Chapter 60: Mistrust
-Bex p.o.v.-

"Now don't tell your father this,"
Mad-Eye chuckled, handing me a firewiskey bottle.

I laughed, "never."

We spent the remainder of the night in his living room, sharing stories back and forth. The first night of my stay at Mad-Eye Moody's house started the stay off with a kick.

In fact, the days were such fun, I didn't even realize that the time had passed by so quickly. I spent three nights at his house, staying in his guest room.

Each night was filled with drinking and the day was filled with laughter and stories. Moody had basically given me free reign on his liqueur cabinet, anything I desired to drink was offered to me. He even lent me one of his spare flasks.

I had grown very fond of the firewiskey, it was my favorite drink. The burning sensation was calming. It caused me to stop worrying about the obvious grief my friends must have been going through.

The days had been fun, but I missed my friends. I couldn't help but lie awake at night and worry about what they must be doing. It made me feel horrible to think about what they could be going through.

This might have been my best prank so far, but secretly to myself, I couldn't help but regret it. It was obvious to myself that Lily would give me the silent treatment for at least a good couple of months.

"Ready?" Mad-Eye asked. Finally the day had come, it was time to reveal the prank. The last part of the prank was about to begin.

I grinned at him, "let's do this."

Mad-Eye cast a quick spell on me, making me look dirty. I glanced in the mirror and couldn't help but grin wickedly at my reflection. I was covered in dirt and mud, my clothing was ripped and torn, grimy and gross. My hair even looked a little greasy.

If I didn't know any better, it looked like I had just escaped Azkaban Prison.

Moody apperated us to the front gates of the school. He pushed the gate open easily, gesturing for me to enter. We began the silent trek up to the castle. The entire school was currently in the middle of dinner, everyone except for Anabeth and Peeves, who were instructed to be waiting for me by the front door.

Just as I expected, the two were waiting. Peeves looked to be telling Anabeth some story about one of the ghosts. Anabeth stood abruptly, turning towards us defensively.

I held my hands up in surrender, "woah, didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh, Bex," she sighed in relief. "It's just you."

"Who did you think it was?" I rolled my eyes. She shook her head, claiming it to be nothing, she was just jumpy. "Let's get inside, shall we? We have a prank to finish."

They followed me in, standing near the entrance as I got ready to burst inside of the great hall. They knew their signals.

I smirked back at them before facing forward and getting my game face on. "Let's do this," I spoke to myself. With one last deep breath, I pushed the doors open with such force, the backs of the doors slammed into the walls.

Everyone inside of the room turned with a sharp gasp at the sight of me. I glanced around the room, noticing many changes had been made since I was last here.

The tables had pushed farther away from each other, it looked as if there had been some sort of rivalry between the houses while I was gone.

My table was empty. No one sat there, maybe that was part of the rivalry. I couldn't help but feel a sharp stab in my heart, none of my friends had stuck by me. But I ignored it, knowing it was nothing personal.

And there was a little bit of movement in the corner of my eye. Not one person had moved an inch since I entered the room. But suddenly, someone stood. I glanced over, Liam was standing at the Slytherin table, Severus holding his arm so he couldn't move any farther than he already had. It looked like he had been sitting with Severus and Regulus, a strange occurrence.

"Where is she?" I growled, getting my head back in the prank.

Minnie stood quickly, pointing her wand at me. My dad moved to stop her but I sent him a quick look.

"Ah, Minnie, how is your evening?" I took my time walking up the row, moving like a hungry predator towards the defenseless prey. The doors slammed shut behind me with a loud crack.

"Dumbledore, I suggest you put out that fire and calm yourself down." She spoke warningly.

I took a quick glance down, noticing that my hands had caught fire without my notice. I really must have looked the part because Minnie raised her wand defensively and was taking cautious steps towards me.

I gave my best evil chuckling, sneering at her, "or Minnie, my dear, you could lower that wand of yours. I only want the girl."

"She's a lunatic! Run!" Someone screeched. There was a mad dash for the door, many of the students tried to escape.

I lobbed a fireball at the door, successfully catching it on fire. "Sit down!" I screamed, glaring at the mass of people backing away from the fiery door. There was silence, the students looked at me with such horror in their eyes. I have a slight chuckled, "please sit down." I played the chuckle off as something a crazy person would do. They silently and quickly made their ways back to their seats.

"How did you even get here?" Someone called. "I thought you were carted off to Azkaban!"

I gave a wicked chuckle, "I told you all before, I needed an escape plan from Azkaban just in case."

Peeves flew through the flames, entering the room, just as cued. "Ooooh if it isn't the mad little girl." He cooed, swooping around my head. "She's back for revenge on the little huffy-puffy in the hospital wing!"

"Shut up!" I screeched, sounding like a madwoman. "Give her to me!"

"Aria!" Regulus called out to me, he stood with Liam now, holding his hands up to show he meant no harm. "Please calm down, you're only going to hurt yourself. Please just put the fire out and we can talk about this."

"I'm not going back, I'm not going back!" The fire in my hands grew, the flames burning brighter. "No one is taking me back to that hell."

The doors opened again and tentatively, Anabeth entered, walking through the harmless flames. She got more confident after seeing that the flames would not hurt her.

"You." I growled. I ran towards her, the flames leaving a burning trail after me. I lunged, tackling her to the floor, her fake cast hit the floor with a thud as she fell back. I wrapped my now flame less fingers around her neck, about to choke her.

We both began to laugh, I rolled off of her and helped her stand, our laughter bouncing off of the large ceiling and echoing around the quiet room. Mad-Eye entered, clapping his hands and bellowing his loud laughter. Peeves flew around the room, his wicked laughter making students duck away from him.

Everyone looked confused, they were watching in slight horror. I saw Liam out of the corner of my eye, he was grinning.

"What's wrong everyone?" I called out, grinning at the crowd of students and teachers. "Did you all seriously think that I was torturing a poor little Hufflepuff? And then taken away to Azkaban?" I threw an arm over Anabeth's shoulder, grinning at her small form. "I have an announcement to make, the old Bex is back, I hope everyone enjoyed the prank."

"You little shit!" James hollered, standing up from his bench. Beside him, Sirius looked shocked, he looked completely perplexed. He didn't move.

I laughed, "James! That hurts!" I placed a hand over my heart, "where is your faith in me?"

He stomped his way towards me, pulling me into a tight hug. "I can't believe I fell for that! I can't believe you wouldn't let me in on that! It's good to have you back to yourself. Next time, you better let me in on it."

"Maybe next time, Jamesie, maybe next time." I gave his back a comforting pat, grinning up at him.

Moody waved his wand, cleaning me up. He waved his wand again to rid Anabeth of her fake cast.

"Alastor, would you like to join us for dinner? We've only just begun a half hour ago." My dad called down to us, his soft voice booming throughout the silent room.

"I'd be delighted, thank you Albus. Watching over that little one of yours isn't so hard. Just give her some liqueur and you're good." Mad-Eye made his way up to the teachers table, plopping down in the chair my dad had conjured.

"Woah! I thought we weren't telling people about that!" I exclaimed, taken aback.

Mad-Eye shrugged, "he'll find out eventually, might as well tell him now." He pulled out his flask, taking a swig.

I shrugged, pulling my own flask out of my back pocket. "Makes sense." James took the flask from my hand just as I was bringing it to my mouth.

"Ah ah ah, if you're going to be having an alcohol, you need to share." He smirked, taking a sip of the firewhiskey.

I scoffed, "yeah right. Get your own." I stole it back, telling him I would be back. I made my way to the Slytherin table. "Hey guys."

"Bex!" Liam attacked me in a hug, almost knocking me down in the process. "I can't believe you did that! I remembered what you said and believed in you. But then your friend Andy told me that I could go visit Anabeth! So I talked to her and she told me everything!" He spoke loudly, so the entire portion of the school that had been eavesdropping could hear what he had said.

"Well that's good, I suppose. Do you still have my necklace?" I asked him curiously, not having spotted it around his neck.

He nodded, pulling it from his pocket, he placed it back around my neck with a smile. "I liked to hold it in my hand when I missed you, that's why it was in my pocket." He explained looking down.

I grinned, "I missed you too, buddy. You were good for the boys, yes?"

He nodded enthusiastically.

"Why are you here anyways? I thought you'd be at the Gryffindor table. When did the Slytherins start allowing you to sit over here?" I asked curiously.

Regulus rubbed at the back of his neck, "Aria, your prank caused some tension between the houses. They all disagreed and pushed against each other." I nodded for him to continue, "the Hufflepuffs all thought you were guilty, mainly because their housemate was in the hospital wing with convincing fake injuries. The Ravenclaws went off of logic. They looked at the evidence given to them, they thought you were guilty to some extent, but wondered what the girl could have done to cause your anger. That made the Hufflepuffs angry. The Gryffindors immediately agreed with the Auror. Mad-Eye came and took you away, you must have been guilty for something, they thought. He wouldn't come down here for nothing."

"And the Slytherins?" I asked.

"The Slytherins believed in you. That's why Liam has been sitting with us. Because he was one of the few from another house to trust you. And the only to speak out loud about it." Severus took over in the explaining.

I stood, "I'll be right back." Soon I found myself standing at the podium, looking out into the crowd of faces. Everyone was watching me, waiting.

With the sudden knowledge I now knew, I did notice that some people were looking at me with hesitation. They didn't fully trust me. My friends didn't fully trust me. And I had expected that, but it didn't stop the pain.

"Hello everyone, the last time I stood up here I was declaring that I was going to create a new house. But I've realised since then that you shouldn't have to recreate yourself to be happy. You should be happy with yourself because loving yourself is the first step to happiness." I looked out in the crowd, searching for some sign of what to do next.

No one was booing me off the stage, so I took that as a good sign and kept talking. "Some of you might have seen me face the boggart in defence class. My boggart is being put into a cage. I'm afraid of being moulded into who everyone wants me to be. Becoming part of a house, taking up values of people who have been dead for centuries and having to live up to those was a lot of pressure. So I created my own house. I tried to change because I didn't want to be who everyone wanted me to be. But in the process, I did exactly that. And I'm done. I'm being who I really am. I'm Bex.

"My prank, it was my way of coming back. Showing everyone that Bex is back and she's not going anywhere. I'm done with fears. They just force you to limit yourself. And I'm not about that life, I want freedom, fun, and just myself. To do my prank I had to have help, I couldn't have become myself without some help.

"I'd like to thank our neighbourhood poltergeist, Peeves, he's stuck by my side through this crazy roller coaster of finding who I really was. And he was all up for helping me get back to the real me." Peeves swooped around the heads of students, his wicked laughter spreading throughout the large room.

"I'd also like to thank Anabeth Harris, residential Hufflepuff. I didn't know her before I needed her help, but I got to know a bit about her when setting up for the prank. She's strong and loyal, Hufflepuffs are not to be underestimated. She's a great person, and a damn good friend." Annabeth smiled at me, blushing a light shade of red.

"And last but not least, I'd like to extend my gratitude to Mad-Eye Moody. I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without his help. And he also shared his alcohol with me, which was pretty cool of him." He grinned, raising his flask at me in a salute.

"But what I've noticed being back at school after those few days gone, is the tension. Not many of you trusted me. Which I actually didn't expect anyone to, so it's better than I originally thought it'd be. But you still don't trust me, not after we've all admitted to this being a big prank." I ran a hand though my hair, "so basically, what I'm asking is to join the Gryffindor house once more. And I want everyone's approval first. If not, I'd like a re-sorting."

No one spoke. No one moved. I glanced around the room quickly, before nodding. "That's proof enough for me. Minnie, I'd like a re-sorting as soon as possible." I left the great hall quickly, heading to the only place I could actually call mine. The Room of Requirement. The room I had stayed in for months at a time when I felt like I had no where else to go.

Now I literally had no where to go, I wasn't a part of the Gryffindor house anymore. I was on my own for now. And it was different from before, when I had my own house it came with my own sort of authority. But now I was alone. I didn't even have a house to call my own.

I felt bare without a name to call my own. Without a name to signify who I was. As of now, I was equivalent to a first year waiting for the sorting. Not yet part of a house, but still hopeful. Only I was not hopeful. I didn't have any hope to think on the bright side.

The best that this situation could go, as of now, is to be re-sorted into the Slytherin house. The only house that trusted me. The only house to except me.

It seemed that the Slytherin house was more of a house to me than the Gryffindor house ever was. The Slytherins allowed me to sit with them, way back when I was still a Gryffindor. They welcomed me with open arms. The Slytherins allowed me to change who I was without bothering me about it. They let me be who I wanted. The Slytherin house trusted me when all odds were against me. They believed in me.

The Slytherin house was my family.

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So I hope you all liked this second part of the prank. A bit too serious for a prank, huh? Things went a bit downhill with that one.
Please comment, vote, share, fan, and follow! Thanks everyone!