Chapter 12
Curious Happenings


AN:
I no own HP and company.
Flames will be directed to my father tied to a stake…
Not really creative ANs are they?
I know how to liven them up!!!
*sprays audience with water*
Awake yet??? *grins*
I think I'll let you read the story now… *runs for her life*



The next few weeks passed at the Burrow quickly full of Quidditch, studying, and a trip to Diagon alley to pick up their materials. Before they knew it was September first and they were rushing around to get the last few things together they hadn't gotten together before.

Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Sirius (in dog form) were rushing around Ron's room, Harry looking for his socks, Hermione looking for her Transfiguration book which Fred and George threw in there knowing it would easily get lost in the mess, and Sirius and Ron were looking for Pig who was hooting around somewhere.

Mrs. Weasley stormed into the room into the room tripping over Sirius, who let out a bark of indignation. "Sorry Sirius," Mrs. Weasley said, and then turned to the kids. "I thought I told you to have your things together last night."

"We did!" Ron said. "But Pig escaped from his cage, and Fred and George hid Harry's socks, and Hermione's book in here."

"MUM!" Ginny yelled from downstairs. "FRED AND GEORGE TURNED PERCY INTO A FLOBBERWORM!"

"FRED!! GEORGE!!" Mrs. Weasley yelled flying down the stairs. "TURN YOUR BROTHER BACK RIGHT NOW!!!"

Sirius changed back to human, buried his hand underneath a collapsed pile of comics and pulled out Pig. "Is it always this hectic on September 1st?"

"Pretty much," Ron sighed taking Pig and putting him into his cage.

Harry found his socks, and Hermione found her book and they trooped downstairs putting their materials in their respective trunks. Harry asked, "How are we going to get to Kings Cross?"

"Dad borrowed ministry cars again this year, they should be here soon," Ron said. And as if on cue there were two pops from outside announcing their arrival.

"Fred! George! Ginny! The cars are here!" Mrs. Weasley yelled up the stairs after looking out of the window. "Bring your trunks down!"

Sirius was back in dog form hiding from the ministry and was dragging Harry to a room the ministry officials couldn't see into. Once safely out of view Sirius changed back. "Harry, I can't see you off to the train but I'll be at Hogwarts. Dumbledore is having Hagrid 'take me in.' as Snuffles."

Harry burst out laughing. "Sorry, but that's too funny."

Sirius glared at him, "Sure… laugh at my misfortune… I mean I like Hagrid and all, but I can't chew his cooking!"

"We'll bring you food from the kitchen," Harry said.

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Sirius grinned.

"HARRY!" Mrs. Weasley yelled. "We have to go."

"Bye Sirius," Harry said rushing out the door. "See you at Hogwarts."

Harry, Ron, and Hermione got into the back of one of the ministry cars and Mrs. Weasley was in the front passenger seat; Fred, George, Ginny, and Mr. Weasley were in the other. They got onto the train without any distractions amazingly.

Once they were settled on the train Fred and George mentioned something about starting their final year off with a bang before leaving the compartment.

"Think we should eat the feast tonight?" Ron asked Harry, Hermione, and Ginny.

"Probably not," Harry replied.

"I wouldn't," Hermione agreed.

"I'm going to go see what they are up to before you guys kick me out of the cabin like you annually do," Ginny said walking out the door.

"She does realize we only kicked her out once?" Ron asked.

"It must seem like we always exclude her a lot during the school year, second year we were brewing Polyjuice Potion, third year we really didn't exclude her but we were all too busy with other things to really include her, and fourth year we were helping Harry," Hermione said logically pulling out her favorite book, 'Hogwarts a History.'

"Does anyone know who the Gryffindor fifth year prefects are? I'm surprised you aren't one, Hermione," Harry said.

"I expect I've been into too much trouble with you two," Hermione replied trying to sound nonchalant.

"And you aren't the tiniest bit angry about that?" Ron teased.

"Of course not," Hermione replied indignantly not looking in his eyes. "Whoever Dumbledore and McGollangal decide are the best ones to be prefects will be the prefects. There's nothing I can do about it."

"Harry, what are the chances she knows how fake that sounds?" Ron asked grinning.

"Pretty good considering how she looks like she's going to kill you in about five seconds," Harry said glancing behind Ron looking at Hermione glaring at Ron murderously.

Ron glanced behind his shoulder, and ran behind Harry, "Don't let her kill me!"

At this Harry doubled over in laughter soon followed by Hermione who couldn't keep up her fierce glare. Ron sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

The door opened and Neville walked into the room, his robes now flashing Gryffindor colors instead of staying black.

"Hi guys," he said sorrowfully looking at his robes.

"Fred and George get you with a Colorful Spit Ball right?" Hermione said trying not to laugh as Harry and Ron laughed at her side.

"Yeah," Neville said grinning sheepishly. "Do you know the counter curse?"

"Of course we know the counter curse! We spent the summer with them!" Ron exclaimed. "When you live with Fred and George knowing counter curses is a necessity."

"Besides, most of their jokes either wear off by themselves or by 'Finite Incantum,' Hermione said taking off the curse.

"How was your summer?" Neville asked them sitting down.

"Same old, same old," Harry said quietly also sitting down. "Stay at the Dursley's, get rescued, go to Ron's house."

Hermione and Ron exchanged a quick glance before sitting down themselves. "How was your summer?" Hermione asked Neville.

"Gram helped me with my homework, we visited some relatives, and Trevor escaped for a week. That's about it," he sighed.

"Wanna play a game of exploding snap?" Ron asked.

"Sure," Neville agreed.

The four played for a half an hour when Dean and Seamus came into the compartment. They were dealt in and played until the lunch cart came.

Dean, Seamus, and Neville each bought pumpkin pastries and cauldron cakes while Harry, Ron, and Hermione stuck to the tightly sealed chocolate frogs, and Berry Botts Every Flavor Beans.

"Why didn't you guys get any cakes?" Neville asked curiously, took a bite out of his own cake and turned into a fire salamander.

"'Cause Fred and George spent all summer devising invisible, and concealable tricks," Ron replied after Neville changed back and the laughter quieted.

"And they commented about starting the year off with a bang when we got on the train," Harry grinned. "We're willing to bet that the whole school is going to at least witness one prank."

"No one's foolish enough to take on that bet," Dean said laughing.

"What bet?" Draco Malfoy drawled coming into the compartment, his prefect badge shinning brightly, and his two pet rocks on either side of him. "That Potter's going to get beaten within an inch of his life by a Muggle again?" he laughed heartily at his joke, his tow goons quickly joining in.

"I see you got your voice back Malfoy, pity," Harry said acidly standing up, his hand on his wand. The other Gryffindors also stood up with their hands on their wands. "You weren't as annoying as a mute."

"I see you are still alive, Father was certain you'd die from that nasty illness," Malfoy replied scathingly. "I suppose being beaten by your Uncle didn't help things. Pity he's a Muggle, otherwise he'd be in good fairing with my father's friends."

"Don't you mean your father's master?" Harry spat. "Voldemort doesn't have friends. He has puppets to play with." Harry pulled out his wand and the other Gryffindors followed suit. "I know you are slow, but try to understand this… SIX against THREE… who do you think should leave right now?"

"Come on," Malfoy spat. "I'll catch them slipping up at Hogwarts and I can make them pay then."

Crabbe and Goyle cracked their knuckles before leaving the compartment.

"What was Malfoy talking about?" Neville asked after a few stonily silent moments.

"Nothing," Harry said sitting back down grabbing 'Quidditch through the Ages' and stared at a page.

"Harry," Hermione said quietly. "Malfoy's going to tell anyone and everyone who will listen. Don't you think its best if you tell them yourself?"

"Tell us what?" asked Dean.

"Tell you about my summer," Harry said quietly knowing, yet resentful, that Hermione was right. "More specifically, my life at the Dursley's." Harry gave them the summary of his life at the Dursley's editing the parts about Sirius.

Hermione sat beside Harry and put a hand on his shoulder which he shrugged off. Neville felt badly about asking and did the one thing he could do with confidence. He found a pumpkin pastry with a Canary Crème and provided a distraction from the seriousness that thickened the air.

The mood lightened up and Seamus decided to go find his girlfriend dragging Dean and Neville to meet her.

"Wait, none of them had prefect badges," Ron said bewildered after a bit. "You don't' think that the Gryffindor Prefects are Parvatti and Lavender do you?"

"Possibly," Hermione said slowly. "But their DADA scores aren't that good and they do gossip a lot in class."

"Well, someone has to the fifth year prefects!" Ron said. "We already found one of Slytherins. McGollangal wouldn't let Gryffindor not have any."

"Beats me," Harry said from behind his Quidditch book. Hermione picked up 'Hogwarts, a History' and started to read.

"Oh no, you both are not going to read! What am I supposed to do if you read?" Ron demanded.

"Catch Pig," Harry said simply.

"Pig's locked in his cage," Ron said looking at it.

"Alohamora," Harry said pointing his wand at Pig's cage, opening the door and letting Pig out. "Not anymore."

"I can't believe you did that!" Ron exclaimed.

"Pretend it's a Snitch," Harry grinned behind his back.

The rest of the train ride was spent with Ron trying to catch Pig and Harry and Hermione laughing at him. Ron finally caught Pig about fifteen minutes before they reached Hogwarts. When they got out of the horseless carriages they saw McGollangal on the stairs.

"Granger, Potter, Weasley, come with me," she said looking stern.

"Uh oh," Ron said.

"We didn't do anything, yet," Harry said. "Why is she calling us?"

"Well, we cursed Malfoy on the train last year," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Maybe its because of that."

"That would be our luck," Ron sighed. "Getting detention before the Welcoming feast!"

"Wouldn't be the first time," Harry pointed out.

"True," Ron said.

They reached McGollangal's office and followed her inside. She motioned at three chairs in front of her desk "sit down."

She sat down in front of them and asked, "Do you know why you're here?"

They were silent as they shook their heads.

"Well, we didn't send out the Gryffindor fifth year prefect letters this year because this year we have three Gryffindor prefects instead of just two. You three. Due to last year's events we decided that having the three of you, as prefects would be the best. We also know that if we only made two of you prefects the third one would know and do what the other two did," McGollangal said with a small smile, putting three prefect badges in front of them.

The three of them stared at the prefect badges. "But," Harry said. "We get into more trouble each year, breaking the rules on the way there than the rest of the school."

"Not to mention combined we've lost hundreds of points each year," Hermione added.

"Although you've broken more rules, and lost more points than anyone else in your year, or the school for that matter, you've broken the rules usually for someone else rather than yourselves. And along the way you've learned more Defense Against the Dark Arts than your first two teachers combined. That proves that you three are the best choices and you work best as a team. The password for Gryffindor Tower is 'Shag Carpet' and you are to go to the Headmaster's office is 'Snicker doodles' Now we should get down to the feast, the sorting must nearly be over by now," McGollangal said standing up and walking towards the door. "Come along now."

The trio scooped up their prefect badges and quickly followed McGollangal back to the Great hall where the last first years was walking to the Hufflepuff table and sat down quietly. Harry looked up to the head table and felt his jaw dropped when he saw the new DADA teacher.

"What is it Harry?" Hermione asked seeing his face.

"That's Mrs. Figg! She used to be my babysitter when the Dursley's went anywhere and were afraid I'd blow up their house!" Harry said. "I never knew she was a witch."

Just then Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat. "Would you please give your attention to this old kook before we turn to our delicious feast. First let us welcome our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Figg." The occupants of the Great hall clapped politely.

"Second, a dueling class is now required to forth years and above, the professor will join us in two days," Dumbledore continued after the applause had died down. "Third I must remind you that magic is not permitted in the hallways and Mr. Filch has added all Weasley Wizard Wheazes to the list of objects forbidden in the corridors," Dumbledore said his eyes twinkling watched as the Weasley twins gave each other a high five. "Also the Forbidden Forest is forbidden and students must be inside their common rooms by 9:00 pm unless they have permission to be out. Now that's enough of my blabbering, tuck in!"

The food appeared on the tables and the trio looked at each other hesitantly. "Should we eat it?" Harry asked.

"It's probably not a good idea," Hermione said.

"Ginny never came back with their plans," Ron said glancing at the food longingly.

"Well, what are we going to do? Eat and risk being turned into Flobberworms, or not eat and go hungry?" Hermione asked.

They looked at the food again, looked at each other and said, "Eat."

As soon as their plates were filled there was a 'pop' from the head table. Madam hooch had sprouted large navy-blue bird wings. Then another pop was heard and a shampoo bottle appeared and dumped its contents onto Snape's head. There were various other pops at the head table changing the teachers.

"Looks like their aim was only at the teachers," Harry commented.

"Well now we can eat without fear. Er… as much fear," Hermione corrected herself.

The rest of the feast was non-eventful until they reached desert where the entire Slytherin table got up and started singing songs from the 'Wizard of Oz.'

"Ron," Harry said laughing as Malfoy sang 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow.' "When did Fred and George hear those Muggle songs?"

"Dad took us to see a Muggle movie before you came for the Quidditch World Cup," Ron explained.

The feast was finally done and Dumbledore stood up and cleared his throat once more. "This year I must stress that you all follow the rules carefully. It is more important than ever to keep order now that Voldemort has risen again. Well we had all best be going to bed now as we all have a big day tomorrow. Off you trot!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were caught up in the tidal wave of people walking out of the Great Hall and somehow ended up next to Fred and George. "Great feast eh?" asked Fred.

"I would have to congratulate who ever set up the pranks if I knew who they were," George replied grinning.

"How's this?" Ron asked grinning. "Thank you for torturing the Slytherins and giving us all a good laugh."

"We'd praise you more but we're pretty sure we have to go get detention for cursing Malfoy," Harry said.

"McGollangal told us to see Dumbledore after the feast," Hermione sighed.

"We'll be praying for you," George said grimacing.

"See you in the morning," Ron said wearily.

Harry, Hermione, and Ron separated from Fred and George and went to the stone gargoyle guarding Dumbledore's office. They walked up the spiral stairs and into his office. Ron and Hermione who had never seen his office looked around a bit in awe before sitting down with Harry and waited for Dumbledore.




AN:
That's all until the next chapter.
Its kinda late, and I have to finish writing up my report.
*sighs* its due in like two days, and I have about 4 pages to write yet…
Anyway review!!!
It will make me happy and inspire me to write more!!!