The New Marauders and the Password Panic

Book Bamboozled

"Sooooo... What are we ACTUALLY gonna do?" Logan asked.
It had been a few days since they had decided they were going to get back at Olivia. They just weren't sure HOW yet. Obviously they weren't going to ACTUALLY destroy her. They just wanted to do SOMETHING. The group sat at the base of the Whomping Willow, doing their homework, when the conversation was finally brought up.
"My first instinct is prank." Logan told them from her position on the floor with her legs propped up on the Whomping Willow's trunk.
"Simple and to the point." Ceril stated. "I like it."
"But what KIND of prank?" Molli asked, nervously. "I gotta say I'm not a big fan of pranks."
"It'll be a small one, obviously." Logan assured him. "Big pranks that cause bodily harm or public humiliation are WACK."
"O L I V I A is a jerk, but she doesn't deserve that." Edith agreed.
"Maybe we should just do something like... turn her favorite book invisible for a few days so she can't find it?" Molli offered.
"Oh! I'll do you one better!" Logan said, pointing at him. "We'll turn the pages red, green, blue, and yellow with the color change charm."
"Using what we already know will produce faster results." Ceril relayed. "Though it may take a while to master multiple colors at once."
"Maybe we should cast it on HER so that any book she touches will turn those colors."
"Okay, Edith is a mad genius and I love it." Molli grinned as he relayed the message.
"After we're done pranking Olivia up her arse, we gotta get on learning sign language so we can experience it first hand." Logan said in awe. "Right Ceril?!"
Ceril nodded, an impressed smile present on his face.
"And we'll have to add a time limit to the jinx so it doesn't plague her forever." The Ravenclaw added.
"So, to summarize, we're gonna jinx her with a color change charm that doesn't work on HER but the things she TOUCHES and tweek it to only work on parchment and to also disappear after, say, 24 hours?" Molli relayed.
"It will be complicated." Ceril admitted. "And challenging. It will take awhile to work out, that's for sure."
"Eh. We got time." Logan said. "No one said it had to happen tomorrow. Just... eventually."
"True. It's best that we pace ourselves." Ceri agreed.
"So... where do we start?"
...
Edith sat in charms class becoming more dejected with each failed spell that left her wand. It wasn't necessarily that she didn't understand the spells or didn't know what to do... it was just that... she COULDN'T. Edith still wasn't comfortable speaking in public and spells required a verbal element to work (at least when you were at her level). It also appeared that whispering the words wasn't enough, almost like the magic couldn't hear her if she didn't speak loud enough. She'd only managed to make the feather wiggle a bit after her fifth charms class. Alice, who couldn't talk at all, was having an even worse time. Edith could almost swear she saw tears prickling at the edges of her pink eyes. Normally she would have loved this class. Professor Quitlit was loud and clear and this made her easy to understand. She was also very patient with them. Quitlit was the head of Hufflepuff and Edith rather liked her. She hoped they weren't disappointing her.
"Class dismissed!" Professor Quitlit called. "Have a wonderful weekend!"
The two Hufflepuffs began to pack up.
"Not you, Ms Tanaka. Or you, Ms Mattews."
The girls froze.
"I'd like to see you for a moment if you don't mind."
The woman's eyes were kind and encouraging. This calmed Edith's nerves a bit but she was still nervous. Once the rest of the class was gone, she and Alice walked up to the Professor's desk where she was sitting criss-cross applesauce.
"Ms Tanaka," she addressed, sweetly. "It's come to my attention that you're hard of hearing."
She nodded.
"And my own personal observations tell me that you also wish to stay silent."
Another, more shy, nod.
"Well why didn't you say anything sooner, dear!?" She asked in concern, gentilly laying a hand on the girl's head. She scrunched her nose in thought. "Or... NOT say I suppose." She giggled.
Alice snorted, causing the woman to turn to her as well.
"And Ms Mattews, I've noticed that you tend to keep quiet as well." She continued. "Is this a preference?"
She shook her head.
"A limitation?"
Nod.
"So you're mute?"
Nod.
"Selective?"
Head shake.
"Alright then. Are there any more details you'd like me to know about?" Quitlit asked, pushing a piece of parchment forward.
Alice gave an appreciative shake of her head as did Edith.
"Wonderful." She kept the parchment where it was. "Now, you've both seemed to notice that, in my class, lacking the ability to speak is quite detrimental."
They nodded, unsure of where this was going. Were they going to get early tutoring for nonverbal magic? Were they going to get kicked out of the class? Quitlit smiled and raised her wand.
"I have a surprise for the both of you."
With a short flick of her wrist, two pads of paper flew out of her desk and landed in front of the girls. The parchment was an odd gold colour and was wired together like a spiral notepad you would see in a muggle store.
"This..." Quitlit said, picking up out of the pads. "is called Spell Paper." She then picked up the charcoal pencil out of the spiral wire. "Observe."
She angled the paper so that they could see what she was doing and wrote that word lumos big and clear on the paper. She then took her wand out again and pointed it at the paper. Edith and Alice gawked at what happened next. The letters began to glow a bright gold and lifted off the paper to float into the air. They flowed into her wand and disappeared. She flicked the wand one more time and, without saying a word, the magic light flickered to life on the tip of her wand. The girl's eyes were wide. Quitlit grinned and slid the paper to them.
"You try."
Alice did not hesitate, she snatched up the paper and quickly scribbled out the word lumos before fumbling with her wand and pointing it at the words. It worked. The words flew up and disappeared into her wand. Alice's eyes sparkled as the light sprung to life after she casted the spell. Edith watched with awe before taking out her own paper and writing with a shaking hand: Wingardium Leviosa. She pointed her wand at it and watched as the baby blue words absorbed into her wand. She then pointed her wand at the feather on her desk and held her breath. Swish and flick.
The feather rose into the air.
Edith practically squealed with joy and was quite surprised when her joy became verbal. Professor Quitlit leaped to her feet and cheered.
"Wonderful!" She said, scooping both girls into her arms. "Absolutely marvellous! Will this work for you two?"
They both nodded vigorously as they were set back down on their feet.
"Brilliant! And you'll come to me if you experience any more trouble, won't you?"
More nodding. Quitlit's eyes became even more soft and warm.
"Good. Now off you go, dears. Have a wonderful weekend."
Edith left that classroom with a smile on her face instead of a dejected frown that day.
...
Ceril was right. It DID take quite a while to work out the magical logistics of their plan. They spent most of their time in the library, practicing their spell stacking and looking up spells that would add a time limit and primary substance to work on. It was quite challenging for a group of first years. It was obvious that none of them would have been able to do it on their own, but between Molli's spell theory, Ceril's research, Logan's knack for casting, and Edith's apparent gift for stacking spells (now that she was well familiarized with her spell paper), they were making slow progress over the next few weeks.
In the meantime, Olivia was becoming even more unbearable. She got louder, snootier, threw her weight around more, and smirked evilly whenever Ceril stayed silent about it. They had all decided that the less they interacted with her before their prank, the better. But Molli was reaching his limit. He already had to turn a blind eye to the bullying his brother did (though he and his friends were surprisingly quiet at the moment) so this was getting to be a bit too much. He almost exploded at her when he witnessed her shove a Slytherin first year to the ground, loudly exclaiming:
"Get away from me, Snake!" And then running off.
Molli wanted to chase after her with his wand drawn but, instead, he looked to the student. It was that girl again. Black hair, round face, pointy nose, short. And currently trying to scoop up her papers with a teary look in her eyes. Molli immediately decided that instead of hexing Olivia into next week, he'd make sure she was alright. So that's what he did. He was a little nervous doing it. The last time they'd "talked" had been a few weeks ago when he tried to sit next to her at lunch and she immediately packed up and left. It was obvious that the girl disliked him, he just couldn't figure out why. Even so, he kneeled down next to her and began helping to gather up her parchment. Her brown, puffy, eyes immediately looked up at him like a skittish animal being spotted by a predator. He smiled in a way he hoped was comforting and held out the papers to her.
"Sorry about her." He said. "My friend, Ceril, shares a common room with her and, trust me, she's always like that."
The girl gently took the books and parchment into her arms and held them to her chest before wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
"... Thanks." She practically whispered.
Molli's heart soared. She talked to him! That was progress!
"Don't mention it." He said. "I-in fact, I should be thanking you. If you hadn't been here to distract me, I might have ran after her, wand-a-blazing. She's really been getting on my nerves lately."
He had been trying to sound cool when he said that, and he might have succeeded at least a little bit, but he could tell that he looked way too nervous to sell it. Regardless, the girl bit her lip and turned away, cheeks puffing out. He realized she was trying not to laugh.
"Sooo...." He slowly helped her to her feet. "Do you wanna walk to class together?"
She turned back to him, eyes calculating and... confused.
"... Why are you being nice to me?" She asked.
Molli blinked.
"Why not?"
"BECAUSE I'M MUGGLEBORN!"
Her hand slapped over her mouth the moment she said that and she was frozen where she stood, staring at him with wide eyes. Waiting for a reaction.
"... So?" Molli began, tilting his head to the side. "So's my best friend."
The girl's shoulders relaxed. Her hand lowered from her mouth to reveal that she was gaping.
"So... you don't mind...?" she began.
"Of course not!" Molli said, almost as if he'd taken offense to that question even being asked. "Why would I? Muggle stuff is so interesting anyways. Just yesterday, Logan showed me this thing called a "Movie" that's like a photo but longer and with sound and a story! AND she can make one with the same thing she takes still pictures with on her cool phone thing. It's so amazing how muggles manage to get on without magic and even do stuff BETTER than wizards do sometimes! It's-!" His mouth clamped shut and he blushed. "S-sorry... I'm rambling."
But the girl only looked at him in awe.
"And you won't... tell anyone, will you?"
His eyes widened again.
"Absolutely not." He said, shaking his head. "That's for you to tell."
The girl let out a small breath that sounded a bit like a laugh. A small smile graced her lips before melting away again.
"I'm... I'm sorry for being so standoffish." She mumbled. "It's just that... the first thing my housemates did after I was sorted was ask me my blood status and-"
"You thought that meant that was all Slytherins care about..."
He didn't look offended this time. He just looked... sad.
"I can't believe that's still going on." He groaned. "Honestly, it's 2014. You'd think they'd have learned after Voldemort."
She cocked an eyebrow.
"Who's Voldemort?"
Molli seized up. He hoped to brush it off the same way Ceril did with Logan but...
"A-a dark wizard." He explained. "Like... REALLY evil. He ran this group of people called Death Eaters that were obsessed with getting rid of everyone who wasn't pure blood. He's gone now!" He clarified as her skin began to turn a sickly pale green. "B-but I guess some of his values are... y'know, still floating around."
She hummed.
"Let me guess. Slytherin?"
He nodded, glumly.
"... I'd love to." She stated.
His eyes shot up to her again.
"Huh?"
"Walk to class with you." She repeated, a smile present on her face. "I'd love to."
His shocked expression melted into a smile as well. The two Slytherins began walking down the hall together.
"I-I'm Molli, by the way." He said.
"I'm Valary." She smiled back.
The two were painfully unaware of the swish of green robes behind them as a head of slick black hair bobbed back out of view.
...
The weeks continued to fly by. Halloween came and went and the very next day after the halls were decked with pumpkins and candy, the four of them finally finished the spell. They cast it on Logan, who had graciously volunteered to be their practice dummy... and it worked!
"Finite!" Molli chanted with glee as the pages of the book Logan was holding lost all its bright dancing colors and returned to black and white.
"We did it!" Edith cheered.
They had a mini impromptu dance party to celebrate before Ceril waved them down.
"Now, hold on." He said. "We may have discovered how to make it work, but we still have to do an awful lot of casting in order to get it on Olivia."
"Oh, shoot." Logan said. "How are we gonna do that without her noticing?"
"Me and Edith have that covered." Molli beamed. "Edith? Wanna do the honors?"
Edith beamed and nodded vigorously before holding up a slip of paper from her notepad.
"It's called spell paper." Molli explained. "It's an ancient form of non verbal magic used by the deaf or mute before non verbal spells became popular. Not only are they super discrete, they're really easy to stack spells on. We can cast or write the formula on the paper and it'll adhere to it like instructions. Then all we have to do is touch it to Olivia's skin and she'll absorb the magic."
Ceril and Logan stared at them in awe.
"Oh, guys, you're brilliant!" Logan cheered.
"Indeed." Ceril said, mouth still agap.
Their dance party started up again. Tomorrow was gonna be a really good day.
...
They had given the spell paper to Ceril for him to attach to Olivia. He "accidentally" bumped into her and stuck the piece of parchment to the base of her neck. Thankfully, it seemed that, through all her yelling at him for being such a clutz, she hadn't noticed it. The paper grazed her skin and the moment it did the complex formula they had painstakingly copied onto it vanished. That day would live in INFAMY among the Ravenclaws. The other houses had only experienced a small glimpse of the spell in all it's glory when Olivia would open up a textbook in class and found blank, bright red, parchment. She stormed into Ravenclaw tower and raced up to her dorm room only for everyone to hear a screech of anger a few moments later. Her roommates continued to speak for weeks later about the scene of Olivia frantically tearing books off her personal shelf, searching for one that WASN'T green, blue, yellow, or red.
"It's him!" She had wailed, pointing at Ceril. "It's him, it's him! I KNOW IT!"
"Ms Stanfield!" Professor Delanor ordered. "Stop this at once! I highly doubt that Mr Williams has been following you around all day casting the color change charm on your books!"
"I KNOW IT'S HIM!"
She lost Ravenclaw five house points for making a scene. The spell wore off the next day but the damage had been done. Olivia was completely silent now and the four friends celebrated their victory together under the Whomping willow.
"Do you think we went a little too far?" Edith asked.
"No way." Logan, who had been practicing her sign language and recognized the words "you think" and "too far", said. "What we did was super tame and SHE'S the one who threw a fit about it. She's not quiet cuz she's afraid of it happening again. She's upset that no one'll put up with her bullocks anymore."
"True." Ceril agreed. "Everyone has watched her throw her weight around all year and the moment something negative happened to her, she lost her mind. She's entitled and they can all see that now".
"Y-you might be right about that..." Molli stated. "but... I didn't have as much fun doing it to her as I did trying to figure out HOW to do it." He admitted. "D-don't get me wrong, I'm glad she's leaving people alone now... but can we maybe take the high road next time?"
"Of course." Ceril said.
"Sure thing!" Logan said.
Edith nodded and Molli sighed.
"Thanks..."
"Like I said, Molli. No trouble unless we all want in, right?" Logan smiled.
He smiled back at her.
"... It was a pretty good prank though."
"It was." Edith signed with a grin.
"Wasn't it!?" Logan cheered.
"We'd surely have gotten extra credit for such a complex spell if we could ever tell anyone." Ceril added.
It seemed that, despite their vague feelings of guilt, the whole school (specifically the Ravenclaws) all thought the prank had been AMAZING. Pretty much every first year in the school had had SOME KIND of run in with Olivia at one point or another. The four of them discovered this through various interactions with their housemates.
"Served her right after she told me I didn't belong in the girls lavatory." Greta sneered.
"She did what now!?" Lydia yelled.
Logan and Greta had to restrain her from going on a murder mission.
"Good riddance!" Nana stated. "I didn't need anymore of her "comments" in the dormitory."
"And at least she stopped shoving me..." Jamal said before breaking into a smile. "I don't know what she was so upset about. The colors were pretty. If I were in her shoes I'd've wanted to test it out on anything I could. Maybe figure out if I could control what colors came out."
"You mean that girl that made fun of you for being hard of hearing?" Brain clarified. "Well, 'serves her right then!"
"Wait, she did what now!?" Another Hufflepuff called.
Soon enough, Edith was swarmed by her concerned housemates.
The Slytherin's didn't have much to say. Most of them just laughed at the incident, murmuring things about know-it-all Ravenclaws. This did not make Molli feel any better... well... one Slytherin did.
"Did you hear about that blond chick that got jinxd with some kind of color change spell?" Valary asked, looking very excited.
Molli jumped, almost knocking her cat, Cooper, off of his lap.
"Uh... you mean the one that pushed you?" He asked, playing dumb.
"That's the one!" she beamed, sitting back down to pet Amica. "Now that's what I call karma!"
Molli let a nervous smile form on his lips. He still couldn't believe that he'd actually managed to make a friend in his own house.
A pair of beady eyes watched them from around a corner, a twisted smirk on his chiseled face.
Don't get comfortable, Runt. He thought to himself, She ain't gonna last long...