Not A Coincidence (Fred Weasley)

Ch 40: Aradia- The New Lab Rat

I can't stand this anymore! No, just no. I must get it out of my system!

"Chelsea? Chelsea." Someone calls out, waving  their hand in front of my face.

"I think she's out of it."

"No, she's just out of her element."

Voices start popping out of nowhere as I watch the large clock above the fireplace slowly tick as the minutes pass. I've urged myself to not pull a prank all week, to not skip class, to not be late... AND IT'S DRIVING ME INSANE!

"Out of her element?"

"Yeah, like mermaids are out of their element when they leave the water, Chelsea's out of her element when she takes a break from pranking."

"So she's broken?"

The voices are slow and deep. Like in movies when someone's blacking out and all the voices become faded. But I can tell anywhere that that last comment came from Aradia.

"I need to prank!" I jump up, causing the others who have gathered around me to stumble back. "I need to do something, it's driving me crazy! I've become... boring. Noooo!"

"It's only the third day." Erin says as she leads the way up to the dorms.

Heather walks in to the room, flopping on to her bed. "Honestly, I'm surprised she's lasted this long."

"I can hear you." I narrow my eyes at her as I sit on my bed. "I've had so many ideas for outrageous pranks, like that phrase that parents keep saying 'If you keep making that face be stuck like that', I was thinking of hexing the wind or something so that if you were doing something stupid you'd be caught in the act. Or jinxing the seats at the Slytherin table so that they're pants would get stuck and if they attempted.. attempted to .. s-stand up they'd. pass wind." I chuckle to myself at the thought.

"Oh my goodness, those would be so good!" Aradia cheers, jumping up and down on her bed, sending her sheets and pillows on to the floor. Looking down at what she's done she stops and pouts, remaking her bed.

"I know! But I haven't figured out a way to leave the crime scene with no evidence attached yet. Ugh, life is so hard!" I slump on to my bed, legs leaning up against the wall.

"Isn't it?" Erin walks over and lies down next to me, legs leaning up against the wall next to mine. "I haven't seen Gideon for weeks. I don't know where he went."

My head jerks toward her. "What? He's just disappeared?" Has he told her about 'it' yet?

"I saw him a few times after I was unpetrified but not since then."

"I wonder where he could be."

"Yeah... I wonder."

"Hey... Aradia." I straighten out my jumper as I stand up, scheme set in motion. "You've been great these past few days... so would you like a candy?"

 I hold out a pinstriped bag full of rainbow coloured sweets. Aradia's at my side in seconds, deciding on which colour to have.

"Is this grape?" She holds up a round purple candy.

"...Sure." I nod my head, urging her to take a bite.

"Chelsea-"

"Hush Heather, let the child eat her candy."

"But-"

"Uh uh." I waddle my finger in her face.

I watch Aradia absorb the sweet, her skin slowly changing to a different colour, hair and eyes changing a different shade.

"That was delicious, may I have another?" She takes no notice of her appearance as I offer her another candy, this one green.

She devours this one just as quickly as the first. "Mmmm, must be apple!" Her appearance continues to change as she goes for each different colour candy; red, yellow, orange, blue. The others watch silently, their eyes as wide as saucers, jaws scraping the ground. Whereas I'm barely containing my amusement.

"You seemed to have finished the whole bag." I smirk as I peer in to my empty paper, pinstriped bag. "Were they good?"

"Oh yes, they were very nice. But there was a weird after taste."

"Do tell."

"It was nice and sweet in the beginning, full of fruity flavours.. but then it had a bitter aftertaste, almost savoury."

"That must've been the bats wings." I mumble to myself, jotting down a mental note, "Will have to add less next time."

"What are you guys looking at?" Aradia finally discovers her on-lookers. "Is my tongue a different colour or something?" 

She pokes out her tongue as Heather shakes her head. "No but your skin is."

"And your eyes."

"And your hair." Erin and Stacey add.

"What?" She walks over to a mirror before freezing up. 

"...Aradia? Are you ok?" Stacey walks over as I bend over in a fit of giggles. I can't believe she finished off the whole bag! And she kept changing colour!

"Wha- ... those weren't candies were they?" Aradia looks at me disappointed.

"They were. But they were also a prank." I smile. "Oh my god! Feels so good to get it out of my system! Whoo!" I fall on to my bed, spreading out.

"That wasn't very nice." Stacey picks up a strand of Aradia's blue hair.

"No, but it was funny."

"She's got a point there." Erin agrees, sitting next to me. "What are they called?"

"It's still a working title but I was thinking something along the lines of 'An Everchanging Experience". Your whole appearance changes to the colour or pattern of the sweet, like stripes, or spots or even paisley. Great for a small prank and it doubles as a treat." I explain, sitting up. "I'm starting off with fruits but I was thinking of desserts like pie and icecream as well. And the slogan could be 'Want to snack on something that's small and sweet? Then you're in for a shocking treat'."

"Brilliant!" Aradia sits in front of us. "You could sell that around the school to beginner pranksters."

"Does the colour fade?" Heather pokes Aradia's face and Stacey continues to play with her hair, attempting to scrub off the colour. 

"Eat this." I hand her another sweet.

"Nothing happened." Heather states as Aradia chews on the lolly.

"Grawdamigg tharmsap deroffzall." Aradia's hands are covering her mouth in a matter of seconds, her eyes peering at me in shock over the top.

"She's not your lab rat, Chelsea. Give her the counter candy already."

"Whoops." I dig around in my pocket for the right candy. "Hard-boiled 'Gibberish Jams', another of my new inventions, makes the unsuspecting victim speak gibberish after one bite. 'After one bite you'll never speak the same again.' Must've put it in the wrong pocket."

Why do I have sweets hanging around in my pockets? Because I can. If someone desires to be pranked- or just being irritable- I can just whip it out, that simple.

After close inspection, I dust the lint off a pale blue kidney bean shaped sweet, I hand it to Aradia- who investigates it closely before popping it in her mouth.

"Hello, ahh thank god. So glad you guys can understand me again."

"Honey, this would be one of the few times we actually do." I pat her head before heading down the stairs.

"Was that sarcasm?" I hear her ask.

"Yes, yes it was."