By late October the Hufflepuffs disliked Raynie. To be more specific, it was really the first year girls whom disliked her. It was not as if she was a bad person, Raynie just lost too many points for them to be civil towards her. Not wanting to face the wrath of the girls the boys kept her distance. To be worse, some of the older Hufflepuffs began to take notice of Raynie's daily point loss. She had taken to sitting with the Gryffindors on most occasions, or the kinder, more understanding, upperclassmen.

Raynie spat out her oatmeal and the twins burst out laughing. The other students joined when they saw her intensely wiping her tongue on her napkin.

"What did you do?" she demanded, wishing she could brush her teeth.

"just something we made in potions class the other day," George said, "Don't worry the effects should wear off by lunch time."

"What effects?" Raynie asked, but she could already feel her ears and fingers tingle. Looking at her fingers she could see they turned green, and judgeing by the way Katie's eyes bulged, her ears had done the same. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw some liquid spurt out of someone's mouth. Turning her head to get a better look, she saw it was Charlie, and the liquid hadn't come out of his mouth. Milk had blasted out of his nose.

Elbowing Fred, she directed his attention to his brother, whom was now blotting his robes with a napkin as white fluid dripped from his nose. As Fred laughed his arse off she smeared a bit of her pourage under his toast. George, catching Raynie's eye, winked signifying he was in on the joke. With that simple motion, Raynie now knew that Fred was going to eat the toast without her putting forth the effort.

"I have to go," Katie said covering her mouth and running towards the bathroom.

"Oh my gosh," George said suddenly, "Halloween is on Wednesday!"

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Raynie said, "I'm going to miss the trick-or-treating"

The twins looked at each other, "The what?" They asked looking at her.

"It's a muggle tradition. Muggle children dress up as 'fictional' creatures and go house to house begging for candy," Raynie explained, "It's my favorite holiday, defying stranger danger,"

"Oh! Se have that too," Fred said, "but we call it the sugar parade."

"Yeah, on Halloween night, before the feast. Some students go to teacher's classrooms to ask for candy. Not many students participate, but the professors are always prepared." George continued.

"You know who has the best candy?" Fred asked.

"Who?" Raynie asked scooting closer.

"Professor Snape," George said, "But you have to be first."

"Because he gives all his candy to the first student who talks him out of it," Fred continued.

"He will pretend that he doesn't celebrate Halloween the muggle way."

"Or he pretends to have not clue what you are talking about. You have to convince him that you are the right person to give candy to."

Raynie's eyes grew wide as the twins talked, taking it all in. Her mind calculateing the ways she might be able to obtain the sugary treasure. She didn't even notice when Fred slathered jam on his toast and took a bite. He swallowed the bit, then immediately began to drink the pumpkin juice strait form the pitcher. She did notice however, when juice spilled onto her skirt. She stood and turned to yell at him but stopped. His ears had turned violet. Stifling a giggle, she stepped off the bench.

"I need to change," she said snickering.

"I can fix it." George said holding up his wand.

"I think I'll pass," Raynie said, noticing the malicious glint in his eye, "besides I have to get my books." She walked away, feeling the green spreading up her hands.

Wednesday night, Raynie pulled on the costume her mother had made hor her during her short-lived cleaning phase. The Black satin felt cool on her skin as she pulled up her thigh-highs and attached them to her garter. Grabbing her back she crept out the window, she didn't want anyone to see her and keep her from getting to Snape.

She snuck through the secret passages she had found. She made her way towards the one that kept her from being late to potions. She shoved the statues aside to reveal a hole that the twins once sent her down to see where it lead. She agreed only because they promised to show her some other ones later, they hadn't lived up to their promise yet.

She got down on her hands and knees and began to back into the tunnel. As the statue moved back into place the floor disappeared from under her and she began her decent into the dungeons. A giggle escaped her lips as she slid down the stone, so smooth the dust slid right off and the speed she reached was almost as fast as falling. Then she landed in a pile of sheets, waiting to be folded, the final cushion to her fall.

"Hello Ms. Raynie," said a squeaky voice. Raynie looked and smiled at Dinky the house elf.

"Hi Dinky!" Raynie said as she climbed out of the clothes, "are my sheets clean yet?"

"Not yet, Ms. Raynie, but it should be done this afternoon." Dinky squeaked.

"Should I come and get it then?" Raynie asked.

"No, no, no! Ms. Raynie!" The elf said working herself into a tizzy, "For someone like yourself to come and get your own laundry! This is bad! Bad, Dinky Bad!"

Raynie grabbed the elf's hands before she began hitting herself, "Calm down" Raynie said, "I used to wash my own clothes. Picking them up is no problem, besides I kind of like it. I have to go, see you later." Then she left, she had no doubt that Dinky was banging her head against something, but Dinky always did that. If she tried to stop her and more then she already did, Dinky might run herself through the old fashion dryer thing.

Smoothing her hair she walked towards Professor Snape's office. After fixing her skirt she put a big smile on her face, and knocked.

"I never really learned what happened down there." George told his children as they looked at him wide eyed, "All I know is that she was dragged up to the Great Hall and was given to Professor Sprout, along with a lot of yelling. The only word I was able to pick out were, 'Detention,' 'Trophy,' 'Month,' and 'outfit.' But she never told anyone who put her up to it, even when we were called up and questioned about it, she said it was her own idea. That's how we knew we could trust her, as much as you can trust a prankster."