Chapter Three

The first night back at Hogwarts was a particularly nostalgic occasion.

Aspen lay awake in her bed till after midnight; she knew that down in the common room Sarah McLaggen and William Thomas still played a game of Wizard's Chess, and she was another idle daydream from going to join them. It had been a long first day, but she didn't feel tired out by it. It was an excited weariness, the kind of buzz that zings in your blood when you know an adventure is on the rise.

Finally, she sat up and threw a pillow at Aubrey. "Hey- you awake?"

"Shut up," Jazz groaned from across the room, but Aubrey had sat up.

"What is it?"

"Wanna go wreak havoc?"

With the help of a little enchanted paper plane, they got Ben to the common room. Claire was out like a light and didn't even hear the two girls leave; they sat in their pajamas in the common room, and Sarah and William wandered over as their game finished up.

"Aspen, it's midnight," Ben yawned. "What are we doing?"

"How about a welcome-back game of truth-or-dare?"

He met her grin with tired eyes. "I'm going to bed."

"No, wait!" Aubrey grabbed his arm. "Ben, it's no fun without you! You come up with the best questions!"

"Can we jump in?" Sarah asked, grinning, and William grinned next to her.

"Yeah, seriously, this sounds like a wonderful way to waste time," William added.

Ben groaned. "And none of you are tired?"

"Not a bit," Aspen answered.

"Couldn't sleep a wink," Aubrey added.

Ben sighed his consent, and the group gathered in front of the fire. Aspen, in her beige henley and plaid short-shorts, lounged with her back against the couch and one knee drawn up, an arm lounged across it. "So, who goes first?"

"Biggest tits!" Aubrey voted, adjusting her tank top to reveal more tawny skin.

"God, Aubrey, put them away! Only one here to appreciate them is William and he's too young," Ben protested.

"I'm only a year younger!" William protested.

"And he's not the only one who might appreciate them," Sarah added. Aspen grinned.

"Haven't even started yet and secrets are spilling," Aspen noted.

"I figured it out this past summer," Sarah replied. "I mean, I'm not just into chicks, it's anyone I like."

"I think that's called 'pansexual,'" Ben said.

"It is."

"So, who goes first?" Aspen repeated. "Youngest? Oldest?"

"Stop rooting for yourself," Aubrey grumbled and Aspen grinned back at her.

"Youngest," Sarah decided. "William, that's you."

"Okay. Um… Ben, truth or dare?"

Ben sighed again. "That means I go next. Um… Truth."

William thought for a moment. "Going off the 'first night back' theme, what's one thing you hope to do this year?"

"Mika," Aubrey said, grinning, and Ben kicked out a socked foot till it hit her thigh. She laughed in response and he sighed.

"No, Aubrey, not all of us focus our goals around the seven sins." Aubrey laughed again and Ben continued, "I kind of want to befriend a Ravenclaw, see if it helps out my grades any."

"We're already friends with Victoire," Aspen noted.

"She's technically my cousin," Ben replied. "Doesn't count."

"Mika's a Ravenclaw," Aubrey hinted and Ben groaned.

"Let it go, Aubrey. You know what? For that- Aubrey, truth or dare?"

Aubrey grinned widely. "Dare."

Ben glanced around the common room, and then grinned back at her, his expression just as devious as Aubrey's. "I dare you to narrate, aloud, a steamy love letter as if written to Professor Longbottom."

"Oh, pish-posh! Too easy," Aubrey declared. She began dramatically, "To my sweet dear Neville," Sarah let out an audible groan here, "I pine for thee. You are the fire in my loins, the drive in my step, the swing of my hips. The way you run your hand along your scruffy beard when you've forgotten something drives me bonkers, and I'd love to help you remember. If you'd like to pursue my memory charms, meet me in the greenhouse after dark. XOXO, Aubrey."

Ben stared at Aubrey with vague discomfort. "You came up with that far too quickly."

"It's a talent." She grinned. "So, Sarah- truth or dare?"

The fourth-year thought for a moment. "Truth."

"What's a secret we don't know? Not even William?"

William Thomas was the equivalent of Sarah's Ben- her male best friend, from the same hometown, with whom she'd the good fortune of sharing a Hogwarts house. Sarah thought for a moment, and then answered, "Sometimes I really just want to run away. I think about how easy it would be to hop on my broom and fly off to some obscure place, live off my magic and books as some kind of old-fashioned woods-witch. I get a little overwhelmed trying to meet my parents' expectations, and it would be so easy to just leave it all behind." She smiled over at William. "But I couldn't leave you lot, or quidditch or Hogwarts. Not till I graduate, anyway."

"That's sweet, Sarah," Ben consoled. "If it's any consolation, I've also thought about leaving it all. Muggles are behind on the whole acceptance thing."

Sarah chuckled. "My dad was thrilled when he found out I was also into girls. Said he'd finally have someone to look for totty with. Had to remind him about my mum."

Aspen and Ben both laughed; Aspen's parents had been afraid after Ben's coming out that she too would go a little 'funny', but had ultimately accepted when Aspen pranked them a whole summer that she was a lesbian. She'd revealed the truth at King's Cross, that she simply didn't see women that way (not most women, anyway).

"So, Aspen," Sarah said with a grin. "Truth or dare?"

Aspen considered. She didn't mind answering questions, and was half as worried choosing dare would prove just as bad. However, she had some recent adjustments still left to deal with, secrets and feelings she hadn't yet processed herself, and definitely wasn't ready to reveal.

"Dare."

Sarah thought for a moment; William leaned over and whispered something close to her ear and she waved off whatever it was, and then hesitated over her rejection, and then turned to Aspen.

"I dare you to change the dungeon floors to red."

"Ooh, sneaking out and angering Slytherins?" Aspen grinned. "Delightful. I'll-"

"Just what are you all doing!?"

All five silenced and looked up to see Claire at the top of the stairs to the girls' dorm, hands planted on her hips and silky lavender robe around her shoulders.

"That's a nice robe, Claire," Sarah called up to her. "Where'd you get it, Rich-Girls-R-Us?"

"Shut it, McLaggen. Get to bed, all of you! Party's over."

"C'mon, Claire," Aubrey protested, "It's the first night back!"

"No, last night was the first night back," Claire argued. "And tonight and for the rest of the year, you're on my watch- and whatever you do reflects badly on me and the rest of Gryffindor house! I'd quite like to win House Cup this year, especially after we lost to rotten Ravenclaw last-"

"Shut it, you vile woman!" called Zach from the boys' dorms. "Save your delusions of ambition and grandeur for the morning and go the hell to sleep!"

Claire flushed crimson, and then glared down at the five still sitting in front of the fireplace. "Get to bed! If any of you take any longer, I'll- I'll get McGonagall!"

Aspen sighed, rolling her eyes, and looked around at her assembled group. "Well, guys, you heard the woman. Let's go, then."

They rose and started back toward their dorms, and Aspen paused at the base of the stairs, turning to the other four. She whispered so only they would hear, "Don't worry- I'm still doing the dare."

ooo

Come morning, all the students filed into the Great Hall for breakfast in a great herd; though most were more filled than they'd been in months after the previous day's consecutive meals, a hearty appetite for breakfast was common during the first week back. Aspen, however, was waiting for the gossip to hit.

She had only just sat down when James Potter raced forward and slapped his hands onto the table, staring down Aspen. "Did you hear?"

She stared back in wide-eyed wonder, smiling up at him. "Hear what?"

"Someone color-change charmed the whole dungeon floors to make them bright red! Gryffindor red!" When Aspen only grinned back, James gasped and leaned close. "It was you, wasn't it!?" He sat down. "Oh, tell me everything!"

Aspen recounted the tale of their game of truth or dare the previous night as she and the others ate breakfast. Gryffindor house was in a good mood that morning, and Claire couldn't say a word since she was under the impression Aspen had gone to sleep immediately after Claire demanded she did. McGonagall, in an attempt to be fair, deducted twenty points from Gryffindor house, since it was obvious by the color it had been a Gryffindor's doing. However, both Professor Potter and Professor Zabini had awarded five points apiece to anyone who finished work early the day before, and there had been several from each house. Gryffindor wasn't considerably behind for the first week.

That morning Aspen would have Care of Magical Creatures first, and she was glad for that. Professor Hagrid may have gray in his beard now and a considerable amount of scars, but he was as lively a professor as in Professor Potter's stories about him. Not to mention Professor Hagrid always brought some fun new creature each year- each week more like- for the students to "learn" with.

For Aspen, that meant adventure, challenges, and a screaming Claire MacMillan.

The first day at Hagrid's hut that year brought them all face-to-face with a great grinning half-giant. Aspen smiled to see him, and James S. Potter appeared next to her.

"Blimey, James! Look more like yer father each year!" Hagrid greeted James. "Aspen, lookin' well. Emmeline, finally got a little sun this summer, I see…"

He went on to greet each student by name, part of Hagrid's charm, and then got them started on class. Their task for that first day was to attempt to lure out twenty escaped diricawls by use of their food and place them back in the pen Hagrid had designed for them. He described them as featherless, flightless birds that could disappear and reappear at will, so it was a matter of waiting for the food to disappear. He also offered twenty points to whichever house caught the most.

The Ravenclaws tried then to accio the birds, which didn't work. The Slytherins started on threatening the other houses to let them win. Chester Fields and Liona Pomfrey crouched at the edge of the trees with a trail of feed and caught one right off the bat.

As for the Gryffindors, Aspen started by lifting Aubrey into the air; James and Ben ran at her directive to catch the diricawls she saw, while Claire sat disgruntled with a handful of bird-feed. Once they'd caught all the ones that were visible, they started on the feed tactic.

"I call unfair advantage!" Carlisle McKinnon declared. "There's more Gryffindor fifth-years than any other house!"

"By one person," Jazz argued. "If anyone should be complaining, it's Hufflepuff."

"We don't mind," Chester said. "We'll gain points in the quidditch matches."

Liona Pomfrey grinned and bumped his fist with hers before they snatched up another diricawl.

"It's not about numbers," Emmeline Greengrass sighed as she tossed a diricawl into the pen. "It's about skill. That's it."

"Cheap words from someone who's losing," Crystal Rousseau of Ravenclaw spoke up.

"I'll duel you right here," Tia Shannon snapped.

"It's not that important, TiTi," Claire spoke up and Tia grinned.

"We're friends everywhere but house rivalry, CiCi," Tia replied. "Don't forget that."

"You're sure you don't want to join our side?" Claire asked. "There's strength in numbers. Seven to five-two-three isn't much of a competition."

"House loyalty is still a thing, you know," Tia said. "Lines at Hogwarts may be blurred enough for inter-house friendships and even relationships to be a thing, but I would still like to see the House Cup green again."

"Again?" Claire laughed. "It hasn't been green since we got to Hogwarts!"

"Second year!" Sylvester Bones spoke up.

"Wow, once out of four times."

"Twenty!" Liona Pomfrey stood proud with hands on her hips and a wide smile. "While you lot sat around gossiping, Hufflepuff was actually catching. Hagrid! That's all of them."

The half-giant counted quickly. "That's… five from Gryffindor, four from Ravenclaw, four from Slytherin, and a whopping seven from Hufflepuff! Twenty points ter Hufflepuff!"

After Care of Magical Creatures, it was back for session two of History of Magic, this time without the help of one of Sarah's magic potions. Honestly, it seemed a good idea now to learn to make a magical equivalent of energy drinks- why hasn't that been done already?

They sat down in History of Magic, and today it was one of the Ravenclaws who kept the class awake, amazingly. The day before, Marcie Finnigan had quietly taken her notes, but today she rose in protest.

"...And it was seventeenth century when the last secret organization was formed in Hogwarts, the Hufflepuff Harpers, who-"

"Professor Binns, that's wrong."

The monotonous ghost turned from his chalk-written lecture to Marcie, who stared up with bright eyes and flushed cheeks. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"You're wrong," Marcie repeated. "There was a secret organization in the 90's, about two decades ago."

Professor Binns drifted to the copy of History of Magic he kept on his table, and skimmed through it, muttering to himself. Then he looked up at Marcie. "The book decides, and it says 1748 was the last time a secret organization opened at Hogwarts. There have been many public organizations but no secret ones since then."

"If they were in the book, they wouldn't be secret," Marcie argued. "And there was at least one back in the 90's that we know about now."

Professor Binns visibly swelled, like a frog puffing up to look big. "That is incorrect, Miss Finnigan."

"Dumbledore's Army."

The words left the class stunned. They'd all heard the legends of Albus Dumbledore, prior headmaster and powerful wizard, and had heard the myth of Harry Potter's group of battle-trained students, who later half-fell and half-won the Battle of Hogwarts.

"That doesn't count as a secret organization, Miss Finnigan."

"It was an organization formed in Hogwarts in secret," Marcie protested. "That means it's the most recent known secret organization at Hogwarts. You can't argue the facts."

"The book says-"

"I don't care what the book says!" Marcie rose to her feet. "My father was in that battle using training he learned from being in Dumbledore's Army! You can't just discredit that or any recent history! It's still accurate!"

"The book-"

"I'm not being fed lies! I'll get my father, then. Or Professor Flitwick, or McGonagall. Anyone who agrees we shouldn't be taught incorrectly is welcome to join me."

Marcie Finnigan turned suddenly and stormed out of class. Aspen stared in shock, as did most of the class, and then watched as each of the Ravenclaws rose and left.

"Well, I'm not staying in here if there's any reason to leave," James said, before following.

"An excellent point," Aspen agreed, and followed, with Aubrey and Ben behind her. Collectively, the whole class- aside from Claire MacMillan, Tia Shannon, Sylvester Bones (who was already asleep), and Chester Fields- left Professor Binns and stormed the castle for McGonagall. Aspen grinned excitedly at Ben. "Now this is adventure! And I can't even get in trouble for it, because it wasn't my idea, and I wasn't a primary orchestrator!"

"Au contraire, we'll most likely all get in trouble," Ben said as they strode briskly alongside the others, "But us background Gryffindors less so."

"Background!? Nay- if I'm to be in a rebellion, I'll be at the head of it!" Aspen stormed ahead. "Marcie, consider me your scapegoat if this goes screwy- I'm the catalyst of it all, and you just agreed!"

Marcie laughed and looked over at her. "They'll listen to Professor Binns, too."

For a moment, Aspen walked backward, calling to the group, "If anyone asks, I started it! I'm the scapegoat!"

"Hear, hear!" Ben called back.

"Hear, hear!" The rest echoed.

They reached the eagle that marked the Headmistress's office, just in time for Peeves to come along hurling water balloons. "Duck!" Marcie cried, and Crystal Rousseau held up her wand.

"Arresto momento!" The spell worked in slowing the fall of the balloons, so that the one that had been heartbeats from catastrophically colliding with Fiona Thomas simply bounced off her dancing curls. Crystal then added, "Well, go on! Get out of the way!"

"Students out of cla-ass! Students out of cla-ass!" Peeves sang overhead, whooping through the halls.

"Good!" Marcie declared, raising a fist. "Let them all know!"

"Hear, hear!" cried the rest.

They were nearly at the front doors when a screech came up from behind them: "What are you all doing!?"

"McGonagall!" Marcie cried whirling around and storming to the opposite side of the group with Aspen just behind. "We're here to declare a strike!"

The Headmistress, for perhaps the first time in five years, looked baffled. "For what!?"

"Professor Binns is outdated!"

"He's a ghost- what did you expect!?"

"Professor McGonagall, with all respect," Marcie pressed on, a fire in her, "History includes everything that prefaces the present- and that goes to include recent years! His textbook is outdated and though he's lived through half of it still he teaches directly from it! Several things in that textbook have been proven incorrect and still he drones on and on every single- anyway. He's wrong!"

Professor McGonagall still looked baffled. "What has spurred this sudden- revolution against Hogwarts' oldest professor?"

"He said that the most recent secret organization was the Hufflepuff Harpers in 1748 when we all know it was Dumbledore's Army in the mid-90's," Marcie answered, her arms across her chest. "And there have been other things, too- like the history of Nicolas Flamel, which doesn't include the recent destruction of the Philosopher's Stone."

"Or the segment on werewolves," Victoire Weasley piped up. "It says nothing about how most werewolf prejudice is steeped in muggle folklore from the time period its rooted in and the symbolism of wolves in that time. We could erase a lot of prejudice if that was taught with more explanation of background on where the stereotypes and fears come from."

"Well, what do you suggest?" McGonagall asked. "That we craft some kind of- of self-updating politically correct textbook?"

"That's not actually a bad idea," Carlisle McKinnon noted. "We have self-updating paintings and printer presses that run themselves- I'm sure we could find a way to make a textbook automatically correct inaccuracies and add new information."

"That would break Gamp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration," Emmeline Greengrass said. "As it would have to craft its own paper and ink out of nothing."

"Unless a defined source was incorporated in the spell," Carlisle theorized.

McGonagall whistled shrilly. "Enough! I will look into the matter myself. And I don't want any of you- especially Ravenclaws- tampering with your textbook in an attempt to make it self-updating! Most likely you will create some kind of joke book full of false information. I'll confer with Professor Binns and other teachers on the matter and look through the History of Magic textbook myself to check for inaccuracies. Should I find any, we'll deal with the matter then."

"But I've already told you-"

"Miss Finnigan! Good gracious, what has gotten into you?" McGonagall huffed. "I understand your draw for proper education and knowledge is all-consuming but you must factor in rules and respect as well! Now I want all of you to go back to class. If Professor Binns teaches something incorrectly, write it in your notes with the correction as you see it, and discuss amongst yourselves until I can solve the issue on a more professional scale. Will that appease you for the time being, or is there still call for a strike?"

They all glanced around at each other, and Marcie turned to Aspen. "Well, Revolution Figurehead, what do you say?"

"Head back without trouble or press the issue against McGonagall," Aspen mused. "I vote we head back and let her take care of it while she's still on our side."

"An excellent point," McGonagall noted sharply, and Aspen's face paled further than it usually was behind her freckles.

"Back to Binns, then," Marcie said, and rounded her group up. "Onward, my witty wonders! We shall fight this another day!"

They all began to march off, quiet whispers of victory emerging as they put distance between the revolution and McGonagall.

That evening was the start of three very distinct things.

The first was noted as Marcie Finnigan ran the lengths of all four house tables inviting members to join the Better Textbooks, Better Society Society- or the BTBSS, for short. Aspen proudly pinned her new button to the collar of her robes, as did Aubrey, and Ben enchanted his to be rainbow before pinning it to his sleeve on his inner arm.

The second thing to happen was Clementine Reginald arguing that there should be a Hogwarts-specific newsletter, issued weekly to tell of the goings-on at Hogwarts. It would detail quidditch matches and things like professor-overthrowing revolutions; she had seen her muggle parents' old copies of similar such school papers and fell in love with the idea. Aspen volunteered to write the sports column, if McGonagall approved of such a thing. It could even keep score of how many points each house earned a week, and include secret riddles that would grant an award to whoever decoded them first (this idea supplied by Hana Rhee of Ravenclaw). Most of Gryffindor house was all for it, and the Ravenclaws overheard and passed it on to Hufflepuff, and soon even Slytherin was ducking over to the Gryffindor table with ideas and comments. By the end of dinner, every house was buzzing with talk of Binns and of the proposed Hogwarts Weekly.

Then the third thing happened.

As the houses sorted back to their common rooms and dorms after dinner, Aspen gasped to see the handiwork of Slytherin.

The entire staircase, hallway, wall, even portrait frames, and each walkway along the entire section of school surrounding the Gryffindor common room entrance had been color-change charmed to dark green. Drawn on the floor in front of the Fat Lady was a snake; when Claire MacMillan boldly approached to evaporate it, it leapt up in a cloud of green chalk-powder and dusted itself all over her black robes. She screamed.

And thus the Prank War began.