Chapter Ten
After dinner in the great hall Harry and Draco proceeded to say goodbye to Sirius and Remus with a promise of a call to Narcissa. The woman was already beside herself with worry never mind now that Harry had fallen off his broom.
The eight soul bonds proceed to make their way to their common room but were stopped by the twins who had came up with an idea of a Prank for Lockhart, no doubt having the two Marauders in the school was enough inspiration for the two boys.
As soon as Harry heard what they were planning he most definitely wanted to be involved as did all of the boys and Ginny the rest decided to abstain from the prank for their own reasons.
It wasn't that they didn't want to Prank him but they just didn't want to get involved in anything the twins might do, they had more howlers than anyone else in the entire school combined and so rather than risk the wrath of their parents they decided to bow out.
Harry smiled at the twins and had a silent conversation with the others to see if they were alright with what they were planning. All of them agreed and said for the twins to follow them and led them up to their common room to retrieve specialist equipment.
Considering Harry knew exactly who he was dealing with he didn't trust Fred and George not to booby trap the place when they were not there so Harry whispered the Password before inviting them in for the first time to their Quarters.
They were in awe at their room, Harry told them both to make themselves comfortable as he went to his room and brought down the chest Sirius had given him. The others chose to scatter around the room and do homework or reading.
As the twins looked at Harry their eyes lit up at the sight of the chest floating behind him. As Harry set it down on the coffee table in front of the twins he looked them dead in the eye and as serious as he could.
"This is too secret boys...not one of you is to breathe a word of this to anyone. Especially Professor McGonagall do you understand?" They were like doggies on a dashboard with their heads bouncing up and down ticker than Harry could keep up with them both.
"Oh Harrikins..."
"You have been..."
"Holding out..."
"On us..." Harry laughed at their childish glee when he popped the top off.
"I was given this last Christmas by Sirius...every single thing in this chest is Marauder worthy...what does that tell you..." They looked like the cartoons Harry had seen on television as their eyes bugged out of their heads in excitement. He opened it and rows upon rows of Potion bottles filled it. Harry knew that there was an undetectable extension charm on it and so he reached his hand in and the chest covered the whole way up to his elbow seemingly like Mary Poppins bag before he picked out a blue bottle from the bottom and handed it to them.
"This will do the trick, three drops for maximum effect. I can't stand the man so from now on any pranks you have for Lockhart in the future come to me and I will see what I can do...think of it as a personal favour to Sirius he can't stand the blonde tosser...word of warning though if you try to get into this chest without my help it will knock you out and you won't wake up until I revive you...the antidote is it the chest...another Marauder invention. Considering what happened when you tried to steal Ginnys sword and Rons crossbow I am guessing you don't want that to happen again..." They smiled a Cheshire Cat grin at the young boy before nodding their head in understanding.
"Oh Prongslet..."
"We are not worthy..."
"We do solemnly swear..."
"To ask your permission..."
"In future pranking endeavours..." He smiled and nodded at the twins.
"Now that will last for about ten hours and will have variations of colours throughout the day...shampoo bottle is probably your best bet..." They nodded and thanked him before leaving the Common room plotting away like nothing else.
If they put their minds to it both of those boys could solve world hunger, famine, war and idiocy, both of them were extraordinarily gifted and intelligent that Harry could not wait to see where they are in ten years.
"I almost forgot about that chest...you haven't used it much..." Ginny said as he sat down beside her and lifted his Potions book out to sit and rest on his knees and moulded into her side like a second skin.
"I only got around to reading the book that Sirius provided with it, inside it tells me what all of that stuff does and there is no way in Godrics beard am I gonna give any inventions that Sirius and Remus came up with to Fred and George unless I know what it is...and what it does...we would all end up Unicorns and centaurs for a week just because they wanted out of Potions class." She laughed and nodded at him in agreement, they spent the evening doing their homework, meditation for Occlumency and yoga practice.
Ever since their first lesson with Hermione they had progressed very well and Ron had even managed the majority of beginner yoga poses at this point, and no one had knocked anyone else over either thankfully.
Their Occlumency was a different story altogether, it was a lot more difficult than they originally thought. I mean of course they knew it wasn't going to be easy but everything else had become so effortless for them the majority of the soul bonds took it to be that this was going to be no exception.
As it turned out their first few lessons was about clearing your mind of all outside thoughts and distractions, considering they had been meditating for nearly a year it surprised them all that it was proving quite difficult. Both Hermione and Neville struggled a little bit as did Harry surprisingly, Luna and Daphne had by far made the most progress out of them all.
Severus had told Luna that she had the most natural ability he had ever seen, even more so than himself. Once he looked into her mind it was so discombobulating and she gave him such a bad headache he had to call it a day for his practice.
All in all she was making them all look bad when it came to it, they knew it was going to be a long road before anyone was completely proficient at it and they were willing to put in the hard work.
Daphne coming from a family like the Greengrasses had a little bit of Occlumency training but not enough to be able to stop an attack. What Severus was teaching her was how to expand on her already built shields to make them impenetrable.
No one was deterred from their Common goal but they did feel a little bit put out that they could not turn it into a competition like their usual endeavours, it was a skill that each person developed differently to everyone else.
The following morning they all made their way down to the Quidditch Pitch for their morning run and sparring session, as they steadily made their way around the pitch their sight was captured by the twins along with Cedric Diggory, Susan Bones, Hannah Abbott from Hufflepuff, Dean, Seamus and Percy all making their way down to them in exercise clothes or at least Harry thought they were some variation of running clothes.
It was a mixture of bright Lycra and leg warmers...it looked like they just stepped out of a 70's dance movie, Dean being muggleborn and Seamus half blood were the only ones who looked half normal with track suit bottoms on.
"Guys...what's going on?" The twins were by far the worst they had on shiny blue Lycra bottoms with a white tie dyed t shirt and different fluorescent leg warmers.
"We were wondering if you guys would be up for a few more people, we have seen you guys and want to get fit..." They all stood there assembled in a line, looking more and more absurd the longer he looked at them.
As Harry looked between his friends and the soul bonds Hermione was on the floor at this point nearly wetting herself with laughter.
"Where on earth did you guys find this and where did you see this as exercise clothes and assume it was a good idea?" The majority of the soul bonds were laughing now at this point and the majority of the newcomers looked embarrassed but Fred and George stood their grinning away like there was no tomorrow.
"Our Muggle studies textbook..." Hermione and Harry looked at each other again before bursting out in hysterics again.
"Ok well you are about twenty years out of date to start off with but it will do for now...why do you guys want to do this? It's tough...it's gruelling...I mean obviously we will work your way up to it but why?" Dean and Seamus explained that they often ran every morning at home and the others wanted to keep fit and healthy.
The other soul bonds nodded and soon their group of eight turned into fifteen. Fred made sure to pass on to Harry that they had succeeded in putting the Potion into Lockhart's Shampoo bottle all they had to do was wait in the great hall for him to come down to breakfast.
After introducing their newest group to the joys of fitness they all trudged back up to their common rooms and showered for classes that morning. Walking into the Great hall Harry saw the twins and Hannah Abbott looking a little worse for wear following their drills that morning.
Surprisingly Susan was able to keep up quite well as were Cedric, Dean and Seamus but seeing the twins waddle into the great hall caused quite a few sniggers around the room even from the Professors whom unbeknownst to the children, many were watching with amusement that morning at all of their antics and their wardrobe.
They all split up to sit at different tables and waited on the fireworks, Harry didn't have to wait long as Ginny nudged him on the shoulder and stared slack jawed at the door. Lockhart must not have looked in the mirror which was a miracle in and of itself because he bounced into the room with as much flair and enthusiasm as he usually did.
A few snickers could be heard all around the room and as Harry glanced up at the staff table he saw both Minerva and even Snape trying to hold in their laughter as they glanced between each other.
"Good Morning Gilderoy..." Dumbledores eyes were practically shining and all of the students sat in rapt attention to see if the headmaster was going to say anything to the Defense Professor but it turns out it surprisingly it wasn't Dumbledore who said anything.
"Ah Good morning everyone...beautiful day..." Severus took this opportunity to put his own two cents in and everyone was well aware of his feelings toward the idiot and so surprisingly he did not pull any punches.
"You are in good spirits Lockhart...I for one thought you looked a little blue this morning." That was all it took for the whole school both students and staff to erupt. Cackles of laughter could be heard and the Defence teacher looked thoroughly confused in that moment.
He sat there in front of his breakfast his hair the colour of baby blue sky and his usually gleaming white teeth a darker shade of navy blue. The twins leaned into Harry at that moment clutching their sides with laughter.
"Did we forget to tell you..."
"...we put it in his toothpaste also..." "...we also charmed all of his mirrors to appear normal..."All of the Gryffindor table were comparable to hyenas, Severus conjured a mirror and handed it to the man in question who looked horrified and stood up before fleeing the room with his hands covering his hair looking like he was going to cry.
Another thirty seconds of laughter and Dumbledore stood up to address the school which immediately quietened everyone down.
"I must say that whoever had this ingenious idea it was very well done however I cannot tolerate anyone attacking my teachers no matter how harmless." He sat back down with no other words, merely to praise them but did not offer any punishment. His eyes zeroed in on Harry and the twins with a small smile and raised his goblet causing Forge to raise it back.
After the excitement of breakfast they all made their way down to Herbology where Professor Sprout stood waiting at the top of the long table.
"Welcome to Greenhouse three second years..." They all got rid of their bags and donned their aprons to take a place each in front of a plant pot. All of those years weeding Aunt Petunias garden was going to come in handy.
They proceeded for the next hour replanting Mandrakes...Crabbe fainted...Sprout just left him lying and Draco got bit in the finger by a Mandrake causing all eight of the souls bonds to be quite amused.
They had finished class and were walking back towards the castle with Draco still bitching about his finger...it didn't even bleed, a quick slap on the arm from Daphne and he reverted back to his normal self again.
They all spent the rest of the evening doing homework or researching the Founders journals. Draco was reading Salazar Slytherins journal and had praised this man a genius.
"I don't even know how you read that Draco? It's like gobbledygook to me..." All of the girls were in agreement with Daphne when Harry looked over at the book and he didn't understand he could read it perfectly.
"What are you talking about Salazar had better handwriting than Godric..." All of them were looking at Harry and Draco with the strangest expression before looking at one another.
"You guys what...it's easy to read..." Again all of the others looked strangely before Hermiones face lit up and a gasp of surprise erupted.
"Of course..." She immediately jumped up and with a quirked eyebrow Ron followed her to her school bag where she pulled out a copy of Hogwarts a History.
As she came rushing back to the group she opened the section on Hogwarts Founders and pointed out a Passage about Salazar Slytherin.
"This all makes perfect sense...there is a reason the symbol of the Slytherin house is a snake...he was a Parselmouth." Realisation dawned on Dracos face and he looked kind of scared, Parselmouths were generally looked down upon in Wizarding society and he had enough battles as it was.
"How come Harry can read it then?" That question stumped Hermione and the others. Harry had read there was a lot of stigma attached to being a Parselmouth. It made sense for Draco because he was the Heir of Slytherin but it didn't make sense because Harry could read it as he shouldn't be able to.
"It's not a very common gift...but don't look so down Draco it's not as bad of an omen as you think..." Luna chose than moment to start giggling, drawing everyone's attention to her. It took her a few minutes to calm down but when she did she was met with seven faces of confusion.
"The only place in the world it's looked at as being bad is here and America, It's obvious isn't it...Voldemort was a Parselmouth so Everybody is going to associate it with the dark arts but it's used in healing...the night he tried to kill Harry and he died or whatever happened...no one knows what happened to Voldemorts core it makes sense that some of his magic went into the closest possible magical being." Neville leant over and kissed her on the cheek.
"I love your brain...and you...but she has a point Harry...and it might make sense that the voice you two heard could have been a snake?" Snakes were not allowed as Hogwarts pets. All of them were now wondering if that was the darkness that the founders warned them about.
"You said it was used in healing...what do you mean?" Luna grabbed one of the medical textbooks that Madame Pomfry had loaned her and there in black and white was all of the benefits of Parselmagic.
Draco spent another half an hour studying the chapters and felt a lot better about his gift, the young second year hugged Luna and then they all decided to go to bed and try and come up with more answers the following day.