The Gryffindor Five

Part Two

Chapter Two

By danu40k

Evening came and before bed, Harry goes Spirit Walking. Like he does every evening, he is trying to find Riddle. But like every evening, it did no good.

"Well?" Ron asked.

Harry sighed. "Nothing."

"You had no problem before." Hermione said.

"I was also attached to him through my scar!" Harry yelled. "Sorry. It's just frustrating. I thought it would be easier than this."

"It's alright Harry. We'll find another way of finding him." Neville consoled Harry.

"Thanks Neville. I guess the only thing we can do until we find him is train. And now that Ron and Ginny have made the team, that's going to be harder to do as a team later on when Oliver gets a riled up."

"That's just something we'll have to work on when the time comes." Ginny stated. "In the mean time, what's this I hear about not pranking the Slytherins?"

Harry sighed. "Because the ones who are left after the big purge are not on the pure-blood side. And definitely not on Riddle's side. I want them to have a chance to rebuild. Right now they are touchy and waiting for the other shoe to drop. Last thing I want to do is drive them back to Riddle. Or worse, create a new dark lord that we'll have to fight in the future. After they have finished rebuilding their house they will be fair game, but for now, just leave them be. Besides I think Ravenclaw has been getting too big for their hats. So as far as I'm concerned they are fair game. Either that or we go after the entire school."

They leaned in closer to hear what Harry had in mind.

~ooOoo~

The next morning, chaos erupted when the students woke up to find that they were now the color of their respective houses. Not just regular blue or red or yellow or green, but pastels, pokadots, stripes, and plaids. With the teachers the color of the houses they went to when they were in school.

Headmaster Dumbledore was a multitude of color. Since he represented every house. They had him every house color, and in different shades of the colors.

In order not to be caught, the group made sure that they were changed as well.

The sign above the teachers table said; "We bring you this merriment on behalf of Chaos Incorporated.

Everyone blamed the twins, who couldn't stop laughing. No matter how much they protested, they were yelled at or congratulated about the work.

~ooOoo~

By the next morning, everything was back to normal, with everyone sighing in relief. Now that it was over the people at Hogwarts, both student and teacher said it was the best prank ever pulled. Though the teachers were going to be taking a lot of points off when they found the culprits.

Dumbledore had probed the twins and had declared them innocent of this prank. However when he tried to probe the group, he was met with resistance. And was told in no uncertain terms to butt out. As a follow up, Harry said one word. "Three."

Dumbledore could figure out what that meant. Three o'clock? Three friends? Three days? What?

The next day, Minister Bones came for a visit, followed by several Aurors. They came up to the teachers table at breakfast and asked Dumbledore if they could speak in private.

Dumbledore led them up to his office and twenty minutes later he was escorted out of the school and to the ministry on charges of mind rape.

McGonagall told everyone that Dumbledore had been summoned by the Ministry for important business. That she was in control until he came back. She then summoned Harry to the office.

She waited for him to sit and get comfortable before demanding that he stop this nonsense and drop the charges against Dumbledore.

He told her under no circumstances would he drop the charges. If that meant retribution from the other students or teachers or even the public he would just leave school and get a tutor or tutors to teach him.

Dumbledore had wronged him and he was going to see justice done. He had given Dumbledore three chances to stop what he was doing and Dumbledore still did whatever he wanted.

"I think you're the one who is doing whatever you want. Not Dumbledore." She said. "You're the one bringing chaos to this school in the name of improvements. Without asking anyone for a bye you leave."

Harry shrugged. "Don't you like the changes? The warmth of the castle? Being able to go into any room or section of the castle without fear of it falling down on you? Brooms that won't cut out on you or steer correctly? Having all students who wish to come, able to because of scholarships? New books in the library? The knowledge that was Gryffindor and Ravenclaw's at your fingertips? 'Course I am working on getting all of that translated so that anyone can use them."

"Well yes it is a nice change. But what about these new computers, and private music? Let as well the toys that the twins are selling. Dumbledore allowed you to sell these items. Allowed you to corner the market and make a lot of money." She sat back as though she had him cornered.

"Actually," He began, "The Board of Governors allowed me to bring in and sell technology. Dumbledore had no say in the matter. Madam Bones is the one who gave the okay to bring the new technology into the British community. Technology that has been allowed in the rest of the world. She agreed with me that the last thing we need is for Britain to become like a third world backward country compared to the rest of the Wizarding World."

"At the expense of our traditions?" She demanded.

"No, we need to include our traditions with the new things. Tradition didn't go to the wayside when they brought in radio. As long as we work hard at it, we can keep both the new technologies and most of our traditions." He answered.

"Most?" She scoffed.

"There are a few that need to be rethought. Quills come to mind. There are other types of pens out there. Including fountain pens, which work like quills." He answered her in what was becoming a debate on the future.

"I see you've adopted a pen as well. Even if it is shaped like a quill." She shot back.

Harry shrugged again. "I use it for tests only and important correspondences now. I prefer my pencil and paper to take notes with. That way if I make a mistake I can easily correct it without making my paper look like a bomb hit it."

"I don't see why you need a computer here in school." She told him.

"There are research programs on it that help with doing papers. Plus, you can't tell me that you don't like getting papers that are legible and with correct spelling and grammar." He countered.

"While it is refreshing to actually be able to read several of the papers, it can also lead to laziness. A student would refuse to learn how to write properly with these contraptions." She returned.

Harry bowed his head to show that he acknowledged the point. "It does help students like Ron who are what the Muggles call dyslexic. Meaning that letters and numbers get mixed up making it hard to write a coherent paper. Hermione, Neville, and I are working with him on his homework, but he no longer needs us to do his homework for him. He can do it on his own now with the help of the computer. It also saves on paper when a student can rework a paper till it is as perfect as they can make it."

"I take it that that is one of the arguments you used to promote the use of these computers to the Board of Governors?" She asked.

Harry shrugged again. "It's one of them. I'm also donating a quarter of my profits to the library here at Hogwarts. And half of what's left to the scholarship program to make sure that they have an even chance to get the new technology. So I'm not really making that much money out of the deal. And what I do make I plough right back into the corporation. So I personally don't make a knut out of it."

"I can't believe you do this out of the goodness of your heart." She scoffed.

"Believe what you want. There are reasons I do what I do and in the long run I'll make money, it's just in the short term that things are going to be tight. Malfoy just about ran the Black Loan and Trust into the ground. I am not going to be making any money until I get it set to right." He countered.

"Yes, buy driving people to the point of bankruptcy and to the point where they can't even send their children to school here." She told him in a sharp voice.

Again, Harry shrugged. "Their parents are convicted Death Eaters. I allowed each child to receive a trust fund that would send them through school. It's not my fault that most of them went to Durmstrang instead of here. Now, at least we have less rivalry between Slytherin and the rest of the school. I have talked the twins out of pranking them. We allow them to rebuild their house. After that they are fair game again."

"And for that, I thank you. I was wondering what was going on between Gryffindor and Slytherin." She said.

Harry grinned. "It obviously doesn't count when there is a prank played on the entire school."

She frowned. "That had better have not been you."

Harry shook his head. "Was a great prank though."

The bell rang for the next class to start. Harry made as if to go. She acknowledged that there was nothing more to discuss and waved him out of the office.

~ooOoo~

After classes, the group surrounded Harry. "Well?" They asked.

"She wanted me to drop the charges against Dumbledore." Harry replied. "Then she turned it into an attack on all the changes I've brought in this year. She was not amused when I told her that the Board of Governors and the ministry approved of the technology coming not only to the people of Britain, but to the school as well." Harry finished.

Hermione looked thoughtful while the others berated McGonagall about being a technophobe. "You know, this is going to happen a lot in the coming years. The younger generation is going to welcome the new technologies with open arms, while the older generation is going to decry the loss of tradition."

Harry nodded. "That was one of the things that were brought up in the meeting. I told her that so far the only thing to go by the wayside is the loss of the quill. She didn't appreciate that."

"Yeah Gran is acting the same way. But then again, Gran insists on wearing an old-fashioned sign of mourning." Neville added in. When everybody looked at him questioningly, he finished with; "Her hat. The vulture was an old sign of mourning. Back around the turn of the century."

"So what now, oh fearless leader?" Ginny asked tongue in cheek.

"Now we need to plan a prank. Things are getting a little tense." Harry said grinning at her.

They gathered around to plan.

~ooOoo~

The next morning, found the twins trying to uncurl from their position in bed. Now it is an old custom to short sheet a bed as a prank, usually one waits until the person is out of the bed. Not so Chaos Inc. They did it while the twins were asleep. They found that all their clothes were now at least two sizes too small and the only underwear they had was bondage shorts. They looked at each other and grinned. Since their trunk was only keyed to a few people, they knew who had done this. And they were going to pay.

Thankfully this was a Saturday so they didn't have to worry about classes. Unfortunately it was also Quidditch practice and Oliver would be quite pissed if they missed it because they couldn't find any clothes to wear.

Finally they had to bite the bullet and asked Lee and the other boys in their dorm if they could borrow some clothes. After much laughing at the twin's predicament, they were allowed to finally get dressed.

Soon word got out that someone had finally been able to prank the twins. Laughter was heard around the school whenever the twins showed their faces.

It came to a head when the twins walked into the Main Hall for lunch after a good practice.

As they walked through the entrance way. Their clothes disappeared showing only the bondage shorts they had been forced to wear as underwear.

After much catcalling, the twins waved at everyone as they made a quick exit back up to their room.

This meant war.

~ooOoo~

They came across a problem almost immediately. Dobby. Dobby was fanatically loyal to Harry and watched over him like a hawk. They couldn't get near him without Dobby knowing about it. No matter what they tried, Dobby foiled it.

They tried putting something in Harry's food or drink. Then it disappeared and Dobby brought in a new one. They were able to get the others in his group, but they could not get Harry. It was like he was always two steps ahead of them. They had even tried to get Peeves involved. They got hit with a giant squirt gun instead. Seems someone had given Peeves a super soaker. On condition that Peeves not act against them for the rest of the school year. The pack the super soaker ran from had even been charmed to always have water in them.

Filch was Peeves main target for the super soaker though. No matter where he went, Peeves was there to get him.

~ooOoo~

A week after Dumbledore's departure, word came that he was retiring starting immediately. He showed up on a Sunday to pack his belongings with a ministry employee's help. Then after a public speech about how he was happy about the service he had able to give the people of Britain, sadly it was time to go. His was slowly feeling his age and he was told it would be a good idea to slow down. There were tears everywhere as people said goodbye to a beloved fixture in their lives.

McGonagall glared at Harry the whole time.

~ooOoo~

The Board of Governors met together at Hogwarts to discuss just who the next Headmaster or Headmistress should be. Several names were put on the table including McGonagall's. However it was felt that a younger head needed to fill the position. They knew that changes were coming whether they wanted them to or not. Already there were stores opening up in Diagon that catered to those who wished technological toys and computers. Hogsmead was getting a music store in for those CD's that seemed to become a staple among the younger generation. At least they wore their headphones so as to not inflict their music upon the rest of them.

But young Mr. Potter was correct. The world was changing and if Britain was to have a say in the future, it needed to allow the changes to take place. But, like Mr. Potter said, it should not be at the expense of many of their traditions. It would be a fine line they would be traveling and they needed a Headmaster to help navigate it.

Finally a name was brought forth, one who was both young enough to have at least a small understanding of this younger generation, yet old enough to understand the concerns of the older generation.

Jacob, Aston Seeley.

He had, in fact become a teacher at Salem Academy. Teaching Defense, becoming the school's second in command. Now he was back in the country and they had him, and we're not going to let go again.

~ooOoo~

After his name was announced, the public tried everything to bring him down. After all he was no Dumbledore. But try as they might, they couldn't get Dumbledore to change his mind. So they decided to wait and see.

End Part Two Chapter Two