Disclaimer: I own nothing that looks like JKR's ideas, world, characters, etc. I do like to think that I own my own ideas and OCs, but they might have been influenced by the many many fanfics that I have read in the past. If I think of a specific fanfic that influenced me and am able to find it, I'll be sure to mention it in an author's note at the bottom or something. Basically, don't sue me, because I'm broke and I don't mean any offense or harm. I'm just writing for fun.

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"We got Potter! We got Potter!" Severus pinched his nose bridge in annoyance and suppressed a growl.

He had better make sure those blasted demons knew better than to share the knowledge they got from those books. He may be letting them basically become honorary snakes, but no way in hell was he letting them bring Potter in on their mischief. …Unless, of course Potter displays a suitable amount of cunning and darkness to deserve such privilege, but he doubted he'd ever need to deal with that. Good lord, he hoped he wouldn't need to deal with that.

Though it would make his vow to keep Lily's child alive infinitely easier… oh well. He had made his choice. He had known when he started the under-appreciated Weasley children on the road to darkness and power that there would be little chance of going back. Not that he wanted to anyway.

xxxx

The winter holidays were approaching and plans were progressing. The Weasley twins were getting excellent grades in nearly all of their classes, and the teachers were amazed. Of course, there was still the occasional prank, often on a student they found to be a git, and always a quite brilliant prank, if they did say so themselves. Everything was going smoothly, with just a couple of small hiccups.

"Do you know why I called you here today, boys?" Severus Snape was angry. Very angry.

The demons had been managing rather skilled pranks, and after they explained to him that they had to keep up the pranks a bit or someone would suspect something, and besides which, pranking was fun, he let them slide and refrained from scolding them for pranking. He instead focused on treating the pranks as projects, and evaluated their skill and success accordingly, and the boys were thriving under his tutelage without anyone else even realizing what was going on.

That wasn't the problem. The problem was simple. The blasted Gryffindor pranksters had just pranked the same student three times in a month. Once was either random or deserved. Twice was bad fortune or bad karma. Three times… three times was bullying, and that was something that Severus Snape, personal victim of the bullying form of "pranking," would never allow.

"Tell me, where do you think the line is between 'pranking' and 'bullying'?"

He stared at their wide-eyed faces, took in their excuse of just having fun, and then he flipped them upside down and stuck them against the wall of his office.

"Wah?!" "Hey!"

"Let us down!"

"Geez, we're sorry!"

"No, you aren't." Spoken flatly, coldly, frighteningly. A smirk graced his face as he calmly observed the two children who he knew would someday have a sadistic streak as wide and frightening as his.

"Perhaps the true difference between pranking and bullying is that in something that is only a prank, everyone, including the victim, can laugh about it afterwards. I am well aware, though, that you often target those you feel deserve it, and certainly won't hold you to that standard all the time.

"I do, however, take severe issue with repeat prank victims. I will say this once, and only once. You will not prank someone more than twice in the same year, let alone in the same month."

He glared at them, making sure he drilled his point home.

"The next time you prank someone for a third time in a year, you will find yourselves suffering from a much worse, potentially painful version of the same prank, in a very public setting. Do I make myself clear?"

Twin gulps answered his declaration, quickly followed by twin voices saying "Yes Sir!" as one.

Later, once they left Snape's office, one twin couldn't help but comment, "Wow, who'd've thought Snape would actually threaten to prank us?"

"I believe him though. Blimey, he can be scary. D'you think he's got a demon somewhere in his ancestry?"

"Sshh! Don't say things like that! He sure is scary enough for it though."

xxxx

There were a few other minor stumbles, one of which being that the twins were rather wary of the Defence teacher, Quirrel. They were tempted, oh so tempted, to prank the pathetic, stuttering fool, but they had taken Snape's books on cunning to heart. After all, what better way to get away with something than to appear to be the person least likely or even capable of committing said nefarious deed. After they noticed both Quirrel and Snape concentrating determinedly on Harry Potter during the first quidditch game while Harry's broom was jinxed, they resolved to let Snape deal with Quirrel, the probable dangerous dark wizard, and to only include either wizard in school-wide or Head Table-wide pranks.

Still, the school year progressed, and the twins studied and thrived.