It was late. Too late to see Dumbledore. So Harry took Pettigrew and shoved him in Hedwig's empty cage. He squeaked the whole night long and all the boys wanted to bash in it's skull and as much as Harry wanted to let them, he bit the notion.
He resolved that night as he lay awake listening to the rat's pitiful squeaks that he would give the thing into the hands it really should be in. Krikor's.
And so Harry took Scabbers (stunned and drugged) down the halls of Hogwarts the next day. He had checked the Marauder's Map to find his office.
He had it all planned out. He would say 'Remember how I warned you against rats? Well here you go. This is a rat you'll want to kill and by all means, do it.' Krikor would see the rat, gasp in horror, transform him and free Sirius with him. It would be perfect.
But Harry didn't even think that if that would have happened a father would be in his life.
~* ~* ~* ~*
Harry knocked on Krikor's door. There wasn't an answer. So he knocked again. And again.
Finally, he just walked in and sat down. Krikor would be there soon enough, he was sure of it. He tucked the rat in his pocket (he was still out cold) and began flicking his pointer finger against his thumb, amused when a little flame popped up.
So he just kept doing it. Flicking his finger and looking at the fire.
The door opened and James stepped in. He looked surprised to see Harry.
"Just the person I needed to see!" He said. Harry yawned and then choked when James continued, "Come on in Mr. Malfoy. Is that fire?" He added nervously. Draco promenaded into the room and slumped into a chair.
"Please don't play with that in my office. It causes a certain disturbance in the atmosphere in here." * A disturbance in my disguise more like * Krikor added mentally. The presence of fire melted his disguise off.
Harry said, "I need to talk to you." Krikor looked at him. Harry looked at him intently and made the little fire spring up again.
"Later. Now will you desist with that fire?" James said. "This involves both of you. You see my fourth years are very advanced this year. They are doing well in the unforgivable studies."
Harry and Draco both coughed at the same time. "Keep moving." Draco said. "We don't care about the 4th years."
"Okay, fine, I'll get strait to it." James said, glaring at both of them. "They don't understand that you can duel with out using them."
"I thought you said they were advanced." Harry said. He caught Draco grinning.
"Shut up!" James said. "BOTH of you. Here's what I'm getting at. You two are my best duelers. Will you agree to duel each other."
"No." They chimed, looking at each other fearfully. Neither wanted to lose a limb.
"You'll get points for your house."
"Um." Harry said.
"No." Draco said.
"Draco, you'll get out of History of Magic and Harry you'll get out of Divination."
Draco and Harry looked at each other. Eyebrows raised as they sized each other up.
"Deal." They said flatly.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"You're going to duel MALFOY?" Ron said. "You'll get killed!"
"Will not."
"You'll get really hurt." Hermione said.
"Will not." Harry said. "I beat the bloody teacher dueling. I won't lose."
"If you die, can I have your broom?" Seamus asked, glancing up from his homework.
"No." Ron and Harry snapped.
"What makes you think that you'd get it, eh?" Harry asked.
"Because I'm your best friend."
"Uh huh." Harry said. "And that makes you entitled to my stuff?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact it does." Ron said. Everybody laughed. Harry shook his head and put his arm around Lavender.
"Just be careful, okay?" Lavender said.
"Yeah." Harry said. "I will."
"And Harry?" Dean asked, looking over at them from his homework. "Kill him too, while you're at it."
~* ~* ~* ~*
McGonagall pulled him aside during breakfast.
"Harry." She said. "I heard you're dueling Draco Malfoy."
"I am." Harry said.
"I'll give you extra credit if you use transfiguration to try and knock him out."
"Sure." Harry said. "But how?"
"I don't care. Turn a piece of lint into a stone and throw it at him." She said. "I'm taking my class there to watch the technique. I want you to transfigure something."
"Okay, I'll do it." Harry said. "But only for the extra credit."
He was leaving the hall when Trelawney caught up with him.
"You're missing my class today." She said.
"I am."
"I am taking the class to watch you lose the duel." She said.
"Lose the duel?" Harry said. "That's awfully grand, Professor. What makes you so sure?"
"I just know these things dear." She said and tapped her nose.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"Ready to go down, Potter?" Draco said.
Harry was sitting on the floor, stretching his arms above his head. He had to limber up for things like this. He leaned forward now to stretch his back.
"I ASKED you a question!" Draco said loudly.
"I'm aware." Harry said. "But I've decided I don't care."
Draco glared at him and began stretching too.
Voices filled the room suddenly.
"You see, they are stretching so they can move quickly." James was saying loudly.
Harry looked over from his stretching to see a large class of Ravenclaw fourth years looking at them with curiosity. Several of them were taking notes.
"I can't believe I said yes to this." Harry muttered.
Draco smiled evilly.
McGonagall and her seventh year Gryffindor's walked in and then Professor Trelawney came in with more Gryffindors. And then, much to Harry's surprise, Hermione's class came in as well. Harry heard the teacher say something about Probability.
Lavender ran up to him and hugged him. "Good luck." She whispered and with a final squeeze, ran back to her class. Ron smiled at him and Hermione winked.
"Boys are you just about ready to begin?" James asked.
They both nodded.
"Shake hands- and bow." James said. They did so and got in starting position. The people watching sat down quietly to watch. "BEGIN!"
"Expelliarmus!" Draco called.
Harry dodged it. "What a dumb opening. I can't believe people claim you're good at this, Malfoy. FORTFISSIO!"
Malfoy was to up in what Harry had said. He was thrown off guard as a paddle came out of nowhere and smacked his backside.
"That hurt, you asshole!" Malfoy said.
Harry grinned, and, making sure McGonagall was watching, he took a piece of lint out of his pocket and transformed it into a tennis ball sized rock and threw it at Malfoy, who consequently dodged out of the way.
"Hey, Potter, did you ever sing when you were younger?" He said.
"No."
"You will now." Malfoy said. "CORUCCUIA!"
Harry didn't know what this would do until he heard himself break out into a song. Harry didn't know how to throw it off either. So he just sat there as Malfoy laughed, singing his heart out to Elton John.
"My gift is my song! And this one's for you. And you can tell everybody, that this is your song."
Hermione winced. Harry had a nice voice and everything, but how embarrassing! Making sure nobody was looking; she pointed her wand at him. He stopped singing and sighed.
"You will pay for that one. Mark my words." Harry said. "That was just rude. SERPENSORTIA!"
Harry grinned as the serpent appeared. 'Go scare him' Harry told it.
Malfoy remained calm for a while, just running away from the snake when it advanced. But he let out the worst, high-pitched scream as the black snake began wrapping itself around his leg.
Harry laughed and made it disappear. "Fun fun, eh Malfoy?" He said.
Malfoy, slightly shaking, glared at him. "That was your payback for singing?"
"No."
"Oh…" Malfoy said. He thought of a curse. Harry was quicker.
"STUPEFY!"
Malfoy swung on his feet and toppled onto the ground. Cheers ran through Harry's ears and he bowed.
'Trelawney was wrong.' He thought and he left the room.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"That was excellent today." Lavender said, leaning on Harry's shoulder in the common room. "Really excellent."
"Not really." Harry said. "It was embarrassing."
"But you won!" Lavender said.
"So? Malfoy- that git- he made me SING!"
"That's not that bad."
"Yes it is." Harry said. "I don't think I've ever wanted the floor to swallow me up more than at that very moment."
"But you've got a good voice, Harry." Lavender said. "Unlike most boys our age."
"Whatever." Harry said. "He's going to pay anyways."
"What?"
"Revenge." Harry said. "He's gonna get it from me."
"But remember what the Chinese say!" Lavender said. " 'Revenge is best served cold.' Meaning that you should wait for a while and then hit him with it when he's not expecting it."
"Well, it's a good theory." Harry said. "But I think tonight will be perfect."
About 15 people had been eavesdropping, Hermione and Ron included. All of them exclaimed "TONIGHT?"
Harry jumped slightly. "Why of course tonight. I've got it all planned out."
~* ~* ~* ~*
"You're going to let me help you, right?" Ron said.
Harry shook his head, no. "Sorry, but this is a solo act."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite."
"But Harry, you were going to tell Dumbledore about Pettigrew tonight!" Hermione exclaimed, walking into the dorm room before dinner that night.
"The prank won't take all night." Harry said. "Just about 5 minutes. During dinner."
"Only five minutes?" Ron said. "What kind of prank only takes five minutes? It's not going to be good is it?"
"It'll be good. Nobody will forget it."
"We need to go to dinner." Hermione said. "Let's go boys."
"I'll be down in a second. Save me a seat." Harry said.
"Okay." Ron said. He and Hermione took off down the hall. Harry slipped on his invisibility cloak and silently made his way down the hall.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"There's Granger and Weasley." Pansy said. "Potter should be by soon. But I still don't understand why you want to see him so bad."
"I just wanted to compliment him on his lovely singing voice!" Malfoy said. Everybody who heard him started laughing. They all knew Malfoy had lost the duel, but nobody cared because Harry Potter had sung an Elton John song.
Pansy snickered. "You're so funny." She said and scooted closer to him. "What else would you say to Potter?"
Nobody noticed, of course, when Harry slipped into the room and stood behind Malfoy.
"Oh I don't think I'd say anything else to him." Malfoy drawled. "I think I'd just give him a nice swift kick in the-"
But suddenly his face froze and he couldn't seem to make out his last words.
"Very cute Draco." Pansy said. "Finish your sentence now."
His eyes bulged. He couldn't move. Something was wrong. He couldn't control his body.
And then his hands rose, as if he was going to shout at somebody across the room.
The Slytherins watched in amused horror as Draco started to sing. Well, it wasn't exactly singing, more like- lip-syncing to an old Muggle song.
"Day-o! Me say day-o!"
Pansy looked at her boyfriend. "Ha, ha Draco."
"Day-o, me say day, me say day, me say-"
Crabbe and Goyle were now bewitched. "Daylight come and me wanna go home." They added in.
The entire Slytherin table let out one syncopated clap and stood up.
Draco stood on the bench. The entire school was watching now in stunned silence. "Come Mr. Tally man, tally me banana."
The Slytherins called out (or mouthed out) "Daylight come and me wanna go home." Then they smacked their hands together again and took a step in the other direction.
"Daylight come and me wanna go home." Draco echoed. The first of the sniggers broke out through the hall.
The Slytherins began to conga now. "Six foot, seven foot, eight foot BUNCH!"
"Daylight come and me wanna go home!"
"Six foot, seven foot, eight foot BUNCH!"
"Daylight come and me wanna go home!"
The Slytherins slowly sat down.
Draco remained up but his voice was rather quieter when he sang the last thing, "Day-o me say day-o."
The Slytherins sang, "Daylight come and me wanna-"
"Go home." Draco finished. The spell wore off.
The entire hall burst out laughing and Draco looked around.
"POTTER! I'll get YOU!" He raged. But Harry slipped unnoticed out of the Great Hall and up to the dorm rooms where he burst out laughing and collapsed on his bed.
Harry glanced at Hedwig's cage and that's when everything went wrong. The door was open and the rat was gone.
Harry cursed and pulled himself out of bed. Something smelled faintly of smoke.
He walked over to the window to air out the room, but the window was wide open already. And as Harry looked out it he immediately found the source of the scent and he ran as fast as he could into the Dining Hall.
"Professor Dumbledore, the Forbidden Forest is on fire!"
He resolved that night as he lay awake listening to the rat's pitiful squeaks that he would give the thing into the hands it really should be in. Krikor's.
And so Harry took Scabbers (stunned and drugged) down the halls of Hogwarts the next day. He had checked the Marauder's Map to find his office.
He had it all planned out. He would say 'Remember how I warned you against rats? Well here you go. This is a rat you'll want to kill and by all means, do it.' Krikor would see the rat, gasp in horror, transform him and free Sirius with him. It would be perfect.
But Harry didn't even think that if that would have happened a father would be in his life.
~* ~* ~* ~*
Harry knocked on Krikor's door. There wasn't an answer. So he knocked again. And again.
Finally, he just walked in and sat down. Krikor would be there soon enough, he was sure of it. He tucked the rat in his pocket (he was still out cold) and began flicking his pointer finger against his thumb, amused when a little flame popped up.
So he just kept doing it. Flicking his finger and looking at the fire.
The door opened and James stepped in. He looked surprised to see Harry.
"Just the person I needed to see!" He said. Harry yawned and then choked when James continued, "Come on in Mr. Malfoy. Is that fire?" He added nervously. Draco promenaded into the room and slumped into a chair.
"Please don't play with that in my office. It causes a certain disturbance in the atmosphere in here." * A disturbance in my disguise more like * Krikor added mentally. The presence of fire melted his disguise off.
Harry said, "I need to talk to you." Krikor looked at him. Harry looked at him intently and made the little fire spring up again.
"Later. Now will you desist with that fire?" James said. "This involves both of you. You see my fourth years are very advanced this year. They are doing well in the unforgivable studies."
Harry and Draco both coughed at the same time. "Keep moving." Draco said. "We don't care about the 4th years."
"Okay, fine, I'll get strait to it." James said, glaring at both of them. "They don't understand that you can duel with out using them."
"I thought you said they were advanced." Harry said. He caught Draco grinning.
"Shut up!" James said. "BOTH of you. Here's what I'm getting at. You two are my best duelers. Will you agree to duel each other."
"No." They chimed, looking at each other fearfully. Neither wanted to lose a limb.
"You'll get points for your house."
"Um." Harry said.
"No." Draco said.
"Draco, you'll get out of History of Magic and Harry you'll get out of Divination."
Draco and Harry looked at each other. Eyebrows raised as they sized each other up.
"Deal." They said flatly.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"You're going to duel MALFOY?" Ron said. "You'll get killed!"
"Will not."
"You'll get really hurt." Hermione said.
"Will not." Harry said. "I beat the bloody teacher dueling. I won't lose."
"If you die, can I have your broom?" Seamus asked, glancing up from his homework.
"No." Ron and Harry snapped.
"What makes you think that you'd get it, eh?" Harry asked.
"Because I'm your best friend."
"Uh huh." Harry said. "And that makes you entitled to my stuff?"
"Yes, as a matter of fact it does." Ron said. Everybody laughed. Harry shook his head and put his arm around Lavender.
"Just be careful, okay?" Lavender said.
"Yeah." Harry said. "I will."
"And Harry?" Dean asked, looking over at them from his homework. "Kill him too, while you're at it."
~* ~* ~* ~*
McGonagall pulled him aside during breakfast.
"Harry." She said. "I heard you're dueling Draco Malfoy."
"I am." Harry said.
"I'll give you extra credit if you use transfiguration to try and knock him out."
"Sure." Harry said. "But how?"
"I don't care. Turn a piece of lint into a stone and throw it at him." She said. "I'm taking my class there to watch the technique. I want you to transfigure something."
"Okay, I'll do it." Harry said. "But only for the extra credit."
He was leaving the hall when Trelawney caught up with him.
"You're missing my class today." She said.
"I am."
"I am taking the class to watch you lose the duel." She said.
"Lose the duel?" Harry said. "That's awfully grand, Professor. What makes you so sure?"
"I just know these things dear." She said and tapped her nose.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"Ready to go down, Potter?" Draco said.
Harry was sitting on the floor, stretching his arms above his head. He had to limber up for things like this. He leaned forward now to stretch his back.
"I ASKED you a question!" Draco said loudly.
"I'm aware." Harry said. "But I've decided I don't care."
Draco glared at him and began stretching too.
Voices filled the room suddenly.
"You see, they are stretching so they can move quickly." James was saying loudly.
Harry looked over from his stretching to see a large class of Ravenclaw fourth years looking at them with curiosity. Several of them were taking notes.
"I can't believe I said yes to this." Harry muttered.
Draco smiled evilly.
McGonagall and her seventh year Gryffindor's walked in and then Professor Trelawney came in with more Gryffindors. And then, much to Harry's surprise, Hermione's class came in as well. Harry heard the teacher say something about Probability.
Lavender ran up to him and hugged him. "Good luck." She whispered and with a final squeeze, ran back to her class. Ron smiled at him and Hermione winked.
"Boys are you just about ready to begin?" James asked.
They both nodded.
"Shake hands- and bow." James said. They did so and got in starting position. The people watching sat down quietly to watch. "BEGIN!"
"Expelliarmus!" Draco called.
Harry dodged it. "What a dumb opening. I can't believe people claim you're good at this, Malfoy. FORTFISSIO!"
Malfoy was to up in what Harry had said. He was thrown off guard as a paddle came out of nowhere and smacked his backside.
"That hurt, you asshole!" Malfoy said.
Harry grinned, and, making sure McGonagall was watching, he took a piece of lint out of his pocket and transformed it into a tennis ball sized rock and threw it at Malfoy, who consequently dodged out of the way.
"Hey, Potter, did you ever sing when you were younger?" He said.
"No."
"You will now." Malfoy said. "CORUCCUIA!"
Harry didn't know what this would do until he heard himself break out into a song. Harry didn't know how to throw it off either. So he just sat there as Malfoy laughed, singing his heart out to Elton John.
"My gift is my song! And this one's for you. And you can tell everybody, that this is your song."
Hermione winced. Harry had a nice voice and everything, but how embarrassing! Making sure nobody was looking; she pointed her wand at him. He stopped singing and sighed.
"You will pay for that one. Mark my words." Harry said. "That was just rude. SERPENSORTIA!"
Harry grinned as the serpent appeared. 'Go scare him' Harry told it.
Malfoy remained calm for a while, just running away from the snake when it advanced. But he let out the worst, high-pitched scream as the black snake began wrapping itself around his leg.
Harry laughed and made it disappear. "Fun fun, eh Malfoy?" He said.
Malfoy, slightly shaking, glared at him. "That was your payback for singing?"
"No."
"Oh…" Malfoy said. He thought of a curse. Harry was quicker.
"STUPEFY!"
Malfoy swung on his feet and toppled onto the ground. Cheers ran through Harry's ears and he bowed.
'Trelawney was wrong.' He thought and he left the room.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"That was excellent today." Lavender said, leaning on Harry's shoulder in the common room. "Really excellent."
"Not really." Harry said. "It was embarrassing."
"But you won!" Lavender said.
"So? Malfoy- that git- he made me SING!"
"That's not that bad."
"Yes it is." Harry said. "I don't think I've ever wanted the floor to swallow me up more than at that very moment."
"But you've got a good voice, Harry." Lavender said. "Unlike most boys our age."
"Whatever." Harry said. "He's going to pay anyways."
"What?"
"Revenge." Harry said. "He's gonna get it from me."
"But remember what the Chinese say!" Lavender said. " 'Revenge is best served cold.' Meaning that you should wait for a while and then hit him with it when he's not expecting it."
"Well, it's a good theory." Harry said. "But I think tonight will be perfect."
About 15 people had been eavesdropping, Hermione and Ron included. All of them exclaimed "TONIGHT?"
Harry jumped slightly. "Why of course tonight. I've got it all planned out."
~* ~* ~* ~*
"You're going to let me help you, right?" Ron said.
Harry shook his head, no. "Sorry, but this is a solo act."
"Are you sure?"
"Quite."
"But Harry, you were going to tell Dumbledore about Pettigrew tonight!" Hermione exclaimed, walking into the dorm room before dinner that night.
"The prank won't take all night." Harry said. "Just about 5 minutes. During dinner."
"Only five minutes?" Ron said. "What kind of prank only takes five minutes? It's not going to be good is it?"
"It'll be good. Nobody will forget it."
"We need to go to dinner." Hermione said. "Let's go boys."
"I'll be down in a second. Save me a seat." Harry said.
"Okay." Ron said. He and Hermione took off down the hall. Harry slipped on his invisibility cloak and silently made his way down the hall.
~* ~* ~* ~*
"There's Granger and Weasley." Pansy said. "Potter should be by soon. But I still don't understand why you want to see him so bad."
"I just wanted to compliment him on his lovely singing voice!" Malfoy said. Everybody who heard him started laughing. They all knew Malfoy had lost the duel, but nobody cared because Harry Potter had sung an Elton John song.
Pansy snickered. "You're so funny." She said and scooted closer to him. "What else would you say to Potter?"
Nobody noticed, of course, when Harry slipped into the room and stood behind Malfoy.
"Oh I don't think I'd say anything else to him." Malfoy drawled. "I think I'd just give him a nice swift kick in the-"
But suddenly his face froze and he couldn't seem to make out his last words.
"Very cute Draco." Pansy said. "Finish your sentence now."
His eyes bulged. He couldn't move. Something was wrong. He couldn't control his body.
And then his hands rose, as if he was going to shout at somebody across the room.
The Slytherins watched in amused horror as Draco started to sing. Well, it wasn't exactly singing, more like- lip-syncing to an old Muggle song.
"Day-o! Me say day-o!"
Pansy looked at her boyfriend. "Ha, ha Draco."
"Day-o, me say day, me say day, me say-"
Crabbe and Goyle were now bewitched. "Daylight come and me wanna go home." They added in.
The entire Slytherin table let out one syncopated clap and stood up.
Draco stood on the bench. The entire school was watching now in stunned silence. "Come Mr. Tally man, tally me banana."
The Slytherins called out (or mouthed out) "Daylight come and me wanna go home." Then they smacked their hands together again and took a step in the other direction.
"Daylight come and me wanna go home." Draco echoed. The first of the sniggers broke out through the hall.
The Slytherins began to conga now. "Six foot, seven foot, eight foot BUNCH!"
"Daylight come and me wanna go home!"
"Six foot, seven foot, eight foot BUNCH!"
"Daylight come and me wanna go home!"
The Slytherins slowly sat down.
Draco remained up but his voice was rather quieter when he sang the last thing, "Day-o me say day-o."
The Slytherins sang, "Daylight come and me wanna-"
"Go home." Draco finished. The spell wore off.
The entire hall burst out laughing and Draco looked around.
"POTTER! I'll get YOU!" He raged. But Harry slipped unnoticed out of the Great Hall and up to the dorm rooms where he burst out laughing and collapsed on his bed.
Harry glanced at Hedwig's cage and that's when everything went wrong. The door was open and the rat was gone.
Harry cursed and pulled himself out of bed. Something smelled faintly of smoke.
He walked over to the window to air out the room, but the window was wide open already. And as Harry looked out it he immediately found the source of the scent and he ran as fast as he could into the Dining Hall.
"Professor Dumbledore, the Forbidden Forest is on fire!"
