In-Betweens

Chickens (aka Hogwarts Prank Gone Wrong)

A/N: Written for "The Noodle Incident" Writing Event on Discord.

—

Sabrina had been thinking recently that the castle had been suspiciously quiet. Everyone seemed to be hyper focused on the upcoming exams, and hardly any pranks or jokes had littered the usually busy halls and corridors of Hogwarts. Sabrina was not complaining about this, however, as a quiet hallway meant no chaos, and no chaos meant she didn't have to worry about anything unexpected.

So when a chicken suddenly decided to pop out of a nearby portrait as she walked by the Potions Classroom, Sabrina felt her frustration from her class assignment rise into anger after her Thunderbrew potion crashed onto the stone floor.

Not just any chicken. A green chicken with silver tipped wings.

She instantly went to Sebastian. "Chickens?!"

Sebastian looked up from the desk in the Undercroft and his face instantly paled. "What?"

"Why are there green chickens jumping out of portraits in the dungeons? I had just finished a near perfect Thunderbrew potion and it's now shattered!"

The boy hesitated. "H-how do you know it was me?"

"Because we just learned how to transfigure fruit into chickens in Weasley's class."

"That doesn't prove anything."

"Sebastian—"

"Alright!" Sebastian sighed. "Garreth Weasley accused me a few days ago of being 'the most unobservant person he had ever met'. So I thought I would put green chickens in all of the portraits in Gryffindor Tower and wait to see how long it took him to notice."

Sabrina took in his explanation and now felt confused. "If you put them in Gryffindor Tower, why are they in the Potion classroom?"

"Well...." Sebastian ran a hand through his curly hair nervously. "I may have forgotten that objects in the portraits can travel between paintings. And the spell isn't permanent, eventually the chickens will have to come out."

A lump formed in Sabrina's stomach. "How many chickens did you put in the tower?"

Sebastian's big eyes met hers sheepishly. "One...."

"Oh," Sabrina said. "If that's the case—"

"Hundred."

She stared in disbelief. "One hundred chickens?!"

Sebastian rose to his feet. "We'll just have to grab them and turn them back into apples when they jump out! Like I said, the spell isn't permanent but it's not like they'll all jump out at once."

—

They did, in fact, all jump out at once.

The school had been asleep aside from a few unlucky prefects. When the rest of the school woke up the next morning, the prefects were busy running over the castle trying to collect as many runaway chickens as they possibly could.

There were green chickens in the rafters with the bells and the Clock Tower. There were blue chickens running all over the Transfiguration Courtyard. Professor Kogawa found red chickens all over the Quidditch pitch and in the stands. At least a dozen yellow chickens were running around Central Hall and the Defense Against the Dark Arts Tower.

Anne was getting feathers in her soup. Sabrina was finding them all over her robes as they clung to her like lint. Ominis was getting headaches from all the noise.

"As soon as I find out which student did this, they will be in detention for the remainder of the year!" Professor Weasley yelled when the last chicken had been found and turned back into a button.

Garreth and Leander were laughing hysterically. Poppy was complaining that they hadn't put the chickens outside with the rest of the beasts.

Sebastian was trying to stay as far away from Professor Weasley as he could.

—