Chapter 60: Bursting In

March 15, 1994

Sailing

Percy walked into Professor Dumbledore's room nervously.

He was here on a dare.

Fred and George had dared him to come into Dumbledore's room, steal something, and get out of there.

The problem was, Percy didn't know if Dumbledore was in the room or not. It was a sailing day, which meant there was a good chance he was in there. But still…

Why did he even sign up for this stupid dare in the first place?!

Just then, he heard a splash coming from the bathroom. Oh, no. Dumbledore was going to kill him if his room was flooding.

The splash sounded again, louder this time. Percy nervously inched towards the bathroom and pushed open the door, his mouth dropping when he saw what was in there.

A hippo sat on the edge of the tub, bouncing around in a bathtub full of water.

Percy screamed. "What the heck?!"

The hippo looked him in the eye.

"Oh, no, why are you in here?" Percy moaned. "Here, let me take you out." Trust Dumbledore to keep a hippo in his room. He gingerly picked up the baby hippo and lifted it out of the tub, leaving a trail of sopping water in his wake. Then he walked out of the bathroom to the main room, aware of the water trail he was leaving. Where on earth was he going to put this hippo? George and Fred had told him to steal something… Should he steal it?

The hippo growled, and Percy knew that unless he wanted to die, he was going to have to steal the hippo and take it to his own bathtub. Great.

What were his roommates going to say?

"Excuse me?"

Percy screamed and dropped the hippo onto the ground.

Albus Dumbledore was standing in front of him, an angry expression on his face.

"Sorry, sir," Percy squeaked. "I didn't mean to…"

"STEAL MY HIPPO?!" Dumbledore shouted, his beard flying.

"No, I…"

"You're fired!" Dumbledore yelled. "Get off the ship!"

"But…"

"Out! You're going back to Hogwarts to clean the school!" Dumbledore pointed to the door.

"Professor, I…"

"Nobody steals my hippo!"

Percy wasn't having it. He wasn't going to go back and help Filch clean the school just because Dumbledore was mad about a hippo.

"Professor, you listen to me," Percy retorted. "I was only trying to help your hippo. He was screaming from inside the bathtub!"

"She was?" asked Dumbledore, face full of concern.

"Yes." Percy nodded earnestly. "She was. Oh, most definitely!"

"Oh no!" Dumbledore cried. "Is my hippo okay?" He dropped to the ground and started stroking the hippo.

Dumbledore was so weird.

"I was only helping your hippo," Percy told him. "I wasn't going to steal him."

"Thank you, Percy," Dumbledore said. "Thank you for saving Magnolia! You may go now."

"Yeah, yeah," grumbled Percy, and he walked out of the room.

"So make sure that you guys be careful when you're on the top floor," Lily was telling her students. "Because I know it's more wobbly up there. And…"

The door opened, and James rushed into the room.

"Guess what," he interrupted, his eyes shining. "Dumbledore smuggled a hippo into the ship!"

"What?!" Lily spat, her entire class seemingly having the same reaction.

"Yep," James said. "It's only a baby, but it's still big! And it was in his bathtub!"

"How did you find out?" asked one of the students.

"Yeah, how did you find out?" Lily queried.

"One of my friends told me," he answered evasively, but the look in his eyes told Lily that this was most definitely a Marauder thing.

"What happened to the poor hippo?" cried a student. "I hope she's okay!"

"She's fine," assured James. "Dumbledore released her back into the ocean. He was forced to, after a cruise official caught him."

Lily snorted while the class erupted into laughter. "Is he upset right now?"

"Very much so, I can imagine," James replied. "Anyway, hippos aside, Lily, have you seen my sweatshirt?"

"Sweatshirt?" Lily asked, puzzled. "No. Why would you need a sweatshirt? It's nice and warm on the ship."

"I'm going to teach Tonks ice skating," he explained. "And the ice rink is going to be cold."

"Oh. Have fun with that." She couldn't even imagine how bad Tonks would be on the ice. Tonks was really nice, but kept tripping over the randomest things.

"I can handle it. Now, where's my sweatshirt?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know, I didn't take it. What would I want with your sweatshirt, anyway?"

"Oh, so we're going to pretend you don't steal my sweatshirts now?" James raised his eyebrows, but there was a teasing expression on his face.

"I didn't take it," Lily repeated, trying to remember where she had actually put the sweatshirt.

"Uh-huh." He didn't look convinced. "Where is it?"

"I really don't know," she answered honestly. She had no idea where that sweatshirt was now.

"Tell me."

Her entire class was watching on now, eyes fixed on her.

"I don't know, James. Don't you have another sweatshirt to wear?"

"I only brought one. I didn't expect to need it at all. Lily, come on."

"I… Check the suitcase?" she said, somewhat sheepishly.

He grinned and headed over to the suitcase, emerging back into the room where Lily was teaching, sporting his sweatshirt. "Thank you, Ms. Potter."

She felt her cheeks going red. "Yeah. Have fun ice skating."

"Thank you." He squeezed her shoulder and left.

"Do you always wear his sweatshirts, Ms. Potter?" asked a student.

"So what if I do?" defended Lily.

"They look comfy," a student noted.

"They are," Lily answered. "Now, unless anyone has something else to say, let's go back to cruise lessons."

"Don't smuggle hippos onto cruise ships!" called a student.

"Definitely not," Lily muttered.

Remus thought this entire thing of teaching people on a cruise was stupid, so he ditched his lesson plan entirely. Now he was witnessing a discussion about Quidditch, listening to his class ramble on about the Holyhead Harpies.

"They're so overrated," said one of the students. "Just because they're all women, people always hype them."

"That's rude!" accused another. "They're actually a good team, women or not. And besides, hardly any of the other teams have women on them, do they? The Harpies gives them an opportunity."

"And they're good," said another. "Gwenog Jones is so good."

Remus knew nothing about Gwenog Jones except that James couldn't stop ranting about her.

Just then, the door opened a crack, and Tonks poked her head into the room, holding out a cone of chocolate ice cream.

'You want?' she mouthed.

It was chocolate ice cream.

He couldn't resist.

And besides, he wanted an excuse for Tonks to come into the room so he could see what she was wearing and compliment her on being lovely and touch her and talk to her. So he called, "Yeah."

She smiled and pushed the door open some more, walking into the room. She was wearing a jacket-his jacket- and jeans, holding that delicious-looking ice cream cone in her hand.

"Here you go," she whispered as she reached him, holding the ice cream cone up to his face. He took a tentative lick, allowing the sensations of rich chocolate to completely unfold on his tongue.

"Thank you, love," he replied, taking the cone from her hand, allowing their fingers to brush. "Did you get yourself ice cream?"

"Yeah, I did." Her eyes darted between him and his class nervously. "Am I disturbing?"

"No, no, you're fine," Remus assured her. "Keep talking about Quidditch, you guys," he told his students, who seemed more than eager to comply. Then he turned back to Tonks. "Why the jacket?"

She blushed. "James was trying to teach me ice skating."

"Oh? How did you do?"

"Dismally."

"I'm sure you weren't that bad," he said comfortingly, taking another lick of the ice cream. "I'm sure you were an angel floating on the ice."

She snorted. "Me? An angel? Yeah, right. My bum is sore from falling so much."

His eyes twinkled. "Anything I can do about that?"

Her eyes widened. "Look whose ego is pumped up today. Would you like to work your magic tonight?"

He grinned and kissed her cheek, leaving a chocolate ice cream mark there. "Lovely. Need anything else?"

She shook her head earnestly. "Nope."

He took her small hand in his (which was cold, presumably from the ice). "Alright, then. You can stay here if you'd like, but I don't want to keep you in the room when there's so much to do outside."

"But you have to stay in here."

"I know," he sighed. "Dumbledore and his dumb rules. But you should go outside and do something fun."

"But I don't want to l…"

"You won't leave me alone," he said gently. "I'll be okay. Go and do something fun with someone."

She sighed. "Fine. But if you're bored, I can always come back."

"I think I'll be fine," he replied. "We're talking about the Holyhead Harpies."

She giggled, running a hand through her pink hair (she had chosen to keep it pink in shoulder-length waves throughout the cruise so she would pass security and wouldn't freak the Muggles). "During a Defense Against the Dark Arts class?"

"Yeah. Why would you bother doing classes on a cruise? And besides, I am a Marauder."

Tonks ruffled his hair. "I know. That's why I like you."

Remus licked his ice cream cone. "Thank you."

She smiled sheepishly, planted a quick kiss on his nose, and then walked out of the room, leaving Remus dazed with a melting ice cream cone in his hand.

Oliver Wood was watching TV.

But he wasn't happy with the channel that was on. It was the common lounge, and people were watching some boring politician yap on about some dude who was going to cut taxes. He wanted to watch Quidditch.

"Hey, can I have the remote?" someone asked someone else, who was holding a black rectangle thing.

"Yeah, mate," the guy answered, giving it back to the first guy who had asked.

Oliver watched, curious, as the first guy took the rectangle and pressed a button on it. Instantly, the politician went away and a woman popped up, talking about the clouds.

"Oh, can I have that?" Oliver asked, gesturing to the rectangle.

The first guy gave it to him. "Here."

"Thanks. How do I switch the channel?"

"Press that button right there," the guy told him.

Oliver pressed the button, and it took him back to the politician. He pressed it again, and it took him to something that looked like Quidditch.

Was it Quidditch? He peered at the screen to find out. People were playing with a ball, but no brooms. There was a hoop, but only one on each side, and it hung down. There was only one ball, and it was big and orange. People were bouncing it on the ground.

"You like basketball too?" exclaimed the guy who had given him the remote. "Excellent, bro! So do I!"

"Uh, no, I like Quidditch," Oliver said, confused. What was basketball?

"There's a team called Quidditch?" asked the guy. "Oh, that's cool! Which country?"

"England, mostly, but other countries too," Oliver explained. "There's like, a World Cup and everything."

"Yeah, bro, I think it's called FIBA."

"Oh," said Oliver. "No, that's not it, it's called the Quidditch World Cup."

"Oh, your English team named Quidditch has its own World Cup?" asked the guy. "That's so cool! Are you from England, bro?"

"Yeah," Oliver said proudly.

"Cool, bro." The guy hit Oliver's fist with his. That was weird. "I'm from America. They have a ton of teams there. Like, lots of little teams, bro."

"They play Quidditch in America?" Oliver asked, interested.

"No, bro, of course not. They play basketball in America. Quidditch is an English team, bro, you said so yourself!"

"But I know they have Quidditch in Bulgaria…" Oliver said, frowning.

"They do?" the guy asked. "That's cool, bro. I didn't know there could be more than one team."

"Of course there's more than one team!" Oliver cried. "There's teams all over the world!"

"Oh, yeah, well obviously, that's how they play internationally, bro." The guy nodded wisely.

"Okay, good." Oliver was glad they were on the same track.

Even if he still didn't know what basketball was.

Filch grunted.

"Keep cleaning," he barked.

He wasn't having a very good day.

First, he had been sent a nice, plump chocolate cake. It had looked absolutely delectable and mouth-watering. He had licked his lips and opened the package carefully, which had been neatly wrapped in green wrapping paper adorned with little tabby cats. Filch had opened the box carefully, and…

A Dungbomb had flown right into his face.

Professor Grubbly-Plank had taken about an hour to clean it out of his face.

And, oh, it didn't help that someone else had seen that entire incident.

Irma Pince.

She was as sweet as the sun a hundred times back. Her flowery scent smelled of luxurious perfume, of rose gardens and cherry blossoms. Her smile was as bright as the sun. She was beautiful, the way her robes swept as she sorted books, the way her black hair ruffled so gorgeously when the doors opened and closed with bursts of wind.

"Argus?"

The voice snapped him back to reality, out of his daydream about the Hogwarts librarian. It was Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank, her hands on her hips and an eyebrow raised.

"What are you doing? Where are you lost?" she inquired.

"I'm fine," he snapped. "Everyone, get back to cleaning."

"Everyone's gone," Grubbly-Plank informed him. "They all packed up and left to go to sleep. It's nighttime, Argus!"

"Thank you for informing me," Filch retorted. "Goodbye."

Grubbly-Plank shrugged. "Okay, then. Night, Argus."

Filch hated his life.

Cuthbert Binns was going to have some fun.

Dumbledore had told him that because he was ghostly, he couldn't be seen by Muggles.

He was not okay with that.

Binns wanted to hang out at the parties and eat food.

Obviously, he couldn't really eat food, given he was a ghost, but that didn't stop him from having fun! He wanted to watch those late-night comedies and listen to the dirty jokes and laugh. But not if he followed Dumbledore, no.

He floated to the theater, where the late-night comedy was going to start in half an hour. It was easy, because he could float through walls to get there faster. He ended up cutting through a lot of rooms, where he saw some interesting things happen. People getting up to certain stuff, people stuffing their faces with jello, and people dancing snake dances.

Binns floated all the way to the entrance of the theater, trying to find the person who would let him in.

"AAAAAAH!"

Binns whipped around to see a teenage girl, shrieking at the top of her lungs and pointing towards him.

"Mom, it's a ghost!" she screamed.

"Don't be silly, Liv," her mother scolded. "It's just a hologram."

"Did you just call me a hologram?" Binns accused, pretending to be offended. "How dare you!"

What was a hologram?

"See, Liv, it's just being silly," her mother said. "It's a hologram. I wonder where the camera is, though."

"But… can I touch it?" asked the girl, Liv.

"Don't touch what isn't yours to touch," her mother chided. "Some person is experimenting with a hologram. Let them be. Come now, let's get back to the room."

Binns sighed. These people were gone, and he still didn't know what a hologram was!

So he decided to ask the next couple who came along: a blonde lady and a red-haired guy.

"What is a hologram?" Binns asked.

"Oh, look, it's a hologram!" squealed the lady, clutching her partner's arm.

"What is a hologram?" Binns repeated, growing impatient.

"Oh, it's asking us if we know," the man said wisely. "Uh, it's a visual thingy that captures light in the middle of air, right?"

"I don't know, that's why I asked you!" Binns snapped. "Thank you for your input."

"That's one weird hologram," muttered the guy. "Come on, Justine."

The couple went into the entrance of the theater, where they were allowed to go in.

"Who's operating this hologram?" asked a cruise man.

"I operate myself, thank you very much," Binns replied crossly.

"I don't have time for this," said the cruise man wearily. "Seriously, whoever you are operating this hologram, could you please move it somewhere else? It's hard for people to get into the theater if they don't know where it is, and you're blocking the sign."

He pointed to a large sign that said THEATER.

"Spoilsport," grumbled Binns, deciding that he was going to go to the room that he shared with Hagrid, the gamekeeper, and take a nice nap. He stuck his tongue out at the cruise man and floated back to the room.

A/N: So... hi. It's been almost a year since this was last updated. Wow, that's a long time.

But since the rest of this story is already finished, we're just gonna post the remaining chapters (or, well, we'll try). We're back tho lol.

This chapter wasn't edited or anything, but hope you guys enjoy anyway! thanks for all your support :)