Pranking hearts

"You guys are sure about this?" Lee asked timidly when he, Fred and George made their way down the stairs to meet up with Rhea in the common room. It has been a few months of them at Hogwarts and Fred, George and Rhea had already managed to make themselves be known to the other occupants of the school. Going through the school the rumour about them, giving them a name the Mischief Trio. Thanks to the prank that they had pulled on the Slytherin table.

As funny as others found them, no one wanted to be on the other side of their pranks. And most people in school were trying to keep on their good side. That, however, didn't apply to Slytherins. More specifically some stuck-up members of the Slytherin Quidditch team. Even more specifically, Marcus Flint and his younger friend Adrian Pucey. Marcus played in the position of Chaser for Slytherin. A big rival of Oliver Wood that was according to Fred and George's brother Charlie a star Keeper. Oliver and Marcus were both in the third year already much like Percy. While Adrian was the first year.

The Mischief Trio wouldn't have cared for the two unimportant greasy Slytherins if it wouldn't be for the fact that they had been teasing Rhea about her height two days prior. The blonde girl was trying not to let it bother her, it was just a stupid pinpointing of something that she didn't see as a flaw in herself. But it all became different when they mistook her short fragile frame with weakness. That was a big crossing of a line that Rhea felt ashamed of. This didn't go unnoticed by her two best friends that have been there the whole time. The two boys have been coming up with a perfect prank for the two Slytherin bullies until now. Today was the day when they will get it all into motion and get them back.

They asked Rhea to meet them in the common room at midnight. Because midnight is such a good time for pranking according to the two gingers. They forced Lee to tag along regardless of the boy's protests.

"Yes, very sure," Fred answered, pushing him in front of him while George was leading the way down the stairs. They made it into the common area where they spotted Rhea sitting on the couch reading something. She was sitting still, the only thing moving was her tired eyes that were sadly and exhaustedly scanning through the letters written on the parchment in neat handwriting.

She didn't yet notice the three boys, too caught up in the meaning of the words, soaking it in which created some sort of heavy depressed feeling in her chest. Bitting the side of her cheek to keep the tears at bay she continued reading the letter over and over again. Fred immediately recognised that something was wrong with the girl. The way she sat, slouched down and still was the main indicator of it. Rhea was usually cheerful. Jumping in her seat in excitement, not being able to keep still.

"Hey, Rera, ready to go?" Fred spoke, coming closer to the couch. At the sound of his voice, Rhea quickly folded the piece of parchment, hiding it in the pocket of her pyjama pants. She stood up, forcing a smile to her lips. She turned to them and nodded. Fred and George exchanged worried glances while Lee stayed oblivious to everything. Deciding silently to keep going for now and question the girl later Fred and George started walking towards the portrait entrance, making sure that Lee was walking behind them. Maybe unwillingly but at least he was walking.

Rhea strolled behind them, trying to go a bit faster to catch up with the twins. The group were fast to exit their common room. Slightly angering the portrait of the Fat Lady which they woke up when they were leaving. It might be slight trouble getting back inside once they are done with their plans. Starting their journey down the stairs that were luckily standing still, not moving and leading exactly where they needed them to. Down.

"Since you kidnapped me, could you at least tell me what are we doing?" Lee whisper-yelled, almost tripping on the stairs due to bad vision caused by darkness. To prevent himself from falling his hand shot forward landing on George's back. The ginger in front of him hissed slightly, catching himself on the railing before he could fall. Slowly turning his head to glare at his friend and roommate.

"You personally are currently trying to kill me on the bloody stairs." Geroge hissed shoving Lee, unintentionally starting a little pushing fight between the two of them. Meanwhile, Fred and Rhea stood at the bottom of the stairs. Looking up at the two shoving boys in utter disbelief. Fred had his hand running through his short ginger hair, shaking his head slightly while Rhea was covering her mouth so Fred wouldn't see her smile.

"If we weren't so alike I would have said that one of us was adopted," Fred muttered, averting his eyes from the silly fight. Rhea giggled softly, turning her head to look up at him.

"With your Weasley genes that is practically impossible." Rhea reached her hand to ruffle Fred's soft hair causing the boy to frown.

"Hey, don't touch the hair. It ruins my image." Fred said, running now both his hands through his hair in an attempt to fix them somehow. Which confused Rhea a bit.

"It's midnight Fred...all of us are here straight out of bed I don't think anyone expects you to look presentable." Before the tall ginger could answer to her there was a noise coming from the corridor on their right. Both of them snapped their heads in that direction, seeing a faint flicker from the light reflecting from the wall of the said corridor. "Oh my..." Rhea muttered. Both of them could now clearly hear footsteps nearing them. "We should get out of here," Rhea whispered to Fred who immediately nodded turning towards George and Lee.

"George!" Fred hissed at his brother getting his attention. A simple subtle nod of Fred's head to the right was enough for George to understand and he quickly made his way towards the two to look at the nearing threat. His eyes widened when he could see the silhouette of the well-known Mr Filch and his scary cat Mrs Norris.

"What are we gonna do?" George asked, turning to the two.

"We hide obviously." Fred deadpanned already looking around to see where they could go. His eyes landed on the huge wooden door of the library. "There," He said pointing towards the door. Rhea nodded and turned to the stairs to call for Lee but the boy was already gone.

"Lee's sense of adventure is stunning." She said sarcastically. Concluding that Lee had aborted their mission they decided to bolt for the library. George was the one who carefully opened the heavy door as the three of them slipped in. The twins were more or less lost in the area. The last time they have been in the library was at the beginning of the school year when they were exploring around. Deciding that the book-filled place was not exactly the one where they could imagine spending their free time they have never stepped inside it again. Rhea, on the other hand, found the place amazing. She has always loved books. Whether they were textbooks for school or ones with stories, she simply enjoyed reading. So it was no surprise that she sometimes slipped away from the trouble-making twins, to go and have a moment for herself with her nose in a book.

"Merlin's socks this looks like a bloody maze," George muttered. Not knowing where to go to hide in a place like this. The twins thought that hiding in the library should be easy. There are supposed to be these big and tall shelves full of old dusty books behind which they could hide. But now they saw that right here at the front of the library there was a bit too much free space. Tables chairs...but no place sufficient enough to be a hiding place.

"Come on you two," Rhea whispered sharply grabbing them by their wrists and pulling them behind her towards the back of the library quickly. Fred was just barely taking in the picture of where she was dragging them. A creaking sound of the door opening echoed through the seemingly empty library.

"What is it, Mrs Norris? Can you smell something? Some nasty children breaking the rule again eh?" Filch's disgustingly screechy voice echoed through space. Rhea and the boys quickly ducked down behind one of the shelves crawling down on the ground.

"What's the plan boys?" Rhea asked in a whisper. They were pressing themselves against the book-filled shelves. If it was possible they would almost merge with it. Both boys shared a look, not exactly planning on something like this to happen. Getting out without knowing where to turn appeared to be a great obstacle right now. Seeing that the two gingers were completely blank Rhea rolled her eyes grabbing the closest one by the robes and dragging him behind her along the shelf, leaving the other one to follow them.

Crawling away on their hands and knees they have reached the end of the shelf, expertly making it towards the other. For the fact that they were just slowly inching towards the door, they were making a really good job of it.

"Blimey, we might actually make it," George said quietly from behind Rhea, not being able to contain his happiness when he saw the large wooden door of the library not too far from them now. The way out of this. The lucky gate of freedom.

"We might if you shut up." Fred snapped harshly.

"Can you two be quiet, you'll get us in trouble." Rhea hissed at the two, turning her head to look at them sternly. A clearing of someone's throat made them all freeze. Their heads slowly turned to the front seeing the dark green rim of a dress. When their eyes continued upwards only to be met with the face of the head of their house.

"I believe it's quite late for that Miss Black. And may I ask what are you three doing out here past curfew?" McGonagall didn't look even slightly surprised. It was almost as if she was expecting this outcome. As if she knew that she would find them here at some point.  The three young Gryffindors in front of her scrambled to their feet quickly. There was no reason to rag their clothes on the ground any longer.

"We were...studying?" Fred stammered out of himself, trying to get his Professor the award-winning smile that has always worked on their mother. But from the looks of it, the old and skilled woman in front of them would not fall easily for their sweetness.

"As much as I would love to believe that Mr Weasley, I am afraid that I am not far as gullible as you would like me to be." Professor McGonagall said, causing all hope of getting out of this messed up situation to shatter against the stone floor of the Hogwarts library. "You three will serve detention with Mr Filch this Saturday after supper." The three nodded. Their heads hanging low in embarrassment, both of getting caught and having to serve detention. "Very well, now run along before I will be forced to take points from your house."

The three friends quickly scurried past her and out of the library, leaving her to deal with Filch and his cat when he starts blabbering that he saw students out of bed. Making her way towards the stairs Rhea looked down the corridor in the direction of Slytherin's common room. She stopped in her track. Mischievous wheels spinning in her head. Her abrupt stop caused Fred and George to stop as well.

"Rera, what are you doing? Come on we need to get to our dorms," George urged, looking down at the doors of the library expecting them to open any second. A playful smile appeared on Rhea's pale pink lips.

"Well, I was thinking..." She started already getting a smirk from Fred.

"Don't hurt yourself too much."

"Shut up, I just thought that since we are already in trouble...we can't get in much more even if we fulfil our plan." After her sentence was done the twins shared a look. Rhea got used to the conversations that they seemed to have with just their eyes. Concluding that it must be a twin thing or something. The next second they looked at her, wearing an identical smirk.

"This is why you are our best friend." And with that, the three went to fulfil their plan of pranking the house of Slytherin.

***

The familiar group of three had spent their Saturday evening after dinner with Filch who didn't make their detention easy in any way. If anything it was quite terrible. They spent their evening cleaning the library. Dusting every single shelf and every single book. One wouldn't believe how dusty the old things are. Especially the ones about Arithmancy and Divination. No one borrows those types of books often. Mainly because people interested in those subjects only rely on their own notes that they make in class or Divination, the notes are kind of futile in that subject.

Rhea now sat in the common room after the hard day of cleaning. She was listing through her book that her uncle sent her this morning as an early birthday present. Even though her birthday isn't supposed to be until their Christmas holiday, but Remus just wanted to be ahead like always. Just in case. Rhea sat in silence by the window, trying to get engulfed in the story. She had nothing else to do. Angelina and Alicia were in the Owlery sending a letter to Alicia's parents asking if Angelina could join them for the holiday since her parents were visiting her sister abroad this year with whom Angelina didn't have quite a good relationship. Alicia asked Rhea to join as well, but the young blond declined the offer. She didn't want to intrude on the celebration of such an important holiday. Even though the offer sounded pleasing to her.

Lee was in his dorm doing something, Rhea didn't even want to think of what it could be. And Fred and George...let's just say that after they were released from cleaning she didn't see them. They seemed to just vanish somewhere, leaving Rhea alone now. She didn't want to question it. Knowing that if she knew where they were off to it would only tempt her to come with them and knowing them it was more than obvious that they were getting into trouble once again. And Rhea just wanted a bit of a break from detentions and trouble.

Being here in the corner, next to the window. Having a great view of the forest and the lake, it felt so much more appealing to her now. Maybe it was because she felt sad or tired. But troublemaking and mischief weren't lingering in her mind ever since that night when they got caught in the library. It wasn't that she felt discouraged by getting caught. She could care less about that. It was more what was happening at the moment in her little family of two. A family that was supposed to be fairly larger. It wasn't supposed to be just her and her uncle. And these thoughts were haunting her mind.

The portrait door opened and the giddy boys with bright ginger hair rushed inside. Laughing loudly, attracting the attention not only of Rhea but their older brother Charlie as well. But their immediate steps weren't towards their family member but to the blond girl sitting by herself in the corner. Fred almost crashed into her not being able to stop himself in time.

"What's got you two in such a rush?" Rhea asked with a soft laugh, closing the book, but not before marking the page she was on. Putting her book to the side to give her full attention to the two gingers in front of her.

"We've set some pranks in Filch's office." Fred bragged proudly, pushing himself onto the armrest of the chair Rhea was sitting on. Lightly nudging the girl next to him smiling at her goofily when she looked up at him.

"Are you two serious?" Rhea shook her head in disbelief but at the same time amusement. It was more than obvious the two would want to avenge their wasted time.

"Very serious," George answered with a nod before the twins burst out laughing. "I also found this there," George said pulling out a blank piece of parchment from his back pocket. Rhea tilted her head taking the paper from him carefully to inspect it.

"You took that old parchment with you? I told you it was useless." Fred frowned snatching the paper from Rhea's hands and looking it over. Trying to see if there was at least something written on it.

"It was in a box with confiscated stuff. It can't be that useless if it was confiscated." George reasoned, quite smartly. Hearing the word confiscated Rhea grabbed the parchment again.

"It looks familiar. Like I have seen it somewhere..." Rhea trailed off, her fingers carefully tracing against the soft paper. Some sort of sense of familiarity was practically radiating from it.

"Of course it's familiar, it's a piece of parchment. We see those every single day." Fred answered with a not-so-subtle eye-roll. His mind not comprehending what his brother and best friend found so intriguing about the old piece of paper.

"It's not just a piece of parchment Fred," George answered annoyed by his brother for not believing him. The two brothers glared at one another for a while until Rhea spoke.

"Maybe it has something hidden in it...I can write to my uncle Remus about it. Ask him if he knows an effective revealing charm or something." Rhea suggested.

"Why don't you just take it with you for the holiday and ask him about it personally?" Fred asked. He didn't believe that the parchment could contain something interesting but if Rhea and George wanted to investigate it to the brim he would support it. Why not, it's not like he had any better plans for now. At his question, Rhea looked down sadly. Not being in the mood to explain the difficult situation she was in at the moment.

"Um, I actually am staying here for the holiday. My uncle has some health issues due to which he cannot have me over this Christmas." She answered sadly. She was looking forward to finally seeing her godfather and practically the only family that she has but fate had different ideas for her. Realising how gloomy she sounded Rhea pushed a small smile to her light pink lips to assure her friends that the minor inconvenience didn't bother her. "But that's alright. I'll see him in Summer. And he has already sent me this book as an early birthday present so all good I guess." Rhea's happiness sounded a bit awkward. Trying to mask the actual sadness she felt inside for not being able to spend the holiday with her family.

"Birthday?" George asked confused.

"Yes, Rhea's birthday will be this December right?" Fred asked. Surprising Rhea. She didn't think Fred would remember her birthday. She mentioned them only once and very briefly when Angelina asked how old she was exactly. She wasn't even sure he was listening at that time. Well, apparently he was.

"Impressive..." George muttered getting a glare from Fred.

"What?"

"Nothing, it is just interesting that you remember Rhea's birthday considering you would have forgotten mine if we didn't have them on the same day." George teased causing Rhea to chuckle slightly at Fred's discomforted face.

"Shut up." The older of the two muttered turning his attention to Rhea. "But you can't stay here alone."

"Yeah Rhea, we won't let you spend both your birthday and Christmas alone." George supported his brother.

"And what else am I supposed to do? You two are going home for the holiday, and so are Angelina and Alicia." Rhea explained the peculiar situation. "It's nothing really. I can manage."

"Or these two can invite you to ours for Christmas." A new voice said, joining in their conversation. All three of them looked up to see Charlie Weasley standing not too far from them, obviously being able to hear their whole conversation. When he noticed the three were finally giving him the attention he walked closer towards them. Rhea had already the pleasure of getting to know Charlie as well as Percy. She thought Charlie was quite an amazing Quidditch player and his unusual knowledge of Magical Creatures fascinated Rhea even more. Percy on the other hand wasn't very interested in conversing with the young girl. Sure they sometimes bumped into each other in the library but that was mostly about it.

"What are you saying?" Fred asked, moving in his seat abruptly almost losing his balance and falling on top of Rhea.

"All I am saying is that mum would love for another person to come and join us for the holiday. Especially if you spoke about Rhea to her, then she is certainly desperate to meet her." Charlie smirked at his two brothers who looked down. George scratched the back of his neck while Fred kept on avoiding Rhea's eyes.

"Oh, so you two have been talking about me?" Rhea teased, a small smirk tugging on her lips. She knew the three of them were best friends. From every point of view, it was more than obvious. And she also wrote about Fred and George to her uncle. But she didn't expect Fred and George to do the same.

"Maybe mentioned you once or twice, in a few short sentences," George admitted, earning a glare from Fred who didn't want to confess to that at all.

"Once or twice? Mum feels like she knows you already Rhea. She will be delighted if you join us for Christmas." Charlie said, loving the way he teased his two younger brothers.

Rhea let the idea linger in her mind. She initially didn't want to bother anyone with her presence. But on the other hand, spending Christmas alone here at Hogwarts certainly wasn't in her plans either. Of course, meeting Mrs Weasley and the rest of the Weasley family might be a tremendous experience. But first, she would have to ask permission from her uncle and more importantly, the boys would have to ask their parents. But she would actually love to spend her holiday with her best friends.

"Um, I would have to write to my uncle but if you'd have me, I'd love to come." Rhea agreed, causing three huge grins to appear on the faces of the Weasley boys. 

"Excellent, you two will be able to write to mum yourselves, won't you?" Charlie didn't even wait for the answer before walking back to his friends leaving Rhea and the other two boys to talk. They decided to set the plan in motion right away. Collecting two parchments and quills. The two Weasley boys were sharing one to write their letter home while Rhea worked on her letter to her uncle. Including the questions about the peculiar parchment that they now had in their possession.