Running From Lightning

I woke up early the next morning. I had made sure I did so I could go see Albus before Potions. I got up, put on my uniform, and made my way to Albus’s office.

"Acid pop," I sighed. As soon as the gargoyle leaped aside, I walked upstairs to the office. "Morning, Albus."

"Ariana, hello." He smiled as he turned around. He had been looking out the window before I had come in. "Severus told me of the mishap in Potions, is everything alright?"

"Sure, Malfoy has been a prick, but I can handle myself." I stated, crossing my arms. "I'm not eleven."

He sighed, pointing his wand at a chair and placing it in front of his desk as he sat down. "Yes, but Ariana… you know you are different-“

"It’s not my fault!” I cried as I thudded down in the chair. I looked away.
He paused to look at me for a moment. “Don’t let Malfoy get to you. He’s just as misunderstood as you are.”
“Misunderstood? He’s vile and just so… so…”
“This is your first time really being around people… there are things you’ll have to learn.”
There was a pause.
“So, what is the real reason you called me up here?”
Albus smiled, “I suppose you are much more perceptive then I credit you to be.” Suddenly, he became serious. “The mirror of Erised has somehow shown up again in the castle. I would get rid of it myself, but I’m currently busy doing…” I saw his eye drifted over to the Pensieve and then quickly went back to me. He gave a weak smile.
“What do you want me to do? Get it out?”
“Well… yes. The mirror is in the forbidden section of the library. I can’t for the life of me figure out how it got back considering…" he trailed off. "Tomorrow night, could you go to the library and move the mirror of Erised in front of the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy? You know where that is.”
I agreed to help him with the mirror and left. When I was halfway to Potions, I spotted the twins again. They were handing out what seemed like sweets to first and second years. However, ten seconds after a boy in Hufflepuff swallowed what looked like taffy, his throat swelled up at an alarming rate. I was about to go over and help, but then I noticed he was smiling. And so were the twins.
“Ah, so you’re making sweets to get kids out of class?”
“We also are in development of a series of prank sweets as well.” A twin said, turning to me.
“To mess with the annoying git of your choice!” the other twin finished.
I smiled, an idea starting to form in my head.
“Are you selling any of those prank ones?” I asked.
Fred and George looked at each other and grinned.
“On a level of from one to ten, how much do you despise this person?”
“I’d say something along the lines of twelve.”
“We have just the thing!”
The twin on the left pulled a sweet out of his pocket. Carefully, he handed it to me.
“How much?”
“Free of charge!”
“Why?”
“Because we have an idea as to who you’re going to give it to.”
I thanked the twins and stuffed the green little circles of what looked like chewy candies in to my book bag. I had a small idea about how I would do this. He might not even fall for it. But, if he didn't, his pug faced girlfriend would for sure. I walked in to the Potions room, and as if the class was on my side there was already one seat open. Right next to Malfoy. I smirked as I walked down the center isle between the tables and took my seat next to him.

"Good morning, Malfoy." I said as I took the two candies out of my bag.

"Dumbledore," He frowned at me, and then back to his goons. I set the two sweets by my textbook and quill. "What are those?" He asked, staring at them.

"Two candy things. I don’t really like them. You can have them if you like."
I scribbled down a few notes that Snape had put on the board before class.
"Good try, but I'm not stupid." He said, writing down his own notes.

"That's debatable..."I said under my breath. “Malfoy, I need to get rid of them. And if you are too stupid to pass up free stuff, then fine. I'll give them to Harry, Ron, and Hermione." I explained. I barely knew him, but I figured that anything that Harry was going to get, he had to get it first.

Towards the middle of the class, I glanced up to where I had set the two sweets. They were gone. I glanced over at Malfoy, who was trying really hard to hide a look of total disgust.

"Draco, your f-face..."Parkinson hissed quietly from the row of students in front of us. I looked at him; his hair was bright, shining with all the colors of the rainbow, while his face was swollen. On his forehead, some words were fading into view; “Just wait until my father hears about this.”

"Dumbledore-" Malfoy coughed out.

"Mr. Malfoy, what happened?" Professor Snape asked, turning everyone’s eyes on him. Most of the Slytherins seemed outraged, however the Ravenclaw were using every ounce of will power to stop them from bursting out laughing. I, however, couldn't hold back. Once I started laughing, multiple people began laughing as well. Malfoy’s puffed up face turned red.

"Malfoy, I just love what you’ve done to your hair!" I said through my laughter.

"20 points from Ravenclaw." Snape said, glaring at me.
Twenty points… I could live with that.

After potions, I made my way to Defense Against the Dark Arts. I took my seat next to Hermione. It was strange, being the smallest one there in the room.

"Hey, Ariana." Hermione smiled "How did Potions go?"

"Wonderful actually. Malfoy got what was coming to him." I smiled.

"Wait… You did that to Malfoy?" Ron asked, sitting on the other side of me. "I’m impressed!"

I shrugged, "I got help from the twins."

"What did they give you?" Hermione asked.

I shrugged, "It was pretty great though, the outcome of whatever those sweets were."

"Ronald, I told you to tell your brothers to stop selling those things! Especially to first years!" Hermione hissed to Ron.

"'He deserved it..." Harry mumbled.

"Deserved it or not-"

"Ms. Granger." The four of us looked up to see Umbridge standing right in front of us. And thus started another Defense Against the Dark Arts class

The class went by slowly. Just like Umbridge had said… no magic. It defeated the whole purpose of the class in my opinion. After class, I kept thinking about the mirror that Albus wanted me to move for him.

"Hey, Hermione, can you help me tomorrow? I have something I need to do." I asked, looking up at Hermione.
“Yes, of course.” She smiled.

After all of my other classes, I had a slow walk around the castle. Fred and George caught me on the fifth floor.
“We heard how it went,” they both said, smiling.
“Yeah, it was awesome. Thanks for that.”
“Yeah, we’ve been waiting to use that.”
“What are you doing just wandering around the castle?” the twin on the right asked.
“I have no idea,” I laughed. “Just walking around, I guess.”
“Awesome,” the twin on the left said. “I want to show you something.”
The twins lead me to the seventh floor. We walked around a bit until they stopped in front of a tapestry depicting the attempt of Barnabas the Barmy to teach trolls ballet. This is where Albus wanted me to put the mirror. Why would the twins…?
“Now, I want you to picture a place you really want to go. Or something you really need. Think about that and walk by this tapestry.” The twin on the left said.
I raised an eyebrow, but I did as I was told. I thought long and hard and suddenly I felt a small rumble. I turned to look at the wall adjacent to the tapestry… and I saw a door. I turned to the twins, confused. They both nudged me forward. I have to admit that I hesitated a bit at the door, but when I opened it…
The room was actually a small library. Candles that looked like wands encircled the room, shining a light down onto the bookcases. Instead of a floor, there was grass. Luscious, green grass. And in the epicenter of the library, there was a tree that doubled as something of a table. There was a beautiful quill resting in a hole on the tree. Another hole near the bottom of the tree held a lovely, velvety looking blue ink.
“Blimey. This sort of explains why you’re in Ravenclaw, I guess. This is what you wanted?” one of the twins asked.
“Oh, shut up…” I said, blushing.
“What? It’s not bad…”
“Yeah, if you like boring,” the other twin laughed. I smiled a bit, too.
They lead me back out of the room.
“Now it’s our turn.” The boys grinned.