Chapter 14:

"Albus?"

"Minerva?"

"What little scheme are you planning now? Why are you encouraging this? And don't tell me you are thinking of bringing those two back in here."

"To answer the first question, I'm not planning anything. As for the second, you started this one, Minerva, so why make it seem like I'm the bad person here. And as for that last statement you made, I won't tell you anything, if that's what you want." Then, he walked away, leaving a surprised McGonagall in the middle of the hallway.

'How did he know it was me?' she thought.

"Ha! Did you see Professor Snape this morning?"

"Yeah. Pathetic old thing he is. How does he cling to his filth so comfortably? Disgusting!"

"Did you see his underwear? Did you see all the rainbow-coloured snakes on it?"

Hermione, who had just been discharged from the infirmary, searched for her best friends through the crowd and was quite surprised at what she heard everyone talking about. No one even seemed to notice her through the excitement. At last, she found them sitting at their favourite spot at the Gryffindor table. They saw her and immediately dropped the utensils and screamed her name. Then, they came hurtling after her at a dangerous speed.

"Herrrr-myyy-neeee!" they screamed. Everyone turned to them and were equally as excited to see their Golden girl, their heroine of the war, their bookwormish Gryffindor princess. Soon she was surrounded by students of different houses and years and almost suffocated by them.

"Ok, guys. Don't kill me, I just got back," she managed to say. Soon enough she was eating with her two best friends at either side of her and, of course, a whole lot of other people and ghosts.

"Hey, Hermione. Welcome back! We missed you so much! How are you feeling? Any pains or side effects from the injury or medicine? Oh, who am I kidding? You're probably fine. Oh, I've got so much to tell! You've missed out on a lot!" Her best female friend hugged her after asking her a myriad of questions - none of which Hermione was able to answer.

"What could possibly have happened in the few days I spent unconscious?" Hermione asked.

"Oh, nothing, you know. Just a prank war which started due to an argument between your Gryffindor and Slytherin classmates. And, of course, the whole school is now part of it. Even Snape was pranked! Someone washed his hair! The nerve of it! Only a Gryffindor would do something that crazy! I've missed you so much, Hermes!" Ginny exclaimed.

Hermione looked at her two friends for confirmation. The boys looked down suddenly in their empty plates.

"I don't believe it! You two started it, didn't you?!" she exclaimed accusingly. They didn't look at her. Ron hurriedly filled his plate with some slices of toast and asked for someone to pass the jam.

"You two started a prank war? Without me?!" Harry and Ron stared at her incredulously.

"I thought you would be mad at us for starting it in the first place," Harry said.

"Normally, I would have been, but that must have been the most interesting thing to ever happen here after the war. And I missed it," Hermione said sadly.

"Cheer up, Hermes," said Ron with his mouth full of toast. "It's not over yet."

Hermione glared at him disapprovingly; he had always disgusted her with that gross habit of his. Then she laughed, hugged her three friends and filled her plate with food before class started.

Luna came to great Hermione briefly, then went off with Ginny to God knows where. Hermione ate with an appetite that impressed even Ron. When she was finally satisfied, she pushed her plate away and sat there for some time. She still had twenty minutes before classes started, so she sat there and watched everyone talk and laugh at each others jokes. She had really missed.

"You two had better fill me in on this prank war thing that's been going on." she told her friends.

"Sure." Then they told her everything that happened leaving out nothing. As she listened, she got a chill down her spine. Someone was watching her, She turned instinctively, and caught they eye of a certain Slytherin prince. His gaze was intense and almost meaningful, but his eyes broke away from hers quickly. She stared on for a few seconds before tuning her friends back in.

"You know what? Why don't you guys tell me the rest later?" she suggested.

"Why? What's wrong?" Ron asked.

"Nothing. I just don't want to be late for the first class. Let's get going."

"Typical Hermione," Harry said teasingly. Hermione glared at him jokingly. She turned to get off the bench and found herself staring up at Draco Malfoy, who was standing in front of her.

"Hello, Granger," he drawled. "Welcome back. I'm looking forward to pranking you." His voice was full of its usual contempt but his eyes told a different story entirely.

"Back off, Malfoy," Ron sneered. Draco smirked back and looked into Hermione's eyes before sauntering off.

"Ugh. That git! The nerve of him! Honestly, sometimes he has the courage of a Gryffindor," Ron ranted. Then he thought of what he had just said and laughed. The other members of the Golden trio laughed along with him. Then exited they Hall quickly. All the while, Hermione could feel a pair of eyes boring into the back of her head.

Three guesses who, she thought.

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"What was that about, Drake?" Theo asked as Draco sat down between him and Blaise. Pansy had run off somewhere.

"Nothing," Draco replied off-handedly.

"Hmmm, really? 'Cause I thought someone had a crush on her even when they were on seperate sides of the war," Blaise teased. He received a glare from Draco which made him quiet down immediately. The war had always been a sore topic for him. He wished he could go back and change his parents' decisions. The only reason he had been on Voldemort's side during the war was because of them; his parents' lives had been threatened a lot of times just to keep him in check and he loved them too much to let them die, even his pureblood elitist father. Then again, if he'd been on Harry's side, they might have lost. No one would have been able to save them from the Manor which he had always detested, especially now that all he could hear sometimes were screams. The terrible screams of Hermione Granger as his childish, deranged aunt carved Hermione's skin with that cursed knife of hers.

"Hey, mate. You all right?" Blaise asked, waving his hands in Draco's face.

"I'm fine," Draco answered. "I was just thinking of what prank to pull off next."

"Really? You're still on board with that?" Theo asked excitedly. Draco nodded.

"Um, I'm not sure about this anymore guys. We've already gotten detentions every night for the next few weeks. And Granger's back!" Blaise said. Theo rolled his eyes.

"Don't be such a wuss. She's way more level-headed than that," he reasoned, then started to doubt his words. "Right? Right?"

"I don't see why we should still get detentions when the teachers are in on it too," Draco said, "So we shouldn't stand for this! We aren't going to show up for any other detentions, and when we are asked why, we'll give them our reason."

"Ok, whatever. We can talk about not going to detention later. We're going to be late for class," Blaise pointed out. They rushed out of the Hall and went for their first class which was Potions.

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"So, you will help?" Dumbledore asked.

"Of course, Dumbledore," a voice replied.

"All right. I trust you will do well."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bye. See you later," another voice replied, but it held no malice. Dumbledore walked out of his office leaving the two guests in his office.

"Will you pay up now? I told you she'd strike back."

"Fine."

###############

"All right, guys. What exactly are we supposed to do now? The excitement has obviously toned down and no one's pranking as much anymore. I think this group is just a waste of time," said Pansy.

"I don't know what we will do, and this group is starting to feel a bit unnecessary but you could have said it a bit nicely, Parkinson," Ginny shot back.

"I think we'll prove useful soon." All three pairs of eyes were now trained on Luna, who was staring at the ceiling dreamily. "Hermione is back, and from what I heard her saying, she sounds like she wants in on this war."

"Yeah, that's right! She was really mad when she found out the boys started something that fun without her! See, Parkinson? This group isn't a waste of time, but if you still think it is you can leave!" Ginny said hopefully.

"I wouldn't dream of doing that." Pansy looked at Ginny distastefully. "Why do you insist on acting so childishly, Weaslette?"

Colour rushed to the youngest Weasley's cheeks and her ears turned pink. "How dare you call me that?" she whispered in a deadly tone.

"Stop it! The both of you! I don't care that you guys didn't like each other before the War! Or that you were both on different sides of said war! Stop fighting like three year olds! The objective of this team is to stop this petty war so we can start afresh. So we can renew bonds, escape the prejudice imposed on us when we were young, prevent any other Dark lords from arising. You guys might think we are just a bunch of people trying to bring sanity to a lace where it never even existed in the first place, but you're wrong! We are correcting our parents' mistakes, and our parents' parents' mistakes, and our parents' parents' parents' mistakes, and our pa-"

"Neville, we get it."

"Whatever. The fact is we are going to make a huge impact on the whole Wizarding nation by stopping just this small war. I can feel it."

"You really dream big, Longbottom," Pansy teased.

"My name is Neville, so that is what you will call me. We are promoting Inter House relationship."

"I agree with you," Luna said eerily.

"Of course you do, Lov- I mean Luna. Anyway, if I had known this is what I was signing up for I would never have joined you," Pansy spoke. The other three looked at her as though they were now expecting her to leave. "But, since I'm already here, I guess I might as well go with it."

Luna grinned at her, Neville looked a wee bit pleased with himself, and Ginny just stared.

"We have to go for our classes now, so let's meet in the Room of Requirement, same time as the first meeting." The girls nodded and they rushed of to their respective classrooms.

Author's note: So, I just realized that this story is actually far from done. I have neglected a lot of things so I'll have to include them too. Anyway, REVIEW if you liked this chapter, and even if you didn't still REVIEW. But I would really appreciate it if you guys could be a bit constructive with the criticism.

With much love,

Athenian Ravenclaw22.