April 1st was the most agonizing day of the year for everyone at Hogwarts.
Whenever this date rolled around, George Weasley and Fred Weasley of Gryffindor would be bursting with energy from the crack of dawn, roaming the entire school grounds. The arrival of April Fools' Day "legalized" the twins' pranks, and they would invariably pop out from dark corners like jack-in-the-boxes, randomly selecting a "lucky duck" to subject to an endless array of hazing tricks. Whether their targets were professors, students, ghosts, or portraits, the pair always managed to dream up inventive ways to torment them. Even the semi-sentient plants in the greenhouses and the local magical creatures fell victim to their schemes; the Weasley brothers truly practiced true equality in their torment. In short, once anyone in the castle was targeted by them, escape was practically impossible.
The library was packed to bursting today, though hardly anyone was actually reading. Students sat about in small clusters, whispering among themselves.
Chapter 180