October 13, 1993

All right, there are several things I must say about my life recently; it's the most stressful thing in the whole wide world. No, really it is, and it's only going to get worse. Why? Well the obvious stress of our upcoming OWL's, even though they were months away the pressure was really starting to get to me… oh and the fact that that prankster that had been running around was causing more and more trouble and was not taking any of the credit. Even though I had to agree that charming the whomping willow a marvelous shade of pink was genius, I did not like taking the blame. Professor Sprout for instance, kept glaring at me from across the greenhouse during Herbology with the Ravenclaw's this morning and concluded the class by telling Fred and I that our Bubotuber wasn't growing very well and wouldn't be able to produce a significant amount of pus for the third years; it looked just as good as any of the other students however… She ended up giving us a C for effort… but we knew she just gave us that because she believed that we charmed the tree.

On top of all this however they also had to throw in Astronomy at midnight, which was how I just so happened to doze off in History of Magic, which isn't that hard to do in the first place but still it helps…

"Allison… Allison wake up, class is over…" Fred urged as he shook my arm

Slowly I opened my eyes and looked up into his, "Fred…" I murmured as I look up at his smiling face, "Why can't you just let me fall back asleep..?"

"Because, it's lunch time… I'd let you stay if we had to go to another class next." Fred laughed, causing his dark brown eyes to sparkle mischievously.

I laughed wryly as I stood up from my seat, the class was empty except for us three, Binns must have flown off somewhere… Oh well… I sighed; at least I could look forward to lunch…

Fred, George, and I took off down the stairs…

"You know, if we didn't have Binns for a teacher History of Magic might actually be interesting…" George sighed, "Today he was talking about the Troll wars…"

A painting of an old man with an ear trumpet sighed as we passed by, "Children these days, I swear… so ungrateful…"

"Really George, you actually tried to pay attention?" I asked as the painting continued to mumble about the 'ungrateful little children that walked these halls'.

"OWL's are coming up…" He shrugged

"Well trying to pay attention in one class isn't going to help!" I laughed as we entered the main hall.

They both laughed as we walked past a group of Ravenclaw's one of which looked very familiar to us, "Hey look, it's that girl from the train." Fred said as he nodded in her direction.

"You mean Julia?" George asked as he turned to look at her, "I didn't know she was in Ravenclaw…"

"Neither did I…" I murmured as I glanced at her, she was putting something in her bag. How come I had never noticed her in all the years that I had been attending Hogwarts? Maybe she wasn't a fifth year… she certainly looked like one though, "Fred have you seen Julia before that day on the train?" I asked as we walked into the great hall, the smell of warm chicken wafted in the air.

"No, I haven't… why?" Fred replied with confusion

"No reason…" I sighed as we sat down at the Gryffindor table across from Lee.

Fred gave me an odd look.

"I was just curious that's all!"

Fred sighed as he sat down next to me, "Allison, I swear the things you find interesting utterly baffle me sometimes…"

Lee snorted into his hand and I laughed, "Oh well, I'm just weird I guess…"

But in truth a very big conclusion was beginning to come to mind… what if….

"Allison! Are you going to take the chicken leg or not?" lee asked as he gave me a concerned look

"Err… right sorry…" I replied as I picked up the leg with a fork and knife. It might be just the stress that was getting to me, but I think that some of the things that we had hypothesized up in the common room a couple of days ago were wrong… now I just needed some proof…

" The Wiggenweld potion," Snape sneered as he looked around the room, "Can any of you tell me what this potion does..?" he looked around the room, no one was raising their hands, "Very well, Lee Jordan, you haven't participated lately… would you like to share with the class what this potion is used for?"

Lee gulped, "Well… I think it's used for…"

Some of the Slytherin's snickered and I glared at them from across the room.

"Is it possible that the Gryffindor's ego has perhaps finally surpassed their intelligence?" Snape smiled, or well… sneered he never smiles, "Never mind, foolish question for me to ask… that happened long ago, its common fact that the Gryffindor house isn't known for its knowledge..."

Okay, that ticked me off… "Squawk, Snapey wants a cracker!" Oh the many joys of being a metamorphmagi…

Snape turned to face me, "McGonagall…"

"Snapey needs a shampoo, squawk!" I squawked, my voice a perfect imitation to that of a parrot.

Fred, George, Lee, and a good handful of Gryffindor's began to laugh.

"McGonagall…" Snape's face was slowly growing red with fury, "Thirty points from Gryffindor for your rude behavior, and if you make another comment I swear I'm going to give you and the Weasley's detention for the next week." His voice was cruel, and I couldn't help but notice the way his dark greasy hair clung to his face.

"What did we d-?" Fred asked with a grin which slowly faded as the room slowly filled with a ghastly stench.

I knew that stench… Fred, George, and I exchanged a bewildered look before we leapt to our feet and ran out into the dungeons, it was the prankster… but where were they? I only managed to catch a glimpse of brown hair swishing around the corner before the explosion went off, filling the hall with a smell that was at least twenty times worse than our usual explosion... I covered my face on reflex and fell back against the wall.

A few moments passed before the slimy voice of Snape filled the hall, "Allison McGonagall… did you have anything to do with this?"

I slowly lowered my arms to see a un amused Snape glaring down at me with beady eyes.

I shook my head quickly, "I didn't know this was going to go off, I swear! We wouldn't of come out into the hallway if we had an explosion planned…"

His upper lip curled, "Ah, of course… ten points from Gryffindor for lying…" he looked down at my uniform, "Filthy the lot of you… very well get back inside the class room…"

"What? But—"

I turned back to look at Fred and George, they both looked like they had been dragged through the mud…

"I don't care how filthy you are, back inside…" Snape jabbed his finger behind him indicating the door, "Oh, and twenty points from Gryffindor for poor personal Hygiene."

Once Snape's back was turned I rolled my eyes, whoever that prankster was they better show themselves soon… because they were making my life a living hell.

Ooh, the pranksters got pranked! Not intentionally of course but they have bad Karma… like eight years to catch up on… anyways, I enjoyed writing this chapter! The foreshadowing is set up, hints have been dropped, and the Hogwarts pranksters are rivaled for the first time by some unknown brown haired figure. Will the prankster be discovered soon? Oh well, looks like you'll have to wait until next week to find out! Read and Review! Have a Merry Christmas! See ya next year!

Drakefan077 :D