Joke's on Me | George Weasley | Book 1

chapter 7 - part one

Natalia leaned against the wall of the seventh-floor corridor as if she really couldn't be bothered to be there. It was a skill she'd picked up from being around Draco all the time, he said, but she wasn't sure if they'd managed to somehow teach it to each other.
It was Wednesday lunch, their last time to practise together before they convinced Pansy she was losing her mind.

"Well well well," she heard a familiar voice to her left.

"If it isn't Natalia White." And there was his double.

She laughed, the twins still unable to tell what it meant, "you're late."

They shrugged, not wanting to admit the reason, and instead breezed past her into the room of requirement for one last time.

She sighed, following them in, absentmindedly twirling her wand between her fingers before the twins showed her the specially made charmed boxes they were going to deliver to Pansy in the morning at breakfast. Natalia grinned, eyes twinkling with maliciousness.

George wasn't sure whether to take a step back for fear of being accidentally cursed or not, and Fred raised an eyebrow at him, clearly thinking the same.

"These look fantastic guys! Damn, that's some good spellwork."

They simply rolled their eyes. "Did you figure out how to make it move?"

Natalia smirked and nodded, pointing her wand between the twins, muttering a simple curse and a floating eye popped between them. She focused on it, moving her wand in tiny circular motions to make it spin around and then moved her wand, slowly, smiling as the floating eye followed. "It takes a lot of concentration though, that's the only negative."

Fred and George were impressed, either way, smiling as they went through it all again.

"I'm starving, probably should have eaten something at lunch." Natalia rolled her eyes at herself, the echos of Draco in her ears about her appalling eating habits. Nevertheless, he always made sure she had snacks for the day, usually being hazelnuts - Nat's favourite - so she pulled the packet out of her pocket and crunched on them for the rest of their little meeting.

"The only thing now is getting into the Slytherin Common room later tonight, you know how the portal feels about us since... well, second year."

Nat wasn't sure she wanted to know, but luckily for them, she'd already thought of that. She simply pointed her wand at one of the Twins, muttered a spell under her breath and he transformed into a dark-haired boy in Slytherin robes.

George flinched a little, not sure what Nat had done, but when he realised he started creating a fuss with Fred. Natalia wrinkled her nose at it, not a fan of commotions.

"Why didn't you tell us you could do this before we tried the ageing potion?"

"Because," she crunched another hazelnut, "it doesn't affect your age. It's simple stuff, not enough to fool complex magic."

They looked doubtful but didn't press the matter, and Natalia removed the enchantment quickly. "Ok, I'll see you in the outside corridors at midnight."

And they parted ways, making sure no one saw them together as they walked through the corridors.

**

True to their word, Fred and George were waiting for her by the corner in their PJs, making sure to stay out of sight of any prefects or teachers.

Natalia transfigured them both, giving George dark hair and sharper features, and Fred light hair, not really needing to change his face all too much - she had discovered that people didn't pay much attention to just one twin going about their business, so long as they weren't doing anything shady.

She opened the portal through the wall and they walked through, setting up the common room ready: half-empty boxes of sweets identical to the ones being sent to Pansy so suspicions weren't raised, charming portraits and photos to have any eyes present slightly enlarged to freak her out even more.

Then the boys hid down the boy's corridor while Nat crept to Pansy's door and whispered the floating eye curse directly above her bed. She gripped the beta decoy they'd created and just hoped it worked well enough for what she needed. She set it free, pointed towards Pansy's bed where it settled under the bed before going off, making a semi-quiet toot every now and then.

It took a minute, but eventually Pansy stirred. This was where Natalia needed to concentrate. She slowly moved the floating eye towards the still half-asleep girl and held her breath.
Given that the eye was pretty big, it was near impossible to miss, and as soon as Pansy caught sight of it she gave out the most blood-curdling shriek Nat had ever heard.

It took all in her power to stop herself laughing, making the eye disappear as soon as Pansy turned the lights on, quickly scampering away towards her own room, acting as though she'd just come out to see what the noise was about.

She made eye contact with the twins, both of whom were giggling to each other, and had to bite the inside of her cheek to stifle the laughter. He looked across and saw Draco standing there, not looking pleased about being woken up in the middle of the night and smiled at him from across the hall, which he surprisingly returned.

Natalia could feel the exhaustion setting in, motioning for Fred and George to escape, and she quietly removed the enchantment as soon as they were out of the portal. At least part one of her revenge was complete.