Padma straightened up, trying to see above the crowd, but she wasn't exactly built for height. Which, she thought, was really a pretty big shame, considering the situation Fred and George found themselves in, and how they were going to resolve it, was probably worth watching.

Instead, she couldn't see past some hugely built Gryffindor six year, who didn't even have the sense to know the unspoken rule that people as tall as him always stood in the back, precisely so that a situation like the one Padma was in wouldn't happen.

"Excuse me," Mandy Brocklehurst called, elbowing her way through people. "Short people coming through!"

"Huh?" grunted the huge Gryffindor as Mandy's well-practiced elbows made short work of him, buffering him to the side. Mandy ignored him and wormed her way through the space where the Gryffindor had been. Padma was about to follow her when a sudden idea hit her, stopping her in her tracks.

"Padma!" complained Su Li, pushing against Padma in an effort to get her to move. "Why are you stopping?"

"Well," said Padma slowly, the thrill of the idea shooting through her as she turned to look at her friend. "If everyone's busy here, that means that they won't notice if someone's in the Defense Against the Dark Arts Classroom."

"So?" said Su, before what Padma was insinuating hit her. "Nonono, Padma, Your not thinking about getting into trouble."

"Well, a little bit," said Padma, but hurried on as Su blanched. "Don't worry, you and Mandy don't have to come with me."

"Are you sure?" asked Su, biting her lip, but looking very relieved that she had been let off the hook.

"Its fine," reassured Padma, though privately she wished that she someone would come with her. "Don't worry about it. I know how you feel about breaking the rules."

"You're going to break the rules?" asked Su, so horrified that she took a step back, knocking into a sixth year Hufflepuff.

"Maybe a little," said Padma "I'll probably see you and Mandy after dinner."

"Ok," said Su, though she didn't look convinced that she would see Padma alive again. Nevertheless, she pushed after her best friend, leaving Padma in the crowd.

Padma started up the stairs, going against the flow of the crowd. It was hard as people didn't want to move, too engrossed looking at Fred and George to notice her, but it got easier the further she got. She was almost free of the crowd entirely when she caught a glimpse of Terry, Anthony, and Michael leaning against a banister, peering down at the Weasley twins.

Padma hesitated for a second, thinking it over, and then concluded that she definitely didn't want to do this by herself. It was one thing for Su and Mandy to not want to break the rules, but the three boys had already broken the rules for six months to attend illegal meetings.

After a minute of struggling, Padma managed close the distance between them enough grab the back of Anthony's robes.

"Hey!" Padma shouted over the bustle. It seemed that the crowd had only gotten louder since she had left Mandy and Su down at the bottom. Padma wished they quiet down a bit, but it seemed unlikely that would happen. In absence of that, Padma resigned herself to talking louder than usual.

"Hey yourself!" shouted Anthony, nudging sideways into Terry so that Padma had room to join them.

"What's up?" asked Michael, before hastily adding as Terry opened his mouth, "Besides Peeves I mean."

Terry closed his mouth, looking disappointed. Padma guessed that she had missed something, but well used to this, she plowed on.

"Can you three come with me?" she said, gesturing above the crowd to the empty part of the stairs.

"And miss the chance to see Umbridge get humiliated?" said Terry, blue eyes widening innocently. "A once in a lifetime opportunity?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," said Padma, as a sudden upsurge of noise came from the crowd. "But not here."

"That sounds promising," said Michael.

"What? Where are we going?" asked Terry, following them nevertheless as they made their way up the crowd. This time, Padma let Anthony deal with going through the crowd, opting to follow in his footsteps. The crowd parted for him a bit easier, albeit still unwillingly, but soon enough, they were able to get to an empty corridor.

"What did you want to say?" asked Michael, stopping a few paces from her. Terry and Anthony did likewise, forming a loose semi-circle around her.

"We're missing the great student revolt of 96' for this, you know," said Terry, casting a longing look toward the Entrance Hall.

"It occurs to me," started Padma, screwing up her courage. Though she was convinced that it was a good idea, she was starting to feel her stomach churn at the prospect of what she was about to propose. "That Umbridge is going to be busy dealing with the Weasley twins and the swamp for a while."

"They have caused a bit of trouble for her," said Anthony solemnly.

"Well, while she's dealing with them," continued Padma, "Her classroom is likely to be empty."

"And it wouldn't it be a shame of something happened to it, wouldn't it?" said Terry, a grin growing on his face. Michael had grin of his own, and even Anthony was smiling a bit at the prospect.

"I was thinking, that it would be absolutely appalling if someone enchanted her blackboard to not display the lesson plan correctly," said Padma, feeling a little self conscious as they three boys continued to watch her.

"That would be simply dreadful," agreed Terry, rubbing his chin.

"That's good," said Michael, sounding impressed. "Very good. I'm surprised you came up with it."

"Gee, thanks," said Padma.

"I didn't mean it like that," scolded Michael. "I meant that I never suspected you'd be the one to make trouble like that."

"You also didn't think I would enchant your trunk so that it would stay closed until you gave it a password of my choosing," pointed out Anthony.

"That's a good point," admitted Michael. "I was positive it was Terry."

"I may have given him the idea," said Terry.

"When was this?" asked Padma, genuinely curious.

"Back in our third year," Michael said, grimacing a little as he said it. "I think it was before you learned to talk. But I believe we were talking how I never expected you be someone to make trouble."

"Well, hidden depths and all that," said Padma, blushing a bit at the compliment. (She as pretty sure it was a compliment, though she wasn't positive) "Are you guys in?"

"Absolutely," said Terry.

"Me too," said Anthony. "I mean, as a prefect, I probably shouldn't, but some people are worth making an exception for."

"Guess that makes all of us," said Michael

"Let's get started then," said Terry. He strode off toward the third floor, whistling cheerfully, Michael and Anthony right behind him. Dutifully, Padma trailed after them, the nervous feeling in her gut loosening a little as someone else took charge. As they reached the third floor, Terry looked wistfully toward the Entrance Hall, where loud cheers could be heard, but didn't stop, climbing the steps toward the third floor.

"Look at that," Anthony marvelled, as the four of them entered the third floor corridor. "The suits are not in the same state we left them last."

Padma was amazed he say anything. Her mind was more thinking along the lines of 'PINNNNNNKKKKKK!'

"Holy snot," groaned Michael reverently, as one of the pink suits or armour screeched at him like an angry cat.

"That much pink," said Terry weakly, though he recovered quickly "Somewhere blacksmiths are crying into their aprons."

In spite of their causal words, both Terry and Antony sped up, grimacing a bit as the suits meowed pitifully at them. After a few seconds of staring at them, Padma thought they weren't so bad; it was just the unexpected effect of seeing them in the most insulting pink colour known to mankind that had stunned her.

Still, she wouldn't pretend she wasn't grateful when they filed into the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom. The classroom was still as they had left when they had gone down to lunch, if a bit quieter. Though, when Padma thought about it, it occurred to her that it had no reason to be different, and came to the conclusion that it was just her nerves doing their best to disrupt her reality.

"Out of curiosity," said Terry, weaving his way through the desks. "Were you thinking of only messing with the blackboard, or also rearranging the furniture?"

"I should hope that we're only messing with the blackboard," said Michael sharply. "It'll only take her a few moments to fix the furniture."

"And she may notice it when she walks in," said Anthony. "Which would ruin the whole bit where it surprises her.

"I don't want to be in here if she comes back," said Padma, checking her watch, though she wasn't sure exactly why, considering that she wasn't even sure why Umbridge would come back into this room for.

"Relax, everyone's either still watching Fred and George, or else at dinner, we got plenty of time," said Terry, pulling out his wand and examining the blackboard.

"First time breaking into a classroom, huh?" said Michael, not unsympathetically. "Don't worry, if you hang out with Terry more you find you doing that a lot."

"I only wanted to see if we could!" protested Terry, tapping gently on the blackboard. "I always wondered what kind of charms they put on these."

"What charms have you found?" asked Anthony, pulling out his own wand and tapping the same as Terry.

"None," said admitted Terry.

"Well, that should make it easy," said Anthony

"Yeah, all we have to do—" started Michael, but was interrupted when the door started to open.

The four of them shot a look at each other, startled expressions on her faces. Fearing the worst, Padma turned toward the door, expecting to see Umbridge storming in. What she saw instead was a face mirroring her expression.

And Padma meant that quite literarily. Parvati had stuck her head into the room, but had frozen halfway through. Padma looked deep into her twin's mind and gathered that she hadn't expected to see other people in this room.

Ok, so Padma couldn't really look into her twin's mind, but after years of knowing her sister, she could read the expressions on her face as easily as she could read a book, and in any case, this was a pretty easy one to guess.

"Parvati? What's wrong?" came Lavender's voice from the other side of the door.

Parvati pushed the door open all the way, revealing Lavender behind it.

"Oh, hey you four!" Lavender said brightly, looking only a little taken back as she walked in.

"I didn't expect more guests," said Terry. "Please, make yourself at home."

"Fancy seeing you here," said Parvati, stepping in as well and shutting the door behind her.

"I couldn't think of a better time than now to break in," admitted Padma, idly playing with her hands as she looked at her sister.

"Yeah, I had the same thought," said Parvati, playing with the silver bangle Padma had given her a few years ago. It was just a nervous tick of Parvati's, but it somehow calmed Padma to find that her sister was nervous about being caught too.

"The both of you had the same thought at the same time?" said Michael, pausing in his tapping of the wand against the blackboard. "Who would have thought?"

"Well, you know what they say," said Padma.

"What do they say?" asked Lavender, pulling out vast amounts of sweets out of her bag and piling it on one of the desks closest to the door.

"Mediocre minds think alike," said Padma, completely straight faced. "What's the plan with all the sweets?"

"And you are twins, so you're bound to think alike," said Michael.

"That's not really how it works," said Padma.

"Unless you're the Weasley twins," said Parvati.

"But they're just creepy that way," said Padma. "But, what's the plan with the sweets?

"They're some of Fred and George's Skiving Snackboxes," said Lavender. "We were thinking we'd stick them inside the desks, and then everyone has a chance to skip class."

"That blackboard's ready now," said Anthony. Terry immediately started using his wand to write on the board.

"That's actually really brilliant," admitted Michael, doing likewise.

"It is," agreed Terry, letting his wand relax. On the blackboard, the words 'Psychohistory has predicted your failure to retain this position!' he glanced at it, and then, apparently satisfied, looked directly at the pile of sweets Lavender had piled on the desk. "Should I ask why you bought that many Skiving Snackboxes in the first place?"

Lavender flushed bright red and let out a guilty laugh.

"That's a no," said Parvati, grabbing a handful and starting to place them into the desks.

"I think we could have guessed that," said Michael, the words 'Peeves was here!' floating on the board for a moment before fading into it.

The six of them set to work, Terry, Michael, and Anthony all working the boards, while Parvati and Lavender dispensed the Snackboxes into all the desks. Padma split her time between the two, helping stuff the Snackboxes in desks, and then the next moment jumping back to the blackboard when she thought of something else to write.

It was surprisingly time consuming, and though they were so focused in their tasks that they were already three-quarters of the way through when Parvati spoke.

Anyone know where Umbridge is?" asked Parvati acting overly causal, but betraying herself by glancing at the door, as though Umbridge might come bursting through at any second.

"In the castle," Padma offered unhelpfully, from where she was standing by the board writing, 'The class is over, please hex your teacher and leave in an orderly manner'.

"Gee, thanks Padma, you're so helpful," replied Parvati, rolling her eyes. "To you have any more helpful things to tell us? Like if the sky is blue? Or maybe you're going to tell us that Umbridge is still a bitch?"

"Not at the moment," Padma replied, a hint of a smile on her face; Parvati glared at her for a second longer, then smiled reluctantly back at her.

"that's just adorable, the twin thing," said Terry, stepping back as the words 'Babbitty Rabbitty rabbit may have had a cackling stump, but at least she wasn't as cracked as Dolorey toady,' flickered on the board and faded.

"We almost done over there?" asked Michael, as he finished writing, 'This position open for applicants by September 1, please send Professor Dumbledore a letter if interested.'

"Only got three more desks," chirped Lavender.

"Or about twenty more sweets," said Parvati, rolling her eyes at her friend.

"I can't think of anything else to say," said Anthony, watching his latest words fade into the board.

"Me neither," said Padma, tapping her wand against the board as she thought.

"Personally, I think I've got a few more, but they can wait," said Terry, stepping back from the board and scratching his chin.

"They can wait until you've thought of them you mean," asked Parvati shrewdly.

"I could write them now, but I might run out of blackboard," said Terry. "I need to condense them."

"Don't we all?" said Anthony, as his last phrase (a three word entry) disappeared.

"You don't seem to be having that problem," said Lavender, smirking at him as she put the last few Snackboxes into a desk.

"He's just better then Terry at it," said Michael, chuckling at his own wit as Terry shook his head disappointedly.

"Clever," said Terry in a tone that spoke an implication that was far from the meaning of clever.

"Not his finest work," observed Padma, stowing her wand in her robe.

"I'll give it points for effort," said Parvati.

"You're all too kind," said Michael, stepping back. "Back to the business at hand though, I do believe we're all through here."

The six of them stared around the room, observing their handiwork.

"Doesn't look like we did a whole lot, does it?" said Lavender.

"I think that's a good sign," said Anthony.

"I know," pouted Lavender. "It's just, I wanted to see it."

"Who's got Umbridge first tomorrow?" asked Padma.

"Fourth year Gryffindors," said Michael.

"So your girlfriend should be able to tell what the fruits of our labours were," said Terry, the easy smile back in place. "Excellent. Which, by the way, rhymes with dinner, which we should head down to."

"That doesn't rhyme at all," pointed at Lavender.

"Ahh, that's what everyone says," said Terry, opening the door and holding it open for Lavender as she walked out. "Contrary to popular belief however, excellent has a long historical predicnet..."

Parvati sent a Padma a look that said, "Is he always like this?"

Padma raised an eyebrow and nodded her head slightly, meaning "he's usually worse."

Parvati giggled a bit at that and walked out after Anthony. Padma followed her, casting one last look back at the empty classroom before she shut the door behind her.

Padma got the sense that Umbridge's troubles were just starting.