18 Firsties in Trouble

[Hogwarts, Great Hall, September 12th, 1991]

"You really said that to Snape? What a mad lad!" Moses said while laughing. Ron just told him what happened in their potions and how Harry talked back at Snape for targeting him with advanced questions about potions that he couldn't answer.

"Well, I don't even know why I talked to him like that, I guess I just got all frustrated because he seems to hate me," Harry replied in thought.

"Well, you better lay low with Professor Snape for now, even though he has a questionable personality, he's a great teach." Moses replied while munching some green apples.

"By the way, why are you sitting here at Gryffindor? Is it allowed to sit at another House's table?" Ron asked Moses while squinting his eyes at him.

"Well, there isn't any rule about it, so why not?"

"Lookie, what have we here, Fred?", "Oh, is it the famous Prince of Ravenclaw?"

Two voices spoke behind Moses as one of them laid their hand on his shoulder, and the other ruffled his hair playfully.

Moses laughed at their antics and said, "Stop it, guys!" Moses said.

"And I'm not a prince, though I do indeed look like one." He continued, flexing his brow.

"Oh stop it, you prat," Fred said as he pushed Moses' head away from his hand.

"But seriously, where have you heard that one?" Moses inquired as he continued munching his food.

"Well, every girl in every house, of course, even the Slytherin has its hots on you.", "Yeah, especially when you helped that girl named Sue Li, you know how girls are, they blabbed amongst themselves particularly when they're talking about boys." Fred and George commented,

"I see...well, just let them talk about me, what could go wrong, right?" Moses muttered as he shrugged nonchalantly.

"Eye rabbit, harp string hum. Turn this water into rum."

"What's Seamus trying to do to that glass of water?" Harry asked,

"Turn it into rum. Actually managed a weak tea yesterday, before..." Ron replied, but before he could finish, Moses, Fred, and George simultaneously uttered.

"It exploded."

BANG!

With that explosion, Seamus stared at the goblet with widened eyes, his hair was burned a little, causing it to have a funny look, causing the others to laugh at him.

"You really got a talent for that, mate," said Moses.

"Ahh, mail's here," Ron muttered while looking up.

Moses looked at where Ron was looking and saw a bunch of owls carrying different objects with their claws, mostly letters. He looked around for a second and found what he was looking for—a dark crow glided down towards him and perched on his shoulder, carrying a rolled piece of paper in its feet.

KRAW!* KRAW!*

"Hey, look, he has a crow.", "It looks scary." The students around them murmured to themselves, but Moses just ignored them.

"Good day, Erebus," Moses greeted while caressing his crow's neck, to which the bird purred affectionately. Moses untied the letter from his crow's feet and unfolded the piece of paper.

As Moses read it, a confused look appeared on his face. The others noticed it, so Fred asked what the matter was.

"Nothing, it looks like I will not be able to spend my Christmas here," Moses replied.

"What? Why?" Harry asked with a sad expression.

"Father Orsi said that both of us would spend Christmas in Poland. He said that he wants to visit someone there who was an orphan at our orphanage before too." Moses replied while looking at the letter; he dropped the letter and looked at Harry.

"I'm sorry, Harry, Ron."

"Don't worry about it, Moses." Harry said to Moses with a defeated smile. After saying that, Harry borrowed a Daily Prophet newspaper from Ron.

"Uhm...Moses, a letter arrived for Wednesday, but she didn't receive it." A voice spoke behind them.

Moses turned around and saw Lisa Turpin holding a letter with a black seal and a big letter A on it.

"I see; thanks, Lisa. I'll give it to her later," said Moses as he received the letter.

"Hey, look! Neville's got a Remembrall," said Dean Thomas while looking at the glass ball that Neville's holding.

"Remembrall?" Moses muttered questioningly.

"I've read about those. When the smoke turns red, it means you've forgotten something." Hermione explained, answering Moses's question in the process.

"The only problem is, I can't remember what I've forgotten," Neville said, to which Moses laughed while uttering, "Oh, the irony."

Suddenly, Harry who was reading a Daily Prophet, uttered with haste,

"Hey, Ron, Moses! Somebody broke into Gringotts. Listen." He whispered as he continued.

In short, the same day that Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen was also the same day that someone broke into Gringotts who was intending to steal something from that same vault. Hermione made a look of suspicion, and Moses had a hard time stopping his laugh because it looked so cute and funny.

----------------------

Sleeping...that was what I was doing when suddenly I was rudely interrupted by a knock at the door. I groaned in frustration as I looked at the time on my clock.

"What the..." I muttered, a little annoyed at my disturber. I stood up begrudgingly while rubbing my eyes.

"What is it?" I asked as I opened the door. After seeing who was knocking, however, I was shocked.

"What the—Hermione? How did you get in here?" I asked the bushy-haired girl in front of me. Confused at how she was here even though there's an enchantment in the door entrance that denies other houses from entering even if they answered the riddle correctly.

"Well, I had help from that girl, Wednesday."

'That girl... sighs. Is this my punishment from her for catching me opening her letter in the act? I knew I shouldn't have done that...' I thought in defeat, while remembering what happened earlier. I was supposed to give it to her already, but my curiosity got the best of me, and I almost opened her letter, and when I opened it, she caught me.

'I wasn't able to read it anyway, so why do this to me, Wednesday!'

"Anyways, Moses! You have to come with me right now, the boys are being idiots. Draco Malfoy asked them for a wand duel, and they took it like a bunch of—Ugh! Just come!" She yelled while panicking as she grabbed my shoulder and dragged me outside of my room.

After walking through the hallways stealthily, afraid of being caught by Mr. Filch, we arrived at where Harry and Ron were hiding and saw them there.

"What the hell are both of you thinking?" I expressed my displeasure with them in hushed tones.

"Moses!" Both of them exclaimed, they looked behind me and noticed Hermione.

"You snitc—" Ron stared, but before he could finish his sentence, I covered his mouth with my hand.

"Shh...Filch and his cat are coming. Let's go." I said while looking down at the magical signature moving below us.

"How do you know tha—

"Just follow me and shut up for a minute, Ron. We're already in deeper trouble than it is. That cat's nose is absurdly sensitive, she will find us in no time." I said while looking at him intensely. We walked from floor to floor, with me leading the way; we couldn't just go straight up or they'd find us. After finding a vacant room, I confronted both of them.

"Now...tell me what were you two doing and why did you do it?" I asked with a serious tone in my voice.

"Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to Harry.

"You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you — Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."

"Shhh...Let them talk, Hermione." I said to her, once she heard me, she backed down and relaxed herself with a deep breath.

"I—You're... I'm sorry, Hermione. We were baited by that git, Malfoy. He said he wants a duel around this time to settle it once and for all. I didn't know he would do this." Harry said, his voice tinged with guilt. Hermione's expression softened when she heard Harry speak, and she smiled slightly.

"But, We can't just ignore him! It's a wizard's duel for Merlin's sake!" Ron complained with a dissatisfied look.

"Sigh~. I know what you're talking about, Ron. That spoiled brat is really annoying, but you can't just be triggered by everything that he says. Malfoy's a Slytherin, and as far as I know, Slytherins are cunning, most of the words that they say have a hidden agenda or meaning. You can't just trust everything he says, can you?" I said, defeatedly.

"Bu—sigh—You're right, Moses. I'm sorry." Ron said with a sorry expression.

"Apologies accepted. Now, if you want to ruin Malfoy's day, I just know someone who's up for the task. Just trust me." I said to them with a mischievous smile. The two boys' eyes widened with anticipation when they saw my mischievous smile, while Hermione grabbed her forehead and shook her head, clearly tired of our antics.

"Tut, tut, Tut. Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty, hihihihi."

"Bloody Hell it's Peeves!" Ron exclaimed in fright.

"Should tell Filch, I should..." He muttered while nodding, mocking us.

'This bast—sigh~'

"It's for your own good, you know?" Peeves uttered as he floated towards where Filch is.

"Wait!" I called out to him.

"Hmmm, what is it Firstie?" He asked as he looked back at me.

"You're a trickster, right?" I inquired, my gaze drawn to his ghostly apparition eyes.

"Trickster? Indeed, I am!" He agreed gleefully.

"Hmm...then you're only an amateur one, I mean, you're targeting a bunch of 'firsties' here, instead of tricking someone with a higher status. I expected something more from the famous poltergeist trickster of Hogwarts, but I guess it's true what they say. Never meet your heroes if you don't want to be disappointed." I muttered while holding my head down, acting a little sad and disappointed.

"Yo—Your hero...?" Peeves asked with his eyes widening.

"Yeah, I mean, George and Fred told me about you, and since then I've been a fan of yours because of your pranks, y'know? You can go and tell Filch about us now, it's okay—Sniff*, sniff* I understand." I added while wiping a fake tear from my eyes.

"I've never been someone's hero before..." Peeves muttered while looking up, seemingly in thought.

"Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner." Filch's voice struck us into horror as I widened my eyes while glancing at others.

"Go! I'll take care of him for you firsties!" Peeves suggested with an elated look.

"Really? You'll do that for us?" I was a little astonished. I didn't know that would work. But it is what it is. I guess I'm just a good actor, huh...what do they call that award again? Moscar...? Yeah, I should have a Moscar Award.

'Hehe.'

"Of course! Anything for my fan... wait, what's your name again, firstie?" He asked me.

"Me name's Moses, Peeves. Thank you for this, my hero!~" With that last encouragement to Peeves, I grabbed Harry's and Hermione's robes and took our run.

"Merlin's twisted balls. How did you do that?" Ron spoke with a hint of fascination in his voice.

"Hehe, I'm a Ravenclaw for a reason, Ron." I said this boastfully while moving my eyebrow up and down. We were moving up a stair when suddenly the stair moved on its own, redirecting us from our destination. The stair stopped as it took us to a wooden door that was locked.

"Tsk, we'll need some time before we can move again. Let's take cover in this room first, or Filch will easily catch us if we're still standing out here in the open." I explained to them as I stepped forward to the wooden door.

"Filch thinks this door is locked, so we will be okay inside here for the meantime." I said as I looked at Hermione.

"Hermione, would you do me the honors, please." I suggested to Hermione, to which she gleefully nodded. Noticing that she didn't bring a wand with her, I let her borrow mine.

"Thank you," She thanked me with a confident smile as she received it. She pointed my wand at the lock and tapped it as she whispered,

"Alohomora!"

Click*

With the click of the door, the four of us hastily went inside and shut it quickly.

"Good girl, Hermione." I complimented her while patting her head.

Unknown to Moses, Hermione blushed red out of embarrassment, but because of how dark it was, he didn't manage to see it.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying.

"Quick, tell me."

"Say 'please.'" Peeves said with an annoying voice.

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.

"All right — please."

"NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And we heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"Hahaha, that poltergeist is a real trickster." I commented with a laugh as I sat my ass down the ground.

"Uhh...Moses..." I heard Harry mutter.

"Yeah?" I asked him while closing my eyes due to exhaustion and drowsiness.

"I think we're in deep trouble." He said this, which made me look at him because I noticed he was looking at something at our back. I turned my head and looked at where he was looking and when I saw it, I uttered in a tired lifeless voice.

"...No shit."

[]Don't forget my powerstones![]