Extra – Halloween spider
If Jordan learnt one thing in his NEWT year, it was that pranking Grindelwald was a real challenge. Him being a seer would have made it tricky in itself, but the professor also proved creative in his evasion of traps, and not once he 'accidentally' passed the enchanted-to-bite glass on to Snape (forcing the Weasley twins to openly rush to the teachers' table to prevent the oncoming catastrophe) or invited them to 'help carry all those parchment scrolls' after they'd charmed their homeworks to sting anybody who touched them. Once their trio had convinced the statues to wave their hands at random people passing them on the way to the History classroom, and all three of them got the one-finger salute after class. When they swapped the date numbers on the maps showing various conquests and armies marching left and right, their professor asked them to put those in chronological order – which took up most of the entire afternoon, with the miniature soldiers moving constantly to new and usually not age-accurate positions.
Lee's parents had, of course, reprimanded him several times in their letters and ordered him to quit before the feared dark wizard's patience would run out. He wrote back that he'd been sorted into Gryffindor for a reason, and besides, Wohl looked so disappointed when they paused their attempts for an entire week. He wasn't sure, but guessed that the teacher was reminded of the time when he had been alone. Jordan had an idea what a boring detention felt like, and 48 years of that wasn't what he'd have wished on anyone. He also knew for a fact that the twins shared this sympathy - that's what had prompted the idea of the Nurmengard visit. And didn't that one go fabulously? Except for Harry getting stuck in the fortress several months into the school year (which was Dumbledore's idea, anyway?)
"How about targeting somebody else and letting him be caught 'accidentally'?" Fred prompted.
"We could encircle the entire table in the slimy version of our swamp," George mused.
"Considering how he turned the prototype into a miniature version of the Triwarton Battlefield, I'm not sure he wouldn't turn that into Diverdeen with the torching arrows being shot at us."
"Nah, we already had the Siege of Diverdeen, I doubt he'd repeat himself."
Lee nodded in agreement. The image of the island surrounded by a lake of horrid potions was still vivid in their minds.
"How about we make full replica? A portable Diverdeen?"
"Well, it's on the list of the winter assignment options."
"He never said we have to WRITE our assignments, did he?"
And so it happened that the three boys had agreed on their homework (due after the Christmas break) sooner than they'd have come up with a viable way to prank the one who had assigned it.
But life didn't stop and soon it was Halloween's morning, mere hours before the evening feast, and all they had were a fistful of spiders. The twins' youngest brother had been fidgety ever since the many-legged beasts had started migrating into the castle, and even Hagrid could only tell that something in the forest was hunting them. Gossip had it, it was a basilisk, left behind by Salazar Slytherin himself.
Lee took the seat closest to the teachers' table, the twins close behind him. They had already dropped a pocketful of the spiders near the Slytherin table, but the animals had hurried away from anything resembling a snake in panic. One of the newest batch, one whom Lee supposed to be a very young female acromantula, had however made herself at home in one of the empty glasses here.
People stared to seep in. Some of them screamed a little, others sprang up from their seats after realizing they had unexpected company, the older of the Creewey brother was snapping photographs and documenting the early Halloween chaos for the next generations. Lee wondered how he would react if he ever found a picture of his parents running at the sight of a fist-sized arthropode. 'Priceless' was the first word that came to his mind.
As it was usual, Wohl arrived early and freshly bathed. With his trademark nonchalance he grabbed the glass with the baby acromantula in it, and placed it in the middle of the table, by Headmaster Dumbledore's seat. Then he claimed the chair right next to his old adversary's.
The other old wizard arrived in short time, in a robe exceedingly eye-scorching even when compared to his usual wear. It was ochre and orange coloured, resembling a pumpkin more than a renowned Supreme Mugwump. As he took seat, however, the robe faded to an almost dull blueish grey, but at the same time, the pumpkin colour reappeared on Grindelwald's (until now) soft brown suit. The other wizard frowned with his two-coloured eyes, and made a swiping motion with his wand hand, transferring the intense orange shade to the tablecloth.
The three boys watched in open awe. Swipe-able miscolouration had a lot of potential uses, and the two old men giggled at each other's anthics like they hadn't been sworn enemies for the most of this century.
Dumbledore caringly removed the acromantula from his glass and placed it on the pumpkin-ochre tablewear. She looked up at him, clearly insulted, then marched to another glass – only to be forced to give up its comfort in a few minutes, when Umbridge dropped said glass and it shattered to a million pieces. The shards were quickly vanished, and the acromantula found herself being glared at by the most hated teacher of the school.
She tried to take cover as Umbridge grabbed her knife in her fist, ready to stab the intruder. However, when the knife's peak reached the arthropode, there was a bright flash, and instead of a dead spider, there remained one alive and several inches larger. Umbridge's knife hit the tiny beast again, but with the same success. Two more attempts at her life later, the beast was the size of a juice jar and still unharmed, only, clearly agitated.
The headmaster whispered something to the History teacher, who nodded and pushed his chair back as if to get out of Dumbledore's line of fire. When the least popular teacher had attempted to smash the acromantula with the plate, both turned the tablecloth's pumpkin shade of orange – the spider and the plate alike. Then the colour started to spread up Umbridge's cardigan as well.
Grindelwald thought he could make more out of this situation, or maybe he didn't want that rare shade of pink go to waste, and soon the jar-sized, pumpkin coloured acromantula was wearing a patch of pink on her body. Followed by a satisfied grin from the Headmaster, she also had her body hair rearranged into a shape quite resembling her attacker's hairstyle.
"You know, in her place I would also be excessly annoyed."
"Yes. Poor spider."
"Yepp."
Professor McGonagall might have been of the same opinion, because (by the form the orange tablecloth moved, and from his reaction) she tried scoring a warning kick on the Headmaster's ankle.
While the Defence Against Dark Arts teacher was still trying to remove the severely miscoloured and slightly transfigured creature from her side of the table, Professor Flitwick audibly whispered, "May I join in?" and soon the spider not only had a tiny (but exact in every detail) replica of Umbridge's wand in one furry leg, but that fake wand was giving pink and pumpkin-shade small puffs at her every reaction.
By the time the acromantula was not only a ridiculously accurate (but suddenly, much more popular) imitation of Umbridge but also fighting her back with tiny framed decrees, the entire school was in awe. Except for one student.
One student, whose reactions Grindelwald must have been watching for some time now, clearly expecting him to have spoken up and rescued the animal much sooner. But just as he stood up to interfere, the History teacher levitated the spider from the teachers' table to his arm's reach, trusting the boy to retransfigure her into her original shape. There was a disappointed murmur from all five tables, but Wohl just shrugged and Headmaster Dumbledore invited everybody to continue their breakfast.
"Wise words," the other old mischief-maker agreed.
"Remind me to NEVER mess with them!" Fred whispered weakly.
Lee wholeheartedly agreed with him.
.
Next morning the Hogwarts inhabitants woke to a terrified scream. Gryffindors were at an advantage, due to their dormitories being in one of the highest towers, and soon they all were craning their necks towards the lake's direction. There, dressed in nothing but swimming pants and an (obviously, empty) wand holster, an old man was running for his life.
Chasing him, and quickly gaining on its prey, was a blue Ford Anglia.
Colin Creewey took several pictures.