As ever, huge thanks go to Ms. Estella Black for beta-ing this chapter, and making me look good ;)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or anything that you recognise from the books. All that belongs to JK Rowling. The names Cardross and Caverleigh belong to Georgette Heyer, only the characters belong to me.
Love lights more fire than hate extinguishes. - Ella Wilcox
Halloween at Hogwarts was always something special, this Halloween being no exception. The Great Hall was decorated with grinning pumpkins, floating candles and, to the dismay of those with less fortitude, bats roosting on the rafters. In the midst of the feast, Lily, Alice, Katie and I sat laughing happily at the antics of the enchanted pumpkins, which were opening and closing their mouths as if to sing silently.
Suddenly, the Great Hall turned pitch black, every light extinguished. There were several screams, as everybody panicked at the unexpected darkness, and a frightened murmuring began. I could see absolutely nothing. Not Alice, sitting a scant foot to my left, not the table at which I was sitting, not the hand I was waving just inches from my face. Nothing. I pulled out my wand and whispered -
"Lumos."
It did not light up. I heard Professor Dumbledore's voice calling out to everyone to sit still. However, a shrieking wail cut through the darkness and interrupted him. The hairs were standing up from the back of my neck, and my instincts were telling me to hide away in some unnoticeable corner. Even though I had never heard it before, I knew what that wail was - it was the wail of a banshee.
Banshees. Female spirits who were an omen of death; their wails were heard in houses just before somebody passed out of this world. This wail began picking up in volume, coming nearer to the Great Hall. Suddenly, I saw it: a white, ethereal womanfloating in the entrance to the Great Hall. A human scream shrilled around the Hall, shadowed by the dull thud of a body hitting the floor.
The apparition slipped along the gap between the Slytherin and Ravenclaw tables, her scream resonating throughout the hall. I caught sight of another, and still two more, banshees drifting slowly, heads thrown back in that ear-splitting scream, like nails down a chalk board, or knives against bone china. The banshees continued to yowl, flitting along the gaps between the tables. Abruptly, as one, their wailing was silenced, although I could still hear the echoes reverberating amongst the rafters high above us.
"BOO!"
With that sound, the lights clapped on, and the figures threw off their white sheets. This disrobing revealed four teenage boys smirking from various positions in the Great Hall, and several bodies of both girls and boys, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, Gryffindors and even some Slytherins, lying unconscious on the ground.
The Professors at the top table did not look pleased. Professor McGonagall had an angry flush spreading across her smooth, young cheeks, as she stood up, a fearsome picture of punishment, one which even the grinning Marauders eyed with trepidation. She opened her mouth, no doubt to deliver a formidable reprimand, but was prevented by Professor Dumbledore, who rose from his seat.
"An excellent illustration boys, of the purpose of Halloween. As exceptional as it was, however, it seems that a number of our student-body found it over-exciting. Perhaps you would be so kind as to escort these pupils to the Hospital Wing, where I am sure Nurse Roberts will see to them. As for the rest of us - please continue to enjoy the feast."
With that, he sat down, his eyes twinkling as he returned to his food. Several of the other staff tried to remonstrate with him, but he waved them away with a flick of his hand, and a comment which did not seem to placate them. On his other side, Professors Caverleigh, Sprout and Cardross, the Charms teacher, began to talk animatedly.
I returned my attention to my friends, to see a shaken Alice, an animated Katie, and a raging Lily. The reason for her anger soon became apparent.
"I CANNOT believe this. Through their childish antics, and…and stupid pranks, they made no less than fifteen people faint. FIFTEEN!" she repeated for emphasis. "Their punishment – taking people to the Hospital Wing. How DARE they? The absolute IDIOTS. If I had that jerk James Potter in my hands right now I'd…I'd…"
She subsided into angry mutterings, as Katie and I shared a glance and burst out laughing. Soon, Alice joined in, and Lily turned her rage on us.
"Oh, so you think it's funny do you? You side with them? You think that scaring people out of their wits is hilarious, do you?"
We all looked blankly at her. Then as one, we all started laughing, Lily included, so much so that tears began running down her face, and at the end, we were all holding our sides and panting as if we had run a long-distance race. In truth, the experience had been quite frightening – and though I hate all horror movies, I don't mind laughing at myself for being taken in.
November has always been a dismal month for me. Normally I find it rather bleak, with Christmas too far off to anticipate, and lashings of icy rain, dreary evenings, and little, if any, sunshine. However, one week into this loathéd month, I found myself in the common room admiring a glorious vista: the sky a golden red as the sun span its rays across it, the purple heather upon the hills reflecting in the smooth mirror of the lake. The holistic effect compelled me to go outside into the beautiful evening.
Nodding to my friends, who were finishing an essay for Charms which I had had the fortune to complete earlier, I made my way out of the common room, summoning my coat as I went. The corridors were empty, students making the most of the Friday evening to complete homework or to unwind, and I began to relax into my solitude. I love being around people, but I am quite an introvert and sometimes just enjoy being on my own.
I went for a stroll around the lake, taking my usual running route, delighting in the beauty of the gloaming. However, my solitude was soon interrupted as, a quarter of the way around the lake, by the woody glades, I suddenly encountered someone. Not just anyone. Sirius Black. Not just Sirius Black. A topless Sirius Black. He had obviously just been for a run; he was wearing trainers, a pair of jogging trousers, and he had a flushed face. I found myself speechless as I gazed at him, my mouth most likely hanging open slightly. Faintly tanned shoulders supported a pert set of pectoral muscles, which tapered into one of the most defined six-packs I have ever seen. And my summers are replete with my brothers' attractive friends who spend their lives at the gym. His chest was even hairless, as if he had shaved it.
After his initial shock upon encountering me had passed, he saw where I was looking, so, assuming his trademark smirk and raising his eyebrows, he asked me;
"Pretty good, heh?"
I managed to cough, but nothing else, as a blush spread its way across my face.
He laughed at me, and I felt embarrassment rise at my own idiocy, but still I could not muster the words to speak, to make some scathing remark so I could be on my way having done some damage to his ego, and successfully hidden, once again, my feelings for him.
"Don't worry, love, I am one of the fittest people with one of the fittest bodies you will ever see. It's only natural to fancy me."
So saying, he patted me consolingly on the head, and ran off from whence I had just come, whistling.
I stood there, speechless for a minute, until I finally processed what had just happened, and began spluttering in rage, embarrassment and helplessness. Such splutters vented my rage at my own insipidity - for just standing there drooling over his body like a dog over a bone, or some heinous… FANGIRL! Then I just let him make such arrogant comments, and allowed him to run off, having done nothing to allay his allegations that I fancied him.
Which I did not! Well, I did, but for all intents and purposes, and what the whole population of the earth (apart from the sixth year Gryffindor girls) know, is that I DO NOT! I was going to have to get him back. I couldn't leave my dignity trampled on the floor, and let him believe, even for a moment, that I may not, in fact, be completely adverse to him.
My peaceful reverie of an evening ruined, I hunched up against the biting cold of the wind, and proceeded to spend the walk back to the castle deep in thought as to how to carry out my retaliation. I alighted upon my plan as I was entering the front door of the castle, my face unconsciously twisting into a smirk.
I scarfed down my dinner, to the amusement of my friends who chuckled as I shovelled in boiling hot rice, and had to wave my hands in front of my mouth to cool it down. No sooner had I finished the final mouthful than I rushed off to the dormitories, having successfully avoided him, and started to carry out my plan. Ripping through Katie's backdated copies of Witch Weekly, which she had given me permission to use, I searched for the fittest celebrities I could find. Once I had done so, I tugged them carefully out of the binding.
I was flicking through my Charms textbook, looking for the right enlargement charm, when the rest of my dorm mates returned from dinner. They were slightly confused as to what I was doing, but as I explained the encounter, and subsequently my plan, they began to smile. Alice suggested a great charm, and having practised this on the picture of a topless picture of Stubby Boardman lying on a bed with a rose behind him, Katie proposed making copies to hang around the dorm. Everyone jumped at the idea.
The hardest part of my plan would be fixing the posters up, as I needed to wait for everyone to leave the common room. Although it was a Friday night, I was rather tired, and I didn't want to stay up too late. I was just about ready to hex this couple at half-past one in the morning when they were just sitting staring goofily at each other in the light of the dying fire and half-moon; they then kissed goodnight (several times; my grip on my wand was tightening), and finallywent to bed. I crept about and carried out the final stage of my plan.
The next morning, I set my alarm for eight, correctly assuming that as it was the weekend, the Marauders wouldn't miss the chance for a lie-in. I was down in the common room at half-past eight, in a chair by the fire, reading an excellent book – The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins - but ready to see the show. I noticed the looks of appraisal with which many of the girls were eyeing the posters, and the confusion of all as to who had put them up. Katie appeared around nine to accompany my vigil, and we chatted for a while as the common room slowly began to fill up.
Then, I heard some of the sounds I had been waiting for; masculine voices, the tramping of heavy shoes on stairs, and a peal of bark-like laughter, which stopped abruptly. Glancing up through my eyelashes, I took in the face of Sirius-I'm-so-sexy-Black. It showed sheer incredulity as it took in the scene before it. The whole common room was decorated with huge three metre high posters of the aforementioned topless models, and in the midst of it all was a banner, proudly bearing the inscription:
"JUST A SAMPLING OF THE MEN WHO ARE FITTER THAN SIRIUS BLACK"
This definitely had to be one of my best ideas. His face changed from sheer incredulity to slight amusement, before he turned and sauntered over to me.
"You know, Loganberry, all this just shows that you are still thinking about what you saw yesterday afternoon."
"Well," I replied, "even if it does, what I saw yesterday afternoon rather pales into insignificance in the face of all this. Come on Katie, let's go get some breakfast."
Getting up, we sashayed across the common room, away from the wry smile of Sirius Black. Reaching the portrait hole, I called back to him –
"You can keep the posters, Black. It'll show you what you need to work towards, if you can ever achieve it."
His ego didn't seem to be much dented, but he did show a side of him I liked in his response. He threw back his head and laughed, which shows me that unlike some arrogant idiots, he can take a joke about himself.
Over the next few days, the posters began to disappear, probably having been squirreled away by admiring Gryffindor girls. Though I may have seen the banner trailing up the stairs to the boy's dorms…
EllieBaby xxx