Chapter One
Allie Grover crouched behind the sofa near the fireplace, keeping a watchful eye on Fred and George. They handed a sack of Puking Pastilles to a smiling fifth year and received five galleons in return, which they happily tossed into the sack in between them. The fifth year scurried away happily and Allie raised her wand in preparation of what she was about to do.
"Purple one starts the nosebleed and the orange one stops it," Fred explained to a first year, who was eyeing the twins' merchandise warily. Allie muttered a spell and the sack of galleons began to bulge and shift around, squirming until it deflated slightly. Allie grinned and shuffled awkwardly backwards where she could spy on the results of her transfiguration from the shadows.
She saw George leap backwards first, a cry of shock escaping him as twenty large cockroaches freed themselves from the sack of what used to be money and scuttled around in the box of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Fred started and turned to see what had happened, letting out his own cry of disbelief as one of the insects crawled over his hand, which he threw up into the air. Allie snorted and crawled out from behind the sofa, ready to make her escape into the corridor where Julia Belle, her best friend from Ravenclaw was waiting.
"Did it work? You didn't cock it up did you?" She asked upon seeing Allie stumble out of the Gryffindor common room.
"No I did not cock it up," Allie said indignantly. "Twenty fat cockroaches instead of cash."
Julia grinned happily and did some odd sort of thing where she waved her hands in the air. She did this a lot, and Allie just figured it meant I'm so happy I can't control my limbs.
"Do you think they're going to be mad?"
"Who cares?" Allie snorted, waving her hand about. "They deserve it. You saw what they did to me."
Julia nodded, her face twitching in the effort not to laugh at the memory of what the twins' last prank had been.
"It wasn't funny!" Allie snapped, trying to suppress a chuckle of her own. "I was itching for a week!" She shook her head mournfully, thinking back to the non-stop itching powder the twins had decided to test on her by sprinkling it in her bed. Unfortunately, they hadn't come up with the anti-itching powder, and she'd had to put up with squirming around in lessons trying not to scratch for a week.
"No, it wasn't funny at all," Julia said, biting her lip and fighting to keep a straight face.
"Oh shut up," Allie said, shoving her friend. "Do you think it's safe for me to go back in yet?"
"Maybe."
"Bubotuber," Allie said to the Fat Lady, who grunted and swung forward so Allie could stick her head into the common room. Fred and George were dashing around, madly trying to catch the cockroaches, Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil had their legs clutched up to their chests trying not to get in the paths of the cockroaches and Ron and Harry were laughing while Hermione pursed her lips and stared resolutely down at her homework.
"Need some help?" Allie called out. Fred turned to look at her, hair falling in his eyes as a cockroach escaped his grasp.
"You did this!" He said, eyes widening. George dived for a cockroach and trapped it in the sack.
"That is a serious accusation!" Allie said, stepping into the common room and pressing her hand to her heart in mock hurt.
"You did this, I know it," Fred said, pointing at her and looking a little wild. Allie tutted and put her hands on her hips.
"Maybe you'll think twice about putting non-stop itching powder in my bed then," She said severely. George wheeled around to look at her.
"Aha! You admitted it!" George shook the sack at triumphantly. Fred dropped to the floor and stuck his hand under the sofa, feeling around for any bugs they'd missed.
"Well now that you've caught all your stray money you can change it back," Allie said huffily, crossing her arms over her chest. "I had to hop around for a week!"
"We needed someone to test on!" George protested and Fred grunted his agreement from the floor.
"Don't test without an antidote!"
"I GOT IT!" Fred yelled happily, pulling his arm out from beneath the sofa and dropping the last cockroach into the sack. George grinned happily and waved the sack in Allie's face.
"Change them back," he ordered.
"You do it," Allie said, raising her eyebrows. "You're fully capable of performing magic too, you know."
"Fine," George said, taking out his wand and tapping the sack in his hand, muttering. It swelled and squirmed and then hung still in his hand. Fred took it from him and peeked inside before grinning up at the room happily.
"Money again!"
Lavender and Parvati cautiously lowered their feet back onto the ground, scanning the carpets nervously. Allie stuck her hand out at the twins.
"Truce?"
"No way!" George said, looking mildly shocked at the suggestion. "We need to get even with you for that."
"And we're not going to hold back. Watch your back, Allison Grover." Fred winked at her, shaking his finger.
"A prank war?" Allie asked, grinning.
"It's not a war because we're going to crush you." George smiled deviously.
"Two of us and one of you, mate," Fred said, mimicking his brothers' grin.
"I have Julia!" Allie said indignantly.
"Julia's not exactly the person you'd go to for prank ideas," Fred snorted.
"More like homework help," George agreed.
"Julia is more than capable of helping me plan pranks," Allie said, rolling her eyes.
"If you say so," George grinned, shaking the sack of galleons at her. He and Fred exchanged a meaningful glance.
"We'll be off then," Fred said, nodding at his brother and wiggling his fingers merrily at Allie. "People to see, things to do." Allie frowned, a small bubble of worry forming in her stomach. What were they up to?
"Right," she said to their retreating backs as she watched them climb up to the boys' dorms.
"Allie?" Julia's voice came from outside. Allie turned around slowly and climbed back out of the hole to meet her friend.
"Julia!" Allie said, tripping a little over her feet and starting to walk briskly down the corridor. "The twins are retaliating. We need to go to the library."
"Why?" Julia asked, trotting along behind Allie, who stopped and wheeled around so quickly they collided.
"You're helping me. This is a prank war."
"A-"
"Prank war," Allie confirmed, turning on her heel and starting back down the corridor. "Trust nothing and no one, Julia. They might get you too." Julia groaned.
"I don't want to get involved in this!"
"But I'm not smart enough to do this on my own," Allie said, feeling slightly bad for dragging Julia into this. "I expect an attack in the next week or two."
"Then what do we have to worry about?"
"We don't know how bad it will be. I repeat, trust nothing. We need to start planning." Allie turned abruptly into the library and scanned the book, eyes shining with mischief and excitement.
"Planning?" Julia asked wearily.
"Well I'm not going to let them win! We need prank ideas," Allie grinned at her friend, and plucked a book of simple charms off the shelf in front of her.
"Allie-" Julia started, but Allie waved her hand to cut her off.
"Julia. If you don't help me then I will be at a severe disadvantage. Two against one." She paused, staring at Julia intently. "You want things to be fair, right?"
"Yes," Julia said quietly, looking down at the floor. Allie felt a pang. She didn't want to bully her friend into helping her... besides, Julia had a clean record. She'd never even gotten a detention. Allie didn't want to force her to risk anything, especially considering some of these tricks might get... nasty.
"Jules, I'm sorry," she said, throwing the book she picked up onto Madam Pince's desk. She ignored the glare she received and continued talking to Julia, who shied away from the librarians' reproachful glare.
"It's okay," she said quietly.
"No, you don't have to help. Well, maybe a bit, but I don't want to get you in trouble." Allie shook her head. How Julia, a tall blonde and cripplingly shy girl with a friendly heart shaped face and brown eyes had come to be friends with her. Allie was average height and lanky, with a long, thin face made even longer and thinner by her short dark hair that she never even bothered to brush, and she was almost as much of a prankster as Fred and George. Where Julia was effortlessly stunning and smart, Allie was only a little pretty and had to work hard to even get As on her tests.
"I can help if you get stuck on something..." Julia said hesitantly. Allie smiled and reached up to put her arm around Julia's shoulder.
"That's all I ask. I won't mention your name if I get caught either," Allie promised. Julia smiled.
"What's your plan?" She asked while Allie flipped through her book.
"No idea. I was thinking I just wing it for a while. Try to avoid whatever traps they set. Then I'll get to the planning." Allie snapped the book shut and turned her eyes up to her friend. Julia bit her lip, smiling.
"I just hope you're good at improvising," she said. Allie smirked back at her.
"Oh, Julia. It's like you don't know me at all," she said, a malicious twinkle lighting her eyes.