I have sprained my ankle. :( Not the best of things to do, considering I had Judo on Wednesday and had to miss it for the first time EVER! I sprained it on Monday by running for my bus, and landing funny, hearing a horrible 'crack' as I did so. Then realising that it wasn't in fact my bus, and that my bus had already gone, it started to hurt. When I was finally picked up, I had to sit at home with a packet of frozen brussel sprouts on it. All in all, not the best day of my life. It's getting better now, not as painful as it has been, but I have the most colourful bruise I have ever seen, purple, red, green and blue, and it's swollen, and I have to wear a tube grip, which is highly impractical.
Therefore, to cheer myself up, I shall write another chapter. So, why not, let's find out what's going on at Hogwarts!
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Barty meets Fred and George
Snape strode down the Great Hall like a bat during breakfast, smirking at the looks of terror from the first years, and dislike from the higher years.
He was not the most popular member of staff, and probably, all considered, for good reason too.
He made a note to give Potter, Weasley and Granger an extra scornful sneer as he swept by.
He looked up at the staff table, and gave an inward groan as he saw that the only available space was next to Professor Moody.
It wasn't the fact that it was Professor Moody that made Snape so reluctant to sit next to him, it was the fact that it wasn't Professor Moody. His appearance had been taken on by the most irritating, imature being in existance, and now he had to put up with sitting next to him all through breakfast.
Barty Crouch Junior himself, was not that overjoyed at sitting next to Snape either, he was not having a terribly good day. Not only was he still annoyed about looking like the remains of a dinosaur that had just been dug up, but he still had the horrible taste of polyjuice potion in his mouth, and now faced sitting next to the giant bat.
"All right, Sev?" He said as Snape sat next to him.
"How many times have I told you?" Snape hissed at him. "Don't call me 'Sev'. Alastor Moody has never called me that in his life. It would be very suspicious if he started to now."
"Fine," Barty replied. "Listen, though," he dropped his voice. Snape leant in, expecting some serious news. "Keep an eye on Sprout, I put a toad in her cereal. Should be quite funny."
Snape gave a groan of despair.
"For heaven's sake," he whispered. "You can't keep doing this! It will blow your cover. Who worse to pick for this job? No more practical jokes! You'll have to live without them for a while."
At that moment, there came a squeal from further down the table, as Professor Sprout had the shock of her life as her cereal jumped at her, splashing milk and cornflakes everywhere. Barty sniggered. Snape looked at him in disdain.
On the Gryffindor table, Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to Fred and George Weasley.
"Did you do that?" Harry asked, smiling.
"No," Fred said, a little shocked. "Did you, George?"
"Wasn't me," George replied.
"Whoever did it's a genius," Fred said admiringly. "We've never been able to sneak anything into the teacher's food."
"You know what this means," George said with a grin.
"We have to find out who it is," Fred finished.
"And we will..." George added.
"If it's the last thing we do." His twin said.
-
"I bet they will, as well," Ron said to Harry and Hermione as they walked along the corridor. "Fred and George have hardly ever had any competition for their practical jokes."
"Another Fred and George like person in this school?" Harry said. "I don't think we're ready for that."
"Well I think it's irresponsible," Hermione said huffily. "Honestly. One day one of their jokes is going to get out of hand, and someone will get hurt."
"Nah, they wouldn't do that," Ron assured her. "They're always really careful that their jokes are risk free."
BANG!
The three of them jumped as they heard the explosion from round the corner.
They hurried round to see Filch's office door burst in by what looked like a Filibuster Firework.
"Oh yes, very risk free indeed," Hermione said icily.
Fred and George ran into view panting, and looked around wildly.
"Where is he?" They asked.
"Who?"
"The person who pulled off this magnificant joke." Fred replied with the upmost admiration, regarding Filch's office door.
Filch appeared, wheezing and clutching his chest, took one look at his door, now removed from it's hinges, then at Fred and George, and his face turned purple.
"You broke down my door!" He cried.
"No!" Fred and George shouted in unison, completely truthfully. "We're inoccent!"
"How many times have I heard that?" Filch gave a nasty sneer.
"Something the matter?" Came a voice. The small group turned to see Professor Moody standing behind them.
"These two boys blew up my door," Filch said at once.
"Did they now?" Moody said, Harry wasn't sure, but he thought he saw a flicker of a smirk cross the professor's face before he resumed his look of indifference.
"You better give them a detention then," he said.
"But we didn't do it, Sir!" Fred cried desperately.
"I'm sure that if Mr Filch said that you did then you did," Moody replied firmly.
"You two come with me," Filch said, his anger replaced by sheer joy at punishing these two miscreants, and marched them into his office.
Professor Moody turned and walked away, unable to keep a straight face any more. So, these Weasley twins considered themselves to be a dab hand at practical jokes, did they? It certainly sounded like it from how Filch had immediately suspected them. Perhaps this year would be a little more bearable than Barty had thought.
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Will the Weasley's ever find out who the mysterious practical joker is? It certainly won't be a boring year, that's for sure...
