“It was bloody brilliant,” Fred told my cousins and siblings.
He was reliving our great Halloween prank. It had started out in History of Magic. Fred, Connor and I had taken Puking Pastilles to get out of class.
Once we were all out in the hall the plan started. Hogwarts decorates the Great Hall for Halloween but not the rest of the school. We decided to take it into our own hands.
Uncle George’s new product was pumpkins that walked around and spit pumpkin seeds at anyone who came close. Fred has ordered about 100 of them from his dad. First we placed them was the dungeon and then we proceeded to put them randomly all over the school. Next we enchanted paper bats to fly around the castle. For the final touch we lit of some orange and black fireworks. The only way to put out the fireworks was to say boo really loud.
Eventually the professors had to floo Uncle George to figure out how to stop everything. It had been the best prank this year.
“Your mums are going to kill you,” I heard Rose say.
“Oh Rose, give it a rest,” I told her as I walked over to where they were standing in the common room.
“It’s true though,” Al muttered.
“What are you even doing here Al; shouldn’t you be in the Dungeon with your fellow Slytherins?”
“James, you really need to find a new comeback. The Slytherin thing got old about 4 years ago.” Al replied looking bored with the conversation.
“Okay Albus Severus, I’ll stop.” I retorted, knowing that the use of his full name would annoy him.
“Why thank you, Jamie” Al said with a sneer (he must have learned it from his friend, Malfoy).
“Excuse me?”
I heard a little squeaky voice say. I turned to where it was coming from. A little first year was standing there with a note in his hand.
“Yes?” Connor drawled.
“I was supposed to give Misters Potter, Weasley, and Peakes, this note,” he said, nervousness crawling in his voice.
I grabbed the note and opened it.
Misters James Potter, Fred Weasley and Connor Peakes,
Due to you behavior today, I would like to see you in my office, immediately.
Professor Longbottom
“Oh well, we knew this was coming,” Fred commented “At least it’s with Neville; he usually goes easy on us.”
Connor and I nodded in agreement.
We made our way out of the common room and reach the Great Hall, delayed a little bit by the wandering pumpkins, exploding fireworks, and fluttering paper bats. We crossed the grounds and got to the greenhouses, where Professor Longbottom's office was.
“Welcome boys, your punishment for today’s actions is to clean up the scorch marks made by your fireworks.”
“What, no lecture?” I faked a gasp.
“No James, I’ve finally given up on lecturing you three.”
“We’re not that bad,” Fred said. “I’m sure our parents were worse.”
Neville said nothing to this but continued to go on about our punishment.
“This will be done the Muggle way; each of you will work on a different floor. James, you’ll take the 5th floor. Connor, you’ll take the 1st floor and Fred, you will take the 3rd. You will work for 3 hours. Everything that’s not done by then can be removed with magic.”
We grunted our agreement and went off to the castle to begin our work. I made my way to the fifth floor. This punishment really sucked. Normally, we were allowed to do the punishment together which meant we could talk, but I guess Neville had gotten some sense over the summer.
As I scrubbed the walls, I tried not to think too much. Today was Thursday, two days before the Hogsmeade trip. I wouldn’t say I was nervous just a little concerned about my date. Michelle didn’t seem like someone who would want to go to Madam Puddifoot’s but everyone went to the Three Broomsticks; I would have to think of something special to do. Before I knew it detention was over and I still hadn’t thought of what I was going to do.
Bang! Bang! “Wake up, you three are going to be late to class.”
I sat up in my bed and rubbed my eyes. Was I dreaming, who was yelling at us? I looked around and saw Connor was still sleeping and Fred was sitting up yawning. The door opened. I saw Layla come in.
“What you doing here?” Fred asked groggily.
“Seeing as class starts in 15 minutes and you weren’t at breakfast, I figure you three were probably still asleep and came to wake you up,” Layla grumbled.
“Fifteen minutes?” I questioned, making sure I heard her right.
“Yes, James fifteen minutes till class starts.” She looked at me like I’m stupid.
Hold on, if she just answered me it meant she was talking to me again! Layla had been ignoring me for most of the week. On Sunday, she was talking to me but then during our conversation Michelle came up and kissed me on the cheek. After that, she went back to ignoring me. Fred said that it was because she was jealous since she liked me. I couldn’t believe that Layla and I had been friends since second year when we both made the Quidditch team. I had asked Lily if Layla liked me. Lily just told me I was a stupid prat.
“Nichols, it was nice of you to wake us up as we had a long night of cleaning but could you leave while we change?” said Connor, the muffled tone of his voice indicated that his head was still on his pillow.
“Of course, just make sure you hurry. And here are some biscuits; I’m leaving them on this table.”
We all grunted our replies. When I heard the thump that indicated the door had shut, I got out of bed and walked over to the showers.
Connor and I walked into Defense against the Dark Arts with our hair dripping (well, actually just mine as Connor’s head was shaved) and the biscuits left by Layla in our hands. We had barely made it in time. I wondered if Fred had gotten to Herbology in time.
I sat down in my seat in the back row and shoved the biscuit into my mouth before Professor Ashby could see me. Thankfully, he had his bald head turned to the class. I had gulped down the biscuit before he turned but Connor was slightly choking on his which made heads turn. I saw Layla trying not to laugh at us.
“Peakes, is there something you would like to share with us?” Ashby asked.
Connor shook his head.
“Then it would be appreciated if you would stop interrupting the class.”
Connor nodded.
As soon as Ashby stopped droning on about the Patronus charm, Connor and I got out of the class as fast as possible and went to meet up with Fred for Potions.
The day went by fast. Everyone was excited about the first Hogsmeade weekend. It was only a day away.
“So Lily, are you excited about your first Hogsmeade trip; are you going with anyone?” Connor asked through a mouthful of food at dinner.
“Er, well, Lysander asked me, and, well, I said yes.” She blushed.
“Shouldn’t have said that in front of James, Lils,” Rose said, looking at my face.
“Oh no, Jamie is going into protective brother mode,” Roxanne giggled.
“Aw, look his face and ears are as red as my hair.” Molly pointed at her Weasley red hair.
“Bloody hell, what is this, a family reunion?” I asked amid their laughter.
I looked to Fred for help. No help from him. He was bent over his plate laughing so hard that his pudding was falling out of his mouth.
“Lily, I don’t think you should go to Hogsmeade with a boy.
Just go with your friends,” I told her ignoring my cousins’ sniggers.
“Too bad that you can’t tell me what to do,” she retorted.
“Then I’ll have to tell Lysander what I think; where is he?” I asked.
“Losing argument, mate,” Fred whispered to me.
Everyone else nodded. Apparently I wouldn’t find any support here. I looked over to the Slytherin table. It was time to pay my brother a visit.
“I’m going over to see what Al thinks,” I announced.
“Do that, I don’t have to listen to either of you,” Lily seethed.
I ignored her and walked over to Al. He would support me.
After all, he was Lily’s brother too.
As I got near the table, I saw Malfoy hit Al in the arm and tell him that I was coming. Al looked up from eating. He had a surprised look on his face. I guess it was because if it was at all possible I stayed far away from Slytherins.
“Lily’s going to Hogsmeade with Lysander,” I told him when I got closer to the table.
Instead of finding the support I expected, I found Al agreed with everyone else.
“No one is going to change her mind about going with him,” he told me. “But I’ll keep an eye out at Hogsmeade to make sure they’re not sneaking around in any dark alleys.”
I walked to back to the Gryffindor table, defeated. Instead of sitting down and finishing dinner, I went up to the dorm. I didn’t feel like sitting there. It’s not like it was a bad thing I didn’t want her to go to Hogsmeade with a boy. She was my little sister. I just wanted to keep her safe.
Michelle caught up with me right before I reached the fat lady’s portrait. She had her hair up in a ponytail with one dark curl hanging in her face.
“What’s with the glum face?” Michelle asked slipping her hand into mine.
“Oh hey, Lily’s going to Hogsmeade with Lysander and no one agrees with me that she shouldn’t.”
“I’m sorry, but you know that no one can change her mind about anything,” Michelle said.
“Yeah, that’s what Al said.” I sighed.
“Do you want to study together?” She looked up at me with those dark eyes; I had no choice but to say yes.
“Of course, let me go get my homework from my dorm,” I replied.
I ran up to my dorm. When I walked in, I tripped over a pair of Connor’s shoes. I looked around the dorm was a mess; I guess the house elves hadn’t cleaned yet. I grabbed my defense against the dark arts book of my bed; planning to finish up my essay on werewolves.
The common room was empty besides for Michelle and some random second years when I got back down.
Michelle was sitting on a couch, chewing on her quill while she worked on her homework.
“You look cute studying,” I told her as I sat down.
She turned her head up to me, a smile played on her lips.
Before I realized what I was doing, I kissed her. Afraid she might get upset, I pulled away.
“No,” She murmured.
Her hands reached into my hair and pulled my lips back to hers. My books fell to the floor when I leaned over to deepen the kiss. It seemed like we had been kissing for a mere second when I heard voices.
“Go James!”
“How can he say I can’t go to Hogsmeade when he’s in the
common room snogging!”
“On this note, I’m going to go study.”
“I think I might puke.”
I looked up to see my cousins minus the ones who weren’t at Hogwarts or in Gryffindor and Connor and Layla. Lily and Layla were talking and throwing quick angry glances my way. Rose was already walking toward her dorm. I assumed it was her who made the studying comment. Fred and Connor looked proud while Roxanne looked like she was deciding what the best way to spread this gossip around was. Hugo just looked bored.
“Er, I’ll just be going up to my dorm,” Michelle mumbled, embarrassed to have been caught snogging in the middle of the common room.
Fred and Connor sat down on the couch next to me congratulating me on snogging Michelle. I laughed and told them that I wished everyone hadn’t seen it. I didn’t mind being caught by my cousins but Michelle wasn’t used to all the Weasleys. I had learned a long time ago that there weren’t secrets in my family.
Later in the evening Molly and Roxanne came down and sat with us. We talked about Quidditch and other things.
Even if they weren’t on a team, everyone in our family loved Quidditch. I think Roxy just liked it because it gave her a reason to stare at boys.
“I’m going to bed. I’ll see you in the morning,” I told everyone around 12:30. I was too worried about my date tomorrow to stay up. I still hadn’t figured out what to do.
“Aw, little Jamie needs his beauty sleep,” Connor laughed.
“You’re just jealous you don’t have as good of looks as I do,” I retorted.
“I think Connor’s better looking than you and Fred,” Molly said blushing.
“That’s because it would be gross if you were attracted to me or James,” Fred said, rolling his eyes and diffusing what could’ve been an awkward situation.
“See you tomorrow at breakfast James,” Roxy said, “I can’t wait to see what your mum sends when she finds out about what happened yesterday.”
I groaned. With this whole Michelle thing going on and trying to figure how I was going to make tomorrow fun; I had forgotten about everything else. I was sure my mum or Fred’s would send a Howler. In fact, Grandma Weasley might even send one too.
“On that note, I’m going up to bed too and going to try not to have nightmares about what my mum might send,” Fred said, “ ‘night everyone.”
Fred and I walked up the stairs, talking about the horror that was sure to face us when the post arrived in the morning.