Movers & Shakers

“Melanie we need to do something fun tonight!” Kathrin demanded lying upside down on the bed. Her feet had found a comfortable spot of the headboard. She turned to look at her fellow Gryffindor reading on the bed beside hers.

“Like what?” Melanie replied placing down the book.

It was now a couple months in their fourth year and it didn’t feel exciting at all. Even Halloween was a bit dull. Usually there were pranks or drama, but it felt like everyone was playing things safe. James would have usually done something to entertain him and the rest of his friends, but no, nothing.

“What if, we, pulled a prank?” Kathrin sat up and thought. “Yeah, we could do something and nobody would think it’d be us!”

“There’s one problem with that, I’m terrible at pranking, and so are you.”

That was true. Kathrin had tried to pull pranks before. She wasn’t that great at coming up with them, or executing them. A couple years ago she tried to do a muggle prank Sydney told her about. The one where you place a bucket on top of someone door. Kathrin tried to place the bucket on top of the door, but failed because she forgot how short she was. James just got mad at her for getting water all over his stuff.

“I know!” Melanie said getting up and putting on her sweater. “We could get your brother!”

“He wouldn’t let me do something dangerous. He’s a cool brother but he’d most likely make me stay here and go do it himself.”

“What about Sirius then?”

“Sirius hmm,” -Kathrin though for a moment- “that would be a great idea.”

The two exited the girls’ dormitory and entered the common room. Sirius was playing a game of wizards’ chess with James. They knew they couldn’t just grab Sirius and drag him away, that would look extremely weird. They also couldn’t mention the prank in front of James or else he’d but in. So with a couple minutes of strategizing, they finally came up with a plan.

“Sirius can you do me a favor?” Melanie asked in a sweet little girl voice. Kathrin stood over in the corner trying not to laugh. “You’re really good at potions right?”

“I guess I’m alright. Why?”

“I need help with a few things for an essay. I’d ask Kat, but you know how she is with potions.” Melanie looked over a Kat for a second. Kat was no longer snickering; instead she was glaring. She mouthed ‘I’m not that bad’ and crossed her arms.

“Alright, Remus take over for me will you?”

James went to open his mouth to object but muttered ‘whatever’ instead. Melanie dragged Sirius over to the corner Kathrin was, who was still a bit upset by Melanie’s comment. Sirius looked at the two, wondering why Kathrin was involved in this. He was just helping Melanie out with her essay.

“I’m honestly not that-“

“Kathrin you are. Anyways Sirius the fact is we want to pull a prank.”

Sirius smirked and looked at the two girls. He felt honored they would come to him. Although he knew James wouldn’t let Kat get into trouble if they asked him instead. “You’ve come to the right place. What are we doing?”

Kathrin and Melanie exchanged looks. “We don’t know.”

Sirius sighed. “You two have a lot to learn.”



They talked for a bit discussing who they wanted to prank and how. When they realized what they wanted to do Kathrin asked Sirius to ‘borrow’ James’ invisibility cloak. It wasn’t that hard to get with everyone in the common room. When Sirius passed them the cloak Melanie hid it in her bag.

They were about to leave the common room but stopped when they heard a certain prefect protest. “And where do you think you three are going?”

Lily looked at the three, mostly just Sirius, with her arms crossed and a stubborn look on her face. At first Sirius looked a bit suspicious but then quickly changed his expression. He looked at the two girls beside him who had innocent looks.

“Lily, Melanie asked me to help with her potions essay but then remembered she left her textbook in the library.” Lily looked at Kat and went to say something but Sirius continued. “I figured Kathrin could use some potions tips too. Besides, there’s still five minutes before curfew.”

Lily looked at her watch, then back at the group. “Fine then go”

The three put on the cloak once they stepped outside of the portrait. It was a bit awkward for Kat to be huddled so close to people under a cloak. She’d only used it once before, and that was by herself. They kept walking until they reached the great hall. Lucky for them the door was still open, but it was just past curfew so nobody was in there.

“Okay. Kathrin is the best at charms out of all of us. So she should do it.” Sirius stated.



The next day Kathrin and Melanie woke up early. They got ready as fast as they could and entered the great hall. When arrived only a few people were there; a Gryffindor named Peter, two Hufflepuff’s and Sydney from Ravenclaw. They motioned Sydney over and told her and Peter about their adventure. She was jealous and bit offended that she wasn’t called upon to help, but then realized they couldn’t reach her anyways.

About twenty minutes later Sirius and James entered the hall. Remus was soon behind them looking a bit like hell. Sirius saw the excitement on the girls’ faces and laughed. He smirked at them when he reached the table. “You two are so new to this.”

“They’re new to what?” James asked taking the spot next to him.

“You’ll see” Sirius replied.

The group talked about Quidditch for five minutes, but then stopped when Michael Frey entered the great hall. He strutted down the aisle and stopped at his usual spot. Michael swung his leg over the bench but didn’t sit down. Instead he landed on the floor and soon one of his friends did the same. Everyone in the hall who had seen started to laugh.

“What did you do?” James asked looking at the three. He was still laughing at the two Slytherin’s.

“I put… illusion charm… on… benches.” Kathrin said in between laughs.

“Nice!” Remus put his arm in the air, ready for a high five. Kathrin smiled and smacked him on the hand.

“I didn’t know you could prank.” James admitted finally able to have a sip of his pumpkin juice. “Remember though its Quidditch tryouts tonight.”

“Kat’s trying out for Quidditch!” Michael smirked from the table behind her. “That’ll be a sight.”



Kathrin grabbed her Nimbus 500 and walked to the Quidditch pitch with Rengine and Melanie. Neither of the two were trying out, but they wanted to show Kat their support. Sydney had tried to tell James that she just wanted to see Kathrin, but he kept teasing her say that she was a spy. In the end Sydney wasn’t there but James had a pretty nasty bruise on his arm.

There were two other people trying out for the one chaser position as well. Aiden Styles was in the same year as Kat. He was lean and quite strong; Kat thought he might be trouble. The other one was Judy Parker. Judy was skinnier and taller than Kat; she’d be fast on a broom but easy to knock over. Judy wasn’t as much of a threat.

The only other position open was keeper. Kayla Harold who was in James’ year had tried out for keeper in her second year, but an older kid took it. Kayla had a similar build to Kathrin, but looked more athletic. Derek Carter was after the position as well. He was the youngest there, a third year. There weren’t any second years this time.

Kathrin held onto her broom nervously. Everyone figured James would just put her on the team because they’re siblings, but she knew James was better than that. He wouldn’t put anyone on a team just because they were friends, they had to earn it. She knew James wouldn’t put anyone on the team just because they were good either; they had to work with the team.

The cool air was hard on her lungs. The James and Kayla were against Jackson (a current chaser) and Derek. Both of them were pretty good. Kayla accidently moved to the right once and Jackson scored on her left, but she didn’t let that get her down. After ten minutes of trying out the keeper’s, James told the three chasers’ to try out the keeper’s. They tried against Derek first.

Judy was the only one to score against Derek the first round. However the second and third round Kathrin was the lone scorer. Against Kayla, Kathrin scored the first round. Both Aiden and Judy scored the second round, but the third round nobody scored.

After a couple more tasks to test out their skills and teamwork, James congratulated everyone who came out and wished them all luck. Kathrin was relieved that was over and went to go get changed. When she exited the change rooms she heard Rengine and Melanie chatting with James and his friends.

“Kathrin definitely got it. Did you see her? Man I didn’t realize how good of a flyer she was.” Rengine said extremely overwhelmed. “I mean we’d play 1v1 together, but watching her in the stands is completely different.”

“I can’t say if she got it or not.” James said. His voice sounded like he was trying to hold back a smile.

“Nothing you say will convince me you aren’t giving the spot to Kat.” Remus said. Sirius agreed.

“I can’t wait to see the look on Michael’s face!” Melanie cheered.

Kathrin leaned against the change room door and sighed. She couldn’t help but smile. Pulling off pranks and getting on the Quidditch team; things were looking pretty good this year.