Through the Eyes of a Mercutio

Chapter 2

Transfer-Girl Cometh

"You satisfied?" I demanded, as Luke, Chad, Dom and Tommy made their way down the boys' staircase the next morning. "Get enough sleep, did you? While I suffered from sugar deprivation?"

"Give it up, Cait," Tommy said, grinning. "You're not getting anywhere with these two."

I shrugged. "So, you feeling normal this morning?" I asked Luke. "Over your obsession with evil-Malfoy-transfer-girl?"

Luke gave me a look that told me he was about to prove a point. I waited for it to come. "First of all," he began seriously. "She's not evil, even if she is a Malfoy. Second, I am not over her, and third, she is not an obsession. Lastly, you need help." He looked at me in a proud sort of manner.

I stared at him. "I don't need help. I'm quite fine, thanks. It's you who needs help, I think." Chad and Tommy gave small nods in support.

Luke raised an ambiguous eyebrow and shook his head, smiling slightly. "Let's go."

As I spooned the last of my cereal into my mouth at breakfast, the post owls arrived. I spotted my father's large eagle owl soaring down toward Dom and I, bearing a paper-wrapped parcel.

I grinned as I tore the brown wrapping off of it, and opened the box, revealing just what I had expected: chocolate éclairs.

"My father is a wonderful man," I declared, picking up an éclair. "A wonderful, wonderful man."

Suddenly a teacher dropped a course schedule in front of me. I glanced at it and groaned.

"Double Potions with the Slytherins first thing," I complained. "Followed by Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Well that's all right, I suppose. Haven't seen old Lupin in ages. But Double Potions... oh the horror!"

Chad, Luke, Tommy, and Ashley all groaned loudly. Reluctantly, we all gathered up our things, and made our way down to the dungeons, where Professor Severus Snape was waiting for us. He was looking murderous, to say the least, glowering at me as I entered the room, even though I hadn't done anything wrong - yet. Snape and I went way back, since I was five. We had developed an instant dislike for each other, and the first time I ever met him, I had kicked him in the shin. My father had laughed appreciatively at this, and I still regard it as my finest moment. Evidently, Snape has never forgotten this. Oddly enoughPotions was one of my best subjects, though with Snape as a teacher, far from my favorite. I think that's why he hated me, because I was good at it.

Snape disappeared into his storage room, and Benicio, who had just arrived himself, took the opportunity to provoke me.

"Move out of the way, Black, you're making the dungeon even darker than usual." He smirked as his cronies sniggered appreciatively.

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, but that's not good enough to get me to kick you."

"Shove off, Malfoy," Chad said reprovingly.

"Tut, tut, Weasel. Don't boss the high and mighty and beautiful."

I kicked him hard in the shin. He made a grunting sort of noise and clutched his leg, hopping on one foot.

"Lying is worthy of my foot making contact with your slimy body," I spat. "You are not in any way beautiful, darling."

"Hey," said a soft voice. "What's going on?"

I looked up to see none other than the newest Malfoy addition to Hogwarts. She was frowning at me.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't transfer-girl herself," I said smugly. "So, tell us, is it embarrassing, being related to this blubbering mass of humanity? Or is it just annoying?"

She continued to frown as she reached a hand out to Beni. "You alright?"

"Of course," he said smoothly. "She's only a Black."

"Oh, you're going to pay for that one later," I assured him, cracking my knuckles. Chad rolled his eyes. Luke wasn't paying any attention to anything except transfer-girl.

"Whatever you say," Beni snickered. He glanced at transfer-girl. "I don't believe you've met my cousin. This is Rosalyn. She just transferred from Todt's Academy on Boston."

Rosalyn gave a weak smile.

Beni continued with a dubious glance at us. "This is Black, Potter and Weasley."

"Word has it that you're Draco's kid," I said raising my eyebrows.

She nodded.

"That explains a lot." I wanted to laugh my head off.

Luke looked disgusted with me. "Cait! Don't be so cold and evil. It's so unlike you."

I detected huge amounts of hidden sarcasm.

He stuck out a hand. "Sorry about her. She's jealous because you're so pretty."

I opened my mouth in indignation. Chad slapped his hand over it before I could get out a word.

"I'm Luke Potter."

Rosalyn smiled and made to shake Luke's hand, but Beni intervened. Best thing he's ever done, in my opinion.

"Ah, no," he said bluntly, stepping between Luke and Rosalyn. "I don't think so, Potty. Rosie, don't go getting mixed up with that sort. He's a Potter for crap's sake!"

"Malfoy, this is the only time I will ever agree with you, but I also have to interfere," I said, pushing Luke backwards and stepping between them as well. "Cait Black, by the way, lovely to meet you," I added to Rosalyn. "But young Luke must be off. He's got lots of Potions homework he hasn't done, and many things to learn from Yoda." Chad and I led him away over to a table in the back corner.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded, not me, but Chad, looking incredulously at Luke. "What's gotten into you, mate? You can't just go messing with a Malfoy."

"Well said, Chadwyck, old bean," I said, hooking my thumbs around imaginary suspender straps.

"What's wrong with you two?" Luke cried exasperatedly. "Everything was going fine until you intervened!" He looked angrily at me.

"Hey, I was protecting your sanity," I protested, holding my hands in the air. "You were falling all over her! And you insulted me!" I added resentfully.

"Alright, that's enough," Snape said, gliding out of his office. "Black, Potter, be quiet. Both of you, in your seats, now.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm going, I'm going," I drawled, dropping my bag beside my desk and plopping into my chair.

Half way through the lesson Snape already had us at our cauldrons, preparing the ingredients for an extremely complicated potion that would require three days to make. I let out my breath in a long, low sigh as I crushed a manticore horn in my bowl. Chad was setting up his things beside me, and Luke was doing the same across from us. Chad and Luke were casting occasional glares at each other. I rolled my eyes.

"Guys, give it a rest, will you?" I complained. "I'm the one who should be glaring. Just talk or something to make me feel better."

"I don't have to talk if I don't feel like it," declared Luke sourly.

"For crap's sake, stop pouting like a two-year-old," I said, rolling my eyes again. "Just nix the flirting with Transfer-girl and all will be right in the world."

"Hey, I was just trying to be nice when you guys started attacking her and me," Luke said defensively. "You in particular, though I shouldn't expect any less."

"Oh, quit acting like such a victim," I shot back, annoyed. He was such a little whiner! "Get over yourself, will you? Get over her, too, while you're at it. Come on, you're no fun anymore! What happened?"

"I grew up, Cait," Luke retorted. "Something you've been avoiding for seven years."

"Excuse me?" I said, taken aback. "At least I'm not the one who ogled over some girl who didn't even know I existed until I found another one to ogle over! At least I know my priorities in life."

"Alright!" Chad yelled, throwing his hands in the air. "That's enough, both of you!"

"Well, at least I -" Luke began , but Chad cut him off.

"No! Bad! No mas! No muy bien! Muy mal! Niños males!"

"Chadwyck, I don't care how "fluently" you speak Spanish, don't discipline us in it!" I said in mild exasperation.

"I second that motion," Luke agreed.

"What about Spanglish?"

"What the bugger is Spanglish?" I asked.

"A cross between Spanish and English," Chad explained. "You just fill in the words you don't know in Spanish with English. Never mind."

Luke and I exchanged glances and stared at Chad for a moment before we all burst out laughing.

I've noticed something interesting about our friendship. Chad and I always said sorry to each other, and so did Luke and Chad, but Luke and I have never actually exchanged apologies. We always seemed to come to some sort of silent understanding and push our arguments to the side. As I look back on it later, I wish I had apologized, but, being me, I refused to put a price, even that of life, on my pride.

We all climbed the dungeon stairs towards lunch, grumbling irritably about the essay we were assigned on the Dermatoin potion. I dumped my bag and dragged my feet to the Great Hall, where I plopped down beside Chad, greatly anticipating my turkey sandwich.

"There's my other half," said a voice from my right. "My better half, of course."

I turned to see a mop of curly, blonde hair, a mischievous smile and a pair of bright blue eyes gazing back at me.

"Jenson!" I cried happily. "Great to see you, mate!" I slugged him playfully on the shoulder. "Didn't see you on the train."

"Nah, I didn't feel like riding it this year. I just Apparated to Hogsmeade and then walked over with James Prewett." He grinned.

Jenson Bryon: my partner in crime. During the Quidditch season, he really was my other half, as we were the Gryffindor Beaters. Yes, I was a female beater, and let me tell you, I'd worked bloody hard to become so, finally making the cut in fourth year. Anyway, Jenson Bryon was a beautiful specimen of a human being. He was tall, lean, and muscular, with perfectly sculpted arms, a personal favorite of mine, and abs of steel. He was in high demand by the females of Hogwarts, second only to Luke. He was gorgeous, and I should know; I've seen him with his shirt off. ::wink wink::

"So," he said, helping himself to one of my pickles. "I hear our Luke's gone and found himself a new strumpet to worship. Who do we have to follow around this time?"

Man, news gets around fast in this school. I rolled my eyes. "You heard right, but apparently not the worst of it. We've got to trail Malfoy."

Jenson stared at me. "Luke's in love with Benicio?" He looked horrified.

I burst out laughing, disturbingly hilarious images forming in my mind. "No, you prat! It's Beni's cousin! The new girl who everyone thinks is a veela."

"Ohhhh, right," he said. "Good, 'cause that's just messed up. Well, what's your plan of action?"

I scowled. "Chad hasn't granted me time enough to formulate one yet."

"I what huh what?" Chad said turning around. "Oh, hey Jens. How are you, mate?"

"Eh, I'm alright," Jenson replied, grinning. "And yourself?"

"Can't complain," Chad said jovially. "So what dirty things are you saying about me, Caitlin?"

"Oh, all of them," I replied. "Nah, we're just discussing Luke's new obsession."

"I hear it's becoming a bit of a problem," Jenson said.

Chad gave me a reproving look. "Look here, Cait. Just give it a rest. Lay off him for a while. You're driving him mad."

"Well, I wasn't the one who blew up at him first thing in Potions," I said defensively.

"True, although you were right on my heels. I just beat you to the chase on a lucky chance. But no, really, quit bugging him for a while."

I shook my head. "Chadwyck, Chadwyck, Chadwyck, do you not realize what may happen if we let him cast in his lot with a Malfoy? It'll be the end for all of us. The Apocalypse is rushing toward us! The Call of the Reckoning surrounds us! My fantasy Doomsday calls my name, demanding my soul as compensation for my debt!"

"Cait -"

"The Tribulation has come to test us, to persecute our souls until the end!"

"Cait!"

"Yes?"

"The bell rang."

"Oh, right."

**

"Very good, Miss Black," Professor McGonagall commented, admiring what had previously been a chair. It was now a large hedgehog, roughly 4 ft. long from snout to tail. "Full marks. I see you haven't lost your touch over the summer."

"Thank you, Professor," I replied before she moved on to help one of the Ravenclaws, who had gotten himself into quite a mess. "I think I'll call him Spiny Norman."

"How did you do that?" asked Jenson, obviously very confused. His chair, I had noticed, had turned green and grown a green tail and a number of bright purple horns that stuck out at odd places. I stared at the deformed creature with a strange sense of pity.

"Uh, Jenson, what exactly were you trying to, uh, turn that into?" I asked concernedly.

"Well, um, I think I was kind of aiming for a komodo dragon, but it sort of turned into Barney gone bad.

A komodo dragon in a classroom? Brilliant, that one.

"Here," I said, flicking my wand at his chair, which went back to normal. "Start over."

"Hey!" he cried, looking horrified. "What'd you do that for?"

"You really think you'd have gotten decent marks for that demented creation?" I asked, with one eyebrow raised. "Now start over. Try a turtle or something."

"Ehhhhhhng," he whined.

"Oh, come on, you baby," I said, casting him a slightly amused glance. "It's not that hard."

"Yes it is," he complained. "You do it for me."

"No."

"Please?" He made a puppy-dog face. It was so hard to turn down those big pretty blue eyes, but...

"No." I couldn't hold back a smile.

"Poop," he groaned. "What do I do?"

"You're a big boy. You can figure it out," I said encouragingly.

"No, I can't," he whined. "Help me! Please?" He made the puppy face again, but this time a shadow of a smile played his face. He batted his eyelashes. "Please Caitie?" He was one of the few people who ever called me Caitie (or was allowed to, for that matter), and he only used it when he really wanted something.

I made the mistake of looking over at him, and suddenly became completely immersed in his eyes. They were so blue...

"Oh, fine," I relented, rolling my eyes. In truth, I had no objection whatsoever to helping him. I just had to give him a hard time. "But just out of pity."

By the time the bell rang Jenson had managed to turn his chair into a decent turtle, with only minimum help from me. We made our way to the third floor with Luke, Chad, Ashley and Tommy, all of us thinking of nothing but dinner. Lupin's room was warmer than the rest of the castle, which was a welcome detail, considering that it was unusually cold for September. I dropped into a seat between Ashley and Chad and began digging through my bag in search of something to eat.

"Eureka!" I announced quietly to myself, unearthing a bag of gummy worms. I popped on into my mouth, sucking all the sugar off the outside and savoring the flavor before mutilating the remnants with my teeth. I glanced at my friends, satisfied that they hadn't seen me. If they had, I'd be out of gummy worms before you could say bugger.

Lupin stepped up onto the pedestal. "Welcome back, class," he said, smiling warmly. "I never thought I'd see the day when most of you would graduate." He smiled at our row in particular. "Anyway, this year, we will be focusing primarily on curses, potions, and disguise. I know many of you plan on attending the Auror Academy after you graduate -"

"Like me," I said cheerfully.

"Yes, Cait, like you. But the Academy greatly stresses these three aspects of dark activity. So, let's start off with a little review. What is the most common form of unaided disguise?"

A Ravenclaw raised her hand. "A masking charm."

Lupin nodded. "Five points to Ravenclaw. Next, what is the most reliable form of unaided disguise?"

Chad raised his hand. "Animagus transformation."

"Correct," Lupin said. "Five points to Gryffindor. Which potion, when drank by a disguised individual, will reveal his true identity?"

Oh, oh! I knew this one! I raised my hand.

"Cait?"

"Tructacacus," I said happily in a sort of sing-song voice. Why was I in such a good mood?

"Right. Five points to Gryffindor."

Yay! For once I earned points the first day instead of losing them!

**

"I love dinner!" I said jovially as I swallowed a bite of pot roast.

My friends all stared at me.

"Cait, are you alright?" Chad asked, a concerned expression on his face.

"Of course!" I replied. "Why ever would I not be?"

"Um, okay," he said slowly.

"Cait, why are you so happy?" Ashley asked with a raised eyebrow. "Are you drugged, or what?"

"I have no idea," I said. "I just feel happy. Maybe I'm just glad to be back. Maybe I just like you guys."

"What are you smoking?" Tommy asked.

"Well, hey, you should just be glad that I'm not trying to kill you all," I said, pointing my fork at him. "Oh my gosh! Know what we should do tonight?"

"No, what?" Luke asked dubiously.

"Go down to the kitchen, round up a few dozen butterbeers, and have a grand ole' time."

"You've gone mad," Jenson said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Although, I hardly object to the butterbeer part."

"But wait, I'm not done yet!" I said. "Then we grab our pitchforks and go Benicio hunting!"

"No hunting for you tonight," Chad said.

"Alright then, I suppose I'll just prepare my hunting weapons," I said, shrugging.

"I have one of your Egyptian daggers, by the way," Dom piped up.

"That's where it went!" I exclaimed. "I looked all over for that before we left! You little thief!"

"You know, I find it curious that the teachers let you bring knives, daggers, and swords to school," said Chad's younger sister, Riley.

I grinned mischievously. "They don't know."

"There you are, my beautiful darling," I murmured, spotting the handle of my Jacques Luc French rapier. I withdrew the sword from the bottom of my trunk and whipped off the scabbard. I ran my finger along the blade. "A little dull aren't you? Oh well, no matter, really."

"Cait, you're talking to your sword," Ashley said, raising an eyebrow in my direction.

"Now, now, Ashley. Swords deserve the same love, care and devotion as people," I said reasonably, digging around for my wet stone. "Just as do daggers, potions, and dogs."

"Uh-huh," Ashley said skeptically. "That's a diverse list, isn't it?"

"Diversity is what's holding our society together," I explained. "You'll notice that when you try to uniform a society, it collapses. Look at Nazi Germany, or Soviet Russia, or Communist China. It's communist ideas of "equality" that brought them down!"

"But Communist China still exists," Ashley protested.

"So does the American Public Education System, and I can't think of anything more communist than that. I mean, if you go back and look at John Dewy's "education reform", you clearly see the liberal humanist's plans to train all the young American children that totalitarianism is the key to -"

"Uh, Cait -"

"But then you look at our own society and realize that we are well on our way to the same pragmatically based fate!"

"Cait! Go swordfight with Chad," Ashley commanded, grinning and shaking her head.

"I challenge you to a duel, Chadwyck old boy!" I exclaimed, jumping in front of Chad with my sword outstretched. He shrugged and pulled a sword out of the coat of arms hanging on the wall.

"Well, then, I accept," he replied, bowing graciously. We spent a few minutes "dueling" before Mr. "I'm-so-high-and-mighty-bow-down-to-me-unworthy-slaves" started disciplining us from behind.

"I've told you before, you two," Brandon said regrettably. "That's too dangerous for Common Room behavior. I don't want to have to write you up."

I rolled my eyes and turned to face him, placing my sword tip between his eyes. His pupils constricted as he stared, cross-eyed, at the steel point.

"Wait, uh, Cait, I, uh, I'm sure, uh," he stumbled backing up a little.

"So where exactly in the rule book does it ban sword fighting? I'd really like to know." I held the blade still, as Brandon just mouthed wordlessly. I grinned sourly.

"That's what I thought," I said, exchanging bemused glances with Chad and Luke. I lowered my sword. "Now shove off you little communist."