"Twins, Blaise?" Harry called as the train came to a stop in Hogsmeade. "What do you guys think of a boys only carriage?"
"Can we race the girls?" George asked with a smile.
"Five galleons says our thestral is faster." Fred boasted.
"You're on!" Tonks shot back. "What's a thestral?"
"Invisible winged horses. Think pegasus if pegasi were horse-vulture mix rather than horse-eagle." Harry said offhandedly. "There is a herd that lives in the forest. Hagrid tamed them and now uses them several times a year to haul students."
"Oh," Tonks smiled. "You're still on."
"Sounds good. Men, go catch us two carriages." Harry said to the twins and Blaise. "I need a word with our competition."
"Sir!" The twins saluted mockingly and left the compartment with a chuckling Blaise right behind.
Harry closed the door and turned to face the girls, smile dropping. "Now then, you're all guilty to different extents but you all treated Luna very poorly. None of you did anything too bad and she did make several severe mistakes, so a simple 'I'm sorry' should suffice."
"Why should we apologize? She's the one that smelled us!" Hannah asked affronted.
"And what kind of excuse is 'smelling magic'?" Susan asked rolling her eyes. "Like that could be true."
"Just because you can't do something is no reason to say that no one else can." Harry shook his head. "Need I remind you that I am the only one in this compartment who can speak with snakes?"
"No, but that is entirely different." Susan countered.
"How so?" Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Everyone has heard of parselmouths, I've never heard of someone smelling magic before." Susan crossed her arms.
"No one ever heard of anyone surviving the AK until me. That is no reason to say it didn't happen." Harry returned.
"Well..." Susan trailed off looking for another argument.
"If you're so concerned about this why didn't you say something while Luna was here." Hannah jumped in. "You could have told her to stay."
"I've been in that spot, I would rather be told that I wasn't wanted around and left than feel obliged to stay somewhere that I felt unwelcome, because one person in the group wants me there." Harry said distantly. "When you leave you can calm down and complain to people. If you're trapped there you're just stuck feeling helpless trying not to make the people who don't want you there want you there more, or at least not make them want them there less. It is very stressful."
"Hey you six, you need to get off the train now." The sixth year Hufflepuff prefect said as he stuck his head in the door.
"We were in the middle of a conversation." Daphne said shortly.
"That's nice, but you'll miss the carriages if you don't go now." The Hufflepuff said calmly.
"Two are being held for us." Daphne replied.
"Look, I want to go up to the castle and eat like every other student who isn't one of you six." The Hufflepuff crossed his arms. "If your conversation is that important you can take it up after the feast, but I'm not leaving this compartment until all of you are out."
Daphne and the prefect glared at each other for a few seconds before Hermione pulled on Daphne's arm. "Leave it Daph, Harry's right, let's just go eat."
The smug prefect ushered them all out of the train and onto the platform. The group was stopped though, much to the prefect's consternation. Hagrid bellowed to Harry from where he was helping the last of the first years along the path to the lake.
"'Arry!" Hagrid beamed as Harry made his way over. "Good to see you. I know that you don't have a lot of time right now but tomorrow evening Professor Kettleburn is stopping by to go over what he will be using for class, he asked that you attend."
"Really? That's strange." Harry shrugged. "Thanks for letting me know Hagrid."
"Hurry up!" The Hufflepuff called from behind him.
"Oh my, I'd better get back to the first years!" Hagrid said and hurried off.
"Bye Hagrid." Harry called as he made his way back to the group. He paused next to the thestral who would be pulling his carriage. "If you fly us up there I'll get raw meat for the whole herd." He told the remarkably intelligent animal quietly before turning to the prefect, who was watching him cautiously. "Would you like to ride with us?"
"Fine." The prefect said shortly, climbing into their carriage. "Let's just go!"
The twins shot Harry angry glares before following the enemy. Blaise looked confused but was satisfied with Harry's smirk. Blaise was the only one who noticed Harry draw his wand and quickly cast sticking charms on the seats and a strong featherlight charm on the carriage itself.
HPCOC
"Where is he?" The Mayor of Hogsmeade asked Flitwick as the last of the carriages were pulling up to the school.
"I'm not sure." Flitwick said just as a terrified scream cut through the evening.
Both men started running down the lawn looking for trouble. All too soon they saw a thestral drawn carriage fly over the hill at least fifty feet in the air and climbing. Suddenly the thestral went into a steep dive and pulled level with the ground before climbing again. As it got closer Flitwick and the mayor could hear the sound of three boys laughing behind the more prominent scream.
"Don't fly! Don't fly! Don't fly!" A panicked, pleading voice was the only warning they had before a second carriage broke over the top of the hill, still on the ground but the thestral was running, forcing the girls to hold on or risk flying out. Flitwick could just barely tell that it was Hermione doing the pleading as they passed him.
"I suspect Mr. Potter is in the carriage that is flying right now." Flitwick said as he turned and started hurrying back to the castle. "Probably one of the one's who is laughing."
HPCOC
"Must not be much of a Quidditch player." Harry observed sadly as he watched the crying prefect flee the carriage. Harry turned back to the others, the twins were laughing merely and Blaise was chuckling nervously, like that was the only thing keeping him from panicking too.
"OY! POTTER!" Tonks shouted as their carriage pulled up. "Next time I'm riding with you!"
"Why do you think I had anything to do with that?" Harry asked innocently, drawing laughter from all who weren't too terrified to laugh. "What?"
"If you ever do that again, without warning me, I'll never speak to you again." Blaise said, getting out of the carriage shakily.
"Oh it wasn't that bad." Harry scoffed.
"You didn't think you were about to die." Blaise replied tersely.
"You were never in any real danger." Harry shrugged. "Less than if you were riding a broom actually."
"There is a big difference between was is and what feels like it is." Blaise glared.
"Sorry." Harry said quickly. "Let's get inside."
"MR. POTTER!" Harry turned from the castle and saw Flitwick and a man he didn't know running towards them.
"WHY DO YOU ASSUME IT WAS ME?" Harry yelled back.
"It was you." Hermione scolded.
"That's beside the point." Harry said. "And the thestral did all the work, and made the choice to fly at all."
"Uh-huh." Susan said crossing her arms.
"All I did was bribe the wonderful creature." Harry defended. "Bribing animals isn't against rules or morals, right?"
"Mr...Potter...Stay...Here." Flitwick panted as he approached. "The rest...go."
"But Sir, I just-" Harry stopped when Flitwick held up a hand.
"Not..in..trouble." Flitwick gasped. Harry shrugged and waved the rest of the court on. He stood patiently waiting for Flitwick to be able to speak easily again. "Mr. Potter. This is Sigwald Flume, he is the mayor of Hogsmeade."
"Nice to meet you Mr. Flume." Harry said shaking his hand. "Flume...doesn't a Flume run Honeydukes?"
"Yes, that is my younger brother, Ambrosius, and his wife." Sigwald smiled.
"So what can I do for you today Mr. Flume?" Harry asked cheerily.
"Well, after your generous donation we were able to repair all of the damage to the village in record time." Flume began. "Not that there was all that much really, but we're having a celebration anyway. The whole village unanimously decided to delay until September and invite you as a guest of honor."
"Wow, I'm honored sir." Harry said graciously. "I would love to be there but I don't know if the Headmaster will let me. I'm not allowed off the grounds until next year you see."
"Oh, that is no problem." Flume smiled. "I have already spoken with him about it. All you need is to get permission from your Godfather."
"Well, I'll ask." Harry decided. "Can I bring guests?"
"Of course, but they'll have to get permission as well." Flume grinned in relief.
"Harry, we need to get inside." Flitwick said checking his watch.
Flume shook Harry's hand again. "Whether or not you can attend we'll be holding it on the third Saturday this month. I hope to see you there."
"I hope to be there." Harry smiled.
"It was nice meeting you."
"You as well." Harry said before turning and heading inside.
"Creevy, Colin." McGonagall was calling out as Harry walked into the Great Hall.
"NOOOOOOO!" Harry cried falling to his knees while tilting his head back so his shout was directed at the ceiling.
"Harry! What's wrong?" Flitwick asked worriedly as the entire student body and all the teachers had their attention redirected.
"I MISSED THE SONG!" He sobbed over dramatically, throwing a wrist up against his forehead while students started laughing.
"I told you someone likes my songs Albus." The hat boasted smugly before turning to Harry. "Would you like me to sing it again?"
"No!" McGonagall shouted before backpedaling hastily. "I mean, we're in the middle of the sorting. I'm sure we can arrange a private performance Mr. Potter. But for now just go sit down and try to behave yourself."
"Oh, no worries." Harry smiled reassuringly. "I'm all done causing mayhem for today."
Harry made his way to his table, Hermione and Tonks had saved him a seat, thinking about the mayhem that he already caused and wasn't yet known. The potion is the first, and only, known potion that has a time delay function that is based on the ambient time rather than how long the potion has existed. The timer was set to go off just before the end of the feast, or at least when the feast normally ends, just in time for Dumbledore's speech.
Snape's seat was right there while Harry was applying the potion to the floor under the table. That was the first time he used Malfoy's wand. One password charm would pass from the cushion to Snape when he sat down. After that it was all hoping that someone said the password in Snape's presence. Considering that Harry set the password to 'prior incantato' Snape would probably say it himself.
It was good that this prank wasn't within Harry's normal style, it would make it easier to frame Malfoy. A quick timed charm and one tricky event triggered charm later Harry had cast a spell that was designed to wipe the previous spells' residue out of your wand, thereby making it impossible to prove what spells you cast. Harry intentionally miscast it though. That should be fun. He thought with a smirk.
"What was that about?" Hermione asked as he sat down between her and Tonks, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Oh, the village is throwing a party and wants me to be there." Harry shrugged. "I would like both of you to come with me if your parents agree."
"Party, for what?" Tonks asked as the sorting proceeded, ignored by the three of them.
"Rebuilding the town." Harry smiled. "I imagine they had a bit left over from the corpse."
"Lovegood, Luna" McGonagall's voice cut through their conversation and all three turned to regard the girl.
Luna looked around as she walked forward and caught Harry's eye. She smiled at him serenely as she sat down and put the hat on her head. She only sat there for a few moments before the hat placed her in Ravenclaw. Harry grinned at her as she took the hat off and when he was sure she was looking at him he nodded pointedly to the empty seat across from him. Harry noticed the girls stiffen slightly while they applauded Luna politely.
"Hello again Harry." Luna smiled as she sat down.
"Hey Luna." Harry returned the smile the subtly jabbed Hermione and Tonks in the ribs with his elbows.
"Um, look Luna." Hermione hesitated. "We may have over reacted on the train. We're sorry."
"It's okay. People misunderstand me all the time." Luna waved it off.
"Just try to ask people before you smell them?" Tonks asked hopefully. "It is a bit too personal for first impressions."
"But Daddy said that if I wanted to make friends I had to be personal immediately." Luna tilted her head to the side.
"Erm," Hermione ventured. "Are you sure he didn't say 'personable'?"
"Maybe, what is the difference?" Luna turned her large eyes on Hermione.
"Personal is, well, the details that make each person unique I guess. Generally personal issues are kept between friends and family." Hermione explained. "Personable is when you're good at interacting with people, you know, friendly, warm, inviting, easy to talk to."
"Oh, well that does make more sense." Luna nodded sagely. "How do I do that?"
"Practice." Harry replied flatly. "A lot of practice."
"Will you help?" Luna asked wide-eyed.
"We'd love to." Harry said before either of the girls could respond. "Right girls?"
"Um, right." Hermione agreed. "What are friends for, right?"
"Just don't sniff me." Tonks added, Hermione nodded.
"Thank you!" Luna bounced in her seat.
"Weasley, Ginevra" McGonagall called out and rolled up her parchment.
Ginny sat with the hat on her head for more time than any other student this year. Finally the hat came to a decision. "RAVENCLAW!"
As Ginny hurried over to the table, whispering could be heard amongst the clapping. No one was expecting her to not join Gryffindor and her brothers. Harry watched, stunned, as she found a spot with the other first year Ravenclaws. Once she sat down she looked down the table and looked at Harry before blushing and turning away quickly.
Great! Harry thought. She followed me. I wonder how Slytherin she is. Harry sighed. I'll have to sweep her things for the diary again.
"Welcome back to Hogwart's." Dumbledore said while McGonagall took the hat and stool away. With a resigned sigh he started the feast. "Time to eat."
Luna's conversation with Harry and the girls carried on through the meal. They transitioned from etiquette to study habits to the classes themselves and were just starting to give advice about individual professors when a voice came from behind Harry, making him cringe involuntarily. "Harry my boy, how nice to see you!"
Harry turned in his seat to see Lockhart standing a few feet away grinning that horrid grin of his. Harry noticed immediately that Lockhart was holding his hand out to be shaken and was standing too far away for this to happen without Harry standing up first. Harry groaned quietly and stood up, shaking Lockhart's hand. "Professor Lockhart."
"Professor Flitwick tells me that you're already being invited to public events." Lockhart kept his grip on Harry's hand and looked him straight in the eye. "If you ever need help dealing with the public, feel free to ask." Lockhart laughed arrogantly. "I have a little experience in that arena, if you know what I mean."
"Err.." Harry wrenched his hand out of Lockhart's grip. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind."
"Make sure that you do, Harry." Lockhart smiled again.
"Right," Harry shrugged. "Excuse me but I don't think the meal is going-"
Harry got cut off by a loud clattering noise from the head table. Harry's potion had gone off. For the entire meal the potion that he applied to Dumbledore's flatware was now all over his hands, and similarly the potion on the floor was now all over the soles of his shoes. Almost undetectable in its original form the potion turned into an incredibly slick substance. The noise was caused by the mess made while Dumbledore attempted to keep hold of his goblet. A few seconds after the commotion started, and with all eyes now firmly planted on Dumbledore, large red letters appeared above him:
'FUMBLEDORE . . .'
If Dumbledore had looked up and noticed this message he would have suspected that this was only the beginning. As it was he reacted before he could be warned and drew his wand to try and free himself of the potion. The Elder Wand wasn't likely to fall victim to a lowly prank like this and Dumbledore was able to keep his grasp on it.
With a quick wave of his wand Dumbledore dealt with the potion and a smile lit his face. Chuckling slightly he started to stand up. The potion on his feet was not nullified and Dumbledore immediately started falling. He windmilled his arms wildly, knocking over a pitcher of pumpkin juice in the process, before stepping on the hem of his robe and falling across McGonagall and coming to rest with his face in a bowl of mashed potatoes.
"STUMBLES MORE!" Gold letters appeared under the red ones as the student body's laughter reached cacophonous levels. As Dumbledore cleaned himself up the third and final line of text appeared above him. "Love, DM"
At the Gryffindor table one second year stopped laughing. Draco got more nervous as one by one each Professor was reading the message and drawing the obvious conclusion. Once the head table had been checked for any further contamination by potion Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall all stood and looked at Draco pointedly.
Draco just watched as they approached, too panicked to even run. The laughter died down as the whole mass of students found solidarity in their desire to hear what was coming. When the professors were only a few feet away Draco's brain finally managed to send a signal. "I didn't do that."
"I'm sure, Mr. Malfoy." McGonagall said skeptically.
"No really." Draco stammered. "Why would I sign it?"
"For the attention." Snape sneered. "Obviously."
"I swear I didn't." Draco plead.
"There is a simple spell that I'm sure we can use to know for sure." Dumbledore said sadly. "It shows all of the most recent spells cast with a wand. Draco, do you mind if we check your wand for the charms that would be needed for those words?"
"Of course sir." Draco said relieved as he drew his wand. "It has been with me all day."
"Prior Incantato!" Dumbledore incanted touching the tip of his wand to Draco's. As the last syllable was completed there was a loud crack and a column of pink smoke surrounded Snape. It cleared after a moment to reveal Professor Snape with a head full of daffodils instead of hair. Snape's anger grew at the same rate as the mirth of the rest of the school.
Everyone who could see turned back to the wands just as the first spell was appearing. Draco frowned in confusion at seeing the miscast spell, and by the time they had progressed back to the first spell Harry had cast during his prep, Draco was certain that his time in Hogwart's was over. Dumbledore didn't allow any emotion to show through as he addressed the boy. "My office after I dismiss the rest."
"Yes, sir." Draco nodded meekly.
Across the hall Harry was silently gloating to himself. "Well, it was nice talking to you Professor, but I want to get some dessert before it is time to go to bed."
"What?" Lockhart asked absentmindedly, still shocked. "Oh, yes of course. I'll see you in class Harry."
Harry sat back down while Lockhart walked away. The end of the meal came rapidly and quietly, then Dumbledore gave his speech with less enthusiasm than normal. Finally the headmaster dismissed all of the students back to the respective dorms and motioned for Draco to go with him.
"You two go ahead." Harry said motioning Hermione and Tonks on. "I want to go talk to Draco once he's done with Dumbledore."
"Okay, we'll see you in a few minutes." Tonks smiled. "Congratulate him on a job well done for me won't you?"
"And scold him for me for how many rules that broke and how much it could have hurt Professor Dumbledore." Hermione crossed her arms. "The headmaster is over one hundred years old. If he had fallen somewhere other than on Professor McGonagall, he could have really been hurt."
"I'll tell him. Don't worry." Harry reassured with a smile and a wave before turning away from the group of Ravenclaws.
Fifteen minutes later the gargoyle in front of the headmaster's office moved out of the way and Draco trudged out. He wearily looked at Harry. "What do you want Potter?"
"Just wanted to come offer my condolences. How bad was it?" Harry said, quietly falling into step with Draco as they made their way towards Gryffindor tower.
"One hundred and fifty points from Gryffindor and a weeks detention with Filch." Draco groaned burying his face in his hands.
"I didn't even do it. I was set up!" Draco sighed after a few minutes of silent walking, they were very close to the Fat Lady now.
"I know you were." Harry nodded.
"How do you know that?" Draco scoffed. "What reason could you have to believe me that no one else does?"
"Oh." Harry laughed and turned to face him. "I'm the one who set you up."
"WHAT!" Draco shouted. "Why would you do that to me?"
"For you Draco," Harry explained matter-of-fact-ly. "And you're welcome."
"I'm welcome?" Draco gasped. "You didn't do anything to deserve thanks!"
"Didn't I?" Harry smirked.
"No!" Draco jabbed Harry in the chest with one finger. "I'm going to go back to Dumbledore and turn you in!"
"Draco, Draco, Draco." Harry put a hand on Draco's shoulder and shook his head. "Why would they ever believe that? Besides I can almost guarantee that you won't want to turn me in in the morning."
"Why would I possibly want that?" Draco raised an eyebrow.
"Just go to your tower and see for yourself." Harry gave him a gentle shove in the right direction.
"And if I still want to turn you in in the morning?" Draco asked cautiously.
"Then I'll admit to everything." Harry replied confidently.
"Okay, I'll follow your lead." Draco muttered before quickly adding "This one time!"
"You won't regret it." Harry said as he turned and stalked off. Harry secretly followed Draco the rest of the way to the common room and couldn't help but smile when he heard the deafening applause roll out from inside as soon as Draco gave the Fat Lady the password. Harry made his way back to Ravenclaw tower thinking about the promising progress he was making in Project Draco.
HPCOC
Oh Tom,
Today, when Harry looked into my eyes, I could feel a connection form. I know he could feel it too. I just know all my plans for Harry will work out.
AN:
I am still having trouble deciding who exactly got pranked. Was Dumbledore the target, or was he just the set up to target Draco? Are there more options? Could the scene have been written better? Probably, I was having trouble with this chapter.