Pranking hearts

Rhea was in the courtyard of the school. Sitting under the tree and reading one of her books. She was trying to somehow get on the normal track of things because ever since the other two schools arrived everything has become far more hectic than she would like it to be. For example, this was the first book she got to read which wasn't a textbook and it's November already.

Everything was somewhat messed up this year. Whether it had to do with Rhea's new schedule or the fact that she no longer had the quidditch training, something was seriously messing up everything. Also, the fact that everyone was gushing over the upcoming tasks was way too much of an interruption.

"Hey Rhea," The blonde looked up when someone called her name. She was met with the sight of the new talk of the school. Cedric Diggory. One of the Champions although Rhea isn't sure what got the boy to do such a foolish thing. Yet, somehow Diggory looked even prouder than ever before.

"Oh, hi Cedric." The blonde didn't fail to notice the group of boys that were standing behind Cedric, whispering and laughing with each other. It made Rhea nervous but at the same time annoyed. Still, she put on a smile just because Cedric was her friend.

"What do you think?" Cedric asked, plopping down next to her. Being lost in what the boy meant she put down her book, marking the page where she finished and looked over at the brunette boy.

"About what?" The Hufflepuff puffed his chest proudly. A pretentious smile attached itself to his lips as he glanced down at Rhea. Causing the girl to frown.

"The tournament, me being the champion. It's quite impressive isn't it." Rhea cocked her head to the side, unsure what to say to the boy in front of her. She didn't intend to seem rude but the constant talk of the tournament was exhausting her greatly. And given into account Cedric is behaving like he only entered for her praise was making her slightly sick to the stomach.

"I guess if you see being ridiculously reckless with your life impressive, then yes. You entering the tournament is the highlight of my day." Rhea spat sarcastically, rolling her eyes at how the boy looked betrayed by her words. It almost looked like she had hurt him greatly just by speaking her mind.

"I-it is a brave thing to enter the Triwizard tournament and a terrific honour to be chosen as a contestant," Cedric argued. Desperately trying to show Rhea how great it was what he had done for himself. Deep down he was begging for her to praise him or at least appear somewhat dazzled by his actions. Although he might have forgotten that he was talking with a girl with her own mind. Not some everyday damsel that he could wow with anything he said.

"Bravely stupid but I am not disputing the fact that it might be an honour to be chosen to die this young." It was getting annoying how pessimistic Rhea was about the whole tournament matter. It almost made Cedric regret coming to her, but it just proved to him how special she really was. She made you work for her love and appreciation.

"I didn't see you yelling at Harry for entering." It almost looked like Cedric, the strong, pretty boy of Hufflepuff, admired by everyone, was pouting like a young child.

"Okay, A, that was totally different situation since Harry didn't enter on his own," Her answer made Cedric roll his eyes. Everyone believed that Harry had actually put his name in the goblet of fire, but Rhea opted to ignore the exaggerated action of the Hufflepuff boy. "B, you are lucky you Hufflepuff have your common room downstairs and you didn't hear me on the night when the contestants were chosen." 

Just then Rhea noticed a group of Hufflepuffs that were always strutting behind Cedric. They were wearing the horrible Potter badges that made Rhea's blood boil. 

"I was meaning to ask, what's with the terrible badges?" Rhea inquired, one of her eyebrows rising. "Ridiculously distasteful if you ask me. And the job on the transition is done poorly as well. If you are trying to shame somebody at least make it look good next time." Rhea spat. She really hated those stupid badges and almost pinned it on the head of the poor sod that tried to gift her one in the hallway that morning.

Cedric blushed slightly realising that Rhea knew about the not-so-supportive/ pins that his friends had made. It was quite funny to him at first, but seeing the stern look Rhea was sending him, he decided it wasn't that clever anymore.

"I...um...in my defence I told them not to wear them." Cedric defended himself. Putting on a sheepish smile which however hasn't fazed Rhea.

"Hence the reason the whole school is wearing them," The girl muttered looking around and seeing almost everyone in the courtyard wearing the self-changing badges.

"Rhea, listen, I..."

"Rhea!" Cedric was cut off by Fred rushing over with a huge grin on his face. George trailing behind him at a much slower pace but equally as excited. And all of a sudden Rhea completely forgot Cedric was even there. She only saw that one Weasley coming to her and stopping right in front of her, with an eager smile on his freckled face. "Come on princess, we are going to Hogsmeade." He said happily, but still somewhat quietly so only Rhea could hear. And somehow Cedric overheard the two. The girl chuckled softly at the excitement of her best friend.

"What for?"

"George and I came with an awesome prank and we need some supplied from Zonko's. And we want you to come." George nodded in the background to the words of his brother.

"Well, I don't know I kind of have a lot to do..."

"Oh come on, I'll buy you a Butterbeer," Fred promised. And a free Butterbeer was something that Rhea couldn't pass. She stuffed her book inside her backpack and stood up with a grin.

"Let's go then." And the three left, Rhea turning around to wave at Cedric but that was only a split second before she turned back to her best friends, laughing with them. She was great, she was funny, nice, smart, beautiful. But her mind was always with the Weasley twins. That was what was putting Cedric down the most. Whenever he tried getting a moment alone with the girl Fred Weasley was always there to ruin it for him. So far Fred was winning but Cedric wasn't going down that easily.

***

Rhea stood in the stands with the rest of the students. All of them anxiously awaiting the next contestant. Right when she saw the terrible, fire-breathing dragon, she froze. Any other time she would be absolutely fascinated by the magnificent creature. But right now the dragon was what the contestants had to face to finish the first task. She was biting her fingernails when Cedric was facing the Swedish Short-Snout.

Her heart was out there in the arena with Fleur when the French girl was facing her Welsh Green dragon. It is safe to say that Rhea was practically facing each dragon along with the champions. Worrying about each of them equally as much, apart from Krum, she was furious about the tactics of the Bulgarian Quidditch player. 

Hurting the poor dragon like that, shame on him. But the real nerves came when she saw the Hungarian Horntail in the arena. It was clear as day it was Harry's turn as the last one. Yet there was a dragon, worse of all, standing in the arena and roaring menacingly. That's when the real worry engulfed her body.

Seeing Harry there, so small in comparison to the huge scaly beast. It was all just too much for Rhea to handle. Her hands were shaking badly and yet nothing had happened so far. She feared to blink, worried that if she allowed her eyes to close even for just a millisecond Harry would be fried. When the dragon breathed its fire breath in Harry's direction Rhea gasped. Jolting slightly in her place.

When Harry started flying around it was getting harder to keep eyes on him. As a seeker, he was moving quite fast. But with every breath of fire, Rhea tensed with anxiety. She was sure if she were there in the arena she would in no way be this nervous as she is now, just watching Harry fly for his life. A warm hand suddenly grabbed hers, preventing it from shaking and tapping anxiously against her thigh. With great surprise, she looked up to see the person who was trying to calm her down.

There stood Fred, not even looking at her as his eyes were still trained on the first task. He watched it with excitement in his eyes but was still slightly wary of every movement of the enormous beast. His brother may be working with dragons but that didn't mean he would just magically trust them all of a sudden. Yet his action of capturing Rhea's hand was solely his own intuition. The realisation of that made Rhea blush slightly. Trying to hide the redness of her cheeks she turned back to the arena just in time to see Harry capture the egg. The boy made it in record time too. That called for a celebration.

The common room that night was a blast. A lot of laughter, chatter and overall, it was one great celebration. Everyone in the Gryffindor house celebrated the fact that Harry survived the first task. Twins snuck in some snacks and butterbeer from the kitchens. House elves were surely happy to see them once again. 

Once Harry came from the check-up by Madame Pomfrey he was immediately flooded by people. Everyone wanted to congratulate him. The boy who lived still lives. The Golden Egg which was supposed to serve as the clue for the next task, was passed around the whole common room. Everyone got a turn in admiring the shiny object that almost got the boy with glasses killed.

"We knew you wouldn't die, Harry," George grinned as he and Fred lifted Harry on their shoulders so he was up high in the air.

"Lose a leg."

"Or an arm."

"Pack it in altogether..."

"Never!" The two yelled together in glee. Jumping slightly. Rhea rolled her eyes from the spot on a chair next to Angelina. Alicia and Katie had gone to retrieve their sweaters from their dorm.

"Go on Harry, what's the clue?" Seamus asked handing Harry the golden egg.

"Who wants me to open it?" Harry asked the whole common room. The high of the moment getting in his head made him sound kind of cocky in Rhea's eyes. But she decided to let it slide for now. Since it was his big moment. The crowd answered him with cheers. "You want me to open it?" Everyone cheered even louder.

Harry opened the egg and a loud horrific screech came out. Rhea's hands shot up to her ears to protect them from the most terrible sound she had ever heard. It was worse than the screams of Mandrakes when you pull them out of the soil. Even if this sound didn't make you faint it still wasn't anything pleasant. Fred and George even managed to drop Harry in order to cover their ears. Luckily for everyone in the common room, Harry managed to close the egg.

"What the bloody hell was that?" The room went quiet when Ron Weasley joined the celebration. Everyone knew of the fallout that the chosen one and Weasley boy had. It was obvious that the two had a lot to talk about. And it would be nice to them to give them some privacy. Rhea nudged Fred slightly since the boy somehow appeared right next to her and she nodded in the direction of the two boys.

"Alright everyone, go back to your knitting. This is gonna be uncomfortable enough without all you nosey sods listening in." Fred understood the gesture as he ushered everyone away.

"I reckon you'd have to be barking mad to put your own name in the goblet of fire," Ron muttered. A hint of shame in his words. Rhea couldn't listen to more of their conversation since the tall ginger came over, sitting down on top of her.

"Oi, get off Fred," Rhea grumbled, out of breath due to Fred's weight crushing her. "You're heavy as hell."

"How rude."

"Just get off." And Fred stood up. Taking his sweet time while doing so. Once he got up from her Rhea felt the freeing relief but at the same time chilling discomfort at the lack of his physical closeness. She let out a quiet, broken sigh that she thought no one had noticed. But Ginny did, and she couldn't help the smirk that grew on her lips at the thought of Rhea feeling something for her brother. The bet she had with her brothers is practically won for her.

"Want a jam tart, Hermione?" Rhea looked up when she heard Fred's voice offering something to Hermione. The girl looked doubtfully at the plate he was offering her. Fred grinned with that toothy grin of his. "It's all right," he said. "I haven't done anything to them. It's the custard creams you've got to watch..." From the other side of the room, there could be heard the sound of chocking. When they looked there they could see Neville trying to spit out the bits of custard cream that he had taken a bite off. "Just my little joke, Neville...." Fred assured the younger boy with a laugh.

Hermione looked over at Rhea, asking her if the jam tart was actually safe for her to eat. One could never be sure when it came to the twins. Rhea nodded. She herself eaten one tart just minutes ago and she was still fine so it was safe to say that they were quite all right. Hermione took a jam tart, taking a small bite.

"Did you get all this from the kitchens, Fred?" The girl with bushy hair asked suddenly. Sparkling an unusual conversation with the ginger.

"Yep," Fred said, grinning at her,"'anything we can get you, sir, anything at all!'" He imitated the voice of the house-elf causing Rhea to frown. She was never too into Fred's impressions since they tend to be offensive. "They're dead helpful...get me a roast ox if I said I was peckish." Fred leaned with the plate of jam tarts towards Rhea offering her one. The girl shook her head and went to open her mouth to politely decline, only to get the tart pushed into her mouth. "I know how much you like them, princess. No need to pretend with me." He winked at her, walking towards the table to put the plate away.

"How do you get in there?" Hermione asked in an innocently casual sort of voice getting Rhea suspicious. The fact that Hermione was talking with Fred without scolding him for something was already rather peculiar. But she kept on asking him questions and being nice. That was something never seen before.

"Easy," Fred said with a shrug, "concealed door behind a painting of a bowl of fruit. Just tickle the pear, and it giggles and..." Rhea however stopped him before he could say more.

"Why would you need to know that Mione?"

"Nothing," Hermione quickly answered, looking away from the girl who could already see right through her.

"Going to try and lead the house-elves out on strike now, are you?" George walked over to join in the conversation."Going to give up all the leaflet stuff and try and stir them up into rebellion?" Rhea understood what she meant by her...revolution. She even took one of the S.P.E.W. badges from her. But still, in Rhea's opinion, some of the elves are quite content with working. Work is the purpose of their life and they feel empty without it and they take any sort of payment as an insult. So unless their owner behaves cruelly or without any sort of respect for them, they should be left doing what they like. Several people chortled at George's joke. Hermione didn't answer only swallowing thickly.

"Don't you go upsetting them and telling them they've got to take clothes and salaries!" said Fred warningly. "You'll put them off their cooking!"

Just then, Neville caused a slight diversion by turning into a large canary. Rhea sighed while people around the room snickered or gasped in awe. She turned to Fred with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh...sorry, Neville!" Fred shouted over all the laughter. "I forgot...it was the custard creams we hexed..."

"I specifically remember you saying that it was just a joke, Weasley." Rhea accused, glaring at the tall ginger who merely shrugged his shoulders. Within a minute, however, Neville had moulted, and once his feathers had fallen off, he reappeared looking entirely normal. He even joined in laughing. Which caused Rhea to frown even more.

"Canary Creams!" Fred shouted to the excitable crowd. "George and I invented them...seven Sickles each, a bargain!" And just like that, the twins got flooded with orders.

"We didn't have enough joke products around," Angelina muttered sarcastically from the chair next to Rhea's. As a prefect, Angelina wasn't all thrilled about the pranks and joke products of the twins. She didn't mind that it made twins happy unless she had to deal with the trouble they caused. Before Rhea could answer Angelina stood up. "I'm going to lie down. My head is killing me. Please tell Alicia to be quiet when she comes inside the room. Or I'll kill her." Angelina was dead serious. It was seen on her tired, worn-out face that she was not joking around.

"Don't you want me to warn Katie too?" Rhea asked, tilting her head to the side as she watched Angelina stumble a few steps.

"I trust Katie with being cautious of her actions. While on the other hand, I trust Alicia to be a big-mouthed moron that is getting some shots of firewhiskey somewhere. So...tell Miss Spinnet to keep it down if she wants to live till her hangover strikes her. Goodnight Rhe," Angelina said the last sentence sweetly, giving the other girl a smile before pushing her way towards the girl's dorms. She didn't have to push that much. Most of the students just got out of the way quickly, remembering Angelina as one of the famous Quidditch players.

"How is going princess?" Fred asked, sitting on the chair where Angelina previously sat. A large grin on his face, excited from the profit he and George gained. Rhea was proud but was keeping it on the inside since she clearly instructed the twins to not test their joke products on others without asking them for permission. One can never be sure what it could do.

"We had a deal, Freddie." She reminded the ginger, who instantly dropped his perky attitude. Rolling his eyes at the sternness of Rhea's voice.

"Ugh, come on doll." Rhea's face scrunched in discomfort at the nickname.

"Don't call me that."

"Fine, but you can't be mad at me." Fred bargained. Leaning forward in his chair so he was practically face to face with Rhea. The girl was so stunned she couldn't even move. "Deal?" Fred whispered, his hot breath fanning her face. 

She could smell the caramel scent of Butterbeer that Fred drank just moments ago. It belonged to one of her favourite smells in the world. Not only because her and Fred's favourite drink was Butterbeer...well maybe yes. But caramel was just so amazingly sweet and somehow it always appealed to Rhea.

"I..um...yeah..." Rhea stuttered due to their faces being so close. Fred was mere inches from kissing her right there in the busy common room.

"Great." He exclaimed, pulling away. "Listen we are going to get some Firewhiskey, Lee is guarding it before Alicia downs it all. You coming." It was like a cold shower, getting back to reality from the sweet caramel fantasy of the ginger in front of her.

"I'll pass. I guess I'll go to sleep actually...tell Katie to make sure Alicia isn't yelling when they come in our dorm." She said to him with a forced smile.

"As you wish love," Fred answered carefreely. He stood up, leaning in and kissing Rhea on the cheek quickly. "Goodnight." Was the last thing he called over his shoulder before disappearing into the crowd of people. Leaving Rhea frozen in her seat. A bright redness attacked her cheeks.

"Oh, my Merlin." She breathed out, not aware of Ginny spying on the whole encounter with George next to her. The younger girl was grinning with satisfaction while the boy was watching with a knowing smirk on his face.

"I can practically feel those galeons from Ron and Bill. I'll finally buy that dress I wanted." George looked down at his sister who was already counting the money in her head. Picking out the colour of her new dress.

"It's nice of you to actually care about the happiness of the two of them and not just money Gin," George remarked.

"What? Oh yeah. Happy. Them. Love, nice." Ginny muttered with little to no interest. "Do you think I'd look good in purple?" Rolling his eyes, George pushed his sister, trying not to be too harsh.

"They still aren't together, so don't go raiding the shops just yet."

"George, come on mate!" Fred called from the other side of the room where he and a small group of people were waiting for him to join them. George showed him he would be there in a second before turning to his sister again.

"And besides, purple is my colour...find your own." He said with a teasing smile, winking at his sister before departing and leaving his sister with a dilemma in her head. How was she supposed to get Fred and Rhea together...and if she did what colour of dress she would choose?