After the Dawn: The Philosopher's Stone
Chapter Twenty: A Prankster's Revenge
The next day, Harry was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Hermione. They were waiting for Neville to turn up – he'd been given detention with Snape for destroying his third cauldron that year.
It was only midafternoon, but since it was a Saturday pretty much everyone was in the Gryffindor tower. Some were studying, others were playing games – Ron was playing Chess against Seamus and winning.
Harry and Hermione were sitting together, reading their History of Magic books, since the class itself was too boring to pay much attention to.
Suddenly the portrait hole banged open and Neville tumbled through. For a moment, everyone thought that it was just another example of his usual clumsiness, then they realised that his legs seemed to be glued together.
Most of the common room burst into laughter, but Hermione and Harry did not, instead hurrying over to help him. Hermione reversed the jinx and Harry helped the other boy to his feet.
"What happened?" Harry demanded. His was voice cold as ice and eyes steely.
"Malfoy," Neville whimpered, thinking that Harry's anger might be directed at him for failing to protect himself. "He said he'd been looking for someone to practice on, he found me just before I got out of the dungeons."
"Let's go," Harry said, striding toward the portrait hole, voice still colder than any in the room had heard it since the days before he had made friends with Neville and Hermione.
"Where? Nemo, what are you doing?" Hermione demanded anxiously.
"Finding Malfoy – he has to learn that he can't expect to mess with my friends and not suffer the consequences," Harry replied. "Neville, Hermione, come on."
"No, Nemo! You'll get in trouble instead of Malfoy if you just go and attack him," Hermione said. "Stay here, please! If you must do something, go to Professor McGonagall and let her know about it!"
Harry paused, glancing back at his two friends. "I suppose if I hurt him he'll only wait until I'm gone to pick on you again, won't he Nev? Very well, let's go to Professor McGonagall and tell her what happened."
To all appearances, although 'Nemo' was still looking quite angry, he had calmed down enough not to do anything rash. Only the Weasley Twins caught the significant look that Harry directed at them before leaving the common room with Neville and Hermione.
They smiled at each other and went up to their own dormitories. When Harry returned from his meeting with the Head of House, they would have some planning to do!
"Nemo, won't this do the same thing? Malfoy will think that I ran to Professor McGonagall and then he'll pick on me even more," Neville said as he and Hermione struggled to keep up with Harry's furious pace.
"I don't care, the little bastard isn't going to get away with it," Harry snarled. "He made a fool of me once before, sending me to the Trophy Room, and one of these days soon I'll show him what happens when you mess with me."
"But…"
"Don't worry Neville, I won't let him hurt you. The only reason I'm doing things this way is that I don't want to get in trouble for something Malfoy started. I won't leave you alone when he can get at you," Harry replied. "I protect my friends, when they need it."
Neville nodded quietly. He knew that there was no sense arguing with Nemo when the other boy was like this.
Harry knocked furiously on Professor McGonagall's office door and waited impatiently for it to open. McGonagall pulled open the door, ready to rouse on the student who knocked so forcefully on her door.
When she saw Nemo Protectium, looking frighteningly angry – not explosive anger, but cold anger – standing before a cowering Neville Longbottom and an anxious Hermione Granger, she decided to let him get away with it this once … so long as his reason turned out to be a good one. "Mr. Protectium, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Granger, come in," she said. The three first year students strode into the office and took seats in front of her desk. "What brings you here?"
"An unprovoked attack on my friend Neville brings me here," Harry said icily.
"Attack?" McGonagall sat forward slightly – attacks were serious. "Mr. Longbottom looks fine to me."
"Draco Malfoy, from Slytherin, put a leg-locker curse on him, probably about half an hour to an hour ago. Neville managed to hope up to the Gryffindor tower, where Hermione reversed the jinx," Harry said, sounding almost professional as he spoke.
"Mr. Longbottom, where were you when Mr. Malfoy attacked you?" McGonagall enquired.
"Just about to come out from the dungeons," Neville replied, "I had a detention with Professor Snape."
"And you say the attack was unprovoked?" McGonagall said.
"Malfoy said that he'd been looking for someone to practice on," Neville said, looking down. "He also said that I didn't really deserve to be a Gryffindor, because I'm not very brave at all and that's supposed to be what Gryffindors are."
"Malfoy doesn't like Neville," Hermione said, putting an arm around the other boys shoulders, "He's always putting him down because Neville doesn't do as well in classes as some of the other students…"
"Well, that sort of behaviour is unacceptable in a Hogwarts student," McGonagall said decisively, "Don't worry children; you can leave this in my hands. I'll have words with Professor Snape regarding the behaviour of his student and suggest a suitable punishment. Meanwhile, five points to Gryffindor for not trying to take care of this yourselves. I will make sure that you are not bothered by Malfoy again."
Harry nodded and rose, leading his friends from the room with an almost regal appearance.
McGonagall found herself wondering, not for the first time, what family Nemo had really come from. His behaviour was similar to that she might have expected from Harry Potter … but that couldn't be the case, could it?
She shook her head and rose to go and speak with her co-worker, Severus Snape – never a task she enjoyed.
"See, that wasn't so hard," Harry told Neville calmly. "Now Malfoy will get in trouble for what he did to you, which is only right."
"And you'll leave him alone?" Hermione asked nervously, she didn't think that Nemo's anger had receded in any way.
"I won't hurt him," Harry replied, smiling in slight reassurance. No, he had no intention of hurting Draco Malfoy … only humiliating him a little. But for that, he would need some help from Fred and George.
"Good," Hermione said, "I don't want you to get in trouble – Gryffindor may be in the lead, point wise, but that doesn't mean we can afford to be stupid."
Harry sighed slightly. Rules again – why did Hermione have to be so obsessed with them? He didn't see what so fabulous about obeying the rules … most of them were just plain stupid.
"Right," he replied quietly. "Let's head back to the common room. I want to talk to Fred and George for a minute."
"Why?" Hermione asked, sounding vaguely interested. "Aren't they the two who are always getting in trouble for being stupid? Ron Weasley's older brothers?"
"They aren't anything like Ron," Harry replied calmly, "And yeah, they like pranks – they're on the Quidditch team."
"Oh," Hermione said, and didn't push the issue. She thought because Harry had mentioned the Quidditch team last that Fred and George wanted to talk to him about Quidditch. Well, that was the point of saying that, Harry thought to himself. It was not deception, as such, but perhaps it was fairly close. Well, he couldn't help that.
When they re-entered the Gryffindor common room, Harry headed straight up to the third year boys dormitory. Fred and George were in third year this year.
"Nemo," Fred whispered in greeting, "How are you mate?"
"I'm alright – ready to plan some mischief?" Harry asked dangerously.
"Would we be right in thinking that you had Draco Malfoy in mind as a victim?"
"I wouldn't call him a 'victim' as such … perhaps … 'test subject' would be better," Harry replied. "He certainly wasn't the victim this afternoon."
"We saw that," George remarked, "Nasty piece of work, picking on someone who can't really pick back."
"He made one mistake though," Harry smiled.
"He picked on someone with a friend who could pick back," Fred nodded. "So, let's get started."
"You don't like him much either?" Harry asked.
"The name Malfoy has long been synonymous with dark," George replied. "Our dad's been trying to get Malfoy's father for ages – there's loads of dark stuff hidden in their family mansion, but no one knows where it's hidden."
Harry nodded, "Your father works for the Ministry doesn't he?"
"Yeah," Fred replied, "He works with Muggles."
"I can't imagine that Lucius Malfoy would like him much then," Harry remarked. "Nothing wrong with Muggles, but some people just can't see that."
"We know," Fred and George agreed. "Our dad's obsessed with them, so we've been taught to love them from him. He's always bringing Muggle stuff home and mispronouncing the names and all sorts of things."
Harry smiled at that. "Well then, let's get started shall we?"
Next day most of the school knew that Draco Malfoy had been put on a weeks detention cleaning the trophy room for attacking a Gryffindor student. It soon got out that the student had been Neville Longbottom, and Ron Weasley revealed to a Hufflepuff boy that Nemo Protectium had gone storming out of the common room with his friends after Neville had turned up in the common room, jinxed.
It didn't take long for this story to get all around the school, but Harry didn't mind too much. The Slytherins for the most part hated him, but that was nothing knew. Some of the older one's had made menacing moves towards him, but Fred and George had put a stop to that, turning up at odd moments to chat with Harry or just walk with him, and thus force the Slytherins to rethink their plans to attack him.
"How are things going?" Harry asked one afternoon almost a week later.
"Getting there," Fred replied smiling.
"We'll be ready soon – are you?" George asked.
"Always and forever," Harry replied. "Malfoy needs to learn his place."
"And detention isn't going to teach it to him," Fred agreed. "So we'll take over and let him know what really happens when you mess with a Gryffindor."
Harry nodded coldly. "Exactly."
"Man, I'd hate to be on your bad side," George said, grinning at Harry.
"For that matter, I'd hate to be our bad side," Fred added. "It wouldn't be good for our continued good health."
"Not at all!" they said together.
"I'll see you on Sunday then," Harry said.
"Yes, you will. And we'll see you," George agreed. "See you then!" they turned and continued on their way.
Harry smiled. Draco Malfoy would regret messing with his friends, and through them, him.
Shaking his head slightly, Harry headed for the library to meet up with Neville, Hermione and Blaise to finish off their homework. Slytherin house knew of their young members friendship with the Gryffindors, but Blaise had told them that it was simply a ploy to get deeper into the confidences of the Gryffindors, so that she could betray them at just the right moment.
"Nemo, how are you?" Blaise asked with a smile as Harry walked into the library and joined them at a table near the back.
"Oh, I'm alright," Harry shrugged. "Met up with the Twins a moment ago."
"What have they done now?" Hermione asked in exasperation.
"I don't know," Harry replied, "They didn't mention anything that they'd done." That was true, after all. They had only mentioned what they were going to do, with Harry's help.
"Well I find it hard to believe that they aren't up to anything," Hermione remarked. "Any ideas for books to look at for that History of Magic assignment?"
"Yeah, we might try …" Harry let himself forget the upcoming prank on Malfoy and concentrate on doing his homework with his friends. The prank would come soon enough, after all.
"Psst, Nemo!" Fred and George caught Harry's attention as he headed down to the greenhouses for Herbology on Monday.
"Hi guys," Harry joined them quickly, glancing around to make sure that they weren't being overheard, or watched. "How's it going?"
"Our bit's done, you just need to find a way to plant this on Malfoy," Fred replied, holding up a tiny jar of dust. "Think you can do it?"
Harry gave him a look.
"Of course he can, don't worry," George grinned. "Well Nemo, see you at dinner!"
Harry nodded, slipped the jar into his pocket and set out for the greenhouses again. He'd let Neville and Hermione go ahead of him on purpose so that he could meet the Twins without any interference from his friends.
After Herbology, Harry and his two friends wondered back up to the castle to the library to study some more, much to Hermione's delight and the two boys disgust – they knew that they had to, but that didn't mean that they actually liked it.
On his way to the Gryffindor table for dinner that night, Harry unplugged the small vial that the Weasley Twins had given him. With a silent command to his magic, Harry went the powder contained within towards his rival in the Slytherin house.
Though no one saw it, Harry knew that the powder settled on Malfoy's food. With a half smile of satisfaction, Harry continued on his way to the Gryffindor table, winking to Fred and George on the way past. They winked back, but did not interrupt their conversation with Lee Jordan.
The prank was not huge, and it was not harmful, at least, not particularly so. The powder was an activation charm, or sorts. Whenever Malfoy walked through a door, for the next week, a bucket of water would be dumped on him. Nothing huge, this time. If Malfoy tried to hurt any one of Harry's friends again, the prank would be bigger, more humiliating. And if he kept hurting Harry's friends, eventually they might start getting painful.
Harry was satisfied. He had gotten Malfoy back for what he had done to Neville, and now he could go on with studying for the exams with the guilt that he had left harm to his friends go unanswered on his shoulders.
Thank you everyone for your prank suggestions, I ended up choosing a suggestion from one of my friends – next time Malfoy is a jerk I'll have something bigger than this, but the dumping water on people's head is quite classic, and Malfoy is going to have a very wet week this week …
Thanks to:
Cyblade Silver, BeastialSunStormDragon, Nerwen Elendil, gaul1, Avemtilla, Shadowface, crystalheart91, IceSugarHigh, kraeg001, Samara-Morgan-101, Lyz, Songbreeze Swifteye, athenakitty, azntgr01, NateP, Musicstarlover, Surarrin, MyGildedCage, Wytil, Agnus Dei, torifire126, Jeanne2, Ebony River, RP Weasley, RP Weasley, grand admiral chelli, Nefertiri Riddle, cyress, cantfindagoodname, katepotter13, JeanieBeanie33, Gryffindor Ghost, Sirius's gurl, darkangelgep.
WolfMoon