Trick or Treat
Chapter Seven
Angelina had spent the previous evening pouring over books in the library. Originally she had been looking for more information on Occlumency, as she had obtained a permission slip from the Astronomy professor to visit the restricted section. However, she had stumbled across a section of volumes on invisibility, which had struck her as very interesting and possibly very useful for obtaining more information on subjects forbidden to her.
Consequently, Angelina, who was never very lively in the mornings anyway, was practically comatose at breakfast that morning. She sat silently sipping her tea and occasionally nibbling on a tomato; Emma had insisted she eat something as breakfast was “the most important meal of the day.” Too tired to argue, Angelina docilely let Emma cram her plate full of eggs, kippers, and tomatoes, even though Angelina abhorred any type of eggs. Similarly, when Emma decided to strike up a conversation about her Muggle relations in America, Angelina let her continue the monologue without the usual rebuff.
"In America,” Emma was saying, “Muggles also celebrate Halloween . . ."
Instead Angelina did her best to ignore the incorrigible Emma, staring dreamily into space. Unfortunately, her relative peace was interrupted by an unwelcome morning visit.
"Good morning my sunshine, my sweet Angel," the all too familiar voice of Sirius Black drawled, causing a few people nearby to chortle. They stopped abruptly as Angelina cast a silencing spell on all of them.
With a crack, a halo appeared above her head just as Black and Potter strolled past on their way to the Gryffindor table, giving each other high-fives and whooping as they went.
Waving her wand, Angelina made the halo disappear with a bang and some smoke. She had since the beginning of school become very adept at that particular counter curse. She glared malevolently over at Black and Potter”who were now toasting one another with pumpkin juice and regaling a snickering Pettigrew with the events of the morning”while Emma happily chatted away about how cute her little cousin had looked all dressed up as a pumpkin.
Suddenly, genius hit. Smiling maliciously, Angelina observed, "It must be really great to be able to know both wizard and Muggle worlds, Emma."
Without batting a lash at this change in opinion, Emma launched into a speech comparing the pros and cons of being born to a Muggle rather than a pureblood family.
"And then there’s the whole issue of having one parent who’s magical while the other is not." Emma continued expounding on the idea even as she and Angelina finished breakfast and made their way to Charms.
~*~
Once one comes up with a plan, the next step is to find a competent partner in crime with whom to implement it. Unfortunately for Angelina, the Ravenclaw house did not exactly abound with suitable accomplices. The only one that did not toe the line (aside from Angelina herself) was Emma, and the memory of Emma melting her caldron during their first Potions class (in which they hadn’t even made a potion) was still sufficiently strong to deter Angelina from asking her”at least this time.
If only she had been sorted into Slytherin, she would have been able to find plenty of sly conspirators that would be more than happy to volunteer their services. As it was, she didn’t know anyone in Slytherin but her brother. Well, and the boy on the train . . . but he would probably avoid her like the rest of the house. And who could blame them? She would have shunned her too.
However, fate seemed to be smiling on Angelina. That Thursday the last class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts with Slytherin. Emma was in the hospital wing because of some injuries she had sustained in Potions. When the professor requested that everyone pair up, Angelina and Severus were the only ones left without a partner besides a Slytherin boy whose partners had a nasty habit of turning up in the hospital wing. Angelina and Severus quickly paired up, leaving the teacher to deal with the somewhat psychopathic student.
However, halfway through class the professor mysteriously had to rush off to see Madam Pomfrey. Left unsupervised, the class disintegrated into various conversations.
"Severus?" Angelina questioned, turning to her silent partner.
"Yes?"
“How are you at Potions?”
“Passable,” he responded, giving the Ravenclaw a questioning look. “Why?”
“Well, I’ve got an idea.”
"Really? You mean that brain of yours actually works?" was his acidic response.
“What do you think of the Gryffindor boys in our year? Particularly Black and Potter,” she questioned, unperturbed by his prickly exterior.
She hardly needed to hear his response; the look on his face said it all. At the mention of the two boys’ names, his lips had formed an unattractive sneer that transformed his face; his expression was rather frightening.
“Why do you want to know?” was all he said.
“Well, I thought we could give them a taste of their own tricks.”
At this, the boy’s face lit up in interest. “Alright, I’m listening.”
Taking heart, Angelina launched into an explanation of her plan.
By the end, Severus was smiling maliciously.
“Brilliant,” he whispered when she was done. Angelina blushed. “But I think we need one more person to help.”
“Who?” Angelina questioned glancing about the room at the other Slytherins.
“Lily Evans “ ”
“But she’s a Mudblood,” Angelina commented snobbishly.
“Fine, if you don’t want her. But she’s the best in Potions in our class. Slughorn practically wants to adopt her.”
“Really?”
“Really. And she doesn’t like Black and Potter any more than we do.”
But before the debate could continue there was a burst of noise from the hall as students where let out of their class.
“Alright,” Angelina agreed as she packed up her bag. “We’ll meet in the secret passageway on the third floor by the armor gallery in three hours. Tell Evans.”
And with that the two hurried off, Angelina to the library and Severus to inform Lily of the plan.
The next few weeks found the trio, heads bent in the library, pouring over books. This did nothing to improve Angelina's relationship with people in her house, but she didn't care. However, this association did not deter Emma, and while she kept her distance from the sallow Slytherin boy, the blonde Mudblood approved of Angelina’s association with Lily Evans, even if none of Angelina’s family would have. In fact, Emma, much to Angelina’s puzzlement, continued to accompany Angelina all around school.
"I've been thinking,” Emma voiced one day as the two Ravenclaw girls sat in the library working on their homework, “and I think Hogwarts should have a costume party on Halloween. What do you think?"
"I'm sure it's a lovely idea, Emma," Angelina mumbled absentmindedly. She was staring down at her History of Magic essay and wondering if Professor Binns would notice if she made up a few names.
"I tried to talk to Clearwater, since he's a fifth year Prefect, but he said that the Heads had better things to do than listen to harebrained first year's schemes."
"He doesn't know what he's talking about. It's brilliant," Angelina responded, not really knowing what she was sympathizing with, but knowing Harebrained was a perfect name for her made-up troll.
"If I'm ever a Prefect, I'll make sure there's a costume party, maybe even a dance."
"Humm, me too. If I'm ever a Prefect," Angelina promised. It didn't matter what she promised if the conditions were her being a Prefect. Her father would become a Muggle lover, Severus would start giving out sweets instead of curses, and Black would go a semester without detentions before that happened.
~*~
Angelina sat on the edge of her bed, clasping a little bottle in her hand. In the bottle was a potion that Lily, Severus, and she had concocted together.
“FuFu?” She called hesitantly. “FuFu?”
The elf had told Angelina to call if she ever needed help. Angelina was going to see if she could use this help to get back at Potter and Black. While Pettigrew was, as always, their faithful sidekick, there was only enough potion for the main targets. This time at least.
“FuFu? I need some help.”
Angelina was at the point of considering extracting the locations of the kitchen from an older student, probably not a Ravenclaw, when FuFu appeared with a crack.
“How is Miss doing? FuFu is hoping Miss is feeling much better. FuFu has specially been making Miss’s bed to check up on how Miss is doing. FuFu is seeing that Miss has made a friend. She is hoping Miss is much happier now.”
“Yes, much. But my friends Sirius Black and James Potter are not doing so well.”
“FuFu is sorry to hear that. They are such nice boys. FuFu is seeing the two of them down in the kitchens all the time.”
They had even managed to charm the house elves, Angelina thought in exasperation
“Yes, well if you put this tonic in their pumpkin juice tonight they will feel much better.”
“Oh, Miss is so kind. FuFu is honored Miss has asked for FuFu’s help. FuFu is most willing to help.” Taking the bottle, FuFu disappeared with a crack.
That done, Angelina hurried to tell Severus that every thing had gone as planned.
At dinner that night, Angelina was grinning like the Cheshire cat. She shifted in her seat trying to get a better view of Black and Potter. Suddenly with two pops, jack-o’-lanterns appeared in place of the two boys’ heads. People shrieked and pointed at the two boys, laughing uproariously.
Potter seemed to be distinctly put out, as the redheaded Mudblood was one of those laughing at him, but Black was actually enjoying the attention!
Angelina was furious. After all their hard work, the plan had backfired.
"I'm sorry, Lena. It really was a marvelous potion. Maybe you can help me in Potions. I am horrid at it."
Angelina was on the verge of denying that she had anything to do with this failure of a prank “ Lestranges did not fail”when all of a sudden Emma reached her arm around Angelina’s shoulders and gave her a squeeze.
Instead she whispered, “Thanks. You actually gave me the idea with your cousin’s custom. It was an incredibly complex potion “ Evans really is a genius in potions. It took us two weeks to brew . . .”
And with that Angelina launched into a detailed description of the process of making the potion, while Emma just smiled and reached for a second helping.