stardust ⋮ george weasley

fourteen :

F O U R T E E N

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Three times a week, Adeline spent her afternoons in Professor Flitwick's classroom singing with the choir. The choir elective at Hogwarts was small, but the students who were accepted in were incredibly talented and dedicated to the ensemble. They would perform a few times a year at special events and dinners, but the main point of the elective seemed to be to help train their voices and build a small community of friends within the large school.

Adeline remembered being so shocked when she was accepted in her first year, especially since she was the youngest member of the choir at the time. She had been trained in singing since she was able to speak. While it wasn't her choice to sign up for singing lessons when she was so young, Adeline was thankful and had grown to love music because of it.

Now that she was in fifth year, Adeline began to see choir as a way to relax as well. The older students weren't lying when they told her how stressful the O.W.L.S. exams were. Ever since winter ended and Hogwarts began to transition into spring, Adeline seemed to be finding herself falling asleep more and more whilst studying in the library or the Ravenclaw common room, as if her body was telling her to just go to sleep instead of staying up to review her Transfiguration notes once more.

It didn't help that being a prefect was much more difficult than Adeline expected. While her classmates got a little extra time to study or hang out with their friends, Adeline was usually spending it in meetings or on patrol. Adeline thought part of the reason was because of Sirius Black still remained free and the recent attack in the Gryffindor tower, but neither Percy or Madeline were going to let that information go easily.

As she read over the new sheet music Professor Flitwick had given them at the beginning of the rehearsal, Adeline couldn't help but notice the little note in the corner that indicated that the music she had in her hand was specifically for the soprano soloist. She looked down at the sheet music in shock, then back at Professor Flitwick. "You want...you want me to take the solo?"

"Yes! Why else would I have given you the sheet music?" Professor Flitwick waved his baton in the air back and forth before standing on his small podium. "Let's just take it from the top, and we'll work from there."

At the same time, two brothers were in the process of setting up another one of their famous pranks outside the classroom. Daniel Evans, a seventh year Ravenclaw and another member of the choir, had been overheard by several students proclaiming that the Gryffindor Quidditch team stood no chance against Ravenclaw that weekend, and that the team should just give up now.

Of course, Fred and George weren't about to let that happen.

So as the choir was warming up, the two were carefully lugging a bucket filled with disgusting, cold water from the Black Lake through the hallway.

"Hold on," George eventually whispered to his brother. "Couldn't we just have levitated the bucket? So we didn't have to carry it all the way up here?"

"Merlin, we're stupid."

"What's new?"

George peered into the classroom and noticed Adeline standing in front of the group of students. He turned away quickly, however, and focused once more on the task at hand, not wanting Fred to notice and tease him.

The prank was relatively simple to set up. All the twins had to do was levitate the bucket above the classroom and rest it on a small ledge above the door, making sure that very little of the water fell out in the process. It was a simple prank, especially compared to some of the other ones in the past.