I woke up like every morning, but after yesterday, I can't help but feel bad. When I made Hermione breakfast, I added a note saying "I went too far, sorry".
After that I went to train like before. II will meet with tonks to see us in the afternoon, so we wouldn't see each other this morning.
After finishing my routine practice, I went back to the castle and was heading to the Slytherin table, but I noticed that everyone was looking at me differently than usual, regardless of the table. Actually, they had started to see me differently from before, just I hadn't noticed it until now.
I didn't have time to try to understand what was going on because Tonks came up to me and led me out of the great hall to talk.
"What's up Tonks? We're not supposed to see each other this morning"
"We have a problem" she told me somewhat uncomfortable.
"What about Hermione?"
"No, although it may be related" she said as watched as the people passing by looked at us "Do you remember the mix-up with Hermione at the Gryffindor table that you told me about... because it was not clear at the time, the rumor that you prostitute for the nights spread. Our 'close' interaction at the Hufflepuff table doesn't help much, as for Hermione...they know you always spend time together and are close, they think her haggard appearance these days is because they were... 'giving a lot to the matter'" she told me somewhat worried and anxious.
"...I didn't expect that" honestly.
"What should we do?" She asks anxiously.
"Should we? This isn't your problem, you don't have to worry about me, I'll take care of it" I told her, I didn't want to bother her more than necessary, we've only known each other for a few days.
"Come on, do you think I would leave you alone? I also have some guilt for how I act with you, I'm not one of those who abandoned a partner" she complained as she placed her hand on her waist
"Okay, thanks Tonks, you're a good friend, just let me think" I sincerely thanked her as I began to walk from one side to the other reflecting on what was happening, and little by little the gears in my head formed a very risky plan, but that it could help me a lot to achieve certain things.
It was after a few minutes with an impatient Tonks pounding her foot on the ground repeatedly that I decided to tell her.
"I think I have an idea" I said hesitantly.
"Do you know how to fix this? How do we explain it to the others?" She asks.
"Fix... maybe make it worse, though. I had a bit of a wicked idea" I said this last part smiling.
"No more of those ideas. It was enough with about the girl, I still feel guilty about what happened," she immediately denied, crossing her arms in an x shape.
"Don't worry, no one will get hurt... well, maybe just my reputation, but it's not like it was good from the beginning. Well, bad fame is still fame"
"Okay, tell me what did you think?" She risked asking.
"And if instead of denying it and explaining it to everyone... we intensify it. I say if you can help me give the image that it is really happening, at that point, it will no longer be our responsibility" I explained whispering so that no one would find out by chance.
"Why would we do that? I don't understand how it would help" she said, completely confused by what she had just heard.
"If things get out of control, who do you think will be affected the most?" try to make her think.
"You" she pointed to me.
"And who else?"
"Well, I" she told herself sure.
"No, it is not necessary to know that you are going to participate in this, you are blameless. Who else?" I don't want them to know about her involvement, just help me out a bit.
"hum... the school..." she stopped when she understood what I wanted to get to "But wouldn't that be worse? You could get into much more trouble, you'd be punished for life or expelled directly" She said worried and anxious about making me change my mind
"Why? For hanging around the castle at night? No one was expelled for that until now. All they can blame me for is a rumor spread by others, I'm the victim here, that it seems that it is real is a coincidence. If things got worse, the school itself will have to explain that they are just rumors to avoid damaging their reputation and the problem is solved without us doing anything personally
"Damn it Red, can't you have some limits? If you were a dark lord, you would be one of the most dangerous" she complained upon hearing my evil plan "...I don't want to damage the school, it could affect Hogwarts a lot"
"That will not happen" I clarified "The 'greatest white magician' is the director and with a few words explaining everything he could turn the slander against the school into pity and affection, so the school's reputation is safe, you don't worry" I tried to convince her.
"..." She was biting her lips trying to think of ways to refute what I said or other ways to solve this, but nothing came to her mind "Well, let's do it, who cares. I guess you will be part of the big end of the magnificent Tonks at Hogwarts that I was waiting for" She made a decision "I think you really like chaos, in a few years you will be quite dangerous, it suits me to become your friend now to be protected" she laughed with that last.
"Or kill me" I reminded her.
"Or kill you" she nodded, she then rested her arm on my neck "where do we start?"
"First, let's go back to the great hall, I need something from my brothers"
With that, we walked back to the large dining room, but she did not remove her arm, causing several people to narrow their eyes when we entered.
As we approached the Gryffindor table there was no need to look for my brothers, as Percy came rushing up to me giving Tonks a disgusted look, followed by Fred and George.
"Red, tell me the rumors aren't true?" He asks impatiently and somewhat annoyed.
"Can you believe them? Do you think I would be able to do that? Don't you trust me? No Weasley would lower himself to that, not even me. We are not ashamed of our economic situation, we accept it and try to improve" I replied disgusted, causing Percy's momentum to drop.
"It's not that I don't trust you, but you've changed so much since you came to Hogwarts… hhaaaa, we're in big trouble, I don't know how we're going to explain it to everyone" he scratched his head hard with both hands, he seemed quite annoyed as if having a bad day "Why are you hanging out with her? It only aggravates the situation" he said looking at Tonks leaning on me.
"Calm down Weasley" Tonks told him, causing him to get even angrier at the girl's carefree attitude
"She's a friend, I can't kick her out just for fear of what people say about me"
"Yes, but... damn, mom is going to kill me, I'll try to use my influence as perfect to try and clear things up"
"Fine, go, thanks for that" I told him without trying to stop him. He would only get in the way of what I'm planning, and I don't think his influence as prefect will cause my plan much trouble.
When he left it was just me, Tonks and my brothers Fred and George left. I motioned for them to follow me further away so they wouldn't hear us. When we were alone, they were the first to speak.
"You really don't?" (George)
"Yes, if someone has to do it, it would be us" (Fred)
"We wouldn't let our little brother sacrifice himself without going first" (George)
"Didn't you hear what I said to Percy?" I asked, making them look at each other.
"If we did it, we wouldn't tell Percy the truth" (George)
"Possibly, we would say something like what you said to him" (Fred)
"Hum, curious... but it wasn't entirely a lie, I really don't"
"So, do you want our help to fix it?" (Fred)
"We could create a big colossal explosion in one of the bathrooms to take attention away from you" (George)
"Actually I already have a plan and I need your help, but if you want me to tell you, I want you to promise not to interfere if you don't agree" I looked at them seriously.
"We never would, we promise" (Fred)
"Our hands are tied, and our mouths will be a grave" (George)
After that, I explained part of the plan, but without many details. Their eyes widened when they saw what I was about to do.
"Red, if you do that, mom won't let us go" (George)
"She will ground us for life" (Fred)
"I don't need you guys to be actively involved, they won't know you're involved. Besides, the way things are going, mom will hang me anyway. If I'm going to go through that, at least have a glorious exit" I commented, causing them to they will glance at each other and smile.
"Red, when we were little if we doubted that you are our brother for a moment" (Fred)
"But now we can be one hundred percent sure that you are undoubtedly our brother, only a Weasley can have such daring ideas" (George)
"The sorting hat was completely wrong to put you in Slytherin, you are the most reckless Gryffindor we can meet" (Fred)
"Of course, apart from us" (George)
What do we have to do?" (Fred)
"First, I need the map" I asked them.
They exchanged glances for a moment before acting confused.
"What map?" x2
"You know what map" I gave them a 'you know' look.
"How did you know?" (George)
"We didn't tell anyone" (Fred)
"I know many things, more than you think. Can you lend it to me, yes or no?"
They nodded to themselves and Fred ended up pulling out an old folded piece of paper from his robes, then he took out his wand and placed it on it saying "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good" whereupon the map revealed its true colors, which somewhat astonished Tonks.
"Do you carry it with you all the time?" I ask them.
"We don't trust a place to leave it"
"What is this?" Tonks asked interested.
"Our way of avoiding the teachers" I told her as I let her see the tracking function of the map "we can get rid of Filch easily, but when we act we will attract the attention of the teachers and that will be more difficult, with this we can dodge them"
"This is great" She looked in amazement at the map and the possibilities it brought "How do you two have this?"
"We found it at the Filch's during our first year" (Fred)
"It's been our treasure ever since" (George)
"But we already remember all the secret passages of the map, so we can inherit it to Red"(Fred)
"No need, once we're done with this I'll give it back to you" I said so they can give it to Harry in the future. I don't plan on changing the story that much, although I do plan on getting a copy from the merchant "I shouldn't have it, I'd use it to do more crazy things like this"
"Believe him, it's better not to give him tools to do evil," Tonks said.
"She's right" I laughed at what my partner said because she's right.
"What else should we do?" They both said excitedly.
"Nothing important" I said while using the message ability with them surprising them and making them look at me "I have my tricks too" I responded to their looks
They smiled and asked some questions about my ability. They ended up believing it to be good magic, but were disappointed to learn that they couldn't learn it.
"I just need you to perhaps incite some Gryffindors with some excuse to spend the night in some specific places that will be told to you by my [message], just one or two so as not to attract attention. After that, you just don't have to deny or affirm anything, will they be able to do it?"
"You can count on us" (Fred)
"Yes, we won't let you down" (George)
After confirming our jobs, we split up, no one will talk about this or get together very often, we will only communicate through [Message] to make sure we don't show flaws.
As I was walking down the hall, after getting the map from my brothers and arranging our positions on the plan, I was stopped by someone. I looked at the hand that was on my shoulder and then saw the beautiful girl to whom it belonged, it was Penelope who was looking at me with some concern.
"Hello sister Penelope, what's wrong? You look worried" I said relaxed as if it were a completely normal day.
"As I'm not going to be, you don't know about the rumors about you" she said, rolling her eyes.
"Ah, that... What's up? Do you want to hire my services? Considering that you could be my future sister-in-law, I can give you my family and friends discount" I joked with her.
"Now stop playing, I know perfectly well that the rumors are false, although maybe I would need it right now to cheer me up" she said with a tired voice.
"How do you know?" I asked her.
"I don't think you're that kind of guy, you like to do things differently, besides my intuition" she answered completely confident.
"You're smarter than half the school for figuring that out on your own" I didn't deny that the rumors were false "but why do you say you would need it?" I said as I kept walking with her by my side.
"I had a problem with Percy" she sighed "Remember you told me about the Cornish pixie... Percy a few days ago was about to propose to me and ask me to be his girlfriend, well, I think so. At that time, he wanted to ask me something, but he was nervous and stuttered a bit, since I knew what he might ask of me. I wanted to take advantage of the information you gave me to laugh a little, so before he could formulate his words, I excitedly told him that I had discovered my fascination with magical creatures. I told him I particularly liked small creatures like imps, fairies, and pixies, that I hoped to be able to work as a researcher on them and wanted to possibly breed some pixies in my house, as I thought they were so much fun... when he heard that he turned pale and continued to stutter say goodbye and then run away from me. I tried to clarify things for him, but he hasn't given me a chance to talk to him, he just runs away from me and won't let me explain" She looked depressed down
"That's bad" I said trying to contain my laughter at Percy.
"Yes, I think I ruined everything with my joke" she complained to herself "if I want to have another chance with Percy I'll have to wait a little longer"
"I completely understand you, I did the same, a joke that went too far" I told her, drawing her gaze curiously.
"What did you do?" She asks, intrigued by our similar situation.
"I made a friend believe that she was crazy and suffering from hallucinations, making her completely last out of her sanity and have a nervous breakdown" I said with some guilt.
"...okay, you win with that" she said, surprised at what I would do, realizing that her situation wasn't that bad.
"I am regretting it a lot now, at that moment it did not seem so serious to me. It is another problem that I have to solve"
"Good luck with it... What about the rumors?" She asked, returning to the main topic.
"I'm already working on it, do you want to help me?"
"I'm already telling the Ravenclaws that you're not capable of doing that, don't worry"
"Isn't that what I want, if you could stop defending me, the better. What's more, you couldn't start saying that you required my services without specifying which ones" I asked, since it would be quite useful if she could do it.
"What?! No! How would that help you solve this? It would only make it worse" she asks, dismayed by my request.
"It's all part of my plan, don't worry, it needs to get worse to get better"
"Still, I'm not going to say that, I'm not going to lie to the others about it"
"If you want, we can do it for real so you don't have to lie" I told her playfully as she winked at her.
"You wish, you little pervert" She snort "if someone knew that I paid a first-grader to have sex, no one would ever talk to me again. I can't say that, but if you want I can stop defending you, I just hope your plan works, though I doubt it very much. If things go wrong, you can look for me to help you"
"Thanks Penelope, that will be enough, you just have to stay on the sidelines"
After a while in silence as we walk...
"By the way... family discount...?" She asks raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, now that I think about it, it sounds very strange" we laughed together.
I finished my talk with Penelope and went on with my day. I passed Hermione but she didn't even glance at me... when I ran into her at the table and approached her, she got up and left even though she hadn't eaten anything... when we were in class and I managed to sit next to her, she never speaks in the least and ignore myself as if I didn't exist. This hurt me a lot and I can't help but blame myself for getting carried away, and the worst of all is that I didn't know that this situation would continue in the following days, making me feel that the bite wound on my body was burning even though it had already healed.
-3rd person POV-
The night of the same day that the four 'Hogwarts Hurricanes' organized their conspiracy, they acted. During the night, Lee Jordan could be seen who was looking for the Weasley twins who had told him for a night adventure as usual.
They were to meet on the fourth floor, but when he was sneaking by trying to avoid Filch, he was surprised when he saw the twins' younger brother, Red Weasley, who was hard to mistake because of his prominent hair color.
There was a dark area of a corridor accompanied by a blonde girl. The girl seemed to give him something so that later he held her waist and they passed through a door, not without first looking both ways as if he saw that no one found them.
This disconcerted the black boy, he didn't know what to think of what he saw, considering the rumors that put out a circular about the brother of his friends. He could only hurry to find Fred and George to ask them.
When he met them, they told him to come back, that it would be impossible to have his adventure today. He tried to tell them what he saw, but they only seriously told him not to ask questions and they didn't allow him to continue with the subject, leaving him even more bewildered.
And he wasn't the only person to see Red doing something like that night. Red and Tonks are able to know the locations of all the people who were out of bed thanks to the map, thus, in addition to learning about the secret relationships of certain students, they located them and appeared in front of them acting suspiciously like with Lee.
There was always a different girl with Red; she is tall, short, blonde, brunette, Caucasian, etc... but no one realized that the girl's features were always very neutral and common, easily relatable to anyone, but no one in particular.
Another thing that was interesting is that Red realized that when her clone was activated, the 'Red Weasley' name was only left on her main body, which was lying on her bed inside her Slytherin dorm.
For two days they constantly appeared in front of the students, causing the rumors to almost become an absolute truth and causing almost no one to approach him, except maybe a few older girls who seemed to be interested in the deal he seemed to offer.
The teachers more than once asked where he was at night, not being very specific in what they wanted to know, but highlighting it indirectly. He only responded with, "sleeping in his bed" and when they insisted, he even proposed an unbreakable vow to ensure the veracity of his words without fear, since he was not actually lying.
As with almost all rumors, the teachers did not do much more than say not to trust everything you hear, that many things are not true. Some liked Red for being a good student and not causing much trouble in class, so they put special emphasis on their words during class to try to help him, without much success. The rumors inside Hogwarts are like fiend fire, unstoppable. The administrative system doesn't intervene much in this part of the students' lives, so Red's plan could continue.
On the afternoon of the second day, when Red went to the Slytherin common room, he was stopped by Draco shortly after entering.
"Look who we have here, Weasley, it seems you've become famous. Who doesn't know the most famous harlot of Hogwarts" he mocked, having the laughter of several students behind him.
The little ones were amused by Draco's words, Pansy among them, who seemed to enjoy it especially, but on the other hand, the older students were very upset. If he belonged to another house, they would make fun of it just like Draco, or perhaps much worse, but being a Slytherin, saying those words is an insult to the house itself, but they were not going to stop Draco, they would act against him later, when Draco will finish.
"Considering when the rumors started, you're a bit late, don't you think Malfoy? Why were you so late?" Red said in a contemptuous tone, seeing that he had no escape from being surrounded by the snakes "What happened? Someone had to teach you about bees and flower growers before you understood it. I think it's good for you, if you get a chance with Potter you will avoid being embarrassed by the lack of information"
"Shut the fuck up Weasley, at least I'm not a fucking whore who needs to sell his body and dignity. I didn't expect your poverty to take you this far, Weasley, but I should have known" he yelled angrily.
"We shouldn't say for sure, it may just be rumors." Millicent stepped out from the side of the crowd to stop Malfoy, trying to defend Red from their common enemy.
"You shut up, Bulstrode," Malfoy admonished her.
"No, shut up your Malfoy, we didn't even give him a chance to explain himself and you're already throwing shit at him" Davis jumped when she saw how Malfoy yelled at her friend again, that boy had a terrible impression on her mind.
"What does he needs to explain? He's a bitch and we all know it" Draco replied angrily seeing how they opposed him, but several people were on his side when he said that.
"What do you think?" Red asked the pair of girls defending him.
"I... I don't know what to think, several seniors claimed to see you, but I think you deserve a chance to explain yourself" Davis said uncertainly.
"Thank you for trusting me, you can be sure that I don't do what the rumors say" he told them the truth for her confidence instead of avoiding the question as planned "We all know that the Slytherin house is the richest of all, if I really sold out... you wouldn't believe I'd go looking for the girls here?" he waves his hands at everyone in the room "there doesn't seem to be any who say she's done it to me, how do they think I can overlook the Slytherin girls if what I am looking for is money? That would be unlikely"
"Well, it's very possible for a cheap whore like you" a voice was heard entering the door of the common room, it was Gemma Farley who had just entered to see the show "As someone who does anything for one or two Knuts, I don't I'd be surprised if you didn't have the opportunity with any of us, we wouldn't lower ourselves to such a thing and even less with products of such low quality"
"Oh Gemma" 'This damn bitch' he thought "What's wrong with you? Why do you hate me so much? I don't remember doing anything to you" he asked the girl who was clearly attacking him.
"Your presence alone is a mistake, the Weasley is no longer one of us and your presence in Slytherin is an insult to everyone, the fact that you are here is enough for me to hate you" she said without hesitation in the least, obtaining several approvals in the living room.
"Okay then you won't see me here" Red said quickly before walking out the door before anyone could stop him.
Not that he cared what they thought or that he really felt hurt by their words, but he didn't want to be locked in a cage full of snakes so soon. In fact, it was very convenient at this point to have a reason not to show up at night in Slytherin, so she took advantage of it.
And since that day Red was only seen in class, after that, he disappeared, but at night he could be seen with more girls, without anyone noticing that in reality the frequency with which he moved was not consistent with the job it was supposed to do.
The teachers sneaked up on walks at night to try to catch him but were unsuccessful. Worst of all, figures began to be seen sneakily leaving with Red, very similar to the school teachers, causing a stir the following days. This was the straw that broke the camel's back and caused the school to erupt into chaos.