#that's why the Straw Hats changed the rules of the game and now you win if Zoro put on two earring exactly like yours

[what-is-going-on-inside-my-head]

Sometimes you may notice that Zoro's earrings look different. Cause they are different.

Each member of the Straw Hats buys earrings for Zoro, two pairs actually, because you can't buy just three of the same earrings (unless you're Nami). That's why everyone from the crew has an earring from Zoro's collection. They just keep the extra one for themselves.

And no one tells Zoro who brought the new gift. They just leave it in the crow's nest while he sleeps somewhere else or is too busy to catch them.

Fun fact, the Straw hats have a game, where you win if Zoro put on earrings which match with yours.

Fun fact No2, Sanji wins more often then others.

[charlie-rulerofhell]

For they know exactly what they do

Today there was a pretty long article published in the German newspaper FAZ, written by Julia Schaaf. Since there were quite a few interesting topics raised in it and Måneskin talked about some new aspects (or in more detail), I translated the whole thing (it might also have helped me to procrastinate).

Full interview in English under the cut.

For they know exactly what they do

June 22, 2021

Four young rock musicians from Rome are today's hottest band. Måneskin are enchanting Europe. Why? We met them for an interview.

Every romance needs its founding myth, an anecdote from the beginning, something you can tell later in more difficult times for self-assurance.

In the case of the band Måneskin, who first had Italy and now half of Europe wrapped around their fingers, and who are now trying to conquer the rest of the world with their rock music, there is the story of the shoe box. Rome, around five years ago: Four teenagers who are meeting every day after school in their rehearsal room to make music together, and sometimes they play their songs on the Via del Corso in the city centre in front of a changing audience. One day they want to record their own stuff. They find a studio that they can actually afford and as they go there they bring a shoe box, with the name of the band written on it, 'moonshine' in Danish, the bassist's mother is Danish. In the box: around seven kilogram of coins. The things you get from playing music on the streets. Everyone searching through Instagram for photos from that time can find four hippies with children's faces, three boys in batik, the girl is wearing a straw hat.

As they have to pay [for the recording], frontman Damiano David, 22, says that there was this guy, Angelo, and his bandmate Victoria De Angelis, 21, is interrupting: “No, Andrea, not Angelo”, and all of them have to laugh because a rigid studio manager with the Italian name 'angel' would be even funnier for a founding myth. David continues his story: “The guy was completely dumbfounded. 'We can't do that.' We went: 'Sure we can, that's worth the same even if it's just 20 cent coins, it's still 300 euros.” Thomas Raggi, 20, the guitarist of the band, is gasping for air as he laughs, while drummer Ethan Torchio, 20, is smiling dreamily. David finishes: “And then we snuck off before he was able to count it.” [the German text says 'verdrücken' here which is just a colloquial way of saying 'we left', but it entails some sort of a dramatic exit, so yeah, let your thoughts get creative how they left exactly :D].

Four young musicians on the verge of global fame are sitting on a white interview sofa in Berlin, completely styled, babbling across each other like overeager teenagers.

Ever since the Roman band first won the music festival Sanremo and then also the Eurovision Song Contest, carried by the enthusiasm of European viewers, you could say Måneskin has become a phenomenon. “Rock 'n' Roll never dies!”, Damiano David yelled fueled by the adrenaline of winning, and the insinuation that circulated on social media of the singer snorting during the counting of votes in front of a live camera – including their strict denial followed by a negative drug test result – might have given an additional boost to their public interest, their exploding album, ticket and merch sales, and their outstanding success on Spotify.

“We think it's a shit prejudice against rock music that there always have to be drugs involved. We fully threw ourselves into our participation with the utmost professionalism. We give everything for the music. So of course we don't want people to think that we can only do that because we take drugs.” – Victoria De Angelis

Prior to Eurovision, Måneskin was more of an insider's tip outside of Italy. Handmade rock music, not creating something entirely new but paying homage to the good old times with classic guitar riffs and cracking drum beats, being a lot of fun but also quite fragile and vulnerable at times and, first and foremost, conveying a captivating energy. Finally, on the stage of Rotterdam, live after so many months of isolation and renunciation, this wave of energy spilled straight over into European living rooms. It seemed easy to (mistakenly) interpret the winning song “Zitti e buoni” (Shut up and behave) as a declaration of frustration of our youth in times of a pandemic. In fact, singer Damiano David is singing about the favourite topic of the band: the unrelenting need to, against all odds, be yourself, despite or perhaps because you are different. The message fits their provocative sex appeal, which the band uses to demonstrate their independence of gender norms at any given time. But the core essence of rock music has always been the promise of unlimited freedom.

Thus at the first moment, the meeting with Måneskin is kind of startling. It's Wednesday, we are in the top floor of the new Sony head quarters in Berlin. The four Italians have just started their two-week long promotion tour through Europe. In the afternoon there will be a live concert in a queer club [the SchwuZ, but that's not mentioned here] in Neukölln, which will be streamed via TikTok. Around one million viewers will watch the show, some of them even from Brazil, so people at Sony are pretty excited [for Måneskin to come here]. But at first, these stunningly gorgeous creatures [yes, that's the exact wording :D] are standing surrounded by an entourage of people – their management, PR team, a stylist, a photographer, people who can hold a smartphone or a cigarette if needed [this paragraph is worded a little weirdly, especially taking into account that basically their whole team / 'entourage' is just friends of them, but it seems like the journalist didn't know that or maybe they just wanted to describe their first impression]. They seem like fictional / artificial characters out of a Hollywood movie. Transparent frill blouses with blazers and flared leather trousers, even the platform boots, everything brand-new, the makeup makes their faces look like a glossy magazine cover even in person. The smokey eyes of De Angelis and Raggi make them look smug and bored. Later, on the pictures it will probably look cool.

So of course your first impression might be: This band is under contract to industry giant Sony ever since their success on an Italian casting show [X Factor] in Winter 2017. The music industry must have its hand in the game when a band is photographed half-naked by Oliviero Toscani and styled by Etro. Also, one does not simply rent a villa with a pool in Rome to produce new music there, isolated from the rest of the world. And who else went to London for two whole months, shortly before the winter lockdown, just for inspiration? After the TikTok concert in Berlin – De Angelis and David are now wearing fishnet shirts that sparkle with every move, their bare nipples covered with an X of black tape – the band is posing with a few influencers. In the world of social media you would call that 'producing content'. But what does that mean for a band who are preaching their hosanna of authenticity? How authentic is Måneskin? And is their pointedly casual approach to sexuality and gender cliches in today's pop-cultural spirit more than a marketing strategy?

We're in the interview, the recording device is running for not even five minutes, when Victoria De Angelis says: “Actually, we just try to be ourselves and do what we really want to do.” And really: The more you listen to those four how they speak about the early days of the band in their slurred Roman dialect, about the shoe box and their own experiences with being different, but most importantly about their shared obsession [with music], the more you realise that [De Angelis] is  very serious. Ethan Torchio, who got his first drum kit at the age of six or seven from his father because he was beating everything he could reach, says: “For me, music is like food. I cannot live without it.” The bassist next to him laughs at his pathos. Singer Damiano David applauds the otherwise more reserved friend for his truthfulness [it says 'klarer Punkt', meaning 'for the point he makes', but it makes it seem like Damiano is agreeing with Ethan here, although it doesn't indicate whether he agrees that yes, music is everything for Ethan or that he understands and feels the same].

De Angelis and guitarist Raggi already knew each other from middle school and they were the ones who tried to form a band at the age of only 13, a band that actually took music seriously.

De Angelis: “It's just difficult at that age to find other people who really put everything into music and who truly commit themselves and are willing to invest a lot of their time.”

Raggi: “We set strict rules and scheduled fixed times for the rehearsals, for every day.”

David: “Fever, stomach ache, there was no excuse. Even if you were feeling sick in the rehearsal room. At least you were in the rehearsal room.”

The way the four of them talk across each other, completing each other's sentences, taking turns in talking and sometimes joking about each other, seems intimate and playful. Singer David remembers how at first bassist [De Angelis] was merciless towards him when it came to her first metal band project, as she told him that he wasn't committed enough [to the music]: “Back then I was still playing Basketball. I was one of the people that Vic absolutely didn't want [in her band].” Drummer Torchio was later discovered through Facebook, even though there had already been a drummer, a close friend, but he was not good enough. It seems as if even back then music was everything for them. Even if it meant that only Raggi managed to graduate.

And why rock, why rock music of all things? Because it's great, the four of them say in unison. David adds: “Actually, it's a genre that allows you to do everything you want to do.”

When they played on the street, they were laughed at by their classmates. But not only there. De Angelis explains that she never wanted to be a typical girl: “I was always deterred by those stupid boxes that people put you in, and that are just restricting and constraining you, because something is only regarded as male or female. I always rejected that. Instead, I just wanted to do the things I enjoyed doing, I went skating and played football.” Torchio says: “Friends who are not friends anymore were already telling me at the age of ten that those“ – he grabs his long, silky black hair – “were wrong. Because I'm a boy and boys are meant to have short hair, long hair is only for girls. I was bullied a lot for that.”

“Compared to the past, people in our age became much more open-minded. It gets better.” – Thomas Raggi

Frontman David on the other hand, for whom eye shadow, jingling earrings and nail polish as well as his bare torso with the tattoos have become trademarks by now, says: “I was actually more of the average boy.” De Angelis convinced him to try out some eyeliner, which he describes as a spiritual awakening: “I liked myself much more [with makeup]. I saw myself more as myself. As if it had been a suppressed desire of mine.” On a trip to Copenhagen with the others, when he realised that it really didn't matter what people were thinking about him, he got his first fake fur [coat? the article doesn't specify that] in a second-hand shop and let his clothing style be guided by his own love to experiment: “I realised that my whole life I was just going at half speed.” When it comes to diversity all four of them are becoming almost missionary.

At the same time, their success is not only opening doors for them. Back home in Rome they are barely able to go out on the street due to all the paparazzi. “[You need a] hoodie and huge sunglasses”, David says, “the mask is quite helpful, too.” And still, none of them is complaining, and Torchio explains why: “Even if those experiences right now may have sides that are not so pleasant, we still know that for us a dream is coming true. We experience something that we always had in our minds, so we are willing to face every consequence that this entails.”

So is the band facing difficult times, is Måneskin going to change with all the success? Again, all of them answer at the same time.

David: “I'm not worried about that.”

Raggi: “No way!”

De Angelis: “On the contrary. Everything that happened to us happened because we are who we are, so we want to continue the exact same way and stay ourselves.”

Just a few hours later, they are at the stage in Neukölln, bouncing around like pinballs, hammering at their instruments, flirting with each other. “We are out of our minds, but different from the others”, David sings their winning hymn against conformism, and: “The people talk, unfortunately they talk.” Here on stage, the four paradise birds [a German word describing someone with a flamboyant personality] with their half-nude-glittering outfits are radiating an incredible energy with the utmost sincerity, and you begin to wish there was a live audience instead of the TikTok cameras, absorbing and spreading this energy. Måneskin. A cry for a life after the pandemic, a cry for freedom and a better world.

“We do what we wished for all our lives.” – Ethan Torchio

[cuteykat]

Perhaps some angst/fluff if you're up for it? Maybe Shanks and Luffy who's s/o just wants them to take something seriously for once? But like usual they kinda just let other people walk all over them/insult them and they don't care? So their s/o who is nOT A FIGHTER tries to teach the bastards who insulted them some manners?

But she ends up getting kidnapped or something? Fluffy ending with angry Shanks and Angry Luffy? S/o finally sees them taking something very seriously.

I'd prolly be terrified watching them go from ☺️😘🙂 to 😠😡👿

Warning: mention of stockholm syndrome in luffy’s reading!

Word count: 2.5k words

Luffy:

It was a rainy day on a fall island. You and the rest of your crewmates decided on coming to the island for supplies but for the upcoming storm that was soon to come, they decided to stay here and stay in a hotel. Everyone had their room except you and Luffy to which you shared one. You both decided it would be nice to spend more quality time with each other and this afternoon you both decided to go on a date to a nice small restaurant. Everything was going great till Luffy started bringing up how he wanted to be a pirate king and people started laughing

“ Seriously?! King of the pirates?! What kind of joke is that!!” Laughter could be heard as more people smoke “ Are you that stupid?”

You try to speak up but Luffy stops you and smiles at you. You both get your food but all you could focus on was people laughing at him “ Luffy you aren't going to do anything about it?” You ask having your voice be laced with irritation

“ Why would I?” Your lover ask while shoving food in his face

“ Because it’s not right for being to make fun of you! Your dream is inspirational and is a part of you. Plus” you start to mumble “ all I can hear is people laugh at you and it hurts to know that you're just letting it happen”

“ It doesn’t bother me (name). You shouldn’t let it bother you either, it’s not like they are making fun of you” Luffy finishes up what seems to be his 4th plate before asking for more

The whole date was a disaster and you had it when people started throwing stuff at the man “We're leaving!”

Luffy goes to ask you why till he sees tears forming down your eyes. You both leave the restaurant not noticing how some people were staring at you.

Both of you get to your room and you sign hearing the rainfall and the thunder hit the ground. You put your hands in your face and when Luffy goes to hug you, you deny him “ Luffy I need to go for a walk. I’m not upset at you, well I am but more upset at the others” you walk to the door and give him an air kiss before opening the door and leaving to walk to the lobby

“ I love you Luffy, I just wish you wouldn’t let people walk all over you like that. Maybe I’m just not understanding his view on all this. I should apologize” you go to walk back but you feel someone grab you by the throat and feel a cloth over your mouth before passing out into someone’s arm.

An hour goes by and Luffy starts to get concerned. Usually, when you are upset you take a 30-minute walk at most, and not noticing it’s been an hour he starts to worry and goes to Nami’s door to which she opens looking confused

“ Has (name) come here at all?” Luffy asks to which the women look surprised

“I thought you two were on a date. She hasn’t come here. Did you do something lu-“ she sees Luffy start to worry before seeing women walk to them with an envelope in her hands

“ Monkey D Luffy. Open this when you are alone. It’s an important note for you” the women let out a small smirk before leaving having her skirt drag against the floor

Nami looks worried before seeing Luffy walk off but knows once Luffy has his mindset on something you can’t change it but decides to let everyone know about what’s going on.

Luffy goes back to his and your share room and opens the envelope reading the letter

‘ To the man who wants to become king of the pirates.

We heard of your little dream back at the restaurant and when you didn’t get angry at it we decided if you really could be strong enough to somehow make that idiotic dream of yours reality. So let’s play a game, shall we? You and you alone shall try to find out the base is in town. You have 24 hours before we leave. If you win you can take back your lover. If you lose we keep this adorable girl like ours.

You have 24 hours since the envelope was delivered to you. Have fun and if you try to get any help, the girl gets punished’

Luffy's aura intensifies. He’s filled with rage, he was gonna kill the bastard who kidnapped you if it’s the last thing he does. He storms off out of the hotel into the cold rain.

You were awake now being in a strong caged. Your limbs tied up to a wall with chains and only a small bowl of water like you were some animal. You try to pull on the chains to which you felt a shock of electricity go through your body making you scream. You see two men walk up to you as one goes to hold your chin

“ Such an adorable little pet aren't you? But as a pet we have a few rules you will follow. If you don’t you will be punished. The more you misbehave the worse the punishment is.” He stands up and claps his hand as one of his men now speaks

“ The rules are as listed, no pulling on your chains, no asking where you are, no begging for food, water, or any mundane things like that. No asking for personal information. No going against what the leader says. And rules that may be added to the list” the man leaves before a woman enters being beautifully dressed up and hugs the leader

“ I use to be his hostage but now I can’t get enough of him and I wanted a new plaything too and you seemed too cute to pass up. Don’t worry love, you will grow to love it as I did along with his other lovers. Who could deny such a beauty like him? A real pirate”

“ He’s not a real pirate-“ you start to scream being shocked again but with higher volts and start to cry. Your body goes limp against the chains. Your lips part as your breathing gets heavy. You were in so much pain already. Physically but also emotionally. You felt so weak and so scared. You wanted to fight back but couldn’t. You close your eyes wanting to see Luffy again and your crew. You wanted to be saved and held into your lover's arm and hear his laughter, to see his smile, to feel his heartbeat and feel warm in his arms “ Luffy...” you put your head on the ground having it be near the water bowl

“ Aw, is my new pet thirsty? Go ahead and drink up, I won’t deny you water. And if you behave you will get some yummy food later. And in 24 hours you can get so much more~” he smirks watching your figure. You were so cute, so beautiful. He wanted you to be all his, to make you his pet, his plaything.

Time goes on, hours felt like days to you. You were exhausted, wanted to be free wanting to be with Luffy. You couldn’t cry, Couldn’t scream couldn’t do anything except being a rag doll. You were starting to lose hope until you hear a scream from one of the henchmen. Your body lifted you on your own having your hopes start to be lifted and next you knew it you see him, your lover, Luffy. He was different from his regular cheerful self. His aura was strong, violent. It was pure anger and hatred.

“ Luffy” you call out quietly having your arms tug on the chain not caring if you get shocked.

Luffy looks over to you. He was concerned but he had to deal with the other problem at hand first. He grabs one of the men looking directly at them, daggers in his eyes. “ where’s your leader?!” Once the man answers he puts them down and finds the leader. You see Luffy walk away but the next minute you could hear screaming and crying. You had a feeling Luffy was taking care of the problem. Everything went silent for a minute as the cuff comes undone and the cage opens. You try to stand and go to him but your legs shake being in pain along with your arms and neck. Luffy scoops you up gently and hugs you like he never wanted to leave your side again

“ Let’s get you back to the hotel and have chopper check your wounds. I promise I won’t let those things happen again”

You nod your head and close your eyes falling asleep. You were exhausted. Luffy carries you back to the hotel where he brings you to chopper who looks surprised but starts to work on you carefully not wanting to hurt you. Luffy stays right beside you having his usual smile not come back yet.

After a bit you wake up to see your captain look at you. You notice he isn’t smiling and you move your arms ignoring the pain to grab his mouth and form it into a smile “ I don’t like seeing you this upset. I love you Luffy and I love your smile”

Luffy was still upset but seeing you awake makes him feel better and he starts to smile and put his straw hat on you before getting into bed with you and hugs you slowly going back to his regular self. You both make jokes till you fall asleep again. Your head on his chest and his fingers roaming your hair “ No one will ever hurt you again” He was gonna be the pirate king and make sure no one would ever hurt you again.

Shanks:

Today was a sunny day as you and your crewmates had stopped on an island to stock up on some things. You along with the rest of your crew were now drinking at a bar partying like usual. You sing and drank with everyone until some other people started making fun of shanks and throwing alcohol at him. You couldn’t stand it anymore. This was supposed to be a friendly party. You were getting upset and one-sentence sit your mind to ablaze

“ How are you even a pirate with one arm?!” They laugh and made fun of to which everyone just laughed off like it didn’t bother you, and especially shanks to who smiled and laughed it off

“ How is this not bothering you shanks?! You are the best pirate and you are gonna let them walk all over you? I can’t sit here and watch it!” You usually never yell and lash out but the alcohol you drank changed that “ You are not going to do anything?!”

“ Why would it bother me cutie?” Shanks says holding up his glass to which you pushed away causing the man to be shocked

“ I’m not gonna sit here and watch all this happen! I can’t stand when people make fun of the people I care about! I-I’m heading back to the ship!” You get up and walk to the ship to which shanks wondered why you were so bothered about it.

You walked to the dock until a man grabs you from behind pulling you close from the waist, a knife to your neck “ Do you belong to that red hair pirate? You know we are looking for some beautiful pirates to join us?” The man licks his lips to which you try to get away but the grip on your waist becomes are hard as a vice grip he cuts off part of your hair on digs the knife into your neck having a bit of blood drip “Don’t you dare try to run darling. We wouldn’t want to mess up your beautiful skin now, would we? Men!”

Three-man come up and tie your arms and legs together putting along with a cloth in your mouth and bring you to their ship which wasn’t that far but hard to see in the dark.

45 minutes go by and shanks get concerned. He knew you were drunk but the thought of you being hurt concerned him. He rather takes you being angry than hurt. He goes to stand up when hearing a flare go off and the other people that were there smirk and leave and before they all leave a smirk looking at shanks “ Make sure you have... everything~”

Shanks immediately caught on. You weren’t back and the leader had left and now they are leaving to a signal of a flare. He didn’t like this one bit.

Within a second he next to one of them holding him by the neck “ Where is she?!” His grip gets sharp and his eyes turn into daggers “ If you don’t wish to tell me you may not get your last word” he says with venom laced into his words. To anyone who pissed Shanks off was getting a death wish. The man and his crewmates caught onto this and regretted this decision by their leader.

The man being held by the neck speaks “ The docks on the right side of this island” he chocks out and falls to the ground to which shanks crew tries to follow him but shanks look at them giving them a signal to go to their ship.

Shanks walks to get to you, everyone who saw was immediately scared. Who dared to upset this man and what would happen to said person. People avoided him and when getting to the ship he didn’t dare to hold back the way he felt. She stepped inside having the waves shake and he sees a man holding you by the chin whispering sweet nothings in your ears.

You looked over and try to run to shanks but the chains kept you doing so but before you could say anything the chains were cut off making you run and hold your lover tightly. His arm holding your body to which he saw the man looking scared and backing away

“ One thing you should know. You may laugh at me, make fun of me and do what you think is funny. But the minute you hurt my crew and my lover, your DEAD” shanks picks you up and holds you walking away “ Let’s get you back love. I promise no one will ever lay a hand on you again darling” shanks start to carry you away but looks back at the men glaring at him to which he will never forget “ Your lucky you didn’t hurt her. There would not remain a single piece of you left”

Shanks gets you off the boat and brings you back to their ship where he holds you in his arm and the lap the rest of the night.

I hope you enjoy reading it!!

[mistressaccost]

I think it looks better on me (oneshot)

Summary: Beth and Benny grab sodas for a change of scenery while studying for the tournament in Paris. A flirty little fic that takes place some days before the iconic “Do you still like my hair?” Just to build up the tension some more..

Word count: 1783

A/N: This is basically an extension of some lines I included as a flashback in my other piece, Beth’s Move. An update for that fic is coming soon!! I just had to write this first to get it out of my head. Also, thank you to @novella12nite for the inspo on kid and ma’am! I really appreciate it!!

and my ao3 is wisechase if you’d rather read over there!

“How did your editor read these hieroglyphics? You got a ghostwriter, Watts?” Beth said through a laugh as she lifted the paper up to her eyes and squinted.

They were squeezed into a small booth at some bar downtown. A drink in front of each of them.

Cokes. Of course.

No alcohol. That was the price of admission for staying on Benny’s shitty air mattress, afterall. It wasn’t a great place to stay but it was Beth’s only place to stay; so she conceded to his boring, sober rules.

But today they were out of the apartment for the first time in days. Beth had remarked earlier that she hadn’t seen the sun in a week, which wasn’t quite accurate though it had been a while. So Benny offered a walk to the bar for a change of scenery. Sure, they were confined to a tiny booth but at least this place was above ground. 

The table between them was covered with pages and pages of handwritten notes and game records. Beth could have a break from the chess cave but not the chess.

“Here. Let me see it.” Instead of grabbing the paper from her Benny slid into her side of the booth to study the paper in her hands. Beth tried to pretend she didn’t realize their thighs were touching. 

She could feel his breath on her neck. It was making her dizzy. She had to start talking to remember to breathe. “No, on second thought the writing in that book is far too pretentious to be anyone but you.” 

He nudged her shoulder with his own, not looking up from the paper. “You still read it, though.” 

A devilish smile spread across her lips. “Oh yes. I found it to be a comprehensive stepping stone piece for those looking to go from beginner to amature. Now Luchenko’s book...” She trailed off, waiting for Benny to retaliate her teasing. 

He looked at her then. He was smiling but his voice had a touch of a far off tone. “Once you’ve beat four Russians, you won’t even want to play me anymore.”

What was he playing at? She couldn’t tell. So she rolled her eyes. “I have to get through just one Russian first.”

“You will. Then you’ll say ‘Just look at that boring American amature, Benny Watts.’ You’ll get tired of me.” 

Now she laughed. Even if there was some truth behind this melodramatic performance, she could tell he was teasing her. “How could I get tired of you when you’re constantly finding new ways to be so utterly annoying? I see you've chosen self pity this time, that’s a new one! Thought that would be below you but see! You’ve surprised me! Well done.”

“Soon I’m never going to beat you again, kid.”

“Kid? Really? You’re such an ass Watts.” Beth brought her eyes back down to the game report. “I’m not a child.”

“No. You’re not.” 

Why did he have to look at me like that? She could see it from her peripheral vision. She tried to concentrate but her brain felt fuzzy.

“Which is ideal really because getting my ass whooped repeatedly by a kid would just be humiliating.”

Beth shot him a glare and made a show of pretending to read the report.

“Oh no. Have I offended you, ma’am?” She shoved his shoulder then, a laugh on her lips. “Losing to the prodigies suck. Whereas losing to Beth’s Harman is beginning to feel like a rite of passage. Now I’m beginning to feel like all the other sorry chumps you make cry. It’s a privilege.”

“You know one time at a competition I just introduced myself and all the guy said was ‘shit’ not even a hello!”

“See. I feel his pain.” He remarked, pointing a ringed finger at her. 

“But Benny, honestly, it doesn’t matter who wins—”

“Who are you and what have you done with Beth Harmon?” 

“Ha ha. Very funny. But I just meant between us. It doesn’t matter if I always win because you always make me think, regardless. You never stop trying. Chasing. We have the same obsession. We aren’t people who get tired.”

“Was that a compliment? Did Miss US Champion just pay me a kind word?” The sarcasm bleeding out of every crevice in his speech was intolerable. But he looked slightly flustered behind it.

“Don’t act like you weren’t begging for one. I mean your ego hasn’t been inflated in-” Beth feigned looking at her watch, “Fifteen whole minutes since the hostess flirted with you when we sat down.”

Benny looked at her mock shocked expression through narrowed eyes. “Hmm,” was all he said. But what he was really thinking was She noticed that? and Is she flirting with me right now?

He was going to say that he’d rather lose to her than win against anyone else. Before she mentioned the flirting. That felt too heavy now. Too open. He was starting to feel twitchy. So Benny just said, “Then set your watch for another fifteen, Harmon. I’ll need some more flattery by then. Now, which hieroglyphics am I supposed to be translating for you?”

Benny went through the paper with her. A game record of one of her old matches that he’d written out and annotated. She’d won but her endgame had been “messy as hell” in his opinion, “just all over the damn place.” (But I still won, was her opinion)

“You got lucky with that endgame.” He said, pushing the paper down and pointing at it. “You had no plan.”

“My mother told me the move’s I made the fastest always got the biggest applause. It’s what I’m good at.”

“That might have worked over here, but no one’s going to be applauding in Moscow when you don’t even make it to an endgame and the KGB are packing your bags by opening day. You have to start forming your endgame earlier, Beth. Much earlier. And your middlegame before you’ve even stepped up to the board. I think you just like winning too much. You can’t get your mind off the prize. Stay present.”

“I like winning too much? Please. Besides, how much is too much? A single, fleeting moment of joy in my miserable life? It makes me happy.”

“It makes you happy? It makes you money. And money doesn’t make you a Grandmaster, kid.” She gave him an infuriated look.

“Sorry. Money doesn’t make you a Grandmaster, Ma’am.” He made a show of that last word, drawing it out and tipping his hat.

“At least I know how to spend my money.” She had a haughty look in her eyes then. “I don’t use it to dress like a fuking pirate.”

He was left blinking at her. How were her quips so calculated and fast? Just like her chess. “Ouch. Calm down there, matey.”

“Yes, I think a little parrot perched on your shoulder would complete the look nicely. Or perhaps a peg leg!” She said, far too pleased with this image she was painting.

“I think I need to call the waitress over to wipe up my dignity.” He put hand up to call the waitress over but Beth quickly reached over him to swat it down.

“Stop, Benny. Don’t annoy her too.” She said laughing softly.

“My apartment, my handwriting, my clothes. Is there anything about me that doesn’t annoy you?” He stared at her with a challenging expression.

Beth narrowed her eyes at him then, daring him to break eye contact. When he didn’t (of course he didn’t) she looked away and tried to fight the color flooding her cheeks. Must her own body betray her like this? It was almost as infuriating as losing to him. Which she was beginning to forget the feeling of. 

She looked down at her cole and started playing with the straw. “It hasn’t been fifteen minutes yet. Sorry.” Don’t look at his hair. DON’T look at his hair. 

But she looked up. Shit. It was a fraction of a second but he didn’t miss it. I’m such an idiot, she thought.

“Ah yes. I remember now.” He had a shit-eating grin on. 

She wasn’t going to take this humiliation laying down. Beth Harmon was known for her attacks. This was no exception. “Only because it somehow manages to cover your excruciatingly large head.”

Benny raised his eyebrows, a stupid smile on his face. He was enjoying this. 

But he didn’t say anything so she continued. “I’m surprised any of us can fit in the same room with it.” Why do I have to talk so much when I’m nervous? 

He took his hat off then, held it over his heart, and tried to put on a pair kicked puppy dog eyes. “Damn, Beth. That one hurt.”

Beth simply rolled her eyes and went back to her straw.

“Let’s see if it’ll fit on your modest head then.” He put the hat on her before she had time to respond. When she let out a huff of annoyance he just continued to adjust it. Using both hands he tipped the hat back so more of her red hair could show.

She pulled away and adjusted it to her liking. “Hm. I think it looks better on me.”

“I think you just like seeing my hair.”

Beth ignored the comment and picked up a spoon from under the hoard of papers. She held it out in front of her like a mirror to see her reflection. 

”You can't even see yourself in that, Harmon.” He said through a chuckle. 

“What? Do you disagree?” She struck a pose then, giggling. Expecting him to hit her with another well executed come back.

A beat of silence. 

He was looking at her. Studying her.

Another beat.

Still staring.  

Finally.

“No. I agree.”

Her breath hitched slightly. She wasn’t expecting that. 

“You look good. Your hair is longer than mine. It sticks out a bit.” He reached toward her and took a red strand between his fingers. “It’s cute.” 

She really wasn’t expecting that. 

But as quickly as it happened, he pulled away.

And she remembered to breathe again. She hadn’t even realized she was holding her breath. 

He started shuffling the papers on the table then, looking for something. When he found it he looked back up at her. “It suits you.” 

So. He liked her hair too. She could work with that. 

“Okay, now listen to this middlegame. I think you’ll like it.” And he began reading. But Beth wasn't listening.

Maybe he didn’t set up the no sex rule for me. Maybe he set it up for himself.

She kept the hat on until they got home. 

[cynthiaandsamus]

Game Blondes: Tekking101 One Piece Isekai Adventure!

“Hey I’m Blonde!”

“...I’m also Blonde.”

“AND WE’RE THE GAME BLONDES!!”

Game Blondes Logo by @game-overture​

One Piece Isekai Setup created by Tekking101 and found here:

https://youtu.be/zHInvsopBtQ

“Wait this isn’t a video game.” Samus pouts.

“The show’s called “GAME Blondes” not Video Game Blondes, that means any game is fair… game!” Cynthia cackles. “And today we’re doing the One Piece Isekai Adventure Game created by Tekking101!”

“I don’t know who that is.”

“That’s fine!” The Champion nods. “We’re going to roll some dice to determine how and where we get sent into the One Piece world and what goal we have to achieve in order to come back to our own world. They’ve made some reference tables to show everything about our situation and we’re gonna make little stories based on them!”

“Okay, sounds simple enough.” Samus flicks one of the dice around. “So what’s first?”

“First the Isekai Fairy comes to take you away! As per the rules the Isekai Fairy is extremely attractive for some reason and is your ideal type of attractive person. For me they look like Dawn.”

“Okay that’s strange, I guess my fairy looks like Tifa.” Samus shrugged.

“Fair enough! Now the fairy lets you get hooked up with your starting gear!”

“You get to take what you’re wearing, plus two sets of clothing and one free set of winter clothing in case you end up somewhere cold, though they have to be extremely unfashionable.”

“That seems unnecessary but given I’m weak to the cold I’d better take it.”

“You get a backpack to carry this stuff in and also arrive in perfect health, get 1 million starting beli ($9,500) and one object of your choosing.” Cynthia read down the list. “So you gotta choose something to take with you, it’s one thing and most kinds of electronics and stuff won’t work. Though pets are allowed.”

“Guess I’ll take my arm cannon since I don’t think my whole suit would fly here, and the basic laser of the arm cannon works off my own energy instead of external missiles or power sources.”

“And I’m taking Garchomp, if pets count that must mean pokemon do too!”

“But if Garchomp is one object doesn’t that mean you can’t take its pokeball?”

“… fuck, so I gotta walk around the One Piece world with a giant sand shark following me everywhere… well they’ve seen worse so I guess it’s fine, it’ll work for the intimidation factor at least and keep people off my back.”

-Cynthia’s Inventoy-

1 Million Beli, Large Backpack, Champion Coat Outfit, Summer Blouse Outfit, Hideous Plaid Winter Clothes, Garchomp

-Samus’s Inventory-

1 Million Beli, Large Backpack, Zero Suit, Workout Clothes, Neon Pink Winter Clothes, Arm Cannon

 “Okay so we’re ready to go, got our starting gear, we’ll get a bonus item once we arrive but first we have to decide where we arrive at.”

“Fuck, the One Piece world’s huge, how do we do that?” Samus blinked and tilted her head.

“More reference tables! We roll a die to determine the region we end up in and then another to determine the exact island, let’s check out those tables.”

Cynthia’s Result: 2

Samus’s Result: 6

“So I’m in the South Blue, the buttfuck nowhere of the One Piece world, and you’re in the New World, the hellish crime-littered frontier of the current storyline. We arrive at the same day the One Piece story starts so none of the events have happened yet but we do retain our knowledge of their events. Now to find the islands we’re going to!”

Cynthia’s Result: 5

“I’m in the Black Drum Kingdom, a snowy desolate area that Wapol will eventually come to rule after Luffy kicks him out of the Non-Black Drum Kingdom. For now I guess it’s up for sale though since he only becomes King of it by getting lots of money so I might have a shot at ruling it before he does.”

Samus’s Result: 11

“You land on Applenine Island, a land neighboring the country of Dressrosa ruled tyrannically by Donquixote Doflamingo. I don’t know much about it except the terrain and houses look like Apples but it’s probably a short hop over to Dressorosa if you feel like going over there and making some connections.”

“You said something about a bonus item once we arrived?”

“Yes! For this one we roll a D100 and get an extra potentially useful, potentially useless item to add to our inventory. Let’s see what we get!”

Cynthia’s Result: 38

“A fishing rod with line, tackle box and bait. Well I’m pretty good at fishing up Magikarp so that might come in handy, though I don’t know how good the fishing is on the Black Drum Kingdom, maybe ice-fishing or something…”

Samus’s Result: 42

“A bag with EXACTLY 37 green apples.”

“WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THE APPLES!?” Samus pounded her hand on the table. “I get warped to appleburg with a bag of fucking apples!! Is this rigged!?”

“It’s all random I swear, the apples of chance just seem to favor you.”

“Ugh, I don’t know how I’ll put that to use… what’s next?”

“Well before we get our objective and figure out or paths in this world, we have to look at… the risk table!”

“You don’t have to roll it if you don’t want but you have a 50/50 shot of getting a fair boost or a horrendous hindrance to your goal.”

“Ehh fine why not, there’s no apple-related choices so what’s the worst that could happen.”

Samus’s Result: 7

“A Yonkou wants you dead.”

“FUCK.”

Cynthia’s Result: 2

“And I get to bring a family member or friend! Considering most of my family are either young or elderly and I’ve already counted pokemon as pets for the sake of this game, I’ll bring a friend! You’re already having your own adventure so I guess I’ll pick Zebes, never know when a Tentacle Metroid might come in handy around here.”

“Which Yonkou wants me dead? Like if it’s Shanks I may be able to get away from that but if it’s Kaidou like Doflamingo works for him and he’s right fucking next door.”

“Let’s roll another dice to see! There’s no reference table for this one but considering it’s pre-timeskip we’ll go with 1 is Whitebeard, 2 is Kaido, 3 is Big Mom and 4 is Shanks.”

Samus’s Result: 4

“And it’s Shanks.”

“…okay, still not great but Shanks has a small crew and doesn’t seem to personally go out hunting a lot so I might be alright.” Samus breathed a small sigh of relief.

“And now last but not least the Objective Table! This will be your goal to achieve so you can get sent back to your own world and consider the challenge successful.”

Cynthia’s Result: 7

“I have to meet a Straw Hat, specifically meet a Straw Hat while they’re on the crew. That’s not going to be easy, I know where they’ll be but they never come to the South Blue so I’ll have to go out and find them/intercept them somewhere along their journey, meaning I’ll have to go out and find my way into the grand line, this might be tricky…”

Samus’s Result: 2

“I have to Walk on a Sky Island? I mean I guess there’s a lot harder goals out there but I don’t know where the nearest place to find one would be.”

“Okay, the stakes are set, let’s make our Isekai Stories!!”

Cynthia arrives in the South Blue in the Black Drum Kingdom, with a bit of money to her name, some clothes, a Garchomp and a tentacle blob. Needless to say the townspeople are all terrified of the woman that wears hideous plaid snowgear and controls strange creatures to do her bidding but with her trusty fishing rod and the hunting of her two partners she’s able to gather some supplies, some semi-frozen fish and a few other trinkets and uses some of her money (as well as some she earns by selling some of the fresh caught fish, doing tricks with Zebes and Garchomp as a street show and various odd jobs the team of three can do for the townspeople that aren’t scared stiff of her) to book passage on a sailing ship, the goal in her mind of meeting one of the straw hat crew.

By the time she makes it to the last island in the South before the Grand Line, working up the money and supplies as well as travel has taken her over a month and murmurs of Luffy’s first bounty arise. The exact timeline is sketchy but he seems to have already beaten Arlong and is heading for the Grand Line. Judging by the timeline and how difficult it seems to buy passage on a ship heading towards the Grand Line, she’s a little bit behind Luffy and will have to find a place to make up some time.

Luckily thanks to her One Piece knowledge she knows the Straw Hats do make a few detours coming into the Grand Line, and where they’ll be spending a lot of time: Alabasta. Using the remainder of her money and some intimidation thanks to her dragon friend, she is able to buy her way onto a ship running supplies into the desert country. They have an eternal pose pointing to Alabasta and as long as the trio catch lots of fish for the crew to eat, they’re welcome to stay on until they meet their destination.

Making a straight shot from the South Blue up Reverse Mountain and to Alabasta takes a good while but Cynthia, Garchomp and Zebes arrive in the desert country where the two creatures feel right at home and Cynthia has just enough money left over from fishing that she can buy herself a desert dancer girl outfit and a horse to make it to Rainbase, the luxurious casino town where Warlord Sir Crocodile is stationed and where the Straw Hats will arrive eventually.

Cynthia stakes out the casino day and night, getting a small part time job as a waitress there to keep an eye on things until the Straw Hats inevitably arrive, assured that none of her prior actions have changed the One Piece timeline and altered the Straw Hat pirates’ path. Eventually she hears the uproar of Luffy making a scene, screaming that he will kick Crocodile’s ass. She heads over to the commotion to jump in, and just misses Luffy running past, though she collides with an equally scantily-clad dancer girl: Nami.

“Hey, I’m Cynthia.” She gives a sly wink as her face is buried in the desert-clad navigator’s chest.

And thus her mission is complete in more ways than one.

“So you buy your way into a slutty waitress job and dive into Nami’s cleavage to win?”

“I mean luckily we don’t have very combat-oriented goals here so it’s probably mostly buying our way from place to place.

“Well I guess I’ll have to see what I can come up with…”

Samus enters the New World on Applenine Island, carrying a back of apples and her arm cannon while wearing her zero suit. Far from able to just do things on her own or in a group like Cynthia, Samus has also somehow incurred the wrath of Red-Haired Shanks, one of the Yonkou that rules the New World. Acting quickly, Samus uses some of her starting money to book passage to Dressrosa, led by Warlord Donquixote Doflamingo. She allows herself to be captured by them while sneaking into the castle of the Young Lord Doflamingo, claiming that Shanks wants her dead and the best place to protect herself is under the wing of another Yonkou, Doflamingo’s Master: Kaido of the Hundred Beasts.

Intrigued by her strange weapon and the idea that the mild-mannered Shanks wants this random woman dead, Doflamingo keeps her around but fails to see why he should bring her to Kaido. Thinking of a scheme, Samus tells him a quick lie: the reason why Shanks wants her dead is because she knows the location of the Ancient Weapon Pluton, it’s location? A sky Island.

Little is known about the Sky Islands by the surface dwellers but Doflamingo is in the know enough to at least confirm their existence and the legitimacy of the usually mild-mannered Shanks wanting her head combined with a few other predications she makes about the rise of Straw Hat Luffy and certain other world events lay credence to her claims, Doflamingo starts to believe there may really be an Ancient Weapon hidden among the clouds where no one else can see.

Having already been in talks with Kaido thanks to the Smile Devil Fruit trade, Doflamingo sweetens the deal by offering Kaido the woman that knows more than she lets on, the enemy of Shanks and supposedly the keeper of an Ancient Weapon. More than happy with this and her seeming ability to predict the future as more months pass, Samus is taken to Onigashima on Wano to forcefully become a member of Kaido’s crew. He doesn’t seem ready to embark to the Sky Island just yet but he finds the insight and story she tells to be rather interesting, until one thing seals the deal: Shanks arrives at Onigashima’s gate to demand to kill Samus.

Fascinated by the fact that Shanks would show up in person and risk clashing with another Yonkou just to kill this woman, Kaido decides that her story must be true. Having already thrown himself off a Sky Island or two for kicks, Kaido decides to take her to the nearest one: the Balloon Terminal not far from Wano in the New World. The Beast Pirates decide not to fight Shanks right away, opting to make a break for it and destroy Shanks’s fleet with ease once they have Pluton as not to rack of casualties. Kaido personally leads Samus to the Balloon Terminal under the promise that she’ll be able to pinpoint Pluton’s location once she arrives In the sky.

Shanks gives chase, sinking may of Kaido’s ship in his oddly single-minded approach to killing Samus. Eventually he makes his way to Kaido’s flagship and a clash between the giant dragon god of Wano and the Red-Haired powerhouse begins. The sky splits above them and both incur injuries, Kaido taking heavy damage and eventually retreating, using his Dragon Devil Fruit to fly Samus high into the air, up to the clouds and screaming that he’ll come back down for Shanks once he has Pluton.

“Who said anything about Pluton?” Shanks asks, but too late to reach Kaido’s ears.

Kaido lands on the Sky Island of the Balloon Terminal and lets Samus off his back, transforming back into a human and demanding that the bounty hunter tell him where Pluton is NOW so he can go back and crush Shanks.

However as soon as her feet touch the cloud-like ground of the Sky Island Samus’s goal is complete and a wry smirk crosses her lips. “Goodbye, and by the way, I hate Dragons. Have an Apple” She says, tossing an apple to him as she disappears back to her own world, the great dragon emperor realizing all too late that he’s been duped and is at war with a fellow emperor, wounded and stuck on a floating cloud feeling much like the lost balloons stuck under it.

“Well that was fun, got to con a Yonkou and ride a giant dragon demon thing.” Samus smirked, fiddling with the dice. “That was a lot more enjoyable than I thought it’d be.”

“See? Told you it’d be fun! Well now that we’ve got everything sorted out and our One Piece Isekai Adventures are complete, guess we’ll see you…”

“Next time on Game Blondes!!!”

[cyborgsquirrel]

Sanctuary: Chapter 17

Pairing: Wolfstar

Summary: The epic tale of Remus Lupin and Sirius Black, from their first meeting until their happily ever after.

Link to Prologue

Link to All Chapters

Saturday, 25th September 1971, 7:55 am

Remus yawned as he followed Sirius, James and Peter up the stairs to the third floor. Sirius had woken him at the ungodly hour of six forty-five to get an early breakfast before the niffler hunt, and his body was protesting, although his morning chocolate-flavour nutrition potion had helped a little.

They approached classroom 12c and James took the lead, pushing the door open and walking inside. The room was vast with a stage at one end, empty of any furniture, and small groups of students of all ages were dotted around, chatting amongst themselves and waiting for the show to start. They weren't left waiting for long.

At exactly eight o'clock, the stage erupted with sound and light as multiple fireworks exploded in a shower of coloured sparks and words blazed to life on the wall in the same fiery letters Remus had used for his own message.

Welcome to Hogwarts' Annual Super Secret Niffler Hunt

Everyone in the room turned their attention to the stage in rapt silence. The message faded away after a few seconds, and a shiny suit of armour clanked onto the stage and gave the audience a cheery wave.

'Good Morning, Nifflers!' it said. The booming voice seemed to come from inside the empty helmet. 'Many of you have taken part in the hunt in previous years, but for the benefit of our newcomers, I will go over the rules. You will work in teams of no more than four people. Each team will receive a list of items they must collect. All the lists are identical. The items are split into three categories. There are twenty items worth 1 point, which require no rule-breaking to retrieve. Six items are worth 5 points and will require some minor rule-breaking. Four items can only be gathered via severe rule-breaking and are, therefore, worth 10 points each. The deadline is four o'clock this afternoon. Bring whatever you have collected to this room, and your points will be calculated. Be warned, all items will be checked for transfiguration, and any team caught cheating will be instantly disqualified. There is, of course, a prize for the winning team.'

The suit of armour clapped its metal hands together with a metallic clunk and a wooden box appeared in the middle of the room.

'Take one sheet per team. Good luck to you all. Remember, don't get caught, but if you do, don't tell! Let the hunt begin!'

'Wait here,' James said before dodging through the throng of students to reach the box and grab a roll of parchment from the stack inside.

'He'd be a good chaser, don't you think?' Sirius said as they watched him.

Remus and Peter both nodded in agreement.

A four-man team of Hufflepuffs had grabbed their list and were heading out the door, and one of them called over his shoulder as they left. 'You might as well give up now. We always win this game. Hufflepuffs are particularly good finders.'

'You might be in for a surprise this year, Diggory!' James shouted back.

'How do you know his name?' Remus asked.

James shrugged. 'He's on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team. I know all the players.'

Remus shook his head. 'And you call me a nerd.'

James laughed. 'Come on, we need to meet today's birthday person in twenty minutes, and then we can get started.'

They climbed the stairs back up to the seventh floor and hung around talking to Silas while they waited for third-year Gryffindor Frank Longbottom to show up.

After Frank had blown out his candle, they returned to their dorm to look over the list and make some plans.

James unrolled the parchment and placed it on the floor so they could all see.

Hogwarts Annual Super Secret Niffler Hunt

One-point items - easy

A quill with a red feather - A muggle pen - A purple sock

A stuffed cat - A white flower - An orange hair-tie

A smooth white stone - A green shoe - A leaf from an oak tree

A photograph of Dumbledore - A paintbrush - A muggle coin

An essay with a 'T' grade - A pinecone - A pair of sunglasses

A battery - Lipstick - A camera - A pink hat - A blue button

Five-point items - detention potential

A trophy from the trophy room

A book from the restricted section

A saucepan from the kitchen

A telescope from the astronomy classroom

A teapot from the divination classroom

A broomstick from the broom shed

Ten-point items - highly dangerous

A tartan scarf from Professor McGonagall's collection of Scottish clothing

A medal from Professor Flitwick's collection of duelling prizes

A tool from Professor Sprout's collection of decorative gardening tools

A potion from Professor Slughorn's collection of rare potions.

All items will be returned to their rightful owners when the hunt has ended

'I have a purple sock and a pair of sunglasses,' James said, jumping up and dashing to his trunk to fetch them.

Sirius also went to his trunk. 'I have a paintbrush. And possibly a blue button. Yes, here.' He yanked a button off of a pair of trousers.

'Sirius!' Remus said, shocked at the wanton destruction of a perfectly good item of clothing.

'What?' Sirius raised his hands in surrender, one of them still clutching the button. 'I'll ask a prefect to spell it back on after the hunt.'

'Right. Sorry.' Remus was embarrassed by his overreaction and tried to change the subject. 'I have a muggle pen, by the way. My mum put it in my trunk because they're easier to write with.'

'Ooh, get it out. I've never seen a muggle pen.' Sirius darted towards him with the air of an excited puppy, and Remus jerked away instinctively. Sirius shot him an apologetic look but otherwise didn't acknowledge his reaction. Remus was grateful.

He rummaged around in his trunk until his hand wrapped around the thin plastic tube of his black biro. He pulled it out and handed it to Sirius, who examined it with fascination.

'Someone get me some ink. I want to try it out,' Sirius said.

Remus chuckled. 'You don't need ink. The ink is already inside it.'

'Inside it?' Sirius asked. He grabbed the list and made a tick next to "muggle pen." 'That's ingenious! It must save so much time not having to dip it every few sentences. Why the hell are we still using quills and ink when the muggles have these?'

Remus shrugged. 'I have no idea.'

Sirius took great pleasure in using the muggle pen to tick off the other items on the list that they owned before James called them all to attention.

'I think we should concentrate on the ten-point items this morning. We have a huge advantage over the other teams,' he said, brandishing the invisibility cloak. 'If our plans fail and we don't get them, we can make up for it by getting all the five-point items after lunch.'

'I think that's a good plan, James.' Remus hesitated, reluctant to argue with his new friends, but he ploughed on. 'But I can't come under the cloak with you. Maybe we should split up. I can collect some single point things while you work on the ten-pointers?'

'Nonsense. We're the magical mischief makers! We work together. You're going to be an important part of the plans. The distraction! We need you to keep the teachers occupied while we sneak in and steal their prized possessions. There's no point in us being invisible if they see doors opening and their things vanishing.'

They spent an hour in the dorm making elaborate plans for each of the four items worth ten points, plus additional back-up plans and emergency exit plans before they headed out to try their luck on Professor Sprout. She seemed like the easiest of the four.

As they traversed the school, they saw small groups of students dashing around, running up to people and asking questions before rushing off again. It seemed like most of the teams were focusing on the single point items. Good.

They reached Professor Sprout's personal quarters, and James wished him luck before disappearing under the cloak. They had all agreed it would be easier to sneak around if only one person was under the cloak, and it belonged to James. Peter and Sirius had been delegated look-outs and had taken positions at either end of the corridor.

Remus knocked on the door and waited.

Less than a minute passed before the door opened, revealing Professor Sprout. She was wearing muggle dungarees and a straw hat with her hair loose around her shoulders.

'Hello, Mister Lupin, I was just on my way out. Can I help you with something?'

'Oh. I'm sorry to disturb you, Professor. I didn't realise it was your day off. I was hoping you could talk me through some things about planting flitterbloom? I'm afraid I don't quite understand why it's necessary to line the seed tray with crystallised sugar before planting, or why we should water it with fizzy water? I want to do the best I can on the essay.'

'Oh, of course, dear. I can spare a few minutes. Do you have your essay with you?'

'Yes, ma'am.'

'Good. Why don't you come in, and I'll have a look over it and see where you're going wrong?'

This might have been a worrying development. Remus didn't actually have any issues understanding the needs of flitterbloom seeds, and his essay was perfect. But James' planning had prepared them for this. The essay Remus held in his hand had been written right before they left the dorm, copied from his actual essay with a few key points changed.

Remus followed Professor Sprout into her personal quarters.

'Leave the door open, dear. It's the rules.' Remus smiled to himself. That made things easier.

Professor Sprout led him over to a seating area and told him to sit down. Remus glanced around and spotted a set of shelves along the entirety of one wall, displaying a vast collection of decorative tools. Professor Sprout had sat with her back to them, perfect.

Remus sat down and waited while she read through his essay, resolutely not looking at the tools and hoping James was nearly done.

Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something red disappear, but he kept his eyes on Professor Sprout, not wanting to draw attention to the tools. A moment later, he felt the air move against his arm as if someone was passing close to him. He was leaving, brilliant.

Professor Sprout lectured him for ten minutes before he managed to escape out to the corridor, and he hurried to meet his friends at the designated spot, two corridors away.

'Did you get it?' he asked as he entered the classroom.

'Did you doubt me?' James said, brandishing a garden trowel which had a handle encrusted with red stones.

'I would never doubt you,' Remus said with a grin. 'What's next?'

Sirius rubbed his chin. 'Flitwick is closest.'

James tucked the garden trowel back into his bag, and they made their way to Flitwick's quarters. Repeating the same method as before, Remus knocked on the door, but this time no one answered, and when he tried the handle, the door was locked.

James pulled the cloak off and signalled for Sirius and Peter to return from their look-out positions. 'Does anyone know an unlocking spell?' he asked.

'I only know the one we'll learn later this year, but I doubt a first-year spell is going to be enough to unlock a teacher's room.' Remus said. He took his wand out, anyway, and performed the unlocking charm on the door. Nothing happened. Either he didn't do it right or the lock was too complex for the charm.

'So… Plan 14.b then?' Sirius said.

'Is that the one where we steal a broom and use it to fly up to his window?' Remus asked.

Sirius grinned. 'That's the one.'

'Okay, well, let's find the nearest unlocked room and see if we can count the windows from it,' Remus said.

They were in luck. The room right next to Flitwick's was open and when Remus leant out, he was easily able to count the windows from the nearest corner.

'Flitwick's is thirteen windows right from the west tower,' he said, pulling his head back inside. 'Let's go.'

It took a good ten minutes to reach the Entrance Hall from the seventh floor. They were all hot and sweaty by the time they exited the castle and were glad of the cool breeze as they crossed the grass towards the broom shed. The place was surprisingly deserted. Remus had expected to find at least one other team attempting to gain an easy five points, but as they got closer, he noticed the door to the shed was ajar. Someone had already been there.

'That makes things nice and easy,' James said, skipping up to the door and peeking inside. 'No-one here. Check around.'

Remus, Sirius and Peter scanned their surroundings, but there wasn't a soul in sight.

'All clear,' Sirius reported.

James dashed inside and was back in seconds clutching a broom. 'Step one complete,' he said with a grin. 'Come on!'

They followed him at a fast jog towards the west tower, and once hidden in the shadow of the castle, they stopped to catch their breath.

'Right, I'll cover myself with the cloak. It'll probably flap a bit in the wind, but I'll be less likely to be seen.'

James mounted the broom, and Sirius draped the cloak around him, tucking the end into his socks to try to keep it in place. When he was done they could still see his shoes, but once he was in the air, they would be less visible. Hopefully.

James took off, and they watched his shoes soar into the sky, getting smaller and smaller before stopping briefly and then floating back down again.

James pulled the cloak from his head. 'It's locked.'

Remus frowned. 'I doubt he's put too much security into his window. Alohomora should be enough. I think I can cast it, but I can't fly a broom.'

Sirius suddenly jerked and started rummaging in his bag. 'Hold on, I've got a lock on my journal. We can all try.'

He pulled the book out and handed it to Remus. 'Show us what to do.'

Remus pointed his wand at the lock on the side of the journal and then twirled it anti-clockwise before bringing the tip back to point at the lock while saying, 'Alohomora.'

The lock sprang open and Remus glanced up through his fringe, nervous to see their reaction. Would they think him a show-off?

Sirius grinned at him. 'Well done, mate.'

Remus flushed at the praise and looked at his feet.

James, Sirius and Peter all attempted the spell on the journal several times, but none of them could get it to work.

'Urgh, I give up,' James groaned, flinging the book at Sirius after his tenth failed attempt. 'Are you sure you can't fly up there? It's just straight up and down, nothing fancy.'

Remus shivered as he remembered how it felt when he fell from the broom before, and that had been a much smaller distance.

'He can't, James. You saw what happened during flying lessons. If he fell from up there, he wouldn't survive,' Sirius said.

He would survive. But that wasn't the point. He didn't want to fall. Even if he did heal ridiculously fast, it still hurt.

'Well, we're just going to have to give up on this one then. Hopefully, we can still get enough points to win,' James grumbled.

Oh, Gods. Remus really didn't want to let his friends down. If they didn't win the hunt, it would be all his fault, just because he was too scared to fly. What if he could just sit and hang on, with someone else controlling the broom, though? Maybe he could do it then.

'Alright, let's do Slughorn next,' Sirius said.

But if he rode the broom with someone else, he might touch them. Infect them. He wouldn't infect them if he didn't touch their skin, though. If he was careful. His dad did it every month, and he wouldn't if there were any risk.

His friends were turning to leave.

'I'll do it if Sirius does the flying,' Remus blurted before he could talk himself out of it.

'What?' Sirius asked, staring at him as if he'd suddenly grown an extra head. 'You mean fly on the broom with me?'

'Yes.'

Sirius scanned his face. 'But, you'd have to touch me.'

'I know. If we both wear gloves, I think it'll be okay. Just don't... don't touch my skin.'

Frowning, Sirius stepped closer and leaned in to speak quietly. 'Are you sure? You really don't have to do this, Remus.'

He took a deep breath and nodded. 'I'm sure.'

'Okay.' Sirius stared at him a moment longer, his eyes darting from side to side as if searching for something. He appeared to find what he needed because he turned to James and said, 'I left my gloves in the dorm. Do you have yours?'

James shook his head. 'No, but I can run and get them.'

'I have mine,' Peter said, pulling them out of his bag. 'Thought we might need them for something.'

Sirius took the gloves. 'Nice one, Pete.'

Remus pulled his own Herbology gloves from his bag and slipped them onto his hands, noticing that they were shaking ever so slightly. He took another deep breath, trying to calm himself. It was going to be fine.

Sirius mounted the broom. 'Get on behind me.'

Remus did so, leaving a gap of two or three inches between them.

Sirius glanced over his shoulder. 'You'll have to put your hands on my waist to hold on and move a little closer or the broom won't be balanced. Are you sure you're okay with this?'

Remus nodded and scooted closer, closing the gap between them. He was breaking the biggest rule his mum had set, for something as trivial as a game. But he was taking precautions. So, it wasn't really breaking the rule, was it? He had promised he would be careful, and he was being careful.

Remus placed his shaking hands on Sirius' waist. He could feel the heat from his body even through the thick material of the dragon-hide gloves. His breath was coming in harsh pants, and he tried hard to regulate it. His heart was racing.

'It's okay, Remus. You're safe with me,' Sirius whispered.

Remus gripped him tighter to show he'd heard him.

'I'm going to drape the cloak over you, okay?' James said.

Remus nodded and James moved closer, draping the cloak over both their heads. It only reached as far as their ankles and didn't hide Sirius at all. Remus let go of him and took the edges of the cloak in his hands, before wrapping his arms around Sirius' waist, forcing the cloak to cover him. It was awkward holding on to Sirius like that while keeping his face away from his back, but it was doable.

'Ready?' Sirius asked.

'Yes,' Remus tried to say, but his voice came out sounding more like a squeak. He coughed and tried again. 'Yes.'

He felt a jolt as Sirius pushed off and his feet left the ground. There was no turning back now. They rose smoothly to the seventh floor. Remus kept his eyes on Sirius' back, not looking at his surroundings at all, and with Sirius' gentle control of the broom, it didn't feel like he was even in the air.

'We're here,' Sirius said.

Remus turned his head and moved back a little, letting go of the cloak and moving his hands to Sirius' waist. He would need to let go with one hand to get his wand. Why hadn't he considered that?

'I'm scared.'

Sirius turned his head to look over his shoulder and met Remus' eyes. 'It's okay, I won't let you fall.'

'Promise?'

'On my life.'

'Okay.'

Remus let go with his left hand, carefully reached into his pocket and pulled out his wand. He pointed it at the window, cast the spell, and the window clicked open.

'You did it!' Sirius said. 'Hold on tight. This is going to be tricky.'

Remus grabbed onto Sirius' waist again and felt the broom tilt forward as Sirius pushed down on the end to descend. He leant backwards to keep his uncovered face away from Sirius' back and kept his eyes on the back of Sirius' head as the broom headed towards the ground. As soon as his feet made contact, he slid off. His legs gave way beneath him and he collapsed in a heap.

'You okay, mate?' Sirius asked, dropping the broom on the floor and crouching down to check on him.

'Yeah, I just need a minute.'

'Alright, James and I are going to go back up. You did great.'

Remus nodded from where he sat with his back against the castle and his knees tucked into his chest. He wrapped his arms around his knees and bent his head down, hiding his face, and concentrated on breathing.

'I can't believe you did that,' Peter said, sitting down next to him. 'That was really brave.'

'Thanks, mate,' Remus mumbled.

Sirius and James returned victorious five minutes later, and they hurried up to their dorm room to store their prizes, keeping the broom hidden under the cloak.

They went for Slughorn next, and he turned out to be easy. Remus kept him talking at the door while Sirius snuck in under the cloak and grabbed a potion from the display.

McGonagall was going to be trickier. Not only would they need to get access to her personal quarters, but they would need to make it all the way into her bedroom. And they had only an hour left before lunch.

'The "I need help with my work" excuse isn't going to work on her. Remus is amazing at transfiguration, and she knows it,' Sirius had pointed out during their planning session

And thus Plan 18.a was born. The conversation had gone like this:

'Even if we manage to get in the door, we need her out of the room so we can get into the bedroom,' James said. 'What we need is a double decoy. We need someone in the office, and then we need a disturbance outside to draw her out.'

'Pete can be inside. She'll believe he needs help,' Sirius said. 'Sorry, Pete.'

Peter waved his apology away. 'No, it's true. I'm pants at Transfiguration.'

'But you rule at Potions. Can't be good at everything, can we?' Sirius said, patting him on the shoulder.

'Okay, but how do we get her out?' James asked.

Sirius shrugged. 'What if we stage an argument in the corridor and start flinging spells at each other?'

'We don't know any offensive spells yet.'

'Good point. Fine, we can just have a muggle fight then.'

'We'll have to make it realistic. We'll both get hurt,' James pointed out.

Sirius grinned. 'I'm game if you are.'

James grinned right back at him. 'Oh, it's on.'

'Awesome. That leaves Remus with the cloak to sneak in and grab the scarf,' Sirius said, turning to Remus.

He nodded. 'I can do that.'

And so, ten minutes after leaving Slughorn's office with a tiny vial of golden potion—which Sirius had eyed so longingly Remus was forced to take it from him, lest he drink it—they were in position. Peter was outside the door to Professor McGonagall's office, his actual essay on the theory of changing an object's shape in his hand. Remus was right next to him, shrouded by the folds of the invisibility cloak. James and Sirius were waiting around the nearest corner to begin their fake argument.

Peter knocked. A minute later, the door swung open, and Professor McGonagall stood there, looking down at him.

'Yes, Mister Pettigrew. Can I help you?'

Peter explained why he was there and McGonagall invited him inside, Remus slipped through the door after them and positioned himself next to the only other door in the room. A couple of minutes passed and McGonagall was deep into her lecture on transfiguration theory, with Peter looking bored out of his mind, when the sound of raised voices came from outside.

'Fuck you, Black!'

'Oh, that's an intelligent response. Great job, Potter. Big round of applause.'

'I'm gonna fucking kill you!'

'Not if I kill you first!'

That declaration was followed by a series of thumps.

'What on earth is going on out there?' Professor McGonagall asked, getting to her feet in a hurry. 'Sorry, Mister Pettigrew, please excuse me for a moment.'

As she got to her feet, Remus reached out and put his hand on the door handle, readying himself. The moment McGonagall disappeared from view, he turned it and slipped inside. A quick glance around revealed a good size sitting room with a single door leading off of it. He hurried over and entered the bedroom. Trying very hard not to think about what his professor did in this room, he dashed to the wardrobe. No scarves. Okay, drawers then, he thought, yanking open the top drawer of the five-tier chest. Nope, definitely not that one, he thought, feeling his face heat as he slammed it closed again. The second drawer down yielded results, though, and he pulled out a red and green tartan scarf with hints of yellow. Tucking it into his pocket, he shut the drawer and left the room. He listened at the door to the office and could hear McGonagall's loud voice still scolding James and Sirius for fighting like muggles in the hallway, so he slipped back into the room and Peter's worried face relaxed into a grin when he saw the door open and close.

Remus walked out into the corridor and found James and Sirius cowering before a red-faced McGonagall. He dashed to the end of the hallway, behind McGonagall, and pulled the cloak off, giving James and Sirius a wave, before darting around the corner.

They joined him a couple of minutes later. James was sporting a bloodied lip and Sirius looked to have a nice black eye developing.

'Gods, you two look terrible.'

Sirius waved off his concern. 'Did you get it?'

Remus pulled the scarf from his pocket and held it up with a grin.

'Then it was totally worth it. Nice job, mate.'

Peter arrived a few minutes later and was equally pleased to find their plan had worked.

'We've got fifty points, and it's only lunchtime. We are so going to win this,' he said.

'That's because we're awesome!' James crowed. 'Right, time for food. Remus, do you think the house-elves would mind if we joined you in the kitchen today?'

Remus thought about it. 'No, probably not.'

'Excellent, maybe we can get that saucepan at the same time.'

-o-o-o-o-

Sirius' eye throbbed in time with his heartbeat as he followed Remus down to the kitchen. It was nothing compared to what Remus had gone through so they could get into Flitwick's office, though, so he was damned if he was going to complain about it. James seemed to feel the same way about his split lip. Sirius was in awe of Remus' bravery, facing his phobia like that. He was incredible.

They reached a painting of a bowl of fruit, and Remus stopped, reached out and tickled the pear. The pear laughed, and the painting swung open. The kitchens were hidden behind a picture of food. Nice.

The smells that wafted out on the breeze made Sirius' stomach rumble. 'Merlin. I'm starving.'

'Good afternoon, Breen. My friends wanted to have lunch with me. Is that okay?' Remus asked a friendly-looking elf that had hurried over to them when they entered the room. These elves looked nothing like Kreacher. They all looked clean and happy.

'Oh. Of course. Master Remus. Your friends is most welcomes. Please sit down and we will brings you some food.'

'Master Remus?' Sirius said, raising an eyebrow at Remus and making him blush. Three times in one morning, he was on a roll.

They sat down at the small table, and Breen soon arrived with a tray of sandwiches and a pitcher of pumpkin juice. He hurried off again and, a moment later, returned with a small chocolate cake and four plates.

'Wow, this looks amazing. Thanks, Breen,' Peter said, and Sirius nodded his agreement.

'If it's not too much trouble, Breen, could we have a little fruit too?' James asked, and Sirius groaned.

'You and your blasted fruit, James.'

'It's good for you. Excuse me for wanting my friends to live a long time,' he huffed and crossed his arms.

The elf watched the exchange with wide eyes. 'It's no trouble. We have lots of fruit, masters,' he said before scurrying off and returning with a plate of cut fruits that smelled delicious. Okay, so maybe he didn't mind James' obsession with the stuff as much as he pretended to.

Once Breen had left them alone to eat, James leant forward and whispered, 'So, how are we going to get a saucepan?'

Sirius, who had just taken a massive bite out of a cheese and ham sandwich, just shrugged.

'Well, you're as much use as a chocolate cauldron. Remus, any ideas?'

'I think they'll notice if one of us disappears under the cloak.'

Sirius swallowed his food and said, 'What's through the other doors? Maybe we could go in one of those rooms, put the cloak on and come back.'

'One's the laundry, the other is the storage rooms,' Remus said. 'But they're both full of elves too.'

The laundry? Interesting. Sirius filed that away to think about later. 'Storage rooms?' he said instead. 'Anything good in there?'

'Not really. A lot of furniture and things.'

'You know. I reckon they might just give us a saucepan if we ask,' Peter said.

'That seems too easy,' James said.

Sirius shrugged. 'It's worth a shot. If they say no, it's only five points. We already have fifty.'

'Hey, excuse me?' James said to the nearest elf. 'I don't suppose we could borrow a saucepan for a few hours? We'll return it after dinner.'

'Oh. Of course. That's no problems at alls,' she said and fetched them one immediately.

'Thank you very much. We'll take very good care of it,' James said, taking the saucepan. The elf beamed at him and returned to her work.

'Well, that was easy. Great idea, Pete!' Sirius said, laughing.

'Fifty-five points. What do we have left?' James asked before answering his own question without waiting for a response. 'The trophy and the book will be a piece of cake. The telescope is going to be awkward, though. No idea how we're going to carry that through the school without being seen. And do any of you even know where the Divination classroom is?'

They all shook their heads.

'Let's get the book and the trophy and worry about the other two after that.' Sirius checked his watch. 'We have three hours left.'

It took them less than an hour to steal a trophy from the trophy room and a book from the restricted section of the library. Sirius had been tempted to take the volume he spotted on werewolves just to see how Remus would react, but decided that was too cruel and reluctantly put it back, opting instead for a much smaller and easier to carry book called Magicks Moste Ancient.

They had two hours left and were standing at the top of the astronomy tower, eyeing a telescope and wondering how the hell they were going to transport it back to their dorm. Well, that's what Sirius was thinking, anyway. He assumed the others were thinking the same thing, but for all he knew, they could have been considering the best way to capture a Cornish pixie.

'How many secret passages do we know about between here and Gryffindor tower?' Remus asked. Okay, so they were thinking about the telescope problem too, good.

'Only a couple that'll be useful,' James said. 'We'll have to do most of the journey in the open.'

'What about, instead of taking it all the way up to the dorm, we just take it to the third floor and hide it somewhere near classroom 12c?' Peter suggested.

'That would cut the journey in half. Great idea. But we still need to work out a way to carry it,' Sirius said.

They eventually decided to wrap the telescope in the cloak and carry it between the four of them as they walked closely together as a group. As an extra precaution, whenever they saw someone coming they would dart into the nearest room and wait for them to pass. It was a long-winded process, and by the time they reached the third-floor corridor, they had just forty-five minutes to find the Divination classroom, steal a teapot, grab the rest of their gains and get back to the classroom for the count.

'I think it's time to split up,' Sirius said as they hid the telescope in an unused cupboard. 'It won't take four of us to steal a teapot.'

'I agree. One of us should go after the teapot, the rest can help bring everything down to the classroom. The teapot thief will have to go cloakless, though. We need it to hide the broom.'

'I'll go after the teapot,' Sirius said.

James nodded. 'Good man. Remember, get back here by four, teapot or no teapot.'

James, Remus and Peter headed off towards the Grand Staircase, and Sirius went the other way, looking for someone he could ask for directions. He soon found an older student in Gryffindor robes and stopped her to ask if she knew where the Divination classroom was.

'Taking part in the Niffler Hunt, are you? How are you getting on?'

'Quite well, but there isn't long left. Do you know where it is?'

She nodded. 'Top of the north tower, through a trapdoor in the ceiling. Good luck.'

'Thanks,' he called over his shoulder as he ran off.

He reached the north tower in record time and stopped at the bottom of the steps to catch his breath. Eyeing the stairs, he started to regret volunteering for this mission. They spiralled upwards in endless circles and he made a mental note not to take Divination.

He reached the top, a hot, sweaty mess, and checked his watch. Half-past three. He climbed up the ladder and pushed the trapdoor open just enough to peek inside. The room was dim but appeared to be empty, so he pushed the door open all the way and climbed through. He glanced around and spotted the teapots, lined up on shelves on the back wall. He hurried over, grabbed one and put it in his bag. Success.

'Hello, young man. Are you lost?'

Sirius swung around and saw a very old lady with silvery-white hair emerging through the trapdoor.

'Err. Yeah, I was just exploring and wondered what was up here. What is this room? It's so strange.'

'It's the Divination classroom. I hope I'll see you here in a couple of years?'

'Um, yeah, maybe. I better go. Sorry to disturb you.'

'No problem at all, dear. Have a nice day, won't you?'

Sirius turned, made his way to the trapdoor and began to descend the ladder, pulling the trapdoor closed behind him. Just before it closed fully, the Divination professor called out, 'Do take care of that teapot, it's one of my favourites.'

Sirius snorted and shook his head. That was a nice touch, waiting until the last second to reveal she knew what he was up to. At least it seemed like she didn't mind. He hurried back down the stairs, getting dizzier by the second, and made it to the third-floor classroom with minutes to spare. James, Remus and Peter were waiting for him.

'Did you get it?' James asked eagerly.

'Merlin, James. Let him catch his breath first,' Remus said.

Sirius nodded but didn't speak. He was too busy trying to get air into his lungs.

'Come on, let's get inside. We don't want to be disqualified for being ten seconds late,' Peter said.

They entered the room to find they were one of the last teams to arrive. A team of Ravenclaws followed them in seconds later, and then a loud bong sounded and the words "Times Up!" appeared on the back wall of the stage in the same fiery letters as before. The suit of armour clanked back onto the stage and waved.

'Congratulations, Nifflers! I know you've all worked very hard to find all the items on your lists. Let's begin the count! Who wants to go first?'

'Let's go last,' James whispered to the others. 'It'll be more impressive.'

They all nodded in agreement. The count seemed to drag on forever. Some of the teams had collected a few of the five-point items. One team had even managed to get a decorative tool from Sprout. Diggory's team was looking very smug, having achieved forty-five points by collecting all the single point items and all the five-point items, except the telescope. No one had a telescope.

When everyone else had presented their collections, James stepped forward.

'Team name?' the suit of armour asked.

'The Magical Mischief Makers,' James answered, puffing out his chest.

Some of the older students watching laughed. They wouldn't be laughing for long, Sirius thought.

'And what do you have?'

Peter walked forward first, dumping out the contents of his bag onto the floor in front of the suit of armour.

'A muggle pen, a purple sock, a blue button, a pair of sunglasses and a paintbrush,' the suit of armour listed. 'Five points.'

Remus stepped forward and presented the trophy, saucepan and book, followed by Sirius, who produced the teapot from his bag.

The suit of armour announced the names of the items for the benefit of the crowd, finishing with, 'That's a total of twenty-five points for the Magical Mischief Makers.'

'Oh, we're not done yet,' Sirius said with a grin. 'We'll be right back.'

The four of them dashed out of the room. Remus grabbed the broomstick, and Sirius helped James pick up the heavy telescope and carry it carefully into the room to the most enjoyable sound of gasps of awe.

'How did they get that here without being caught?' someone said.

'Thirty-five points. It's an impressive haul but not quite enough I'm afraid,' the suit of armour said.

James rubbed his chin and nodded sadly before dramatically perking up and asking, 'What about if we add these?'

They each reached into their bags one more time, pulled out the last of their items and held them up. Sirius was holding the tartan scarf, James the jewel-encrusted trowel, Remus had the small vial of golden potion and Peter the gold medal from Flitwick.

There was a moment of stunned silence before the room went wild with hoots, cheers and clapping. All except for Diggory and his team, who looked about ready to murder them. Sirius took a bow and saw James doing the same out of the corner of his eye. They were so alike.

'Seventy-five points! Folks, we have a winner! Please return here after dinner to collect your reward. Your items will be checked for trickery in the meantime. Thank you all for taking part in the Hogwarts Annual Super Secret Niffler Hunt. I hope to see you all again next year.'

Their prize turned out to be a selection of treats from Honeydukes, much to Peter and Remus' delight. Sirius spent the evening with his friends, celebrating their tremendous victory and relishing in the thought of the infamy it had undoubtedly bought them. Life was good.

-o-o-o-o-

A/N The line 'Hufflepuff's are particularly good finders,' is taken from A Very Potter Musical by StarKid Productions. If you haven't seen it, it's on YouTube and I recommend watching it. It's hilarious. XD

Chapter 18

[andrew-big-dick-energy-minyard]

Secret enemy

I was going to make this a fic last year but I forgot about it until now so uh anyway:

It’s pretty rare that South Carolina has snow. It’s even more rare when it piles up enough to play in the snow

So of course when the foxes woke up to a mountain of snow it was only natural that they do a snow ball fight

After the great snow disaster of the year before during their trip to a ski lodge however, some rules had to be put in place

This is when Nicky’s stupid amazing idea comes into play

The way it works is that everybody would put a slip of paper with their name on it in a hat and everyone would draw out a name. Whoever’s name you got would be your target. From there you could only hit that person with snowballs and if you hit someone else, or whoever had your name hit you, you would get a point. Person with the least amount of points wins

Nicky dubbed it Secret enemy because It was kinda like secret Santa but instead of presents you just got pelted with snow.

Everyone goes along with it even Aaron, mostly just because Katelyn was joining, but he joined all the same. He’ll wish he didn’t though

Everyone gathered up slips of papers and a hat and proceeded to draw names out until everyone had one

Andrew’s face was neutral like usual and Renee, Kevin, and Katelyn seemed ok with there’s. Aaron didn’t really mind who he got either.

Allison and Nicky looked extremely pleased with whoever they got, Dan had a deep grimace on her face, and Neil... Neil looked like he was a kid in a candy store

Not long after they all headed down stairs and went to a nice little place on campus that had plenty of room and cover for the game

It was decided that Renee would be the one to call out when they started and all the foxes waited in anticipation. As soon as Renee yelled start all hell broke loose

Allison showed no mercy as she pelted Matt with snowball after snowball and Nicky showed Allison the same amount of ruthlessness

Katelyn was trying to hit Renee but within minutes of the match starting she found the task to be next to impossible

Renee was playing it nice and had only hit Dan a couple of times and Dan was mostly just taking cover. It looked like her secret enemy was Andrew and she wasn’t going to try to hit him with a snowball because she valued her life

Aaron managed to get Nicky a couple of times and he had to admit hearing Nicky complain each time he got hit was pretty funny

Kevin wasn’t really playing, not seeing the point or at least he wasn’t until Andrew upheaved a bucket of snow down his jacket. Andrew soon retreated back to the dorm after that. Kevin actually did throw some snowballs at Katelyn after that and his cometitive drive kept him playing

Aaron would never admit it but he was actually having a lot of fun

Was having a lot of fun

It didn’t occur to him that Neil had gone missing since the beginning of the game and that Aaron hadn’t been hit with a single snow ball until Neil came bursting out of the trees like a bat out of hell with a shit ton of ammo near his feet and his eyes set on Aaron

Aaron got hit with snow ball after snow ball and even after taking cover Neil would find a way around to get in more hits

At this point Aaron didn’t care about the rules and he tried to hurl a couple snowballs at Neil but Neil was like a fucking whack a mole, you never knew where he’d pop up next

The end of the game came fast and by that point Aaron was soaked and pissed

He had been able to get a couple of good hits in on Neil but the pleased smirk on Neil’s face made it seem like nothing touched him the whole game

Aaron was going to kill him

The foxes all went inside for the rest of the day and Aaron took a quick shower before burrowing under a mountain of blankets

At the very least it was over and he didn’t have to worry about Neil and the stupid snowball game anymore

Or so he thought

The next couple of days after, as Aaron went to his different classes, met Katelyn for dates, or went to practice he would be hit with at least one snow ball by one piece of shit Neil Josten

Aaron would have snapped his neck if it weren’t for Andrew

After complaining to Katelyn about it and wanting to get revenge she talked him out of doing anything rash. Also with the snow melting fast it’s not like Aaron had a way to retaliate without down right killing Neil

At the very least Neil couldn’t hit Aaron if there was no snow on the ground. The crisis was avoided

It was maybe mid Febuary and Aaron had mostly forgot about the whole secret enemy thing

There was a big biology test coming up and he went to the library to study with Katelyn when it happened

Aaron had sat down at a table and started to look around for Katelyn when out of the corner of his eye he saw what looked like red hair

Aaron turned to fully face the person approaching him to get a face full of ice and the last glimpse of Neil josten as he left the library in a hurry

This was the last straw

Aaron gathered up his stuff, texted Katelyn that he would be late, and hauled ass across campus to get back to the dorm

He climbed the stairs and made his way to Neil’s room before knocking violently

When the door opened he was ready to wrap his hands around Neil’s neck but he quickly realized that Andrew was the one who opened the door

He quilled his anger enough to ask where Neil is and not push his way past

Andrew gave him a bored look before letting Aaron in and to his surprise a fucking snow cone machine was planted on the counter

Aaron turned to Andrew to ask what the fuck that was about but he finally noticed Andrew’s bowl of snow cone with a shit ton of flavored syrup and it clicked

Neil got a snow cone machine to not only continuously torture him but also at the same time have it be justified by giving Andrew something to eat

No one would question why Neil got the machine because they would assume he got it as a present for Andrew. The little shit

Aaron glared at the machine before turning to Andrew again and asking where Neil is

Andrew stuck another couple of spoonfuls of the mostly syrup mess in his mouth before gesturing toward a board that was on the wall. On it was Neil’s school schedule

Aaron took a picture of Neil’s schedule and slipped out of the room. It was time to plan

Fast forward to Wednesday after Andrew and Aaron’s joint session

Andrew was suppose to stay after with bee to talk about something but bee got an emergence call and had to leave early so Andrew left with Aaron

As soon as they enter the building Neil rounds the corner and throws a snow ball

At first Neil kept his smug face but it morphed into horror as he realized that he hit Andrew square in the fucking face

Aaron doesn’t think he’s ever seen Neil turn tail and run faster than in this moment

Andrew has the same expression on his face but he turns to Aaron and says “be at the dorm at 2 am,” before heading to the changing rooms

Aaron follows suit but the thought of what Andrew would want from him that late sticks in the back of his mind

It isn’t until Aaron enters the room at 2:02 and that Aaron understands what Andrew wanted from him

Looks like he wouldn’t need to make a plan after all

Full bags of ice are scattered on the ground near a large tub that’s waiting to be filled

Andrew opens the freezer to get the last bag and hands it to Aaron

The two work in silence until the tub is full and then they each bend down to grab a side

It was a bit heavy but Aaron didn’t mind so long as he got his revenge

Andrew opened the door and led Aaron to Neil who was curled up on Andrew’s bed fast asleep and with a slight heave they uplifted the whole tub of ice on top of Neil

Neil startled awake and quickly assessed his surrounds only to see Andrew’s apathetic stare and a shit eating grin on Aaron’s face

Suffice to say, Aaron spent the rest of the semester snowball free and if when he goes over to Andrew’s dorm he notices that the freezer is always stocked with Andrew’s favorite ice cream he doesn’t mention it