April Fools {OPEN TO GRYFFINDORS!}

[aliice]

Georgina was bored once again, and the only thing that she wanted to do right now was cause trouble. Serious trouble. Tomorrow was the first day of April and already she’d heard the whispers of students and their april fools day plans. April fools... Well, she could hardly pass up that opportunity, could she?

Standing in the entrance hall, Georgie watched the students passing by and wondered who would be the best... victim. A ton of people passed her by but no one seemed quite right. Too boring... too studious... too good... too goody goody... too everything. No one was the right person...

She was. A slow smirk spread across the Slytherin’s face. Ah yes, that was one face Georgina wasn’t about to forget in a hurry. It was the metamorph Gryffindor. The one who’d landed herself in St. Mungo’s for being too much of a freak. Georgie laughed quietly to herself. Yes. She would do perfectly.

***

All Georgie needed was to work out what best to do as her April fool on the girl. It needed to be something good - something that would be remembered. Maybe even something that would make her already oh, so delicately frail sanity snap again. Now wouldn’t that be an achievement if Georgie could land the girl back in the hospital again?

A flash of red hair caught Georgie’s attention and a smug smile crossed her face. There was yet another face she’d come to recognize. Another Gryffindor too- this one a mudblood. She’d seen the way the girl caved to everything that Bella said for her to say or do, and she was no different around Stefan either. It was like the girl had no choice but to follow any instruction she was told. It was pretty pathetic, but Georgie wasn’t about to let a useful resource escape her. With a little bit of intimidation, Georgie was sure that she could find some use for her. Especially since she was a fellow Gryffindor.

She set herself off to work. This couldn’t fail...

[notalice]

How had this happened? Already Leander could feel tears beginning to slip down her face. First Bellatrix had used her to get what she wanted... and now Georgina too? A year ago Leander had been a nobody - someone who vanished into the shadows and never got caught up in anyone elses business. Now? Now it seemed that everywhere to went there was someone there who knew who she was, and that someone always seemed to end up a Slytherin.

The long trek up to the Gryffindor tower seemed to take her hours and every step took so much effort. How had she honestly come to be in this position? Georgina wanted her to spy on one of her fellow Gryffindors! She wanted her to snoop through her things and find something that the Slytherin could use against her. And what choice did Leander have? It wasn’t like she could just hide and not go back, because the next time she left the room the 7th year would be on to her. And Leander had already more than learnt her lesson about what happened when you messed with Slytherins. She could remember her experience with Bella all too clearly...

But now she had to sneak into the 5th year girls dorm and find something against Alice Hoggs? How was she supposed to do that? Leander didn’t know how to hurt people... she didn’t know what to pick that Georgina would even approve of. Oh, god...

Knocking on the door to the dorm, Leander heard no response from inside. Most people were down at dinner right now - where she would have been if Georgina hadn’t got to her first.

Pushing the door open, Leander slipped inside. Now what did she do?

It was easy to recognise which bed belonged to Alice Hoggs - there was a picture of her with some people, probably family, on her night stand. Maybe there’d be something in one of the drawers that Leander could take back to Georgina?

Opening the top draw, Leander ruffled though, coming across something hard buried underneath a box. A book? Pulling it out, Leander flipped it open to a random page. Not just a book, a diary. But could she do this? Could she take a diary of all things back to Georgina to use?

Leander kept a diary of her own and she wrote down everything in it. Literally everything. She couldn’t imagine what things would be like if someone got a hold of her diary and used what was in there against her. She’d wrote about the potions, about Stefan, about what Bella had done... So many things...

Stuffing the diary back in the drawer, Leander turned around quickly. She’d need to find something else to use. Something better than that-

A scratching noise caught her attention and it sounded like it was coming from underneath Alice’s bed. Leander dropped to her knees and peered underneath. Was that a cage? Of course! The ferret that the older girl had kept with her since she came back from St. Mungo’s a few month ago. Leander had seen her with the ferret down in the common room before.

How about that? If she took the ferret back to Georgina, then maybe she would just hide it and make Alice worry that way - make her worry that her pet had gone missing. Yes - that would work. It had to be better than stealing her diary, didn’t it?

Quickly, Leander opened the cage door and lifted out the wriggling creature. It fit easily into her bag and Leander secured the top of it so the ferret couldn’t get out. Now if she could just get it back to Georgina then she’d be free to forget this whole thing...

[aliice]

The girl had done quite well considering. First of all, she’d actually come back, which was always a good start. The girl really was easy to wrap around and control - even easier than Georgie had expected it to be. She’d seen how easily Bella had got the girl to do whatever it was she wanted her too, but she still hadn’t expected that she’d be the same towards Georgie so quickly. Then again, intimidation was practically Georgina’s middle name.

The Gryffindor had brought her an animal of all things, and at first, Georgie had been annoyed. What was she meant to do with an overgrown rat? She’d been expecting something like a diary or something that she could publicly humiliate the 5th year with. But then when she really thought about it, maybe a pet wasn’t such a bad choice after all.

From what she’d heard, Alice Hoggs had been carted off to St. Mungo’s for several weeks, and then then when she’d returned she’d been allowed a few ‘special privileges’ as some might call them - and apparently, a pet had been one of them. A pet that didn’t match school regulations that was.

So... if this giant rat was here to keep poor little Alice from losing her mind, then what would happen, if the poor little ferret appeared to be no more?

Georgina smirked and her eyes lit up with the possibilities that were in store. Who’d have thought this little, doe eyed Gryffindor would come up with something as good as this? No doubt she was expecting Georgie to do something perfectly innocent and sweet with it, but that really wasn’t the way that Georgina Parkinson worked.

“You’ll meet me here. Tonight. At midnight. And you won’t be a minute late, do you understand?” Georgie looked pointedly at the 4th year and she narrowed her eyes. There was a flicker of something close to fear there and it pleased Georgie to see it. This girl really was quite pathetic, wasn’t she?

Georgina waited until the Gryffindor had fled the room before she looked back down to the creature in her hands. She needed something good to do with it... Something... different. If one thing was for sure though, this precious pet wasn’t going to go missing for long. Hoggs would get it back and sooner than she might expect.

There were so many possibilities that Georgina could explore here and she felt that this needed something good... something that would really be remembered. She could just snap its neck but with just enough pressure that it didn't kill it, just disabled it irreparably, or practice a simple Crucio on it, but that was so... impersonal. No. She’d find something good to do to this thing, and she’d make sure it was something that would be remembered in many nightmares to come.

***
Georgina had taken the ferret with her to the room of requirements, and she’d changed to room into a library that she’d visited once - one that held more dark books and secrets that anywhere that she’d known before. There was one book in particular that she was looking for and she was determined to find it again.

Actually, that part had been the easy one, it was finding the page of the book she’d first read all those years ago that was the hard part, seeing as all the titles and the index weren’t in english. She knew she’d recognize it when she found it but... patience wasn’t particularly one of her virtues. She’d swore and grumbled a lot as she flicked through the huge volume she’d pulled out.

Eventually, she found the page she’d been looking for. It was old magic - blood magic. It was locked away in this library because it was one of the few places that still had a copy of the book. It had been deemed too dark and too dangerous to be sold or seen, and it had long since been taken off the shelves. For someone like Georgie who loved the dark arts so much, this book was like heaven. There were so many dark and wonderful things encripted in its pages, and while she wanted to try them all, there was just one in particular that she remembered now, and really wanted to test out.

This library though, wasn’t the place to be performing a ritual like this. It needed somewhere with space and nothing that could risk being destroyed. Yet, at the same time, Georgina didn’t feel comfortable with the idea of taking the book out of the library - this place was a sanctuary, a haven.

Well, a simple copying charm might do the trick, mightn’t it? That done, Georgina bookmarked the page for future reference and slid the book back on the shelf where she’d got it from, making sure it didn’t look as if it’d been touched. It had greatly surprised her that she’d even been able to access this library through the room of requirements, but she wasn’t about to complain.

For a second, Georgina had almost stuffed the papers into her bag before she remembered the rodent in there. Chances were she’d have no papers left if that thing got its claws into it. Now, to find somewhere to try this thing out...

There were a few simple ingredients that she would need for this, but they were all things she could get hold of by simply breaking into the potions supply cupboard. It was the time of day as well that no one would be around to see her sneaking in and out of places she wasn’t supposed to be. So, down to the dungeons she went.

There was an empty, unused dungeon down there too, one that she was sure was an old classroom or something, or at least an old place where they did lots of experiments and stuff. There was a large stone table in the center of the room and bare walls, with just a well made chamber hovering about that when you cast a light ball spell, it would sit just in the right place and the shape of the chamber made the light reflect several times brighter, but just over the table itself. It was perfect. And perfect for Georgina’s sadistic and somewhat satanic plans.

[notalice]

Leander had made her way back to where Georgie had said she would be with the ferret squirming and wriggling in her bag. She really hoped she’d made a good choice with choosing the ferret and that Georgina wouldn’t be disappointed in her choice. As she made her way down the stairs, part of her wondered whether maybe she should have picked up the diary too, just in case... Maybe keeping Alice’s pet hidden for a few days wouldn’t be enough for the Slytherin, even if it would no doubt mean a lot to Alice...

Stepping shakily into the classroom that the older girl had told her to meet her in, Leander wearily pulled the ferret from her bag. The disapproving look on Georgina’s face was impossible to miss. Leander said nothing though, just stood there, her arms shaking as she held the ferret, scared of what the 7th year might do to her. She knew just what some of the older students were capable of - memories of Bellatrix once again sprung to her mind.

Eventually though, Georgina seemed to change her mind and Leander was sure she could see the cogs turning in her mind as she thought through the possibilities. Suddenly, Leander was worried. Whatever happened though, she hoped that Georgina didn’t actually put the ferret through any harm. Leander had struggled enough trying to face Madam Pomfrey after Bella gave her the potions, knowing what she’d done. If the ferret was hurt in some way she didn’t know how she’d be able to face Alice, knowing she was she one who’d taken the ferret directly to Georgina. But that wouldn’t happen though, right? She’d just hide the ferret away or something...
As soon as Georgina said she could go Leander fled from the room. She should have known it wouldn’t end there but she hadn’t dared to say anything or question the older girl. Midnight... that would mean wandering around the school after hours. Quite a long time after curfew... If she was caught then... Then what?

Sinking against the wall, Leander wrapped her arms tightly around her knees and buried her face, letting the tears fall. What had she done?

[aliice]

Georgina set out the various items and ingredients that she’d gathered along one end of the table, and the dumped her bag heavily on the table. There was a rather shrill shriek from inside the bag and Georgie smirked. She unzipped it and lifted it to almost head height before she turned it upside down and let the contents clatter to the table, ferret included.

She didn’t have anything of importance in the bag, just a few quills, an ink bottle and some mascara, and a small leather bound book that had no real use for being there. They all clattered to the table alongside the hissing creature. The ink bottle smashed and ink splashed over the animal, though it was hardly visible seeing as it already had dark fur. But, where the ink hit the fur clagged together in a sticky clump, and there were traces of blue over the white fur around its face.

What was this thing anyway, she wondered briefly. Sure it was a ferret, but was it a boy or a girl? It wasn’t easy to tell, and she was getting a bit fed up of referring to it as ‘it’ all the time. She sneered down at it. “I think we need a new name for you, don’t you agree?”

Georgie reached out absently as she spoke and the hideous creature lunged for her fingers and chomped down hard. It was Georgie’s turn to hiss and she lashed out, the back of her hand connecting with the small rat and sending it skittering across the cold stone of the table. At the sight of it, her annoyance at being bitten quickly left her and she looked down to her finger. Blood dripped steadily to the table and Georgie smiled at the sight of it. She trailed her finger idly above the table and watched the blood merge with the ink that had splattered there earlier, and she let some drip onto the creature that scuttled over the table top. Again, its fur clumped together in a sticky mess and the white of its face was tinged red.

“I’ve thought of a name for you...” Georgina cocked her head to one side and watched the creature lazily. “Ambrosine Athanasia.” She laughed and picked up one on the fallen quills to poke at the ferret. “Do you know why little rat? Because it means immortal... eternal life. And that is...well... exactly what you won’t be by the time I’m finished with you.” Her laugh was edged with insanity. “Or at least that's what your little Metamorph-Gryffindork is going to be thinking, anyway.”

Georgie poked at it again with the quill and gave a low, cold laugh. "I think we'll call you... Ambronasia for short, how does that sound? Maybe just... Amnasia... because that sounds a lot like amnesia, and that's what you'll all soon be begging for, I'm certain of it." Blood was still dripping steadily from her finger where she'd been bitten, and she moved to allow more of that spilled blood to soak into the fur of the ferret, aiming for its white face and eyes, just to see it flinch away and hear it's small shrieks.

The old stone slab was already enchanted so that nothing on the table could fall off the edges, which meant that Amnasia had nowhere to escape to, and it meant Georgie didn't need to keep her eye on the hideous creature all the time, thus making it easier for her to prepare her night's activities.

The particular piece of magic that Georgie had in mind for tonight, was one that was particularly gruesome, and based strongly around Medieval methods of punishment. As Georgie wandered slowly around preparing herself and the room, she chattered mindlessly, rather than listening to the clicks and squeaks of the long rat in the silent and echoing dungeon.

"Do you know what the punishment used to be for high treason? It went by the initial HDQ... though whether they ever shortened it to that is questionable." Georgie straightened up the line of ingredients bottles she'd stolen from the supply cupboard and made sure all of the labels were visible. More than anything, she was just taking her time and enjoying this moment. She wanted it to be good and memorable for all involved.

Slipping the copied book pages from her pocket, Georgie slowly flattened out the creases in those too, not once looking back at the creature that scarpered around the table. "This little spell is a little... recreation, of sorts. How does that sound, Amnasia? You know, I think I might just call you 'A' for short. That's my style, you know?" Again, another cold chuckle of a laugh.

Humming, Georgie let her eyes skim over the words printed on the page before her. She'd read them before, but she just wanted a quick reminded before she started. With each line she read, the evil light in her eyes grew brighter and her anticipation grew stronger. "I think you're going to enjoy this, A... no. Wait. Sorry. I think I'm going to enjoy this. You, on the other hand, will be begging for mercy in your pathetic, squeaky way - all to my amusement of course."

The whole process was really quite simple when you got down to it, it just took time, precision, and patience - all of which Georgie had at this particular moment in time. Oh, and it also required a strong stomach, so squeamishness not allowed.

Reaching to the ingredients, Georgie picked out a tall, thin bottle and popped the top off it. There was a strong smell that wafted from it, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant. To most, it would simply look like incense sticks, and that was basically how they were used, too. A simple sticking charm ensured they stay upright just where Georgie placed them. She circled the table slowly, placing them at regular points around the edge of the table, angled ever so slightly inwards. "See how nice I'm being to you, A? Making things so much easier for you." Once in place, Georgie sparked a small flame at the end of her wand, and placed it to the tip of each stick, making another slow circle around the table to light them all. The scent of Valerian wafted strongly around the room in an instant.

"Valerian... used in Draught of Living Death... yet also Draught of Peace... and found in a Forgetfulness potion... So many uses for one little thing. But see? I'm so nice to you." The flame still lit the end of her wand, and, with a smirk, she moved it closed and closer towards the creature on the table. The thing seemed torn between flinching its way backwards out of the way, and lunging at her wand trying to get it to back away. "Aww... look at you..."

[talls]

Little Jasper didn't like it when he was left alone in his Mama's room. Today was no exception. He supposed it was for the best. This day, though it was the day of his Mama's birth, never had happy results. Apparently, humans played tricks on each other this day! It made no sense to a simple ferret like himself.

The little animal was enjoying his afternoon nap for it to be disturbed by his cage being peered into. Looking up, he saw an unfamiliar face. He yawned and looked at her curiously. The next thing he knew, he was being lifted out of his cage and put into a bag. Panicking, he let out little angry cries.

The movement stopped and the top of the bag opened again. Looking up, he saw another unfamiliar face. He hissed and he was shoved into another bag. Ink, books and quills poked and prodded at him. He didn't like it.

As Jasper was dumped out of the bag, he looked around and hissed at the woman. She began speaking, and scaring him As she pointed her wand at him, he snapped at the wood. His heart was beating wildly in fear.

He wanted to back in his cage.

He wanted Magic Remus.

He wanted his Mama.

[aliice]

Georgie took her time over what she was doing, and she enjoyed every minute of it. She loved every squeal and shriek the blood and ink soaked ferret made, and she loved the way it was so easy for her to control such dark magic, and the results were truly spectacular.

She'd found the spell ages ago but never had a chance or reason to test it out, and now she was, on this delightful little ferret. She wanted to know if it would work, and she also wanted to know what the effects would be on the little critter later on when he was back in the hands of the Gryffindor girl. Who knew? If it worked really well Georgie may just have to test out this nifty piece of magic on something a little bigger than a ferret. Something bigger, as in, someone.

The whole idea of the spell was to keep the subject alive while performing horrible, gruesome destruction to its body. The spells was basically labeled as 'hung, drawn and quartered', and that's pretty much how the little critter looked by time Georgie had finished with it.

She'd used magic to keep it alive, and the magic was completely reversible if done right, which meant that snapping the creatures neck wasn't actually doing it all that much harm. There was the first effect - hung; a broken neck.

Next, Georgie made easy work of pulling all the rats' limps out of joint and twisting it's limbs to angles that limbs were generally not built to go. Stage two: drawn.

Lastly, Georgie did the part that she'd most been looking forward to. It was the bit that took the most time and concentration, but it would be completely worth it. In the old days when someone was hung, drawn and quartered, very few would survive to the quartered stage, but when they did it was excruciatingly painful and impossible to survive. The body was cut open and the four key organs were carefully lifted out of the persons' body, and places around them on the ground. The last of these organs was the heart, though from what the pages of the spell book said, that was the one organ she'd be best to leave untouched unless she really wanted this rodent dead. And as fun as that may be, she needed it alive to see how the after effects worked out. Instead, Georgie decided to squeeze its head until it's eyes bulged out of their sockets, and hung gorily in front of its face.

Job complete, Georgie checked that the ferret was still alive, and then stepped back to admire her handy work. "My, my, my, Little A. You look positively delightful tonight." She laughed a cold, cruel laugh and grabbed her bag, tipping the rest of the content out onto the stone slab in front of her, and placing the broken body of the ferret into it. Now all she needed to do was wait for the 4th year girl and give her a few instructions, then her plan would be complete. And the mess? Well, someone else could clear that up for her later, couldn't they?

[notalice]

Leander was reluctant to leave the warmth of the Gryffindor common room as it neared midnight. No matter how warm the common room was though, Leander still felt chilled to the bone at what she'd helped do earlier. Then again, she didn't even know what it was that she'd actually helped the 7th year girl to do, she just hoped that things weren't too bad in the end. Leander wouldn't know how to deal with things if that little ferret was actually hurt. Now, the more she thought about it, the more she wished she'd just given Georgina the diary she'd found.

Wandering slowly down to where she'd been told to go, Leander jumped at every shadow and flicker of light. She'd never been out after hours like this, and definitely not for something as awful as what she was involved with now.

Leander didn't have to wait long before Georgina arrived, and as soon as she did, Leander felt her heart sink to her toes, and probably even further, if that was possible. It was almost as if her heart just shattered out of existence and left her body entirely.

Georgina gave her a very specific set of instructions, and the sight of the older girls' handiwork made Leander's stomach roll, making it a battle for her not to throw up. She couldn't believe that it had actually come to this. God damn it! Why hadn't she just gave her the diary!?

Back up at the tower, Leander crept through the eerily empty common room and up towards the girls' dorms, passing her own room and stopping at the next door, her feet feeling like lead. On the verge of throwing up, Leander somehow managed to pull the torn and broken body of the ferret out of the bag, and hang in on a nail on the front of the door, using the spell that Georgina had given her. The insides of the creature hung down around it, and it's eyes swung, seemed to stare at her even though she was sure the poor little creature was dead.

Scurrying away into her dorm, Leander raced passed her sleeping dormmates and into the bathroom, barely reaching the toilet before the contents of her stomach were on the rise. She hadn't even realize that she'd been crying as much as she had, but she was almost blind with tears right now. Turning the shower on cold, Leander stepped under the cold jets of water that shot over her body and she let it sluice away the remaining blood from her hands. Still, even when the remnants of what she'd done were gone she still felt dirty and wrong. Leander turned to the only thing she knew could help her, and the water turned red once again.

[talls]

Ferret cursed as she walked back to her dorm. She tossed out her "gifts" she had been given along the way. She hated her birthday. She cursed the fact she was born on April Fools Day. Everyone thought it was some big joke to make fun of the fact she was born. It pissed her off to no end.

She let out a long breath, just wanting to relax. Change into some sweats, read, play with Jasper a little bit. She smiled. That was one of the good things, she figured. She could always go to Jasper to make her feel better.

Coming into the common room, she saw a crowd of boys looking up the girl dorm room stairs. She wondered if some girl was giving them a "show". But there were no cat calls or whistling. There was only muttering and nervous glances.

Pushing past them, Ferret looked up the stairs and saw a crowd of girls gathered. They all looked pale and sickened and some looked like they had been sick. As she began to move up the stairs, a girl noticed her. She paled further and moved to block Ferret's door. But not before she saw what was trying to be hidden.

On her door, hung Jasper.

Ferret paled and her appearance began to change. She looked like death as she stared at the mangled, drawn and quartered body of her oldest friend. With a shaking hand, she pushed the girls aside to get a better look. Jasper, her friend, her ferret, her baby, hung desicrated on her door. A sick joke. For her.

"Who did this?" Ferret asked, her voice shaking. No one answered. "Who did this?!" she demanded. Her appearance turned that of a demon, eyes going pitch black. She turned, drawing her wand and grabbing a random girl by the neck and pinning her against the opposite wall. She pointed her wand at the girl's nose. "Tell me!"

Someone tried to pull her away, telling her to calm down. Ferret shrieked pushed everyone away from her. Then there was panic. People began to call for the teachers, running away from her as if she was a monster.

She was a monster. Someone had killed one of the things she loved above all else. And they would pay.

[notalice]

Leander sunk to the floor of the bathtub and wrapped her arms tightly around her knees, tears soaking her face. She shook and trembled, and even the blood gushing from her couldn't calm her down. She heard a knock on the main door and the sound of her room mates gasping and scrambling out of their bed. Oh no... someone knew... They were waking everyone up!

Leander stood wearily and switched off the water, pulling a towel around her quickly. Her skin was pale and clammy, and she felt both extraordinarily sick and extremely lightheaded at the same time. She needed to go out there and see what was going on, no matter how much she might not want to. This was her fault... She knew it.

Grabbing her clothes from earlier, Leander pulled them on roughly and stuck her feet in her shoes. Red welled up on the material of her sleeves and she swore - not something she did very often. The sound of voices from outside of her dorm were growing louder, suggesting more people had gathered... Was that a boys voice? Oh God...

There were bandages that she's hidden away under the sink and she grabbed one now, tying it tightly around her wrist. She'd grab a sweater before she left or something, or maybe just her dressing gown, and at least that way she might look like she'd been in bed.

Leander left the room just in time to see the fifth year girl shove someone out of the way and watched as she saw what had been done to her beloved pet. Leander could feel her stomach churning. What had she done?