The next day, her friends haven't just yet forgiven Ash. Every time they saw her they couldn't resist shaking their head at her in disappointment. How could she have not told them about her birthday?

However, something that they definitely would never forgive was what Pansy did to Ash. They could still see her shaking and crying form in front of them when they looked at her now, stuffing her face with food and listening to her surroundings and the tables conversations.

How did they know it was Pansy? Well, it was kind off obvious when they had come into the common room the other night and Pansy was boasting it to Daphne, who had looked a bit uncomfortable in their presence. Furthermore, Ash had told them about seeing Pansy grin at her when she noticed the plants erupting from her ears.

Yet, the teachers couldn't do anything. Pansy said that she didn't do it - and Veritaserum was forbidden.

Nonetheless, they knew Ash. You couldn't hurt Ash and think that you could get away with it. No. Ash was a fighter, a prankster, an absolute genius when it comes to revenge...

Ash was quiet when she joined her friends at breakfast the next morning. Only mumbling a small "Morning," before falling quiet again and starring at her food. She didn't even pick up the fork to pretend that she was eating something.

"Ash? Are you alright?" Tracy asked carefully when she saw her depressed friend.

Her blond head shot up. "Yeah, don't worry about me," she murmured and went back to starring at her waffles.

Concerned her friends moved their heads together. "She's lying," Tracy stated and glanced at the blond lifeless girl next to her, who had decided to finally eat the waffles before they turned cold(er).

"Well, it's not like we'd be jumping around and laughing if it would have happened to us," Blaise said tightening his lips.

"But, I've never seen her this... this lifeless," Tracy sighed and looked at her friend concerned.

"I know what you mean, but think about it like this. She just went through one of the greatest shocks in her life," Draco told her, "I think she just needs a bit of time... that's all."

"I guess..."

"Hey, how are you feeling?" the trio heard a voice say beside them, and saw Ginny hugging her cousin from behind.

"I'm alright, what about you?"

"Better, now that I see you plant-less," Ginny joked quietly and Ash's lips twitched an inch. But soon she fell silent again and her emotionless expression masked her face once again.

All of a sudden her head turned to look at the red haired girl that was still standing next to her. "You know what day today is?" she asked.

Ginny looked at her confused. "Yeah, its the 8th"

"8th of what?"

"8th of December. Why ar- Oh bloody Merlin! I'm so sorry! The game and the plants and everything. I totally forgot!" Ginny gasped when she remembered the 7th. "Happy Birthday!" she called and hugged her cousin tightly.

Again Ash's lips twitched, but nothing more. Her lips twitched and then she went back to her food and continued eating her waffles - ignoring Ginny for the rest of her short lived stay at the Slytherin table.

When Ginny wanted to leave, Tracy touched her hand, stood up and silently followed Ginny to her table.

"What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you. I've never seen Ash like this and its starting to scare me," Ginny glanced back at her silent cousin.

"I've seen her like that once before. She's brooding."

"Brooding?"

Ginny nodded and left Tracy standing alone. When Tracy went back to the table, she was surprised that she didn't see Ron nor Harry or Hermione come over to congratulate their family and friend, although she noticed that Granger had moved to stand up, but was stopped by Ginny. Probably telling them that it was useless, she was brooding.

Brooding. Tracy was unsure if that was better then what she had thought. It definitely wasn't a good sign for Pansy, who was currently laughing into her fists because she thought that she had hurt Ash. But she wished that Ash would include her and Blaise into the brooding process. She didn't like her silent friend and already missed the happy-go-lucky attitude she normally had.

"She's brooding," Tracy told the two boys when she sat down in her seat once again.

"Brooding?"

"Brooding."

The tree fell silent and watched their preoccupied friend...

The people around them had already vanished from the Great Hall, leaving the three of them alone in the way to big room.

"Ash, we should go," Blaise told her and helped her stand up, taking her by the hand and pulling her with them, when she didn't respond. Draco had given up waiting for Ash to awake from her thinking state, a few hours ago and had gone with Crabbe and Goyle to the common room.

Together the three of them went to the Astronomy tower, where Tracy and Blaise sat down in silence and looked at the landscape, while Ash kept brooding.

"Do you think she can hear us?" Blaise asked after a while and lay down on his back, starring at the statue-like girl. The only thing that told them that she was indeed no statue was her gentle breathing and the hair that swayed in the wind.

"I think so."

"How long do you think she will stay like this?"

Tracy shrugged. "A while."

Blaise yawned and looked out of the tower again. "It's like having a statue as friend," he stated after few minutes passed in silence again.

"I know... But I bet after this, we'll be witnesses to one of the greatest vengeance pranks there ever was." Tracy grinned and glanced at her dark skinned friend. He looked back at her and grinned as well.

At that exact same moment, Ash's head snapped up. "Eureka! I've got it!"

After Ash's head snapped up Blaise and Tracy crowded her.

"What are we doing?"

"How will we get back at her?"

Ash looked at her friends and smiled. "Revenge is something bad. You should never go into revenge. Show them the other cheek. That's the way to go and keep your honour," she answered and got off the floor, turning her back at her gaping friends.

"W-w-what?" Tracy stuttered, "W-what about Vengeance? Did you forget what she made you go through?"

Ash turned her face to look at her friends, evil glint in her eyes. When she had fully turned around she started laughing, laughing so hard that her knees buckled and soon she found herself on the floor again. "Merlin! You should have seen your face! 'W-What about Vengeance?'" Ash quoted and laughed. In an instant she sobered up. "I can't believe you believed that bullshit. Of course we're taking revenge. And it will be horrid," she said glaring at the star filled sky in front of her.

Blaise and Tracy grinned at her and joined her at the astronomy towers balcony. "So what are we gonna do?" Blaise asked leaning on the rail on her right side.

Ash smiled a small smile and looked at him, "No. Not 'we'. This is my personal revenge. It is something I have to do alone."

Blaise and Tracy frowned at her, but didn't say anything. Soon enough they turned back to the starlit sky and wondered.

"Lets go eat something," Ash said and lead her friends back to the Great Hall where dinner was just about to end.

A week had passed and everyday people where expecting Ash's final hit, but nothing came.

Everyday they saw an unharmed Pansy Parkinson appear at breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Everyday they saw her go to her classes and do her homework, not bothered by anything.

And with everyday Pansy believed that she really won over Ash.

With everyday that passed, Pansy stopped looking over her shoulder and laughed a little louder when she saw Ash. Also the anticipation from their peers stared to fade. They also started to believe the Ash Weasley wasn't as tough and frightening as they had come to believe. They came to believe that Ash Weasley was a little, helpless girl who only barked, who wouldn't bite. They started to forget why they had come to respect her.

"When will you finally do something?" Tracy asked her for the hundredth time this week while they walked to the common room together.

"Be patient."

"But your loosing face!"

Ash looked at her friend. "So? I'll regain it soon enough."

"When?"

"When nobody expects it."

"They aren't expecting you to do anything even now!"

Ash smiled. "Your right... Time has come, hasn't it?"

"It's come a week ago, but whatever!"

Ash sighed and sat down next to Draco when they reached their usual seats, folding her legs over Draco's. "Where to start... where to start..." she mumbled to herself, as she felt Draco's hand slid around her waist and stay on her thigh.

"What are you planning?" he asked softly into her ear.

"That, my love, doesn't concern you."

"On the contrary, it does concern me very much."

"How so?"

"You're my girlfriend. I have to make sure you're not doing anything foolish."

"Oh Draco, when do I ever do something foolish?"

He smiled at her, "you wont tell me, will you?"

"No chance. You will have to wait and see like all the others."

Draco's smile faltered for a second. "Alright, I'll trust you won't do anything stupid."

"You always should," she smiled taking his face in her hands and gently kissing his lips.

"Ew, I really don't understand how you can kiss a freak like that, Draco," a annoying voice disturbed their kiss.

In complete sync, Ash and Draco sighed and rolled their eyes at the pug-face.

"Oh shut your trap, pug-face!" Ash said to her and turned back to Draco for another kiss.

"What did you just call me?"

Ash groaned and turned to face Pansy again. "Pug-face."

Pansy gasped, "you did not!"

"I'm pretty sure I did. But if you would excuse me, I'm quiet busy at the moment." With that she turned away from Pansy and kissed the soft lips of the boy with the platinum blond hair again.

Pansy huffed and pulled out her wand, pointing it at Ash's neck. "You should be careful with what you say to me. I've already hurt you once and will do it any time again. How about some broccoli out of the nose this time?" she said.

Ash tensed up when she felt the wand on her neck. "You know... you really lucky that there aren't any teachers around," she whispered but slowly slid away from Draco.

If Pansy would have looked at Draco, she might have seen confusion in his eyes, as well as shock. But that didn't matter because she saw what had shocked him soon enough. When Ash turned around to look at Pansy, she was grinning like a maniac.

"You know why I love muggles even though I'm a pure-blooded Slytherin?" she asked letting her face fall to one side. "I love those little gadgets that they make in order to survive without magic," she said wickedly and took a step towards the now scarred witless girl.

The girl tried to protect herself by poking Ash in the chest, but Ash wasn't fazed. She just took the wand between her fingers and took it away from the trembling girl.

"What do you mean?"

"Well you see, this -" Ash pulled out a small device from her pocket, "is a recorder. Do you know what it does?"

Pansy shook her head no.

"Well, it records what it hears. For example, if someone where stupid enough to come near a recorder and - let say - confess that they did something, that could... I don't know... expel them from school, it records it and can be replayed, over and over and over again." Ash smirked as Pansy fell onto the couch that stood behind her.

"W-w-what do you mean?"

"Are you really that dense?" Ash shook her head and rewound the recorder, after a couple of seconds she pressed play and a voice sounded out of the device.

"...excuse me, I'm quiet busy at the moment." Ash's voice sounded out of the recorder. Followed by the threat Pansy said only seconds later.
"You should be careful with what you say to me. I've already hurt you once and will do it any time again. How about some broccoli out of the nose this time?"

"Image what would happen if the teachers were to hear of this!" Ash said faking concern.

"You - you wouldn't," Pansy said, trying to sound brave.

"Oh, you and I both know that I would," Ash said, leaning down to her. "But" she added moving her upper body back and turning around, "I won't, as long as you do what I tell you too" when the last syllable left her lips she turned her face to look at Pansy. "How does that sound?"

"What do you want me to do?" she asked, head hanging. She knew she was defeated.

"Clever girl," Ash smirked. "Lucky for you, I really am quiet busy right now... so how about you just go back to your room and leave us alone for now?" she said and shooed Pansy away.

Quietly she watched as a glaring Pansy shuffled towards the dorms and vanished behind the doors. Gracefully she turned back to Draco. "So where were we?" she smiled and stepped towards her boyfriend that was staring at her in awe.

Quickly he closed the gap between them and kissed her passionately. "You're a genius, you know that?"

"Oh, yes I do," she grinned into his lips. She became aware of her surroundings again, when Tracy pulled her out of Draco's embrace and hugged her tightly herself.

"I can't believe what you did! You can do anything with her now!" she screamed and jumped up and down next to her.

"It's just a bit sad that only a handful of Slytherins where able to witness this," Blaise added and hugged his glorious friend.

"Ah, guys! Your making me blush!" Ash giggled and leaned into Draco, as his arms wrapped around her mid section from behind.

"So what are you going to make her do?" he asked quietly.

Ash didn't answer, but a mischievous grin settled on her face.