Cora and I revise and refine the plan for the full scale prank what feels like a thousand times. My dorm mates (mostly Rose) pore over the blueprints and lists of supplies, trying to make everything count, but Alice has the brilliant idea to pull the spray tips off of the love potions from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes to make sure that they wouldn't spill early. For that idea, Alice was promoted to handle the sector that was right at the entrance of the Gryffindor tower.
Before leaving the Slytherin common room, Cora pushes a group of second years towards me, and thrusts a box full of Peruvian instant darkness powder into my hands. We lock eyes and execute our one-handed secret handshake without breaking eye contact. With that, we exchange smirks and turn without a word towards our destinations.
I slip the Marauder's Map from the pockets of my robes and the third years shuffle closer to me to read over my shoulder. I raise an eyebrow at them and they back away slightly, but then I break my serious facade and wave them over. They grin and gather close, one placing their chin on my shoulder. We watch the map for a few moments before running towards the Gryffindor common room entrance to drop the flare. The coast is clear. It's showtime.
With the green light of the flare clearly visible from the other groups' hiding places, the entire Slytherin student body and their Ravenclaw teammates circle imperceptibly closer towards the doorway, as I struggle to convince the fat lady that I'm allowed in.
"You don't look like a Gryffindor," she says primly, her arms crossed.
"I'm not, but I'm dating one," I reply, hoping that James will be my ticket in.
"Which one?" she doesn't buy it, and I pull a letter from the week of the Yule Ball from my robe pocket. I've placed a blurring charm over all of it except for the signature: "James Potter, light of your life".
She stares blankly at it for a while, but lets me in, and moves to a new painting. I drop a silver flare this time, and a flood of green robes storm the Gryffindor common room.
After the few rehearsals we'd managed to fit into the schedule, the common room is in a state of chaos, but somehow everything is falling into place. Each member of my second year team is clutching three pouches of instant darkness powder in their hands, and Alice's team is preparing the spray tips onto their love potion bottles. The Slytherin and Ravenclaw quidditch teams are poised with brooms for everyone who can fly one, and are prepared to fly two first years each. Cora is on a tower of seventh years who are all being stacked like planks by a few fifth years who had cast petrificus totalus on them. The large Slytherin banner in her hands is painstakingly rolled up and set so that the instant darkness powder would be in effect while the banner unrolls. Rose is standing on one of the couches, directing a slightly disgruntled group of sixth years on how to place each of the fake snakes to prepare for launch. Brianna and Gwen are sitting with a gigantic group of first years, linking Brianna's dungbombs together in preparation to drop when the Gryffindors came in. Hopefully all of Rose's information was right. If we timed it exactly, everything would fall into place just as the Gryffindor's returned from their house meeting with McGonagall. All of a sudden, a black owl flies in through the window with a howler tied to the ankle of the bird. All of us fall into a scared silence, but Cora strolls up to the window, pulling the howler off and sending the owl away with a treat. She flicks the howler with her wand and we brace ourselves.
"HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSS" the howler says, "On their way," finishes the voice, which sounds suspiciously like Professor Zabini's. Cora pulls and empty howler from her pocket and shouts into it.
"THANKS DAD," confirming my suspicions, "Back to work," she says, as if daring anyone to mention the professor's involvement in the prank.
Luckily, no one is crazy enough to challenge her and we all run to our hiding places, some seventh years carefully casting levicorpus onto the students small enough to hide on the mantle or next to paintings.
I keep my eyes on the Marauder's map as I crouch near the railing of the girl's stairs, and the room is buzzing with excitement. I snap in Cora's direction and she shushes her half of the room and I hush mine as the footsteps of the Gryffindors grow closer. Luckily, it's easy to hear them coming, as they're shouting at what seems to be the top of their lungs. After what seems like a lifetime, the door flings open and Cora and I hiss through our sonorous charms. And just like that, everything goes to hell.
The first years holding the dungbomb chain drop it and the line of green dungbombs color the first wave bright green, with a stench bad enough that my second years are gagging, so I cast a quick shielding charm and I see the other groups do the same. Alice's team set off the spray tips just on time and the Gryffindor's are dazed for just long enough to give us time to scatter the instant darkness powder. With that, all students years 1-3 shoot out of the room with the quidditch teams and Cora and the other leaders run to where the banner would be and I hear the hissing of the snakes as they hopefully head to their position.
The darkness clears, and there we are. Standing in our clean-robed glory as the banner unfurls and the fake snakes circle the Gryffindors at our feet. The screams of the first years are evident, but are promptly shushed by the older students who are hoping to retain their dignity. However, as the snakes circle closer and the love potions take effect, the older kids find the first through third year students each staring lovingly at their new pet snakes that have wrapped themselves around their arms and legs.
Standing in mute horror, the leader of the Gryffindor prank team pulls a white handkerchief, now stained green, from their pocket and drops it to the floor. Without another word, the Slytherins and Ravenclaws board their brooms and we spiral out of the window, laughing until they can't hear us anymore.
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फैनफिक्शनMaia Andromeda Lupin is eleven and more than ready for her first year at Hogwarts. Little does she know, the next seven years will be filled with prank wars, insanity, and some unspoken thing with the one and only James Sirius Potter, which she defi...
