Chapter 6
Phoenix:
Operation Free the Pudding was going to be absolutely perfect, it was bound to be the best prank Hogwarts will have ever seen. All of the pudding in the hall suddenly rising up in the middle of the Halloween feast and flinging itself at the unsuspecting Slytherin table. It was foolproof! Teddy had done all sorts of research and not taking on different spells, and then hours in their dormitory showing the other three boys what he'd learned.
Phoenix got it down alright though his aim could use a bit of work. He wasn't nearly as good at charms as Teddy or Sawyer, but he was passable. Aubrey was alright if he could sit still long enough to go through with the spell, which was rarely the case.
He found an odd sort of enjoyment from watching Aubrey. The boy was a bit strange looking. He had rather long blonde hair which always seemed to have that 'just got off the broom' look, and it seemed more like a mane than anything, a bit like Holly when he thought of it only more sticking out and less curly. Aubrey was tall too and far too angular, elbows and knees and hip bones and ribs seemed to jut out of the awfully skinny boy at strange angles. He almost made Phoenix feel better about being a tad bit lanky. The boy's nose had been broken at some point in his childhood which just added another foreign angle. Add all of this to the fact the boy's movements were awkward at best and it becomes clear why Phoenix enjoyed passively watching Aubrey's antics.
That evening Teddy and Sawyer had gone down to the kitchens to see if the house elves would help them with their prank. They wanted to know if they would let them come in and cast a few spells on the puddings before the feast, as well as ensuring none of the desserts that were served that evening would be the sort that got lit on fire at the table. This meant Phoenix was left with Aubrey.
"What're you doing Flannery?" Aubrey had come over to the bed Phoenix was sitting on.
"Working out how to magically seal my trunk so that it'll only open for me," he had a few books open before him. He was trying to find something simple enough for him to do, but would still work.
"Sawyer got into your trunk again?" Aubrey was trying not to snigger. Phoenix grabbed a stack of photos taken with his muggle camera from his nightstand and passed them to the other boy, "You tell me."
There were pictures of Teddy and Sawyer in various poses wearing pink bras over their cloaks and on their heads amid Phoenix's pictures of various things and people around the castle. Aubrey had a look of admiration on his face, "Where on earth did they get those bras?"
"I don't know where they got the bras, but I know they got the camera from my trunk." Phoenix let out a humph as he leaned back against the headboard.
"Why are you mad? It's bloody hilarious." Aubrey was sniggering.
"Because I'll run out of muggle film, and I don't have any way to get more." He could ask his parents to send him some, but he wouldn't. His mother had always been a bit of a helicopter mother, watching him a little too closely and hovering around, a little unnecessarily. She would just ask questions if he were to send away for film. She would want him to send her all the negatives so she could see all his pictures, which would lead to awkward questions about his friends in braziers, and other such Sawyer and Teddy related instances.
"You could get your parents to get you some?" Aubrey suggested.
"I don't want to trouble them," he shrugged, in truth he just didn't want to trouble himself.
Holly:
The boys were up to something, she could feel it. They had been spending way too much time studying for them to not be causing trouble. They had been practicing the other day, all four of them, up in their dorm- practicing! It had to be some sort of elaborate prank. Probably for the Halloween feast. She hat to know.
Holly went up to the boy's dormitory and knocked on the door, enjoying the double standard which allowed her to go and harass the boys, but prevented them from coming to the girl's dormitory.
Aubrey answered the door, "A girl! Quick! Hide!" Holly walked past him as dramatically cowered, "Oh hush, Aubrey"
Phoenix was looking over at her from his bed where he lounged, surrounded by books, "To what do we owe the pleasure?" The boy grinned at her.
Holly tried to look as stern as she could, "What sort of a prank are you lot planning on pulling?"
Both boys put on their best innocent face, "What prank?" Aubrey batted his eyelashes slightly.
"We don't know anything about any sort of prank," Phoenix shook his head trying to look as blameless as possible.
"I know you're planning something, probably Lupin's idea, probably for the feast next Friday." She paused for effect, crossing her arms in what she assumed would be menacing, "So what is it?"
Aubrey looked at her, "I swear we don't know anything about a prank."
"No pranks here." Phoenix said, trying to sound casual.
Of course at that moment the door decided to be flung open, "The pranks all set!" Sawyer announced before noticing Holly standing there, "Oh shit…"
Holly laughed as the boys glared at Sawyer, "Your timing's impeccable, they just finished assuring me you all weren't planning any pranks, and I was about to leave." A partial truth- she was planning to stay there and pester them until they told her, but it sounded more dramatic that way.
"You're a git," Teddy was looking at Sawyer with a look Holly could not decipher for the life of her, it wasn't anger, or annoyance, it was something else…
"So tell me about this prank," they all looked at each other nervously. "Oh come on! I'm not going to go run and tell McGonagall!"
"Cross your heart?" Teddy looked at her, unsure.
"Cross my heart," which she did, and that seemed good enough for the boys. They launched into a detailed breakdown of their Operation Free the Pudding. After they had finished there was an excited, mischievous grin on every face in the room, including Holly's.
Sawyer spoke up first, "So you want in?"
Holly could tell the others hadn't been asked about this first, but they didn't seem wholly opposed to the idea.
"Why not?" she said. They all grinned and began talking about spell logistics and sneaking around and other such disruptive activities. Holly felt a surge of excitement, her first real Hogwarts prank. It was great!
Phoenix:
It was terrible! Their first real Hogwarts prank was a total mess, and not in the good puddingy way they had intended, but rather in the people cowering from dessert missiles way. Part one had gone off without a hitch. They had gone down to the kitchens and put the charms needed onto the puddings so they would all move in unison. Instead of them having to fling five tables of desserts, they would only need to collectively fling all the desserts at once. They also put a bonding charm on them so they all dropped at once in a big ball over the correct table. Then they cast an animation charm which would cause them to wiggle ever so slightly, which Sawyer thought would make the whole thing more amusing.
When they went up to the feast they the five of them were so excited they all had to concentrate very hard to keep calm, cool and collected.
They sat through dinner fairly well, only letting the occasional giggle out, but then it was time for dessert. The tables filled with all the wonderful desserts a person could think of cakes, cookies, candies, pies, and of course puddings. Just as everyone was about to tuck in, Teddy gave the signal and the five of them pointed their wands at the pudding and said the agreed upon spells. It was great, all the puddings began to rise into the air, but then things took a turn for the worse.
All the puddings began to zoom around the room like edible airplanes, which was even better than having them just drop onto the next table. It caused a bit of controlled panic, until they looked at one another and realized no one was actually controlling the flying sweets. It was just after they reached this realization that the edible airplanes went kamikaze an begun diving to attack awestruck students and teachers. The five panicking pranksters tried to stop them, but it seemed to only anger the puddings, causing them attack more forcefully than before. Everyone hid under tables, and tried to hex the puddings out of the sky until McGonagall sent out a spell which froze all the dangerous desserts in mid-air.
Just when things couldn't have gone any more awry everyone climbed out from under their tables and began to try to remove the pudding that seemed to be stuck to them… the sticking charm back fired and just caused the pudding to stick to various walls, tables, things on the walls and tables and people.
The five of them decided to try to leave without getting noticed. Lots of other students were leaving, they could casually walk out.
Right when they got to the door a very unwelcome voice came up from behind them, "You mixed a Protean Charm, an epoximise spell and a Locomotor Charm didn't you?" They turned to see the headmistress looking down at them less than amused.
A total of 250 points from Gryffindor (50 from each of them) and a sentencing of detention until Christmas later, and the five not so merry pranksters (along with Quinn) were sitting in the boy's dormitory hiding from the death glares they would surely be getting if they were down in the common room.
The Gryffindors were mad, the night's festivities had managed to not only lose Gryffindor the lead in house points, but put them in last place. Every other house was mad because they had not only been attacked by rouge puddings, but rouge puddings with a temporary sticking charm on them, which had only just started to wear off.
They were fairly certain that they were the least popular students at the moment, and were now dreading the idea of leaving the protection of the boy's dormitory.
Phoenix looked at his watch, it was nearly eleven, and he was tired. Sawyer yawned as if in response to Phoenix's thoughts, "Ladies? Would you mind buggering off? I'm tired."
The girls looked at each other before Holly spoke, "Can we sleep on your floor?"
"No" it was a dozing Aubrey who spoke.
The girls grumbled as they stood up and stretched, realizing how tired they really were.
"G' night gents" Quinn said with a yawn.
"Night," they all replied in unison making the girls giggle sleepily before leaving for their own rooms.
The boys dressed for bed in relative silence before crawling between the covers. They all fell asleep with no trouble at all.
Holly:
They had been kicked out of the boy's dormitory and into the rather drafty stairway. They began to make their way to their own dormitory where their beds waited for them.
"I hope they're sleeping when we come in." Quinn said, not even trying to mask the bitterness in her voice.
"They are always in bed early," Holly hoped today was no exception. The girls they roomed with were unpleasant, but at least she didn't need to spend too much time around them. She would wake up early and stay in the common room late just to avoid their sneers and pointed comments. She didn't understand. She never did anything to them, least not that she could think of. They should have been put in Slytherin.
"They're just such bitches," Quinn looked as bitter as she sounded. It clouded her normally pretty face.
"Least we don't see much of them during the day." Holly said as they got to their door.
Quinn's voice dropped to little more than a whisper, obviously not wanting any of the girls on the other side of the door to hear, "Speak for yourself, I've got potions and herbology with them, as well as flying lessons. They're terrible, they make all sort of comments to me. The worst part is they're not outright rude, just really sarcastic, so I can't tell them to sod off without sounding like I'm the troublemaker." She sighed, "I just wish someone else would see it."
"I see it," Holly said, wishing she could be more help.
"I know… I just…" the girl sighed again, "It just gets to me sometimes."
Holly hugged the girl, trying to comfort her, "Just try not to listen to them."
Quinn nodded half-heartedly and opened the door to their dormitory, happy to see that the other three occupants were sleeping. The girls changed and climbed into bed, welcoming the warmth, but they didn't fall asleep nearly as easily as the boys had. They were both thinking and it was a long time before their thoughts were drowned out by the welcome sensation of sleep.