Jennifer’s POV
All of us, besides Michelle since she is still doing her detention, are hanging out at our usual place at the Black Lake.
“Oh, so that’s why she got detention.” Natalie says.
“She must have stayed up late last night thinking about everything that’s happened lately. With Keith, Melanie and Milly.” Tamara says.
I nod. “And this all started to happen at the same time. But, according to Michelle, Wilma told Keith she needed to show something to him. I wonder what it is.” I wondered out loud.
“Do you think it has something to do with his uncle?” Tamara asks with curiosity.
“It could be. Who knows? No one knows except for those two. Obviously we’re not going to know anytime soon with how things are going with Keith and Michelle.” I say.
Michelle comes jogging over towards us, she looks out of breath. “Hey, how was detention?” I ask.
“What’d you have to do?” Natalie continues.
Michelle takes a moment to catch her breath, then she sits down next to me, still slightly out of breath. “I had detention with Professor Warrington.” She says, ignoring the surprised look on our faces. “She made me organize scrolls of parchment and I found this.” She reaches in the pocket of her robes as we wait patiently.
She widens her eyes. “Oh snap...”
“It’s not there is it?” Tamara guesses. Michelle limply nods.
“But how....” She says confused, checking all the pockets of her robes. Each time pulling out her empty hands.
“Well did you see what was in it?” Natalie asks. Michelle shakes her head.
“No...She was behind me, so I couldn’t...” She answers, “All I could do was stuff it in my pocket without her seeing.”
Tamara tilts her head to look behind Michelle, “Hey, isn’t that....Milly?” She says in a surprised tone. We all turn to look in the direction she pointed to. It is Milly. Or Melanie. Hard to tell really. But Melanie is a bit taller than Milly. So I think it’s Milly.
Milly/Melanie pushes a first year Ravenclaw girl down to the ground. Michelle widens her eyes in shock. Yup, it’s definitely Milly. If it were Melanie, she would have marched over there, angry at what she had done. Right now, she’s shocked.
Wait back up. Milly just pushed someone down? Like pushed pushed? She wouldn’t hurt a flea. Let alone push a innocent, or at least I think she is innocent, person down.
Michelle gets up from her spot and starts to jog over to Milly. Natalie, Tamara and I follow her. Michelle walks to Milly as the rest of us help the Ravenclaw girl up, making sure she is alright. She gets up and immediately hides behind us. Scared that Milly would push her down again.
“Hey Milly, why did you do that? That’s not like you.” Michelle says with concern. Milly just crosses her arms and looks away.
After making sure the Ravenclaw girl is alright, her name was Emma, we all said sorry to her as she walks off.
“I mean, just because Melanie has become distant, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to just push people around like that.” Michelle continues.
“You don’t get it. You’ll never get it!” Milly exclaims, running off. Michelle stays where she is, burying her face in her hands.
“Everything is going wrong.” she murmurs.
***
After that day, it was clear that Michelle was getting depressed. Her sisters are having problems and that fight with Keith hadn’t helped her situation at all.
Speaking of the Keith situation it’s still going on! Oh joy! How long has it been? Like two weeks? He’s still upset with all of us. Partially Michelle. He only talks when necessary. Kinda like Melanie to be completely honest.
With Wilma, we’ve been spotting her hanging out with Melanie more and more. A hug here and there are shared. Melanie and Wilma are like best friends. Melanie pairs up with Keith during classes with Slytherin and with Wilma with classes with Ravenclaw according to Michelle and Natalie.
As for Hufflepuff, she just pairs up with a random Gryffindor or with Milly. Quite rarely though.
On the other hand, the DC meetings are getting stupider -wait is that a word?- and stupider each time. The first classes or so were okay. Now it’s just getting plain ridiculous. I honestly don’t have a clue how Professor Warrington got the title of one of the finest duellists in the twenty-first century.
Classes, well, they’re the same as usual. Michelle luckily is getting decent hours of sleep and is not dozing off, sacrificing more points and earning more detentions. Then, finally one day we decided (not Michelle, she was doing an assignment) that we should cheer her up a bit. What Michelle loves to do is to play a Quidditch game.
So we asked Madame Hooch if we could borrow the Quidditch Pitch to play a game. She agreed on the conditions of her choosing the opponent and that if it is supervised by her. Ok, that part of the plan is done. Now to get more players on our team. Madame Hooch told us, it would be a game of girls against boys. She would choose the guy players. The game is going to be in two days.
So we spent like 1-2 hours looking for players to join us. Most of them said no the moment we mentioned that we would play against the guys. So far we only have Helda on board. And that was only for the sake of Michelle. And for a Quidditch team to play a real game, we MUST have seven players.
“I’m sorry but no thanks.” a Gryffindor girl rejected the offer. After that she walks away from us with her friends. I sigh angrily. Just because guys are playing doesn’t mean they’re going to wipe the floor with us! Ok, I know they’re good but still.
“How are we going to get two more players on our team?” Tamara asks. Clearly this is not going anywhere.
“Well we didn’t want to bother the girls on our teams and well....Slytherin is kind of....you know....” I trail off.
“Let’s just ask them. We have no choice.” Natalie says. All of us nod in agreement. Then I get an idea. “Wait! Let’s ask Lilly and Zoey. I’m pretty sure they would help!” I exclaim. Tamara and I run down the hallway to the left while Natalie runs to the right for the library. It took us a while to find Lilly. We found her in a classroom talking to Professor Flitwick.
We walk up to Lilly and the Professor. The Professor dismisses Lilly as we reach them. “Good-bye girls. Have a nice evening and remember to finish your homework.” Professor Flitwick says and then leaves the room. Now it’s just us four.
“Hey Lilly, we’re wondering if you could join our team for the upcoming Quidditch game.” Tamara asks.
“Quidditch game? Shouldn’t you be asking your teammates not me though?” Lilly answers.
“Well...we don’t really want to bother them, so we’re hoping that you could lend a hand. Plus it’s a girls-only team.” I reply. She nods in understanding.
“We would really appreciate it, if you could. We’re doing this game to cheer up Michelle.” Tamara adds.
“What happened? Does it have something to do with Melanie and Milly? Because those two are acting very strange these days.” Lilly says with concern on her face. All of us nod.
“Sure. I would be glad to help. So who's the team we’re playing against?” Lilly asks with a smile on her face, looking excited. The both of us look at each other.
“Well....We didn’t get to choose the opponent because it’s one of the conditions that Madame Hooch set for us to follow to use the Quidditch Pitch.” Tamara starts to explain.
“And Madame Hooch chose the-” I trail off.
“Boys.” Tamara finish my sentence. The smile on Lilly’s face immediately disappears. Instead a look of shock replaces it. Then it evolves into fear.
“B-but we’re going to get killed out there!! Especially me!!” Lilly starts to panic.
“Hey, just because we’re girls doesn’t mean we’re going to get pwned. We can show them what we can do.” I say confidently. Although in the inside, theres a bit of fear in it.
“Are you kidding me!? They’re taller, and far stronger than any of us!” Lilly screams.
“Calm down Lilly. Madame Hooch is going to choose the team players and they’re not allowed to reject the ‘offer’. So there’s a chance the boys’ team are not all from the Quidditch teams.” Tamara tries to calm her down. Lilly put on a sulky face.
“Ok, ok. But I’m still going to die out there. I’m not good as you guys though.” Lilly says sadly with no confidence. Tamara pats her on the back reassuringly.
“Now come on. We need to see if Natalie got Zoey on our team.” I say, urging for them to come with me. All three of us go to the library since the last time we saw Natalie, she ran in this direction. Once we get to the library, we see Natalie and Zoey talking to each other while sitting by a window.
We said hi to them as we reached them.
“Did you talk to Zoey about it?” Tamara ask Natalie. Natalie and Zoey nod.
“And?” I ask.
“No,” says Zoey.
“Come on Zoey, why not?” asks Natalie.
“I told you, we would get killed out there.” says Zoey.
“No you wouldn’t, you can even have one of my rice krispie sandwiches.” I say.
“If Jennifer is going to offer you a rice krispie sandwich you know we need you desperately. She takes her rice krispies really seriously. Please?” says Tamara.
“Fine...but if I get killed you’re paying for my funeral.” says Zoey.
“I don’t think it would get that serious. They guys we’re playing might not even be good.” says Natalie.
“I hope so...” says Zoey.
***
The bell for the ending of third period rings. Right now I start to walk towards the History of Magic classroom. Today we’re having the class with the Slytherins. A day has passed since we decided to have a game of Quidditch to cheer up Michelle. So we need to tell her about the game today in order to at least practice for a bit for tomorrow’s game. Helda still hasn’t said anything about it because apparently she’s too busy trying other ways to cheer Michelle up, like showing that masterpiece of hers. If you know what I’m saying.
I see Michelle walking to class with Helda. Helda is still trying to, at least, to get Michelle’s mood up. I run behind them and say, “Hey Michelle, hey Helda! How were your classes so far?” Michelle just looks at me, and give me a weak smile.
“Hey Jennifer.” Helda says, with a tired look.
“Are you okay?” I ask her with concern.
“I’m fine. I’m just a little bit tired.” Helda answers.
“Oh. Come on, fourth period is about to start.” I say to them before dragging both of them there. The teacher start the class right when we get into our seats. Professor Binns (did I mention he’s a ghost?) starts to speak.
“Good morning students. Today I’ll be teaching the terrible aftermath of the Second Wizarding War. As all of you already know, many innocent, brave, and skilled wizards and witches perished in this battle. One of the most well-known victims is Albus Dumbledore, one of our previous Hogwarts Headmasters and brother to our current one.”
At this, the professor gave a grimace. “More than over five dozen of your fellow students at the time had given up their lives to protect this very school. I want each each of you to choose one of these witches or wizards and write a 6-inch essay on them. You should include a bit about their background, how they were a part of the war and when, where and how they died. For reference you may use ‘Casualties of the Second Wizarding War by Amadeus King’ You may all get started now.”
I need to tell Michelle about the game so I take out some parchment and leave it on the table while taking out my phone. I text her. If you’re wondering how she has one, I went with her to get one during the summer.
Jennifer: Hey.
Michelle: Hi.
Jennifer: To cheer you up we were thinking of having a Quidditch game tomorrow. It’s an unofficial game.
Michelle: Cool xD
Jennifer: Sadly it’s boys against girls and M. Hooch get’s to choose the guys.
Michelle: -_-
Jennifer: Yeah, that kind of sucks but the guys might not be on the Quidditch team.
Michelle: True. Who’s on our team?
Jennifer: Me, Natalie, Tamara, You, Helda, Zoey and Lilly. I had to promise Zoey a rice krispie. :(
Michelle: Oh, i just hope that we’re not going against anyone on the Quidditch teams.
Jennifer: Yeah, ahh, Prof. Binns is coming over. Bye.
Michelle: Bye.
Professor Binns walks past. That was a close one. I almost got caught. He then walks back to the front of the classroom.
“Class dismissed.”
I walk over to Michelle and we walk out together.
“If it’s any of the guys on my team, I don’t think it’s going to cheer me up much.” says Michelle.
“Well, hopefully it’s not. But if it is we can have fun pwning them right?” I say.
“Yeah, right.” says Michelle laughing.
Well I hope this cheers her up. For now it’s sound like it has. I hope that no one on the Quidditch team is on the other side, especially Keith...That would just make it worse.
“Well I need to go to Herbology. Bye.” I say.
“Bye.” she says as she heads in the other direction.
***
It’s time for another DC meeting. We really need to consider quitting. We haven’t learned anything and it has become a complete waste of our time. I find Michelle, Natalie and Tamara and we walk in together. Professor Warrington came in through the doors in an all dramatic manner. She should be a drama teacher instead. She struts to the podium in front of the room. The professor rests her hands on the podium.
“Welcome to today’s Duelling Club meeting. Today I’ll be teaching you two spells that I find quite handy.” She announces quite dramatically. In the corner of my eye, I can see Michelle’s eye twitching. “The first will be the laughing spell. The incantation is Ridere Aeternum. Please get into partners and try it on each other.” Okay, I don’t know this one but it doesn’t sound very useful in a duel. Am I going to make them laugh to death? I know it’s possible but it would take a while.
“Hey Professor!!” Michelle yells and everyone stops doing what they were doing.
“Is there a problem,” she says looking down at the piece of parchment in front of her. “Ms. Chang?” Michelle steps up to the podium. Then she slams her hands onto the podium.
“Do you actually think we can survive out there in the world with that?! Huh?!” Michelle screams in her face.
The professor raises an eyebrow, jutted out her hip and places her hands on her hips. “Why, yes. With those spells, I got named one of the best duellists in the twenty-first century.” She smirks with a look of confidence on her face.
Michelle rolls her eyes. “Really? I bet even I can take you down.” She challenges Professor Warrington. Everyone looks shocked including me. Although she teaches us those so-called handy spells, she is still very experienced when it comes to duelling. Did Michelle go crazy!? Tamara speaks out, “Michelle, calm down.”
“No. I’m sick of the garbage she gives us in these meetings!” Michelle retorted.
“If you want to duel me, very well. Come up on this platform right now.” Professor Warrington directs her. Michelle gets up on the platform. I see Milly and Melanie go up to the front. They have looks of concern on their faces. While Keith is just beside me. He has a unreadable look on his face while looking at Michelle.
“The first person one to get the opponent unconscious wins.” Professor Warrington says with confidence. Michelle nods.
“I’ll show you why I’m one of the best duellists of the century, Ms. Chang.” The professor says.
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s hurry up and start.” Michelle says brushing herself off. A look of annoyance flashes on Professor Warrington’s face. Both of them take out their wands and bows to each other. All of us watch them in anticipation. I bet every witch and wizard in this room are betting for Michelle to take down the lady. Including myself, Tamara and Natalie.
Then they turn back to back against each other and start to walk in opposite directions. Once they end up at the edge of the platform they raise their wands. Suddenly they turn at the same time and at that moment, numerous spells are casted.
“Stupefy!”
“Protego!”
“Avis Oppugno!”
“Incendio! Expelliarmus!”
“Protego!”
“Petrificus Totalus!”
“Everte Statum!”
“Protego! Mobilicorpus!”
“Sectumsempra!” Michelle dodges the full blast of that spell but not quick enough. It grazed her arm. From her sleeve, it starts to bleed heavily.
“Incarcerous!”
“Protego!”
“Immobulus! Obscuro! Locomotor Mortis!” Michelle suddenly starts to cast spells very quickly. From there, it looks like Professor Warrington is starting to struggle a bit.
“Protego!” She only had that much time to say one spell before Michelle resumes casting every spell at the lady.
“Fugere retro! Expelliarmus” From that spell (I have no idea how Michelle know that spell), Professor Warrington falters. After that first spell, she wasn’t able to block the disarming spell. The wand flies out of her hand to somewhere else in the room. Then Michelle cast the finishing spell.
“Stupefy!!” She says and the spell hits the professor square in the chest. The blast of the spell causing Professor Warrington to fly into a wall behind her. The impact caused the professor to become unconscious as she slide down the wall.
We all applaud for her victory. Michelle lets out a heavy sigh, then her face twists in pain. She grasps her arm, which is still gushing out blood. Some dripping onto the platform. She lets out a cry of pain. The three of us get up on the platform.
“Let me see it.” Tamara says, cradling her arm. I can feel dozens of eyes looking on us.
Tamara holds up her arm up in the light. The cut looks pretty deep. It took all I can to not show the horror on my face.
“We should take you to Madame Pomfrey.” We start to walk towards the door but then Michelle suddenly stops in front of us. Which cause me to bump into her. “What’s wrong Michelle? Is your arm hurting that bad?” I ask worried. She suddenly turns to the podium and walks towards it. She stands where the podium is. Michelle gets a quill that is beside the list that has the names of the members of the Duelling Club.
From there, she begins to scribble on the parchment paper. Michelle asks, “Anyone wants to quit?” All three of us looks at each other. We can do so much better in our own time than at the Duelling Club.
“Count me in.” I say.
“I want to quit too.” Tamara agrees.
“Same.” Natalie joins in. Michelle scribbles more on the parchment. After that, no one else spoke out. Michelle drops the quill and walks back over to us.
“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
***
We finally arrive at the Hospital Wing. Madame Pomfrey was treating another student. The guy looks like he broke his nose.
“Excuse me, Madame Pomfrey? Could you treat Michelle’s arm? Like right away? She’s lost a lot of blood already.” I say. Madame Pomfrey turns around and gasps in surprise. Then she turns back to the student and gives the finishing touch on healing his nose. She immediately guides Michelle to a seat to give her treatment.
Michelle is getting paler by the second. Madame Pomfrey examines her arm.
“Hmmm....you got hit by a Sectumsempra spell didn’t you?” The head nurse asks. Michelle nods. “By who?” Madame Pomfrey asks.
“Professor Warrington.” I answer for Michelle. Madame Pomfrey narrows her eyes.
“I’m going to have to ask you girls to leave. The wound is deep. She would need rest. Off you go now.” She dismisses us. The three of us are reluctant to leave but we still leave.
After we leave the Hospital Wing, we head to our usual hangout place. On our way there, we stop walking after hearing someone call us. It is Keith and Melanie. Strangely Milly isn’t with them. But then again, she has been acting strange lately.
“Is Michelle okay?” Keith asks us. You’re kidding me right? It takes Michelle to bleed for him to start talking again?
“Why you ask? You don’t need to know, its none of your business.” I lie to him, crossing my arms. Natalie and Tamara look at me like I just killed her. Just kidding. More like a why-the-heck-did-you-tell-them-that look. Keith and Melanie just look back. Not buying it.
“Seriously. Tell me how is she.” Keith says with a serious face.
I looked at him, keeping my arms crossed. “You didn’t seem to care two weeks ago.” Natalie and Tamara agree with me.
“Besides, I don’t think she wants to see you right now. Muchless talk to you.” Tamara says. Keith continues to look at us. Mostly me though. Then, Melanie loses. it.
“Listen, Mudblood. You better tell us whether Michelle is alright. Or else~” Melanie snaps.
“Or else what?”
We turn to hear the familiar voice. We see Michelle slowly walking over, keeping her eyes on Melanie. Face expressionless. Melanie eyes her sister up and down. There was dead silence “I had a bad feeling that something would happen while I was in the Hospital Wing. Guess I was right.” Michelle says expressionlessly.
“How did you get out of the Hospital Wing? Madame Pomfrey said you needed rest for the night.” Natalie asks.
Michelle keeps her gaze on Melanie. “Let’s just say. I got lucky.”
Keith didn’t say a word when Michelle arrived. He just stood there. Melanie finally decides to speak up. Breaking the awful silence. “How’s your arm, Michelle? That crazy lady using dark magic against a second year!” Melanie rages. Michelle gives a small smile while her sister is raging on.
“It still hurts, I lost a fairly good amount of blood. So I’m feeling a little woozy right now.” Michelle answers. Melanie just nods. Keith remains silent.
“Now, Melanie tell me what you were going to say to Jennifer?” Michelle asks.
“That she tell me how you were.” She answers.
Michelle continues to look at her. “Or else what?”
“Nothing.” Melanie lies.
Michelle sighs. “Alright but if I hear you threaten my friends again, we’re going to have a talk.” She warns her sister. Melanie looks down at the ground.
“Now is that all? Because I promised Madame Pomfrey I would get back as soon as possible.” Michelle asks. She is still a bit pale but way better than before. Melanie takes a step back next to Keith. Indicating there is nothing more to say. Keith stays silent. Michelle gives him a quick glance, then turns and leaves.
“See ya guys tomorrow. I’ll be playing.” Michelle waves goodbye while walking in the direction of the Hospital Wing.
When she’s gone I turn to Keith, “Wow. You ask us how Michelle is. But don’t have the guts to talk to her. Just wow.” I say with a bit of anger. He avoids my gaze.
I turn to Natalie and Tamara, “Come on. Let’s get out of here.” We all turn and walk away.
We’re about to turn a corner when I hear Wilma’s voice approach them. I just ignore it.