12 The Prank Plan and the Punishment

"The Prank Plan and the Punishment"

"Well, Mr. Flamel, your job is to clean all the trophies in the display case. And don't leave the area—Mr. Filch will check on you from time to time to make sure you're doing your work. And remember, no magic. Good luck," said McGonagall as she turned to leave.

"This is going to be easy," whistled Stephen as he cleaned, humming a festive tune.

But suddenly, Filch's yell was heard, followed by someone else's mocking laughter.

"Peeves, you damn nuisance! I told you to stop dirtying the hallways!" Filch shouted before a mudball hit him square in the mouth.

"Hahaha, Filch, you stink! Your mouth is all dirty, hahaha!" Peeves cackled as he disappeared into one of the walls.

Seeing that Peeves was gone and there was nothing he could do, Filch went to clean himself up, but not before warning Stephen, "Stay here, kid, I'll be right back. Don't even think about sneaking off."

After a moment of silence, while Stephen continued cleaning the trophies, he muttered to himself, "Look, here's Voldy's award. Who would've thought a good student would turn out so ugly?"

Suddenly, he felt something flying toward him from behind. He reacted quickly, tilting his head to the side, dodging what appeared to be a mudball. Immediately after, several more flew toward his face, but he easily evaded them by moving his head.

"Aaaagh, you little cheater! Stop moving!" Peeves screeched, frustrated that his prank wasn't working.

("Peeves, huh? Haha, I think I have an idea,") Stephen thought, still dodging the mudballs. He locked eyes with Peeves and then flashed a rather eerie smile, one that made Peeves pause for a second.

"Hey, Peeves, right? You're a disgrace to prankster ghosts," Stephen taunted.

"WHAT?! You little brat! Peeves is the best prankster, shut up!" Peeves yelled furiously, throwing the mudballs even faster.

"Alright, alright, calm down. Even though you're disappointing, I have a way to help you pull off the greatest prank of all time," Stephen said, smirking. This seemed to catch Peeves' attention for a second.

"Peeves doesn't believe any prank can be better than Peeves' own!" Though Peeves seemed skeptical, he was still curious about what Stephen had to say.

"Come on, drop those mudballs. By the way, where did you even get so much mud?" Stephen asked, eyeing the large reserve of mud behind Peeves.

"From the greenhouse! There's lots of mud there."

("I hope he didn't ruin the professor's plants… Though I've never seen her angry.")

"Alright, listen up, the plan is simple," Stephen said, placing a hand on Peeves' shoulder, making the poltergeist flinch.

"Y-you! How can you touch Peeves?!" Peeves asked in shock.

"Don't sweat the small stuff. Now tell me, why, as a ghost, do you play dumb pranks instead of actually scaring people?" Stephen questioned, looking at Peeves with amusement.

"Peeves' pranks aren't dumb! And there are lots of ghosts in the castle—nobody gets scared anymore!" Peeves scoffed, looking at Stephen like he was an idiot.

"That's because you don't know how to scare people. You're wasting your potential. Come, I'll show you," Stephen said as he walked toward another hallway where people were passing by, with a skeptical yet intrigued Peeves floating behind him.

As for Filch's warning before leaving, Stephen didn't even pay it a second thought.

"Watch and learn," Stephen said as he used Transfiguration to create a small doll from the remains of Peeves' mud.

Then, after checking that no one was looking, he placed the doll in the middle of the hallway and signaled Peeves to hide.

"And now what? Is the doll going to explode into tiny pieces?" Peeves asked impatiently.

"No, idiot. Just watch—someone's coming."

As they hid, they saw an older Ravenclaw student approaching.

"What a cute doll. Who could have left it here?" the girl said as she bent down to pick it up.

"Ugh, it's made of mud! Gross!" As soon as she touched it, her hand got dirty. She quickly straightened up and wiped her hand with a napkin. But when she looked back at the doll—it was gone.

Confused for a second, the girl shook her head, assuming it was just a prank. But as she turned to continue walking, the doll was now a meter ahead of her.

The girl walked cautiously, keeping an eye on the doll just in case something happened. After a few steps, seeing that nothing was happening, she relaxed and looked ahead. And there it was again—the doll.

She quickly turned around—the doll was gone. Nervously, she turned back, and now the doll was even closer.

Terrified, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at the doll. Just as she was about to cast a spell, the doll moved its head, which began melting into mud, and stared at her.

"AAAAAAAAAH!" The girl let out a terrified scream and ran off.

"Hahaha, see, Peeves? That's how it's done! And no one gets hurt (physically)," Stephen said, glancing at Peeves, who was now floating mid-air, cackling like a madman.

"You convinced Peeves! Peeves wants to do it too!" Peeves declared, clearly excited by the new way of pranking.

"Good! Come here, Peeves. I'll teach you some famous clown pranks that will be a hit this year."

And so, the worst prankster alliance was born. Later, the Weasley twins would join. All of this, simply because Professor Snape wanted to punish Stephen—something the other professors would constantly remind him of.

A few months later, the prankster alliance had become famous across campus. But the teachers couldn't do anything, as no one was ever harmed—Stephen planned everything down to the last second to ensure that.

Though the professors received constant complaints, all they could do was scold the boys with a few words and nothing more. This earned the admiration of the Weasley twins, who were usually punished for their pranks.

"Alright, guys, today we're pulling off the killer clown prank. Fred, did you get the watermelon?" Stephen asked the group.

"Here it is, boss. I asked the house-elves in the kitchen for it," Fred responded.

"George, the clown costume?"

"Done, boss. I got some older students to help out."

"Good. Peeves, your job is to scare people into coming this way, got it?"

"Easy! Everyone fears Peeves and runs when I stare at them for too long, hahaha!" Peeves said joyfully. Over the past few months, he had built up a reputation—if Peeves stared at you for too long, misfortune was coming.

And he wasn't wrong—if Peeves was watching, it meant something was being planned.

Once everything was in place, Peeves successfully scared a group of students into running straight toward the trap.

As they hurried down the hallway to escape Peeves, they saw someone lying on the ground ahead of them.

Then, they spotted a clown with a massive mallet approaching.

This made the group stop, unable to comprehend what was happening, and before anyone could say anything, they watched in horror as the clown raised the mallet and struck the head of the person on the ground, making it explode into a thousand pieces.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" "Help!" "A murderer!" some screamed. Even the only boy fainted, while the brave girls quickly drew their wands and started casting spells everywhere.

The spells were easily dodged by the clown, who was none other than Stephen.

After a few failed spells, one of the girls finally regained her composure and shouted,

"Stephen, damn it, it's you!" It was Angelina, one of the Gryffindor girls who recognized the exceptional movements Stephen sometimes displayed in training.

"Haha, hello Angelina, how's it going? What were you guys up to?" Stephen asked as he took off the mask as if nothing had happened.

"Damn it, you scared us!" "You idiot!" "Yeah, fool." "Though even dressed like that, he still looks good," shouted the girls behind Angelina, although something strange was mixed into the background. Everyone ignored it for the sake of their integrity.

"Haha, that was great," "It was more surprising how you dodged the spells," "Yeah, you always manage to surprise me," said the twins, laughing, earning hateful glares from the girls.

"Enough, you two, come help Lee Jordan, who fainted," said Angelina, pointing to the floor where Jordan was lying.

The boys helped carry him to the infirmary, earning a scolding from the nurse.

"Poppy, we brought one who fainted from fright," said Stephen, already familiar with Nurse Poppy Pomfrey.

"Again? When will you stop playing around like this? By Merlin, what if you get hurt?" said Nurse Pomfrey.

"Don't worry, I put a pillow in case he fell. It was all planned," said Stephen.

"Yeah, yeah, planned and all, but still, leave now and let him rest. He'll wake up soon," the nurse shooed them away, not wanting to hear the same excuses they always gave when they came in.

As Stephen and the twins headed to Gryffindor Tower, they ran into Professor McGonagall, who stopped them.

"Mr. Flamel, the Headmaster has requested to see you. Follow me, please," she said as she walked towards the stairs.

"I would've liked to change at least. You guys go ahead, I'll catch up later," he complained about his clown costume as he followed the professor.

"Jam," said Professor McGonagall as she opened the staircase.

"Haha, the old man's passwords are still his cravings, huh?" said Stephen, to which the professor gave him a disapproving look for the Headmaster's nickname.

"Enough, keep moving, Mr. Flamel," she said as she climbed the stairs and then knocked on the door.

When they heard the Headmaster say "come in," she entered with Stephen behind her.

Before Stephen could say anything, a mocking, sarcastic voice was heard.

"It seems that Mr. Flamel has dressed accordingly to match his behavior," it was Severus Snape. Standing beside him was the small Professor Flitwick, and behind them, Professor Sprout.

"Snapy! You're here too. What kind of trouble did you get into to end up in the Headmaster's office?" said Stephen in surprise, then looked at the Headmaster, ignoring Snape's icy stare. "Headmaster, forgive him, he's not a bad kid. He just struggles to make friends."

"Hmph, nonsense as always," Snape grumbled, knowing how their interactions always ended, while turning to see both professors stifling their laughter.

Everyone was already familiar with the amusing rivalry between Snape and Stephen, which had initially started with Stephen losing control of his emotions. But after Stephen gave him a few drops of the Philosopher's Stone potion as an apology, their hostility ended.

Drops that had been difficult to convince his grandfather to give him. Not because his grandfather was stingy or selfish, but because he feared Stephen would be targeted to obtain it.

But Stephen spoke about his lack of control around his professor and mentioned that Dumbledore trusted Snape. Then, after speaking with Dumbledore, his grandfather agreed.

Since then, although venomous words flew from one side and taunts from the other, Snape no longer deducted points from Stephen for trivialities—though he still did when he had sufficient reason...

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