Part of Mischief Unmanaged - if you're not one of the agreed students, make sure you've dropped or are not touching your sweets when the moment comes, ta

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The rain had been squally but finally there appeared to be a break. About ruddy time, Lawrence thought, waiting it out between bins round the corner from the Three Broomsticks. He had a good view of the busiest part of the street.

"Come on," he cajoled the sleeping, stationary figure beside him. The bright-eyed girl in her twenties was wearing a sandwich board advertising Honeydukes sweetshop. She was a frequently glimpsed attraction to the High Street, especially on a Hogwarts visiting weekend. Shallow-minded, Lawrence had thought on snaring her in.

"Got your things, good girl, out you go." With a flick of his wand he sent her stumbling out into the walking traffic. Groups of students, locals, families shopping.

He just had to navigate her towards the students, that's who they needed. The more he brought, the bigger the reward. What on earth they were going to do with them, he wasn't sure, or where they were going to end up, he hadn't been told. He needed to stay on side and earn enough to keep him going and out of the way of aurors. There'd been a few too many close calls of late.

"Freeee samples!" The pretty blonde witch cried, her sandwich board design dancing with valentines hearts as she sang out the rest of her pitch. "Melt hearts with our finest …" Lawrence held no desire to prevent her reciting the information. From his vantage point he let his imperioed charge reel off the sweet delights on sale.

The samples were edible, naturally, but slow to be consumed, lollies, hard sweets. Each of them, portkeys that would work whether in a hand or in a mouth, or stomach. Throat might be a bit of a hazard, but that wasn't Lawrence's problem.

In the months following the explosions at the Leaky Cauldron, Zia’s life had begun to resemble the broken ruins that had once been the Leaky Cauldron. Of course Ron used to send bottles to them all, it was really his go-to. Before the vineyard he was the type to run out to the shops the night before Christmas. Once he gave Zia a thick grey turtleneck that was two sizes off. Zia definitely preferred the wine, and he totally captured their tastes. Taste in clothes eluded him, however.

She decided her spirits needed improving. She felt like her hands and feet were chained to the largest books in the  library, and she’d been dragging them around for weeks, trying to get up each morning. Funnily enough the library was a place she spent little time. It was too stuffy and easy to get off-track. She now preferred finding a friend to have fun with,  or sleep, or sneaking off to drink bottles of wine from her family.

Getting into the spirit of the upcoming holiday would be first. Today was the Hogsmeade trip and Zia was eager to get out and find things to do. In that big castle, she’d grown stir crazy. She sported a dress covered in hearts and in a smart choice while walking out the door, a heart umbrella. The umbrella hadn’t been purchased for Valentine’s Day. Zia just had a heart umbrella.

The first place she went was in the direction of sugar. Zia had a mouth full of sweet teeth. She’d heard somewhere that what you crave is what your body is craving. So, Honeydukes is where she found herself.

And just in time, too! She heard the word ‘free’’ and immediately turned around. She hadn’t brought much pocket money but she could afford to check out something that was free.... especially if it was in the candy shop. Luckily the announcer had been close by, so Zia only had to take a few steps before she was among those who agreed with her philosophies on free sugar.

“Graziº,” Zia said to a vague pair of arms that held out the much-needed lollipop. A pink one, of course. A pink tint had begun to return to Zia’s enchanted hair.



ºGrazi = Thanks (Italian)

With rain out of the way for a bit, it seemed safe for Virgil and Gracie[1] to duck out of the Three Broomsticks for a walk down the High Street - they were not alone. Clumps of their peers swarmed the cobbled streets, a plethora of dark robes and colourful house colours.

His own Slytherin scarf protected the lower half of the wizard's face, elven nose peeking out in a show of pink... on the verge of contracting a cold that he happened to be denying.

Not even listless Virgil Carstairs wanted to stay in bed when he could be carrying a bottle of butter beer through Hogsmeade on Valentine's weekend.

"Melt hearts with our finest sweets and lollipops!" a familiar, feminine voice cried out as the pair passed a witch handing out samples to passersby. He recognised her, lips thawing into a lazy smile at the offer of rhubarb and custard sweets, minuscule lollipops shaped like hearts.

Saccharine.

"Sweets for sweet." Virgil commented to the witch as he accepted a handful of the sweets and nicked a lollipop. She didn't respond with her usual cattiness - something strange in her eye, he thought. Been at the bottle early that day, perhaps?

He turned to Gracie and slipped a hand around her waist, lazily pushing his weight against the other Slytherin. "Something to suck on?" An understated wink while he offered the lollipop to her lips.

A chorus of boisterous laughter across the street distracted him, and Virgil glanced around to see Bastian Desrosiers[2] with a group of other, less offensive fifth years. The younger housemate looked much too happy.

"Desrosiers!" he cupped his hand to call, briefly catching Bastian's attention. "Happy Valentine's!" Virgil stuck out his tongue and threw one of the boiled sweets at the dark head.

1.	With Sly's permission!
2.	With Hazel's permission~

Juni was absolutely not pleased with the rainy weather. Her curls had been styled perfectly, and the rain was going to make them frizz and lose their smoothness. Plus, her cute outfit that she had planned for had to add some fleece-lined tights and a woolen peacoat. At least her makeup was perfect, thanks to Esther's expertise. Ambrose also didn't seem to care about all the ways in which the weather tormented her vanity.

Besides, she was enjoying his company as they wandered down the high street, trying to decide where they wanted to grab some lunch. "I don't care where we go." Juni commented. Just about every restaurant was prepared to host Hogwarts students on dates. Many of them had pink, heart-shaped bubbles floating around, resistant to being popped. Some had escaped, and she could have sworn that they were humming. Juni supposed it was intended to be romantic, but instead it was ominous.

"Freeee samples!"

Juni let out a delighted gasp, grabbing Ambrose's hand and dragging him with her towards the bearer of sweets. She grabbed a lollipop-- shaped, of course, like a heart.  "Look at how disgustingly cute this is." She said, practically waving the sweet in his face. She released his hand in order to unwrap the sample.

She had barely had a taste of the treat when her stomach tightened. Juni felt a sharp tug at her stomach--

And she was gone, lolly and all.

Nicholas loved Hogsmeade weekends. Any reason to get out of the castle was a good one.  Even better it provided a nice excuse for putting off assigned essays.  Not that he needed an excuse really.  But it was nice to have one.  Of course, he couldn't stand Valentines day and every year the 'holiday' managed to infect the February Hogsmeade weekend.

The amount of pink was disturbing.  The number of things shaped into hearts, disgusting.  That said, when he passed by the samples witch he'd taken some of the candy.  It had been strange.  He'd been flirting with the woman for the last couple years every Hogsmeade trip.  And she usually had some kind of snappy comeback, or one  particularly good day, flirted back.  She must have been in a bad mood, cause he got neither response.  Just a fist full of candy.

He unwrapped one of the hard candies and popped it into his mouth as he entered Gladrags.  He needed a new pair of socks and planned to get some of the ones that screamed to sneak into Gabriel's trunk.  The socks screamed when they got too smelly and Nicholas was going to prove the smell in the dormitory was coming from Gabriel's trunk.  If screaming socks shocked his dorm mates awake in the middle of the night, that was just a plus.

Ambrose adjusted his Gryffindor scarf around his neck as he and Juni made their way down the road into Hogsmeade. He must have complimented Juni on her appearance more than a few times on the walk down, still a bit bowled over by the prospect of valentines day with her. So, the previous year had been with Cyhirae, but that wasn't important now.

"I don't care where we go," Juni remarked about lunch,
"You would if we went to the Hogshead…" Ambrose teased, leaning over to nudge her. The cry from the Honeydukes witch however brought them both to attention, but it was Juni dragging Ambrose down the street to get to them.

"Look at how disgustingly cute this is." Juni exclaimed at the lolly and Ambrose laughed.
"Almost as much as you!" He retorted, as Juni shoved it in her mouth.

Then before his eyes, Juni, lollipop and - to Ambrose's alarm - quite a few people in the group around them - vanished.

"Oh my gosh!" Ambrose exclaimed, rather politely all things considered, "Juni you're invisible!" He reached out as if to touch her but groped at clean air. "Juni?" He asked, feeling awkward to run his hands through air. "Juni?!"

The Honeydukes girl in the sandwich board seemed entirely oblivious to it all.
"Hey!" Ambrose exclaimed, accosting her blank expression, "Hey! What did you curse those sweets with?!" But she stared right through him with glassy eyes.

Ambrose Pepper was not the brightest tool in the box, but his gut instinct was often the brains of the operation. And the brains of the operation twisted tightly with worse anxiety than a combined detention with Di Luca and Storm.

So, Valentine’s Day was a terrible excuse for everyone to make money.  Carol had written to her about avoiding the consumerist impulses that one might encounter, especially in Hogsmeade.  It was a sweet gesture, really, but Carol didn’t have to worry about Indi.  She wasn’t swayed by things that were doused in hearts and covered in frilly lace.

Unless of course those things were pretty with curly hair and big brown eyes… and then, those things weren’t for sale!  And if they were… well, it wasn’t Indi’s style.  She did just fine on her own, thankyaverymuch! 

So, strolling casually down the road, on the lookout for friends or anyone interesting (she’d sort of fallen behind in the walk – boots crunching in snow and whatnot – so distracting!) and when she heard the shrill voice calling out about free samples… well!  Her eyes immediately tracked to where it was coming from and Indi couldn’t help but have a lopsided grin. 

She saw other students over there and started her jog: she wanted something good before they were all gone (fifth years were notorious vultures).  Of course, the weirdest thing happened as she was on her way – one of the girls popped out of nowhere!  The boy started waving his hand – Indi moved even faster than she thought her trainers could carry her:  “What the bloody hell?” 

Looking between the blank faced witch and the frantic young man, Indi reached forward and grabbed one of the sweets, “What the f-“ she didn’t even get to finish her sentence before her fist closed around the sweet and she felt a sudden jerk-like pull.  And with that, she was out of there.   

Zia untwisted the wrapper and removed it from the candy, then popped it in her mouth cheerfully. She was in rather a good mood, bouncing on the excitement of the Valentine’s Day carnival. Last night’s dinner and dance had been every bit lovey-dovey and adorable as the pink-headed girl could have dreamed. Tonight even more festivities were planned, and Zia had planned to use this Hogsmeade trip to pick up a few last-minute things she felt were absolutely vital to the event’s continuing success.

Just as Zia was about to remark that this was rather bland candy, she found herself being yanked in an indeterminate direction. During this yank she couldn’t speak, couldn't move- and thanks to the recent loss of her brother she assumed the worst.

Socks in hand, well in bag, Nicholas opened the door to leave Gladrags.  He had more shopping to get to.  Just about anything could be delivered by owl, but Nicholas always felt bad when some poor bird got loaded down with too much crap because some knut miser wanted to save money and not get a large enough owl.

He felt a tug from his stomach mid-stride before being yanked off his feet by the portkey.

Together, in little haphazard groups and splutters, the students who had flocked towards the Honeydukes witch began to vanish into thin air. Hidden out of view, the greasy-haired wizard grinned to himself, counting all he could spy.

"Didn't bank on that you greedy sweet-toothed bastards did you?" He uttered under his breath, though regrettably, it bled through the imperio to the witch in the sandwich board. Her cheery voice repeated it to the students around her as more popped out of sight.

"Oops." Lawrence realised. With a sweep of his wand he released the young witch and she dropped to the ground, her sweets scattering on the damp ground around her, her part in the plan complete.

With a sharp crack, Lawrence left the scene.

One did not measure time in blinks of an eye but whatever happened just then took as long as one.

Virgil, lobbing a boiled sweet at Bastian Desrosiers, a tingle of something recognisable in the other sweets stinging his palms. The image of damp but agreeable Hogsmeade high street burnt into his mind just as he glanced at the red lollipop blessed by Gracie's tempting tongue...

He remembered someone pulling him aside earlier that month and asking if he was alright[1]. It occurred to him belatedly that, coming from a Seer, this was an ominous question.


Something pulled, snatched the Slytherin like he was falling upwards - and then nothing at all.

1.	Maiko Biladeau-Yukawa, with Kelly's permission.