Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments) forum, specifically for Go Beyond! Plus Ultra - step 3: "What are you even talking about?" (dialogue)
"What are you even talking about?"
Fred and George exchange a look that says everything they don't say aloud. Rolling his eyes, Percy sighs, and crosses his arms. "Spill," he says, trying to pour confidence into his voice.
Of course when it comes to his family, that never seems to work extraordinarily well. His older brothers only ever coo at him and think it's cute, while his younger siblings take great amusement in teasing him. At least in Hogwarts Percy has some power backing him up that his siblings will at least pay attention to.
"Well," Fred begins—or maybe George? Merlin, it'd be easy to keep them straight if they didn't swap all the time.
"We were thinking," George—probably—continues, "that-"
"-Lockhart's lilac robes could do with a-"
"-change and Snape's could do with-"
"-some colour."
The pair grin up at him and it occurs to Percy that they never give up their plots this easily. He narrows his eyes at them. Either they're lying to him or something more is planned. "Pranking the professors is breaking the rules," he says. The twins know this—know that pranking itself is against the rules. But they've never cared before and they'll certainly not start now.
"It is," George—Fred?—agrees. "But have you considered-"
"-the detrimental effect he's having on-"
"-the standard of curriculum that-"
"-we're receiving," they finish together.
Percy scowls at them because he does dislike Lockhart. Not only does the professor fail to teach them anything of use, there's also the fact he's unleashed dangerous creatures on the younger years in guise of teaching. And, well, after everything that's gone on with the DADA teachers, it's not like Percy's surprised.
He'd just hoped for better.
Foolish, he knows. Still, that doesn't change the fact Percy's not planning to break the rules because of one bad professor. He's weathered bad DADA teachers before and he's sure he'll do the same in the future. It's just one of those Hogwarts things.
"Why are you telling me this?" Percy asks. "Surely Lee would be the person you normally detail these plans to. I'm just going to take points."
"Can't take points if we haven't done anything wrong," one of the twins points out, grinning cheekily. Percy frowns at them because they're not wrong.
"Then I'll do it later."
"Except it won't be us."
"What do you mean?" Of course it'll be them, who else would be doing it? It's not like Percy would ever do such a thing, and the only other person who likely knows of the twins' plan is Lee and Percy has his doubts that Lee would be able to pull it off without mishap by himself.
"You'll be helping us!"
Immediately, Percy shakes his head and checks in his surroundings. They're in an out of the way hallway he'd spotted the twins enter, and it's empty and dark and Percy's never even been here. He doubts anyone comes this way. Hogwarts is full of hallways like that, abandoned and dusty things that no one walks these days. The castle is so big that there are rooms and rooms that go unused. Many things are locked away so no one goes wandering and gets lost, but many more are open for exploring.
The number of lost Gryffindors that Percy's gone hunting in only the first three months of school is ridiculously high. The older Prefects keep handing the duty off to him as well—and Percy will do his duty, but he still thinks they could stand to help out a bit more. It's incredibly challenging to go searching a whole castle for a few students alone.
On the other hand, he's gotten pretty good at the point-me spell.
"What do you mean?" Percy hisses. "I'm not- I'm not helping you! I'm not going to break the rules, and certainly for not some inane reason like pranking Professors Lockhart and Snape."
"You sure about that?"
Percy frowns. He's not going to help the twins. He could get detention! Or worse! Bad grades! "Why would I help? I'm not a rule breaker like you two."
This is, of course, not entirely correct. Percy's certainly not broken as many rules as the twins and has avoided detention after detention. The only times he meets with teachers one on one is for meetings about some assignment or help with a topic. The point is that Percy's never broken a rule unless he has to and the rules he has broken have gone unnoticed. Besides, some of Hogwarts rules are outdated and unnecessary and-
Well, there's no need to incriminate himself. Needless to say, Percy's done well to ensure that almost no one knows what he's done—except for Oliver, who gets him into more often than not; and Penelope, who's been responsible a few times and been willing enough to encourage Oliver, which is almost as bad in Percy's books.
"No, but surely you want to teach Lockhart to conduct himself professionally in the classroom?"
"Imagine being allowed to study books with actual knowledge in class rather than-"
"-listening to him ramble on about what 'amazing' adventures he's been on."
It is a rather appealing ideal. "I'm not breaking any rules or helping you break any rules," Percy says. He's sticking to his position as a rule-abiding student, thank you very much. Not even the twins, his siblings they may be, can change that.
"Well, alright," Fred says, making a show of sighing.
"We'll see you at dinner," George says, rolling his eyes at Percy. As they leave, their heads bend together and whispers fill the corridor. Percy has no doubt that they're discussing him and how he's a stickler for rules.
He frowns at them. For the better, certainly. He should go warn Lockhart about what's coming. Professor Snape can certainly look out for himself and Percy doesn't want to talk to the man unless he has to. Lockhart… Lockhart's a bit more of the mess, and also Percy needs to talk to him about something he mentioned last class that he looked up, because Lockhart had said something grossly incorrect that Percy must correct.
When Percy knocks on Lockhart's office door, he fails to notice the two redheads trailing after him. Probably for the best.