Half-Blood Means Two Things || Marauders Era | Percy Jackson ||

|| 23 - The Challenge of Halloween Night ||

Sneaking back into the rush of Gryffindors proved to be the easiest task of the night.

After we had left the closet and hauled it back to the Gryffindor common to avoid further suspicion from Filch or Leach, we went over the plan, perfecting each detail, which there were a lot.

Since nearly the whole House knew that I didn't get along with the Marauders, we decided it would be safest to meet under the staircase to go over the plan.

This was the most intense prank I'd ever pulled and it had a ton of stages. I knew I could pull it off but I was a little wary about Pettigrew's part in it.

The prankster in me was ecstatic to pull this off, I knew it would make a story that the students of Hogwarts would talk about for years, but the student in me, who wanted to not get expelled in my first year was panicking a little.

Once we'd gone over the plan one more time, James and Black went off to find Peeves to make sure everything would go well. I, on the other hand, headed back to the common room with Pettigrew. Remus headed off to where he needed to be, leaving me to either make small talk with the guy who obviously didn't like me... or push him off the edge of the staircase. I almost did it after he asked if I still remembered the spell (that we'd gone over literally three minutes ago) and if I needed him to write it out for me since I was "academically challenged." The only reason that I didn't shove the mousy boy off the edge of the world was because he had a crucial part to play in our prank.

"See you during the prank," I snapped and then ran the rest of the way up the stairs to avoid anymore temptations to shove him off the Astronomy Tower.

After I'd gotten to the common room, I found it bustling with activity. I saw a few Muggleborns decked out in costumes, some of their Pureblood friends had some whiskers painted on, or a giant mole drawn on and they were wearing their dress robes and a large pointy hat.

I found the girls sitting over by the book shelves and I headed over there since I couldn't see Ben, Luca, or Castro.

"Hey," I said casually as I inspected the books as if I would actually read one.

"Hey, Charlie," Lily cooed.

Rowan looked up from her homework and smiled at me.

Thea wasn't there, she was probably off hanging with her friends from other Houses. She never seemed to spend much time in the common room. Or maybe she did, and I just didn't see her often enough to know.

Emilia, however kept her eyes pointedly focused on her homework, ignoring me.

I sighed dramatically. "I don't apologize often, but I've said sorry to you a thousand times," I told Emilia. "What did I even do? You haven't talked to me in weeks and we live in the same room!" She just scrawled her answers down. "Look, I'm sorry, 'kay? I promise I won't sneak off anymore."

Emilia finally looked up at me. "Sorry, I wasn't listening," she said in a cold voice, "I was doing my Transfiguration homework."

I saw an opportunity and I took it. "Oh, I finished that already!"

Coming from me, the professional procrastinator and "academically challenged" class clown, that was a big statement and made me look a little less stupid in Emilia's eyes.

Emilia stated at me, her eyebrow cocked. "Really?" For the first time since she decided she hated me, she sounded genuinely curious and not coldly annoyed.

I nodded. "I did it with Castro during Professor Binns class!"

Emilia didn't enjoy that.

She sighed dramatically. "Figures."