Torn Between Three Me's

10 - Nicked

After Christmas break, Fred, George, and I lounged lazily around the Gryffindor common in one of the circles of couches, each lying sideways on one of the four couches around the fireplace. 'I'm so bored I think the couch may just absorb me,' I groaned, and the twins exhaled simultaneously in agreement. 'We should do something.'

'Yeah, but what?' Fred asked.

'Something fun,' George offered.

'I'm too bored to think of anything fun,' I complained.

We all let out a strained monotonous sigh.

Lee, Angelina, and Alicia walked into the common room through the portrait hole. Alicia was whimpering. As they made their way over to us on their way to the dorm rooms, I hoisted myself up to a sitting position on the couch. 'Alicia, what's the matter?'

The other three turned to us. 'Filch yelled at her in the corridors,' Lee explained. 'Her bag ripped open and everything fell out of it, including her ink, which stained the floors. Prat wrote her up.'

The three of us on the couches gasped. 'He didn't!'

Alicia nodded as she started to cry. 'I've had the bag for years. I knew it was old. I knew it was bound to rip sooner or later. I should have just bought a new one. Now he's having a letter sent home to my mum and everything!' Angelina rubbed her back as she sobbed.

'Leesh, it's not your fault,' George assured her.

'Yeah! Filch gets his jollies from torturing first years. And he probably deserves a little ink to clean up anyway,' Fred spat.

'At the very least,' I chuckled, as did Alicia very gently.

'I'm going to go send my mum an owl, hopefully before she receives Filch's, explaining what happened. Hopefully she can send me another bag, too.' Alicia said.

'You can use one of mine in the meantime,' Angelina offered. 'Come.' Angelina led her upstairs as Lee came to sit with the others on the couches.

'Lads...' Fred grinned, looking around at the three of us. He looked me in the eye and cleared his throat. 'And lass.' I smirked. 'I think I have an idea of what to do today.'

'Ooo! Shenanigans?' I asked, barely able to control the excitement spewing across my face.

'Indeed.'

***

George came running back around the corner of the corridor to where Fred and I were. 'You put it on the ground where he could see it?' I asked.

'Oh, I'd be surprised if he didn't step on it,' George snickered.

'Perfect,' Fred smiled mischievously.

We peered around the corner together. It was annoying being shorter than them most of the time, but for times like these, it was quite convenient, as I could stand in the front, and them in the back, and all of us could see perfectly.

'Ready?' I asked.

'Ready,' they echoed.

'Now!' I whispered into the classroom behind us. I saw Lee's hand move into the doorframe in the shape of a thumbs up. Then after it disappeared, seconds later, there were several loud crashing sounds that rang through the corridors.

Filch slammed his door open as it banged against his wall. He started to march towards the source of the sound, his footsteps powerful and emitting his rage. Then as he got closer to us, one of those very forceful footsteps squashed the little brown dungbomb on the ground and released the putrid odor into the air. Filch let out a roar so fierce I could almost see the steam erupting from his ears. Fred, George, and I couldn't help but laugh, tiny snorts escaping as we tried to contain ourselves. Finally Filch saw us and pointed a finger in our direction, his eyes so squinted, I could barely see the whites.