The Hogwarts library was typically a busy place in late May, especially for NEWT and OWL students. One particular day found Hufflepuff seventh-year Albus Potter there, along with a few of his classmates. However, not too much studying was going on as Albus, who only had three NEWTs to complete, found the newest edition of the Quibbler to be a better use of his time.

It didn’t take long for Albus to finish his magazine and start searching for a new source of entertainment, and it seemed like a gift from Merlin himself when he was given one. Copper pigtails poked out from behind of a mountain of books, hair he would know anywhere.

Elbowing Alex Macmillan in the side, Albus whispered, “Oi! Look!” Pointing toward the seemingly walking stack of literature, he said, “Must have a copy of Britain’s Hairiest and Scariest in there.” The comment drew titters from Alex, as well as from the other three sitting at the table.

“Isn’t that your sister?” asked Meg Donahue, who craned her neck in an effort to confirm her own theory.

Albus glowered. “Genetic technicality,” he grumbled. “Besides, it’s basically my duty to make her as miserable as she makes me.”

Sniggering, Alex asked, “How does she make you miserable? She’s two years back and in Ravenclaw.”

“Try sharing a bathroom with her some time! I hid her girly products, so she flushed my Chocolate Frog cards!”

Rolling her eyes, Meg said, “Then don’t hide her girly products, and you won’t have anything to worry about, now will you?”

Clucking his tongue, Albus said, “Principle, my friend. It’s the principle of the thing. James took the mickey out of me for all he was worth, so now it’s my turn to give back. It’s the right thing to do.” He shrugged. “Plus, she likes to pretend she’s smarter than me; I like to prove her wrong.”

From across the table, Jack Hurley harrumphed. “Judging by your OWL scores, I’d say that’s not very likely.”

Aiming a swift kick at Jack, Albus was annoyed when a groan and a muttered curse came from Nick Shannon, the other occupant of the table. However, he found himself far more irritated by his friends’ views on his chances of outsmarting his own little sister. No self-respecting bloke could let a younger sibling get the best of him, especially not after growing up with James sodding Potter.

An idea struck him. Digging into his rucksack, he pulled out a small box of things that Uncle George had sent him to test on the masses, which he did in exchange for store credit at Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes. He remembered one item in particular that he’d wanted to test out, only an adequate opportunity hadn’t yet presented itself — at least until that moment.

It was so small and seemingly harmless. He almost hadn’t believed George at first, but upon demonstration, that solitary card had performed exactly as advertised. It was a Morphing Deck Detonator, which was a chameleon Exploding Snap card, made to blend into any deck. Upon activation, it would explode the second it was no longer pressed between two other cards. Albus had had his doubts about its prank potential, but it was hard to argue with the ten trophies sitting in the office at the shop for the Daily Prophet’s ‘Businessman of the Year’ award.

And, yet again, George’s wisdom was vast; Albus knew exactly how he was going to use the card. Leaning in over the table, he whispered, “Watch this.” As he bided his time, he unwrapped the card, and the second Lily got up to retrieve another book for her already immense stack, Albus darted over to her table, activated it by tracing a ‘W’ on its face with his finger, and stuffed it inside her Transfiguration book. Her next revision was sure to be an explosive one.

He was already seated by the time she got back, and it was all he could do not to laugh out loud. Every one of his friends stared at him in shock and borderline awe, but their excitement was short-lived as, for the two hours they watched, Lily never once touched her Transfiguration book, let alone opened it. And then she returned her borrowed tomes and gathered her own things to leave.

Not ready to give up yet, right as Lily was passing the threshold of the library and despite the strict ‘Magic Free Zone’ imposed in the area, Albus shot a quick spell to untie her shoe laces. Not five seconds later, he heard an oomph, a crash, and an extraordinarily loud bang! echo through the entire library. Crossing his arms as he leant back in his chair, he said, “And that’s how it’s done, mates. Finesse.”

Five Minutes Earlier

Even if Lily Potter hadn’t been one of the more observant members of her year in Ravenclaw, it would have been hard not to notice Albus and his friends staring at her for the last two hours. But they weren’t looking at her directly; she found it curious and decided to find out why. That meant that a little bit of watching the watchers was in order.

Several furtive glances to their table told Lily that the object of their enthrallment was the stack of books next to her. She couldn’t help but let her lips twitch in amusement as she hid her face behind the pile If Albus was trying to pull one over on her, she was more than capable of playing his game. He had to have planted something in one of the volumes when she’d got up to get a copy of The Magic of Mighty Greece. All that remained would be to figure out which one was rigged to do whatever nefarious thing he meant to do. 

Nonchalantly, she picked up each one of the books, making it appear as if she’s perusing the title. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Albus’s little group. The first one on the pile, which was research for her Charms essay that still needed finished, elicited no reaction from them. The same went for the next two books. But when her fingers brushed the spine of her Transfiguration book, they all practically started drooling. And there it was.

Lily resisted the temptation to open the book right then and there, just to see what he’d done to violate it. Knowing Albus, it would probably blow up in her face. Instead, she fought that foolhardy urge and stowed her own things in her rucksack, leaving the borrowed books at the circulation desk. When she passed near then, Albus’s entire table was watching her like a stray dog eyeing a steak. Merlin, it was no wonder they were wet old Hufflepuffs instead of Ravenclaws. They couldn’t even play a trick right.  

She headed toward the exit, but as she stepped out, the laces on her right shoe came undone. Luckily, she quickly regained her balance, since there was no telling what it would do. Having only seconds to act in order to convince Albus that he’d succeeded, she took the Transfiguration book out of her bag, Levitating it away from herself and casting a Shield Charm around it to dissipate its effects. Then she sank to her knees as if she’d actually been tripped, emitting a loud oomph and pouring some of the contents of her rucksack onto the floor for good measure. 

As she did this, the book exploded like she had expected, showering down around her in shreds of parchment and leather binding. But amongst the fallen pieces was what looked like a playing card with a glowing ‘W’ on its surface. Any doubt she’d had about the culprit of the source of the tools of his misdeeds were erased. It was definitely a Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes product, and Albus had definitely done it.

Lily had known by the echo in the halls that a crowd would be gathered to investigate. The library emptied into the corridor, Albus and his friends at the front of the pack. From the other direction, people cautiously approached until Lily was surrounded by a crowd of gossiping students and staff alike.

Professor Longbottom shoved his way to the front of the crowd. “Are you all right, Lily?” he asked.

“Yes, Professor, I’m fine. Thank you.” Lily regained her feet and began shoving her things back into her bag. Miranda, one of Lily’s more friendly acquaintances, rushed forward and started helping. 

After the mess had been cleared, Lily said, “Thanks.” Zipping her sack once more, she gave the onlookers a sheepish wave and said, “I’m glad I could entertain you. Carry on.” A good number of them skulked away, faces rosy with embarrassment.

However, as Lily came face to face with Albus, all she could do was roll her eyes. He was trying his best not to smirk at his assumed triumph, and she was going to continue to let him believe he’d won. It didn’t hurt that he wasn’t terribly observant, at least not enough to notice that her eyebrows hadn’t been blown off and that there was not a speck of soot on her. All he had as a trophy was the tattered carcass of her beyond-repair Transfiguration book. But she wasn’t going to give him that, either. A mere flick of her wand saw the pile vanish.

The crowd parted before her to let her pass, and as Lily walked by, she heard the whispers and the muffled laughing start. Each one of the poorly masked chuckles made her sure of one thing: Albus was going to get it.

* * *

It took two weeks for Lily to draw up the perfect plot. There were several ideas she had considered before settling on one with the maximum humiliation potential. And the start of its fruition fell on the morning of the Quidditch final.  Albus was the Keeper for Hufflepuff, who would be playing Gryffindor for the championship.

As the students started to file out for breakfast, she tiptoed down the stairs. Just before she reached the basements, which were the home of the Hufflepuff common room, Lily ducked into a darkened alcove. Squeezing her eyes shut, she cast a Disillusionment Charm, shivering at the feeling of a frigid egg being cracked on her head. She looked down; it wasn’t perfect, but as long as nobody looked too closely, it would do.

Passing the kitchens, Lily dodged a flock of younger girls, giggling madly at some unknown joke. Searching for the source of that tribe of Hufflepuffs, Lily’s eyes fell on a big badger head, and she couldn’t help but stare at it. How she had failed to plan for something as rudimentary as getting into the room, she had no idea, but when all else failed, a bit of simplicity could go a long way.

“Um, excuse me?” she whispered at animal in the portrait.

It opened its eyes and blinked at her, despite her invisibility.  “Yes, dear?”

“I was wondering… is there was any way I could come inside?”  Lily requested. 

“May I ask why?” 

Feeling herself flush slightly, Lily offered, “Fraternal comeuppance?”

The badger sighed. “Pity. Had you been set to do something nice, I might’ve let you pass, but I’m afraid I’ll have to say no. Goodnight, child,” it said finally before allowing its lids to droop once more.

Lily turned away, mentally kicking herself. Thwarted by a painting! And to top it all off, the longer she stayed there, the more likely she was to be caught by a prefect for being somewhere she had no business being. As it was, the Disillusionment was starting to wear off, as she was barely versed in the spell and had learned it for this sole purpose. 

But as fortune would have it, a new voice and set of footsteps pounded down the hallway. Lily turned to see Alex Macmillan, one of Albus’ friends, running toward her, muttering a stream of curses. She barely had time to get out of the way before he barged into the spot she had just occupied. Unaware of being watched, he rubbed the badger’s snout and murmured, “Justice is blind.” The badger’s face twisted once more into a door, and he slipped through. Seeing her opportunity, Lily followed.

“I can’t believe the stupid twat forgot his gloves,” Lily heard Alex grumble as she stalked him through the common room and down into the brightly lit tunnels leading to their dormitory. She was lucky to have someone who she could follow; on her own, she would have been lost in a second.  He stopped in front of a door and entered, snatching up a pair of Keeper’s gloves from one of the bed. Once he had what he came for, he stomped out, grumbling incoherently and slamming the door behind him. 

Once she was by herself, Lily walked across the messy room to Albus’ bed. She knelt and opened his trunk. Near the top, she found a parcel containing a card identical to the one that had blown up her book the night before. The label was quite informative as to its use and effects. It would be perfect. Tucking the card into her pocket, she put everything back to its original, haphazard pile as she’d found it. Under the first couple of layers, she placed a slip of parchment, which would get the ball rolling on her plan. Then, she stood and plucked his copy of Flying with the Cannons right off of his bed and stuffed it into her robes’ pocket. 

All that was left was to wait.

* * *

“Oi, Alex, have you seen my book?”

From inside the bathroom, still showering off the sweat from their match, Alex shouted, “Who cares? It’s not like you need them or anything.”

“Not those. Flying with the Cannons is missing.” Delving into the depths of his trunk, Albus sifted and shifted, desperate to make sure that he didn’t leave his favourite book behind. It had been the last thing that Granddad Weasley had given him before his mind had started to go. If it was gone, Albus was sure he’d go spare.

Alex’s voice interrupted Albus’s thoughts. “Maybe if you stopped leaving things all over the place, you’d know where it was. Like —” he chucked a pair of dirty socks out of the bathroom, “— these.”

Ignoring the jibe, Albus continued to sift through his belongings until he happened upon something he hadn’t been expecting. It was a note, written in nondescript, blocking handwriting, and when he read it, he scowled, perused it again, and hoped it didn’t say what it seemed like it did.

Albus,

I have your book, Flying with the Cannons. If you want it returned, meet me under the tree by the lake at four in the afternoon the day before the Express leaves.

Be there, or the book gets it.

-La Fleur

No matter how much he scoured his brain, Albus couldn’t think of one person who would either have access to his things or even care about stealing a very, very common book. As far as he knew, he was the only Cannons fan in Hufflepuff anyway; it had to be about him, not the actual book. But who? Who would do something like this?

Coming out of the loo, Alex was towelling off his hair. “Did you find it?” he asked, no doubt noticing the lack of continued search. Wordlessly, Albus thrust the note into his friend’s hands. After reading it, Alex huffed. “Pretentious git. Who calls themselves ‘La Fleur’?”

“But that’s my granddad’s book! I don’t care if this slimy prat calls himself ‘The Purple Manticore’; I need that book back.”

Raising a brow, Alex asked, “So you’re actually going to go?”

“I have to!” Albus said before pulling on his own hair by the roots. “I can’t just leave it, or my Mum and Dad would kill me. I’d kill me.” He shuddered at the memory of the lecture he’d received when he decided to take his precious book with him to school. Take care of it, Albus. Be careful with your things, Albus. Don’t leave your book in front of an open window, Albus.

Shrugging, Alex said, “I s’pose. It just sounds like a setup to me. Did you get someone’s knickers in a twist lately?”

“Don’t think so.”

Alex tossed the note on Albus’s bed and went back to what he’d been doing. Albus knew he had no choice. He would get that book back, and whoever this dastardly individual was, he would be sorry. Very sorry.

* * *

The next few days were spent quietly. To test the waters of his suspicions, Lily surreptitiously Levitated a piece of Nosebleed Nougat, which she had confiscated during her prefect patrolling rounds, in Albus’s eggs at breakfast that Monday. One of his mates had called him away from his food to console him on his Quidditch loss. He never knew what hit him.

From what she had heard, Albus had been sent to the Hospital Wing, missing three lessons before Madam Pomfrey could stanch the blood flow. In a way, Lily hoped that he would figure out that it was her, which would make him twice as nervous about the fate of his precious Cannons book, since she knew precisely what value it held to him. But he wasn’t half as smart as he thought he was. He wouldn’t figure out what was happening until she figuratively bashed him over the head with it.

Not much happened over the next week, which led her to believe that he didn’t even suspect her of the act. Everything was falling into place, and Lily had to admit that she was having more fun than she’d ever had before with either of her siblings.

* * *

Three-thirty. Crap. Albus had been waiting days for the appointed time, and it was driving him mental. Minute after minute, hour after agonizing hour passed, adding fuel to the already frantic fire. Even the elves in the kitchen were sick of seeing him as he made several trips to nick himself some tea to calm his nerves. All it had done was make him jittery and in need of a trip to the loo.

He couldn’t take it anymore. It was close enough, and he could just wait for his opponent to show his cowardly face. At any rate, it was better than sitting around and waiting. With that, he practically ran out of the castle to the large tree that the hostage-holder had specified.

Nothing. There was nothing. Albus wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but whoever it was had anticipated his desire to get the exchange done quickly, had known he wouldn’t be patient enough to wait. It was yet one more laugh that this person would have at his expense.

After twenty minutes of yet more pointless trudging, Albus sat down and leaned against the tree, hoping he might fall asleep or something to make time pass quicker. Closing his eyes and listening to the sound of nearly everyone in the school enjoying their final day of the term outside in the sunshine, he nearly had a heart attack when something solid dropped into his lap.

It was his book! Resisting the urge to hug it to his chest, Albus looked around to see how it had got there. He even looked up into the tree’s branches, but still, there was no one there. It was then that what Alex had said started to wriggle its way into his thoughts. There was definitely something fishy about the book just appearing with no one around. No one in seventh-year was good enough at the Disillusionment Charm to be completely invisible. And no one had an Invisibility Cloak like the one his dad had in his office that he thought they didn’t know about.

Eyeing the book suspiciously, he noticed that there was a piece of paper sticking out of it. He should’ve known it would be another note, and when he skipped straight to the bottom, it was yet again from ‘La Fleur’.

Page ninety-two was very interesting.

-La Fleur

He had assumed that this person had perused the book, but the confirmation that it had been in a stranger’s hand ate at him. However, nothing horrified him more than his next thought: what if they wrote in it? A sickening feeling in his gut, he flipped it open. The second he saw the card, though, it all became startlingly clear as the whole thing exploded in his face.

As he coughed from the cloud of smoke that was wafting from the smoldering book in his hands, Albus fanned the acrid plumes away from his face, hoping that his sister would have the good grace to show her face after what she’d done. It had to have been her, because no one else would’ve known the value of that book, and the use of the Morphing Deck Detonator just sealed it. It also shed a light on who ‘La Fleur’ was. ‘Fleur’ meant ‘flower’. He could’ve kicked himself for not noticing it before, but he’d really not even considered that Lily would still be angry about that stupid incident in the library.

When he didn’t spot her, he bellowed, “LILY!” The strain on his lungs burned his throat and brought on another fit of hacking, but it didn’t deter him from reiterating his anger. “Lily, I swear to Merlin if you don’t show your face right now, I’ll make you sorry!”

A gentle breeze flowed around him and cleared the smoke, and as he drew a deep breath of clean air, he finally laid eyes on his tormenter as she appeared in front of him from her enviably decent Disillusionment Charm.

“You know, it’s not very nice to threaten your sister,” Lily pretended to pout.  “Plus, if you knew what I know, you’d try to act a bit more civil.”

“Civil!” he roared. “You completely destroyed Granddad’s book! It was a family heirloom, and you blew it to bloody bits.”

“I didn’t,” Lily replied calmly.  At Albus’ puzzled look, she dug into her bag and pulled out the real copy of Flying with the Cannons.  She held it out to him.  “It’s amazing what a quick Geminio will do.” Tossing it into his lap, she said, “I know how much it means to you. You can’t possibly think I would ruin it.”

Silently, Albus reached out and took the book, his fingers tracing the looping letters in the title, making sure that it was really real. Flipping open the cover, he sighed in relief to see the short message written inside.

However, she wasn’t quite finished with him. “But I want you to know,” Lily continued, “the next time you so much as try to mess with me, do not forget that I am completely capable of giving it right back. I fight dirty, and I will win.” With that, Lily walked away across the grounds, leaving Albus to stare at the spot where she’d been standing. 

A shady spot along the shore was calling her name, and it was high time for some relaxation. She’d earned it.