Advantageous Accidents
Chapter 16
“Ugly little Squib!”
“Not got a lick of magic.”
“Family should blast her off the tree!”
“Filthy, blood-mingling, Mudblood-loving””
“Silencio!” Angelina shouted. She was already disliked and insulted enough by most of the school’s human population; she did not need to be abused by plants too. She glowered down at the miniature tree in front of her.
“Squib, eh? Looks like my spell shut you up alright.”
The bobbing apples, which were shouting insults only moments ago, now moved their mouths furiously but silently, their ugly, scrunched faces no longer hollering disparagements. One of the grumpy little faces wrinkled its nose and blinked open its wrinkly little eyes. And spat at Angelina.
“Stupefy!” Angelina shouted at the offending apple, but as soon as she had cast the spell, she turned her attention to a more pressing problem: the spot where the apple’s spit had landed on her protective gloves had started to boil and splutter acidly.
The other apples, which had recovered from her Silencing spell, were swaying menacingly on their branches and yelling insults at Angelina again.
Angelina glanced nervously around, searching for help. None of the other students seemed to be plagued with such a vicious tree.
Turning back to her tree, Angelina tried to pacify it. However, her stunned apple had awoken, angrier than ever, and it spat on her a second time.
“Ow!”Angelina cried as the spit landed on her collarbone.
Professor Sprout was instantly at her side. “Oh, no,” the worried professor sighed. “It looks like we have got a spitter. Where did it hit you?” the stout little woman asked in a resigned tone.
Angelina motioned to her neck, where it felt as if her skin was melting.
Professor Sprout lifted her wand and the gnawing sensation eased. “Well, you better head straight up to the castle to see Madam Pomfrey. I’d better see to your tree before it gets any angrier. Miss Hope,” she shouted, “take your friend Miss Lestrange up to the hospital wing. And see that she hurries. My protective charm will only last so long.”
Angelina and Emma made their way up to the hospital wing with relative ease. When Madam Pomfrey saw Angelina, she sighed and said, “Ah, you again. What happened this time? Another vicious plant, I presume.”
“A crabapple. It spat on her,” said Emma.
“I can’t help it if plants dislike me,” Angelina defended herself. Madam Pomfrey and Emma exchanged exasperated looks.
“You stunned the apple,” Emma admonished, and Angelina shot her a piercing glare.
“Very well, let me have a look.” After some prodding and poking, Madam Pomfrey nodded decisively and reached for a jar of balm.
“This should do the trick,” she said as she smeared the balm on the affected area. “You got lucky. The sap barely started burning before Professor Sprout put a freeze on it. Still,” Madame Pomfrey continued, giving Angelina a sharp look, “you need to be more careful in Herbology, my dear. This accident could have caused some real harm.”
“I can’t help it if plants have horrid taste.”
“She means she can’t help it if she’s abysmal at Herbology,” Emma sniggered. “You should see her, Madam Pomfrey. The other day,” Emma laughed, launching into a story about one of Angelina’s many Herbology exploits.
Angelina glowered at the pair as they delighted over her misfortunes, but there was really nothing she could say to defend herself. She really was abysmal at Herbology. Plants just seemed to hate her. They were out to get her.
“Well,” Angelina growled after twenty minutes of amusing anecdotes that all involved Angelina’s unfortunate Herbology mishaps. “If the two of you are quite done mocking me, I think it’s time we get back to class.”
Looking sheepish, the two wiped the smiles from their faces.
“I’m sorry, Angelina,” Madam Pomfrey apologized as she bent over to inspect Angelina’s collarbone.
“Yeah, me too,” Emma murmured.
“Well, it looks like you’re all set,” Madam Pomfrey pronounced with satisfaction. “I’m just going to give you this jar of ointment and a box of bandages. You should rub some on every night before sleeping and keep the bandages on it to keep it from rubbing off. Other than that, you are set to go.”
After thanking her, the two girls set off. They had just come to a bust of a grizzly old wizard when Angelina veered right.
“Where are you going?” Emma asked, looking curiously over her shoulder at Angelina. “The way to the entrance hall is this way.”
“But I’m not heading to the entrance hall,” Angelina called back as she continued to stroll down the corridor.
“W-What? Why?” Emma stammered, trotting to catch up to Angelina.
“There’s only fifteen minutes of class left. We’d just make it to the entrance hall by the time we’d have to head back up, never mind all the way out to Green House 1,” Angelina reasoned. “Anyway, I’ve just suffered a serious injury; I think that warrants getting out of class early. And it’s not like we need to retrieve our bags.”
Emma frowned. This was all true. “Well…I don’t suppose it’ll hurt. Just this once. And we do need the extra time to search for a way out of the castle.”
“That’s the spirit!” Angelina enthused. “We need all the time we can get if we’re to find a secret passage out of the Hogwarts before Black and Potter. We haven’t even finished searching the ground level yet.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s just drop our things off and then we can begin. ‘Cause I’ve got the largest book on earth for our History of Magic paper in my bag.”
“Okay, but let’s hurry.”
The girls were just reaching the fourth floor by way of a narrow staircase whose entrance was hidden by a wall-hanging when they heard hurried footsteps coming towards them. Angelina, who had been in the midst of pushing the tapestry aside, motioned for Emma to remain still, and Emma nodded in understanding.
It wasn’t as if the two of them were doing anything particularly forbidden. It was just that they were not totally sure that they weren’t. Technically they should be in class, although it made no sense to head back that way. However, Angelina didn’t much care to explain to Filch or Professor McGonagall what they were doing out of class. No, it would be better to wait for whoever it was to pass.
The footsteps were right outside of their tapestry when they slowed. For a wild moment Angelina feared that the unknown person was going to come through the tapestry, but whoever it was continued on.
Peeking out, Angelina saw a tall Slytherin student, who had to be at least a fifth year, standing in front of the mirror at the end of the corridor. Quickly, she withdrew her head and turned back to meet Emma’s questioning gaze.
“It’s a Slytherin student,” Angelina whispered.
“So let’s go,” Emma said, moving forward.
“Might be a prefect,” Angelina cautioned, blocking her way.
There was a squeaking sound, and then the words “little urchins” thundered down the corridor.
Angelina gave Emma a confused look.
“Do you think he saw you?” Emma wondered as Angelina poked her nose back into the corridor. What she saw took her breath away. There, at the end of the hallway, gaped a large arch. The tall Slytherin stepped through it and was swallowed, the wall sealing shut behind the billowing black robes he wore. Once again there was only a full-length mirror in the place where the arch had stood.
“Oh my,” Emma gasped from beside Angelina, she too having poked her head out to see what was happening. “Was that…Is that…”
“Yes,” Angelina hissed in delight, her eyes sparkling in triumph. “That is the secret passage out of Hogwarts.”