Disclaimer: As usually mentioned, J.K. Rowling owns the Harry Potter universe, I just own this fanfic and OC. No copyright intended!

Ch. 7

Taking It Up A Notch

After Flint and Pansy ran off, Harry went to Professor McGonagall's office to ask her if he can drop Divination. Professor McGonagall told Harry he'd have to wait until after the Christmas holidays before he could. Harry was a little disappointed, but decided to use his Divination class times to prepare for some more pranks in the Room of Requirement. He had an idea for the first task, to let everybody know the real Harry, and he needed to think long and hard how to pull it off.

Meanwhile, the news of the apparently newly formed relationships with Ron and Pansy, Flint and Hermione, along with Draco and Ginny respectively made it's way to them. Draco wasn't having any luck with convincing everybody that he wasn't in love with Ginevra, so he walked around the corridors, looking for Tori. Draco spotted her out in the courtyard, close by a suit of armour, so he started walking toward her, with that grin on his face, the one Tori hates so much. Tori spotted the ferret approaching her and inwardly groaned in exasperation.

"Ah, Astoria, I've been looking all over for you," said Draco, sounding anything but. "It's time we had a little talk."

"We have nothing to talk about," said Tori. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

"You're not excused," insisted Draco. "We are going to have a little chat, and that's that."

Just as Draco was getting ready to 'talk some sense' into Tori, Harry was strolling by under his invisibility cloak, having decided to leave the Room of Requirement to take a walk. He spotted Tori getting antagonized by Draco in the courtyard and, having spotted the suit of armour right by Draco, decided to have some more fun with Draco. Then Harry cast a charm on the suit of armour (he had read several of those in a book that came with the Come and Go Room), making sure not to expose his wand out in the open and also staying close to the wall, so as not to trip anybody by accident or have anybody run into him accidentally. The suit of armour tapped Draco on the shoulder, forcing him to stop talking, then he looked at the suit of armour, which was apparently still as a statue.

'I wonder who did that.' thought Draco.

Tori was giggling when she saw what happened. When Draco tried to talk to her again, the suit of armour tapped on Draco's shoulder again and when he turned his attention to the suit of armour, it was back in it's original position. Draco was confused while Tori started giggling harder, then Harry added another charm on the suit of armour. When it tapped Draco's shoulder for the third time, Draco turned his attention to the suit of armour and pointed a finger at it.

"Alright, whoever..." Draco said as he pointed his finger at the suit of armour.

But, as he did so, the suit of armour mimicked Draco as if it was in a mirror, startling the arrogant ponce. Tori continued laughing at what she was seeing. Then, Harry cast a charm on Draco, giving him the urge to sneeze, then he covered his mouth and nose as he sneezed, with the suit of armour copying Draco's every move, making Tori giggle harder. Draco glared at her for doing so.

"STOP IT, THAT'S NOT FUNNY!" Draco squealed, stamping the ground with his feet with his fists clenched like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

The suit of armour, once again mimicked Draco, with Tori laughing until tears were flowing down her cheeks. Draco faced the suit of armour again and waved his hand in front of the helm to check if anybody was in the armour, but the armour waved it's hand in front of Draco's face, causing the arrogant Slytherin to jump back in shock, with the armour mimicking Draco again. Then Harry cast another charm on the suit of armour just as Draco started to back away slowly. This shocked Draco more because the suit of armour would move when he did and stop when he stopped. Then, Draco turned around and ran away screaming, with the suit of armour running after him, with Tori laughing so hard that she wondered if she might bruise a rib if she were to try to muffle it.

Meanwhile, Fred, George and Lee spotted Ron, Hermione and Ginny walking down a fifth floor corridor. The twins spotted a suit of armour that were in front of the backstabbers, and as they walked closer to it, Harry's voice was heard coming from inside to armour, pleading for help (the charm was cast by the twins, with Fred casting the charm to make it Harry's voice, George casting a charm to have the suit of armour's back facing the two-timers, and Lee casting a third charm, that would be revealed if any of the double-crossers did what Lee thought they might do, Ginny especially).

"Hey, Harry's having trouble getting out of this suit of armour." Ginny noticed.

"Shall we help him out of it?" asked Hermione.

"Yeah, maybe we'll get back on his good side." Ron assumed.

"Okay, I'll go first." said Ginny.

So she lifted the rear cover of the armour, but didn't spot any form of Harry. But, at just that moment, the plate armour began farting in the backstabbers' faces, engulfing them in a cloud of yellow smoke, making them cough and wheeze. The cloud was highly visible, so Fred, George and Lee cast bubblehead charms over their heads because the suit of armour wasn't just charmed to fart, but it let off an awful smell. The armour was also charmed to fart for sixty seconds straight, making it seem like an eternity for Ron, Hermione and Ginny. They were trying to fan the cloud away, with no success, because every time it happened, the smell would get worse. Fred, George and Lee were laughing like crazy while they walked away. Back in the courtyard, Harry continued watching Tori laughing.

"Whoever might've charmed that suit of armour," said Tori as she looked around. "Thank you f-for that!"

Harry was ten feet in front of Tori, then he pulled the cloak off over his head. Tori was relieved more when she saw Harry.

"I did that, Tori," said Harry. "Since the ferret wouldn't leave you alone, I thought making that suit of armour do what it did would not only make him leave, but some laughter was also needed."

"That was extremely funny," said Tori as she tried muffling her laughter. "I hope I didn't bruise a rib."

"Did the ferret cause you any harm?" asked Harry.

"No, but he likely would've done so, if you hadn't intervened," said Tori as she faced Harry, who's head was seemingly floating in midair. "How is your head floating, Harry?"

"I'm using my invisibility cloak," said Harry, pulling it off. "It belonged to my dad."

"I see." said Tori.

"I'm gonna head back to the Room of Requirement," said Harry. "You can come if you'd like."

"I'd love to," said Tori. "That will also ensure that the ferret doesn't bother me."

So Harry pulled the cloak over himself and Tori, then they walked around the corridors, looking for a safe place to call for his house elves to escort himself and Tori to the Room of Requirement. Meanwhile, Draco was trying to run away from the suit of armour, which was worthless because it was still charmed to chase him when he ran and stop when Draco stopped, much to the amusement of the other students. Draco ended up tripping over his feet and skidding across the floor, with the suit of armour doing the same, resulting in more laughter. Meanwhile, Ron, Hermione and Ginny were outside, throwing up due to getting blasted by the fart cloud.

"That was nasty," said Hermione in disgust. "And what's worse, the smell got into our clothes."

"That's gonna make it harder to make it back to Gryffindor Tower," said Ginny. "I can tell that people will be trying to keep their distance."

"Yeah, pretty much." said Ron.

(Later that evening)

Tori was back in her room in the Slytherin girls dormitory. She had spent most of her time with Harry helping him come up with some more prank ideas and some spells that could be used for the upcoming first task of the Triwizard Tournament. Harry had informed her that the first task would be on the 24th, but he didn't know what it would be, yet. Harry also decided that one prank could be used for the first task, but he needed to wait and see what the task involved before deciding. Tori heard a tap coming from a door close by her bed, since the dungeons of Slytherin lacks windows, this was the only way for Slytherin students to get their mail by owl post. Tori opened the door and saw her family owl, which had a letter tied to it's leg, and Tori untied the letter and unfolded it. The letter was from her father, and it read:

Hey Tori,

I apologize for not getting back to you in time, it's been a madhouse at the Ministry due to the attack at the Quidditch World Cup. I'm impressed that you and Harry Potter have become friends. To answer your questions in your letter, Harry's flinching with physical contact seems to imply that he's been abused at home. If that's the case, don't blame him for keeping quiet, the reason he doesn't talk about it could be because he's terrified that the abuse will get worse if he revealed that to somebody. If he does wear hand-me-down rags, that also implies what his life outside of Hogwarts really is, especially if they're several sizes too big for him. I hope these are the possible explanations you were looking for. My advice is to avoid asking him those kind of questions because he may very well distance himself from you. Once he becomes more comfortable around you (if it happens), he might talk about some of it, but don't pressure him into it. Hope to hear from you soon.

Love,

Dad

As Tori read the letter, she felt tears welling up and they started flowing down her face. Her gut instincts were telling her that her father was right, even if there was no known proof. Tori also remembered Daphne and Tracey mentioning that they have witnessed, at least three times, Harry telling the weasel, bookworm, and the weaselette that he didn't want to return to his relatives, but they just dismissed that as foolish nonsense. How could anybody just ignore Harry's complaints, if he had even tried giving some?

"Don't worry, Harry," Tori whispered. "We'll help you out!"

So Tori got out some parchment, so she could write a response to her father's letter. Once she finished writing, the letter read:

Hi daddy,

Upon reading your letter, I got this hunch that you were right. While Harry did flinch when I gave him a hug the day I met him, he did hug me back. One morning at breakfast, he even sat with me at the Slytherin table. Is there a possibility that we can invite him to stay with us over the Christmas Holidays? I wanna make sure he becomes familiar with love, and being with a family who cares about him. Talk to you soon, daddy!

Love,

Tori

Satisfied with what she had written in her letter, Tori folded it up, tied it to her family owl's leg and sent it off, but not before giving the owl some owl treats. Then she went to get ready for bed, changed into her pajamas and climbed into bed. She vowed to herself to make sure Harry starts getting a good life, for once. It wasn't going to be easy, but Tori knew it will be well worth it.

To be continued!

Author's note: The inspiration behind the prank with the suit of armor mimicking Draco's every move was the Goriya, the large rat-like creatures from The Legend Of Zelda: A Link To The Past that you find in the Palace of Darkness and in Ganon's Tower (which some of you are familiar with). Most of the armor copying Draco's move resembled the green goriya strategy, and a little bit with the red goriya strategy as well.