"Telepathy"
"Parseltongue"
Chapter 16: Prank
"Welcome one and all to another year at Hogwarts!" Dumbledore announced after the sorting. "As usual, I have a few announcements. First: I'd like to introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Professors: Professors Jim Jarter, and his lovely assistant, Rose Jarter."
Everyone clapped.
"Is that your Mum?" Neville whispered as the redheaded man and the blond woman stood up.
"Yeah. But she doesn't normally look like that." Harry whispered back.
"Yes, yes." Dumbledore said. "We are all pleased to welcome them."
Harry nearly laughed out loud at the you-have-to-be-kidding-me look Snape was giving the headmaster.
"On to other things," Dumbledore said. "Quidditch house try-outs will begin the second week of school. See Madame Hooch for try-outs. Mr. Filch would also like me to remind everyone that no magic is to be used in the corridors. The Forbidden Forest is strictly off limits."
Everyone who knew the true identity of the defense professors (the Golden Group, Neville, Snape, Dumbledore, and Lily) all turned to James who was trying to look innocent (and failing).
"Why is everyone looking at me?" James asked.
"One more thing." Dumbledore said. "As all of you know, Voldemort has indeed risen again. However, you need not fear. You are safe at Hogwarts."
"United, we are strong. Divided, we are weak." Dumbledore finished. "Let the feast begin."
The food appeared.
"Just like I remember it." James said. "The view is GREAT up here. I should have been a teacher YEARS ago."
Lily rolled her eyes.
"If I recall correctly," Snape retorted. "You weren't around then."
"Details." James argued
"Ready?" Harry whispered.
"Ready." The rest of the Golden Group whispered.
Neville knocked his spoon, that wasn't going to be used, onto the floor and Harry acted as if he was going to pick it up.
"Please work." He prayed as he touched the floor.
"WHOA!"
Harry sat up to see it worked. The entire Slytherin table was now floating. Some of the Slytherins were hanging on for dear life. The rest of the hall (minus MOST teachers) were laughing. Lily and Snape were glaring at James.
"For once, it wasn't me." He told them.
Hermione nodded and Harry went back under the table. He brought down the Slytherin table. He then looked up to the staff table and got an idea. He preformed the same spell.
"JARTER!" Snape yelled. "PUT THE TABLE DOWN!"
"I KEEP TELLING YOU IT WASN'T ME!" James yelled back.
The staff table was now up in the air.
"Professor Jarter is correct. This is a much nicer view." Dumbledore observed.
"A…nicer…Albus?" McGonagall asked. "Surely you don't intend to let this prank go unpunished?"
"If whomever decided to levitate the staff table would kindly put it back gently, it would be greatly appreciated!" Dumbledore called.
"And please reveal yourself so I'm not blamed!" James added.
Ginny nodded to Harry. Harry used his wandless magic to activate some firecrackers they had bought from the twins that they had set up earlier.
BANG
Golden sparks went flying like bolts of lighting and wrote in gold lettering:
WE'RE BACK, BUT NOT AS BEFORE
The staff table was lowered.
"I hate riddles." James pouted. "They're too confusing."
0000
"We're back, but not as before." James repeated in the DADA office.
"James. Calm down."
"How can I calm down?" James asked as he sat in a chair. "I think someone was trying to outdo the Marauders and frame us."
"James." Lily said embracing her husband from behind and placing her chin on his head. "You're thinking about this too hard. In order for that prank to be pulled, one of the pranksters would have had to be a master at wandless."
"But it wasn't me!" James repeated.
"I know that." She told him. "You never pranked yourself. But remember what you told me back on the train?"
Flashback
"Something is going on with Harry and his friends." James announced.
"What makes you say that?" Lily asked him.
"I overheard him talking to Neville asking him to join his group. It reminded me of when I asked Peter to join the Marauders. After I heard laughter in the car, Neville asked how they would get a ferret or something. Harry told him to leave it to him, and then I heard a pop. The same type that is heard when an animagus transforms."
"James." Lily told him. "It takes around five years to become an animagus. Harry's only known about them for a couple of years now."
"But what if it goes faster for him because of his high power level?" He asked.
"Harry's full potential won't be revealed until his 17th birthday." She reminded him.
End Flashback.
"Maybe you had a point." She suggested. "Maybe Harry found a way to release his powers ahead of time."
"Maybe." James repeated.
0000
In Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, the Golden Group and Luna were reading the spell and potions book Harry snuck out of Potter Manor
"Hey." Harry said with a laugh. "Hermione. Have you ever read or seen Macbeth?"
"Yeah. Why?" She asked.
"This potion is the same one from Act IV Scene i."
"You're kidding!" she said looking at it.
It was something in the older language.
"Don't bother." Harry told her. "It's one of Ravenclaw's powers that allows me to read it."
"Does it say what the potion really does?" she asked.
"Yeah." He told her. "I've been doing some research, and I found that Voldemort…stop flinching Ron…that Voldemort used things called Horcruxes. If we manage to make the potion and put a horcrux in it, it will destroy them all." (A/N: I made that up)
"What's a horcrux?" Ron asked.
"It's an object that has a person's soul in it." Hermione explained.
"Voldemort had seven." Harry added. "I've already destroyed one."
"Which one?" Ginny asked.
"The diary."
"Oh." She said simply.
"Peeves? What are you doing? Have you seen Harry and his friends?" they heard a familiar voice in the hall.
"Why should I tell you?" Peeves taunting voice came.
"Wandawasi."
"Agh!" Peeves yelled
"That boy." The voice sighed. "ACCIO MARAUDERS MAP!"
"uh oh." Harry said as he saw the map go flying out of the bathroom.
"What now?" Ginny asked.
"I have an idea." He said going to the sink.
"Open".
The door to the Chamber of Secrets opened.
"So THAT'S where the Chamber is." Hermione said.
"Ask questions later." Harry pushed her in.
"This map has to be defective." He heard James' voice say. "Why would Harry be in the girl's bathroom?"
"Did you find him?" He heard Lily ask as Ron jumped in.
"No." James answered. "But the kids are disappearing from the girl's bathroom."
Neville jumped in.
"No wonder." Lily said with a laugh. "That's Myrtle's bathroom."
"Who's?" James asked as Luna jumped in.
"Moaning Myrtle." Lily explained. "No one uses her bathroom for the practical use anymore. She tends to…flood the toilets a lot. It's the perfect meeting place for privacy."
"Ginny, go." Harry said.
"I can't." she said.
"We have to. We'll go together. Now."
They jumped in.
"Close"
The chamber sealed just as Lily opened the door.
"Harry?" she asked.
"Who's there?" Myrtle asked as she returned from the Prefect's bathroom.
"Hello Myrtle." Lily greeted sweetly. "Have you seen Harry Potter lately?"
"No." Myrtle said sadly. "I haven't seen him since last February. I just got back here."
"So, you died in a bathroom?" James asked.
"Don't you remember Harry's story?" Lily asked him before a thought struck her. "He must be down in the Chamber."
"So, how are we going to get to him?" James asked.
"We'll let him come to us." She said. "We should probably send Fawkes after him."
0000
Meanwhile,
"So this is the Chamber of Secrets." Luna said. "Cozy."
"Whoa." Neville said seeing the body of the basilisk Harry killed two years earlier.
Ginny grabbed Ron's arm as she looked at it. Ron had been the closest to her.
"It's missing a tooth." Luna observed.
Ginny watched Harry bring his hand to cover the spot where the basilisk had pierced his arm.
"Let's get out of here." Harry said. "Tomorrow, I'll come back and see if I can't clean up and change the password."
"We're coming too." Neville told him. "But how will we get out?"
"Same way Ron." Harry instructed to Ron.
POP
In Harry's spot stood a black phoenix.
0000
"What's the password?" James asked Lily
"For the last time," She sighed "it's butterscotch."
"Hey guys." Harry said to his parents.
Lily and James turned to see Harry and his friends walking up to them.
"How did you get out so quickly?" James asked.
"Get out of what?" Hermione asked innocently.
"The Chamber of Secrets." James told them.
"Why would I go back to the Chamber of Secrets?" Harry asked innocently.
"Harold James Potter." Lily said putting her hands on her hips. "Don't you lie to us."
Harry heard his friends start snickering.
"Fine." Harry told his parents. "I went into the Chamber so you wouldn't catch me in the girl's bathroom."
"I didn't ask "why", I asked "how"." James told his son.
"You know I'm a parselmouth." Harry told him.
"I said how you got out. You told me that the entrance is a steep slide."
"We flew out." Ginny told him.
"On what?" Lily asked.
"Look at the time." Harry said. "It's curfew. Good night."
He and the others made a break for it before the other two Potters could stop him.
TBC
A/N: For those confused about the message in the fireworks, it basically means that the Marauders are back, but they aren't the originals.