Disclaimer: See last chapter, because I can't be bothered to come up with anything new. Basically, I still don't own Harry Potter.


"And that, Lee, is how we fought off the dragon and claimed this scroll!" finished Fred, waving his bit of parchment in the air with a flourish.

Lee goggled at him open-mouthed. "You're telling me you went into Hogsmeade, discovered a horde of goblins rebelling in Honeydukes… with a dragon… and then you single-handedly fought off the dragon using only a Chocolate Frog, and were handed this mysterious scroll by the owner of Honeydukes in thanks for saving the shop. Right."

"You forgot the bit where one of Bill's mummies landed on the roof and got burned up by the dragon," George said helpfully. "But other than that, yeah, pretty much."

"Sometimes I wonder why I hang around with you two…" said Lee, burying his face in his hands and shaking his head.

It took him about ten minutes to get the real story out of Fred and George, told in tiny sections by each twin in turn. Once they'd explained everything and let him read through the scroll, the three Gryffindors began to go over the details of the challenge together, helped along by stacks of chocolate from Honeydukes, which was luckily perfectly safe from dragons and goblin rebellions. No thanks to Fred and George.

"So we need to find these house items?" said Lee eventually, lazily pinning down a Chocolate Frog with one hand and pulling out its card. It was Dumbledore.

"Yeah. We have no idea what kind of thing it should be though," Fred replied. He was sucking on a Fizzing Whizbee, and so was hovering cross-legged several inches above the dormitory floor.

George meanwhile was deep in concentration. At least, Fred thought so, though he could of course have just been in the middle of a Sugar Quill.

"Gryffindor should be easy enough anyway," George finally said through his mouthful of what did indeed turn out to be Sugar Quill. "We can probably just get something from the common room. And maybe for the others we could go with something to do with the animal emblem thingy?"

"That might work… And if not we can always try again with different items."

"Then it's settled." George clapped his hands together in a business-like way, and just a moment later Fred fell to the floor with a bump as he swallowed the last bits of Fizzing Whizbee.

After dinner, the three boys went back to the common room, where they settled down on the floor with a set of Gobstones to wait for the other Gryffindors to clear out and go up to their dormitories. It was well past midnight by the time this happened, as Charlie was giving his Quidditch team a talk on new tactic ideas for their upcoming match against Slytherin in a few weeks time. Finally Charlie and the team headed off to bed, looking slightly strangely at Fred, George and Lee, who were now resolutely entering their twenty-third game of Gobstones. At last, they had the common room to themselves.

"So what are we looking for?" Lee whispered, not wanting anyone in the dormitories upstairs to hear him.

"It said 'an object from each house', so I reckon we just need anything that can represent Gryffindor," said Fred.

George wandered over to the corner of the room, running his fingers over a shelf and feeling them picking up dust. Unfortunately, they didn't happen to pick up some kind of relic of Godric Gryffindor as well...

Fred was examining the furniture. "Do you think it counts that it's red?" he asked hopefully.

"No, I don't," said Lee, who had been peering around the room to try to find something promising. "How about this though?"

Fred and George joined him next to a cupboard, which Lee was reaching into. They saw his fingers close around something, and he pulled it out. It was a small ceramic figurine of Godric Gryffindor, wearing robes painted gold and scarlet. It pulled itself upright on the palm of Lee's hand, muttered something about the injustice of being manhandled by giants, and began to strut back and forth with its shoulders thrown back in a heroic manner and miniscule wand out and at the ready.

"He'll be perfect," said Fred and George together.

"One down, three to go," grinned Lee, as they climbed the stairs to their dormitory, triumphantly clutching their newly-found Gryffindor object.

They put the figurine safely in Lee's trunk, despite Godric's protests, and got into bed. Fred and George were quickly lulled to sleep by the sound of tiny ceramic fists beating the inside of the trunk, and fell instantly into dreams full of snakes, eagles, badgers and quests. Even the figurine grew bored of putting up a fight and settled down into his new home inside one of Lee's socks, which was a comforting red colour.


Slowly days stretched out into weeks. Fred and George were starting to learn more spells and master the old ones, and even more homework was being piled onto them every day, not that they paid a great deal of attention to it. Before they knew it, it was October and Quidditch season was about to begin. The first match of the year was between Gryffindor and Slytherin, and it had been excitedly anticipated by not only those two houses, but the rest of the school as well. While Slytherin was widely regarded as one of the strongest and most ruthless teams Hogwarts had seen in years, Charlie had been training the Gryffindor team fiercely since the start of September. If anyone stood a chance against Slytherin, it was them.

And so the first Saturday of the month found Fred, George and Lee sitting in the stands holding a large Gryffindor banner and shouting abuse at the Slytherins opposite them, who were returning their insults with gusto. It was a cold but clear day, which, Charlie had told them as he paced up and down the pitch earlier that morning, made the job of the Chasers slightly easier, but his role as Seeker more difficult. Whereas the Chasers could keep warm constantly flying up and down the pitch, Charlie (as he informed them, laughing good-naturedly) would be hovering above the game, hoping his fingers didn't freeze onto his broom handle before he could catch the Snitch.

Soon Madame Hooch strode onto the pitch, whistle in hand, and the two teams walked out to a tide of mixed cheers and boos from the crowd. Charlie and the giant Slytherin captain, Adrian Pucey's older brother, each grasped the other's hand tightly, their faces set hard. Fred and George looked over to the other side of the stands, where they saw the Pucey from their year leaning over the edge of the railings, watching his brother crush Charlie's fingers with a look of glee on his face. Fred mashed his fist into the palm of his other hand, glaring at Pucey as hard as he could.

"Charlie had better win," muttered George, and Fred nodded fervently.

"And they're off!" came the start of the commentary, as Madame Hooch blew her whistle to initiate the game. "This year's Gryffindor team features Weasley as captain and Seeker, Wood as Keeper, Beaters Jackson and Peters, and Chasers Hutcherson, Boyd and McDonnell. And on the other side, Slytherin's captain Pucey has picked out Rogers as Keeper, Flint and Warrington as the other Chasers, Bole and Lloyd as Beaters and Higgs as Seeker.

As the commentator, a Fifth Year Hufflepuff boy whose name the twins didn't know, spoke, the fourteen players kicked off from the ground and shot at once into the air, spreading out around the pitch. George caught sight of Charlie high above the game, looking at his fingerless Quidditch gloves ruefully and rubbing his hands together. George nudged Fred and pointed, and Fred sniggered.

"Flint takes the Quaffle, he passes to Rogers. And it's Rogers heading towards the Gryffindor goal, he's nearly hit by a Bludger from Jackson, he dodges it but drops the Quaffle and it's caught by McDonnell. McDonnell's streaking down the pitch, she shoots, she scores! Ten nil to Gryffindor!"

A huge cheer rose up from the Gryffindor side of the pitch as Leila McDonnell, a Sixth Year girl with short dark hair, punched the air in celebration and flew off back towards the centre of the pitch.

Next, one of Leila's fellow Chasers, Henry Boyd, who was friends with Charlie, took the Quaffle. He leant forwards on his broom and raced towards the Slytherin end of the pitch. At the last minute, he passed the Quaffle back and it was caught easily by the third Chaser, a girl named Sarah Hutcherson, who then flung it backwards over her shoulder to Leila without even looking, in a move that had obviously been practised hard in one of the team's many training sessions. Leila caught the Quaffle, swerved round a Bludger and chucked it back to Henry, who was abruptly cut off by both Bludgers being hit hard towards him. He panicked and dropped the Quaffle. Marcus Flint seized it and managed to score a goal against the Gryffindor Keeper, Oliver Wood, who Fred and George recognised as being two years above them. The score was level, and Oliver and Charlie both looked distraught.

"Gryffindor Keeper Wood fails to save the goal, and now the score is ten all," came the voice of the commentator, a little late.

"I could commentate much better than that," said Lee, disgusted.

From then on, the match went from bad to worse for the Gryffindor team. The Slytherin Beaters were merciless, and appeared to have developed a tactic of aiming both of the Bludgers at whichever Gryffindor player seemed to be the biggest threat. Only ten minutes into the game, Sarah received a Bludger to the head when she was about to shoot, and had to be taken to the Hospital Wing. Twenty minutes after that, Gryffindor was also one Beater down, as Peters was knocked clean off his broom trying to avoid both Bludgers coming at him from his left. Within this time, Slytherin had scored four more times, and Gryffindor not at all. Oliver was a very good Keeper and made several spectacular saves, but the sheer number of times the Slytherin Chasers shot was too much for him to deal with. Charlie was searching manically for the Snitch, clearly wishing he could end the game then and there. The team struggled on with a grim determination.

The game continued to play out, the gap between the Gryffindors and Slytherins gradually widening. George looked up at Charlie, who was circling the pitch from above, looking ever more desperate. Suddenly, Charlie stopped in midair. He'd seen something. George tapped Fred on the shoulder and pointed, but his twin had already noticed. Charlie hovered for a moment, biting his lip. George knew why; the score was one hundred and ninety to forty, and if Charlie caught the Snitch now, Gryffindor and Slytherin would draw... But he couldn't win. Charlie came to a decision within a fraction of a second, which felt like much longer, and hurtled towards the Gryffindor goalpost where the golden Snitch was beating its wings, pushing his broom into a dive and reaching out with one hand.

"Weasley's seen the Snitch, Higgs is following, they're both diving, and… Weasley catches the Snitch! The game is over, one hundred and ninety all! Gryffindor and Slytherin draw!"

Higgs dropped sour-faced to the ground, and kicked the grass in annoyance. Charlie on the other hand rose up from his dive, holding the Snitch high above his head and grinning. Once he was back on the ground, the remaining members of his team surrounded him, congratulating him on his catch, thankful that the match hadn't been a total victory to Slytherin.

Adrian Pucey didn't look so happy.

"All right there, Troll Face?" called Fred, unable to resist.

"I thought you said your brother was going to crush ours…" George added.

"In case you didn't notice, my brother is a Chaser, and he did crush your team," spat Pucey, scowling at the twins, who had already acquired the Cheshire Cat expressions they liked to wear when talking to him.

"And our brother's a Seeker, and he crushed your team," said Fred and George in unison, enjoying baiting him.

The argument continued for a little while, going round in circles, until Pucey snapped, "At least my family can afford a broomstick that doesn't look like it came straight off the tree," and turned away from Fred and George, striding towards the school again.

George's hands were shaking with anger. He balled them into fists at his sides to stop them from trembling and took a deep breath to calm himself down. Fred was muttering angrily to himself, leaning forwards towards Pucey and looking as though he'd rather like to run after him and punch him in the face. Luckily, Fred and George tended to be a bit more subtle than that when it came to vengeance, so long as they'd retained the ability to think straight.

"Revenge. Tonight," Fred said, and once George had nodded his consent, they too set back towards the school, with Lee walking beside them slightly awkwardly.


Back in their dormitory, Fred pulled out a small glass vial, inside which a silver potion was shining – their Dizzying Draught. "Change of target?" he asked. George and Lee agreed, and they set to planning how best to feed it to Pucey, resigned to abandoning their vendetta against Snape, at least for the time being.

That evening, the twins brought the Dizzying Draught to dinner with them. Throughout their first course, they kept glancing jumpily at the Slytherin table, waiting for the right moment to come, when one of them could slip past unnoticed. The best chance they were likely to get came just before they started on pudding. Pucey got up from his seat to talk to his brother further down the table, probably about the Quidditch match, and instantly George grabbed the vial and got to his feet. Fred gave him a thumbs up and fixed his eyes on Pucey, ready to give George the whistled signal they'd had since age five if he was running out of time.

George sauntered as quickly as he could while still looking casual towards the Slytherin side of the Great Hall, keeping his ears pricked for Fred's warning. He discreetly uncorked the vial as he went, and hid it in the palm of his hand. As he turned and walked along the side of the Slytherin table, he positioned the flask at the tips of his fingers, and, passing by Pucey's vacant seat, he slowed slightly, reached his arm out just a little and tipped the potion into Pucey's pumpkin juice, continuing on his way without a second glance. He went on straight to the side of the Great Hall and out of the door with no hesitation, as if it was what he'd been going to do all along. He forced himself to wait for a couple of minutes, and then quickly returned to his seat next to Fred.

"Was it all right?" he asked in a low voice.

"Nobody saw, I was watching," Fred confirmed.

Lee smiled at them. "And now, we wait."

Pucey had by this point returned to his place at the Slytherin table, but hadn't yet drunk any of his pumpkin juice. The twins watched him with eagle eyes, growing slightly restless as he talked to a few people opposite him and fiddled with his cutlery, even going as far as to pick up his goblet, rolling the handle around between his fingers, but set it down again untouched.

At last, the moment they were waiting for arrived, and Pucey took a swig of pumpkin juice, oblivious to the excitement of the three Gryffindors on the other side of the Great Hall. The effects of the potion took a few minutes to kick in, but gradually they began to see that it was working. The first sign came when Pucey attempted to pick up his fork, miscalculated the distance and swiped through the air above it instead. He shook his head slightly, like he was trying to clear it, and succeeded on his second go. A few minutes later, he rubbed his forehead, blinking rapidly. He said something to the boy next to him, and stood up.

"It's working," whispered Fred gleefully.

That was the point when the potion kicked in properly. Pucey took a step forwards, accidentally going too far to the right and bumping into his friend. He took another step, swayed, and toppled over with a crash, falling onto the table and landing sprawled right in the middle of a large chocolate cake, groaning. Snape looked up from his place at the teachers' table sharply and immediately rushed forwards to work out what was the matter with his student. Fred, George and Lee all got up, walking very slowly towards the door and straining their ears to catch Snape's next words.

"Dale, please take Mr. Pucey up to the Hospital Wing," Snape said to another First Year Slytherin boy. Dale hurried off with Pucey, casting suspicious looks back to the table as he went.

"Is he all right?" asked Professor Sprout worriedly, joining Snape from the staff table.

"Oh yes, he'll be fine," Snape said coldly. "I have a very good idea of what happened."

Hearing those words, Fred and George quickly decided it wasn't a good idea to dawdle, and they got out of the Great Hall as fast as they could.

"Still, we got away with it," said Fred happily once they'd reached the common room. "Did you see his face?"

"Yeah, you don't get away with insulting the Weasleys. Or Charlie's broom," George said.


The next morning, Pucey was back at breakfast, still looking slightly pale, but healthy. However, there were obviously some more long-lasting psychological effects of having your drink spiked, as Fred and George noticed with delight that Pucey was giving his food a very wary look, and seemed reluctant to even touch his goblet. He poked a sausage with his fork, cut a small piece off, stared at it carefully and put it down again, looking a bit green.

"Weasleys." A voice had suddenly come from behind Fred and George's heads. They both jumped in shock, recognising Professor Snape's drawl instantly, a cold feeling of alarm shooting through their veins. "Come with me. We have something to discuss."

"Are you sure about that, Professor?" said Fred weakly.

"Quite sure," Snape said, leaving a long pause between the words.

Fred and George got up and followed him from the room, communicating silently with each other through their glances. Was it possible that he knew that Pucey's sudden dizziness had been their fault? He was a Potions teacher, after all. They came to a halt in the Entrance Hall, far enough from the prying eyes of other students.

"So," he said. "You might remember that last night Adrian Pucey was overcome by an unfortunate… illness." He placed a light emphasis on the word 'illness' that sent an uncomfortable jolt through George's stomach. He glanced at Fred nervously.

"I think I vaguely remember that," Fred told Snape, twisting his face into a look of utmost concentration. "No, sorry, I don't know. It's gone."

"Don't try to be funny, Weasley, you'll only get yourself into a worse situation," Snape hissed at him, his eyes darting rapidly between Fred and George. "I happen to know that that potion was a Dizzying Draught. Can you tell me how such a potion might have got into Mr. Pucey's pumpkin juice?"

"Maybe a House Elf thought it was funny," said George bravely.

"Or maybe a portrait of an old Potions master has given me a description of three students who broke into my store cupboard to steal the one ingredient for a Dizzying Draught that they were lacking. The description in questions happens to sound rather like the two of you and your friend Mr. Jordan." Snape was leaning towards the twins now, his face inches from theirs. George suppressed the urge to step backwards, holding his ground.

"Well, coincidences happen," said Fred sympathetically. "Good luck in tracking down those three students."

"Mr. Weasley, for once in your life, hold your tongue! The theft of potions ingredients and the assault of a fellow pupil are very serious offenses! You can tell Jordan that the three of you have detention in my office every Sunday evening for the next three weeks. I will expect you there by seven tonight to start." At that, Snape turned and strode away from them, his black cloak billowing around him.

Fred and George looked at each other glumly.

"Could be worse," said Fred finally. "Detention's not too bad really, if you think about it."

"I somehow doubt that detention with Snape will be a picnic," George reminded him, "But you're right. And Pucey's reaction this morning was priceless."

"Well, I suppose we'd better find Lee and notify him of our impending doom," Fred said. The twins walked off, in considerably higher spirits than anyone would expect from two boys just given detention for the next three weeks.


Author's Note: Quicker update this time, thankfully! Hmm... Ending's not great though. Reviews would be much appreciated!