There were many witches and wizards before her, all of whom she had researched in the library for their extraordinary feats and academic achievement, all of whom added to the gold in their vault and all of whom showed their worth immeasurably. As she looked at all of these, Ryana felt small, insignificant, and knew she could never be as big, she could never be as extraordinary as all of them. Then it occurred to her. 'I may never be the best in my family' She thought, grimacing slightly, 'But I can damn well try'

“Let’s just say last time I stayed over there was not lock on the bathroom door” She grimaced and shuddered. “I’m surprised they didn’t notice the eyes though, I can’t do eyes”
“Whatever, can we get dressed now?”
“Please do” Ryana interrupted, “I’d say causing a distraction for that wasn’t worth it… mental scarring guys… but causing this jerk pain is worth a lot”
“Whatever” Her cousin muttered, swiping at her head.

“You are kidding me!?” Ryana snorted, putting her loaded fork back down, “They pretend to be the best there is and yet they’re totally hung up over the fact that we might be up to something and we might not be! It’s completely winding them up!” She began shovelling again.
“Why does it not surprise me you get a kick out of that?” Erin muttered, blowing hair out of her eyes and grinning.

Grinning broadly she ripped at the paper, revealing a thick book bound in brown leather with silver clasps, she scanned the title, “Hogwarts: The Early Years” it was by the same Author of “Hogwarts: A History” (which Ryana made a mental note to read one day) “Just like Lily to buy me another book” She thought but smiled, it would be more useful than her friend would know. “Thanks Lily!”

James swore obscenely, “Lily’s in Slughorn’s classroom! This will be an effort”
“Oh come on!” Sirius sighed, “You’re whipped, Jamie, ‘tis not becoming of you mate! She isn’t talking to you anyway! We haven’t pulled this one in ages-”
“We pranked them two weeks ago, Pads” Remus snorted.
“Two long boring weeks ago” He whined, “I’ve been bored senseless-”

This was one of those awkward things that James said which made Lily unbelievably uncomfortable; it was hard to use the excuse he didn’t know her when he did. He knew everything about her, the sort of things she wouldn’t tell someone.
“If there’s nothing else” James said at length, “Perhaps I should leave”
“No!” Lily said quickly, then blushed again, “Stay, let me buy you a drink”
She had no idea why she had just said that.
But she knew that she didn’t mind that it had been said.

James watched the two leave, the shocked expression back on his face, “She’s going with Wormtail... Wormtail?”

“Well, did you ask her yourself?” Sirius asked, leading the way out of the common room, “I mean, if you didn’t ask her and she didn’t agree it’s fair play, mate”

He gave an irritated growl, this was not the response he had wanted, “No sympathy, James, he has got a point, but I don’t think he’ll mind you cutting in”

“I thought we had already established there was to be no finale because you are definitely not hanging up that invisibility cloak Prongs!” Sirius sighed, “Just leave Snape alone and stop being a jerk!”

“And to stop being a jerk I am not going to prank ever again!”

“What about your finale?” Peter cut in, confused.

“There is no finale, Worm, he isn’t quitting” Sirius explained, “He’s just being a Drama Queen”

“So how many do you reckon it’ll cover?”
“Two, maybe three”
“Bugger!”
“Draw straws for it?”
“No need; Prongs has duty”
James scowled at Sirius and screwed up the introduction to his Potions essay, before promptly throwing it at him. “I make up the plan, I harbour you in my dormitory, and this is the thanks I get?”

He let out a loud fake snore so Lily hit him, jolting the book off his face. “Come off it Lily it’s like… nine…”

“Add two hours to that” She corrected, “It’s nearly quarter past eleven”

“Get lost…” James checked his watch and raised his eyebrows. “Wow. I thought I was being stupid when I said this was taking ages.”

“You were. You said that five minutes in”

“I’m not denying it either, but does that do you any good?” She asked, raising her eyebrows.

He opened his mouth, but she interrupted with a smile, “But… seen as you’re going out with Marlene, it’s not going to do either of us any good to do anything different, is it?”

It took less than three hours for him to figure out what was going on and to stop the second wave of attacks, by which point his moustache was luminous green and pink, reached the floor and occasionally burst into renditions of “Oh Susanna”

“Just something Marlene said…” She lied, trailing off with a shrug. When in doubt, play Marlene’s ditzy twin. It didn't do as much to placate her any more, but it was enough for most people.

Rick raised his eyebrows in return but said nothing more on the matter, and continued with their one-sided conversation from before.

It was a considerably embarrassing situation they had ended up in. Ryana had successfully gotten them into the Ravenclaw common room, only to discover some sixth years still awake and presumably up to something dodgy. 

The other brother looked up quizzically and cocked his head to the side, “You think she has whatever He’s looking for, don’t you?”

He gave a chuckle in response and steepled his fingers. “I think that it’s safer to let Him assume that He is looking for a diadem, and Ryana couldn’t possibly manage to hide that, could she?”