As I made my way through the castle I had a huge grin on my face, but I was constantly looking behind me checking that Malfoy and his gang hadn't followed me seeking revenge.
I was walking down an empty corridor when I heard a strange noise. I grabbed my wand from my pocket and pointed it at the ready. In case, it was Malfoy's gang about to jump me. When I looked around there was nothing. I signed, thinking I was just paranoid by Malfoy. I continued walking. I started humming to fill the silence in the corridor. I was never a big fan of silence it always made me uneasy.
Then suddenly someone's hand grabbed my shoulder and the person yelled,
"BOO!"
Making me scream and jump in fright. I was about to run away but I stopped when I turned around and saw it was only my cousin, Fred Weasley II. He was doubled over on the floor laughing at me.
"Fred!" I exclaimed trying to hide my embarrassment of being scared by him. "I can't believe you!"
But of course, I could believe him, this was typical Fred. He always had a joke or a prank up his sleeve, just like his dad.
At the weekend, he had pulled a prank on Abby, Jane and me by putting something in our pumpkin juice. That made our tongues lose all feeling and turn blue. Something Jane and I didn't appreciate. But Abby found it fascinating and launched into a full conversation about that sort of stuff with Fred and even wrote to her parents about it.
I was about to walk away when Fred said, "Wait, Rose, I need your help with something."
"What?" I asked fearing the worst. Ever since I came to Hogwarts he had been trying to get me to be his and James' new sidekick in their pranks.
"I'll show you." He said grinning madly as he led me to an empty classroom nearby.
Fred brought me inside the old dusty classroom but it was more than that. I felt my eyes widened as I saw the room was stacked to the ceiling with various Weasley's Wizards Wheezes products.
"Welcome to our stockroom!" Fred said dramatically with a grand gesture. "Our stock for the entire year is in here."
"You go through all of this in an entire year?" I asked amazed.
"Well, last year, in first year, we went through slightly more." Fred said casually.
Fred then scanned the room. "James! Are you there? Come out, we have a guest!"
James appeared from behind some boxes near the end of the room. His hair was sticking out in every direction and his hands were covered in bandages. He hurried over to me, grinning.
"Really, Freddy, because I thought you were talking to yourself again." James joked. "Rosie, I was wondering when you would drop by."
"What happened to your hands?" I asked looking worriedly at his bandage covered hands.
James laughed. "I gave the Pygmy Puffs in the back, there, some Ten- Second Pimple Vanisher and it made them really aggressive. They grew fangs and I had to lock them in a cage. Still adorable, from a distance."
"Want one?" Fred asked.
"No, thanks, you keep your bloodthirsty pets to yourself." I said remembering what happened when I accepted a Skiving Snackbox from them. I was five and they told me it was just normal sweets. I ate everything inside it at once (shudder).
I looked around and asked in pure wonderment. "How are you keeping this a secret from Filch and all the teachers? Someone could walk in and see this."
"My dad's working on new invisibility shield and we get to try it out. It's genius! The way it works is only people we want to see all this can see it. Like you, Rose, you can see it. But the teachers and Filch see just a dusty old classroom that is falling apart." Fred explained.
"It's bloody brilliant!" James said. "Way better than last year when we had to lock our supplies in cubicles in Moaning Myrtle bathroom. She wouldn't leave us alone and even though it said out of order on the door girls kept coming in. We had to bribe them with our stuff to shut them up."
Fred nodded. "No one ever comes in here. We did research before setting up in here. This classroom has been abandoned for almost twenty years. There are no classes in here. But we still lock the door and we nicked the key from Filches office to stop him from getting in here as well."
I was amazed. "I didn't think you would put this much work into something."
Fred and James smiled proudly.
Then Fred said brightly, "You can come here anytime you want. You're welcome to anything you want and if you're going to pull something on someone make sure you call us first, so we can watch."
"Thanks, guys. Why did you want me?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah! I need you to keep look out while James and I put Dungbombs in the lockers in Slytherin quidditch team's changing room."
James laughed. "When they open the lockers, they'll get a stinky welcome!"
"Albus is on the Slytherin team." I blurted out, not sure how they would react.
James' smile fell slightly. "What?" he said blankly.
"Albus is on the Slytherin quidditch team." I said quietly.
"Since when?" James asked in disbelief.
"Since today at quidditch try-outs. He told me when he was coming back from try-outs." I told him wishing I hadn't opened my mouth.
"Good for him." Fred said.
James ignored him. "But he's only a first year? I didn't get on the Gryffindor team in first year. How did it happen?"
I awkwardly explained what Albus had told me.
"Yaxley is stupid." James stated. "Are you sure he not just a reserve or making things up?"
"Oh, stop it, James, Al is a good player. You're just jealous." Fred said calmly.
"I'm still putting Dungbombs in the lockers." James said and he grabbed a bag full of Dungbombs. James then walked out the door.
"I shouldn't have told him." I confessed to Fred.
"It's fine, he'll get over it." Fred said trying to reassure me. "James hates Slytherin. He blames himself for Al being there. James told me the night Al was sorted it was all his fault for teasing Al. James thinks that all his teasing to Al about being put into Slytherin gave him too much ambitious to be put into Gryffindor, hence, making him a Slytherin."
I gave Fred a confused look. "Why would he think that?"
Fred laughed. "When he mad and confused he actually a really creative thinker."
"Come on." Fred said to me. "I don't care if he's on the team the Dungbombs are going into the lockers."
As we walked towards the Slytherin quidditch team's changing room Fred asked me.
"Did Al tell you about him and James?"
"No Al didn't say anything about James." I said worried about what Fred was going to say next.
"Well James, the morning after the sorting, went up to Al with this crazy idea that they could steal the Sorting Hat and get Al resorted." Fred said shaking his head at the thought of the idea. "Then Al told James that he liked Slytherin and he was happy. And James thought Al was only thinking this way because he was under the Imperius curse-"
"James has some imagination." I interrupted.
Fred laughed and nodded in agreement. "So you see where this is going. Then a massive argument broke out between Al and James. Al's Slytherin mates show up and attempt to fight James. Then Dominique the demon shows up and joins James in the battle. But it was broken up by Neville and everyone got a detention and lived happily ever after!"
I gave him a strange look on the 'happily ever after!' part.
"What it needed was a feel-good ending." Fred said shrugging his shoulders.
"How come I'm only hearing about this now?" I asked.
"There's a tense silence on what happened." Fred said.
"What were you doing during all this?" I asked.
"I was the unbiased bystander." Fred said.
"What about the rest of the family?"
"Victoire wasn't there, but she gave out to James and Dominque later when she heard about it." Fred said. "Molly was there, but all she was doing was shrieking 'I'm a prefect! Stop this at once!' " Fred mimicked Molly annoying voice perfectly.
By then we were approaching the Slytherin quidditch team changing room. Fred instructed me were to stand and said if anyone comes I am to signal them with a bird call (Which in my opinion was a stupid idea, but I went along with it). Fred went into the changing room and I stood watch from my spot.
After a couple of minutes, I began to tap my foot.
"What's taking them so long?" I spoke aloud to myself.
Suddenly, I heard a loud yell from inside the changing room.
"Potty and Weasel, what are you Gryffindorks doing in here?!"
"Trying to make you smell better, Yaxley!" I heard James snap back.
The door of the Slytherin quidditch team changing room burst open revealing James and Fred trying to scramble out. Followed by who must be Yaxley. Yaxley was a large boy with bulging muscles but at the same time, he was kind of chubby. He looked like he was in his seventh year.
I backed right up against the wall hoping not to be seen. Then suddenly Yaxley reached out to grab James. Without thinking I grabbed my wand from my pocket and aimed it at Yaxley and shouted out,
"IMPEDIMENTA!"
A light shot out of the end of my wand and hit Yaxley right in the chest freezing him in his tracks. I looked stunned at what I had done. I never used the Impediment jinx before, I only pretended to cast it using a stick before I came to Hogwarts.
Fred and James who both looked amazed ran over to me and each grabbed one of my arms and forced me to run away with them. The jinx wore off a moment later, but thankfully we escaping through a nearby portrait hole which James knew the password to. We heard a roar of angry from Yaxley as the portrait opened revealing a passageway.
"That was amazing!" Fred shouted when we made it to the other side.
"No," James said grinning. "It was bloody brilliant!"
