"Hey, Samantha, today George and I are planning on bewitching water to soak everyone in the classroom," Fred called to her and Leslie as they walked toward the portrait hole to go to breakfast.
"Really? Oh, that sounds marvelous!" Samantha told the boys, smiling. "Hold on, what class period is that?"
"Third," George said.
Samantha smiled at Leslie. "You know what that means."
"Sam, no," Leslie said, rolling her eyes.
"Come on, we've got a free period, we could watch!" Samantha begged.
"That would be brilliant but-" Fred started.
"-how would you not be seen?" George finished.
A mischievous smile fluttered onto Samantha's face. "Oh, don't you worry about that, I've got my ways," she told them.
Fred and Gearge smiled and Leslie tilted her head to the side. "Sam, we shouldn't do that," she told her friend.
"Les, we have to. It'll be so fun. We'll just be there a few minutes, we can do homework later, all we've got is Charms, that's second nature to me, I could probably finish in ninety seconds!" Samantha cried.
"Sammy, I know you want this, but please, be real here, it would be so stupid!" Leslie cried.
"Leslie, we've got to live once in a while! This is a quick excursion where there will be no proof we've ever been there, no reason to believe we were there. The worst that'll happen is to have one detention and be questioned by Filch, which is nothing. We can lie, I doubt anyone would let him use Veritaserum on us, we won't have done anything wrong!" Samantha reasoned.
Leslie sighed. "Fine, now that you've practically written an essay on it," she said, then, after seeing the glimmer in Samantha's eyes, added, "Don't expect it to work every time you have a bad decision you want to convince me into."
Samantha's eyes sparkled with mischief and excitement. "Brilliant, then it's settled. We can sneak out once Double Potions is over and get to Cemp's and be on time, it'll all work perfectly!" Samantha said happily.
"Things never work perfectly," Leslie countered, but Samantha ignored her.
"I'm excited to see how you two plan on becoming unseen," George told the girls.
"Well, you won't be seeing much if we're unseeable, now, will you?" Samantha told George. "Come on Leslie, let's get going to Potions, we don't want to get detention for being late," she said, grabbing Leslie's arm and pulling her from the table.
"We still had time," Leslie muttered bitterly.
"We've got to get the Cloak now, it'll be much easier than worrying about it after Potions. Besides, Snape rarely dismisses on time, he keeps us there until our potions are finished whether that takes ten minutes or ten hours. We can't risk being late to the prank, it'll be legendary," Samantha said as she dragged a reluctant Leslie through the halls and into the Gryffindor Common Room.
The girls grabbed the Cloak from Samantha's trunk and ran down to the dungeons so as to not be late to class.
"Time to bring your Forgetfulness Potions to my desk" droned Snape, eyeing the green concoction Connor had stirred up and the pink one Alyssa had. "Miss Stante and Mr. Wellington, you are aware your potions are supposed to be red, I assume?" he asked, his lip curling.
Alyssa seemed to cower, nodding meekly before gently setting the potion on Snape's desk before scampering off while Connor trembled, looking as though he was afraid to blink or breathe.
Snape raised his eyebrows, daring Connor to answer.
Finally, Connor managed a quiet "Yes" before he set the potion on Snape's desk, almost knocking over Gwendolyn's in the process, who glowered at him as she walked by.
Samantha looked at the sea of vials on Snape's desk from the combined Gryffindors and Slytherins, the majority of which were some shade of red, although a few were different colors, and one even seemed to change color as Samantha stared at it.
"High-tech," Samantha whispered to Leslie, pointing at the vial. Leslie chuckled softly.
Samantha couldn't help but notice her's was the closest color to what it was actually supposed to be and felt proud of herself.
"Okay, quick, we've got to get to the defense corridor, it'll start soon," Samantha said to Leslie as the girls rushed through the halls.
"Wait, when do we put on the Cloak?" Leslie asked, stopping Samantha as they were about to turn into the corridor.
"Oh, you're right," Samantha quickly scanned around them. "Here, we can go in here and set our bags down and put on the Cloak," she told Leslie, pointing at an empty classroom.
They rushed into the classroom and threw their bags on two unoccupied seats before pulling the Cloak out of Samantha's bag and draping it over themselves.
They then hurried into the Defense Corridor and into Professor Cemp's classroom, slipping in and carefully making their way to the back.
They listened to Cemp go on for about ten minutes on the dangers of leaving your house before Fred and George got fed up and released the water balloons they had been hovering in the air.
The class started screaming as water fell down on them. Professor Cemp almost fell over with shock and was the first out of the classroom. Fred and George, the last two left in the room, looked around as they laughed, soaking wet.
"Do you think Samantha and Leslie made it?" Fred asked George.
"I hope. That was brilliant," George replied, checking the room again.
Leslie and Samantha smiled at each other, knowing not to reveal themselves yet; they could talk to the twins about it at their lunch break, or after classes in the Common Room.
"Right, let's get going," George said, and he and Fred grabbed their bags and left the room, Samantha and Leslie slipping out after them and hurrying back into the empty classroom.
"That was amazing. We'll have to come up with something to do for when we have Defense tomorrow," Samantha told Leslie.
Leslie looked skeptically at Samantha. "We probably should't. Someone'll figure it out eventually. I mean, I doubt people don't know it's Fred and George in that class, but no one has many reasons to suspect it's us. We shouldn't give them any. Let it rest for a few classes, no doubt Cemp could use it. If we're not careful, we'll push her to quit," Leslie said.
"Maybe then we'd get a competent teacher," Samantha muttered, but before Leslie had the chance to reply, the girls were bombarded by Fred and George in the Great Hall.
"So, did you two see it?" George asked eagerly.
"It was brilliant," Samantha told the twins, smiling excitedly.
"How did you do it?" Fred asked them.
Mischief sparkled in Samantha's eyes. "I can't reveal all of my secrets, now, can I?" She responded, helping herself to some food.
"Well, we're just curious. See, being able to become unseen would help us with many pranks. So, what did you guys do? Disillusionment Charm? Invisibility Draught? Can you teach us? Those are supposed to be extremely complex, nothing first years could do," George said.
"Like Sam said, we can't tell you!" Leslie said.
"Oh come on, we let you see our amazing prank, just tell us how you became invisible," Fred pleaded.
"Never in all my life," Samantha said, laughing.
"You two are impossible," George sighed.
"So are you," Samantha told him.
Harry had never had it worse than when he got home that night. He had been sent straight to his room to wait for his uncle to get home so he could be punished, both for being on the school roof and for escaping original punishment.
He sat nervously in his cupboard, trying to read a book, but was too distracted to pay much attention, and as a result, read the same sentence over and over again.
Soon, he heard the front door open and close. 'Just a few minutes' he thought to himself.
Sure enough, barely three minutes had passed before his uncle shouted "BOY!" and Harry tossed his book aside and scampered out into the living room.
Uncle Vernon was fuming. "Is it true," he said, his face so red he was barely able to talk, "that you were on the school roof today?"
Harry nodded, but after his Uncle's eyebrows raised more, he muttered a weak, "Yes, Uncle Vernon."
"And you got out of punishment?" Uncle Vernon glowered.
"That- that wasn't my intention," Harry said, "but, yes."
Uncle Vernon looked like he wanted to physically toss Harry out of the house. Even Aunt Petunia looked slightly frightened.
He took a deep breath, trying to resist the urge. "If you ever, in all of your life, do anything like that again, no food for a week," he finally said. Unbeknownst to Harry, Vernon was hoping that would finally squash the magic out of him. "Do you hear me, boy?"
"Y- yes," Harry stammered.
"Back to your closet," Uncle Vernon said, and Harry ran out of the room.
'That went better than I thought it would' Harry thought to himself, picking up his book again and actually reading this time.
"I thought the magic would be gone by now," Vernon said to Petunia once Harry was out of earshot. "I thought keeping him in the dark for so long would take it out of him. Punishment, too. You'd think he would be smarter than that, to continue to use it when he knows the trouble it'll get him in."
"Lily... did it accidentally, sometimes, when we were kids," Petunia said softly.
"Well, she wasn't being punished for it, now, was she? If not him, you'd think the magic would be smarter than that. It is ruddy magic, after all," Vernon said.
Petunia shrugged. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she had known deep down the attempts she and her husband had gone through to make Harry un-magical would be fruitless. Lauren too. She knew Lily not knowing about it until she was nine had done nothing to prevent her from becoming the freak she was, and that the ten years she had kept Harry and Lauren in the dark would do nothing either.
She just didn't know how to tell Vernon. He was much too set on the plan that he would squash all magic out, that he was more powerful than the magic, that he could hide Harry and Lauren from this world they were destined to be in.
But she knew the truth, knew just how powerful magic was, and that no matter how hard she and Vernon tried, they would never take all of Harry and Lauren's magic away.
Now that she knew the Cloak for sure worked and that she and Leslie could move comfortably around in it, Samantha was eager to use it to sneak around at night. However, Leslie was not too excited at this. The girls sat by the lake, bickering about it.
"Come on, Les, we should try it," Samantha said, making her eyes big and round.
"No, Sam, we shouldn't! You would have to be thick to be running around at night with Filch and Mrs. Norris roaming around," said Leslie.
"Well, that's another thing. Filch gets everywhere so quickly, there's got to be some secret passageways around here, and I'd love to find them," said Samantha casually.
"Sam, that sounds like a terrible plan. Also, how do we know that Mrs. Norris or Filch can't see Invisibility Cloaks? There's gotta be some sort of protection against them, hasn't there?" Leslie suggested.
"Les, you said yourself how rare Invisibility cloaks were. I doubt anyone has set up any counter enchantments against them," Samantha said.
Leslie sighed. "I just don't think it's a good idea at all. You can go alone, but I don't want to come," she told Samantha.
"Fine, I will go alone," Samantha said, and she stood up and stalked away.
Late that night, once everyone else in the dormitory was asleep, Samantha snuck out, clutching the Invisibility Cloak in her arms. She had waited until the noise in the Common Room had subsided and she was fairly certain it was empty before venturing down.
That was why it was so surprising to meet Max and Margot down there.
Samantha froze when she saw them. She thought of turning back, but they had already seen her.
"Hey, Samantha, What're you doing?" Margot asked her.
"I was, er, going to look around the castle. Couldn't sleep," Samantha told them.
"Neat. Can I come with?" Max asked.
Samantha looked at him curiously. "What are you doing down here?" She asked him.
"Finishing that Charms essay. I totally forgot about it. Margot was helping me," Max said. "I would do it at lunch if it wasn't the first class of the day."
"Ah, that makes sense," said Samantha. "Yeah, sure, you can come. So can you, Margot."
"Thanks. But how do you plan to get around without Filch noticing?" Margot asked her.
Samantha looked around as if checking to make sure the Common Room was completely empty. "I've got an Invisibility Cloak. We can use it," She told them.
Margot and Max looked interested. "An Invisibility Cloak? Where'd you get one of those? Aren't they super rare?" Max asked.
"Got it for Christmas," said Samantha, smiling proudly. She held it up for them to see.
"Who gave it to you?" Margot asked, examining the Cloak in her hands.
Samantha shrugged. "Not sure. There was no name. Come to think about it, there wasn't a note either."
"They're very rare and expensive, it's a strange gift to give someone anonymously," Margot observed.
"Can I try it on?" Max asked.
"Sure." Samantha handed the Cloak to Max, who threw it over himself.
"You're gone, Max!" Margot cried, her eyes wide.
"What, did you think it wouldn't work?" Samantha asked her jokingly.
"Oh, shut up," Margot said, stepping to examine the Cloak again.
"Alright, alright, are we gonna go or not?" Samantha finally asked.
"For sure," Max said.
They climbed out of the portrait hole and then put the Cloak over themselves. Although all three of them could fit, they had to move slowly to avoid having one of their arms or feet slip out.
"Let's go this way, I've never been down here before," Samantha whispered, pointing to a corridor she had passed before but never had the chance to go in.
They slowly made their way down it. There were only two doors, one at the opposite end from which they had come and one halfway down on the right. Exactly opposite from the door was a blank painting.
"I wonder who's in there," Max whispered, glancing uneasily at the blank grey background of the painting.
"Who knows?" Margot replied. "I want to know what's in there," she said, pointing to the door.
"Let's go, then" Samantha said, taking her wand out. "Alohomora," she whispered. She heard a click, and pushed on the door. She had almost expected something to jump out at them, and when nothing happened, she said, "Let's go in, then, shall we?"
The three kids made their way into the dark room, pulling off the Invisibility Cloak. "Lumos," Margot whispered, and Max and Samantha followed suit.
Holding up their wands, they looked around the room.
It was blank and empty. The walls seemed to be painted black, and the floor was stone. It had a cold feel to it, as if it were den degrees below the rest of the castle. Samantha stood still. The room gave her a strange feeling, and she knew something was off with it.
"Sam, come on, let's-," Max started. As he said this, he reached to Samantha's hand to lead her forward, but stopped once he was within an inch of her. He stood frozen, looking to Samantha with fear in his eyes.
"What, what is it, Max?" Margot asked, walking towards the two 11-year-olds.
"it's... it's absolutely freezing right here, right where Samantha is standing," Max said softly, pulling his hand away from Samantha's.
"What are you talking..." Margot's voice faded away as she too put her hand near Samantha. "You're right," She told Max, looking curiously at Samantha, who was looking at them with fear in her eyes.
"Samantha, move," Max said.
Barely allowing herself to breathe, she moved from the spot she had been standing in. Max put his hand there again. "It's... it's just this spot," he said, as he then tested where Samantha was now standing.
"But... but how did I end up in the only cold spot in the room?" Samantha asked nervously.
"Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a coincidence, nothing to do with You-Know-Who," Margot reassured her.
"How did you know-?" Samantha asked.
Margot shrugged. "I don't know. A lot of people are still scared of him, I was a toddler so I've got no idea but we're kind of told to fear him as kids. Your family also has personal ties to him, so I just assumed," Margot explained.
"Oh," replied Samantha. She was slightly upset at having been read so well.
"So," Max said, changing the subject, "What do you think this room is?" he asked.
"No idea..." Samantha said, looking around. The room was completely empty, and she hadn't managed yet to find another cold spot.
They looked around more. Something about the bare room drew them in and they felt like they couldn't leave.
"I feel dizzy..." Margot said after a few more minutes of looking around. She had voiced what the other two were thinking.
"You're probably... just... ti... er," Samantha said before completely blacking out and collapsing on the ground. Margot fell a second later.
"Sam... Mar-," Max said before he fell as well.