Sally-Anne Perks

Sally-Anne Perks

Chapter Two

The Snake, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Over the next couple of weeks at Malfoy Manor, there was various visitors coming and going, staying for just a meal or for the whole day. Frequent visitors were Draco's gorilla friends, Crabbe and Goyle. Among others were witches and wizards, who Sally-Anne didn't know, these people generally kept anomalous with their secret meeting elsewhere with her uncle. Tonight Severus Snape, an old friend of Uncle Lucius and a wizard acquainted with Sally-Anne the previous year was arriving for a dinner party, which comprised of many other guests as well.

Sally-Anne was in her guestroom, well, she'd been in this room quite a lot, so it was more of a second bedroom to her. From her dresser, she took her wand, which had once been owned by her mother, and slipped it into a pocket. She wore a black satin dress, which occupied a silver lacing around the hems. Over the dress she wore a thin black cloak, (the type of cloak for summer-wear as it were. Kind of like a cover-up).

There was a knock at the door behind her, and Aunt Narcissa emerged, dressed elegantly in silver and green. Narcissa was carrying a chest of hair accessories and cosmetics.

"Oh, Sally-Anna, (-"Sally-Anne."-) you look lovely," said Aunt Narcissa, airily. "Now, let me put some of this silver eye shadow on you."

"It's ok, I can manage." Sally-Anne automatically answered, as her aunt reached for a container of blusher.

"As you, wish," said Narcissa loftily. "Though, let me at least curl your hair a little more."

Before Sally-Anne could object, her aunt had conjured some curlers and a comb and before you could say "control freak" Sally-Anne's hair was suddenly blossoming with blonde curls.

"There, aren't you just the little darling," cooed Narcissa, as if she was talking to a six-year-old. "You'll want to make a good impression on some of the boys."

"Boys?!" spat out Sally-Anne, gripping the bottom edge of her chair.

"Yes dear, most of the guests have children and a lot of them are boys. Some of them are your age. So you'll want to look really pretty and elegant when they arrive."

Sally-Anne gripped the chair even tighter as Narcissa put a black bow tie in her hair. Then for a final touch her aunt draped some curls to line the edge of Sally-Anne's face.

"Can't I just go and read in the library," pleaded Sally-Anne, "I'm not even that hungry."

"Of course not. Now you put some make-up on and then I want you down in the ballroom in ten minutes."

Aunt Narcissa then left to go and check on her son, leaving Sally-Anne fuming. She never liked her aunt, she didn't like her uncle either but he was much too frightening to hate most of the time.

Sally-Anne applied a tiny bit of eye shadow to her eyelids and the smallest amount of blusher and eyeliner as she could manage. She didn't even bother with the lipstick. Sally-Anne never wore lipstick. What was the point, it only made the lip look like it was bleeding.

Sighing heavily, Sally-Anne stared out of her bedroom window and looked at the billions of twinkling stars shining back at her. It was going to be one of those nights.

This wasn't the first dinner party she'd attended at the Malfoys. The last two disasters had both ended up with Sally-Anne getting completely and utterly humiliated. Both times she was put in isolation in the wardrobe for two days afterwards, and both times it was Draco Malfoy's fault. Well, it was his fault, but somehow she got punished. He always found a way to make sure he was in the right and she was in the wrong. And somehow he always got away with it.

The first dinner party, Draco had put worms in a bowl of spaghetti that she happened to have picked up before walking over to a quiet area to sit down. She had almost placed the fork in her mouth when she looked down into her bowl and saw the wiggling contents. She had almost vomited all over the floor and had lurched forwards and chucked the bowl into the air. This had caused a lot of haphazard as all the worms had scattered all over the houseguests. Her uncle had obviously not been amused.

The second dinner party, Sally-Anne had tried to weasel her way out of, but had failed miserably. During this fiasco Sally-Anne had ended up shoving a lady into a huge silver bowl of punch. This was because Draco had somehow managed to get hold of some bubertuber pus and had thrown it into Sally-Anne's face. Her reaction had been a bit melodramatic, in which she shrieked indignantly, lashing her hands out, however she couldn't see properly as the pus got into her eyes and she had charged straight into a pompous middle-aged witch.

So, it wasn't that surprising that Sally-Anne wasn't in the least ecstatic about this dinner party. But this time Sally-Anne had a wand, although Draco did too. However, instead of zooming around on a Cleansweep broom as Draco had done all week, Sally-Anne had been in the library looking up, hexes, jinxes and curses. This time, if Draco tried anything, she was going to strike back. This time she'd wipe that malicious smirk off his face... hopefully.

Clenching her fists tightly at either side, Sally-Anne made her way out of her chamber room and down the four flights of stairs, which lead to a balcony overlooking the main hallway. She could hear various guests arriving from somewhere down below her.

"Hello, cousin. Don't you look all nice and dressed-up," drawled Draco Malfoy from the top of the stairs. He began traipsing down the red carpet-fitted steps towards her, a wide evil smile pasted on his pale face. She disliked that smirk.

"Don't try and sweet talk with me." Sally-Anne narrowed her eyes as she trailed her left hand towards her cloak pocket. "I know you really want to make a fool out of me tonight," she straightened up tightly, "but guess what? Tonight, you're going to be the one locked in the wardrobe."

The wardrobe was kept in a small room at the far west of the Manor. Inside it, there left no light, as the small room itself was dark. It smelt of dead rats and rotten wood and Sally-Anne, after two experiences of being locked inside it had claustrophobia. She did NOT want to end up in there again, and Draco knew this.

"You really think so?" questioned Draco with a mock air. He gestured one of his hands down the last two flights. "Ladies first." Sally-Anne carried on down the stairs. "Or should I say," added Draco as an afterthought, "losers first."

Sally-Anne literally snarled and made to lunge at him, but Draco's father, Lucius Malfoy called up the stairs, "Children, get down here now!"

Draco wagged one of his fingers in front of her face, "Tut, tut. Don't want to lose you're temper yet, do we."

"Draco, I swear you're going down." Sally-Anne said, in grudging tones.

"Yes, it certainly looks like I'm going down," replied Draco, as he walked down the stairs. "Downstairs, that is."

"You know what I meant." Sally-Anne followed him down the stairs; she was going to keep an eye open this time. Anything suspicious and she would be ready with her wand.

When they both finally reached the bottom floor, they saw that almost all the rooms on the ground floor were swarming with witches and wizards.

"Hello young Master Draco," said a gruff voice, Sally-Anne knew belonged to MacNair. He spotted Sally-Anne as well as she walked towards the other side of her cousin. "And little Miss, how are you?"

'Little Miss' was what MacNair always called Sally-Anne. She answered him with a painful fake smile, "I'm fine, thank you."

Draco gave her another smirk and went off to find Crabbe and Goyle. Before MacNair asked her anything else, Sally-Anne immediately followed him. She was determined to keep him in eyesight at all times.

As she tried to make a beeline for her cousin, she accidentally bumped into Professor Snape, the Potions teacher at Hogwarts. "Sorry, sir," mumbled Sally-Anne.

Professor Snape looked down along his hooked nose. "Miss Perks, you should look where you're going, we don't want another misfortunate person ending up in a bowl of punch again."

Sally-Anne mentally blushed. "No, sir."

"Your uncle tells me you've been practising with potion-making."

"Yes, sir." Sally-Anne wondered where this was going and looked to the left of her where Draco was talking intently to Crabbe and Goyle.

"He tells me you melted your cauldron and gassed your grandmother's scullery chamber with purple smoke."

She could feel her cheeks burn. "Yessir, but sir, Dra-"

"Well, now I may have to keep an eye on your potion-making from now on." He stared down at her with those black malicious eyes. "We don't want any more accidents, especially during my lessons."

Great, now she looked like a clumsy fool again, and of course it was all Draco's fault. She had been trying to brew a healing potion for cold sores, but Draco had handed her the wrong ingredients that she asked for. That was the last time that she'd let Draco help her with anything.

She curtsied awkwardly, mumbling a, "Of course, sir." And walked away into the direction she had been going in. She looked around the ballroom, where couples were dancing to a mournful waltz. She looked in the far corners, in the dining room where the food was laid out on a long oak table. She had gone and done the thing she absolutely did not intend to do. She had lost Draco Malfoy. He could be anywhere now, with some sort of twisted plan to ruin her life completely.

Stomping one foot hard on the flagstone floor she turned angrily to face a boy she wasn't entirely familiar with.

"Hello." He said, grinning awkwardly. "I saw you here before at a previous party, I think."

"Did you?" said Sally-Anne carelessly, looking up at a balcony on the left side of the ballroom. She couldn't see very far up there, as she was staring through to the ballroom from a doorway in front of her in the dining room.

"Yes." The boy was holding a plate of green jelly.

Sally-Anne stared at it for a moment, then looked up at the boy. He was rather thin, and he had light brown hair that looked as though it had been smothered in hair gel. "So, did you see me push a lady in the punch bowl, then?"

The boy looked at her, wide-eyed. "Gosh, did you really?" He snickered, and then immediately stopped at Sally-Anne's piercing glare. "No, um, I was at the party with the worms."

"Oh," Sally-Anne nodded. "Right, bet you enjoyed that little joke, that he pulled didn't you."

It wasn't a question, but the boy didn't seem to be perturbed by it. "It was a jolly nasty prank Draco pulled wasn't it?"

Sally-Anne, who had been mildly interested in the gossiping group of ladies by the trifle, suddenly realised what he said. "You knew about that?" She suddenly rounded on him. "Were you in on it too?"

The boy looked terrified. "No. Golly, no!" He goggled at her and the plate of jelly wobbled uncontrollably in his hand. "I never!"

"Ok, then," said Sally-Anne and she turned to go in search of her cousin.

"Wait a minute," said the boy, "I haven't even introduced myself!"

Sally-Anne sighed and turned round to face him again.

The boy held out his hand, "My name's Theodore Nott."

She didn't shake his hand, she just merely curtsied, as was the ladies tradition. "Miss Sally-Anne Perks." She then struck a thought. "Have you seen Draco Malfoy anywhere?"

Theodore pointed to a doorway, which stood at the far right-hand corner of the ballroom. "I saw him go through there with a couple of boys, earlier."

Without saying thanks, she hurried through the dining room double French doors, and around the sideline of the ballroom. A group of girls of different ages were assembled on some comfy armchairs in a corner, drinking butterbeers and chattering animatedly. As Sally-Anne passed she heard one of them call to her. "Hey!"

"What?" Sally-Anne answered, losing impatient and politeness rapidly.

"You're Sally-Anne aren't you?" said a pug-faced girl with her hair in little ringlets.

"Yeah, I am."

"So, you must know a lot about Draco Malfoy, then." All the girls looked at her with mild interest.

"What's it to you?" She was starting to dislike this pug-faced girl; the ringlets didn't suit her at all. In fact they kind of clashed with her features.

"Well, most of our mothers see him as an eligible suitor when we are older. He is one of the richest wizards from a pureblood family line, you know."

Giggling, Sally-Anne leaned against a stone wall to try and keep herself from shaking uncontrollably. "Eligible suitor? Draco? Ha! Are you lot from a different century or something? And look at yourselves, you're only about ten!"

"I'm eleven actually." Pug-face said with defiance. From up above, Sally-Anne caught a sight of her cousin. He was standing on a balcony above the doorway Theodore had indicated earlier.

"Oh? Well, that's nice." Sally-Anne stood upright again and straightened the hem of her skirt. Draco was sticking his tongue out at her and mouthing some kind of threat. "Well, I'd love to stand here and talk to you all night," she said with majestic ignorance, "such as it is I have to go and shove a lemon down my cousin's throat."

The girls all looked at her in shock; Pug-face looked mortified, as Sally-Anne strolled past picking up a lemon from a wooden fruit bowl on a silver side table, as if to prove her earlier statement.

The blonde witch with the lemon, stormed through a doorway then tapped her wand three times on a secret panel, which opened to reveal a flight of stone steps, which lead to the room with the balcony. The secret room was only accessible to Draco, Uncle Lucius, Aunt Narcissa (though she never entered it) and herself. This room contained Monty, the family pet snake.

When she entered the gloomy room, Crabbe and Goyle who took her by each arm and stole away her wand immediately bombarded her. Sally-Anne elbowed one of them in the chest and brought her other hand round and stuffed the lemon into the other's huge gob. Goyle, who seemed to come back to his senses after Sally-Anne's attack, grabbed hold of both her arms and twisted them round at her back. Crabbe began to choke pathetically in the background.

"Hey! Gerroff me you buffoon, otherwise I'll tell you're mummy that you're still afraid of the Easter bunny." Goyle immediately let go. "And the wand." Sally-Anne held out her hand, staring at him threateningly.

"No I don't think so," drawled a voice behind her. Draco emerged out of the gloom handling a large sleek black snake. "Don't want you to ruin my plan."

Crabbe continued to choke behind them. Goyle roughly slammed a hand on his back. The lemon shot out of Crabbe's mouth and rolled away on the floor.

"I hate you!" spat Sally-Anne to her cousin with feeling. "What are you going to do this time? Set Monty on me, we both know that I can tame him."

"And we both know I can too," replied Draco, stepping onto the balcony. "Unfortunately, Theodore can't." Draco jerked his head downwards towards the dancers below in the ballroom.

"You wouldn't?" cried Sally-Anne, placing one hand over her mouth. "This is beyond a joke, you great prat. You could kill him!" She rushed forwards to look over the balcony edge. She could see Theodore's head just below, he seemed to be standing on the spot, looking around for someone, possibly her.

"Let's see shall we?" Draco tossed the snake over the banister. She heard it hiss slightly before it descended.

"NOOO!" Sally-Anne yelled, flailing her arms over the edge of the banister as if she could magically summon the snake with her fingertips. Unfortunately she couldn't.

Theodore plus some other guests looked up as Sally-Anne yelled. The snake had landed in a heap by Theodore's feet. Theodore yelped and jumped onto a chair behind him as the snake lifted its triangular head.

"HELP!" cried Theodore, almost in tears. "A SNAKE!!"

Several witches screamed. Sally-Anne heard the girls in the corner squeal and run to their mothers' arms. Lucius Malfoy appeared at the scene. He stared from the snake hissing near Theodore's shaking body (who had now fallen off the chair and lay in a crumbled mess on the floor), to Sally-Anne leaning over the balcony above calling to the snake. He put two together and stared grimly with distaste.

Draco had now appeared back in the ballroom with his cronies. He looked very smug, and ran to his father immediately.

"Father, I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen to me." He faked a shocked expression. "She kind of went berserk and released Monty and ordered it to attack Theodore Nott!"

* * *

"I'm terribly sorry about this unfortunate incident." Sally-Anne heard Uncle Lucius say to the Nott family. From the small crack she was peeping through from the other side of a door, she could see that Theodore was still shaking. "I have no idea what possessed Sally-Anne to do such a thing. It was a lucky thing that I removed the poisonous venom last week for my own personal reasons. Monty was getting rather old, as is it. A thousand apologises about Sally-Anne's behaviour and the snake's attack. Cheer up, young lad, the bite on your leg is only swelling because of some sort of allergic reaction, but I'm sure you'll be just fine after a visit to St. Mungo's."

The dinner party had ended early that night. After the snake had bit Theodore on the leg, everything went downhill and crashed painfully into a lamppost. Monty got upset when people started screaming and this mostly provokes the poor thing. So he soon lost interest in Theodore and went lashing out at some other guests. Lucius Malfoy managed to control Monty in the end. (You may like to know now, that Monty is deceased.)

The Nott family left. Theodore was wailing miserably into his mother's arms.

Sally-Anne closed her eyes, waiting for the outburst. The door opened, to reveal her uncle's dangerous face. Without a word, he grabbed her tightly by the upper arm and led her to the little dark room with the wardrobe.

"Please..." sobbed Sally-Anne; tears streaming down her cheeks. "It wasn't my fault."

"Don't try and use that same lame excuse as before, girl." Lucius said softly. There was no kindness in his voice.

They entered the wardrobe room. Sally-Anne stared at it fearfully. "Please, don't put me in there again! Uncle, please!" He opened the wardrobe. "No! NO! No!"

He shoved her inside and shut the wardrobe door quickly, before she could try anything rash. From inside Sally-Anne could hear the key turn in the lock.

"I didn't do it!" cried Sally-Anne desperately.

"Lying only makes it worse. Everyone pays a price someday." She then heard the door to the room bang shut. This was locked also.

Sally-Anne banged her fist against the rotten wood, wondering whether it might break from rotting age. It was still very hard and solid. Darkness enveloped her as she opened her eyes; the air seemed so dense and close. She felt a knot tighten in her throat and she wept. She was afraid of close spaces, she felt her chest heave with pain, as if the wooden sides were closing in on her. Soon enough, her claustrophobia got the better, or should I say worst of her. Sally-Anne never slept as she screamed through the night.

* * *

"Miss Sally-Anne?" said a soft voice timidly. It was a very squeaky familiar voice.

Sally-Anne opened her eyes, to the see darkness again. "Who is it?" she whispered, coughing slightly.

"It is Dobby, miss."

"Dobby?!" Sally-Anne got to her feet and put her eye to the keyhole. She could just make out Dobby's features, by the morning light that cascaded through the open doorway. "What are you doing here? You could get into a lot of trouble."

Dobby looked at her with sad eyes. "Dobby heard Miss Sally-Anne screaming all last night. Dobby is very unhappy. As Miss Sally-Anne is feeling very hurt. Dobby will let you out. Make Miss Sally-Anne happy."

"Dobby, no!" Sally-Anne said through the keyhole. "Uncle Lucius won't allow it."

Dobby shivered. "Dobby knows. Dobby will not let Miss Sally-Anne scream anymore."

Dobby waved his hand and the door magically opened. Sally-Anne fell from the open wardrobe and landed by Dobby's feet. "Dobby," choked Sally-Anne, as she breathed fresh air again. "My uncle will find out."

Dobby smiled. "Master Lucius and family has gone out for the day. Only house-elves left in Manor. Master Lucius will not find out, as long as Miss Sally-Anne comes back here at end of day."

Sally-Anne hugged him. "Oh Dobby! How did you ever manage this? You broke an order."

Dobby smiled even wider. "Master Lucius did not order me to stay away from Miss Sally-Anne."

"But surely, you knew my uncle wouldn't allow this." Sally-Anne said, as they left the little back room. She then noticed the ugly bumps on the back of Dobby's head. She hugged him again. "Oh, poor Dobby. You did that all for me?"

"Yes Miss Sally-Anne." Dobby squeaked. He looked up at her with his big shiny round eyes. "Dobby is Miss Sally-Anne's friend."

* * *

Uncle Lucius surveyed Sally-Anne closely. He was quite surprised to see her look much less dishevelled than before. Uncle Lucius had locked her in the wardrobe for two days and two nights. He had magically transported her food in the early hours of the morning and then in the evening. (Lucius may be cruel, but he wasn't going to kill her, she was after all, family.) What Uncle Lucius didn't know, was while he, Narcissa and Draco had been out for both days. Sally-Anne had been having the time of her life in Malfoy Manor. She and Dobby had been playing Wizard Chess, Exploding Snap, Gobstones and sometimes, while Dobby was doing some house-chores, Sally-Anne would ride her Cleansweep Two Sixty and peep through the windows and surprise the house-elf.

"Dinner is ready downstairs," muttered Uncle Lucius, staring at her suspiciously, "you best wash your hands and face and go down to the dining room."

Sally-Anne nodded and left. Dinner never tasted better that night. It was even better when she found out that the family had gone to a Broomstick Flying Club for Young Wizards for the two days, and Draco had been making a complete prat of himself when he kept falling off his broomstick.

Draco stared sulkily at his soup. "It was those other morons shooting hexes at my broom. Just because they were jealous when my broom obeyed my commands. Stupid invalids."

"Don't worry Draco," soothed his mother. "We won't ever go there again."

"I'm hiring a private flying tutor for the last two weeks of summer," stated Lucius as he buttered a bread roll. "To teach both of you."

"You never know," said Narcissa, beaming at them in turn. "You both might get on the Quidditch team next year."

Sally-Anne extremely doubted that Draco would get on any Quidditch team with talent. Sure, he'd probably buy his way on. Herself, she considered pretty lame at throwing or even catching, so she doubted even she would get on any Quidditch team.

* * *

The next two weeks consisted of Draco's snide remarks, reading books from the library, secret visits to see Dobby in the kitchen and private flying lessons with Madam Hooch. Sally-Anne also learned that Madam Hooch would be teaching them at Hogwarts as well.

"Sally-Anne you will fall off that broom if you're not careful!" hollered Madam Hooch, as Sally-Anne made a shocking turn in mid-air to try and intercept Draco's direction on his broomstick.

"Sally," drawled Draco as he hovered past her, "face it, I have much more talent than you and my broom is much better and faster than yours."

Sally-Anne scowled at him and flew back down to the ground.

Madam Hooch blew her whistle and Draco landed on the grass beside her. "Now," said the flying instructor. "I want you both to practise mounting your brooms some more tomorrow, because Draco I saw you doing it wrong again."

This cheered Sally-Anne up a bit. All three headed indoors. Sally-Anne let Madam Hooch go in first.

"Thank you, dear."

Draco made faces at her as he pushed past her to get through the backdoor to the cloakroom. As Draco put a foot over the threshold, Sally-Anne quickly placed her foot in front and tripped him up. This sent him flying into a mass of thick cloaks hanging on a rack.

"Really, Draco. You should fly with a broomstick, not with your clumsy feet." Sally-Anne snickered and held up her wand. "Mobilious." The cloaks came alive and wrapped themselves around Draco.

"Ahhh! Geteroff!" muffled Draco, under a particularly thick cloak. "M gm mmph!"

"Sorry, didn't quite get that in one," chuckled Sally-Anne brandishing her wand as if it were a sword. "You honestly didn't think I'd get my revenge on you someday. Petty fool. I'll also add, that you're going to pay a lot more than this." Draco wiggled and squirmed under the smothering cloaks. She flicked her wand again and the cloaks became motionless again. Draco lay dishevelled on the floor, gasping for air, looking defeated.

Sally-Anne walked away, smiling to her hearts content.