Chapter 3: Plotting and Also Snape
Disclaimer is on the first chapter.
"Lee, would you please concentrate?" Hermione asked, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Sorry," he said, flicking his card castle over. It blew up with a loud bang, and half the 6 of hearts got stuck in George's hair.
Hermione turned back to the others. "As I was saying, we need to have re-established our presence here by Hallowe'en. The tournament will be overshadowing us then, and there's also the risk other schools will be suspected. Though this doesn't actually make any sense, we've already established that our fellow students are often not the smartest – particularly as they're probably being charmed, as we were."
There was a general nodding – except from Ron, who had fallen into the habit of thinking during meetings, and Luna, who looked as if she hadn't even heard the statement.
"What are we going to do, then?" Ginny asked. "We left with a good bang last year, that face on the wall was hilarious."
"I just want to know who the scamp was who drew a moustache over it," Fred said.
George nodded. "That was inspirational."
Ron looked up. "I think we should lull them into a false sense of security first. Fred, George if you act normally, that'll keep the problems going. But we shouldn't do anything spectacular until Hallowe'en itself. I guess we might do one small one, to remind them we're here, but we should make it look like we're getting tied up in the Tournament hassle."
"Right. Hallowe'en would let us leave our marks on the other schools, too, and straight away," Neville agreed. "Maybe we should split up. One team can manage Hallowe'en itself, and another can plan the intermission."
Dreamily, Luna added, "I like this plan. Last time we did something like it, it attracted a lot of Wrackspurts to the castle. I'm still working on the fields to keep them away, since the Butterbeer caps are a little too weak, but Hermione's training should help us a lot with that."
Harry nodded. "Good. We can mark the Hallowe'en appearance as The Gang – Ron, who've we already named as individual instigators?"
Ron shuffled through a stack of parchment, scratching his long nose. "Uh. Okay. We named you, me, Luna, Ginny, Lee, and Neville. We left Hermione, Fred, and George unnamed, because we were concerned about them thinking we were too big."
"Who should we name the little ones for, then?" Lee asked.
Harry thought for a moment. After fighting off the blocks, all of them had experienced changes within their thought patterns, Harry more than most. "Ron," he said slowly. "We can't name either Fred or George individually yet, and we can't risk a sudden pair appearing. Hermione, we don't want people to know we have a good mind, and you're name's too obviously different to ours. Neville, Luna, and Lee, we've used you as heads a bit too often – and we don't want to have a clear leader. That leaves Ginny, Ron, or me. I'm not as obvious as the others, but still at risk of showing as the leader – and I've also been the name behind two Dumbledore incidents. Plus, I have one of the more obvious names. And since we're trying to create personality, I don't think Ginny would fit to these kinds of pranks. That leaves Ron. Your name is even a warrior, so it makes sense that you'd continue when we don't."
"Good," Hermione said, scribbling the information down. "We'll work on that. Anything else we needed to cover, before people notice we're missing?"
Neville nodded slightly shyly. "I think we need a new classroom."
"Why's that?" Ginny asked.
"Well," Neville explained, "I was going down to the greenhouse, and I heard Professor Sprout talking to Professor Vector. Professor Vector was a little worried, because she said her arithmancy was showing some disturbances around the classroom."
"Damn," Hermione cursed. "If she's picking it up, we definitely can't keep using this room. I thought I was removing the spell fully."
"It could just be the residual magic hanging around. She –"
" –always did tend to get up in the middle of the night." Fred and George said together.
"And if she's doing that, there will be slight amounts of magic left behind, since it's a field instead of a direct spell," Hermione sighed. "Not enough to tell her anything, but enough to make her suspicious."
"We'll need a new secure location, then," Ron said gloomily. "What with us having a public presence, the teachers are itching to catch us."
"If only we had one of the Founder's rooms," Luna said. "Daddy thought he was nearly about to find Ravenclaw's study while he was at school, but he never got the time."
Harry nearly fell off his perch on the desk. "Luna, you are a genius."
"Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure," Luna trilled back.
"I doubt we're going to find Ravenclaw's study," Lee warned.
Harry shook his head. "We don't need to. Not that we shouldn't, but we already have a place to meet."
"Where? It must be a place –"
" – not on the map, or else –"
" – we'd have noticed."
Harry nodded. "It's not on the map, because the Marauders were Gryffindors. We're going full Slytherin. If it's alright with you two, Ron, Ginny."
Hermione gasped. "The Chamber!"
Ron groaned. "Great. More time sneaking into a girl's bathroom."
"Is it safe?" Neville asked.
"Sure," Harry replied. "The snake was blinded when I fought it, so its eyes aren't a worry. We could use its parts too, now that I think of it – Basilisks are so poisonous they keep fresh for years. The only way to get in is Parseltongue, but we can get around that with recordings – or if we just buy a butt-tonne of snakes. Its secure, and because everyone still thinks we're a bunch of Light-facing airheads, no-one will think of looking down there. As far as they know, The Gang doesn't even know it's there."
"What's all this about a girl's bathroom?" Fred asked.
"Yeah. We heard Percy complaining about it, but never found out why," George added.
"The entrance is in a bathroom, right?" Neville asked.
"Yep. Moaning Myrtle's to be precise," Ron grumbled.
"She'll be happy of the company," Hermione pointed out. "I think we can trust her not to spill. She hates the Headmaster, anyway."
"Why?" Ginny asked. "Everyone loves him. Except for Slytherin. Myrtle wasn't a Slytherin, was she?"
"No, but potions and enchantments don't work on the dead," Hermione explained. "And he never helped deal with her bullying situation. That's how she died, you know. She was hiding in a bathroom, and the snake got her. She's bitter with everyone. Except Harry. I think she has a bit of a crush on him, actually…"
"So, we'll use the Chamber as a meeting place?" Neville asked. "Because it's getting almost too late to meet up. If we're not in our dorms soon, our roommates will suspect something's up."
"You're right," Harry said, checking the clock on the wall. "Good on you, Neville, we almost left a hint behind. Let's meet up in the Chamber next week, okay?"
In the morning, Harry got up and went down to the Great Hall like normal. Ron was already down there, stuffing his face, and Hermione arrived a few minutes later, in a significantly better condition than either of the two boys. They made small talk, asked the others about their holidays, and collected their timetables, like normal. This was an important part of their planning. While they were now strong enough that Dumbledore's charms had no effect on them, they still had to act as normally as possible, or risk detection. The idea was to trick him into thinking he had successfully reprogrammed them into the perfect Golden Trio. After breakfast, Harry went back to the Gryffindor Tower and, while no-one but Ron was looking, drank a small vial of potion as the redhead did the same. He then packed up his things – his phoenix-feather wand, his books, and, while no-one was looking, a small amount of coins and his second wand.
Hermione, after fully unblocking her eidetic (or as Ron called it, bloody human camera) memory, had turned into even more of a nerd than before. She now barely had to study, and instead poured the extra time into learning more and more. Her focus, of course, had initially been methods of surveillance and control, as well as how to stop them. One day, she had run up to Harry and Ron after their divination class.
"Calm down," Ron had said weakly, as she dragged them both off by their school ties. They had slowly gotten used to her sudden outbursts, but that didn't make them any less of a surprise, and Hermione wasn't gentle.
"I will not. We need new wands."
"What for? What about the whole wand chooses the wizard, and all that?" Harry asked.
Hermione nodded. "Yes, but you can have more than one. Godric Gryffindor had three at one stage – one for duelling, one for transfiguration, and one for charms. Rowena Ravenclaw collected the things. Helga Hufflepuff had two in her youth, but only used one as an adult. Salazar Slytherin had two as well, but he gave one to Ravenclaw when he no longer needed it. Apparently, it liked her better. The point is, we need new ones, because we can be tracked through these."
"How?" Ron asked. "The Trace? Shouldn't that show all magic around us?"
Hermione shook her head. "The Trace will show that there's magic going on, yes, but not who. You know why Hogwarts students are encouraged to go to Ollivander's? All his wands are registered. That means they can track what spells we're using, all the time!"
"And our souls?" Harry asked.
Hermione shook her head. "No, but at the moment, we can still only barely practice Occlumency and very basic wandless magic. We need a way in which we can't be tracked."
"We'll get them when we go down to Hogsmeade," Ron said. "I know there's a wandmaker in Knockturn Alley. We can sneak out using the Floo. I've always wanted to go to Knockturn Alley."
After that incident, all members of The Gang were bought new wands, courtesy of either Harry or Hermione. And they carried them (albeit discreetly) everywhere. They never used them in class, or during their encounters with the Slytherins – only when they were sure they couldn't be tracked.
Class went by in a whirl, thanks to Harry's unbound magic abilities. They had finally completely removed the blocks at the end of the third year, and since then, most classes had become a breeze. Harry found he had his mother's skill in potions and his father's in defence. Snape was grudgingly impressed. Ron turned out to be fairly good at charms and defence as well. Neville no longer screwed up quite so much in potions and could make just about anything in the greenhouses grow. Hermione, of course, was good at everything. They made sure to slip up every so often, though, so as not to cause suspicion – and that led to amusing situations like the day's Transfiguration class.
"Potter, Weasley, what on Earth have you boys done?" Professor McGonagall asked, looking down at their mice.
"I'm really not sure," Ron replied weakly, trying not to laugh. They were studying switching spells and had been asked to switch a mouse and a tortoise. Harry and Ron could do these to satisfaction, though it took effort, but had intentionally screwed over. What they had gotten was an eight-legged mouse and a legless mouse with two tails.
McGonagall assigned extra homework to the two, went over to fix Neville's nose back onto his head, and awarded Hermione five points for perfectly performing the spell.
Their lessons often went like this. Hermione would act like the perfect student, struggling once or twice but always getting it first. Harry and Ron would create various mishaps. Neville still wasn't brilliant, on account of using his father's wand, but occasionally had to intentionally melt his own cauldron. While they worked, the students would be plotting their next move – and when they quickly finished their homework, they would pretend to study more while secretly practicing their new techniques.
On the first of October, Ron warned Harry to stay away from Snape's office.
"He might try and catch you for it, mate," he said frankly.
"What're you two talking about?" Dean asked, coming over with his shoes on the wrong feet.
"Didn't you hear? Bloody hell, Dean, what rock do you live under?" Ron asked, feigning surprise.
Dean shook his head, and Harry, who was much better at lying, took over. "The Gang. They reckon they're going to pull something on Snape, and of course, he'd love to catch a Gryffindor for it."
"What're they going to do?" Dean asked, but Harry shrugged. Ron hadn't told him what was going to happen. When Dean turned to Ron, he made a noncommittal face.
"If they told us, the teachers could stop it."
Harry nodded along, though he secretly wondered what exactly Ron, Neville, and Ginny had come up with. Knowing Ron, it would be strategically executed so no-one was nearby; knowing Neville, it was probably simple but brilliant; knowing Ginny, it was probably vicious.
At lunchtime, he found out. He was scribbling out some DADA homework for Moody when Dean elbowed him in the ribs. "You were right."
Harry looked up and choked on his sandwich. It wasn't big, but it did look very funny. Someone had enchanted Snape's clothes to look like Augusta Longbottom's. As soon as students noticed, they stopped eating and stared, before telling the people nearby. Slowly, as Snape made his way across the hall in a kind of walk of shame, the chatter stopped, replaced with nervous giggling and whispers. Then, a Hufflepuff first-year, who clearly lacked in self-control, looked up and snorted his pumpkin juice out of his nose, and the spell was broken. Laughter and chatter broke out once more and as Snape sat down at the table, absolutely furious, as rain of parchment slips began to fall from the sky. One landed in Lavender's soup and she fished it out. "Ooh!" she squealed, holding up the parchment. "With love from Mister Chompers, and a little ghost! He's from The Gang, isn't he, Parvati?"
Parvati had nodded, apparently too afraid of bursting into giggles to open her mouth. Her mouthful of salad probably didn't help either. Sometimes Harry wondered why Parvati ate so much salad. It couldn't have been very tasty. Then again, there wasn't much other food around that was vegetarian. No-one could just live on potatoes.
"And here I was thinking they'd forgotten about us," Seamus beamed.
Ron smirked and Lavender raised her eyebrows at him. "What is it, Ron?"
"Just thinking of what they'll pull next," he said, as a gaggle of 6th years walked into the hall and they all burst out cackling like witches out of a muggle storybook.
"Maybe they won't," Hermione said. "The Tournament's coming up. Remember, they had a bit of a blackout when Sirius Black broke into the tower. What's to say that won't happen again?"
"I hope they come back," Seamus said. "They're good."
Parvati nodded. "Sometimes I don't really get why they do it. But it's funny, that's for sure."