Displaced - part 2

Anon felt uneasy the whole day, he fully expected Merula to suddenly jump out from shadows and attack him wherever he went. The girl had just tried the most outlandish ruse against him and it put him on the edge. He could no longer even spot Merula in the crowd, the girl had started changing her iconic messy hairstyle and for some reason disguised herself as a Hufflepuff. The day's classes were unnerving when he was constantly on the defensive, but the girl never showed up. In fact, the girl had completely gone missing. He could heard chattering about people having spotted her and that she had gone completely insane.

He decided he needed to find the girl, and make her stop this craziness. Where did she even get Hufflepuff robes? The boy ran into Rowan while he was scouring the castle for her.
"Rowan, have you seen Merula, she was acting like an insane person. I think she might have killed a Hufflepuff and is now pretending to be one." Anon said to his mate.
"Anon, stop joking and tell me what is going on. People have been spotting Merula running around in tears." Rowan said worried.
"I don't know what is going on, She ran from a duel when I confronted her for stealing my magic thing. You mean she was actually crying? I didn't know she can cry." Anon said, slightly worried about the sanity of his rival, was this the dial's doing?
"This is the worrying part, she apparently ran away from Penny, as if Penny was going to do something nasty to her." Rowan said scratching his neck.
"The fuck is going on, Rowan, why is she acting like this? I need to find her and put an end to it. Has anyone seen where she's gone? Did Penny see her?"
"It's worth going to ask her, I mean we know where she is at this time."

The two boys didn't actually have to meet Penny, they ran into a group of Hufflepuffs leaving the basements talking about Merula having lost her mind.
"Did you see Merula?" Anon asked the group. "Where is she?"
"We only know that she had stolen Hufflepuff robes from somewhere and was going to the common room. Apparently she had been crying in the bathrooms all day." One of the Hufflepuffs said.
"We'll catch her in the Slytherin common room then." Rowan said.
"Not Slytherin common room, Hufflepuff common room." the Hufflepuffs said. "Well, she can try, she'll never get in. What did you do, have you flipendoe'd her in the head once too many, Anon?"
"Shut up." Anon said angrily, he had started feeling guilty about this whole Merula situation, but he knew it was just a trick. A convoluted overcomplicated trick to get him to do something...
"Sorry about him..." Rowan said to the Hufflepuffs as the two boys ran off to the basements.

There was a commotion going on at the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room when the two boys got there. Merula was actually there, with her eyes red from crying.
"How the hell did you get your hands on Hufflepuff robes, and how the hell did you get the door open?" A hufflepuff prefect interrogated Merula.
"I-i-i'm a Hufflepuff, I was sorted into Hufflepuff with Anon..." The girl declared while sobbing.
"What the heck, You're not a Hufflepuff, you've always been a Slytherin... And so is Anon for that matter. Check whose robes she stole." The prefect said pointing at a hufflepuff girl.
The Hufflepuff girl went to Merula warily, she had seen what Merula can do when she's angry, so she was as careful as she could, even if Merula was now a sobbing mess.
"The robes say they belong to..." The girl stopped, she was reading the nametag on the robes. "Merula Snyde, it says they belong to Merula Snyde. What is going on?"
The Hufflepuffs were looking around confused and started chattering, the prefect noticed Anon and Rowan. "Anon, what the hell have you done to Merula, she's completely disoriented"
"I haven't done anything to her, she was completely normal last time we saw." Anon said looking at Merula, who noticed him.
"A-a-anon, please tell them we're H-hufflepuffs." She said crying hysterically, she ran up to Anon and stopped when he saw the look on his face. She was still startled about earlier. "Please, Anon, I don't know what is going on... What happened to you?"
"Merula, this is not funny, I don't know what your game is, but you seriously need to stop." Anon said angrily.
The girl stepped back and noticed Anon was wearing Slytherin uniform. "Anon, w-why are you wearing Slytherin robes?"
Anon looked at Rowan, who looked back at him confused.
"Okay, we need to get her out of here, let's take her to common room and talk with her." Rowan said disturbed.
Anon wasn't quite sure if he really wanted to do that, his instincts were screaming against it. Everytime Merula had acted strangely, it had been to get a drop on him.
"Did you say she got in your common room?" Anon asked the prefect. "How?"
"We don't know, we suspect she got the information from whoever she stole the uniform from."
"Didn't the uniform say Merula Snyde on it?" Rowan asked.
"Yes, but... Damn this situation is confusing, just take her to your common room, or Pomfrey. Stop causing trouble  for Hufflepuff." The prefect said and pushed Merula away from the entrance to Hufflepuff common room.
"Okay, fine." Anon finally agreed. "Come on, Merula, we'll figure out what's wrong with you. But I swear, if this is one of your tricks. I will make slug-vomiting look pleasant."
The girl yelped in terror, but followed Anon.

"this is a nightmare, this is just a nightmare... I will wake up in my comfy bed and go have breakfast with Anon..." Merula was muttering to herself.
"Shut up, we've never once eaten breakfast together."
The girl went quiet and looked down. "Maybe this is hell..."
"What happened to you, Merula?" Rowan asked worried.
"Start from the beginning, what happened to you, Merula?" Anon demanded.
"Beginning? Oh... Okay... Beginning." The girl said while wiping her eyes. "I got a letter and was accepted to Hogwarts, I uhh... Got my school supplies and finally got to the Hogwarts train and... I was scared, alone. I got sorted into Hufflepuff..."
"Not that far back, you idiot..." Anon said annoyed.
"Hang on, let her finish." Rowan stopped Anon. "Go on, Merula what happened next, where did you meet Anon?"
"Anon, oh... Uh..." She blushed and smiled a little and looked at Anon, but immediately turned her gaze down, when she realized the boy was scowling out of annoyance. "...Uh, I met Anon during potions classes, I was shy and Snape scared me... He offered  to pair up with me during the first class and we... We kinda blew up his cauldron by accident..."
"What the hell, you're the one who blew up my cauldron on purpose to make Snape angry at me." Anon said fuming.
"Eep, I didn't do it on purpose, you said it was okay! Why are you acting like that, what is wrong with you I haven't done anything to you." The girl started talking quickly and tears started falling from her eyes again. "We've been friends for years..."
"Do you actually believe that, did you get hit by a curse?" Anon asked genuinely confused now.
The girl was quiet and looked down sorrowfully.
 "Ah fuck, why the fuck didn't I think of this earlier?" Anon said and went for his wand. "Finite Incantem."
The two boys stared at Merula.
"Well?" Anon asked her.
"I-I don't think it worked, I'm still trapped in this nightmare." The girl said and covered her face with her hands.
"We need to take her to madam Pomfrey." Rowan finally said.
"Absolutely not." Anon whispered to Rowan. "If people think I did this, I'll really get expelled this time, this has to be the dial's doing."
"What are we going to do, what if she's permanently left like this?" Rowan whispered back scared.
"We'll act like this was all a prank, for all we know, it actually is." Anon whispered angrily. "We need to find out if she's actually telling the truth or if she's lying."
"How do you want us to do that?"
Anon looked at Merula, who was still crying into her palms. "I have an idea, but first we need Merula to go change into her robes."
"B-but these are my robes, and all my other robes are in my dorm in Hufflepuff basement." The girl said and looked at Anon.
"For the last time, you're a slytherin, your robes are in your dorm over there!" Anon said pointing at the girl's dorms.
"No, there has to be a mistake, I've always been a hufflepuff, I've never even been in slytherin room..." The girl said defensivelly.
Anon looked around the common room and spotted two girls. "You two, get over here."
The girls looked at Anon curiously. "What do you want, Ymous?"
"Take Merula to her dorm, she's having issues and she needs new robes before we take her to Pomfrey." Anon pushed Merula towards the two girls. "Go with them, you'll find your trunk there, come back here when you have your actual robes on and we'll figure out how to help you."
"A-alright, maybe I'll wake up..." She said and followed the two girls to the girl's dorms.
"What are we going to do, everyone will  think you cooked her brains in a duel." Rowan said looking at Anon worried
"Shut up, Rowan, no one is going to find out I did this." Anon said, he really wasn't sure if that was true.

Merula followed the two slytherin girls to a dorm and they pointed her to a bed that had a familiar looking trunk infront of it.
"What is going on, that looks like my trunk..." She said confused and walked to the trunk.
She opened the trunk and realized that it really was her trunk. She went to the small wardrobe next to the bed and opened it. It had slytherin robes in it.  when she took one out and read the nametag, it really did say Merula Snyde on it. The girl was horrified, was she really a slytherin? How did she turn into a slytherin. She heard Anon shout at her from the common room, so she just quickly put the slytherin robes on and went to Anon.
"My trunk was there, and these robes said Merula Snyde, but I don't remember wearing these clothes, they're too dark for me." The girl said when she sat infront of the two boys.
"You idi..." Anon started, but stopped when Rowan elbowed him. "What?"
"Don't cause her to go hysterical again, just calmly tell what your plan is." Rowan whispered.
"Alright, fine." Anon said and tried to smile at Merula, but found out that it was harder to do than he thought. "Okay, Merula, I thought of a way to figure out whether or not you're telling the truth."
"O-oh, you don't believe me?" The girl said sadly.
"Look... You know that story about the kid who cried the wolf." Anon said, but realized there is no way Merula would have ever read muggle fairytales or atleast learnt the moral behind it.
"You think I've lied to you too many times, anon?" The girl said and looked at Anon "I would never lie to someone I love."
Anon froze up, he felt a cold spark travel trough his spine and all his limbs went numb. He couldn't do anything but stare at the girl with his mouth open.
Rowan was just as surprised, he just kept looking at Merula and then Anon. Merula seemed so genuine when she said that, but Anon looked like he was about to faint.
"You... Love Anon?" Rowan asked. "Since when?"
Merula just blushed and looked down. "Since... Since forever... When I saw his kind smile, and when he helped me when Penny bullied me..."
"Anon smiled at you?" Rowan asked not believing his ears. "Also Penny wouldn't bully you, if anything, you'd bully Penny."
"I would never bully anyone, I just want to study and spend time with Anon, I would never be mean to anyone."
Anon was still frozen, as if Merula had put a curse on him, Rowan decided to poke him again.
"Anon, snap out of it!"
He just turned to look at Rowan with blank expression of horror. "...This isn't Merula, what is this, a doppelganger, a boggart... What the fuck are we looking at man!"
"We need to take her to Pomfrey!" Rowan said angrily.
"NO!" Anon shouted back and turned to look at Merula.
"I am real Merula!" The girl said and stomped her feet on the floor. "I want to get out, I want to go back, this place is scary!"
"The dial!" Anon said "Merula, did you use the dial?!"
The girl looked at Anon confused. "What dial, what is a dial. I haven't done anything!"
Anon kept pressing the girl. "The dial I found in the vault, the one you stole from my trunk when I was asleep!"
"What vault?" Merula asked. "Gringotts vault?"
"No, you idi..." He stopped himself. "Cursed vaults, in Hogwarts, we've been searching for them since day one!"
"I don't know anything about any curses or vaults" Merula said seriously.
"R-rowan..." Anon said. "We need to figure this out, I have a plan... If it fails, we need to get her to Madam Pomfrey and I will get expelled..."
"Oh, fuck, you think it's that bad?" Rowan asked worried.
"There is no way I can get away with this, people will automatically assume I had used some advanced curse on her and scrambled her brain."
"No one would think you cursed me, Anon, we've been close friends forever." Merula said finally.
"No... Merula... We haven't..." Anon said and looked at the girl horrified, he wasn't sure what was going on. Seeing merula like that and hearing her say all those things scared Anon more than anything.
"Okay, let's just pretend everything is fine for a second and try out Anon's plan." Rowan said finally. "Merula, please act normally."
"I don't even know what normal means anymore." The girl said and looked down sadly.
"Let's assume her memories are tampered with..." Anon said finally. "Merula, you need to act like you hate me."
"But I don't hate you, I love you." Merula said finally.
Anon froze again, his brain was sending him alarm singnals, everything about this was wrong and he felt like the fabric of reality had been torn from around him.
"Okay, but please just act like you do, and don't tell anyone you love him." Rowan said finally. "It will cause people to be suspicious.
"O-okay..." The girl said.
Anon looked at the girl closely, she was clearly Merula, but some key details were wrong. Her hair was different, he thought at first that the girl had disguised herself. But her hair looked like it was naturally curly. The girl was also a bit more plump than he remembered, her cheekbones weren't as obvious as usual.
"Get up and turn around." Anon said.
The girl blushed intensely but did what she was told with a cute little spin. Completely out of character. The girl was definitely chubbier than she was a day ago, she looked like she never missed a breakfast and hadn't spent all her free time to fight dangers in vaults or Anon.
"This couldn't have happened in one day." Anon said. "Okay, sit down, Merula and listen closely, I will explain my  plan."
The girl sat down and looked at him attentively.
Anon was a bit uncomfortable about the fact how timid and obedient Merula was now.
"Okay, the plan... The plan... Fuck..." He started trying to collect his thoughts. "First of all, we need to go see Penny and she will evaluate whether or not Merula is actually a hufflepuff, there has to be some things that only a hufflepuff would know."
"Smart, that makes sense." Rowan agreed.
"Oh! I know plenty of things like that, like how..." Merula started excitedly.
"Wait till we get to, Penny!" Anon said annoyed and shut the girl up. "I am not finished."
The girl just yelped and nodded her head rapidly.
"Okay, if Penny vouches that she knows something about Hufflepuff a slytherin couldn't possibly know."
"Like how to open the door" Rowan said.
"Yes, like that, that's a good start... How the fuck did she open the door, do you know how to open the hufflepuff door, Rowan?"
"No, how would I?" Rowan said quickly.
"Oh, the door is easy to open..." Merula started.
The two boys looked at her curiously, they both wanted to know how to get in the hufflepuff room.
"O-oh, I shouldn't talk about it in slytherin common room." Merula realized.
The boys were disappointed, but Anon went back to his plan.
"Okay, fine, whatever, I didn't want to go in the Hufflepuff room anyway..." Anon said annoyed, he really wanted to know. But he could ask her later. "The next part of the plan requires some distraction, and I might get expelled."
"W-what, you can't get expelled, what would I do if you did?" Merula said terrified.
"Well, they'd probably send you to St.Mungo." Anon said dismissively. "and me to Azkaban."
"Stop joking around, Anon!" Rowan shouted.
"Fine, fine, but those are entirely realistic outcomes." Anon said. "Okay, the first part of my plan is that me and Merula duel somewhere that gets us sent to Dumbledore's office. We need to make it into a spectacle."
"Anon!" Rowan shouted.
"Shut the fuck up Rowan and let me finish!" Anon said angrily. "Dumbledore has to be the one who scolds us in his office, so we might want to try to duel in front of his office."
"And then what, when you get sent into his office?" Rowan asked.
"I swear... Interrupt me once more and I will curse your teeth to melt together." Anon said and stared Rowan down.
Both Rowan and Merula looked at Anon terrified and both didn't dare make a peep.
"Okay, once we get sent in Dumbledore's office, Rowan will come knocking his door and tell him that you found clues about a terrifying cursed vault, that has been opened. When Dumbledore leaves the office to go inspect the vault with Rakepick, me and Merula will find the sorting hat and it will tell us what house Merula was sorted into."
"A lot of things could go wrong." Rowan said. "You could really get expelled, you might both get expelled."
"We need to take the risk... If we ignore her now, she will eventually draw Dumbledore's attention anyway and I will get expelled." Anon said. "But before we do anything, we need that Dial back."
"What dial?" Merula asked.
"The dial you probably used to cause this problem." Anon said looking at her, trying to hide his anger. "Go to your trunk and find that dial... It's a metal disk, with a short gnomon... A protrusion... and notches around it about yea big." He said describing the size of the dial with his hand. "It really just looks like a sundial."
Anon looked at the two trying to decipher what he had just said. "Oh fuck off, just look for a metal disk, you'll know it when you see it! Go on then!"
Merula yelped a bit again and ran off to rummage her trunk.
"I am in deep shit this time, Rowan..." Anon said finally. "What is the sentence for destroying someone's personality?"
"We don't know if you had anything to do with this, for all we know she might've done it herself." Rowan said scared at the idea of Anon being sent to Azkaban.
"No... It was definitely something I did, I tampered with things that I shouldn't have and it caught up to me. but she's the one who got affected by it..." Anon said full of remorse.