Ace and Luka

My eyes grazed the fiery sky of the setting sun. Soon I’d have to go back inside before my clumsy self slipped and went tumbling down the side of the castle to my death. Part of me told me I shouldn’t have been up on the roof to begin with, the ‘safe part’. The louder part of my mind told me that the sky was much better at night; the dark was more dangerous, more fun. I wouldn’t have gotten a nickname like Ace if I listened to the tiny little cautious voice.

My name is Ace, Ace Weasley if you will. Originally my mother dubbed me Grace, but after I joined the Quidditch team my friend Luka became the genius that removed the first two letters
of my name. Let me tell you some things about myself. I was a Gryffindor through and through, I take after my father in his days of wreaking havoc upon the school, and Quidditch isn’t a game, it’s a lifestyle. Seeker was my position, it fit, if I do say so myself. Speedy, difficult, and my favorite, important. Quidditch was one of my hobbies, as well as annoying the teachers, blowing stuff up, lighting things on fire, it’s all good. But sometimes my eventful days forced me to calm myself.

That’s why I was on the roof above the Gryffindor tower. Shrinks were too needy, most of them too impatient for Ace Adams. I wasn’t gonna waste any money on someone who was gonna tell me I was insane, which I already knew thank-yew-very-much. I had a way with making people tick; even saints had a breaking point. The ball of light sank lower into the tippy tops of the forbidden forest trees. A blanket of darkness began to swoop over the sky from above, almost like it was chasing the sun down.

“Ace! Hey Ace!” I heard Luka’s voice echo upward. In confusion, I carefully brought myself to a standing position. Blinking, I peered down the steep side of the tower, knowing at any moment a little wind could knock me off balance and then fwee-SPLAT! No more Ace. Thankfully I had my wand, little good that would do. I may just have found myself on the coasting edge of failing most of my classes.

“Where are ya’ Luk?” I called out, squinting at the ground to see if I could spot any ant sized people. Probably not at this hour, something about that had to do with the rules. To myself I wondered how Luka could yell loud enough for me to hear it. That’s when I nearly, I repeat, nearly found myself tumbling off the tower. Startled by the movement on the side of the stone wall, I saw my friend climbing up towards me.

Knowing Luka, she was using a charm to make herself stick to the tower like a spider. She was in Ravenclaw, so she knew things like that. Even in her fourth year she knew more about charms than I did. My deal was curses, particularly the ones that could 1. Make me silent, stealthy, and got me out of trouble. 2. The ones like the jelly leg curse and the buck tooth curse that were really funny when used on people.

A long silvery rope shot straight up from the tip of Luka’s wand directly towards me. I gave a half-scream as my limbs flailed and I fell backwards onto the shingles. “Grab the rope and help me up!” she called out.

“You gotta tell me before you decide to shoot stuff at my face!” I replied, helping myself up and seizing the ropes again. In no time Luka was scrambling over the ledge of the roof and reeling her wand back by the strand of shiny string. With a simple flick the ribbon of silver dropped from the end of the wand. I wish I could do that…I thought to myself. But Ravenclaw wasn’t my house, their Quidditch team was awful.

“You’re lucky you got outta the way,” Luka stated, ignoring my plea for knowledge. “Incarcerous, means ‘to shut in’. Ropes fly out, trap people if they hit. Awful pretty though.” Her remark had to do with the sparkly silver color of rope. I smirked, so what if you’d be trapped until your opponent used a counter curse? At least you’d be silver…

“Now what’s your business here?” I inquired, wondering why Luka wasn’t sitting in the Ravenclaw common room and reading like all the other good little students. “No, no, let me guess! You’re all out of reading material and wanted to come ask me for some? Well, I suppose you could amuse yourself trying to read what my textbooks say.” I was a tad careless when it came to school supplies. Once my potion blew up and spilled all over my text books. I managed to separate most of the pages but the words were in-decipherable.

By this time Luk was used to my long string of nonsense. Tucking her wand in her pocket, she simply answered with, “No, I was just wondering if you’d want to go hang out in the clubhouse.” She knew me all too well. I couldn’t resist sneaking out after hours, and I couldn’t resist going to the clubhouse. “Oh, and I suggest we take the rooftops because you know what happened last time I went through the Gryffindor common room.” Luka began walking towards opposing side of the rooftop where we could hop onto that roof and search for an open window. “And yes you can fly.” She really knew me too well.

I sat down to where my legs were dangling off the edge of the shingles and wrapped my hands around the roof. Dropping off slightly I kicked backwards to where my feet landed on the windowsill. Carefully I leaned inside, trying not to fall flat on my back like I always did. Traditions always had a way of repeating themselves no matter what you did. I tried to grab the outside of the window frame but my clumsy hand slipped. “Ahh!” a small scream broke the silence of my dormitory. My roommate Jen groaned and turned over on her side in her bed. Was it possible to go to sleep this early? Quickly I fetched my Nimbus 2001 from its super secret hiding place under my bed and mounted it before shooting through the window again.

An inch separated the top of my head and the top of the window frame. I made a wide curve and circled back to where Luka was waiting on the roof. “Let’s ride!” I exclaimed with cheeky arrogance. She just shook her head and strode farther towards the main part of the castle.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The window slammed shut behind us. And by slammed, I mean slammed. Little mousies and spiders probably awoke with a start down in the basement, and somewhere in the forbidden forest little deer and bunnies lifted their heads to listen. We both winced and froze, maybe if we stayed quiet and still enough they wouldn’t be able to see us. But there was no way the authorities were gonna catch Ace Weasley frozen muttering ‘Blend, blend in with the surroundings Ace.’ I grabbed Luka’s wrist and yanked her over to a doorway before whipping out the Marauder’s Map(Harry never got it cause that was his third year and Hogwarts had shut down during his second year. It belonged to Fred and George, and hey! -Points to self- Fred’s kid!)

“I solemnly swear I am up to no good.” My whispers traveled down the long empty hallway as the end of my wand practically stabbed the paper. I opened it as quick as I could and searched for the page we were on. Sure enough, Professor McGivney and Professor Moor were well on their way over to the still ‘Grace Weasley’ and ‘Luka Cloude’. Still towing Luk, I ran down the hallway where Professor Moor was coming towards us. He was shorter, and quite a bit heavier, it would take him longer to find us. Our best bet was to hoof it directly to the library. It wasn’t that far, maybe one good hallway length.

This was one of the only times in history where I regretted bringing my broom along. Sure, it was lightweight and speedy, but not so much easy to carry when running down a hallway. I nearly dropped it, twice. There was absolutely no way we’d make it. So this is how I was finally going to be caught, with a broomstick in hand dragging Luka down with me? Well, I could at least go down swinging.

“What do we do now?” I asked, almost able to hear the zeroing in professors. Hopefully Luka’s Ravenclaw-sized brain could think of something. Within seconds she had whipped out her wand and directed the tip at herself.

“Homorphus,” yet another one of those crazy spells that no one should know. I think I actually had heard of this one, though. I was about to ask if we were invisible, or maybe incognito, when she began to change. Her blonde hair disappeared and turned a searing red color, redder than my Weasley red, before growing rapidly down to her waist. Her eyes grew wider as the color switched from blue to green. Another thing I noticed, she was taller than me, more so than she was before. Her nose hooked upward like a ski jump, and the color drained from her skin until she was extremely pale. Immediately I gasped when I recognized who she had turned into. Luka/Professor Skinks seized me by the arm. Professor Skinks was the Arithmancy teacher and the single scariest person I know.

“Well who do we have here?” Professor McGivney had arrived first as expected. His piercing blue eyes squinted to see me through the dark. I was surprised he could see anything through his mess of rugged mousy brown hair. His startlingly thin arms crossed behind his back as he attempted to look intimidating. Charms just wasn’t a class that gave room for intimidation. Especially when he was one of the only teachers that liked me for passing the class and not being a troublemaker.

“Miss Weasley seemed to have missed her Quidditch practice and her bedtime.” I cringed when Luka-Skinks said ‘Miss Weasley’. She had that soggy, old, wrinkled voice down perfect, it gave me the chills. She was too good at this for her own good.

“What can I say? Not like Arithmancy is gonna get me anywhere,” though it wasn’t the real Skinks, it still felt great to say something like this. A smooth smirk followed my remark. I cringed again when LukaSkinks tightened her grip on my arm. Why did she have to be so realistic?

“What’d I miss?” said a panting Professor Moor who appeared to have been running for quite some time. His stoutly self glared at me when he neared us. “I see you’ve found a stray student, Professor Skinks, mind if I turn her in?” Why didn’t teachers like me? For the first and last time in my entire life I felt like chaining myself to Professor Skinks/Luka so I wouldn’t actually get in trouble.

“That’s quite alright, Professor.” LukaSkinks replied in the most Skinks-like voice I’ve ever heard. “I’ve been waiting for this.” For a moment I forgot it was Luka and felt goosebumps crawl up my arm as a shiver went down my spine. I didn’t do well in Arithmancy at all, mainly because I chose not to try very hard, but still. Skinks was after me, even though I did nothing to deserve it.

“Very well Professor Skinks,” McGivney stated, “Now there’s usually another with Miss Weasley here, isn’t there? Perhaps another student is in need of locating.” Whoa, they were actually buying this! I faked a concerned look as LukaSkinks dragged me away from the other Professors.

We had turned another corner towards the library before they were definitely out of hearing range. “So, how is it being a creepy old hag that teaches pointless skills?” I asked, my witty remark returning a smile to my face.

“Are you sure you don’t want to ask me how it is to be an intelligent Ravenclaw student like your friend?” At this comment, I felt all chance of survival drain out of me slowly. I wanted to start laughing and say ‘You had me for a second Luk!’ but LukaSkinks’s freak show green eyes were stern and still. Could it be that all along Skinks had been impersonating Luka, and that she had caught me red handed? Two tons of relief flooded over me when the smallest twitch of a smile appear on the corner of LukaSkinks’s pale clammy lips.

“Okay, NOT funny,” I said sternly after letting out a large sigh. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Luka-Skinks started laughing before she brought out her wand and pointed it at the tip of her nose. Just once I’d like to see a little bug with little skis actually jump off the end of that humongous ugly nose. “Finite,” she spoke clearly. Finally a spell I was somewhat familiar with. Finite ended the effects of all spells previously used. Came in handy when you managed to burn a few things down.

This time we were more cautious not to slam any windows or doors on our way into the library, despite how heavy those big oak doors are. Without wasting any time by even looking, we made a beeline towards the farthest History of Magic shelf on the right side of the library. Scanning the shelf, I selected the book that hadn't been checked out in a decade. Titled 'A Lost Era' in a language some believe to be Mar, or Merpeople-language. How that would be translated I have no idea, but because the entire book is in the same language. Not even the nerds who find the language of a different species interesting check it out.

Taking it off the shelf I flipped to the correct page, number 274. With the spoken word 'Lumos' a little light emerged from the tip of my wand as I held it to the page. A phrase in english was penned in by quill with an unusual ink. I highlighted the words with the light from my wand as I spoke them aloud.

"Chocolate frogs and pumpkin patties..." Well, I never said the words were as legendary and secretive as the findings of the passageway. Closing the book, I abruptly slammed it back where it belonged on the shelf before grabbing hold of the right side of the bookcase and yanking it. It pivoted, but only to a certain extent, revealing a gap about a foot and a half wide. Luka was first to slip through while I quickly followed, dragging the tip of my Nimbus 2001 through just before the bookcase closed, and the candles in the room lit themselves automatically.

"I love magic," I commented, lounging on one of the comfy seats in the center of the circular room. The Resistance headquarters proved to be a popular hangout for students who were full members of the rebellion against the death eaters and such. Luk and I were with them 100% of the way. The chairs and couches were usually meant for meetings and important gatherings, but when those were going on the password was changed and the book was brought inside of the room for safe keeping.

For being a very important meeting ground, the headquarters made a very decent clubhouse. They even had cupboards full of food in the back and a bookshelf or two. I kicked back on the couch and threw my feet up on the oval table. Confusion set in as my legs went sliding off once again. Looking at the ground, I saw a copy of the Daily Prophet I had been too careless to remove. Picking it up, I noticed one article was circled.

"Watcha got there?" Luk asked, reading over my shoulder. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In this case, no words were needed to describe the photo. Both of us stared in shock at the paper as we remained speechless.