Whassup? Okay, I'm not going to be posting much of anything until December, if that, but I wanted to do something. One plot-bunny has been pure Pottertalia. I will explain my house choices and other such things later, assuming the main story ever gets beyond a few pages.

Ah well, let me know if you want more Pottertalia! :)

Enjoy!

Today was quite possibly the worst and most confusing day Madeline had ever had. Worse, it wasn't even lunch time yet. Honestly, it was Saturday, she'd hoped to relax a bit, catch up on studying. But no, chaos had to ensure. She knew it was Hogwarts, but still.

Madeline was always a very quite person. She was neither loud nor excitable, unlike her brother. Yes she loved him dearly, but that didn't make them anymore the same. She'd come out of her shell recently, thanks to a certain equally exuberant boyfriend, but she was still the quiet one. A little known fact was that she shared her brother's uncanny strength, though it was little known because she never used it.

Today, Madeline did have to use it. And it wasn't working. At all.

"Alfred, stop! Alfred! Listen to me, you can't kill him! Would you listen to me? Alfred!"

Ignoring her, plowing forward despite her efforts to restrain him, Alfred stalked down the hall, eyes set on the albino on the far end. It was rare to see him in anything but a cheerful mood. Now, though, his blue eyes blazed with fury. His fists were clinched, Slytherin robes rippling around him as he advanced on his target.

Madeline, Hufflepuff robes fluttering, scrambled to get ahead of him. She planted both hands on his shoulders and locked her legs, trying to brace him. No such luck. Her shoes simply slid back on the stone walkway, the school-approved footwear not made with good traction.

"Gil, run!" she yelled desperately, mind racing. She didn't want to cast a spell at Alfred, but she was running out of options.

Gilbert, also a Slytherin, looked up from his conversation with Francis and Antonio. A Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, respectively. He looked a bit apprehensive at the sight of an outraged Alfred, but held his ground. "Eh, Birdie? What's with your brother?"

"Don't act like you didn't see this coming," snapped Alfred.

Ignoring Madeline's protests, he grabbed Gilbert by the robes and slammed him up against the nearest wall. Gilbert, finally aware that his good friend really did plan to pound him into a pulp, grabbed at the wrists slowly lifting him off the floor. "What are you talking about? Put me down! This is not awesome you Dummkopf!"

"I told you exactly what was going to happen," snapped Alfred, slamming him back against the wall again. "You wanna date my sister? Fine. But the second you hurt her, you're dead. Guess what? You broke that rule."

"Alfred, that's not it!" argued Madeline, trying to drag him away. "Let me explain!"

She didn't even bother looking to Francis or Antonio for help. Alfred might be a year below them, but he was bigger, stronger, and better. Better at spells, fighting, Quidditch, the whole nine yards. Honestly it was lucky he was normally such a cheerful person, because he could be quite a terror when he got like this. Gilbert might be his friend, his house mate, and a chaser on the same Quidditch team on which Alfred served as a beater, but clearly none of that mattered at the moment.

"Maple! What's wrong with you?" demanded Madeline, stumbling back as Alfred hauled both himself and his captive away from the wall. This wasn't like him, he was on a rampage and he wasn't listening.

"You can't beat him up!" she insisted, desperate now. Gilbert was trying to fight back, with minimal success. Especially since Alfred now had him pinned to the floor, one arm a heartbeat away from pounding a crater into his face.

Madeline grabbed his arm, digging in her heels and throwing her full body weight into holding his arm back. He couldn't use his other arm, as the rest of him was busy holding the thrashing and swearing Prussian, but she wouldn't be able to hold him long. Not like this.

Mind racing, the Canadian thought frantically for a way to keep Alfred in check. But honestly, what was there? No one or thing had been known to restrain Alfred F. Jones for long. (The F stood for various things, depending on whom and when you asked.) Who was capable of restraining a six foot four, two hundred and ten pound, Quidditch playing sixth year who was apparently seeing red? What could possibly...oh. Oh. Oh.

Madeline was not a loud person by nature. That said, she could be, if the occasion called for it. At the moment, it seemed to be just such an occasion.

They were on the third level of walkways around the main yard. It was quite a nice day, the sun was out and everything, so many students were in the common area. Madeline could only hope that someone who was once a creature of habit, was always a creature of habit.

Opening her mouth, Madeline yelled as loudly as she could, "Alice! Alice help! Alice!"

Alfred visibly stilled in her grip. She felt a little of the straining tension leave his arm, but not much. Gilbert fell silent. Praying hard her friend heard before Alfred decided to resume his original plan, Madeline only tightened her grip.

After what was easily the longest ten seconds of her life, a figure soared into eye view over the low wall, perched on a broom. They did not look best pleased, wand at the ready to defend her desperate friend. The narrowed eyed look only became even more a scowl when the Brit took stock of the situation.

Guiding her broom onto the walkway before touching down and dismounting, Alice strode over to them and grabbed Alfred by the ear, hauling him to his feet. "What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" she demanded angrily. "As much as I'd love to see the wanker get what's coming to him, I'd rather you didn't do so against Madeline's objections. Explain yourself, now. I was in the middle of a very good book."

Madeline had never been more happy to see the Gryffindor Seeker. If nothing else, it looked like Alfred had stopped seeing red. He didn't pounce back on Gilbert as he slowly got up, though he looked like he wanted to. Instead, he glared back at the Brit and growled, "I'm just keeping my promise. When he started going out with Maddie, I promised I'd kill him if he hurt her. He hurt her, I'm killing him."

"You will certainly not kill him. I might not like the wanker, but Ludwig would be heartbroken."

"Hey!"

"Okay, so I'd quite once he'd stopped twitching," argued Alfred. "That doesn't change the facts, Iggy."

"First of all, don't call me that," she informed him, glowing wand tip inches from his nose. "Second," she continued, turning to Madeline, "Explain. Now, if you please."

Madeline wavered, thinking briefly about Francis and Antonio who were still watching in morbid fascination. Then she shook her head, and blurted, "It was the snake bomb. The one he set in the girl's bathroom."

Gilbert's eyes widened slightly. "It got you? Birdie, I-

"You set a bomb to go off with snakes?" demanded Alice angrily. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't let him beat you senseless."

"They weren't poisonous! And how would the Awesome me know she'd be the one to set it off?"

"He's right, they were just garden snakes. They're probably still in there, scattered everywhere. Honestly I'm surprised we haven't heard of it by now," said Madeline, talking quickly.

"Then why were you crying?" asked Alfred, frowning at her.

Madeline folded her arms. Initially she'd been as terrified of snakes as her brother was of ghosts. But in recent years she'd managed to overcome it, within limits, courtesy of the boggart lessons. She could handle being around snakes without becoming completely petrified, unless they were poisonous, in which case the fear returned in full force. When Alfred had stumbled onto her a few corridors over, nearly on the opposite side of the school, she'd been huddling in an out of the way corner trying to get hold of herself.

"I'd like to see how well you'd react when snakes come pouring out of the toilet the moment you close the stall door," she informed him tartly. "There must have been hundreds of them! And I didn't know they weren't poisonous until I finally stopped running and realized one was still on me."

"Then why is it the first thing you managed to get out when I asked was 'Gil'?"

"Who else would plant a snake bomb in the girl's bathroom?"

Alfred was still glaring at the albino, but now it had a reluctant, almost pouty element. Madeline finally allowed herself to slump in relief. Leaning back against the inner wall of the walkway, she said, "Thanks, Alice."

"Humph. What's gotten into you, you bloody wanker? You've got a match coming up with Ravenclaw, never mind the O.W.L,'s. Don't you have anything better to do than beat up your sister's boyfriend? It's hardly as though you have a replacement for him if you go through with it, anyway."

As Alice ranted at the guiltless Slytherin, Madeline cracked a smile, watching as the Bad Touch Trio made a run for it. They never did anything halfway, one of the reasons they normally got along with Alfred. No doubt there was more than one such bomb, and the incident had apparently resulted in them rethinking the prank.

Madeline considered pulling Gilbert aside, but let it go. She'd have words with him later. Besides, she decided he'd gotten punishment enough from Alfred. Besides, he didn't know about her fear of snakes. Just like no one save for a select few knew about Alfred's ghost phobia. Unlike most people, Gilbert never forgot about her or failed to notice her presence in the room. This wasn't the first time he'd messed up, either. If he held true to form, there'd be a large bottle of maple syrup and a chagrined Slytherin outside her ground level window tonight.

Mmm, on second thought, maybe she should get into his pranks more often. She was running low on maple syrup...

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