Disclaimer: This story is fanfiction and posted on this website to share with people who could find it enjoyable and appreciate reading it, no profit is made and all characters, places, etc. are J.K. Rowling's creations.
With that said I hope the occasional reader will appreciate this little plot bunny and thank you for reading!
I also think it preferable that I tell you all I'm not a native English-speaker, so please forgive the many mistakes and my overall English if it comes out sometimes as clumsy or downright incomprehensible (I also have a hard time making a difference between British English and American English, which is kind of embarrassing when you want to write something where the characters are supposed to be speaking the former). Don't hesitate to tell me if you notice something and I'll rectify it right away.
Harry wasn't completely woken up yet. Lying down on his bed, buried under the covers as he enjoyed the cosy warmth, the young boy was in this state halfway between sleep and consciousness where the frontier between dreams and reality was still a bit blurry: it didn't strike him as particularly odd that Dumbledore would offer him pickles and not one of his beloved lemon drops. What he did notice though, was that it was very rare for him to wake up on his own, without the help of Neville's magical alarm clock.
Actually, it was the first time in all of his years at the famous British school for young wizards.
And it was the first time he felt so well-rested too, which was plain weird considering how late yesterday's study night had ended (stupid potion essay—two rolls of parchment—stupid Snape).
Under any other circumstances, that realisation would have induced a much more energetic reaction, had Harry not been in previously mentioned in-between state that completely smothered all his common sense. He could feel a vague sense of urgency, that gut feeling that had often saved his life throughout the years, telling him that something was definitely not right, but Neville and Ron's light snoring as well as Dean's occasional mumbling smothered all his doubts. Since everyone was still completely out of it, it really couldn't be that bad and he would just go back to sleep too.
He had almost succeeded in falling back asleep for good when, more effective than any alarm clock—whether it be magical or muggle-made—the door to their dormitory banged open, instantly waking up all the occupants of the room.
On the bed beside his, Ron shouted something, startled so badly that he fell from his bed to the cold stone ground, long limbs entangled in his bed sheets, while Neville let out a disturbingly girlish shriek. Harry was much more sedate in his own reaction: they were in Hogwarts and perfectly safe after all, not to mention that he had escaped the clutches of Death more than enough times to be able to face any situation with a semblance of calm.
With a sleepy groan, he lifted his head from his pillow and tried to see what was happening. Despite the darkness and the lack of glasses, he managed to distinguish two blurry figures standing at the door topped by a vague, indistinct spot of red.
"Hey boys!" exclaimed a joyful voice. "Wakie-wakie!"
"How can you all still be asleep at this hour?" another voice, very similar to the first, added with a slight laugh.
The voices confirmed Harry's thoughts: they were in absolutely no danger whatsoever. He let his head fall back onto his pillow with a long sigh, fully intent on going back to sleep for a bit longer and ignoring the Weasley twins.
"Fred, George!" Ron exclaimed, his tone hesitating between startled and angered. "What the bloody hell are you doing?"
There was the sound of a curtain being drawn open and sunlight flooded the room, blinding its five not-quite-awake-yet occupants who groaned and protected their assaulted eyes the best they could. A hand on his closed lids, Harry lazily lifted a hand in the overall direction of the nightstand to search blindly for his glasses.
"You lazy, lazy boys," one of the twins (Harry took a wild guess and decided it was George) said mock-disappointedly. "Still in bed at this hour?"
"Rise and shine!" Fred added in his best sing-song voice. "The sun is shining, the birds are singing, etcetera."
Harry had never realized how incredibly annoying the twins could be so early in the morning, all the more when he'd had to go to bed at three in the morning, with a headache from working on that blasted potion essay. Of course, the fact that he couldn't seem to find his glasses (and couldn't see what was going on) didn't help his mood either...
"What's wrong with you two?" Ron said indignantly, voicing out loud the thoughts of pretty much all his roommates; albeit Harry didn't hear Dean or Seamus say anything but judging from their annoyed grunts, they didn't think any less than him. "Blimey! Neville's alarm clock hasn't even gone off yet!"
Finally!
Harry felt his anger simmer down a tiny bit when he finally felt the cold and thin metal frame of his glasses beneath his extended fingers. He instantly grasped them securely in his hand and put them on his nose, sitting up at the same and carefully opening his eyes. Despite all his precautions, he was blinded by the sunlight pouring in through the window and had to blink back the tears for several long seconds before he managed to see anything really clearly.
"What time is it, anyway?" Dean asked feebly from his bed.
"That's the thing!" one of the twins (Harry tried to see which twin but his eyes weren't being too cooperative still) exclaimed excitedly.
"No one knows!" the other completed in much the same tone.
"What do you mean 'no one knows'?" Seamus repeated without bothering to hide the hostility from his voice (he'd always been the grouchiest of the bunch when woken up too early in the morning).
"AAAAAAAAAAAH! MY CLOCK!" That was Neville.
Time to see what's going on...
Harry blinked a few more times and managed to finally see the room around him, as well as all his friends. The Weasley twins looked very excited about something and stood in the middle of the room, visibly eager to make the five younger wizards move from their beds. Ron was still on the floor and glaring heatedly from the twins back to his sheets that he was trying to tug off his long legs. Dean had his head raised a few inches above his pillow and was watching Neville with a small confused frown while Seamus simply couldn't be seen, buried as he was under his covers. Neville was as pale as a vampire and sitting up on his bed, looking with a horrified expression at the small alarm clock that he was clutching between his fingers.
"No!" the young chubby wizard wailed desperately. "And right after my grandma had it repaired! She's going to kill me!"
Fred and George, standing right in the middle of the room, exchanged a short glance and considerately swallowed back their laughs: Neville's grandmother was famous enough in Gryffindor that they could sympathize with the young boy and not make fun of him on such a grievous matter (or at least not too much).
"Wait! You mean it didn't wake us up!" Ron realized with growing horror. "That means we're late for potions! Snape is going to have our heads!"
Seamus threw his covers back with a start and four pairs of widened eyes converged on Neville. The boy, more afraid of the infamous potion master than of his grandmother, looked downright terrified now, but at the very least he wasn't the only one.
The silence barely lasted a few seconds before all hell broke loose. In the blink of an eye, the five friends were out of their beds and running throughout the room, trying to get prepared as fast as they could.
Every single second was crucial now.
As Harry buttoned up his shirt without really making sure the right buttons went into the right holes, a loud crash alerted him that Seamus had tripped while trying to lace his shoes. As insensitive as it was, he didn't spare his friend a single glance and rushed into the bathroom to brush his teeth only to almost run right into Ron who was cursing about missing clean socks while Neville whimpered about how he couldn't find his essay anymore. Dean was already in the bathroom, brushing his teeth while putting his trousers on, his necktie having quite obviously been put on before the shirt. Another resounding crash followed by a yelp (Seamus again, it seemed) made the twins burst into loud guffaws.
"What are you laughing about you idiots?" Harry heard Ron snap back in their room. "In case you haven't noticed, you're late too!"
"But that's precisely the point, Ronniekins," Fred grinned, laughter adding tremors to his voice as he spoke.
"Everybody's late," George added, apparently making it a point to speak loud enough that even Dean and Harry could hear him.
The two froze in front of the sink and exchanged a look before heading towards the door connecting the bathroom to the main room, their toothbrush still in hand.
"Everybody?" Harry questioned, as he looked at the twins suspiciously, not sure whether to take them seriously. "How did that happen?"
The twins exchanged a look, all amusement fading from their faces, and shrugged in a disturbingly identical motion.
"Beats me," Fred said with a slight shake of his head.
"All the clocks stopped during the night, even the one in the common room," his twin completed.
"All the clocks?" Dean frowned confusedly, words slurred from the brush stuck in his mouth. "But that's not possible."
"A prank?" Ron frowned at his brothers.
"Don't look at us like that," George instantly refuted sternly. "If it's a prank we had nothing to do with it."
"Yeah, and we don't really think it could be one anyway," Fred added. "It's not only the clocks that stopped during the night."
That got the attention of the three other fifth years. "What do you mean?" Ron questioned with a slight frown.
"Get dressed and come to the common room," Fred told them as he turned back to the door to leave.
"You'll see!" George winked before following his twin.
Silence came back to the room as the five friends exchanged confused glances. No comments were exchanged though as all of them could feel that something was amiss and they hurriedly finished their preparations before running down the stairs to the common room.