Ace and Luka

I threw Ace into a chair, making a mental note to ask her why she was torturing Spencer later. I slammed my papers on the table in front of her and jabbed my finger into one direct spot where there was a scribbled underline of the letter ‘P’. She sniggered; it took me a little to realize it though.

“Oh, the letter! Get over yourself!” I practically yelled at her, she tried to stop, but just couldn’t. I whispered a spell at her, and Ace quieted down, but I could still tell that she was cracking up about the ‘P’ in her head. I gave her a piece of paper and a quill so that she could write down what she wanted to say, because she couldn’t speak. She gave me a scowl, but I just ignored it, as usual. “Ace, seriously, get over it, we have more important things to do right now!” She gave me another scowl. “Look, this ‘P’ actually means something! Believe it or not!”

She quickly wrote something down a her piece of paper, it read, from what I could tell… ‘Oh really, what? What could it possibly mean?! You know that I’m not smart like you Ravenclaws! Just explain it already!’

“I was getting there, but then YOU, yes you, interrupted me by sniggering about the letter!” I snapped at her, even though I probably shouldn’t have. “Anyways, do you want to know why the letter ‘P’ is so important?” Ace nodded her head excitedly, even though it was easy to tell that she was still not over the ‘P’ thing yet. “So, even though you think it’s hilarious, it’s the only way to tell an imposter apart from the real person. Yes, even if the person is using Polyjuice Potion or something like that.” Ace just looked even more confused, she had her infamous quizzical look on, so that when she had it on, you could tell right away that it was her. “Ace, have you been practicing your quizzical look lately?”

She wrote something down that looked like, ‘Spencer’s been telling us about his Quidditch plays.’

“So I’ll take that as a yes.” Ace just smiled. “You know, in the time that you practice your looks, you could actually finish your own homework, or help me study things.”

‘Now why would I do that when I know that you can do that stuff for me? And can I talk yet? My hand’s getting tired’ was what appeared next on her paper. I just sighed.

“Fine, Finite.” Ace gasped as if she was holding her breath. “Come on now Ace! You just couldn’t talk! You weren’t holding your breath!”

“It’s all the same in my book! Now get on with helping me understand your madness!”

I looked at her, as though telling her, ‘Do you want to know what I’m talking about, or not?’ She took the message, and then shut up. “Good, now, you see this?” I wrote down a capital ‘P’. Ace started to snigger again, so I just started to talk. “Okay, so this is my capital ‘p’. Keep this safe, because then when, if, someone tries to impose me, just kindly ask, if that’s even possible, for them to write down a capital ‘p’ down. This is the only method that can actually tell imposters from the real thing, because everyone writes down their capital ‘p’s differently, and it’s the only thing that will stay the same for everyone.” Once I had finished, I looked at Ace, who looked like she was in misbelief. Her mouth was half-open, and her quill dropped from her hand, because for some odd reason, she was still holding it. I had to snigger a little.

At that exact moment, the library door flew open, showing none-other, than Professor McGivney. He looked down upon the books that I had been studying; the pages all open to information about Polyjuice Potion and illusion charms. All were about imposters. Ace and I looked at each other, and we both thought the exact same thing. ‘RUN!’ So we quickly dashed through the library, to our only possible hiding place, the Resistance HQ. Unfortunately, McGivney, saw us before we disappeared, so he rushed over to where we disappeared, and yelled, “Where are they?!” making it seem like if he continued to yell like that, the whole library would topple down on top of us. I told Ace this, and her response was, “Well, that would do us all a favor!” I merely ignored this, and suddenly realized that I had brought the book inside the Headquarters with us.

“Now, why, in the world, Luka, would you bring in a measly book?! I mean, a broomstick and snitch I understand, but why a book? That’s the last thing we need! I mean, come on! It’s a library for God’s sake!”

“Ace, Ace, Ace. Don’t you realize? This is the very book that we always bring inside at every Resistance meeting! And it’s the only way to get in here too! So by bringing in this book, we have trapped McGivney outside!” I told her sharply. Man! Sometimes Ace can be a total genius, and sometimes she can be a complete idiot!

“Oh.” Was Ace’s reply. “I knew that!” I just nodded my head at this, as if to boost her confidence, but really just being sarcastic.

“Okay, so now that we’re in here, how are we supposed to get out, exactly?” Ace asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

“I’m thinking! I’m thinking!” I said anxiously, pacing back and forth.

“Damn it!” Ace suddenly exclaimed, making me jump a little.
“What?” I asked, trying to not sound too hopeful, but failing miserably.

“Oh don’t sound too hopeful Luk, I just remembered that I forgot my Quidditch stuff out there on the table. Man! McGivney is probably searching through all of it with those dirty, disgusting hands of his! I don’t want those foul things touching my stuff!” She said, kicking the couch extremely hard.

“Oh sure, just take out your anger on the couch and let me do all the thinking, will you!” I said stubbornly.

Ace just replied cheerfully, “Okay!” I sighed and started to shake my head. Well, Ace will be Ace.

A few seconds later, Ace perked up. “What? Did you find a way out?” I quickly asked.

“Well, I wasn’t thinking of that, but sure! If you want to call it that!”

“So, if you weren’t thinking of a way to get out, what were you thinking of?”

“How to get Spencer back at what he did to me.” Ace simply said.

“What did Spencer even do to you? I mean, why were you torturing him earlier?” I asked suspiciously.

Ace narrowed her eyes, as if she was turning into a cat stalking her prey, and sharply said, “He said that I couldn’t play Quidditch.” I was just amazed at this. Even the people who hated Ace and wanted to torture her in any possible way knew not to tell her that she couldn’t play. EVERYONE knew that this was way off base!

“Anyways,” I jumped, almost forgetting that Ace was there. “As I was saying before, we-you-could somehow contact Spencer, tell him to get my crap back, and distract McGivney, so that we could get away safely?” Ace sounded doubtful to her own plan.

“Ace, that is, what’s the word, oh yeah, the best plan that you’ve ever come up with!” I told her brightly.

“It is? I mean, yeah! It is! Well thank you, thank you very much.” Ace bowed to an imaginary audience. “See? When I want to be smart, I can be!”

“Or when a teacher takes your Quidditch stuff?”

“He he, yeah, then too.” Ace laughed a little. I then whipped out my wand.
“Whoa! Watch where you point that thing! You could blow someone’s head off!” Ace practically screamed.

“Ace, I think that you’re mistaking me with you.” It looked like Ace was trying to get out of that, but then nodded her head a little. “Hey! That was only once! And that kid was annoying! You even admitted it!” I shook my head. Sometimes Ace even put me in misbelief, and that was hard to do, considering it was Ace.

“Expecto Patronum!” I shouted, which revealed the shape of a small, shiny silver owl. It was a burrowing owl, so it wasn’t even half a foot long. I then recorded a message concealing the instructions that we sent to Spencer. Ace and I waited patiently, well, me more than Ace, for ten minutes. Finally we heard Spencer enter the library.

“Professor, sir, have you seen Ace-err, Grace Weasley or Luka Cloude anywhere?” Ace cringed at hearing her real name. I was wondering what McGivney’s reaction would be, but I found out soon enough.

“Why no, I don’t believe I have.” It was what came next that made Ace almost jump out of a window. “What have you got there in your arms?”

“Oh, this? It’s Grace’s Quidditch stuff, she left it out on the field, and asked me to pick it up for her.”

“Left it on the field? Now that doesn’t sound like Grace, but I promise you that I will personally give it to her. Tell her to come down to my office the next time that you see her.” Ace and I could hear Spencer trying to get her stuff back, but having no success. “Goodbye Mr. Spence.” Spencer murmured goodbye to him, and I then flung the door open, having Ace seize him.

“Why the hell did you let him take my stuff?!”

“Where the hell are we?!” Spencer demanded.

“Nowhere, it’s an illusion.” Ace said, doing a hand gesture to go along with it.
“So is McGivney gone?”

“Yeah, but-“

“Good! Now get! Lead the way out of the library, take us up to the staircase that leads to the Ravenclaw common room.” Ace shoved him outside again and slammed the bookcase behind us.

“But-“ Spencer tried again.
“See if you can get my gear back, I’ll explain most later.” Ace said, looking both directions for people. I tucked ‘A Lost Era’ into my pocket so that no one would see it, and then we dashed after Spencer. We had to hide behind anything we could to stop from being seen by someone. This time we hid behind a bookcase, as someone had nearly seen us, again. I halted Spencer and pointed my wand at Ace.

“It’ll be easier this way. Homorphus!” Instantly Ace began to change into a shorter, blonde-haired, olive-eyed version of Spencer.

“Well, would you care to explain who I am?” she asked, looking down at her hands.

“Um, Ace, why, exactly, do you look like my brother?” Spencer’s eyes were narrowed in confusion.

“Aww…I have to be Cole?” Ace groaned. I rolled my eyes, and pushed her out from behind the bookcase. Spencer, completely confused, followed us. We made it out into the hallway without any questioning, luckily, but then, of course, we had to run into Fisher and Kazzy.

“Hey! Luka! Next time you see Ace can you tell her that McGivney has her Quidditch stuff?” Kazzy mentioned, with a little smirk on his face.

“I know,” my heart lurched as Ace/Cole spoke in her real voice. Fisher rose her eyebrows.

“Wait-“

“Sorry, got to go, everything will be explained later!” I hooked my elbow in Ace’s and began pulling, no, dragging her down the hall. We talked, and looked at no one, which was really hard to do, ‘cause it was the weekend, and people were everywhere, but we just focused on the stairs ahead of us.

I knocked on the door that led to the Ravenclaw common room and listened as the harmonic tone sang out a question. “Seven to a side, plus two angered, a single un-enchanted, and one that remains hidden.”

“Quidditch,” Ace said, almost immediately. The door opened and we stepped inside. I seemed more nervous than Ace for some reason, to see so many people inside. We sat down in the navy blue armchairs, which were furthest away from everyone.

We had just started talking, discussing, ways to get Ace’s stuff back, when suddenly, who would come down from the dorms, than none-other then Cole himself. This was the real Cole, so when he saw me, he came right over. Ace tried to hide behind a book, seeing as most Ravenclaws do that anyways.

“Luka! Hey! I thought I heard someone come in! So what’ve you been doing today? And how’s Ace? I heard that she was getting kicked off the field last for doing something to Spencer, or something like that?” Ah, so that was what everyone was doing, talking about Spencer and Ace.

I tried to say something, but Ace, playing Cole, burst out. “NO! I WASN’T KICKED OFF THE FIELD! I HAD TO LEAVE WITH LUKA! AND SPENCER DESERVED WHAT I DID TO HIM! HE REALLY DID! Why can’t anyone get anything right these days?!”

This, unfortunately, attracted a lot of attention, so I had to come up with something fast. “Uh, we were just talking about an incident that none of you should know, really bad, really, really bad.” After saying this, everyone murmured something, but they all went back to what they were originally doing. Lucky for us, Cam wasn’t here; she would poke in even after I said that.

The real Cole, though, still looked at Ace in much confusion. I murmured under my breath so that only Cole and Ace could here, “Come on, we’ll go to your dorm, I’ll explain everything there.”

Cole just nodded his head, still confused, but knew that I would explain everything that he wanted to know, so he led the way.

When we got inside, Ace complained, “Oy! Luk! Can I stop being Cole right now? Considering the real one’s right here! I mean, if someone came in, don’t you think that they’d be a little confused?” I nodded, but Cole cut in. “Ha! There’s no way that they could possibly be more confused than I am right now! I mean, Luka, why is there two of me? I’m a smart Ravenclaw, but I’m definitely not that smart.”

“He’s right, you know. He really isn’t that smart. Just trust me on this.” Ace said swiftly.

“Ace,” I told her, looking directly into her eyes with that annoyed look that I sometimes give her. I didn’t want Ace to be dissin’ my best friend! Oh yeah, Cole was my best friend, and that was the only Ravenclaw that I thought of, besides Cam, but Cam wouldn’t stop talking about this even weeks after it had happened, and that would just suck.

Anyways, to show Cole who was pretending to be him, and then it made some more sense to him, but I had to quickly change her into a different Ravenclaw quickly, so I changed her into one, hopefully that no one would notice because she was one of the least favorite Ravenclaw’s ever! Jackie.
“Finally, the same gender!” Cole and I just sniggered, knowing who it was. “Wait. Isn’t this-?” Ace asked, looking at me. I just nodded and laughed at the same time. “Oh come on! I’d rather be Cole!” Cole raised his eyebrows at this. “Okay, maybe not, but still! Can’t you ever think of anyone good?”

“Not if you don’t want to be stopped every few seconds by people and have to answer questions that you wouldn’t know the answer to.”

“Touché!” I smiled, finally getting through to Ace. I then turned to Cole, who was still a little confused.

“Okay, so as you know, Ace was impersonating you.” Cole nodded his head and said, “Yeah.”

“’Kay. Why she was impersonating you was so that we could actually get her in here without anyone knowing that she was actually a Gryffindor. So we transformed her into you. That seemed reasonable, because I usually either hang out with her, Cam, or you. And we couldn’t exactly turn her into Cam, which would be disastrous. So we then came up here.”

“Okay, I got that, but why did she need to pretend to be me in the first place?” Cole asked, trying to understand the point.

“Um, well, Ace?”

“What? Don’t look at me! He’s your friend!”

“Fine.” So I then took twenty minutes to explain everything, having Ace add in parts that seemed important to her, like when she kicked the couch.

Cole seemed to understand. “Okay, so you’re basically saying that the real McGivney is locked up in Azkaban, but no one here knows it because no one here got that Daily Prophet-“

“Except one person!” Ace chimed in.

“Yes, except one person, but that one person is part of ‘The Resistance’ and so that person, as you believe, is double-crossing us, making it so that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will know our every move, so that he will know where and when we’re planning to attack, and the McGivney who’s here is actually a Death Eater, and so the information that the other person isn’t getting, McGivney is, so He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will remain invinceable?”

“Catches on quick, this one.” Ace said, pointing to Cole.

I just nodded. “Okay, and now you’re saying that the imposter has Ace’s Quidditch supplies, and he knows that you and Ace are catching on to him, so he wants Ace to come down to his office, so that he can get information out of her, and he suspects that you’d go down with her because you two do basically everything together?”

“Real quick.” Ace said, rummaging through other Ravenclaw’s belongings, with me and Cole just ignoring her.

“Yup, that’s basically it. So now we just need to try to think up a plan to get her stuff back, without getting caught.”

Cole and I looked at Ace for any ideas. “Hey! You’re the Ravenclaws! You’re supposed to be smart! Figure it out yourself!”

I looked back at Cole. “You know, Ace.” Cole suddenly said. “It’s not our stuff, so we could just let McGivney keep it, and you’d have to figure out a plan by yourself. Considering it is your stuff.”

Ace looked at him menacingly, but Cole kept his cool. He was quite good at this actually. Considering had it been basically anyone else, they would’ve broke.

“Fine, I’ll help you think up a plan.” Ace said, still keeping her gaze.

“Good! Now, here’s what I’m thinking.” Cole said, motioning Ace towards us. He then whispered the plan. I thought it was pretty good, apparently Ace did too.

“If you already had a plan! Then why did you make me think?!” Ace almost screamed.

“Because, I knew that you would only think of more ways to torture my brother.”

Ace thought about this, and then nodded her head, agreeing with Cole. The very next day, our plan went into affect.