Disclaimer: We do not own Harry Potter, JKR does. We just like to play on her playground. Jade likes the seesaw.

Puck's Children

By Masterharper & Jade

Masterharper: Dun dun dun!!! The first prank!

Jade: Ssshhh! They'll hear you. Anyway, Snape isn't going to get hurt, is he? ::worried::

*pause*

Masterharper: No.

Jade: Good. ::goes to upload chapter::

Masterharper: Not too much anyway.

*

Chapter 3: OPERATION DOOR-JAM

The night enveloped Hogwarts' grounds like a blanket. At three in the morning, even students who had assignments due the next morning had given up and went to bed. All candles were extinguished and there was not a single light in castle, except one.

In the dungeons Professor Snape, who looked more tired and anxious then his norm stormed down the hallways toward his office holding his presently glowing wand with a small owl flying behind him. He had just received a letter sent by owl post informing him of the Dark Lord's, he would always be the Dark Lord to Snape, next move. Snape new he would have to find Dumbledore soon if the Order was to act on the information, but first he would have to reply to the letter's sender. Opening the door to his office he held it open just long enough for the owl to enter and land on the chair at Snape's desk. Not having the time he left the door to close on it's own while he searched his desk drawers for quill and parchment it closed.

As well as making the sound a door usually made there was also the soft thud of something running into wood. Soon afterwards, Snape swore he heard a soft but noticeable, "Ouch!" Immediately Snape's spy honed mind seized on the sound and reached the only realistic conclusion. Someone had bumped into the door. Someone who had been following him. He had been trailed.

Pulling out his wand he held it toward the door while he concentrated on trying to hear anything on the other side; feet shuffling, heavy breathing, anything. Hearing nothing, he approached the door cautiously, as if it might burst open at any moment revealing the Dark Lord coming to eliminate him, which was a totally reasonable possibility at the moment. Slowly he put his hand on the doorknob. Flinging the door open wide he held his wand high ready to be attacked or to attack. Scanning the hallway with his eyes he saw no one. Sticking out his head through the doorway to look to the sides revealed similar results. Still, there was almost no light down here, just the light from his wand, giving the whole area a feeling of danger. Of course, he reasoned, just because he couldn't see the person didn't mean that there was no one there. The stalker could be wearing an invisibility cloak. There could be a whole army out there wearing invisibility cloaks and he would never know. The last thought sent a shiver up Snape's spine. He soon rejected the idea of an army; he was being too paranoid he reasoned. If it was an army he would at least be hearing breathing. However, the possibility remained that it was a group of stalkers, and that didn't help his nerves one bit.

Suddenly he heard a hoot behind him. He swung around and sent at least three curses the way of the sound before remembering the owl. Luckily, in his panic, he had forgot to aim, and the owl flew unharmed on to the top of the cabinet and stared at Snape in fury. Snape forced himself to laugh and inwardly cursed himself for acting like a frightened first year. He decided to finish the letter and closed the door behind him.

When it closed there was another thud, and before Snape heard the "Ouch," he flung open the door and sent a myriad of curses through the doorway. After a minute of constant curses Snape stopped. Breathing heavily he looked around. Nothing was amiss. All he had hit was the walls of the dungeon, which now had scorch marks. Frustrated to the point only Longbottom and Potter had gotten him to before, he slammed the door shut.

This time there was a much louder thud, and a much louder "Ouch!" Staring at the door in fear Snape sat down in his desk chair, wand in hand. He would stay in this position until the door opened or until the sun rose, whichever happened first.

* Patrick and Fay where among the first ones at breakfast. They couldn't help but cast amused glances across the hall at each other as people described the odd behavior of the doors and the inconveniences it had caused. Fortunately no one noticed.

Zack looked half-asleep as he told Patrick his story. Zack had gotten up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, at two he believed. Patrick was relieved that Zack had not noticed that Patrick's bed had been empty at the time. When Zack had closed the door to the boys' bathroom, he had heard a soft thud, and a feminine voice say "Ouch." Fearing a girl had sneaked up to the boys' bathroom he had reopened the door revealing that no one was there. Spending the next two hours opening, closing, and occasionally pretending to close and then jerking the door open, Zack had lost quite a bit of sleep including the time he spent laying in bed feeling uncomfortable about the entire situation. Zack's disappointment that there hadn't been a girl stalking him, he was very handsome in his humble opinion, remained unsaid but was evident in his telling. Patrick only smiled and nodded at his friend's story, silently bursting in laughter on the inside.

At the Slytherin table, Fay heard much the same thing. The difference was that she was not being told the story, but learned it by eavesdropping on Gilda's group, also known as the entire first year Slytherin girls except Fay. They apparently had felt the need to go to the bathroom at the same time, in other words, Gilda had decided to go. They had spent a large chunk of the morning trying to figure out why when the door on the girl's bathroom closed did it say ouch in a husky man's voice. Fay couldn't help but snort when she heard Gilda claiming that it was probably Draco Malfoy bumping into the door while trying to get a better look at her. No one mentioned that in the week since the start of term, Malfoy had yet to call her by her correct name.

All around the Great Hall, students were talking about their encounters with doors all around the school, all doing the same thud-ouch thing. Of course after the tales were finished people started to ask around whom had done the masterful prank. More than one claimed responsibility but was ignored when they couldn't explain how. Only two people knew who had done it and they weren't telling.

A plane flew from the Slytherin table to the Ravenclaw table. It was largely ignored; the students had gotten used to it over the week. Unfolding it, Patrick read: OPERATION DOOR JAM a success. The different sounding ouches were a masterful touch. My compliments on the idea.

Smiling, Patrick picked up his wand and wrote back: Thanks, but it was your idea to bewitch the doors. Let's take the day off. Planning for OPERATION SNOW BOUND begins tomorrow at lunch. Feel free to sleep in.

He quickly sent the plane back over. After running around after midnight last night, it would do them both good to get some extra sleep.

******

Professor McGonagall slammed her classroom door behind her, the frustration and fury radiating off her like light from a candle. It took a significant amount of self-control not to scream when she heard the thud followed by the usual "Ouch." She, along with the rest of the school had been putting up with this all day and it was driving her crazy. During the afternoon class she had nearly bitten the head off a Slytherin first year when the poor girl had closed the door behind her loudly. Peeves had been having a field day of wandering the school and slamming every door he could find, constantly interrupting nearby classes when the door screamed "OUCH!"

A small knock at the door forced McGonagall to calm down. "Yes," she called with a little more anger in her voice than she intended. "Come in."

A small girl with brown hair stuck her head in. It was the same girl she had yelled at this afternoon. "Sorry to disturb you, Professor, but I think I left my textbook in here."

McGonagall waved her in and took a seat at her desk. Looking up she saw the girl enter and begin to close the door like any other day. Realizing what was happening the Professor almost shouted, "And don't close the..." The door closed with a thud and an ouch. "...door.". The girl looked over her shoulder looking terrified that she would get into trouble, again. McGonagall sighed and put a hand up to her face and began massaging her temples. Walking to her desk quickly the girl picked up her textbook and turned to leave the classroom as quickly as possible. The teacher in McGonagall knew she had to apologize to the student and soon or the girl might grow terrified of her.

"Wait. Miss. Gregor, isn't it." The small girl turned, not daring to take her eyes off the floor.

"No Professor. My name is Morgan MacGregor, but my friends call me Fay."

"Well, Miss. MacGregor, I must apologize for how I treated you just now and earlier. It is these doors, you see, they are making me," she paused while mentally grasping for the right word, "irritable." There was an awkward silence; neither was used to teacher to student apologies. "Is your brother Patrick MacGregor." Fay nodded. "Ah, I see. Do you share his skill in Transfiguration?" Fay shrugged, slowly lifting her head to look at the professor. Seeing that Professor McGonagall was not going to accept a shrug she said, "I don't know Professor. I just started you see."

McGonagall nodded sagely. "Of course, of course. I hope so, Miss. MacGregor. Your brother is one of the best students I have had the pleasure of teaching. He is quite possibly the best in his year in Transfiguration and a few other things as well. Other than his homework problem, he is an ideal student, never gets in trouble and is eager to learn." At this a strange look came over Fay MacGregor's face for a brief moment before vanishing. A cross between amusement and something that seemed almost like pity. It reminded the professor of the look in the girl's eyes at the Sorting. The uneasy feeling also came back with the memory. "I wish you luck in your studies, Miss. MacGregor. You may go." McGonagall turned her attention to papers that had to be graded. Fay turned on her heel and marched quickly out of the room.

When she left, the door closed with a large amount of force. The thud and ouch caused McGonagall's anger to flare up again. 'That was the last straw,' she thought and with that she stood up and stormed out into the corridor seeking the Headmaster. In her haste, she did not notice the small brown hair girl in a side hallway cracking up with laughter.

*

"Albus, you have to stop this. These doors are a annoyance that will not go away."

"An annoyance, I thought they were rather funny."

McGonagall's face reddened with frustration. Only the Headmaster would find something like this funny. "This is not like the tricks the Weasley twins pulled, Albus, these are disrupting classes."

"My dear Minerva, the students are learning to ignore these interruptions. Some of them are even laughing about it. But if they annoy you so much, you have my permission to take the charm off every single door."

Her voice dropped into a dangerous growl. "I am unable to take the charm off the doors. I wasted my entire lunch hour trying to get it off my classroom door. I tried every counter spell I knew."

"Really." Dumbledore raised an eyebrow in surprise. "I didn't realize the spell was that powerful and that well thought out. Root beer barrel." The gargoyle guarding the entrance to his office moved aside to let them past. "I didn't think one of the students would put so much effort into this prank."

"Prank!" McGonagall's voice rose with every word. "Prank! Albus this is no prank! This is a...a...nuisance to society." With that she slammed the door to the office with enough force to cause the walls to shake. There was the all to familiar thud followed by the uncharacteristic sound of a man saying "Ow!" McGonagall was too upset to notice the change. "Who ever did this must be caught and punished, possibly expelled."

Dumbledore chuckled. "Minerva, I wouldn't go that far. It is a prank, a simple prank. No one got hurt, with the possible exception of our dear Professor Snape."

"Severus was hurt? When? How?"

"Just now, when you slammed the door on his face."

McGonagall gasped and quickly opened the door. The limp body of Snape was pushed through the doorframe by the magical stairs. "Oh. Severus, I am so sorry. I did not mean to. I...I..."

Snape groaned and slowly lifted himself off the floor. After standing up right again he rubbed his large nose and winced. "Don't let it happen again," he hissed.

"Anything broken Severus?" Dumbledore asked. "No. Good. As for the doors, since Minerva does not seem able to get rid of the charm, I will have Professor Flitwick look into it." Both McGonagall and Snape were pleased with the decision until they noticed the gleam in Dumbledore's eye. "However, he is at a conference and won't return until Monday."

"Monday!" McGonagall exclaimed.

Snape scowled before contributing. "Headmaster, that means the charm will be up all weekend. Would it not be better for everyone for you to take these charms down."

Dumbledore looked them both in the eye. "Yes, I supposed it would be," he said quite cheerfully, annoying the other professors. "Unfortunately, I have too much to do. Run the school and plot how to save the world. You know, same old, same old. That will be all for today." With a final smile he looked down at the paper on his desk. The two professors went out of the room with identical scowls.

A/N: Please R & R! Thanks! Oh yeah, and bring a warm jacket for the next chapter.