Ok, so the last one kinda died on me (partly because I lost the book...) but this one wanted to be written.
Yes, the premise is a bit cliche, but I promise that the plot won't be - and there will be slashy smutt galore in later chapters, because I love it.
Obviously I don't own JK's characters, although I wish I did - there'd be a lot more smutt if I did.
Chapter One: Intro to War
Harry sat on his suitcase and stared around the room, not really paying attention to his siblings or anthing else around him. So far Hogwarts didn't seem all that different from his last arts school – they both featured old architecture and silence. Jack was humming to himself again, something he frequently did just to annoy James, while his twin Rosalie sat on a windowsill, staring out into the grounds. James was pacing, back and forth. They were waiting for the Deputy Headmistress, their parents having departed a few minutes ago.
A young man came tearing through the room as though chased by monsters, shortly followed by a girl of similar age.
"Get back here Sirius Black! You owe me, bastard!" The intrusion was quite a shock, and James found himself flung aside as they tore through the door behind him. As silence regained its hold the four Potter siblings looked around at each other in shock. No-one would've got away with that kind of behaviour at their last school.
Harry couldn't help smiling to himself. Maybe this school was going to be different afterall.
"Now. James, Harry; you two will be sleeping down this corridor here – the senior Griffindor boys' wing." As Professor McGonagall pointed their rooms out to them, Harry tried to stifle a gasp of dismay. The rooms themselves seemed well-built, but the walls...
It looked as though every available surface was covered in paint (or other unknown substances). In some cases this seemed deliberate – some of the pictures were beautiful, and there were poems written everywhere. But there were also blatant spatters, as though there had been a few too many accidents and maybe a few paint wars. Harry's door featured a brilliant phoenix, some red blobs, and the words 'Music is deceiving, dare you trust the music of the night?'* in giant caligraphy. James' wasn't much better, almost entirely covered in a magnificent red stag.
A door slammed open, revealing a boy who looked remarkably like the picture of a shaggy dog that graced its panelling. With a start Harry realised it was the boy who'd raced past them earlier.
"Hey Professor, Lily isn't around anymore, right?" He seemed quite nervous, and Harry guessed that the red-haired girl he'd seen chasing the boy must be Lily. Professor McGonagall looked stern.
"Mr. Black, was it really wise to 'borrow' her ballet slippers?" Black at least had the decency to look sheepish, but Harry could spot the grin lurking on his face.
"What did you do with her ballet shoes?" James asked, grinning like a maniac. It was obvious the two of them would be good friends quite quickly. Professor McGonagall sighed and decided to leave them to it.
"Used them... but my feet are a bit too big," he replied, smirking now that they were out of sight of any teachers. "Totally ruined them in order to keep a bet. I'm Sirius by the way." Introductions were made all round, before Harry decided to leave them in order to unpack. Sirius was the same age as James, so would be in all his classes except Specialties – Harry, being two years younger, felt it would be better to make his own friends later.
As he trailed behind James and Sirius on their way to dinner, he tried to keep an eye out for the twins. They'd been placed in Ravenclaw (due to space availability) and since they were younger and taking different Specialties, it was unlikely he'd see them outside of meals.
Whilst looking for them he spotted a blonde boy looking at him curiously, before being dragged into the hall by someone who appeared to be relative, if the platinum hair was anything to go by. Sirius caught him watching them and tugged on his sleeve.
"You want to watch out for them, Harry. Draco and Lucius Malfoy are evil gits, in Slytherin. And since darling Draco's taking your Specialty..." The sarcastic overtones of 'darling Draco' were enough to tell Harry that Sirius really didn't like the two blondes, and he resolved to be on his guard around them. He'd particularly disliked the look Lucius had given him anyway.
They ended up seated in the midst of red-heads, which thoughroughly confused Harry until he realised that most of them were related – Fred and George were twins in James and Sirius' year, Ron was in Harry's, and Ginny the year below. Lily was the only one not related to them, but since she was talking to a Barbie-lookalike and pointedly ignoring Sirius she didn't really count as part of the group.
"Wow Sirius, what'd you do to get Evans so pissed?" Fred laughed, and Sirius promptly launched into an elaborate tale of drunken bets and broken shoes.
Glancing around the room, Harry finally spotted his younger siblings. They were seated next to a dreamy-looking girl with incredibly long blonde hair and bizarre clothing and an older asian girl, who seemed to be explaining something (if Rosalie's engrossed expression was anything to go by). It appeared that the twins had already settled into their House nicely, so Harry tried not to worry, despite his disappointment that the Houses even sat together. He'd likely not see his siblings properly until the weekend, and he'd always enjoyed spending time with them. Jack was quite quiet, but came out with some amazing observations, and Rose was witty and chatty enough to make anyone want to spend more time with her. With constant changes of school and the closeness of age, Harry'd sometimes become their 'triplet', and it was disconcerting to know he wouldn't be able to do that anymore.
Something hit him in the head, breaking him out of his reverie.
"Oops, sorry mate – I was aiming for Seamus," Ron sniggered, scooping up a second spoonful and hurling them at a boy close to them. They connected with a satisfying splat, and Harry couldn't stop himself from laughing: which promptly earned him a faceful of gravy from the irate Irishman. Ron handed him a napkin, grinning madly before starting a pea-battle with a dark boy Harry later learned was called Dean Thomas. It was unclear who won in the end however, as the entire table erupted in a free-for-all fight that only ended when Sirius 'accidentally' got Lucius Malfoy as he sat glaring at them all from the Slytherin table – Professor Snape promptly took 150 points and gave Sirius detention.
"Oh, Sevvie, I didn't realise you wanted us to spend more time together!" Sirius' remark sent Griffindor into gales of laughter, but the smirk soon left Sirius' face as he lost a further 20 points and got another detention with Filch, the caretaker.
That night Harry lay in bed thinking over all he had learnt. Griffindor seemed like a fun House, especially if dinner was anything to go by. Ron had offered to help Harry find all his classes the next day, and Harry suspected they were going to be good friends; it turned out they were even doing Music together, although different Specialties – Ron was in Percussion, and Harry Violin. James and Sirius were well on the way to being inseparable already, busy plotting pranks and sharing past ideas. There were only two things bothering Harry about this new school: the lack of contact he'd be having with Jack and Rose, and the obvious disdain towards him from the Malfoys.
123456789
The next morning Harry woke up to shrieks and yells and the thudding steps of students running up and down the corridors. Ron even flung the door open to scream at Harry to 'get up before we're all late for breakfast'. The Slytherins had disabled Griffindor's morning alarm system, and the entire House was late. Getting ready was also made difficult by the dismantling of the bathroom plumbing and the sellotape over several doorways.
"Bastards must've come in while we were asleep. I'm going to kill Lucius Malfoy! This has to've been his idea!" Sirius' ranting carried on even as they all pelted towards the dining hall enmasse, in an attempt to actually eat before class. Some people weren't very lucky – anyone taking Painting had had a morning tutorial, so breakfast for them was out if they wanted to make it to class.
Dean was still rather bitter about this a few hours later as he wolfed down his impressively large lunch (to the delight of the watching Slytherins, who were laughing their heads off).
"I mean, can't they give a guy a break? Morning tutorial's suck ass anyway, but with your stomach screaming the whole time? Utter nightmare."
The others tried to be consoling, but Ron only managed murderous.
"Look at Malfoy, the smug git. We have to get old Drakie-kins back for this one guys." Harry was puzzled by this.
"I thought Sirius said it was Lucius? Why are we attacking Draco?" Ron looked at him as though he was mental, but Seamus was considerate enough to explain that if Lucius had planned it, then most of the House would've been in on it – it was garunteed that Draco Malfoy had helped his older brother attack Griffindor. So now Griffindor needed to retaliate...
It was decided during lunch that the best revenge was a similar plot. As the Masterminds, Sirius, James and the Weasley twins would break into Slytherin that night and wreck havoc on the bathrooms and common room. Harry himself was a bit wary of all this – Hogwarts was turning out to be more of a school of warfare than a school of arts. Ron's assurances that all of this was perfectly normal did little to ease his concerns, and he sincerely hoped he never had cause to attack Ravenclaw: the last time he'd got on the twins bad side he'd been nine, and they'd framed him for several 'crimes' that had seen him grounded for two months. Now they were older and smarter, and quite frankly probably a lot nastier if inspired to vengeance.
That evening had Harry praying for the first time in years – that his own siblings wouldn't kick his ass in the near future.
* The Music of the Night, Lloyd Webber. And yes, it's a bit of an omen if I keep to the plot I'm currently using in my head...
Please let me know what you think, criticisms most welcome :)