"Weasley's wizarding what?"

Yet again Avery was sitting at the Hufflepuff table with her friend Marilyn, fellow housemates sparsely seated to her left and right, leaning across the table to talk animatedly with members of another house. It was the morning after the detention in the dungeon, and, as promised, the Weasley twins had come to her with details of what it would take to keep them quiet.

"Wheezes," chorused the twins, those hazel eyes of theirs alight with pride. They were planning to start their own business and insisted that Avery help them, but in what way they had yet to explain.

"It'll be a joke shop, like Zonkos, only better. We have a lot of ideas, it's just getting the materials that's causing the problem. You know, potion ingredients, things of that nature," George explained quietly.

"Well how am I to help with that?" Avery asked, puzzled. She didn't exactly have a supply closet of potion ingredients or whatever else they would be needing to prototype and manufacture wizarding wheezes.

"Well, with your ability to disguise yourself so easily, you could nick what we need. And since you're relatively unknown, no one would suspect you," Fred explained. Avery felt taken aback for a moment. She wanted to argue that she was very well known among her classmates, but she knew it would be a weak argument indeed. She had a handful of people she was close with, but other than that, she flew dangerously far under the radar. Perhaps it was because her ever-changing appearance, but people never seemed to remember her from one day to the next. She had assumed before she began at Hogwarts her condition would make her a novelty, metamorphmagi being extremely rare, and although at first people seemed impressed by her ability, the interest wore away fairly quickly in her first year, and she had remained relatively unnoticed since.

"Yeah, only one problem; I have an aversion to theft," she retorted, "you know us Hufflepuffs, all about being just and what have you."

"Ah. And would you call it 'just' to deliberately mislead dozens by disguising yourself as other people?" Fred asked, cocking an eyebrow. George smirked next to him.

"There's nothing wrong with what I do," Avery said, although she wasn't quite convinced with her own argument.

"Then why worry who finds out about your little business venture if you're not doing anything wrong?" Fred asked as though he were genuinely curious, brow furrowed, tilting his head mockingly to the side.

"Look, you can help us nick what we need, or you can give us a percentage of what you make from each of your own customers so we can buy materials fair and honest-"

"Tha-That's not fair!" Avery stammered, her face growing hot. She had been working hard to make money for a broomstick. If she had to give Fred and George part of her earnings she would have to start charging even more, otherwise she wouldn't be able to afford a broom until the following year. Marilyn snorted next to her, trying to disguise it as a cough, while she pretended to read The Prophet.

"Look, we know how hard it is to operate your own business, and we'd hate to ruin it for you. Honestly, we would, but when it comes down to it, you have to do what you have to do," George shrugged, trying to look sympathetic.

"Do you really have to, though? You've never had trouble nicking things before. Why do you need help now?" Avery whined. She was getting frustrated as it was looking more and more like she had no other choice.

"If things go missing we're the first pair people point the finger at-"

"Can't understand it, really, we're practically saints-"

"So we need someone who can snatch what we need and store it, while there are plenty of witnesses that can attest we were elsewhere when the stealing took place."

Avery put her head in her hands. The conversation was exhausting her.

"How long will I have to help you? How much will I have to take?" She looked up just in time to see the twins look at one another and seem to silently agree on something.

"If you can get us what we need from Snape's private stores, that's all we'll ask. We can use that to make prototypes and experiment until we can afford to buy the materials ourselves. You should be able to do it in one go," Fred said locking eyes with Avery, who took a deep breath, letting it out through pursed lips.

"Alright. You have a deal. I'll get what you need from his stockroom and then you must never breathe a word about what I do to anyone ever again," Avery replied quickly.

"Excellent," the twins said in unison, pushing themselves out of their seats and onto their feet.

"We'll need to meet you after classes today to discuss the plan; the statue of the one eyed witch. We'll see you then." and with that, they wandered off, bits of toast in their hands, smiling jovially.

"Great, just great," Avery moaned, buttering her toast a little more aggressively than she had originally intended and tearing a hole right through the middle of it.

"Isn't it, though?" Marilyn asked cheerily, grinning broadly. Avery turned to glare at her.

"So much for that famous Hufflepuff loyalty trait, huh?"

"I'm still on your side. I just find it funny. I've been warning you about impersonating people for quite a while now. I figured eventually you would get caught by a teacher and be told never to do it again. But honestly I like this better," Marilyn said, pouring herself another half glass of pumpkin juice.

"Why? Cause it's worse?" Avery muttered into her toast.

"Not necessarily; just cause I think you might learn better this way and it might keep you from doing it again. I mean, honestly, how good is their word? They could still tell anyone any minute about what you're doing."

"They promised they wouldn't," Avery replied, furrowing her brow at her friend.

"They? The pair of wicked twins who seconds ago told you they would do what they had to do to get their business off the ground? Really Avery, do them their favor and call it quits after that. As long as you don't keep doing people these favors the twins may tattle on you, but they won't be able to prove anything," Marilyn replied with a knowing look. But Avery chose not to respond and focus on her report to Dennis. Sure, the twins were a pair of troublemakers, but she had no reason to doubt their word. At least not yet.

After classes that day, Avery waited for the twins next to the statue of the one-eyed witch as they had told her. It was a hideous looking thing; leaning forward, one claw-like hand wrapped around wrapped around a staff, the other extended before her, a large hump on her back. Avery had never really paused to look it before. It wasn't exactly pleasing to the eye. It seemed a strange meeting place, but she didn't care much; she just wanted to meet the twins, steal whatever they needed, and focus on making more broomstick money. Perhaps if the meeting went quickly she could even drum up some work for the night.

"Alright there, Avery?" Fred called as he and his twin strode towards her, rolling up their sleeves and loosening their ties.

"Could be worse. In fact I have a feeling it's about to get worse very quickly," she nodded to the old bit of parchment in George's hand, assuming it was a list of potion ingredients they needed.

"You have no idea," the twins chirped. George began to stare intently at the parchment in his hand and then motioned to Fred, who tapped the hump of the statue and whispered "dissendium." To Avery's surprise, the hump opened to reveal a hole large enough for an adult to climb in, but it was dark and impossible to see what was inside.

"I'll hoist you up," Fred whispered, grabbing her suddenly around the middle causing her to squeal, and lifting her up so she could place her feet inside the hole first. George continued to keep lookout while Fred began gesturing wildly, indicating he was impatient for her to slide inside. With a gulp, Avery did so and slid a considerable way down what felt like a stone slide and then landed on a patch of cold, damp earth. Pulling her wand out of her robes, she whispered "lumos" and discovered she was in a very narrow, earthy passageway. It wasn't until Fred and George came down the slide that she realized her mouth was agape and snapped it back shut.

"Neat, isn't it?" George asked, dusting the earth off his pants.

"I suppose," Avery replied, trying to sound unimpressed. She knew that there were many secrets in Hogwarts, but she had never discovered anything like this, and although it was a thrill, she wanted to remain on the surly side with the twins, though by the way they grinned at each other she guessed they could probably tell she was having fun regardless.

"Well, not that you care to know, but this secret passage leads straight to the Honeyduke's cellar in Hogsmeade. But, for today, we'll just talk here," Fred told her, tossing his bag on the floor and taking a seat beside it. His twin followed suit, and Avery took a seat leaning against the tunnel wall opposite them, nervously scratching at the dirt floor, half wishing they would talk about it at Honeyduke's so she could eat some chocolates.

"Mischief managed," George muttered, tapping the parchment in his hand with his wand and then carefully folding and pocketing it.

"What was that?" Avery asked, eying the parchment closely. She had assumed it was a list for her, but it would appear she had been wrong.

"Nothing you need to worry yourself about. Now, on to how we'll get what we need from Snape. Now, I'm sure you've noticed the door inside Snape's classroom that leads to where he keeps his private stash of ingredients-"

"But what you might not have noticed is the gargoyle outside Snape's classroom. He's a bit of a talker, that one, and if Snape finds his ingredients missing, he's bound to ask the blabbermouth if he'd seen anyone go inside. So, what needs to happen is you need to make yourself look like Snape, get the ingredients, and get back out-"

"Meanwhile, we'll be distracting Snape, making sure he doesn't walk in while you're pilfering, and also insuring us an alibi."

"Isn't that a bit convenient, though? Don't you think he'll suspect you were creating a diversion if the ingredients just so happen to go missing when you're- oh I don't know, flinging dungbombs at him?" Avery asked, a bit nervous.

"Well we won't make it obvious," Fred replied, rolling his eyes.

"Honestly, do you think we're new at this?" George added, looking between Avery and his brother, incredulous.

"Well what are you planning to do, then?"

"We'll know where Snape is, and we'll let him think he's caught us in the middle of pulling a prank. That way it's not as though we pulled a prank to distract him, but that he... sort of distracted himself by catching us pranking someone else. Make sense?" George asked, and Avery nodded. It seemed to be an alright plan. But she was still nervous.

"I've never stolen so much as a quill from anyone before. I'm afraid I'll muck something up," she said, searching their eyes, for what she wasn't sure. Reassurance? A way out of the deal?

"You'll be fine, young miss-"

"We have complete faith in you. Here is the list of what we need," George said, digging for a new piece of parchment in his bag and handing it to her across the tunnel.

Baneberry

Blind worm's sting

Bulbadox juice

Croakoa

Boomslang skin

Lacewing flies

Asphodel

Dandelion Root

The list went on and on, containing rarer and rarer items. Items Snape was sure to miss.

"We need as much as you can get of each," George added, as Avery was still trying to find her way to the end of the list.

"This is a lot of ingredients," Avery said, eying them disbelievingly.

"Exactly," they said in unison.

"That's why we said we'd let you go after you got us what we needed from his storeroom. We know it's a bit much, so we feel it's a fair trade," Fred finished.

"But you said I should be able to get it all in one go!"

"And you should!" George said, tossing her a tiny, beaded bag. Avery caught it and looked up at him, confused.

"That's for you," Fred chimed in with a patronizing nod.

"It's bewitched. Tiny, but it can hold loads and loads, and it feels like you aren't carrying more than a few galleons. You can keep it once we're finished," George explained.

"I've got a headache," Avery moaned, her head in her hands once more.

"Ah, well hopefully it's gone by tomorrow, 'cause that's when we'll be getting this over with."

Soon after, the three crawled back out of the witches hump and went along to their respective common rooms, Avery's headache getting no better as the night went on and she tried to write the essays that were already piling up, despite it being only the second day of classes. It was close to midnight, and she was working alone at a table in the Hufflepuff common room, sitting in a yellow armchair at a wooden table with copper detailing. Her books spread out before her, she looked outside the circular windows towards the sky, trying to remember what the name of mean, venus fly trap-looking plant they had been studying was called, as it was the answer to the particular question she was on.

"Venemous tentactula," a fat cactus-like plant on the nearby windowsill whispered.

"Oh right! Thanks," Avery said with a smile, quickly jotting it down.

"What was that?" came a familiar voice. Avery looked over her shoulder to Cedric Diggory in an armchair nearby reading Quidditch Through the Ages, his sandy hair falling into his eyes. Trying hard not to focus too hard on his smile, lest she end up wearing it again by accident, she smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, I was talking to the plant," she giggled in spite of herself.

"Oh, I should've known. That one on the windowsill has fed me more Herbology answers than I care to admit," he said, smiling back. Avery nodded, wishing she could think of something more to say, but she was always very easily tongue-tied around Diggory. Three years her senior, he was handsome and intimidatingly smart and kind. He was the Hufflepuff ideal, the ideal she could and never would be. She had hardly been joking when she told Marilyn she should be resorted, especially compared to Diggory, who was like some sort of gorgeous moral compass.

"I like your hair that way, by the by," he spoke again, surprising her.

"R-really? She stammered, twisting her finger around a lock of her hair, which today was shoulder-length and dishwater blonde.

"I mean, I have never seen you wear your hair in a way that didn't look good, but this really seems to suit you," he said, smiling again, and she tried again not to mirror it.

"Well, thank you. That's very sweet of you," Avery said, focusing on keeping her cheeks their standard ivory and not letting them flush magenta.

"Well," Cedric began, standing from his chair and stretching, "I think I should be off to bed. The fern by the fire is really good at potions too, just in case you're working on an essay for Snape," he added with a wink. He walked down the passage that led to the boys dormitory and was gone. Avery collapsed back into her chair. She never would have thought Diggory had ever really noticed her, and while it felt nice that he did, when she thought about what she was planning to do the next day her stomach turned. There is no way that Cedric would have stood for someone stealing, even if it was from the most foul teacher in their school. And, if she was being honest with herself, he probably wouldn't have agreed with her impersonating classmates for money, either. She began to think about what Marilyn said, and decided that she was absolutely right. As soon as her favor for the twins was complete, she would give up impersonating people for money and try to better exemplify what it meant to be a Hufflepuff. She wouldn't have enough to buy the broomstick she wanted, but she could always ride one of the school broomsticks or perhaps even settle for a more affordable broom like a Clean Sweep eleven so she wouldn't be completely blown away at try-outs. The point was, it was time to stop doing something she felt she had to hide. She closed her books and rolled up her parchment, placing it neatly in her bag, and went to bed as well, forcing herself to feel at peace with her decision.

The next day, Cedric waved at her during breakfast. She gave him a small wave back and shy a shy smile and turned back to her parchment, afraid that just by looking at him she was pressing her luck somehow. It was just then that the twins sat down across from her and she felt angry at them. She was ready for their deal to be over so that she could give up morphing into other people and focus on being a better version of herself, which sounded incredibly cheesy when she thought about it, but she shrugged it off. Cheesy or not, she needed to do it.

"Ready for the big day?" George asked with a smirk.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Avery replied. She had hardly eaten that morning, and instead of her usual morning toast laid out in front of her, she had a quill and parchment listing details of Snape's appearance. She had been inconspicuously studying him during breakfast. Although Snape was already a bit unpleasant to look at, the longer she stared the more imperfections she noticed, just like when she had studied Dennis the morning before, or the many others who had come before him.

"Good. We'll be keeping an eye on Snape today. We'll meet next to the witch again after class and go from there," Fred replied, helping himself to an apple and some pumpkin juice. George made a face at him, to which Fred rolled his eyes and tossed him an apple from the bowl as well before chugging his juice and standing. Each of them waved and then retreated back to their own table.

"So it's today, then?" Marilyn asked, startling Avery, who had been so focused on everything else she had forgotten her friend was even there.

"Yeah, after class apparently. And after today, I've decided I would follow your advice and stop morphing into other people."

"Oh, excellent! I'm really glad. I think you'll be much happier not having to worry about all that rubbish," Marilyn said, tearing her eyes away from The Prophet long enough to nod at her approvingly.

"What are you reading in that thing every day, anyway?"

"Uh, that's the thing about the news, Avery, it changes every day. But specifically I'm following the Sirius Black case."

"What's there to follow? He even been sighted yet?" Avery asked, finally helping herself to a bit of breakfast before they had to leave for classes.

"Not yet, but they're speculating how he escaped and what he'll do now that he's out. I find it rather fascinating."

"Clearly. I haven't seen you without a paper attached to your face all year," Avery teased, and Marilyn rolled her eyes. "Well it is only the third day, you know."

It was true. It was only the third day but it felt like it had been much, much longer, and she had a suspicious feeling this day was going to drag on and on as well with the anticipation of what they were to do that night.