Overthinking Finished

You can't go back now..
"I-I haven't exactly worked out all the details since I only came up with this idea five minutes ago. SOATOP S-Series of anonymous thought out pranks. It's an acronym. Anyway, not the point. I know a few big pranks we could do, well if you both agree.. that won't land us in detention 'cause they won't know it's us. If we can just come up with more, it can be a weekly thing. Nobody get's in trouble, but 'the people' d-doing these pranks get quite a reputation. We could have the whole school talking about us within three weeks if we do it right. Of course nobody would know it's us, but still" Alec said then gave an awkward laugh.

"All I'm saying is this could be all the fun of pranking without getting caught." Alec said with a shrug. The idea seemed bewildering and like lots of fun to him. I was like bringing those old books he'd read to life. "As the pranks get more advanced and bigger, we could invite other people to help. With the promise of course that they won't say a word," Alec explained.

It was a lot more than pranking for the fun of it. Alec had a feeling this was going to become something more meaningful than that to him. He wasn't exactly sure how or why.. but he was sure it was going to be one crazy adventure. Probably the type of stuff you'd tell at family gatherings once you get out of Hogwarts. Probably wouldn't wanna do it before.

Alec stopped walking. To be fair, it had been hard to explain his idea and keep walking. Searching for the right words. He wasn't even sure if what he'd said were the right words to say. "Anyway what do you guys think?" He asked.

@Clifton Troublefield @Leonard Oaksworth

Leonard wasn’t the touchy-feely type, but Alec’s idea excited him to no end. Pranking had always appealed to him, doing the tiny little things that made people feel ticked off for reasons they couldn’t place. He’d had quite a field day when his cousins were born, and the other party wasn’t one for subtlety. Cries of Leo did it still rang throughout the halls of Oaksworth Bakery.

And now, it was on a bigger scale. One that was full of people to learn behaviours of, to scare, to have fun with. At home, he’d only had school, Jacob, and Isaac. Jacob and Isaac has moved out, and schoolgirls and schoolboys just weren’t as fun. They were so predictable, and you could only do so much until it became repetitive. Stick gum under someone’s chair, put pencils on the side of the room that had been declared ‘haunted’. But here at Hogwarts, there were virtually unlimited possibilities. With wands and magical creatures and the strangest plants he’d ever seen, it was going to be the best.

An adventure where he could observe and make friends. Anybody who said no must’ve been deaf. It was a novel come to life, to his life. And his life would be much more fun with pranks, Leonard was sure.

“Absolutely!” He looked at the Hufflepuff with a not-so-slightly crazed look. The type a toddler’s eyes had when their mum ordered frozen yogurt just for them. “Clifton, you in?”

Though recent events suggested otherwise, Clifton wasn't typically the kind to actually go looking for mischief. He just always seemed to have the catastrophic combination of creative friends and terrible luck. However, even he knew that the places to explore were the ones marked "No Trespassing".

So, since it was exactly the sort of thing he didn't need right now, he was all there.

"Count me in!" he smiled, though it probably looked a little pathetic with his injury.

He hoped the pranks wouldn't actually hurt or humiliate people too much, but he decided he'd see where it all went before going all Hufflepuff on them. Besides, it sounded like a blast. He wasn't even sure if his parents would let him come back next year what with their misgivings about Hogwarts. Might as well go out with a bang.

And an anonymous bang was even better. Those ones didn't swell up your face.

He decided he liked these two. He wasn't even sure if the three of them had much in common other than the itch to do something exciting. But it already sounded like that alone would be plenty. And then some.

"What do you think we should do first?" he asked, a little more quietly as a group of students passed by. "Have a hundred howlers sing the Hogwarts anthem? Get our hands on some fireworks? Put a bunch of rubber ducks in the great lake?"

The last one was a joke. Mostly.

"I don't know," he laughed. "You guys probably have better ideas."

@Leonard Oaksworth @Alec Mason

This was amazing. He’d be a hit at the family parties now, with stories of his own. Stories that will probably contain a few House points lost and a few (read: many, many) detentions, but they would be incredibly interesting to live out. There wasn’t much of a plan, which wasn’t something he was used to, but just the prospect of breaking rules without having a concrete path was exhilarating.

Leonard considered Clifton’s suggestions. He didn’t have many ideas himself, not as concise as the ones he had on the proper procedure of making a grilled cheese sandwich, but those were a start. They didn’t quite hurt anybody other than the Giant Squid and a few eardrums, so they might’ve been good. Unless the cephalopod could walk on land, they would be fine.

“Well, the Hogwarts anthem one might be a little hard to keep anonymous, since it’ll be our voices. The Black Lake could be nice, but you’ll all have to do the work,” he shivered, thinking of the kraken that called the depths of the water home. “The Squid terrifies me. Besides, where’re we going to get that many rubber ducks? I think our best bet is the fireworks.”

He turned to Alec. “What do you think?”

Alec was practically grinning from ear to ear. The fact that they both even said yes amazed the boy. Although this might've just been because they didn't know what was to come, but these pranks weren't going to be that bad.

"I-I've kinda already come up with an idea for the first one.. It'll take a while to do but it'll be worth it." Alec said. Alec then went on to explain the first thing he came up with it was something that was going to need to be done after hours or when nobody was there.. Alec's idea was to do it in the great hall. He knew it was risky, but he'd rather start it off with something like that then move onto smaller stuff.

"There's this dumb little voice changing spell my cousin tried to teach me it wears off once you're done with it. Anyway, not the point. I was thinking I could write to him asking about it. He get's a bit busy but I'm sure he'd be able to send a response within a week. I was thinking about doing something to do with howlers though. There's the down fall that the professors could use one of the undermining spell things I read about once but I think with the whole voice changing spell it wouldn't really work anyway," Alec explained. "Actually yeah though, that was kinda my idea with the whole Hogwarts anthem thing. It'd be a real bewildering spectacle," Alec said with a laugh.

"I have some backup options for the voice changing thing just in case he decides he doesn't want to tell me or it doesn't work for multiple reasons," Alec explained, still grinning. He was getting himself into a whole mess now. I guess this was the start of a mini rebellion of his own.

@Clifton Troublefield and @Leonard Oaksworth

The more Alec explained, the wider Clifton's grin got. There was a voice changing spell? He could have all sorts of fun with that, even outside of pranks.

"I like where this is going," he said. "Guess I better learn all the words to that thing." He wouldn't be able to just mouth random words like he normally did when the student body sang it. One wrong howler would distract from the rest of the spectacle.

"How can I help? Is there a specific place you need them hidden once they're finished? Do you need extra paper? I don't know a lot of magic, but I can do some of the other heavy lifting."

The hard part would be trying not to laugh when it all went down.

Then another thought crossed his mind. "So I know we're supposed to keep it anonymous in order to do more pranks, but even the best works of art are signed. What do you guys think about coming up with some sort of signature? Nothing that would give us away, just something to leave our mark?"

He was going to say "like Zorro" until he remembered that not even most muggle kids knew who that was. It took having a dad like his in order to be three generations behind on pop culture references.

"We don't have to do it. Might be more fun to just leave everyone wondering." Whatever they decided on, he could tell it was worth getting socked in the jaw to meet these two.

@Leonard Oaksworth @Alec Mason

Alec's eyes lit up slightly at the idea. "Yeah! That'd be cool! But what? It can't be a stupid thing we'd regret later on" Alec said grinning. He was being a bit loud while talking. But luckily it was only just the three of them in the small hall right now. Well.. the three of them and the portrait people. But Alec knew they wouldn't tell on them..

Alec had a whole bunch of ideas for what it could be. But he deemed the all stupid and something they'd regret later on. So it was best not to bring it up. "I don't really have any ideas for the signature type thing but I do for where the howlers could be hidden till it time.. And maybe we could get clear strings or something to pull and open the howlers?" Alec asked. And then Alec got an idea SOATOP just written in a scary font. Almost as if it looked like the signature was dripping ink.

It'd be so cool! And there's no way anyone could really figure them out from SOATOP if anyone did ever find the meaning of the letters it would be what they were doing not who they were. They could do little anonymous howlers with each prank they did at the end of it. So it left everybody wanting to find out more about this 'big mystery' but in reality it was a bunch of first years doing random pranks out of boredom and just for fun.

"Oh and I a-actually have a suggestion for the signature thing. SOATOP if anyone were to figure out the letters it'd be what were doing not who we are." Alec suggested it wasn't exactly the best idea now that he said it out loud. But oh well can't go back on the suggestion now.

@Clifton Troublefield@Leonard Oaksworth

This was getting better and better.

Leonard was not exactly known for spontaneity and everything associated with the word. He was known for rigidity and everything associated with that word. Schedule, stiffness, strictness. The three S's, though that barely reached the tip of the perfectly carved iceberg. There had been a list that reached fifty before his cousins had moved in. Then they had eaten half of it, so it only went until thirty-one. Most got the idea by then.

But the idea of a secret club? It was something out of a novel. Then again, magical schools and wizards and witches also seemed something out of a novel, but that wasn't the point. At first, Hogwarts had seemed to ruin all of his plans. Turns out it was removing some parts, and making them better. He wouldn't admit that, though. His pride was also something he was known for.

"That sounds great to me!" He said. "Now, I have to get going, sorry. The dorms await. Meet sometime soon, yeah? Maybe in the toilets on the second floor? We could talk about it more there."

He couldn't believe it. Barely into Hogwarts, and he'd already made friends. Hopefully he wouldn't make enemies at the same pace.