Power ▸ Ron Weasley [1]

XXVI. APRIL THE SECOND

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:

APRIL THE SECOND

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      If Nova had thought Fred and George's departure meant the last of seeing any of their joke products, she was happily mistaken.

      First, there was all the talk about the twins' leaving. Nova couldn't turn a corridor without finding at least three students talking about the wonderful and monumental occasion. Nova knew that it would be the type of story to carry over through Hogwarts through generations. Hell, Fred and George's grandkids would probably hear about their grandfathers' epic departure fro, Hogwarts when the time came for them to attend. Even her fellow Slytherins, who hated Fred and George even more now that students wanted to follow in their footsteps, were discussing the twins. Malfoy continued to pout and act as if the twins had done him a personal disservice.

      Secondly, since Fred and George had left, it seemed as if everyone at Hogwarts was testing out their statuses as Hogwarts' troublemakers. Dungbombs were set off nearly every time lessons ended, and they became so frequent that Nova made sure to always perform the Bubble-Head Charm on herself before leaving any classroom. It made her look like a startled goldfish, but it gave her enough clean air to last the walk to wherever she needed to go next. She tried to remind Ron to perform the same charm every time he left his lessons, but her boyfriend was probably the most forgetful person she'd ever met. More often than not he'd arrive to lessons with his nose twitching and eyes watering from the stench. 

      Thirdly, and probably the most prominent of the reasons why no one would forget the names Fred and George Weasley... the swamp on the fifth floor still hadn't been cleared. And though Nova was fairly certain McGonagall or even Snape could get rid of the swamp with the wave of a wand, they seemed to enjoy watching Umbridge scramble around to try and find a solution. Eventually, the corridor was roped off and Filch was given the task of escorting students across it whenever they needed to get to their classrooms. 

      Among these three main reasons, there were also the cases of Skiving Snackboxes, of which students used even before Umbridge walked into class to start her lessons. Nova herself had inhaled a Puking Pastille (and tried not to let anyone see the proud tears that swelled in her eyes when she remembered she was the first official tester for the final product) the second Umbridge had walked into the classroom, and Blaise had tried to hide his snickers when Nova leaned over the side of her desk and vomited straight to the floor. When Umbridge had tried to accuse her of taking one, she simply rolled her eyes. "You think a Slytherin would willingly ingest something the Weasley twins made? I'm truly sick, Professor Umbridge." But she knew there was a gleam in her eyes that told Umbridge she was lying straight through her teeth. Still, Umbridge had no choice but to send her to the Hospital Wing - which naturally meant Nova simply exited the classroom and bit off the other end of the treat before stowing away in the Slytherin common room until her next class started.