Chapter Six: Filler Chapter

Cora furrowed her brow, viciously yet neatly chopping mandragora roots into thin slices.

"Stupid Angelina!" Chop! "Stupid Gryffindors!" Chop! "What's the point of a game where no one is on the offensive?" She turned to Bridgit, waving the knife in the air in a frighteningly dangerous hand gesture. "What was I supposed to do? Just sit there?"

"Ummm…I think that's the point of being the keeper. You sit there and block the quaffle from going in." Bridgit meekly offered.

"I know that, but where I come from-"

"Uhh… In Canada our rules are the same." Bridgit interrupted her friend. "That's why they call Quidditch an International Sport."

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant! Back on the streets from my childhood when we played Quidditch, it was for keeps! Even the spectators got involved and threw bottles or rocks at the opposing team. That was real Quidditch! I mean, come on! Only one kid was bleeding by the end of it."

"He died. And I repeat the point about us needing to play by their rules." Bridgit reminded her friend.

"Maybe I should join the Slytherin team. Let's see how Angelina likes that!" Chop!

"Nooooo!" Neville's voice cried softly. "Don't join the dark side!"

"You know what? How about I chop for a while?" Bridgit grabbed the knife from her somewhat unstable friend. "Nothing personal, I just don't want to die."

"Hmpf! Fine." Cora huffed.

"Okay…so we put in the roots," Bridgit scarped them off the cutting board, "and then add the eyes, but what comes after that?"

"All that's left is the lizard tail and the mistletoe leaf. Just pick one." Cora gestured between the two.

"But…Professor Snape said that the wrong one would explode!" Bridgit didn't fancy the idea of that happening.

"Stop being such a pussie! I'll do it!" Cora grabbed the mistletoe and went for the cauldron.

"No no no!" Bridgit stopped her friend from dropping it in. "Don't be so rash! Just wait and the answer will come, I'm sure!"

Suddenly, Professor Snape, who had been eavesdropping on their previous conversation, made a raspy coughing noise that sounded remarkably like 'lizard tail'.

"Ummm…" Bridgit and Cora looked at each other in confusion. "Bless you sir." They offered.

"Shut up." Snape hissed at them, moving past their table to yell at Neville.

"Okay. Let's try the lizard tail." Cora grabbed it and dropped it in.

The potion started fizzing and exactly twelve seconds later Bridgit added the mistletoe leaf. The potion turned a clear green colour and Bridgit and Cora marveled at it.

"Wow…it turned out right. He really helped us out. Maybe he's not such a bad guy like everyone says." Bridgit mused.

They then heard an explosion from behind and Neville screamed.

"Mr. Longbottom! How many times have I told you, Lizard tail before mistletoe! L before M! Don't you know your alphabet?" Snape barked at him.

"I'm sorry, sir! But I never went to muggle preschool!" Neville wailed. "Grandma wouldn't teach it to me! She thought it would make me lippy!"

"Silence, Mr. Longbottom. You and Ms. Grainger fail today's class." Snape then swept to the front of the room.

"He's such a wretch, you only messed up because he was standing over your shoulder yelling at you." Hermione growled.

"I wonder why he was being so nice to us?" Bridgit narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"Maybe he has reverse PMS!" Cora suggested.

"What?"

"No, no no! It's a real medical condition!"

Their further conversation was interrupted by Snape yelling, "Time's up!"

Everyone instantly stopped what they were doing.

"The mystery potion I had instructed you to make is a tongue-tying potion. It inhibits the neural pathways to the speech centre of the brain, compromising your language skills for around an hour." He grinned coldly. "To get full marks, you or your partner must drink some of the potion as I go by so that I may observe its effectiveness. Choose one."

"Okay…maybe he wasn't doing it because he was nice." Bridgit sighed.

"Let's flip a coin! Heads I win, tails you lose!" Cora suggested.

"That one's old! We're flipping a coin and you'll call your side when it's in the air." Bridgit saw through her friend's trick.

"All right. It's a deal." Bridgit flipped the coin. "Heads!" Cora shouted as it was in mid-air.

The coin spun and Bridgit caught it as it started descending and flipped it over onto the back of her hand. Her face paled.

"Heads." She moaned.

"Miss Firecatcher, Miss Willowstaff, I shall be starting with your table." Snape smiled evilly. "Which one of you will test the serum?" He asked, almost with glee.

"I will, sir." Bridgit said, her head downcast.

"Enjoy that sentence, Miss Firecatcher, it will be your last coherent one for quite some time." Snape's smile widened as he handed her a ladle and a small glass.

Bridgit ladled a bit of the serum into her glass.

"You're going to need much more than that!" He grabbed the ladle and filled the glass to the brim. Bridgit gave him an imploring look, as if to plead for mercy. "Bottoms up, Miss Firecatcher." He handed her the glass.

~I really hate you right now.~ Bridgit thought.

"Ten points from Gryffindor." Snape gave her a cold smile.

"How did you-"

"Just drink it, urchin!"

Wrinkling her nose at the less than appealing smell and the knowledge of what was really in the drink, Bridgit quickly tilted the glass back and chugged the elixer, which actually tasted like cherries covered in maple syrup, except that it burned on the way down. Bridgit spluttered and coughed.

"Man, that burns!" She said, only it came out, "Flicker dish monopoly!"

Everyone looked at her in confusion.

"Adequate, I suppose." Snape gave them a D+ for cheating and filed it on their permanent record before moving on to the next table.

"Mr. Longbottom, since you invariably ruined the potion you were brewing, you are going to be the one to taste it." Snape gave him a cold look.

Neville gulped and filled his glass full of the brown, smoldering liquid. He also gulped it down quickly, but then looked like he was going to be sick. He started coughing and tried to forget the horrid taste.

"So, Mr. Longbottom, how is the taste of failure? Although I'm sure you're quite used to it by now."

"Duckie." Neville replied sadly.

For a moment, Snape looked concerned. It seemed as though Neville had somehow succeeded in making the gibberish potion. His fears, however, were dispelled as Neville continued.

"Duckie duckie duckie duckie!" Neville pleaded.

"No, Mr. Longbottom, I will not take pity on you. You both receive a G." He then moved on to the next table.

"Duckie." Neville looked like he was going to cry.

"Unless your potion is the normal, emerald green, its effects will last four hours." Snape added.

A few people looked horrififed, Harry and Ron included. Well, just Ron. By the end of the sampling, more than half of the class was speaking gibberish. To add insult to injury, Snape began to ask bizarre questions to the class, mainly to the people affected by the potion.

"Mr. Weasley, what is the meaning of life?" He turned to Ron.

"Capricious waffle nosed butterdish." Ron replied, looking annoyed.

"Don't take that tone with me. Five points from Gryffindor. Miss Firecatcher, what was the name of the wizard who developed this potion?"

Bridgit groaned, knowing what was going to happen next.

"Fiddledee Bumblesmack Pennymuncher." Bridgit smacked her head on the desk, knowing how stupid her answer sounded.

Snape turned red in the face and the room went silent.

"That's…right." Hermione said in amazement.

Bridgit's eyes widened.

"Pizza monkey duck fish? Water mucous blindfolded hamperloonie!" She smiled, looking relieved.

"No speaking out of turn!" He growled at Hermione. "Twenty points from Gryffindor."

"He's just doing that because he lost." Cora whispered to Bridgit.

Bridgit nodded sagely, "Frog intestine of fly emu bowl."

"Yes, well, caporial modgepodge hegemony to you too." Cora muttered.

Snape, in a foul mood from losing, was mean and vindictive for the rest of the class. Thankfully, because Bridgit had gone first to test the potion and they had made it correctly, it was just starting to wear off. They headed out into the packed hallway, following Hermione, Harry, Ron and Neville to find their charms classroom. On the way, however, Cora's bookbag suddenly burst and all of her books tumbled out across the floor.

"Aww man!" She moaned, wondering why the thing should be so flimsy.

Slytherins walking by kicked her books along, spreading them out, and snickering maliciously. Hermione tried to turn back, but there was too strong a current in the halls.

"Are you guys okay?" She called back.

"Don't worry! You go on kelp, we'll find our way after raisins clean this up!" Bridgit shouted back still not completely in control of her words.

Hermione was forced to agree, as she couldn't work her way back through the press of bodies and she really didn't want to be late. She nodded and reluctantly continued on with the others.

"Man, what a flimsy bag." Cora growled, gathering up her books and punching one Slytherin, who had lagged behind and tried to kick her book, in the face.

It took ten minutes to round up all of the textbooks that had been strewn about. By the time this had been accomplished, the halls were virtually emptied and the next class had begun.

"Great, now where on magnitude is the charms room?" Bridgit sighed.

"Excuse me, are you two lost?" Bridgit and Cora almost jumped at the voice coming from directly behind them. They turned to behold some guy. He was dressed in a Ravenclaw uniform that was too small and he looked way too old to be a student.

"Ummm…yeah." Cora smiled. "We need to get to charms and we're not too sure where it is."

"Oh!" He smiled back, combing his fingers through his long, platinum blonde hair. "No problem. Charms is another class held outside near the forbidden forest like the care of magical creatures class."

"Really? Could you give us directions?" Bridgit asked.

"Sure, go out the front door, past Hagrid's cabin and walk until you're almost out of sight. Then take a left into the first, oh, I'd say about ten meters in the forest. You can't miss it; it'll be a gathering of a bunch of students around a fire pit sitting on large stones." He explained.

"Thanks so much!" The two thanked him.

"No problem." He smiled. "But now I've got to run to my class in muggle ass kissing. Good luck!" He waved at them as he turned to jog off

"I didn't know that was a class." Cora raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Eh. Everything's gone to hell since Dumbledore took over. Why, he even-"

"Okay, bye!" Bridgit yelled loudly, running off with Cora.

The two quickly ran through the stone corridors until they got to the main entrance.

"Poor guy. He must have failed a million times." Cora laughed.

They made their way outside and then broke into a sprint. They shot past Hagrid's cabin and didn't hear him as he called out a greeting to them. Just as they were almost out of sight from the cabin, they turned left and cautiously walked into the forest. At first, they didn't see anything in the dim gloom, but as they walked further in and their eyes adjusted, they could see the shapes of many bodies seated on Stones around an empty fire pit.

"Oh, good. We made it!" Cora sighed in relief.

"Yeah, I was dishwashing we wouldn't foshizzle it." Bridgit added.

Cora looked at Bridgit with a wry smile.

"Maybe don't talk until the potion completely wears off." She teased her friend.

"Yeah right!" Bridgit laughed at the thought of being silent.

They approached the gathering, walking in relief. They were certain that the teacher of the class wouldn't be as unreasonable as Snape and would quite likely be willing to accept their excuse for being late. When they were two meters from the gathering, they both started slowing down, having a bit of an uneasy feeling in their gut.

"Doesn't it seem kind of quiet for a class?" Cora asked nervously.

"I don't think pinkie are usually this quiet during fudgecicles." Bridgit looked around at the people nervously.

"And where's Harry and everybody?"

They then noticed consciously that every figure there had their faces hidden by robes.

"I don't think this is-"

Before Bridgit could finish her sentence, which would have included weird incomprehensible fragments anyway, every person in the small gathering suddenly unleashed the same spell from their wands in unison. Both were thrown violently backwards. Bridgit smashed into a tree and Cora flew very far back, sliding on the prickly forest floor as she landed, and then to a stop in a thorny bush. The group of people split into half, one pursuing and surrounding Bridgit and Cora each, ready to unleash a torrent of spells at them. Cora spat the dirt and thorns out of her mouth and narrowly dodged a spark of purple that was shot at her. Bridgit took longer to recover, having hit her head. As a shot of blue came at her, she scrambled out of the way, but didn't completely avoid it. It hit her leg, which froze and refused to work.

"Awww…Fashudmuffins!" She swore, although it didn't come out the way she had planned.

Cora dodged another spell and decided to try to disable as many of them as she could.

"Araneum pedemopponere!" She shouted.

Small wires shot out from where she stood and attached to whatever they hit. The result was a virtual maze of nearly invisible trip wires. Running from space to space, Cora tried to escape from her aggressors and reach Bridgit.

Bridgit decided that using a similar spell would be very prudent.

"Araneum kafudmuffins!" She shouted. Nothing happened and she fell over as she dodged another spell.

"Araneum flos!" A bouquet of flowers with spiders at the tops of the stems instead of blossoms appeared in her hand. "Argh! Stupid Snape!" Bridgit yelled in frustration.

In the bowels of the dungeon, Snape suddenly sneezed. He sniffed, wondering what had brought it on. "Ten points from Gryffindor." He excused himself.

Almost free of the trip wires, Cora got caught on one and landed flat on her face. She was hit by a bolt of orange and started laughing hysterically, unable to move.

"What….the hell…?" She gasped out between laughs. "Teredrare!" Her laugher ceased, she climbed to her feet and continued running.

"Araneum uranium!" Nothing happened.

"Araneum linear candlestick!" Nothing happened.

~Please work this time!~ Bridgit pleaded to whatever invisible and unholy deities she worshipped.

"Araneum fragor!"

Cora ducked as there was a flash of bright violet and then a cloud appeared in the sky right above the gathering. Cora quickly ran and pulled Bridgit and herself into the shelter of a boulder as their antagonists, who had previously been laughing at and taunting Bridgit's predicament, looked up in befuddlement. Suddenly, spiders started falling from the sky. As if that wasn't creepy enough, they exploded on contact, giving a painful but minor burn.

"Argh!" The people started running around, trying to avoid the exploding spiders falling from the sky.

A few wussier ones cowered off to the side, nursing their minor burns. Deciding to take advantage of the situation, Cora started to cast a spell. She pointed her hands into the center of the melee.

"Fragor-"

"Crucio!" Yelled a voice from behind, interrupting Cora.

Cora cried out, collapsed and started writhing in agony.

"Cora!" Bridgit crawled out from underneath the rock and then tackled the guy to the ground.

The rain of exploding spiders had stopped and as the first guy's concentration was now distracted by Bridgit, another took over casting and maintaining the unforgivable curse. The guy Bridgit was fighting whispered a spell and jabbed his wand into her chest, where it started burning. Bridgit screamed along with Cora.

"What's goin' on in here?" A rough voice yelled, sounding quite angry.

At the sound of this new voice, the group of people abandoned their endeavors and ran off quickly into the forest. Released from their torments, Bridgit and Cora lay on the ground, gasping heavily. The cavalry, aka Hagrid and his new Cerberus named Cuddley-Poo, ran up to the two.

"Are yeh okay?" He asked in concern.

Cuddley-Poo started ripping trees out of the ground and mauling whoever he could catch.

"How did you know we were in trouble?" Bridgit asked in confusion.

"Bridgit!"

Cora!

The two dragonettes scampered beside their companions in concern.

"Man, I'm glad we abandoned them at Hagrid's," Cora gasped out.

Cora, you idiot! What did you get yourself into now! Moonmist snapped, more irate than usual.

"I would have thought that would be obvious, stupid." Cora weakly retorted.

You must be in bad shape if that's the best you can come up with. Moonmist sighed.

"Wha' happened?" Hagrid asked.

"This guy was giving us directions out here to get to charms class, but it was all just a setup and we were ambushed." Bridgit explained.

"By who?"

"We don't know. They were disguised."

"I'll bet it was those Slytherins. They were too quiet today." Cora suspiciously muttered.

"Well, yeh're in rough shape. Best t'be gettin' yeh back to th' school." Hagrid shook his head. "To think this happened here, of all places and so early in the school year."

"What's the school year got to do with anything?" Bridgit and Cora yelled at the same time and then grimaced from the effects of yelling.

Half an hour later found them in the infirmary being tended to by Madame Pomfrey. Reagan and Sammy sat with them in bewilderment.

"I can understand this happening to Harry, but who would target you guys?" Reagan wondered.

"Shoot! We were even on patrol…I can't believe we didn't find you guys!" Sammy growled, obviously beating herself up. "But Reagan's right, who could possibly be that interested in you?"

"I don't know." Bridgit growled. "But if we ever find out." Her look deepened.

"We'll pay them back a tenfold." Cora looked murderous, and Bridgit appeared not very happy herself as they envisioned what they would do to their aggressors if they ever found them. They completely missed Sammy's burn in their angry musings.

In charms class, Harry suddenly flinched and gingerly touched his scar.

"What is it Harry?" Ron, ever the sidekick, asked his friend.

"I don't know…my scar started hurting."

Ron looked nervous. "That hasn't happened for a while. D'you suppose…You-Know-Who is maybe planning something?"

"I don't know. But whatever it is, it can't be good."

Harry looked very serious.

Ron paled.

Hermione answered a question.

"It was the Slytherins!" McGonagall snapped.

"Oh, those children don't have the rocks to do something like that!" Madame Hooch muttered.

As she was only a minor character, she was promptly ignored.

"You should have been keeping an eye on them, Severus! We may have an international crisis on our hands now!" McGonagall started chewing out Snape.

"I was teaching at the time and I'm their house head, not their babysitter. Besides, they all have plausible alibis. For instance, young Mr. Malfoy was crocheting…and he made a damn fine hat!" Snape crammed a brightly-coloured yarn hat onto his head.

"It was the shoes, I tell you!" Professor Trlawney raved.

"Shoes can't cast the unforgivable curses!" Professor McGonagall glared at her.

"Ah yes, but these boots were made for walking and these slippers," she gestured at her feet, "will do the talking." She then passed out.

"Stupid, air-headed fake." McGonagall muttered.

"Sod off!" The slippers responded.

Everyone jumped in surprise, but then ignored them.

"Now, now," Dumbledore tried to calm everyone down. "We have no definitive proof in the matter. For now, we shall insist that students stick together as much as possible and stay away from secluded areas. Why must I always repeat myself? The Forbidden Forest is forbidden! You'd think the name would make it clear enough."

"Maybe we should change the name to the Study Forest. Everyone would avoid it then." Professor Trelawney's slippers said.

Everyone paused for a moment to think this over.

"No, because then we would lose Miss Grainger, and as we all know, she's the only one here with a future." McGonagall sighed.

"I would hardly consider it a loss." Snape gave her an ugly leer.

"Now, now, let's not get all riled up. We must put up an air of knowing confidence and set a good example for the children." Dumbledore said with a sense of finality. "Please return to your classes."

Everyone nodded and walked out, except for Professor Trelawney, who wasn't wearing her walking boots.

"Hey, wake up, stupid!" Her slippers urged her. "Hello? Hello? ….We're so lonely."

After being released from the infirmary, the four walked glumly down the hallway. Sensing the depressive mood that had settled upon the group, Bridgit decided that she would try to lighten things up.

"Man! Being caught off guard by that guy was such a BURN!" She pointed to her chest and laughed like an idiot. When no one started laughing, she began getting a little nervous. "You know? The burn? And it's a burn? And then it's funny and you laugh?"

"We get it! It's just not funny!" Sammy snapped. "You two have one simple mission, that's all! Not two, not three, just one. Yet you have both been doing a sub-standard job at it from the moment we got here. You've constantly shown a flagrant disregard for your responsibilities in this matter. From now on, you're not to leave the Potter kid's side no matter what! Do I make myself clear? And don't get yourself into stupid trouble over trivial matters that could jeopardize our mission! Do you understand?" She looked positively livid.

There was a long, silent pause.

"…But what if he has to go to the bathroom?" Bridgit nervously ventured, unclear as to whether the rules applied to this.

"ARGH! You are so immature! Don't you understand what's at stake here? It's times like these I wonder why you were selected for this mission!" She continued.

"I-I'm sorry….I just wanted to know." Bridgit' face felt hot and she fought to hold back tears. She hated to show any emotion like this, but coming from Sammy it just hurt that much more. She turned the other way and tried to pretend she was mad. "Well, you're a bum-head!" She sobbed.

Cora became very angry at her friend's crushed spirit.

"Way to go for morale, JACKASS!"

Sammy opened her mouth to speak.

"No! You're going to listen! You're the leader of this midnight berry picking expedition, so if we're not 'taking this seriously', it's because you're not doing your job properly!" The two glared at each other.

Sammy, with a definitive huff, spun around and walked off quickly.

"It's okay, Bridgit, the bum-head's gone!" Cora glared after her.

"We really let down the team, didn't we?" Bridgit turned to Reagan, "We didn't mean to! That guy tricked us and lied and said that charms was in the forest! How were we to know it wasn't?"

"Uhmmm…this is probably a bad time to mention it, but for future reference, the room numbers are right here under the class name on your schedules." Reagan pointed on her schedule page.

Bridgit burst out into tears and Reagan hugged her.

"I'm sorry! We really screwed up! I'm so sorry!"

"No, you guys did the best you could, it's not your fault. Just be more careful next time." Reagan comforted them.

"I doubt our fearless leader feels the same way." Cora said between gritted teeth.

"She's taking it harder than she let on. She's really beating herself up for not realizing you were in trouble when we were on patrol. You guys really scared her after being attacked. It's not your fault, you didn't plan for it to happen and didn't realize it until it was too late, but it frightened us. Actually, you two did very well considering how outnumbered you were. You did your best!" Reagan tried to set the healing in motion.

"It wasn't good enough." Cora growled.

"Don't worry! It will be okay. I'll go and talk to Sammy." Reagan then took off after her.

"Well…this sucks." Cora muttered.

"Don't worry," Bridgit wiped her eyes on her sleeve, "we've messed up, but let's leave that behind us and do our best. This is like that one summer in Mexico when…"

"Yeah, yeah! Let's just go find Harry. I don't have enough time to listen to you talk all day!"

Bridgit followed suit and they ran aimlessly through the hallways. As luck would have it, Harry, Ron and Hermione were looking for them, having noticed that they hadn't been in class, and were worried something bad had happened.

"There you are!" Hermione exclaimed. "We were so worried when we found out!"

"Found out?" Bridgit raised her eyebrow.

"Out about the ambush!"

"How the hell do you know about it? We just got out of the infirmary!" Cora stared in amazement at the girl who freakishly knew everything.

"You're not the only ones with sources, you know." Hermione smiled knowingly.

Bridgit and Cora looked at each other in confusion, having no knowledge of any such sources, but decided they would just shut up to prevent any further discussion on the subject.

"So you lot were really attacked by a bunch of hooded blokes? We thought she'd just gone mental!" Ron exclaimed. "It must be those darn Slytherins!"

"No…I think it was Snape." Harry growled. "Don't you think that toungue-tying potion was a little too conveniently timed?"

"You always think it was Snape!" Ron sighed.

"And chances are I'll be right one of these days!" Harry grinned.

"For 'who boned your mom'…" Bridgit laughed quietly to herself.

"Wait a minute! I know what it was!" Hermione snapped her fingers as she realized the answer. "Harry, you said that your scar was hurting during charms, right?"

"Yes."

"And your scar only hurts when You-Know-Who is being evil, right?"

"I…really don't see where you're going with this…"

"Don't you get it? They were attacked by agents of the dark lord!" Hermione concluded.

"But we're just innocent exchange students!" Bridgit laughed nervously.

"Yeah, why would the dark lord want anything with us?" Cora added, trying to look above suspicion.

"I've got it!" Her eyes lit up. "He's trying to sabotage your mission of good will in order to cut down Britain's allies, should he decide to attack! By crickey! This is more serious than I thought."

~Crap!~ Bridgit thought. ~Voldemort knows about our mission and he's after us so that he can take out Harry after he's dealt with us!~

She could tell by the look on Cora's face, that they had both reached the same conclusion. They would have to be especially careful from now on.

"Well, what should we do about it?" Cora asked.

"Hmmm…according to what's worked for us in the past, we should definitely not tell the adults unless we're so deep in trouble we can't get ourselves out." Harry said. "And even then maybe not. Maybe only if they unintentionally find out."

"Good plan!" Ron smiled.

"And this has worked in the past and you're still alive?" Cora asked.

"Yup!" Hermione grinned.

"I see."

"We're doomed!" Bridgit whispered to her friend.

"Since you're in danger, the least we can do is stick near you for protection." Harry concluded. "I've had experience with fighting Voldemort," Ron and Hermione shuddered. "so your safety will be more safe if we contribute our help!"

"Uh…sure!" Cora pretended to be relieved. "We are in your …capable hands!"

In a tight-knit group, they headed back to the Gryffindor common room. Once there, Fred and George rushed up to the group, specifically to Bridgit and Cora.

"We heard what happened!" One of them exclaimed breathlessly.

"Are you blokes all right?" The other inquired.

"Yes." Bridgit smiled as Cora yelled,

"How the hell do they all know?"

"It's impossible to keep a secret in this school!"

"Especially because Professor Trelawny's slippers are such terrible gossips."

"Don't worry, we'll take the protection thing from here!" George waved dismissively at Harry, Ron and Hermione, who left to go do their homework. Bridgit and Cora apparently had no qualms with disregarding Sammy's orders less than five minutes after they were issed.

"Anyway, as far as we figure it, it was probably the Slytherins, so we have a prank to get them back!" Fred lowered his voice to a conspiratory level.

"But…they kind of seemed like adults." Bridgit objected.

"Even still, they probably knew about it." George accused them, not needing a real excuse to hate on the Slytherins.

"We figured you might want in on it, so we were wondering if you would like to come along!" Fred offered.

"Okay." Bridgit said without a second thought.

"Ah…sweet vengeance." Cora grinned wickedly, conveniently ignoring the fact it was misplaced.

"Excellent!" George rubbed his hands together.

"Enough of that! Let's get back to the vengeance. What are we gonna do?" Cora brought them back to the important topic.

"Right! Off we go! We'll tell you on the way there."

They emerged from the portrait hole and walked briskly down the hallways, cackling with glee.

In the Slytherin common room, a few students, including Malfoy, were lounging around after a hard day's being snotty.

"Man, those mudbloods sure have muddy blood." One of them commented out of boredom.

"Yes, not like OUR blood. Ours is made of iron. Stupid mudbloods and their lack of oxygen." Another responded.

"Ah, I can't tell you how refreshing it is to relax in my one hundred billion sickle chair from Wizard Expensive Ikea, Snob Outlet, after all that dirty work…done by servants of course. Our common room is so plush and expensive, full of the finer things in life and much better than anyone else's common rooms." Malfoy sighed in contentment.

"Yeah…too bad no one else can see it."

They all hung their heads.

"Hey, look! Punch!" Snobby McPeterson pointed to a corner of the room.

Cecil Patterdish perked up from his seat beside Snobby and looked around wildly.

"Where where?"

"Over HERE!" Snobby shouted as she punched him in the arm.

"OWWWWW! That hurt!" Cecil cried.

"Actually…there really is punch." Statey L'obvious pointed to a nearby table.

"How did that get there?" Bruce wondered aloud.

"Who cares?" Malfoy said, "Let's drink it all!"

They all converged on the potion and consumed it rather quickly. Upon drinking the last drop, the bowl suddenly began to speak.

"Greedy little bugger, this'll teach you to drink what doesn't belong to you!" The bowl then melted into jello.

"What was that all about?" Bruce wondered aloud.

"ARGH! My nose is itchy!" Statey reached to scratch her nose just as everyone else realized….

"Oh no! Our nose hair is growing!" Snobby wailed.

"Quick! Where's a pair of magical scissors? We need to cut it off!" Malfoy fumbled for a pair of scissors. "Here we are!" He reached up to his nose, which had a pair of twin ropes descending quickly to the floor as the hair continued to grow.

He snipped at the hair and the blades of the scissors broke.

"Great. Now what are we going to do?" Cecil wondered aloud.

"Our aloof and upper-class images will be ruined! We look like commoners!"

"How many commoners do you know who look like this?" Statey screeched. "We're freaks!"

"Stop it! There must be a way to fix this! What does everyone know?" Malfoy asked the assembled group.

"My servant does all the learning!" Statey whined, "This is too hard!"

"Whoever did this….DAMN YOUUUUU!" Malfoy raised his fist to the sky and shook it angrily.

Running back from the secret passageway, Fred, George, Bridgit and Cora cackled evilly.

"They're going to need more than magic scissors to cut that hair!" George grinned.

"You know, considering what they did to us, isn't this kind of pathetic revenge?" Cora posed the question that resulted from her own sudden thought.

"Well, we don't really know for sure that they did it." George reminded her.

"Then what was the point of doing this at all?" Cora huffed.

"Because it was funny!" Bridgit giggled.

"That's the spirit!" Fred slapped her on the back.

"Ow! Too much chummy in that slap!" Bridgit coughed.

The four emerged from behind a secret tapestry and turned the corner only to bump into…

"Hello Professor Snape!" George quickly covered up his surprise.

Snape glared down at them, raising an eyebrow.

"We were just out for a turn about the corridors!" Fred added.

"So it would seem." He said in a flat voice.

"Erm….you look very…the same as always tonight!" Bridgit tried to honestly compliment his attire and failed miserably.

Snape didn't even dignify that with a response. Instead, he went on the offensive.

"What are you four doing out in the corridors at this hour? Didn't I give you two enough potions homework?" Snape glared at Bridgit and Cora.

"But you didn't give us any homework!" Cora protested.

There was an awkward pause.

"…Well, OBVIOUSLY you weren't paying attention!" He shot back. "And I am quite suspicious that you are roaming these hallowed halls for a prank. It could just be my keen intuition, or the fact that you are currently keeping company with the Weasely twins."

Fred and George gulped.

"Don't know what you're talking about, professor!" George gestured grandly to illustrate his innocence.

"I think perhaps a couple months' worth of detention in Filch's dungeon might persuade you to tell me what you four are really up to." Snape folded his arms across his chest and glared menacingly at them.

"Filch has a dungeon?" Bridgit asked.

"Yes. It's several leagues below mine and constantly requires free labour to feed the rats, dust the cobwebs and scrape the mildew. It contains horrors that even I cannot imagine."

There was another strained silence.

Sammy suddenly ran up to the now-formed group of five.

"Have you found her yet?" She asked breathlessly.

"Found who?" Snape turned around, just missing the equally confused expressions on everyone else's faces.

"Philimustrious Armantrada! Did you find her?" Sammy continued.

"What is the meaning of this?" Snape demanded. "What's going on?"

"There isn't much time! Philimustrius is my cousin who was visiting me on her last day on vacation in England when some random kid called her a fat mud bucket. They didn't know it, but Phil has an immense fear of buckets…and mud. So, she ran off screaming and fell down several flights of stairs and they shifted and she rolled off and now we don't know where she is! It's horrible! I think she's critically wounded and she hasn't taken her medication yet…for her fear of mud…and uhhh…she's all alone!" Sammy quickly spilled out a ridiculous story.

"I hardly believe that-"

"If my cousin dies, I will hold you, sir, personally responsible!"

"But I don't think-"

"Hurry everyone! We must make haste and find her before it is too late!" Sammy cried and quickly dragged Cora by the sleeve. Everyone else waited behind and there was a long pause.

"Well? What are you waiting for! Get looking!" Snape suddenly broke the silence.

As the three quickly sprinted off, Bridgit smiled. The way she figured it, Cora and Sammy were well over-due for some serious bonding time. As soon as they were out of ear and eye shot, Fred and George stopped and asked the question that was weighing upon their minds.

"What was that all about?" George asked.

"Well, Sammy doesn't have a cousin." Bridgit began.

"Really?" Fred interrupted, his voice laden with sarcasm.

"So I think this was her way of apologizing for getting really mad at Cora and I for being attacked by the hooded people. Usually she wouldn't have saved us from something that was so obviously our fault. That's why she sucked at it…she doesn't have much experience."

"Well, at any rate, we owe her one!" Fred sighed in relief. "We'll have to invite her along for a pranking later on!"

"Nah! She's actually more of a stick in the mud, play by the rules kind of person." Bridgit shook her head.

"Too bad. She seemed weird enough that we'd actually get along." George grinned.

"So what exactly are you doing lurking around the hallways?" Cora asked as she walked with Sammy down said hallways.

"I was looking for an ice cream vendor. I wanted a cool treat after my hot eats." Sammy said lamely.

Cora looked at her suspiciously.

"Were you really looking for us because we weren't in the common room, so you thought that we had run off in sadness after you were so mean to us?" Cora gave her a look.

"Uhhh…nope!" Sammy said quickly, as she had been right.

"Good! Because we're not that pathetic!"

"Well, obviously I'll have to work harder at keeping my eye on you two because you seem to have a knack for getting into trouble. I suppose I should have figured it out sooner. Don't worry, now that I know you're both so hopeless, I'll just have to work harder!" Sammy patted her on the head.

"Agh!" Cora batted her hand away. "Don't patronize me!"

"Try and stop me!" Sammy responded.

"Maybe I will!" Cora kicked her.

The two erupted in a brawl in their almost sibling-ish apology/apology accepted ritual.

In the Griffindor common room, Reagan looked at his watch, which had just started beeping.

"Ah, everyone should be back together again now." He smiled.

"What? How do you know that?" Hermione asked from some random location.

"You're not the only one who has sources, you know." Reagan joked, thinking it was obvious that he had just known them for a long time.

"How did you know about my secret sources?" Hermione looked horrified.

"Umm…I was just kidding…" Reagan looked concerned.

"Of…course. So was I! Heh heh!" Hermione laughed nervously and quickly backed out of the room.

The next day at the beginning of potions, Snape quickly walked up to Bridgit and Cora's table and leaned down to speak with them in a confidential tone.

"Did you find her?" He asked.

"Find who?" Bridgit responded.

"Philimustrius!" He provided them with a name.

"Oh! Her. Well…she was actually a bogart. You see, Sammy's greatest fear was of Phil dying! So we were a little upset when we found out we were just chasing a silly old bogart!" Cora worsened the lie instinctively.

"Confoundit! I can't tell you how many times I've asked Filch to get rid of those things! He's going to get a nasty memorandum from me!" He then swept to the front of the room to begin the day's lesson.

"Duckie!" Neville hiccoughed.

"Now, before I begin imparting to you my illustrious wisdom, I ask that everyone please present me with yesterday's homework assignment." He folded his arms neatly across his chest.

"You didn't…assign any." Hermione ventured.

"Well, it would seem that no one from Gryffindor pays attention."

"But the Slytherins aren't handing in anything either!" Harry protested.

"They were excused after the house snake died tragically." He raised an eyebrow.

All the Slytherins wore bags over their heads, clearly the result of Fred and George's return to the common room to refill the punchbowl later that evening.

"Keep up with the times, guys. Bridgit and I got our work done!" Cora held up two rolls of parchment.

Snape, as a silent wraith, suddenly appeared next to their tables.

"I'll take that." He unrolled them.

Bridgit' roll contained a rather poor rendition of Snape biting a head off of a bat. Cora's contained some drivel about how she loved potions, with a final paragraph about honeydew.

"Yes, everything seems to be in order. The rest of the Gryffindors fail on the assignment to produce conclusive evidence that I am the greatest thing since sliced bread." He then glided back to the blackboard to begin the days lecture.