Now that Hermione wasn't having to work out the secrets she wanted to have fun. With Fred and George around that was a given and now all of her friends wanted to help. They wanted to play a few pranks, but on whom?
A teacher would be the funniest. But also the most dangerous. Hermione thought about this. Then the answer came to her.
Later that same night she asked the others to meet her in the library.
"Guys, I have a plan. We are pranking Snape."
"Snape? Are you out of your senses? He'll kill us!" Harry protested.
"No he won't, because we have both the jokers in this deck of cards. One is Draco. If the other would kindly step out from behind the bookshelves, I can reveal my plan." Hermione called.
Professor McGonagall stepped out. Everyone's jaws dropped. McGonagall was going to help? She and Hermione chuckled at the looks on their faces.
"I knew this would happen. Yes I'm helping, but I am only helping because I have a score to settle with Severus. What's your plan, Hermione?"
Hermione smiled. Perfect. She smirked and Draco looked affronted.
"Oi! That's my smirk…give it back!"
She smiled and turned to McGonagall.
"Could you please tell us your idea? I believe you, at one point, could have given the infamous Marauders a run for their money. You and your best friend, Lily Evans, wasn't it?"
"You were best friends with my mother?"
"Yes, Harry, I was. While we were at school anyway. The pair of us definitely taught the Marauders a thing or two. We held the jokers of the pack then, too. Back then, boys still had a sense of chivalry. Not exactly King Arthur chivalry, but enough to have them be unable to prank women too horribly. I am not ashamed to admit that we played up this fact and then pulled horrible stunts on them…knowing that they would be unable to retaliate. Also, I suspect you know about your father's crush on Lily? Well, pretty soon after it started it became an obsession and then love. We used this to our advantage, much to Sirius' displeasure. He was all up for pranking Lily, but James wouldn't let him. What fun we had with them. Now you may be wondering why I am choosing to help you. Well Severus has always been an enemy of not only the Marauders, but also of Lily and myself. He loathed the fact that she was a muggle-born and the fact that he himself had a crush on her. I loved that titbit and used it against him several times. Why do you think he hates Harry so much? Harry is not only identical to James, but he is also very like his mother. Severus wishes he himself was your father, not only because of Lily. Anyway. If you want to have fun I would suggest one of the pranks we used on the Marauders…or one the Marauders used on Severus. I would suggest the prank we dubbed Operation Parsley. He'll hate it. Of course Sirius hated it too."
"Tell us." Ron pressed her.
"It's the perfect prank. So simple and perfect for humiliation. If that's what you're after. We played this on Sirius and James. It was so good it landed in an edition of Hogwarts; a History. Yes, Hermione, I know you know it by heart but James lobbied to have it removed from the edition, and he succeeded. It was named Operation Parsley because it involved parsley. Severus will hate it even more because he made it up."
"I wonder if Dumbledore would hate us forever if we pranked him." Harry wondered.
"Are you kidding? He'll love it. You know what he's like; he'll take it in his stride." Draco said.
"Yeah, but it could backfire horribly. That's why George and I never pranked him."
"Let's prank some of the Hufflepuffs. They won't suspect a thing."
"Hagrid won't care either."
"There's one problem, we won't be able to come up with pranks that are good enough. I mean, even with Fred and George, the most notorious pranksters ever to grace the halls of Hogwarts, we can't come up with brilliant pranks all the way through." Ron said, brow furrowed.
"There was once a trio of people who were worse. You will notice that I am excluding the fourth person because he is a rat, in the literal sense, and a traitorous little leech. Also we have the twins and Minerva McGonagall on our side. And you've got me. I can make any spell work to our advantage, and I know the library back to front. We could have this school on their toes if we choose to. So do we?" Hermione finished and everyone cheered.