New Perspective ⌁ Fred Weasley

Chapter Sixteen

To say that Maxine was annoyed she would be stuck at Hogwarts for Christmas was an understatement. She was furious.

Maxine and her brother had received the letter from home that stated both of her parents would have to work and prefer that their children would stay at school for the holiday.

Staying at school would force Maxine to continue studying, which is something she really did not want to do. She wanted to go home and sleep in her own bed, eat homemade cookies by the fire, and open presents Christmas morning. To make matters worse, Tamsin and Heidi would be going home, leaving Maxine all alone.

The morning that the rest of the students left, Maxine trudged to the library as usual. She was quite bored without her friends to bug her or classes to go to. She could study for her owls but she didn't really want to.

Despite being bored though, Maxine was in a quite energetic mood. She didn't want to sit still too long so she walked among the book cases in the library, dragging her finger along the spines.

Maxine knew that there was one thing she could do to cure her boredom.

The Weasley's were among the small population of students who had chosen to spend Christmas at Hogwarts. Even without the help of her blonde and redhead counterparts, Maxine could put some of her pranking ideas to play.

Surprisingly, Maxine had come up with the most creative prank ideas to play on the Weasley twins, despite being the least creative person out of her friends. But each idea she threw out was denied because Tamsin and Heidi didn't want to budge from their original plan: recreate all of Fred and George's famous pranks.

While Maxine still thought that that would be fun, there were still hundreds of options of pranks she could do. After all, Fred and George had proven to be ruthless. If they could do it, so could Maxine.

Maxine's first prank was quite simple. So simple, a first year could have done it if they asked Professor Flitwick for the spell. When she brought the idea up to Tamsin, Maxine was shocked when it was turned down. Fred and George had turned Tamsin skin to the demonic shade of red. Why wouldn't she want to see the two boys have yellow and black hair?

The most important but most difficult part of the plan was finding the tight time and place to use the spell on the twins. Maxine didn't want it to seem like she was seeking them out, she wanted to do it in passing, so quick that they wouldn't realize they were donning Hufflepuff colors.

As she walked around the castle, preparing to pass the Fred and George at any moment, Maxine was wondering if they were planning on pranking her. After all she was all alone. But maybe they were nice enough to not single her out.

Through the duration of the prank war, Maxine had realized that Fred and George weren't entirely terrible people. In fact, they were quite nice. Fred especially.

Maxine was shocked when Fred taught her how to fix her belongings, and she was thankful that he didn't ask any questions. Her financial situation was something she was embarrassed about. She didn't want everyone and their pet toad knowing that she was too poor to but a new pair of shoes.

Fred and George were nice enough to like as people, but it wouldn't stop Maxine from pranking the shit out of them.

Maxine found a place in the window seats in one of the main corridors of the castle, right by the Transfiguration and Charms classrooms. The hallway was used by nearly everyone if they wanted to get to the library or the Great Hall or just go outside. Surely Fred or George would come by sooner or later.

As she pulled a random book out of her satchel, Maxine leaned against the wall and pretended to read. She had spent all morning practicing the spell, changing the colors of a sheet of parchment, a pillow case, one of her socks, and finally a lock of her hair. The spell easily reverses itself, all Maxine had to do to change her hair back to it's dark brown was to repeat the spell.

About twenty minutes passed before the pair of redheads turned the corner of the corridors. They were talking and they looked straight ahead, not even glancing at each other as they walked. If they continued to do so, Maxine knew that it could be a few minutes before Fred and George realized that they were no longer gingers.

Maxine pulled her knees up, bringing her book up to shield where her wand was pointing at the twins. She didn't want to make eye contact with them, indicating that she was up to something. But just as the two passed the doorway to Proffessor McGonagall's classroom, Fred and George stopped walking and one of them disappeared into the room.

It was an unexpected change in the plan, but it would still work. As the other twin resumed walking, Maxine pointed her wand over her book and whispered "Colovaria."

Immediately, an ugly florescent yellow began to take over the red hair and black stripes ran through it. Rather than the Hufflepuff colors, it looked like the Weasley twin was copying the look of a bumble bee.

When Maxine locked eyes with the twin as she peered over her book, it took every bit of concentration not to laugh. The paleness of his skin looked sickly against the neon yellow hair, which clashed horrendously with his blue shirt.

"Well, hello Beater Girl," Fred Weasley smiled. Maxine smiled back, amused by the fact that Fred had no idea how ridiculous he looked.

Behind him other students passed by, snickering and pointing at his hair.

"Weasley," Maxine greeted.

"What's got you here for the holiday?" Fred asked as he leaned against the wall.

It took every ounce of Maxine's sanity not to look at his hair or burst out laughing. "School stuff," Maxine shrugged and lifted up the charms book that she wasn't even reading. Fred didn't need to know the real reason she stayed behind.

"Fun," Fred said and glanced over at the door to McGonagall's classroom. "George and I thought we'd rather stay here than be at home with our brother."

Maxine raised her eyebrows. "Which one? You have five, you know."

Fred faltered and tilted his head. "I can't believe you remembered that."

"Well, Fred, I remember a lot of things," Maxine winked and tucked her book into her bag. She could here the sound of George and McGonagall's voice coming closer from inside her classroom. She wanted to be able to sprint away before Fred realized what he looked like. "Now, I must be going."

Maxine turned quickly as she saw the other twin take a step out of the classroom. She broke into a sprint just as she heard a scream.

"Fred! Your hair!"

Maxine looked back at Fred before she turned the corner of the corridor. Fred was pulling his hair down in front of his eyes, getting a peak of the yellow and black that took over his head. He looked up at her, and glared.

"Beater Girl how could you? I thought we had a moment!"