At first, Alicia thought, What is quick sand doing in the common room?
She quickly realised that it was planted there on purpose. She whipped her head around only in time to see black robes flash up the stairs to the dormitories.
She tried to run after the perpetrator, but her foot was stuck in the quick sand. Yanking her foot out of her shoe, Alicia took off up the stairs. She got up just in time to see the door to the fourth year girls dormitory close.
Alicia angrily banged open the wooden door to see her sister, Marcia, alone, lying on her bed with a book.
“So, Marcia, where have you been for the last hour?” Alicia narrowed her eyes at her younger sister.
Marcia looked up from her book reluctantly. “I’ve been reading my Herbology textbook. You wouldn’t believe how interesting it is!” She returned her eyes to the book, but quickly lifted them when she thought Alicia wasn’t looking and scanned the room.
Fighting to keep a straight face, Alicia said, “Oh, is it really? I wouldn’t think so. What are you reading about?”
Marcia blanched before once again directing her vision to the book. “Er...Well, it’s some type of plant.”
“Yes, glad we’ve cleared that up. Now tell me, Marcia, when did you learn to read?” challenged Alicia. She could see that Marcia was hardly listening, but instead trying to catch a view of herself in the mirror across the room.
“I, well, you see, I-” Marcia took one last look at her older sister before jumping up from her four-poster and running as fast as she could out of the room.
“You’ll pay for that,” screeched Alicia, as her sister disappeared from sight. “You’ll be sorry!”
“Danielle, Danielle!” Alicia called across the room. A short, blonde girl turned towards her. “Come here, will you?’
Danielle stood up from her spot on the couch and ever so slowly walked over to Alicia. “What do you need? I was busy, you know.”
Alicia grimaced before replying, “Marcia’s at it again.”
“Again? Jeez, will that girl ever quit?”
No, thought Alicia angrily. That girl has nothing better to do with her time but torture her wonderful older siblings, mostly me.
Alicia shook her head impatiently. “No, she won’t, but seriously, I need to get her back. It was worse this time. A pit of quick sand in the common room!”
“Marcia’s not too smart, is she? Anyone could have stepped in that, not just you. Not to mention you could have just stepped over it,” observed Danielle.
“Yes, yes, I know!” replied Alicia impatiently. “But how will I get revenge?”
Danielle contemplated before smiling malevolently. “Well, I may just have one idea...”
“Alicia, are you sure you want to do this? You know that Danielle’s plans always backfire.” Alicia’s best friend Ella was currently pleading her not to go through with her vengeful plan.
Ella and Alicia were huddled in a dark corner of the common room and speaking in low voices. The common room was crowded and they couldn’t very well go up to their Dormitory, because one of their other roommates, Kayla, had come down with a rather nasty case of the stomach flu.
“I’m sure,” Alicia replied. “What’s the worst that could happen?”
Ella looked like she had an answer, but decided against sharing it. Instead, she shrugged and urged Alicia to repeat the plan of action one more time. Not like she’d give a care about what happened last time she listened to one of Danielle’s ideas, thought Ella.
“Well, okay. Marcia sleeps late on Saturdays. Much later than is healthy. Danielle and I spent a bit of time in the Restricted Section last night looking up the perfect hex, and we found it!” Alicia had a huge smile on her face, eagerly anticipating her plan for the next morning. It was perhaps Danielle’s best plan yet. But, although she’d never admit it, Ella was right, Danielle’s plans usually did backfire. So, maybe the fact that it was Danielle’s best plan wasn’t saying very much.
“You were in the Restricted Section too? How much trouble are you trying to get into?” cried Ella frantically.
“Well, I wasn’t going to get into any until you announced it to practically the entire common room,” Alicia replied tersely.
There were, in fact, quite a few heads turning towards them. Danielle shot Ella a look and started joined her two friends.
“Sorry,” whispered Ella. Then, turning to Alicia, she said, “Maybe I should have been a bit quieter. I could have gotten Danielle in trouble.”
Alicia gave Ella a mock-offended look. “You don’t care that I would have gotten in trouble too?”
“Will you please just shut your mouths?” begged Danielle. “We don’t need anyone else hearing this, it would ruin the surprise, Marcia might find out.
“Who didn’t hear? Ella told the whole bloody world!” screeched Alicia. She was seething with rage. Danielle was right, if Marcia found out, not only would she take protection measures, but also try and get Alicia again.
“Calm down. Wow, Alicia, you really want this to work, don’t you?” asked Ella.
“Of course I do! Where have you been for the last few years?” Alicia took a deep breath to calm herself. “As I was saying, before you opened your loud mouth, Danielle and I found the perfect hex, which I’ve already told you. That, combined with the potion you found, should make for interesting results, as our resident brainiac, meaning you, should already know.”
“I wouldn’t have helped you find it if I had known what it was for!” Ella sighed resignedly. “Fine, whatever. Just don’t have me around when Marcia sees what happened to her.”
“Alright,” replied Alicia. She stood up from her crouched position, gave Ella and Danielle a small wave before heading up to her dormitory.
Alicia hurried down the stairs and sat down on the couch less than a minute later. She looked sickened and windswept. “I forgot about Kayla. I almost didn’t have time to grab my schoolbag before she blew.”
Danielle grimaced before going sit next to Alicia on the sofa and trying to copy her answers from the Charms assignment. Professor Weasley wasn’t usually too hard on assignments, but Alicia needed to be ahead on her work, since she was going to be busy basking in glory over the weekend. Yes, Alicia was that confident in the success of her plan.
“Not a chance,” growled Alicia, before smacking Danielle on the back of her head.
“Danielle, wake up.” Alicia was violently shaking the mastermind of her not-so-foolproof plan. Alicia would have thought that fall from the couch to the floor would have been enough to wake her friend, but apparently, it wasn’t.
Finally, Danielle awoke. “Why am I on the common room floor?”
“Because,” answered Alicia. “You refused to sleep in the dorm last night and I rolled you off the couch to wake you up.”
“Oh. Why are you waking me up?” Danielle busied herself with rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and trying to flatten her scarily aggressive bed head.
Alicia looked incredulously at the sleepy blonde and thought, it isn’t that early in the morning.
“Because I need to get revenge on Marcia!” whispered Alicia, careful not to attract stares from the few people that populated the common room at nine on a Saturday morning. “Come on!”
Alicia yanked her friend from the ground and practically dragged Danielle to the dormitory of the fourth year girls. “I’ve got the potion, do you remember the spell?”
Danielle nodded distractedly and stifled a yawn. “Yes. The incantation is Azure.”
“Alright, here we go.” Alicia careful retracted a corked vial from her pocket and pulled her wand from the other.
“Azure,” whispered Alicia. Quickly, before anyone woke, Alicia uncorked the vial of potion and poured it over his sister’s shiny, prized hair.
“Let’s go,” muttered Alicia. She and Danielle crept quietly out of Marcia’s dormitory and back into the common room, awaiting Sleeping Beauty’s awakening.
An abnormally loud screech echoed through the Gryffindor common room, seemingly coming from one of the girl’s dormitory. Alicia and Danielle shared a knowing look, they both knew exactly where the screech had come from.
Loud stomps could be heard from the staircase. Anyone who was in the common room was turned to see a rather colorful girl arrive in the common room.
Many tried to hold back their laughter, few succeeded, but most people didn’t even bother.
Marcia Marston, known for her shiny black hair, would no longer be known for it. Her hair color had miraculously changed from black to that of the color of someone’s vomit, it was certainly no longer gorgeous. Her perfect, unblemished, pale skin had taken the color of the sky.
Marcia had a few speculations on who could be behind the atrocity done to her self, but knew nothing for sure.
Her suspicions were confirmed only when she heard a shout from her sister, Alicia. “That’s the last time you catch my foot in a pit of quick sand. Let’s see you use you splendiferous magic skills to fix this!”
Marcia huffed and stormed back up the stairs. She needed the help of one of her friends. She was in a horrid mood because her perfect appearance had been spoiled, and her sister’s sarcastic comment about her ‘splendiferous’ magic skills, was certainly no help.