Chapter Eighteen: In Which Permission Is Obtained
"One moment, please!" she called as the class made to leave. "As you are you're all in my House, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Halloween. No form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"
Harry put up his hand.
"I wonder why we need permission forms to do something as simple as visiting the village and not to play Quidditch," he said.
"Why would one need a permission form to play Quidditch, I wonder?" said Professor McGonagall as practically everyone sniggered at his apparent stupidity, even Ron.
"Oh, I don't know," said Harry sarcastically, "maybe because we're flying fifty or so feet above the ground with actual iron balls whose only purpose is to knock us off our brooms?"
The sniggering quickly stopped.
"Or maybe because there are two players that are tasked with hitting those iron balls at the other players?"
"Well," began Professor McGonagall. "when you put it that way —"
"Oh, do tell us how you would put it then," he challenged.
There was silence as everyone waited.
There was no reply. After about half a minute of consideration, she spoke.
"I will — I will get back to you on this," said Professor McGonagall. "What are you waiting for?" she snapped at the other students. "Go!"
They all shuffled out of the classroom, muttering among themselves.
Long story short, Harry got to go to Hogsmeade and had fun with his friends.
AN: If anyone's wondering about the Marauder's Map and whether Fred and George would ever give it to Harry if this had happened, then I have no idea. Multiple factors and infinite little things exist between that event and this one (Alternate Universes in a nutshell, I guess). The point of this chapter still stands, though.