Defense Against The Dark Arts

The Woeful Curse on Rachel Elizabeth Dare

30th June 2023

Despite the song choice, I've never seen My Little Pony in my life. Enjoy the chapter!

We appear back in the bedroom, finding Percy still sitting on the end of the bed. "Hey Red," He grins, and she laughs and hugs him. I awkwardly stand to the side, because I don't know Rachel well enough to hug her, and if I did, it would have been better to have done so when we were in her room because doing it now would just be weird.

"You ok there Nico?" I nod my head quickly, realising the hug had finished whilst I was mentally deciding on the pros and cons of having that sort of huggy-platonic relationship that everyone else seems to have with someone. (Pro; Hugs, Con; Human interaction)

"Let's go."

We quietly make our way through the castle, me leading because I'm the only one that can actually see in the dark. The people in the portrait are all snoring softly, apart from something that resembles a hedgehog with wings (It's hard to tell whether its a mythical animal or just a bad painter), which is staring at us. I give it a little wave as we pass, but through the darkness I don't know if it can see us.

I freeze suddenly, as I notice a person slightly ahead of us, appearing to be talking softly to a portrait. I hold up my hand as Percy and Rachel stop too, confused glances at me and ahead.

"There's someone at the end of the corridor," I whisper as quietly as possible, more mouthing the words than speaking them.

I carefully wrap the shadows tighter around us, masking us from the stranger.

We all watch as the person laughs, and then they start walking down the hallway in our direction. I squint, the light footsteps curiously familiar. As the person comes closer, I am able to make out their face and-

"Selene?"

She screams, and I let the shadows fall from us before she thinks she is hallucinating.

"What the hell are you doing!" She yelps.

"I could ask you the same thing!"

She then seems to notice Rachel standing next to Percy. "Who's that?"

"Rachel Dare, nice to meet you," She says, stepping forward.

"Selene. You don't go here, do you?"

"Nope, just visiting."

"In the middle of the night?" Selene asks sceptically.

"Uh-"

"Rachel can't touch sunlight. It makes her start glowing green and speak in riddles," Percy says, completely straight faced, before I can come up with a plausible lie.

Rachel nods sadly. "We were hoping it would wear off, but it's been a few years now, and it's still there."

"Damn, that sucks," Selene says.

We all nod despondently.

"Rachels an artist," Percy suddenly says, "And she was going to help us vandalise the Great Hall. You want to join us?"

Selene's face brightens and she grins. "Sounds fun! Of course I do!"

So now there's four of us, carefully tiptoeing towards the Great Hall.

The main doors are shut, but not only do they look super heavy to open, they probably have one of those loud atmospheric creaks that comes hand-in-hand with a ghostly gust of wind and flickering lights, and so we avoid that entrance entirely and go around to the small side door. This one is quiet as I ease it open, and soon we're in the middle of the Great Hall, Rachel looking around with awe.

"Woah. That's a huge amount of diamonds." She's staring transfixed at the Hufflepuff's hourglass. "You know, there's this Rolls-Royce that was painted with paint created from diamonds."

"Okay, Rachel. Step away from the diamonds."

"What? Oh, I wasn't going to steal them or anything."

Sure.

"So what was your plan?" Selene quickly shifts the conversation.

"Oh, we hadn't planned that far," I easily admit. Rachel laughs, and Selene blinks.

"Something that makes a statement about something," Percy suggests. "Y'know, with the -" He flails his arms - "And the- with a bit of-."

I nod in agreement. "Exactly."

Rachel wrinkles her nose. "Sorry, I don't speak boyfriend. Translation?"

"WHAT!" Selene shrieks, and then slaps a hand over her mouth. "Since when were you dating?" She continues in a hushed voice.

I look at Percy, who looks at me. "Like, the exact date? I'm not that good with dates," I say, trying to mask the fact that I have no idea when our relationship started. (Definitely sometime in the summer. I can narrow it down to at least August)

"But before the term started, right?" Selene asks.

I frown and nod. "Look, if this is going to be a problem-"

"No, it's not!" She's quick to assure us. "I don't care. It's just - you didn't tell me?"

I wince. "Ah. Sorry"

"We just. Forgot," Percy adds.

Selene doesn't seem too impressed, but she lets Rachel change the subject back to our mission.

Eventually we decide on what to write, and then Rachel directs us where to put the paint, and then regrets letting me hold a can and so I just stand around and "Look pretty or make sure no one comes in or steal some diamonds or something, just not anything that involves paint!" It starts as a faint blobby scribble of the Hogwarts crest, and then with Rachel's talent and Selene's ability to make it move, a more detailed painting stands out from the wall.

Once the masterpiece is finished, we all stand back to admire it. The Hogwarts crest is the backdrop, the animals all in a vicious battle, biting each other so deep it draws blood, which drips into the phrase Blood is blood under the animals. All in all, it's a fairly disturbing image, if not effective and Rachel looks rightfully pleased with herself.

In small writing, or at least, as small as I can get it, using the tip of one of my throwing knives (The pointiest thing I could find in my pockets) as a brush, I write "are you convinced yet?" It's a subtle message for Draco, who probably won't notice it, but I'm still slightly affronted over our conversation in the Library. And yeah, only people who want to get caught sign their work, but it's an obscure enough reference to us that there isn't enough basis for accusation.

Percy huffs a quiet laugh when he sees what I've written, and although I can see the confusion in their eyes, Selene and Rachel don't ask about it.

"I have an idea, hang on-" Selene says, before waving her wand and muttering a few words of nonsense, and then etching tiny runes into the painting with my knife. "There. It shouldn't fade, be painted over, be transfigured into something else, shrunk, erased or covered up. It's pretty much permanent now."

"Awesome," Rachel mumbles quietly, and silently I agree.

"Well, my work here is done," she continues, and turns to me expectantly. "Not that I wouldn't love to explore this castle another time, but I probably should return now. I don't want anyone looking for me and only finding a pile of stones with eyes on them." I laugh and shadow travel her back to her home. When I get back to the hall, Selene is gone.

"She decided to head back to her dorm," Percy explains, and as we make our way back to our room, I realise that Selene never told us what she had been doing before we had stumbled across her.

Word count: 1225

Song: 20 Percent Cooler, Ken Ashcorp