Mischief Not-Quite-Managed (Currently being revised and edited to the extreme)

Chapter Seven ~ Stella

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Chapter Seven ~ Stella

When Stella woke up, the first thing she saw was white.  She didn't panic, as she was used to this, but when she tried to push herself into a sitting position and felt pain in her arm, she did start to panic.  She knew that Rose and Kat never intentionally hurt her during one of their full moon excursions, so considering her arm had a large bandage wrapped around it and some blood was seeping through, she was naturally concerned.

Looking side to side wildly, she tried to tell if either of the lumps in the hospital beds near her were her best friends.  They were always there to see her when she first woke up... not a good sign.

Madame Pomfrey noticed her wide open eyes and came over, forcing a potion down her throat that she said would heal her arm, and she would've given it to her sooner, but it kept dripping out the side of her mouth in her state of unconsciousness.  Stella couldn't even bring herself to make a face of disgust at this piece of news, as she was too busy trying to swallow the foul liquid so that she could ask about her friends.

Finally managing to get it down, Stella opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by the door bursting open.  Her eyes shot over to it and she let out a breath of relief upon seeing Kat and Rose hurrying over, looking exhausted and with a scratch here and there, but otherwise fine.

Kat grinned, "Good to see you're up and about - sort of."

Rose popped up beside her, giving an equally large grin, "Yeah."

"Where've you guys been?" Stella asked, hoping for their sake that they had a good excuse for making her worry like crazy for a while.

"Oh, nowhere really," said Kat airily, eyeing Madame Pomfrey in a way that suggested she would tell Stella of their real whereabouts when there weren't any 'Ears with Authority' listening in on her.

Catching on, Stella nodded slightly, and shooed away Madame Pomfrey, "I'm fine, I'm fine."

"Yeah, Poppy," emphasized Kat and Rose in unison with those same grins on their faces as Madame Pomfrey glared at them before leaving in a huff.

Stella turned and rose her eyebrow expectantly, "Well?"

"Well what?" asked Kat, playing innocent.  It would've worked on anyone - except for Stella or Rose. They all knew each other too well to be fooled by Kat's wide eyed 'innocent' face.

Fixing her with a glare that would have Bellatrix Lestrange crying for her mother, Kat whimpered and hid behind Rose, who rolled her eyes, but Stella could easily tell that Rose was terrified.

"This i-idiot," she hurriedly began to explain, trying to sound casual, but under the 'Stella Scowl' it was impossible.  "Was complaining of starvation, so we - we were just down in the kitchens eating."

"So you had me worried like crazy... for food?"

The duo winced slightly at Stella's icy tone, and she smirked inwardly as they stumbled over each other trying to justify it.

"Well - "

"I didn't get dinner OR breakfast, Stellie - "

"The house elves - "

"They kept bringing us stuff - "

"Wouldn't let us leave - "

"We were just so hungry, Stella!  We couldn't help it!"  They finally wailed, dropping to their knees at her bedside, and she kept up the glare for a little bit before letting her smirk shine through.  She slowly began chuckling, and it escalated into full-blown laughter as they watched her, bewildered.