Pranking hearts

It was the day of Halloween when Rhea was in the library, finishing the new muggle book that she managed to buy in the Tomes and Scrolls shop when she was visiting Hogsmeade for the first time. The place was magical but Rhea only went there to pick up something to read before scurrying straight to the Zonko's. A joke shop in front of which Fred and George were already waiting for her. So her priorities were set that day.

Today she was just about finished with the book and the next trip isn't until next month. So the plan will be to sneak into Hogsmeade. It's not like she and the twins never tried that. More times than they can count. It is fairly easy with the use of the Marauders Map. The three of them have it practically memorised by now. Rhea sighed, closing the book once she read the last word of it. She looked next to her to see Edmund watching her with a curious look on his face which made her laugh.

"What?" She asked over laughs. Edmund shook his head, setting the book he was holding down on the table.

"It's nothing, I was just a bit lost in thoughts." He answered quickly, sounding suspicious but Rhea brushed it off. Edmund tends to get like that. It is just his nature. "So, um, how was the book?" He asked, changing the topic whilst nodding towards the closed book that was now lying on the table. Rhea looked over where Ed had mentioned, shrugging her shoulders.

"Honestly, pretty boring. By the cover, I thought it would be awesome. You know, white whale and all. But all I figured out from it is just how it is to be a sailor on a whaleship. If you were wondering, it was pretty horrid." Rhea ranted about the book that she had just now finished. Even if she wasn't particularly interested in the topic even after the first two chapters she still managed to read through it rather quickly in hopes it would bring her some action. It sure was not enough for her to like.

"That's why we don't judge the books by their cover." Ed laughed, reaching over to grab the book from her to look at it. On the cover was a drawing of a ship on the sea with a big white whale, sure did look interesting. Edmund could see why Rhea chose it. But as he started reading through the description he cringed a bit. Putting the book back onto the table. "We read the description Rhea, I thought you knew it."

"I was in a rush okay! Fred and George were waiting for me in front of Zonko's." Rhea reasoned, grabbing the book and stuffing it inside her bag. She didn't see Ed frown at the mention of the twins' names. He always tried to be level-headed, and act as if nothing bothered him most of the time. But one of the Weasley twins made his blood boil. Fred Weasley was the trigger that could always get Edmund to lose his cool.

If it wasn't for his constant jokes and teasing and carefree attitude, it would be because of the immediate hatred the two developed with each other in their second year when they first met. And that hatred lasted until today. It also didn't help that Rhea always seemed to be talking either about the twins or Fred in particular. There wasn't one conversation where Rhea wouldn't mention the redhead. What was even worse was the fact that she wasn't even realising it.

"Hm, ready for the Quidditch match? You know it's Gryffindor against Slytherin." Edmund asked, voluntarily changing the topic of their talk. Just because he didn't want to talk about the twins anymore. But he probably should have picked a different topic.

"Oh sure, you guys are going down. The twins and I are using our secret tactics on you. You have no chance." Rhea bragged jokingly, turning around to slip her satchel over her shoulder as they were supposed to go to Great Hall for a feast already. Edmund groaned slightly, grabbing his book and hitting himself in the head repeatedly before shoving it in his bag as he stood up, putting on a face to appear as if nothing was bothering him.

"Is that so?" He teased back. They made their way out of the library, continuing down the corridor.

"Yes, this time we will win. No matter how dirty you play." Edmund pretended to be offended by her statement.

"Oh, how dare you, we never play dirty." Rhea gave him a sceptical look. "Okay, that was a weak attempt. But I don't cheat." Edmund defended his Quidditch skills. He was a pretty decent Chaser. His team was lucky to have him. And it was true he was one of the more proper players that played according to rules. It was him, Terence Higgs and Adrain Pucey. The others were too deeply under the influence of their Captain Marcus Flint. Terrible guy. Never played fair in his life. He was also Oliver's biggest enemy, the two were at each other's throats all the time.

"I know you don't," Rhea assured him with a comforting smile. "I am just worried about the ones that aren't as decent as you." The blonde sighed. She was still worried about Harry and didn't know how to help him when they will be on the pitch against the Slytherins for his absolute first try. That is quite a lot of pressure for the first year.

"I'm sure it will be fine," Edmund assured her, seeing the worried look on her face. Rhea managed to give him a weak smile.

"Yeah," She sighed. "Go on without me, I'll come later." Rhea sent Edmund forward and she went to the bathroom. Needing some time to herself to collect her thoughts. As she walked in, she leaned against the sink, breathing out a long sigh. Trying to expel all the negative thinking from her system. She was used to being positive about everything. Especially if it affected her friends. But she couldn't help the worry.

The fact that she cared for Harry was more than obvious. The feeling developed on itself over time. She led a few long conversations with Harry and the boy grew close to her. He was almost like a little brother to her. As bizarre as it sounds, getting attached to someone that quickly, the two understood each other. Having their similarities over which they bonded. It was almost as if they were meant to be related in some weird way.

And Rhea felt responsible. She was older, she was supposed to protect Harry, yet she is just watching as he is pushed towards the match against Slytherins who have no problem massacring someone on that pitch just so they can win. Harry can get seriously injured during this match. Just as much as she did last year. She knows how it hurts and would much rather Harry didn't have to experience that.

Just as she was about to leave she heard a sob coming from one of the stalls. Stopping dead in her track she turned back around glancing at the stall from which the sound was coming.

"Myrtle? Is that you?" Rhea asked carefully. The person, suddenly became quiet, indicating it probably wasn't the melodramatic ghost of the young girl. Carefully Rhea approached the stall, knocking gently on it. "Hey, are you all right?" She waited for an answer. But she got none. "It's all right, you can talk to me if you want."

"Why would you want to talk to me?" Recognising the voice as the voice of the first-year Hermione Granger. Her voice sounded of tears and was quite miserable. Rhea's expression transformed into a scowl. She took Hermione as a girl who was very sure of herself and always spoke confidently because she didn't have to be afraid of not knowing something. Rhea did admire the girl for that. But now the ever-so-confident girl sounded frail and broken, which made Rhea curious about what happened.

"Because I am your friend?" Rhea tried approaching her like this. But turns out it was no use.

"Ronald said I don't have friends. And I know you are friends with him and his brothers so if you are just here to make fun of me, you should go." Hermione snapped from inside her stall, confusing Rhea even more.

"What? No that's not..."

"Just leave," Hermione wailed angrily. Opting to rather leave the girl to herself Rhea left the bathroom with a sigh. She hates when she can't help someone because they push her away.

Rhea made her way inside the Great Hall which was now mostly full. She caught eyes with Edmund from the Slytherin table who nodded at her and she nodded back while making her way to her table. She passed by twins who were saving her a seat between them. Confusing them when she didn't sit down there but rather continued a little further down the table where she stopped by Ron, slapping him over the head. And the table around him goes silent. Everyone watching what will happen next.

Ron jumped in his seat, his hand going towards the back of his hand where Rhea had hit him. A hurt and confused look on his face. Rhea had a stone expression as she just looked at Ron emotionlessly.

"Behave finally Ronald." Rhea snapped turning on her heel and leaving the boy in his seat confused. Harry next to him was trying to be a good friend and stifling a laugh. But the twins who watched the whole situation didn't care about being subtle. They burst out laughing right as Rhea slapped the back of their brother's head. And their laughter didn't die down until she came over to them and did the same with the both of them. "Shut up you two." She muttered under her breath. Sitting down in between the boys.

***

"I can't believe how the troll got into the castle," Alicia said sitting down next to Katie on a couch in the common room. Not yet feeling like falling asleep the group took advantage of the current situation, when teachers are busy with Troll and Prefects are calming down first years, to just laze around in the common room. Only a few students had the same idea as them so it wasn't too packed in there.

"Someone must have lured him in. Trolls are extraordinarily dumb creatures. He wouldn't be able to get all the way here." Katie stated matter of factly getting a confused look from the other members of the group. "What? We learned it with Quirrell last week." The second year shrugged her shoulders. Her head fell on Alicia's shoulder, the said girl started running her fingers through her hair.

"Look who did her studies." Rhea teased from her place on Fred's lap. Because their group was quite large in numbers and the number of places where to sit was limited. As the three girls were occupying the couch and Lee got pushed down from the couch and was now sitting on the ground where he was banished by the girls. 

And the usual trio ended up fighting for the armchair. The fight ended up with Fred hogging up the armchair and George taking up the armrest. And when Rhea wanted to sit down on the ground in defeat she got pulled into Fred's lap and so that's how they ended up like this.

"Now give it up you three, is this one of your pranks again?" Angelina asked accusingly, pointing towards the armchair which was taken by the best prankster the school could offer.

"Now we would surely love to take credit for that..." Fred started with a chuckle looking over at George to continue.

"But this is not us." He finished, looking over at Rhea.

"Yeah, we don't have a troll supplier in our contacts. Though, it does sound like a good idea." A smile rose on Rhea's face and she glanced back at Fred who nodded in agreement.

"Right? We should write that down." Fred muttered under his breath. Angelina and Alicia rolled their eyes. Angelina even mentally scolded herself for giving them such an idea. But Rhea's head was still preoccupied with something else. Later this evening when they were all finishing their feast in the common room, Harry, Ron and Hermione sneaked in long after everyone else. Looking a bit out of breath.

Considering the last time she saw Hermione she was in the bathroom which is quite close to the dungeons. What if Harry once again got himself into something? Well, once again...he already almost killed himself when he tried getting back Neville's remembrall but that got him in the Quidditch team in the first place. He, Ron, Hermione and Neville were almost caught when Harry went to duel with Malfoy who didn't even arrive there. And now he probably went to take on a troll.

Rhea didn't understand how Fred and George were so unconcerned about it. Their brother was mostly part of those things as well, shouldn't they be worried for his wellbeing as well? Or is it only Rhea feeling that bit of concern for a boy that isn't even blood-related to her? It is so strange. And Rhea can't seem to understand how she grew a liking to the boy so fast. He just felt so familiar to her. And not only because he was the famous wizard everyone talks about it had nothing to do with him being The Chosen One. It was something else. Something about his eyes was luring her in. Also that hair and glasses. Overall he looked as if she knew him personally even before they met on the train.

It was a weird feeling and she didn't even know what to fully call it. Not sure if there even is a name for something like that. She just felt like once Remus told her to look after Harry she needed to step up and play the role of big sister, and it felt so natural to her. Even if she never had any younger siblings she got into the role in a matter of seconds. Even if everyone would say that Rhea is just a naturally caring person who would be out there for anyone who needed it. But with Harry it was different. It was like that long-lost connection that just suddenly came back. Weird.

Rhea was deep in her thoughts. Not realising her friends trying to talk to her. Angelina even went as far as trying to chuck a pillow at her. But even with her Chaser training, she managed to miss and hit Fred square in the face with the pillow. The boy stared into nothing a bit dumbfounded by the sudden attack. Only blinked a few times to collect his thoughts and process what had just happened. All the while George snickered next to him.

"You call yourself a Chaser, eh Ange." Fred teased once getting rid of the previous shock. His lips immediately stretched into a teasing smirk. That was the thing about the Weasley twins. They were always either teasing or cracking jokes. Any other expression on their face other than a teasing smirk or smile never graced their face for a long period of time. Maybe that was why people liked them so much. They always appeared positive.

Angelina, who was now quite embarrassed by the throw was looking down into her lap. Trying to ignore Alicia teasing her from the other side of the couch. Good thing Rhea seems to be too deep in her world to notice that or else Angelina would be hearing about the poor attempt for a month at least.

"Just wake up Sleeping Beauty," Angelina murmured with a frown. George chuckled, reaching over to Rhea and jabbing her shoulder. Effectively startling the girl back to life. Rhea jolted a bit in Fred's lap, almost falling off, but his hands around her waist kept her seated.

"Good Godric you guys, what was that for?" Rhea whined, placing a hand over her heart which was beating madly. Getting so roughly woken up from her thoughts surely wasn't good for her health. At least it didn't feel good.

"Sorry Princess but you weren't responding for good five minutes," Fred stated, leaning forward and placing his head on Rhea's shoulder.

"Oh, um, sorry," Rhea muttered an embarrassed apology. It didn't happen often for her to zone out for too long. Or maybe she just never had anything important to think about. Or she just never realised she was zoned out. Yeah, that would be the reason.

"What were you thinking 'bout Rhea?" Alicia started, lifting herself into an upright position, forcing Katie to lift her head from Alicia's shoulder in annoyance. She was slowly falling asleep on the shoulder of her friend and Alicia's unthoughtful attempt to stand up caused Katie nothing but discomfort. "Maybe it was a certain Slytherin boy with dark hair." Alicia teased some more. The girl has always been a bit boy obsessed and would take up any opportunity to discuss this certain topic. Making the other girls sick of talks about boys. Especially Katie was rolling her eyes whenever boys were mentioned.

"Sod off," Rhea muttered, rolling her eyes. Alicia was particularly interested in the relationship between Rhea and Edmund. But Rhea had nothing to tell her. They were just friends. Nothing more. Not that Rhea never thought about Edmund in another way but it quickly got back to being just friends.

"Oh, so it was Edmund. Don't worry I am sure your Romeo didn't get attacked by the troll. He will still be handsome as before." Alicia teased, ticking Rhea off finally. She was fed up with everyone implying she and Edmund had some romantic relationship going on.

"I don't have the energy for this anymore," Rhea said under her breath, pushing herself up from Fred's lap and making her way to the stairs. "If any of you need me, which I hope you won't, I will be upstairs thinking about how to finally convince you guys that there is nothing, going on between me and Edmund. Good night." And with that Rhea marched her way up the stairs going straight to their dorm.