A/N: Hello everyone! This is for the Hacey Discord server's monthly drabble competition! I'm sorry I haven't updated much, someone close to me has recently been taken from us and I've been in mourning. I might not be working on my writing for the next couple weeks. That being said, please enjoy this work!
"He's definitely suspicious, I'm telling you! He does it every night!"
"Trace, just give it up already. You can admit Potter is fit, you know, it'd be less annoying than you always stalking him. It's annoying at this point. Who the bloody hell cares if Potter's going into the Forbidden Forest? If he dies, that's his business. Plus, he's The Boy-Who-Lived. If you chase him down, and someone catches you stalking him, you'll probably get throne into prison, with the way they're treating Slytherins."
Tracey Davis sputtered in protest. "Him being admittedly fit has nothing to do with this! Why won't you back me up!? Do you not trust my stealth capabilities?"
"No."
"WHYYYYYYY!?"
"Shush."
"But-!"
Daphne Greengrass put a finger to her friend's lips. "Shush, child. Kill him, curse him, or kiss him, but leave me out of it. It's almost midnight, for Merlin's sake."
"My point exactly! He-!"
"I SAID SHUSH, YOU MISERABLE LITTLE GREMLIN!"
Just then, right as Daphne yelled, a pillow came flying from the other side of the room from Pansy's direction, and smacked Tracey in the face.
"What she said!" Came the muffled statement from Pansy.
Daphne lifted an eyebrow at Tracey, challenging her to keep pushing it.
Letting out a huff, Tracey stomped over to her bed, taking her shoes off and throwing them as loudly as she could into her trunk, glaring at her best friend all the while — the latter merely sneering at her and turning around, covering her head with a pillow.
Tossing and turning for hours, Tracey sat up and looked out the window, just as her hastily muttered "Tempus" revealed it was two o'clock. Far below, a dark-haired figure could be seen stepping out of the castle, just like it had every night for the last two months.
The figure pulled something out of their pocket, and flicking the long, cape-like cloth out, wrapped it around themselves, and Tracey lost sight of them as they blended in perfectly with the already dark world surrounding them.
With a frustrated sigh, Tracey threw herself back onto her pillow, before turning and punching it. I'll catch his shady ass, see if I don't!
— 0 —
The next morning, Tracey was ready. Daphne had agreed (exasperatedly) to cover for her as she snuck out of the castle after dinner. Waiting in the darkness was a bother, but it would all be worth it when she caught Potter red-handed with whatever he was doing, and his stupid, handsome face would look all shocked. His stupid, dashing, sharp jawline-having face…
'No!' She slapped herself mentally, then again just slapped herself normally. 'Stop thinking about stupid Potter's stupid jawline!'
Hours of waiting, and doubts began to creep into Tracey's mind. What if he wasn't going to show up? Would all her waiting be for naught?
Yet something compelled her to stay, and whatever deity existed must have been blessing her for her patience, for only a minute or so later, Potter himself came out at his usual spot. There must have been some form of secret passageway, because Tracey had passed that exact spot and there was nothing but stone.
Quietly, she trailed behind the boy as he made his way to the forest, and tried as best she could to mask her footsteps.
After a good half hour of walking, Potter finally came to a stop, and she watched as he pulled a shovel from some nearby brush and began to dig. After another few minutes, Potter threw the shovel off to a side.
To Tracey's shock, Potter leaned down and began to pull out… a body? Mulciber, Tracey realized. A Death Eater. Quickly, Potter dragged the body out of the hole, muttering something that sounded like "No magic trace" to himself, before tossing the dirt back into the hole and refilling it — after which he hid the shovel.
Tracey was vindicated, her face shining in triumph. Potter was evil! He was crazy! (Unfortunately, she had no idea quite how crazy The Boy-Who-Lived really was.)
She kept trailing him, intent on discovering the rest of his harrowing secret. Soon, he came to a clearing, seemingly empty. With a whistle, however, that changed. Thousands of tiny, circular, fuzzy, fluffy, and differently and brightly coloured little creatures came hopping into the circle.
They all looked up at their summoner, making little squeaking sounds. Potter pulled the legs out from behind him, and threw them into the middle. With a piercing "MEEEEEEP!" the hordes of tiny, adorable creatures attacked the body, tearing into it, biting tiny chunks off with their incredibly sharp teeth until it was nothing but bones, and then eating even the bones until nothing was left.
Tracey, stunned, tripped in her attempt to move back and stepped on a dry branch, the resounding crack rising into the night.
Potter froze, as did his little minions, and all turned slowly to stare at her.
"Er-" began Tracey, before Potter smiled at her, opening his arms wide.
"WELCOME, STRANGER I'VE NEVER MET BEFORE IN MY LIFE! I SEE YOU DESIRE TO JOIN THE CAUSE!"
"Um- maybe?"
"AS YOU SEE, I HAVE RAISED THESE THOUSANDS OF TERRIFYING CREATURES TO JOIN ME IN CONQUERING THE WORLD! I WILL CONQUER THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC AND INSTITUTE A NEW REGIME!"
Tracey rubbed at her eyes. "You're way too handsome. I should have known you'd be this crazy. Why would you even bother? You're the Boy-Who-Lived!"
"That's boring. I want to be a dark lord."
"WHAT!? ALSO, STOP YELLING AT ME!"
"Think about it!" He wheedled. "You have nothing better to do with your life, right? You've been bored for the last year. They've made us repeat classes, they made new taxes, and they're blaming our generation for everything! They're trying to institute marriage laws for some bloody reason, they're throwing Slytherins away with no discernable evidence, they're cracking down on anything that might be considered a "dark" spell, and a lot of Death Eaters are somehow still alive in foreign countries, because Wizarding Britain doesn't want to extradite them! I already have a large group who've agreed to join me — we should make a new government. Let's stage a hostile takeover."
It was true that the new regime was just as bad as the old one, if in a different way. And Tracey had been bored, when she wasn't terrified about getting thrown into prison.
"You just met me, and you already want me to join your rebel movement? And you don't even know my name?"
"I don't need to know your name to know someone with potential! Join me, and with my army of puffskeins we will conquer those who downtrod us! We will stand atop a throne, rulers of a new world order! Join me, er- uh- whatsyourname!"
"It's 2:00 a.m. on a Tuesday."
Potter paused to consider this.
"What if I ask again on Friday?"
Tracey thought about it for a little before finally shrugging. "Eh, I've got nothing better to do."
If she went to prison, at least it was going to be for a valid reason — and rebellion seemed like a pretty valid reason to her. 'Well,' she thought, 'I certainly won't be bored from now on. And really, I'd much rather have a dictator with a jawline like that. At least I'll have something pretty to look at when he inevitably turns out to be evil too.''
And thus, on one foggy Tuesday morning, the story of The Holy Puffskein Empire began.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed!