Apparently, I wasn't going to be stopping for a long time.
I read through everything, skimming topics I barely understood, from aconite to mandrake and from obscurial to Zonko's. None of it was any help.
On the bright side, I did learn pretty much everything possible about the wizarding world. Nothing particularly useful, just a bunch of things I hadn't bothered to learn until now.
I took a break from my endless reading after a few days to celebrate the twins' birthday. It was on April Fool's Day, because when else could Fred and George Weasley ever have been born?
I decided they needed a little muggle pranking in their life, and that it would be greatly appreciated for their birthday, so I made sure to get down to breakfast before the rest of my friends to set up my first prank.
Now, my idea would definitely fall under the "stupid muggle prank" category, but it was a classic in my family and I thought the twins would appreciate it. When I got down to breakfast I poured each of the twins a bowl of their favorite cereal with milk, and then I did a quick spell to freeze it. It would look like a normal bowl of cereal but when they went to take a bite their spoons would just bounce right off!
Yeah, I know, stupid muggle prank. Still, I was confident the twins would love it. It was perfectly in the spirit of April Fool's Day and their birthdays.
"HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS!" I screamed at the top of my lungs when the boys walked into the Great Hall. I got dirty looks from pretty much everybody in the room (people were still half asleep and didn't enjoy yelling to start their morning), but I ignored them.
"Thanks Alexa." George grinned as he and Fred sat across from me.
"I poured you each a bowl of your favorite cereal as the first part of your all-day celebration," I said, grinning and gesturing to the bowls. I'd had enough practice at Avengers Tower that I managed to avoid suspicion, and both boys eagerly dug in.
It was a little childish, but I started cackling like a maniac the minute their spoons bounced off. They both looked at me in confusion, probably more for my crazy laugh than the actual prank.
"Happy birthday twins! You've just fallen victim to a classic muggle prank," I said, grinning from ear to ear.
They looked at each other, down at their cereal, and then back to me with matching smiles.
"Best start to a birthday ever," they said in sync. They each gave me a high-five, then calmly pulled out their wands and did the same freezing spell I'd used on their cereal to the cereal bowl in front of me. "April Fools!"
I laughed and shook my head. "I love you guys. Now, take that pranking energy and direct it somewhere else. April Fool's Day and the Weasley Twins' Birthday happening on the same day is an incredible cosmic occurrence, and we have to take full advantage of the day. So pick a target and get your pranking game on. By the end of the day, everyone in this school will know your true prancing powers."
***************
Waging a prank war against the entire school was exactly the break I needed. I'd been so bogged down in work and research lately that I'd damn near forgotten how to have fun. The problem was quickly remedied when the twins and I (with the help of Lee, Angelina, and Alicia) went off on the rest of the school.
No one was safe. We pulled pranks left and right, and by the end of the day every student was nervously looking over their shoulder, just hoping none of us suddenly popped out from behind a tapestry and turned their hair pink (credit to Dumbledore for the inspiration of that prank). We got at least ten people from every house, and I couldn't wait to tell Loki about our marathon of pranks. He would be so proud.
At the end of the day, we settled into a corner of the Common Room to eat some cake and give the twins their presents. I gave them a bunch of muggle prank supplies, which they found incredibly interesting. As they tinkered with a pen that shocked you every time you tried to click it, I realized I may have just accidentally created two very formidable monsters.
Oh well. We already had a truce, so I didn't have to worry about them turning their crazy on me. It was the rest of the school that would have to watch out.
I debated getting back into my research once we'd all finished our cake, but I decided against it. I never took time to just completely relax and have fun anymore, and I didn't want to ruin the day by driving myself insane searching for something that might not even exist. The Easter Holidays started this weekend, and I could drill down and get some answers then. Tonight, I just wanted to enjoy myself.
That night I slept soundly, refusing to worry about everything that was still to come. It had been months since I'd had a full twenty-four hours to relax, and it was a seriously nice change.
Unfortunately for me, relaxation went out the window the next day. It was the last day of classes before the Easter Holiday, and I guess our teachers didn't want us to get bored over the break. They assigned us more homework than ever before and expected us to do it in the next few days while we were supposed to be on vacation.
Needless to say, I was almost immediately back to days of nothing but work after the Twins' birthday.
I woke up at six in the morning on the first day of break and immediately went down to the Great Hall to work on muggle schoolwork while I ate. From there, I went to the library to finish my muggle work and start on my mountain of homework from Hogwarts. I took a break to walk to lunch and back, and the same for dinner, but otherwise I worked straight through the day.
At the same time, I had Ana running every search I could think of on all the Hogwarts library books I had. She double checked everything for the word storm (including misspellings and different languages), cross-referenced things with muggle news articles, and searched the most obscure corners of the internet for anything remotely interesting. Every now and then she would get something that could be a lead, and I would take a break from all my other work to analyze the link. Nothing lead to anything useful, and I was still back at square one: extremely frustrated with no real leads.
The rest of the week went exactly like the first day. By Friday, the last real day of our holiday, I was going crazy.
By some miracle I managed to push through and finish the rest of my work, but when it was finally all done I needed some space from the castle. I was going to snap if I were trapped inside for even another second.
I pushed back from the desk in the library and walked as quickly as I could towards the castle doors. I had to get out of this stupid building. Spring was starting, and I hadn't been outside all week! Even Oliver hadn't drug me out for Quidditch practice, probably because he had just as much work as the rest of us.
I broke into a sprint as soon as the castle doors were in sight. I shoved them open without a second look behind me and collapsed into the grass in the warm sun as quickly as I could.
I sighed and closed my eyes, feeling the light warm my skin. A slight breeze blew over my face, and I felt new energy and life restoring me with every breath of fresh air.
"Long week?"
I opened by eyes and squinted against the sun to see David standing next to me, looking just as exhausted and rumpled as I felt.
"Incredibly. You?"
"I honestly don't know why they call it an Easter holiday anymore." With that, David flopped down to sit next to me in the grass. He had massive bags under his eyes, and it looked like he might be sleeping even less than me.
"Preach." I sat up too, and we both just stared out at the lake for a minute, lost in our own exhaustion.
"Would you be up for a walk?" David finally asked. "If I sit here too much longer, I think I'll fall into a coma in front of the castle, and I doubt I'd wake up for anything after that."
I sighed. "Yeah, let's do it."
It took me a second to actually stand up, but once I did I felt much better.
"Lap around the lake?" I asked. "I think I'll die if I try to go back inside the castle right now."
"Absolutely. I haven't seen sunlight in at least a week. I'm not about to waste this opportunity to get some Vitamin D."
We started off at a slow pace, taking a nice, easy stroll. After a few steps, David spoke again.
"As much as it pains me to start thinking about things that require brain power again, I was hoping to talk to you about that Spattergroit project I was working on."
"Oh yeah! I know stuff kind of fell through for Christmas, but have you had any luck since then?"
"Actually, yes. I managed to get a few samples, but now I don't have the equipment to work with them."
"Oh not a problem, I can definitely help with that." I paused, trying to decide the best way to go about getting David some useful science equipment that actually worked. After a minute, I decided my best bet would be to avoid Hogwarts. "Alright, I have a plan. Are you done with all your homework?"
"By some miracle, yes."
"Good. Then get your Spattergroit samples ready, because we're going to my Uncle's lab."
"When?"
"Now." David looked at me like I was crazy, which was totally fair. He didn't know about the sling ring yet, and I'd been on the edge of a mental breakdown for a week anyway.
"Alexa, we can't go now," said David gently. He tried to keep his expression neutral, but I could tell he was debating rushing me to Madam Pomfrey. "We're still at Hogwarts now. We'll be here for another few months."
"Yes, that's all true. But keep in mind: I have insanely cool technology and another Uncle who's a different kind of wizard than everyone here. I can transport us to New York and back without even batting an eyelash."
That wasn't entirely true, since I still needed to concentrate pretty carefully to make sling portals, but I wanted to make a point.
"Are... are you serious?" I nodded, and David's eyes lit up. Now he looked like the crazy one. "That's incredible! Just give me a moment to get my samples, and I- oh, I can't believe we really get to do useful work! Finally!"
We were almost to the opposite side of the lake by now, and I grabbed David's arm to stop him.
"Hang on a sec. I know you're excited, but let's finish our walk before we get right back to work. Besides, with how little sleep you've been getting you'd probably pass out if you tried to run back to the castle right now."
David took a few steps to calm down, slowly nodding his head.
"I... I suppose you're right. Let's walk just a bit faster though, alright? I-"
He was cut off by Ana blaring an alarm.
"ALERT. ALERT. DANGER." I quickly whipped on my Stark glasses.
"Ana, report. What the hell is going on?"
Just before she answered, the winds picked up. The sky darkened, and I suddenly knew what Ana was about to tell me.
"Storm warning imminent. It's coming from the edge of the forest, and it's growing rapidly. Far faster than any previous reports indicated."
I could see that much for myself. Just like at the Quidditch match, there was a massive storm column forming right in front of my face. I was getting bigger and closer by the second, and I swore loudly as David and I were pushed back towards the castle by the winds.
The magical hurricane was back.