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"So let me get this straight, Cat." Mary stated, flicking back her braids as she did so. "You want to ask James Potter and Fred Weasley for spell lessons, not Alice, who is your friend and also, not a bigheaded prat."
Lessons started tomorrow, and the three friends were soaking up as much free time as possible. The common room was packed with cheerful Gryffindors; most of whom were up to no good. From here alone, Catrin spotted a plate of strategically placed Custard Creams, several Dungbombs put in prime seating spots, and, in every nook and cranny, fake wands. She suspected that Fred and James had planted most of them.
"That's about right." Catrin leaned back lazily in her chair, letting chunks of hair obscure her vision of the scarlet ceiling above her. A snitch flickered past her vision as she stared, determinedly not looking at her friends.
"Why don't you want lessons from Mary?" Asked Valerie. From the little-girl impression, Catrin deduced she was staring wide-eyed at her friend, and felt a smile bubble up inside her at the pathetic tone of voice. "I could never go up to those two. I might come back with bright pink hair or something!"
"They're not that bad." Mary admonished her. "Just...over-confident."
"Arrogant, you mean." Catrin flipped upright in her chair and together the three girls watched the fireside where James and Fred had set up shop, accompanied by another boy with blond, curly hair. There was definitely something secretive in their manner...
"Right. I'm going to ask them." She stood up and, ignoring the giggle from Mary, marched over to where the boys were seated before she could lose her nerve.
"They're in my year. And they've already proven they're good at spells. I don't think Alice would teach me as well as them." Catrin answered simply, watching three heads bent together in what looked like prayer, but was probably something a lot less holy.
"Right. Here goes." And before she could lose her nerve, Catrin stood up and marched over to the fireside, ignoring Mary's less-than-helpful snort of laughter.
The boys looked up as they saw her coming, but it was too late to back out now- Catrin unceremoniously plonked herself down in the squishy armchair next to them, uncomfortably close to some kissing fifth-years.
James smirked at her, running a hand through his ink-black hair. "So Jones, crossed over to the dark side? Good, we need someone with enough fighting skills to beat off the teachers when they try and put us in detention."
Next to him, the blond boy let out an idiotic guffaw. Catrin glared at him. He sneered back.
"Not on your life, Potter." She shot back, resting her elbows on her knees. "I wanted to ask you and Weasley a favour."
"A favour? Well, doth the haughty maiden needeth help?" Fred had shot to his feet to make an elaborate bow. "I am yours to command, fair damsel."
"Well, sit down and shut up."
Fred put his hand to his forehead and swooned. "Oh, I am injured! Prithee, say no more! I must go and fight a dragon to restore my self-confidence!"
"Hah! Good one, Fred!" The blond guy- Catrin decided to call him Slimy Creep- snorted again.
Beside them, the kissing couple broke apart to stare at them. Catrin felt a blush start to flame on her cheeks and leaned forward furiously, ignoring Slimy Creep's titters.
"I wanted," she said angrily, "to ask for defence lessons. You know, defensive spell-casting."
That shut the slimeball up. He stared at Catrin as though she had volunteered to fly naked around Hogwarts screaming that she loved bogey-flavoured Bertie Bott's beans.
"Woah." Fred said, dropping down into his seat. "You feeling alright? Leave the fighting to us; we know what we're doing."
"I want to fight!" Catrin said indignantly. "I can teach you something in return, you know."
"What, how to karate-kick like a crazed Chimera? We already know how to defend ourselves, dimwit." James smiled lazily, and leaned backwards in his seat. "You need something better than that."
Catrin glanced around at the two fifth-years: who were pretending to do something else whilst really listening avidly to every word spoken. Her mind was working overtime, churning out ideas. What would force them to do what she wanted? In front of her, James gave a smirk and turned back to the others.
"A prank competition." She blurted out, before her brain could comprehend what she was saying. "We each perform a prank, and we see whose is best."
That caught their attention. She thought, watching all three boys turn to her with dumbfounded expressions on their faces. She grinned, riding a sudden high. "Or are you too chicken?"
"Are you kidding? The question is, are you?" Fred had sat up suddenly, eyes round with anticipation.
"That's settled, then." Catrin leaned back in her seat as well, enjoying the expressions on their faces. "Okay: the aim is to pull off the perfect prank without getting caught, and possibly with putting the other party into detention."
"Oh boy!" Slimy Creep almost shouted, but he was easy to brush off. James, meanwhile, was looking as though Christmas had come early.
"You're on." He said gleefully. "You are so going down, Jones."
"Not as much as you, Potter." She shot back. "If I win, you have to give me lessons. And dye your hair pink for the day."
"Deal." Fred interjected. His smile suddenly became a lot more evil. "And if we win, you have to cover yourselves with owl droppings and walk straight into McGonagall's office. And ask whether she realised that she was driving her students insane."
"Oh god." Catrin exclaimed. The stakes had suddenly got an awful lot higher.
"You scared?" Taunted James, narrowing his eyes. "I can think of an excellent forfeit..."
"No! You're on. Let the pranking of all pranking begin."
James stuck out his hand; she shook.
"Indeed."
"You asked us to do what?"
"Don't be upset!" Pleaded Catrin, willing Mary to understand. "It'll be fun! And you can pay the boys back for...anything they've ever done! Come on, Mare! You know you want to..."
"Argh!" Mary threw her hands up in the air. "It's irresponsible, it's stupid, it's rash...it sounds great. When can we start?"
"ASAP, I guess. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist! But now we need to think of a prank- a really really good one..."
"I won't be doing the forfeit, you will. Now we have to convince Alice and Valerie. Hmm, I'm not- hey!"
Mary jumped in surprise as Catrin dragged her into the nearest alcove, behind a suit of armour. "What are you-"
"Shh!" Catrin hissed, clamping a hand over her friend's mouth. "Look!"
Ahead of them, two figures could be seen, wearing the distinctive green robes of Slytherin. As Catrin watched, they strutted towards her, one of them drawing a bottle out of his pocket. She stiffened, recognising the bulky form of McLaggen next to the slighter one of Scorpius Malfoy. What were they doing?
Her question was soon answered, in a confusing sort of way: McLaggen proceeded to sprinkle whatever was in the bottle in a circle on the ground. Once, he almost dropped it, and was berated by Malfoy.
"Idiot! Be careful! Too much of that and they'll never find us again!"
"Sorry." Muttered McLaggen, having finished the circle. "There, try that."
"Fine, fine- you sure that they won't be able to see us?"
"Yep. Come on!"
Before Catrin and Mary's astounded eyes, Malfoy stepped into the circle: and vanished from sight!
Catrin felt Mary's intake of breath against her palm and knew that she was just as shocked as her- and Mary had a lifetime's worth of magical experience.
McLaggen prodded at the edges of the circle and cast a couple of silent spells, before announcing "Yeah, it works fine. You can come out now."
And then Malfoy simply stepped out of thin air, giving a triumphant whoop.
"Yeah!"
"Ha, we did it! Wait till the others hear about this!" McLaggen punched his associate on the shoulder, and together the two boys bounded down the corridor, looking like a pair of over-eager rabbits in their haste to get to the Slytherin Common Room.
Catrin waited until she was quite sure that they wouldn't come back, then sprinted to the place where they had been, leaving Mary to overbalance and crash into the suit of armour behind her. Once the clanging had stopped, Mary staggered over, hair sticking out in all directions.
"Ugh...what just happened?"
"I don't know..." Catrin looked at the drops scattered on the floor. It looked suspiciously like water...but by now, she knew better.
"Mare, watch me." She called, and stepped into the circle.
It was as though someone had laid a sheet of glass between her and everything. Mary's face appeared blurred, her voice appeared distant and tinny, but when Catrin reached forwards, her arm passed easily through the barrier.
Mary's mouth, she could just about make out, was wide open.
"Wow." She said, watching as first Catrin's hand, then arm, and then the rest of her body appeared. "I wonder..."
"I know what you're thinking." Catrin said, getting to her knees and scrutinising the drops. "You're thinking, why do they need something so advanced?"
"No, actually." Said Mary patiently. "I was wondering whether it could be bottled again. I think we have our Master Prank!"
The next day came in a haze of mist and drizzle which soaked through the thick stone walls of the castle and left everyone's spirits dampened by the relentless fog. Despite this, though, the first-year girls of Gryffindor were suspiciously cheerful.
"Ready?" Asked Catrin to the others, attempting to wrestle her hair into some manageable shape in the mirror.
Mary nodded enthusiastically, Alice and Valerie less so. Val had actually turned a rather interesting shade of lime, and Alice was studiously scouring her teeth with the air of someone who was trying not to think about what she was actually doing.
"Come on, Cat, what're you-Merlin's beard!" Alice had popped her head around the entrance to the dormitory bathroom, and her jaw dropped at the sight of Catrin's spectacular bed head. "I'd like to know who your parents were, Cat- they must have had afros or something!"
"I'd like to know too." Catrin muttered, giving up and splashing liberal amounts of Mary's Doctor Slinkard's potion onto her head, watching the mess untangle before her eyes. She scrutinised her reflection. Who had given her those grey eyes, that black hair? It was a mystery she intended to solve.
The girls practically sprinted down to breakfast, sitting themselves purposely next to Fred, James and the Slimy Creep. Catrin bit back a sigh of impatience at the fact that she was expected to sit next to him, and started wolfing down her porridge with gusto.
"So, girlies." Slimy Creep oozed at them. "You ready to be beaten?"
"Duh." Mary flashed back, causing him to smile sweetly.
"You don't stand a chance, but it sounds as if you want to beat us."
"With clubs rather than in a competition." Catrin muttered to Alice, who giggled reluctantly.
"Yep, you two are totally doomed." Fred said cheerfully over a gigantic breakfast of sausages, a view that was enthusiastically confirmed by James' bacon-filled mumblings. "Just you wait till-"
Just then, Alice let out a spectacular groan, and heaved over her bowl of cereal. Her face was still as green as it had been in the Common Room, and now it seemed as though there was something actually wrong with her.
"Merlin's underpants! Is she alright?" Gasped Mary from across the table. "You'd better take her up to the hospital wing."
"No, I'm fine-" Alice's reassurances were broken off by another whimper. Gasping slightly, she nodded.
"Can you two tell Professor Patil that we'll be late?"
"Sure thing." Mary nodded, and allowed Catrin to escort Alice out of the hall. Five pairs of eyes watched them go, two of them anxiously, three of them gleefully.
Once outside, Alice straightened up and wiped the green eye shadow from her face. "Did I do alright?"
"You did great!" Catrin assured her, taking the bottle of mysterious potion out of her pocket- which had taken a lot of siphoning off the floor. Last night they'd tested it on a school barn-owl, with the result that it disappeared, before popping into existence above a very surprised Victoire, who'd asked what they were doing, and had been only too happy (after some persuasion) to lend them her makeup.
"Right, let's go!" Catrin took a swig from the tiny bottle, and then handed it to Alice, watching fascinated as her friend slowly faded out of existence.
The only thing left was the bottle, which wiggled around in mid-air before slipping into an invisible pocket.
The prank was on!