Disclaimer: Anything familiar to JKR's books probably comes from there and is hers not mine. Also, Harry Potter, Hogwarts, the Wizarding World, and anything else that has to do with it belongs to the lovely JK Rowling, not me. I'm just playing in her sandbox and building my own Hogwarts in it.

Chapter Three

Harry woke up a week into the summer holidays and quickly grabbed his glasses from his bedside table, cleaning them on his shirt before putting them on. He caught sight of Hedwig sleeping with her head under a wing on the new stand that Sirius had bought for her just a couple days before. Another glance told Harry that Ankh was wrapped around the pole beside Hedwig's talons and sleeping peacefully, which drew a smile from him.

Standing up and stretching, Harry got dressed in a black T-shirt and sweatpants quickly and quietly before strapping the Dagger to his left arm and his other dagger to his left thigh. A shrunken Gryffindor's Sword went into his left pocket while a shrunken Nimbus 2000 joined it, his emerald green Journal in the other pocket with his Invisibility Cloak. Harry's holly and phoenix feather wand was in its holster on the inside of his left forearm. Hanging from Harry's dragonhide belt was a goblin-made sword with an emerald in the hilt, a snake carved out of the hilt, and the other three Hogwarts animals carved into the blade. Four throwing knives in their special sheath were also on his belt.

Opening the door to his room slowly, Harry slipped out and went down the stairs soundlessly, his senses on high alert. Reaching the second floor, he moved as quickly as he could while still being silent. Luckily, Harry seemed to be the first one awake again and was able to make it into the kitchen without meeting anyone.

When he entered the room, Harry breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw only Remus was awake. Remus gave Harry a smile, but kept silent, knowing why the teenager was so uptight and on high alert – a bunch of his friends had slept over again.

Just as Harry sat down at the table with a view of both the Floo and the doorway, Ginny walked into the kitchen and stopped suddenly when she saw Harry sitting there. Harry grinned at her and she relaxed enough to give him a half smile and go grab some of the food Harry had left out.

As Ginny walked, Harry looked her over. She too was wearing black sweatpants and a dark T-shirt. On her right arm was her dagger, and Harry could see her wand holster on her left arm. Hanging from her side was her own sword, though it was slightly different from Harry's. A ruby in the hilt with a roaring lion carved underneath while a snake joined the eagle and the badger on the blade.

Ginny sat down next to Harry and asked the same question she had asked every morning she and the twins had managed to persuade their mother to let them visit, "Allies?"

"Of course," he replied with a quick smile before turning back to his food so that they could be finished eating quickly, wanting to be done before the others awoke.

Just as the pair finished, the Floo activated and Tracey stepped out of it. She was also wearing the dark clothes, a sword to match Harry's, her dagger, and a sheathed wand. One look at the empty plates in front of Harry and Ginny and she raised an eyebrow with a smile. They both just smirked slightly and shook their heads, Remus watching on as the trio communicated silently.

"Again?" Tracey finally asked, and the two at the table nodded as they stood up.

Harry pulled out his Invisibility Cloak and held it up for the two girls to get under, and they all covered themselves completely, Remus giving them a thumbs-up to let them know that they weren't visible, and Harry knew that Remus would be on their side for something like this.

The three slowly left the kitchen and went up to Harry's room, walking silently because they had only socks on their feet, no shoes. Once in his room, Harry quickly slipped out from under the Cloak and went to grab Ankh and his shoulder holder for the snake. Behind him, Ginny was rushing to his wardrobe and Tracey to his bedside table.

Five days ago, when Sirius had first come up with the idea, Ginny, Tracey, and Harry had agreed to always work together, never against one another. It meant that they could use Harry's room as a base for their supplies and not be afraid of their hiding places being found. The only way Harry would agree to idea was if no one could get into his room except him unless they were with him, and Remus had agreed by placing a charm on his doorway for him. The charm didn't even allowing Remus or Sirius into there without Harry, and only Harry knew the password needed to remove the charm.

Ankh woke up quickly and slipped up Harry's arm into the holder that had been a gift from Samuel for Christmas. Once Harry turned around, he smiled as he saw Ginny had the six pouches hidden in a false bottom of his wardrobe; she was slipping two of them onto her belt before passing him a couple and he mimicked her. Tracey then pulled out three pieces of parchment and slipped one into one of the pouches Ginny passed her, giving Harry and Ginny another parchment that they too secreted away. Harry reached under his mattress and pulled out three black dragonhide cloaks and passed one to each of them.

Ready, they pulled the Invisibility Cloak over themselves and slipped out of the room and over to the stairs leading to the attic. Ginny smiled and pulled out a translucent piece of fishing line, which Harry had asked Remus to buy for him, while Tracey grabbed a couple vials of potion from her pouch.

As his two friends worked quickly, Harry slipped out from under the Cloak and pulled out a vial of powder. He walked quietly up the stairs and pulled out a small metal tube along with more fishing line. Working quickly, he put together the second part of their trap, which would hopefully go as unnoticed at the first.

When he was done setting it up, Harry tapped the line with his wand before rubbing a rag over it, watching as the line disappeared. He then did the same thing with the girls' line before all three of them slipped up into the attic and Harry sent a final spell down the staircase, hitting both pieces of line.

"Ankh," Harry hissed almost silently, only audible to a Parselmouth or a snake nearby. "Can you smell anything on the stairs?" he asked once the corn snake had poked his head out of the little case on his shoulder.

"No," Ankh hissed after tasting the air, which made Harry smile.

"All clear, Gin," he hissed, and the two girls appeared just behind him, Ginny holding out his Cloak to him.

As he put the cloak back into his pocket, Tracey silenced the entire room. They had learned the hard way that just silencing the door didn't work when the twins had made too much noise in the attic and had informed all of the others that they were up there and up to something.

"This should be interesting," Ginny mused quietly, none of them trusting the charms completely.

"It should," Harry agreed with a nod before pulling out the piece of parchment Tracey had found in the hiding place built into his bedside table. "Black Manor is Complete," he said as he tapped the parchment with his wand.

They all watched as ink began to cover the parchment, reminding them all of them Marauder's Map. Within seconds, they had a perfect map of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place including dots to represent the people in the house.

Sirius and Remus had made the map during the school year and made a bunch of copies of it. Neither man had noticed when Harry had stolen three of them a couple days before after Sirius had shown him the maps the second full day Harry had been there.

"Hermione is awake, as are the twins," Tracey said quietly after activating her own map.

"Looks like Daphne and Astoria decided to come over," Ginny added.

"Theo and Blaise are awake and probably planning away," Harry informed them. "Oh, and it looks like Draco joined them just now."

"Hannah and Susan just arrived and are talking with Hermione and Padma," Ginny stated as they watched their dots go up to the Gryffindor bedroom Hermione had spent the night in.

"Oh great, the twins and the Greengrass sisters are teaming up," Tracey groaned. "Those four are going to be a nightmare today."

"At least we've got the upper hand today," Harry reminded them as he looked up from the map and grinned at his friends. "Plus, no one knows you're here, Trace, except for Moony, and he and Padfoot vowed not to interfere in this, so he won't tell."

"True," she agreed with a smile before saying "Mischief Managed," and putting her parchment back into a pouch, Ginny following along while Harry kept his out.

Harry slipped into a corner of the room while Tracey and Ginny positioned themselves around the door, hidden. He had to smile as he looked around the attic and saw that Sirius had changed it all over again. This time it looked like a plateau with rocks all over the place, making the perfect cover for an ambush. It would give them quite a bit more edge than, say, a flat ground as Sirius had done the first time.

Time passed slowly as Harry watched his friends interact on the Map, most likely fighting, but finally, finally, George led Fred, Astoria, and Daphne towards the staircase on the third floor.

"Tell Ginny that the twins and the Greengrasses are coming, please, Ankh," Harry requested of his friend, crouching down so that the snake could slither down his arm and towards Ginny. They had used Ankh as communication before, and it was actually the quickest, quietest, and most effective type of communication that they had that wouldn't give them away.

Harry wiped the Map and put it away, watching as Ginny nodded to Ankh and sent a couple of red sparks at Tracey, letting her know that someone was coming. Ankh slipped back into his home on Harry's shoulder just moments before the door opened.

He had to hold in a happy sound as he watched four of the hardest people to trick with a trap walk into the room as if nothing was wrong. Harry knew that later on he could brag to Tracey and Ginny, who had said that his idea would never work on anyone, let alone the twins.

"Do you think they're in here, or are they in his room?" Fred whispered to the other three as they looked around the room.

"Oh, they're here," Daphne stated. "If I know Harry, and I do, he'd be trying to pull some sort of ambush."

"So would Ginny," George admitted.

Harry smirked as he realized they thought it was only he and Ginny in the room. They still didn't know Tracey was over, which meant they weren't as outnumbered as the four of them thought.

"Stupefy," Harry whispered at almost the exact same time Ginny and Tracey whispered the spell. Three red lights shot at the four, and they barely ducked in time.

"Bloody hell, someone else is with them!" Fred swore, ducking to the left and barely dodging Ginny's second stunner.

"Thanks for stating the obvious!" Daphne growled, ducking under her third stunner from Tracey.

Harry aimed another stunner at George with his left hand while his right hand threw a dulled throwing knife at Astoria, hitting her in the arm and lodging into it just enough that it didn't fall off of her.

"Argh!" she cried as she dropped her wand while falling to the ground so that she had enough time to pull the knife out of her arm. Realizing her mistake, she picked up her wand just in time to put up a shield before Harry's Stunner hit her.

"You okay?" Daphne called to her sister.

"Harry got me with a knife," she called back. "One of the lucky shots that doesn't just leave a small cut but lodges into it." As she spoke, she dodged Stunners and used her left hand to put a piece of cloth onto the wound, holding it in place.

Harry didn't stop aiming Stunners at the younger girl as he threw another throwing knife at George moments after the first appeared back in its sheath. The one aimed at George skimmed his side and left a small cut before hitting the wall behind them and falling to the ground.

Tracey shattered Daphne's shield with a loud CRACK, and Harry used the moment to hit their fellow Slytherin with a Stunner, knowing she wouldn't be expecting it from his position. Daphne fell and none of her allies were close enough to Rennervate her.

Harry then concentrated on Astoria as he moved between rocks, throwing knives and Stupefies at her over and over, finally Stunning her. When he looked up, Harry saw with a smile that the trap he and the girls had set up had finally gone into effect, and oh Merlin did it have an effect!

Fred and George suddenly couldn't speak because their mouths wouldn't open, and when they put their hands to their mouths, they got stuck there. Then, the powder came into effect and their wands fell to the ground, their suddenly sweaty hands unable to hold them any longer. Finally, the final effect of the powder and potion mixing together came into action and neither boy could move anymore as their feet were stuck to the ground.

Without the ability to move or speak and their wands on the floor, the twins only took a few moments for the trio to stun. Once all four were stunned, the three teens lifted them into the air and deposited them into a dark corner of the room, tying each of them up alone and then to each other before putting a silencing charm over all of them. Harry then turned to the room while Tracey and Ginny took care of finding all of their weapons and supplies, knowing the twins would have a bunch of them.

Harry used his wand to clean up all signs of a fight in the attic so that the next group to come up wouldn't realize that anything had happened there. The silencing charms had been a useful idea as it kept the others away from the fight.

"Bloody hell," Ginny muttered as she stared in awe at all the supplies the three of them had. Harry joined her as he finished and whistled.

The twins had enough supplies to fill up another twelve of the pouches the three of them were wearing, and those were expanded to hold as much as a normal school bag. It turned out that Daphne and Astoria had both gotten a hold of throwing knives, but the barrage of spells from the three of them had stopped them from being able to use them. Then, of course, were their daggers, swords, and wands.

"Take the supplies and knives," Harry decided as he pulled a dozen pouches out of one of his own, allowing Tracey and Ginny to fill them up as he collected the swords and wands.

The swords went into a special rack set up along a wall of the room. When one put a wand to a specific sword, only that specific wand could release the sword. Another, smaller, rack did the same thing with the wands, which was where the four wands were placed. A quick tap of the rune under each sword and wand made it so that only he could see them there.

"They outdid themselves when they built this," Harry said in awe as he looked over the two racks.

"They did," Tracey agreed as she and Ginny walked over to him, handing him four more pouches of supplies to slip onto the back of his belt. "But for now, we've got another ambush to set up."

This time, Ginny used the Map and had Ankh with her while Harry and Tracey waited closer to the door. It took another long wait, but eventually Draco, Blaise, and Theo walked cautiously into the room, and another fight ensued.

During this fight, all three of them used throwing knives, though only Harry more than just once or twice per person. Draco managed to stun Tracey, but Harry brought her back around and she rejoined the fight until their trap took effect on all three of the boys and they were able to Stun them quickly. Working quickly, they added more supplies to their pouches, filling them up completely, and Tracey locked up their swords and wands, making it so that each group had to get a different wand to get theirs back.

Finally, a loud bell was heard throughout the entire house, and they knew it was time for a two hour lunch. Freeing their friends, Harry, Tracey, and Ginny all made their way downstairs, leaving the swords and wands upstairs. Of course, they all put a spell on themselves before going down the stairs so that the fishing line wouldn't set off their own trap, so they knew they would get an amusing bit of entertainment during lunch.

In the kitchen, all three weren't that surprised to see Neville, Terry, Hermione, Padma, Susan, Hannah, and Luna all eating sandwiches with Sirius and Remus. They were all surprised to see the others following the trio into the kitchen, though.

"Let me guess, all of you were in the attic," Remus said in amusement as Harry and the two girls got some pumpkin juice and their own sandwiches.

"Of course," Harry replied with a smirk in the direction of the twins, Daphne, Astoria, Draco, Theo, and Blaise.

"Which group won up there?" Sirius asked curiously, obviously having not caught the smirk.

"We did," Ginny told him as she gestured to Harry and Tracey.

"By the way, when did Tracey get here?" Hermione asked before any of the others from the attic could say anything.

"Just as these two finished eating but before anyone else was awake besides Remus," she told the curious Gryffindor with a small smile.

"How badly did they beat you this time?" Neville asked around a mouthful of sandwich.

"Badly," all three chorused as the others groaned.

"How the bloody hell did you do that to us?" the twins demanded in unison.

"Do what?" Daphne asked curiously. Astoria was also looking on in interest. The two of them had been the only two to be stunned before the trap had gone into effect, so they didn't know about it.

"We couldn't speak, then our wands fell out of suddenly sweaty hands, and finally we couldn't move our feet," Blaise sighed as he closed his eyes.

"It happened to you, too?" Fred asked the three boys, and all three nodded. "Then how in the world did you three make that happen?" he demanded of the smirking trio, who were all looking at the clock on the wall.

Before anyone could say anything else, all of people from the attic minus the trio suddenly couldn't speak as their lips were sealed together. Then their goblets and sandwiches fell out of their hands. Finally, their feet and buttocks were stuck to the chair.

Everyone was silent for a moment before they burst into laughter, which got even louder as the group glared at them all silently.

"Is that what happened upstairs?" Hermione got out as she was the first one to calm down, and the trio nodded at her in confirmation, laughing the hardest of the group.

"That is bloody brilliant!" Sirius exclaimed through his laughter as he got up and slapped his godson on the back.

"How does it work?" Terry asked, which made the others stop laughing except for the trio as they were all hoping they would find out.

"Nuh-uh, no way are we telling you how we made this happen," Ginny gasped out.

"We want to keep using this for as long as we can," Harry agreed.

"I thought the rules said that you can't do anything to us after the bell rings!" Fred exclaimed as the first part of the trap finally wore off, allowing the group to speak.

"We didn't do anything to you after the bell rang," Tracey informed them, beginning the twin speak that she and Harry used.

"But that doesn't mean an active trap didn't affect you," Harry finished before all three burst back into laughter, though Ginny calmed down enough to finish the statement.

"And the rules stated that any active traps could be used as long as they were activated before the bell," she reminded them before laughter took over her again.

"They got you all good," Remus told the group as everyone turned to him to confirm the rule; he had been voted the person to resolve any problems with rules.

"Wait!" Neville exclaimed as he realized something.

"What?" Hannah asked as everyone turned to face him, including the three gasping friends.

"You do realize this means that the twins actually fell for a trap, right?" he told the group, making everyone look between the twins and the trio in shock. The twins had wide eyes and open mouths as they stared at their younger sister, Harry, and Tracey in shock, though their eyes also showed respect and awe.

"We're dead," Astoria said for the entire group as they realized it meant those three would probably be able to get anyone into a trap now.

"I can't believe that worked," Ginny told Harry and Tracey as the three walked out of Tracey's house to go flying that afternoon.

It was how everything worked. The mornings were spent at Harry's house either playing their war game or training because they both helped the group, and the afternoons were spent at other houses flying, playing Quidditch, swimming, or playing other games. In the evenings, everyone tried to persuade parents to let them spend the night at other houses, Harry's house being the most common now, followed by Tracey's.

Harry spent many evenings making potions for traps and pranks by asking Remus to buy supplies, which he did willingly as he and Sirius knew that Harry understood the effects of different ingredients when mixed with other ones better than most of his friends. He had been the one to create both the potion and the powder, which were made to react with one another as well as work alone.

"You mean my trap idea?" Harry asked, pretending to look offended. "I told you it would work just fine. The different parts were literally made to react to each other, and you know I test those sorts of things."

"We know you do, Harry," Tracey said softly, trying to keep him calm. "It just seemed so… so…"

"Unbelievable?" Ginny suggested in a sweet voice with a smile on her face.

"Actually, yes," Tracey agreed. "The idea just didn't really seem possible at the time, but now we know to trust your potion abilities, right Ginny?"

"You should have trusted them before," he told the girls as Ginny nodded her agreement. "All of you know that only the twins, Hermione, Draco, and Theo are as good as I am at Potions, and I understand how the ingredients react better than any of them do, which makes homework pretty easy for me because I can explain why a potion works."

"We know, Harry, and we should have trusted you more," Ginny said as she put a hand on his arm lightly, stopping him with her touch. "Next time, we won't doubt you, your potion abilities, your inventions, the spell ideas you have, or anything else of that nature when it comes to the traps."

Harry could tell by the look in her eyes that she meant what she was saying, so he nodded before heading off in the direction of the others, leaving the two girls behind him, though he could still hear them as they talked to each other as they followed him.

"How did you do that?" Tracey asked Ginny softly.

"Let him see that I wasn't lying by the look in my eyes," Ginny replied almost as softly.

"So basically you made sure he knew that you weren't trying to lie?" Tracey asked just to be sure, and Harry could almost hear Ginny nodding. "I'll have to remember that next time he's being a pain just because he doesn't want to believe me." Ginny laughed at that.

"You do know that he likes you, right?" Tracey asked Ginny suddenly after a minute or two of silence.

"What?" Ginny asked sharply, probably as unable to believe her ears as Harry was. He hadn't known that Tracey had realized it.

"He's liked you for a while now, really," Tracey admitted. "Like most things, he keeps it well hidden behind that wall of his, which only got harder to get past as we both got better at Occlumency, though I got the skill faster than he did, but we all know that you and I are the only two who can truly see past that wall."

"True," Ginny agreed, obviously fighting to keep her voice even. In Harry's mind, he was remembering Christmas, and he was willing to bet a couple of Galleons that Ginny was as well.

"Hidden deep behind that wall, he's hiding the fact that he fancies you, and even I can barely see it most of the time," Tracey told Ginny. "And I'm betting you've seen the signs as well, haven't you?"

"Yeah, I have," Ginny said softly. "For a while now, really."

"I just thought that you should know," Tracey said just before they reached the others. "And remember, he might take a while, but he'll make sure that he tries with you. He's probably just thinking about the fact that you're only twelve going on thirteen while he's not even fourteen yet."

"Yeah…" Ginny muttered quietly, and that was the last thing Harry heard before he took off into the air.

He knew as well as Ginny did that their age was one of the main reasons they weren't doing anything yet, but he had promised her to wait a year and then look at it all again. Harry was going to keep that promise.


So... My idea any good? I thought it was a cool way to mix pranks, training, and fun together. Then I enjoyed adding in that little hint at the end. ;) I hope you enjoyed it because reading the reviews will, hopefully, make my spending all of today working on an evil English project just to realize I'll have to wake up early tomorrow and go back to my classmate's house just to finish it a lot easier to bear. -_- Review and make my day tomorrow as well as to make up for today? :)

Posted: 5/1/11