‘Hold still!’ said Percy, as Gordon found himself sat cross-legged on his bed, Percy occasionally prodding his scalp with his wand. ‘I’ve been looking through the theory of this, and it will be a lot easier if you don’t move so much.’
When Luke and Gordon had reluctantly gone to ask Percy for help the next morning, he had been only too happy to oblige. Gordon and Luke had agreed that it was probably best not to let Percy know exactly why they needed it doing, and had managed to convince him it was research for the Transfiguration project. For all it had been his idea, Luke had left most of the asking to Gordon, and had largely confined himself to a disgusted-looking silence.
‘Wouldn’t it be easier just to dye it?’ sighed Gordon, who rather felt he had to spend enough time with Percy as it was.
‘Are you planning on dyeing it at the end of every class?’ said Luke shortly, staring fixedly at the wall as if the very act offended his being. ‘Trust me. This is by far your best bet.’
Gordon let out another sigh. If he was going to hope to use this trick to keep out of sight of Filch, then Luke was right. If the teachers saw him doing it, then Filch was bound to find out.
‘Okay,’ said Percy. ‘Now according to Emeric Switch “’
‘For God’s sake, just do it!’ snapped Luke.
Percy looked rather affronted at this, but did not respond. Instead he placed one hand on Gordon’s shoulder, and waved his wand.
‘Mallia Follicate.’
Gordon was aware of a white light spreading from the end of Percy’s wand, and felt a rather chilly sensation run through his hair. He nervously brought his hand up to his scalp, and was pleased to feel he still had a head of hair. Percy seemed to be quite pleased with himself, while Luke was now staring at him, mouth wide open.
‘Well?’ said Gordon. ‘Did it work?’
‘I would say so,’ said Percy, with a smile, ‘although since you’ll doubtless find some reason to criticise it, I suggest you have a look for yourself.’
Gordon shot Luke a look, but he was still wearing an expression of disbelief. Gordon walked over to the mirror, feeling rather ill at ease, and stared into it.
Gordon nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw his reflection. His face was quite the same as ever, but the messy ginger hair that covered his brow was gone. Instead, he found himself looking at a small boy with straight black hair.
‘I thought black might be the most simple colour to begin with,’ said Percy, putting his wand away. ‘I could make an attempt at some other colours if you’d like, but the incantations are rather more difficult for those. It’s easier to transfigure a shade than a colour, though with a little bit of reading I’m sure I could work it out.’
Gordon didn’t know what to say. Filch was never going to recognise him like this. In fact, he didn’t really recognise himself.
‘Percy, that’s absolutely brilliant.’
Percy’s ears went pink.
*
Gordon had wanted to show everyone in the Gryffindor common room his new hair. Somehow it felt like he was a whole different person with it. Unfortunately, Luke had decided that this was a bad idea, since he felt it was best to keep it as secret as possible. Gordon disagreed with this, since he felt that his fellow Gryffindors were hardly likely to tell Filch, but Luke wouldn’t budge. In the end they spent most of the day down there doing homework, with Gordon waiting anxiously till Monday morning. On the plus side of things, there had been no sign of Professor McGonagall, so at least it didn’t look like he was going to be expelled.
By the time Monday did arrive, Gordon was feeling extremely grateful. Not only would he be able to try out his new hairstyle at breakfast, but it also meant he could get away from Percy, who had insisted on helping him with his homework. Gordon was also feeling a little sick of Luke by that time, too.
‘Will you stop smiling at everyone you see?’ snapped Luke, as they passed some Hufflepuffs on the way to breakfast. ‘You’re meant to be keeping a low profile! That’s the whole point of you having this done!’
Gordon stopped smiling, though more from irritation than his friend’s instruction.
‘Does that mean I can’t smile? Since when has a disguise meant you had to be miserable?’
‘I’m not asking you to be miserable, I’m just saying be careful,’ sighed Luke. ‘If Filch hears people talking about this, then the game is up.’
Gordon found himself rubbing his shoulder again, aware that the marks from Friday were still there.
‘Right,’ said Luke as they reached the Entrance Hall. ‘Filch is bound to be at the staff table, so stay behind me when we go in, and whatever you do don’t make eye contact.’
Gordon nodded, and followed Luke in. Keeping his head down, they took a seat near to the doors, hoping Filch wouldn’t see them. Gordon kept his head down, hoping Filch wouldn’t see him.
‘He’s not there,’ said Luke, ignoring his own advice and staring straight up at the staff table, much to Gordon’s irritation.
‘Where is he then?’ whispered Gordon, who having been caught by Professor Snape at the breakfast table last year, felt he wasn’t out of the woods yet. Luke had another look around.
‘He doesn’t seem to be here at all,’ he said eventually. ‘Giz, mate, just how hard did you kick him?’
‘I don’t know. I didn’t stop to turn around, you don’t think…’ began Gordon, only to see Luke chuckling to himself.
‘I wouldn’t worry about it,’ he said with a grin.
*
Gordon maintained his disguise until he got to History of Magic, and then had Percy apply it again on the way to Potions. He was sure to get Percy to wipe it off before he went in, though, since he was sure that if any teacher as going to give him detention for Transfiguring his hair, it was Snape.
Potions was quite as dreadful as ever. Professor Snape spent the first half hour explaining the various shortcomings of the Gryffindors’ homework to the class, while typically saying nothing of the Slytherins’ work. Thankfully, this year they had grown a little more resilient to Snape’s attitude towards them, and not even Kyle or Alana seemed particularly fazed these days.
The lesson proved fairly uneventful, in a miserable sort of way. Gordon managed to refrain from answering back to Snape’s criticisms, Kyle melted another cauldron, and Percy was frantically pacing around his cauldron trying to understand what had gone wrong. In fact, the only thing of any interest came as they were packing up their equipment.
‘I want two feet of parchment from all of you by this time next week on where you have gone wrong today!’ snapped Snape. ‘Your other teachers may be prepared to accept sub-standard work, but I am not!’
In any other lesson the class might have groaned, but two feet of parchment was routine for Snape’s classes, and no one ever did it all anyway. As the class filed out, however, Luke walked straight up to Snape, who was now marking a piece of work at his desk, his face an inch from the paper.
‘Sir. There wasn’t anything incorrect with my elevating elixir, but I don’t want to fall behind, so can is there any other homework I can do?’
Gordon felt his jaw drop. It was enough to complete the homework Snape set, but to ask for more seemed like suicide. Snape looked up slowly from his work.
‘Are you suggesting your elixir was perfect Mr Oakshot?’ he said, fixing Luke with a cold unblinking stare. Gordon feared the worst.
‘Well,’ said Luke, evidently mulling it over and in Gordon’s view only making matters worse. ‘Yes, I believe it was.’
Snape did not respond, but continued to stare coldly at Luke. Gordon could only presume his mind was plotting as severe a detention as possible.
‘I see,’ said Snape icily, ‘and you would prefer something a little more challenging?’
Gordon felt he would have dropped dead with fright if Snape had been staring at him like that, but Luke simply nodded. Snape’s lip seemed to curl, but he did not break his stare. Gordon jumped when he addressed him.
‘Mr Owen, if you have packed your things away I see no reason for you to further contaminate my classroom with your presence, you are dismissed.’
Gordon mumbled a ‘sorry’ and made for the door. On his way out he shot Luke one last look, but Luke was still staring at Snape, so he shut the door behind him.
As he made his way to the Great Hall for lunch, Gordon couldn’t help wondering if Luke was going to ever get out of detention. Then again, Snape hadn’t docked him points for asking, which might have been a good sign.
He had been walking for a few minutes before it dawned on him that Percy had not used the spell on his hair. Most of the students would be in the Great Hall by now, and there were few people about in the corridors. Gordon suddenly felt rather vulnerable. Did he wait for Luke, or should he just run to the Great Hall?
Then, to his utter horror, he heard footsteps coming down a corridor to his left. Without thinking he broke into a run, determined to get to the Great Hall before Filch could catch him.
Then a thought occurred to him. What if it wasn’t Filch behind him? If Filch was having lunch he’d run straight into him, and he might be prowling the corridors ahead. Feeling his heart pump in his chest, he stopped and tried to listen for any footsteps, but couldn’t hear any over his own breathing. The library was only two corridors away, and he could at least hide from Filch amongst the shelves. Listening out at every corner along the way, he finally reached the library doors and popped his head inside.
There was no sign of Filch, which delighted Gordon, but there didn’t seem to be anyone he knew either. Several Ravenclaw girls were sat at a table by the door, and there were a few people trailing about the shelves, but no one Gordon knew. He sat down at the table where he had worked with Percy on Friday, and began examining the Herbology books again. Right now he really wished Luke, Kyle or Oliver were around, even Percy, but they were bound to be at lunch. Gordon pulled out one of the books on water plants and began reading it, hoping that if Filch did come in he could at least bury his head in it.
‘Hi, Gordon,’ said a soft voice behind him, causing him to jump with surprise and completely drop the book he was holding, much to Madam Pince’s disapproval. He turned round in shock to see Alana stood in front of him, her arms full of books.
‘Er… sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. Are you here for the Transfiguration essay?’
‘What?’ said Gordon, picking up his book and feeling relieved that at least it wasn’t Filch. ‘Oh, err…no. Percy’s already had me working on that all weekend, I’m just reading, um…’
Gordon, who had picked up the book at random, turned it to the front cover.
‘…Water Plants of the Highland Locks,’ he finished rather lamely.
‘Oh! Are we studying them in Herbology this year?’ said Alana brightly. ‘I like Herbology, my grandfather used to show me all the different magical herbs when I was little.’
Gordon wasn’t exactly sure how to respond to that statement, so he tried to change tack.
‘So, what are you doing here?’ he said, one eye still looking at the door in case Filch came in.
‘Well, I thought I’d start our Transfiguration essay,’ she said, indicating to the books in her arms. ‘Kyle said he’d be here in a second, I think he’s gone to Professor McGonagall to try and repair his cauldron.’
‘Ah,’ said Gordon, now with both eyes on the door.
‘What are you doing?’ said Alana.
‘What?’
‘Gordon you’ve been staring at the door since I came over here,’ she said simply. ‘Is something wrong?’
Gordon felt rather uneasy. Luke had said that the less people who knew about this the better, and he didn’t really know Alana all that well. Still, he reasoned, if he didn’t tell her he was likely to still be stood here if Filch did walk in.
‘Gordon?’
‘I’m…I’m kind of in trouble with Filch,’ said Gordon, feeling that half the truth would be enough to be going on with. ‘I really can’t afford to get caught by him, or else I’m… well, I’m in trouble.’
‘Oh!’ said Alana. ‘Yeah, I’ve never liked him, he’s shouted at me and Veronica loads of times. Threatened us with detention for walking down a corridor last week.’
Gordon’s eyes snapped from the doorway back to Alana.
‘Which corridor?’
‘What?’ said Alana, looking rather taken aback by the question.
‘Which corridor was it?’ said Gordon desperately. Alana opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted before she could speak.
‘Ah! You’re already here, Giz!’ said Luke brightly as he walked in, causing Alana to drop the books she was carrying. ‘Hi, Alana! You alright?’
Alana, whose face had already gone scarlet as she picked up her books, nodded.
‘Oh…yeah, I’m…I’m fine. Listen I’ll see you both later,’ she said, before promptly running out of the library.
‘Well, I’ve got some fairly good news,’ said Luke, smiling. ‘Snape didn’t “’
‘What the hell did you do that for?’ snapped Gordon. ‘She was just telling me about that corridor and Filch, and you scared her off!’
‘What? What did I do?’ said Luke, appearing momentarily shocked before changing to a much more severe expression. ‘Wait. You’ve not been telling people about Filch “’
‘It’s my business to tell who I like!’ said Gordon sharply, feeling incredibly irritated that he had been cheated out of that piece of information. ‘And she knew something! She said that Filch had shouted at her for walking down a certain corridor! It’s bound to be the same one!’
‘Boys!’ snapped Madam Pince from her desk. ‘If you wish to have a conversation you can take it elsewhere! I won’t have chatter in my library!’
Gordon slammed the book down on a nearby table and stormed out, wondering if he would be able to question Alana in the common room later. He had not got far, when Luke caught up with him.
‘Hey! Look, I’m sorry!’ said Luke. ‘I didn’t mean to chase her away. What did she say anyway?’
Gordon shot his friend another sharp look, but then sighed and slowed down. Maybe he was being a little unfair on Luke.
‘All right, I know it’s not your fault she’s a bag of bloody nerves. Apparently her and Veronica had been walking down a corridor, and Filch had threatened them with detention just for being there. She didn’t say which, but what other corridor is he likely to have been so angry about?’
Luke didn’t respond immediately, and seemed to think about this for a second.
‘Well…I don’t think it’s the same one, to be honest,’ he said eventually.
‘Oh, come on!’ blurted out Gordon, amazed that his friend couldn’t make the connection. ‘You weren’t there when he caught me!’
‘I know, but…well. He’s not been in the best of moods anyway, this year.’
Gordon couldn’t believe it.
‘Have you forgotten about my shoulder?’ he said rather coldly.
‘No,’ said Luke calmly, ‘but that’s another thing. Filch threatens everyone with detention, but he doesn’t seem to be making a habit of grabbing hold of people.’
‘Well, he probably wouldn’t do that to a girl…’ said Gordon, though he was beginning to see his friend’s point.
‘And anyway, Alana? In that corridor? I can’t imagine she’d have been there for a second. She gets heart failure when someone speaks to her, let alone places like that. Can you honestly picture her there?’
Gordon was going to respond, but in truth the answer was no. He was still pretty sure that what Alana had told him was no co-incidence, yet Luke didn’t seem interested, so he decided to give up.
‘How many detentions did Snape give you?’ he said eventually.
‘Oh! Well, that’s the thing!’ said Luke, his expression lightening. ‘I think I might be making progress on getting that book!’
‘So basically, he said no, then?’
‘I didn’t ask him,’ said Luke simply. ‘It’s going to take more work than that. He wants me to start reading another book, I was going to get it from the library when I saw you.’
‘And your extra homework?’ asked Gordon.
‘He said he wanted four feet of parchment on it,’ sighed Luke, ‘but if I do that, I’m sure I can convince him!’
For the first time that day, Gordon roared with laughter.
*
When Gordon arrived at the Great Hall for lunch, having first sent Luke in to confirm Filch was not there, they sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Oliver and Percy. Percy was eating his lunch with a copy of the Daily Prophet, the wizarding newspaper, laid open in front of him. Beside him Oliver was looking rather nervous.
‘Alright, guys,’ said Luke as they walked over. Percy responded with his normal ‘Hello!’ and Oliver gave a rather irritable looking nod, which Gordon supposed came from spending your lunch hour alone with Percy. Gordon sat down facing Oliver, leaving Luke to sit down next to Percy, and began serving himself a bowl of tomato soup.
‘Dear me,’ said Percy, as he took a sip of his coffee, ‘it would seem Millicent Bagnold is looking at her last year in power.’
Percy’s subscription to the Daily Prophet was, Gordon suspected, purely so he could utter more useless but intelligent-sounding comments at lunchtimes. Occasionally, Oliver would take it off him to look at the Quidditch league tables, but that was about the extent of the useful information to be gained from it.
‘I have a sneaking suspicion I’m going to regret asking this,’ began Luke, getting himself a bowl of minestrone, ‘but what are you going on about?’
Percy looked up from his copy of the Daily Prophet.
‘Millicent Bagnold,’ replied Percy simply. ‘I suppose you are unfamiliar with our current Minister for Magic?’
‘There a Ministry for Magic?’ asked Luke, for whom it had obviously never really occurred to that wizards might have a place in government.
‘You don’t know about the Ministry?’ said Percy, looking somewhat disappointed. ‘Don’t you read the paper?’
Gordon shook his head with Luke. He didn’t really read the Muggle newspapers, so he hadn’t seen the need to bother with the Wizarding ones. Percy sighed.
‘Well, I think you should consider reading it a little more often if you’re going to find things like that out,’ sighed Percy. ‘Still, I think I can give you a brief summary of what’s going on. You really need to read these articles for yourselves though.’
‘Get on with it, Perce,’ said Luke rather coldly.
‘I should also point out that when it comes to the Ministry, I have quite a bit of inside information,’ said Percy, tapping the side of his nose ridiculously. ‘You know my father works in the Ministry, as it happens, so I hear a great deal more about it than the Daily Prophet prints.’
Percy followed this with a chuckle. Gordon felt he had obviously missed the joke.
‘Fascinating,’ said Luke. ‘Although I don’t suppose I could tempt you to get to the point. Ideally, while we’re still young.’
Percy looked a little affronted at this, but carried on.
‘The Wizarding elections are in May, and Father says he’ll be surprised if Bagnold manages to stay on another term. She used to command quite a lot of support a few years back, but recently things haven’t been going so well for her. She’s lost the support of the Prophet for one thing, and lots of people have been displeased with the things she’s done to St Mungos, closing wards and firing people left and right.’
‘Oh,’ said Gordon, who felt obliged to offer something to the conversation. ‘So, erm, what happens then?’
‘If she were to lose the election?’ said Percy, who was showing a disappointing amount of vigour for the subject.
‘Yeah,’ said Gordon, stirring his soup and feeling that another long answer was on its way.
‘I suppose it depends on who gets in after her,’ said Percy thoughtfully. ‘The candidates put their names down in February, but typically the Prophet’s already been speculating on who will get in. It’s giving most of its support to Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magical Transport, though he used to work for the Prophet, so that’s hardly a surprise. Dumbledore himself has got more than a few mentions, but father says that he’d rather stay here. Then you still have Crouch as an outsider…’
‘Thank you, Percy,’ said Luke sarcastically. ‘You have been far too informative as usual, and I remind myself not to ask questions again.’
Gordon noticed Percy’s ears going rather red, and decided it might be best to change the topic of conversation.
‘Are you all right, Oliver?’ he said, as brightly as he could. ‘How’s your Transfiguration homework coming along?’
Oliver moaned and put his head in his hands, narrowly avoiding putting his elbow in Luke’s soup.
‘We haven’t started it,’ he sighed from behind his hands. ‘I’ve not even spoken to Eiko about meeting up about it yet.’
‘I wouldn’t worry about it, mate,’ said Luke, swiftly moving his soup. ‘I’ve not spoken to Veronica either, it’s still early days.’
Gordon, having been working at the project solidly for several days now, felt that such an attitude was rather unjust.
‘You’ll need to start work on that soon,’ said Percy, matter-of-factly. ‘We’ve already been putting a couple of hours a day in, haven’t we Gordon?’
Gordon nodded glumly, which at least seemed to cheer Oliver up.
‘Eiko and Veronica should be here for lunch soon anyway,’ said Luke. ‘We could ask them if they want to do some work tonight for it when they come in.’
‘Oh, I can’t start it tonight,’ said Oliver. ‘It’s our first Quidditch practice this evening, and I “’
Gordon dropped his spoon.
‘Quidditch practice?’
‘Yeah,’ said Oliver, looking rather concerned at Gordon’s apparent shock. ‘Charlie told us our first one is this Wednesday, remember? We have the Ravenclaw game in a few weeks time.’
Gordon sat back. With Filch and all the time he and Percy were spending on the Transfiguration project, he had completely forgotten about Quidditch. When Charlie had mentioned the date of the first practice, it had seemed a long way away.
‘I forgot,’ said Gordon apologetically. ‘We’ve been really busy, and…well.’
‘Well, at least you know now,’ said Oliver. ‘What about you two? Are you coming down to watch?’
For what must have been the first time since the pair of them had arrived at Hogwarts, Percy and Luke exchanged an embarrassed look. Gordon would have been amused, had he not wanted Luke to come and see him.
‘Well,’ said Percy, going back to his paper. ‘I rather hoped to do some reading for Charms tomorrow, but I suppose it can wait. I might not stay to the end, though.’
Oliver nodded, and looked over to Luke, who looked mortified.
‘I, erm, I can’t make it,’ he said nervously, ‘I’m kind of busy.’
‘Busy?’ blurted out Gordon. ‘Come on, mate! This is our first practice, surely you can make it to this one!’
Luke looked increasingly uneasy at this, and shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
‘I’m sorry. I just…I’ve got to see Professor McGonagall about something.’
‘About what?’ said Percy, who seemed to have regained interest in the conversation now a teacher’s name had been mentioned.
Luke mumbled something about the word “private”, that didn’t leave Gordon entirely convinced. After all, what would he be talking to McGonagall about that he wouldn’t say to him?
Gordon Owen and the Eastern Warrior - Book Two of the Evil Kneazle Series by AurorKeefy
Chapter Notes: Things are going to slow down with my uploading over the next few weeks, after a cyclone of chapters in the last few. Thanks again to the moderators for their help with that, and I shall try not to slow down too much... ; )
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