So this is a story I wrote for a contest on a Harry Potter website.
The task was to write about any character (I chose myself) and
make it about Halloween. It could be about Trick or Treating, or pranking,
and since I have a rather unhealthy obsession with the twins, I thought,
Hey! What's a better way to spend my day than pretending to be best friends with fictional characters?
Needless to say, this is the end result. I hope you like it. :)
Aeryn Monroe was hurriedly walking across the grounds of Hogwarts, returning from a visit at Hagrids house. She often went to visit Hagrid, as Care of Magical Creatures was her favorite subject and he would sometimes let her play with whatever creature they were currently working with. Today it had been Thestrals. Aeryn tried to bring back the feeling of the warmth of their leathery skin as she walked through the cold wind back to the bridge leading back to the school. Speeding up her steps as another strong gust of wind blew through her robes, Aeryn crossed her arms over herself, trying to create a protective shield between her and the wind. Normally, she'd have just waited at Hagrids until the wind had died down, but today was Halloween, and there was no way Aeryn would miss the wonderful feast the house elves of Hogwarts put together every year.
Just as she reached the Great Hall, Aeryn felt two hands clamp down on her shoulders and pull her into a tiny, empty room. Hearing the door shut, Aeryn pulled out her wand and exclaimed, "Lumos!" as the bright light filled the broom closet. Aeryn closed her eyes and willed her heart beat to slow as two freckled faces adorned with Weasley red hair and bright smiles grinned down at her.
"Merlin's Beard, you two nearly gave me a heart attack!" Aeryn exclaimed putting a hand to her chest. The twins snickered behind their hands as Aeryn plopped down on an overturned bucket.
"How else were we supposed to get your attention? Can't have two Gryffindors yelling 'cross the Great Hall to a Slytherin, now could we?" said Fred.
"No indeed," answered George, cheerily. "Ruin our reputation it would."
Aeryn rolled her eyes. "So what, exactly, is it that you want?" she asked looking pointedly at her two oldest friends. The twins looked over at each other mischievously before dropping to squat next to Aeryn.
"Well," George began in a low voice.
"As you very well know, it happens to be Halloween," continued Fred, mirroring his brothers' tone.
"Our most Hallowed of Eve's," George said grinning at Fred.
Aeryn rolled her eyes. "Can you please just get on with it? I'd rather not miss the feast," she said playfully. Truth was, she was very interested in whatever the twins had cooked up for this year's Halloween prank. Last year it had involved fireworks and a very flammable hat for each member of the staff. There were no major injuries, just a significant loss of hair from Snapes head, which had been fixed almost instantly by Madam Pomfrey. Needless to say, Aeryn was glad she hadn't been a part of that particular prank, as it had ended in detention for the two twins for over a month. Wary as she was, Aeryn listened to the twins' proposal with a rapt interest as they explained the basis of their prank in their unusual way of speaking.
"So George and I –"
"What Fred means to say is that I and he –"
"Well, basically we have been experimenting with that Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement for quite some time now," Fred said.
"We may have figured out a bit of the magic behind it that makes it work!" said George excitedly.
"You guys…figured out how to…transport things in and out of the castle?" Aeryn asked incredulously. "That's impossible!"
"Well…not impossible –"
"But that isn't what we've done. Turns out, that while Hogwarts has a nearly impenetrable outer defense –"
"It's inner workings aren't as tightly sealed," Fred finished with a bright smile.
Aeryn looked at the twins with a slight frown. "What…what are you two talking about?" she asked tiredly, rubbing her forehead.
"Come on now, stay with us!" Fred said excitedly, pulling her hands away from her head and grasping them with his own. "What we're saying is that –"
"We may have the means to produce our best prank ever," George said triumphantly. "Think about it…the House Elves who make all the food; they don't carry it up here do they? No, just a little –" at this point, George snapped his fingers together, " and the foods all placed along our house tables ever so nicely, correct?"
Aeryn nodded her head slowly, hands still encased in Fred's.
"So just think about it…" Fred said, tightening his hold on her hands in excitement. "We do the same magic that lets the house elves transport the food onto a certain item –"
"And then leave said item where someone would be to find it –"
"And said person and item would then be transported to somewhere else in the castle!"
"Say…a room full of misplaced objects it would take hours to get out of?" George hinted with a smirk.
Aeryns mind whirred and a slow grin spread across her face as her mind followed all the twins were suggesting. "Oh you two are geniuses!" she exclaimed excitedly. Retracting her hands from Fred's', Aeryn stood up with the twins, eyes shining. "So what kind of item, and who exactly, are we to use this newfound knowledge on?" Aeryn asked excitedly.
The twins looked at each other for a half second before turning back to Aeryn and smirking.
"Who else to test an experimental spell on than our favorite slimy little git?" Fred said as he opened the broom closet door.
Reemerging form the broom closet, Aeryn patted down her robes, trying to get rid of all the dust coating them before gazing back up at Fred then George. "You're really going to do this?" she asked seriously. "You know how much trouble you could get into if it goes wrong, right?" Aeryn was often the voice of reason for the twins as they tended to get carried away sometimes.
"Don't worry little one," Fred said, smirking as he pat Aeryn on the head. "We've got it all figured out."
Aeryn slapped his hand away with a giggle before a questioning look crossed her face. "Wait...if you've got it 'all figured out'," she said with air quotes and a mocking voice that was supposed to sound like Fred, "then why do you need me to help you with this?"
Fred and George exchanged glances before George cleared his throat. "Thing is – "
"We can't exactly get close enough to Malfoy to get him to interact with the object in question," Fred finished, holding up a curly blonde wig. Aeryn let out a snort before taking the wig in her hands and turning it round, trying to get the full effect. "So…" she began, still turning the wig over in her hands. "How exactly, do I manage to get this on the stuck-up, Pureblood, fun-hating, Slytherin, Malfoy?"
Fred grinned down at Aeryn while George simply turned around and sauntered into the Great Hall, hands in pockets. "That, my dear amateur prankster, we have decided to leave to your creative genius. The transporting spell has a sort of timing effect on it, so it won't turn on until around 7 o'clock. You have about an hour," he called over his shoulder. Fred saluted and whispered a quick "Good luck," before jogging down the corridor after his brother.
Grinning as she rolled her eyes, Aeryn turned to the staircase to head down to the Slytherin Common Room. The feast would have to wait. This was too good of a chance to pass up.
An hour later, Aeryn was lounging in one of the soft chairs in the Slytherin Common Room. Draco and his followers had come down from their respective dorms and were just about to head out into the corridor. Having settled for something a little easier to accomplish than one of the twins great spectacles (she hadn't eaten anything all day after all), the wig sat on the arm of the chair Aeryn occupied. Pulling her wand out of her sleeve, Aeryn pointed her wand at the wig, then flicked it towards Malfoys head and whispered "Locomotor Periwig." The wig flew across the Common Room, almost smacking Pansy Parkinson in the face before settling comfortably on Malfoys white blonde head. There was a two second pause, where an expression of confusion managed to fly across Malfoys face. Just when Aeryn was beginning to have doubts in the twins' experimental magic, Malfoy let out a yelp as his feet were sucked up from the floor into a vortex that had formed where the wig previously sat. Half a second later, he was gone. Aeryn giggled quietly as Pansy fell to the ground crying out and Goyle threw back tapestries as though Malfoy was only playing a joke on them all.
Leaping up from her seat, Aeryn decided it was time to reward hers and the twins' efforts with much deserved sweets. Edging around the nearly hysterical Parkinson, Aeryn left through the Common Room entrance and headed back up the Grand Staircase to the Great Hall.
Reaching the Great Hall again, Aeryn did a quick sweep of the area immediately surrounding her to make sure she wouldn't be taken by surprise again if the twins had decided it was fun to scare her. Deciding the area was clear, Aeryn walked happily into the Great Hall. To her surprise, Fred and George were still seated at the Gryffindor house's table. The twins looked up eagerly as Aeryn practically strutted over to her respective houses table, keeping her head held high. Giggling to herself, Aeryn thought, 'Let them sweat it out for a little while,' as she sat down at the end of the Slytherin table. Dropping various sweets and candied foods onto her plate, Aeryn had just begun to bite into a caramel apple when Fred and George appeared in front of her. Blinking, Aeryn set the apple back on her plate as she looked innocently up at the Weasley brothers. "Yes?" she questioned sweetly.
George rolled his eyes. "Don't 'yes?' us," he said as he and Fred took the seats across the table from Aeryn. Fred leaned forward grinning. "So?" he whispered excitedly. "How'd it go?"
Aeryn rolled her eyes and picked her caramel apple back up. "I thought you two didn't want to be seen with a Slytherin?" she questioned dryly, raising her eyebrows as she took a bite from the sticky sweet.
Fred grinned as George picked through a plate of Pumpkin Pasties. "Well, considering we were in a closet with you for around twenty minutes, I think we've all got quite the reputation at the moment," he said with a wink. Aeryns face flushed and she choked on her bite of caramel apple at Fred's suggestive tone. Choosing to redirect her gaze towards the Great Hall entryway, she changed the topic, willing her blush to cease along the way.
"So why, may I ask, did you want to send Malfoy into the Room of Requirement anyways?" she asked, trying to regain the sense of indifference she had previously held. "I mean, yeah, there's a lot of stuff in there, but do you really think that Malfoy getting lost is any kind of a –"
Before Aeryn could even finish her statement, there was a high pitched scream and Fred and George spun around in their seats, grinning wildly, to face the doors to the Great Hall. Malfoy came scrambling through the doors, wide-eyed, blonde wig flopping around on top of his head, and ran up the aisle towards the teachers' platform with a large flaming dragon chasing him. Aeryns jaw dropped as Fred and George roared with laughter, along with the other students. Needless to say, only the few Slytherin Muggle Borns cheered as well. Snape stood from his seat at the end of the table and, with a flick of his wand, extinguished the dragon is a shower of gold and red sparks. Descending the steps of the teachers' dais, Snape hauled up Malfoy and pushed him in the direction of the Slytherin table, before continuing on towards Fred, George and Aeryn. Aeryn visibly shrunk in her seat as Snape stalked over to the trio.
Fred shot a quick wink to Aeryn, as he turned to face the Potions Master. "I do not recall you two being sorted as Slytherins," Snape drawled dryly, looking from twin to twin. The Great Hall was almost completely silent. George and Fred looked at each other and smiled slightly as they looked back up at the professor.
"Too right you are! Terribly sorry, we seem to have lost our way!" Fred said cheerily.
"Indeed…detention Mr.'s Weasley, and 50 points from Gryffindor for each of you." At this point, Snape turned his stone gaze to Aeryn. "Miss Monroe, I suggest you find other…friends to occupy your time with," Snape said as he turned back to the teachers' platform.
George grinned cheekily at Aeryn as he and Fred stood from the Slytherin table. "Sounds like someone's still bitter about the loss of hair," he said chuckling. "If you'll excuse us, we have mischief to go and procure before our long entanglement with the law begins," Fred said as he whipped a rather old looking bundle of parchment out of his robes. Bowing themselves out of the Great Hall, Aeryn rolled her eyes with a grin as she waved and turned back to her candy feast. Moments later, there was a loud explosion and rolling clouds of black smoke began wafting into the Great Hall. Laughing to herself, Aeryn picked up the Pumpkin Pasty left behind by George and took a large bite of it, savoring the taste of the pastry as the teachers filed into the hall to try and clear the ever expanding smoke.