Chapter 26: Schemes [From Phoebe’s POV]

It had been months since the school year began and Phoebe was already used to whispers and jeers from Caractaca Burke, Josette Rosier and Delilah Selwyn. Phoebe expected such treatment already years before heading to Hogwarts, when she learned why her father was distant with the main branch of the Greengrass family. Gareth Greengrass was disowned in all but name when he eloped with a French muggleborn witch a few years after he fell in love with her during an exchange in Beauxbatons. While Gareth succeeded in the ministry in his own right without any family backing, he never won back the affections of his conservative father, Mordred Greengrass. Phoebe and her parents only receive updates on her relatives through letters from Gareth's younger brother Agravain Greengrass, the current heir to the Greengrass House. Gareth did his best not to show it but Phoebe knew her father would be ecstatic the day her grandfather passed and Agravain inherited the House. Her father did not want to be heir. He just wanted to go home.

And as long as Mordred Greengrass breathed, Phoebe knew her surname served little as protection for her in the Slytherin dormitories. The first night, Caractaca already made a loud comment about how Slytherin's standards had dropped and she had to share a room with a half-mudblood and blood traitors. Phoebe responded with her usual poker face but was nonetheless glad she was rooming with a fellow blood-traitor, Rowena Rowle.

Although also a descendant to a Sacred Twenty-Eight family with relatives who were rumoured to have served the Dark Lord, Row came from a minor branch that had a history of mingling with Gryffindors, Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Her Ravenclaw godmother was a muggleborn witch and her father, Bartholomew Rowle, worked as a wiccan lawyer who specialized in wizard to muggle world transactions. Phoebe and Row were two peas in a pod in this fertile environment of pure-blood supremacy.

And Phoebe would have been more than happy to ignore the immature antics of Burke, Rosier and Selwyn by spending time with Row or her friends in the other houses. That was until she woke up to familiar sniggers of the three pure-blood supremacy poster girls and noticed Row was missing. Blood could be seen on her bed.

Phoebe went to the bathroom and found Row sobbing in a cubicle, hugging her legs close to her chest.

"What happened?"

"…don't ask, I don't want you to get dragged into this…."

Phoebe ignored Row's protests and noticed how hugged her legs extra tightly as she spoke. Phoebe pulled Row's hands off her feet and pulled up her pajama pants. Cuts could be found all over her legs, spelling out expletives such as "blood-traitor" and "mudblood lover". Phoebe proceeded to pull up Row's sleeves to find her arms in a similar state.

Phoebe recalled the Burkes' owned an unsavoury store in Knockturn Alley and Caractacta recently bragged about a new quill set she got from the mail. With Row having called out Caractacta for joining some third years' in their pranking of some muggle Hufflepuff first-years, it was obvious what this was all about.

"Professor Snape needs to know about this," Phoebe muttered.

"No! If he finds out and punishes Caractacta, she would know we told on her and use some harder to detect cursed object!"

Phoebe was about to chastise Row for not standing up for herself when she caught sight of some feet outside the cubicle. Someone, maybe Caractacta and her gang or her friends, was listening. Row may be a happy-go-lucky girl who loved to sing merry tunes but she was certainly a Slytherin who knew how to protect herself.

"You are right," Phoebe replied, before placing a firm hand on her friend's shoulder. The glint in her eyes told Row she was going to do something about it. Somehow.

---

"Twenty points for melting your cauldron and causing this fire Ms Burke! I expected better of you as a Slytherin."

All the Slytherins stared daggers at Caractacta Burke as she received a stern talking to from Snape. Slytherins were supposed to do well at potions – not only did they often get cheatsheets and tips from the higher years thanks to decades of having a potion master or another as a Head of House, but because Professor Snape always looked out for them. As long as they did at least a mediocre job, they were more than safe. However, melting a cauldron and almost burning down half the potions classroom was more than enough to make even Professor Snape drop any favouritism he had.

Caractacta Burke fumed at the despicable glares she received from her housemates. She was no fool. She was certainly not going to add anything less than five lionfish spines to her Wiggenweld Potion. But bloody Delilah Selwyn spun around to borrow her knife and knocked her over, causing only two lionfish spines to make it into her brew while some contents spilled out of her cauldron. The rest was history. Of course, Delilah was actively participating in the death glares at her to avoid any suspicions of her involvement in this potions disaster.

Caractacta swore she was having terrible luck these past few weeks. It started with minor things like not being able to get the book she needed from the library, or needing the loo but the bathroom had a ridiculously long line. However, it began to escalate. She crashed into Josette in flying class last week and yesterday she tripped on her way to her seat at the Slytherin table, crashing into Slytherin prefect Merula Snyde who ended up with pumpkin juice all over her robes. She also ruined Merula's makeup and from what she heard, Merula had a date that day. And it was not fun to be in the bad graces of the sixth year Slytherin prefect, who was making sure other older years were treating Caractacta like a pariah.

But Caractacta was certain she was not cursed. She came from the old House of Burke, which prided themselves as proprietors of the trade of dark artefacts for as long as Ollivander's had been selling wands in the streets of England. She wore a warded bracelet at all times and was drilled in all the 12 signs of knowing you were cursed since a young age. Caractacta pushed the thoughts of being cursed aside for now as she did her best to deal with the mess in front of her. Professor Snape was kind enough not to give her detention, but she was certain she was going to face much worse in the common room if she did not get her act together fast.

---

"Is it just me or is Simon napping a lot these days?"

Phoebe looked up from her copy of Political Intrigue in the Brazilian Ministry of Magic 1822-1889. Fred looked at his friends expectantly as none of them responded to his comment.

"I know I am not usually the one who points things out but isn't it odd Simon seems to nap half the time we hang out?"

"Apparently, Roger snores a lot in his sleep and Simon is a light sleeper. Honestly, I am just glad it was not me who was keeping him up!" George replied, continuing with his Transfiguration assignment.

"I guess Roger had been suddenly snoring a lot again," Cedric added, dipping his quill in his inkwell, "I swore Simon looked less like an inferi a few weeks ago."

"Maybe it comes and goes," George shrugged, "Also, is that book really that interesting, Phoebe? I thought you despised History of Magic. You are always doing other assignments in that class."

"I despise Binns, not the subject," Phoebe retorted, "You should read this sometime. The part about how republican Brazilian wizards used Macumba voodoo on those around Brazilian emperor Pedro I to make him look cursed without cursing him is quite fascinating."

Fred groaned something along the lines of "Slytherins and their love of curses" and promptly sealed his lips when he caught a devious smile from Phoebe. Madame Pince stood behind her with an annoyed expression on her face.

"Be loud one more time and out you go!"

"Yes ma'am," Fred and George responded robotically with a little salute as the librarian moved onto another table of rascals.

"Don't tell me you used voodoo on us," George whispered.

"No comment," Phoebe replied, returning to her book, "But honestly, you two are trouble magnets. I am not sure voodoo can add much more on your plate."

"Speaking of trouble," Fred muttered, "I swear Charlie stole my Ravenclaw tie."

George smirked, "Guess I am winning this week."

"No fair! We are not on the same playing field anymore!" Fred pouted.

"I am honestly surprised Charlie did not take your tie earlier," Cedric said, "You two's prank wars are really ruining Gryffindor and Ravenclaw's House Cup chances, regardless of the Gryffindor quidditch team's stellar performance this year."

"You are no fun Grandpa Diggory. House Points are gained to be lost," Fred grinned devilishly.

"Meanwhile, I make sure to earn back as many House Points for Ravenclaw as lost during the prank wars. So, none of the Ravenclaws had been after me yet."

"Wait, you do?"

George rolled his eyes at his twin, "Wow, you are really bad at maths."

As the twins bickered about the future of their prank war, Cedric waved at Simon who seemed to have returned from his slumber and was walking towards their table.

"How was the nap?" Cedric asked, ignoring the Weasleys' hushed discourse.

"It was good," Simon replied as Cedric and Phoebe both raised an eyebrow at his still relatively deep set and dark eyebags.

"Are you not telling us something," Phoebe asked.

Simon internally groaned. Of course, Phoebe noticed something.

He gave Fred and George a nudge.

"What if I have an idea that is a better prank than the prank wars?"