“Kacey! Wait… stop” Hermione gasped. Kacey turned around, looking perplexed.
Hermione hesitated, still feeling a little bad about Ginny’s dare that she’d just fulfilled.
“Kacey, I- I wrote something on your back.”
Kacey frowned. “You did? I didn’t notice!” She took of her robes, revealing a button-down shirt and long skirt. She stretched out her robes in front of her, revealing large, fiery lettering. It read:
Harry Potter
is SO DREAMY!
Kacey laughed to herself. “You wrote that?”
Hermione nodded. “Sorry. It was a dare, I couldn’t back down. But I’m so glad I caught you before you got to class. I can remove it, I swear!”
Kacey shook out her robes and slipped her arms back into the sleeves. “Are you mad? Potter is a handsome devil, and I don’t care who knows it!” she said thoughtfully. “I’ll wear it anyway.”
Before Hermione could get a word in edgewise, Kacey walked with her head high across the grounds toward the Herbology greenhouses. People stopped and whistled as she passed. Hermione smiled to herself as she walked towards the main entrance to Hogwarts. Maybe Potions class wouldn’t be so bad today.
Luna caught sight of her and walked up, holding her books close to her chest and grinning happily.
“Potions next!” Hermione sighed. “Are you coming?”
Luna nodded, and then inexplicably held out her closed fist.
“What’ve you got there?” Hermione asked.
Luna opened her fist, revealing a thick and muddy earthworm. Hermione jumped back.
“I’ve yet to name it,” Luna said with a hint of sadness. “I can’t tell if it’s a boy or a girl.”
Hermione crept closer to Luna’s outstretched hand, trying to regain composure.
“Well, you can give it a name that isn’t gender specific!” Hermione advised. “Like Sam, or maybe Ash?”
Luna shook her head. “It doesn’t look like a Sam or an Ash.”
“Billie?” Hermione offered.
“No, I’ve already got an Uncle Billie.”
“Frankie?”
Luna paused, carefully appraising the earthworm writhing in her hand. “Yes, you’re a Frankie. That’s what you are! Frankie Lovegood.” Luna dropped the newly-named worm in her pocket and smiled appreciatively.
Suddenly, Hermione got a brilliant idea.
“Luna,” she whispered, taking the girls arm. “I’ve got a dare for you, if you’re interested…”
Luna and Hermione talked quietly amongst themselves the entire way to Potions.
Hermione took her seat next to Neville just in time to avoid Professor Snape, for not a moment later he was sweeping into class. Dozens of students began scrambling for their cauldrons and flipping through their textbooks wildly. Hermione looked over towards Luna, who was looking down into her empty cauldron as if something might bubble up from nowhere. She turned to see Hermione looking at her, and got a look of dawning realization. Luna reached down into her robes pocket, pulling out a red swizzlestick. She looked at it confoundedly and put it back. Then she pulled out a lollipop wrapper, huffed, and put that back in her pocket as well. Finally, she withdrew a thick earthworm from her pocket, covered with little bits of dust and lint. A pretty Asian girl named Pia who was sitting beside her looked horrified.
“That’s not a potion ingredient, is it?” Pia asked incredulously.
Instead of answering her, Luna leaned forward and delicately dropped the earthworm onto Draco Malfoy’s collar. It slowly crept along towards Draco’s left ear, curling up against his neck. Draco must have felt it, because his hand flew up to his ear, and he began batting madly at the side of his head. The worm dropped obliviously down as Draco stood up, rolling down into the front of his collar.
“Get it off me! Get it off me!” Draco screamed, stamping his feet. Professor Snape whipped his head around to see his favorite student throwing a fit. Draco was squealing and smacking his own head with his hands as though his head was on fire. Harry and Ron buried their faces in their books and started guffawing with laughter, while Neville looked at Hermione quizzically.
“Control yourself, Malfoy!” Snape hissed, approaching the blonde Slytherin. His normally slicked-back hair was now wildly mussed and in his face. The worm dropped from Malfoy’s robes collar down into his chest pocket. Draco jumped back, crashing into the desk behind him. At this point, the entire class was laughing unabashedly.
“It’s in my robes!” Malfoy screeched. “Ooh, it’s a biter! Get it out!”
Snape grabbed him suddenly by the shoulders and then reached into Draco’s pocket, pulling out a squirmy earthworm. Draco looked at it with narrowed eyes.
“This,” Snape said witheringly, holding the worm in the air, “is hardly a threat.”
Luna waved a hand in the air. “Don’t hold on so tight, Frankie looks pinched!”
Snape looked at her with angry bewilderment. “Is this yours?”
Suddenly, Luna stood up and walked to the front of the class, doing her best impression of the Potions professor. She held out her open hand demandingly.
“Worm!”
Snape stared at her in shock, refusing to hand over Frankie, who was still squirming uncomfortably.
Luna, looking impatient, thrust her hand out again. “Worm!”
Much to everyone’s shock, Snape dropped the worm into his own pocket.
“You can have your worm back,” he intoned, “this evening at detention.”
As Luna walked casually back to her seat, Draco turned around to face her.
“This is war, Loony. So watch your back.” Draco then turned to look at Hermione, who he noticed was smirking victoriously.
“You, as well, Granger. You’ll all pay for this.”
Several students snickered as Malfoy faced the front again, and began subtly trying to smooth back his platinum blonde hair. Much to his chagrin, they continued to laugh quietly throughout the rest of class.
That night, dinner in the Great Hall was raucous and laughter-filled. Not only were people talking about Ginny’s crazy kiss, but Kacey was still wearing her “Harry Potter is So Dreamy” robes. In fact, they had become so popular that several students throughout the day had begun sporting blazed words on their own robes. One girl had the words “Harry Potter for Minister of Magic” on hers, while a Hufflepuff boy had the words “Hufflepuff Quidditch Owns Your Face” on his. Hermione and Ginny had unknowingly started a trend.
More importantly, the entire school had heard about Draco and the earthworm incident. Several students had seen him in the hall and stopped to do impressions of his frantic earthworm-dance. Malfoy was furious, and quite obviously sending glares of pure hatred towards the Gryffindor table. He had given up on threatening Luna, she simply didn’t seem to care.
Harry leaned forward over his plate, causing Ron to lean in as well.
“We ought to be on guard,” Harry warned. “We may have started a prank war.”
Ginny gave Hermione a grin. “It was worth it, and still is. Malfoy’s going to be paying for this for a long time!” Hermione grinned sheepishly.
“He’s right, you know,” Ron muttered somberly. “We should be prepared.”
Neville turned in his seat to look back at the Slytherin table. He was met with dozens of angry glares.
“No one’s as devious as a Slytherin,” Neville whimpered.
“It’s not about deviousness,” Hermione said matter-of-factly. “It’s about being clever, and (she gave Ron a quick smile) being prepared.”