Harry Potter and the Monster Queen - Part Two
Been looking at Rowling's books. Did you ever notice how run-on-y her sentences are? It's very much against more modern writing styles, but it does make everything seem more whimsical. Thought I'd give it a try!
***
Vicky flew with Amy pressed against her chest and read the little sign hanging off a wooden post. A wooden post planted in the waters of the Bay where, just the day before, the Grand Administratorius stood.
"Invited to magic tournament. Be right back," she read aloud. Then her eyes noticed something a little smaller below the main text of the board. She floated a little closer, Amy's arms tightening around her neck as she did. "P.S. Take care of Behemoth for me."
The sisters stared at each other for a moment, then, with the kind of synchronicity only possible with close siblings, spoke at the same time. "Shit."
***
Snape was going to have the Weasley twins scrubbing cauldrons until their fingers were worn down into bloody nubs. Oh, the headmaster claimed that they were, probably, not responsible for the prank, but he knew better, they had been students at Hogwarts for half a decade and if he counted the number of hours wasted on the pair of them and their antics he could have...
He couldn't think of anything appropriate to do with such a staggering amount of time, probably discover a way to brew the Elixir of Life with nothing but a rusty pot and some flobberworm pus.
He was wasting even more time while trying to track the two teenagers through the castle. After Draco's little stunt with the badges that mocked the Potter boy, they had started to sell their own that encouraged the students to rally behind Taylor Hebert, only for the badges to layer an illusion atop any school robes that changed their appearance to that of the Beauxbatons uniform at the stroke of noon.
The female Beauxbatons uniform; regardless of the wearer's gender.
Some of his students looked far too comfortable in short skirts. If he had to spend a single minute more staring at Marcus Flint's curious expression as he swished his skirt he was going to skin the twins alive in the great hall and Dumbledore could eat his beard if he protested.
The responsibility of wrangling the brats had, through some unfortunate series of back door deals in the teacher's lounge, fallen upon him. He was going to find them, and he was going to wrangle the truth of this Taylor Hebert out of them. He still had a vial of Veritaserum lying around somewhere. He couldn't recall the exact side effect of ingesting the potion if it was nearly-expired, but he suspected he could live with the consequences.
If there
was a person called Taylor Hebert he would eat his hat.
It was a moot point either way. The weighing of the wands was supposed to take place in a few hours, and if they didn't show up there was a good chance the organizers would write it off as a prank.
He walked past a few Hufflepuffs holding fresh 'Go Taylor!' badges. They took one glance at his face, blanched, and ran off as though they had just had the opposite of a religious experience.
Robes swishing, Severus beelined towards the corridor where the twins had set up their little shop.
He heard the click of a door opening, but decided to ignore it in favour of imagining the screams the boys would make when he accidentally jammed their heads into boiling boil draft.
"Sorry, sir," said a young female voice off to his side. "Is this Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry?"
Snape stopped mid-stride, his robes swirling around him as he spun to face the girl that had spoken to him. His glare travelled up and down, taking in the white robes with multicoloured tassels on the fringes and the finely woven silvery thread shaped like tiny wings along her cuffs and lapels. Then he took in the crooked crown she was wearing and the guileless, innocent look fixed upon him.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Oh, right, I'm Queen Ad--" she cut herself off mid-word. "I'm Taylor, Taylor Hebert."
His eyes narrowed. There were two possibilities. Either she was telling the truth, which he found terribly unlikely, or this was a prank and he was going to have her join the other delinquents on cauldron-scrubbing duty. "Yes," he said, and if it came out as a sibilant hiss then no one reacted. "I'm sure you are."
"Um, thanks? I'm sure I am too," the girl replied as she looked over his shoulder and at the castle. "So, this
is Hogwarts, right?"
"Obviously," he said. "Who put you up to this? Did the twins find that ridiculous disguise for you?"
The girl blinked at him. "I haven't summoned them yet," she said.
He felt a twitch in his eye that made him want to reach for his wand.
"Hrm, looks kinda... drafty," she said before shrugging and reaching into her robes to pull out first one of those portable telephone devices, then a few wrapped chocolate bars before finally she pulled out a letter, placed it under her chin, and put everything else back where she'd found it. "I have this," she said as she handed the letter over.
Snape took in with a swipe. He couldn't believe that he was wasting his time with this, he thought as he snapped his wand into his hand, muttered a few incantations to make sure it wasn't a trap, then unrolled the letter.
"Dear Taylor Hebert," he read aloud before skimming the contents of the letter. He paused over Dumbledore's signature at the bottom with his collection of titles. It looked far, far too genuine for something the twins could pull off. And if they did learn how to fake the Supreme Mugwump's signature, then he looked forwards to changing continents. He looked up. "You're Taylor Hebert."
"I think I've said that, yeah."
He blinked. "Welcome to Hogwarts," he said.
The Hebert girl looked at the castle, then tilted her head to the side. "It's pretty, in an old-timey sort of way, I guess. Not really..." she made a gesture that he couldn't begin to decipher. He had long ago resigned himself to being unable and unwilling to understand teenage girls. "Shiny enough for a magical place, you know?"
Was the girl trying to say that Hogwarts was not magical enough for her tastes? She was most definitely some sort of fool, then. Even he had to admit that Hogwarts was the most magical place in Britain.
"Simmy, bring up the Grand Administratorius!" she said to the empty air.
Snape was going to label the girl as delusional when he felt a surge of magical power unlike anything he'd ever felt before. The ancient walls of Hogwarts creaked and groaned, the torches flickered and the wards hummed for a moment before everything quieted.
The Hebert girl nodded as if that had just confirmed something. "That seems to have worked."
***
Mucho thanks to
eschwartz and
ChaoticSky for making the story easier on the eyes.
Small chapter. Another should be out on Friday.
Oh, and a nod to
TheVampireStrahd who left me one of the nicest comments I've received in a while. This one's for you, mate!