The Gryffindor students were famously reckless, and every year, many were caught wandering the castle grounds late at night—a tradition the Weasley twins were eager to uphold.
"What about you, then?" George asked, nudging Albert. He was referring, of course, to the planned Friday night excursion.
"What do you think?" Albert retorted, sounding annoyed as he tossed the towel he'd used to dry his hair back toward George.
"And why the second shower tonight?" George asked, catching the towel and returning it.
"A morning shower wakes me up and makes me feel prepared. An evening shower ensures I sleep soundly," Albert replied, as if stating an undeniable law of physics.
The three roommates exchanged a look of resignation. Arguing a point with Albert was pointless; he always had a perfectly logical, often exasperating, reason for everything he did.
"Can you really sleep soundly after a second shower?" Lee Jordan asked coolly before heading off to take his own late-night bath.
Albert sat back on his bed, listening to the twins whisper conspiratorially about the castle's rumored secret passages. He picked up his wand from the pillow and tapped the towel lying beside him.
Dissendio.
The Disillusionment Charm took effect. The large, fluffy towel seemed to blur, its outline shimmering and fading until it was nearly invisible on the red bedspread. Albert picked up the now-invisible fabric, held it up to the air, and then carefully draped it over his own hand.
The covered area vanished, but there was still a slight, disturbing sense of visual incongruity—a subtle distortion of the background. It wasn't true invisibility, but a perfect camouflage.
He crumpled the towel into a ball, noting how the flaws in the spell became more pronounced when the object's shape was complex or changing.
"Your hand—how did you make it vanish just now?" Fred exclaimed, his eyes wide with surprise as he stared at the place Albert's hand had been.
"This?" Albert held up the towel. "I applied a Disillusionment Charm to the fabric."
"That's seriously impressive," George said, moving closer to inspect the effect. "But there's definitely a slight shimmer, a bit of a wobble when it moves."
"That's all I can manage for now," Albert admitted. His Disillusionment Charm was only Level 1, and a skilled wizard would easily spot the imperfection. "Some wizards use charms like this to create inferior Invisibility Cloaks—ones where the enchantment wears off over time."
"An Invisibility Cloak?" Fred asked, intrigued. "I've heard of them, but why would one be 'inferior'?"
"Because unlike the genuine article, the effect isn't permanent. The enchantment on the fabric slowly degrades," Albert explained.
"Right, let me try this." Fred snatched the invisible towel and draped it over his hand. He winked at George. "See? I'm missing a hand. If you don't look too closely, you can't tell the difference."
"Wrap it around your head," Albert suggested, a mischievous glint in his eye.
Fred and George exchanged a look of pure, shared mischief. A familiar, wicked grin spread across both their faces.
The dormitory door clicked shut again. The oil lamp near the beds suddenly flickered out, plunging the room into near total darkness.
"What in the blazes are you doing? Why are the lights out? Is everyone already asleep?" Lee Jordan complained loudly as he pushed open the wooden door, having just finished his shower. He stood on the threshold, dripping slightly, his brow furrowed in annoyance.
Suddenly, a faint, pale light appeared in the darkness. Lee Jordan's gaze was drawn to the corner of the room where one of the twins stood by the table.
The light, emanating from the tip of a raised wand, traveled up the figure's body, illuminating his chest and shoulders. The light then stopped abruptly, just where the neck should have been.
Lee Jordan took in the terrifying sight: the figure was twisted toward him, a glowing wand held aloft, but he was undeniably, chillingly headless.
"That..." Lee Jordan froze, his face locking into an expression of utter bewilderment and horror. He stood perfectly still, transfixed by the sight of the self-decapitated prankster.
"Alright, that's enough! You've successfully scared him witless!" Albert tried to stifle his laughter, quickly reaching out and snatching the invisible towel off Fred's head, revealing his shocked but grinning face.
"Is he actually okay?" George asked uneasily, turning the main light back on. He shot a glance at his twin that clearly blamed Fred for the potential psychological damage.
Lee Jordan remained standing there, statue-still. An uncomfortable, anxious silence settled over the room as the minutes dragged on.
Then, just as the twins started to worry, Lee Jordan suddenly erupted in a peal of booming laughter that startled all three of them.
"Are you certain you're alright, Lee?" Fred asked, tentatively reaching toward him.
"I'm fine!" Lee Jordan lied, making a dramatic gesture of cutting his own throat with an imaginary dagger. "But you absolutely succeeded in scaring the wits out of me. That was genuinely terrifying."
"We were the ones you almost gave a heart attack, standing there like a wet zombie," George complained, relieved.
"But seriously, seeing someone's head just... disappear like that, even for a moment, is genuinely startling," Lee Jordan admitted, taking the invisible towel from Albert. His eyes gleamed with renewed malice. "Do you think, if we tried that on Filch, we could make him faint?"
"Unlikely," Albert immediately dismissed the idea. "People in the wizarding world have a much higher tolerance for the bizarre; the castle is already full of actual ghosts. If you pulled that trick on a crowded Muggle street, you'd be national news, but Filch sees Nearly Headless Nick every day."
"Still, a disappearing head is fantastic," Fred insisted, suddenly thoughtful. "Why doesn't Zonko's Joke Shop sell something like this?"
"Zonko is probably past his prime. While he clearly possesses the ability to turn wild ideas into gag products, his inspiration has likely dried up completely," Albert explained. "Without new ideas, you can't create something new, like a Headless Hat."
"The Headless Hat," Fred repeated, his eyes shining with newfound inspiration. "That's a brilliant name for it!"
"Write that down, quickly!" George scrambled to find a quill and parchment. "One day, we're going to make our own Headless Hat."
"Before that, you two might want to properly master the Charms you need," Albert reminded them dryly.
Lee Jordan noticed the towel's outline starting to become noticeably clearer. "Wait, what's happening? It's becoming visible again."
"The Disillusionment Charm is starting to fade," Albert confirmed, checking the timepiece on his pillow. He noted that the charm wasn't permanent like a genuine Invisibility Cloak.
"It disappeared so quickly?" Fred muttered, disappointed.
"It lasted for about half an hour," Albert noted.
"That's a very short duration!" George exclaimed.
"I've only just mastered it. How long do you expect it to last?" Albert countered, rolling his eyes. "The duration of any spell depends entirely on the wizard casting it and their proficiency. If Professor Flitwick cast that spell, it would last for hours. You have a long way to go before your night expeditions can rely on magic for concealment."
He emphasized the final point, knowing the twins would soon face the hard truth that enthusiasm alone wasn't enough to bypass Hogwarts security.