Kit: The Girl Marauder

Slytherins: Hexes and Curses

Scarlet was chasing Snitch around the Black Lake when her sister appeared. "You need to study." she said.
"Classes haven't even started yet." Scarlet replied, but Faith wasn't listening.
"What's the spell to transform a ferret into a goblet? What's the spell to make objects levitate? How do you brew the Drought of Living Death?" She continued on with more questions. Scarlet tried to reply, but she didn't know the answer to any of the questions. Snitch had begun to ask her questions about dog food and above her James appeared on a broom stick quizzing her on the rules of Quidditch. Scarlet's mind was racing and she tried to run from everyone, but when she tried it was as if she ran around the world and back because no matter how far or in which direction she ran she ended up back where she started. Then they started yelling questions at her, not comprehending that she didn't know the answer to any of them. She finally gave up, sitting down on the ground and bring her knees to her face as they bombarded her with question after question. Camilla appeared and came kneeling down beside her. She put her hand on Scarlet's shoulder and gently rocked her back and forth saying, "Scarlet. Wake up Scarlet! SCARLET WAKE UP!"

Suddenly Scarlet bolted upright, she was back in her comfy bed in the Hufflepuff girls dormitories.
"Thank goodness." Scarlet said as she looked at Camilla standing beside her, giving Scarlet a confused looked. "What?" Scarlet asked.
Camilla shook her head, "Nothing just get ready our first class starts in 30 minutes." Scarlets eye grew wide.
"Oh no! I missed breakfast!" She grabbed her robes and ran to the bathroom coming out five minutes later brushing her untamable hair and trying to put it in a ponytail. She shoved on her shoes, grabbed Camilla, who was already dressed and ready to go, and dragged her down the stairs, out the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room and up to the Great Hall.

The two girls were running towards the double doors of the Great Hall just as the four boys were coming out after eating breakfast. "I wonder why Scarlet didn't show up." James said.

"Yeah you think she would show up because she was the one that told us to meet her here." Remus stated.

"Look!" Sirius was pointing to two figures on the stairs in front of them, which came barreling towards them knocking Sirius and James on the floor. There were four simultaneous ow's as Remus and Peter looked at the group on the floor. Sirius' arms were tangled with James' and Scarlet and Camilla had landed on top of the two boys' legs. Camilla had her hand in Scarlet's ponytail and Scarlet was laying across Camilla's stomach. It took the four of them a few minutes to sort out their limbs and get off the ground.

Remus handed Scarlet a piece of paper, "Where have you been? We thought you decided to ditch us."

"No I would never do that. I just slept in by accident." she looked at the paper seeing her schedule. She saw that her first class was Herbology with Professor Sprout and she had it with the Slytherins. Scarlet showed it to Camilla who looked at it and deflated immediately.

"Not the Slytherins." she said dejectedly.

"Don't worry. At least we'll have each other right?" Scarlet tried to cheer her up.

"You're right it's no big deal. We can do this." Camilla looked down at the watch on her wrist. "We'll have to hurry if we want to make it on time." she showed Scarlet the time. They said bye to the four boys and ran towards Professor Sprout's green house while the boys went towards the dungeons for Potions.

The two girls burst into the green room gathering attention from all the Hufflepuff and Slytherin first years just as Professor Sprout entered the room. They took their seats next to a girl with wild black hair and blue eyes and a blonde girl with gray eyes talking animatedly to each other.

"Did you see Lucius when he showed me around the common room, Belatrix? He was such a gentleman!" Said the blonde haired girl.

"I did. he's so cute. How old did he say he was again, Narcissa?" Asked Belatrix as Professor Sprout put an odd looking plant in front of them. The girl called Narcissa looked down examining it.

"He said he was a third year so I'd say about 13 or so." Scarlet had tuned out of the conversation at that point looking at Camilla and smirking. She couldn't believe that on the first day here those girls were already talking about guys like that.

Scarlet then turned her attention to the plant that was in front of her. She heard a small humming from it as the Professor spoke. "Hello class, I am Professor Sprout." she said looking at everyone, "I am your Herbology teacher. Now I've placed some plants in front of you that I advise you not to touch until I've given you the proper instructions. Can anyone tell me what this plant is?" Scarlet raised her hand immediately. She had read up on Herbology and most all her other subjects as well over the summer. The Professor pointed to her, "Ah yes, what's your name child?" She asked.

"Scarlet Zapra ma'am. And that," Scarlet indicated the plant, "is a mandrake."

"Very good Ms. Zapra, and can you tell me what it does?" She took a moment and thought, recalling all she had learned about the screaming plant.

"Yes. A mandrake, also known as mandragora is a Mediterranean plant and part of the Nightshade family. It is commonly used in medicine and magic and supposedly screams when you uproot it." She said and Professor Sprout was impressed.

"Very good. Now students please put on the earmuffs I gave you and make sure they are on nice and tight. Wouldn't want any of you passing out on me now would we?" The students all put on the earmuffs. "Now grab the mandrake firmly by the roots and pull." They all uprooted at once and even through the earmuffs Scarlet could still hear the screaming though it didn't affect her. "Now put the plant in the pot of soil next to you and cover the roots with the dirt!" The Professor was yelling now trying to be heard over the wailing sound the mandrakes were producing. They all did as they were told and the screaming died away, except for a young girl in Hufflepuff house who was trying to put the mandrake in the pot, but for some reason couldn't. Scarlet heard snickering next to her and saw Belatrix with her wand pointed to the girl, Narcissa laughing next to her.

"What are you doing?" Scarlet asked them. They paid he no mind and went back to messing with the girl.

"We're just having some fun." they said laughing as they watched Camilla and then Professor Sprout go to help the girl.

"You shouldn't do that it's not nice. That girl did nothing to you." Scarlet defended the girl, but the two girls just continued on with what they we're doing and completely ignored her. "I said to stop." Scarlet said again in a more serious tone than before. Quite frankly, she was getting annoyed with the girls. Belatrix returned her statement with a glare.

"Well, what are you going to do about it?" She asked, "It's not like you can do anything to stop us. You probably don't even know any spells yet. Well, I can tell you, I know tons of hexes and curses that I could use on you and no one would be the wiser. Don't get in our way again or maybe next time I won't let you off with just a warning." Belatrix released the spell and the girl was able to put the mandrake in the pot finally stopping the screams. Professor Sprout looked puzzled but happy that the plant was back where it was supposed to be.

"Well," said Professor Sprout, "I guess that will be all for today. Have a good day class. You are dismissed."

Scarlet and Camilla grabbed their things and were the first ones out of the green house and into the nice, cool, September air. They headed up to the castle for their next class, Scarlet still having what Belatrix said to her swirling around in her head. Camilla noticed this and asked, "What's on your mind? You seem uneasy."

"It's nothing. Just something that girl sitting next to me said. She was the one messing with the mandrake back there and when I told her to stop she said, 'I know tons of hexes and curses I could use on you and no one would be the wiser.' it just scared me a bit I guess." Scarlet confessed and it was true. She knew a lot of spells too, but none that would actually help in a fight if she ever got into one. She just hadn't thought that she would need to learn those kinds of spells yet.

"Don't let her get to you. She was probably just saying that to make you scared so you wouldn't mess with her anymore. She probably doesn't even know any hexes or curses let alone charms. You'll be fine, I promise."

"Well, alright I'll take your word for it, but if she really was just saying that to get me scared. It's working."