I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up To No Good

[alt_ron]

Just so you know.

I told Percy that if he ever messes with me again, I'll make him wish he'd never held a wand.

Going to Defence now, though I don't know why. What good is it if the things you really need to defend yourself against, you can't? What a laugh that I'm turning in ten inches on shielding spells.

Comments

[alt_pansy]

I thought he did something. What was it, then?

[alt_ron]

Some compulsion hex.

It was obvious, wasn't it?

To everyone but me, that is.

[alt_pansy]

Well, you were under it at the time.

[alt_sally_anne]

Yes, exactly. The whole point of spells like this is you don't notice (well, you noticed with the hex that made you spend all day answering everyone who wrote anything in their journal. But even there you didn't notice right away.)

[alt_ron]

Yeah.

But this time's different. I mean, then it was someone who hates me that did it.

But Percy? Doing a spell like that to try to keep me

a spell that made me do stuff I wouldn't ever?

He wanted to make me do what he wanted

they both did--Nev and him

cause they thought they knew better than I do what I should do

or who I shouldn't talk to

And, y'know, I'm not Marvolo's friend anymore, but

he'll never have real friends if the people who

if people can't say what they think to him

if people can't even get hacked off when he acts like a berk

nothing was going to happen from my answering him back

did you even see what I said?

Percy didn't wait to see

neither did Nev

they just decided for me what I could do

I mean, maybe it was worth it to me to get a detention if that's what would've happened.

Just to tell him


whatever

[alt_neville]

I didn't decide anything for you. I had no idea Percy was going to do...whatever he did.

And I didn't do what I did because I thought I knew better than you. Maybe Percy did, but not me.

I did it because I was scared for you. Can't you see that?

[alt_ron]

Why were you scared, Nev?

Did you think I was going to threaten to kill him? Get myself arrested?

The most that was going to happen was I was going to get dumped on some more by Zabini and Malfoy and Patil. Or y'know, maybe they'd've decided to jump me in the corridor later like they did to Pansy and Sally Anne that time last year, but honestly? You were worried I'd say something daft in my journal to Marvolo? So you exploded feathers all over Transfiguration so I'd quit writing. And that's not thinking you know better than me what I should do?

[alt_sally_anne]

You know what I really can't believe is that BOTH of you were reading and writing in your journals during CARROW'S class. For Merlin's sake. Never mind what Patil and Zabini and Malfoy were going to do to you. Remember how Carrow cruciated Wayne Hopkins that time? You're both purebloods but he hates you both, he'd might have grabbed the opportunity to cruciate you for the pure fun of it if he'd noticed you had your journals out.

[alt_ron]

Yeah, well.

He was not really paying attention yesterday. Didn't seem like he was going to notice.

'Course, I've got Muggle Studies now, and she would notice, so, yeah.

[alt_neville]

I...I dunno. I'm not sure if I can explain it. It wasn't like I had all the time in the world to reason it out.

Maybe it's just that I've been flinching at everything lately. Since the news came out last summer, and with what happened to Evelyn's cat. And I expect you'll say that means I did what I did because I was thinking more of me than of you, but maybe I wasn't thinking at all. I just reacted.

Anyway, I already apologised. Don't know what else I can do. Sometimes friends just muck it up even when they're trying to help, all right? Anyone who knows me expects that of me anyway.

[alt_ron]

It's all right, Nev. Really.

I shouldn't have got so hacked off at you.

It's Percy and that spell I'm angry about. I keep feeling like someone's made my hair run the wrong way. All over. Even now. Ugh.

[alt_sally_anne]

Did he cast Imperius on you?

Because he could get in HUGE trouble for that. Since he's the Head Boy he could have cruciated you with no consequence if he'd had the stomach for it (well, except possibly for your Mum disowning him and then skinning him alive, muggle-style with a knife, when he got home for Christmas) but students are not allowed to use Imperius. Miss Professor Carrow went over the laws on it in class. There's licensing, sort of like with Cruciatus, though honestly what it boils down to is that if you're an important pureblood you can use it if you want and if you're not, you'll get in enormous trouble if you get caught and can't come up with a really, really good excuse.

[alt_ron]

I dunno.

I mean, how can you tell? I didn't even hear the spell.

[alt_gredforge]

Mmm. We've been thinking about it and talking it over. We bet is was something just short of Imperious. A compulsion hex, yeah. But our Big Head Boy is a big one for rules, ain't he? And he wants nothing better than to get some important suck up job at the Ministry after he leaves school. Probably wouldn't risk jeapordising that.

That doesn't mean Mum won't still make him into mincemeat.

[alt_sally_anne]

Well, apparently Imperius makes you feel really good, so if you don't remember feeling really HAPPY while you were apologising to everyone for everything, it probably wasn't.

[alt_ron]

I don't know. The thing is, it's all really fuzzy now.

Like yesterday was six years ago. I don't know if I slept last night or was just unconscious. Like blacked out.

[alt_neville]

I'm real sorry, Ron.

What happened exactly, do you know?

[alt_ron]

Like you don't know.

[alt_neville]

I don't! All I know is he asked me to get you to come speak with him. And, well, I thought it would be a good idea to, um, distract you from writing in your journal right then. And I got a detention for it. Remember?

[alt_lee]

Neville! Are you saying you wrecked the Transfiguration classroom on purpose?!

[alt_neville]

I didn't wreck it! It just had feathers all over it.

[alt_gredforge]

There's potential in you yet, Neville.

[alt_sally_anne]

You know, it takes a lot more skill than most people realise to make a spell go wrong on purpose. In precisely the way required to make the biggest mess possible.

So clearly you are a LOT better at Transfiguration than you think, Neville! LOADS better. I fully expect you to at least get an 'A' on that OWL.

[alt_lee]

Now I'm imagining the OWL examiners all covered with feathers....

[alt_ron]

Thank you so much for your 'help'.

Next time wait til I ask for some, yeah?

[alt_terry]

I'm not going to defend your brother. I've had spells like that put on me before and I didn't like it, not one little bit.

But it seems to me that Neville acted like a right Gryffindor. It takes a lot of nerve to deliberately cause mayhem in Master's classroom, just to try to head off a friend from getting himself into trouble by sniping with the Lord Protector's son (and I say that though I don't like him any better than you. Marvolo, I mean.)

[alt_lee]

What'd Marvolo ever do to you Terry?

[alt_terry]

Nothing. I doubt he even knows I'm alive.

But he's HIS son. And Hermio

[alt_ron]

Look.

It wasn't Neville's call what I should say in my own book or who I should say it to. Anymore than it was Percy's. That's mine to decide.

Who I talk to is my decision. And who I don't.

[alt_neville]

I'm really sorry, Ron.

[alt_ron]

Yeah, I know.

I just--

yeah

[alt_ron]

And that was pretty impressive in Transfiguration.

Did you see Finnigan when it exploded? I think he wet himself!

[alt_neville]

I had too many feathers in my eyes to notice!

[alt_ron]

Yeah.

[alt_terry]

It's a really good thing you're not a mudblood, you know, Ron?

Because I don't think you would have lived until your tenth birthday.

[alt_gredforge]

Whoa. That's...that's a mite harsh, Professor.

[alt_terry]

It's the bloody truth. If I had a friend who had saved my neck from dragonfire the way Neville saved Ron, I would have gotten down on my knees and kissed his feet. Once I'd come to my senses.

But then kissing feet---that's what mudbloods do.

[alt_gredforge]

Yeah, well, you're not a mudblood, remember?

Maybe we should have YOU wreck our revenge on Percy. Because he won't expect it coming from you.

[alt_terry]

I'll let you and Ron worry about revenge. It's a luxury people like me can't afford.

[alt_sally_anne]

He might have. But he'd be a different person. Really, really, really different.

I don't think I want to think too hard about what Ron would be like if he'd had to learn to survive with someone like Carrow as his master. Or with someone like Mr Peakes as a foster father, even.

[alt_gredforge]

Percy's a right prat, no doubt about it. Don't blame you a bit for wanting to hex him. Reckon that Dad will do worse than that.

We went and sat on him for awhile in the Common Room last night, trying to get him to admit what he did, but he's denying everything, smug as can be. And with those Dark Arts textbooks from Alecto Carrow sitting on the table next to him.

Mum's gonna make him into mincemeat filling for one of her pies.

[alt_gredforge]

We'll be happy to try to help you come up with some appropriate revenge. Big Head Boy is getting a bit too full of himself.

[alt_ron]

Maybe I'll feel like it by the time we get home.

Right now I just can't even think about having to be stuck at home with him until January.

[alt_sally_anne]

Don't think of it that way.

Think about how Percy's going to be stuck at home with you. And Fred. And George. For weeks. Where's HE got to escape to?

[alt_ron]

Yeah.

Thanks for that.