mischief
Jane loves the Gryffindor common room. The red furniture creates a warm and cosy atmosphere. It's by far her favourite common room.
Sitting on the floor, she is committed to a game of chess with Peter Pettigrew. She's a few moves away from checking his king when the rest of the marauders rush down the stairs, coming from their dorms. Remus takes a seat in an armchair while the other two bolt towards Jane.
James settles down on her right and Sirius, who has two colourful ties in hand, sits on her left. “Which one?” he asks, swinging them in front of her face – one is purple and pink striped, the other black and white. They probably transfigured their Gryffindor ties.
“This one,” she points to the purple/pink tie.
“Okay. Pete?” Sirius turns to Peter.
“Yeah, that one. Black and white is boring.”
“Are you not gonna ask what we’re up to?” James grins widely.
“You’ll transfigure everyone’s ties to be purple?” she focuses back on the game. Peter’s queen came dangerously close to her king.
James tilts his head. “Well, that’s only one part.”
“Tomorrow?”
“No, it’s a surprise.” He reaches out to move one of her pieces.
“Hey, that’s a terrible move!” she complains.
James laughs as Peter takes his opportunity to end the game.
“Checkmate!”
☆
Peter is one of her best friends. Jane always enjoys the time she spends with him, joking and laughing together.
They have known each other since they were toddlers. Their fathers were colleagues, so when her father visited the Pettigrews, she came along. While he discussed business with Mr Pettigrew, Jane befriended Peter.
In consequence, being friends with Peter Pettigrew also means being friends with the other marauders. The four boys seemingly became inseparable the moment they met. With time, Jane grew fond of all of them.
They are sprawled out on a sunny patch of grass outside the castle. September had been kind so far, offering much more sunshine than usual. Lily Evans is also with them. Jane likes her, she always spreads love to the people around her. She's sitting next to James, who has an arm around her shoulders.
Jane was delighted when it turned out that Lily is just as much into James as he is into her. They are a perfect fit for each other.
Once again, the school’s attempt to improve house relations is a topic of conversation. The seventh years are also paired up for Transfiguration.
“It’s just so awkward with him. Prongs, I miss you,” Sirius whines. He is complaining about Benjy Fenwick.
Peter leans closer to Jane and whispers, explaining what's so horrible about Benjy as a partner, “Sirius shagged him during a party back in fifth. They’ve been avoiding each other ever since.” Jane can barely hold back her laugh.
“Moony was unlucky,” Peter adds, not whispering anymore and quickly changing the topic before Sirius notices which secret was just spread.
“Right. He’s with Snivellus,” James says and looks at his friend with pity.
Jane grimaces. She’s never had any bad experiences with Snape, but the stories she hears about him are enough to make her hate him.
Remus groans, “Stop talking about it already. I don’t wanna think about him.”
“Well, Jane wasn’t so lucky either,” Peter mentions.
“Ugh, yeah, I’m with your brother,” she points to Sirius. He pulls a face. Jane always wonders why the Black brothers have such a bad relationship – even before Sirius left his home. He doesn’t talk about it, at least not to her. She can’t imagine cutting ties with her own brother, no matter what happens between them.
“Tell me when he’s mean to you. I’ll hex him.”
“Emme already offered to do that, but I’ll let you know too,” she chuckles at her friends’ defensiveness. She's able to protect herself just fine.
★
It seems that Jane Bell decided she dislikes working in silence. Regulus isn't sure what to think about it yet.
They are brewing essence of insanity. Slughorn took two long hours informing them about its dangers the week prior. They know every reason not to take a sip of it but are lacking the details on how to make it. Hence, hardly any potion turns out acceptable.
It's frustrating. Regulus knows they would have managed if they knew what to do. The textbook isn’t a big help either.
“Should I cut this or put it in whole? The book only says we need two of them.” Bell asks, holding up a frog brain.
“Um, probably needs to be cut.”
She reaches for a knife and cuts a few slices, then drops them in the cauldron, “Ugh, yuck.”
The next instructions are less vague.
Add three beetle eyes
Stir until blue
Let potion sit for five minutes
Stir until green
Regulus follows them and sits down, waiting five minutes before stirring again. Bell follows suit and sits in her chair. He notices her glancing at him.
Then, suddenly their potion begins to bubble like it's boiling. They both stand up, looking into the cauldron and before they can move away, it explodes – blowing a big cloud of smoke right into their faces. Bell shrieks.
She looks towards Regulus accusingly, “What did you do?!”
“Exactly what the instructions said! Maybe you did something wrong.”
She huffs and turns away. When the smoke clears, he sees that her face is covered in a grey layer of ash. He realizes that he must look the exact same. He rubs his face with his hands and his sleeves which she seemingly finds amusing.
“You look like that too, by the way,” he reminds her. The way she laughs at him is irritating.
“It’s just that you’re not making it any better.”
Regulus looks at his hands with the ash smeared across his palms. The fact that she's probably right irritates him even more.
Bell pulls a tissue out of her bag and cast Aguamenti, so that it's almost dripping wet. She hands it to him, “That should work.” He's slightly surprised. It's a kind gesture – she could have just let him walk through the corridors looking like a fool until he reaches a bathroom.
“Thanks,” he says.
She takes out a second one for herself.
Both cleaned up, as well as their table, they are sitting there waiting for the lesson to end. Slughorn is hovering around the classroom, probably worried that another potion will blow up. At least theirs wasn’t the first one to go wrong – another potion exploded a few minutes before theirs (which spared them most of the attention and embarrassment).
Regulus is glad when he can finally leave that damn classroom.
☆
Regulus is still half-asleep when he realizes that something is wrong with his robes. It's a Monday morning, meaning he has to get through two excruciating hours of Transfiguration and Potions right after.
His dormmates, Evan and Crouch Jr, are still in bed. So, Regulus dresses in the dark, careful not to wake them up. Then, he walks into the bathroom and turns the lights on. He has to take a second look to make sure what he sees is not imagination.
His robes are purple. All his clothes are purple. Some parts are pink, like the stripes on his tie and the inside of his robes, which is usually green. Regulus feels silly, like a first year whose spell went wrong. At least his house crest still has the right shape, a – now purple – snake.
He storms back into the dorm and rummages through his other clothes - none of them are their usual colour. Then he rushes over to Evan’s bed and throws open the curtains.
“Where are your robes? I need to look at them.”
“Huh?” Evan rolls over slowly and sleepily reaches for his wand, casting a quiet Lumos. He starts to laugh at the sight of the colourful clothes.
Regulus sighs and goes looking for some of his friend’s clothes.
He knows that Sirius and his stupid friends are responsible for this 'funny' joke. Regulus hopes that the whole school is involved instead of just him. Maybe his brother finally took the chance to humiliate him. Potter and the others would surely love to join in.
He could feel the anxious pit in his stomach grow with every second he spent looking for a piece of Evan's clothes.
Then, at long last, Regulus pulls out another purple robe - he exhales in relief. Thank Merlin. This means they somehow coloured everyone’s clothes, or maybe just the Slytherins’. Many past pranks were directed at them only which was fine with Regulus; everything was tolerable as long as he isn’t the lone victim.
He hears another curtain open and looks over to Barty who sits on the edge of his bed.
“What are you doing? Can’t sleep with all that noise,” he stands up and turns on the light. As his eyes adjust to the brightness, he blinks a few times and his gaze settles on Regulus. Barty tilts his head in question. “What happened there?” he points at the robes.
“My brother happened.”
Regulus doesn’t know why he's surprised that that the hallways are also harassed with colours. Some portraits have purple ties sticked to them and there is pink tinsel hanging from the walls. The Great Hall wasn't safe either – even the teachers' table is covered with a striped tablecloth.
He wonders why anyone would put so much effort into something so stupid and useless. Those Gryffindor boys are obviously remarkable wizards – Regulus doesn’t even know how the hell they got hold of the students’ clothes without them noticing. Did it have something to do with the house elves who do the washing? They constantly waste their potential, carrying out perfectly planned pranks instead of focusing on schoolwork.
By the time lessons start, one part of the students is annoyed while others are cheerful because of the new vibrant ambience of the castle.
Even McGonagall seems rather unbothered. She is probably happy that there are no dung bombs going off this time.
"Alright, today we will be doing some practical transfiguration. We're done with theory for now," she announces at the beginning of the lesson, “I will distribute matches. Turn them into needles using nonverbal spells. You’ll be practicing with your partners for the next few weeks."
Great, Regulus thinks. He is stuck with Jane Bell multiple days a week from now on. Transfiguration and Potions on Monday – Transfiguration again on Thursday – Potions again on Friday. He should have picked Charms as advanced class instead.
McGonagall walks by and leaves a pack of matches on their desk.
Regulus supposes they should try to get along well, for the sake of their grades.
“No more explosions?” he suggests.
“Deal,” she chuckles.