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As the winter holiday quickly approached, the entire school had begun to grow restless. Lance was one of the few who could care less. Getting away from the school for a couple of weeks would not affect the amount of time he spent with “friends” and other people. More likely than not, he would be left to his own devices as his father helped with the regime. Perhaps he would be dragged to some party or another celebrating some pointless holiday—just an excuse for people to get together, get drunk, and make fools of themselves as far as the Ravenclaw was concerned—but aside from that, he did not plan to get out much. He had never been one for messing with snow, even when he was younger. True, magic could help him now that the Trace was no longer applicable due to his age, but did he really want to deal with the hassle? Not really unless it proved to be the only way to get a decent moments’ thought between house elves and whatever slaves his father may or may not have added to the “collection.”

Thoughts of what the upcoming visit from the Secretary of Education could possibly mean had also preoccupied the head boy’s mind of late, though he wasn’t too worried. It was probably to take a survey concerning the Magical Politics professor, Timotei Williams, and his effectiveness. Aww, how sweet. They actually cared—not. But whatever the case, it couldn’t be too bad. It was simply fifth through seventh years that had been mandated to attend, so maybe it had to do with things only O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. level students had to think about.

As it was, Lance was running early, and he sat at the Ravenclaw table by himself and glanced up. Hardly any professors were here at the moment. Maybe he was right. Surveys or something. Yet this woman was not who he expected. Rather, he recognized her from five months ago at the Ministry’s Department of Public Record. She had to be the one to grant him access to the file of that bloke from the masquerade. Morgana Calloway was this woman’s name, and she was the Secretary of Press. What on earth was going on?
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Aiden couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Well, we could still cause frustration for this lady. Might earn a month's worth of detentions, but honestly, we wouldn't want to disappoint, would we?" he replied, turning his head as he saw Headmaster Tennant walk into the room and watched how he took her hand in his hands before shaking and giving a roll of his eyes. "Match made in heaven, you think? Tame him a little?" He rolled his eyes again and sighed, resting his head in his hands as he stared at the table. Honestly, this was going to be the longest hour or two of his life. Somebody tell him there would be refreshments of some sort. A drink at the very least? (Though he'd love food as well!)

Of course, pleading with an imaginary force wouldn't go too well, so when the headmaster spoke, he watched boredly, sighing and muttering for dramatic effect, "Here it comes, the moment we've all been waiting for: the moment she tells us Williams was caught running around with underwear on his head, eh?" Ok, not all that funny, but it was the best he could do at a moment's notice when it felt like his IQ had dropped about fifty points just trying to take the time to figure out why this wasn't simply rescheduled when the secretary of education was available, but who was he to question that? He supposed this woman, Morgana or whatever, would hve to explain that to him because he was drawing nothing but blanks.
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Did he have ideas? Well, yes and no. It depended if he could sneak out and down to his stash (Ok, maybe it wasn't that big anymore, but those first year girls had been too hard to resist pranking.) he'd been saving for such boring occasions as these. He really should have brought it along, he supposed, but then again, it may have come across as a might suspicious, no? "Have some pixies back in the dorm, if we're going for major distraction, some other stuff... Or we could transfigure stuff...podium to a...mouse? Maybe both so we don't get caught? Sneak back to the dorm, look through my stuff for more ideas, maybe? Not like we'll miss much."

Yeah, he really needed to reset his brain today. First lame jokes, now so-so ideas? As long as the other just counted it as an off day for him, Aiden supposed his reputation would survive, but maybe he ought to let others do the thinking for a while to spark his creative juices. Sounded like a plan, he thought. Hopefully.
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Aiden, unfortunately, had absolutely no idea what Subaru's abilities or lack of abilities were when it came to magic. Certainly, he heard rumors, but usually those went in one ear and out the other if they weren't about himself or a friend. It was as simple as that. If the Slytherin had paid a little more attention, perhaps it would have saved him whatever disaster was to come unless some twist of fate didn't allow for it. However, Aiden merely smirked and nodded as he pushed himself up, walking past a professor that was on his way into the room but had stopped near the doorway and off to the side as the headmaster had introduced Morgana but had not yet moved. The professor asked something about where he was going and the boy simply said he was headed for the loo. Easy as pie.

He quickly made a right on the far side of the stairway to the first floor and headed down the other staircase into the dungeons. It took a few minutes but he soon arrived at and entered the common room and went to his dorm, digging his box of pixies out from his dwindling supply of pranking necessities. Of course, seeing as they were at the bottom of the cluttered trunk, it took a short while but finally, he left the dorm, everything as it was and the box concealed on his person. He was as innocent as the rest of them and soon to be enjoying the fruits of his labor, small though his labor might have been.

He simply crept right into the Great Hall once he arrived and made his way as conspicuously as possible before sliding into his seat across from Subaru and motioning towards his robes to indicate that was where their little fiendish friends were. "You know what you're doing, right, mate?" he asked in a hushed voice, raising a brow. It wasn't like he really cared. In his mind everyone could do transfiguration easily by fifth year. Hell, even he could when he was in Subaru's year and he wasn't exactly the best student on earth. He devoted most of his brains to other activities that were more fun and saved only some for academics.
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