Chapter 4 Preparations and Pranks

“I don’t really know, but we need to be careful it doesn’t have us written all over it.” We’re in enough trouble as it is and more isn’t really an option.

“Yeah, I know.”

“I never remembered it being this hard to think of a plan.”

“We just need some practise.” George winks, I love that wink. Focus Lotte! Plan, plan, plan…

“Got it!”

“Yeah?”

“Disco Voldie.” I don’t think he gets it so I expand: “You know how we said Voldemort could dance?” George nods. “Well, someone must’ve heard us and spread the rumour, because I’ve been hearing some first years talking about it and how it would be so easy to make a dance video of it.” George is still looking at me with confusion. “Well, if we could manage to get some video material of him, we can edit it so it looks like he’s dancing. I think I could even do that or else I’ll just have to use my female charm to get some computer geek to do it for me. Then we make sure it’s shown at the assembly this Thursday, for everyone to see.”

“They’d be sure it’s us.”

“That’s the beauty of it all; they won’t. I’ve heard the first years talking about it and I’m sure that we could make all the leads point their way.”

“That’s really smart.”

“Always the tone of surprise.”

“Yeah… Anyway, it sounds good, but I thought you said something about starting off easy. This won’t be that easy.” He’s right and I know that.

“No, it won’t, but is that really a problem?”

“What did I ever do to deserve you?” Bit cheesy, but it’ll do.

“Must’ve been very good.” He laughs and we kiss, again. After that it’s just a bit more talking about the plan and some of the usual things couples do, until the bell for the first break rings.

“Go to the usual spot?” The usual spot is a clearing just before the auditorium. Our entire group of friends goes there during the break so we can still hang out together, even if we don’t have any classes together.

“Yeah, sure.” His voice indicates he’d rather stay here with me, but he’ll give me my way.

“Oh, come on, they’re nice too!” I am mocking George a little, but that’s just too much fun not to.

“You sure?” He pauses a minute to let me nod. “Okay, okay, but I’d rather stay here with you.” Why does he have to be so sweet and charming?

I can’t help but fall right back into his arms and lay my head down on his shoulder, only to whisper: “Get moving before break time’s over.”

“You’re really something, you know that?”

“I’ll just take that as a compliment.” By the time George will finally let go of me (I should’ve never fallen back into his arms), five minutes of our fifteen minute break have passed. And in two more we arrive at our lunch spot.

“Lotte!” The small and very cute Laura is the first to notice us and now comes running to give me a hug.

“Hey, Tubbs, George.” Becky must be tired from her Literature class, because normally she would be even more cheerful than Laura.

The others say their hellos too and with the others I mean: Liza, Chantal, Lisanne, Simone, Kyra, Fred, Harry, Ron, Hermoine, Jos, Matthijs and Kayleigh. Yes, there’s quite a big group there.

“Hey guys! So, there’s something I want to talk to all of you about.” And like that, I’ve got everyone’s attention. “George and I were talking...” Several people roll their eyes. “about a prank we want to pull on Voldemort.” Back in the game! Undivided attention and intrigued looks on every single face, that’s what I wanted to see. George helps me explain what exactly is the plan and how everyone can help. Hermoine, as the buzzkill she is, refused to take any part in it. Fred wanted to lock her in the toilet, for lack of a cupboard, but got yelled at by Ron, protective as he is over his girlfriend. When the bell rings, there’s still stuff to talk about, so we all agree to go to this same spot during lunch.

“Hey, this is a free period for you as well, right?” Chantal catches up with me.

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, I want to give Lockhart a scare.”

“Okay, and why would you want to scare Lockhart? He isn’t even teaching you.”

“No, but his Cornisch Pixie lesson?” I nod to show Chantal I know what she’s talking about. “Well, he was supposed to catch all the pixies after the lesson ended. He didn’t.”

“Again, what does that have to do with you?”

“What does what have to do with you?” Fred and George have caught up with us now as well.

“None of your business.” Chantal replies snappy.

“Whoa, be nice, Chantal!” I snap back.

“No.” I give her a one-of-them-is-my-boyfriend-so-just-back-off look.

“Would you mind just working by yourself for this period?” I ask George very sweetly.

“Sure, no problem, I’ll see you at Maths.” A small kiss for me from George and a dirty look for Chantal from both of the twins and they’re off to the library.

“What do you want?” I ask Chantal, slightly annoyed, when Fred and George are out of sight.

“Well, we had Maths in the classroom Lockhart had his Pixie-presentation, the period right after.” With me still not catching up, Chantal explains: “We had to clean up the mess Lockhart left behind. I want him to pay for that.” Now, she’s talking. Like both the twins and Becky, I get a special sort of glint in my eyes whenever someone talks about pulling a prank.

“Continue.”

“Well, I had the idea we could paint some nice things on his office door, if you know what I mean.” Oh, I know very well.

“Filch’s got paint in his room, but how to get there?”

“How do you even know that?!” Chantal asks in disbelieve.

“Let’s just say that the twins have played pranks on Filch with the use of animals quite often.” If she doesn’t know what I mean now, I will seriously call her stupid. Chantal grins, she understands. “Anyway, if I remember correctly, there’s a key to Filch’s room in the cafeteria. I just hope Dobby’s serving.”

“So, let’s go!” Chantal might just be just as excited as I was.

At the atrium, Chantal and I both make a run for the cafeteria-corner, as I like to call it.

“Dobby!” We cry in unison.

“Aaaah!” Dobby cries and he dives under the counter.

“Dobby, it’s just us.” I say carefully.

“Oh, hi Lotte!” Dobby jumps up and almost scares me to death.

“Dobby, we need to borrow something.” Chantal’s right to the point, but that’s a good thing, since we only have about 40 minutes left to pull this off.

“What would that be, Chantal?”

“We’d like to borrow your keys to open Filch’s room.” I answered.

“And why do you want those, if I may ask?”

“Well, the less you know, the better.” I say with a wink.

“Okay.” And Dobby turns around, gets a set of keys from behind him and hands them over to me. “Just don’t keep them for too long, professor Snape always asks for them for 4^th period.”

“No problem, you’ll have them back at the end of this period.”

“Okay, have fun!” Dobby shouts as Chantal and I run off.

Filch’s room is on the -2^nd floor, so after a short walk on the stairs (the elevators make too much noise and Umbridge’s always listening), we quietly open the door to Filch’s room.

“So, where’s the paint?”

“Last time it was in that cupboard over there.” I point over to the cupboard in the corner of the room.

“The cupboard? What, he didn’t like the paint?” I try my hardest not to laugh out loud. “Got it!”Chantal yells (a little too loud for my taste) a comes out of the cupboard with one can of green paint in one hand and a very pink one in the other. “There’s still some yellow and red paint back there, so if you could take that?”

“Yeah, sure.” I say absentmindedly.

“What are you even doing there?”

“I was just looking at this picture, it’s so weird.”

“I don’t see anything weird about it.” Chantal says, now standing next to me.

“It’s like... something’s missing. I can’t really explain it, but something is wrong with this picture.” The picture we are looking at is the teacher’s school photo, you know, the one they make at the beginning of every year.

Chapter 3 Lovey Dovey Time

“So, how do you like it?” There’s a blanket covering most of the floor in between the various types of beautiful flowers Mrs Sprout is growing. On the far right corner of the blanket I can see an actual old-fashioned picnic basket.

“Wow, you did this?”

“I’m guessing that’s a yes?”

“No, it’s a hell yes! This is amazing!”

“I’m glad you like it.” George says while wrapping his arms around me and he leans in for a kiss. This time, I let him. The warmth of his body against mine is very welcome with the cold from outside still in my clothes, so when his arms let go of me, I just tighten my grip on him.

“Well, that’ll get rid of the cold.” I say when we’ve finally broken apart.

“I’ll say.”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I don’t think we’ve ever kissed that long.”

“Huh, I think you might be right about that one.”

“I don’t mind it lasted that long.” I have to laugh a little at that.

“Bet you don’t.” I say smiling and looking into his beautiful brown eyes, I’ve come to love so much. “And maybe we’ll even improve that record later today.”

“Is that just teasing or are you serious?”

“Of course it’s teasing, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be serious.”

“You’ve listened to Dumbledore too much.” Again, I have to laugh.

“Well, he teaches me for six hours in a week, so it’s not unlikely.” This time George laughs, although I suspect that’s mostly due to my facial expression. “What’s it now?” He was looking at me again with that… unplaceable expression on his face.

“I just… You know, maybe we should start on the food.”

“Okay.” I’m seriously starting to feel like something’s wrong, and I don’t like that feeling. We sit down on the blanket and George opens the picnic basket.

“It’s pretty hot in here.” I take off the knitted sweater I’d put on because George told me to dress warm. And no, this isn’t some trick, it really is hot in here, like it normally is in greenhouses.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m melting because you told me to dress warm while you knew we were going to a greenhouse.” I try not to let my irritation show.

“Okay, want some pie?” He was busy slicing a piece of a totally delicious-looking cherry pie, my favorite.

“George?”

“What?”

“What’s wrong? Is it something I did?”

“No, not exactly. You’re a real Hufflepuff for looking at yourself, rather than putting the blame elsewhere.”

“Please just answer me. I just want to know what’s upsetting you.” I just want to help him, a feature of both a Hufflepuff and a Cancer, a caring nature.

“It’s something I have to take care of myself, I’m sorry.” I can see he really is sorry, but I can’t seem to figure out the problem. This last thing, I don’t like. Besides the caring nature, I’m also quite inquisitive, meaning I can’t stand this kind of situation.

“I’ll try not to ask about it, but you know how hard that is for me.”

“I know, thanks.” His sweet smile makes my heart skip a beat every time.

“But you can tell me anything, just remember that, will you?” I put my hand on the side of his face to empathise how much I cared about him.

“I will.” This time I am the one to lean in for a kiss and of course, George didn’t back away.

“Now for that pie, who baked it? I should really thank him for it, it looks absolutely finger-licking good.”

“My mom did. I would have done it, but then the taste might have been less than great, if you know what I mean.” I do. Last time he tried to bake something, he pulled a Seamus, meaning it blew up. Not kidding.

“But I’m guessing you had something to do with this particular flavour?”

“Oh, you mean this flavour is special to you? I had no idea!” He doesn’t mean a word of it, so I give him a little push like I always do at moments like this.

“We should pull a prank.” This is a bit out of the blue on my part.

“Okay, anything in particular?”

“No, it’s just that we haven’t really pulled a prank since Becky and Fred and the two of us have started dating. It just seems like we need to even the score or something.” George takes some time to think about his answer.

“The lady’s always right, I guess.”

“When have you’ve ever gone by that expression before?!”

“Never, so I thought I should try it out.”

“Right, so do you have any ideas, brother Pretzel¹?”

“Hmm, not really, you must cloud my vision.” A joke, duh.

“Because I’m so stunning you can’t focus whenever I’m near?” Note that I don’t actually think that, I’m just putting George to the test.

“Something like that.”

“Watch it, wizard boy.” George holds his hands up in a defensive position. “But we could start with something simple to get back in the game.”

“What did you have in mind?” He’s hanging on my every word now.

“Voldemort.”

“I like it already! What’s the plan?”

¹Reference to the original Magical Mischief and Mindless Moves by Becky (http://www.justanotherfanfic.blogspot.com)

Chapter 2 Full

“Morning Dudley, how was your weekend?” Becky’s going to be the bigger man (or woman, as you please), but she sounds very threatening.

“Same old, same old. I was planning on doing something with my friends here,” he pointed at his two minions on each side of him, “but then I saw you all sitting here and figured we could have some fun together.” I don’t know what he’s thinking of, but it can’t be good.

“No thanks, we’re just fine with sitting here by ourselves. Bye Dudley!”

“Now that’s not so nice now, is it, Tubbs?” The way he spits out the word Tubbs, like it is some sort of disease, it makes my blood boil.

“No, but interrupting some friends for whatever dumb way you have now of getting us expelled, isn’t nice either. So if you’d go now, we’d appreciate it.” Be the nice girl, be the nice girl. Oh, I so want to hit him now.

“But I love your company.” No, he doesn’t.

“I don’t. Bye now!” George has put his hand on my shoulder by now, to try and calm me down. It just has little effect.

“I’ll see you in class.” He and his minions finally left the atrium.

“Thank God, he’s gone.”

“Yeah, but why does he get on your nerves so much?” George is genuinely concerned, I love him for that.

“I just hate people like that.” I don’t really want to expand that any further.

“Okay, anyway, I heard you had the first three periods off.” Fred: master of changing the subject.

“Yeah, with Chantal, Simone and Lisanne, Voldie’s lessons are cancelled as well.”

“Heard he’s ill, what could he have?” Becky interrupts.

“Killing disease, you get it if you use Avada Kedavra too often.” Why not make a joke out of it?

“Symptoms: pain in the arm from waving your wand too much.” Becky continues the joke.

“A sore throat from yelling too loud.” Fred wants in on it too.

“Dizziness from dancing around too wild after your kill.” George fills in the last.

“And Bellatrix is also on leave, right?” Fred asks when we’ve all stopped laughing.

“Yeah, maybe it’s an STD.”

“George! Mental images!” And I push him away softly.

“I sure hope you don’t have it.”

“Why would that matter to you? You’re not getting any anytime soon.” Yes, I am teasing him. He’s just an easy target.

“We’ll see about that.” A smirk and a kiss, sometimes I love my life.

“As much as I’d love to see you two lovebirds make out, I have a class to attend. Bye.” Hermoine went upstairs for her Literature class.

“Don’t you have that class together?” Fred asks Becky as he slips his arm around her waist.

“Yeah, but doesn’t start until ten minutes. Hermoine’s always early.”

“Yeah.” We all nod.

“But what I wanted to know,” George turns to me while the others are discussing something else. “How would you feel about having a little picnic?”

“George, it’s freezing outside!”

“Put on some warm clothes then.”

“What are you up to?” I know him well enough to see when he’s got an ulterior motive.

“Just be there in ten minutes and dress warm. Can you do that for me?”

“Sure.” I answered carefully. I trust George fully, but I hate it when people keep things from me. “I’ll just put something else on.”

“See you here in ten!” Still suspicious, I walk over to the elevators and press the ‘down’ button.

Ten minutes later, I do the same thing going back up to the atrium. My mind’s a little blurry, still trying to think of what George’s plan is, but I decide to cast it away and be my happy, cheerful self.

“Hello, gorgeous!” George yells as soon as the elevator door opens.

“Why are you always trying to scare me?!”

“Because if you get scared,  you’ll want someone to protect you. And that would be me.”

“I don’t know whether I should find that sweet or disturbing.”

“Choose sweet.” He smiles and takes me by the arm. “Let’s go have ourselves a picnic!” We walk out the front door, while Filch is not looking of course, he’d definitely stop us. George leads the way after that, as I haven’t got a clue where we’re going. We stop right in front of Mrs. Sprout’s greenhouse. “Our picnic place!” I look at George in a have-you-lost-your-mind kind of way. “Don’t worry, I asked if we could use it.” He says reassuring.

“You did?” I sure hope he isn’t lying to me.

“I did, I wouldn’t lie about something like that.”

“And what did Sprout say?” I ask, catching up on the tone.

“Don’t ruin it.” I knew it.

“Okay, but are you at least sure she won’t come here?”

“What kind of idiot do you take me for?”

“If you want a smack in your face, I suggest you keep the attitude.” I try to sound very arrogant, but I don’t think George’ll buy it.

“I’m sorry ma’am!” He even does the army-hand-gesture thing.

“You’d make a cute soldier.” George leans in for a kiss, but I slip inside the greenhouse just before our lips can touch. “You coming, wizard boy?” He smiles and shakes his head, following me inside.

Getting up and stuff (chapter 1)

“NYAAAAAH!”

“Shut up!”

“Tubbs, seriously? Shouting at the alarm clock won’t stop it.”

“Thank you, captain obvious. Can you shut the thing down now?”

“Yeah, yeah.” Becky’s hand reaches toward the still screaming alarm and stops. “What in the name of God does it take to wake her up?!” She nods in Chantal’s direction. Chantal was still sleeping, mouth opened, with her arms and legs spread in four different directions over her entire bed.

“Let’s find out.” I say mischievously and I get out of bed.

Becky laughs and gets out of her bed as well. “So, what do we start with?”

“Well, we know a plant sprayer works, so let’s cross that one of off the list. How about drawing on her face?” Becky’s face lights up as she starts nodding her head so hard I’m getting afraid it’ll fall off if she’ll keep it up.

“Like the moustache?” Becky asks while drawing it on Chantal’s face.

“It’s lovely, but I personally think she needs whiskers as well. By the way, isn’t that a permanent marker?” Both our eyes flicker to the label on the marker. We look at each other panicked.

“Why don’t we get ready quietly and head downstairs, like, as fast as we can.” I nod to Becky’s words and get a dress, some heels, a woolly hat and some fingerless gloves and put them on within twenty seconds, a new record. “You better take your make-up with you and put it on later” Becky says. I nod again, grab my beauty case and we both head out the door.

“Shouldn’t we at least wake her up?” I ask, feeling kind off guilty.

“Yeah, we should.” Becky opens the door and throws a notebook at Chantal. “Wake up! We’re leaving and we drew on your face, bye!” Beck shuts the door and as we run away, Chantal’s yelling is clearly audible. 

With our bags hanging over our shoulders, Becky and I walk into the still very quiet atrium. Hermoine is sitting at a table by herself. Studying, as usual. Some first years are standing in a corner watching me and Beck as we put our bags on Hermoine’s table.

“Good morning, sunshine!” I say a little over-enthusiastic.

“Morning.” Hermoine says as she quickly turns the page of her Geography book.

“You do know all of Bellatrix’s lessons are cancelled, right?” Becky asks Hermoine doubtfully.

“Yes, I know, but I don’t want to fall behind.”

“You know you’re pretty much the only one at this entire school doing your homework when a class is cancelled?”

“Oh, come on Becky, cut the girl some slack. She has Lestrange as her teacher. If you don’t do your homework, she’ll flip you out the window! Or worse…” We all shivered at the thought of that. “Anyhow, I’m gonna get myself a sandwich.” I walk to the canteen, where Dobby is already awaiting my order. “Morning Dobby! Can I get a chicken curry salad on a Giotto bun?”

Dobby smiled, showing more than I cared to see. “Good morning Lotte and what a beautiful day it is to study!”

“Rather you than me, Dobby, although I do love the weather today.”

“Learning’s not so bad. Here you go, three please.” Dobby says and lays the bun on the counter in between us. I put down the money and wave Dobby goodbye.

“Boo!”

“Aah!” I shriek and almost fall over.

Two arms I know very well, catch me just before I fall over. “Morning!”

“Always nice to be greeted like that, thanks George.” I say while I get out of his grip.

“You shouldn’t wear heels if you can’t walk on them.”

“Oh, I’d be happy to switch shoes with you.” Becky and Fred laugh at the sound of that. I just smile.

“Ah, too bad, I’m afraid we don’t have the same size.” George says sarcastically.

“I’m sure there’s a spell for that.”

“You could use…”

“No use for that, now I have something to ask.” Hermoine shoots him a glare, clearly not amused George just cut her off.

“Becky!!” Chantal comes running toward Becky, a pitch-black moustache just above her lip. The skin around it is red, suggesting Chantal tried to scrub it off, but didn’t succeed.

“What happened this time?” Hermoine asks as Chantal is busy trying to catch Becky.

“She wouldn’t wake up and we decided to see how far we could go before she would.”

“So you guys drew on her face? I admire you.” George replies.

“Yeah, only we didn’t find out until after we drew the moustache, that we were using a permanent marker.” Fred and George start laughing and Hermoine just shakes her head and gets back to her studying.

“But why is Chantal only chasing Becky?” Fred asks me when he and George have stopped laughing.

“I think it’s because she doesn’t know I helped. I’m fine with it though, seeing as I don’t have the proper shoes to be chased.” I shrug.

“Lotte did it too!” Becky screams from one end of the atrium.

Chantal turns my way and I run away as well. Becky and I both run to the far left corner of the room. “I will kill you!”

“Okay, but before you do that, we just want to tell you we love you, Chantal.” Becky walks over to her and gives her a hug. Even though I don’t know what her plan is, I decide to follow Becky’s lead and hug Chantal as well. Then I know and as if we read each other’s minds, we run to Fred and George as fast as we can.

“Protect us!” I yell while Becky hides behind Fred and I hide behind George.

“Oh, forget it already!” Chantal sighs. “Hermoine, isn’t there a spell that can help me or something?”

“Sure.” A pleased look appears in Hermoine’s eyes, like she always has whenever someone asks her for help. She mumbles a few words I can’t make out and just like that, the black lines on Chantal’s face disappear.

“So we cool?” Chantal nods.

“Good. You wanted to ask me something?” I turn to George, who’s clearly confused by my sudden change of subject.

“Uhm yeah, could you take a look at my Math homework? I don’t really get it.” The sweetness in his voice makes me think he knows the answer to that question already.

“No, I did your homework for you the last three times, it’s your turn.”

“But you’re so good at it!”

“Maybe, if you did your own homework, you’d actually get better at Maths.”

“Or maybe you could teach me how you do it.” George bends down and gently kisses my lips.

“Last time, okay?” George nods and we both sit down at the table with our bags on it. “I hate how you know exactly what to do to get what you want from me.”

“It’s not like you can’t do the same.” I can’t help but blush and look away.

“Awh, how sweet! Maybe a room would be nice for the two of you?” That voice means fun-time is now officially over.