Rodrick followed the three Gryffindors ahead of him with a bemused expression, he knew where they were going considering he was the one who asked them in the first place. He also knew they were no doubt trying to make sure he didn't follow them... Right? They couldn't be thick enough not to check... As far as Gryffindors went, he didn't consider the Weasley twins remotely brainless, in fact, considering the stunts they'd managed to do and usually got away with, required quite a high level of intelligence.

Which was why he was so confused, the trio didn't bother to turn back once, they'd simply been staring at a piece of parchment as they walked along, he could hear them mention his name quite a number of times, only he wasn't close enough to hear everything. Potter for some reason, as proven after he'd gotten into a fight with the whompin- after his broom had stopped carin- after the dementors participated in their first Quidditch game, could apparently see through his Invisibility charm and yet he never bothered to look back either...

Rodrick quickly lost himself as he followed the trio, slowly going over the fact Dementors had started a Quidditch team... 'Only in Hogwarts...' He thought to himself amused.

He was quickly brought out of his thoughts as he watched the three stop before what he'd assumed was the Hogwarts kitchens. He was startled they'd reached it so quickly before realising they'd no doubt taken shortcuts... He wound up stopping closer to them then he'd preferred. Though the fact he could hear them clearly was an uplifting thought.

...

Harry raised an eyebrow at the twins, they'd been standing in the same spot for some time. "What's wrong?" he questioned curiously, they both looked lost.

"Nothings wrong-" Fred started the chain of chaos.

"-Just a bit confused,"

"About?" Harry questioned, he had an idea of what it probably was. It wasn't difficult to consider, after all, a Slytherin had asked the twin Gryffindors to prank someone... Said Slytherin just happening to be Grindelwald made it even more suspicious.

The two twins shared a glance before turning to Harry, one of them pointing at the map.

"Somebody is missing," Both spoke in unison.

Harry blinked, "Rodrick?" He questioned again almost tired.

The twins nodded, "We figured he'd follow us to make sure we 'pranked' the right house," Fred spoke carefully, Rodrick had made it clear he wanted no mention of the war, not yet anyway... It was a give and take with the boy, they help him and because he's a Slytherin he would need to help them. Out of etiquette. Well, George certainly believed that.

"Pranked?" Harry started, "On second thought, I don't want to know," he quickly shrugged, the less he knew the less likely Rodrick could pin the blame on him. The words seemed to send the two twins into a chuckle.

"Guess he was serious," Fred started.

"He's definitely not here," George added on resigned, eyeing the map, wondering if they were missing something. To his disappointment he, once again, only found three names showing up.

Fred had been about to enter the kitchen before a sudden outtake of breath came out of his twin.

George quickly grabbed hold of the map from a startled Harry, before placing his wand tip to it.

"Find Rodrick," George cast off a spell, using one of the map's feature.

The three student's eyed it with trepidation, the twins wondering where the orphan was.

Harry wondered why they'd never told him of such a feature.

To the three lion's disappointment, nothing changed.

"Maybe you need his full name," Harry added on slowly.

Fred shook his head, "No, it used to work before, we've used it before to find him and the like... Usually, it was just his first name that showed though..."

George instead turned to Harry, "Do you know it?"

Harry contemplated the words, if there was one family who couldn't find out about Rodrick being a Grindelwald, it was the Weasleys. However, another thought seemed to brim in his mind. "Give me the map quickly," he urged.

George blinked once before he handed over the parchment.

Harry pointed his wand towards the paper before remarking... "Find Rodrick Grace,"

Again to his disappointment, nothing changed... However when he turned towards the twins... he found clear shock emanating from their faces at the words.

"What?" Harry questioned.

Fred broke the silence, "His name is!?" the twin had let off without realising it, quite loudly.

Harry on instinct said no. 'I am pretty sure Grindelwald wouldn't have that reaction.' Neither twin believed him if the sudden grins on their faces meant anything.

"Now that explains a lot!" George remarked barely able to hold his laughter.

"Oh man, I didn't see this coming," Fred remarked shaking his head. "Wait until dad hears about this!"

Harry saw some warning signs he didn't exactly understand. "You can't tell anyone!"

The grins suddenly died out to a frown...

Harry was slowly getting more and more confused but he held his point. "No one!"

"But-"

"No buts!" Harry remarked crossing his arms. It was a mistake to mention that apparently.

"Harry you don't understan-"

"No," Harry brokered no argument... Before he felt his shoulder slack, "At least ask him first alright?"

The words seemed to bring out another grin out of Fred... one that looked far more suspicious. "I suppose..." The two remarked to themselves. "It's not like he's disappearing anytime soon anyway," Fred added on his own.

"Why can't we tell anyone?" George asked with a frown on his face... Before it dawned on him. "He doesn't like us does he?"

Harry didn't have an answer, "Ron might've irritated him a tad too much... It's a bit of a secret as well..."

The twins looked at each other before slacking, "Odds of his secret getting out?" Fred asked rather hopeful.

Harry snorted, "Very likely," although he meant an entirely different one, considering he knew it already and no doubt at least the head of years, not to mention Dumbledore and most of Rodrick's friends... and Greengrass... 'Why is it important no one else finds out again?' Harry mused to himself.

The answer seemed to mollify them, "I am giving him until next year... tops. Unless there's some emergency or something," George settled on.

Harry nodded, it was fair and he probably wouldn't be the biggest suspect by then... Hopefully. Both had very different ideas of what emergency entailed.

...

Rodrick was glued to his spot, the twins reaction to his pseudo name almost stunned him in place. He watched as the twins slowly made their way into the kitchen, leaving a bemused Potter behind... 'This is one of those rare times I am gonna keep my mouth shut,' he thought to himself on instinct. Something just felt off. Potter stood on his own, slowly he etched closer in attempt to find out what was so special about the parchment. Unfortunately, however, Harry seemed to notice something with the way he'd suddenly straightened out the parchment, his wand out in front of it. Seeing that, Rodrick decided to play it safe.

"Find Rodrick Grindelwald," He managed to make out the boy's words, his eyes widening slightly before calming down when he realised no one else had been within earshot.

Hearing another irritated sigh confirmed the boy's failure, he heard Harry attempt to find something else, leading to an even more disappointed reaction. 'I am guessing it worked that time...' Rodrick thought to himself amused.

Harry really should've considered the fact Rodrick had in fact not shown up at all...

It wasn't long before the three lions left the area... After sticking around for an extra 15 minutes to be certain. Rodrick knew they were pushing it as much as they could. Breakfast was due to start in half an hour... However, boredom eventually caved them in as they no doubt assumed he wasn't in the area before all three left and Rodrick made his way inside.

Convincing the house elves to switch the two tables for Gryffindor and Ravenclaw was easy enough. One look at his necklace and the house elves were practically squirming. 'Here I'd thought I'd need to borrow Kreacher.' Rodrick shook his head before making his way back up towards the great hall. 'This was going to be good...'

...

And it was indeed.

Rodrick had shown up a few minutes behind the Gryffindors on the account that he'd run and they'd decided to take their time. He was amused to see their surprised looks at seeing 'Nott' (currently transfigured to look like him) already sitting at the Slytherin table. He quickly made his way over, removed the transfiguration on him, and then removed the Disillusionment charm off himself. Malfoy had, helpfully, put both Crabbe and Goyle in front of him, to help stop anyone from seeing it happen... He idly noted the fact quite a lot of the other Slytherins were helping along. He was relieved, to say the least, that it was only their defence and Potions professor who were in the great hall currently.

"Welcome back," he heard Daphne remark from his right, an amused smile on her face, she'd left a space between herself and Nott, the boy had quickly clarified who he was, although she'd figured as much after seeing Rodrick disappear.

"Can you stop using me as a scapegoat..." Nott mumbled to himself mostly.

Rodrick turned towards Nott before he heard Blaise suddenly ask. "Why do you always choose Nott anyway?"

Rodrick smirked at the question but it was Malfoy who answered.

"Because they wouldn't usually expect him at the Slytherin table," the words, naturally royally irritated the hufflepu- lanky Slytherin, while amusing everyone else.

"I am going to need therapy after Hogwarts," Nott remarked, facedown on the table. There was an almost broken tone to his voice.

"Not the best choice of words..." Tracey remarked from Daphne's left, hiding a chuckle behind her hand. unintentionally feeding the fire.

"Give it a year and the transformation will be complete," Rodrick added on.

Nott shot a glare at Grindelwald, an action that only seemed to amuse the boy even more.

"You're finally learning!" Astoria let out, wide-eyed at Nott, confusing him. Luna turned towards her friend before chuckling. Astoria had been in the middle of a piece of cake.

"All of you can go to hell," Nott twitched.

"I didn't take you for a believer in hell," Blaise's voice was laced with sarcasm.

"Hey, where do you think Fiendfyre comes from?" Rodrick added on before turning when he heard Luna Lovegood speak up.

"I don't imagine Hufflepuffs are likely to go there... You'd be all on your own," Luna, genuinely remarked with a hint of empathy... It sounded eerily similar to the strange dreamy voice she usually used.

Rodrick was starting to miss it, the girl had stopped, mostly, going into those random trances, it stopped after Astoria had actually told her she was doing it, apparently, the blonde had never even realised her tone of voice sometimes sounded odd.

Nott blinked a few times... 'Can I ever win? will I ever catch a break?' He shook his head, defeated, he could've sworn he heard a small voice echoed the word 'no' over and over in his head.

The commotion quickly died out, however, at least the one at the Slytherin table did.

The Gryffindor one had just exploded.

It wasn't harmful by any means, it was mostly the food suddenly exploding, practically covering every Gryffindor's face in whatever they'd been eating. For a second Rodrick had been worried the content's of what they'd already eaten would explode too, however seeing nobody in need of emergency attention, he deflated. It meant his potion hadn't gone wrong.

It took a few moments before everyone comprehended what the hell had just happened.

Harry Potter stared in shock at the drink he'd been trying to have before his face had decided to take a sip instead, he wasn't sure where the chicken leg had come from. He turned towards the twins.

"I told you this would happen," he remarked exasperated. 'Honestly, what were they thinking...'

Everyone at the Gryffindor, literally everyone had pieces of food sticking out of their hair, some even had drinks going down their robes. One boy was baked in Gravy.

Fred turned to his brother and found confusion lining his twin's face.

"I am almost certain he wasn't there... And we definitely made sure it was for Ravenclaw..." George whispered, leaving only Fred to hear.

Fred nodded at that before a thought finally sprouted in his head. "You know what this mean's oh brother of mine?"

George stared for half a second before understanding quickly dawned on him. "He doesn't want a war-"

"-not one with Ravenclaw in any case-"

"one with-" Fred added on, slowly turning around, eyeing everyone down the table. He quickly confirmed that the entire house had indeed been pranked.

"Us," Harry Potter surprisingly finished. 'No wonder they wanted to help him... They probably saw this coming' He thought.

The two twins turned to Harry before they switched their gaze over towards an openly smirking Rodrick. The rest of the hall had erupted in laughter. The twins could hear complaints from their own house, students annoyed, angry and in Hermione's case livid. However, the noise simply died out on them as they stared at the sole Slytherin not laughing... They turned back to each other and smiled. 'If Slytherin wanted a war... That was what they were getting.' Neither twin doubted it would be difficult to convince their house to join in, usually, they would've gone about pranking the Slytherin back on their own, however, from the way the Slytherin's looked, it looked planned...

Word quickly spread around the Gryffindor table, Harry it seemed, had no problem linking the blame to the boy.

"Why on earth would someone do that!" Harry heard Hermione shriek at the mess. A mess that had surprisingly wound up sorting itself out. It didn't help that both Professors seemed to find it funny. One was Snape, who had no qualms keeping his amusement open, the other was a Marauder, who to his credit tried to hide his amusement, he remembered large-scale pranks from his own time at Hogwarts, he knew well enough the castle could sort the mess out quickly... Honestly what else did they expect? He was glad no one had decided to start throwing food around... Also glad Sirius was no longer in the castle because he likely would've started.

True to lupin's thoughts, the mess was quickly cleared, replacing the dishes with new food... Food the Gryffindor's simply didn't trust. The fact the mess on their persons didn't disappear might have said something to do with it.

"So," Fred decided to break the ice, at least to his own housemates, most of the other houses were still either laughing or trying to stop.

"Whose interested in payback?" George questioned. Grinning at the sudden looks of determination coming to their housemates.

For once, the house didn't just blame Rodrick, they simply blamed Slytherin.

For the first time ever, one of the common stereotypes for the house of snakes was surprisingly accurate. Slytherins could be evil in many different ways, the same way a Gryffindor could be reckless in many different ways. Although to the lion's misfortune, Slytherin's usually knew where the limit was. Not to say they followed it ... But they could at least see it... Gryffindors had no such luck.

Slytherin had the first hit... But Gryffindor would have the last laugh... Both twins almost made a vow out of it, determined not to get outdone.

If they'd known about the house cup, they would've realised that Gryffindor would, in fact, be the last laugh.

...

"You know you're really evil sometimes Rodrick," Blaise remarked.

"Thank you," Rodrick replied back, a grin on his face, earning a playful slap from Daphne.

"Not, something to be happy about," Daphne remarked rolling her eyes.

"You know, I keep forgetting that we already have the house cup," Tracey spoke out, amused.

"That's the evil part he's referring to," Nott grumbled. Even the food covered Gryffindor wasn't doing anything to cheer up his mood.

Malfoy had a smirk on his face, there was no way the twins were living that down, they had too much Weasley blood in them too. Even if they'd decided to only get back on them once, the Slytherin would simply repeat it, forming a chain until the end of the year. Of course, the faster Gryffindors accepted the war, the more likely they could hit back properly... Knowing his luck it was highly likely they'd just start the war themselves. It was one of the main reasons Rodrick had agreed to the idea of getting the twins involved in the starting of it all.

He turned towards a housemate and felt a chill when his eyes landed on Warrington... The Slytherin looked too happy... Or more importantly too relaxed. He shrugged the feeling off, the worst that could happen was a Slytherin ending up in the hospital... Scratch that, the worst thing that could actually happen was a student dying... and Malfoy knew for a fact it wouldn't be Grindelwald. Warrington's days were numbered... He knew the student would try to push his boundaries some way or another... It would be glorious to watch the half blood finally get put in his place.

It was quite simple really, history itself could prove it. If two Slytherins compete for influence, it's the pureblood that wins.