Our Little Mischief Maker
Harry was always our little mischief maker, and when we say 'little' we mean we saw him as something of a younger brother, someone to tease and protect, someone who would never quite grow up in our eyes. Even when he definitely wasn't little any more, even when he was busy saving the wizarding world. Not that we thought he was some kind of hopeless kid who couldn't handle the big, scary world he lived in. He was the only one of us who really knew what we were fighting when the war started. If we were the Trouble Makers In Chief, he was our Apprentice Trouble Maker.
But right from when we first saw him on the Hogwart's Express, about to start his first year, we felt protective of him. It's not every kid we help with their heavy trunk after all. We'd be more likely to hex it to make it heavier, or burst it open on the platform. But even before we realised he was Harry Potter, there was something about him, as small and alone as he was, there was something burning beneath the surface. A determination. That something emerged during that first year when he became the youngest seeker in a century after his first time on a broom, lost a tremendous amount of points after smuggling an illegal dragon in the dead of night (we were so proud) and faced You - Know, oh all right, Voldemort and beat him. When he was only eleven. Ron and Hermione helped of course, but everyone knew Harry was the leader of their little gang, even if none of them will admit it, and it was Harry who faced Voldemort after all. On his own.
And so we agreed to help Ron save him from the Dursleys that summer, and even though it started off as something of a joke, and we were keen for any excuse to fly the car, we were as angry as Ron when we heard, and saw, how he was treated at his home. We didn't care that mum had caught us, only that we had saved Harry.
We gave him some of our Filibuster Fireworks to set of in Snape's class in his second year. We had to admire his nerve, disrupting Snape's lessons is not something that any kid does lightly, and especially when saying that Snape hated Harry with every fibre of his being was something of an understatement. We admired him even more when we found at what the firework was for, stealing from Snape's supplies, brewing Polyjuice Potion and getting into Slytherin Common Room no less. The fact that he could speak Parseltoungue never bothered us; in fact, we thought it was kind of cool. He could speak to snakes for Merlin's sake! Then he went and saved Ginny from the Chamber of Secrets, beat a basilisk, stabbed a homicidal diary and exposed Lockhart as a fraud along the way.
And so, in his third year, we gave him the Marauder's Map because he deserved to have a little fun, especially with those sorry excuses for relatives of his and the life threatening trouble he seems to get into every year. Not to mention how upsetting it must have been when the whole school turns against you. Not that he ever shows it. The noble git. We were even more pleased about giving the Map to him when we eventually found out who the Marauders actually were. Prongs was Harry's dad, Padfoot, his godfather and Moony his (everyone's really, except for certain gits) favourite teacher, and honouree Uncle. We like to think that the Map had been calling out to him, which is why we felt inclined to give it to him. That Map was like gold to us, its not like we would just give it away. After all, the Map had a personality of it's own, as it showed if anybody tried to read it without knowing the password, I solemnly swear that I am up to no good, AKA, the best password in the world.
We were even more convinced the Marauder's Map belonged to Harry when Harry once told us that instead of just insulting him, as the Map would normally do when someone would try to read it without the password, the Map responded as Prongs, Padfoot and Moony would. Wormtail wasn't even allowed a look in, furthermore proving the Map's personality. Harry then used the Map anytime he wanted a chat with the Marauders, though he was careful not to use it too often. When we asked him why, he admitted he once became obsessed with a thing called the Mirror of Erised, which showed him his parents, standing by him, and he knew he could very easily become obsessed again.
At the end of his third year he broke the law by going back in time to help certain Azkaban escapee escape the Dementor's Kiss, and our favourite hippogriff escape execution. That's more than just a little trouble making.
Harry gave us our start up loan in his fourth year. We knew it was partly because he felt guilty about having the money he felt should have been Cedric's (Harry and his blasted guilt complex. It's almost funny) but we knew that Harry genuinely felt that in a time of increasing darkness and despair, what we all needed was happiness and laughter.
And then came his fifth year. To use the Muggle expression, that was when the shit hit the fan. The war started, though the world refused to admit it and called Harry a madman and a liar. It was bad enough in his second year with the whole Chamber thing; we don't know how he coped with it in his fifth year, especially with Voldemort camping out in his head and Umbridge on his back every hour of the day, the monster forcing him to carve into his own hand.
The Order didn't know what they were talking about when they said Harry was too young to fight, had they not noticed what he had done those past years? Harry had done more than the most of them put together. Harry's only way of coping was to fight, to feel like he was useful, and so he formed Dumbledore's Army. Or at least, that wasn't why he consciously formed the DA, but it was one of the reasons subconsciously. Umbridge being one of the others.
Harry's loan helped in our battle against Umbridge. We wouldn't have been able to form Weasley's Wizard Wheezes if it hadn't been for Harry. And so we set about causing as much chaos as humanely possible. If it is not possible for you to imagine how much Umbridge was hated, then if we tell you that even Professor McGonagall only made the faintest show of trying to stop us, and didn't get rid of some of more – ah – creative obstructions, which she could have easily done, then that should give you some idea.
And then Sirius died.
Harry's never really got over the loss, especially as Harry blamed himself for Sirius' death (how many times do we have to call him a stupid, noble git?) Even in the short time Harry knew him, Sirius was everything to Harry.
We heard a rumour that when Professor Dumbledore was talking to Harry after … it, Harry damn near destroyed Dumbledore's office in a fit of rage. It wouldn't have surprised us. Harry's always had an impressive temper on him. Most of the time he's calm, a lifetime of controlling your temper around the Dursleys does that to you, but when he goes, you best take cover, because things are going to blow. Such as Aunts. Oh yes, Ron's told us that particular story. Such a shame her memory had to be wiped. From what we heard she deserved everything she got, and we were so proud of our Harry for giving it to her.
In his sixth year we heard he refused to restart the DA. He said it was because they had a proper Defence teacher, but the day Harry calls Snape a 'proper' teacher? You know something's wrong. Perhaps he was still feeling guilty (actually, scratch that. He was definitely still feeling guilty), perhaps he just didn't trust himself as a teacher. Whatever the reason, Harry once again showed just how stubborn he could be. He just wouldn't let himself be persuaded. Harry also became Quidditch Captain, as we always knew he would, and of course, they won the Quidditch Cup that year.
That year was also the year Harry started dating Ginny, and as protective and elder brotherly as we might like to be, two things have to be admitted. One, Ginny can look after herself and Merlin help anyone who angers her (we've taught her well), and two; there is no one we would want to date our little sister more than Harry Potter.
Of course, at the end of that year Professor Dumbledore was murdered. Well, technically he wasn't murdered since it was all arranged with Snape, but that doesn't stop you hating the man, even when you know how much he did for the Order, because we saw what it did to Harry. Harry had to watch helplessly as the man he admired so much was killed before his eyes, and even though it was all for the good, we cannot help but hate them both for that, even if Harry (fantastic, noble git that he is) has forgiven, and even admires Snape, and has even made sure that Snape's portrait hangs in the Headmaster's Office.
Technically, Harry didn't get a seventh year. He was on the run, fighting a war. We don't really know what he was doing, and in a way, we don't really want to. We like to imagine him spending his seventh year, as he should have. Making mischief, playing Quidditch, and just to round things off, effortlessly getting magnificent marks, just to annoy the teachers when they complain about him not revising enough.
That's Our Little Mischief Maker.