Friends Forever
Chapter Eight
It is said that there is usually one teacher that a student loathes above all others. For Angelina, this teacher was Abe Aclebe. At every opportunity the almost squib would pop up and add on to the list of detentions Angelina had. If this kept up she would not have a Quidditch free Sunday until after she left Hogwarts. Consequently, she had spent more time on a broom recently than she would have ever cared to. Emma or shine, hot or cold, Abe Acblebe expected to see Angelina on the Quidditch pitch. She probably got as much or more practice than the Ravenclaw Quidditch team (a school wide joke; they barely had enough players to make a team and were on a five year losing streak.).
That’s why a Sunday evening in November found Angelina wet, cold, and hungry storming through the Hogwarts corridors on her way back from detention. This practice, Abe had made her chase Bludgers around; it was that or have them hit her. She was not in a good mood.
Sirius Black, however, liked to pop up at inopportune moments. Along with Potter and Pettigrew, Sirius Black was enchanting the sets of armor to accost anyone that walked by. However entertaining this was, it was nothing to sparring wits with Angelina Lestrange.
“What happened to you? You look like a drowned rat,” Potter remarked with an expression bordering on a sneer playing across his face. The relationship between Angelina and Potter had not improved since their first encounter, and it did not help matters that Potter was Abe Aclebe’s clear favorite while Angelina considered the flying instructor something close to her nemesis.
“Abe,” Angelina replied. She didn’t have the energy to form a witty response. The only thing she wanted to do was sneak into the Prefects’ bathroom and take a nice long bath.
Potter had no wish to accommodate her. “So is the little Angel spreading her wings and flying?”
“You really need to think of something more creative, four eyes. The Angel joke’s getting old. Now move. I have better things to do than sit around trading plebian comments with you.”
“What, you have a date with dear old Snivellus?” Potter gabbed, sniggering. Pettigrew laughed too, but Black didn’t find it amusing.
“I don’t understand what you see in that greasy prat,” Black bit out.
“It’s none of your business, Black,” Angelina responded just as nastily; she was starting to get chills and she didn’t have time for the egotistical Black. “Don’t you ever go away?”
“Nope. It’s all part of this lovable package.”
“Is the package returnable?”
“No. It’s specially for you.”
“Well, I prefer jewelry.”
“Really?”
Shrugging, Angelina sighed and continued, “Can I go now?”
“None of us are stopping you,” Potter grinned.
Angelina stepped forward along the corridor only to be surrounded by the suits of armor.
“Only the armor,” Potter finished. Pettigrew found this the most hilarious thing he had ever heard.
The trio practically skipped away down the hall.
Angelina fumed. She hit the statues with various spells. None seemed to work.
“There you are!”
It was Emma. Angelina sighed; she wished it was Severus. He’d know how to get her out.
“Oh, did those horrible marauding Gryffindors do this?”
“Do you have any ideas to get me out?” Angelina barked, not wanting to dwell on the fact that the trio had gotten the better of her.
Emma looked pensive. “I’m not sure. . . Do you think the jelly legs curse would work?”
“Might,” Angelina replied doubtfully. She had tried very advanced spells; she was certain such a simple charm wouldn’t work. However, it did. Within minutes, Angelina and Emma were on their way to their dormitory.
“Thanks,” Angelina muttered as they entered the common room, before fleeing to the bathroom to get out of her rain-laden clothes.
Abe’s detentions continued to pile up; between that, the increasingly large amount of homework that first years had been assigned, and the extra credit project she had decided to take on for Potions, even Angelina was starting to feel the pressure of the schoolwork. Especially since Angelina considered anything less than full points unacceptable. That was why Sunday evening found Angelina in the library dictating to her quill after another horrid flying lesson.
She was, as always, very absorbed in her work, but even she couldn’t ignore it when drops of water started hitting the page, and Angelina looked up. Emma stood there, dripping wet with a rain cloud floating above her head, drenching her with icy water.
“Who did this to you?” Angelina cried after a shocked moment of staring. She was surprised at how angry she was about Emma’s curse. It was then that it hit her: Emma was actually her friend. Angelina had no time to dwell on this discovery, however, as her friend was still suffering the effects of the curse, and she immediately rose to start searching the library shelves for an appropriate book of counter curses.
“B-B-Black an-and P-Pot-ttter,” Emma stammered, her teeth chattering. “I-I’ve b-b-been look-kkkkk-iing everywwwwwhere for you.”
“Why didn’t you go to the nurse?”
“It-s agggainst the ruuuuules.”
“Don’t be thick, Pettigrew goes to her all the time. Most of my detentions are because of him.”
“I’mmm notttttttt P-p-pet-t-t-grew.”
“Of course you’re not. He’s nothing but a bloody idiot that’s practically a squib. He should be a Hufflepuff. Oh, here it is,” Angelina cried triumphantly when she found the counter curse, which would have earned a disapproving glare from the librarian if she were around. Luckily the librarian was lost in the recesses of the stacks locating an obscure book for a Ravenclaw seventh year, and did not hear Angelina (or see Emma, whose state she would certainly have objected to). Angelina quickly set about performing the counter-curse, and after a bit of wand waving and a few warming and drying charms, Emma was as good as new.
Then Angelina sat down to do some research on curses. Angelina considered few people to be her friends, and she did not take well to them being cursed. Black and Potter were going to pay dearly.
~*~
Angelina was not one to be out done. And Black and Potter had been annoyingly successful of late. She and Severus decided they needed to have a meeting to discuss the Despise Sirius Black Club, which had been modified to the Despise Sirius Black and James Potter and Their Sidekicks Club. The club now had three members: Angelina, Severus, and Emma, with the Lily as their consultant. Emma had put aside her fear of Severus for “the common good,” although she made sure to sit as far away from him as possible.
Currently they were holding a meeting in an empty classroom. Severus, Angelina, and Emma were all in attendance.
“We could make another potion,” Severus suggested.
“No, we need to make it stick,” Angelina replied.
“We could hang their pants up in the great hall,” Emma giggled.
“I am not touching Potter’s panties,” the Slytherin boy spat, disgusted.
“Sorry. I just thought”” Emma meekly mumbled, not looking at Severus.
“It doesn’t matter; in order to do that we’d need to get into their bedroom,” Angelina interfered.
“Why don’t we sneak into their bedroom and make them tell us their secrets,” Emma supplied hopefully.
“First off”” Angelina began, but Severus cut her off.
“Yeah. I like that.”
“First off, do any of us even know where the Gryffindor common room is?” Angelina continued.
“No, but we could follow them,” Severus countered, his mind already wheeling with schemes.
“I actually do know. Lily once had to fetch a book and she took me there. I didn’t go in, but . . .”
“That’s brilliant!” Severus exclaimed. His normally cool façade had evaporated when faced with the possibility of getting revenge.
“Well, what about the password?” Angelina observed practically.
“We can get inside help,” Severus proclaimed. “Lily can open it for us!”
“I don’t know; I don’t want Lily to get into trouble. Still, we could ask her. She does hate Potter more than anyone,” Emma announced. Then, glancing at Severus, amended it to, “Well, besides Severus.”
“Okay, even if we manage to get into the common room, how are we going to get them to tell us their secrets? They don’t just sit around talking about their deep dark inner fears. Otherwise they wouldn’t be deep dark inner fears, they’d be public knowledge,” Angelina pointed out, practical as ever.
“They are Gryffindors, they’re a weird lot,” the boy retorted.
“Not that weird,” Angelina disagreed.
“What about the Imperius Curse or Veritasirum,” Severus continued, his eyes shining with glee.
“That would be illegal!” Emma cried.
“Oh don’t be such a fearful flobberworm. I’m sure there’s a loophole. I was reading just the other day that in extreme cases of national security, Veritaserum is allowed.”
Angelina had just opened her mouth to point out this wasn’t quite a case of national security, when, to her surprise, Emma stood up to Severus.
“Well, as much as I want to get back at those Gryffindors, we can’t do anything a bit illegal. Pettigrew, the filthy little squib, will rat us out. I, for one, am not getting expelled for the likes of him,” Emma finished, looking surprised by her own daring.
“Alright,” Severus conceded grudgingly.
“What about a boggart?” Angelina proposed.
Emma and Severus frowned.
“What do you mean?”
“What if we use a boggart to scare them? We could put it somewhere that they’ll come across it and then they’ll scream and run away crying. Or at least Pettigrew will; Potter and Black are less likely to cry. In any case, everyone will see.”
“We’d need three, otherwise the boggart won’t know what to change into,” Severus interjected.
“Why don’t we hide them in their Potions cauldrons?” Emma suggested.
“All right, but first we need to find three boggarts,” Angelina stated, already heading to the library to research the best ways to capture boggarts.