The Return to Hogwarts

When Harry woke up in the morning, he found everyone else was already awake and in the sitting room. Tonks was eating from a plate of pancakes while Lyra and Whispers were drinking juice, and Brandt was checking his watch and looking anxious. Just as he was about to ask what was going on, Opal popped into the room holding a small package.

"Finally," Brandt exclaimed, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Opal," he said as he took the package.

As the paper was torn off, Harry could see that it was full of large photo prints. Brandt flipped through them until he found the one he was looking for and pulled it out.

"I've got the picture you wanted of Cynthia and Hannah," he told Harry, holding out the photo.

Lyra, Whispers, and Tonks got up to look as Harry took the photo from him. Cynthia, the demiguise, was sitting at the base of one of the trees, cuddling little Hannah in her arms. Hannah was still almost completely hairless, with the exception of her eyebrows growing in curls over her eyes to match her mother's. The animation of the photo had Cynthia rocking her child as she looked up at the camera.

"Awww, that's adorable," Tonks cooed at the photo. "Is that your family?" she asked Whispers.

Not seeing that Tonks was addressing Whispers, Harry just responded, "Yeah, she's pretty great."

Tonks raised an eyebrow towards Brandt as the kids looked over the photo. He just gave her an indecipherable nod back before skimming through the photos, pulling out several more, and passing them to Lyra. He took out one more and passed it to Tonks. That photo was of Charlie standing next to Brandt, displaying his full height of just over seven feet tall.

"No way," she stared at it. "You weren't kidding about how big they were," she held it up to compare it with Brandt. "Whispers is going to be this big too?"

"It would be amazing!" Lyra spoke up while looking through other photos of demiguises. "Then he could start carrying me around everywhere."

Tonks looked at all the photos on the table that Brandt had put out with so many large demiguises. So this is how Harry was going to be supplying all the hair for the venture Brandt had got him into. With so many and such large creatures, Harry would be very rich, very quickly.

For the next hour, Harry and Lyra showed Tonks many pictures and told her the names of many of the demiguises in the photos. Brandt seemed to be a bit hesitant for them to show her so much, assumingly because their upbringing was supposed to be a secret.

Near midmorning, there was a knock on the door and Opal announced that Moody was at the door. Brandt walked over to the entrance and beckoned the old auror inside.

"Not a chance in hell that I'll be coming inside unless I have a warrant," he told Brandt. "We need to be going soon if they want to have enough time to visit with Lady Abbott and her daughter before leaving for Hogwarts."

Harry and Lyra quickly ran to their room to change while Moody just stood at the door, his blue eye twitching back and forth at what he could see from the doorstep.

"Can I get anything for you?" Brandt asked him.

"Nah, however, Nymphadora can get me a cup of coffee and the pictures on the table in the other room."

Tonks sighed and picked up the stack of photos and walked out to the entrance to pass them to her trainer, then walked back to the kitchen to fix her boss a cup of coffee. Opal tried to help, but she waved him off, knowing he wouldn't accept a drink made by a Black family elf, or anyone else.

Alastor looked through the pictures and smiled a bit at different ones while Brandt stood just inside the door like he was guarding it to keep him from entering a place he didn't want to be.

After Tonks returned with his coffee, he asked Brandt, "So, how did you like it? Anything almost kill you?"

Looking briefly at Tonks, he tried to keep his responses vague, "I almost got my hair styled like Auror Nevitt, though I was a bit quicker in my apparation response time. I also got photos of Lyra playing with the stylists on her broom, and Harry playing with his friend as well."

Moody's eyes widened at his response, "I think I would enjoy seeing those. Is it possible to make a temporary truce at some point?"

Now it was Tonks's turn to be surprised. Moody had told her about the situation with the eyepatch, and it was not like her mentor to forgive such a transgression unless these photos of Lyra playing with a stylist on a broom and Harry playing with a friend of his were something quite incredible.

Brandt stroked his beard for a moment in thought before responding, "I'm starting an investigation on some foreign government officials. If you have any information on them, I could exchange the photos for that." Moody gave him a piercing glare before Brandt added on, "It's people who don't like the kids for some reason."

Moody just gave him a brief nod, and said, "Send me an owl."

Tonks just continued to stare with interest and shock before Harry, Lyra and Whispers came back out. They were both dressed nicely, and Whispers was wearing his hat from the party.

Lyra asked, "Will Opal be able to bring our trunks later?" Brandt nodded.

"Ok, kids," Moody spoke up, "The floo at Lady Abbott's tea house is under repair, so we are going to be taking the Knight Bus to the shop."

Brandt groaned.

"That's the thing you like less than airplanes, right?" Harry asked.

Brandt just groaned again.

"You don't like the Knight Bus?" Tonks teased him. "It's so much fun!"

Lyra looked back and forth between them, unable to decide who to believe, but knew she would get to make up her own mind soon. The group walked down Tangent Alley towards Gringotts, then looped back towards The Leaky Cauldron. They attracted a bit of attention as they strolled through, but glares from Mad-Eye Moody kept people from getting up to speak with Harry.

As soon as they were out of the pub, several other witches and wizards were standing on the street, one of them had their wand held out into the street. Brandt guided the group to queue up behind the others. It took about five minutes before there was a loud *BANG* which caused Whispers to vanish; and a purple, triple-decker bus appeared out of thin air and stopped impossibly fast in front of the line of people.

The bus seemed to rock back and forth as it pulled in and had quite a few extra mirrors sticking off the side that a regular bus would not. The driver also was a strange sight, as he wore a set of glasses that looked like he was an optometrist, with extra lenses on both sides, all of which seemed to contain a set of blinking eyes. Another man stood with a ticket machine at the entrance, wearing the same uniform as the driver, but no glasses.

Brandt led the group onto the bus, paid for them, and told the ticket taker they were heading to the Abbott's Tea House in Abbots-Langley. Harry was second to last to get on, and as he passed the ticket-taker, the man reached out and grabbed his coat.

"You're 'Arry Potter, ain't ya!" the man exclaimed. However, that's as much as he could say before his arms snapped to his sides, and fell over from a body-bind cast by Moody.

Moody propped the man up and stuck his wand under his chin, "Did your mother ever teach you to keep your hands to yourself?" He unfroze the man's face so he could answer.

"She might 'ave mentioned it."

"Well, see to it that you remember it," then ushered Harry onto the bus and unfroze him so he could take the fare of the next wizard.

Harry looked around the bus to see the entire first level was full. All of the riders were sitting in an odd assortment of different types of chairs; dining chairs, folding chairs, plush chairs, and even a few recliners. Tonks called to Harry as they were heading up the stairs to the next level. She led them to the top level, which had much fewer people. Brandt was arranging a group of nicer chairs and applying sticking charms to their legs. Alastor joined him in doubling up on the sticking charms, but Tonks pulled Harry and Lyra to the front of the bus where there was a large window overlooking the road.

"This is the best part of the bus," she told them, as Whispers turned visible next to Lyra, hanging on the railing. "You'll need to hold on tight, but it's a great view."

From a pipe next to them that connected to the floors below, they heard the driver call out, "Next stop, Greenwich!"

Tonks grabbed tight to the railing, as Harry, Lyra, and Whispers mimicked her. There was a loud *BANG* and a small flash and the bus shot forward with a flash. When the light went away, they were speeding down the street and all of them had their feet swept out from under them as they zipped down the road, Tonks squealed with excitement. Harry could see that they were avoiding the other cars on the road as if the bus were some kind of serpent, bending in impossible ways to avoid collisions, and none of the muggles seemed to notice anything amiss.

Ahead of them, he saw two busses having an elephant race and couldn't figure out how they were going to get around them, but the bus seemed to contract itself, which caused him to get completely squished next to Lyra and Tonks, and he could feel one of Whispers's feet gripping his arm. Their bus then just slipped in between the two red buses and continued on its way for another three minutes before coming to a sudden stop which nearly had them fly into the window in front of them.

"Greenwich Station!" the driver called out below.

"What'd you think, kids?" Tonks asked with excitement.

Lyra yelled out, "That was awesome!"

Harry thought it was insane, but kind of fun. He looked back to Alastor and Brandt who were breathing heavily in their chairs with their knuckles white from gripping the armrests. Moody's clawed foot was dug into the floor of the bus. Around the rest of the floor, some other riders had fallen over or drifted around a bit from where they were before and were setting up their seats again.

Harry looked back to Tonks and asked, "Can we bring some chairs up here to sit?"

Tonks just waved her wand, conjured a shaggy purple couch, stuck it to the floor where they were standing, then sat down. Harry sat down on the strange couch, which was much better. Whispers climbed into his lap and held on tightly to the bits of shag on the couch.

Just then, the driver called out, "Next stop, Romford!"

The bus ended up making seven stops in total, including two which weren't at a station for wizards who couldn't be bothered to get to one. Tonks explained that there was an extra charge for fares that didn't originate at a station. In total, it took only fifteen minutes to get to their stop.

Harry jumped up when he heard the driver call out "Abbott's Tea House!"

As soon as he got outside the bus he immediately recognized where he was. This was his secret path. All the times he had hidden here from Dudley and his gang, now he knew why it was here. This was where the Knight Bus must stop and stay hidden from muggles seeing it. The rest of the group got out, along with a few other riders, who started walking down the path as the bus drove off and vanished.

Lyra watched Harry as he looked around and stared at where they were. He seemed to be doing more than just looking around, so she asked, "What is it?"

"Remember when I told you about when I played 'Harry Hunting' with my cousin?" The adults gave him a bit of a concerned look. "This was the secret path I always hid in to get away from him."

"Oh," said Lyra, and looked around, but the location didn't have much meaning to her, it just looked like a long driveway with a hedge on one side.

"Wait a second, I want to check something!" Harry ran out of the path to the main street, with everyone else running after him.

He turned the corner and went along his old route home before he stopped when he heard the whispering. Somewhere across the street, there were a lot of snakes all chattering about this and that.

"What is it?" Newt asked as he caught up.

Harry looked back towards Brandt and Tonks and then said, "I'll tell you later," then as he started walking back, he casually scratched at his ear where Lyra could see.

When they arrived at the tea house, they all walked through the arch on the blank wall and into the shop. Just like last time, Hannah was at the hostess table, dressed nicely to greet people. Unlike last time, the entire shop was packed with people, except for one table that was marked 'Reserved.'

Hannah saw them come in and called out, "Harry! Lyra!" then covered her mouth with her hands as everyone in the shop turned to look. "Sorry about that," she told them. "Let me take you to your table."

Cynthia came out from the kitchen as they were sitting down with another woman, she told her, "Norma, please take over for Hannah," and the woman went to the front to play hostess as everyone sat down.

Just as Tonks was about to sit, Alastor told her, "Nymphadora, you're on overwatch. Put up all the necessary security and privacy wards and then keep guard on the entrance."

She looked a bit miffed at not getting to join the party, but gave a quick salute and said, "Yes sir."

Cynthia looked at Alastor with a frown, "That wasn't very nice, my shop is secure." Alastor started to say something but she cut him off, "Yeah yeah, constant vigilance, and all that."

Tonks was walking around their table casting spells when she finished and stationed herself at the entrance. Then a four-tiered stand with various sandwiches and sweets appeared in the middle of their table, along with teacups filled with hot water at each place and a selection of tea for everyone.

"It's good to see the two of you again so soon, how has your break been?" Cynthia asked the children.

"We got to go see our family," Lyra said with a smile.

"Fam-lee," Whispers repeated as he started to climb on the table to get to the food. Alastor stopped him and passed him a selection of snacks.

"Did you get to see the other Cynthia?" the human Cynthia asked.

"We did!" Harry replied. "She also had a daughter while we were gone, who has the same eyebrows, so we named her Hannah!"

"What?" Hannah squeaked.

"We got a picture," Harry reached into his pouch and pulled out the rolled-up photo, and slid it across the table to Hannah and her mother.

Both women's eyes seemed to sparkle as they admired the photo. Hannah looked up at Harry and Lyra quite a few times before looking back at the photo.

"I can see why you named her after me," Cynthia said. "She certainly has very curly eyebrows."

"How old is… Hannah?" Hannah asked.

"She was born just after we left," Lyra told her. "She's probably a few days short of five months old right now."

"Can we meet her sometime?" Hannah asked.

Harry and Lyra looked uncomfortable, so Alastor said very seriously, "Harry and Lyra's home is in a secret location. Most things about them are, you and your mother only know as much as you do because this was the first place they came to when they returned to the country. That's also why my trainee is not sitting with us."

Cynthia rubbed Hannah's arm as she looked a bit sad at his response, then turned to Lyra, "How did you and Harry like the party?"

"It was fun," she replied. "I liked the performance, and I might get tutoring from Pyroc and Disaris. Harry might work with Lumino."

"I heard about that," she replied. "The whole troop might be getting more work. Hannah is going to receive tutoring from Umber Iomare, I'm hoping her talent with herbology will transfer over into earth magic."

"That's good," Brandt commented. "The man seemed a bit put out that we couldn't find anyone for him to tutor while everyone else got a potential lead on extra work."

Cynthia and Brandt started a conversation about different elemental magics, while Lyra started picking apart sandwiches and eating them with Whispers.

Harry leaned over to Hannah and asked, "Are you doing better in Potions class now? I remember Snape scaring you the last time we were here."

Hannah ducked her head a little bit, "I'm doing a little better, I think. He seems a lot nicer than he was last year. I think that helps me concentrate on the work."

"People keep telling me that, but he's always been nice to me. He just likes to be scary, kind of like how McGonagall likes to appear strict, or Dumbledore likes to be weird and mysterious."

The two of them continued to talk about potions and Hannah started telling Harry about the antidotes they were brewing in her class. Lyra swapped seats with Whispers, so she was sitting next to Alastor and brought her teacup with her, which was now filled with a pink liquid that had swirls of gold in it.

She tugged on his sleeve and said, "I think I fixed the potion I tried to make last time. Can you catch it if I need to spit it out again?"

Alastor nodded and pulled out his wand, which got Cynthia and Brandt's attention. Lyra carefully lifted the cup to her lips and took an experimental sip. Her eyes lit up as she drank, and took a much larger sip after.

"It's really good!" she exclaimed. As she spoke, her eyes seemed to glow yellow, but went back to normal when she stopped.

Brandt looked at her closely and told her, "Say something else."

"Like what?" her eyes quickly glowed again.

"Your eyes just glowed when you spoke," Alastor told her. "Were those the same ingredients you put in the last time?"

She shook her head, "I used sunflower seeds instead of cucumber, and camomile blossoms instead of petals." Her eyes were glowing again as she spoke.

Cynthia looked interested, "It's an interesting cosmetic effect, do you feel any different?" Lyra shook her head.

"Please have Severus run tests on it," Brand told her. "I'm going to send you two patent applications for this and your sticking solution. Have your professor help you with them." Then he turned to Moody, "I also sent a patent application to Miss Tonks. She possibly invented a potion during her time at Hogwarts that helps adjust people to time differences when traveling and she never saw the need to register it as a new potion. Please make sure that she files it."

Alastor just nodded, and the conversations continued for another hour before Cynthia looked up and towards the entrance as her husband walked in. However, as he approached the table, he was stopped by Tonks who insisted on running diagnostic spells on him and giving him a spritz with Thief's Downfall before joining them. He objected harshly, but she refused to let him pass before finishing, and then let him enter into the privacy bubble as a chair appeared between his wife and daughter, allowing him to sit.

"I'm not used to such heavy security in my wife's shop," he said.

"When certain people are back in Azkaban, maybe we won't need it," Alastor told him.

"Point taken. I need to take Hannah to the train station. Would Harry and Lyra like to join us?"

Alastor looked towards Tonks and then back at Gerald Abbott, "My trainee and Steward Brandt can join you with the children. I'll keep your wife company until you return."

"I'm sure we'll have plenty of sneaky Slytherin stuff to talk about while you're gone," Cynthia smiled as she spoke. Alastor gave a quick look towards Tonks and motioned for her to follow the group.

Her husband just rolled his eyes and led Hannah, Harry, Lyra, Whispers, Brandt, and Tonks into the kitchen area. Towards the back was a small fireplace that they were going to leave through.

"This fireplace is too small for groups, so you'll need to go through one at a time," he specifically addressed Harry and Lyra.

Brandt told them, "We are going to 'Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Repeat that back to me."

They did, but Lyra asked, "Why do you always ask us to repeat it back?"

Gerald Abbott responded for Brandt, "For beginners with the Floo Network, young witches and wizards should always repeat the location many times. The system will still work if you mispronounce a destination, you'll just go somewhere similar on the network. Most times you'll go where you need to go, but in others, you'll end up somewhere completely different."

Hannah added, "My parents would always tell me a story about a kid who mispronounced a Floo address and ended up interrupting a dark ritual in someone's basement and had no way to escape."

Tonks added her own anecdote, "I actually did mispronounce a destination once when I was thirteen and ended up at a pub in Wales. There wasn't any Floo powder for the return trip, so I had to wait for my dad to come to get me after someone he knew sent off a Patronus message to him. I did get to learn some fun drinking songs from the other patrons while I waited though."

Moody mumbled, "The one Miss Abbott mentioned did indeed happen. It was my third case when I was a trainee in the auror force, had no scars, and all my parts. The arrival of the kid disrupted the ritual and destroyed an entire manor house. You've all learned about ashwinders, right?" The children nodded, "Well the failed ritual burned the surrounding countryside with dark and corrupted magical fire. Regular ashwinders are easy to deal with, but the ones that were spawned from this accident took quite a long time to contain and kill."

Everyone looked a bit frightened, even the adults.

Gerald tried to lighten the mood with a chuckle, and said, "So the moral of this story is to repeat your Floo destinations a few times, so you can get where you're going without incident."

"And close your floo before you perform any dark rituals," Brandt added as he passed crystal vials to Harry and Lyra and gestured for them to go first. Harry picked up Whispers and held him in a one-armed hug as the Hidden hung from his neck. He threw the powder into the fire and called out the destination. It was a short journey and he barely stumbled when coming out of the fireplace on the platform. Lyra arrived a few seconds later, followed by Tonks, Hannah, Gerald, and finally Brandt.

Gerald called for their house-elf to bring Hannah's trunk, which had Brandt do the same for Harry and Lyra through Opal. There were quite a few people on the platform saying goodbye to their families so Harry and Lyra said their goodbyes as well and boarded the train. Hannah stayed on the platform to wait for friends, so they found the first empty compartment, put their trunks up on the racks, and sat down. Whispers climbed onto the rack as well and laid down.

Right as the two-minute warning whistle blew, Fred and George popped their heads into the cabin, strangely enough, from two directions.

"Ahh, Harold Potter, just who we were looking for."

"Why were you looking for me?" he asked suspiciously.

They both came in and sat down across from Harry and Lyra, and smiled at them for a minute.

"We have two requests," said Inigo.

"The first is we would like for you to brew ten batches of Pinnochio's Tincture for us," said Fezzik.

"Why don't you do it?" Lyra asked. "Everyone says you're amazing at weird potions."

"To be honest, we just don't have the time," said the first one.

"And yours got approval from the greasy bat himself," said the second, "so we know it must be of top quality."

The train whistle blew again at that moment and started to move forward.

"What's the second thing you want?" Harry asked.

"We want to measure your head," they said together.

"Why?" Harry and Lyra said together as well.

"Why not?" one of them said.

"It's a surprise," the other said with a devious smile.

Harry rolled his eyes, as Lyra said, "And what do we get out of this mystery deal?"

"We are prepared to offer you three targeted pranks of a fun nature," said the one on their right.

"And one targeted prank of a malicious nature," said the one on their left.

Both Harry and Lyra were expecting favors or gold, so the Twins' method of repayment was a bit odd. The looks on their faces were quite telling in their confusion, so the right twin said, "We can give you time to think it over, and welcome you to consult with our good friend Lee about the nature of our offer."

The left twin added, "Though we would like to measure your head now, and will advance you one fun prank whether or not you accept the job to brew the potion."

Being curious, Harry agreed, and the twins pulled out a tape measure like the one Ollivander had, which flew through the air and wrapped around his head in various ways as notes were recorded on a piece of paper with a floating quill. When it was complete, the one who seemed more good-natured opened a bag he was carrying; as the quill, paper, and tape measure flew inside; then pulled out a few chocolate frogs.

"Our little sister tells us that you have a fun game to play with the frogs, would you like to have a few rounds?"

Harry and Lyra agreed, and Whispers jumped down to play as well. After a few rounds, Harry brought out some more of their chocolate frogs and they played more rounds with theirs too. The twins won just as many as they lost, having very quick reflexes. When they were almost out of frogs, Whispers perked up and his eyes glowed, but instead of vanishing, he just growled towards the door.

Both Harry and Lyra had seen him growl before, so they pulled out their wands and pointed them at the door. Fred and George took the hint and also drew their wands to point them toward the unknown danger. The door slid open to reveal Draco, Vincent, and Miles Bletchley.

Miles took one look inside and said, "I'm out, you didn't tell me it was Mr. Potter, and double no for the Twins." He nodded to both of them, "No offense intended," then turned and walked away.

Draco muttered, "Another traitor, we're just here to deliver a message."

Even in the face of four wands and a growling demiguise, the two boys took a step into the compartment. Immediately upon passing the threshold, both boys screamed; Draco grabbed his shoulder where Harry stabbed him, and fell to the ground, while Vincent started shaking his hand where Whispers bit him like it was on fire. Vincent grabbed Draco by the robes with his other hand and dragged him back into the hallway where they both started panting, the pain having gone away.

The twin closest to the door stood up and said, "Message received," then closed the door, and cast, "Colloportus!" locking it.

The still-sitting twin stared at Harry and Lyra who didn't seem the least bit surprised at what happened. He asked, "Was that wandless magic?"

Lyra responded, "It was a pain ward based on the injuries they received the last time they tried to hurt us."

"Wicked," they both smiled sinisterly.

Harry looked towards the door, "I think I'll cash in on the prank for measuring my head. Targeted at Vincent or Draco, both if it still counts as one. And it needs to be public."

The twins shared a look, then one said, "I was going to do it after what just happened, but I'll take it up a notch from your request."

The second one stood up, "Well, I'd better get planning, don't get in too much trouble without us. Talk to Lee about the other proposal!"

The train arrived as quickly as it did when they left school for the break, and when they departed, Harry stopped well outside of the view of the thestrals drawing the carriages. At least he didn't have a bag to carry, as he scooped up Whispers to carry with him through the snowy ground. Just as he started to trudge around the carriages on the side of the path, Lyra stopped him.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"The thestrals, I was walking around them."

She just smiled at him, then pulled her broom out of her pouch. Harry swatted himself in the forehead for not thinking of that. He too pulled out his broom and had Whispers sit in front of him as the two children mounted their brooms and took off towards the castle, plenty of other students pointing and shouting at them as they flew.

They both arrived long before the carriages, stashed their brooms, and ran in to get to their common room. After getting through the maze, they opened the inner door to reveal their newly blessed common room. Their eyes widened at the sight before them. Whispers screeched with happiness and ran off toward the trees.

The room was back to its previous size, with the living landscapes on the walls and the sun shining in the sky, about two hours before sunset. The five balete trees were now bigger than The Giver's tree and the three at the back of the circle had grown together into one massive cluster of roots, trunks, branches, and vines. The other two had space between them and the three in the back and were twice the height they were before.

On one side of the room, the banana and mango groves had been moved to near the back, but not in the shade of the larger trees. The other side of the room had smaller fruit trees; lemon, lime, pomegranate, and more. Next to the smaller trees was the open entrance to the greenhouse, which they could see was still completely overgrown from the magical growth.

With all the trees blocking the walls, there was no room for the doors to their rooms, however, in the front two corners of the room were spiral staircases that wound halfway up to the ceiling. At three landings small colored circles could be seen, which must be the doors to their room. The first-year boy's room was on the ground level on the right side, so they went over to check it out, and the door appeared as they got close.

Inside, the room was the same as it was before, with beds for Harry and his dormmates, all of their belongings had been delivered.

"Woah!" they heard from back in the common room, as well as many other exclamations of surprise.

Leaving the room, they saw Dumbledore standing there, surrounded by the other members of their house. They ran over to join the other students. Dumbledore waited patiently for everyone to finish looking around and pay attention to him.

"Welcome back to the second term of the year. As you can see, the blessing that young Mr. Potter and Miss Black performed was a great success. There was quite a bit more growth than what you see here, as the entire floor was covered with dittany as tall as Mr. Diggory."

The headmaster pulled out many photos and passed them around for people to look at as he spoke. Lyra glanced at one and saw it was the same pictures that had been sent to Newt at the island.

"We haven't seen all the benefits that the blessing has granted, so if you notice something unusual, please inform one of your professors. Mr. and Mrs. Scamander won't be back at school for at least two weeks. If you have anything you need to speak to them about before then, please approach me during your meals, or ask another professor to speak with me."

There was more chattering as the students exchanged photos.

"If you notice, there is now no space on the walls of the common room for all the dorms to be on the ground floor. So now the boys' dorms are on the side of the room with the new fruit trees and the kitchenette, while the girls are on the side with the mangos and bananas. First years get the first floor, second years on the second, and third and fourth on the third floor. Are there any questions?"

No one responded and just looked like they wanted to explore, so Dumbledore just told them that dinner would be in an hour and a half and let them run off.

Harry and Lyra greeted all of their friends, many of them who wanted to know about the blessing or just wanted to ask about their brooms. They exchanged thanks with all of their housemates with whom they had sent and received gifts over the break.

They were eventually approached by Cedric who smiled at them for a few moments before saying, "So, you both got brooms?"

"Uncle Arcturus gave them to us," Lyra told him happily.

Cedric seemed to bite his lip hard before responding, "Well, that's great! Are you going to join the flying club this term?"

Harry and Lyra shared a look before she replied, "Yeah, I think so, we've been doing a ton of flying since we got them."

"Sounds amazing!..." It looked like he wanted to add something, but stopped himself and wandered off, leaving Harry and Lyra a bit confused.

Fred and George somehow pulled together their prank in time for dinner that evening. As everyone was chattering on about their winter breaks, there was a pair of screams from the end of the Slytherin table. Everyone turned to look to see that Draco and Vincent were somehow wearing matching red sweaters, labeled with a D and V in bright green. They both tried to take off the sweaters but they wouldn't go over their heads, getting stuck inside out around their necks. When they pulled them back down, they also had curly red hair and freckles all over their faces.

The twins ran over to them, calling out, "Draco! Vincent! Our long-lost brothers!"

"What? What's going on?" Draco cried out.

Pansy was looking at both of them in horror, "You're both gingers! With freckles!"

They looked at each other and screamed, just as Fred and George embraced them, pinning their arms to their sides, and started chanting, "One of us! One of us!"

Ron and Ginny both looked like they would rather french kiss a flobberworm than go near their 'new brothers.' However, Percy got up and approached the four redheads with a stern look on his face.

"Draco, Vincent," he began. "I understand this must be difficult for you, but I'll add you to the rotation of our brothers that need to degnome the garden. Your shifts will be on Thursday and Saturday. No dessert at dinner if you don't finish on time." Then he turned around and went back to the Gryffindor table.

Everyone in the room was laughing at them now, except Pansy, and Snape, who approached the group like a wraith.

"Misters Weasley, let go of my Slytherins." The Twins released the two boys from the hugs that had been confining them. "10 points each from Gryffindor and detention this weekend."

"But we didn't do it!" cried out Thelma.

"And we can prove it!" said Louise.

"We'll go with the Harry Potter method of innocence!" they said together, pulling out two vials and downing them, then shaking their heads in disgust.

"My name is Fred!" said George.

"My name is George!" said Fred.

Both of their noses grew a little bit, then they repeated it with the correct name, and no growth of their noses.

"We did not plan this prank on Draco and Vincent!" their noses didn't grow.

"We did not give them the sweaters, the hair, or freckles!" still there was no growth.

Snape looked angry, "Your detention is revoked, the points stay for the disturbance, and an additional fifteen points off each for the possession of alcohol at school."

The twins looked at each other and shrugged.

George called out, "My father is a leprechaun! I have a pet dragon! I jumped in the lake last month fully clothed! I'm the prettier twin!

Fred yelled, "My brother Ron stopped wetting the bed when he was eight! I'm running for Minister! I wrote our transfiguration books! I'm the smarter twin!"

Both of their noses grew dramatically as a result of the stream of lies until they were each nearly ten inches long.

Ron cried out desperately over the laughter, "I never wet the bed, the whole statement is a lie!"

With both of their noses extra long, the Twins proceeded to have a sword fight with them as they walked back to the Gryffindor table. Ron jumped up to punch them, but they just started jabbing him with their noses over and over. Meanwhile, Draco and Vincent had fled the hall to try to reverse the prank with Snape following them out.

Harry and Lyra were laughing along with the entire hall as they watched Fred and George pull off their prank. Though how they were able to beat the truth potion, was unknown. Harry got up from his spot and squeezed in between Lee and Patricia.

"Hey Lee," Harry started, "I need your advice about something Fred and George related."

"Go ahead," he responded with interest.

"They offered me and Lyra three fun pranks and one mean prank for brewing ten batches of a potion that takes a month to brew. Are all their fun pranks as good as that?"

"That? That was maybe a three out of five for their fun pranks, the mean ones are the reason why no one messes with them. However, for a month of work, I'd ask for four and two."

Harry nodded and stood up on the bench to catch the eyes of the twins. When he managed to get their attention, he just held up four fingers in one hand and two in the other. After a moment of them whispering to each other, they both gave him a thumbs-up and went back to eating. Harry returned to his spot and told Lyra that he accepted the Twins' proposal.

"It's good to be back at Hogwarts," she smiled and started on her dessert.