A/N: Important This was originally started as a challenge on and only the first chapter was done. Now The Silver Snitch is down so the story is no longer posted. I re-vamped this chapter and posted it here. I'm not sure how often updates will come seeing as I have other projects or how far this will go. This is a WIP
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Official Announcement
In light of new dangers that are plaguing the wizarding society at this point in time, certain restrictions will be placed on students' time spent at Hogwarts School of Witch Craft and Wizardry. All trips to the wizarding village of Hogsmeade are cancelled. It would be too difficult to keep track and protect all students; in the event o f a Death Eater attack things would be chaos. The annual quidditch tournament will not take place. Being in the air is a highly vulnerable position to be in if attacked. Practices held with no supervision of a staff member are a liability. Free time in between classes and after meals will be restricted. If students are not engaged they may wonder and put themselves in jeopardy as had been observed in past cases. More classes will be offered this year so all timetables are full. After dinner students are to go directly to their common rooms. At no point in time is it allowed for a student to be in the halls if they are not on their way to a class, meal, common room, or other sanctioned area. We plead for you cooperation with these new restrictions, they are set in place for your benefit.
That was the bulletin placed every where around the school. In house common rooms, bathrooms, dormitories, the entrance hall, and upon their entrance into the castle each student was handed a flyer with the same message on it.
The war with Voldemort was raging out side the castle walls. The Order of the Phoenix had recruited many new members and was growing in size. Voldemort's minions were fighting a loosing battle and were reverting to fighting dirty. No establishment was safe. Raids were carried out on whim and paranoia was at an all time high.
Hogwarts was considered the safest place on Earth to most people but to some it wasn't safe enough. The amount of first years enrolled had dropped slightly, parents weren't as comfortable with sending their children away as they used to be. The welcoming feast had carried an undertone of mourning for the familiar faces that weren't sitting at one of the four tables as they should be.
But this elimination of freedoms had gone a step too far. It was like five years ago when the Chamber of Secrets had been opened. No one was aloud to be alone or unsupervised at any point in time. But it was worse this time. There was no ray of fun sunshine to cut through the cloudy academic routine.
"They were probably talking about us when they said: if students are not engaged they may wonder and put themselves in jeopardy as had been observed in past cases. Who else has gotten into as mush trouble as we have when we're not 'engaged'?" Ron mused after reading the notice for about the millionth time in the common room. The golden trio exited through the portrait hole and walked to their first class of the day, History of Magical/Muggle Relations.
Pointless subjects had been added that spanned any topic one could imagine. Classes started right after breakfast and ended right before dinner. No one had free periods and time in between courses was cut shorter. Most classes were taught by a professor that had no other class to teach at that time. The teachers were basically learning along with the children. For most of the period students read the text book and then answered questions to be handed in. Most felt like they were back on one of Professor Umbridge's classes.
Harry was getting pretty fed up with all the restrictions. It was his last fucking year at this school and he wasn't allowed to play quidditch; that was bullshit. The only time he ever got to be away from all the nitwits gazing at the scar on his forehead was when he roamed the halls at night or was in the air on his Firebolt. He did still have the invisibility cloak to help with former. But there was the fact that Dumbledore knew he had it. He probably ordered Filch to walk around the hall waving his arms around to try and hit him.
At theses times he could feel the marauder blood that flowed through his veins. He wanted to do something, start some trouble. He had always wanted to join in with Fred and George when they were at school. Fearing the teachers and headmaster had held him back but now…it was his last year, and what were the teachers going to do, expel him? Ha! They needed him more than he needed them.
He had already tried to get something going with his two best friends but hadn't had any luck. Ron had said that pulling pranks was more Fred and George's scene. Also after his run in with the Inquisitorial Squad in fifth year he had enough punishment from the administration. Hermione had just flat out refused. It seemed that she to have lost her flare for mischief making.
Harry was saddened to find that his friends were so mature they were getting old. This was their last chance for some fun before they were thrust into the cruel and unforgiving world that awaited them.
"Psst…Potter." A hiss came from an alcove on the side of the hallway, "Psst…Potter." Harry Spun around to stare at the dark space in-between a statue of Merlin and the stone wall.
"You guys go ahead, I'll meet you in class, I gotta um… use the loo." Harry stammered as he took a tentative step towards the space where the voice had come from.
"Whatever mate." Ron called over his shoulder. Harry already knew who the voice belonged to. He could recognize it any where after six years of hearing it and there was only one person in the school whose hair could be seen in pitch blackness. He just wanted to know why Malfoy was calling his name from a dark alcove.
"Malfoy?" He questioned when he got close to the opening.
"Just shut up and come here." Malfoy hisses and grabbed him by the front of his robes. He pulled him far enough in so no one in the hall would notice them unless they were specifically looking. "I ever knew the one of the trio was capable of lying to the other two."
"Ow!" Harry winced and rubbed the tender spot on his shoulder after it hit the elbow of the statue. "What do you want Malfoy?" He wasn't exactly at ease with being in a situation that lacked eyewitnesses with his long time rival who could very well be sporting a tattoo and a white mask next month.
"I overheard you talking to Granger and the Weasel yesterday in the library. Those two might be too big of a pair of twats to do something about the situation the school is in but I'm not. I already tried to get Crabbe and Goyle to help me fight back but they don't have enough brain capacity or cunning to help, lousy Slytherins they are." He rambled on with his monologue.
"What are you trying to say?" Harry cut him off suspiciously.
Draco took a deep calming breath, "I'm saying, that I'm willing to put aside six years of open hostility to work together to bring down the administration. That's only if you're willing to extended to me the same offer you proposed to the mu-" he paused and took a deep breath, "-uggleborn and Weasley."
"Are you serious? You, Draco Malfoy,"
"I know my own fucking name, Potter." Malfoy growled.
Harry ignored the outburst, "are willing to help me, Harry Potter, do something that could get us in serious trouble?" Harry finished incredulously. He was growing more and more uncomfortable, Malfoy's breath ghosted across his neck when he spoke and it was making it stifling hot in their little niche.
"Do you want a sticker for getting your name right?" Malfoy muttered before countering with, "I'm not doing it to help you I'm doing it to help myself." Harry raised an eyebrow at that, "I…I… just want quidditch back."
"Whatever. You weren't exactly what I was thinking of when I started looking for support… but you're definitely better than nothing. I admit you'll have a lot more resources than I would." Harry paused and thought it over in his head. Was he really willing to work with Malfoy of all people just to get a couple of freedoms back?
Yes, yes he was.
"Put her there." Harry declared and shoved out his right hand. He had to bite the inside of his mouth to help from giggling at the expression on Malfoy's face.
"It's a muggle expression that means 'Let's shake on it, Draco.'" Draco rolled his eyes at the thought that the other boy had the crazy notion in his head that a Malfoy would understand something muggle, but took the offered hand anyway.
"We'll start planning some stuff today. Come to my room during lunch, the password's incolumitas. Here take this," he reached into his robe and unfolded his invisibility cloak from the inside pocket and handed it to Draco, "mine's the third bed from the left."
"Whoa! How'd you get this?" He asked in awe as he fingered the shimmering material. "I couldn't get my father to shell out the gold for one, they're really rare."
Harry's insides squirmed uneasily at the mention of Draco's father. Why was he even giving the other boy something that was so precious to him? He pinned it to the fact that something inside him was saying to trust him. The fact that Draco was showing his jealousy in a non-malicious way and admitting this was something that even he couldn't buy was a start.
"Family heirloom." He supplied quickly. "Look I gotta get to class, see you later."
"Bye… Harry."
Harry still didn't know why he was trusting Draco with one of his most prized possessions, or carelessly giving him the password to the Gryffindor dorms. Maybe it was that he subconsciously thought that if he befriended to boy it would give him a sufficient reason to refuse the mark. He knew that was what most Slytherins were facing right after graduation, Voldemort would snatch up as many as he could and add them to his ranks. For some reason he just had a gut feeling that agreeing to take Draco as an accomplice was the right thing to do, and he knew Draco wouldn't deceive him.
He high tailed it down the hallway to his class realizing how close he was cutting it. He was right out side the door when the bell rang. "Shit!" he swore. "Sorry Moony." He mumbled the apology so only Remus could hear him; students didn't usually call professors by their teenage nickname.
The werewolf had come back that year to be the DADA professor but, like most of the other teachers, had to teach more than one class. News about his condition had been released in an exclusive article in the Daily Prophet but Dumbledore had made sure that the work he had done for the Order had also been reported. The fact that he wasn't some maniac going around biting people for fun when he changed comforted some parents. People were informed that he was under treatment during full moons and wasn't a danger. Snape had grudgingly agreed to brew the Wolfsbane potion every month. It seemed that the fact the he and Remus were now grown men and not hormonally charged adolescents had hit them. They had formed somewhat of a truce and put their schoolboy rancor behind them.
"That's okay, Harry, just make sure it doesn't happen again. We can't have you causing trouble in the halls," he added with a wink to Harry's playful eye roll. He plopped into a seat near the front of the room next to Seamus and settled in for the awaiting lesson.
The class seemed to go on for an eternity; by the end most kids were rubbing the drool from the corners of their mouths. "We better hurry," Ron shook Harry out of his daze by clapping him on the shoulder, "transfiguration next, its on the other side of the castle."
Harry followed Ron out of the classroom and met up with Hermione on the other side of the doorframe. "I saw that git, Malfoy, skulking around that corridor," he pointed to the one Harry had talked to Draco an hour ago, "ferret-face is up to something, I can smell it." Ron declared with narrowed eyes.
"Heh, uh… yea, he's probably trying to cause some trouble." Harry added for good measure, it was the truth; he just didn't tell them that he was planning to help Malfoy cause the trouble.
They got to their transfiguration classroom in time just to be met with a stern look from McGonagall. They gave her a sheepish smile and took seats. She droned on about the NEWTs that they would be facing at the end of the year, much like their other teachers had done. Hermione seemed to be the only one paying attention.
"Blimey, they treat us like we're first years again." Ron said with contempt as they left the classroom for lunch.
"Hey guys, I feel kinda funny. I think I'll go lie down for lunch." Harry made up and started to turn in the other direction from his friends.
"Just be careful Harry, you never know what you could get in trouble for these days." Hermione warned worriedly. Harry just ignored her and kept walking.
Over the past month that they had been in school Hermione and Ron had become closer to each other than they were to Harry. They were still being shifty about it and dancing around the issue that they liked each other and it was grating on Harry's nerves. He was starting to feel like the fabled third wheel and hated it. Sometimes his anger about their constant flirting would come out at unexpected moments. He'd snap at inconsequential things or snub them just to get a reaction.
He'd starting spending more and more time with Ginny and didn't really mind it. The girl was smart but not in a Hermione way where she was all knowing and always had her nose in a book but had enough brains not to be a twit. She was fun and not as conservative as he was starting to find his best friends of six years were. She was the only one who knew the fact that he was bisexual and this close to officially playing for the other team.
Ron kept dropping hints to him that he should ask her out. Ron thought that Harry was the only appropriate boyfriend for his little sister. Harry didn't act on his encouragements for two reasons. One: she was too much like a sister to him and he couldn't think of her in a sexual way without it feeling oddly wrong. Two: she was in a relationship with Blaise Zabini that her brother didn't know about.
He came out of his musings when he realized he was standing in front of the right portrait. She gave him an impatient look, "Hurry up I'm going to meet my friend Vi."
"Incolumitas" He ground out, sometimes the fat lady didn't seem like the greatest portrait to guard a house's dorms.
The common room was completely devoid of any Gryffindors so he headed for the spiral staircase to the boys dorms. He was glad there was no one there that he needed to give an explanation to. Although, he thought, he was a seventh year so he didn't have to answer to any younger years if he didn't want to.
He pressed the pads of his fingers to the wood of the door and pushed, the door swung open with a creak to reveal the war zone that their room was. There were voices coming from his bed that had the curtains drawn. At first he thought Draco was talking to himself when he recognized the second voice as Blaise.
"Shhh… I hear someone." Draco squeaked right before Harry pulled the curtains open.
"You aren't to great at keeping a low profile." Harry said good-naturedly as he climbed onto the foot of the bed.
"Blaise here," Draco gave a glare to the boy, "saw me heading to the Gryffindor tower and had to find out what I was up to. When he found out he just had to come along." He ended sarcastically.
"I knew he was going cause Ginny told me where the tower was." Blaise added awkwardly.
"You know your portrait is quite the rude bint. Refused to let me in at first just because I was Slytherin even though I had the password…wait what!" Draco sputtered and looked like he had been hit in the face with a dead fish, "You're shagging Weaslette and you didn't tell me?" Draco burst out. Once again the curtains were ripped open and there stood the female Weasley.
"I heard voices and then my 'name', so I came to see who was here during lunch." Ginny growled. "Can I know why my boyfriend, my best friend, and the ferret are together in one bed?" She asked apprehensively.
"Climb aboard fair lady." Blaise exclaimed and threw his arms out in invitation. Draco and Harry simultaneously rolled their eyes as Ginny crawled into Blaise's lap.
"So was is this all about?" Ginny demanded as dark arms wrapped themselves around her waist. So Harry quickly went over what they had planned to do.
"I want in." Ginny stated simply when he was done.
"I don't have a problem with it." Harry said cautiously. He looked to Draco who just shrugged and continued to pick at his fingernails. Blaise definitely didn't have a problem and was nodding his head eagerly. "Okay, we're all going to work together, but this is only going to work on one condition."
"What's that?" Draco asked nervously.
"We call a complete and total truce. We can't work together if we're constantly trying to rip each other's head off."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Not like I have a choice." Draco grumbled.
The four of them talked and formulated plans to set in motion the next day. They worked until the bell for lunch rang and they were forced to go their separate ways.
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A/N: Here's the challenge (of you're wondering):
In the light of the new rules in school, (no Hogsmeade visits, free time or quidditch) the student body unites together, and revolts!
Requirements:
-Pranks abound.
-A group of students take it into their hands to get their freedoms back.
- The teachers don't know what students are doing, but don't relent right away. Dumbledore's eyes twinkle a lot.
- The 'new marauders' should include Draco, Ginny, Harry, and another (maybe?).
-Draco does it 'just to get quidditch back' but other things could be in play.
-Draco gets jealous of Harry complimenting Ginny a lot.
-Harry's not the innocent virgin, but is oblivious to Draco's intentions.
-Some plays matchmaker? (Gred and Forge?)
-Lupin is the defense teacher, and gave Harry the Marauder's Journal for his birthday that year, he starts to recognize the pranks. He doesn't tell anyone but Sev, they start pranking the student back.
-After Lupin and Snape get involved, Harry invokes his partnership in WWW for backup.
-Must include the lines:
"You want me to put that WHERE?"
"Wow Draco. I didn't think you'd one of these. In pink too."
"Hey Harry, did you see that poor-" "NO! You can't do that!"
So review and tell me what you think, it might encourage me to make this a serious project.