This was requested by ReiSuzugamori a few millennia ago, and I apologize about how long it took, but I hope that you like it!

Hidden in an alcove of the sixth floor corridor behind a statue of Uric the Oddball, Rei was calmly waiting for her brilliant plan to unfold, and she couldn't help but feel very pleased with herself. This was going to be good.

Around the corner, she heard the distant sound of footsteps. Her victims were coming. Those Ravenclaws wouldn't stand a chance. No one messed with Rei or the people she liked without suffering her vengeance in the form of her devious pranks.

However, it just so happened that the Ravenclaws had sabotaged the Slytherin Quidditch team's sure win at last Saturday's game by "accidentally" transfiguring the Keeper's hands into goat hooves. The Slytherins had suffered a humiliating defeat, making Rei and the whole of her House seethe. But now, she would avenge Slytherin beautifully in a way that the Ravenclaws would never forget.

And the best part? No one would be able to trace it back to her, as was the case with all her pranks.

The footsteps were quickly approaching now. She had planned everything perfectly down to the second. At 7:16 precisely every Tuesday (their methodic routine would be their demise), the Ravenclaw team returned from Quidditch practice and passed through the sixth floor corridor on their way to their tower. Everyone else was at dinner. It was the perfect moment for an ambush.

However, as the sound approached ever closer, Rei frowned. Something was wrong. There were far too few feet running and-running? Why would they be running?

Panicking at the thought of things not going to plan, Rei stuck her head out from the statue to get a glimpse of who was actually coming, if it wasn't the Ravenclaws. What she saw made her eyes widen in horror. Not them! Not now!

Alas, it was them, and it was now. Two identical mops of ginger hair settled on top of two identical madly grinning faces about to ruin her masterfully planned prank. Those insufferable Gryffindor baboons.

As was their habit, the Weasley twins seemed to be running away from one or several people, whom Rei did not doubt were her intended victims. By some miracle, as they ran and laughed and glanced over their shoulders, they avoided the Sensor charm Rei had set out that would activate the prank.

"George, quick, hide behind that column there, I'll hide behind Uric!" the one you now assumed to be Fred whispered to his brother. Suddenly, Rei's eyes widened. She was hiding behind the statue of Uric the Oddball.

The Gryffindor prankster approached, and weaved himself behind the statue, not noticing Rei nestled in the shadows. Not knowing what else to do, as she had never had to share a temporary secret lair with anyone, Rei spoke up.

"Hi."

It was a good thing she did too, because if she had done it later, the startled scream Fred let out would have given them both away. Rei rolled her eyes at the sputtering Gryffindor, who was dramatically clutching at his heart.

"Merlin's pants! I just saw my life flash before my eyes! Give a man a warning before you make him jump out of his skin, would you?" Fred said.

"That was my warning," Rei deadpanned. "Anyways, as you can see, this hiding spot is occupied, so scuttle along, Weasley. Shoo."

"Hold on a minute, there's no other spot where you can see what happens in this corridor without being seen, so I'm not leaving," Fred responded, and Rei huffed. She had no choice but to let him stay, as she knew he would no doubt blow her cover if she forced him out. "Besides," Fred added, wiggling his eyebrows, "though you seem to know who I am, I do not know thy name, o fair maiden!"

"Listen, Weasley, I know I'm stuck with you for a while, but that does not make us best friends. If we could keep this professional and business-like, one prankster to another, that would be great," Rei told the Gryffindor impatiently. Fred seemed to ponder her words for awhile before nodding.

"Alright, business it is. One prankster to another. But you know," he said, dropping the whole smooth act and simply looking at Rei with a sincere smile, "even business partners know each others' names. I'm Fred," and he stuck out his hand for Rei to shake.

She hesitated, before finally giving in. She grasped his hand and gave it a firm shake. "I'm Rei. Rei Suzugamori."

"It's nice to meet you, Rei," Fred said. He noticed that Rei was trying to hear if footsteps were approaching, so he piped up. "I figure you're waiting for the Ravenclaws to go by? Don't worry, we've got a few minutes before they come along, they're rather...swamped, at the moment," he smirked at his choice of words. "But, anyways, you say one prankster to another, but I'm afraid I haven't heard of you, Rei. Are you just starting out in your pranking career?"

Rei snorted at Fred's words. As if.

"Alright then, not starting out," Fred continued, trying to entice Rei to speak up a bit. "So you've done your fair share of pranking, but I've never heard your name spok-" his eyes widened, and he suddenly looked at Rei in a new light. "No," he whispered. "Are you-you couldn't, by any chance, no- The Ghost?"

Rei didn't say anything, but a corner of her mouth did lift itself up in a smirk. Fred laughed delightedly.

"Oh my Merlin, you are! You're The Ghost! The mysterious Hogwarts prankster! This is incredible! I love your work, that time you got Professor Binns stuck to the ceiling for four days, that was amazing! Everything you do is always so meticulous and perfect! George and I are total fans of your pranks. In fact, you're probably Hogwarts's best prankster, apart from us, of course. Imagine what we could do together..." Fred trailed off.

Rei quickly drew him out of his reverie. "Quit your fangirling, Ginger, it's not going to happen. I'm flattered, but I work alone."

"But have you ever considered teaming up w-?"

"No."

"Then, don't you think, maybe it c-"

"No!"

"But it would be gr-"

"NO!"

"Fine," Fred huffed, turning his head away from Rei. That didn't last long, however, as he soon decided to strike up conversation yet again, much to Rei's annoyance.

"So, aren't you wondering what the Ravenclaws did to us to deserve our prankster wrath?" Fred questioned.

"Not particularly."

"Well, I'll tell you anyways. You see, we have a Quidditch match coming up against them this Saturday, and those sneaky little eagles "mistakenly" levitated George and mine's favourite bats toward the Whomping Willow and, well, you can imagine how that ended," Fred finished.

Although Rei tried to maintain her detached air, she couldn't help but let her wonder at the Ravenclaw team's desire to win transpire. Their ambition reminded her of her own House, but even the Slytherins didn't go so far as to sabotage the opponents (at least, not until the game had started).

"The Ravenclaws really play dirty this year, I don't know what's gotten into them. That's why I'm here too," Rei found herself conversing with Fred without really realizing it. "They sabotaged us last Saturday, so-"

"Hold on a minute," Fred interrupted, holding up a hand and frowning. "Last Saturday, the Ravenclaws played against the Slytherins." Rei looked at him, waiting for him to add two and two up. Fred looked at her in shock. "You're a Slytherin?" he exclaimed. "But you seem so-" he stopped himself, and Rei looked at him bitterly.

"Not evil?" she spat out at him. "Of course, you think all Slytherins are lying, scheming wizards bent on Dark magic and world domination, wanting all Muggle borns dead! All the stereotypes you seem to think we maintain toward the other Houses, you're actually the ones perpetrating them, by not speaking to us if it isn't to taunt or insult, all because some wackos happened to be in our House at some point in time. We aren't monsters, we don't think it's alright to kill or talk down to people for things they can't help, you know. You make us out to be diabolical, but really we're not all that different."

Rei stopped. She realized that all that pent up anger at being talked about behind her back and rejected when she tried to talk to students from other Houses back in first year had all surged out against Fred, in a torrent of words she had not planned. It was unusual for her to do things without following a plan, and she realized that the urge to redeem and defend Slytherin to at least one other was simply too overwhelming to contain.

Fred looked at her contemplatively for a long moment. Finally, he spoke up. "You're right," he sighed. "About not being all that different" He had a pained look on his face, and looked as though he was struggling to admit something out loud. "That's what always scared me," he finally said.

Rei had calmed down from her House pride rage, and felt a slight pang watching Fred seemingly having an internal crisis with himself over her blurted out, unplanned words. "Weasley," she said, and though she addressed him by his last name, her tone was soft. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to."

Fred shook his head. "No, it's alright. I want to say this," he said, before taking a deep breath. He looked up at her, straight into her golden eyes before starting. "The truth is, the Sorting Hat almost placed me in Slytherin. I had all the requirements: ambition, cunning and charm. A perfect Slytherin, it said. But I'd always heard such bad things about Slytherin, I was scared my family would think I was a bad person, and that they'd reject me. So I argued with the Hat, and it finally put me in Gryffindor. No one knows, not even George, because I've always been scared of what they'd say. So, I think I always acted on the whole Slytherin stereotype because I was trying, I guess, to convince myself I was as far from a Slytherin as possible."

Fred ended his long confession, and Rei was stunned. One of the Weasley twins, a Slytherin at heart, just like her? In truth, she felt bad for Fred, pressured subconsciously into a House like so many other young boys and girls who entered Hogwarts with unjustified prejudices communicated to them by family and friends. The ginger boy, completely disarmed of his usual cool and careless demeanour, looked vulnerable and unsure of everything. And in that moment, Rei made a decision completely unexpectedly, going against most of the ideas she had always had because, after all, wasn't this really about defying preconceived ideas?

"Fred," she said, addressing him for the first time by his first name. "You know your offer for a professional pranking partnership? How about I take you up on it? " Fred lifted his gaze from the ground, and slowly a smile started to form on his face. Rei decided she liked the face better when he was smiling. "We'd make one hell of a team. And, if I started hanging with you, maybe we could show everyone that Slytherins aren't bad. That we're actually pretty flipping awesome!" she added, and Fred laughed. "What do you say?" she asked, extending a hand.

Fred extended his own. "I say hell yeah," he told her with a grin. But then he unexpectedly pulled her hand and drew her into a hug. "Thanks," he whispered into her long red hair.

Rei let the hug pass, telling herself it would be just this once. She didn't know that would end up being a huge lie.

Suddenly, Rei heard some noise and she quickly disentangled herself from Fred. Those were footsteps. Loud enough for there to be seven of them. Fred and Rei looked at each other, smiling, and positioned themselves so they could properly see in the corridor.

When the Ravenclaws finally turned the corner, Rei had to stifle a laugh.

The Quidditch team was covered in algae and mud, splashing murky water all over the floor, sure to make Filch fly into a rage. They looked like seven angry swamp monsters, their robes ruined. Rei thought it was beautiful, and she gave Fred an appreciative nod for his and his twin's work.

But now was her time to shine, as the Ravenclaws did not have Fred and George's luck: they stepped right into her Sensor charm.

Immediately, the Ravenclaws were assaulted by a great green and silver cloud that appeared over their heads, starting to rain a shower of Slytherin coloured dye onto them. They started screaming, but as they ran, the cloud followed them. It took barely a minute before the Ravenclaws' hair, skin, and clothes were stained silver and green, pronouncing Slytherin's revenge on them to the whole school.

Rei smiled triumphantly in her hiding spot, and she could feel Fred's stare on her. He whispered to her, admiration lacing his tone, "That was bloody brilliant! I'm not even mad that that covered up our own prank. I'm assuming it won't wash off?"

Rei smirked, still watching the Ravenclaws point at each other in horror. "Nope," she answered. "Not for a whole week."

"Brilliant," Fred repeated. Before Rei could stop him, he began to clap. Seven furious heads turned toward the statue of Uric the Oddball.

"Uh oh," Fred whispered.

"RUN!" screamed Rei. She grabbed his hand and dragged them from their hiding spot, bolting from the scene with a raging mob of Ravenclaw Quidditch players on their tail.

As they ran, their hands wound together, and Fred occasionally turning to her with a mad grin on his face, Rei found herself smiling back. This wasn't so bad.

It was actually pretty good.

Alright, chipmunks, how have you been? So, a few things:

1)Please forgive me for my long break! It was completely unplanned, but I had exams and studying, and then school ended and I went on a trip, in the meantime I turned sixteen, so it's all been a bit of a whirlwind. But I'm back now!

2)People who have requested, even though it's been a long time: I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOU! I'm working really hard to get them done right now, so please be patient just a little longer!

3)All of you reading this: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR BEING AMAZING COOL FUZZBALLS! YOU MAKE MY DAY EVERY TIME YOU COMMENT OR VOTE AND YOU'RE ALL SO SWEET I JUST REALLY APPRECIATE IT AND WANT YOU TO KNOW HOW AWESOME YOU ARE, I LOVE YOU ALL!

So, yeah. That's that. Again, thank you and caps lock craziness aside, I really love you guys and I hope you love yourselves too.

Helen