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"Goldstein! Roll your sleeves down!"
"Oi You! Button up your shirt!"
The said pupils hurriedly did as they were told, all of them eager to return into their cozy common rooms and not for another long lecture from the annoyed Head Girl.
"Parkinson! I thought I told you not to wear jewelry at school. It will be confiscated next time! Take it off!"
The short-haired fellow Slytherin stopped and gave the older girl a dark and defiant stare, which made the somber look on Jade's face to waver slightly; but she reverted back immediately. Just because she was a Slytherin did not mean that her house members were exempted from rules in any way. This had caused her to be a little unpopular in the Slytherin common room. Nothing explicit. But the general iciness present in the air whenever she entered her dormitory was more than enough to give her a gist.
Seeing that Jade's face still sported hardness, Pansy averted her gaze and removed her ear rings in the most disgruntled way she could manage. The black-haired witch watched her walk away towards the dungeons, her face half hidden in a shadow, and sighed. It pained a lot to have her 'friends' treat her this way, but she couldn't let that meddle with her duty. Or otherwise. She would never do any injustice just to please someone. What hurt her most was actually the fact that the people she had spent her whole eighteen-years of life with, had turned their backs on her the moment they realized that she wasn't going to favor them always.
It was a typical Slytherin trait. Sliding around observing the victim, allowing a false sense of security to envelope them, giving them time to make a move, to try and run; and just when they do, the hissing monster stabs; leaving a fatal wound and then contemptuously watches them fall and convulse in pain until all the poison eats them from inside.
Jade moved in the direction of the library, through the throng of students returning from dinner. She would try to clear her mind and get some studying done in the one hour left until curfew. Due to the almost- palpable coldness in her dorms, she never went in there and until she could barely keep her eyes open. It had become her daily routine by now. Though she had never wanted it to.
Emotional fuss wasn't on the Slytherin's priority list. On the whole, she thought of it a waste of time, a temporary hindrance which cloud a person's judgment and make him do rash things; manipulate and be manipulated, lower down to last degree and become so weak, that one could be shattered by just a few words or a trivial action. To her, feelings were things to be forced and locked inside. Because she couldn't afford to break. It was essential that she remained strong. For herself. If she ever wanted to come even close to achieving what she had planned to.
Too preoccupied in her thoughts, Jade didn't notice somebody following her as she pushed the library door open.
SPLATT!
The black-haired witch stood stock still at first, eyes widened and mouth hanging open in utter shock.
"Pfft….."
The sound of raucous laughter snapped her out of her bewilderment and she let out a startled gasp before whipping around to see the cause; the Weasley twins.
"You were right. This was brilliant! Hahaha! "
"I know right…and the- the look on her face.''
The twins expressed their merriment between gasps of mirth, while holding their sides; their faces red. Their words made the dazed Head Girl to come back to her senses and grow alarmed and confused. She realized that there was an increasingly foul smell spreading around her.
This was followed by a sudden understanding that made Jade look down and then let out an audible 'yuck!' She was covered head to foot in sticky, greenish-brown goo which the Slytherin took to be called as a 'dung-bomb' which was also the source of the repulsive stench. Cringing in disgust, Jade scrunched up her nose and let out another revolted sound before being interrupted by another round of boisterous chuckles from the men beside her.
The Head Girl felt her previous feeling of disgust to be replaced by that of blood-boiling anger and she growled. This caused the red-heads to pause abruptly in their display of merriment and stare at her for a moment; before winding up in fresh sniggers.
Jade glared at them but decided that she needed to be clean before she could give these troublemakers a piece of her mind. She procured her wand from inside her robes and in one swift move, vanished all the sludge that covered her. She felt the twins stop laughing and gape at her with slightly shocked faces before bolting out of the door in a strong burst of wind.
Her eyes widened momentarily in surprise of their speed, however she overcame it quickly and rushed after them.
"She won't find us here"
Fred and George both stopped to catch their breaths and then taking a look at each other, burst into silent giggles again. It had been much better than they had expected. George sighed in contentment and leaned against the curved smooth wall of one of the hidden passages in Hogwarts. He looked at the corridor in front of him, dimly lit by the small fire torches hung in brackets at intervals on both sides.
The plan had worked magnificently and now that they had escaped and reached their concealed route to the Gryffindor common room, there was no way that the Head Girl would be able to take revenge and seize their house points. George saw his twin straighten up and take a deep breath, before grinning at him. He returned the grin and both of them turned to walk through the path that was slightly curving upwards in unison.
The night at Hogwarts castle was quite, almost eerily so. The meager fire that burned in the wooden torches cast flickering shadows of the twins as they passed. If they had not been so engrossed in their thoughts of the amazingly successful prank, they would have noticed a translucent spirit swish past them.
The red-heads walked at a swift pace before sighting a small, round wooden door at the end of the corridor. George smiled and brought his hand towards the rusty metal handle, not even pausing to think that perhaps all of this was too perfect, and he should stop and look above him. If he had, he would have found out the reason behind all the chaos that was to occur next.
Before the Gryffindor prankster could touch the handle, it burst into flames and both the red-heads let out identical gasps. The fire did not have a starting point, it consumed the whole door all at once, spitting golden-hot flecks; causing the twins to instinctively move away.
Staring at the now burning exit, George felt wholly confused and shocked. Was this passage way cursed? It couldn't be as they had used it so often before. Had anyone heard them coming, like Filch or another teacher and ignited the door to teach them a lesson? He wasn't certain of anybody other than the angry caretaker who would do that. Or perhaps it was Umbridge? Had the Head Girl went and complained to her and they had somehow anticipated that they would use this particular path? Unlikely though it seemed, George believed it at that time.
However, he did not have time to dwell on the matter any longer, because there was an unusual amount of sooty smoke issuing from the fire, which refused to abate even a little. Coughing and sweating, the red-head looked up to his twin to see the same expression of astonishment on his face. Together they slowly retraced their steps and took out their wands. They would just have to extinguish the fire and then deal with whoever produced it, themselves.
Before they could say the required incantation, though, the ground started shaking horribly, so greatly that they had to lower their wands and frantically grasp the walls to remain standing. George was really worried by now; it didn't seem that this was just a small punishment but something much more serious. He gulped, trying to moisten his dry throat as the worst possible situation appeared in his mind and denied to leave. He was relieved of the necessity of thinking further as a large piece of the cave roof broke and fell just inches from his head.
Sharing a look with his twin, George turned on his heel and both of them sprinted back the way they came.
They barely made it in time.
Fred had snatched open the exit door and together they had shot out of it, seconds before huge chunks of the roof collapsed and gathered at the opening and sealed it.
'OUCH!'
Both of them had crashed on the cold marble floor in their rapid attempt to escape, but now George was realizing that his fall had not been as painful as expected. In fact the visibly cold and hard floor was oddly and considerably warmer and softer.
"Get- OFF ME!" an angry, muffled shout caused George to regain his senses and roll of the person squished beneath.
At first, the red-head had assumed that it must be his brother, but when he looked around he saw his brother sitting up at a place that was noticeably distant from him, showing George that his twin had presumably jumped harder than him and the person he had landed on was someone else. Fearing slightly for his well-being, he looked behind him, only to be greeted by the furious face of the one they had been running from in the first place; Jade Lestrange.
The dark-haired Slytherin was sitting on the floor rubbing her head, all the while glaring at them; her fists clenched and an expression suggesting that she would desire nothing more than to skin them alive.
It was quite typical for the average student at Hogwarts to get terrified and run away, when met with a similar scene, though George doubted that anybody other than them had been capable of getting on her nerves this greatly; however, if there were any exceptions, one would be him. He was actually relieved that it had been her and not Filch or (God Forbid) Umbridge, who had broken his fall. Smirking maliciously, he called out to her.
"Ah~ we meet again Miss Lestrange."
He saw her already narrowed eyes flash dangerously and something like a growl emit from her tightly-closed mouth. This was probably an indication that she was by this time, at her limit and therefore should not be tested; if it meant that or not, George ignored it and went on. They had meant to escape so as to not face any consequences, but now that it had come to this, he wanted to enjoy a little before she gave them two-month of detention.
"Two encounters in one night. It must be destiny~", he continued in a hearty sing-song voice that did not belong to him.
A vein popped on Jade's forehead and in an instant she was hollering at them, forgetting the fact that they were currently outside their dormitories, in the middle of the night; well past curfew while the rest of the castle was sleeping soundly and perhaps shouldn't be woken up.
"You had the nerve to throw a dung-bomb at me, then run away and now you still didn't think it was enough so you thought it would be fun to attack me out of nowhere. You guys…." She lowered her volume somewhat only to bring it up to the maximum for the next sentence, "DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?"
Jade had stood up by this time which made her significantly more imposing as she stared down at them.
Fred had scooted a bit further away from the enraged girl during her yelling and was half standing up, designating that he was ready to flee any minute. This was not by any means a sign of fear of her, but simply a precautionary measure if someone had the perchance to hear them and might be vaulting their way there.
On the other hand his twin was glued to his place staring at the flushing Slytherin with an expression-less face, though his eyes gave away the small amount of surprise he was feeling. He had not expected her to shout, Slytherins were usually calm when they were furious. They often showed their anger by biting remarks or underhanded schemes employed behind one's back. They weren't the kind to pick up a fight directly. He had expected her to give a spiteful smirk before taking a hundred points from Gryffindor and announcing that they had detention for the rest of the year or if she was going to sink lower, spout up an insult about their family.
He was taken out of his reverie by the distinct voice of Fred reasoning with her.
"Hey look…we didn't attack you. The ones who were attacked were us'', he said, conveniently leaving away the other two offending actions they had done.
Jade straightened up her formerly screwed face due to rage at Fred's words.
"Attacked? Who attacked you?" she asked with a much quieter tone which was also a little anxious.
"We don't know." Fred hurried on, happy that she lowered her volume and was trying to preserve it that way, "The secret passage we were escap-travelling through suddenly-'' , but he stopped in mid-explanation. He had pointed towards the hidden door of the passage at their right, which while formerly was an open entrance sealed by rocks from the crumpling roof, now was hidden behind a stone gargoyle all in one piece; not a crack or fragment to propose that there had been an full-blown earthquake inside there just moments ago.
The red-head stared open-mouthed at the gargoyle's glaring face; he couldn't even hear the crashing noise of the plummeting roof anymore. A few paces away from him, George had a similar expression of surprise.
"What the….."
"But it was just-''
Both of them murmured incoherently, unable to provide a cause for this drastic change and surmount their shock. Had they possibly been hallucinating? There was no one there to cast a spell at them at that time, or perhaps somebody had slipped a potion in their drinks and it was now taking effect? The chances were too slim. And there was no way that the person responsible could have caused all the destruction; and fixed it in the minute space of time they were talking. Then how? And Who?
Jade looked back and forth between them, waiting for more clarification, but when she didn't get a response; anger flared inside her again as she concluded that this was another one of their jokes. Grinding her teeth, she had opened her mouth to scream at them once more, but was interrupted by the sound of sudden giggles bursting from somewhere….above.
The trio's heads shot upward to find none other than the mischievous Poltergeist of Hogwarts castle; Peeves floating near a chandelier. He had obviously by now forced himself not to laugh by pushing both his knuckles in his mouth but was incapable of keeping them in any longer. Seeing their astonished faces, He cackled; possibly harder.
"Peevsie-ha-Peevsie did it. And you fell for it! And you started fighting with yourselves!" he yelled at them between gasps of mirth, before giving them one last malicious look and vanishing through the ceiling.
It now dawned upon George that Peeves being the culprit, could create very convincing illusions to trick people. That was the only fitting justification; since apparitions couldn't use real magic and Peeves couldn't have put everything back together after destroying it even if he was given a whole year, much less the few seconds he had now. Not that he would have ever tried to.
"I didn't know that Peeves could do something like that." Fred exclaimed. It was rare that anybody else successfully pranked them, since often the said prank was something that they themselves had tried already and were therefore always ready for it. Peeves too, had seldom tricked the twins, so the knowledge that he could employ such a vast magic, was news to them.
"Well, at least we'll be ready next time." Jade sighed, much to the bafflement of Fred who had first thought that this line had come from his brother. He too, was looking slightly stunned. Did Peeves annoy her too? Well, he annoyed everyone; but choosing a specific student was something else. Or was she just talking about it generally? It was amazing how confusing this night was becoming, even more that George found himself growing strangely curious as he stared at the black-haired Head-Girl.
Both parties gazed at each other for a time, the twins against the Head-Girl, at a loss of what to say further. They were involuntarily waiting for someone to break the awkward silence; it occurred to George that this was the chance to make their escape without any losses, since the Head-Girl seemed to have momentarily forgotten their activities a while ago.
But something kept him rooted there, he somehow didn't think that any harm would happen; in some way, he trusted the girl not to do anything unfair despite the fact that she was a Slytherin. He felt safe…and somehow bound by her presence. There was nothing resentful about meeting her, George decided.
It's too early to say that. He chided himself.
Well, it was just a feeling, he answered.
There was no reason for it to be correct or not to be correct. It was best not to dwell on such irrational matters more than needed. Right now it was more important to do what sense told him to do; mimicking his brother George stood up and prepared to leave. Reading Fred's expression, he understood that they were going to try and exit normally but if matters went out of hand; they would simply take flight for the Gryffindor common room.
Jade had noticed them get up and it struck her that she must be going too; it was well past curfew time and she was the Head-Girl! There was no time to waste! Her sudden alarm snapped her out of her musings and she turned to the twins, who had tensed up as if they were planning to run.
Somewhat confused by their behavior but still adamant on reaching the safety of her dormitory quickly, Jade ignored their peculiar action and declared with a tone of finality,
"Well, you guys should better go straight to your dormitories. No more fooling around."
And with that she turned on her heel and half-walked half-sprinted in the direction of the dungeons.
"Wait!"
Fred whipped around to stare dumbfounded at his twin who was now walking towards an equally surprised and marginally irritated Slytherin.
"Aren't you going to punish us? ''
"Huh..?''
"We pranked you didn't we? Aren't you going to take points or give us detention or something?"
Fred Weasley had never wanted to throttle someone more than he wanted to throttle his twin at this moment for his outstanding stupidity. Though quite inquisitive himself, he was okay with letting it go and be grateful that they were safe. He looked at Jade with a faintly pleading expression, as if she might take pity on them. But the Slytherin wasn't looking at him; she was only gazing at George with a somewhat baffled face. This boy were really weird, didn't he just dig his own grave by reminding her that? But there was something that bothered her even more.
"Detention? What for? You haven't broken any school rules."
Except breaching curfew. She thought.
But I can't penalize them for that. A bold voice spoke.
It would be absolutely unfair to do so since she was also flouting the same school rule, although involuntarily; with them the whole night. She would just have to dismiss the regulation this time; even if she feels horrible doing it.
"But…" George spoke again. He knew that pushing his luck further was beyond idiocy, but he was finding it impossible to stop himself. And he didn't believe that it was just luck. The sensation of unplanned trust in the Slytherin was returning now and impulsive as he was, he was letting his burning curiosity consume him and have its way.
But this time Jade interjected.
"What you did was personal. You didn't damage any school property. I know the rules full well. I can't misuse my authority to get revenge; though I would like to punch you. Good Night."
With that, the dark-haired Slytherin turned and jogged down towards the Slytherin dormitories leaving a completely stunned duo of red-heads behind. But as he heard the sound of Jade's hassled steps vanish, George Weasley bowed his head down and smirked.
This year was full of interesting surprises.
Yes I am an annoying author.
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