Chapter 2: An apple a day

The boys trudged on to the dreaded History of Magic class and occupied themselves with Quidditch talk while Remus was busy planning. He wanted to get started with pranking but choosing the victim was more difficult than he predicted.

It would be hilarious if he could prank a teacher but he was a little scared of getting caught. It would be the easiest to prank his roommates but how to do it without them finding out? He observed them while they walked to History of Magic, trying to find any weaknesses he could exploit.

James was spinning a wand between his fingers. "Flying lesson this Wednesday. I've been flying for years. It's easier than walking. What about you, Sirius?"

Sirius walked with his hands in his pockets. "Yeah, I can fly. Remus?"

Remus shook his head. His parents rarely let him play outside, let alone fly. "I do better on the ground."

"I'm really excited," Peter bugged in, trailing close behind them. "I've always wanted to learn. Will you show me some cool tricks, James?"

Remus wondered if he could prank them when they were trying out their brooms later but didn't know how. Would they notice if he switched out a flying broom for a regular broom?

They sat in the back of the classroom and tried to entertain themselves with Quidditch talk but it wasn't enough to save them from the dreadfully dull voice of the ghost of Professor Binns who lulled most of the class to sleep. Soon, his friends nodded off which left Remus alone with his excited thoughts.

He sat behind his friends between two Gryffindor girls who dozed off as well. Mary was currently sprawled on the table, her wand was next to her hand. Amber was slumped in her seat, her wand was poking out of the pocket of her robes. The two pieces of wood looked so alike, they could be mistaken for each other.

Everyone in the classroom was either already asleep or in a bored trance like Peter, who was currently doodling what looked like the letter "J" in his notebook.

Very quietly, Remus swapped their wands and resumed listening to the lecture.

The whole day, he waited for them to notice that their wands were not their own, but it was only during the last lesson, Charms when the girls tried to cast Lumos that the prank came to fruition.

"Ow," Mary complained when the rebellious wand poked her in the eye. "What's wrong with this thing?"

Amber tried to cast the spell and the wand slipped out of her hand, refusing to be used. Just as she reached for it, the wand shot forward a foot. Everyone laughed as she chased it around the classroom and the stubborn wand refused to let her or anyone else touch it. Even Professor Flitwick tried to help but it was only when Mary reached for it, that the wand allowed itself to be captured.

"Hey, that's mine."

Amber, her hair frizzled from the ordeal, examined the wand that poked Mary in the eye.

"Why do you have my wand?"

Remus sat completely still as the girls exchanged confused looks and waited if they would guess that the only time when they could have had their wands swapped was while they were napping.

"We must have swapped them in the morning when getting ready," Mary finally said.

Amber smoothed out her hair and laughed it off, and they got back to the lesson, completely oblivious to what really happened.

When the lesson ended, Remus snuck a look at the badge in his pocket. The previously blank white circle now had a bright red "1" written inside it.

The prank counted. He was in the Club.

The next day, Remus was eager to raise his prank count. He wondered if other members of the Club had already started. It was only day two. Would they have executed more than one prank and gotten ahead of him?

Initially, he might have wanted to be in the Club just to be a part of something and to test if he had any hidden talents, but the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to win the competition. What could the prize be? Would he get to meet the other members? Would they get up to mischief together when the competition was over?

During lunchtime, the four of them sat together as usual. Remus was happy with the daily routine. The only new routine he wasn't looking forward to was coming in two weeks - the one that involved the full moon, but he tried to not stress himself with it. He was still feeling normal right now and he would take full advantage of it.

He reached for an apple but stopped before biting into it. His excellent sense of smell picked up an unfamiliar scent on it, one that did not belong on an apple. He tried another one from the bowl with the same result and finally decided to skip his apple routine today.

A couple of minutes later, an older Gryffindor girl took one of the apples and bit into it without hesitation. Before she could take a second bite, she burped so loudly that everyone stopped whatever they were doing and stared. Her cheeks flamed red and she covered her mouth just to burp again. People started chuckling.

"I don't knooooarp," she tried to say through burps that sounded like a croaking frog, "what's going ooooarp."

Everyone now laughed and her friend spoke up. "Daisy, I think you got pranked with Belch Powder."

Remus gasped. No. He was the one that almost got pranked. Someone who knew that he always ate an apple after breakfast wanted to get him good.

He looked at his roommates who were all amused at the burping girl. Who was it and were they in the Club? Was one of them his competition?

A/N: What do you think about the pranks so far?

Coming up next, surprise, more pranks - many, many more pranks.