Professor Lupin had a way of keeping every class entertaining, enough that every one of his students looked forward to his next lesson. That afternoon, he welcomed his class and informed them that they wouldn't need their textbooks, only their wands. They would be putting their Hex-Flection knowledge to use, using the Salvio Hexia incantation.

"Now, I'm sure Professor Flitwick has taught you the proper hand and wand movement. But in case you need a reminder," Professor Lupin said as he took out his own wand, "you are to point your wand down while keeping your opposite hand up, palm facing outward. Like so."

The class watched as he held his wand out, pointed it down while keeping the other hand up as he instructed. He called out the incantation and they witnessed a light haze that appeared somewhat like a shield appear before him. It seemed simple enough, they had learned the incantation in Charms the year before, however, Professor Lupin wanted them to practice using the spell with each other.

"Keep your hexes simple," he told them after instructing them to pick a partner and stand up, "nothing too nasty. Twitchy Ears and Sneezing get the point across. We don't need anyone going to the Hospital Wing if they can't deflect in time. You want to develop your response time, speed is key."

Of course, Marnie wasted no time claiming Eleanor as her partner, leaving Cedric to groan and walk off to find someone else. The two quickly decided that they would use the Sneezing Hex on each other to go easy on one another, with Marnie starting first on the offence and Eleanor on the defence. They stood several feet apart and raised their wands before bowing playfully to each other as they got started.

"Steleus!"

A green mist emitted from Marnie's wand and was cast in Eleanor's direction. While Marnie always gave off the lazy vibe with her demeanour, it was enough to catch an opponent off guard with speed. Eleanor felt as though she didn't have enough time to dodge the hit and she was right. But as the hex was supposed to hit her, Eleanor didn't find herself sneezing, instead, she heard Marnie sneezing.

Looking over, Marnie had entered a violent state of sneezing which attracted Professor Lupin's attention. He walked over, lifting his own wand and waving it slightly to release his student from the hex before he turned to Eleanor.

"Eleanor," he said, "we are currently deflecting, not countering. You should only be using Salvio Hexia if you are on the defence."

"But Professor, I-"

He didn't sound upset with Eleanor, but she still felt the sting of embarrassment as her face turned red. Giving her a pat on the shoulder and a small sincere smile, Professor Lupin walked off to monitor the other students in the room to make sure they remained on task. Marnie made her way over, wiping her nose with the sleeve of her robe.

"I didn't even see you call out the counterspell," Marnie said, "nice one, but I'm going to get you back for that. It may not be today or tomorrow, but I'm going to get you back."

Even though Marnie was joking, Eleanor didn't bother to even smile, too confused by what had happened or rather, what didn't happen.

"I didn't do anything," she said to herself, "I didn't even move."

The rest of the lesson ran smoothly with no other incidents, but Eleanor couldn't shake the thought about what had happened earlier. Maybe she had reacted faster than she led herself to believe. Perhaps she had muttered the incantation in her head and her wand reacted, but she didn't even do the proper movement or incantation to do a counterspell on Marnie. And there had been no chance to recreate the scene as Eleanor didn't want to push her luck in Professor Lupin's class. So far, he was kind, but if something else went wrong, she didn't know how he was going to respond.

Trying to rid her head of the thoughts, Eleanor continued her way to the Transfiguration Classroom. While Cedric caught up with other friends, Marnie decided to make a mad dash to the kitchens to steal some food before the next class. Eleanor was just hoping to get to the classroom early and just relax for a moment.

"It's not a big deal, Ellie," she told herself, "stop worrying about it so much. It's fine, everything is fine. You're just letting stress get to you."

Her little pep talk seemed to make her feel better for the time being, enough that she stopped thinking about it as she arrived outside of McGonagall's classroom. However, her distracted nature had left her unaware of her surroundings. As she attempted to enter the room, she did so at the same time as one of her classmates.

As soon as her shoulder came to brush another, Eleanor came to a halt and looked up. She had to admit, she wasn't expecting to be making eye contact with one of the Weasley twins.

The Weasley twins were notorious for arriving to class late, even though it never really ended well for them, usually a scolding, loss of house points, or sometimes, even detention. So to see them arriving before Professor McGonagall was a little unsettling.

"Er, sorry," she said quickly, "go ahead."

She patiently waited for the two to enter, knowing very well that it wouldn't be the smartest idea to keep them behind her and out of direct sight. However, the twins stopped as well, the one in the lead, wearing a rather large grin on his face as he turned to her.

"Oh no, you go right ahead, ladies first, right?" He suddenly extended his arm, motioning for her to pass through.

Eleanor bit the inside of her cheek. "Age before beauty," she told him, mirroring his gesture.

"Why the hell is everyone crowding around the door?"

The group jumped slightly, only to see that Marnie had arrived, shooting everyone a weird look. She glanced inside the classroom, noting there wasn't any commotion before pushing by the twins and letting herself inside.

"Ellie, come on!"

With a small sigh of defeat, Eleanor entered the classroom behind her, quickly making her way to her seat. She could feel the eyes of the twins burning into the back of her head the entire time and to ignore them, she pulled out her knitting material as she took her seat besides Marnie.

But the awkward exchanges weren't over just yet as the twins decided to take the table right in front of Eleanor and Marnie. Thankfully, no one could hear Eleanor's internal screaming.

Perhaps it was due to the fact that Fred and George had made it their yearly mission to prank everyone in the castle and Eleanor had been lucky so far. She was waiting for the moment where her luck would run out. The way the two smiled at her made her think that she was obviously next on their target list.

"That sandwich was so worth it," Marnie said with a dreamy sigh as she pulled out her textbook, "it was gone too soon though."

"Not entirely," Eleanor said, "you still have some mustard on your robes."

"And there, it shall remain, as a testimony of excellence."

When Professor McGonagall walked in, she pulled out her wand and with a simple wave, rid Marnie's robes of the mustard stain. However, she paused when she caught sight of the Weasley twins sitting in her classroom, on time, not to mention, daring to sit near the front of the room as well. She raised a brow as she made eye contact with the two, hoping to get a silent message across that they didn't dare try anything during her lecture time.

The bell rang shortly after the rest of the students arrived, including Cedric, who quickly took the nearest seat to avoid any trouble.

"I swear, he's almost as bad as these two," Marnie said, nodding her head at the twins, "he always shows up just before he's late."

"Come on, Marnie, you know Cedric has to catch up on the latest gossip. How else would be so well informed?"

The two giggled to themselves but stopped as soon as McGonagall got her lesson underway. They were reviewing the Switching Spell, along with a few from their Fourth-Year lessons before they started anything new. Professor McGonagall along with the other professors were definitely pushing the importance of the O.W.L.s exams with every opportunity.

Eleanor was sure that due to the chaos of last year with the Chamber of Secrets being opened and the school nearly being closed down that the professors were trying to review as much as possible to make up for the lost time. But every time she looked up to take notes, she caught one of the twins look at her, or worse, both.

It didn't seem to bother them that she caught them each time. In fact, it only seemed to leave her flustered as she tried to pretend that she didn't notice.

"Um, is it me or are the Weasley twins staring you down hard right now?" Marnie whispered as she leaned into Eleanor's shoulder. "They're not even trying to be discrete about it!"

Pretending to read over a paragraph in her textbook, Eleanor shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not worried about it, I'm not paying attention to them."

"Well, they're certainly paying attention to you."

"Just leave it be," she told Marnie, feeling her face grow warm.

"Oooh, you're turning red, Ellie."

"Please, stop talking!"

"Stop turning red then."

"Marnie!"

As soon as she realised her outburst was heard by the others in the classroom, Eleanor grabbed her book and hid behind it. She knew all eyes were on her, including McGonagall's, and there was nowhere else to hide.

"Miss Ross," Professor McGonagall called to her, leaving Eleanor with no choice but to place the book down and look at her, "is everything alright?"

"Y-yes, Professor."

"Then may I proceed with my lesson?"

"Yes, Professor."

As the snickering died down around the room, Eleanor listened to the rest of the lecture, paying no mind to anyone around her. The twins were not going to get the best of her, nor was Marnie's teasing. For the remainder of the class, McGonagall assigned them to read over the Conjuring Spell that they would be going over in their next class. All the while, Eleanor continued her knitting in peace.

When the class was over, Cedric made his way over to the two as they were packing up. "So, do you two want to come out and watch the Quidditch team practice?"

"Why would we want to do that?" Marnie asked. "It's just practice."

"So you can see how the team is shaping up!"

"I think I'll pass," she told him, "I have important matters to attend to."

"Like what?"

"Like not freeze my arse outside."

As Marnie took her leave, Cedric pouted until Eleanor gently gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Don't worry, Cedric," she said, "I'll go and see how the team looks. I'll even give you some honest feedback. I'll meet you out on the pitch."

"You're the best, Ellie."

After slipping her books into her bag, Eleanor grabbed her knitting materials and smiled to see the progress she had made on her little project. She wrapped it around her neck to see how much more she would need to add in length as she headed towards the door. Professor McGonagall was on her way out as well, leaving Eleanor to allow her to go first. But within seconds, she felt something brush against her back followed by the sound of a splash.

Lifting her head up, Eleanor's eyes widened as she saw what the splashing sound had been. Standing before her, Professor McGonagall had turned pink, from head to toe and drenched in whatever had caused her to change colour in the first place. There were scattered remnants of the water balloon that stood out on her dark robes.

Fred stood beside his brother, completely dumbfounded. It was certainly a sight to see a pink Professor McGonagall, but they knew there was going to be a storm to follow their actions. But he didn't understand how it happened. He and George had made sure to calculate it perfectly, it was supposed to hit Eleanor. She was a remaining target that had managed to squeak by a couple of times before. It should have hit her without any doubt, and it did, somewhat. He had watched the filled balloon bounce off Eleanor's back and as soon as it came in contact with McGonagall it exploded.

There was no way they could deny it was them either, as they were the only ones left in the classroom with the exception of Eleanor and their professor.

And as Fred stood there, he watched as McGonagall attempted to wipe the colour from her robes before realising her hands were the same colour. She went for her wand just as Eleanor turned to face them. The two of them briefly made eye contact as she tightened her scarf around her neck, but before she left the room, she did the unexpected in Fred's direction.

She winked.