Of Mudbloods and Sex
(A/N: heyy everyone! i'm so sorry - this chapter has undergone like, three edits ever since i finished writing it. my beta obviously suggested to scrap it, because it sucked... badly. but i decided to give it another go...
now i'm teaming up with my beta on this story. from now on, this story is the work of two, not just me. because my beta does write stuff, too.
NOTE: PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE CHAPTER SEVEN. it looks the basically the same as the first version, but i decided, since alot of you including my beta wanted this, we would skip to when they left Karl's. so yes.
CHAPTER SEVEN IS THEIR ARRIVAL AT KING'S CROSS. enjoy. )
Chapter Six - Torture and Success
Karl led them down several hallways. Lily looked around, taking in the elaborate professional aura the entire building exuded. They walked by marble walls and expensive wall-lamps that seemed to have been warped to look like bouquets of flowers.
They finally reached a set of small double doors that didn't seem to have any doorknobs or handles. Karl reached inside his jacket pocket and rummaged in it a bit before extracting a neon pink card. He beamed widely and handed it over to Kirst. Kirst looked at the card and the doors confusedly before Karl rolled his eyes and snatched the card back.
"Are you seriously telling me that you don't know how to use a card key," Karl said disbelievingly. It wasn't a question. He moved over to the side and the three girls noticed a little grey box jutting out of the wall. Karl coolly slapped the card flat against it and the girls heard a little beep. The doors swung open by themselves and Karl announced, "You'll be staying here for the next few weeks. Make yourselves at home."
It was sad, Lily reflected, that Kirst's parents didn't really care about her. Technically, that would be a good thing while they were staying at Karl's place, since they wouldn't notice, but it was sad. Kirst was their only child.
Karl handed the card back to Kirst, as well as similar ones to Ro and Lily, before walking off, letting the girls rush into the room and admire their quarters. The doors had revealed a cosy scene – there was a little kitchenette to the girls' right, complete with a drink bar; on their left was a big comfy couch that faced a Muggle television; further to their left were two glass doors that led onto a veranda that faced the sea; in front of them was a hallway that they supposed led to their bedrooms.
Kirst squealed, flopping onto the couch and grabbing the remote and turning on the television. Ro went off to investigate what they had in the kitchenette as Lily wandered down the hallway to find out what she could discover.
"This kitchenette is stocked full!" Ro called out a few minutes later, opening and closing drawers and cabinets. She had discovered Butterbeer in the fridge, as well as kegs of Firewhiskey. A lot of bottled natural spring water was sitting on the counter, and as many carrots and apples they would ever want to eat were stuffed in the vegetable drawer.
"I claim this bedroom!" Lily called from down the small hallway, immediately summoning the other two girls. What greeted their eyes was a quaint, plain hallway with four doors. Only one was open, so they wandered inside.
Lily was sitting in a pretty, pink-and-beige-themed room, on a four-poster bed. The carpet was extremely soft underfoot, no doubt charmed to be that way, and there was a dresser, a closet, and a pretty window seat with a view of the ocean.
When the two girls got a look at their friend's chosen bedroom, they rushed off to choose other rooms. After screaming and shouting across the hall at each other, they both picked one of the remaining rooms. Kirst chose one that was decorated in bright yellows and oranges as Ro took the other room with a pastel theme.
During this time, Lily had settled into her room. She had opened her closet, only to find a wide array of clothing – of any shade, any pattern, and any style she could ever possibly want. Truth be told, this room was the smallest of all three, but Lily still liked it – it made it feel cosy and nice at the same time. Lily spent the next half an hour looking over the rest of her room, discovering a complete set of make-up and accessories in her dresser and lounging in a comfy armchair with a reading lamp beside it that was located in a corner of her room.
She had started to doze off when suddenly she heard a loud noise resounding in the suite. She jolted awake, looking around for a few seconds quite confusedly before realizing that it was an American hip-hop song that was blaring, without any of the words and sounding quite electronic. She hurried out of the room in time to see Ro disappearing down the short hallway, and Lily followed. She skidded to a stop when she saw Karl standing in their doorway.
"Well, girls! I hope you found the rooms to your liking! But now's the time for a real workout!" Karl announced enthusiastically, jumping up and down.
"Wait – what?" Lily asked incredulously. "We're starting now?"
"No time like the present!" Karl said cheerily – too cheerily, in Lily's opinion – and motioned for them to shoo. "Now get that exercising gear on and let's go!"
Despite their protests, Karl slammed the door behind him, calling in a sing-song voice, "Five minutes!"
"Great! Just great!" Lily exclaimed, flopping onto the couch. "I'm morbidly tired and now I have to get up and do actual work!"
"Come on, lazy arse," Kirst said teasingly. "Let's go get dressed and head outside. We're going to have to do this 24/7 anyway." Lily's eyes bulged out.
"Are you bloody serious?" she said, jumping up. "You can't expect me to survive like that!"
"Come on," Ro said, shaking her head, and they all went to change. Surprisingly, exercise clothing had already been laid out on their beds when they entered their bedrooms. The girls obediently changed and came out in their new attire, admiring each other on the way out. All three had on what could be called 'booty-shorts' that were made for exercising, a tank top, a head band or ponytail, wristbands, and brand new pairs of sneakers that said 'K-Swiss' on them.
Karl was waiting for them right outside with the same enthusiastic smile on his face.
"We're going to go to the training room!" he said, acting almost like Dorene the receptionist. "Come this way please!"
On the way there – seven corridors, three doorways, eight chandeliers, and fifteen corners – Karl was humming an upbeat tune to himself as the girls soaked in their surroundings. Finally, Karl reached a set of double glass doors, this time a little bigger than the doors to their suite, and pulled them open. Lily eyes popped out of her head as Ro calmly but curiously examined the room. Despite the small doors, the room was big enough to fit an entire track around the perimeter, with exercise machines located everywhere around and inside it. The place was brightly lit, with a mini-television to every machine. All in all, it was an awe-inspiring sight.
"Well," Karl said when everyone had been silent for two minutes, "I guess we should start!" He led them over to a couple of running machines, and gestured to them.
"Alright, girls! Every time you come in here – which will be every day you spend here at my clinic – you will stretch a little bit before getting on these trusty machines! Click the start button – it'll start the program I'll want you to do that day. As we go on, it'll get harder and harder… Every two weeks I'll re-scan you in that laser room and we'll see your progress! After running, I want you to head over to these things," he said, gesturing to a set of exercise steps. "I want you to run up and down these stairs a few times," he said, "and I'll leave you instructions on how many everyday. Afterwards, head on over to the track and keep running for a few laps. Then jog one lap, and walk one lap. The last thing you'll do is a few things on a couple of these floor mats," he said, pausing. "Push-ups, chin-ups, ab work, that kind of thing."
Lily and Ro struggled to keep up with Karl as he sped through every else that they'd do in the next few weeks. According to Karl, the 'program' they were in was extremely hardcore – they did only have eight or nine weeks anyway.
Lily was extremely relieved when Karl stopped talking about ordered them on to the machines. He clicked the 'Start' button on their controls, and the belt started moving. At first, Lily was able to keep up with the speed of the machine, but she watched as the count slowly rose higher and higher till it hit about six kilometers an hour.
"Holy shit," Lily gasped as she realized that she would have to run, nonstop, at six kilometers an hour, for thirty minutes.
Lily was the first to back down, after only ten minutes of running. Hitting the 'emergency stop' button desperately, she immediately jumped off the treadmill and made for the exercise steps before Kirst joined her. At this time, both of them were panting heavily and on the verge of stopping. Karl berated them time and time again, reminding them that they needed to do these twenty reps so that they build up stamina.
They finally tired out and had to take a small break, so they both set off walking a lap around the track, catching their breath. By the time they got back, Ro had just started on the stairs. She caught her friends' incredulous looks, shrugging. The girls took a short water break and were joined by Ro, who explained that she always went running back home. Kirst was a bit suspicious, but she let it slide.
The rest of their time at the training room was chock-full of workouts and exercises that were designed to define their bodies. Soon enough, the girls finished up, and they sat around feeling pretty good about themselves.
"What are you all doing sitting down for?" Karl asked incredulously. "You're not done yet!"
Ro spat out the water she was drinking. "Wait," Lily said. "What do you mean, we're not done yet?"
"Of course not!" Karl said, swooping down and gathering them. "We're off to the dance studio!"
"D-d-dance studio?" Lily stammered as Karl pushed them forward. Ro and Kirst couldn't help but snicker – Lily was extremely bad at dancing – she had the worst hand-eye coordination in the world, and she forgot things easily when she was extremely pressured, such as standing in front of a bunch of people trying to dance.
"Third year memories, much?" Kirst asked cheekily, although she didn't look like she was looking forward to the dance studio herself.
"Shove off," Lily said through gritted teeth just as they stopped at the door.
"In you go," Karl said, and pushed them in. "Now play nice, children!"
The door closed behind him and all three turned around to look at the dance room before them. A man stood in the center – his body was lean and dark, but his hair was a shocking blonde to his brown skin.
"I am the great Ztephen!" he announced loudly, examining them all with hard eyes. "You will either call me Mizter Ztephen, or Zir! You will put one hundred perzent into thiz danze clazz, or I will inform Mizter Whitmore, and you will have extra lezzonz with me until you get everything right!"
Is that a French accent? Lily wondered.
"About me. I am not French in origin, but many people think I am becauze of my aczent. I azzure you, I am one hundred percent -"
"You're not French?" Kirst interrupted.
Mister Stephen glared at her. "I just zaid that. Now let'z danze!"
Hip-hop music started and he started a whole dance routine and commanded the girls to follow.
"Right hand up! Left hand up! Right leg, left leg, let'z go, girlz! You can do better than that!"
Warm-ups, isolations, and basic dance movement filled that one hour of torture as the girls tried to move to the music and get it right without having to exude the wrath of Mister Stephen.
After the hour was done, Karl came back to pick up the already-exhausted girls. He gave them a ten-minute break for rest and water before sending them off into the swimming pool for two reasons: one, to build up abs; two, to get a tan. He taught them to do the butterfly style before telling them to stop with the arms. He didn't want extremely buff girls – and anyway, he just wanted to work out their stomach muscles. After making them swim nonstop for an hour, he granted them a five-minute break, letting them drift in the cool, refreshing water.
"All right, girls!" he said, clapping his hands to get their attention. "Out of the pool. Now! We still have one more thing to do before the day is over. Let's move it!"
They came out of the changing rooms several minutes later, and Karl led them off without a word. The girls' hearts dropped when they saw that he was leading them back to the training room.
"How much more could we do in here in one day?" Ro moaned as Kirst and Lily followed after her. They entered through the glass doors and followed heavy heartedly after Karl, who wandered down the track to a back corner of the room.
They walked behind some cardio machines and were met with a beautiful sight. On the floor was a beautiful Indian lady, her dark hair tumbling down in curls and her wide, intricately woven skirts arranged neatly. Beautiful, dark brown, doe eyes stared back at them as she smiled warmly, unconsciously showing off her thin, but nevertheless perfectly pouted lips.
I'm not a lesbian, Lily told herself. I just have an appreciation for the human form. Yes. That's it.
"Sit down, sit down," the woman said, her smile never wavering. They started, just noticing the three mats on the floor in front of them. They clumsily collapsed upon the mats, causing the lady's smile to turn into one of amusement.
"I've got them; you can go now," she informed Karl, who nodded and left. She turned back to the three, and gave them a comforting look.
"Hello, girls, I'm Talia," she began. "I'm not going to make you all jump around," she said, noting the worried looks on the girls' faces. "I'm going to teach you a bit of yoga."
At this, the girls perked up, and sat up straighter. Talia let out a laugh, noting the enthusiastic, yet tired looks on the girls' faces.
"I'm sure you will all sleep soundly tonight, rest assured," she said, before getting them to cross their legs and meditate for a few seconds, to gain concentration.
Another hour went by, with the girls following Talia's instructions. When Karl came to pick them up, he found the three girls smiling contentedly on the floor in front of Talia.
"My back feels wonderful!" Lily exclaimed, Ro nodding in agreement. "I've never felt so good after a yoga session though – what's your secret?" Talia laughed.
"There's no secret," she said, her brown eyes sparkling. "Just balance."
Ro thought this was a tad bit confusing, but she jumped up when she saw that her friends had started to leave.
"Thank you, Talia," she said, turning around to follow Karl back to their suite.
"It's my pleasure, Miss Romanda Wong."
Karl deposited them in front of their suite.
"Great job, girls!" he exclaimed as they entered. "Now, someone will wake you up tomorrow. I want you down in the breakfast hall a half hour after that, and we will get a start on everything!"
"What do you mean, get a start on everything?" Kirst asked, extremely perplexed. "Didn't we just start today?"
"That was your practice run!" Karl explained happily, turning around to walk away. "So have a good night's rest. Sleep early – get rid of those eye bags, Romanda Wong! You look like a panda! – and I'll see you tomorrow! Toodles, girls!"
He walked off, his polished businessmen shoes clicking on the marble floor. The doors closed behind him, and the girls were left staring at the door in horror.
"Oh, no," Ro moaned, collapsing on a chair. "We're going to go through hell this summer."
"We can't back out now!" Kirst exclaimed, plopping beside Ro. "I got us into Karl's really tight schedule! Do you know how much cleavage I had to reveal to do that? Please!"
Lily shook her head.
"It was your own fault to do that first," she said, "Don't blame it on us. But…" she said with slight hesitation, "I guess the idea of showing Potter -" Your cleavage, her mind interrupted snarkily. She ignored it "- is too tantalizing for me to let go. I'll go with it."
Ro's eyes bulged out of her head. She never thought Lily, of all people, would continue with this horrendous idea of becoming ditzy, slutty girls. A look of astonishment overcame Ro's face as Kirst squealed and hugged Lily.
"All right, I guess we should head on to bed," Ro said, after the two girls stared at her for a response. "We're going to have to wake up early tomorrow, aren't we?"
Kirst did a little jump for joy and ran into her room, slamming the door shut. Ro walked a little more normally into her room, bidding Lily a goodnight as she, too, closed her door. Lily entered her room, changing into a clean and non-sweat-soaked pair of booty-shorts and a large, baggy T-shirt. She climbed into bed, and her body and mind exhausted. She fell asleep two minutes after her head hit the pillow.
"Well, girls!" Karl announced loudly after another intense day. "That's it!"
"That's it?" The girls had just exited the room specially constructed for tanning purposes and were standing in front of Karl, refreshed after their trip to the spa before that. That spa was amazing, Lily remembered dreamily. I can still feel its effects even now.
"That's it." Karl beamed at all of them. "You're finished! Done! Finito!"
"Wait… you mean…" Lily started. She dared not finish her sentence, afraid of getting her hopes up.
"Your training is done!" Karl said with a dramatic flourish. The girls stood there for a few seconds, not believing that they had finished training. It seemed like an eternity since they started Karl's horrid training routines. But they had accepted, and they had paid big bucks to get here – it would be of no use if they wasted it all.
All of a sudden they all squealed and hugged each other, jumping up and down in a rush of triumph. As they giggled and laughed at their success, Karl examined them and smiled to himself. He had done well – these girls were just about ready to star in the next big-name movie as they were ready to take on modelling. He silently congratulated himeslf on a job well done before interrupting their squealing party.
"Girls. Girls!" He demanded, trying to gain their attention. "Girls!" he snapped. His three apprentices jumped and turned to face him. "It's time… for your final check-up."
Although Karl could see that the girls had progressed even his own expectations, he knew that he had set their goals a little higher than he actually thought was possible. The final check-up would give him concrete proof that his little 'projects' had indeed succeeded. He led them back to the scanner room – by now, the girls already knew the studio like it was a second home to them – which indeed it had become, in the last few weeks. They entered and the girls nervously stood in position as the pink laser scanned them exactly as it had on the day of their arrival.
"All right, girls," Karl's voice said over the speaker. "It's time to see your progress."
All three exited the room, glancing at one another. Although a few of them – granted, two out of the three of them – had been quite reluctant to do this at first, all three girls were extremely anxious to see how they'd done at Karl's the last five weeks or so that they had been here. And now, it was judgment time.
They entered the same uncharacteristic room they had entered after the first time they were scanned, and gulped at the sight of three folders that Karl held in his hand. They were about to sit down when Karl stopped them.
"No, no," he said, his face not giving anything away. "I want an individual conference with each of you. Alone. Kirst, you first."
Ro and Lily exited the room, glancing at each other and the door from time to time, wondering what Kirst was hearing and wondering what Karl would say to each of them.
After a while, Karl opened the door and asked Ro to come in. Lily was left by herself in the hallway, now even more anxious to know how she had done than ever before. She knew that Karl's view of her had been less than his view for her friends, and she felt as if he complained about and berated her more often than her friends put together. She knew this had been a challenge – she was doubtful there would ever be anything harder to do than what she had done the last five weeks – and she was never one to back down from challenges.
Suddenly, the door opened again, and Karl's face loomed in the doorway. He nodded towards her before disappearing behind the doorframe. Lily stood up from her seat on the floor before entering, unconsciously playing with the hem of the shorts she was wearing. Kirst and Ro were nowhere to be seen, and Lily assumed they must have left through the door at the other end of the room.
She sat down at a desk and Karl, having closed the door behind her, sat across from her. For a moment, neither said anything as they studied each other from across the table. Lily searched Karl's face for any sign of what might be on the sheet of paper inside that tantalising folder that lay on the desk between them, finding nothing. Finally, Karl took the folder, opened it, and slid it across the table.
Lily blinked a few times. This sheet was different from the first – it had all her previous data on the left, and her current data on the right, obviously for easier comparing. She silently gulped before she dove in, matching the stats on both sides and slowly making her way down the page. Her size had shrunk surprisingly from a four to a zero, and her muscles had gotten leaner and far more shapely than she thought possible. There were two mini diagrams of her at the bottom in black and white, but it showed perfectly how Lily really looked five weeks ago, and now. Lily was shocked at how much her body had changed – healthier, and even thinner, too.
She finally looked up with shocked eyes at Karl. She had exceeded expectations, and even ended up getting muscles, too. Karl, for the first time since she'd been her, smiled warmly at her. Not his usual fake cheer – but an actual smile.
"You know, Lily, when I first met you I didn't think you'd be able to make it!" he exclaimed. "But you've surprised me by how well you've done in the few weeks we've had together. Many before you would have taken twice the time you had to achieve as much. Congratulations."
Lily beamed. Although she wasn't willing to admit it, hearing that kind of praise and seeing how much she had actually changed on paper had given her a giant boost in confidence.
Karl examined her again, taking in the fiery red hair that now shone healthily and fell down Lily's shoulders elegantly, the carefully shaped eyebrows, the eyes that now seemed to sparkle, and the perfect skin. He nodded – it seems he'd done well with this particular project, one of the most difficult challenges he had ever faced. Her sense of style had improved, and while she was here she had learned to keep her sharp tongue in check. He silently congratulated himself again, rising.
"It's time that you and your friends leave and face the world," he said as he opened the door at the other end for her, where her friends were waiting excitedly. "I've taken the liberty of packing all the clothes that are in your closets into trunks," he announced, just as Ro and Kirst lunged for Lily. "I've laid out some clothes so you can change tomorrow morning. You'll be leaving then. For now, you can return to your rooms and chat about how well you've done. Dinner will be served at seven. Good night, girls."
As he walked off, the girls excitedly giggled and shared how well they had done during their stay. Kirst had shrunk to in between a double zero and a zero.
"Good enough for me!" Kirst said, as they entered their apartment.
Ro herself had reached her target size, a one, but they exclaimed when Lily told them how much she had shrunk.
"Oh, my God, Lily!" Kirst squealed as she hugged her friend. "That's brilliant! Bloody brilliant!"
"Thanks," Lily said, laughing, as they forgot about dinner and continued their talk late into the night.
( A/N: now, MOVE ONTO THE NEXT CHAPTER. now, now, now. click!
oh, and reviews would be nice. i don't mind. just review the next one. )