Kim Shimmers and the Diviner’s Curse
A Harry Potter Fanfic by me (and sequel to Kim Shimmers and the Screech Owl)
(Art not mine, couldn’t find credits. Let me know if you know them!)
This Harry Potter fanfic will be posted, if all goes well, every weekend.
Chapter 10
Revenge
That evening, Kim did as Fred had asked. She snuck up to the girl’s dormitory while most of the others were still in the common room, lazy with Hogsmeade sweets and feast. There was one other girl a few bunks away, but Kim simply waited for her to be preoccupied with a book on her bed before crouching down beside Victoria’s mattress. She opened the bag Fred had given her.
Inside were what sort of looked like after dinner mints of some kind, something you would find in a bowl at a grandparent’s house. They were an off colored blue with a thick powder over them. Kim decided it was best not to touch them, since whatever magic was in them didn’t actually require ingestion. She lifted Victoria’s pillow and sprinkled the contents of the bag out evenly underneath until there was nothing left inside. She then tossed the bag out the window, like she did with the ashes from her meditation sessions. The girl reading on her bed glanced up at Kim as she moved away from the window, but Kim pretended not to notice. She went back down to the common room nonchalantly.
That night, Kim was woken with a start. Her eyes peeled open to be greeted by darkness and the drapes of her four poster bed as she drew in a startled breath. Then the screaming that had woken her filtered into her mind and made her fly upright, looking around the dormitory frantically as her eyes adjusted. The screams were coming from nearby, and they were angry and sobbing.
“I know it was you,” came a hysterical voice. Kim heard something moving toward her in the dark.
“What?” Kim said, disoriented and squinting.
“I know you did this,” the figure said again, her voice full of desperation and loathing. It was definitely a girl, but her face was all swollen and red. As Kim’s eyes adjusted she could see small pinprick sized holes that were surrounded by large swollen lumps of skin and covered in scratch marks. Just as Kim scooted back in her bed with revulsion, the girl who must have been Victoria reached up to scratch at her neck manically, explaining the red claw marks.
“You vindictive little slag,” Victoria spat, making Kim recoil. She wasn’t an expert on UK curse words, especially not the more vial ones. But she had a feeling that this was not something you’d throw across a family dinner table in gest. “What did you do to me?” she demanded. “What did you do to my face?”
Kim clenched her teeth and forced herself to be collected. The last thing she needed now was to seem ruffled. She snorted, and rolled her eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Victoria. You always look like that.”
Kim slid out of bed on the other side, away from Victoria as she fumed, a growling noise escaping from her as the other girls that had awoken snickered. The sound grew more high pitched as Kim made for the exit. She wasn’t sure where she was planning on going, just that she needed to get out. Before Victoria started clawing at Kim’s face instead of her own.
“I will get you for this, Shimmers,” Victoria squealed, her voice so high in pitch now it was cracking as she forced the words out of her mouth. “I will get you! You think you can hide behind those red headed brats, but you can’t!”
Kim was fairly certain she was still screaming, but her voice had faded away now that Kim was entering the girl’s bathroom. She took a shaking breath, trying to steady herself, and locked herself into a stall. That was stupid, Kim thought. Poking an angry bear. Felt good… but was stupid.And I should have known she would know it was me. It’s not like it’s any secret that anything prank related is probably thanks to Fred and George. And it’s not like me being friends with them is a secret anymore either. Kim heaved a sigh. I’ll just have to deal with this then. Whatever. It’s not like Victoria was on my list of favorite people anyway. And it’s not like I was ever on hers.
With that, Kim sat in the silence for a few more moments, reveling in how loud absolute quite could be before she snuck back into the now sleeping dormitory and crawled into bed. Not before checking it for any jinxes or unwelcome objects under her pillow, though. When it seemed safe, she crawled in and fell back asleep.
The next day Kim went down to breakfast, managing to avoid Victoria, but getting pulled aside by Clemon on the way down the stairs from Ravenclaw Tower.
“Did you really do that to Vic’s face?” Clemon asked.
Kim looked at her wearily as she mulled over an answer for a brief pause. “And what if I did?”
Clemon snickered. “Hell, Kim,” she said, smiling wide. Kim smiled back despite herself. “What was that?”
“I’m not sure, to be honest.”
“Well, you better watch your back,” Clemon said, catching Kim’s eyes. “Apparently Vic’s got this new boyfriend who’s really protective. She was spouting all this garbage about how he was going to get back at you somehow.”
“Great.”
“He’s an oaf, though. A Slytherin, but not one of the clever ones. Don’t worry yourself too much.”
“Thanks for the heads up. I’ll see you in class,” Kim said, because they were in the Great Hall and she had just spotted Fred and George. She sat down between them and took a plate.
“So… How’d ya’ sleep?” Fred asked.
“She knows it was me,” Kim said bleakly, taking a fried egg and some toast.
“How?” Fred said incredulously.
“It’s not rocket science, Fred. She obviously did something to piss you off. You threatened her. I pranked her with one of your classic pranks. We’re friends and everyone knows it. She knew it was me right away, and she was not happy.”
“It was one of the Itching Puss Rocks, wasn’t it?” George asked Fred, a hint of accusation in his tone. He took Fred’s silence as an affirmative, which judging by the name, Kim could only assume was accurate. “Fred, those are still prototypes, they’re too potent! How many did you put under her pillow?”
“Um, the whole bag so, like ten?” Kim said, squinting. George looked a bit angry now.
“You’re lucky her throat didn’t swell shut,” George said warningly, but he was looking at Fred. Kim directed an angry gaze at Fred as well.
“You heard her, George. She deserved it. Not to mention, I knew she’d be fine because it wasn’t direct contact with the skin.”
“You probably could have stood to warn me not to touch them by the way,” Kim grumbled, and then watched as Fred’s grimace fell immediately to a look of horror.
“Bloody hell. You didn’t touch them, did you?” he asked.
“No,” Kim said, more gently, since he obviously looked sorry. “I kind of inferred.” His look of horror relaxed into something of a fond smile, which Kim couldn’t help but return. What the hell? she thought to herself. I should be mad! But she just wasn’t.
They went back to eating their breakfast for a little while, saying nothing. After a few moments George cleared his throat and said, “How’d they work?” as if he was trying to sound casual. Kim couldn’t help but laugh because it was painfully obvious how badly both of them wanted to hear how their dangerous product worked, even though they both knew they should both feel a bit ashamed of themselves, or at least George knew it.
“Uh, a little too well I think,” Kim said.
“So they did work, then,” said Fred.
“Yes! Her whole face was covered in these nasty pustule things and she couldn’t stop scratching. It was disgusting… she called me a… a slag or something.”
George made a motion like he was choking and then he swallowed his food, looking like he was struggling to do so. Fred just scowled and shook his head.
“Really not a lot of class in that one,” Fred said, forking a piece of egg rather forcefully.
“I don’t care so long as she doesn’t attack me—”
“If she so much as lay’s a finger on you,” George interrupted, looking more assertive than Kim thought she’d ever seen him.
“Yeah, she doesn’t want to go down that road,” Fred agreed, seeming a bit gleeful at the idea of getting to retaliate after something of the sort.
“Thanks guys,” Kim said with sincerity, but she didn’t really want all of this attention aimed at her about this. She’d rather just go back to simple things, like sneaking into Gryffindor Tower and pranking first years. “But don’t worry about me. Just focused on dealing with this Bagman deal. And getting me the stuff I need so I can maybe do some divination for you.”
That reminded her of the other person she was trying to help. She looked down the table and saw a rather angry looking Ron sitting alone. But there was no Harry or Hermione.
“I gotta talk to Harry about something. I’ll catch up with you later,” Kim said, standing.
“Wait, Harry?” Fred said in protest.
“What about the herbology stuff?” George asked.
“Uh, just figure a plan out and fill me in later,” Kim said absentmindedly before she left them to go find Harry.
After wondering the halls for a little while, Kim decided the logical thing would be to find Hermione, who would no doubt be in her natural habitat; the library. When Kim arrived, she only had to walk past a few tall shelves lined with ancient books that wafted a comforting sent of book dust before she caught the sound of Hermione’s voice. Around a corner she spotted both her and Harry pouring over multiple books, like she’d found the both of them many times over the past few weeks. Hermione probably had Harry on extra homework duty again, since that was her usual idea of fun.
“Pst,” Kim said leaning over the table to talk to the two of them in a whisper. “There’s something I’ve got to tell you, and it’s going to sound crazy. But you’ve got to trust me. The first challenge is dragons.”
Kim’s eyes flicked from Harry’s to Hermione’s, neither of whom looked nearly as shocked as she expected, and then down to the books they were poring over. One that was closed on the desk and sitting before Harry was Men Who Love Dragons Too Much. Kim frowned.
“But I see that you already know that…How-” Kim stammered.
“How did you know that?” Harry asked.
“How did you?”
“Hagrid showed me.”
“He did?” Kim said, sounding surprised. “He sounded pretty adamantly against it when I asked him,” she murmured mostly to herself as she lowered into a chair.
