The Fool

The Hierophant

Over the course of her six years at Hogwarts, Wren had learned that sometimes strange things just happened. Staircases shifted underneath your feet, suits of armor seized hold of misbehaving students, and doors appeared in places they had not been before. Knowing this, however, was entirely different from experiencing it firsthand which is why Wren let out a startled shriek when two pairs of hands reached out of a painting and pulled her through it.

Breaking free from the hands' grasp, Wren reeled on her kidnappers to find two identical faces beaming at her, completely ignoring both the frazzled look on her face and the wand in her hand. "What," she heaved, her heart still pounding in the chest, "in the name of Merlin's saggy Y-fronts was that for?"

"Language, Wren," George admonished.

"Or we'll have to report you to your Prefect," Fred's grin turned sharper, and Wren glared, tucking her wand back into her pocket to more easily cross her arms in front of her chest.

"I have half a mind to report you to the first prefect I find. Mine or not."

"No you don't," Fred dismissed with a wave of his hand. "You're far too curious."

He was right. Her curiosity just outweighed her annoyance. How did they pull her through a painting? How did they even discover they could pull someone through a painting? Where exactly were they? Why on earth did they feel the need to kidnap her on the way to breakfast? And just what was that smell?

When Wren said nothing, her glare shifting into something a bit more petulant as Fred and George shared a grin.

"Oh go on then," Wren snapped and the twins stepped aside, revealing a cauldron surrounded by different little bundles of plants and phials of other ingredients. That explained the wet earthy smell.

"As promised, cauldron and ingredients," Fred said, gesturing to the pile grandly.

Wren stepped forward, circling the cauldron and mentally cataloguing each of the plants Fred had managed to nick during his detention in the green houses. It was all there, each bundle tied together nicely with twine. She wasn't entirely sure why she was surprised they had pulled it off, but something about standing in a secret alcove with the Weasley Twins, ready to break some rules felt surreal.

Wren paused, turning back to look at them. "You do realize, I'm still not sure that this can even be done," she said. The boys nodded but the eager looks on their faces remained.

"We're well aware of your lack of self-confidence," George said.

"We've got a plan for that as well," Fred added.

"Oh no, don't-"

"Let's see what you've got then," George cut her off, gesturing to her bag.

Wren shook her head, "I hardly have anything."

"Not according to Fred, you don't," George dismissed, waving her back over or maybe just the work she'd done on this absolutely absurd scheme.

"Come on, Collings, a deal's a deal," Fred said.

Wren sighed, digging her rolled up parchment out of her bag. Despite the amount of scribblings on it, she hadn't been lying-there wasn't much of anything there. Just some vague theories about potential safeguards that could be brewed into the potion and ideas for ingredient measurements. She still wasn't anywhere close to feeling ready to brew the potion, and the deadline looming ever nearer did nothing but add to her anxiety surrounding the matter. Still, she passed the parchment over to the boys and watched their eyes light up as they set about reading her notes.