The reign of pranking seemed never-ending within the corridors of the castle as the Weasley twins were certainly living up to the promise of pranking every single student they came across. Fortunately, Eleanor had been able to escape becoming a victim, but she figured her time was coming as much as she was dreading. To put it off as long as possible though, she practically hid away in quiet corners of the castle with her knitting or spent most of her free time in the Hufflepuff Common Room. Her strategy seemed to be holding out well for her as she avoided all incidences, however, wherever she was, it seemed the pranks were close behind.

It was one afternoon as she was working on her Herbology assignment, reading over the basics of the noisy Screechsnap plant, while in the library. They had an essay due by the end of the week, so while she read along, her other hand was working to write down as much as she could on the parchment scroll next to her. Her back was turned towards the entrance of the library as she had left two available seats at the table for Cedric and Marnie. But, as the two figured they had better things to do, she found them empty for the duration of her time there. She knew they were going to regret skipping out on the homework session later on, especially Marnie.

Having to remove her jumper as she was practically sweating in the stuffy library, Eleanor was finishing up a sentence and went to pull it over her head, when she suddenly heard something whizz past her ear. It caused her to jump in her seat before she heard something shaking on a shelf nearby. Looking over, a book tremored until it was released from where it was squeezed in between two others and just in time as a Slytherin boy started walking past. The book launched out and within seconds, started attacking him as it knocked him to the ground.

For a few moments, Eleanor was in shock by what she was witnessing that she couldn't bring herself to move, but since she was the closest to the other student, he looked over at her with narrowed eyes.

"Well, don't just sit there!" he yelled over at her as he attempted to hold the snapping book away from his face. "Help me!"

Not particularly caring for his tone, Eleanor folded her arms, seeing as no one else was around to help him, he could have been a bit nicer about it.

"That's no way to ask," she informed him with a raised brow. The look of pure bewilderment crossed his expression, but seeing as he was losing the battle to the book, he really had no other choice but to give in to her demands.

"Please?!"

With a smile, Eleanor unfolded her arms and reached for her wand. "That's much better," she told him before aiming her wand and using the "flipendo" incantation, knocked the book back down the aisle. The boy scrambled to his feet once he was free and before the book could attack him again, he ran off, leaving Eleanor to stand there with a shake of her head.

"Whatever happened to manners around here," she muttered to herself, " not even a thank you."

The book flapped away down another aisle to terrorise more students while Eleanor returned back to her assignment, unbeknownst to her that the Weasley twins were standing very close to where she was.

Fred scratched the top of his head, ignoring the laughter of his brother for a moment, as he couldn't quite figure out what had just happened. "Missed again," he said, loud enough for George to hear.

"And yet, you gave me such a hard time the last time," George turned to him," not so easy, is it?"

"I don't understand how I missed!"

George gave a shrug of his shoulders, wearing an indifferent look on his face. He didn't really care who was the target as long as they got someone.

"Who cares, Freddie? She probably moved at the last minute or something. But did you see that Slytherin's face? Classic."

"Yeah," Fred answered, only partially listening as his voice remained faint, " it was wicked. But I think we're missing something here, Georgie."

Glancing over at him, George placed his hands on hips, giving him quite the look that would have given their mother a run for her money. "Yes, Fred, we're missing the perfect opportunity to laugh at a Slytherin! Get it together!"

George pulled Fred along to see where the book had ended up and by the sounds of the shrieking happening a couple of book aisles over, he had a pretty good idea of where it had gone. However, as they past Fred shot a look over in Eleanor's direction, not that she noticed as she turned the page of her Herbology textbook and continued her reading.

Of course, as soon as he was led around the corner, Eleanor glanced up as she had felt eyes on her, only to see that she was the only one in the area. She shrugged it off before getting back to work, only to hear another cry followed by laughter.

Eventually, Eleanor was reunited with her friends after being ditched in the library as they met up in the Great Hall. Apparently, a nap had been far more important and Cedric had been caught up with talking to Cho in the courtyard. She didn't say anything though as she actually did manage to get a lot of her own work done by being by herself. Usually, when the three of them worked together, they hardly got any work done because they were always busy talking about something.

"So, you two remember that Hippogriff that supposedly beat the living hell out of Malfoy?" Marnie said as she made herself a plate of food. Both Eleanor and Cedric peered up from their own meals and nodded their heads.

The news of the supposed "attack" had made its round all over the school when it happened. Apparently, during Hagrid's Care of Magical Creatures class, he had introduced the third year students to Hippogriffs, in which, one of them had undoubtedly decided to attack Draco Malfoy. It had been so bad that he had to go to the Hospital Wing where he complained that he felt he was close to dying.

Since then, his arm had been in a sling, even though Eleanor was certain that Madam Pomfrey had been fully capable of healing his "injuries" in little time. Students, mostly Pansy Parkinson, made it a note to tell him on a daily basis that he was so incredibly brave for staring down such a deadly beast.

In unison, Eleanor and Cedric replied with a "yeah" prompting Marnie to continue with whatever gossip she had overheard.

"Well, they're sentencing the poor thing to death," Marnie said before taking a casual bite out of her sandwich.

Eleanor nearly dropped the goblet of water that was in her hand as she leaned forward over the table. "You can't be serious, Marnie, please tell me you're joking."

"Of course I'm being serious, Ellie, why the hell would I joke about something like that? I'm all for dark humour, but that's a bit much, even for me."

"Sorry," she immediately apologised, " it's just that...well, it's a real shame. Especially for Hagrid, I don't think things are going to well for him."

"It's a mess," Cedric interjected, " sorry to say it, but the man has no idea what he's doing. I get that he loves and appreciates the creatures, but I don't think he's really suited for the job of teaching. Nothing personal against him, but he's pretty reckless and even if Malfoy didn't really get hurt, it doesn't mean someone won't in the near future."

"Cedric, it's only his first year teaching," Eleanor attempted to defend Hagrid, always finding him to be rather sweet, "I'm sure all the professors made mistakes in the very beginning."

"Yeah, you're right about that, Ellie, " Cedric said, " but they didn't have Malfoy in their classes."

"True."

So far, the year was off to an odd start as Eleanor found herself definitely not wanting to write home about dementors around the castle and hippogriff attacks. She found herself seated on her bed one evening, attempting to write a letter to her mother, but having trouble with what she actually wanted to put down. If she left out too much, she had a feeling that Margaret would become suspicious and if she put too much, her mother was going to end up having a heart attack.

Meanwhile, Marnie was snoring away in her own bed, while Heidi had a pillow pressed over her ears trying to drown out the loud noise.

"Ellie, if you care for your friend, I suggest you put an end to her snoring, before I do permanently," Heidi growled, bringing Eleanor to glance up.

"You got a wand, Heidi, put it to use. I don't know what you want me to do that you can't do. You know Marnie sleeps like a bear."

"Have you tried to put a silencing charm on her? It doesn't work! Her snoring is a curse itself!" Heidi exclaimed, leaving Eleanor to smile, knowing that the statement was too close to the truth. But it seemed Heidi had enough and within seconds, jumped up from her bed with a pillow in hand making her way over to where Marnie was sleeping.

Eleanor was fully prepared to jump up because it looked as though Heidi was fully preparing to smother Marnie in her sleep, but within seconds, the pillow came down, smacking Marnie in the face. She tried to remain sympathetic, but as Marnie started crying out and rolled out of her bed onto the floor, Eleanor couldn't help but join Heidi in laughter.

"What the hell?!"

Marnie sat up and saw the choice of weapon still in Heidi's hand, leaving her to curl her lip in a growling motion. "What did you do that for?!"

"Because you were snoring loud enough to wake the dead!" Heidi told her. "I did it for the sake of the good people of Hufflepuff!"

"I do not snore!" Marnie protested. "Tell her, Ellie!"

Suddenly, not wanting to hurt Marnie's feelings or add fuel to the already burning fire, Eleanor peered down at her letter.

"I'm not getting involved in this one."

But since she did not intervene, the two continued to argue leaving Eleanor unable to concentrate. Leaving it to Maxine to fix the mess when she came back from her shower, Eleanor picked up her letter materials and made her way down the Hufflepuff Common Room to finish. She selected one of the overstuffed armchairs and plopped down, making herself comfortable before she started writing again.

"...this year is turning out to be quite the entertaining one, Mum. I wish you could have seen it when Marnie's hair was turned blue. It was hilarious and it reminded me of the time when you tried to dye your hair blonde and it turned out orange..."

"Excuse me, Miss Ross, do you have any idea what time it is? What are you doing up this late?"

Peering up, Eleanor watched as Cedric entered the Common Room and climbed over the back of one of the sofas that remained parallel to where she was sitting. She placed her quill down as he made himself comfortable and smiled over in her direction.

"I was just writing a letter to my mum," Eleanor told him, " or at least trying to. I keep getting stuck with what to add. What are you doing up?"

"Couldn't bring myself to fall-" Cedric was about to finish answering when he heard a scream erupt from the direction of the girls' dorm. Although when he looked over in the direction of Eleanor, she didn't seem alert or bothered by it.

"Heidi and Marnie."

"Ah," he gave a nod of his head, completely understanding, " what did Marnie do this time?"

Eleanor brought her hands to settle in her lap as she gave him a look. " Now why did you assume it was Marnie who started it?"

"Ellie, come on."

The two stared each other down before Eleanor gave in with a laugh and shook her head. "Alright, well, Marnie was snoring and Heidi couldn't fall asleep. So Heidi did what Heidi does best, she resulted to violence and smacked Marnie in the face with her pillow."

"Yeah, Heidi does tend to take the violent route to solve her problems," Cedric answered, " I kept trying to convince her that she would have made an amazing Beater on the team."

"Well, they both use violence to solve their problems, which is why I left before they killed each other. I don't want to stand witness to that."

"Good choice," he grinned, " so are you telling your mother about all the dysfunctional things going around here?"

"Not really, I've left the part about the dementors being on the grounds," she said, " she may not know what they are, but even the term dementors hit too close to home with the word demented. She'd probably assume the worst with that and I don't need her panicking and overreacting to that."

Cedric grabbed one of the pillows near his feet to place behind him to prop himself up as he replied. "All you have to do is tell her that they're here to look out for Sirius Black."

"Oh yes, what a brilliant idea, Cedric," Eleanor retorted with feigned enthusiasm. "Let me just tell my mother that there are creatures here capable of sucking out someone's soul, just keeping an eye out for a murderer that may or may not make his way here. How does that sound?"

"Well, when you put it like that..."

"Listen, I know you're trying to help, but trust me, the less my mother knows the better she's off. She doesn't understand anything about magic and she doesn't want to understand anything about it. I'm better off with her just thinking it's the work of the devil and leave it at that."

It was quiet for a moment as Cedric frowned, while Eleanor peered into the fireplace with her arms folded over her chest. She certainly didn't find herself in the mood to finish her letter as she allowed it to fall to the floor.

"So, " Cedric began to break up the silence, " I guess it would be too much to mention that my mum and dad invited you and your mum to come spend the Christmas holiday at our place. Along with Marnie and her folks."

"I don't even want to imagine all of our families in the same room, " Eleanor shuddered, " your parents are great, but my mother and Marnie's parents..."

"Come on, Ellie," he grinned, " it would definitely make for some very interesting stories that we could tell for years to come."

Reading the look on his face, Eleanor couldn't help but chuckle while rolling her eyes. "Don't think I don't know what you're really thinking. I know you just want to see Marnie uncomfortable among her family and you're sick for that."

"Just a little," he winked at her, "but don't you act all innocent, you'd find it entertaining too. Just consider it, will you?"

"It's not a matter of considering it, Digs, you'd know I'd love to. But that's not the challenge here, it's actually convincing my mother to go."

Pushing himself up from the sofa, Cedric made his way over to the armchair and leaned over the back of it to meet her gaze.

"Well, get working on it, Ross."

"Yeah, sure, I'll be sure to mention it in that letter that I'm never going to finish at this rate."

"Good girl," he said before placing a kiss on the top of her head, " good night. Try to actually get some sleep tonight."

"I might be able to if I sleep in here instead of in the bear cave!"