PRANKSTER [1] ↝ C. DIGGORY

prologue | 1989

"Are we ready?" Fred Weasley asked, looking over at where his siblings, George and Clarissa huddled with their friend Vasantha Scamander, the cohorts all nodding enthusiastically.

"Ready," Clary said with a devilish grin. "release the rain!"

"Okay, so it's activated," Fred said. "and as soon as the next person walks through this doorway, it'll start absolutely pouring! And the rain clouds will follow them for about three minutes. They'll never see it coming. It'll be hilarious!"

"But what if it's Professor McGonagall?" Vasantha asked nervously.

"That's a risk we all have to take," George reminded her, placing a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "and besides, it's too late to leave now. You'll just get rained on if you leave. And we wouldn't want that, would we?"

Vas rolled her eyes, crouching back against the wall without another word. Clary sat next to her, waiting for whoever would be the first to Transfiguration that day and silently hoping their professor hadn't decided to get to class early. The group quickly hushed as voices sounded from down the corridor, growing nearer and nearer with each passing second.

"C'mon, it won't be that bad," one of the voices said as they passed over the threshold into the classroom, soon followed by two yells of surprise as rain began to pour in the doorway where the newcomers now stood.

"What the bloody hell?" the second voice exclaimed, and the pranksters looked to see Vasantha's twin brother Newton trying to distance himself from the doorway in an attempt to escape the rain, and the girl let out a nervous laugh as the cloud continued to follow him wherever he tried to run. His eyes darted around until they finally landed on where the group sat, huddled together, his eyes narrowing when he caught sight of his sister among them. "Vas?"

"Hi, Newt," she replied, unable to control her laughter.

"Why won't it stop?" Newt asked, looking back over to see the other boy had already gone running from the classroom, leaving him to follow suit, which caused the group of pranksters sitting on the floor to howl with laughter until Professor McGonagall found them only moments later, the classroom nearly flooded.

Clary would be lying if she said the detention the four misfits were given from Professor McGonagall hadn't been worth it. Newt and the other boy hadn't shown up to class after falling victim to the downpour, and it was only later that the two girls ran into them in the library, poring over the homework they had missed from that day's class.

"There you two are." Vasantha said as she and Clary approached the table. "All nice and dry?"

"No thanks to you." Newt said, shaking his head with a grin, as the boy was usually a good sport when it came to his twin's pranking nature, however the boy next to him simply scowled, burying his nose further into his Transfiguration book. "How'd you know we'd be the first two in the class?"

"Oh, we didn't." Clary assured them with a grin. "It was just perfect timing."

"Detention?" Newt asked, and the two girls shared a quick look before nodding.

"Detention with Professor McGonagall this Friday." Clary confirmed.

"Serves you right." Newt giggled before looking over at the still-unnamed boy sitting next to him, noticing the frown written across his face as he watched the two Gryffindor girls. "Oh, lighten up, Ced," he told the boy before looking back over in Clary's direction. "Clarissa Weasley, meet Cedric Diggory. Your victim of the day."

"Cedric Diggory," Clary mused, watching the boy intently with a mischievous smirk. "I think I'll remember that name."