"No!" roared Hyunjin, desperately, his hands in his black locks, shifting his weight to part as much as he could from the table, while still staying balanced on the bench. "It worked! It worked!"

Changbin's gaze was still fixed at the Slytherin table: it had indeed worked.

Song Mingi was standing on his feet while screaming incontrollably, jumping from his right to his left foot without looking to be able to stop any time soon – and on the wooden surface of the table before him, a giant, black-looking slimy creature. It had caused the boy to break into the loudest scream the Ravenclaw had heard in quite sometime, and Mingi wasn't the only one to be yelling anymore.

Changbin could well see why people would scream anyways: when he thought of something really scary, the worst that came to mind was his mother running after him with a slipper in her hand. He certainly couldn't have foreseen Mingi's worst fear to be bugs.

"Oh, c'mon!" he had muttered after he'd had his first glance at the boggart. "A giant ant? That's not even realistic!"

Hyunjin had been too busy acting like the drama queen he was to even hear the exclamation.

Suddenly, Changbin wished they'd let the boggart slip into one of the Gryffindor's tray: while loud and sometimes obnoxious, the Gryffins had a great sense of humor and were better at coping with scary situations – theirs was the House of courage, after all.

And instead, following their first instinct, he and Hyunjin had happily got the boggart into hiding in one of the various trays ready to be sent to the Slytherin's table.

Changbin had hoped Wooyoung would be the one to open it first: his friend always acted like the coolest chick, and never showed his weaknesses. It would've been nice to see for a change something that could actually make him scared.

It'll be for another time, thought Changbin wearily. That morning, surely, Wooyoung was making no display of his supposed weaknesses, laughing his ass off alongside other Slytherins and pointing at the poor victim screaming helplessy.

Truth be told, Mingi was not completely wrong either: that creature could well be described as a monster, and Changbin too thought it quite creepy. But how could you be afraid of something that didn't even exist?

The Ravenclaw shifted his focus to the friend as soon as he saw Bang Chan move quickly from his table to the Slytherin's: wand in his right hand, he looked as healthy as could be. Changbin was sure he'd solve the question soon enough, and was not too concerned about the consequences either: boggarts always hid in very dark and humid places; so what fault could he have it that one had found the english porridge's tray fit? As far as he could see, no one.

"Jinnie, tone it down", he whispered instead. "The Prefects still don't suspect us, it would be ill done to get us discovered now".

"It worked!" insisted the friend, desperate. "Worked! That means our stalker did not know about the plan! We have to come up with something else!"

Changbin rolled his eyes: his friend's insistence did not even allow him to enjoy the outcome of their well-done prank: he could tell from Wooyoung's loud laughter that something funny was going on, yet he was focused on Hyunjin – and had one only been focusing on him, they would've guessed his cat had just died of some painful and terrible death.

"Jinnie, if you come to think of it, it makes perfect sense – there is a possibility our stalker didn't know what we were doing..." started Changbin, trying to make the friend reason.

"Yes, but small. If he is our stalker, he'd've known!" stubbornly replied the younger Ravenclaw.

"Maybe we don't have a stalker after all!" exclaimed Changbin, who was now seriously starting to consider that option.

"Don't be stupid. How else would you explain the Water Ball fiasco?" Hyunjin sassed, crossing his arms.

"Maybe a Prefect walked past by mere accident..." Changbin frowned. He couldn't know – could he? But he also found it stupid to assume a stalker to exist without having actual evidence.

"You know they didn't, because we purposely placed it there so that at night none would accidentally walk past by" Hyunjin had leaned more towards the friend, so that none could hear what they were talking about. "Our stalker must have a fine sense of humor, that's all".

Changbin looked at him in skepticism. "Care to explain out stalker's 'fine sense of humor'" the boy mimed the 'quote on quote' with both his hands, "then?"

"I'd be most pleased to", answered quickly Hyunjin, and immediately took a different connotation: it now looked like he was attending some private secret-agents rendez-vous. "So – say he knew about today's prank, but he didn't think it worth stopping".

"If he wanted to get us caught he could easily get it done with any prank he'd decide to choose" pointed out Changbin.

"Yes, but what for?" asked Hyunjin, now completely immersed in whatever strange reasoning was going on inside that wicked brain of his. "To boast about having got us caught for writing on the Owlery's walls?"

"That was during our first year..." weakly replied Changbin: he could not forget, it'd been their first ever prank together.

"Such good times..." said Hyunjin, his eyes looking at the ceiling as if reminiscing the old days. "But gone. We've done bigger and greater deeds..."

"Hyunjin, we're literally like... highschool pranksters" replied Changbin. "Not knights".

"We're Hogwarts pranksters" retorted the friend. "And our catching would bring whoever was to make that move a pretty well-known name within these walls".

"So, what d'you suggest?" inquired Changbin.

"We make an even bigger prank".

"Bigger than the Water Ball?" Changbin could not think of something bigger – or at least, if they were to act still within common sense.

"I say we keep the Water Ball" replied Hyunjin. "But we place it a few floors higher – say... the seventh floor".

"A few floors higher... so that it'll invest the whole castle!" completed Changbin, now starting to get the essence of the plan. "How did we not think of that earlier".

"Destiny" answered Hyunjin majestically. "It's because we have been made to act this way. Well – that, or we'd better have listened to Yeji before acting, last time".

~🤍~
Yeji knows better😔✊🏻

anyhow, how are y'all doing? i've been okay, other that having gone through my pre-period days recently... it's always the time of the month i like least, bc i always feel so bloated and disgusting🥴.

on a scale 1/10, how important would you make appearance be?
for me it'd be a solid 9, i seriously think i care about it too much...

see you on monday, with whoever person i shall judge fit to cover by then! ;)

Vic🌙.