OMG guys I'm so so so sorry for not updating sooner! Life has been really hectic (surprising yeah I know) and I'm so sorry! But here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 22

We spend most of the term studying and playing Quidditch and before I know it, it's the Easter break. Xinia, Anica and Ciena, Kimmy and George and I decide to stay at school while Dylan and Nick decide to go home. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long and school is back all too soon.

Now in the last term, teachers were piling our homework up and we didn't have much time for anything else.

While the past three Quidditch matches had been entertaining and new to all the first years, the last three are not so much. Gryffindor wins their match against Hufflepuff, then we beat Hufflepuff then Ravenclaw beats Gryffindor.

All the points were added up and we were outraged that it came to tie. Gryffindor lost - we made sure the boys didn't live it down - at 320 points. Hufflepuff came third with 440 points and Ravenclaw and Slytherin tied at 680 points. Neither team were happy with the tie so we decided to have another game - not recorded - which the whole school turned up to anyway. In the end, we win because I didn't get injured that game (or so I tell Xinia).

We had a big celebration in the Quidditch room which the Ravenclaw team reluctantly joined in on and Tatum was once again happy with us.

After that, Ravenclaw was on even better behaviour than before and was constantly showing off in class to try and get more House points. Xinia, Ciena and Kimmy worked harder on homework and made extra time to distract us from ours.

When the exams drew closer, the rest of us had had enough so we told them to cut it out, which resulted in a minor fight. From then on, they didn't distract us, but they didn't help us either.

Transfiguration was the only class I wasn't struggling in. I wasn't having many problems with Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts and surprisingly, Astronomy either (in fact I was pretty good at Astronomy), but in Herbology, Potions and History of Magic I was studiously paying attention and doing all my homework in order to make sure I didn't fail.

As I already knew everything in Transfiguration, I stopped paying attention and instead opted to work on the subjects I was not as good at.

Anica was struggling more than me, but she didn't seem to mind as much if she didn't get top grades, as long as she passed, she was happy.

Meanwhile, the boys seemed like they couldn't care less and often tried to pull us away from studying to have fun. Anica gave in most times, and sometimes I would too, but the other three never did. It had lead to several fights between Anica and Ciena and Kimmy and George which the rest of us had to step in in order to stop them from killing each other.

All in all, studying sucked and I made sure everyone knew it. One particular time when I had miserably failed at the Potions homework, George had looked over at me in amusement and asked why I was even trying.

"Just because I hate it doesn't mean I'm going to let those three," I jerk my head towards Xinia, Ciena and Kimmy. "Get better grades than me."

"Getting better marks than Ravenclaw's, in your dreams," Anica laughs. "Especially those three."

"Ravenclaw's aren't all smart," I retort. "They just work hard."

"I mean, yeah, but be realistic," Dylan says. "They don't HAVE to study that much for good grades, they just want to."

I send him a glare, too determined to get my Potions done to hold an argument.

"Five galleons I do better than them in at least two subjects other than Transfiguration," I bet.

"Best bet I could ever make," Dylan smiles shaking my hand.

"Way to get Gena to do work," Anica comments. "Make it a competition."

I study as much as I can for the next few weeks before exams.

When exam week finally arrives, I notice the stress levels in Xinia, Ciena and Kimmy rise. They spend every meal with a textbook in front of them, waving us off every time we try to talk to them. Admittedly, I wasn't much better, although I wasn't stressing. For some reason, I never seemed to stress about things like exams. For that, I was grateful.

Our first exam was Charms. We went House by House, Gryffindors going first, then Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, then Slytherins. Patil called us in one by one then made us charm an apple to make it jump around on her desk. I did alright, although my apple's legs were a little wobbling but I'm sure it was fine.

Potions was next and we had to brew an antidote for common poisons. Malfoy walked around the room as we did to make sure no one blew anything up or set fire to anything (namely; me). I knew it had to be teal by the end, and I was glad that mine was at least a light blue. I had definitely forgotten something or done something wrong, but it wasn't terrible (hopefully).

Herbology wasn't terrible, for me at least, and Astronomy I did pretty well. I did okay in Defence Against the Dark Arts and I definitely got quite a few questions wrong in History of Magic.

Our last exam took place on Friday and Lupin ran it in his classroom. We had to transfigure a rat into a cup. Lupin told us we would get extra points for the decoration of the cup. I was confident with the spell and had transfigured the rat as soon as he let us start. I spent a little bit more time decorating but was still finished before everyone else. While I waited for everyone else to finish I took the time to enjoy the feeling of having finished all my exams. It felt good. When I handed my cup in, earning a smile from Lupin, I practically skipped out of the classroom.

Anica joined me, laughing happily as we made our way over to the spot our group had claimed long ago. We were shortly joined by the others, everyone looking considerably happier. Well, almost everyone.

"I should have added more flowers!" Ciena cries. "I considered it but I thought there was already enough! Lupin didn't even look at me when I gave him my cup!"

"Lucky!" Kimmy screeches. "When I handed mine in he looked at it then looked at me with...a look!"

"A look?" George laughs. "You sure he wasn't just being friendly?"

Kimmy glares at him while everyone laughed.

"You laugh but I'm telling you, I will fail Transfiguration."

"Uh-huh, sure. Just like Xinia will fail Astronomy," I glance at her and her expression immediately turns to panicked.

"I told you!" she huffs. "I mixed up one planet."

"What about that moon you were telling us about?" Anica asks.

"And that really bright star you didn't know if it was a planet or not," George laughs.

"Oh god!" Xinia cries. "I'm going to fail!"

"Relax, Xin, we're only joking," I laugh. "I'm sure you all did fine."

"I definitely didn't!" Ciena exclaims. "Professor Patil looked so disappointed with my apple!"

The other two nod and I roll my eyes.

"Thank God there's only three of them," I mutter under my breath.

"Lord help us if there were more," Anica replies.

Unfortunately, we still had a week of school after that.

"I mean, I love Hogwarts," I say one afternoon. "But I need a break from school."

Anica had agreed while Xinia had just rolled her eyes. Finally, the end of June arrived and it was Sunday morning. The end of term feast was tonight and we would be leaving Hogwarts tomorrow.

It was also time for our exam results to come out. When we received ours, the three girls refused to look at them until everyone else had shared their results.

Dylan, Nick and George had passed every class except for History of Magic which they were less than concerned about.

Anica did well in most of her classes except for History of Magic, which she only just passed, and Herbology, which she failed. She merely shrugged, saying she hadn't expected to pass.

I rolled my eyes when the girls hurried me up.

"You can open yours whenever, you know," I say.

I did hurry up, anxious to see my results. Surprisingly, I passed every class.

"Even Potions?" Xinia exclaims.

"Even Potions," I nod. "Look, 52 per cent. Not much of one, but still a pass."

I still hadn't looked at the rest of my results before Xinia snatched my paper off me.

"No way!" she cries before ripping her own open.

"NO!" she wails.

I roll my eyes and snatch her paper off her.

"Oh come on," I exclaim. "Let's see. 110 per cent for Charms, 102 for Potions and 100 for Defence Against the Dark Arts. 98 per cent for every other class except...oh."

I burst into laughter before taking my own paper back and looking at my results.

"Ha!" I cry. "I did better than you in Astronomy!"

"What?" everyone shouts.

I had gotten 98 per cent, and she had only gotten 90. Seeing Xinia's results, Ciena and Kimmy quickly read theirs.

"105 per cent for Herbology," Ciena reads. "100 for Potions and 99 for History of Magic. 97 for everything else...Oh no. I only got 88 per cent for Charms!"

"103 per cent for History of Magic," Kimmy reads. "95 for everything except for...Transfiguration. 75 per cent."

I have to bite my tongue to stop from laughing. 75 was still good, but it didn't even compare to my 125 per cent for Transfiguration.

Thinking about that, I was reminded of my bet with Dylan. I had gotten better in Astronomy than all of them, and I ran through their list and compared it with mine.

"Yes!" I exclaim suddenly. "You owe me five galleons," I point at Dylan.

"No way," he scowls.

"Yes, way. I did better than all of them in Astronomy, and beat Ciena and Kimmy in Charms."

I had gotten 96 for Charms, which meant I had indeed beaten both of them. I had also gotten 92 for Defence Against the Dark Arts, 87 for Herbology and 79 for History of Magic.

Dylan groaned as he paid up, and I grinned at the other three.

"What did you get for Transfiguration?" Anica asks.

I bite my lip, feeling a little bad.

"125," I admitted.

Xinia had already seen my score, but everyone else was gobsmacked. I shrugged, folding my results away in my robes.

Later, after everyone had compared results, we figured out that Kimmy had topped History of Magic, Ciena topped Herbology, Xinia topped Charms, Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts, and I had topped Transfiguration and surprisingly, Astronomy.

"Really?" I asked when Xinia reluctantly told me. "No one got one hundred per cent?"

She shook her head. I shrugged, feeling pretty proud of myself. All the others in our year were annoyed that our group had topped everyone, but we didn't care.

"It's not like we can do anything about it," I told Kimmy, who didn't like people not liking her. "It's not our fault we did better than them."

She still looked a little annoyed, but she shook it off as we enjoyed the last few hours before the feast.

When dinner time came, we each headed to our separate tables for the end-of-term feast. Anica and I talked with some of the friends we had made over the year in Slytherin and enjoyed the feast. Before it ended, McGonagall stood up to say her piece.

"Alas, the school year has come to an end," she begins. "I hope each and every one of you have enjoyed the year, and to our leaving students, I wish you good luck for your future endeavours."

I looked around and saw many seventh years crying and looking happy but sad. Among them, I recognised Vivian and Sasha, two of the Hufflepuff Chasers, Julia, one of the Gryffindor Chasers, Elijah, one of the Gryffindor Beaters and Finn, Anica and Ciena's older brother.

"Now, as always, the House Cup must be awarded," McGonagall carries on. "In fourth place…."

The whole room goes silent and you can tell how much it means to each house.

"Gryffindor with 352 points."

Groans and complaints come from Gryffindor table and I look over to see many of the six and seventh years blaming Nick and Dylan.

"Calm down, calm down," McGonagall calls over the crowd, although you can tell she's slightly upset. "I know it is disappointing, but it will make you work harder next year. In third place, Hufflepuff, with 379 points!"

Again many complaints come from the table, but being Hufflepuff's, they do not blame anyone.

"In second place, Slytherin, with 423 points!"

Cheers drown her out as the Ravenclaws celebrate their win. I can only just hear McGonagall above them.

"And finally, in first place, Ravenclaw, with only 20 more points - 443 points!"

McGonagall waves her hand and the banners above us change to display Ravenclaw's eagle and bronze and blue colours.

I turn to the table to see Xinia, Ciena and Kimmy jumping around in joy, but my eyes are drawn to Fred who is clapping next to them, looking a little awkward, like always. I shake my head, wondering how he could still look awkward even when winning the House Cup.

My thoughts are dismissed as everyone moves through the Hall to find their friends, congratulating and teasing them. Eventually, our group is in a small circle of sorts with the three Ravenclaws looking extremely happy and the three Gryffindors more than a little upset. Anica and I don't mind too much though, having properly won the Quidditch Cup not too long ago.

Our group goes to the Community Hall to spend our last proper hours at Hogwarts and many others do as well. We sit talking in our normal spot and discuss our plans for the summer holidays.

"We're getting a new working dog," Xinia smiles. "And I get to train her!"

"Why? You already have three!"

"Yeah, but we're getting more sheep so we need more dogs."

"Well we're going to France for a week," Dylan says indicating at himself and Nick.

"Lucky," I mutter.

"Oh la la," Anica laughs. "The city of love!" she smirks at me and Xinia and I can't help a small laugh.

"Maybe you should take Wendy," I joke.

George and Kimmy look at us in confusion while we all laugh.

"No, I think they'll be fine with each other," Anica gasps out through her laughter.

That sends the other two into laughter all over again while I glance at the boy's exasperated expressions.

"Oh, no!" Xinia tries to say through her laughter. "Not the power pose!"

Anica and I fall into tears.

"Someone has to fill us in," George says.

"You guys missed ALOT at New Years," I announce, smirking at Xinia.

Her laughter abruptly stops and she glares at me as Anica once again collapses with laughter. Ciena grins at me knowingly while the others all look confused.

"Um," Kimmy says, clearly confused. "Care to explain Xinia?"

"I'm good," Xinia says firmly.

"Just talking about an amazing snowball fight," I laugh.

"Oh yeah, did we tell you about how we totally ruined their snowball fight?" Nick jumps in.

"And yet we still managed to beat you!" Anica says happily.

We spend the rest of the night sharing stories and talking and laughing until finally, it's time to head to bed. The boys leave first, then Ciena and Kimmy follow, leaving the three of us to say goodnight. We're the only ones left so we use the passages to avoid the teachers. Once we're back in our dormitory, Anica and I start packing our things up a little to lighten the load tomorrow. As I'm sorting through my things, I come across all the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes products I had gotten for Christmas and my birthday.

"It's a shame I didn't get to use these," I say, showing them to Anica.

She hums a response as I turn to pack them away. Then, I get a brilliant idea. I slowly turn towards Anica and see her expression light up.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" I ask, grinning.

"Set everything off somewhere to cause a bit of chaos on our final night?" Anica answers.

"Not just anywhere," I say. "Ravenclaw Tower," I smirk.

Anica's face glows with glee. We quickly change into some black clothing to try to help us hide in the shadows.

"Ok, good idea, but how are we gonna get inside?"

"Do you reckon I could morph into one of the girls to open the passage?" I ask.

Anica shrugs.

"Maybe, it's worth a try."

We slip out of the dormitory and into the Common Room, where luckily, no one is up. We use the passage to the statues and I listen out for anyone around before signalling the okay. We emerge out of the Slytherin passage and stand in front of Ravenclaw's statue.

I quickly morph into Xinia and Anica looks a little shocked.

"Promise you'll never do that again," she shudders.

I smile as I pat the eagle. Nothing happens. I try again.

"Maybe you have to pat it a certain way," Anica suggests.

"I've tried every way possible to pat a freaking eagle," I hiss. "It's not working."

Just then, I hear footsteps approaching. My eyes widen as I grab Anica and pet the Slytherin snake. As soon as the opening is big enough for us to slip through I push Anica in and quickly follow her.

"Hurry up and shut," I hiss at the passage, hearing the footsteps coming closer and closer.

My heart pounds as I tell Anica to be quiet, and I strain my ears to listen out. I don't talk until I'm positive whoever it was is gone.

"That was too close," I mutter.

"What are we going to do now?" Anica asks quietly.

I don't answer her. Instead, I scramble for ideas. Of course, we could just try to get in normally by answering the riddle at the door, but that meant we would have to go through the whole school. Of course, we knew of several shortcuts and whatnot, but I was willing to bet Mortan would also know them.

"Ok, I have a crazy idea," Anica speaks up.

"Shoot," I say, open to all suggestions.

"Well, we could die doing it, but, it'd be worth it."

I get a little put off by the death bit.

"Not really selling it here Anica," I mutter.

"We could scale the castle and get in through a window," she says.

I blink.

"Scale the -?" I cut off. "Anica are you insane?! It's called Ravenclaw Tower for a reason! It's a freaking tow - wait...I'm getting something," I trail off, an idea forming.

Anica watches me as I think.

"Okay, so, not a terrible idea," I tell Anica. "But it could be improved. Brooms."

She catches on to what I'm thinking.

"But we've already sent ours home. Where do you suppose we get them from? The broom shed? The LOCKED broom shed?"

I shake my head slowly.

"There are two other girls on the Quidditch team in Slytherin, both of whom still have theirs here," I say.

Her eyes widen.

"You're not suggesting we steal Tatum and Wyrene's brooms?" she whisper shouts.

"I am not suggesting, I'm implying. Unless you have a better idea…" I trail off, looking at her expectantly.

"Yes, the climbing one," Anica exclaims. "I don't want to be attacked by those two. I'm crazy, but not mental."

"Yeah, you're crazy!" I snap. "You said it yourself, we could literally die doing your idea! I'm daring, but I don't have a death-wish."

She doesn't reply.

"Besides," I continue. "It's not like we have to ask to take their brooms. As long as we're quiet, they won't even know."

"And if they wake up? Or worse, they're not even asleep?"

I glance at my watch, checking the time.

"It's past midnight," I say. "The last time Wyrene stayed up past then was New Year's. Trust me, she'll be asleep. I can take Tatum's while you get hers. That way, I'm in more danger."

"Fine, but if their brooms break, I'm blaming you,"

"Why would their brooms break?" I ask as I head back down the passage to the Common Room.

"I don't know, I just wanted to threaten you," Anica answers.

I roll my eyes, laughing slightly. We reach the end of the passage and quickly descend the stairs. We start down the girl's side of the dormitories. When we reach the door to Wyrene's dormitory, Anica gives me one last death stare before opening the door as quietly as possible. I continue on to Tatum's, trying to steady my beating heart.

When I reach the door, I turn the handle as slowly as possible and pray that none of the girls are light sleepers. I push the door open and step inside, my heart pumping a hundred miles an hour. I stay there for a moment, making sure no one woke up. So far so good.

Luckily, there were only four girls so it didn't take me long to find Tatum's. My heart sunk when I saw where her broom was. It was under her bed.

Silently cursing every God known to man and bestowing multiple death threats on Tatum, I get to my knees. Slowly, I reach my arm out, reaching for the broom.

"Dinnick!"

I freeze.

"What are you doing?"

It's Tatum. My heart speeds to a surely unhealthy rate. My blood runs cold as I hear Tatum shift.

"Get the bludger," Tatum continues.

I frown, looking up at her in confusion. Only then do I realise her eyes are still closed and she's laying down. Immediately, my whole body relaxes. She was only sleep talking. I huff, Of course, she'd be dreaming about me the one time I'm actually there.

I now rush to pull out the broom in case one of her friends wakes up from her talking. Every time the broom even brushes the ground, making the smallest noise, I freeze, my heart speeding up.

Finally, I manage to pull the whole broom out and I slowly stand up, holding the broom close to me so I don't knock it against anything. I snort quietly. That'd be right. Watch, I'll get it out fine then trip over something and drop the broom and I'll screw everything up.

I take a deep breath before making my way back to the door, skirting around even the smallest things to avoid a trip. Just before I reach the door, however, I manage to trip over my own feet. I stumble, one hand shooting out to the wall to steady myself, causing the broom to shift slightly. I fumble with the broom, swearing the whole time, trying to keep it from dropping. Somehow, I manage to catch it properly and once more hold it up against myself.

I stay still, glancing over to the four beds. Against all odds, none of them had woken. I slip out of the room as quietly as I can and take a few deep breaths to steady my heart. Once it returns to normal, I start walking back to find Anica. I find her outside of Wyrene's dormitory, white-faced, clutching the broom to her chest.

"What's wrong?" I ask as quietly as possible.

"You said she would be asleep!" Anica hisses.

I freeze.

"What do you mean?"

"She was in the freaking bathroom!" Anica cries and I shush her.

"How did you get her broom?" I ask.

"5 galleons, that's how."

I have to clamp a hand over my mouth to stifle my laughter. Anica glares at me.

"It is not funny!" she seethes. "I had a freaking heart attack!"

"Sorry," I apologise. "I'm just so glad I made you do that. She would have told Malfoy straight away if it was me."

"You are paying those 5 galleons," she informs me.

"I probably deserve that," I admit. "Come on, let's go."

We rush through the passageway and I once again listen out to make sure it's okay. Before we exit, I voice my thoughts.

"We'll need to go outside, obviously. We'll need to go around the west side which means we need to stay out of sight of Gryffindors, any wondering teachers or Prefects who might be looking out the window and uh...McGonagall. Her office had a window we could be seen out of."

Anica sighs, hanging her head in her hands while muttering curses.

"If we get caught I will not hesitate to throw you under the bus," she announces.

"I know. Luckily, I'm a Metamorphmagus," I grin.

She groaned as I opened the passage. Just to be sure, I waited a moment, listening, before exiting the passage. Once we were in the Hall, I was wishing I had asked Xinia to teach me that Disillusion Charm as I realised how exposed we were.

My heart was pounding as we raced through the Halls to outside, where we immediately went to a quiet, covered place we wouldn't be spotted in.

"Remind me why we're doing this again?" Anica asked, slightly breathless.

"Because of this," I say, holding up the small bag of joke products. "It's going to be awesome once we get in there, trust me. We'll set them off, have approximately three seconds to get out of there, and then we can watch from afar, in safety."

"Right think of the goal Anica," she mutters to herself.

"Come on, what's the worst that could happen?" I ask.

"Um, death, permanent ban from Quidditch, a lifetime of detention, all of the above?"

"If Xinia knew that you left off expulsion," I shake my head. "Besides, if we die, none of the other stuff will matter!" I grin.

"Real encouraging Gena," Anica quips sarcastically.

"Relax, we'll be fine."

"Famous last words," Anica sighs.

We hopped on the brooms and rose into the air. We had gone to a spot that had no windows along the side and we headed straight up, above the castle.

"This is so weird," Anica calls over to me.

I nod, a grin on my face. The only place we had been in the air at school was on the Quidditch pitch. Flying around the castle, especially at night, was entirely different.

"We need to do this again sometime," I tell her. "Preferably under different circumstances."

She shakes her head but grins nonetheless. We reach the west side of the castle and line ourselves up with the window to Ravenclaw Tower. I get my bag ready and pass a few things to Anica.

"You ready?" I ask.

"This is going to be epic," Anica grins.

I beam, happy that she had finally seen the fun side.

That's when everything went wrong.

As we descended, the bag of jokes slipped off my shoulder. I panicked for a second before whipping my wand out and casting the Levitation Charm. The bag stopped falling and hovered in mid-air, but the damage was done.

The bag contained several Weasley's Wildfire Whiz-bangs which were old but good, Instant Darkness Powder, another old product but extremely useful, a few Giggling Witches that were charmed to cackle like the muggle witches and sent Tickling Charms at anyone who tried to get rid of them, and worst of all, silver beads charmed with the Explosion Charm; Bombarda. The beads were touchy on their best days, and I had been being extremely careful not to disturb them. But the jolt of the bag stopping in mid-air caused them to go off.

The explosion not only rang through the air but caused all the other products to go off. The Whiz-bangs flew through the air, ricocheting off the walls and each other, which only caused new ones to form. The Darkness Powder hid the bright colours of the fireworks, but it also stopped us from seeing each other and the products. The Giggling Witches were also set off, filling the air with their cackles.

The good news? We achieved our original goal. The original explosion had smashed open the window of Ravenclaw Tower, allowing all the other products to enter.

The bad news? Every other window had also been smashed and the rooms were now invaded with the Weasley products. Including McGonagall's office.

"What the hell?!" I hear girls yelling from their dorms.

"Gena guess what! Xinia is still asleep," Anica laughs.

Just then, I hear an exclamation from McGonagall's office, muffled by the explosion.

"Those bloody Weasley's!"

Then a moment later.

"Damn you, Marauders!"

In any other situation, I would have been amused. Xinia had explained to us that the Marauders were legendary pranksters, and inspired the next generation of pranksters; Fred and George Weasley, to carry on their legacy.

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to laugh because McGonagall was currently yelling at whoever was causing chaos; so, Anica and I. I knew we had to get out of there, quickly, otherwise, we'd be in huge trouble.

"Come on," I yelled through the powder to Anica, hoping she would hear me. "We need to go!"

I morphed my voice so anyone listening wouldn't recognise it, but I prayed Anica would realise.

I wait for a moment, but she doesn't come or reply. Not wanting to leave her, I dart through the powder, altering my appearance as I go; making my hair blonde and my robes turn to Gryffindor ones. I strain my ears and can just make out Anica cursing under her breath. I follow the direction of her voice and find her just as the powder starts to disappear.

When she sees me she looks surprised for a moment before I tell her it's me.

"Go!" I tell her. "Before we get caught!"

She nods before ascending into the sky. I follow her just as the powder completely disappears. When I catch up to her, she asks what we do now.

"We have to get back to the dormitory. If anyone realises we're not there they'll know it was us."

She nods, circling around to find a spot to land. We find one where no one will see us come down, close enough to the entrance of the school. We dart down, then dash through the Halls and into the Slytherin passage. Just as it closes behind us, I hear voices accompanied by footsteps approaching.

"Round up the students," I hear McGonagall saying. "Find out who did this."

My eyes widen and I tell Anica to run. We sprint to the end of the passage, yell the password then stumble down the stairs and into the Common Room.

"We have to put the brooms back!" I tell Anica.

She nods and runs down with me on her heels. Not bothering to be as quiet as before, she opens Wyrene's dormitory door while I continue on to Tatum's. I yank the door open and rush inside, pushing the broom underneath Tatum's bed then sprinting out the door. Lucky I was quick enough that no one woke up until after I slammed the door shut on my way out. As I raced back to Anica I hear the wall opening in the Common Room, signalling someone had entered.

My heart races as Malfoy's footsteps make their way to the dormitories. I run to our dormitory door, thankful that Anica had already opened it, and dart inside. She shuts the door as quietly as possible before we jump into our beds, pretending to be asleep.

Not even a second later, Malfoy's voice rings out.

"Students! Out of bed, all of you! I want you in the Common Room in one minute."

The rest of the girls in our dormitory blink their eyes open, looking confused.

"What's going on?" Nicole asks, stumbling out of bed.

"I don't know," Anica yawns, sitting up.

Then she spots me and her eyes widen. I look at her in confusion as she points to her hair. I realise I was still sporting my fake appearance. The others had noticed as well.

"Gena?" Ursula asks. "Why are you blonde?"

"And why do you look different?" Nicole asks.

"I, um, it must have been from my dream," I lie, morphing back. "Come on, we'd better see what's going on."

The six of us exit our dormitory and join the crowd of students in the Common Room. I immediately spot Wyrene looking at Anica and me, eyebrows raised. I send her a pleading look, silently begging her not to say anything. She rolls her eyes before turning away. I breathe a sigh of relief, turning back to Anica.

"Reckon we got away with it?" she mutters.

"I think so," I say, my heart still pounding. "Lucky the powder hid us."

"Yeah, I mean, on the bright side, it wasn't a complete fail. We caused chaos, that's for sure," she grins.

I smirk.

"And we certainly got Ravenclaw Tower good," I add.

She laughs and I'm glad she's not mad at me for dragging her into this. Now we just have to hope we're good enough liars to fool Malfoy.

Speaking of the man, I look at him. His hair is messy; sticking up to one side, and his eyes are bleary. His shirt is also on back to front and inside out as if he had just thrown it on. His expression was mostly annoyed, tinged with anger.

"Ok, Headmistress McGonagall has informed all the Head of Houses that some students were outside Ravenclaw Tower and set off some Weasley products. Who was it?"

All around, students reactions range from surprised and annoyed to amused and exasperated. I try to look as inconspicuous as possible, looking around at everyone with a curious expression like I want to know who it was.

"Sir," the seventh year Prefect, Cyrene, starts. "Do you know that it was definitely one of us?"

Malfoy glances at her.

"No one saw the students, but the chances it was one of you is extremely high," as he speaks his eyes rake over everyone.

His gaze seems to linger on me for a moment before moving on. I swallow the uneasy feeling in my stomach.

"Whoever did it should speak up now. I won't be mad, I just want to know who did it," Malfoy continues.

Wisely, no one says anything. Of course, only Anica and I are at risk here, so it's not so much wiseness as it is the truth.

Malfoy doesn't speak for a bit, instead, he continues looking over us. Then, a small smile pulls at the corner of his mouth but he quickly pushes it away.

"Smart. Of course, I'll be mad. While it might seem amusing to some of you, pulling a stunt like this was dangerous and silly. Students could have been harmed."

I want to point out that if it had gone right, no one would have been injured, but of course, I bite my tongue.

"I would like to add, that Headmistress in making us stay here all day tomorrow so that we can figure out who did this, unless you want to own up?"

Groans go around the room and many begin to complain. I glance at Anica and she bites her lip. I understand what she's thinking.

On one hand, we could be completely fine if we didn't do anything, except I knew McGonagall would absolutely keep us here until we owned up. If we did, we would definitely be in trouble, but we would be able to go home.

So what did we do?

For a fleeting moment, I wished Xinia was here to think of something crazy to get us out of this, but I immediately dismiss the idea. I doubt even Xinia could get us out of this.

"Very well," Malfoy says suddenly. "Unless someone from the other Houses owns up, we will be staying here tomorrow, your parents will be sent an owl. You may go back to bed."

With that, he turns around to leave. Everyone groans as they head back to our dormitories.

"Oi, before you losers go to bed, own up!" Keiran, the Head Boy, yells.

From across the room, Wyrene shoots Anica and I a dark look before disappearing.

"What do we do?" Anica hisses.

I sigh.

"We have to own up."

She starts protesting and I nod.

"I know, trust me, it's the last thing I want to do," I cut in. "But we'll be in even more trouble if we don't. You know McGonagall, she won't let us go until they find out."

Anica groans and I sigh.

"We can ask Xinia what to do tomorrow," Anica suggests, grabbing at strings.

"Should we wait that long?" I ask.

"If Xinia can't get us out of this, we'll own up," Anica compromises. "I don't want to get in trouble until we're out of options."

I nod as we reach our dormitory. I bid goodnight with an apology that she waves off. We head to bed but I barely get any sleep, too stressed about the day to come.

So a bit of a cliffhanger, I know, sorry! Anyway, I promise the wait won't be as long next time, and again, I'm so sorry!