Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. I am not her.

Ron stumbled, the sound loud in the dark and quiet corridor and Romilda quickly stifled a nervous giggle, holding a hand over her mouth. Now was not the time to attract attention.

The pair cautiously continued on, safely enshrouded in an invisibility cloak. Further ahead, a disembodied ghostly head stuck sideways out of the castle wall. Nearly Headless Nick emerged from his hiding place when he heard the faint noises and gave a thumbs up. The way was safe.

Standing in front of the imposing Gargoyle on the seventh floor, Romilda checked both ends of the corridor, bouncing with excitement. Everyone knew the Headmaster was currently away from the castle, and Sir Nicholas, as he liked to be called, had been waiting for the moment when the portrait across from the office entrance was finally vacant. It had taken weeks, but this was their chance.

From his hiding place, he had also observed the password being spoken numerous times, so getting the statue to move aside was easy. The ghost stayed behind as lookout while the two ascended the stairs. Romilda marvelled at the moving spiralling staircase. Of the three, she was the only one who had never seen the Headmaster's inner sanctum.

The brass knocker was large and at eye level and she repressed the irrational urge to use it. Though this was her first time breaking in, she knew knocking would defeat the purpose of stealth. She shook her head in an attempt to get her thoughts in line. She was always excited before pulling pranks, but never this jittery or nervous.

The office itself was dark, only lit by various complicated looking devices giving off a faint glow. The walls were filled with portraits, all of them thankfully asleep. Romilda almost sighed in relief. Invisible though they were, it lessened the chance of getting caught.

The single perch in the office was empty. They had been unsure of what powers phoenixes possessed, so beyond being quiet, invisible and hoping the bird was asleep they didn't have an actual plan to deal with it. That it was away was really the best they could hope for.

Doing their level best to stay quiet, the pair crossed the room to where Ron knew the Sorting Hat was stored. It had a prominent place on a shelf behind the desk. Romilda softly let out a breath and reverently removed the ancient artefact from its place of honour. She'd only touched it the once and had only seen it from a distance since. Combined with the excitement of breaking in, holding it made her want to squeal in triumph.

Unfortunately the Hat woke up and was very displeased at being disturbed by invisible hands. It started yelling about thieves, that it was being assaulted and kidnapped. Really, it was overly dramatic and had quite the foul mouth when not in a hall filled with children, but it was very loud and that was a problem.

Ron, seeing the portraits start to wake up at the commotion, quickly pulled it under the cloak and commanded it to be quiet in a furious whisper. All he accomplished was making more noise and drawing attention to himself. Under the invisibility cloak they couldn't be seen, but what if one of the portraits recognised his voice?

Romilda pulled out her wand and fired a quick Silencing Charm at both him and the Hat. Abruptly cut off, the Sorting Hat nevertheless continued yelling, the tear in the fabric moving at a furious pace. Ron stopped, but looked at her with wide eyes and a pout as if someone killed his puppy. They both looked ridiculous. Combined with her nervous excitement, it was all she can do not to burst out in hysterical laughter. Tears leaking from her eyes, she fired a third Silencing Charm at herself, just to be safe.

The portraits had fully woken up by now and were debating amongst themselves what caused the commotion and what they were to do. Steadying her hiccuping form, Ron moved Romilda closer to his side and with an arm around her waist they turned to leave.

Sir Nicholas was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs and Ron prepared to move his arm out of the cloak to give him a thumbs up. Romilda elbowed him in the side and pointed to the portrait across the hall. Its occupant was back.

It had annoyed the three of them greatly that all of the castle's portraits moved around frequently, but this one seemed to never leave its stupid frame. Romilda knew she should be grateful he'd even been away that long, but seeing it back again just grated on her.

Not able to make a sound and not willing to show themselves to the portrait, they were forced to leave Sir Nicholas behind. He'd eventually figure out they were successful and would come to find them again.

Two corridors away, the elation at their successful heist set in and they paused, jumping in silent joy. Ron pumped both fists in the air and when he lowered his arms she took it as an invitation to hold him and squeeze him for all he was worth.

Eventually the pair practically skipped along the corridor towards the owlery to get rid of the evidence. The Twins would be ecstatic.

It took another forty-five minutes before Romilda gratefully sank down in one of the comfortable sofas in the Common Room. Ron took the other end. The journey to and from the owlery was uneventful. They did pour itching powder in the Hat before packing it up because the Twins wouldn't respect them otherwise, but it didn't take long before one of the school owls was on its way. Unfortunately they ran into a snag with the Fat Lady.

As a fourth year, Romilda was incapable of silent casting. Ron was a sixth year, and had as such had instruction in the art, but was not practised enough to cancel the Silencing Charms they were under. As such, they had significant difficulties conveying the password to the Gryffindor guardian. It was unlikely that someone else would open the portrait at two in the morning which left them with the options of either sleeping in an empty classroom, or getting creative.

Ron, seeing the resolute look on his girlfriend's face had not even bothered trying to argue, difficult as it was using only gesturing. What Romilda wanted, Romilda pursued with a frightening determination until Romilda got what she was after. And she loved a challenge. He'd simply held her while she thought furiously of a way into the tower without being recognised by the gossip-loving portrait.

It turned out to be very simple to needle and annoy the portrait, preventing her getting back to sleep until she relented and allowed that writing down the password demonstrated that they did know it, after all.

Now, sitting down, the pair finally relaxed from their nervous excitement and elation. Neither made any move towards the dormitory stairs, late though it was. Unable to speak, they simply looked at each other and grinned.

Nobody knew about their pranking trio. They were a varied lot, to be sure, with a sixth year boy, a fourth year girl and a much, much older ghost so it wasn't immediately obvious. Ron's family connection to his twin brothers was out there for anyone to see, but he'd kept mostly quiet the previous five years. Only a handful were aware that Nearly Headless Nick had occasionally assisted the twins, though that hadn't happened very often. Mostly the twins' pranks didn't require his particular brand of skills.

But nobody knew that she, Romilda Vane, was their unofficial apprentice. Their foray into the world of business outside of Hogwarts left her free to claim the title of resident prankster, with aid from their wonderful products. And occasionally they gave her an assignment.

Stealing the Sorting Hat, while a wonderful prank in itself – she started silently giggling again thinking of how the professors would react the next day – had more to do with their research than anything else. With their shield clothing successes in mind they were interested in more clothing-related pranks. The Sorting Hat was the only item of clothing known that exhibited a remote intelligence.

Both her and Ron had gulped at first at the twins casual mention of their dream of intelligent underwear, loudly exclaiming its opinions of the wearer from a unique point of view. Sir Nicholas had just laughed. Then again, he wasn't in danger of accidentally wearing any.

Still, it sounded like good fun and it was good practice for their trio. Plus, it was completely unlike anything they had done before.

Romilda looked at her partner in crime on the other end of the couch with fondness. They were very good together.

Romilda, their leader even though she was the youngest, brought expertise and a sense of humour to the table. Nearly Headless Nick was the perfect lookout and gatherer of information. Ron, by virtue of continuous exposure, had developed a good mind for pranks as well and had access to a treasure trove of items. The Marauder's Map was very useful, but not as much as Potter's invisibility cloak. The latter had apparently been around for a while – legend had it even Snape had worn it on occasion – and had been similarly used by the Marauders.

Of course, the fact that Ron was cute might have influenced Romilda's opinion slightly. After she had introduced herself and apologised for the love potion mistake they'd had a shouting match and he had pranked her in retaliation. For an entire week, every suit of armour she passed in the halls had tried to kiss her. Undoubtedly he'd had help from Granger and his twin brothers, but when the dust settled she had expressed her admiration and the next thing she knew they were snogging as if there was no tomorrow. They'd been together since.

Still smiling widely Ron started gesturing something to her. Again she found herself marvelling when he displayed yet another unexpected skill. It was probably due to his love of Quidditch, but his hand signals were crisp and very easy to understand: 'do you ever think we should stop doing this?' He didn't even bother mouthing the words!

Romilda shook her head, smiling in return and opened her arms in invitation. Ron slid closer and held her tight. She sighed in contentment, even though no sound came out.

This was the third time tonight that she'd ended up in his arms. Ron had held her up when she almost collapsed in laughter and held her back when she needed to think before acting rashly. And here, now, he just held her for the sake of it. Romilda laid her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes. Life was good.

A/N: Written for the Points and Prompts Competition using all prompts but the Odd Pairing.

Thank you for your thoughts.
-brainthief