The first week of November was almost over and the Fifth of November was here, and with it came the first prank of the year. Hagrid was sitting at the staff table when suddenly his hair and beard started flashing a bunch of different colours and the song "What is Love" by Haddaway started to play loudly. This elicited a laugh from the students, which triggered the second part of the prank. Conjured Garden Gnomes started running out of Hagrid's beard and diving into Dumbledore's beard or running for freedom. As the Gnomes ran past the students, over the tables, they could see that the Gnomes were dressed up as the Professor's. Once there were Gnomes all around the Great Hall, they started detonating into fireworks that, if they hit you, caused all sorts of effects, from changing your hair colour to transfiguring your clothes into that of the Professors, to applying a glamour that made you look like a Gnome.

All in all this went off flawlessly, and caused a lot of amusement, Harry could see Elias almost fall off his chair from laughter and Dudley wasn't far behind. Looking across the room he could see the twins had already fallen over. When Professor McGonagall shouted to settle down, only to discover her voice was abnormally high pitched, which only set everyone off more; the last element of the prank had fallen into place and they would last for twenty four hours.

/ *** **-** *** /

By the time the fifteenth of November had arrived the twins were getting sick of being outdone by their younger brother and his friends, especially after their teamwork ten days ago, and so began the prank war of 1993.

So far they had cursed the group with twin speak, requiring at least two people to complete a single sentence, which was met with the twins being cursed with not being able to understand each other. This was escalated by the group sending out a bunch of letters to the girls in the twins' year and above, in the twins' name, to arrange dates all for the same time, which caused a lot of headache for the twins. In turn the twins caused the group to suffer a charm that made them late everywhere.

This had gone on for ten days so far and they had been met beat for beat in this war, and so it called for a new tactic. As the twins went to pull off the day's prank, they were heading to the Great Hall, they activated a charm placed on the stairs by the Gryffindor common room. This charm caused the stairs to always take the twins as far away from their goal as possible. This resulted in the stairs angling upwards to take them away from the Great Hall.

The twin didn't know they had been pranked yet, but when they found out, they would be outraged. Heading to a secret passageway leading to the fourth floor, they took an alternative route to the Great Hall.

/ *** **-** *** /

As the month of November drew to a close, the duelling lessons had finally started becoming more than the basics. After the disaster of last year's attempt they had elected to take a slower approach, too slow in the minds of the students. They were partnered up for a practice duel, with only two pairs of students duelling at one time, and the pair on the arena at the moment were Blaise and Harry versus Hermione and Draco.

The first round went on for quite a while, after all, three out of four participants had been training in the Vipers' Arena fairly regularly, while the fourth hadn't seen it at all yet. It had been close, with Blaise and Hermione already stunned, leaving Draco and Harry, the latter ending it with a Summoning Charm on Draco's shoes and a Stunner.

Now that everyone was back up for the second round, Draco and Hermione duelled a bit more aggressively and in sync. Hermione cast Avis Appugno and sent fifteen birds at Harry, who tried to banish them, at the same time Blaise cast a Stunner at Draco, which was blocked. Hermione and Draco sent a Stunner each at Harry, he dodged the first one, but the one sent by Draco hit him, knocking him unconscious. It wasn't long after that until Blaise fell as well.

When everyone was revived for round three, they wasted no time getting into the duel. Harry had cast Carpe Retractum to grab Draco's ankle, while Blaise had attempted to disarm him, which caused Draco's ankle to snap audibly and made everyone wince. Hermione cast Levicorpus at Harry, but just before it could hit him, Blaise jumped in front of it and took it for him, giving Harry an opening to stun Hermione.

Once the duel was over the duelists were allowed off the arena, Draco having to be levitated by Hermione, who was excused from the lesson to take Draco to the Hospital Wing.

The students that were left were then asked questions about what was done wrong and what was done right and also how they could incorporate what they had seen into their future duels. After this another group of students went up to duel and the process was repeated.

/ *** **-** *** /

Harry was incredibly happy to have Elias back in his life, honestly he was; however, his studious nature meant that he was in the Library almost as much as Hermione, and more than Harry, which meant that Harry couldn't get the chance to spend time with her alone there. When not in lessons, Elias had spent pretty much all of his time with one member of the group or another. Harry understood why of course, finding himself rarely being alone these days, but having a little brother around made a few things awkward.

When Elias had left to grab another book Harry and Hermione took their chance and left the Library to find an abandoned classroom to practice the Patronus in. These sessions were incredibly intimate and to have anyone else around would take away from the experience. This was what they tried to explain to an upset Elias, who had followed them from the Library.

"I still don't get why you ran away from me. Are you sick of me?" He sounded like he would cry, glancing at the door as if preparing to bolt.

"No Elias, it's hard to explain, but these Patronus lessons require Hermione to talk about deeply private things, and while I've known you for years, Hermione has only known you a few weeks," Harry tried to explain, but he was still upset. Deciding he was getting nowhere with this route Harry decided to summon his Patronus, which trotted over to Elias and nudged its head against his hand. This finally made the boy smile as he stroked the doe behind its ear. He was simply entranced by the magical construct and didn't do anything but stroke the Patronus for nearly three minutes, Harry knew he loved animals and this Patronus was so strong and detailed that you could feel each individual hair on its body.

"Is it difficult to keep it around this long?" Elias questioned as soon as his attention broke from the doe.

"Honestly, the first time I cast it successfully it made me pass out. That was two years ago and my primary focus at that point in my life."

"You're teaching me as well. Maybe not right now, but when you and Hermione are done with your lessons, then I'm next," Elias demanded and Harry chuckled fondly.

"Sure thing, mate."

Knowing he wasn't going to be ignored or avoided in the future, and having gotten his promise, Elias left and returned to the Library. So Harry and Hermione got to practicing the Patronus and had a very enjoyable time.

/ *** **-** *** /

December had arrived and Dudley was very excited to open his latest letter from Nora. They had been getting closer with each letter, the last one even having a picture of Nora's latest hairstyle and so he sent a picture of his, admittedly very messy, hair. He had avoided getting it cut since before his petrification last year and as a result he had been forced to tie it back, at the instruction of fellow third year Slytherin Daphne Greengrass one night.

"Dursley, do you plan to get a haircut soon? Only your hair is a bit of a mess and it just makes sense to neaten it up a bit. Let me help you, I'll shave the back and sides and neaten the rest so you can tie it back." She had cornered him one night and, at his confused look elaborated. "I like cutting hair, it's not something I see myself doing as a career, but I enjoy the simplicity of hairdressing."

"Sure… I guess. It's getting a bit out of hand lately." Dudley answered after a minute of thought.

"Brilliant, you can always use a glamour if you don't like it." With that the two ventured towards a quiet corner of the common room.

This was two weeks ago and ever since then he had noticed people looking at him, and even complimenting him. While Dudley appreciated the attention, he wasn't used to it, he already had one person who he really liked.

Once he had reached the grounds and set up his usual warming charms, and a strong waterproofing charm, he sat down in the snow and opened the letter.

Dear Dudley,

You look so different from when we met two years ago, you've lost a lot of weight since then, and you look very handsome with your hair like that. It's very easy to lose track of the passage of time when you can't go outside very often.

On a different note, Blaise has finally started returning to the boy I once knew, though he's still distant. He's mentioned you and Harry in his letters saying he's shocked to be accepted so easily. Thank you Dudley, from the bottom of my heart and as sincerely as I can possibly say it, Thank you.

I'll be sending another owl in a week or so, but this one won't contain a letter, or maybe it will I haven't decided, it's just a little Christmas gift.

I will talk to you soon Dudley.

Love

Nora xxxx

Dudley couldn't contain his grin, not that he tried, he felt closer to Nora than he did with any of his friends, the only exception being his cousin. The spot he was sitting in had to be his lucky spot, because if he hadn't sat here two years ago, he wouldn't have met Nora.

He immediately began to pen his reply telling Nora about everything that happened recently, including his progress with becoming an Animagus. It felt wonderful to have someone he could talk to about anything and everything.

/ *** **-** *** /