Harry Potter's Chaotic Twin (Ch 6)

After we leave Mrs. Figg's house, the three of us manage to find a neighborhood where nearly every house is decorated. Inflatable pumpkins, fake skeletons, the occasional hay maze on the lawn, and so on. Much more pleasant to look at than the drab repetitiveness of privet drive.

Harry and I can’t help but to stare in wonder at all the different people wandering around, a far cry from the area we live. Nearly everyone is wearing a costume, and they’re all more elaborate than the two of ours. There are people dressed as witches like Clarity, zombies, cowboys, and one guy who seemed to have gone above and beyond to make himself look like a giant bat. Wow, that costume is realistic. I feel like I can even see the muscles on the wing!

I try to reach out to the giant bat-man to see if whatever he used on his wings to make them look so real is soft, but they move away at the last moment and I miss. By the time I turn around to stare at the man some more they're already gone.

Clarity pats my back in sympathy. "Don't worry about it, some people are just sensitive about their costumes. Why, just last year, a girl in a vampire costume kept following me around asking if she could suck my blood." She chuckles. "I was on the verge of saying yes just so that she would leave me alone, but luckily her mother found her and took her home."

Harry laughs at her story while I offer her a smile, then I remember that I'm wearing a sheet and laugh along with him. I then turn my attention to the first house we're approaching (not counting Mrs. Figg because… it’s Mrs. Figg. It's fairly simple compared to some of the ones on the street, just a few pumpkins and a fake skeleton in front of the kitchen window.

We knock on the door and it's quickly answered by a portly old lady. "Trick-or-treat!" Clarity says. I give her a side-eye that she can't see.

"Oh my," the old woman exclaims, "a wicked witch and a couple of ghosts. Why, I haven't seen costumes like these since I was a trick-or-treater myself."

I smirk and put on my best innocent voice. "Wow, what was it like when dinosaurs still walked around? Did you have to walk around wearing a bush so they didn't eat you?"

The old woman chuckles. "I'm not that old dearie, though I suppose I could tell you about that time my husband got it into his head that his idea for sliced bread would be the next big thing." She gives me a wink. "But you likely have a long night ahead of you, so I won't bore you with the details. Have a good night!"

She gives each of us a good sized handful of candy before closing the door. As we leave her driveway, we pass by another group of trick-or-treaters walking up to the house.

"Wouldn't it make more sense for her to sit on a chair outside instead of having to stop whatever she's doing inside to hand out candy?" I wonder.

Clarity nods her head. "Probably, but maybe she doesn't like the cold, or she could have a chair, just inside where we couldn't see."

"True. By the way Clarity, why didn't you introduce us properly this time?"

"Huh?" She gives me a confused look.

"You know," Harry chimes in with an amused voice, "with the whole, ‘I am a powerful witch traveling with my undead companions! Grant us succor for our journey.’ You know, like how you did with Mrs. Figg?"

She blushes and looks away. "Oh, that. W-well, I just wanted to have a bit of fun, get into character as a witch. But… it's embarrassing."

I shrug. "Well, if you found it fun, who cares? People are assholes who will judge you anyway, so you might as well do what you like."

She gives me a shocked look, Harry stares at me too. Did I say something wrong?

"M-m-misha, you shouldn't use such crass language in public!" Clarity stutters out a reply. "What if someone overhears you and spreads rumors?"

I roll my eyes. "So what if they do? Harry and I already have a bunch of rumors going around about us, so what's a few more? Besides, who's going to be able to tell who we are under these sheets? People can literally only see our eyes until we lift our bags. Even then, they only get to see our arms when we do. And I did already tell you what I think about restricting my actions based on other people's perceptions."

She blinks and looks up while tapping her chin with a thoughtful look. "I suppose so, your reputation really can't get any worse among the other kids than your cousin has made it. It's also true that nobody can see under your sheets so there's a fairly low chance of anything you do getting traced back to you, even if people do take note."

She sighs before pinching the bridge of her nose under her glasses. "However, that does not mean you can act uncivilized. Even if you do not care about the opinions of others, you should at least maintain an awareness of your situation."

I nod. "Sure thing, but you should let yourself have some fun. Don't let yourself be stuck caring about what everyone else thinks. You're worth more than you give yourself credit for.

She blushes, this time just a light shade. She looks like she's about to reply before we're interrupted by an annoyingly familiar voice.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

"Looks to me like it's the little rich girl and her two servants."

"How greedy! Paying these two to trick-or-treat with you. Don't you have any real friends to hang out with?"

"…"

We turn around and what do we see? The Vapids, minus Dudley. A quick look around reveals that he's nowhere around, which is odd. Usually he sticks with his gang like the bacon grease sticks to his chin.

Though I suppose he knows better than to intentionally antagonize Clarity. If there's one subject that he can be "smart" at, it's avoiding the negative attention of those higher on the totem pole. Or maybe Vernon and Petunia actually did something resembling good parenting for once and told him to not cause problems with her.

Seems like the delegated leader of the night is Piers Polkiss. He's dressed to match his face, that is, like a rat. Though he's also wearing some kind of brown karate uniform over it for whatever reason. The other three are dressed as turtles with wraps over their eyes. The four of them are glaring at Clarity and smirking, as if they’d said the funniest thing in the world.

But really, the funniest thing right now is their costumes. Really? A rat and some turtles? Did they decide to base their costumes off of pets or something? I barely hold in my snickers, curious about where this might go. After all, it doesn't seem like they recognize Harry and I under our sheets. We could have some fun with this. I can feel an evil smirk grow on my face. Harry gives me a quick glance, as if he senses that I plan to start some trouble.

Clarity simply gives the quartet of idiots a flat stare, her cold eyes seeming to freeze them for a moment. "What do you want, Idiot One?"

I can see Piers' face start to turn red behind the fake fur he glued on. Between gritted teeth, he manages to hiss out, "That's not my name."

Clarity adopts such a look of genuine shock and surprise that even I’m tempted to believe it’s genuine. "Really? But that is what everyone calls you!" She points at each of them in turn. "Idiot One, Idiot Two, Idiot Three, and Malcolm."

"""OI, WHY'S MALCOLM THE ONLY ONE BEING CALLED BY HIS NAME!?"""

The three idiots shout in unison while Malcolm looks both confused, and a little happy at not being called an idiot.

Clarity tilts her head and puts a finger to her cheek. "Why, isn't it obvious? He's smarter than you three, and he doesn't go around acting like he's better than everyone else. He does have poor choice in friends though." Malcolm gets an uncomfortable look on his face before sending a glance at his group, unnoticed by the rest in their anger.

Piers takes a threatening step forward, but Clarity stares him down unflinchingly.

"You better watch your mouth, girl. Ain't no one around to tell your daddy on us if something were to happen to you."

I look around, staring at the two burly ‘kids’ that have been following us since we left the Dursleys, and give him a flat look. Honestly though, I'm not sure even Clarity is aware that her dad is having her shadowed.

Clarity removes her candy bag from her broom and hands it to me then takes a quick step forward and jabs the wooden implement towards his face, causing Piers to take an instinctive step back even though it doesn’t even come close to hitting him. His face flushes further as he realizes this.

"I think you are the one who should watch their mouth Mr. Polkiss. After all," she gives him a familiar smirk - HEY! That's MY evil smirk! - and draws a small circle in the air in front of his face with the end of the broom. "I am a powerful witch. And you are a simple rat. You know what witches have that rats fear?" She leans in. "A cat to hunt them down. So run, little rat, in fear of the cat." She spins the broom and brings it down to plant on the ground, as if making some sort of grand pronouncement, before turning on her heel and striding away with her nose stuck pompously in the air. Harry and I fall into step behind her.

Though before we get out of earshot I turn to give the boys one last glance, and my smile widens under my sheet.

"Beware, little rat~.

Fear the cat~.

Run little rat~.

Before the cat~.

Makes you go splat~."

After we round a street corner, and the Vapids are finally out of sight behind us, Clarity leans her back against a lightpost with one hand on her chest. "Goodness, that was quite the confrontation. I must say, it was rather… exhilarating. And exhausting."

Wordlessly, I hand her back her candy. She returns it back to hang on her broom before taking a deep breath. Slowly she exhales. She shoots the two of us an apologetic look. "Sorry, but I'm not quite feeling up to trick-or-treating the whole night anymore. Would it be a bother if we cut it short to, say, an hour or two?"

I shrug. "It's ok with me. While this has been a nice experience, what I've most enjoyed is going out with you and Harry. We should see if we can do it again sometime."

She perks right up, but is interrupted by Harry before she can speak. "By the way sis, what was with that rhyme you did when we left them?"

Another shrug, I'm going to get a cramp if this keeps happening. "Nothing in particular. It just came to me. If you want answers, how about asking Clarity about where she got her intimidation tactics from? Did you see his face? He looked terrified! Like some cat was really going to come after him."

Clarity's embarrassed face makes a reappearance! "Well, it just seemed to fit, what with him being dressed as a giant rat and all." She shakes her head. "Although he brings disgrace to Master Splinter's name. Not only is he dumb as a bag of bricks, but Master Splinter is a being of integrity, honor, and you have no idea what I'm talking about do you?" She asks in response to our blank stares.

We simultaneously shake our heads. After all, we're abused/neglected orphans! She sighs and begins to explain a show called 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' to us.

Unbeknownst to any in the town that night, one of the cages in the zoo, which wasn't properly locked, slowly swings open. And the beast within takes a cautious step out.