Chapter 4
The prank took two weeks to plan and set up. But in the end it was worth the week's detention they got with Severus-and the loss of house points. But even Snape found it rather funny and hadn't punished them too harshly-recognising one of his own pranks woven into it. Obviously young Zanbini had told them about that one.
It started off with the customary begging for the things they needed from the older students, most notably Fred and George Weasely and their friend Lee Jordon.
"Come on guys! Please." I know you have them, I saw them in your trunks!" Ron said.
"But why do you want them Ron? That's the real question here, isn't it?" the twins asked in unison.
"It's a secret guys please!"
"Uh uh ickle Ronniekins. Tell us why you want them first and we'll think about it."
"Guys!" Ron pleaded.
They shook their heads-grinning wickedly.
Ron tried to think of anything that would make them hand over what he wanted. "I'll tell mum that it was you two who took the car out last month!" he declared, satisfied by their horrified expressions.
"You wouldn't!" they cried.
"I will if you don't give me what I want!" Ron said smugly.
"Fine!" they gave in. "Come upstairs and we'll get the stuff for you."
Ron gave Harry the thumbs up and followed his brothers upstairs. He came down ten minutes later with a box and he and Harry left the common room to meet Draco in the library.
Draco had been scouring the library searching for simple charms and spells they could use, and it had fallen to him because no one else would sit down and read. He had chosen a few spells he knew they could manage with a bit of practice, even if they were for older students.
Blaise's job was to document Flints every move from morning to night, after all, recognisance was the most important part, it wouldn't do for them to set up a prank and not know if Flint would walk into it.
Harry's job was to piece the whole thing together and make it work. Due to the fact that they couldn't let anyone know what they were up to, they had taken to meeting in unusual places. Such as the Quiddich broom shed, which also gave Draco another idea to weave into the prank.
As it happened, on the day they were holding the meeting in the broom shed, Remus had dragged the ever scowling Severus outside for a bit of a walk before dinner. They had stopped in the Quiddich pitch, taken the stairs and sat in the Ravenclaw stands to discuss the most mundane topic of tea, and whether it was at all safe to accept tea from Dumbledore (both were of course quite convinced he used the tea to make people do things for him, because after tea with Dumbledore you were known for doing things you would normally never dream of doing). It was merely one of their random conversations that Severus could never understand why he let himself be drawn into. But Remus was quite persistent for his company-complaining the other teachers were either too old or two young.
But Severus was distracted from the conversation when the broom shed door burst open and four very familiar figures emerged. "They're up to something." He scowled as Harry, Ron, Draco and Blaise tumbled onto the grass together.
Remus laughed. "Oh yes they are. The question now is what?"
"Well it is Potters son-so it is bound to be embarrassing and degrading to the victim." Severus said dryly.
Remus offered him a small smile. Though he and Severus, and to a lesser degree Sirius and Severus had breached that rift between them, Remus knew that Severus still harboured ill will to James, despite the fact that James had saved his life. Severus held one hell of a grudge and passed it shamelessly from father to son.
"Oh, I don't think so. And I'm sure whoever they do it to will have deserved it."
"Just as I deserved being hung upside down in full view of the school."
"Severus, really. Harry's not like that, besides, Draco has more sense at any rate."
"So did you as I recall-and it still didn't stop Potter and Black victimising me."
Remus sighed; there was no winning this argument. "Well, young Zanbini is a true Slytherin; he has too much self preservation to let them get into too much trouble."
"You don't know Mr. Zanbini very well. His self preservation goes only so far. So long as he knows he won't get the blame he's up for it." Severus said. "Just like his uncle."
"So what have we got all together then?" Remus smiled. "We have Harry Potter-son of James Potter, one of the biggest pranksters in Hogwarts history, raised by Sirius Black, also one of the biggest pranksters in Hogwarts history. Draco Black, also raised by the aforementioned Sirius. Ron Weasely, younger brother of the Weasely twins, the second biggest pranksters to hit Hogwarts. And Blaise Zanbini, who, if I remember correctly is the nephew of your closest friend from our year, who always helped you with your revenge pranks." Remus looked to Severus for confirmation.
Severus nodded, and groaned, holding his head in his hands.
Remus stared after the four conspiring boys as they returned to the school and sighed heavily.
"We are in for some severe trouble." Severus said.
"Oh yes, the new age of pranks has begun." Remus sighed again.
The two teachers shared a horrified look. And stared in silence at the four students. Finally Severus looked sideways at Remus and asked. "What do you suppose is the quickest route to China?" with a wry smile.
Remus laughed.
X
In a cupboard hidden down some dark empty corridor.
"You're absolutely sure this will work?" Ron asked again, holding up the small bottle.
"If you remember the incantation then yes!" Draco snapped for the sixth time in five minutes.
"Alright, alright I was just asking." Ron said defensively.
"Relax. It will work." Harry said with a smile.
"My uncle taught me a spell to turn people different colours." Blaise announced suddenly, distracting everyone.
Harry turned happy eyes to him. "Really! What colours!"
"All the house colours at any rate." Blaise shrugged.
Harry grinned evilly. "This just adds a whole new dimension to all this."
"Harry, you would have made a far better Slytherin than I do." Draco said with a shake of his head and a smile.
Harry laughed. "Maybe, but no Slytherin would be brave enough to try all of this."
"We are!" Blaise muttered.
Draco smiled and nodded, knowing Harry hadn't meant it the way it sounded.
"Yeah, well you two are different." Harry said with a wave of his hand.
Draco rolled his eyes. "We just better make sure Flint doesn't get word of this."
"Is he still hassling you?" Harry asked, his tone dark.
Draco shrugged.
It was Blaise's turn to roll his eyes. "Of course he is-almost knocked Draco into the fire last night- I had to listen to him all night, scratching away with his quill and muttering to himself."
"It's not my fault I had to redo my potions essay!" Draco shot back angrily, crossing his arms.
"Ever heard of a silencing spell?" Blaise asked.
"If you're so good at them, why didn't you cast one?" Draco scowled.
Blaise didn't answer, his gaze fixed on an angry looking Harry (if this were manga he'd have flames licking round his feet, black sky with lighting and a lot of those little x type things angry manga characters get, oh, and his eyes would be fire-but this isn't manga, so he just looks like a normal angry Harry). "Em…" he motioned Draco to look over.
Draco did and gulped. "Harry-Harry-it's not that bad-honest. He's just a bully." Draco tried to reason with him.
"Yeah, well he picked on the wrong kid to bully. Why didn't you tell me Dray? No wonder you looked like death warmed up this morning. He nearly pushed you into the fire!" Harry asked, deadly serious eyes focused on Draco.
Draco shrugged. "He was just pushing past. He wouldn't deliberately shove me into a fire Harry, after this prank he won't even think about it, ok. Don't get so worked up ok."
"Not get worked up?" Harry spluttered.
"Yes! Not get worked up! I'm not a child Harry. I can look after myself if I have to!" Draco snapped.
Harry wisely didn't reply, just nodded his agreement and sighed. But his idea had just moved up a notch.
X
A few days later Percy Weasely was making his rounds of the dungeons when he heard someone talking-or more precisely, yelling. He followed the noise to a door. It was just one of the many unused rooms in the castle. He pushed it open, and frowned suspiciously when he found Harry, Ron and Blaise sitting on the floor in fits of laughter, the cat sitting on top of a cupboard hissing, while Draco yelled at the others. "Stop laughing! Stop it! It's not funny to levitate Fuzzball up there! I asked you down here to-" he stopped suddenly, catching sight of Percy. He blushed and looked down. Harry Ron and Blaise fell silent.
Percy tapped his foot. "Well, come on, I'm waiting for an explanation." He said.
"Well… em…" Ron cast a helpless glance to his friends.
Draco stepped forward, inwardly rolling his eyes-how did Ron get anything if he couldn't manage the simple trick of getting people to feel sorry for you. He put on the look that usually got him whatever he wanted at home, and as much as he hated to admit it, Percy was taken in completely. "Sorry Percy. It's my fault. I've been having trouble in transfiguration and I asked them to give me a hand, because they can do it." Draco said, injecting just the smallest hint of bitterness, and sorrow into his tone.
Harry took up the story without missing a beat; he and Draco had played off each other before to get out of trouble. "Oh come on Dray. You can do it perfect already."
"No I can't." Draco snapped.
"You need to lighten up Draco." Blaise said.
"So you levitated my cat? Thanks a lot guys!" he said.
Percy was instantly melted the moment he saw tears in the boy's eyes. It was so easy to forget that Draco was only ten, if only that. "Why didn't you ask an older student, or a prefect to help if you were having trouble?" Percy asked kindly.
Draco looked up at him, wide eyed. "I couldn't do that! What if they tell Professor McGonagall I can't do it and she has me thrown out? She can do that! Some of the older students told me!"
Percy smiled slightly. "All right. What if I tutored you instead? At least your cat wouldn't end up on top of cupboards." He said, directing a glare at the other three in the room, just to let them know he hadn't forgotten them, and was very disappointed at how they could pick on Draco when he was having trouble.
The hopeful look on Draco's face wasn't put on. He was having some trouble with transfigurations and all the homework he had to do-and there was no way he was asking Marcus Flint for help. "Really?" he asked.
Percy nodded. "And I promise not to tell Professor McGonagall."
Draco smiled, rubbing a hand across his eyes, blushing again.
"Right, I'm going to be round here in five minutes, and I expect you all to be back in your common rooms. So go!" and with that he left the room.
Draco turned back to the other three with a slight smirk.
"Great save Draco." Ron said in awe, when Percy had moved out of earshot.
"And that, my friends, is the reason he was made a Slytherin." Harry said with a grin. "Nice one Dray."
Draco smiled before moving to drag a table over to the cupboard and climbed up on it to rescue his cat. "Yes, well… we'd better get going. I don't think I can pull something like that again tonight."
The four quickly gathered their things and started back towards their common rooms.
"Your not actually going to get tutored by him are you?" Ron asked
Draco shrugged. "He's probably the smartest person in Hogwarts. It wouldn't hurt to get some tutoring-at this rate I'm never going to pass the end of year exams!"
"Draco!" Harry cried incredulously. "We've only been here two weeks! It's too early to be thinking about end of term exams! Besides, you're the smartest person in our whole year!"
"No, I'm not. That Gryffindor girl is-and all of Ravenclaw. I'm not the smartest person in our year, but if I get tutored by Percy, I will be." He grinned.
"We've got another Perfect Percy in the making." Ron groaned. "What should we call him?"
Draco pushed Ron. "Shut up! Your brothers cool."
"You only think that because he saved your flea circus there." Harry said.
The aforementioned 'flea circus' hissed at him and Draco glared. So Harry held up his hands in defeat. "Fine, fine. Just don't let it come between you and our plan-got that Draco? All work and no play makes Draco a real bugger to live with-remember that."
Draco rolled his eyes. "You are weird Harry."
The parted ways.
X
"Broom varnish?" Harry asked.
"Check." Ron smiled.
"Stink pellets?"
"Check."
"Pink dye?"
"Check."
"Feather glue?"
"Check."
"Slugs?"
"Check."
"We've got everything here! Draco-Blaise?" Harry called.
Blaise held up his hands defensively. He had no idea if they were done or not-Draco was sitting cross-legged reading the notes he had made, swishing his wand occasionally and muttering to himself.
"Hey Draco! Everything ready?" Harry said louder.
Blaise nudged Draco's leg with his foot but was waved away with an annoyed mutter.
Harry sighed, getting to his feet, stalking over and pulling the notes from Draco's hand with a satisfied smile.
"Harry!" Draco yelled, grabbing Harry's leg and pulling him down with a crash which sent the sheaf of parchment flying. "If this whole thing goes wrong I am going to blame you!"
"It's not going to go wrong! You know all these spells-hell, even Ron knows them!"
That got an indignant "Hey" from Ron and a snort of laughter from Blaise.
"Everything will be fine. Tomorrow is going to be a day for Marcus Flint to always remember." Harry grinned that grin again.
Ron put his head in his hands, giving Draco and Blaise a pleading look. "Take him with you mates-I can't cope with that smile tonight."
Blaise grabbed Draco's arm and pulled him to his feet. "Hard Luck Ron!" he ran, dragging Draco with him.
X
The next morning however Blaise was wishing he had taken Harry with him and left Draco with Ron, he had been up most of the night listening to Draco go over everything that could possibly go wrong. Draco had made him give him a pop quiz on the spells they were going to use and everything. It had been exhausting, and Draco still hadn't relaxed. He was like an insane ball of nervous energy. It was starting to grate on Blaise's nerves.
"Draco! Blaise! Get in here now!" Harry hissed, grabbing them and pulling them into an empty classroom. "Did you get it done?" he asked seriously.
Draco was bouncing on the balls of his feet and looking round him, nervous. "We did it. Are you sure this will work Harry. I mean, maybe it's not a good idea. What if it all goes wrong? What if a teacher finds out and we get expelled?"
Harry sighed. "Now is not the time Draco. This will go ahead!" he said in his most authorative voice.
Slightly to the side Ron looked at a yawning Blaise. "Is it possible that you had a worse night than me?" he asked.
Blaise shot him a glare, but the effect was ruined when he yawned again. "Did you have to spend the whole night giving a pop quiz to the smartest boy in our year?" he asked snappily.
"Em… no…" Ron said.
"Then yes, I had a worse night than you." Blaise rubbed his eyes to get rid of the sleep and sighed. "He is very irritating when he's nervous."
Watching Draco now Ron could understand what Blaise was saying, and he almost found himself pitying the Slytherin. Almost. He snickered to himself.
Harry finally managed to avert the disaster of Draco, and got everyone back on track. So, armed with their various items of fun, they set out to make this the funniest day of Marcus Flint's life.