Hey guys! As you've probably noticed, this isn't an update, just a repost. I've combined the author's notes that used to have a separate chapter into this one. This website doesn't allow separate chapters for author's notes and I don't want to risk having my story removed for something I can so easily fix.

Disclaimer: don't own this!

Chapter 14 - Pranks, Detentions and Transfigurations

The next month and a half of school passed by relatively quickly. Well, for most people anyway. As far as most students were concerned, the time flew by. Q was the only exception, but only because he refused to admit to himself that a bunch of human adolescents could make enjoyable company.

The professors, on the other hand, were beginning to hate the new school year with a vengeance. There was currently a huge calendar in the Staff Lounge counting down the days 'till Christmas break.

Mostly, this was due to the rash of practical jokes that did not seem to want to go away.

It took Professor Snape three days to counter the wards to his private rooms and during that time his robes and hair changed from the original pumpkin orange colour to teal, baby blue, fluorescent pink and lavender.

All four houses lost a lot of points in those three days and more than a few students found themselves scrubbing the potions classroom floor with toothbrushes. Or cleaning the school's many bathrooms.

Many of the pranks were annoying, but harmless. For instance, one day students arrived at breakfast only to find salt in the sugar bowls and sugar in the salt shakers. Q found it quite amusing to watch the faces of students and professors alike as they took their first drink of tea in the morning, made all the more amusing by the fact that only half of them were truly awake at that point in time.

The best reaction of the morning came from Cho Chang of Ravenclaw, who ran into the Great Hall towards the end of breakfast and began to urgently whisper something to her friends before they had a chance to warn her. She liked a lot of sugar in her tea.

Being in a rush, she took a huge gulp of tea. Within seconds the tea came back out of her mouth in a massive spray that drenched the petite blond sitting across from her.

Another day saw all students walking around with their hair charmed into a sort of perverse version of their house colours. The Gryffindors all had bright, fire truck-red hair, Hufflepuffs had mustard-yellow hair, Ravenclaws bright sky-blue and Slytherins lime green. Needless to say, most people weren't too impressed.

Except for the Slytherins, who had done it to themselves on purpose so as not to avoid suspicion. They were collectively amazed that they still had not been caught.

By now the entire House was participating in the pranks in one way or another. Some researched spells or potions, some experimented with new spells and others snuck around the school at odd hours of the morning setting things up (this was made a lot easier now that they knew about Mrs. Norris's weakness for liver-flavoured cat treats).

The prank Slytherin House was most proud of was a collaboration between a group of fifth, sixth and seventh years that originated as an idea from a shy first year.

After a few weeks of preparations, they managed to randomly charm a dozen or so of Professor Sprout's plants to sing vulgar drinking songs. They stopped singing whenever anyone came within a metre of them, making them almost impossible to pick out from all the other plants in the greenhouse.

Professor Dumbledore's eyes were twinkling into overtime. In fact, the Headmaster appeared to be enjoying the practical jokes even though he openly admitted that for the first time he was stumped as to the identity of Hogwarts' resident pranksters.

However, most of the staff did not share his sense of humour and began doling out even more detentions than before. Not even Q managed to avoid detention for long.

He was quickly receiving a reputation for being arrogant, stubborn, listening to instructions only when it suited him and having no respect for authority. Q was quite proud of this reputation and could vividly picture Jean Luc Picard and Kathy Janeway nodding in absolute agreement with this description of himself. After all, neither one of them had needed a month to figure out what he was like. Well, as close as any human could come to figuring him out anyway.

As far as detention went, he preferred serving it alone, especially when it was doing something the particular professor felt they didn't need to supervise, such as scrubbing desks. They would take away his wand and leave. Then he would snap his fingers and spend the next two hours or so talking mentally to Fawkes.

The Phoenix was a wonderful source of information.

Q found out that the Golden Trio had been to see the Headmaster with their suspicions regarding him. Dumbledore had thanked the children and asked them to keep a discrete eye on the American exchange student. He also told them that the only reason Hogwarts had an exchange student was because the new Minister of Magic had insisted upon it. Something about strengthening relations with the colonies.

Dumbledore's opinion of the new Minister was not much better than it had been of Fudge.

Q hated having to serve detention with other students, because it meant that he actually had to do whatever the professor assigned him to do. And he had to do it the slow, laborious, human way.

Unless of course the other student was a fellow Slytherin. The first time this happened Q had detention with Draco, courtesy of Professor Snape, who had not forgotten about the "special features" that had been added to the wards around his private chambers.

Although he never did ask, he was convinced that Q and Draco had something to do with the prank.

This annoyed Draco to no end, since he had honestly had very little to do with the prank.

And so Snape took their wands and left them with two pails of water and some sponges to scrub the Practice Potion's Lab.

The Practice Potion's Lab was an empty classroom that had been refitted into a place where students could go to practice potions. It had five work stations equipped with all the basic essentials required in any potions lab. However, since it was on the first floor instead of in the dungeons where the potions professor could keep an eye on it and because it was used by students who were considerably less than neat, it usually looked like it had been run over by a hurricane.

There had been a very evil gleam in the professor's eyes when he told Draco and Q to clean it "the muggle way."

The two of them just stood and stared at the mess for several minutes. Then Draco sighed heavily and reluctantly picked up a bucket.

"Well, I guess we'd better get on with it then," he said and started walking towards the first work station.

"You're not actually planning on lowering yourself to cleaning this room manually are you?" came Q's reply.

"Well, seeing as how Professor Snape has our wands. . . please tell me you have a spare wand hidden up your sleeve."

"Close," Q smirked. He then knelt down and rolled up his left pant leg. He then stood up and presented Draco with his "spare wand."

He doesn't need to know that I just put it there. I mean so much of what I do is improvised . . . I wonder what Jean Luc would say if he ever found out that the whole trial thing when we first met was completely spur-of-the-moment. Not to mention the Robin Hood thing - actually I think that one was fairly imaginative.

"That's a wand?" Draco studied it sceptically. It was considerably smaller than a regular wand: only about the size of a ballpoint pen. It was bright yellow.

"Well granted it's not as powerful as a full-sized one, but it is powerful enough to deal with the mess in here."

That said, Q decided to demonstrate. He muttered a few spells and within ten minutes the entire room looked neat and organized. Then he pointed it at the floor and it became spotless. As a final touch he turned the water in the buckets a dark, murky grey

"Where can I get one of those?" Draco asked in awe.

"I'll bring one back for you from America after the Christmas holidays."

"So you're going home for Christmas?"

"Absolutely."

There is no way I'm spending more time here than I have to. Besides I have a ton of ideas of stuff I can do to make the lives of my favourite Starfleeters just a bit more miserable. Come to think of it, I still haven't christened the new Enterprise.

But before Christmas came Halloween. The week prior was filled with anticipation, because Professor Dumbledore announced that for the first time ever everyone was invited to wear costumes to the Halloween Feast. And so all students spent the next week putting costumes together.

On top of preparing their costumes, Slytherin House also worked on organizing their second party of the year. None of them were willing to go through all the effort of finding costumes only to wear them for a few hours at dinner. Hence, they decided to throw a costume party. Luckily for them, Halloween this year fell on a Friday.

Unknown to the others, Q did some additional preparations of his own for Halloween.

In the several days before Halloween many of the professors gave Halloween themes to their classes. Professor Sprout showed her students the proper way to harvest Wolfsbane, q did a class on spirit summoning, Professor Snape gave a lecture on the uses of blood in potions (many of which were somewhat dark and some of which were most definitely dark) and Hagrid introduced his class to Aragog.

Q wondered about whether substituting Klingon for human blood would make for an volatile potion that would have the instinctive urge to attack other potions along with their brewers. Meanwhile Draco wished that he was still taking Care of Magical Creatures so that he could've seen the look of absolute terror on Ron's face as he watched Aragog. Instead, he had to settle for vivid descriptions from his housemates.

As far as the sixth years were concerned though, the best class was Transfigurations.

"Put your books and things away; the only things I want to see on your desks are your wands," was the first thing Professor McGonagall said when she walked into the classroom. The class quickly came to attention, since McGonagall rarely ever gave out such instructions.

"Now then, with Professor Snape's help I have prepared a very special class today for you today." The stern professor's lips curled into a half-smile and looked around the room with a mischievous glint in her eye, revelling in the suspense she was causing the students.

Oh, just get on with it woman. Whatever this silly surprise of your is, it can't be that great.

"Today we will be looking at Animagus transformations." Eyes around the room brightened instantly and ears visibly perked up. "Each of you will drink a potion and I will recite a spell. Then you shall turn into your respective animals for about 30 seconds."

But I'm already pretending to be human, isn't that animal enough? I wonder if I can kill my son without my wife finding out. . .

McGonagall spent the next ten minutes giving her class a rough explanation of how Animagi worked and that what the spell they were about to perform did was tap into a person's subconscious and bring its animal manifestation into the forefront. This meant that for a few seconds the Animagus form took over and forced the human to adapt its form. A true Animagus transformation was done through the will of the witch or wizard, not their "inner animal."

"So, who wants to go first?" Professor McGonagall asked innocently and a sea of hands shot up. She scanned the crowd.

"Mr. Potter, come up here please."

Harry looked immensely pleased with himself and practically leapt out of his seat as he bounded up to the professor, as if afraid she would change her mind. She smiled and handed him a vile, which he downed in one large gulp, grimacing when he was finished. However, he didn't have time to comment on how disgusting the potion was as the Transfigurations Professor had already cast the spell on him.

He froze, eyes slowly becoming unfocused. Then his body was surrounded by a slight glow which slowly gained in intensity. Suddenly the light began to change shape, morphing Harry's body along with it. Moments later it disappeared leaving a small furry creature with a long body and tail and small beady eyes that looked up at the students with curiosity.

Draco roared with laughter.

"Potter's a bloody weasel!" he exclaimed. The Gryffindors hadn't come out of their shock enough to admonish him, but McGonagall scowled at his language.

"Actually Draco," said Q, "that's a mongoose."

Somehow, Hermoine actually managed to hear that and her head snapped to Q.

"A mongoose?" she asked. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course I'm sure. I wouldn't be saying it otherwise."

Just then the mongoose was once again surrounded in light and it expanded until it was the size of a human again. It disintegrated and left a very disoriented Harry, who quickly shook his head and looked to his fellow Gryffindors.

"So, what was I?" he asked, excited.

"You were a mongoose Harry," answered Hermoine.

"An Indian mongoose to be precise," added Q.

"What's a mongoose?" Harry looked confused as his gaze shifted from Hermoine to Q.

"Well. . ." drawled Draco, "it's small, furry and looks like a weasel."

Hermoine glared at the blond Slytherin and then turned to Harry.

"Mongooses are small weasel-like animals. They are quick and agile and are known for their ability to kill snakes, especially cobras."

"Is that true?" Draco whispered to Q, who simply nodded. It was the Indian mongoose in particular that was known for killing cobras and mongooses ate more than snakes, but he didn't feel like giving a lecture on some silly mammal, so he just let it be.

Meanwhile Harry sat down, apparently satisfied with his friend's answer.

The next to go to the front was Ron. He turned into a Tasmanian Devil. Q had to admit, the animal did fit the boy, right down to the ears that turned red when agitated.

Then Hermoine went and turned into a reddish-brown brown cat, whose long fur was sleek and shone in the sunlight coming in through the windows. Neville became a large turtle, Seamus a chimpanzee, Dean turned into a moose.

Then came the Slytherins. Pansy was the most surprising; she earned herself several gasps when she turned into a beautiful leopard. Blaise was somewhat less surprising as a gorgeous black stallion and Crabbe and Goyle were a bulldog and tortoise respectively.

When Draco went up, Q could tell he was slightly nervous. He could hear the Golden Trio and several of the other Gryffindors muttering something about a ferret. He concentrated on Draco and knew that there was no way Draco's "inner animal" was a ferret. Many people were clearly disappointed when the Slytherin Prince turned into a White Shepard that barked enthusiastically at the class.

Q went last. Secretly he had been hoping that the bell would ring before he would have to go. Reluctantly he made his way up to the front of the class.

Maybe I should make nothing happen and throw the old bat into a frenzy over why the heck her wonderful little magic spells aren't working. But then she'd want to keep me after class to figure out what went wrong. . . no, I don't think I like that idea anymore. Well, I'm certainly not turning into some ordinary animal. Too bad I've already done a three-headed snake. Wait. . . Aha, got it!

Q downed the useless potion, allowed McGonagall to wave her wand about, jabbering nonsense and then closed his eyes and concentrated. He reached out to every molecule he had gathered to himself when creating the corporeal form he held. Then he changed them, moulding them into different molecules and shifting them into different places.

He opened his eyes and looked upon the shocked faces of the class. His new vision was slightly different, narrower and he could see the Professor's white face even as he looked directly ahead.

"Bloody hell." Seamus gasped, "He's a bloody raptor."

With one massive leap, Q landed on top of the desks in the second row, whipping his tail into Neville's face as he landed. He cocked his head and looked Seamus directly in the eye, opening his jaws slightly to reveal a set of razor-sharp teeth.

Unfortunately, he then realized that his 30 seconds were up and if he kept this up much longer, people would get suspicious. He hated having to hide what he was.

He hopped down from the desk and transformed back to his human shape. Everyone's eyes were still on him.

The bell finally broke them out of their stupor.

Author's Notes:

Because some of the animals I've used as the Aninimagus forms of some of the students, namely Harry, are sort of obscure and not generally common knowledge, I decided to add some descriptions of the animals. Should help to clear up why I chose those specific animals.

Mongoose:

Rudyard Kipling's "Ricki-Ticki" was a mongoose, and the best known species is definitely the Indian mongoose. They are rather small, agile, weasel-like carnivores native to Africa, southern Europe, and Asia.
The mongoose lives near streams, in thickets, hedges, and fields feeding on rats, mice, snakes, lizards, eggs, and insects. They have even been known to catch animals many times their size, like rabbits. It is the Javan mongoose that is made famous for killing many snakes, especially the venomous cobra.

The Indian mongoose is renowned for killing cobras, which it is capable of doing due to its very quick movements, thick protective hide, and long, thick hair. One of the largest species was considered a sacred animal in ancient Egypt. It checked the increase of crocodiles in the Nile River by eating their eggs and gained the popular name "Pharaoh's Mouse."

Mongooses are not immune to snake venom; rather they strike so quickly as to avoid being bitten by the snake. In order to kill the snake, they attack it with repeated quick bites until it is able to get a favourable lock right behind the head. Then it grasps the snake with its forepaws and rolls over the snake, putting a hind leg on either side of the snake, and rolls on its side.
They are very playful, and spend a lot of time interacting with one another.

Pictures: http/ encarta.msn. com/media461542878761574651-11/EgyptianMongoose. html

Tasmanian Devil:

This tough little carnivore resembles, in some respects, a small bear. Found today only on the island of Tasmania, south of Australia, it is still fairly common there and protected by the government. Equipped with powerful jaws, it is not hesitant to attack animals much larger than itself. The devil is mainly a scavenger and feeds on whatever is available. Devils are famous for their rowdy communal feeding at carcasses - the noise and displays being used to establish dominance amongst the pack.
The famous gape or yawn of the devil that looks so threatening, can be misleading. This display is performed more from fear and uncertainty than from aggression. The devil makes a variety of fierce noises, from harsh coughs and snarls to high pitched screeches. A sharp sneeze is used as a challenge to other devils, and frequently comes before a fight. Many of these spectacular behaviours are bluff and part of a ritual to minimise harmful fighting when feeding communally at a large carcass.

When excited, the pale ears gradually turn red. Despite its ferocious reputation, the little "devils" have proven to be easily tamed and, indeed, have become affectionate and playful companions. They are very clean, fond of water, and love to bask in the sun.
It usually ambles slowly with a characteristic gait but can gallop quickly with both hind feet together. Young devils are more agile however and can climb trees. Although not territorial, devils have a home range.

Picture: http/ www. afunk. com/mammals/tasmaniandevil/page2 .html

White Shepherd:

Here's a where you can find some pictures of white shepherds in case you're having a hard time figuring out what it looks like:

http/ www.whiteshepherd. info/introduction. htm