Hello, everybody! I feel like it's been so long since I posted on this story, but it really hasn't been - just over a week! I've had so much going on though. Anyways, I'd just like to thank my wonderful reviewers for all their kind words! I love all your reactions to my pranks! I actually made that one up myself, so I was pretty proud of that. I wish I could give you all blueprints, but sadly, I have none. However, in this chapter we will be more in a Scorpius point of view. It was lots of fun to switch to being inside his head, so I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did!
Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Harry Potter. All rights go to the amazing awesome J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 5: Payback Time
For the next week, Scorpius Malfoy plotted. He, his dorm mates, their girlfriends, and any Ravenclaw that was not a Weasley nor a friend of one would sit and plot in the Common Room, the library, wherever. But they plotted.
Because there was no way any of them were taking that one lying down. Sure, Scorpius may have been a bit too mean to Rose, but that was no way to retaliate! So they plotted. A few Slytherins even helped, since none of them liked the Gryffindors. Even after all the prejudice in the magical world, some things don't change, and the Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry was one of them.
It wasn't like the only thing they did was plot. They did have homework, classes, and Quidditch, and quite aside from that, they also had to start thinking about their career choices. Scorpius had never told anybody, but he really, really wanted to be a Naturalist. He was fascinated by all the creatures and plants in the Wizarding World, and he wanted to learn about them all, which was why he was taking Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures. Although Professor Hagrid often brought dangerous animals to class, Scorpius loved the challenge of taking care of them.
His friends all wanted to be Aurors, and join Harry Potter and Ron Weasley at the Ministry. They were the best-known Aurors since Mad-Eye Moody, and everyone idolized them and Hermione Weasley, Ron's wife. They were the Golden Trio, revered throughout the Wizarding World, and every young Wizarding child aspired to be like them. Some made their dreams into a reality, and others grew out of their childhood obsession. Scorpius was one of the latter.
He'd been the same as everyone else in his youth: His mum would tell him stories about the war, while his dad watched from the doorway, a small smile on his lips. Scorpius's father had always made it very clear that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were the good guys, even though at school he had been their enemy. In fact, Draco knew the funniest stories when it came to Ron and Hermione Weasley and their school days. But the point was, Scorpius had been just like any other child, idolizing the Golden Trio and hoping that someday, he'd get to work for Ron Weasley or Harry Potter.
And then he met their children. Rose Weasley, in particular, annoyed the hell out of him, especially with that goddamn prank she pulled on him a week ago, and after that, his obsession with Harry, Ron, and Hermione had quite faded away. Now, he wanted to be a Wizarding Naturalist. He'd first gotten interested after studying the Venomous Tentacula in Greenhouse Three while in Herbology, back in his second year. Now, plants and animals of the Wizarding World was all he thought about.
"Oi, mate, you awake?"
Scorpius gave a start as his best friend, Daniel Thomas, waved his hand in front of his face.
"Wha-yeah, I'm here," he replied guiltily. "Sorry. Zoning out, you know?"
"You wouldn't happen to be thinking about anyone, would you?" Dan asked, a smirk on his face. "Such as...a certain girl?" Scorpius rolled his eyes.
"If you even mention her name I swear to Merlin I will take my wand and hex your-"
"OK, OK! Sheesh," Dan muttered. "You'd think I mortally offended you or something."
"Maybe you did," Scorpius pointed out, and earned himself a smack on the head. "Oi!"
"Come on, we've got meet the guys and get back at those redheaded weasels," Dan sighed, standing up and stretching, acting as though he hadn't just hit Scorpius upside the head. The two boys made their way back up to Ravenclaw Tower, passing a group of chattering fourth year Hufflepuffs as they went.
"You have a wood stove, a coal stove, and a gas stove. You have only one match. Which should you light first?" the knocker inquired
"Coal stove," Dan answered confidently.
"Incorrect," the knocker replies. Scorpius burst out laughing at the look on his face.
"The match," he told it.
"Correct. Please take away something from this," the eagle lectured the two boys as they entered their Common Room, Scorpius still laughing.
"How did you not get that, mate?" Scorpius inquired as they flopped down on the sapphire blue couches.
"Well, I was thinking since the coal stove would get so warm, it'd be easy to get the other two to ignite after that," Dan muttered, embarrassed, as they pulled out their Herbology essays and started to work. Silence fell as they waited for the rest of their friend, working on their essays as they did so. After about 15 minutes, Dan threw his quill down and buried his face in his hands.
"How do you understand this crap?" he asked Scorpius incredulously. Scorpius shrugged, unwilling to reveal his secret passion.
"I listen in class?"
"I do, too!" Dan protested.
"Right," Scorpius muttered. Dan opened his mouth to argue, but at that moment, the rest of the 'Pranking Group' entered the tower.
"Hey, guys!" Samuel Boot (son of Terry Boot) called as he, Roger Corner, Michael Davies, and Gregory Goldstein entered the tower, along with their girlfriends.
"Hey," Dan called back, rolling up his Herbology essay and stuffing it in his bag. Scorpius reluctantly followed suit.
"So I thought of the most ingenious prank!" Roger announced. "Come here, I'll tell you about it." Everyone gathered around him, and once he'd finished explaining, everyone sat back, amazed.
"Wow," Scorpius finally said. "That'll piss her off, alright. When do we strike?" Michael Davies grinned.
"How about tonight?"
"You're on," Dan agreed.
Around midnight that night, a group of nine Ravenclaws snuck out of their tower. They hurried along corridors and up staircases, all of them extremely wary of being caught. Ravenclaws were total teachers pets, and none of them wanted to be the one to tarnish that reputation.
At the painting of the Fat Lady, they were temporarily held up as Gregory Goldstein fumbled for the piece of paper on which he'd written the password. It had been a stroke of luck, really, that he'd overheard Dominique and Louis Weasley talking about it one night in the Common Room, otherwise entry into Gryffindor Tower wouldn't have been that simple.
"Unexpected," Goldstein finally whispered, and they all crept into the dark and empty Common Room.
"Alright, guys," Scorpius whispered. "You all know what to do. Let's do this." Everyone nodded, then reached into the huge bag Scorpius was holding, each one pulling out a piece of their prank. Then each boy's girlfriend levitated one of the males up the stairs. Boot's girlfriend had to return for Scorpius, which made him slightly jealous he didn't have a girlfriend to do it for him.
At the top of the stairs, Violet(Corner's girlfriend) placed a finger to her lips and slowly entered the girls' dorm. When she ascertained everything was clear, the group went to work, hiding small silver objects in various spots around the room. Scorpius and Dan each grabbed a can of whipped cream and headed for the beds.
"I'll get Rose and Molly. You do the rest," Scorpius mouthed to Dan, who nodded. While the blond Ravenclaw had no problem covering Molly with a load of the stuff, when he pulled back the curtain to Rose's bed, a ray of moonlight fell and illuminated her face, causing him to pause.
She looked so sweet and innocent lying there, her eyes closed, lips slightly parted, breathing deeply. As though she was somehow younger. Scorpius didn't see her smile often, as she was generally yelling her head off at him most of the time. But on the rare occasion he did see her smiling or laughing across the Great Hall, he couldn't deny that it really made her look almost-pretty.
But this same girl had also caused him severe humiliation. And it was payback time. So Scorpius slowly raised the can and drizzled sticky gobs of white cream all down his enemy's arm, across her body, and in her hair. Then he and Davies went into the corridor to fix a little surprise for Rose and her dorm mates the next morning while the others put the finishing touches on the prank. At long last, they were done.
"Ready, Scorp?" Davies asked, and he nodded. They took the easy way down, sliding down the staircase, before clambering silently out of the portrait hole and sprinting back to Ravenclaw tower. As Scorpius got into bed and pulled the covers up, he realized that in the morning, he would have gotten very little sleep. Ah, well. It would be worth it to see the look on Rose Weasley's face tomorrow morning.
At exactly two o'clock that morning, nearly 20 alarm clocks went off at once in the fifth year Gryffindor girls' dormitories. Each of the girls awoke with a scream, which quickly became louder and more frequent as they all realized what they were covered in.
"Is that-whipped cream?" Molly shrieked. Rose nodded, her hands in her hair, horrified.
"MALFOY, YOU LITTLE SHIT!" she screamed, then whipped out her wand. The second she cast a charm to silence the alarm clocks, feathers began to fall from the ceiling. Feathers that stuck to everything and everyone.
"You have got to be kidding me!" Samantha MacMillian groaned. "We'll never get cleaned up in time for classes!"
"What time is it?" Elizabeth Thomas asked. Rose looked at her clock, then shrieked.
"It's seven thirty!"
"No it's not," Molly protested. "My clock says it's five in the morning!"
"Mine says it's four thirty!" Samantha exclaimed.
"Damn," Elizabeth swore, then drew the curtains. "Well, it's dark out, so that means it's definitely not five or seven thirty."
"You know what," Molly said, walking around the room until she spotted one of the many alarm clocks the boys had hidden, "I bet this will tell us. Rose, grab that one. What's it say?"
"Two in the morning," Rose growled. Molly nodded.
"Same."
"Whew," Samantha sighed, sinking onto her bed as the feathers finally stopped falling. "We have some time." Rose, however, stomped over to the door and opened it. Sure enough, a rubber scorpion was sitting on the floor outside their dormitory. As soon as the door was open, it came to life and scuttled inside. Rose shrieked and leaped onto the nearest bed.
"It's moving! I thought it was rubber!" she gasped. Slowly, Molly advanced on it, shooting sparks.
"It is, Rose," Molly laughed. "He put a charm on it to make it move."
"I still don't like it," she muttered as Molly froze the toy and then threw it out of the window.
"Come on," Elizabeth sighed. "Let's get this cleaned up and then hopefully we can get some more sleep."
The girls pulled out their wands and divvied up the tasks. Rose and Molly cleaned the beds, sheets, clothes, and possessions that had gotten sprayed with whipped cream, and Elizabeth and Samantha found and silenced all the alarm clocks. When they were finally done cleaning up the feathers(which had to be done manually), it was almost four in the morning. But even then, the girls didn't fall back to sleep. They sat in a small circle on the floor, plotting revenge. Because Scorpius Malfoy was going to pay. And it was going to be a hefty price.
"Hey, Weaselbee," Scorpius smirked at Rose as she walked into the hall that morning. "Sleep well?"
To his immense surprise, Rose beamed at him.
"I did," she responded enthusiastically. "Best night's sleep I've had in awhile, thanks." Scorpius's jaw dropped. He couldn't help noticing that there were no bags under her eyes, she was perfectly clean, and she wasn't extremely annoyed with him either.
"Er...nothing...happen last night?" he asked in an off-hand sort of way. Rose furrowed her brow.
"Nothing at all. Why?" She eyed him suspiciously. "Trying to get one of us girls to fall for you, Scorpion?"
Scorpius turned cherry red. "NO!"
Rose sniggered.
"Right. Whatever," she said airily, and she sauntered over to the Gryffindor table, smirking.
"What's gotten into her?" Corner asked, his mouth open.
"I don't know. Why didn't our prank go off last night?" Scorpius asked, but Davies, Corner, Boot, and even Dan were too busy staring at Rose.
"OI!" he bellowed. They all jumped and turned to look at him.
"What, sorry?" Boot asked, looking a little guilty.
"What are you staring at her for? You all have girlfriends!" Scorpius said indignantly.
"Yeah, but...mate, she's bloody hot. Haven't you noticed?" Dan asked, craning his neck to get a better view of Rose.
"No, she's not!" Scorpius protested, looking slightly repulsed. "She's so terrible and she'll argue with you about anything!"
"I think that's just you, mate," Corner replied. "She's perfectly sweet to everyone else." Scorpius shook his head.
"You're all a bunch of idiots," he declared. "Did you even hear what she said? Our prank didn't go off last night!" The guys' jaws dropped.
"Are you serious?"
"No way!"
"She's pulling your leg, mate, we rigged that perfectly."
"But look at the lot of them! They're clean and they don't even look...wait, never mind," Scorpius muttered, seeing Elizabeth Thomas, one of Rose's fellow fifth year Gryffindor girls, fast asleep at the table.
"Told you, mate," Davies sighed. "She's pulling your leg. And if I were you," he added, "I'd be extra careful around her from now on. Rose Weasley can be right scary when she wants to be."
"I know," Corner muttered. "But that just adds to the hot factor."
His girlfriend, Violet, smacked him on the arm. Scorpius sniggered.
"I'd still watch your back, mate," Dan muttered to him late that night in the Common Room. "She won't let you get away with this."
Scorpius sighed.
"I know."
Which, of course, means Rose is going to get him back. How? Well, keep reading to find out. And while you're at it, a review would be nice! Please? Thanks!
Lovelovelove -D-