Toujours Pur | Euphemia Black

Chapter 80 | Birthday Pranks

Even though Charlus had already been the victim to five pranks that morning, he knew that there was more to come, as much as he would've liked to think that his friends would be more reasonable this year. It was just a matter of waiting for the pranks to happen and then plotting internally how to seek revenge on every single one of them afterwards.

The entire of the S.S.E.A.W. had assembled a few weeks prior when Charlus had been in a detention for setting off dung bombs in the library, alongside Mia (though she had gotten away with it because she was an expert at lying and wheedling her way out of trouble).

The purpose of that particular meeting had been to plan all of Charlus' birthday 'surprises' and they had come up with many ideas that were finally being put into motion, after weeks of planning and the set-up the night before.

As a result of planting all the pranks last night, all of the S.S.E.A.W. were considerably tired and were chugging coffee like their life depended on it (which it probably did, to be honest).

"So, I'm assuming it's Charlus' birthday today then?" Eileen asked casually at the Slytherin table as Euphemia plopped herself down in her seat with a rather happy smile on her face as she waved goodbye to her friends, who were obviously sat at their respective house tables.

"No, we just felt like setting off a load of birthday related pranks so that we could trick everyone into thinking it's his birthday when it's actually not," Mia replied sarcastically with a wry smile and Eileen rolled her eyes, "I was only asking, jeesh..." before turning back to her marmalade and toast.

Glancing at the wristwatch that her father had gifted her on her fifteenth birthday, Euphemia concealed a giggle when she saw what time it was as she looked up and across the hall, catching the expectant gaze of Lyall's, who nodded and waved his wand discreetly underneath the table, pointing it upwards with a slight angle of his wrist.

Exactly ten seconds after Lyall had uttered the spell, there was a slight disturbance above and many of the students in the hall looked up in curiosity, furrowing their eyebrows in confusion as the owls didn't usually come in with the post until much later in the morning breakfast period. And yet here they were.

"It's a bit early for the post, isn't it?" Garm wondered out-loud with a knowing smirk on his face (for, of course, he knew about the pranks - he was, after all, a member of the S.S.E.A.W.) and Mia chuckled to herself, playing along, "Yes, how very peculiar," she said airily, receiving many strange looks from her fellow Slytherins.

On the Gryffindor table, Charlus hadn't even noticed the fact that the owls had started to fly in much earlier than per usual or that they were now circling in loop-the-loops around the top of his area because he was too busy chatting to Brutus (which was a ploy to distract the birthday boy, as everything had been planned out to the most minute detail).

If it hadn't have been for the completely staged and dramatic yelp of Daphne Meadowes', a move that was bound to catch Charlus' attention, the boy in question definitely would've missed the spectacle that was about to happen. As soon as he looked up, the owls began to swoop down on him, all dropping a parcel dangerously close to his head which had him cowering for cover, his hands reaching up to cover his hair.

"What is going on?" he asked, bemused and, to Minerva's delight, he began to open the boxes, only to find that there was nothing inside them. With each one, he rummaged through the contents, finding an empty box for each one and the puzzlement grew on his face as Charlus glanced around at his friends seated near him, scratching his head in confusion.