Updated 9/9/2021: Edited
All's Fair in Love & Pranks
April 1972
Paisley sat there in the Quidditch stands with Maxton and Alecto on either side of her. They watched the Slytherin vs Hufflepuff Quidditch match.
"This is completely boring," Alecto complained, only resulting in Paisley giving her an odd look.
"You wanted to come out here because your brother plays," Paisley pointed out, looking at Alecto carefully to see if she could spot any cracks in her façade.
"And I forgot how boring it is," Alecto spoke with a yawn while Maxton just let out a chuckle.
"Just let her complain. We can ignore her. We normally do," Maxton teased, and Alecto's face fell open.
"Hang on a damn minute," Alecto yelled, turning completely in her seat to face Maxton. Still, the other boy didn't budge, didn't even turn his head to face Alecto, and a slight smirk appeared on Paisley's face.
Paisley didn't say anything when Alecto turned her anger on her. This isn't the first time Alecto and Maxton have made jabs at each other like this, and she was secretly glad it was all in the Slytherin way.
Paisley shook her head at Alecto's actions, watching as the other girl sat back in her seat with her arms crossed, almost as if she was sulking about being ignored.
"Don't sulk. It's beneath you," Paisley whispered, and Alecto merely sat up straight and focused back on the Quidditch match.
"Would your brother consider going pro? He's an amazing beater, bloody ruthless," Maxton spoke, the one to break the silence, but Alecto stayed silent for a moment. Paisley wondered if Alecto was giving the other boy a taste of his own medicine?
"Maybe, in another life," Alecto responded quietly, looking across into the pitch where all the players were flying around. "I think he is a little upset that his future is already set out for him, and he doesn't really get a say. I think overall, he is still relatively happy with the decision that has been made for him."
Paisley snuck a glance at Maxton, catching sight of the slightly raised shoulder before silence fell between the three of them, and they focused back on the Quidditch match happening before them.
The match continued for another hour or so before the Slytherin seeker caught the snitch giving the house the win and boost in house points they desired.
Paisley didn't realise she had been separated from Maxton and Alecto as they attempted to leave the Quidditch Pitch among the chaos.
When she noticed that she had ended up behind a group of older students, she knew they weren't Slytherins. Still, she did believe one of them to be a Gryffindor Prefect.
"I'm telling you; they know what's happening." Paisley took a couple of quick steps to fall closer behind the group and hear their conversation.
"Bullshit."
"Nope." One of them looked around but didn't look behind them to see if anyone was listening. "I'm told Dumbledore himself is rally people, forging a group to go against the Death Eaters and the Ministry. Dumbledore claims the Ministry and their actions are too soft."
"Death Eaters?" another questioned, voice too quiet that made it seem like he was scared.
"Those morons that run around in dark cloaks and masks following the words of some dark lord." The original one laughed, and Paisley was highly interested in this conversation now.
"But is it safe to not align ourselves with the Ministry and stick with Dumbledore?"
"He defeated Grindelwald. He has all those awards and titles. Would it really be such a bad thing? I'm told he has all these high-profile Ministry workers, more importantly, Aurors, joining him."
"Who told you?"
Paisley was yanked away before she was able to hear the rest of her conversation. She snapped her head around with a glare on her face, only to find Sirius there.
"Let go, Black," she snarled at him. He instantly dropped her arm before tilting his head, indicating for her to follow him. Still, she stood her ground, causing all those around her to step around her.
"Merlin, you're childish," Sirius complained, stepping in beside her, and the two started walking towards the Castle together. "Any closer, and you would have been in their pockets."
"I wasn't that close," Paisley pointed out.
"Will this get you in trouble?" Sirius questioned quietly, and Paisley just glanced at him before looking around. "I take that as a yes. See you later, Burke." Sirius quickened his steps, walking off and leaving Paisley behind while she held in her groan.
Paisley made it back to the Castle without incident. She was unable to locate those older students she was eavesdropping on with hopes of finding out what direction they went to try and determine what house they could be in. She gave up in the Entrance Hall and headed towards the Slytherin common room. She knew full well that there would be the beginnings of a party for celebrating their win. While after-dinner, the younger years will be sent to their dorms so the older years can celebrate properly.
.
.
.
Paisley had been in several dreams now that had the same life-like feel to them, almost as if she was awake. Still, she knew she wasn't by looking around the room and not having a single person acknowledge her. It gave her the ability to walk around the room.
But what was most shocking of all was the fact that she recognised where she was.
She was currently standing in the middle of the Black family home in Grimmauld Place's kitchen but looking around, these definitely weren't Black family members. The fact that Albus Dumbledore was sitting at the head of the table was enough to determine that something happened to the pristine home of the Black family.
"We need to keep Harry out of the loop. He has been through enough," Dumbledore spoke, and Paisley half paid attention as she walked around the room to try and recognise the faces that were in front of her. "I urge you all to remind the younger ones to limit the information in their letters to the bare minimum. Remind them that we will remove Harry from his home in due time."
None of these people looked familiar. But the people she was associating with in Slytherin would probably never dare to sit at the same table as Dumbledore since not even one of them trusted him.
There were words of disagreement that Paisley tuned out. She had no idea who this Harry person was, and it wasn't worth trying to figure it out since he obviously wasn't present. It was when there was a muttering of words coming from the corner of the room that she snapped her gaze around and headed towards the person, sensing a familiar presence in the room.
She stepped closer to the man who had spoken, him having a low conversation with the man that was standing beside him, and she had to take a step back in shock.
She knew it wasn't possible, the man in front of her, the one she was focusing on, looked so much like Orion Black, but she knew it wasn't possible. She knew the man would rather be dead than sit at a table with Dumbledore, would instead burn the house down than let Dumbledore set foot in the door.
It wasn't until she looked at the other man, she noticed the familiar scars across the man's face. Ones that she had seen on a fellow student at Hogwarts.
"Remus Lupin?" Paisley questioned aloud, even though no one could hear her.
"Lupin." Someone called out, and the man with the scars turned his head and headed towards the table, leaving the Orion look-alike behind. It was then Paisley recognised this man to be Sirius Black.
Even when they were younger before arriving at Hogwarts, Sirius always had a smirk on his face, laughing about something unless his parents were around. Still, he always seemed to find joy in something that would upset his parents.
With so many obvious blood traitors sitting at the kitchen table, this scene would cause his parents to roll in their graves. Still, he looked anything but happy with what was happening.
"So, I've managed to convince some of the other Aurors that the trail for Sirius leads to Tibet." Paisley snapped her head around and stared at the table while she attempted to make sense of the statement that she just heard, but before she could hear anymore, the dream ended.
Paisley sat up in her bed and took a couple of deep breaths. What she saw simply confused her. It didn't make sense to her. She pressed her palms into her eyes as she attempted to get the images out of her head.
The dream wouldn't have unsettled her as much as it did if she hadn't have seen Sirius. It's weird seeing people she knows in the future. However, it's even stranger seeing those she once considered to be friends or sort of still be friends with and be nothing like what she currently knew them to be.
Most troubling was that in the future is that the Aurors seem to be hunting Sirius for whatever reason.
Paisley took a deep breath before heading off to have a shower knowing there was no point in attempting to get more sleep now.
Paisley quickly scribbled a scrap piece of parchment note before she grabbed her bag and headed up to the Great Hall for breakfast. She knew that once again, Alecto may question her early departure. It didn't happen often enough for it to be routine. Still, it happened often enough that it seemed odd to the other girls because she had even heard the Nott twins make the bizarre comment.
She sat there eating her breakfast, keeping an eye on the doors to see when her brother entered the room and when he did, his friends surrounding him that she was grateful for the spell she found.
It was an interesting spell that turned pieces of parchment into aeroplanes, allowing them to be delivered to the intended target. It allowed her to send the note she had written for Lucas. While not worrying about those who wouldn't like her to see talking to a Gryffindor as tensions were rising between the two houses. It was partly due to the first years that kept antagonising each other and the events outside Hogwarts.
She watched as Lucas grabbed the note, but he didn't turn around to look at her, and she was a little hurt, but at least he had read the message, and she knew he would show up later as she requested of him.
She was lucky that it was a Sunday and there were no classes, so it allowed her to escape the Great Hall once she finished eating and head outside despite the cold. She headed towards the Quidditch Pitch, having already checked the schedule and knew no teams were using it today. She took a seat in the stands knowing Lucas would find her in this section.
"Everything alright, sis?" Lucas questioned as he took a seat beside her.
"Do you think Sirius is capable of doing something that could lead to the Aurors hunting him?" she questioned. Looking ahead of her and not facing her brother.
"I'm not sure, yes he is pretty impulsive and doesn't think things through, but he is also still really young. Why, what did you see him doing?" Lucas questioned, and Paisley let out a sigh before twisting in her seat.
Her friendship with Sirius was a weird one. She didn't know if they were actually friends or not. Still, they had both been put in a compromising position with their parents wanting a marriage contract in place between them. When they were younger, they had spent a fair bit of time together since their parents spent a lot of time together, forcing all the children together.
"I didn't see him do anything except standing in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place with Lupin, Dumbledore, and a heap of other people I didn't recognise. It was a comment from one of them about convincing the Aurors that Sirius was in Tibet," Paisley confessed. Lucas wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close as he noticed the tears building in her eyes.
"You said yourself, it's all potential futures," Lucas reminded her, but Paisley pulled away, wiping away the tears.
"Are they, though? I think they're our current future, something that we can change. If things go the same as they now, then maybe Sirius does something stupid in the future, maybe I can do something to stop the Aurors from hunting him," Paisley snapped.
"You had a dream that showed you two were married. Where were you in this latest dream?" Lucas' comment stilled Paisley's thoughts as she slowly turned and faced her brother, not saying anything. "So, you changed that already. A mere four months, and you two are no longer married."
"I don't get my dreams, okay?" Paisley snapped, her voice coming out harsh before she took a deep breath. She didn't need her Slytherin defence mechanisms coming out against her brother of all people. "I'm sorry, but I really don't get them. Some of the others stated that they believed it was destined to be their future. They could change it with the right information, while others claimed it was all possible and they were going to keep going the way they wanted no matter what."
"I can't even imagine what you go through with them. You can't fret over what you see when you don't know what could happen between now and then," Lucas continued, but Paisley rolled her eyes.
"This Sirius that I saw looked so different to the one I currently know, to the one I saw in the same dream that showed we were married." Paisley stood up, a shake of her head. "Why did I have to belong to the Time clan? Why the hell couldn't I be one of the others, a simple one." She walked off, muttering to herself as she did.
It didn't help that in the end, Paisley found out that Sirius was the one that sent her the box of sweets on Valentine's Day, she was unsure as to why he did, but he did nonetheless. Lucas said that he didn't even have a chance to ask the boys before Sirius asked if he got Paisley's favourite sweets correct.
Paisley spent the rest of the morning hiding out in a part of the Castle that seemed to be untravelled by the other students, given by how empty it was. She just sat there in the empty classroom at a desk. At the same time, she worked on the essays for Charms and Herbology that she had due the next day, only taking a break when it was time for lunch, and headed back towards the Great Hall.
"Where have you been all morning?" Maxton questioned as Paisley took a seat at the Slytherin table.
"The library was too loud, so I grabbed the books I needed for the essays due tomorrow and worked on them in an empty classroom," Paisley responded. "Why did I miss something?"
"Did you ever," Alecto cut into the conversation, taking a seat at the table.
"Well, you know Foster Gibbins, the sixth-year Prefect that works with Black?" Paisley nodded, silently urging Alecto to continue. "Well, it turns out that he never got the memo about Black and Malfoy. Apparently, after we were all sent to our dorms last night, he tried to kiss her, Malfoy, who didn't notice it didn't hear until this morning, and he challenged Gibbins to a duel."
"No way…" Paisley responded,
"Yes, way, but there is more," Maxton cut in, and Paisley looked at him before looking at Alecto.
She couldn't believe she missed all this, and it was evident that it could potentially backfire on her, and she had to start spending more time in the Slytherin common room now. She couldn't be caught missing something big again in the future.
"So, Gibbins and Malfoy are duelling, and Malfoy is ruthless like we thought the elder Lestrange was ruthless, but Malfoy yeah, I never want to cross him." Alecto trailed off, shaking her head for a quick moment. "Anyway, while their duelling Gibbins yells out that Malfoy doesn't deserve a stunning beauty like Black, and he wanted to duel with her as the prize."
"Holy shit…" Paisley breathed out, looking down the table and quickly noticing that the older students were missing lunch. "I'm assuming Malfoy won."
"He did not." Paisley turned her head and found Alexandria Parkinson, a second year, had taken a seat beside her. "It was insane. I never would have thought it would play out this way. Malfoy just looked at Gibbons for a moment, sidestepping a spell before he dropped his wand. He stated that it is inhumane to duel over a woman as they aren't anyone's property. It was why the mudbloods are beneath us."
"No kidding, he then took a jinx to the back," Alecto continued, and Parkinson nodded. "I think Lestrange took Malfoy to the Hospital Wing while Black took Gibbons to Slughorn."
"Really?" Paisley questioned, looking between them all. "They can't work this out between themselves?"
"You mean to leave it for Bulstrode to deal with on her own?" Parkinson questioned, raising an eyebrow slightly. "Normally, those issues are dealt with by the sixth- and seventh-year Prefects. It involves three of them. Lestrange looked at Bulstrode and said it was for Slughorn to decide. They claim it's an indifference in opinion with the Prefects that caused wands to be drawn. Everyone knows that Slughorn doesn't genuinely care about what happens within the house as long as we don't make him look bad."
Paisley didn't say anything, just looked at Parkinson before she turned and faced Alecto. The two discuss what they think will happen to Gibbons in the end for what happened to Malfoy.
She couldn't believe the drama she missed out on witnessing the chaos that would have been the Slytherin common room this morning.
Paisley half-heartedly listened to the conversation taking place between Parkinson and Alecto. It was suddenly stopped as a round of loud laughter was heard from near the doors. It quickly increasing in number and noise level, and the four of them all turned as one to look at what the commotion was.
Paisley had to slap a hand over her mouth to stop the laughter from escaping.
"Alright, I want to give whoever did that to Filch 10 Galleons," Parkinson spoke. A smirk on her face as the four of them watched as the caretaker, Argus Filch, storm up the middle of the room towards the Professor's table wearing what looked like a fairy costume.
"I'll chip in 10 Galleons as well to see a repeat performance at random occasions," Alecto added. Maxton quickly joined with his own 10 Galleons, and it was at that point, Paisley let out a laugh.
She had a feeling about who had put Filch in a fairy costume, overhearing a conversation between Sirius and James the other day during Potions. They were meant to be grabbing ingredients for the Potion they were brewing. Paisley couldn't help but notice that they both pocketed some extra ingredients and, at the time, never thought anything of it.
"So, 30 Galleons for whoever did that," Paisley spoke, pointing towards where Filch had a word with Dumbledore.
"Do you think Dumbledore will fix or find out who did that to Filch?" Alecto questioned.
"Well, considering this is day five of what seems like pick on Filch. One would assume they are going to find out what is happening to Filch," Parkinson reminded them all, and they nodded. "But considering I've never seen anything like this happen to Filch before, I would assume it would be a group of first years."
With that comment, Paisley had a feeling as to who had pulled the pranks on Filch. She had a feeling it was the same group of Gryffindors that had rumoured to pull several stunts of a particular ground of Slytherins.
"You know." Maxton pointed the finger at Paisley as he accused her, but she just looked at him, an innocent look on her face.
"I was sitting in here with you all when he ran in here," she responded with a sweet smile. She was careful letting her gaze slip over to the Gryffindor table, where she caught sight of James, Sirius, and their friends in a fit of laughter.
"I don't believe you," Maxton spoke, his eyes narrowing, and Parkinson let out a laugh.
"Good, you just learnt the first rule of being a Slytherin," Parkinson stood up from the table, giving them a wave. "I'll see you three later. You're fun."
"Did we just get approval from Parkinson?" Alecto questioned, and Paisley looked at her before looking up at where Parkinson had taken a seat with her friends.
"Seems that way," Paisley looked back at Alecto, curious about the look that was on Alecto's face at the mere idea of being accepted by the older students.
Yes, Alecto had been seen conversing with her brother. Paisley had, on several occasions, had conversations with Narcissa and Lucius. Paisley could see it bothered Alecto. She assumed it was because many of the older students hadn't spoken to Alecto for whatever reason. It didn't matter if Paisley knew Narcissa because their parents associated with each other. As such, they knew each other that way and knew that the other could be somewhat trusted.
Alecto didn't realise that she had it slightly easier because her brother was in Slytherin while Paisley's was in Gryffindor, making some Slytherin students cautious around her in case she was a lion in snakeskin.
At that point, Dumbledore stood up and gathered everyone's attention, the remaining laughter coming to a stop. "Argus Filch is a member of our staff. I do not care that he is not a Professor. He can still assign detention. As such, I want him to be treated like you do every member of our staff, or I can assure you the punishment will be severe when I find out who is doing this, and I will find out. Who is doing this." That was all Dumbledore said, just warning the students before he sat back down, and lunch continued as it previously did.
"Why do I feel like he just issued a challenge to who keeps pranking Filch?" Maxton questioned, and Paisley looked at him, a smirk appearing on her face before she looked up at the Professor's table.
"Which Professor do you think gets done first?" was all Paisley said in response, and the three of them let out a laugh.
.
.
.
Three days.
Three days was all it took, and Dumbledore was the one who got pranked first. Somehow, they managed to slip a colour-changing potion into his drink, and his previous white beard turned hot pink during dinner, causing the students to laugh. Even some of the Professors couldn't help but let out a small chuckle as well.
McGonagall stood up after the prank was played out and looked at the Gryffindor table, almost as if she had a feeling which had done it. "Alright, who did this?"
Paisley shook her head when James and Sirius stood up. "But Professor Dumbledore requested we treated all of you the same. We were just sharing the love." They chimed together.
"Detention." McGonagall snapped out, but James and Sirius just shared a look before sitting down and going on with their dinner as if nothing happened.
"Why did they own up to it?" Alecto questioned, but no one answered her. They just ate their dinner before changing the subject.
