I stood, huddled behind one of the knights along the corridor, the Marauder's Map in hand. After explaining the plan, George had told us of the extraordinary qualities of the map I was holding now. It had amazed all of us, particularly Ginny, at how the twins had managed to keep it hidden from everyone.

"Pssst..." a voice hissed to my left. I stared in that direction, finding myself facing Donna's brown eyes. She was shaking her hands behind her frantically, her eyes filled with fear.

"What?" I whispered, my voice raising a bit from Donna's continous hasty movements.

Donna frowned before mouthing, "Fred and George," she stopped, waiting for me to understand to which I nodded in response, "they've been caught!"

I held in a gasp. What? If they had truly been caught, our plan would be wasted. They were the ones with the water balloons in hand, with which we were going to surprise Percy with. "How? And who?" I said quickly.

"Filch! Apparently one of the water balloons slipped from their pockets, I'm not really sure what exactly happened, but Ginny says they've been brought to Filch's study!"

I internally facepalmed. Without the twins, sneaking up on Percy wouldn't be half as fun, not only because of the balloons, but also their naturally funny nature. What were we supposed to do now?

"Hey, Ginny says we should carry on with the plan. Might as well considering the effort we put into it," Donna said encouragingly. She popped her head over the knight's statue, gesturing for us to come out.

"Guys, I think Fred told me they went this way," Ginny said, rushing ahead of me as she turned the corner. I quicky regained myself and followed her, keeping eye on the marauder's map as I did so.

Donna's footsteps pattered softly against the floor as she walked beside me, gripping my shoulder for support. "Wait, who's that?' She pointed at a figure walking quite briskly towards us. "Oh no. Ginny, it's Snape, slow down!"

Ginny halted, swiftly turning towards us. Her head moved of its own accord, before finally stopping. She began moving forward, to what seemed like another abandoned classroom, from the twenty or so we'd passed already. I quickly shuffled in through the door, Donna right behind me before she closed the door, leaning back against it. I let out a breath, holding my knees firmly in a crouched position.

Ginny manoeuvred towards the window, her head bobbing up to check on the hallway. She craned her neck in both directions cautiously, finally ducking back down after about a minute. Although she appeared calm, she raised a hand in warning towards us, silently pleading us not to make a sound.

Slowly and carefully, footsteps followed Ginny's gesture, echoing sharply against the wooden floor. I dared not even move a muscle, in case Snape caught us. Beside me, I could hear Donna's heavy breathing, still not quite recovering from our sudden run. I nudged her with my elbow, inwardly asking her to keep quiet.

As Snape drew nearer, the atmosphere in the room became more dense, leaving the few breaths I inhaled more severe and quick. I could see the fearful faces of my two friends also grimace from the lack of air. The footsteps became louder.

Ginny slid down lower from her slightly awkward, and what looked like, painful, position against the wall. It went perfectly smoothly, leaving me breathe out a sigh of relief— until her foot slipped. I recoiled at the slapping sound of her feet scratching against the dusty floor, her backside soon ending in a heap on the floor.

"Damn!" Ginny cursed. I glanced around anxiously for the infamous professor to appear any second now, seeing Donna do the same. And, soon enough, Snape's familiar greasy black hair materialized right outside the window to our classroom.

He ceased, his eyebrows furrowing and his usual sullen expression swiveled towards the window, his nose drawn in. It seemed as if it was an eternity that his black eyes bore into the classroom, although it was probably only about ten seconds or so. His gaze wandered around the classroom again, his wand arm tauntingly appearing from under his cloak. He took a step forward. And another. Soon enough, his fingers were only a breadth away from grasping the door, slowly twisting it—

"Ahh, Severus! I've been meaning to see you," a jovial voice spoke out, startling everyone including Snape. His hand drew away sharply before he twisted around to face the person. "For what reason are you wandering through these halls, when you could be sipping a whisky with the rest of the teacher at the staff room?" An arm, clad in forget-me-not-blue coloured robes grabbed hold of Snape's arm, whisking him away down the hallway. I watched, dumbfoundedly, as our two most dreaded teachers strode off (well, one of them anyway, the other being dragged along beside him), and disappeared down the corridor.

Donna whistled. "Can you believe that?"

Ginny nodded, still trmebling from shock at what could have happened. I watched as her face gradually released itself from its white state, releasing her usual rosy cheeks into play.

I cracked a smile. "Even though I still despise him, I've got to say, he's got perfect timing." The two other girls murmured in agreement.

Donna's gaze drifted towards the map, which had wrinkled at the corners due to my tight grasp. "Where is Percy? I don't know if we'll be able to actually catch him now, but we might as well carry on."

I drifted my gaze towards the paper in hand, decorated with various dots all over the place. It went from one name to another: Snape and Lockhart, who were now right next to the staff room, Draco and his two bodyguards at the Slytherin common room, a random Hufflepuff girl from my Herbology class at the library; although Percy didn't seem to be within that area. I scanned the map, squinting more closely, finally managing to find his name.

I gasped at what I had just discovered. Surely not? Would perfect, reponsible, pompous Percy really do this? I looked up to meet my friends' confused faces. I realised I must have zoned out, quickly shaking myself out of my trance.

"So, where is he?" Ginny whispered eagerly. She crept closer towards me, eager to find out the answer to her question.

"A couple of classrooms ahead of us." Donna shot me a quizzical look. "With Penelope Clearwater."

Both Donna and Ginny were stoic of emotion. I stared shocked at them. Maybe the surprising information had shocked then into silence? Then, suddenly, Ginny burst out laughing. They grew louder with each splutter, turning into shrieks with her clutching her stomach. "I'd suspected this," she said between her giggles, "but to hear it said out makes it even more ridiculous."

Donna's eyes stared amused at the map. "We should go in there!"

"And watch them showering each other with PDA? Pfft, no thanks!" Ginny said, standing up from her splayed position on the floor.

"It'll be funny though to see Percy's reaction, which is the next best thing to the water balloons. Plus we'll have more leverage over him," I added in reassuringly.

Ginny faltered, her face turning from a thoughtful expression, to one of distaste, and then finally, mischief. It was remarkable how similar her face looked compared to both Fred and George's, back at the common room. "Fine," she stated after a few seconds of contemplation. "But I want to go in first," she said, a grin working its way over to her cheeks.

***

Creak!

"Wha—" Percy broke free from a scarlet faced Penelope, his own ears growing pinker by the second.

"That was—" Ginny started, her knees buckling with the tremor of her giggles.

"Amazing..."

"His face!" I added in, pouring with laughter.

Penelope ushered back, her burning face mortified at what had just happened. I felt a tiny bit bad as she did so, as this wasn't really supposed to embarass her, but I shook them aside as I watched Percy's growing pink tint on his cheeks. His loss for words cracked all three of us up, with me clutching the wall, Ginny rolling about on the floor, and Donna holding her head, her chortles still escaping through the tiny slits from her fingers.

"Ginny! How could you?" Percy finally spoke out, stepping in front of Penelope. His eyes averted from Ginny's amused ones, unable to cope with the torment from his sister. "Is this for what I said earlier on, because I think it's quite harsh for just that one comment," he spoke hotly.

Ginny moved forward, heightening her small frame to his lanky one. "Percy, this isn't just for what happened in the common room. It's for being annoyingly pompous, bratty and rude all the time." She shifted so that she could see the quivering Penelope. "And I'm sorry for bursting in; you see, we had the impression he was off to the library." She let the last word linger longer, to add to Percy's anguish.

"You could have at least thought up of a better lie," Donna said, adding onto Ginny's point.

Percy grimaced. "I was going to go to the library, you know," he adds on, unconvincingly. His expression then grew thoughtful. "So did you three think of this on your own?"

I glanced at the Donna and Ginny. "Uh.. not really. Fred and George kind of helped us," I paused, wondering if I should say the next thing, "but Filch caught them."

Percy sighed. "Well of course they'd get into trouble on Christmas." His face grew serious. "But I'll have to report this to mum. How they managed to do that beats me..." his voice trailed off.

"Um, Percy?" a voice squeaked. We all looked over at Penelope, who slouched from the attention. "I think I'm going to go now, I'll see you later!" She gave him a fleeting smile before scampering off.

"Penelope, wait!" Percy's voice resounded against the walls as he rushed after her, the swinging door being the last trace of his presence in the room.

I turned towards the girls. "We should back— Fred and George will probably be waiting to hear the news."

***
I laughed along with Ginny and Donna as they cracked up one of their many puns. We were currently walking down the hallway, back to the common room, where we hoped we would meet the Weasley twins. I still couldn't believe that Filch had brought them to his study— on Christmas as well! But saying that, it was probably one of Filch's Christmas wishes anyway, with his long hatred towards the twins. Speaking of twins...

"Hey, isn't that Reyna and Rebecca over at the bathroom?" Donna asked.

I glanced at where her finger was pointing, and it was indeed both of them. In front of the very bathroom we'd been in together before— Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. "What are they doing there again?"

"And what are they holding?" Ginny questioned.

Donna halted. "Actually... why don't I go over to them. I want to know what they're doing now, considering all the trouble they've caused."

Ginny shied away. "I don't really know about that. I mean, it's probably best if we don't interfere." She shuffled back nervously.

"Yeah, I agree with Ginny on this one. I think we'll go ahead while you go talk to them." I flashed Donna an apologetic smile.

Donna shrugged. "Well, I guess I'll meet you two later then." She waved fleetingly before creeping over towards the twins, who were now entering the bathroom.

"Bet you that's not gonna end well," Ginny said, glancing over again at the now closed bathroom door. She looked back at me, her face wary. "But it wouldn't be Donna if she wasn't so painstakingly curious."

***
"Password!" the fat lady screeched out.

"Wattleb—"

"Wait!" Ginny held my arm tightly. "I think I just saw Ron heading down the hallway!"

I groaned. "Ginny, I'm kind of tired now. I don't really feel like going anywhere else at the moment," I whined, pulling my arm free from her hold.

Ginny looked behind her again. "But you know I haven't talked to Ron the whole day. I need to see him!" Ginny said more frantically.

I winced slightly at her tone. "Why don't you go over then— he's your brother after all?"

Ginny stared at me disbelievingly. "Why? Because he's with Harry, Briar! I can't do this alone!"

I shook my head. "No, you can do this. The only way you're going to get over your infatuation with Harry is by approaching him, alone," I added in firmly.

Ginny looked back nervously at me. "Are you sure? But I still don't think I'm rea—"

I gave Ginny a slight push, reassuring her with a smile. She stumbled forward unsteadily, but she carried on walking dutifully towards the corridor. As she turned the corner, our gazes met once more before she strode off. Turning back, I opened the door after saying the password, and the door grudgingly opened from the grumbling fat lady. As I stepped in, I was immediately greeted by students, all huddled in groups or pairs and enjoying themselves in the Christmas spirit. As I trudged up the stairs, I thought of how ironic the situation was: while we had all been opening Christmas presents in the morning, it had quickly escalated to each member of our group drifting off. And now I was the only one back.

I sighed as I sat down on my bed. Although the Christmas feel had not gone away, I was still lacking in something. Lacking in numbers. And it was with this thought that I realised something: I was alone.