''Beautiful'' prank

As Lucy had expected the night was…testing to say the least. Her arm, even if she didn't feel the full capacity of Harry's pain, was still stiff and achy. It felt like the arm was jelly and full of splinters at the same time.

So to no one's surprise Lucy didn't sleep very much that night. So as she couldn't sleep, she tried to imagine the worst prank possible to humiliate that phony Lockhart for doing this to Harry. At first Lucy had thought of changing his robes to every color possible, but that wouldn't work as the 'pretty princess' already had robes in every color and probably wouldn't know the difference.

Then she thought that she'd hex him to not be able to speak, but that was no good idea either as the spell she knew would only last for couple hours and Lockhart would probably go to Dumbledore to have it removed, as the man loved his own voice too much to not be able to speak for couple hours.

Then a brilliant idea came to mind. Lucy still had the one of the candies the twins had given her that changed her hair color and it couldn't be reversed no matter what she did. She only had to modify the candy so that Lockhart's hair wouldn't turn red, since that would be an insult to Weasleys and the rest of the worlds red heads.

She knew that Snape could possibly find an antidote to the candy, but from her observations she knew that Snape hated Lockhart just as much as the rest of the teachers, so he would probably say to Lockhart, if he were to ask, that there wasn't an antidote.

The plan was just to make the candy in liquid form so she could sneak it into 'the pretty princess''' morning tea and then just sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

It was going to be beautiful.

XXX

The next morning Lucy woke up unusually early due to her arm feeling very stiff, probably because Harry's bones had been regrown overnight. So Lucy just rose up from her bed and went to the bathroom to have a nice shower. After washing herself she could feel how her arm had started to gain some movement back into it, meaning that Harry was okay.

She quickly brushed her hair and teeth and then put on some robes. She then took the prank candy, which was still in its red wrapping paper, and after unwrapping it she placed it into her potion mortar and started to crush it into a fine powder.

After looking at the powder that was now fine pinkish red in color, she started to look through her potion ingredients to find out what she could use. After going over many different ingredients she had in her potion kit, she finally noticed the single root of the old and stately pine, that she had once bought form the Diagon Alley apothecary long time ago. She placed the root into the mortar and started to crush it into the powder.

After a long time of crushing, she now looked at the fine gray powder in the mortar. She then placed the powder into a small vial and then added some of her tasteless potion, that was usually used to hide the taste of some foul potions, and then she shook the bottle so the ingredients would mix together. After a while of shaking the bottle it was full of dark gray liquid. Ready to be used and Lucy knew exactly to what she was going to use it.

Lucy placed the vial into the pocket of her robe and headed down to the common room to wait for the twins and Lee to wake up. After about half an hour later, the still sleepy twins and Lee emerged from their dormitory, their hair still messed from the night, and together they headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

To their great surprise not many others were still down. Just couple first years and few fourth years, but no teachers yet. The twins and Lee took their seat and were puzzled when Lucy just passed them and headed towards the teachers table. Lucy quickly poured the potion into Lockhart's teacup and then added some tea into it. She knew the cups were charmed so that the tea would stay warm.

She then pocketed the now empty vial and headed to Gryffindor table and sat next to Lee and slowly started to eat her breakfast, while the twins and Lee gave her a puzzled look.

''Just wait and see,'' was the only thing Lucy said as she continued to eat her breakfast. The twins looked at each other and decided to do just as Lucy instructed and started to eat their own breakfast.

Soon the students and teachers started to fill the hall. Professor McGonagall was one of the first teachers present as always and when Professor Flitwig arrived the triplets and Lee could hear how Professor McGonagall told him how some Gryffindor first year had been found petrified on the hallway last night. The poor student was now in the Hospital Wing until he could be cured.

What was going on, first someone petrifies Filch's cat and now a student. Lucy would try to find out later.

Lockhart was of course one of the last ones to come to the hall as he probably used all the morning to fix his hair so that it was on its perfect curls, oblivious to all the horror that the other teachers were talking about. And to Lucy's great delight, Lockhart drank all his tea without noticing anything wrong with it.

But after a minute or so, the students around the hall started to snigger and whisper as they pointed towards Lockhart. Lockhart himself was, of course, oblivious to all of this, until dear Professor Sprout, who had the misfortune to sit next to him, pointed that something was wrong with his hair.

Lockhart of course immediately, out of his own vanity, took out a pocket mirror and with a loud shriek he started to finger comb his now brittle gray hair. Gone were the perfectly curled golden blond curls and in its place were straight smoky gray hair that looked like it came from an old hag's head and the hair made Snape's greasy mop of hair look very smooth and stylized.

The hall of course after hearing his shout turned to look at him and started to laugh out loud when they saw his hair.

There were a couple of teachers, who had trouble controlling their laughter as well. Professor Sprout had, probably out of politeness, covered her mouth as she was behind it sniggering as well. Professor McGonagall had a small smile on her lips as she continued to drink her own tea. Professor Flitwick, who sat next to her, had hidden his head under the table and one could see his chair shaking a bit as he was probably laughing out loud and didn't want to show it. Hagrid had no problem showing his delight as he was laughing out loud and was probably one of the loudest voices that was laughing in the hall.

The twins and Lee all gave Lucy high fives for her very well accomplished prank. Lockhart of course tried to spell his hair back to normal, but Lucy knew that it was pointless; it would only make it worse. He then ran to Professor Snape, who had a very faint smirk on his face when he saw the phony's new hair.

Lockhart asked a potion to reverse the horrible curse that had been placed on him, but as Lucy had expected Snap said, that since he doesn't know the ingredients that were used to change Lockhart's hair he couldn't make an antidote.

Lockhart after hearing this immediately covered his hair and ran wailing out of the hall and would probably lock himself into his room until his hair turned back.

''That was awesome. How'd you did you do it?'' Fred asked after Lockhart had run off.

''Remember the candy you gave me?'' Lucy asked.

''Yeah, but it's supposed to change one's hair color red, not gray,'' Lee said.

''True, but I modified the candy a bit since red was not exactly the best color to use on Lockhart. It would insult two of my best friends,'' Lucy explained as she winked towards the twins.

''Then what did you do? And doesn't that just last till this evening? I was expecting a more of a lasting prank,'' George lightly scolded.

''First, I crushed a root of an old and stately pine and then added some tasteless potion. Second, thanks to the effect of the root the hair color should last about a week, if we're unlucky,'' Lucy said and the twins and Lee had an urge to give her another set of high fives.

XXX

By the time Monday came, the news of the first year Gryffindor Colin Greevey being petrified and that he was now lying in the Hospital Wing like dead, had spread through the entire school. The rest of the first years were now terrified to walk the corridors alone, so in order to prevent anything from happening they had started to walk in small groups.

Ginny who knew Colin a little bit better since she sat next to him in Charms was very distraught. So the triplets thought they'd try to cheer her up. But usually when the triplets would cover themselves with something, you name it fur, boils, different colored skin, and jump behind something trying to 'scare' her she'd laugh and tell them that they look funny and that they were dumb.

But this time when they did it she would scream bloody murder and run away actually being scared of them. Something that never usually happened. The triplets had to stop trying to cheer Ginny, when a very angry Percy came to yell at them and tell them that if they won't stop he's going to write to Mrs. Weasley and tell her how their scaring was causing Ginny to have nightmares.

So eventually the triplets mellowed a bit to the level of good older siblings and tried to cheer Ginny with just some encouraging words. It helped a bit and once they had apologized and Ginny of course forgave them as they couldn't know that she wasn't in the mood to be scared at the moment.

XXX

When the news of the poor Colin started to spread the students came up their own ideas of what had caused it. And so behind the teachers' backs a roaring trade in talismans, amulets, and other protective devices was sweeping the school. Some students, especially muggleborns, bought the talismans trying to protect themselves.

And soon McGonagall had pinned the list of those who would stay in the school for Christmas. The triplets, along with many of their classmates, were eager to leave the school. But Lucy did notice that Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, were going to stay in the school. She'd have to go to Dumbledore and ask if Harry was going to be safe during the holidays or if she should stay in the school as well to look after him.