The Strike System
“Meow!”
“What?” mumbled Beth waking up.
Beth woke up and looked up and saw that there was a tear streaked Ginny standing in their dorm doorway.
“Hey Gin,” said Beth rubbing her eyes slightly, “what’s the matter?”
“Well, you know hows theres not very many people in my year?”
“Yeah,” muttered Beth sitting up.
“Well there’s twenty boys, and eight girls,” sighed Ginny sitting down on the bed, “I’m the only girl in our house, maybe I should have been a Gryffindor after all, there’s three girls in that house.”
“Ginny,” said Beth shaking her head, “you don’t need to worry about having no friends in the house you’ve already got me.”
“Yeah but you won’t be in class with me,” muttered Ginny.
“Gin,” said Beth, “I’ve told you that it doesn’t matter what house you’re in, you can be friends with whoever you want.”
“I guess so,” shrugged Ginny.
“Everything alright?” asked Susan drowsily.
Susan’s plait was coming out of its long plait from the day before having slept on it, she always had a few stray hairs first thing in the morning.
“Yeah,” said Ginny nodding.
“Besides Gin,” chuckled Beth, “you’ve already got me and Sus, and you can’t get rid of us even if you wanted to!”
“I guess so,” said Ginny, “I’m going to go write in my diary, see you tonight.”
Beth was halfway through brushing her hair into her regular ponytail having got dressed when Susan came over and stopped her.
“Can I try something?” asked Susan taking the hairbrush.
Beth shrugged and sat down on the bed.
Susan gently brushed through Beth’s bronze coloured hair which fell to slightly below her shoulders and then carefully divided the hair and plaited into a half up.
“There we go,” beamed Susan, “much better!”
“What do you hope we’ve got today?” asked Beth as they loaded their bags.
“I don’t know,” shrugged Susan, “but I hope its not Lockhart.”
They didn’t know what classes they were having that day so they were carrying half their set books each.
“Isn’t that bag a bit heavy?” asked Beth as Susan loaded all the Lockharts on top of potions and history textbook.
“No,” said Susan as she did up her bag, “Aunty Amelia saw how many books that man had set and put a permanent feather light charm on my bag so I don’t break my back carrying them around.”
“Cool,” beamed Beth.
“Why are you two always quite so cheerful in the mornings?” grumbled Hannah, Artie was trying to hide under her quilt.
“Because each day is so wonderful, we want to make the most of it,” said Susan before she and Beth left the dorm to go and find some breakfast.
As Beth and Susan left they were joined by Ginny who was also heaving a bag full of all of her books including her diary.
“So what class you looking forward to Ginny?”
“Not potions,” scowled Ginny, “Ron and the twins have told me all about Snape.”
“He’s not bad,” muttered Beth.
“Not that bad!” giggled Susan, “from the way that your Uncle talks about him back in his school days, you would have thought that Snape had been born to haunt the dungeons. I seriously think he doesn’t sleep!”
“Do you think he’s a vampire!” gasped Ginny, as they sat down for breakfast.
“Of course not Ginny,” sighed Beth, “and Susan I’m sure that most of those stories are made up. Do you seriously think that my father once tried proposing to mum in the great hall by sprinkling her with confetti and a choir of singing house elves?”
“Yes!” nodded Susan, “I really do think that James would have done that.”
“Where was Remus when all this was happening?” asked Ginny.
“Oh he was on Mum patrol,” giggled Beth, “as usual.”
“What do you mean Mum patrol?”
“Well Dad liked to make flamboyant gestures to show his affection for her in fifth and sixth year, it wasn’t until seventh year that he calmed down. Anyway, out of their group Remus was the only one sane enough that Mum would actually hang out with, so if James ever upset Lily, it was Remus who had to run after her and calm her down and explain how he was actually quite well meaning.”
“He also apparently used to try and talk James and Sirius out of their most stupid ideas,” said Susan, “such as trying to learn how to ride the giant squid just because they could.”
“Is it possible that James and Sirius were somehow worse than Fred and George?”
“Have Fred and George ever supplied Peeves with a seemingly endless supply of dungbombs?”
“Why did they do that?”
“Well they wanted to wind up Filch because he hated dungbombs, but planting them everywhere took far too long, so Peeves did it for them.”
“Why did Peeves help them again?” asked Susan.
“Because Peeves also hates Filch. Anyway, so every time Peeves started to run out they’d just give him more, this went on for several years.”
“You’re not talking about the dungbomb epidemic of 1973-7, are you?” asked Sprout as she handed them their timetables.
“Still gives me nightmares,” she muttered shaking her head moving onto Justin and Ernie.
“And here was I thinking Remus and Lyall had made all that up,” said Beth slightly perplexed.
“So, the short answer is yes,” said Susan, “they were much worse than Fred and George.”
“What’s the damage today?” Ernie asked as Justin scanned the columns.
“Um,” he muttered “let’s see, we’ve got Herbology with the Gryffindors, and then Defence with the Slytherins both doubles.”
“Herbology fine,” said Zach, “but why do we have to have Lockhart and the Slytherins in the same class?”
“I’ve come up with a theory,” said Justin, “every time he does something stupid, he gets a strike, if he gets three strikes then we set up our own group.”
Beth put her hand in the air.
Justin nodded at her.
“Can he get two strikes in one class?”
“No,” said Justin.
“Can he get two strikes for the same thing twice?”
“No,” said Zach shaking his head.
“Does it have to be in class?”
“Definitely not!” said Ernie, Justin and Zach.
“I have one proviso,” said Beth, “if we do set up our own group, we have to tell Sprout.”
“Agreed,” said the whole group.
“See you tonight Ginny,” said Beth as the second year headed off to Herbology.
When they got to the greenhouses, they all queued up with the Gryffindors.
“Hey Ron, Hermione,” said Beth as she and Susan joined them at a table.
“Can you believe Ginny’s not a Gryffindor?” said Ron astounded.
“Padma and Parvati are twins and they’re not in the same houses,” said Hermione.
“That’s true,” muttered Ron.
“Right!” called Sprout over the chattering second years, “today we are going to be repotting mandrakes, please keep your earmuffs on firmly.”
They pulled on their earmuffs and started to repot the mandrakes. They were screaming at the top of their lungs and they nearly burst Beth’s eardrums even with the earmuffs.
Although she enjoyed Herbology, today Beth was more than slightly pleased to be getting out of class so she could get away from the screaming mandrakes.
They had a hurried lunch and then rushed off to Defence. The Slytherin’s were already lounging at the back of the classroom when they arrived.
Draco Malfoy and Blaise Zabini were lording over the whole class at the back with their feet up on the desks.
“Alright Potter!” called Malfoy.
“Hello Draco,” sighed Beth sitting down at the front of the room at a double desk with Susan.
“Do you know what I really want to someday,” said Susan enthusiastically, “I want to fly on a muggle aeroplane.”
“Why you can apparate or take a portkey so much faster,” said Ernie confused.
“Yes, but it seems so fascinating, you can really fly in the air.”
“It may not have occurred to you Bones,” drawled Draco sarcastically who was now standing in front of them as he had enough of being ignored, “but you already can fly, on a broomstick.”
“Yes, Draco,” said Susan not noticing his sarcastic tone, “but its just so fascinating.”
“If you love muggles so much Susan, why don’t you just go and live with them?” he smirked.
“We’ve all had enough of you that’s for sure.”
“Leave her alone Draco,” said Beth firmly, “what’s she ever done to you?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it’s because she’s from the biggest family of blood traitors laying aside the Weasley’s. Or maybe it’s because we’re all fed up with the sound of her voice, if you hadn’t noticed she never really shuts up.”
“I said leave her alone Draco!” said Beth pulling out her wand and pointing it at Draco’s chest.
“Oh, look Bones,” chuckled Malfoy, “you’ve got yourself a girlfriend!”
Susan looked like she was close to bursting into tears.
“Fuck off Malfoy!” muttered Ernie glaring.
“You ok Sus?” asked Beth as Lockhart came in.
“Yeah,” muttered Susan, “its just everything he’s said is true.”
“Just ignore him, he’s an arrogant git,” said Ernie.
Not long after this Lockhart started handing out a set of tests to see how much they had all learnt, they were the most ridiculous questions Beth had ever seen.
12. What is Gilderoy Lockharts Zodiac Sign?
37. Who is Gilderoy Lockharts Celebrity Crush?
50. What in your opinion is Gilderoy Lockharts greatest achievement to date- please write anything up to a hundred words as an explanation for your choice.
She didn’t know what was worse, the fact that she had been set this set, or the fact that she knew every single bloody answer because she’d read all the books twice.
At the end of half an hour Lockhart collected the tests and flicked through them quickly.
“Tut tut!” said Lockhart sighing, “only one full marks I’m afraid.”
“Please no,” she started muttering, “please no.”
“Ten points to Miss Beth Potter, who in answer to question fifty said that my greatest achievement to date was not actually killing the werewolf in wanderings with werewolves but turning it back into a human. This is because she was not aware that this could be done, and she’s surprised that more people aren’t trying to do the same spell if it works.”
“Oh sorry Bones!” crowed Malfoy, “seems like you’ve got some competition.”
Lockhart completely ignored this interruption, however.
“And two points from Miss Parkinson who answered the same question with not having children, one of Mr Gilderoy Lockhart is more than enough.”
If the first half of the class had been bad enough then Lockhart pulled a blanket covered cage from under his desk.
“Does anyone want to take a guess as to what’s underneath this blanket?”
“A niffler?” asked Hannah who had always wanted to see one.
“No Miss Abbot,” chuckled Lockhart.
“It is in fact, Cornish Pixies!”
“Cornish pixies?” drawled Blaise as Lockhart took off the blanket, “and that is supposed to be impressive why?”
“Mock all you like, Mr Zabini,” chortled Lockhart, “let’s see what you make of them now!”
The pixies came flying out of the cage and caused complete mayhem, they were ripping up books and stealing people’s wands. Lockhart had legged it out the door, fortunately for the Slytherins the classroom was on the ground floor so they all just climbed out the window and ran for it leaving their bags behind.
“What are we supposed to do now?” screamed Ernie as they all hid under the desks.
Hannah was rocking back and forth, and Neville was trying to wrestle a pixie for his wand.
“Well we need to figure out a way to stop them,” said Justin.
“For Merlin’s sake Finch Fletchley!” yelled Zach, “how much more obvious can you get!!”
“But we don’t know any spells to stop them,” said Susan.
“So what the hell do we do?” asked Beth.
“We go and find somebody who does,” said Artie sprinting out from behind the desk and running from the classroom.
Artie came back two minutes later with a breathless Flitwick.
“For goodness sake!” said Flitwick shaking his head as he saw the chaos of the classroom, and the eight Hufflepuff’s hiding under the tables.
“Immobulos!” said Flitwick clearly. All the pixies froze within a split second, and he locked them all back away in their cage.
“Can we come out now sir?” asked Neville poking his head out.
“Yes, Mr Longbottom you can!” chuckled Flitwick as he helped them put the classroom back to rights.
“Well that went well,” muttered Zach as they all went for dinner having tidied the classroom.
“So did Lockhart get his first strike today?” asked Justin.
“Oh yeah!” nodded Ernie, “he put our lives in danger.”
“From pixies?” asked Artie.
“Those things were terrifying,” said Hannah who was still shaking slightly.
“Question,” said Beth.
“Yeah?”
“If he hadn’t set the pixies on us he would have got a strike anyway right?”
“Oh yeah, he’s definitely going to get strikes for narcissistic behavior.”
“Or just being a pain in the ass?” asked Artie.
“Oh yeah,” nodded Ernie.
“You ok Nev?” asked Zach.
“Yeah, I’ve got my wand back, I’m fine.”