A Fairytale Disaster
Courtesy of SilverWolf7007
Chapter Five – Balloons, Pancakes, Honey and Whipped Cream
Hermione and Ron arrived for dinner to find that the same members of the play's cast who had joined them for lunch were seated at Gryffindor Table again.
They were both quite confused at first, as mostly they were staring at Harry, who was being held in his seat by Draco and Blaise and had Seamus, Dean, Neville and Luna arguing with him about something.
As the two of them seated themselves and prepared to launch a bout of confused questioning, Harry seemed to relax in his seat, and the two Slytherin boys let him go - although, it didn't escape anyone's notice that Draco was still watching him carefully.
"All right," they heard Harry sigh. "I'll leave him alive…for now. But I swear, when this play is done, McGonagall can be Headmistress and Dumbledore can be cat food."
"Harry, you don't have a cat," Dean pointed out sensibly.
"No one said it had to be my cat eating him, Dean," Harry informed him icily. "Or even any cat. In fact, I don't think I would subject a poor feline to having to eat Dumbledore."
"Good idea," Neville agreed. "The bloody Twinkle would probably transfer to anything that ate him."
His fellow cast members stared in horror.
Finally, though, Sirius noticed that Ron and Hermione had joined them and looked utterly confused and worried. "How was class?" he asked, hoping to switch the subject away from Dumbledore, homicide, Twinkles and anything else that might lead to Harry killing things.
Feeling unaccountably nervous, Hermione shrugged. "It was all right. I don't think that Professor Flitwick wants to do anything much until the play is done so that no one involved misses too much."
Harry frowned. "But I thought Moony was going to tutor us?"
"Oh he is," she assured him. "But Charms isn't exactly his area of expertise, is it?"
"I guess not," he murmured, eyeing the door to the Hall.
"You're not leaving without an escort," Draco informed him.
"Damn! Would you lot quit cottoning onto my plots? How am I supposed to kill Dumbledore and his little Twinkle if you keep stopping me?"
"You're not," Neville said pointedly.
Harry pouted throughout the rest of dinner.
It was Hermione who first noticed that something on the back of Sirius's chair seemed to be glittering at her, and she mentioned it to him.
To her surprise, the man immediately began glowering at nothing in particular, and everyone seated near him edged away.
"Sirius?"
"Yes Luna?"
"You're frightening Hermione and Ronald. And, uh, everyone else, as well."
"Oh." He blinked. "Sorry."
"So…" Hermione ventured after a few minutes. "What is it?"
Sirius sighed. "My costume," he answered shortly. "I think everyone else has theirs as well. Personally, I wouldn't go asking anyone else about theirs, either. Well, maybe Luna, Draco, Oliver, Fred, the girls…theirs aren't so bad. But…" He shrugged. "Its up to you, but I wouldn't."
Later, when they left the Great Hall, it didn't escape Hermione's notice that each cast member was carrying something – but they were all trying to hide them, and she didn't dare try to see any closer.
The cast of the play unanimously decided to spend the rest of the evening in the library, where they were also joined by Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Lavender, Remus, Severus and Jason Nott.
The costumes were dropped off at respective Common Rooms or quarters beforehand. No one but the cast (and Dumbledore, of course) had laid eyes on them so far.
The moment they stepped into the library, however, Harry drew out his wand.
Seamus automatically grabbed his arm and pulled it down, while Draco, Blaise and Dean scanned the immediate vicinity for Dumbledore.
Harry rolled his eyes and tried ineffectively to free his arm from Seamus's grip. "He's not here. Idiots. I was just gonna redecorate a little to make it more comfortable in here."
Remus and Minerva exchanged a quick glance before they each grabbed one of Harry's arms, pulling him from Seamus's grasp and into the back of the library. The others followed, confused.
Sirius stepped in front of them and opened a door that had previously been blending in with the wall. Behind it was a small lounge area with an empty fireplace.
Hermione blinked in shock. "I didn't know this was here."
Severus, shocking them all, chuckled. "Neither does Irma Pince."
They all stepped inside and made themselves comfortable as Minerva used her wand to light the fire before she sat down as well.
There was nothing but silence for a long time.
Eventually, though, somebody had to break it.
"I think we should kill him now and save ourselves the embarrassment of having to go through the play at all."
Neville threw a cushion at Harry's head. "No. Nobody is killing anyone, at least until the play is over."
Harry frowned in consideration. "Does that mean I'm allowed to kill him afterwards?"
"No," Sirius told him.
"But we can prank the hell out of him," Remus continued. "Or, well, you can. I don't really think it's my place."
"Oh all right," Harry sighed. "Pranking him after the play. But that doesn't mean I can't daydream about killing him."
"I think you should probably be worried," Dean informed Sirius. "If my godson was daydreaming about killing his headmaster…well, I'd be worried."
"Nothing wrong with daydreaming about killing Dumbledore," Severus muttered. "I daresay the majority of people here have done it at least once."
No one disagreed.
The next morning, Harry woke before his dorm mates. Due to the lack of Ron's alarm, it was not exactly surprising that they were still asleep. It was, however, somewhat surprising that Harry was awake.
Harry had a plan.
He quickly dressed before he spent ten minutes preparing this plan.
And then he set up a few magical recording devices so he had interesting things to show their children, or at least on their twenty first birthdays, stood back and flicked his wand.
Immediately, there was chaos.
Harry grinned evilly and sucked on a sugar quill as he observed.
He had again employed the use of balloons, these ones full of honey and whipped cream. These had been followed by bright blue feathers and a few balloons full of confetti.
In short, his roommates were now very, very sticky.
It wasn't long before they stopped screaming and running around aimlessly and realised exactly who was standing by the door completely clean.
"This, my friends, is my cue to leave. Don't forget to shower before you come down!"
With that, he grabbed the bag he had his costume in, ducked out and slammed the door, placing a timed locking spell on it to delay them.
"Get back here, Potter!" he heard Neville yelling.
"Um, no? See you guys at breakfast! And don't forget your costumes!"
Happily, he almost skipped down the stairs, bypassed the girls and ran full speed to the Great Hall, where he skidded right past the Gryffindor Table and sat down between Draco and Blaise.
"Potter, you do know that you're at the Slytherin Table, don't you?" Jason Nott asked him kindly.
Harry glared, catching his breath. "Yes Nott, I do know that. But as I'm going to be in mortal danger the moment my roommates step into the room, I thought that sitting here might provide a small amount of protection."
Blaise raised an eyebrow at him, while Draco snorted.
"What did you do to them this time, Harry?" Luna asked from behind him.
Harry grinned at her as she calmly stepped onto the table to cross to the other side, where she sat beside Jason with a smile. "Just a little prank…but I don't think they appreciated it much."
"But what did you do?" Blaise prodded. "Come on, tell us and we'll protect you."
He rolled his eyes but quickly described the prank. "I'll show you all the recordings later on."
"Ooh, really?" Draco asked brightly. "That'll be fun…"
"Should be, yes. We can watch, and laugh, and try to forget about whatever Dumbledore does to us today."
Both the two boys and Luna winced. "We were trying to forget about that now, Harry," Blaise admonished.
"Sorry…"
The four of them had finished breakfast by the time the rest of the Gryffindor sixth years and Ginny arrived.
Seeing them, Harry inched closer to Draco, trying to hide behind him.
Luna waved the Gryffindors over. The girls declined and began breakfast, but the boys had spotted Harry and headed towards them.
Seamus and Dean just sighed and sat down near Luna, and began breakfast. Neville shrugged and joined them.
"Hello Ronald," Luna said with an almost devious smile. "Did you know that you have whipped cream in your ear?"
Ron's magenta eyebrow twitched.
Harry gave him a hopeful smile. "I promise not to do it again tomorrow?"
Ron threw his hands up in the air in defeat, rolled his eyes and laughed. "Harry, I've known you for six years now. I think I should be used to being pranked of a morning. And I am. So I've decided against killing you."
"That's wonderful!" Luna exclaimed. "Because I think Dumbledore would make you play Cinderella if you killed the lead in the play!"
"Wouldn't surprise me," Ron agreed. "Anyway, good luck with the acting and all, but I've got breakfast to eat before Hermione drags me off to History. See you."
Harry watched him walk away, relieved. "Nice to know I get to live through breakfast."
"Isn't it, though?" Draco murmured. His eyes wandered up the table and he smirked. "Excuse me a moment." He stood and left.
A few minutes later he returned with two plates with pancakes, honey and whipped cream. "Want some?"
"Ooh, yes please!" Draco handed him a plate, which Harry then pushed into the middle of the table.
Dean, Neville and Seamus were looking resigned, but confused as Harry pushed the food away from himself.
All confusion cleared a moment later when Luna began helping herself to the pancakes.
"There's enough here for both of us," Harry explained with a shrug, digging into the other side.
Draco laughed and offered his own plate to Blaise, who rolled his eyes and declined.
And so, the rest of breakfast passed without anything of interest occurring. This was a relief to everybody, as they'd pretty much had their fill of interesting occurrences.
Unfortunately, the peace was not to last.
Eventually, Hermione realised that the majority of students had once again left before she realised the time, and she immediately grabbed Ron and Lavender and began dragging them to class, despite Ron's complaints of "it's not like Binns would notice if we were late anyway!"
Jason and Pansy bid them a quick farewell before heading off themselves.
Parvati, Padma, Justin and Hannah headed over from their own tables and sat down, sighing.
Sirius, Oliver, Fred, George and Tonks arrived next, and were surprised at the seating arrangements.
"We're crashing on the Slytherins, now?" Tonks asked, amused.
Harry grinned at her. "Absolutely! I mean, it's so fun. And they crashed our table yesterday…I figure tomorrow we can take over at Ravenclaw, and then the day after at Hufflepuff…ooh, and the day after that we should sit with the staff."
Dumbledore and Minerva joined them, the Headmaster beaming and his Deputy seemingly in horrified shock.
Minerva sat down quickly; placing her own costume bag on the table in front of her seconds after the breakfast things disappeared.
Twinkling warmly, Dumbledore stood before them. "Now, this morning I believe we should start with the dress rehearsals."
Sixteen amateur actors shuddered.
The seventeenth just popped several glitter balloons over the lot of them.
There was silence.
"Harry," Seamus said finally. "Are you feeling all right?"
The teen in question shrugged. "I guess. Why?"
No one answered. They were too busy eyeing the pink glitter they'd just been covered in.
Dumbledore was the first to recover, as he didn't actually understand the significance of Harry covering them in pink glitter (Harry had issues with the colour pink).
"Now, if you'd all stand up…" They did so, each holding the bags with their costumes in them. "Very good. Now…"
The Headmaster waved his wand.
All five tables in the room vanished. At the front of the Hall, a stage (complete with dark red velvet curtains and, presumably, a backstage area) had appeared; while the rest of the Hall was taken up by comfortable looking couches facing it.
"Behind the stage there are two dressing rooms, one for the gentlemen and one for the ladies. Now, if you all wouldn't mind going back there and changing into your costumes…?"
They went.
Twenty minutes, several ruined balloons, four soaked costumes and eleven frustrated males later, Harry gave in and knocked on the girls' dressing room. "Luna? Tonks? Minerva? Hannah? Parvati? Padma? Are you all decent?"
The door opened and Tonks looked out. "Yes, why? Uh, Harry? You're all…"
He sighed. "Wet, I know. Look, we could really use a hand. These balloons are being…difficult."
There were a few snickers from inside the room, but Luna, Tonks and Minerva all followed him back to the other room. Sirius, Dean and Seamus, it seemed, had kicked the other males out for some reason.
Harry turned to Draco. "You're out here. Why are you out here? And you're wet…"
The blond rolled his eyes. "Sirius got a little…annoyed. And kicked us all out. Blaise and I didn't want to leave. So he threw the balloon he had in his hand at me. Bastard."
Patting him sympathetically on the shoulder, Harry grabbed Luna and then pulled her inside, leaving an amused Draco watching after them. Tonks followed them in, but Minerva paused long enough to cast a drying charm over Draco and Blaise.
Inside, Seamus and Dean were standing against the wall, while on the other side of the room Sirius was trying to fill one of the remaining balloons with his wand.
As its predecessors had, it somehow began to overflow before stretching. Sirius threw it onto the floor, swearing loudly.
"Black! Language!"
Sirius jumped at hearing Minerva's voice. "Sorry Minnie. Think you can fix this for us?"
She looked unsure, as did Tonks.
Luna, on the other hand, rolled her eyes and turned to Harry. "You can conjure balloons full of honey, glitter, dye and whipped cream to drop on your friends, but you can't conjure a few fairly even small balloons full of water? Or even whipped cream would do."
Harry blinked. "Oh. I didn't think of that…"
"Males," she sighed in exasperation. "I'm about ready to give up on you all."
It didn't take long to fix the balloon problem after that. Somehow four bras had ended up in the dressing room, and as such, their costumes were completed.
Each member of the cast was now fully in their non-ball costumes, and they warily headed out to face their director.
Dumbledore was obviously overjoyed to see them fully costumed. The Twinkle was too. It was twinkling with a vibrancy not yet seen, sending the entire cast into speechlessness from utter terror.
Not perceiving his cast's uncharacteristic silence, the Headmaster began to outline their plan for the day. "Today we are going to begin with a random scene of my choosing and act it out. We shall continue in this vein until lunch, at which point the Great Hall will, of course, right itself for the meal. Afterwards we shall have a first run-through of the entire script, including the costume changes for the ball. Then dinner, and then we shall return to practicing."
Once they had recovered from the Twinkle, the news sank in. They would be acting for the entire day.
Before they could protest, or anything, Dumbledore opened his script, motioning everyone else to do the same. "Ah yes. Now, Luna, Harry, Minerva, Seamus, Dean, Neville…please take to the stage. Everyone else, take a seat. We're going to begin with Scene Three."
Well, that was fun.
LoonyLoopyLisa – Thanks heaps!
Shakespeares Whore – Glad you're having fun with it. And I have no idea where the ideas come from. Really. Not a clue. But heh, thanks.
ReginaLucifer – Good point. Dumbles IS kinda necessary in this…and his little Twinkle. But they'll get what's coming to them after the play is done…
Morei Sky – Thanks, glad you like!
Siiarrei – Heh, thank you.
Salazire – Oh yes, the Twinkle has gotten them well under control. I didn't think of the trouble many mini-Sirius' could cause, but you're right, Tonks should definitely not do that. I don't actually know what illegal substances are in Dumbledore's lemon drops…but I probably don't want to! Heh. Draco's costume being like Elvis and Goldmember…geez that IS scary! Bad mental images there…And Draco just didn't want Harry to get sent to Azkaban for killing Dumbles. And the Twinkle, of course. Yep, bogeyman is definitely nicer than Dumbles, I agree! Sorry the Twinkle scared you…
DeppDRACOmaniac – Very very down. And yep, Draco will be…
bored miko – Glad you like. I too like Harry being homicidal, and I don't mind reading angst, but I probably couldn't write it. Humour is just so much more fun.
Silverone3 – I want Luna's outfit too….
arynna – Glad you liked. The Twinkle just came along on its own, with an evil plan. As for Harry's insanity….long story.
Ranma Higurashi – Thanks!
Sapphire Dragons – Eh, well, I tried…
Kurai Shinigami – Sirius's almost gives me nightmares, though Harry's I'm actually rather fond of. Though not the shoes. Draco's is good, Luna's I want. There might be a little bit of slashyness, but I haven't decided yet and it wouldn't be much anyway.
lisa – Glad you like it! Oops about waking your dad though…Thanks anyway. As for authors…definitely try nonjon's stuff, cos he's brilliant. Um…Fangalla Marie and Eppy the House Elf. That's one author's name, by the way. There are many, many others, but none I can think of right now. I suggest you check my faves list and my C2, as I know there's a lot in those…
goddessa39 – Well, Ginny's just not in this one much, I'm afraid.
Lady Rebecca of the Night Walkers and Element Holders – Glad you like the dresses, and I'm thrilled you liked my happy flag. I made one back just before last Christmas. Didn't work too well, as I used cardboard…I'll have to try cloth next time.
Thanks again for the reviews, everyone!
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Do tell me what you think!
S. Wolf