Lockers Full of Thorns

Chapter Eight: Benedict Ronald

*A/N: This chapter takes place concurrently to Blood on the Strings.*

Cho Chang was sitting on her bed, with Luna Lovegood lying down next to her. She wasn't used to having visitors in her room, so she'd cleaned. Given that Luna was wearing all of her clothes inside-out, though, she didn't figure the journalist would've noticed if there was a whole can of trash dumped on the floor.

Between the two girls was a sleek, silver laptop. Its edges may have been blunt, and its screen fragile, but it was their weapon of choice against Ron Weasley.

Cho ran her fingers over the sleek black keys, opening Discord with an effortless click of the track pad. Ron's profile picture - a red-capped garden gnome typing on a keyboard - had a small red circle next to it that Cho knew meant "do not disturb". She felt like she'd already crossed that line, though.

As she clicked open the Direct Messaging tab, she reflected on the different things Ron had done for her so far. First, she'd made him hack into her ex Michael's Google Drive and leak his journal to the whole of the school and the Internet. Then, she'd sent him to City Hall to dig up old dirt on the teachers - as it turned out, Mr. Flittwich had several DWI offenses, Coach McGonagall had been taken in for civil disobedience more than once, and Vice Principal Snape either was lying about his name or had never paid taxes. And most recently, last week, Ron had leaked the credit card numbers of everybody on Student Council - Cho had a personal vendetta against them, because she had missed out on being elected by a third of a percentage point.

Cho had really only planned on making Ron doxx Michael, because of how angry she'd been at Michael for breaking up with her. But Ron was such a willing subject, such an easily swayed marionette, that she was quickly becoming intoxicated with the feeling of yanking on his strings. It was like a puppet show, if the puppeteer was a manipulative psychopath who continually escalated the scope of her commands.

Speaking of which, what could they do today?

Luna spoke up. "So what are we going to do to him today?"

Cho frowned. She hadn't an idea. She wondered why Luna was even here - she'd kind of forced her way in, threatening to reveal both Cho and Ron if Cho froze her out, but so far she hadn't really done anything besides sit and giggle. Cho couldn't even recall a time she'd seen the two interact, although, to be fair, it had only taken one meeting for Ron to become quite impactful in her own life. Perhaps Luna had some secret affair of her own with Ron. Why did that thought make her kind of jealous?

"Bounce some ideas off me," Cho replied breezily, sweeping her hair out of her face.

"Well," Luna mused, chewing on her lip, "Ron hates spiders. So what if we blackmail him into taking out a 501(c)3 and starting a non-profit to raise spiders, but then make sure that he forgets to close the lid on the spider box one day and then they crawl out and into his pocket and hitchhike home with him and while he's sleeping they infest his closet and make webs everywhere and soon Ron's room will look like a deserted old tomb except absolutely chock full of spiders?" 

Cho paused for a moment, taking awe in the fact that Luna had said that all in one breath. "That might be...a little too...complex."

"If his room was an oatmeal cookie, the spiders would be the raisins," Luna tossed out.

"I don't think spider non-profit is the best plan," said Cho. At that moment, she heard the landline ring downstairs. "Hang on, I need to get this. I'm waiting for news on my interview with UNC-Raleigh."

She ran down the burnished cherry staircase and picked up the violently ringing landline. Unfortunately, it was a car loan dealer, and not an applications manager. After a tedious couple of minutes listening to their spiel, she made her way back upstairs.