Closed A Ribbeting Development

[Hayley Elridge]

Working at Gambol and Jape's had set Hayley's mind buzzing with ideas, and she and Harley had come up with something that they thought would be a fantastic senior prank, the perfect way to end their time at Hogwarts with a bang. They didn't have much of a plan, yet, but they'd agreed that there was something much more important than a plan that needed to be secured first. Rose had been avoiding them since they'd told her they were dating, and it hurt, and they couldn't let it go on much longer. One of Rose's objections had been the assumption that they would always do things together and exclude her and Rory, and Hayley hoped they could prove to her that it wouldn't be the case. Hayley's new job wouldn't help with that, though of course it had been a purely opportunistic move on her part, and if Honeyduke's had been hiring instead she'd have been just as pleased to work with Rose and take that opportunity to try to mend their relationship. This prank, though, should achieve that effect in a far more exciting way, and Hayley had been looking for a chance to approach Rose about it.

This afternoon, strolling along the corridor arm in arm with Harley, intending merely to drop her off at Gryffindor after their date, Hayley spotted Rose ahead of them and knew this was her chance. She gave Harley a significant glance and a wink, then rushed along the corridor to catch up with Rose before she could avoid them again. "ROSE! Hey! I have . . ." Hayley paused, trying to find a phrasing that didn't sound like she and Harley had thought something up without her again, while presenting the idea immediately so she didn't just leave again. "I have a proposition for you." She winked exaggeratedly, trying to make it evident that this was a fun and exciting idea.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose knew that she could have made the first steps to fixing her friendship with Hayley and Harley again, but her pride had stopped her. She knew both sides of the argument had said bad things, and she definitely regretted a lot of her words, but she felt like the two of them should be taking the first step. They still had each other, and Rose was alone. Besides, they had said some things to her that she didn't find very easy to forgive at all, and things about her boyfriend she was also still angry about. Granted, Kauri hadn't been her boyfriend at thet ime, but she doubted their opinion had changed that much over time. She had heard Hayley now worked at Gambol and Jape's too, and silently felt lonely that she was left out of that as well, even though she liked her job at Honeydukes. It just seemed like they did everything together now, just as she had feared.

With the weeks passing and no attempts at apologies coming her way, Rose had started to assume her friends were forgetting about her. She thought they were probably happy together and didn't need her anymore, which made her sad. So she wasn't expecting the sudden call of her name by Hayley, and turned her head in surprise. It wasn't a big surprise that she was with Harley, and while Rose was happy to see her friend and to be spoken to by her, she did look at her warily. She wondered if they were about to talk, like... really talk. The way they should to fix things. But Hayley's words seemed to indicate otherwise. "What... sort of proposition?" She asked, looking between the two of them with a small frown. "Is this your way of making things up?" She added, as she didn't want to let them ignore the fight and move on as they had before, if that had been what Hayley's angle was.

 

[Harley Tsuji]

Harley was a bit nervous about this conversation, but she was far more excited about what was to come if they could get things worked out. The argument with Rose last year had been painful, a lot of what they had all said to each other had hurt, but it had been months now, and Harley was tired of dancing around one of her best friends. If they could get everything back to normal, and do it while pulling off one of the best pranks of the century, all the better as far as Harley was concerned. Couldn't be simpler.

She let Hayley pull her over to Rose, though part of Harley flickered back to the now familiar wariness she often felt around one of her closest friends as they approached. When Rose spoke, Harley knew she needed to get in quickly. Harley wanted to resolve this as fast as possible, and she had seen the gears turning in Hayley's mind to try and talk the situation through. There was no time for that, and Harley thought it was only sensible to just bulldoze through the conversation with what the situation was. "Yeah, look, we all said stuff that was mad dumb, and I think we can all agree that we're all sorry, and none of us really meant it. Fighting sucks, and I wanna be friends again." Letting an impish grin slide onto her face, Harley leaned closer to speak to Rose in an undertone. "Besides, if we really thought you were boring now we wouldn't be coming to you to be part of the prank of the century..." Harley grinned, wiggling her eyebrows playfully at Rose.

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley knew as soon as she saw the look on Rose's face that she'd taken the wrong angle, that she should have been more direct, should have apologised immediately. The Gryffindors liked directness, and normally it was Hayley's instinct too, but in this situation, with the tangle of her emotions . . . She wanted desperately to be friends with Rose again, and regretted the things she'd said . . . but they hadn't been untrue. It was a great relief when Harley took over, just rushing in in that wonderful way she did. "Yeah. I'm sorry," Hayley added, the words sitting strange in her mouth even - or perhaps especially - to one of her best friends, but they had to be said. "I miss you . . . which is why I really want to bring you in on this. It wouldn't be the same without you." A slow smile spread across Hayley's features as she got to the crux of the proposition. "So. You know frogspawn soap, right?" Hayley considered saying more, but they didn't exactly have much of an idea yet, and Harley would definitely want to present some of it, and if she could draw Rose out in increments by appealing to her curiosity, so much the better.

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose was a bit surprised when Harley spoke up next, but she was relieved when the girl addressed the issue in a more direct way. She smiled hesitantly, though she held up her hand to stop her from talking too much. "Hold on, you're kind of blazing through these apologies." She said, though she was amused. "I do want to be part of the prank of the century, though I also want to say a few things!" She looked over at Hayley, who apologized and said she missed her. Rose felt a warmth go through her at those words, it was what she needed to hear. "I missed you too... both of you." She said softly. "Before we talk about this awesome prank, can I apologize too?" She looked between them hopefully. "I should never have said what I said, but I was really concerned... sometimes I already felt left out, and when you guys said you were dating I was sure it would only get worse." She paused, looking down for a moment. "But that was a selfish reaction." She said quietly. There was a beat of silence. "So what was this about frogspawn soap?" There was still Kauri to address, as she wasn't sure if the girls knew he was her boyfriend now. But she felt like not everything needed to be talked out at once.

 

[Harley Tsuji]

Harley kept her hopeful gaze on Rose, anxious about her friend's response. She had hoped that just breezing past the apologies and getting back to being friends would be the best way to handle this, but when Rose paused them, Harley's heart sank slightly. She didn't want to drag the fight on any longer, and had hoped that apologising to one another was something they could all mutually agree on quickly. It was a relief when Rose stopped her not to demand a more thorough apology, but to apologise properly herself. There was a tension in her jaw Harley didn't realise she had been carrying until it finally relaxed, and she smiled warmly at Rose. "Hey, no sweat. I get it. We're all dumb and said stupid things, so let's... be dumb and say stupid things together, instead of to each other." It was a relief when Rose turned the subject back to the prank, and Harley nodded, grinning impishly. "Weeeelllll, there's a ton of it at work, and Hayley and I get a staff discount. And we've been trying to think of fun things we could do with a ton of frogs..." Harley wiggled her eyebrows, hoping to entice Rose into the scheme more.

 

[Hayley Elridge]

Hayley chuckled as Rose told them off for going too fast. She had a point; though Hayley didn't really want to dwell on the apologies, there were points they needed to sort out. "Can confirm, we're all dumb," she said, trying to keep the mood light, but if they were going to do this properly there were more serious things she had to say. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, too. I - we - never meant to leave you out, but it did feel like you suddenly started caring about rules when we got made prefects, and we shouldn't have let that ruin things but somehow it did, and ugh. In conclusion, we're dumb." Hayley took a shaky breath, and turned her attention back to more fun things. "Yeah, and we were thinking, like . . . if we levitated a bunch of frogspawn soap . . ."

 

[Rose Holland]

Rose nodded a bit reluctantly as Harley and Hayley both said they had all been dumb, and that they should move on. She would have liked to talk in more detail about some things, but could tell the other two didn't think this was the right time for that. And maybe that was true. The most important parts had been said, and Rose had to admit she was very curious about this prank. There was one thing she had to say first, though. "Okay, yes. We were all a bit dumb and ... and I'm glad we agreed on that, but I do want to quickly tell you guys not to say mean things about Kauri anymore because then I have to defend him as we're dating." She said, only blushing a little bit. "And I don't think I can take either of you in a duel, so please don't." She added, trying to keep her tone light. It was a bit embarrassing to put that out there so plainly, so she quickly focused on the soap idea. She looked at Hayley. "Then... we'd have a lot of levitating frogs?" She asked, not quite seeing the full picture. "Then what?"