Slythendor

Having slept in the spare four-poster bed of the third year girls dorm, which was right in the corner, and, as her things had been magically brought up there prior to her arriving, changed into her uniform; Vanessa was sitting, rather reluctantly at the Gryffindor table. Opposite her was Mikey and on her left was Hermione, her right, Bob. Mikey’s right was filled by Frank and his left, Gerard. Ray was next to Frank and Harry and Ron were next to Hermione.

Claire, it seemed still had work to do, or was sleeping for as long as possible. Gen was still in the hospital wing.

Halfway through a solitary piece of raspberry jam-covered toast (she never did eat much breakfast), her pitch black barn owl (whom she had had for a fortnight and not decided on a name for him) flew down at top speed and landed gracefully on her plate. He had a letter attached to his leg. Ripping it off, she asked Mikey, “Out of these names, which do you think would suit my owl? Arsenic, Cyanide or Dark Wanderer?” The name Dark Wonderer made Mikey choke on his pumpkin juice and as his brother slapped his back, he answered, “Cyanide sounds good.” Vanessa smiled and said,
“Cyanide it is then.” And began murmuring, “ And all the cyanide you drank….”

Ripping the letter she was holding open, she gasped and read it excitedly. It said,

"Dear Vanessa,
How are you? I’m great, and I have some exciting news to tell you. In 2 months time, I will be moving back to England!! Not just England, but London! Not just London, but north London!” “Get to the point.” Vanessa murmured. "Not just north London, but THE SAME FUCKING HOUSE I USED TO LIVE IN NEXT TO YOU!!!!!!! SQUEE!!! *Dances* I know you’re off at that boarding school, but when you come back you’ll have a pleasant surprise…ME!
Katie
OXOXO
FUCK SINCERELY.

“Who’s that from?” Frank asked.

“My best muggle friend, Katie Hayes. She moved from Chicago to here, then NY and in two months time she’ll be living back in the same old house that she used to, as my next door neighbour! That’s basically what the letter says.” Vanessa replied.

“Ooh.” Hermione said approvingly.

“This is great!!!” Vanessa said. She was really joyous.

– 888 –

I was waiting for my turn in Defence Against the Dark Arts (DADA). It was a practical lesson, and we were studying Boggarts. Gerard, who was in front of me stepped up to face it; the Boggart turned into a Marilyn Manson look-alike who was topless and had nipple rings. He was holding a huge syringe, with a big needle. Gerard gulped and said clearly in that N.J. accent I had grown to love, “Riddikulus!” and the Boggart turned into a pot of coffee. I smiled, and high-fived him as he walked passed me. He smiled back and – was that a blush I saw? Probably not, anyway, let’s focus on this Boggart.

I walked up to the coffee which instantly turned into a pile of mutilated, gory corpses. I recognised them as those of Ray, Bob, Mikey, Frank and on the top, Gerard. His eyes were staring at me. Floating above them was a newspaper, The Daily Mail, and the headline was, ‘MY CHEMICAL ROMANCE MURDERED BY JEALOUS VANESSA HERBACEUM’. My breath got caught in my throat. I know it was a Boggart, but still. Seeing the dead bodies of my friends and a newspaper saying I had killed my heroes was….

I took a deep breath, and aiming my wand at Gerard’s head, I said calmly, “Riddikulus!” and the corpses turned to a dancing bag of Skittles!

Smiling and walking to the back of the line, I high-fived Frank, Bob, Mikey, Hermione, Ron, Harry, Seamus, Ray and Dean. As it I came towards Draco I hastened my pace and bowed my head. I heard him hiss “Meet me in the common room after lunch. I need to talk to you.” as I went past, and I replied with, “Okay.” and joined Gerard at the back of the line.

I’d grown taller, but unfortunately so had he, so my head was still chest-level to him. I swear; if I was hugging him he’d be able to rest his chin on my head!

“We need to talk.” Draco stated, pulling me down next to him on one of the green leather sofas. It was during lunch break, and I was nervous.

“Indeed we do.” I replied sincerely.

“About last night.” He continued.

“What happened last night?” I inquired bravely.

“I like you, so I showed it. You took it the wrong way; I decided not to exacerbate the problem. Simple.” He stated confidently.

“Okay. Um… well… if we agree that it won’t happen again, I guess everything will be okay.” I sighed nervously.

“Alright then, with that sorted, good day to you.”