The Noble House Of Black

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: And So It Began...

"Siri, Cael, perhaps instead of writing letters you should get off you're arses and help us figure out how to break into the Slytherin Common Room." James became rather quick to anger when things did not go as he expected. Despite that, it was a favorite sport of their's to toy with his frustrations, he was their brother after all.

"What is it like in your little monkey mind? Is it comforting to never consider what you're about to say before the words just march right out of your mouth?" Caelum taunted. This sort of banter was a regular among the Marauders and their silly fights, hot for a minute, would later be looked upon with laughter. We are cruelest to those we love most, trusting fully in the insulation of true friendship to turn all that is sour sweet.

Caelum looked back on moments like these often, she remembered how easy it used to be when they were still oblivious to their futures. The weight of the childish decisions they were making in those moments would become millstones around their necks. She thought they had conquered everything there was to conquer. Hogwarts had provided a sort of invincibility during their years of school, a veil of safety that was ripped from their grasp the moment they turned seventeen. Somehow, all the dangers she was once shielded from would come crashing down on her shoulders, but that would not come for several more years.

"We have already thought of a solution. And..." Sirius paused for dramatic effect, "The opening gambit has already been performed."

"Care to share with the class?" Peter asked, raising his eyebrows. Caelum and Sirius were prone to neglect explaining their elaborate plans to the rest of the group.

"If I must. We have written a letter to Slytherin House demanding that they make themselves available for an announcement of the utmost importance at precisely three this afternoon." Sirius handed the letter they had just written back to Caelum as he made this announcement, and she began reading aloud.

To All Members of House Slytherin,

All are expected to attend an announcement in the Slytherin Common Room. It will be held October 11th at three in the afternoon.

Sincerely,

Caelum Aries Black & Sirius Orion Black III , Heirs to the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

"Your lot is strange..." Remus trailed off.

"Yes." Sirius said as a matter of fact.

"Charms." Caelum blurted out, rubbing her hands over her face. She earned herself very confused looks from all except Sirius.

"Yes, James, Peter, Remus, line up against that wall." Sirius demanded, leaving no room for discussion.

"Why?" Remus asked, in a more than snarky tone.

"Caelum just said?" Sirius responded, rolling his eyes.

'No, Caelum just said charms, randomly with no further context, you took that and ran with it and are expecting the rest of us to be on the same page. Not how it works mate. Are you two quite alright?" Remus asked, knowing full well that they were perfectly fine and that asking them would piss them off.

"Lupin, you know how I despise insolent questions. If we were not alright, would we partake in the prank? No. The answer is no. Now back against the wall so I might preform an invisibility charm on the lot of you, since apparently, you require explanations for everything." Sirius said, pushing Remus to the wall.

"There is no time for the two of you bickering like an old married couple. I want to have left here by quarter to three. Now cast the bloody charm Siri." Caelum scolded, tying the letter securely to an owl she had summoned, and sending it off on its way.

"The lot of you are mental..." Peter sighed out, and yet, he backed to the wall as per Siri and Cael's instructions nonetheless.

After much hemming and hawing, Peter, James and Remus were protected from prying eyes via an invisibility charm, and the twins were ready to embark.

It took longer than usual to make their way to the dungeons. James found himself misplaced from the group at least five times. Peter did not seem to understand the fact that speaking would render the charm rather useless, just because they could not see him, did not mean they could not hear him, as Caelum had tried on multiple occasions to explain. Last but certainly not the least annoying to the twins, was Remus, who had taken to sighing very loudly when the other's made a mistake, and muttering under his breath in a very poor manner (Sirius did not think Remus fully grasped the under your breath part of this task).

"Ils vont nous faire prendre..." (They are going to get us caught...) Sirius said through his teeth, even though none of the other's in ear shot of them spoke French, or so he thought for a long while.

"Et qu'est-ce que tu attends de moi?" (And what are you expecting me to do about it?) Caelum said back, not even attempting to be subtle.

"You lot know that everyone can hear you speaking French, yes?!" James yelled, and that was Caelum's breaking point.

"Lupin! Pettigrew! Potter! I understand that espionage is a foreign concept to you, however, you being invisible is completely ineffective if you lot won't shut your traps!"

"Bu-" James started, but he was interrupted by Caelum shushing him. Despite that, he tried to continue. "That's not fai-" And this time, it was Sirius who shut him up.

"Silencio..." Caelum said, staring all three of them in the eye. With one simple word, they could no longer speak.

"Ms. Black, Mr.Black. Hello," Caelum and Sirius turned their heads in unison, and stared at the boy, their eyes devoid of emotion. Before having come to Hogwarts, Sirius and Caelum had a reputation of being very, very strange. People compared them to snakes entwined with each other, their minds were one and the same; Twins in the Wizarding World were rare to say the least, they were said to be able to feed off each others power. Few people even thought that twins were the curse of changelings, and Sirius and Caelum did nothing but perpetuate these rumors, with their knowing glances and conversations with only a look, the way they would lure people to do what they wanted and when. Walburga had always told them that The truth is what people believe, and this is what they believe. You can deny it, and they will believe it even more, or you can use it to your own benefit... They carried this lesson with them for a long time.

"Ethan," Caelum started, her voice was breathy and melodic. "Yaxley..." Sirius finished, in the same arcane, seductive voice as his sister.

Before the young Ethan Yaxley even got a chance to speak, the twins continued. "You are depriving some village of their idiot Yaxley..." They said in unison, as they both tilted their heads to the left and waved him goodbye before he even got a chance to comprehend what they were saying.

James, Remus and Peter, who had been long since forgotten were in a state of confusion. They had never seen the twins behave so strangely, it was an addictive sort of strange, seducing even, the moment you saw it you wanted more, and the twins thrived on this thought.

To the twins great surprise James, Peter and Remus made it into the Slytherin common room, performed the jinx, and got away with it. And now, they were on their way to dinner in the Great hall, thinking only of the disaster that would come the next day, the thought brought a smile to their faces...

A/N:

What do we think the prank is going to be?

-Maia🖤