Loyalties | Barty Crouch Jr

The Greatest Prank

April 10, 1978 - Monday

Every single person, students and professors alike, had all been on edge for the past week. April Fool's Day, one of James and his friend's favorite holidays, had fallen over their break. Everyone had been expecting them to pull some sort of prank the very first day back, but they never did. An entire week, and yet nothing.

By now, some people were starting to settle down, assuming that the four boys weren't going to be pulling an April Fools prank this year. Maybe they had finally grown up? Leonora was one of those people. Their pranks had always annoyed her, though thankfully none of them were ever targeted towards her. Some of her friends though, that was a different story.

Thalia had gotten caught up in a prank once, only a minor one. Her nose was enlarged by three times its size, making the girl hide away in their dorm all day, crying about how she "looked like Snape." And speaking of Snape, though Leonora wouldn't consider him a friend, he was constantly on the receiving end of the boys' pranks. It had gotten so bad that Leonora had started to feel bad for him.

"I've heard some people theorizing what they think their prank will be this year," Barty whispered to the girl as they sat beside each other in Charms, working on reviews.

"You aren't seriously still focused on that, are you?" she asked the boy, glancing up from her parchment.

"Of course I am. They pull a prank every year for April Fool's."

With a deep sigh and roll of her eyes, Leonora focused back on her parchment. "It's been a week. Maybe they've finally realized they're too old for that."

Barty lightly shook his head. "No way. They've been pulling small pranks all year. Plus, it's their last year at Hogwarts. They'd want to go out with a bang."

Leonora dropped her quill, turning her head towards the boy. "And what have people been theorizing, then?"

"Well, one person said that they think they'll let a bunch of creatures run free through the castle. And that's why it's taking them so long, they have to gather them all up."

"Uh huh..." the girl paused for a moment, attempting to hold in a laugh from how ridiculous that sounded. "And where would they be keeping these creatures?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Barty shrugged. "How am I supposed to know? It wasn't my theory."

"Mr. Crouch, Ms. Potter," Professor Flitwick announced from the front of the classroom, "this is supposed to be a silent study time. Please refrain from chitchat."

"Sorry professor," Leonora apologized, her face red. "It's a daft theory," she whispered back to the boy harshly, before picking up her quill and continuing on with her work. He only groaned, picking up his quill to finish the last few questions on his own work.

.........................................................

The theory that Barty mentioned had been stuck in the back of her mind for the rest of class, even when the bell rang, and she had to leave for Care of Magical Creatures. Even though that particular theory sounded rather dumb, she figured that it might be a good idea to ask Professor Kettleburn if he had seen anything or was missing any creatures. Just to put her mind at ease. She didn't want to get trampled by any animals at any point during the year.

As she walked down the path to class, she peered around the surrounding areas, trying to catch sight of anything that looked unordinary. There wasn't anything that she could tell, besides maybe the few wooden crates that sat around the grounds close by to the castle walls. No creatures would be kept in those, especially not up that close to the castle.