They wont know who did it
Evan wandered around the common room, stopping by the bookshelves to read the titles of some of the seemingly interesting books before doing another lap. He didn’t know why he was so restless. Barty was off in detention for turning the Hufflepuff’s punch into swamp water whenever they touched their goblets. He didn’t know what McGonagall was doing to Barty but he was sure that Barty was going to be grumbling about it later. Regulus was away with James on the Quidditch pitch practising for an upcoming game or so he said. He really wasn’t sure anymore. He could have been lying, who knows.
Pandora and Dorcas said that they would be meeting with him soon so he was waiting for them, quite impatiently. He was waiting for their special knock that indicated that it was them and not some random student wanting to ask questions for a survey or some answers to an upcoming test. They had devised the system to make sure that they could recognise each other just in case. They occasionally changed it up just to make sure that people couldn’t imitate it, this was brought up by Pandora and Regulus who expressed their concern saying that the ghosts would most likely play tricks on them by imitating the patterns. It was a good point so they held small meetings every month or so to come up with new patterns.
They had managed to avoid copying the whole of their stay at Hogwarts so they saw it as a win. That didn’t stop people from trying more recently though. Younger years seemed to think that they were able to find their current code and try it out, only to be turned away or flat out ignored no matter how long they tried the old sequence. It was always entertaining to see which one they had picked up on.
Evan picked up one of the more well-read books. He read the blurb at the back and opened it up to the first page. It had already been annotated by a past Slytherin as it had some initials that he didn’t recognise in the slightest. It also had a small date near the top that read 1927 so he guessed that was the date that it had been annotated. The book was quite intriguing which was surprising as it was a muggle book and Evan didn’t take a particular liking to muggle genres. The more he read on the more notes he noticed this time from multiple people who had signed their name under each point they made so as not to get confused when they re-read the story again. It was a smart move. He got to page 30 and spotted familiar handwriting. It had the initials B.C.Jr. scrawled underneath it. Evan was quite surprised when he realised that Barty had read and annotated this particular book as he didn’t take him as somebody who read this type of book, which really he had surprised himself when he also enjoyed the first few pages of it so far. He continued flipping through the pages, partly for the continuing tension in the plot and partly because of the notes in all of the margins. They seemed to give feedback to each other and give new ideas about references and foreshadowing to the future plot.
He was just getting to an interesting point in the book when the immediately recognisable knock came from the door. They had arrived. Finally.
He put the book back onto the shelf, mentally noting the page he had stopped. He greeted the girls and they sat around one of the tables on the far back left of the room. It was a hidden away spot that had become their ideal spot for hanging out and gossiping. Not that anybody would really want to interfere with their conversations.
“Right so I have been talking to Lily and she seems to have some news on whether or not we will be subject to more pranks from Sirius and his group of friends.” Pandora starts first, putting her elbows on the table and resting her head on the back of her right hand, using her left hand to wave around as she talks.
“And?” Evan asks, now slightly curious.
“We have a small prank being pulled on us the following Wednesday.” Pandora answers, looking towards Dorcas who confirms the news.
“They want to turn your robes invisible and/or stick your dorm furniture to the ceiling.” Dorcas explains pulling out a potions manual from her bag, “So I found some potions that can give them bad luck for however long depending on the dosage and-”
“And I found some spells that can make sure that walking will be an absolute pain for them and then when they get used to it we use the counter curse and see them struggle to find their balance again.” Pandora interrupted, proudly pulling out some of her plans and putting them next to Dorcas’s textbook.
“I still can’t believe you want to watch them struggle that much.” Dorcas laughed, studying the notes before turning them to Evan.
“It’s funny.”
“Oh wow. You really made sure that they would have a hard time walking Merlin Pandora.” Evan gives her a small laugh before turning to Dorcas’s potion recipe, “Well then we can test that out on Snape first, see if it works.”
Evan points to the page, a smile already forming at the idea of Severus not being able to get anything right for a small period of time.
“Maybe but I think he would know. He is top of our potions class.” Dorcas points out, shrugging, “It could work if I convince him enough. I doubt he would trust a Gryffindor though.”
“Fair.”
“We could test it out on one of the annoying first years.” Pandora suggests waving her hand around vaguely, “What?”
“Dora. They are still first years.” Evan points out, “They might be annoying but they don’t deserve that.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“Pandora. They have it rough already with navigating the castle, you don’t need to make it worse.” Dorcas explains, trying to hide the slight annoyance in her voice.
“Ok fine. We won’t test it on the first years.” Pandora puts her hands up in a fake defeat, a small grin on her face despite the sincerity in her voice.
“Good.” Evan rolls his eyes. He hadn’t expected Pandora to be so adamant on testing on the younger years. She knew how gullible they could be when trusting older years as she had been one of those students. Now she was using that to her advantage.
They continued discussing their plans and how they would get to the Gryffindors before they hit the Slytherin dorms as they had also planned to hit Severus’s. They wouldn't stop that attack but they would stop them from hitting Evan’s dorm which he appreciated. He was glad to know that he wasn’t going to have to deal with his furniture on the ceiling or his uniform being invisible.