A/N: Okay, firstly. KitaandOpie: Thank you SO much, your review nearly had me in tears... :') I generally hate long A/N's and don't like asking for reviews and likes 'cause obviously, 'you write for yourself and not for validation' and all that crap, but I must admit, it does make it SUPER worth the while when I hear back from my readers. And to know that I haven't bored someone to death with this story came as such a relief, so THANK YOU! I really do love you tons! =)

And Love. Fiction. 2020: This one is for you! :)

Secondly, nothing. Just hope everyone likes this chap right here.

Chapter 25: Whiff of Perfidy

Unedited...

The next day, Isabella woke up with a sinking feeling in her stomach, one that made her almost nauseous... Because, never before in her five years within these walls had she pulled something this BALLSY ever. Ever!

After the little bargaining session in the boys' dorm, the three girls had collected the Invisibility Cloak from James (who made sure he started the timer on Isabella's Muggle stop-watch the second the Cloak hit Lily's hand) and set out into the night even as the boys tearfully bid them goodbye at the entrance of their Common Room. The girls had hiked all the way down to the dungeons and, just as planned, Esmeralda Blishwick, a fellow fifth-year Slytherin was waiting by the door, innocently doing her nails in the middle of the night. As soon as she heard the word, 'Peaches!' (which was code for they have arrived), however, she had jumped up to her feet and surreptitiously led the girls down a long corridor until they reached a bare stretch of wall that looked innocent enough until she had muttered the words, "Blood Loyalty." Almost immediately, the stone bricks had started to rumble and shuffle and fold unto themselves until a small archway appeared in front of them. It grew and grew in size until a long tunnel-like corridor opened up in front of them, shrouded in darkness and reeking of filth.

As soon as they had crossed the long tunnel and entered the enormous gothic-looking Common Room, Esmeralda had quietly headed down to her own dorm while discreetly pointing in the direction of the boys' dorms. Isabella had kept an eye on the watch while Lily and Claiborne proceeded to painstakingly choose their spells and cast them on the unsuspecting select group of fifth-, sixth- and seventh-years (the sole exception for this had been Lucius, Severus and a few other lads who, quite frankly, really were quite nice as people). By the time they had completed their task, the three of them were exhausted and had just over six minutes left before their time with the Cloak came to an end. To this minute, Isabella didn't know just HOW they had made it back on time, because James, the plonker, had been wistfully waiting in the Common Room for them, wide awake at half past four!

Snapping back to the present, she rubbed her tired eyes and pushed herself up on her elbows and noticed Mary, Alice and Lily happily chatting away by the window. Looking to her left, she saw that Claiborne, too, was going through a mental breakdown just as she was, making her grin to herself. She quickly slid off her bed and slumped down next to Claiborne.

"What's gotten into our friend, eh?" she whispered in Claiborne's as the two of them watched Lily humming and brushing her hair as if she had indulged herself in NOTHING unusual at all less than two hours ago.

"I dunno," Claiborne muttered back. "Should we be scared...?" she added. "Because, I've read somewhere that pyschopaths, too, lead a VERY normal life," she said, matter-of-factly, making Isabella look up bewildered. "I'm serious! They're just casually laughing and chatting up with friends, but before nightfall, they will have murdered someone and drank their blood for dinner just 'cause it was Christmas..!" she trailed off, not even realising that Isabella was doubled up laughing her lungs out.

"Well, I sure as hell didn't know I was going to become friends with one psycho killer dressed up as a nerd and another neurotic maniac dressed up as Cinderella!" guffawed Isabella, still grinning uncontrollably.

"Ooh, is Cinderella pretty?" asked Claiborne, fluttering her eyelids dramatically at Isabella making her roll her eyes at her dense friend. "Well, I just hope last night's plan doesn't backfire in our faces..." Isabella said, resting her tired face on Claiborne's shoulder and gulping down her own worries, even as Lily hopped towards them, looking eerily happy.

"Nothing's going to backfire on us as long as we remember to keep a straight face!" she hissed gleefully, before turning back to the mirror and joyfully brushing he hair.

Isabella and Claiborne simply blinked back at her. "You're right, she is mental."

Thirty minutes later, the three of them nervously made their way down nearly empty corridors as it was still way too early in the day (the plan was to avoid having ANY confrontations with the Slytherins as possible). However, a sudden dread descended on all three of them as they drew close. Because, they had only just reached the top of the stairs when they knew what was waiting for them beyond the double doors: a cluster of black and green robes could be seen standing at the head of the Slytherin table... Chatting and laughing... And seeming exceedingly normal...

What in the world...?

A slow panic sank into Isabella, because everyone seemed perfectly fine which definitely ought not to be the case after what they had done last night... Almost immediately, her heart started to pound against her ribs causing her breaths to come out in short rags, because it was possible that their plan had INDEED backfired on them.

"Oh my god, Lily..." she started.

"I know! Just... Stay calm and follow my lead, okay?" Lily muttered back and bravely climbed down. Isabella and Claiborne exchanged horrified looks at their deranged friend; shaking off her anxiety, she took Claiborne's hand in hers and the two of them fearfully followed Lily down the stairs. The Slytherins had timed this beautifully, because it was still too early for the teachers to arrive and the hall itself was sparsely populated, ensuring absolutely NO interruptions whatsoever...

The sound of their shoes knocking against the cold marble echoed through the hall making several heads turn around and look up—and the second their eyes fell on the girls, an unfathomable glee cut across their faces, malicious enough to make one's blood run cold...

"Ah! Look who we have here, lads!" called out Adrian Pelleret, contorting his face to what he thought was 'gangster-like', except it made him look pretty heavily constipated. "The fine birds of Gryffindor..." he sneered, while his bunch of cronies chuckled trollishly behind him. Lucius, who was sitting right in the middle, tensely rubbed his forehead. It was evident that he was merely sitting and chatting casually with the bunch to make sure he would be present if the gang did pull something on the girls.

The three of them anxiously neared the double doors and pretended not to hear them sniggering on the side and feverishly walked on.

"Well, you know what they say..." grinned Pollux Emberpike, rubbing his cheek thoughtfully while gracing them with one his dirtiest, most sordid looks ever (a slight colour of dread rose up Isabella's face), just as Mulciber and Crabbe jumped off the table and stepped forwards, so that they were now right in front of them, blocking their way... "A Gryffie bird is either just gagging for it or is pathetically vacuous. Which do you think this one is, eh?" he asked, sneering at Lily while stupidly licking his lips.

Lily tugged them both closer to her. "Look, we know these blockheads, they're merely spineless gits who love to throw their weight around and terrorise us into submission!" she whispered feverishly into their ears. "Just... Ignore them, alright?" she added, except she herself looked close to having a heart attack.

"Look... Y-you're blocking our way..." Claiborne breathed tersely at the boys, clearly terrified out of her mind at how ominous they looked.

"Ooh, this one talks too!" sneered Harley Crabbe, running his hands through his hair and smirking widely down at her. "Reckon, she's the prettiest of the lot, eh, boys?" he asked, grinning densely at his friends. "Well, at least she's a Pureblood!" he said, hi-fiving a delirious Ted Farely on the back.

"Shut up, Crabbe," Lucius muttered, his face already hardening up.

"STAY... OUT OF THIS, Malfoy!" Crabbe growled back immediately, before glaring menacingly down at him. "I'm just here to help Mulce teach them a lesson..." he said, grinding his teeth for full measure now. "We," he said, gesturing at the whole group of boys, "need to make sure that this stupid excuse of a Muggle-born 'witch' understands the rules..."

"And what might they be, pray tell?" Lucius slurred, his face mere inches from Crabbe's.

Crabbe sneered, his lips twisting menacingly with joy. "That she can't just go slapping people's faces!" he ground out. "That no Muggle-born would ever be our equals... That their place..." he paused, moving his face closer to a livid Lucius's, "is lower... than a filthy house-elf's!"

"YOUR arse is lower than a filthy house-elf's, you follically-challenged, dung-eating LOBCOCK!" roared Lucius, pushing Crabbe's face viciously to the side only to get grabbed roughly by the front of his robes by Mulciber.

"D'you mind, knobhead?!" he growled into his face, glaring manically into his eyes. "Utter another word and you'll be SORRY, Malfoy!"

"YOU WISH!" Lucius roared before slamming his hand against his throat, his wand mere inches away from a terrified Mulciber's eye. Several petrified gasps went up in the air. "Malfoy, let him go!" yelped a terrified Lily, but Lucius didn't care. "It wouldn't take me two seconds to gouge your tongue out and feed it to my pet knarls, you slimy son of a BITCH...!" he spat into his bewildered face, looking about ready to skin him alive, while Mucliber sported an expression that was a combination of terror and sadistic glee.

"Wh... Wha's the matter... Malfoy?" stuttered a crimson-faced Mulciber, choking and spitting at Lucius. "You bangin' one of them?" he spat out laughing, making Lucius tighten his grip around his neck. "Must... tell... daddy about it... shouldn't we...?" he croaked out, determined to push all his buttons, while the rest of the boys roared with laughter, jeering at Lucius.

"Why, you little...!" Lucius started.

"Lucius!" Lily called out more loudly this time. Lucius didn't respond and continued to bore into Mulciber's face, his wand never once lowering. "Lucius, please! Let him go!" she screamed.

"NO! You don't know this arsehole like I do...!"

"I DO!" she screamed back, cutting him short. Lucius's head jerked up, looking baffled at the very least at her reaction. "Trust me, we can handle him. Let him go..."

"Williams, would you please talk some sense into her...?"

"LISTEN to her, Lucius," Isabella said quietly, and this time, he was rendered truly speechless. A deathly silence had fallen across the hall and every eye in the room was trained on this commotion.

"We can handle him..." Isabella repeated quietly, making him finally realise something was up. She blinked her eyes once giving him a knowing look, and his grip immediately loosened on Mulciber. Still looking extremely confused and uncertain, he let him go, wand still gripped tight in his hand.

Sneering wildly, and sending death glares at Lucius as if asking him to await DIRE consequences, Mulciber grudgingly straightened his robes and turned towards at Lily, looking full psycho now. "So, where were we, redhead?" he barked, pulling out his wand and rounding up on the terrified girls. "Someone mention something about a wand the other day?" he asked, grinning and scowling at the same time that even Lily looked terrified out of her mind now. "Well, bring it on, doll-face! Show me wha'choo got!" he whispered.

"Careful, Mulciber," Lily muttered, bravely stepping closer to him. "Because I intend to break you SO bad, Madam Pomfrey wouldn't know what to do with you!" she spat out.

"Ooh, not as dainty as you look, are you, Sugar Quill?" he sniggered, almost as if he was turned on by her trash-talk.

Lily scoffed. "Surely not as stupid as YOU are... Dungbrains!" Lily bellowed, arching an eyebrow.

Mulciber's eyes widened in shock. "HOW DARE YOU?!" he roared, even as a streak of rage shot up his spine, his face quivering uncontrollably. "Oh, you're SO going to pay for that, YOU FILTHY MUDBLOOD!" he yelled into her face, but she merely smiled triumphantly, because not one second later, his eyes suddenly popped out of its sockets and his hand flew to his throat, making him sputter and gulp and gurgle and twitch until he had turned purple in the face with the effort! A loud gasp went up from the onlookers while Lily simply relaxed watching him wave wildly at his alarmed friends, desperately pointing at his mouth and trying to tell them something important. Only Isabella, Claiborne and Lily knew that Mulciber's tongue had glued itself to the roof of his mouth the second he had uttered the that highly derogatory word making them break into stifled sniggers, while the boys continued to watch him gag, confusedly scratching their of heads and sporting looks of mortal peril.

"Mate, what... What's the matter?" Ted Farley growled anxiously even as sounds of a light sniggering from around the hall reached their ears. "What's happened?" he whispered into Mulciber's face. "Did the Mudblood cur—cuh... ish... sh... fwah... buh-blish... v-v-v-vog... k-kki-kik-kuh..." sputtered Ted, suddenly unable to make coherent words anymore! Isabella finally burst out snickering, unable to keep it together no longer and discreetly hi-fived a white-faced Claiborne on the side, even as the rest of the boys fearfully started to step away.

And soon enough, a loud laughter erupted from the hall as they watched the two boys struggling to even stand up straight now having gotten fully consumed in fear! While Mulciber couldn't even make sounds, Ted was now babbling gibberish non-stop, having NO control on his mouth whatsoever! Ted's uncontrollable jabbering was SO funny, Isabella watched students laughing clutching their stomachs, looking positively flushed and on the verge of losing their minds entirely!

Smirking triumphantly, Lily turned towards the rest of them, making them all jump backwards in fear. "So. Anyone else has anything to say?" she asked, raising her eyebrow confidently. "Any more names you'd like to call us?! Anyone?!" she barked out, smiling fiercely up at them and folded her hands across her chest. "'Cause I'd VERY much like to see you try!" she shouted, her eyes blazing fire at them all. "Detention for three weeks, ALL of you!" she roared and paused, "Not you, Malfoy," she added and stomped off towards the Gryffindor table even as a loud cheer and applause broke out across the hall, some Ravenclaws even whistling exuberantly at the redhead.

"See ya!" Isabella called out scornfully, grabbing Claiborne's arm and jogging after Lily, just in time to catch Lucius's happy grin.

-O-

That morning's incident had spread far and wide like wildfire that, in less than an hour, the whole school, including the Professors, had heard about it. It was a Slytherin's WORST nightmare to get taunted and jeered at in corridors by practically everyone that set eyes on them, making them want to hurl themselves off a cliff! The beauty of the prank was that, no one had a clue just how many of the Slytherin boys (and girls) had been cursed and how long this curse would last, turning the Snakes into a collective ball of trembling mess! People started to suspect some of the girls too may be cursed, because Lisa Fawley's ears suddenly seemed to have doubled in size, making her shriek her lungs out and run to the Hospital Wing. When she had returned to class fifteen minutes later with the announcement that Madam Pomfrey found NOTHING wrong with her, Isabella swore she saw Lisa mouthing 'BITCH!' in her direction and almost instantly, her ears grew a little more, and this time even the boys noticed something was wrong with her face!

Professor Abolet was especially livid that her class was constantly distracted while she taught them the importance of Osteomancy that she took away five points for every student present in the class before storming out of the room. And while the rest of the school rejoiced this sudden shift in dynamic among the Houses, the Gryffindors especially had such a great time watching the green-robed boys hide their faces and jog away from big gatherings, that an announcement about an OPEN secret party in the Gryffindor Common Room was made, inviting one and all, 'House-no bar'.

Still reveling in all the attention they were getting from the Claws and the Puffs, the girls walked out of Muggle Studies and towards the Great Hall for lunch.

Peter, Remus and Claiborne clumped together as usual while Sirius broke away from James and jogged over towards Isabella. "You HAVE to tell us how you did it!" Sirius hissed excitedly in Isabella's ear, slinging his hand around her neck and giving her a good shake. Looking up into his face, it suddenly felt as though he had grown over an inch taller overnight, making him seem bigger than usual! "Please, please, please!" he begged, quite unable to stop his grin.

"Did what?" asked Isabella, teasing him even more. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Sirius scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Don't get cute!" he muttered, making her grin uncontrollably. "PLEASE? I promise to write your essay on how to brew a Strengthening Solution, I promise, I promise, I promise!" he said, practically jumping on the spot now.

"Why are you asking me when the Mastermind of this plan was Lily?" she asked, watching him walk backwards and smiling down at her.

"Because, Grumpy won't tell!" he pouted, and sulkily swung his bag around his shoulder while scrunching his eyebrows as if figuring out other bribing options that she would fall for.

The cheery sounds of hungry students reached their ears when they walked through the double doors. And for the first time ever, the Slytherin side of the hall was exceptionally quiet, as if the whole House was now terrified to utter anything out of line. And much to Isabella's surprise, Lisa's ears had grown so much in just the last two hours that they were now nearly as big as an elephant's, forcing her friends to sit at least two feet away from her on either side. The look she graced Isabella with, however, was priceless when she burst out laughing till her stomach hurt.

"You know what, you leave me with NO choice!" cried Sirius even as the fifth-years took their seats around the table. Lily and Remus immediately pulled out textbooks and parchments and set out to work-and-eat at the same time while Claiborne was busy inking in the day's moments in her mind-reading journal, humming a song under her breath.

Sirius, for his part, looked on baffled at the fact that no one practically gave a damn for what he had said just a second ago and huffed and puffed till he was blue in the face. "I'm going to... Well... Oh, I'm going to do... something... SO spectacular... it will bring you wretched witches to your KNEES...!" he bellowed theatrically.

Still no response.

"Oh! OKAY! Ignore me now!" he called out stiffly, even as Claiborne and Peter argued about who deserved to get the last piece of pudding on the table. "Ohhh, it will be so much fun watching you all BURN when I sneak into your dorms and pour ink all over your homework...!"

"...I don't think anyone's listening to you, Pads," muttered Remus, not even having the courtesy to look up from his book.

"Exactly! They're not even listening to me!" he wailed dramatically and slumped next to an oddly quiet James. "I JUST want to know how they did it, is that such a big ask?!" he grumbled, collapsing on James's shoulder and resembling a giant baby chimpanzee now.

Remus finally looked up from his copy of Curses and Counter Curses and graced him with a God-why-don't-you-ever-just-SHUT-UP look. Sighing as if he was going to regret this big time, he set his book down and spread his hands out helplessly. "Clay, for the sake of humanity, could you please tell me how you did it?" he simply asked, sporting a slight smile.

"Oh, why, SURE!" she replied with an exaggerated nod of her head, while ignoring the look of utter disbelief on Sirius's face. "I'd be MORE than happy to, Remus!" she said, batting her eyelashes sweetly at a murderous Sirius. "I mean, I am SO glad someone actually asked about this, I mean, we've been DYING to talk about it all day!" she added, speaking in a particularly high and dramatic voice, prompting all sorts of vile expressions to break out on his face.

"Not cool, Jones. NOT cool!" he said, petulantly folding his hands across his chest and glaring at his food.

"Ignore him," Remus waved him off with a casual roll of his eyes. "Go on, then," he said, smiling warmly even as Peter and James excitedly leaned in closer.

"Alright, basically it was all Lily's idea," she said, now sounding her normal self again. "To be honest, those slimy blockheads had started to curse way too often in recent times and no amount of detention was doing the trick!"

"And I REALLY wanted to teach that Mulciber a lesson he would remember for LIFE!" Lily happily chimed in.

"And it was MY idea to do some long-term damage to that plonker ever since Lucius asked us to watch our backs after Lily smacked him in the face!"

"Before I forget...!" James cut in, "that was brilliantly done, Evans!" he said holding his hand up and beaming down at her most sincerely. And for a second, Isabella almost thought Lily would scoff it off with a petty, 'Fat chance' or so, but only a moment's hesitation later, Lily lightly hi-fived him back, taking even James by surprise.

"Huh! You're a decent human being, after all," muttered Claiborne, only to get glared at severely by Lily. "You speak too soon, Jones—" Lily curtly added, and sure enough, not a second later, James actually decided to go with a, "WOW! Did you see that, lads?! She smacked this hand!" he said, pointing at his own hand and jumping exuberantly on the spot. "Merlin, I knew it! She is DYING to get a feel of the rest of me...!"

Claiborne rolled her eyes. "Yeah, sorry, Evans."

"Forgiven," Lily replied in a cold-jaded voice, eyeing him with pity and disgust.

"Okay, okay, go on!" Sirius prodded irritably, almost forgetting he was mad at the whole group, while James sank back, smirking smoothly at Lily, his ego completely untarnished.

"So, we brainstormed ideas on how to get them to stop cursing and think twice about ever using that word again," Isabella said.

"And that's when I went up to Severus and learnt some of his home-made spells that would aid us in this mission," Lily continued, lightly clapping her hands in glee. "The spell that Sev invented is called Langlock. That, with a combination of other curses and spells we had learnt in the last five years, did the trick!" she added beaming.

"We just had to tweak the spell a little to ensure it worked ONLY when the Slytherins used specific curse-words and the credit to that idea solely goes to the Queen of Curses, Miss Claiborne Charlotte Jones!" exclaimed Isabella, pointing at a sheepish Claiborne.

"YOU came up with that idea?" asked Remus, looking mildly impressed.

"Well..." she started, suddenly aware of all the eyes trained on her, making her grin uncontrollably. "Yes, I mean... Well, I didn't want them bothering my friend for a long, LONG time!" she said, sporting a wide grin that painted her cheeks pink.

"So, wait, how long does the curse stay on?" James demanded.

"Well, every time they utter the specific words, the curse itself lasts a whole eight hours, thus, derailing their speaking ability for the rest of the day!" Lily said.

"And for how many days will this stay on?" asked Peter, taking a swig of pumpkin juice.

Claiborne smiled. "Two weeks... But they don't need to know that, do they?" she asked, her eyes twinkling dramatically.

Remus and Peter simply looked stunned at their friend and her hidden talents. "Huh... What do ya know," started Peter, his mouth still half-full. "Our Clay's a tough cookie..." he muttered, sounding genuinely impressed, while Remus mutely watched on, gobsmacked at the very least...

"She is, isn't she?" he muttered, staring after her even as Claiborne's quill scribbled non-stop into her diary.

-O-

It was twenty minutes past midnight and the students were busy meticulously charting out planetary positions up on the Astronomy Tower, taught by Professor Eldridge Shadowoend, an old, grey-haired balding wizard, whose left eye was so small, it was a mere slit compared to his normally-sized right eye. And Isabella shared today's class only with Claiborne and Peter and few other Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws.

"You know, I must admit," began Isabella, studying her chart carefully, "I do quite enjoy Astronomy."

"'Enjoy'? It's your favourite subject, Izzy!" scoffed Claiborne making Peter's look up in mild surprise.

"Really? Like it that much, eh?" he asked, grinning at her pale face.

"Yes, Astronomy and Ancient Runes, if you can believe it!" Claiborne teased even more.

"Wh... It's mighty interesting!" Isabella roared back, stung by Claiborne's dramatic scoff at the end. "I mean, doesn't it BOGGLE your mind to think that the light from these stars, nay, celestial bodies—"

"—Why do you sound like Black?" demanded Claiborne, scrunching up her nose.

"—travel over several BILLION light years to reach our eyes, but the beauty of it all is that, by the time we see actually see it, the star itself may not exist anymore!" she exclaimed, looking a bit too mind-blown than necessary.

Peter and Claiborne simply exchanged looks of great pity for their friend. "There, there..." muttered Peter, stifling a snort that was bursting at his lips. "I'm sure you will find someone who... well, also shares the same passion for... big, burning bodies of gases!" he guffawed, hi-fiving a delirious Claiborne.

"Oh, I hope so too!" grinned Claiborne, pouting teasingly at her, making her roll her eyes and shake off the condescending hand on her shoulder. "Oh, you will laugh now, but I think you will find it VERY interesting to also note that if aliens indeed were spying on us from planets orbiting other mini solar systems located approximately sixty five million light years away from us—"

"—Oh, Merlin, have mercy on us—!" Claiborne slammed her head into her hands.

"—they would not see human beings driving around in stupid cars," stressed Isabella, trying out drown out the exasperated sigh from Claiborne, "but actually witness the Earth being ruled... by dinosaurs!" she exclaimed, her eyes the size large lemons now. "Wicked, huh?"

"Wow, you sure do love your stars, don't you?" snorted Peter "And hey! Perhaps you should bat your eyelids and look pretty RIGHT NOW, because exactly sixty five millions years from now, some alien-chap might actually chance upon your drool-worthy face and fall head over heels for ...!" but Peter never got to finish that sentence, because Isabella had thrown her jumper at his face, making him fall backwards and knock his bag off the ledge, sending most of it contents spilling to the floor. "Hey!" he exclaimed, still laughing and nudging her lightly on the side. "Well, you were asking for it!" Isabella retorted, stifling back her smirk and bent down to help him repack his bag. "Ah, crap!" she exclaimed as she realised his ink bottle had smashed and stained most of his parchments and quills and phials.

The next quarter of an hour was spent painstakingly sucking out the ink from the parchments and quills, while Claiborne continued on with her homework. "There, all done!" said Isabella, handing over the last of his rolls and picking up his phials this time. "Ooh, Peter, this looks exquisite!" she cooed, turning a tiny gold cup in her fingers. It glinted brilliantly in the moonlight and had some sort of an animal embossed in the front, except Isabella couldn't discern what it was under all the ink. She was, however, sure that it was made of pure gold and resonated magic in every cell. "What is it?"

"Oh, that!" he said, quickly grabbing it off her hand. "Merlin's beard, I was supposed to owl this cup to mum ages ago! Remind me to do it first thing in the morning, tomorrow, Clay," he said.

"Yeah, careful, Pete, it looks expensive," said Isabella picking up his cauldron now.

"Oh, you've no idea..." he muttered, safely pocketing it.

-O-

The next four weeks witnessed several highs and lows.

The Quidditch season was drawing close and the Professors were FINALLY starting to go easy on the students and taxing them much less with submissions than earlier. Isabella, for her part, decided to get her act together and drew up an extremely tight schedule, giving herself enough time to eat, sleep, train, study, complete assignments AND spare five minutes everyday for a frivolous chat with the girls. She woke up at four everyday and went for an hour long run around the grounds, before the rest of team joined her for training. And while Thomas quarreled with the Ravenclaw Captain, Blaise Fawcett, about mishaps with the booking of the pitch, James and Sirius could be seen either having push-up contests, forcing Isabella and Brian to compete with them in doing planks or nagging the crap out of poor Brian and Victor (their scared-looking substitute Keeper, two years their junior) to declare who was taller than the other... And the answer was always the same: Sirius was TALLER—but, of course James suffers from 'selective hearing' and doesn't quite understand that he still had more than two inches to catch up, so he would end up challenging Sirius ALL OVER AGAIN the next day, and Sirius, obviously, always gladly obliged.

And IF Thomas won the verbal (sometimes slightly physical) war of the booking of the Quidditch pitch with Blaise, he worked the team tirelessly from five o'clock everyday, making them train like dogs to improve their stamina and agility because this match against the Ravenclaws was the decider on who gets to take home the House Cup this year. Not like his plan was working well, though, because at least two members on the team (Clarissa and Oliver) were DETERMINED to not cooperate with the rest and going so far as to not seeing them in the eye during the practice sessions that it was getting very difficult for poor Thomas to effectively execute his strategies.

James, Sirius and Brian, quite understandably, were growing restless and mutinous at Clarissa's petulance that a mini confrontation in mid-air almost broke out on Saturday morning, and Sirius being Sirius, decided to mutilate her SO BAD with his beastly use of words that, had it not been for Thomas's tactful interference, the team would have lost their most talented Seeker forever. And no amount of pleading got Isabella any close to rebuilding her friendship back with Clarissa.

"Clare, are you DEAF?" Isabella finally cried, when Clarissa finally hit the ground and stormed off towards the Changing Room.

"No, I hear you LOUD AND CLEAR, Williams, I just like to pretend you don't exist!"

"Wow, that's mature, Clare! Last time I checked, you were the SENSIBLE one on the whole bloody team!"

"Well, WHOSE fault is it that I've totally lost it now, eh?" she yelled back.

The rest of the team (along with a few Slytherins who were howling their lungs out on the stands and a couple of Ravenclaws who were pretending to 'perfect their flying' except they were here to merely spy on the Gryffindor team) watched this open scream-match pan out on the grounds, not even bothering to return to practice.

"RYAN WON'T LET ME GET TWO FEET CLOSE TO HIM!" Isabella howled, finally losing her cool. "HOW THE BLOODY HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO APOLOGISE IF HE'S SUCH A COWARD?!"

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL HIM THAT!" Clarissa bellowed back.

"I'm sorry, Goody, I only speak the TRUTH!" Isabella snapped scornfully.

Clarissa's eyes blazed red with rage now. Taking a step closer, she glowered into her face. "The truth is that he is TOO good to be true, that you RUTHLESSLY took advantage of him and that, WALKER here is too cowardly to sack you off his team!" she roared, now glaring at Thomas who was still perched on his broom, several feet away.

"So, what are you going to do? Let Gryffindor LOSE just because of our differences?!" Isabella yelled.

"YES!" she cried back and stormed into the Changing Room.

And that was exactly what she did...

The match against the Claws was such a huge disappointment, the Gryffindor side of the stands had begun conjuring up rotten eggs and throwing them at players. Never before in the history of Hogwarts had students got this mutinous and enraged ever and yet, Oliver and Clarissa merely pretended they were having a sophisticated tea party on their brooms in the middle of the air, adding to Thomas's frustrations. It was the most humiliated Isabella had ever felt in all her life when she saw the scoreboard displaying a score of 80:280 favouring Ravenclaw.

Drenched from head to toe in egg yolk and tomatoes and perhaps even a bit of pixie dung, the team dejectedly made their way out of the pitch, amidst loud chants from the Ravenclaw stands. And to make matters worse, the Slytherins had conjured up large blow horns that did a fantastic job at booing at the Lions. And oddly enough, the Gryffindor players hardly spoke a word as they stole into the Changing Room.

"Say the word, and I shall do them off for you, Tom," grunted Sirius, twirling his wand suggestively and winking manically at the rogue teammates. "I mean, think about it," he continued, gleefully plotting a conspiracy while not even noticing the mega rolling-of-the-eyes from the rest of them. "It's only 'murder' if they find the body... Otherwise it's just a 'missing witch'... Some food for thought, eh?" he smirked.

"Well, aren't you just a fun little treacle tart nutty as a fruitcake?" snorted Thomas, pulling off his Quidditch robes and changing into casuals, forcing a calm face.

"You know, I never thought I'd see the day," started Isabella, still glowering in Clarissa's direction, "but I'm with Mister Brutus Barbaric on this. I'd very much enjoy planning her funeral right about now. She'd be buried only after every Gryffindor had HURLED the Snitch at her face till she looked like the Ghost of Christmas Past!"

James snorted gloomily. "Reckon you should replace your 'Do Not Disturb' sign with one that says, 'Already Disturbed... Ha-Proceed With Caution'!" he guffawed, getting even Thomas's lips to curl upwards. "Although, it must be said," James added, the smile wiping off his face at once, "that wasn't the exit you deserved as Captain," he said, clapping Thomas on the back.

Thomas merely shrugged and wore back his glasses and even if he wasn't showing it, it was more than evident how torn he was deep down. "Ollie, Clare," Thomas called out, turning to face the rebels on the other side of the tent, "don't miss the Oath tonight, please? It's my last one as Captain," he said, swinging his bag over his shoulder and tearing out of the room, leaving every jaw in the tent hanging open.