Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Finals Round 1 - Knockturn Alley
Montrose Magpies
Chaser 3 - Write about someone's first visit to Knockturn Alley
Optional Prompts:
2. (dialogue) "I knew you wouldn't be able to see through it."
3. (quote) Now that was an awfully big threat. - Once Upon A Time
10. (word) equipment
Wordcount: 1102

Of Sneakiness and Lessons Learned

If they could pick only one thing, both Weasley twins would choose their ability to sneak into places they weren't strictly allowed to be as their favourite skill in life. It might not be the most widely applauded skill in the world — or in their own family, for that matter — but it was their strongest skill nonetheless.

But there was an important milestone in the education of any aspiring prankster worth his salt that they had yet to achieve: conquering their fear of Molly Weasley's retribution to pay a highly discouraged visit to a place of unlimited possibilities.

The Holy Grail of the Wizarding World's mischief makers.

Knockturn Alley.

It was downright shameful that the self-proclaimed mischief makers hadn't been there yet. Especially considering the fact that even Harry Potter had.

It was promptly and unanimously been decided a year earlier that the two of them needed to gain access to the infamous alley by the end of the school year. That Harry Potter, who, despite all evidence to the contrary, usually did his very best to stay out of trouble, had experienced the fabled area before them was a personal hit to their pride as professional makers of mischief. Failure to correct the situation would mean continued, and quite possibly eternal, shame.

Over the next year, they had spent every free moment — between experiments and general plotting of pranks — planning their imminent excursion to the forbidden shopping district.

Knockturn Alley turned out to be every bit the oasis of possibilities expected by the young pranksters. From the boarded-up windows, to the haze of darkness, its shady population and a perpetual sense of foreboding, it was any mischief makers' biggest fantasy.

They were in the middle of a round of heartily congratulating themselves and each other on such a perfect follow through on the plan to shake off the rest of the family and the ever watchful eye of the Weasley matriarch — "Hah, I knew you wouldn't be able to see through it! ", Fred threw over his shoulder, as if she could actually see and hear them — when they bumped into someone or something just standing on the narrow path ahead of them.

The obstacle turned out to be a man. A man, who looked like he hadn't taken a shower at any point during the last five years. At the very least.

That man was swaying slightly on the spot as the two younger wizards jumper back with an apology already half-way out of their mouth. He looked them over slowly in fascination, as if they were some kind of strange species of animal that didn't belong to that particular part of the world. Technically, they didn't. Belong there, that is.

So that was the story of how the Weasley twins found themselves in their current predicament. The only thing that was left to figure out was how to get back out of it.

"Hey, Fred?" George said quietly, edging closer to his twin to avoid being overheard by the ruffian. "Don't you think it's time for a tactical retreat?"

The strange stranger just kept looking at them.

"I'll have you know," Fred began conversingly, lifting his shoulders and adding to his voice all the confidence he could muster. "We're awfully good at making stuff blow up."

"And we are also well known for striking without warning," George continued where his brother left off. "You should be honoured we saw fit to tell you this much."

"Now that was an awfully big threat," the scruffy-looking fellow rasped with a feral grin, putting his broken rows of decaying teeth on display.

The twins were quite frankly surprised his mouth was still holding on to its teeth. They both silently agreed that it would have been better off without them at that point. There was no way they would be of much use anymore, except perhaps to scare off any decent people he might come across. Then again, if the majority of his time was spent hanging around in shady alleys; he'd probably not meet many decent people on a day-to-day basis anyway.

It was quite amazing, really, the kind of things occupying one's brain when it should be used for coming up with solutions to the problem of one's way to freedom happening to be blocked by massive, possibly dangerous, older wizards. And smelly, couldn't forget that part. No, really, it was literally impossible to ignore the ripe smell of sweat, tobacco and urine emanating from the strange person standing in front of the two boys.

During the conversation, Fred had been slowly digging around in his pockets, in search of some of their ever present equipment. Just as the older man made to take a step in their direction, his hand closed around the unmistakable shape of a Snot Slinger.

The Snot Slinger was an invention the twins had been working on over the Summer. It was designed to look like an innocent piece of candy, which a student could eat during lessons they'd rather not participate in, and cause snot to start running to such an extent that the professor got tired of listening to them blowing their nose every other second and let them leave the classroom.

Unfortunately, the project was still in the early stages of development and highly unstable. At the moment, due to that very instability, they worked better as small bombs or distractions than what they were originally intended for. The explosions weren't very big, nothing remotely dangerous, or anything, but they were incredibly easy to set off. All you had to do was either throw it or drop it, and it would go off as soon as it hit anything harder than air. One of them had burned a hole through the pocket of George's jacket as he was loading them with the tiny experiments.

"Go! " Fred urged his partner in crime as he threw the candy at the stranger with all his power.

There was no explosion.

Then the man bent over, clutching at his face and yelling, "My eye!"

The boys took the opportunity presented to run past the man that was still doubled over in pain, and kept running until they were deep into Diagon Alley.

And that was the end of the Weasley twins' adventures in Knockturn Alley. They had more than learned their lesson when it came to sneaking into forbidden places.

"Hey, George," the other twin started breathlessly when they collapsed on the steps in front of Gringotts. "We need to stock up on more of those Snot Slingers before we break into the Shrieking Shack."