Disclaimer: I don't own the Wizarding world, but Andran, Marti, and their friends are mine - steal them and I hurt you!
“Where could she be?” I heard Deanne ask before I rounded the corner. I think I looked something awful, covered in mouthwash, toothpaste, piecrust and various pastry fillings. No, I’m sure I did.
I stumbled around the corner, and watched as my friends noticed the messy heap heading their direction and then as they realized it was me.
“Merlin!” Alice cried out, covering her mouth. Marcia just started laughing.
“Marti!” Clay cried out, his face looking as though he was completely blown away by the sight of me… and not in a good way.
Deanne, who hadn’t been facing me, turned around somewhere in the middle of all that and gave a kind of a strangled yelp. “Ahhgaahhh! Marti! What in heaven’s name…”
I held up a sticky hand to silence her.
“I have to shower. Don’t wait for me. I’ll catch up.” I said, walking past them into the Ravenclaw Common Room.
“Marti,” Deanne called after me, “Are you sure? Waiting isn’t a problem…”
“Go. Please.” I murmured back. “I’ll catch up.”
“Okay…” she sighed, “We’re heading up to the Shrieking Shack, and then on to the new joke shop… but if we’re not there, we’ll be at the Three Broomsticks, most likely, so if you can’t find us, that’s where we’ll be.”
“’Kay,”
I heard a few snickers from outside as I headed up to the showers. I could have sworn that someone asked, “Was that toothpaste in her hair?”
*** *** ***
I ran back to Gryffindor Tower as fast as I could go, which, given that I was covered from head to toe in slop, was not very fast at all. Twice I skidded into a wall and slipped to the floor, after which I spent a good five minutes trying to get to my feet again.
Halfway there, I decided I’d had enough of all the nonsense and headed into the nearest Boy’s loo. I transfigured one of the sinks into a shower “ something for which Granger would strangle me for if she found out, due to some obscure rule “ and rinsed the muck off of me.
I transfigured it back when I was finished and started back on my way to Gryffindor Tower…
But I didn’t get far. I think I made it down two corridors when a door suddenly opened on my right and yanked me inside.
“What the-” a hand covered my mouth as I was pulled into the darkness of the broom cupboard.
“Shhh!”
I reached up and pulled the hand off my mouth, “Marcia?”
There was a snort in the darkness, “No. Try again.”
“Zinny? Is that you?”
“Give the boy a Galleon,” she muttered dryly.
“Sorry… shushing me like that, you sounded like Marcia. So… why did you pull me in here?”
There was a pause in the darkness, “We need to talk, Andy. We really need to talk.”
*** *** ***
It was close to an hour later when I finally managed to get back down into Hogsmead. Unlike the first time I’d gone through town, it was now bustling and alive with people. All the shops were open, too, and I could see the items they sold. I paused outside of the store called Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. It looked awesome inside! I could glimpse several things inside, only half sure of what they were… I really wanted to go in there, and would have, but there was a huge line of Hogwarts students waiting to get in. I sighed and headed down to the Shrieking Shack.
I found my friends laughing near a large oak tree by the fence the surrounded the Shack. Alice waved to me when she spotted me heading up the road. I smiled and hurried to where they all were.
“Hey Marti!” Deanne said to me, “Feel better?”
“Heavens yes,” I said, plopping to the ground and crossing my legs.
Alice sat besides me, “What happened? You were an awful mess back there…”
Clay was chatting with the boy I didn’t know… I presumed he was Hufflepuff, Samuel Tate. He had bright blonde hair and pale blue eyes that looked almost grey. As far as most Hogwarts kids went, he was fairly tanned, though compared to what I was used to back in Salem, even compared to me, he was still fair skinned. A few freckles were spattered across his face, too. He totally wasn’t my type, but I could see that he was cute, and it was no wonder that Deanne liked him. Poor Deanne, though, she was a constant shade of red and seemed to have a hard time looking at him.
“Hi,” I said, nodding to him, “You must be Samuel, right?”
He nodded and smiled shyly. “Call me Sam. And you’re Marti, right?”
“You bet. Nice to meet you, Sam. So, everyone, what did I miss?” I asked.
Marcia (and, I have to add, I know that they’re twins, but since I spent a lot of time being around just Alice, it was different being around them both at the same time) smirked at me, “You didn’t answer Alice’s question, Marti. What happened back there?”
Also Marcia seemed to be a little on the rougher side, so it was like Alice had an evil twin… not that I’d ever say that to either of them. Besides, she was a Gryffindor, so she wasn’t evil… completely…
I frowned and looked at my shoes, “I got into a duel.”
Clay laughed, “Okay… so what are you not telling us?”
“What?”
Clay looked at me, almost slyly, “That wasn’t a duel. That was a… well, more of a… a… a personal hygiene product fight, if you ask me. What really happened? You can tell us.”
“Fine,” I snapped, throwing my hands in the air, “That great turkey buzzard, Andran, followed me to the Paddock, just to annoy me, and I snapped. I had had enough of it, of all the crap he put me through… heck, he was the whole reason I was there, because after he stole my violin, I’ve been too frightened to practice it anywhere… and we got into it “ again. I threw toothpaste, he threw pies, and before long we were slipping and sliding in this huge mess, oh it was horrid! And then, that jerk, he “ he cheated at the last and took off,” I so did not want to tell everyone, especially with Marcia and Samuel around, that he’d kissed me.
Everyone stared at me, mouths opened.
I glared at them, “What? Did you think my wand exploded or something?”
*** *** ***
I couldn't see Zinny in the darkness, but something told me that was exactly what she wanted. “I agree with you, Zin," I said, speaking to where I thought her head was, "We do need to talk. But, as you brought about this meeting - and had the gall to hide from me for the last two weeks, I might add - I'll let you go first.
There was a sigh, "I thought you'd say that," she sounded more serious than I'd heard her be in a very long time. "I... I'm not sure where to begin..."
I swallowed, "How about an explanation for this sudden change?"
"Pardon?"
"You heard me, Zinny."
"I did, but I didn't understand what you meant. What sudden change?"
"You, Zinny. Ever since this year started, you're acting different."
There was a pause, "Andy... you're the one who changed."
"I beg your pardon?" I huffed.
She paused again, "I have been going along with business as usual, but you... you're obsessed with Marti."
It was my turn to be silent for a moment, "Is that what this is about? Another girl?"
Zinny made a strange noise in her throat, "I suppose."
"Look, this thing with Marti is... complicated, I guess. But I don't want to talk about her. I want to know why you pulled me in here to talk. I know you must have had something in mind when you yanked me in here. So, what gives?"
I felt a hand brush my arm slightly. "Your right, I did. I... well..."
"Spit it out!"
"This is hard! You great prat!" she snapped at me before regaining her calm. "Look... I think you have figured out that... that I fancy you..."
"Merlin..."
"And," she ignored me, "Anyone who knows anything would know that you don't fancy me. I suppose I brought you in here to ask you... why not? I just want to know... morbid curiosity, I guess..."
Suddenly, there was a huge weight in my stomach. Leave it to Zinny to be direct... but what could I say to her?
"I... I don't know..." I stammered, stalling, "Geez, Zinny... You're my best friend, you always have been..."
She coughed. "Am I not pretty enough?" she asked.
"Zinny..."
"Not smart enough?"
"Zinny,"
"Not thin enough?"
"Zinny! Will you just hold it for a second?" I ran a hand through my hair, "It's none of that. You're really pretty, I don't know a witch smarter than you, and being thin doesn't matter to me - you know that..."
"Then what is it?" she croaked. My eyes started to adjust to the darkness... If I wasn't mistaken, she seemed to be crying.
"You're... Merlin, Zinny, you're the sister I never had!"
Another cough met my ears and I felt her turn away from me, and then could hear her sniff. I gave her a moment, but even then she didn't speak.
I sighed, "Answer me this, Zinny," I said, reaching out and patting her on her shoulder, or at least what I thought was her shoulder, "What more do you want from... from our friendship?"
She brushed my hand away and faced me again. "I've thought about that..." she sniffed, "and, aside from the obvious... look, Andy, no one thinks of me as anything other than just nutty Zilpha Pearson. No one thinks I'm pretty. Heck, I don't think I'm pretty. But... you always have."
I shook my head, "Zinny... wait, out of curiosity, when did you start to fancy me?"
"Third year," she said, unabashedly, "After you told that seventh-year Slytherin who was calling me names to sod off. He'd called me horrible names in front of at least twenty people, and you said, twice as loudly, that I was beautiful. No one had ever done that before for me..."
"Hmm," I nodded, "Okay... so back to what I was going to say, Zinny, you’re nuts."
"Excuse me?"
"You're very pretty, and I don't know why you would think differently..." and then I knew what I had to tell her. I guess she hadn't listened, really listened, to what Clay had said that day in the common room. Clay would kill me for this, but she deserved to know. "I'm not the only person to think that, Zinny. Clay... he's crazy about you."
"What?" she asked, a deadly edge to her voice.
"Did you not hear what Clay said that day in the common room? Or did you not understand it?"
I could faintly see her frown, "I think I heard, but... I must have missed something. What are you talking about? He's stuck on that Ravenclaw wench as much as you are."
I swallowed, "Clay will kill me for this... but he's fancied you since first year. I was trying to convince him to ask you to Hogsmeade when he told me off that day, because he knew that you fancied me..."
"Stop it! Don't lie to me, Andran!" she started scuttling around... I think she turned her back to me, but as she also kicked a bucked with her foot, it was hard to tell.
"I'm not lying! I swear! I wouldn't lie to you, you know that-" I reached out to put my hands on her shoulders again.
And Zinny screamed.
*** *** ***
It was some time before the laughter started, and an even longer time before it stopped. Even Samuel, who really didn’t know me, couldn’t help but laugh at my circumstances. I, for one, didn’t laugh “ I didn’t find it funny at all “ but I couldn’t blame them for it. My life was one big laughing stock, so why not let them laugh?
As the laughter grew around me, I slowly turned away. Okay, I know it was funny “ I’d laughed hysterically at Bailey for lesser things “ but after so much laughing, it started to hurt. I turned away from them, hoping to see something else.
I think it was Clay who first noticed that I was bothered by it.
“Marti,” he said, putting a hand on my shoulder, “Hey, we’re… we’re not trying to be mean… you know that, right?”
“Oh, I know,” I said without looking at him, “I just haven’t reached the point where it’s funny yet. I’m still angry over what happened… but I know it’s funny. I’d laugh, if I were you, too.”
The laughter quickly died. I think Clay had waved at them, telling them to stop it, though I couldn’t see as I still wasn’t looking at them.
“Oh, we’re sorry Marti,” said Deanne.
“Don’t be,” I said, trying to be cooler about the situation, “it’s funny.”
“Well,” Deanne started to her feet. She made a sort of squeak that caught my attention, and I turned in time to see that Sam had offered her a hand up. She’d taken it, after going bright red. “Um, well…” she paused, trying to remember what she was saying, then looked at me and smiled, “it’ll be funny later on, too, when you’re ready to laugh about it. We can wait.”
I felt embarrassed… I hated to be a party pooper on their fun, even if it wasn’t fun for me. I really was sick and tired of being the center of attention.
Again, Clay seemed to notice this and hopped to his feet, “Hey, whaddya say we all head back to into town and see if the line into Weasley’s has died down?”
Everyone agreed, even Marcia, began to slowly head back down the road. Clay offered me a hand and a sympathetic smile.
“Thanks, Clay,” I whispered we followed.
“Anytime,” he replied quietly. Man, I was lucky to have him as a friend. I was more than grateful that the group was interested in something other than me… though judging from the disappointed smirk on Marcia’s face, she would have rather sat and laughed at me some more.
In an amazing stroke of luck, the line into the Weasley Joke shop had nearly vanished (probably due to it being near lunch time) and we were able to go inside.
Okay, let me just say, I loved that place! Deanne, who knew more about the shop than me, because she’d been to the one in Diagon Alley, led me around and showed me what was what. It was great! They had snack boxes that could help you get out of class in various ways (I didn’t get one… I hate nosebleeds and vomiting…) and they had cookies and pastries that could make you sprout feathers… of course, everything cost money, so I didn’t spend much. I bought a few things though… mostly when no one was looking, I raced them up to the counter where a young witch rang up my order.
I frowned at her when she started to laugh at me for not counting out the right number of Knuts… did she not notice my “American” accent, as Clay called it? I had a hard enough time with my classes, I hadn’t really taken the time to learn the British Wizard’s money system. I was accustomed to American paper money, both Wizard and Muggle. They weren’t that different.
But, anyway, after that, we all headed down to the Three Broomsticks “ which I’d been looking forward to. I’d heard they had great drinks there.
Alice and Marcia offered to get us all Butterbeers, so we all handed them a few coins each. While they made their way over to the bar, we headed to an empty table at the back that would hold the six of us.
Half way there, I got a brilliant idea. I grabbed Clay by one arm and Deanne with the other. Clay had the same mischievous look that I’m sure I did, and offered to save two seats to his right for Alice and Marcia… leaving Deanne with no place to sit, other than next to Sam.
Muahahaha. I felt delightfully devious.
When she noticed what I’d done, she gave me a dirty look and muttered, “Marti! I’m going to kill you in your sleep!”
I smiled viciously at her, “You’ll thank me, someday!”
She took a seat next to Sam and gave him a weak smile. I was almost bouncing into my chair when he smiled back.
We had all just seated ourselves when Alice and Marcia returned, each carrying three mugs. They seated, Alice a bit more gracefully than Marcia, and passed the mugs around.
I smelled the one Alice sat in front of me. It smelled good, whatever it was… “What’s this?”
Marcia snorted, “It’s butterbeer, what’d you expect?”
I frowned, “Um, well, never having been here before, I thought I’d ask, out of curiosity.”
Marcia’s face softened a bit, “Oh, that’s right huh? I forgot…”
I smiled at her and took a sip at my mug. I wanted to like Marcia… I was trying…
“Thanks Alice,” Clay said after a sip of his mug. “Hey, Marcia, have you noticed anything odd about the prefects lately?”
“You mean have I noticed them carrying papers that they guard with their life, and them trying out strange spells on each other here and there? Yeah, I noticed.”
“Bailey’s been acting weird, too,” Deanne said. “The other day, um, someone knocked her papers out of her hand and she acted like she’d overdosed on Pepper-up Potion. How about you, Sam? Have you noticed anything?”
I ventured a gulp of my drink… it was rather good…
“Yeah, they’re acting oddly,” he said, “One of them changed their hair color pink for a few days… and when asked about it, they acted like we were the crazy ones. Then it changed back without a word.”
“I saw that!” Alice laughed, “I wonder what their up to?”
Clay shrugged, “It’s got me stumped.”
I took another drink… it was really good…
Deanne swirled her mug, “Bailey mentioned something about getting her papers submitted on time. Would there be a contest or something?”
“HIC!”
The table went silent. I looked around the table… everyone was looking at me. Huh? Was I missing something? And who had hiccupped?
“Hic!” my eyes went wide. It had been me… and I hadn’t noticed…
Oh no…
“How much sugar is in this?” I asked frantically.
Deanne shrugged, “I don’t know, why?”
“HIC!” A hand went to my chest “This isn’t good! HIC! Well, the drink is… HIC! I meant the hiccups aren’t good… HIC!”
Everyone at the table was looking at each other in confusion. They didn’t know… how could they? I hadn’t mentioned it… well, I was hoping they’d never know…
“Marti,” Alice said, almost cautiously, “Everyone gets hiccups… no one likes them, sure, but they’re no reason to panick…”
I tried to shake my head at her, but almost fell out of my chair.
“Marti!” Clay cried, straightening me… that was funny…
“Issa shhugar,” I said. The room was getting all… woozy… “Iva kinda allergy to lotta shhugar… HIC!”
“Marti!” Deanne cried, a hand flying to her mouth, “You’re drunk! Sugar makes you drunk!”
“Pfft, Dee, snot tha’… It’s called lucid… prolly…Hey! Hiccups all gone…”
“What do you mean, lucid?” Clay had taken me by both shoulders and was looking me straight in the face… but I didn’t really notice… “Martina! Are you listening to me?”
“I am…”
And then I couldn’t remember anything else.
*** *** ***
Zinny screamed. I got hit across the face with something - I think it was her hand - and the door flew open and the both of us fell out.
I hit the floor hard, flat on my back and gasping for breath. I propped myself up on one elbow, staring at her in disbelief… what happened? Had she lost her mind?
She had somehow managed to stay upright and was standing in front of me. She was standing there, with her eyes wide and her arms crossed across her body, each hand holding on to the opposite shoulder. Neither of us moved or spoke, we just stayed where we were, staring at each other.
Once the banging in my head had cleared, a noise I didn’t know I could dread met my ears. Cat calls and wolf whistles. I went red as I looked around.
Various students were standing around, some looking scandalized, others cheering… and then I realized that all of them had seen Zinny and I fall out of a closet…
I struggled to my feet and glared at those watching us, “Ah, step off!” I shouted at them.
I waited a minute for the crowd to dissipate before I faced Zinny. “What was that, Zinny?” I hissed angrily.
“You prat, why’d you do that!” she retorted.
I raised an eyebrow, “Me? I put my hands on your shoulders, and you suddenly show your banshee heritage, and I did something?”
Zinny’s mouth fell open, “Shoulders? SHOULDERS!?”
“Will you keep it down! People are going to gather again!”
Zinny folded her arms and closed the gap between us. She stood there for a moment, turning various shades of red “ for a moment I thought she was going to try and kiss me “ before she found her voice.
“I’m taller than that,” she said in a very tiny voice.
It took a minute for her words to sink in… I paled, “And you didn’t turn away from me, did you?”
She shook her head.
We stood there, for close to five minutes, just staring one another. I had… oh Merlin… and to Zinny, of all people! Dear me…
There was a spurt and Zinny started giggling in my face.
“This isn’t funny, Zinny!” but she kept on giggling… and then I found myself laughing in spite of everything…
We collapsed together against the closet door, laughing ourselves silly. When we’d finally had enough of that, silence ensued; the first un-awkward silence we’d shared in a while, just leaning on each other with our backs to the wall.
“So…” I stared after a while, “Where do we stand, Zin?”
“On our feet, I’d suppose.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
She sighed, “I know what you meant. I was avoiding it. I don’t think I can help but fancy you, Andy.”
I stifled a groan, “I know. I can’t very well ask you not to, as things don’t work that way. If they did, we wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.”
Zinny was silent for a long while. I didn’t push her to say anything, as I guessed that she was thinking about something important.
“I need to grow up a little,” she said at long last, “And not spend so much time alone with you. I think that’s where most of this is coming from.”
I sat up and looked at her, “Zin, you have had time away from me… isn’t that why you dragged me into the closet?”
She was looking off at nothing in particular, as if she’d not heard me, though I knew she did. “I want things to be the way they were before, but without the pain… that came from being infatuated with you. I should just stop… and we should hang out with other people more…”
I tried not to laugh, though I didn’t succeed very well, “You want to see other people?”
She still didn’t look at me straight on, but she laughed anyway, “Yes… but together. You and I just need to be more social with others, I suppose,” then her eyes met mine, “Do you want things to be as they were?”
“Yes,” I said quickly, almost without thinking, “I want my best friend back. Is that even possible? After everything?”
Zinny broke out into giggles again, “You mean after you tried rounding the bases with me in a closet? No! Never!”
“Zinny!”
*** *** ***
“Martina!” I grabbed her shoulders and shook her hard. She was looking at everything but me, and if I wasn’t too off the mark, her eyes were going in and out of focus. “Are you listening to me?”
She slumped against my arms, “I am…” she drawled as a smile crossed her face, “…Clayton.”
I looked around the table, hoping that someone would know what to do… ah, but they were as shocked and clueless looking as I was. I turned back to Marti, “Marti, are you alright?”
“I’m dizzy, but I’m fine…” she said in a dreary voice. I held her at arm’s length… something was wrong. I wasn’t sure what, but something was wrong… did she say she had a kind of allergic reaction to lots of sugar? What in the world did that mean? And what was the whole think about being lucid?
“Ah…um… what do I do?” I whispered nervously.
Marti looked at me, that odd smile still on her face, “Silly, you play Quidditch and go to school here, but not here, you go to Hogwarts…” she trailed off sleepily.
I frantically looked around the table, “Um, does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do?” Why was I the only one trying to do something?
Deanne, who had been sitting there just staring, looked at me, “I’m trying to think, Clay…”
“Not Clayton…” Marti said, “You think about Sam here…”
“Marti!” Deanne screeched, jumping to her feet, “How could you!!”
“With my mouth!” Marti giggled, swinging one of her arms up into the air, making me lose my grip on her. She plopped out of my hands and onto the table, “Whoopsie daisy!” I swore without thinking, and then Alice was at my side, helping me hoist Marti up again. Deanne grabbed her purse and ran from the place, looking as though she was going to cry.
“We have to get her back to the castle,” Alice said quickly, “Before this gets out of hand!”
Marcia began to pout, “But why? She’s just starting to get fun!”
“Funny, funny, funny…” Marti giggled.
“Marcia!” I snapped, “This is serious! This is some kind of magical allergy she has “ this is not some kind of… of… parlor game!”
Marti began to push our hands away, “Oh, no, Clayton, the Salem girls thought this was great! They’d take me around on Halloween like a radio! Or magical eight ball… but not monkey! That’s Zinnity, or whatever her name is…”
Sam cleared his throat, “You’re right, Clay… we’d better get her up to the hospital wing.”
I shook my head at him, “Don’t worry, we’ve got her. Go…go make sure Deanne’s alright…”
Sam raised an eyebrow at me, “I don’t think that’s the best idea… she was really embarrassed…”
“Just do it, Sam!” I yelled, trying to capture Marti’s hands, that were flailing everywhere, “If Marti gets any wilder with you around, I think she’ll ruin their friendship for good!”
Sam nodded and hurried out the door. There had been something else that I’d thought of yelling after him, but Marti distracted me by holding still for a minute. She looked right at me and grinned, “What? You scared that I’ll kiss him, or something?”
I grimaced, “Yeah, something like that,”
“You jealous?” she went limp without warning, but I was lucky enough catch her, and scoop her up in my arms. Thank goodness she was so small… had it been Marcia or Deanne or, well, anyone else at all, I wouldn’t have been able to hold her.
“Um, sure Marti, whatever you say,” I muttered, making my way to the door, Alice and Marcia at my heels.
“Well, donna you worry your preeeetty little heeeaad about it…” she slurred while pointing her foot lazily in the air while I held her (the reappearance of her slurs really worried me), “I ain’t like tha’ Andran. I donna go kissin’ and running off…”
I paused, glancing at Alice and Marcia, “Who’d Andran kiss, Marti? Marti! Pay attention here! Stay awake!”
She’d started humming to her self, and her head began to slump against me, but when I raised my voice she snapped her head up and gave me a look, “Iss allabout YOU, issn’t it?”
“Keep talking, Marti,” I said, taking off at a run towards the castle, the Longbottom Twins in hot pursuit, “Tell me again, who’d Andran kiss?”
“Meeeee!” she giggled hysterically.
“On second thought, stop talking Marti,”
Oh, she hollered about that, but I stopped listening so I could concentrate on running and not dropping her. It wasn’t escaping me that she was acting more and more sleepy, which I had a bad feeling about letting her do. The sooner I got her to the Hospital wing, the better. I reached the castle entrance at a high run and didn’t slow down in the least. I could only pray that no one got in my way…
*** *** ***
Zinny and I laughed for a long while before a new and strange noise met our ears. At first we weren’t sure what it was…
“What in the blazes is that?” Zinny said, sitting up and looking around. (We were still slumped against the closet door until then). I held still and listened. It was someone yelling, and someone wailing…
“Look, there!” Zinny pointed down the corridor.
Both of us sat and watched as Clay came running down the corridor, with something with lots of hair in his arms. I frowned in disbelief… we didn’t even have time to move our legs out of his way.
Clay met them and hurtled over them, skidding a little as he landed, but amazingly staying upright. As he did so, the lump in his arms, that I now recognized “ much to my horror “ blew a very sloppy kiss my way.
“Heeey ‘dere!” Marti called in a high voice, very unlike her own, as Clay rounded another corner and out of sight, “Smootches!”
Zinny turned and just stared at me. “Is there something you wanted to tell me, Andy?”
“Um…” what the heck had happened there? Was Marti alright? Had I… had I done something to her? “…No, I don’t think so. At least, not until I find out what’s wrong with her…”
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I'm trying to get them done faster... I swear!
Oh, yeah, and read and review!