth! Forgetting so quickly my little trip? This is all your fault!

"My fault!"

If you had just given my brother back when I asked you none of this would have happened!

How dare you scare off my boyfriends! You're worse than my brothers!

"I think we all need to calm down."

Calm down!

Calm down!

Are you suggesting I'm hysterical?!

"Yes, I am. Now, I think we need to discuss this rationally. Why don't we come and find you after you've had some rest and-"

Forget it! We are not talking to you!

Right! Go mess someone else's life up!

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Sarah looked up, tears streaming down her face. Ginny appeared completely cool, her voice as warm as ice she said,

"And now we plot."

"Plot?" Sarah looked quizzical.

"Revenge." Ginny expanded succinctly. Sarah grinned evilly.

"They are going to regret the day they met us."

"Oh yes they bloody well are."

"We can't do anything right now; we'll have to lull them into a sense of false security."

"Yeah, the whole physical barrier thing worked. There must have been a hundred odd wards on that door!"

"Men are such idiots."

"Yeah."

"On with the plot!"

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Three days later, Jareth was in a rather bad mood, although it didn't rival another time in recent history, which, if he recalled correctly, involved a hurricane breaking out of the underground and ravaging a farm in Kansas. The date of this little mishap, if one looked closely, was around the time a certain teenage girl departed the Underground. This is of course an administrative mistake, because the King of the Goblins would never be so childish. The reason for this bad mood was that his hair had gone abruptly missing. A glance at Des confirmed he suffered the same thing. Another reason for this bad mood was that he was currently in the great hall subject to rather a lot of laughter. He met Sarah's eyes, certain she was the cause of this and grew back his hair. This unfortunately meant that when Ginny reversed the vanishing charm his hair was twice as long as usual. In the usual direction. He looked at his brother, in a similar state of fluffiness, and shrugged turning his hair back to normal, and carried on with his breakfast.

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"Damn! We'll have to try something better next time." Sarah scowled.

"Perhaps we ought to try something a little more... permanent." Suddenly an evil grin spread on Ginny's face as she looked at the staff table.

"I know just the thing."

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Emilia Vane stood outside the DADA classroom waiting for her detention to start when it happened.

"Urgh! What's that smell!"

"That, would be my classroom, Miss Vane." He waved a hand and replaced the classroom calmly, sending the old one to the bog.

"Bog water. I didn't like those curtains anyway.

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Sarah cursed from a nearby alcove.

"What shall we do now?"

"Don't worry, Sarah." Ginny replied stonily.

"I have an idea they can't ignore. The best thing is, they won't know we did it until they react. Can you fake cry on demand?"

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Sorry it took so long for me to post this chapter. I'll try and get another one up in a few days.

LyssaOneiroi