Heyo everyone! I haven't much to say, other than I hope you enjoy this chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it. Let me know what you think of it!
-JS-
~I own what is obviously mine. Everything else- JK Rowling.~
My first year at Hogwarts was, so far, the best year of my life. I had my group of good friends, and we were constantly laughing. It did not take long before Fred and George became known as the pranksters. I had my fair share of pranks pulled on me, as did Angelina, Alicia, and Lee. We tried to get revenge on the twins several times, but those boys knew their pranks. Not once did they fall for it. However, this was just all in good fun.
As the year continued and the air started to become cold and brisk, our friendships just grew stronger. The three boys and us three girls were, for the most part, inseparable. It was a rare occurrence seeing half of us without the other half. Being as it was, we found ourselves split up in detention every now and then. Our particular favorite professor to bother was Professor Snape, the potions teacher. It's not that we strongly disliked him, it's that he strongly dislikes us. Which made it all the more fun.
The twins had a knack for finding little secrets about the castle, which made it all the more easy for them to cause mischief. Not as though I had anything to complain about, they made my life much more entertaining.
Before we knew it, snow began to fall on the ground, and jingling bells could be heard on carriages. Christmas day was only one week away.
"Detention." Professor Snape said, spinning around to look at us. "Fred, George, and Bethany in Filch's office. Lee, Angelina, and Alicia in mine. And also, five points from Gryffindor. Each!"
We groaned and slouched in our seats. Other Gryffindors glared at us for having so many points deducted.
"We thought he would enjoy having a toilet instead of a desk chair." George commented.
"You turned his desk chair into a toilet?" Alicia asked incredulously.
"Makes life easier for him, you know?" Fred said smiling.
"How do you even know how to do that sort of transfiguration?" I asked. "McGonagall won't be teaching us more advanced transfiguration's like that until next year."
"We'll never spill." They said in unison, grinning at us.
"Yeah, well thanks for getting us all in trouble." Angelina spewed.
The rest of the day continued on slowly. Having potions as the first class of the day made the rest of the classes much more bearable. Care of Magical Creatures was my favorite class. I love everything about animals, and something just strikes my interest when it comes to caring for them.
As we were eating dinner that evening it began to snow.
"Oh, look!" A girl from the Hufflepuff table exclaimed, pointing to the ceiling.
White, fluffy snowflakes started falling from the ceiling of the great hall. The snow didn't fall to the ground of course, the ceiling gave the illusion that it stopped right above our heads.
"Snow!" I said happily. "I love snow."
Angelina sighed. "I know you do."
"I hate snow." Lee commented.
"How could you hate snow?" I said dreamily, propping my head on my hand.
Fred snapped in my face. I punched his arm.
"Ouch." He said sarcastically.
"Oi, kiddos! We better get going to our detentions." George said.
"Why are you so eager?" Alicia asked.
"No reason." The twins replied a little too quickly.
"You boys have something up your sleeve, don't you." I said.
Fred lifted up the sleeve of his robe and looked under it.
"Nope, nothing up my sleeve. How about you, George?"
"No, nothing under mine, either."
"That's not what I meant!" I said, amused.
"Well, you better keep an eye on those two, Bethany. I'd rather not get into any more trouble than we are already in. We also have that 5-page essay that we have to write for Professor Flitwick! How I am going to write an essay that long on a few simple charms is beyond me." Alicia said grumpily.
"You haven't started it yet?" I asked. "I started mine the night he assigned it."
"Not my point. You know I put things off... Anyway, keep an eye on those two!"
"Aye-aye!" I said, staring down the boys.
The three of us parted from the others once we'd finished and made our way to Mr. Filch's office for our detention.
When we got to detention Filch instructed us to begin polishing and cleaning the room.
"When I get back, my figurines better be spotless." He spit out in a nasty voice.
"Mark my words, if you use magic I will find out and tell professor Snape. Come on Mrs. Norris."
He gave us a yellow, crooked smile before picking up his cat and slamming the door shut.
I look around the cramped little office. Mostly everything in the office was gray or brown. It was really a dull place to be. I don't see how anyone could tolerate spending most of their days in this drab little room.
After soaking it all in, I turned to the twins and asked: "Now why on earth would you be so excited for detention? I know you're going to do something."
"Not do something." Fred said.
"Nick something." George finished.
My eyes widened.
"You're going to steal something?"
"No, not steal... we're going to borrow it." George commented.
I gave them a questioning look.
"You see, last time we had detention in Filch's office..." George paused. "We found something interesting."
"We don't quite know what it is yet. But that's what we want to find out." Fred added.
Fred began stomping around on the floor, as if looking for something.
"What in Merlin's beard...?" I began to ask, sporting a little bit of lingo that I picked up from the brothers.
Fred suddenly stomped on a hollow floor board. He wiggled his eyebrows at us and then bent down and picked up the floor board, pulling out a key.
"Watch this." George said knowingly.
Fred unlocked Filch's desk drawer. Inside the drawer were little nick-knacks that once belonged to students. Most of the items were magical noisemakers or special silly quills that were against Hogwarts rules. Fred dug around before pulling out a large piece of folded parchment. It was blank.
"Wow. That's interesting." I said sarcastically.
"But you see, oh young one, why would Filch have an empty piece of parchment locked in his desk drawer if it didn't mean anything?" George questioned me.
I stared at him for a moment before announcing, "We're the same age."
"You're missing the point." George claimed.
"We just want to investigate this for a bit. If we don't find anything interesting, we'll return it." Fred noted before putting it in his bag.
"All right. But you have to tell me the second you discover something!" I pleaded, enjoying the feeling of being on the inside scoop.
"We promise." They said.
"Now, we should probably get some of this work done..." I said mischievously.
With a flick of my wand the figurines were clean and the room was dust-free.
"Now. What to do for the next hour?" I asked, looking at the twins.
"Well..." George grinned, "Seeing as all of our work is done, how about a game of 'turn all the pictures in Flich's office upside-down?"
"My thoughts exactly." Fred said.
We ran out of the door once we heard Filch's footsteps coming our way.
"You kids!" He angrily belted after us. "I will get you!"
We burst into laughter and continued running.
"Wait!" I announced as we arrived back to the common room. "Did you remember that parchment?"
"Er..." Fred said looking around for his bag.
"I got it." George assured, holding it up.
"Good. Now, shall we take a look at it?" Fred asked.
The twins unfolded the parchment and placed it on a table. We stared at it for several moments, expecting something to happen. Nothing. We flipped it over, expecting to see something on the back, but again it was blank.
"Maybe it really is just a boring old piece of parchment." I stated.
"Perhaps..." George paused, "I doubt it, though. There must be a reason for filch locking it up."
"It was with the belongings of the students who were up to no good." Fred said.
Just as he said the last part of his sentence, something on the parchment flickered. Some markings could be seen, but just as soon as they appeared, they were gone!
"Did you see that?" I exclaimed.
"I knew this wasn't just some ordinary piece of parchment!" George expressed.
"Let's see if it does it again, shall we?" Fred said.
"All right... Up to no good!" I said excitedly, repeating the words that made the parchment flicker.
It did it again! Markings and writing flickered on the page, and then disappeared.
"I saw the letter M, I think." I noted.
"There has to be something we can do to get it to stay!" George pointed out.
As we sat around the table conversing to each other in hushed voices, people began to look at us, questioningly.
"I think people know we are doing something fishy..." I whispered. "Perhaps we should call it quits?"
"No way!" The twins said together.
"This is just getting exciting!" Fred announced.
"No way we are leaving this now!" George agreed.
I sighed and said, "Well then perhaps you should take it somewhere other than the common room. Just in case you do figure out what it is. We don't want others to know, right?"
"The lady speaks wisely." Fred told George.
"Oh lady, tell me, how can you be so wise?" George said dramatically.
I stared at them raising one eyebrow.
"I am going to retire to my dormitory." I said. I was eager to tell Angelina and Alicia about all the excitement. Perhaps they would have some input.
"'Night Beth!" They shouted after me as I ran up the staircase.
When I arrived to my room, Alicia and Angelina were chatting on the beds.
"Where have you been?" Angelina asked.
"Well, the twins found something intriguing in Filch's office." I began. I told them all about how we came to find the parchment and how it flickered when we said those certain words.
"Leave it to the twins to nick something from Filch!" Angelina said.
"It is interesting, though." Alicia admitted.
Angelina and Alicia told me all about their detention with Snape and how Lee talked to him so much that Snape threatened to put a silencing charm on him. Hearing that made me laugh. Lee did tend to be quite the gabber.
After they finished, I told them all about how the twins and I flipped all the pictures in Filch's office up-side down. Angelina and Alicia burst into laughter at hearing this.
"You didn't!" Angelina giggled.
"Yes we did!" I said proudly.
"It sounds like you guys had a lot of fun! We didn't get to have any fun." Alicia pouted.
"Nobody has fun with 'Snape, the potions master'." I said the last part in Snape's voice, sending us into another fit of giggles.
"I can't believe you used magic to clean his office after he said not to!" Angelina announced.
"I can't believe he thought we wouldn't use magic!" I said, still giggling.
The three of us chatted a bit longer until our eyelids became heavy.
I felt too rowdy to settle down, but finally I began to fall into a restless sleep.