Inspiration.
It is a fickle thing, artists of all kinds seem to have a peculiar inability to decide whether it should be cursed up and down or extoled as a divine power. Of course we must acknowledge that artists are human (though sometimes we doubt their bohemian souls) and this decision most probably relies on whether or not it decides to show its face in a time of great need.
Jamie and Fred (both names technically included a "The Second" at the end, but the original proprietors of the respective names were both dead so there was really no confusion about who was who, and as such it just sounded pretentious. Pretentiousness was not in either of their natures so they remained, unadorned, Jamie and Fred) were currently at a state in their artistic process where cursing it up and down seemed like an incredibly tempting idea.
They probably would have had they not been in transfiguration.
As it were they were considering risking the inevitable detention just to vent some of their abundant frustration.
It was the unfortunate truth that the duo were in a time of great need and inspiration was nowhere in sight.
"We could-" began Fred with the sort of resigned voice that implied that he knew the idea was no good and was only bothering to say it at all to fill the silence.
Silence is never a good thing in a prankster's line of work.
Jamie, following his line of thought replied before Fred had even finished, "You mean like we did last month?" Fred sighed, protesting halfheartedly,
"That was the mud on the pitch, I'm talking pumpkins."
"Seems a bit cliché…"
"It's festive."
"But we can't do two explosions in one month, especially not for Halloween." Fred nodded and sighed,
"What about-"
"Will you two shut up?" Riley Meyup, an unfortunately named Hufflepuff hissed at them, twisting around in her chair.
"I don't know," Fred said, leaning forward over towards her with a rakish smirk, "what would we get for it?"
"Ew, gross," she responded turning back around as her friend giggled. Fred grinned wider, pushing himself back into the sort of cocky slouch only teenaged boys with way to much self-confidence could possible achieve.
"So what were you saying?" Jamie asked, attempting to outdo Fred's ostensibly careless posture with his own.
"What?"
"A second ago, you were about to suggest something."
"Right… crap."
Several hours later the two of them stumbled into the Great Hall, arms around each other's shoulders overcome with the camaraderie two people might get when laughing uncontrollably at the same time about the same thing. Especially when that particular thing was their doing.
"Her face…" but Jamie could not continue for he had succumbed once again to uncontrollable laughter, relying for the most part to keep him upright. This was revealed to be a rather stupid plan when Fred to surrendered with the comment,
"Her scream," and tried to rely on Jamie to remain standing. The result was the two of them falling in a wild tangle of limbs and laughter. They remained on the floor for several minutes, failing to calm down in the least, and several people had to step over their prone forms in order to get into the hall.
The two of them being ridiculous was not an altogether unusual sight to behold so most just continued on their way sparing no more than an amused glance at the pair of them. Rose Weasley was not most people and as a prefect she could hardly just let them continue obstructing the path to lunch (the fact that she as ravenous and they were impeding her quest to get food had nothing to do with her actions whatsoever), so she stopped, crossed her arms over her chest and looked down at them with the sort of condescending, disapproving look only teenaged girls with a much too large sense of self-importance could achieve.
"You've got five seconds before I start kicking." She informed them. They were up in less than two, still gasping for breath and grinning wide enough to crack their faces in half. Rose sighed, looking longingly past them at the still steaming stew on the Gryffindor table. She sighed again,
"What did you do?" Jamie and Fred showed dangerous signs of relapsing to their previous state of incoherence, so Rose added a little bit of her mother's glare to her countenance and was gratified to see them straighten up. A hint of rebelliousness still shadowed their features. Rose, an expert, raised an eyebrow.
Jamie folded and, with his typical pride, pretended that it had been his intention to tell her all along (which it might just have been, her telling him to do it had momentarily put him off the idea).
"You know that Meyup bird?" He asked, amusement still present in his effulgent eyes and ebullient look. Rose sighed again.
"The one in Hufflepuff?" Jamie nodded, running a hand through his dark hair (Fred unconsciously copied him with his own recalcitrant, red mop).
"Well she doesn't like us for some reason or another, though I'm not sure why seeing as we're entirely we're brilliant," and Rose sighed once more. Fred shot her a concerned look,
"Are you having trouble breathing or something?" Rose sighed in response. Jamie ignored them, as he often did, and continued on with his tale.
"Well she told Marty that Fred was an immature git and-"
"Who's Marty exactly?"
"The girl Fred's smitten with."
"Don't say smitten."
"I like smitten."
"It makes you sound like uncle Perc-"
"Boys!"
"Right, well anyway, obviously we couldn't have that as she told Marty that because she knows Fred likes her."
"Because she doesn't like you?"
"Exactly, so anyway, we saw her standing by the suits of armor,"
"And it's possible,"
"Maybe,"
"We might have,"
"Just a little bit,"
"Told Peeves to hide inside and jump at her,"
"And now he's following her around composing poems about his love for her,"
"And the girl's still convinced the armor's come to life and fallen for her."
Rose stared resolutely ahead and Did Not Smile. Not even a little bit. Instead she sighed one last time, pinched the bridge of her nose and went to grab some stew. And possibly laugh. Just a little bit.
Fred and Jamie stared at each other.
"For the feast, we could have charmed-"
"-the suits of armor." There was any number of things a prankster might have been able to do with charmed suits of armor.
"But we just-"
"-used that on Meyup," Their imprudence was going to be the end of them.
Alice Longbottom (also The Second) had a winsome and a kind smile when talking to everyone.
A gloomy Jamie and Fred were not an exception so she plopped down beside their despondent, quill-chewing figures with a happy grin.
"How're my favorite temerarious Gryffindors today?" She questioned. They blinked at her.
"Sorry Ally," Jamie told her with a sheepish smile, "you're going to have to use smaller words with us blockheads."
"It was a redundant comment anyway."
"Small words Ally, small words." Alice laughed.
"Can you tell me what you're planning for the feast, or is it a secret?" The pair groaned simultaneously in the way partners in crime can.
"That's exactly our dilemma-"
"Dilemma, I'm impressed." Alice teased. Jamie grinned at her again and Fred plowed on.
"We don't know what we're doing for the feast."
"Oh," said Alice thoughtfully, "I thought that's why you're pranks have been so good the last couple weeks, first with splattering mud all over the Slytherins,-"
"-and the professors." Fred interjected, still proud of that particular one.
"and now with that suit of armor thing, like, you were leading up to a grand finale or something."
"We know," they said, groaning pitifully again,
"Well," said Alice, "have you thought of anything at all?"
"Well, I did, but then I forgot it, and then we had an idea but we used it for something else and now we don't have anything!"
"Prankster's block," Alice said sagely. Fred stared at her.
"Like writer's block, my friend had it a month or so ago. Was writing this story about sea monsters and then…nothing." But Jamie and Fred weren't listening.
Sea monsters.
Giant Squid.
Great Hall.
It would be difficult, there would be research and testing and they had less than a week, but this was it.
"Impervius, might work for barriers, but what about transport?"
"Bubble head charm."
"That's air you twit."
"Not necessarily, think about the incantation, we could try-"
"What?" Alice asked, a sort of amused confusion having taken over her features. And Jamie leaned over the table to kiss her, something he had been planning to do since third year but had never actually gotten around to doing. He pulled back, with the most ridiculously sanguine smile,
"Go to Hogsmeade with me?" Alice sat, in shock, for about twenty seconds while Jamie's smile never wavered.
"Of course you great dolt, it's about time." Jamie grinned even wider still.
"You are wonderful and amazing and please don't take offense by me being very distracted for the next week."
"I expect you to make it up to me."
"Of course," he said, kissing her again before turning to look at his best mate. They had identical smirks,
Inspiration.