Sisters; Can't Live With Them, Can't Prank Without Them

One man went to mow...

"Why would Professor Browen want to know how we did it?" Lione asked.

"Maybe he respects such a professional job," Gregory suggested smugly.

"He's a teacher," Lucy reminded him. "He's not allowed to respect a prank. Besides, why would he be pleased when we bombed his room as well?"

"Or maybe," said Gregory. "He suspected that Lio and Lucy were involved as well and he just wanted you to confirm it."

"I don't think so," I said.

It was breakfast the next day and I had just told them what had happened at my detention. They were just as freaked out as I was.

"You know what would make so much sense," said Lione." If Browen was the guy in the invisibility cloak in the corridor that night. We know he has one and we know that only a prankster could get in to the room so if Browen were a former prankster then he would be able to have got in and out. Hence us passing him that night."

"But there's no Browen on the board," said Lucy.

"Exactly."

"So it doesn't make sense."

"I know. I never said it did. I just said it might but it obviously doesn't."

"So why did you say it?"

"I don't know. Just something to say really."

"Doesn't anybody want to know what happened in my detention with Hagrid?" Gregory prompted.

"Does it have any relevance on to who was in the corridor?" Lucy asked. "Or who smudged up the prankster chart? Or why Browen was so interested in our prank the other night?"

"No-"

"Then no, we're not really interested."

"We met this cool centaur and he kept going on about the stars! And there was this unicorn but it wouldn't come near us and Hagrid told me why but I can't remember it now. And it was the-"

"Sheesh," I said. "You're turning into Lucy."

"Leigh." Melanie had come over and was sitting next to Lione with her head rested on her hand. "Is it true?"

"No," said Lione promptly.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say."

"It wasn't me," said Lione. "You can't prove it was me. There were no witnesses, I checked."

"No," said Mel. "Is it true what Jane Jordan said about you?"

"Ohhh! No."

"Are you going to let me tell you what she said?"

"No."

"Is no the only thing you can actually say?"

Lione considered this. "No."

"What's Jane Jordan saying now?" Gregory asked.

"Is it true that your Granddad was a Death Eater, Leigh?"

We stared at Lione in shock. Lione didn't react. She merely turned to look Melanie straight in the eye and said,

"No. Was yours?"

Melanie looked confused. "My Granddad's a Muggle."

Lione managed to put on a surprised look. "Really? So's my Grandma! We have so much in common."

Even I could tell that Lione was putting on an act. We all knew her well enough to know that she would never take anything like that so lightly. I didn't think she was lying. I believed her when she said her Grandfather wasn't a Death Eater. But it was still a soft spot for her.

"But is he?" Melanie pressed. "Or was he? Or whatever."

"No," said Lione.

"Ah," said Melanie knowingly. "What about the other one?"

"I can tell you with complete and utter honesty that neither of my grandfathers and neither of my grandmothers and neither of my parents were, or are, Death Eaters."

"How do you even what a Death Eater is, Mel?" I teased.

Melanie gave me a look. "Everyone knows what Death Eaters are."

"I just thought you wouldn't because you didn't know who Lord Voldemort was."

Melanie laughed. "Don't be stupid, Joseph," she said. "Only a complete idiot wouldn't know whom Voldemort was." she turned back to Lione. "So why did Jane tell me that your Granddad was a Death Eater if he isn't."

"For many reasons I suppose. She knows you like me and she doesn't like that. My Grandparents might give the impression of being a bit creepy. And she hates me."

"Are you still staying with them this Easter?" Gregory asked.

Lione groaned and banged her head on the table. "They're evil!" she declared.

"What do you mean they're evil?"

"They make me wear dresses."

Melanie winced. "Harsh."

***

Later that day we had History of Magic. I have to admit that History of Magic is rather boring the way Professor Binns taught it but the stuff we learnt was really interesting. All about goblin riots and the Wizarding wars. Unfortunately Lucy, Lione and Gregory didn't find it as fascinating as me and spent most of the lessons mucking around at the back. I was convinced that Lione must have had a Quick Quotes Quill because she never seemed to pay attention yet she always made annoying thorough notes. I always had to listen to Professor Binns with half an ear because in our whispered conversations at the back of History of Magic class was where we made our best plans and if I didn't pay attention to the others they'd make up some insane plan that was always impossible for dozens of reasons. And almost always undoable because we didn't know where we could get a sacrificial goat. That day, however, we were sitting in a strange silence, obediently making clear and useful notes while we tried to ignore the smoke that was coming up from under the teacher's desk. We were doing so well at ignoring it, in fact, that Lucy didn't even giggle until the first row started coughing. The purple smoke filled the room and, amazingly, not one person made a comment. And Professor Binns didn't seem to know it was there. It wasn't until Lione called out that he paid any attention to it.

"Er... Professor," she said.

"Yes," said Binns, "What is it?"

"I can't see the board sir."

"Then I suggest you move."

"I don't think that will help, sir, but I'll try."

"Professor," said Gregory.

"What is it now?"

"Professor the smoke is making my throat sore, can I get a glass of water?"

"If you must. Now where was I?"

"You do realise there's smoke in the room," said Anya as Gregory got up to leave.

"Smoke?"

"Yes, sir. It's filling the room. It's purple."

"Oh yes, that smoke."

"Maybe we should evacuate the classroom," she suggested.

"Good idea. Class dismissed."

Once we were outside Lucy burst in to such a huge giggling fit that when Gregory came back with his glass of water he had to throw it over her. We were enjoying our newly found afternoon off when Melanie came along the corridor, grumbling.

"What's up with you?" Gregory asked.

"Snape just took twenty point off me for singing in class," she said.

"What were you singing?" Lucy asked.

I winced in anticipation.

"You can try to resist, try to hide from my kiss,

But you know, but you know that you,

Can't fight the moonlight,

Deep in the dark, you'll surrender you heart,

But you know, don't you know that you,

Can't fight the moonlight.

No, you can't fight it,

It's gonna get to your heart."

"Okay, okay," I said. "You could have just told us."

"Well that's not a bad song," said Lucy. "Why did he take points off you?"

"He thought it was annoying."

"For once I agree with him," I muttered.

"But what's annoying about it?" Lucy persisted. "It's a great song."

"That's what Kat said. Then he said that he thought all songs were annoying. Especially ones sang by eleven-year-olds."

"That's outrageous!" Gregory cried.

"I know! I'm twelve!"

"If he thinks singing is annoying," said Lione, grinning. "Then let's give something to be annoyed about."

"Oh yay!" cried Lucy. "I know! We're gonna put a charm on all the suits of armour so they sing 'Who let the dogs out' whenever he walks past! And then once he gets to the point where he's in his room at night and thinks that at least he won't hear that song again till the next morning he opens a book and it starts singing! Great idea Kettle!"

We stared.

"Although I agree that that is a good idea," said Lione. "That wasn't what I was thinking of. I was thinking of song tag."

"Song tag?"

"Yeah. One person starts a song and the next has to sing the next verse. The trick is to see how many people you can get through. By the end of the game everyone is always completely sick of the song."

"But I doubt there's a song with enough verses to go through everybody at Hogwarts. What can we sing?"

"How about... One man went to mow, went to mow a meadow,

One man and his dog, old mother Hubbard and her cow, a chocolate frog, went to mow a meadow!"

Lucy and Gregory stared at her. For once I was the first to get hold of it.

"We learnt that at school! Two men went to mow, went to mow a meadow,

Two men, one man and his dog, Old mother Hubbard and her cow, a chocolate frog, a packet of crisps went to mow a meadow!"

"Oh yeah," said Melanie. "Three men went to mow, went to mow a meadow,

Three men, two men, one mad and his dog, old mother Hubbard and her cow, a chocolate frog, a packet of crisps, some lemonade, went to mow a meadow!"

Gregory, though rather late for him, finally got the idea. "Four men went to mow, went to mow a meadow,

Four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, old mother Hubbard and her cow, a chocolate frog, a packet of crisps, some lemonade, pumpkin juice, went to mow a meadow!"

"Five men went to mow, went to mow a meadow," Lucy sang, grinning. "Five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, old mother Hubbard and her cow, a chocolate frog, a packet of crisps, er..."

"Some lemonade," I prompted.

"Some lemonade. This song is hard. Pumpkin juice, an apple pie, went to mow a meadow!"

Lione grinned round at us. "Spread the word, we're playing song tag."

***

A Ravenclaw prefect who came over to us to ask why we weren't in lessons but ended up getting sung at by Lucy was next in the line. As we headed back to the Gryffindor common room we overheard her singing to a Hufflepuff prefect. That was the last we heard of it for a while. That was until the next day at lunch when Anya came over to us to sing.

"Thirteen men went to mow, went to mow a meadow,

Thirteen men, twelve men, eleven men, ten men, nine men, eight men, seven men, six men, five men, four men, three men, two men, one man and his dog, old mother Hubbard and her cow, a chocolate frog, a packet of crisps, some lemonade, pumpkin juice, an apple pie, a pork sausage, a cheese sandwich, a pumpkin pie, Bertie Botts Every Flavour Beans, Butterbeer, chocolate bar, Cockroach Cluster, and ice pop went to mow a meadow!"

She looked at us, breathlessly. We smiled at her.

"We've already done it," Gregory told her.

She whined. "Then why did you let me go through it all?!"

"Because we just wanted to know what had been added to it since last time we heard it."

"Now I have to do it to someone else."

Lione turned around and grabbed a passing first year.

"Did you hear that?" she asked.

The first year nodded.

"Good. It's song tag. Pass it on."

***

Over the next few days 'One man went to mow' was everywhere. We even heard a teacher singing it. We passed a student trying to pass it on to Dumbledore only to be refused and told that it was he who added on the extra long 'Bertie Botts Every Flavour beans' part. We were particularly glad to hear Jane Jordan singing to one of her friends and dutifully adding on 'A Swedish meat ball' obviously completely unaware that it was Lione who started the whole thing off. And what Lione had said at the beginning turned out to be very true. Although it was interesting to hear the new things added on when the total surpassed forty it started to get very dull and tedious to hear the whole thing sang through. Everybody was getting sick of it and everybody hadn't sung it yet. One morning, after a week and a half it finally got the result we were looking forward to and it was a poor Hufflepuff that got the wrath.

"One hundred and four men went to mow, went to mow a meadow,

One hundred and four men, one hundred and three men, one hundred and two men, one hundred and one men, one hundred men, ninety-nine men, ninety-eight men, ninety-seven men, ninety-six men, ninety-five men, ninety-four men, ninety-three men, ninety-two men, ninety-one men, ninety men, eighty-nine men, eighty-eight men, eighty-seven men, eighty-six men, eighty-five men, eighty-four men, eighty-three men, eighty-two men, eighty-one men, eighty men, seventy-nine men-"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!" Snape jumped to his feet at the teacher's table looking furious. "I AM SICK AND TIRED OF HEARING THAT SONG EVERYWHERE I GO! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?! WHY WON'T YOU JUST SHUT UP?! "

He stormed out. There was silence in the hall for a while.

"Seventy-eight men, seventy-seven men, seventy-six men, seventy-five men, seventy-four men."

We burst out laughing, joyous in a job well done. The post arrived with a letter for Lucy.

"Ooh," she said, ripping open the letter. "I got something. I wonder what it is?"

She went oddly silent as she read it, her eyes flicking from side to side as they went down the paper. She didn't say a word, which was completely out of the ordinary for Air Jet. Her mouth slowly dropped open and she was reading with a look of intense shock on her face. She dropped the letter on the table and stared at her plate.

"Are," said Gregory, worried. "Are you all right, Air Jet?"

In a sudden move Lucy jumped to her feet and ran out the hall. We were too shocked to move. Across the hall at the Slytherin table I noticed Lucy's brother, Colubra, get up to follow her. Both Lione and Gregory reacted but Gregory, as the fastest, got to the letter first. He seized it up and read it at, as far as I could tell by his eye movement, speed. Once he'd finished he too dropped the letter on the table.

"Oh no," he said.

"What?" said Lione.

"It's Lucy's parents. They've gone missing."

A/N: I do realise that this chapter was basically fluff and filler leading up to the all important (and it's very important) revelation at the end. But I love cliff hangers and I haven't had one for ever such a long time and I really wanted this, being so dramatic and all, to be one so I had to put in the rest. Besides, I rather like the idea of song tag. Two hundred and twenty-six men went to mow...