Since Privet Drive || Harry Potter

Pranks, Friends, and Flying

CHAPTER 6 - Pranks, Friends, and Flying

THE NEXT MORNING, Taylor woke up earlier than everyone else in her dorm, and quickly took a shower. The twins and her had agreed to meet in the common room at 6:30 to prepare for their prank. She quickly fixed her hair with her metamorphic abilities and decided for a wavy blonde look with some pink streaks. Putting on a tee-shirt and some jeans under her robes, she made her way down to the common room. She waited for about two minutes while reading a book until she heard some footsteps coming down. Putting away the book, she greeted her cousins.

"Hello, Gred, Forge."

"You would think that you would learn our names after 11 years, yet you seem to not remember them at all," said Fred faking hurt.

"Oh, come on, you know you much prefer my nicknames. So what is it that you wanted to show me?"

George pulled out a piece of old parchment and set it down on a table, motioning for Taylor to come over. "This, Tay, is the secret to our success. We found it in Filch's office in first year, and as an honorary Weasley Triplet, you must learn about it. Promise not to tell anyone?"

She nodded eagerly, right now it was just a piece of parchment, but knowing the Weasley twins, there had to be something special about it.

George nodded to Fred and Fred took out his wand, "Now watch closely, Tay, 'I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Taylor watched in awe as ink started spreading around the paper, revealing the Mauraders Map.

"Incredible, what does it do? And do you know who the Mauraders are? Who else knows about it?" She let out all of her questions in excitement of being let in on the secret.

"This, my dear cousin, is the Mauraders Map. It shows every person in the castle - "

"Where they are - "

"What they're doing - "

"Of every minute - "

"Of every day - "

"We don't know who the Mauraders are - "

"But boy, do we owe a lot to them - "

"Half the pranks in this school were achievable thanks to their brilliance - "

"And currently, you are the only person we've told this about - "

"Not even Lee, though he's starting to get a bit suspicious about the map - "

"So you should be incredible honoured - "

"To be an official member - "

"Of what we like to call - "

"The second generation of Mauraders," they finished together. Taylor was visibly bursting with excitement as she opened the map looking around at everything.

"And these, are they all secret passage ways?" she asked pointing at some of the tunnels that showed on the map.

"Yes, but some of them don't work - "

"We took the liberty of making a short trip to Hogsmeade last night - "

"To gather the necessary supplies - "

"For our incredible prank - "

"Now, are you ready?"

"Of course! It is with great pleasure that I join you on the noble quest of best start of school prank," and with that, they gathered their things and went down to the great hall.

As Hermione came down to the Great Hall, followed closely by Harry and Ron, they only had to wait a few minutes before every house's table erupted with explosions of paint, including the staff table at the top as well. Above the doors by the Great Hall, a sign appeared saying: Welcome to Hogwarts! - The second generation of Mauraders - TP, FW, GW.

Fred, George, and Taylor were standing by the side laughing while watching chaos unfold everywhere. They Slytherin Table was covered with red and gold paint, and all of the teachers were covered in pink (courtesy of Taylor). The other houses were covered in a full rainbow of colors along with plenty of glitter. Needless to say, they got a month's worth of detention, but Taylor noticed a glimmer of a smile as McGonagall saw the sign. After the mess was cleaned up, Taylor caught up with Ron and Harry, bringing Hermione with her.

"The second generation of Mauraders, really?" Ron asked.

"Don't worry about it. Besides, we certainly had a colorful morning for the first day. Don't you think?"

"I think it was completely barbaric. How could you do such a thing? I wonder if we could even have negative points because of that," Hermione complained.

"Do you think we could do that? I'm sure that would be some sort of record, ouch," she said as Ron shoved her in the elbow. "Anyways, as I said, don't worry about it. Just a month of detention, not that much for a start of school prank, but you have to admit it. You saw some of the teachers almost smile when they saw it. Everyone needs a good laugh to start the year."

The week went by alright until they saw the notice on the board saying that they were going to have flying lessons with the Slytherins. Taylor was quite a natural on the broomstick, even though she couldn't play with her cousins. Like Ginny, they thought that because she was a girl, she couldn't play Quidditch. Whenever Taylor spent the night at the Burrow, Ginny and her would sneak out and learn to ride brooms. They made a sort of sister-like connection through those times, and they had to say, both of them had quite a talent for Quidditch. She was excited for her sorta-sister to come the next year.

Malfoy was constantly bragging about his quidditch skills, even though it was pretty clear that he was bluffing. When it came to the actual lesson, Hermione was very worried and trying to remember all of the tips that she had learned from her book.

"Hermione, calm down. The best way to ride a broom is just to be confident. It's not something you can learn from a book. Just believe in yourself and you'll be able to do it easily. And if not, then that's completely fine. Not everyone is made for a broom."

She didn't notice that Ron was coming up behind her. "How do you know that? You've never ridden a broom."

Taylor simply smirked and said, "Don't think your assumptions are always facts."

They made their way to the brooms where the Slytherins were waiting. They were told to put their arm above the broom and yell up. Taylor's broom immediately came up, along with Harry. Ron looked at her a little surprised, but then went back to getting his own broom up. Hermione clearly wasn't completely listening to Taylor's advice because though she seemed confident, there was a little quaver in her voice. As they were about to start flying, Neville kicked off too early and landed with a broken wrist.

Malfoy took his remembrall and Taylor watched as Harry raced after the ball. He was clearly a natural at flying and she wouldn't be surprised if he made the team eventually, maybe as Seeker. However, that was the least of her worries. McGonagall came to get Harry with a stern look on her face. Taylor was worried that Harry could be expelled. Then she would not see her best friend anymore, and he would have to be sent back to the Dursleys. Taylor shuddered at the thought. She know how horrible they could be. Once, she hadn't seen Harry for a week, and when she saw him again weeding the garden, she couldn't help but notice that he was considerable thinner, looking starved. She was taken out of her thoughts when Harry came back, but instead of looked sad and defeated, he came back with a huge smile on his face.