Plotting and scheming

The door to the library opened with a slight creak, and a short, blue-eyed girl emerged from it slowly. A little penguin plushy was hanging from her collar, its little eyes supported on it while its button eyes peeked outside, judging everything it saw... Well, that's what Anna believed it was doing, at least. Last night, she had met a boy while setting up a little prank in the Great Hall, who caught her sneaking from table to table suspiciously. Nonetheless, he had introduced himself as Mikey, and they had promised to meet each other again before dinner to plan other pranks, pranks that could be actually elaborate and more sophisticated, given they're two people instead of one. There was just one issue; she hadn't actually seen his face properly, as when they met each other, it was a dark night, and she couldn't see the details of his face, so she would have to use the little she could remember from him to identify his face in the library. Thankfully, it wasn't very full at this time.
Anna walked through the rows of the room, running her fingers through the shelves and books and looking for a familiar shape. That's when someone called her attention: a boy, leaning back on his chair at the very corner of the library, just behind a pile of transfiguration books. That's when the hufflepuff saw his short brown hair and bright blue eyes. Those were not the most uncommon traits, and perhaps he might just be a boy happening to study transfiguration before dinner, but they were also characteristics she saw on Mikey, and he was the only one Anna could see that had those characteristics in this empty library. She quickly rushed towards him, and stopped just a few inches away from him, immediately staring directly into his eyes and smiling, leaning towards that boy.
—Hello! Is your name Mikey?
Although that was less noticeable when the two kids had met, as they were trying to whisper, Anna's voice is very high pitched, and her front teeth are just a bit bigger than the rest. Her black hair was loose and curled as perfectly as she could, each of its curls carefully groomed.

“Hello! Is your name Mikey?” she said and he gave a soft laugh, surprised but amused. “Yep yep,” he said, sitting up now more excited than bored. “That’s me. And you’re Anna, right? Seeing Anna in the light was like finally meeting her properly. Last time it was all shadows and whispers and the rush of getting away with something. Now in the warmth of the library’s glow everything felt more real. More fun too. He slid over on the bench and motioned for her to sit. “You found the right corner. No one ever comes back here unless they’re super passionate about transfigured teapots, which shockingly, I am not.”

He tapped the parchment in front of him with the back of his quill. “I started working on a list,” he said, smiling. He turned it so she could see. At the top in big bold letters PRANK IDEAS. Beneath that were a few scattered thoughts. Some were written cleanly, others scribbled with arrows pointing in different directions. There were also some random doodles that were not bad but still embarrassing for someone else to see.

He looked over at her a little uncertain but hopeful. “I figured, you know, if we’re going do this, might as well make it good. Not mean or anything. Just stuff that makes people laugh.” He gave a small shrug, tapping his quill against his knee now. “You said you wanted something more elaborate. So far, I’ve got enchanted parchment that yells compliments when someone touches it, and charming the armor in the hallways to clap during tests. So what do you think?”

Anna nodded and sitted down next to Mikey, her blue eyes staring directly at him. After he finished speaking, she didn't respond for several seconds, planning out exactly what she would say. Four seconds, ten seconds, thirteen seconds in silence, but always seeming as if she was going to answer. At last, her verbal inertia was broken, and she began to talk and never end, apparently.
—Hello, Mikey! I did think about sending an anonymous howler to someone, but those are too loud. I also thought of casting the Dancing Feet Spell on some of the armors, but I'm not too sure about that idea either. I kind of like your idea of enchanting the armor so it will clap during tests...
The hufflepuff leaned behind on her chair, keeping a straight posture, and took a few more seconds before continuing to talk.
—But is there really any spell we know that can do that? I'm pretty sure there is something like that out there, I just don't know if either of us know how a spell like that.
"Oh! Maybe we could call our charms teacher!", thought Anna. "But then again, I doubt a teacher would agree to teach us something like this... Well, my mom says they rarely ever do. Boring."
—If nothing else, we could study transfiguration... At least that would give us the chance of transfigurating someone's teapots into... A penguin, or something.
Anna took her penguin plushie from her collar and sitted it on the desk, suddenly rapturous.
—Ta-daa! There it is, a teapot post-transfiguration! What do you think?
The penguin did not seem particularly amused.

After blinking at her Mikey's face began to slowly light up with a smile. "You know," he said keeping his tone lighthearted. "I think you just presented the strongest argument for transfiguration theory that I have ever heard." He looked at the small penguin kettle sitting there as if it had always been on top of a pile of unfinished homework as he leaned forward a little and rested his elbows on the desk. It was kind of brilliant how Anna had froze, almost holding her breath, before launching into her quick-fire ideas. As if she had been suppressing all of these ideas, and when the cap was removed, they suddenly exploded. It was weird in a cool way to him.

Mikey grinned broadly and remarked, "That's a lot of ideas." "You pose a threat. in the best way i mean.". His eyes darted between her, the penguin tea kettle, and their expanding list as he absently tapped his quill against his parchment. "All right, so perhaps we don't yet know the precise spell that makes armor clap, but we can work that out. The concept is sound. Furthermore, who says we can't be imaginative? It might not be a single spell.

As if searching for hidden answers, he picked up the penguin kettle and turned it slightly. But penguins. That is... surprising. Gently, he put it down. There was a hint of something a little more serious beneath the mischief when Mikey looked her in the eyes. "Anna, you have some excellent ideas. Really, really good. Grinning, he pushed the parchment in her direction. "So, what comes next?" He looked up and saw that the sun was starting to set outside the library windows, leaving the floor covered in long golden lines. Even though they didn't, it seemed like they had all the time in the world.

Anna watched carefully as Mikey handled her plushy penguin. She had always been too protective of her favorite plushy, but the ravenclaw was gentle, and soon put Aoibheann back on the place it was. The hufflepuff held her penguin's flippers and caressed them while Mikey continued to speak. She paid quite a bit of attention to the ravenclaw's words like always, and kept her attentive gaze locked on his eyes, which is more or less what Anna understood by "eye contact". She opened her mouth and closed it again, trying to think quickly to come up with ideas.
—Weell... Uhm... — She looked to her left and back at Mikey. —We could try paying attention at our lessons to learn spells that would be useful for our prank... But then again, we don't have Charms and Transfiguration lessons every day, and even if we did, we could take forever to learn the spells. First, we need to know what are the names of the spells we will need, then we can ask the librarian for a book that teaches about them. I'm sure that if we search up enough, we'll find just what we need!
With those words, she rapidly grabbed a book from the pile, her sudden movement knocking Aoibheann to the ground, and began to flip pages quickly, her eyes scanning for anything that would indicate a transfiguration spell relating to making objects clap. Of course, the chance this would show up in a completely random book she took from the transfiguration pile was... Hardly what was going to give them the answer.

Mikey remained seated, quietly entertained as Anna plunged into the first book she came to like a treasure chest she was sure contained gold. His eyes flickered open as the penguin-like creature fell off the desk in the tumult. He reached down quickly and scooped it up with both hands like it was fragile crystal, dusting it off carefully before setting it back beside her open book like a very important library assistant.

Then he rested his elbow on the table, side of his head in hand, watching her turning pages with that mix of turmoil and focus only a person as stubborn to get something done as Anna was able to muster. The seriousness with which she discussed schedule and librarians and spellbooks lent some warmth creep into the back of his ribs.

"I like your idea," he told her, truthfully. "We declare the library our secret practice grounds. Research the archives. Learn what we need to know. Rehearse the dull spells so that we can utilize them for less-dull ends and all." He flashed her one of his slanted smiles which generally meant that trouble was only a gasp away. "The professors won't even notice what we are up to. Just two students who really like to study."

He leaned over and picked up another book from the stack Transfiguration of Common Objects: Theory and Practice and opened it half-way. "If we can't get a clapping charm, then perhaps we can get the armor to stomp. Still dramatic. Still confusing. Still funny."

He glanced at her again, expression full of amusement. “It’s kind of brilliant, really. Most people try to get out of homework in the library. We’re here doing. research.” He winked. “For a noble cause.”

—For a noble cause!
Anna smiled, ignoring the penguin plush Mikey had just put back on their table. After a few seconds quickly scanning the interesting-looking pages of the book she was holding, she began to talk again.
—It's deal, then? We'll make that armor clap... Or stomp. Anything that works best.
With a thoughtful expression, she closed that book and picking another one, running her eyes through its pages, hoping that something would unexpectedly show up. Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be particularly useful for their prank, unless they were planning on turning some flowers into colored paper.
—Until there, maybe we should plan some other easier things, too, or we'll get bored and lose the habit. You don't want to turn into a boring student, right? We want to make the most fun of our time here, right?
Those words, told to Anna the week before she entered in Hogwarts, came out of her mother's mouth and played in her head like a clock that never ceases its ticking. "You don't want to turn into a boring student, right? You want to make the most fun of your time there, right?", that loving and mature voice asked over and over again.
"Of course I do", Anna thought, and straightened her back. She looked at Mikey's eyes with a focused expression again.
—You're fun. Let's plan some more things together.

He stared at the stack of books between them and laughed, shaking his head. "I mean, I don't think I've ever read this many pages looking for ways to be a little destructive before. We're writing new history here."

The paper was still on the table in front of him, "PRANK IDEAS" written in large block letters across the top. He drew it in toward him and began scribbling some notes on a new sheet titled Quick Wins. "Right—while we're gathering research for the Big Plan, we can do some small things to keep our skills sharp. You know… pilfering quills when no one's watching, desks that inch in an inch or two every time you blink, a dummy 'You've Been Summoned' notice from the Headmaster's office…" His quill shook back and forth across the parchment as he scribbled.

He glanced up at her again then, somber instead of teasing. "You're fun too, you know. Never done this sort of thing with anyone before—like this." The words hung there for a second, and then he tacked on, with a grin to cushion it, "It's a little hazardous. I'm going to begin seeking trouble every time I see you."

He tapped the parchment once, solidly. "All right, so what do we do next? Armor pranks are our top priority. But for side quests… what do we do first?"

—I don't know... Maybe something small like casting a spell on someone's feather or something...
Anna thought and thought again, pressing her penguin.
—But we have to be sneaky. If we learn how to be sneaky now and never stop working on that, we might grow to be the biggest pranksters in Hogwarts just because we know how to avoid getting caught. Immediately, at least...
She tilted Aoibheann's body back and forth.
—What about casting the dancing feet spell on someone's feather? I know that spell kind of seems to require the target to have a feet, but a woman casted it on a volcano and it worked. —She paused, and looked away. —Well, it didn't work WELL, but it worked. And surely a feather will give better results than a volcano... Actually, we should test that now. Do you have a quill there?
Planning future pranks with Mikey were such a new experience, an interesting experience, that the time lost itself in Anna's head, and she no longer knew what time is it, nor how much time away they were from dinnertime, or if dinner hsd already began. A strange breach of routine for a girl who's usually so attached to it.