Ekaterina's disclaimer: After 21 chapters worth of disclaimers, it gets reaaaaally hard to think of a witty one. -_- Forgive the terseness, but we do not own Harry Potter. All rights to JK Rowling.
Amber's disclaimer: Er...well, I've never written one of these before (gasp!) but I figured I might as well start doing one...don't ask why. I guess it's that annoying thing called a conscience telling me to write this thing and not claim J.K Rowling's awesome books all for my lonesome. But the wand is mine! *is whacked on the head by Mimiona with a painful metal stick (not yet, but I'm sure she will) and the sweet Ekaterina and Blossom trample me to death (not the kitty. Anything but the kitty.) Btw, that kitty has three white rings on its tail. So, people, if you don't want to face the same painful death I did (and hurt the kitty. Don't you DARE hurt Death!) I recommend that you not steal J.K Rowlings characters or wands (sigh), ne~?
Blossom's disclaimer: We don't own Harry Potter books, movies, characters, spells, creatures, plots...well, you get the point. All rights to Rowling. Also, I will not trample Amber to death... Really! I am a very sweet person!
Ekaterina's note: Hmmm, I rather liked the end of the last chapter. Dearest Amber, I would never trample you! I would find a more... amusing way of getting you mad like I always do. "I refuse to watch Soul Eater" will probably cause more strife than anything... :D haha, poor James, being chased by crocodiles, tickled to death, and traumatized by a giant teddy bear... Remus really can be cruel when he wants O.o Yeah, so we want to include ourselves in the story like we did before (nothing major but there none the less) but can't seem to think of a situation to place ourselves in :3 Anyhow, Now presenting Chapter 22.
Amber to Ekaterina: Crocodiles? Really? I swear, you might be even more evil than Remus himself.
Ekaterina to Amber- Haha, wouldn't you love to know what I have in store... :D If only I had magic... mwhaha
"How's Nadia?" Alice asked, twirling into the Gryffindor common room where she spent the majority of her time atudiyng and talking with her friends. Really, it was a mystery why she was placed into Slytherin.
Lily sighed and motioned toward a sulky Nadia. She was sitting on a couch staring up in to nothing in particular. "She's been like that ever since...ever since Death has been with that Shantall...URGH!"
"Guys, this is not the time to be studying for this Transfiguration test! To heck with it! We need to retrieve our Death from that evil Shantall!" Lara declared, bolting up from her seat, causing her books and scrolls to topple onto the floor.
"AGREED!" yelled Alice, jumping up and down.
"Huh? But the test..." said Lily, but put her books down and stood up. "Oh, whatever, I've studied for the past week, so I think that'll do..."
"Of course that'll do, of course! Now, if you get less than a 105% on it, I'm a Squib!" Lara said, high-fiving Lily.
"Let's go! TO RESCUE DEATH!" the girls screamed and ran out of the room. About two minutes later, they rushed back, grabbed a blank-faced Nadia, and dragged her out with them.
So that was why they were facing a snobby Shantall in the hallways about three minutes later.
"Shantall, you evil thing, how could you?" Lily started, her angry face almost as red as her hair.
"Me? What? What did I do?" Shantall smirked and answered innocently.
Lara's face flushed. "You know what you did! You know!"
"Now, do I?" Shantall replied, looking around to see a group of students forming a circle around them.
"Or, are you too stupid to know?" Alice asked, all the while tap dancing.
"Alice, if I'm stupid, what are you? Mentally retarded?" Shantall said, shrugging. "And could we please have this conversation indoors?"
"What if I say no?" Lily asked. "I don't see what's wrong with holding it here," she said, looking around. "Unless you have something to hide." She glared at Shantall, who didn't even flinch.
Shantall laughed and said, "Okay, well if that's how you're going to do it. Don't tell me I didn't warn you."
Lara narrowed her eyes. This had a major possibility of not going their way, if things got ugly she would prefer to have more people to back her up.
Someone poked her. "What?" she growled.
"Don't worry about it, we got your back," Lily said, flashing a smile and taking a step forward to be aligned with Lara.
"LILY! HOW ON EARTH DO YOU READ PEOPLE'S MINDS?"
"Oh, no, not this again," Lily mumbled. "Oh, come on, Lara," she spoke in a louder whisper, "we'll talk about this a little later."
"Huh? Oh yeah, okay..." Lara said, shrugging and turned her attention back to Shantall.
Shantall glared back at Lara. "Get side-tracked much?" she said, tousling her perfect hair.
"Anyway, you stole Death and you know it!" Lily came to the rescue as Lara stammered a little.
"Yeah? Are you sure about that?" Shantall asked.
"Oh yes we're sure! POSITIVE!" Lara roared.
Shantall shrugged. "Well, I did recently get a kitten. Such an adowable little ball of fur..."
"Yeah right. You mean you STOLE a kitten recently. Death. You stole her!" Alice said, dancing over to Shantall and patting her head.
"Don't touch me!" Shantall said shrilly and pushed Alice away from her. "Disgusting. Shame of the entire Slytherin house!"
Alice giggled and said cheerfully, "Oh, Shantall, I didn't know you danced, too!"
"UGH! I can't stand that disgrace talking to me! You!" She pointed to Lara. "Do something about her!"
Lara was boiling in anger. "Alice is worth more than that crappy thing standing in front of me!" She pulled out her wand and yelled, "Furnunculus!"
Shantall laughed easily as she said, "Finite Incantatum," with a flick of her wand, and the spell was stopped.
"Think your so smart? You watch out," Lily said. "And Lara, calm down. It won't work if you hurt her. You don't want this to get to Professor Dumbledore, do you?" She pat Lara's back.
"Yeah, Lara. You don't want to get in big, big trouble by oh-so-scary-Dumbodork, do you? Listen to your friend, Lara. And learn some anger management, will you? Do you need a therapist?" Shantall mocked.
Lara would have charged Shantall like an angry bull except that Alice was holding onto her and ballroom dancing.
"That's enough, Shantall. Don't act like a five year old. Besides, there's a much simpler way to prove that you have Death-"
"-or that I don't," Shantall interrupted.
"Right. So just bring this kitten of yours out. Everyone knows what Death looks like and that Nadia owns her," Lily said sensibly, even though inside, she was just as raving mad as Lara, or even more. Because right now she really wanted to pull out every perfect strand of hair on that perfect head of that girl.
"Fine. SNOWFLAKE, COME HERE!" Shantall called loudly.
"What the heck?" Lara asked, "she named her Snowflake? A pure black-Oh, Merlin. WHAT DID SHE DO TO THAT CAT?"
Lily turned around to face Shantall holding a small, pure WHITE ball of fur with crystal blue eyes. She gasped, "Oh, dear Merlin..."
"Here's my Snowflake. So, do you think she's your Death, Nadia?" Shantall asked, smiling wickedly. "Wasn't Death black? And had green eyes?"
"SHANTALL, WHAT THE **** DID YOU DO TO MY DEATH!" Nadia seemed to have finally broken out of her spell when she saw her cat.
"There's another one that needs a therapist..." Shantall said mildly.
Nadia was in a rampage, tears pouring down her face."GO DIE AND BURN IN HELL! AVADA KEDAVRA! CRUCIO! AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Shantall didn't even flinch. "Oh, come on. Don't tell me you're trying to kill me with no wand..."
There was a wave laughter from the crowds.
"GO DIE! STOP BEING THE SCUM YOU ARE AND ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING USEFUL FOR ONCE! FILTH!" Lara joined.
"What did you just call me?" Shantall said, her eyes widening.
"DIRT! LESS THAN FILTH! YOU DON'T EVEN DESERVE THESE WORDS!" Nadia shrieked. Her eyes fell on Death. "Oh, Death! Come! Come to me!" She beckoned with her hands, her eyes imploring.
The white cat merely mewed and turned away.
"See? It doesn't like you," Shantall said, cuddling white Death in her arms. "And what kind of cat doesn't like its owner, huh?"
Lily grabbed Lara, Alice, and Nadia into a huddle.
"What on earth...?" she asked in an astonished tone. "OK. So what happened?"
"Isn't it obvious? Shantall bewitched Death to hate us and then turned her white! PURE WHITE! And named Snow-whatever," Nadia said. She looked like she wanted to cry some more.
"It's okay, it's okay," Lara said soothingly. "Nothing to worry about, 'k, Nadia? We'll get Death if it's the last thing we do!"
Alice smiled broadly. "How?"
There was a long silence.
"Aha...good question, Alice. So, how?" Lily asked again.
And there was another long silence.
It was Lara, always impatient, who broke it. "Oh, whatever. Let's just grab the cat and go!"
"Oh, Lara, stop being so simplistic. That is OBVIOUSLY NOT going to work since 'the cat' hates us!" Lily said sensibly.
Lara was quiet. Then she said, "Well, anyone got a better idea?"
No one answered.
Lara voiced her triumph."HA! So you can't really say anything about mine!"
"Alrighty, you win, Lara. But it still won't work. We need a plan," Lily announced.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious!" Lara said, giggling. "Yeah, Lily, I really didn't know that."
"LARA! You..." Lily said, but she was laughing, too.
Nadia had a mean look on her face as she said quietly, "AHEM."
"Huh? Oh, yeah..." Lily said apologetically.
Nadia took charge immediately. "Look. People are waiting. And they all," she motioned to all the people around them, trying to listen in on their conversation, "think we are: 1) out of our minds, 2) crazy, 3) insane, or 4) ready to kill. And we can't exactly blame them, because all the evidence points against us. Death hates me..." Here Nadia's voice trembled, but it soon returned to her regular tone, "and she is white, whereas everyone knows my Death is black! So we can't talk about this right now.
You two," she glared at Lara and Lily, "should have made a plan before coming out here and confronting Shantall."
"Excuse me? Who was the one who was staring into space for 48 hours straight and NOT helping us at all?" Lily said matter-of-factly.
Nadia ignored her. "Don't under-estimate that girl Shantall. She has got some brains under that pretty head and she will use those brains. Right now, we lost. It doesn't matter that we called her filth and all the things that she totally deserves, since we can't get Death back. Okay? The plan now is retreat until we have an idea."
"Alright," nodded Lily. "So, on the count of three, run to the common room," she whispered
.
"Gotcha!" Alice proceeded to sit on the floor.
Lily sighed. "Lara, will you pull Alice along with you?"
Lara nodded. "Sure. Alice, now, get up, and hold my hand..."
"One, two...THREE!" Lily yelled, and the four girls ran.
"MOVE!" Nadia screamed as she ripped through the crowd in the lead.
"ARGH!" a Ravenclaw screamed as he stumbled back, causing a domino effect as a whole line of students fell onto each other.
Lily followed Nadia, sprinting as fast as she could, Lara and Alice making up the rear end of the line. People were staring and whispering amongst themselves, questioning the sanity of those before them, as Shantall stood holding her "Snowflake" in her arms. There was an uncertain look on her pretty face as the four charged at her.
She was under the impression that they were going to knock her over then get suspended for assault. Instead, next thing she knew, James Potter was casually lifting the cat out of her arms and walking away. She looked to see the four girls running toward the Gryffindor common room and James following with Death in his arms. As expected, many jaws dropped, including Shantall's.
The last thing she saw before going into mass hysteria over having been so close to James Potter, was Alice, dear sweet Alice, turning around just before they rounded a corner and flipping her off.