A/N: I'm going to post a new story on my profile soon that will be titled "The Moments in Between". It's going to be an accompanying piece to this fic, for bonus content. Not all of it will be focused on Phoenix, so if there are other characters in TFOTP you love or things in the story that you would like to hear more about, let me know in the comments and maybe I'll do a chapter about it in TMIB. The first chapter is going to be about Vic and Teddy's first date, so keep an eye on my profile if you'd like to check it out!


Chapter Seven: Revenge


More often than not, when people described the Marauders or my twin uncles, they very accurately used the word 'brilliant'. Unfortunately, the truthfulness of their diction was regularly lost on them, for few people realized how genuinely genius the pranksters were.

The Marauders spent months creating a map of a magical building that was constantly shifting and changing. The map that they created couldn't be fooled by magic, invisibility cloaks, Polyjuice potion, or Animagus abilities-a devilishly tricky feat. They also successfully mastered the difficult magic behind becoming an Animagus without needing help from adults, and without getting caught.

Fred and George Weasley developed hundreds of magical products wholly unassisted. They created products that required complete proficiency over both the theory and the application of potions, charms, transfiguration, and DADA. They charmed items with spells that were so useful during the war that the Ministry purchased them, and they were able to set up trades with people from all around the world in order to receive their products or ingredients.

The magic behind truly extraordinary pranks is far more difficult than most people realize. True pranking is not simply coming up with incredible ideas, it's research, learning new spells, brewing difficult potions, memorizing other people's schedules, and executing the idea perfectly. Willingness to do the work is what draws the line between the typical pranksters and the legends. Few people are willing to truly dedicate themselves to a brilliant prank, but the best pranksters find the work to be addicting.

There's a sort of satisfaction to be found by putting weeks into planning and researching everything necessary for a prank, and then seeing it go off without a hitch.

Or, perhaps the best pranksters are just secretly massive nerds.


As soon as Freddy and I agreed to prank our family, it became the thing that took up most of our free time. I was glad that I had thought to brief Jay on what was going on, because, though we still spent a good deal of time together, every second that we didn't have plans was spent deep in the recesses of the library.

"Hey Nix, I was thinking, I know we were considering doing something to Vic's face, but we're doing that for Dom too, and I think I just found something better," Freddy whispered, craning his neck to look at me over the massive stack of books that lay on the table between us.

Though we had been brainstorming our prank for about a week, Victoire was still giving Freddy and I a good deal of trouble. Very little bothered her, so coming up with a prank that would actually have an effect on her was proving to be very difficult. Interested, I lowered my book, stuck my wand behind my ear, and gave Fred my full attention.

Seeing that I was listening, Freddy continued, "I just came across this charm earlier that makes someone write in gibberish. I didn't think much of it, because on its own it's not a particularly great prank. But then I came across this other charm," He slid his book across the table for me to look at as he spoke, "Which forces someone to randomly speak gibberish. They're relatively simple, so they're spells that I think you could do without too much trouble. I thought it would be great because Vic always comes across so smart, imagine how funny it would be to hear her sound like a total airhead for a while!"

By the time he finished, I was grinning from ear to ear. "Do you think we could get it to make her sound like those silly girls in the movies Aunt Hermione showed us?"

"I was hoping you'd ask! I think we should be able to," Freddy exclaimed, hopping in his seat slightly as he did so. I pressed my hand to my mouth to contain my laughter as the action caused the books he had precariously stacked before him to fall with a deafening boom.

Freddy glanced over his shoulder; his eyes wide. The library behind him was empty, the shelves still save the tiny particles of dust that were slowly swirling in the air. "Do you think Madame Pince heard?" He asked.

I shrugged, still struggling to keep from laughing aloud at his facial expression.

Just as Freddy began to relax, the elderly librarian swooped around the corner, yelling at him for his carelessness. Freddy nodded along with her lecture, his eyes massive and his spine ramrod straight with shock. I could barely wait for the woman to stomp back to her desk before succumbing to peals of laughter.

"It's not funny, Nix," Fred whined, slouching in his seat. "She's terrifying!"

I laughed even harder in response.


I held a book aloft as I exited my last class of the day, pointing at the line that I had been talking about. Conner, one of James's best friends, was peering at it over my shoulder. He had been struggling with an essay for Charms, so I had promised to help him find better sources than the ones that he had been using.

"Thanks, Phoenix," He muttered as I finished my explanation, the relief clear in his voice. "You're a godsend, I swear."

I grinned at the boy, who had rapidly become my favorite of James's closest friends. "Don't worry about it. Let me know if you need anything else, and make sure you turn that back in when you're done with it please. I'm at my limit for the number of books that I can have checked out, but I've got a few I'm turning in later today, so don't rush."

He nodded, tucking the book into his bag with care. I wouldn't normally give books that were checked out under my name to anyone else, but I trusted Conner to be cautious with it. I wasn't super close with any of my twin's friends, but I knew Conner better than the other two by far. He sat next to me in Herbology, acting as a buffer between James and I, and I had grown to quite like his easy-going nature.

"Hey Phoenix. Ready for our flight?" Jay's voice caused me to jump slightly.

I glanced up to find him leaned against the wall opposite the classroom that I had just exited. He nodded to Conner, who clapped me on the shoulder before moving down the hallway to catch up with James, Ross, and Max.

"Of course!" I told Jay eagerly. I felt a bit guilty; I hadn't been spending nearly as much time with Jay as I used to while planning my prank with Freddy. He brushed off my attempted apologies, however, telling me that he was looking forward to our prank and he wasn't offended that I was busy.

Jay watched me like a hawk for the first hour on the pitch, just as he had been doing for the past few weeks. I had ignored it for as long as I could, but I finally decided that I couldn't take it any longer. Flipping my broom around determinedly, I sped down the field towards him as fast as I could, stopping only millimeters away from his chest, and pretended to pitch forward off my broom.

Jay let out a panicked shout as I flew forward. He reached up, taking both of his hands off of his broomstick to grip my forearms as I tilted the end of my broom towards the ground. I had stopped so close to him that the handle of my broom was touching his ribs.

"Care to quit stalking me, Wood? I know that I'm good looking and all, but aren't you supposed to be married to the sport?" I teased. My nose was millimeters away from his, and I wondered if my hair was tickling the sides of his face. Though my words were playful, I knew that he would pick up on the genuine irritation that I was feeling. I didn't like to be babied; the way that he had been spending more time carefully trailing me around the pitch than flying with me felt patronizing.

Jay turned bright red; his expression so conflicted that I could feel my brow furrow in confusion. "I just don't want to see you fall off of your broom again, Phoenix. I thought you were going to get seriously injured, you know. I wasn't sure I would catch you in time."

I immediately softened, pulling my broom back slightly so that he could see the look of understanding on my face while I spoke. Guilt was already gnawing at my insides. Normally, I was far better at seeing things from the perspective of others, but I had been distracted as of late. "I understand that, Jay, and I'm sorry. You're not being safe if you spend all of your time watching me rather than paying attention to where you're flying, though. You don't want to see me fall, but I don't want to see you fall either. I'll be careful, but you have to do the same. Deal?"

Jay pushed his hair back from his face before nodding. "Deal."

We went back to our usual routine after that, passing the quaffle between ourselves and pulling crazy stunts to try and one up each other. When it got late, we walked to dinner together. I spent the entire walk laughing hysterically as Jay caught me up on all of the antics that his friends Don and Arnold, who were seemingly incapable of going longer than twenty minutes without fighting (despite being best friends), had pulled recently.


"Hey Nix, so I couldn't sleep last night, and I had this crazy idea!" Freddy whisper-shouted as he skidded to a halt in front of me in the library. He had run up to me so fast that he had to slap his hands down on the tabletop in order to keep from knocking into it, but he didn't so much as flinch, despite the loud noise that he had created.

The slightly frenzied look in his eyes that told me I was going to enjoy whatever he was fixing to tell me quite a bit. I set my quill down.

"It was crazy because I know they said that the fire…but I thought I would try it and…just come on!" With that he helped me shove my belongings into my bag. As soon as everything was gathered, he grabbed my hand and drug me out of the library, dodging people as we sped down the corridor. He didn't stop until we were on the 7th floor.

"Freddy…" I whispered in awe as we stopped in front of the painting of Barnabas the Barmy. "No way…"

Freddy winked as he paced back and forth three times. I held my breath as the wall opposite the painting began to melt into a door. I was certain my jaw was on the floor as Freddy, laughing gleefully, threw open the door. Inside the room was a perfect potions lab. I took in the rows of ingredients (which must have been donated by previous occupants, as I knew even the Room of Requirements had limits) and the shelves filled with books that lined the room.

"This is amazing…" I muttered, awestruck. I spun to face Freddy, bouncing up and down with joy. "I love it!"

Fred laughed at me. "I tested it out; it's pretty amazing. We can use this for as long as we're at Hogwarts, for studying and practicing spells, if you want. The only thing is, you know the room that your dad and the others blew up? If you ask for it, the room just gives you a sign on the wall that says 'Out of Order'. So we can't get in there."

"Freddy, who cares? They needed that room; this is all we need! You're a genius!" I squealed again. He chuckled again, picking me up and spinning me around as he did so. When he set me back on my feet, I practically danced over to the rows of ingredients that lined the wall, ideas for future pranks and studying already running through my head. I could hear Freddy laughing as I stood, bouncing in place excitedly, in what I was sure was going to become one of my favorite places Hogwarts had to offer.


Though I normally enjoyed gift-giving and found ideas to come quite easily to me, the weeks leading up to Jay's birthday found me in a state of panic as I realized that I truly had no idea what to get him. Christmas had been rather easy, as I had found a pair of sneakers that would record all sorts of statistics (such as how far you had run and your pace) in a journal for you. He had been delighted, as he was constantly trying to figure out all of that information on his own when we ran. For his birthday, however, I found that I didn't have a single idea as to what I should get him.

"Just get him broomstick polish or something," James told me one evening, watching me flip through shopping magazines in an attempt to find something while the team was at practice. "It's not that hard, Phoe."

I rolled my eyes. "Do you know how many tins of broomstick polish or broomstick cleaning kits Jay will get for his birthday? Not to mention, how many do you think he already has? You've got an entire box full under your bed at home because of mum's job, and you don't even like Quidditch that much. Both of his parents are professional players, plus his love of Quidditch is easily the most common thing that people associate him with. I'm not going to take the easy route here, James."

James held up his in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. It was just a thought."

With a small sigh, I returned to pouring over magazines with growing desperation.

I didn't find anything for Jay until less than a week before his birthday. The owl that I sent off with the order carried an extra ten galleons and a note apologizing for the rush, but begged the owner of the store that I was ordering from to send it as quickly as possible. Hating myself slightly for it, I even signed the note, willing to take advantage of my last name for once if it meant getting Jay's gift on time. The gift came back less than three days later, with the extra galleons returned inside of a letter that informed me that the shop owner had been a friend of grandmother's back when they were in school and was happy to rush an order for any of Molly Weasley's grandchildren. I sent all ten galleons back, this time writing that they were a tip and a thank you.

Despite the lingering awkwardness between my family and me, Jay's birthday was celebrated as per Hogwarts birthday tradition. Rather than picnic near the lake, however, we ate in the bleachers of the Quidditch pitch in between friendly games. Teddy, as Gryffindor's Captain, had a key to the announcement box, where he set up a radio to blast music all day long. He had been sure to get permission from Professor McGonagall for us to use the pitch for the day. I strongly suspected that he, Levi, and Vic had set up silencing spells and some form of mild deterrent around the pitch, as no unwanted bystanders dropped in to interrupt the celebrations.

My family chose to give Jay their gifts at odd points during the day, which suited me just fine. I wanted to continue the tradition of taking him up to the Astronomy Tower to give him his gift, though the reason for this was practical as well as sentimental.

Evening found us playing a game of dare, which ended spectacularly badly. James was recovering from a cold and therefore didn't have the stomach for any foul concoctions. Dom was dared to crawl through the mud in full view of a bunch of first years, loudly declaring that she was looking for nargles, which she would not do, as she claimed the mud smelled like dead fish and refused to step foot in it. The game ended with Jay and I as the final two, which was where things went south. Best friends that we may be, Jay and I were also both incredibly competitive, which meant that the dares escalated dramatically as we both did whatever we could think of to get the other out.

"I'm so sorry," Jay apologized for the thousandth time, guilt clearly spelled out on his face.

I laughed, waving off his apology. "Jay, it's really okay! You didn't mean for it to happen. It's not a big deal at all; don't stress about it."

"Phoenix, you fell out of a tree. It was like twelve feet and you landed on your side," Jay told me, sounding slightly exasperated with my easy dismissal of the incident.

"I'm fine though! Madame Scamander fixed my arm in less than a minute. Plus, it wasn't your fault. I fell because I nearly squished a bowtruckle. If I had been paying more attention, I would have gone a different route or reached for a different spot on the branch. Regardless, it's your birthday and I'm perfectly fine, so we're moving on!"

Jay sighed, glancing around at my family, but received only shrugs in response. Accepting that I was going to continue being stubborn, Jay allowed me to drag him by the hand to dinner with only a small pout adorning his face.

"Do me a favor?" He muttered in my ear as we all loaded our plates with kidney pie.

"Hmm?" I replied, not looking at him as I focused on levitating a plate of chips down the table towards us. Though I rarely ate chips, I had been wanting some all day. Grinning triumphantly as they finally came within reach, I snatched the tray from the air and dumped a bunch of chips on both of our plates before handing it off to Freddy.

"Find some other way to injure yourself. I've found that I'm not really a fan of watching you fall," Jay told me, his tone only slightly playful.

I chuckled, shoving a chip in my mouth and eating it before I replied. "Believe it or not, it's not exactly my favorite thing, either. Got any suggestions for me, then?"

He pretended to think about it, stroking his chin thoughtfully. After a moment, he held up one finger with an expression of euphoria. "Aha! I've got it. I'm not sure if you'll be able to comprehend this level of genius, but do try to keep up."

Grinning at his quip, I leaned my elbows on the table and leaned forward as though thoroughly interested in what he had to say. "Pray tell, oh wise one. How exactly should I go about injuring myself from here on out?"

"Don't," Jay deadpanned, meeting my eyes for a second before turning to his food and shoving a bite into his mouth.

I let out a loud laugh. "You're right, Jay. I'm not sure that I can properly comprehend such a brilliant idea."

He rolled his eyes, grabbing a small dab of gravy on his finger and wiping it on my nose before I could react.

"Jay!" I whined, quickly passing a napkin over my nose and glaring at a snickering James, who was spectating from across the table.

"Sorry," Jay said, but he continued speaking before I could respond, "If you're talking to me, I can't hear you. See, my choice in injury this week was hearing loss. Feel free to let me know if you learn sign language though."

I sighed, shaking my head at the boy. Had it been James who was taunting me the way that Jay was, I'd have been irritated. With Jay, however, I knew that it was his way of continuing to express that he felt badly for creating the dare that caused me to fall, as I had banned him from explicitly doing so.

I leaned forward, making sure that my lips were close enough to Jay's ear that only he would hear what I had to say.

"I know that you feel bad that I fell out of the tree on a dare you created. If you need to hear me say it, I accept your apology. It's completely unnecessary, though, because I never blamed you in the first place. You wouldn't have blamed me either, if the roles were reversed. Now, hurry up and eat, we're going to the Astronomy Tower when you're finished."

I made sure to blow in his ear as I leaned back, giving James a sly smirk as Jay let out a yelp, making my twin laugh.

When Jay and I had finished eating, with me managing to consume an obscene amount of chips, we bid everyone a good evening. I waited a tad impatiently as he made sure to thank my family repeatedly for the fun day. As soon as he had finished, I once again grabbed his hand, snatched the few chips that remained on his plate, and yanked him from the Great Hall.

"Going to make the Astronomy Tower a tradition?" Jay asked me as we walked. I pouted at him as he reached forward to snatch a chip from my hand, shoving it in his mouth with a grin before poking me in the cheek.

Still pouting, I nodded in response to his question, choosing not to respond verbally as I swung our hands and skipped slightly. He laughed lightly, lengthening his stride slightly so as to keep up with my pace.

"You're cheery," Jay commented. "Minus the pout, of course."

"I'm excited to give you your gift," I told him honestly, choosing to forgo further dramatics over my chips for the moment. "I think you'll like it."

His grin was luminous in the moonlight that shone through the window that we were passing. "I already love it."

I pouted. "You can't love it yet; you don't even know what it is!"

Jay chuckled, tugging on a lock of my hair before jumping over a trick stair. "Sure, but you give the best gifts, so I don't have to know what it is to know that it will be great!"

A smile tugging at the corner of my mouth at the compliment, I tugged his hand so that we were walking faster. I finished the chips as we walked, dodging his repeated attempts to steal another, but choosing to give him the last one. The stairs to the tower finally came into view, and we both climbed them rapidly as we all but raced out into the open air. I tipped my head back, searching the sky for a moment, before looking at Jay.

He held out his hands, a wide grin adorning his face as I placed a package in the center of his palms.

"Can I open it?" He asked me.

"No, you're supposed to stare at it," I responded sarcastically, bouncing on my toes. "Yes, of course you can open it!"

He laughed, carefully peeling the paper back to reveal a navy blue box adorned with glowing silver stars. Jay raised his gaze to meet mine, quirking an eyebrow at me.

"I may or may not have ordered the box separately," I admitted.

He shook his head, the smile on his face growing impossibly wider. "See, now that's a problem. You've gone and gotten me emotionally attached to a box, because you went out of your way to find one that's Puddlemere colors. What am I to do with this?"

I giggled, shrugging innocently at my best friend. "Not my problem. Now, open it!"

Chuckling at my enthusiasm, Jay opened the box to reveal a necklace. He carefully pulled it out, handing me the box so that he could look at the gift properly. It was a silver chain, with a tiny telescope charm hanging off of the end.

Before Jay could say anything, I told him quickly, "It's charmed so that it's only visible to others if you want it to be. It's also waterproof and it's spelled so that you can't be choked with it. I figured it would be rather miserable to have someone grab the collar of your shirt and accidentally choke you with a necklace that they can't even see. It's also nearly unbreakable."

Jay's eyes were glittering happily as he reached forward to wrap me in a hug. "It's brilliant, Phoenix. I absolutely love it. The invisibility spell is a nice touch, but wholly unnecessary. I'm going to make sure to show it off all the time!"

I laughed. "I'm glad that you like it, but I haven't even told you what it does yet!"

He pulled back from the hug to look at me, his eyes wide with surprise. "What do you mean? It's a necklace."

"Sure, but it's not just a necklace," I told him, holding out my hand for the gift. He placed it a touch reluctantly in my palm, which made me shake my head fondly. "You can have it back in a moment. Watch."

I pulled the charm off of the chain, carefully setting it on the ground. Grabbing Jay's hand, I pulled him back a few steps from the jewelry.

"Okay, you don't need your wand for this, it's just voice activated. Say the enlarging charm," I told him.

"The enlarging charm?" He repeated. I nodded. "Engorgio?"

At the word, the tiny charm grew into a full-sized telescope. I openly grinned at the look of delight on Jay's face.

"Sorry, I'd have told you the spell in a less round-about way, but now it's set to only listen to you. It also only works if the charm is off of the chain, so that you don't have to worry about accidentally winding up with a telescope hanging from the chain around your neck," I told Jay.

"This is brilliant," He said eagerly. "And it works?"

I bounced a bit on my toes. This was the part that I was simultaneously the most nervous about and the most excited for. Jay would either love this aspect of the gift, as I hoped, or he would hate it.

"Why don't you try it and find out?" I asked.

He grinned, stepping forward and adjusting the telescope to his needs. I waited a touch anxiously as he carefully set the telescope on Ursa Major. He jumped slightly, before letting out a small laugh.

"Is that your voice?" He asked me, glancing away from the lens for a moment to look at me. His hair was windswept, standing straight off of his forehead save for the piece that always seemed to fall into his eyes. The smile on his face was so broad that his face had to hurt.

I nodded. "You can do it yourself or have someone else do it, if you'd rather. I just thought it was a neat feature, so I got it set up with my voice. It won't offend me if you'd rather change it, though."

I had paid extra when I bought the necklace for a feature that allowed me to narrate different aspects of the sky as the telescope focused on them. The necklace came with a thin book that contained pictures of just about everything you could find in the sky. I had spent every free moment that I could for the last three days speaking over the book, explaining the myths of the constellations, talking about what stars made up each constellation, and adding any interesting facts that I thought Jay may enjoy.

Jay shook his head, a broad smile adorning his face as he turned his gaze back to the telescope. "No, this is brilliant."

I smiled, delighted that he had liked what I thought to be the best part of the gift. "I'm glad you think so. I've got the book that lets you dictate what you hear, so I can give you that later. It's a neat bit of spellwork, honestly. There's the first layer of it, which is what transfers what you're saying into writing in the book. Then there's the second layer, which connects what's written in the book to the telescope itself. Somewhere in between those layers, however, is the charm that makes it so that it's my voice specifically that you hear. I think I'm going to write to the shopkeeper and ask her if she can explain how that works to me. She may not tell me, but it's worth a shot."

"If she does tell you, let me know what she says. That sounds fascinating," Jay requested, still focused on the stars. I had to smirk at how he already had to hunch slightly over the telescope. We would need to adjust the legs at some point, I thought absently. It suddenly occurred to me that Jay was going to be tall.

"Of course. Also, I really only had time to do the things that I thought you may come across around this time of year. If you'd like, I can hang onto the book and keep adding to it," I offered, turning my thoughts back to the matter at hand.

"That would be great!"

"Perfect!"

I was secretly pleased that Jay was going to let me hold onto the booklet, as I didn't want him flipping through it before he had used the telescope a few times. Though most of the narration that I had added was factual, I had thrown in a few jokes and personal stories that I wanted him to discover naturally.

Jay pulled back from the telescope, stepping away from it to wrap me in a hug that quite literally lifted me off of my feet. "Thank you, Phoe. This is the best gift I've ever been given."

I laughed. "Your parents bought you the new Firebolt for Christmas; I really doubt that this is the best gift you've ever been given."

"The Firebolt is great, but no one ever buys me gifts that aren't Quidditch related. I love Quidditch, but it's nice to know that people see me as more than just the next Quidditch-obsessed Wood to come through Hogwarts. Thank you, Phoenix. This is the best gift," Jay told me warmly.

I hid my grin in his shoulder, pleased beyond words that my gift had been so successful. Gifts were, in my opinion, a chance to show someone how well you know them and how much you care. I was beyond delighted that I had been able to do so with my best friend's birthday gift.


A short time later found me sprinting through the halls of Hogwarts in search of my favorite cousin. I grinned when I finally saw the head of deep brown curls at the other end of the corridor, only just visible through the crowd of people that stood between us.

"Freddy!" I shouted, tearing down the corridor and accidentally bumping into several people as I went. Most just shook their heads with faint smiles. I figured it likely had something to do with my last name, but I seemed to be able to do no wrong at Hogwarts.

"Freddy!" I practically tackled him to the ground as I finally reached him. I lowered my voice as I eagerly told him what I had just discovered, "I found it! I found a spell for Teddy! And it's perfect!"

Freddy caught the book that I practically flung at him, a wicked smirk spreading across his face as he read the passage that I had marked.

"You're a proper genius. You know that, Nix?" He asked me proudly.

I flicked my hair over my shoulder with mock cockiness, holding my hand out and pretending to examine my nails as I loftily responded, "Oh, I know, Freddy-dearest. Soon, everyone else will know as well."

He chuckled, a rather devious sound that earned us several nervous looks and caused quite a few students to break out into eager whispers. For the first time, their delighted conviction that they had witnessed us planning a fantastic prank was correct. I was certain that my smirk matched Freddy's as he swung an arm around my shoulder.

"They most certainly will know," He agreed, scanning the crowd of onlookers as he spoke. "Come on, let's go somewhere less crowded. We have work to do, after all."

We took a hidden passage up to the seventh floor, where we all but sprinted to the Room of Requirement, eager to solidify our plan.

Teddy had been proving to be our most difficult prank-ee, but I had just solved that problem.


A few nights later, I walked into the Common Room and found Vic and Dom sitting near the fire. I quickly bit down the smirk that threatened to rise on my face, pleased that such a perfect opportunity had arisen.

I crossed the room, plopping down on the sofa beside Vic. She glanced up, giving me a smile before returning her gaze to her book.

"Do you want me to braid your hair back so that it's not in your face?" I asked her.

She looked up, giving me a smile, and I felt a small pang of guilt that I quickly cast aside. "Would you? I hate having it down while I'm studying, but I had it up all day and it gave me a headache."

I nodded, moving to sit behind her as she slid off of the sofa to sit on the floor. I quickly pulled her hair back, well-practiced after doing my hair and Lily's so many times growing up. Rather than putting it into one braid, I did Dutch braids, hoping that they would catch Dom's fancy.

"Oh!" Dominique gasped right as I finished. I hid my grin behind my hair. "Could you do mine, as well? I love Dutch braids, but I can't do them myself."

A few minutes later, I carefully slipped a few hairs into two empty vials within my bag, feeling immensely pleased and only slightly guilty as I pulled out my DADA book to study.


I let my chin rest against the palm of my hand, my eyes drifting closed after a minute. I had been writing some of my research down in my journal, but the amount of work that I had been doing to prepare for our prank, plus my homework, the extra lessons that I requested each week, studying for exams, and flying regularly with Jay were all catching up to me, and I found myself rather exhausted.

"Hey, are you okay?"

I opened my eyes at the familiar accent, smiling at Jay's friend Don. He was sitting across from me in the Common Room, while Arnold, Nikki, and Jay played exploding snap on the floor a few feet away. Like Jay, Don sported a Scottish accent, though it wasn't as thick as my best friend's. His parents had immigrated to Scotland from South Korea shortly before he was born, as they had wanted him to attend Hogwarts, the school that his maternal grandfather had graduated from. Though he had initially existed in my life as primarily one of Jay's friends, I had found that I was deeply appreciative of the boy's quiet sarcasm and caring nature. As such, I was rapidly coming to think of him as my friend, in addition to Jay's.

"Yeah, I'm just a bit tired."

He nodded, stretching his legs out as he did so. "You know, you can take a break from working so hard and just focus on studying for your exams. I know you're ahead on your homework, so you won't be doing yourself any harm. My mum always feels guilty when she isn't working, but she works hard enough that she shouldn't have to. If you feel guilty, like she does, just know that you work really hard and everyone admires you for it. No one will think less of you for taking a break."

"I like working hard," I protested, though I found that I was very touched by his words.

He laughed, running a hand through his jet-black hair as he did so. It fell into his eyes regularly, and I always wondered how he didn't get irritated by it. "Yeah, Phoenix, I know that. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, either. You just seem to have a tendency to work yourself to the bone. I know we're not super close, and I don't want to overstep, but you seem tired lately."

I smiled at him. "I appreciate it, Don. Admittedly, I am a bit tired, but I'm genuinely enjoying everything that I'm doing right now. If it gets to the point where I can't keep up with it all, or I'm no longer enjoying it, I'll stop. I'm not there yet, though."

He returned my smile. "Fair. Like I said, I'm just checking in with you."

"I really do appreciate it."

Arnold's voice rose suddenly, and we both glanced over at the trio on the floor as we heard our names.

"Well, Phoenix is working. Don just won't play because he knows that I'm going to beat him," Arnold said, not looking towards us, but clearly intending for Don to hear. I hid a smile at the obvious attempt to get a rise out of the boy sitting across from me, which was clearly successful, as Don's cheeks instantly flushed at the words.

"Sure, Arnold, that's why I'm not playing," Don said with a scoff.

Nikki rolled her eyes at me as the two commenced bickering. I had, for a while, assumed that they simply didn't get along. Once I mentioned this concern to Jay, however, he had assured me that they did, they just really enjoyed arguing with each other. It was, he explained, similar to the way that my cousins, he, and I regularly bantered with one another. Our theatrics were to our friendship as arguing was to Don and Arnold's.

"If the two of you are playing together, I'm tapping out," Jay said, pushing himself up off of the floor as Don sat down. "I rather like my eyebrows where they're at, thank you very much."

I laughed as he plopped down on the sofa next to me, propping his feet up on the table that I had pulled over to do my work on.

"A wise decision, I would say," I told him. "That's a recipe for disaster."

He leaned over to mumble in my ear, "Nikki blows on the cards and then blames it on Arnold."

"Of course she does," I giggled. "Don falls for it?"

"No, but he pretends to believe her because it makes Arnold mad."

I stared at the journal in front of me for a long moment as Jay watched the game, thinking about Don's words. Finally, I used my socked toes to close the notebook as I leaned back into the couch. Jay glanced at me with a smile as I tipped my head against the side of his arm, before turning back to watch the game. His hand slid the charm back and forth on his necklace chain absently as he snickered at his friends' antics. Since his birthday, I had yet to see Jay without the necklace. True to his word, he wore it proudly, rarely so much as tucking it into his shirt.

I closed my eyes, smiling as I heard Don demand that Arnold stop blowing on the cards. I lifted my feet up on the table next to Jay's, enjoying the warmth from the fire, and soon felt myself drifting off to sleep.


Freddy and I made sure to visit Professor Slughorn's office rather late in the evening, hoping to catch him slightly off balance, and I could tell the older man was suitably surprised to see us. Still, I could see his face soften with pleasure at the sight of two of his favorite students, and I knew that we would be getting what we wanted.

"Professor Slughorn, I'm so sorry to bother you. I know it's late," Freddy began, dropping his head as though he were a bit shy.

"Don't be sorry, my dear boy! What do you two need?" Slughorn asked. He smiled warmly at Fred's apparent bashfulness; the man blatantly favored the twins just as much as he did me, as they were two of the most talented potions students at Hogwarts. Freddy's habit of coming for extra lessons with me had only served to further Professor Slughorn's bias.

The professor pulled the door open a crack so that he could look at us both, all the while tugging his sleep robes more tightly around himself. I tried to keep a straight face as I noticed that the man wore slippers shaped like snakes, though the fact that I could tell Freddy noticed the second that I did did very little to help with my task.

"Well, first of all, we wanted to thank you for the invitation to your latest party. We've really enjoyed going to them this year," I said sweetly. "Mum and dad always talked so fondly about them, and I know Freddy grew up hearing about them as well, so it was such a delight to come to Hogwarts and finally get to experience them."

"Well of course, dear girl! With you two being some of my best students-well, ever-plus having come from such an amazing family, how could I not invite you?" Slughorn responded jovially, giving us a little wink as he opened the door wider to let us in.

We both grinned at him as Freddy said, "Thank you, sir. Also, we had a question about a potion we came across in a book in the library."

Slughorn eyed us curiously as I pulled out 101 Potions for Aspiring Potion Masters.As soon as he saw the title, his round face morphed into a broad smile.

"Oh ho ho! Well, I'm always happy to answer questions for the best Potions students in their year!"

I gave him a sweet smile, "Thank you so much sir! We just were wondering, on this potion here, if you added more powdered moonstone and a bit of unicorn hair, wouldn't it brew nearly three times as fast?"

Slughorn looked at the potion I was pointing at. His eyes widened slightly, and Freddy gave me a look of pure amusement as the man practically snatched the book from my hands to get a better look. I scrunched my face up at him in response, demanding that he keep it together until we were finished, before turning a smile back on Professor Slughorn just as he raised his eyes to meet mine.

"I do believe you may be right!" He told me eagerly, his smile growing impossibly wider.

"Professor," Freddy asked excitedly, "Do you think, after exams are finished…"

I completed his sentence with matching enthusiasm, "Perhaps, we could try it? It's just…I know we aren't supposed to brew on our own, and it requires magic, so we wouldn't be able to brew it at home…"

Or, basically, we couldn't just whip up a batch of it in the Room of Requirement because Aunt Hermione had increased laws on Magical Creature rights, and unicorn tail hairs (which had already been incredibly hard to come by) were now almost impossible to get. Impossible unless you worked with potions professionally, that is.

"Of course, dear children! I wouldn't want to distract you from your exams, but you're welcome to come start it as soon as they're finished. That should give you a fully prepared potion about two days before the school year ends, if I've figured the timing out correctly."

"Thank you so much sir! Also, we were thinking, if the potion turns out right, would you like to sell it to my dad? He's always buying new, improved recipes for the store, and he pays a decent price. If you sell it to him, he'll put your name on any products he uses the potion in and everything. I'm sure he would think it was cool; he's always spoken very highly of you. Plus, we thought that maybe it could be a thank you, for letting us try this?" Freddy offered shyly, actually going so far as to tuck a lock of his curly hair behind his ear in faux bashfulness. I had to withhold a snort at the gesture, not willing to blow our plan.

I dimpled at our professor as he looked between the two of us with obvious joy.

"Of course! That sounds like an excellent idea! Why, I can't remember the last time that I had students take such initiative!" Slughorn said delightedly as he bounced over to show us the door. We left, nodding, grinning, and thanking him profusely, until he finally shut the door to his rooms.

We both sagged with relief. I let out a soft laugh, the image of Slughorn's snake slippers popping into my head, unbidden.

"Thank Merlin. If I never have to suck up like that again, it would be too soon," Freddy groaned. I giggled as he shook his head violently, his brown ears once again hidden behind slightly mussed ringlets by the time he was done. He responded by smirking at me in triumph. "You're a proper little snake, you know."

I shot him a wink, knowing that Freddy was well aware that I would take his words as a compliment. "Why thank you. You are as well."

"Thank you, thank you," Freddy laughed, bowing deeply and dramatically.

"You know," I told him with a grin, "I do believe, Freddy dearest, that that's what we'd call a victory."


The end of the year exams were a breeze. Despite being busy with our prank, Freddy and I had spent a lot of time studying, plus I still spent a good deal of time reading with Jay. On top of all of the studying that we had done, Freddy and I got extra lessons in most of our core subjects, so we were both very confident going into our exams. I had been able to recall the answer to nearly every question with very little difficulty, and the few questions that had been harder came to me when I went through my tests for the second time. The only one that I was truly nervous about was Herbology. To my relief, I was able to breeze through the written portion of the Herbology exam, and the practical portion was a plant that I could handle fairly well.

When I spoke to Freddy, I found that his exams had gone much the same way, though Freddy didn't struggle with Herbology the way that I did. The others were slightly less confident, but thought they had done decently. James had, in both an act of peace and a genuine attempt to do well, been studying with Freddy, Lana, Lucy, Roxy, Ross, Max, Conner, and I for the last month leading up to exams. He and the others said that it had helped with their exams for sure.

Jay felt good about his exams as well. After his Astronomy exam, he pulled me aside to tell me that he had nearly written down one of my jokes while he was filling out the exam paper. Though he had to use the telescope provided by the school for his examination, he used his birthday gift very regularly, so he was apparently quite familiar with my jokes and personal stories. I offered to remove them after he told me, thinking he would be getting tired of hearing them, but he swore they still made him laugh and begged me not to get rid of them.

Jay admitted privately to me that he thought he may have botched the practical portion of his Herbology exam, but when I questioned him further about it, he told me that Neville had asked him after the practical aspect was done to describe what he should have done. When Jay then recited the steps perfectly to me, as he had done to Neville, I told him that it was likely that Neville would give him a decent grade. I knew that Neville graded based on work ethic and knowledge, because he thought that it was unfair to fail a student who had studied the class properly, but simply didn't possess skill in the subject. I suspected that his grading method had a lot to do with his rather infamous lack of skill in Potions.


I walked into the third year dorms early one morning, making a beeline for Molly's bed and flinging myself across the foot of it.

"Hey, Molly," I told her, offering her a grin. "What are you reading?"

Molly raised her book to show me the cover. I ran my finger under the title as I read it. Molly watched, looking slightly amused, before returning my smile when I lifted my eyes to meet hers. "Hi, Phoenix. Do you need something?"

"Yeah, my dormmates are taking forever in the shower. I was wondering if I could use yours?"

"Oh, of course!" Molly responded.

She laughed as I immediately hopped out of her bed, making my way towards the bathroom quickly, as though I had already been waiting ages for a shower. I was careful not to touch anything else on my way, and washed my hands under the spray as soon as I flicked on the shower. To my relief, both Molly and Dominique's belongings were easy to pick out in the messy bathroom.

A short while later I exited the bathroom, several empty bottles shoved into my bag. I gave my cousin a cheerful wave, calling out my thanks as I left the room. She returned the gesture, not a trace of suspicion on her face.


"Did you give Teddy the drink?"

"Yeah. Did you get the book and make-up?"

"Did you ever doubt me? Did you get Roxy?"

"She never even noticed. Vic?"

"It should kick in first thing tomorrow. What about James?"

"Piece of cake. And you took care of Lucy, right?"

"All taken care of. See you in the morning Freddy…"

"See you in the morning, Nix."


Freddy and I were sitting with Jay and his friends in the Great Hall for breakfast when everyone suddenly grew silent.

Giggles and whispers spread across the Hall as I calmly sipped my tea. Nikki gasped, staring somewhere over my shoulder for a long moment before bursting into loud peals of laughter. Across from me, Fred continued to butter his toast.

"What. Did. You. Do?" Teddy asked furiously, all but throwing himself down into the seat next to me and giving us a cross glare. His hair was an odd purple color, half its usual blue and half some shade of rogue.

"Teddy, whatever do you mean?" I asked, turning to look at him with a sweet smile.

Teddy looked perfectly normal, but the rest of my poor family, who had gathered behind him, looked as though the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes had gone and thrown up on them.

Dom's usual beauty was marred by leathery skin and deep wrinkles, though she was clearly doing her best to hide it with her hair.

Victoire, much to my amusement, suddenly took a deep breath and gasped "Merlin…do you think they call them fans because having them makes something cool?" to Molly, who had her nose buried in a book.

Roxy was glaring at me through brown curls that were significantly shorter than her own. She was, for all looks and appearances, completely identical to her twin, though her angry look was the antithesis of the laughter that currently had Freddy shaking on the floor.

James was busy trying to keep his hood up over his bald, shiny head, the hair he so carefully styled to "maximum coolness" each morning completely missing.

Lucy was following Molly so closely that I would have been afraid she would run her over if I didn't know the spell prevented it.

"Consider this a lesson learned, brother of mine. In the future, I expect privacy and some respect. Also, consider this the opening act to a wonderful Hogwarts career of pranking," I said with a smirk.

Freddy snorted as one of the professors groaned from the Head Table, which sent me into a fit of laughter. My family members shook their heads, still glaring, but their expressions were softening. I knew that my words, combined with the harmlessness of the pranks, had helped our case. Jay was laughing so hard that the bench beneath us was shaking, and Levi was taking pictures with a camera that he had frantically summoned upon our family's arrival. Finally, Dominique snorted, and the rest of the family soon dissolved into laughter.


Teddy and our family pestered us all day. Our cousins and siblings were desperate to have their pranks undone, and Teddy simply wanted to know what we had done to him.

Somehow Fred and I managed to ignore their pleas and finish packing. After we were done, the Potter-Weasley clan plus Jay and Nikki went to sit by the lake. Dom entertained us by screaming at all of the students who walked past to "get off her lawn!", Roxy did excellent imitations of Freddy, and Jay asked me for all of the secrets behind the pranks (lots of potions, charms, and a little transfiguration). Teddy and Vic snuck off at odd intervals, which had Freddy and I grinning.

"Nikki," Roxy said, deepening her voice to mimic her twin's. She was sitting beside Freddy, Nikki, Jay, and I, and spoke only loudly enough that we could hear her. "You're looking very good today."

Freddy looked up with wide eyes, clearly not having anticipated this aspect of the prank. His voice high with panic (amusingly sounding less like himself than his sister's impression of him), he said, "No, don't do that."

Roxy giggled. "Do what?"

"Don't hit on her while pretending to be me."

Her laughter grew louder. "Maybe I wasn't."

There was a long moment where the two stared at each other, the crooked smile that was rising on Freddy's face eerily matching the one that Roxy sported.

"Okay then," Fred responded with a smile, turning back to his book.

Nikki giggled. "No offense, Fred, but I'm going to go with no, Rox."

Roxy pouted; her eyes playful. "But Nikki!"

I laughed as Nikki got up, dramatically running from Roxy, who gave chase easily. Freddy rose as well, whining that Rox should be more conscientious of the fact that she looked identical to him, which caused her to laugh in his face.

"You did good," Jay said, chuckling as well as he tugged lightly on one of my curls.

I grinned, feeling pleased at his praise. "Thank you, Jay."


Some of our family's amusement had faded when they awoke the next morning and found the pranks still firmly in place. No amount of pleading got Freddy or I to budge on removing the pranks, and we finally admitted that they were all charmed to wear off at the same time.

"At least tell us when it wears off!" James begged as we waited for the train, tugging impatiently at his hood as people passing us stared. "It's already been a day!"

"Fine. It will wear off at 3:45," Freddy told him with a shrug.

"3:45?" Lucy asked in horror, "But that's after the train arrives at King's Cross!"

I winked at her as we stepped up onto the train. There were a series of groans as everyone followed us, but everyone finally stopped asking questions as we crammed into one compartment. Teddy, Levi, and Vic had to magically enlarge the compartment for us to fit.

We spent the ride back playing exploding snap and taking pictures.

That is, Freddy, Levi, and I took pictures. The others scrambled as far away from the lens as they could (though Roxy enjoyed making horrible faces at the camera). As we finally neared the station, I cast a spell to check the time. Freddy grinned at the numbers flashed in the air before my face briefly. Typically, I would forgo a tempus charm, instead snatching his wrist to glance at his watch, purely because the action annoyed him. This time, however, I wanted everyone to see the time as well.

"Ah good, we're right on time," I said approvingly.

"Of course we are Phoenix…we always are," Teddy said, cautiously. I could tell that he was still more than a little bit on edge to have been seemingly excluded from our pranks, which was entirely fair.

I merely winked at him, a habit I found myself picking up from Freddy.

We got off the train, my brothers and cousins doing their best to hide the pranks as we did so. Fortunately, we made it before the press was allowed into the station, and, if they stuck to their schedule, the pranks would disappear before that changed. When we finally reached the rest of our family, the adults were staring at us suspiciously. We all stood silently, waiting for someone to man up or be volunteered to do so, until finally Dom sighed and pulled back her hood. My godmother gasped. Before she could speak, Vic opened her mouth and started talking about bathroom tiles. James and Roxy yanked back their hoods in unison. Molly kept her face shoved in a book, and Lucy scooted closer to her sister.

"Who…who did this?" Uncle Percy asked. Grinning, Freddy bowed and I curtsied in response.

Uncle Ron let out a loud, delighted laugh. James pouted at his godfather, who had undoubtedly come mostly to see him, which only caused the man to laugh harder.

"Wait," Dad said, ignoring his best friend completely. "Why is Teddy normal?"

I knew my grin matched the positively evil one spreading across Fred's face. "Oh, he's about to be anything but normal. In fact…" I cast the time spell again, and saw it was 3:34, "It should kick in any minute now. You see…we made a potion. And, thanks to this potion, any time Teddy snogged Vicky, from yesterday morning to now, he will turn a little green. The greener the Teddy, the…well you get the idea really. And Ted? Metamorphmagus powers don't work."

Teddy was white, right down to his hair, but the rest of my family was virtually doubled over with laughter. Levi was crying from laughing so hard. Uncle Bill looked less amused than everyone else, but even he looked mischievous. I don't think any of us were expecting Teddy to turn quite so green though.

After that, despite the fact that our cousins were quickly returned to normal, our welcome home celebrations didn't go quite as well as planned. But with Uncle Bill trying to kill Teddy every five minutes, that was understandable.

Uncle George also threw a wrench in things, for the prank itself seemed to be a bit much for him to handle, not to mention that we had made Roxy Freddy's identical twin for the prank. Freddy was incredibly disappointed, but he tried to hide it as best he could. I vowed to make sure that our next prank was something that was appreciated by everyone who saw it, so that he wouldn't be left with a bad taste in his mouth for pranking.

Still, the night ended with Aunt Hermione tracking Freddy and I down to ask us about some of our more difficult pranks. She admitted, though assuring us that she would vehemently deny it if we ever told anyone, that she was very impressed with us. As she walked away, I snuck a look at Freddy's expression, and knew that she had unwittingly fixed the entire situation for me.

"That was wicked," He told me, eyes wide with amazement.

I thought so too.


Thus marks the end of our first year at Hogwarts.

Also, yes, Phoenix and Fred's prank is rather mean. Yes, this will be pointed out to her in due time, and she will be suitably horrified when she realizes. She's twelve, so give her a bit of a break on that front. She'll learn.

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