章節 34: Planning a joke
The two Slytherin boys felt a blow on their backs and went flying, crashing into the hard walls of the dungeons. They slid on the floor and didn't move anymore.
The entire hall fell silent. No one expects such turns of events. Toby opened his eyes slowly as he felt no pain at all, "What happened...?" asked Toby, confused.
All eyes in the hall turned to James, who still had his wand pointed at Rabastan, who looked at him in disbelief, "Put the wand down," ordered Slughorn in an angry tone that hid astonishment.
The Flipendo hex was a first-year charm, but more advanced. Slughorn knew that these students had only had two Defense Against the Dark Arts classes and were not supposed to have seen such a charm yet. So, it was obvious that James knew about it beforehand.
Slughorn approached the two boys lying on the floor and noticed that they were unconscious, "You three wait here," he ordered as he looked at Sirius, James, and Rabastan. With a wave of his wand, the two boys floated up, and he took them to the infirmary.
The room fell silent, and many began to murmur, as they looked at Sirius, Rabastan, and especially James.
"How did he learn that charm? They only taught us Lumos and Nox so far... and in Defense Against the Dark Arts they didn't teach us anything practical..." muttered a first-year Gryffindor student. They were all wondering the same thing.
James and Sirius looked at each other and smiled, "How arrogant," mused Snape, annoyed as he noticed the smirk on the two Gryffindor's faces.
After five minutes, the professor returned, and his frown was still on his face, "Sirius Black and Rabastan Lestrange, punishment for both of you, one week," said Slughorn grumpily. Sirius had barely any blood on his nose, the same for Rabastan.
"As for you boy..." said Slughorn, looking at James more sternly.
The smile on James' face disappeared. He knew he was screwed, "You attacked two classmates from behind. The impact was too hard, their noses are broken and they were knocked unconscious..." started Slughorn.
James could have used a charm to petrify the two Slytherin boys, but seeing that they hit Sirius and called Toby a mudblood, he decided to act more aggressively.
"Grounded for two weeks and ten points less for Gryffindor" he sentenced.
"It's not fair!" said Lupin, suddenly.
"Slytherin was three and insulted by calling those two mudbloods!" he added. James felt glad that Lupin was defending him.
"I didn't hear those insults... Is it true?" Slughorn asked, looking at the other students. All the Gryffindors nodded, "A very nasty insult, Rabastan. Five points off for Slytherin for insulting in such a way. However, the punishment to the Potter student will be the same. Now, back to your cauldrons!" he said, clapping his hands and everyone returned to their places.
"You, Potter clean the blood off the walls manually," he added looking at James, who nodded reluctantly. He grabbed a rag and started scrubbing. The impact of Mulciber and Avery had left some blood on the floor and wall.
'I should have acted more stealthily,' thought James grumpily. His 30 points had been reduced to 20, and he noticed that Rabastan was looking at him with a triumphant smile. It made him want to throw a Flipendo at him and have him crash into the wall losing a couple of teeth in the process.
In addition to cleaning up the blood, Slughorn made him tidy up all the cauldrons and clean up the garbage that all the students had made, 'Has the punishment started already?' thought James in annoyance as he cleaned up the garbage in the empty classroom.
He had gotten carried away acting like that in the middle of class. However, he had no regrets. Anyway, he still had a balance in his favor of 20 points earned this week.
'Being in a school gave me a lot of excitement,' thought James, scratching his hair as he walked out of the classroom. On his way out he noticed Sirius, Peter, Toby, and Lupin waiting for him.
"Fucking brilliant, mate," said Sirius punching James lightly on the arm, "You must teach me that spell. Next time I find Rabastan in the dark corridors he won't know who attacked him," he added with a grin.
"H-how do you know a charm we haven't even seen yet?" asked Peter with admiration.
"My father was a great duelist in his Hogwarts years and taught me in the time I got my wand at Ollivander," James replied lying. He couldn't say he had his first wand at the age of eight.
"Your father taught you everything?" asked Sirius quizzically to which James nodded smiling slightly.
"Sorry, were you able to finish the potion?" asked James, looking at Lupin, who missed him waiting for it.
"Yes, it wasn't difficult. There were only two steps to go, with Peter we made it, although we didn't get first place," said Lupin smiling a strange smile.
"Are you hungry, guys?" asked Sirius, placing his hand on James and Lupin's man.
"I'm dying," replied James, and Lupin nodded with a slight smile.
The group went to the dining room for dinner, and they talked about the little incident while teasing the Slytherins. Thanks to this incident Lupin became closer to the group.
The next day, the news of James throwing a Flipendo at him and knocking two Slytherin students unconscious spread throughout the school, and he noticed many more stares and whispers towards him as he ate his breakfast.
"Look, you're quite the celebrity," Sirius joked as he took a bite of toast.
"Shut up, I feel the murderous stares from all those snakes," complained James, who felt uncomfortable being watched as he ate.
"W-we must get revenge," said Peter to which they all turned and looked at him in surprise.
"What's wrong?" asked Peter nervously.
"Nothing...I'm surprised you have the nerve to bring that up," said Sirius in amazement.
"Well... because of them we lost house points, and they insulted us. That's why I thought we should do something," said Peter, scratching his head. After seeing James' magical prowess he felt a great confidence, as if the Slytherins couldn't do anything against them.
"You're right, we can't just leave it at that," said James in agreement with Peter.
They had called Toby a mudblood, hit Sirius and James lost ten points for his house as well as being grounded for two weeks. They had to get revenge, they had asked for it.
"B-but if we get caught, won't we be in trouble?" asked Toby, though inside he wanted to.
"Don't be a coward. Those bastards called you a mudblood and if it wasn't for James, they would have smashed your face in," said Sirius.
"I don't know what you mean by mudblood..." said Toby.
"It's a derogatory insult that pureblood wizards use when referring to wizards who come from muggle parents," replied Lupin calmly. His personality with strangers was gruff, but when you got to know him a bit you could tell he was someone very calm.
"They're just idiots who want to feel superior," growled Sirius.
"A rare comment for the noble heir to House Black," joked James, and Sirius tapped him on the shoulder.
"So, you guys are purebloods?" asked Toby, who knew next to nothing about the magical world.
Sirius, James, and Peter nodded. After a few seconds, Lupin replied, "Not me, my father is magical, and my mother is a muggle. So I'm what they call a half-blood."
"If you're wondering, they're also despised," he added with a grimace.
"Any ideas for the joke?" asked James, and they all fell silent in thought.
Peter suggested provoking boils (painful, pus-filled lumps under the skin caused by infected and inflamed hair follicles) there were several problems. The main one was that they did not know how to provoke them, so they knew it could be done in two ways: Through a potion or a dark charm, but they did not know the way to cast the spell, nor how to brew the potion, even James had not learned this charm, as he considered it too unpleasant and not very useful for real combat.
Besides, they thought it was rather dark and foul to provoke them into this, and they might go too far in doing so. Lupin suggested following Rabastan and when found just teach him a lesson. That is, beat him to a pulp between them all. James was taken aback by this very aggressive proposal, which they quickly dismissed as it would not be fun.
"I know!" said James with an idea in mind. The prank had to be something that would humiliate the haughty and arrogant Slytherin in front of the whole school, but not cause them serious harm.
"What is it?" they all asked impatiently.
"Flowers," replied James with a mysterious smile.
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