Deception

March came and went, like most months did.

Most students were busy spending their time studying for exams. Amara was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the load of work piled on her. She couldn’t wait until O.W.L.S were over and done with.

The only remotely good thing going on was D.A. meetings. Though, Amara found she was struggling with a few things in that area as well. But she was improving, and as much as she didn’t want to acknowledge it, she had Potter to thank. He really wasn’t a bad teacher.

Amara stood off to the side during a D.A. meeting one April evening. She tugged at her short hair, wondering how Vivian could stand it. She felt so vulnerable.

Gabby stood nearby, keeping her eye on Amara just in case the older girl did something unordinary. Like start a riot or something. Because apparently that is what Slytherin’s do, according to Gabby.

Today they had been learning how to conjure Patronuses. Most of the students were struggling, but Amara was finding it downright impossible.

“This is great!” Amara could hear Fran squeal happily as she smiled at what looked like a peacock. Amara raised a brow as her friend jumped up and down in excitement.

So far only Fran and Nicole were the ones to conjure a Patronus out of their small group. Nicole’s was a lovely crane and Fran’s was a peacock.

Amara was unsure who else in the D.A. group had conjured theirs. Though, she noted that Longbottom was having just as much trouble as she was. Granger seemed to figure it out rather quickly, but that was not much of a surprise.

“You’ve got to think of something happy,” Amara heard Potter tell Neville.

Gabby caught Amara’s eye and gave her a smug look. Amara furrowed her brow and looked away quickly.

Think happy thoughts? How in the world was Amara going to be able to do that? All her happy thoughts were clouded by dark, depressing ones.

“Having trouble, Vivi?” Gabby asked with that smug look still on her face.

“Looks like you are too.” Amara snapped back, wanting to fling her wand at Gabby. The curly haired girl was starting to get on her last nerve.

“At least mine is starting to form. Nothing is coming out of your wand.” Gabby replied, a smirk on her lips.

Amara scowled. It was true, though. Silver smoke came from the tip of Gabby’s wand and was beginning to form into some type of animal.

Nothing came from Amara’s wand. She wondered briefly if perhaps it was broken.

“I would have thought this would be easy for you,” Fran said to Amara, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. “You’re always such a happy person, Vivian.”

Gabby tried to hide her laugh with a cough.

“I’m just having an off day.” Amara stated with a large frown on her face.

“Keep telling yourself that.” Gabby muttered before focusing back on her Patronus. “Expecto Patronum!”

Amara watched with irritation as Gabby’s Patronus finally took form.

“Is that a skunk?” Fran asked, scrunching up her nose.

Amara and Nicole began to giggle as Gabby glared at the pair of them. Obviously not happy with having a skunk or for the fact that they were laughing at her.

“Let’s see yours.” Gabby snapped, crossing her arms and pointedly looking at Amara. “I’m very curious to see what it is.”

Amara looked away, wishing her hair was longer so that she could cover her red cheeks. She wasn’t sure if she was embarrassed or angry, or maybe a mixture of both, but she really wanted to hide and for Fran’s, Nicole’s, and Gabby’s gaze.

“Remember think happy thoughts.” Fran said encouragingly, a large smile on her face.

Amara closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. She pictured a green, grassy field, a warm spring wind tickling Amara’s cheeks as she and Mia sat in a large tree, staring down at their father and mother. The twins giggling as their mother shook her head and told the two to come down. Their father laughed, calling them stubborn as he held out his hands for one of them to jump into.

Before the memory could slip into something much darker, Amara held out her wand. “Expecto Patronum.”

To Amara’s surprise the silver vapor formed into a badger before quickly vanishing.

“How adorable is that!” Fran cried and clapped her hands in excitement. “You’re in Hufflepuff and your Patronus is a badger!”

Amara bit her bottom lip and nodded her head.

“What was your happy thought?” Nicole asked, tucking a strand of her blond hair behind her ear.

“Oh, you know…when I received my Hogwarts letter?” Amara shrugged. She wasn’t about to share her memory. The last happy memory she had of her family. That night had been the night that everything changed.

“I wish Jane was here.” Fran said to Nicole and Gabby. “I want to know what her Patronus is.”

Amara caught Gabby’s eye, but instead of finding anger or annoyance, she found sadness.

“Sadly, we’ll probably never know.” Gabby muttered before looking away from Amara.

The room seemed to fall silent. Everyone was staring at Potter and a house elf.

“WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?” Harry yelled loudly at them. “RUN!”

Suddenly kids began running for the door at once, almost running over Amara and her friends in the process. Amara looked around frantically before she felt Gabby’s hand wrap around her wrist and pull her along with the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Amara asked feeling slightly frightened.

“It’s Umbridge!” Someone among the crowd cried out.

Gabby kept her grip on Amara as the two ran among the crowd and into the corridors. No one really knew where they should go. They wouldn’t be quick enough to reach their dorms, but a few tried anyways.

“Let’s go to the library.” Gabby said and tugged Amara in the other direction. “It’s nearby and we can act like we were in there the whole time.”

“Where are Fran and Nicole?” Amara asked frantically looking among the crowd in search of their friends.

“I don’t know.” Gabby answered, sounding worried. “Right now we have to worry about ourselves. I’m sure they’re both fine.”

The crowd of students had thinned and Amara and Gabby were running by themselves towards the library when she felt something wrap around her ankles like a rope. She fell forward, bringing Gabby down with her.

She heard someone behind her laugh gleefully.

Amara recognized that laugh and glanced up as Malfoy walked up to the two helpless girls.

“Thought you could get away, did you?” Malfoy asked, raising a brow and crossing his arms.

Amara glanced at Gabby with a horrified look on her face. Gabby seemed frightened and unsure if she should attack Malfoy with a jinx or not.

“We weren’t do anything wrong.” Amara said coolly. She glared at Malfoy, willing for him to go away.

“Really,” he scoffed with a roll of his gray-blue eyes, “That’s why you were running then?”

Amara felt a tap on her shoulder, but she couldn’t bother to turn and look at Gabby. She didn’t want to take her eyes off of Malfoy for even a second.

“Jane,” Gabby whispered in Amara’s ear. “You’re changing back. Your hair is starting to change.”

Amara really began to panic then. She leapt up from where she sat. “Let us go, Malfoy.”

“I have another idea,” Draco spat, “you’re both coming with me.”

Amara closed her eyes, took in a deep breath before she leapt towards Draco, knocking him to the ground.

He yelped out in surprise and tried to push her off him.

Amara rolled off of Draco and snatched his wand and slowly stepped backwards. “I will snap your wand if you even think about coming towards us.”

Draco pushed himself off the ground. “Give it back, you filthy Mudblood.”

Amara was only confused for a second before she realized that Vivian must be Muggle-born. “It’s better than what you are, Malfoy. I’d hate to be a coward like you.”

The blond boy’s face turned bright red with anger, his hands clenched into fists. But he didn’t say anything, just glared at Amara and Gabby.

“We will leave your wand for you in the library as long as you don’t tell anyone about this.” Amara warned. She could feel her clothes growing tighter and knew then that she had very little time left. “If you do tell someone about this, then we’ll both make sure to break this wand of yours and tell everyone how a girl was able to take you down. It’s your choice, Malfoy.”

Draco said nothing, his jaw tightly clenched, until he finally hung his head in shame. Amara and Gabby took this as his answer and made a mad sprint towards the library.

The two made it to the library, breathless and pink faced from exhaustion.

“That was close.” Gabby said between breaths. A smile began to stretch across her lips. “When you jumped on Malfoy, I wanted to laugh so hard.”

Amara smirked and shrugged. “It was nothing.”

“I’m not going to lie,” Gabby sighed, her breathing starting to return to normal. “For a minute there I wasn’t sure if you were going to turn on me. I always thought that you joined D.A. because you were part of the Inquisitorial Squad and were spying on us.”

Amara shook her head walking towards one of the tables and placing Malfoy’s wand on top of it. “It looks like you were wrong.”

“Looks like it,” Gabby muttered as Amara walked back towards her. “I’m sorry, Jane. It’s just you started to date Malfoy and then I saw you attack Vivian. You scared me.”

Amara shrugged and tugged at her school skirt. It was shorter now that she was back to her normal self. Her clothes were tight and Amara was feeling very self-conscious. “It’s true, I’m not who you think I am. But when I said my plan isn’t to hurt you, Fran, or Nicole, I meant it.”

Gabby nodded her head before looking at Amara pityingly. “Looks like you won’t be joining us for D.A. meetings anymore.”

“Why?” Amara asked.

“Because of your Patronus,” Gabby sighed, “if you ever want to use it as yourself, then you can’t keep reminding people that it’s Vivian’s. Nobody will remember what your Patronus was today as long as you stop. What is it that they say? Quit while you’re ahead.”

Amara frowned and ran her fingers through her long hair. “I suppose you’re right.”

“I am,” Gabby said with a nod of her head. But then she gave Amara a serious look. “Please just stop coming, Jane. I helped you out today in hopes that I can get through to you. You need to stop knocking Vivian out and stealing her identity. You’re going to really mess her up.”

Amara held in her laugh and nodded her head. “Fine, I have another idea anyways.”

Gabby’s brows rose in question. “I’m not sure I like the sounds of that.”

Amara only smirked, not bothering to answer Gabby’s question.