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For the first major prank pulled by the Weasley twins after Rigel disappeared, Pansy was just glad that she wasn’t in the way.
“Quack!” said Draco, clearly frustrated. “Quack quack quack.” She couldn’t blame him for his frustration—not even writing seemed to be able to get around what the twins had termed ‘speak like a duck day’, since whenever he tried it came out as incoherent scribbles that vaguely resembled the word quack—but frankly, she was more concerned about their search for Rigel.
They were getting closer, she was certain. The twins didn’t do truly malicious pranks, so Draco should be all right once today was over, but tonight was a new moon. If she was going to try this particular tracking spell… it had to be tonight, or she wouldn’t have a chance for at least another month.
Unfortunately, she also needed Draco. Maybe some of their other friends would have worked, but the ritual she’d found said you had to be close to the person you sought, and they’d been closest to Rigel. So she cast disillusionment over them both—it wasn’t like Draco could articulate a spell right now—and led them out onto the grounds.
The ritual almost worked. Unfortunately, “almost” didn’t quite cut it for magical rituals—Draco was, after all, supposed to speak.
“Just do your best,” she’d said when they started. “Try to do it… not non-verbally, but non-vocally.”
And then his time had come, and Draco had opened his mouth, and had said, simply, “Quack.”
With that, the ritual fell apart, and Pansy knew it would not work that night. She glared lightly at him.
“Quack,” said Draco, somehow managing to sound forlorn.
Pansy sighed. She had a sneaking suspicion that Draco had not been a random target, after all.