Harry Potter's Friends Take Down Sirius Black's Obsessed Fans
4
****
The Sirius Black fan club was unofficially led by a fifth-year Ravenclaw named Elvira Vablatsky, who had been one of the first to latch onto Sirius – or attempt to – in about second year. She was a statuesque blonde girl with a pretty face and a keen mind, but her infatuation with Sirius made her a laughing stock with the rest of the school. Due to my spending a tidy amount of time in the Ravenclaw common room with Bea, I knew her reasonably well and as a result she tended to use me as a source of information for anything Gryffindor-related. I got along with her fine when she was focusing on things other than Sirius, but her one track mind generally made conversations with her rather difficult.
Over the past couple of years she had been joined by a few girls in our year – Carol Jones, a dark haired girl from Hufflepuff, and Greta Catchlove, a short, curvy and somewhat plump Ravenclaw, were the ones which most readily came to mind, though there were others. There were maybe eight girls from the year below us who had also joined in the throng – a couple or so from each of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and even a Slytherin who was trying her hardest to be subtle about it. Another half dozen or so came from the year below that, obviously figuring that two years was an acceptable age gap for at-school relationships. And I was pretty sure that at least three or four of the fan club came from sixth or seventh year, clearly happy going for a younger man.
James Potter had a fan club of his own, but it was significantly smaller – not because he was that much uglier, but because everyone knew he wanted Lily. The half dozen girls who had set their sights on him saw him as a much more of a challenge and therefore worth spending some time on. He was tall, dark and handsome, just as Sirius was (though maybe not quite as handsome), and rich, just as Sirius was, but the Lily thing was either a significant deterrent or a significant turn-on, depending on the girl. James, of course, was even less interested in his following than Sirius was in his and paid them even less attention, if that was possible.
"Of course, it'll be easy to get back at them," Martha said the following morning as she pulled on her school robes. "They're so obsessed with trying to get Sirius to notice them that you just have to attack their vanity. Make them ugly. They'll hate it."
"That won't be difficult," Lily mused. "With Greta and Carol, at least. They're pretty ugly to start with, we don't have to do much."
"Harder with Elvira, though," Charlotte pointed out, polishing her glasses on her robes. "She's a bit of a stunner, really. If she didn't keep throwing herself at him she might have even had a chance."
"Yeah, well," Martha said sourly, "don't let that stop you. She's going to have to be the main target, I think, considering she's basically the leader. Turn her hair to Murtlap tentacles or something, that'd do the job."
"Maybe not that," Lily said slowly, giving her wand a bit of a twirl, "but certainly something along those lines . Leave it with me and I'll see what I can come up with."
Over the next twenty-four hours Lily, Charlotte and Martha decided on their course of action. They picked as their targets the most prominent members of the club, namely Elvira, Carol Jones, Leda Madley, Greta Catchlove and, from fourth year, Primrose McLeod. Leda and Carol were both Hufflepuffs and the rest were in Ravenclaw, so there needed to be a bit of a combined effort to make sure they were all affected.
The prank itself took place in the Great Hall and was carried out by Lily and Charlotte, so that Martha could be witnessed sitting innocently at the Gryffindor table talking to Mary and me (on Lily's request) so everyone would think she had nothing to do with it. Lily and Charlotte positioned themselves on either side of the door before breakfast the next morning and simply waited for their targets to walk in. As each one arrived, they suddenly became royal blue from head to toe, except for their faces which were bright pink and developed an interesting texture, rather like coarse sandpaper. The prank necessitated absolute accuracy in spell casting, as they had to be sure not to miss their targets, but Lily and Charlotte were both fairly precise and managed to carry it off without mishap.
The victims, on the other hand, were less than impressed, especially as none of them could seem to work out how to reverse the spells. Even Greta, who was best in our year at Charms, couldn't figure out how to do it. In THE END
****
The Sirius Black fan club was unofficially led by a fifth-year Ravenclaw named Elvira Vablatsky, who had been one of the first to latch onto Sirius – or attempt to – in about second year. She was a statuesque blonde girl with a pretty face and a keen mind, but her infatuation with Sirius made her a laughing stock with the rest of the school. Due to my spending a tidy amount of time in the Ravenclaw common room with Bea, I knew her reasonably well and as a result she tended to use me as a source of information for anything Gryffindor-related. I got along with her fine when she was focusing on things other than Sirius, but her one track mind generally made conversations with her rather difficult.
Over the past couple of years she had been joined by a few girls in our year – Carol Jones, a dark haired girl from Hufflepuff, and Greta Catchlove, a short, curvy and somewhat plump Ravenclaw, were the ones which most readily came to mind, though there were others. There were maybe eight girls from the year below us who had also joined in the throng – a couple or so from each of Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and even a Slytherin who was trying her hardest to be subtle about it. Another half dozen or so came from the year below that, obviously figuring that two years was an acceptable age gap for at-school relationships. And I was pretty sure that at least three or four of the fan club came from sixth or seventh year, clearly happy going for a younger man.
James Potter had a fan club of his own, but it was significantly smaller – not because he was that much uglier, but because everyone knew he wanted Lily. The half dozen girls who had set their sights on him saw him as a much more of a challenge and therefore worth spending some time on. He was tall, dark and handsome, just as Sirius was (though maybe not quite as handsome), and rich, just as Sirius was, but the Lily thing was either a significant deterrent or a significant turn-on, depending on the girl. James, of course, was even less interested in his following than Sirius was in his and paid them even less attention, if that was possible.
"Of course, it'll be easy to get back at them," Martha said the following morning as she pulled on her school robes. "They're so obsessed with trying to get Sirius to notice them that you just have to attack their vanity. Make them ugly. They'll hate it."
"That won't be difficult," Lily mused. "With Greta and Carol, at least. They're pretty ugly to start with, we don't have to do much."
"Harder with Elvira, though," Charlotte pointed out, polishing her glasses on her robes. "She's a bit of a stunner, really. If she didn't keep throwing herself at him she might have even had a chance."
"Yeah, well," Martha said sourly, "don't let that stop you. She's going to have to be the main target, I think, considering she's basically the leader. Turn her hair to Murtlap tentacles or something, that'd do the job."
"Maybe not that," Lily said slowly, giving her wand a bit of a twirl, "but certainly something along those lines . Leave it with me and I'll see what I can come up with."
Over the next twenty-four hours Lily, Charlotte and Martha decided on their course of action. They picked as their targets the most prominent members of the club, namely Elvira, Carol Jones, Leda Madley, Greta Catchlove and, from fourth year, Primrose McLeod. Leda and Carol were both Hufflepuffs and the rest were in Ravenclaw, so there needed to be a bit of a combined effort to make sure they were all affected.
The prank itself took place in the Great Hall and was carried out by Lily and Charlotte, so that Martha could be witnessed sitting innocently at the Gryffindor table talking to Mary and me (on Lily's request) so everyone would think she had nothing to do with it. Lily and Charlotte positioned themselves on either side of the door before breakfast the next morning and simply waited for their targets to walk in. As each one arrived, they suddenly became royal blue from head to toe, except for their faces which were bright pink and developed an interesting texture, rather like coarse sandpaper. The prank necessitated absolute accuracy in spell casting, as they had to be sure not to miss their targets, but Lily and Charlotte were both fairly precise and managed to carry it off without mishap.
The victims, on the other hand, were less than impressed, especially as none of them could seem to work out how to reverse the spells. Even Greta, who was best in our year at Charms, couldn't figure out how to do it. In THE END
