After classes, as Kodachi walked to the big hall for dinner, she felt a momentary painful twinge come over her. It was gone in a second, and she continued on, wondering what that could have been. She found out when she approached her place at the Slytherin table and Melody Harrison gasped.
"Kodachi!" she said. "What happened to your face?!"
Surprised, Kodachi raised a hand to her face. It felt... bumpy. Karen produced a hand mirror and Kodachi quickly sat down to look into it.
She had to stifle a shriek, and the mirror fell from her hand to the table. Her face was practically covered with ugly, hairy warts, and her nose had taken on a crooked shape. Kodachi's hand started shaking, but she resolutely bunched it into a fist. Never show weakness.
"Somebody put a curse of ugliness on you," Melody said. "You'll have to go to Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing to get it lifted."
"But who put that on you?" asked Karen, stowing her mirror away again. "I mean, some witches actually used that on themselves to look more scary, but you didn't know about it before we told you."
They were spared the trouble of figuring it out, when Draco Malfoy strode into the hall and sauntered along the Slytherin table with studied nonchalance, only to stop and turn towards Kodachi, as if he only just noticed her. "Why, if it isn't Kodachi Hecate, the warty wonder. Not feeling so uppity anymore, are you?"
Kodachi narrowed her eyes and said coldly, "Thank you, Malfoy for stopping by and gloating so openly. Otherwise I would have spent several precious seconds of my time to wonder who did this to me."
Draco bristled. "Are you accusing me of something, Hecate?"
"I hardly have to do that, since you are doing such a good job of it, yourself," said Kodachi.
Draco caught himself again and sneered at her. "And why would anybody listen to the words coming from such an ugly face?"
Kodachi let the clumsy barb slide off her. "I can have this curse lifted and regain my natural face - but what will you do when your little beauty-enhancer trips out and yours is revealed?"
Malfoy went red. "I don't use an Avonia Cantrip!"
Kodachi allowed herself a thin, superior smile. I love it when a shot in the dark hits, she thought. Aloud she said, "Funny... I never mentioned an 'Avonia Cantrip'. Since I have little use for such magics, I am not familiar with it - care to enlighten me, Malfoy?"
Draco screamed in anger and went for his wand, but before he could get it to bear, the scene was interrupted by a shout.
"What is going on here?" asked the Slytherin prefect Vito Malaghieri sternly, as he strode up to them. "Put that wand away, Malfoy." He looked from Draco to Kodachi and back again, but neither spoke up. Seeing Kodachi's warty countenance, he grimaced. "Hecate, go to the Hospital wing and have your face fixed. Malfoy, stop making a spectacle of yourself and get to your place. House Slytherin doesn't embarrass itself by infighting before everybody's eyes."
Kodachi obediently rose, bowed slightly to her prefect and strode out with her head held high. Malfoy looked like he was going to talk back for a moment, before he subsided and stomped to his place.
Vito then turned to Melody and Karen. "She'll take a while at Madam Pomfrey's. You two can take her meal there, after dinner is over."
"Yes, sir!" the two chorused.
"That was so brilliant!" Melody gushed, as she and Karen sat in the hospital wing with Kodachi, watching as her warts popped into nothingness one by one. "If Draco had done that to me, I'd have been crying my eyes out - and you even zinged him back like nobody's business! Perhaps he'll even get in trouble."
"No he won't," said Karen. "His family's rich and well-connected, so they're not going to punish him or anything. And my brother Michael says that you can't even put a curse on him to get him back, because he'll wear that protection charm his dad gave to him for the next few days. Michael is in third year with Draco, and he says the little bastard is practically ruling Slytherin, just because nobody dares stand up to him."
Kodachi put her empty plate away and shook her head. "Such a shame upon our house, that a crude bully like Malfoy should hold such sway. Isn't it obvious that such pathetic methods cannot lead to greatness?"
"Yes," said Melody, "You'd be much better for that than him!"
Kodachi smiled wanly. She had thought that this fresh start would provide a change of pace from her previous position of leadership at her old school - but apparently this was not to be. She could not sit by idly and let a boy like Draco lead her house down the path of becoming sad little bullies like him. If Slytherin was about achieving greatness, as she had been told, then they should aspire to do better than Draco, rather than follow him.
"That protection charm you mentioned," she asked thoughtfully, "would that be a protection from spells and curses?"
The next morning, breakfast proceeded as normal in the big hall... until Draco Malfoy moaned loudly and jumped up from his place. He ran for the doors, but before he even reached them, everybody in the hall heard a long, loud farting sound, ending in a squelch. Draco redoubled his speed, while behind him laughter broke out. Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables exploded with mirth, and even many Slytherins couldn't suppress a laugh.
When the laughter died down, Melody and Karen turned wide-eyed to Kodachi, who was unconcernedly eating her breakfast with a quiet, self-satisfied smile.
"That was you wasn't it?" breathed an amazed Melody.
"How did you get around his protection charm?" whispered Karen.
Kodachi smiled. "Let's just say that Draco apparently forgot that not everybody is as quick to rely on magic alone as he is. It is quite amazing how many uses certain plant extracts have around the house."
(Posted Sat, 21 Dec 2002 14:22)
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