Apparently I've been going for the record for "Longest Period of Time Between Updates." Oops. But on the bright side, this is the longest chapter yet to this story. That's gotta count for something, right?

Enjoy :)

Albus Potter looked down in horror at the red envelope in front of him. He was sitting in the Great Hall for breakfast when his owl Hedge had dropped the note right on his breakfast. He looked to his left and saw that Fred and Louis had each also received a Howler. The three Slytherin boys gingerly reached down and picked up their mail. Together, they ripped open the letters.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Each of their mother's voices screeched from within the envelope. Everyone in the Great Hall turned towards the Slytherin table and watched in amusement as the letters screamed.

After the first sentence, each letter was different, but they all had more or less the same message. Albus caught a few lines from his own Howler over the screaming of the other two.

"JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL YOU COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS!"

"IS THIS HOW YOUR FATHER AND I RAISED YOU?!"

"YOU'RE LUCKY YOU WEREN'T KILLED!"

Albus slid down lower and lower after each line, hoping to disappear completely, until he was practically underneath the Slytherin table. Next to him, Fred was turning so red that Albus thought he might spontaneously combust. On Fred's left, Louis was waving his wand at his Howler in a vain attempt to shut it up.

When all three Howlers finally finished yelling, they exploded in unison, leaving the boys' breakfasts covered in burnt shreds of parchment. Albus sat up straight again and sighed in relief.

"Well…" he said, turning to his cousins, "That wasn't so bad."

The Day Before

"Albus!" Louis yelled gleefully, sitting down at the table where Albus was working on his Transfiguration essay. The older boy's blue eyes shined with excitement. "You'll never believe what I found!"

Albus looked at his blond-haired cousin curiously.

"What is it?"

Louis reached into his robes and pulled out a small vial. The liquid inside looked like molten gold and shined even in the dim light of the Slytherin common room.

"Is that what I think it is?" Albus whispered, staring at the potion in shock.

"If you think it's Felix Felicis, then it's exactly what you think it is," Louis replied, lowering his voice and looking around, making sure no one had heard him.

"Where in the name of Merlin did you get that?" Albus asked, turning his attention to his cousin, who was bouncing up and down excitedly.

Louis settled in his chair and hesitated to answer. Finally, he spoke. His voice had a guilty tone to it. "Nicked it from Slughorn…" he looked at Albus sheepishly.

"What?!" Albus yelled, attracting the attention of everyone in the Slytherin common room. He shifted closer to Louis and brought his voice down to a whisper. "Why would you steal from Slughorn? In he catches you, you could be expelled!"

"The old geezer never notices anything," Louis scoffed, rolling his eyes, "The other day I enchanted a paper aeroplane to follow him around all day and he didn't notice until McGonagall pointed it out to him at Dinner."

"Still, this is more serious than a charmed paper aeroplane. This is Felix Felicis we're talking about."

"What about Felix Felicis?"

Louis and Albus nearly fell out of their chairs as Fred sat down at the table. He grinned at his cousins and then looked at the potion in Louis' hand.

"Merlin's beard, you didn't!" Fred exclaimed, "Is that really-?!"

"Shh!" Louis hissed, "Do you want everyone to know?"

"Sorry," Fred replied, running his fingers through his fiery hair. "But anyway, I want in on whatever you plan on using it for."

"There isn't enough for you, Fred," Louis said, "I'm already going to be sharing it with Albus. I've got a plan."

"Well you better extend that plan to include me or I'm going straight to McGonagall," Fred said, staring Louis down.

"You wouldn't."

"Try me."

"Fine," Louis sighed, "We can split it three ways. Taking a little bit less shouldn't affect it too much. It should still work. Actually, I could use some of your Weasley merchandise, anyway."

"Great!" Fred exclaimed, jumping up from his seat, "So, what are we up to, anyway?"

…

Louis separated the Felix Felicis potion into three vials - one for himself, one for Albus, and one for Fred. When he made sure that all three had the same amount of potion, he passed them around to his partners in crime.

"Are you sure about this?" Albus asked, looking at the golden substance. "What if we get caught?"

"We won't," Louis said, "That's the beauty of Felix!"

The three boys brought the potion to their lips and drank. Instantly, Albus began to feel warm inside. He felt an absurd urge to giggle.

"Wow," Fred said, letting out a laugh, "This is fantastic."

"Come on," Louis said, grabbing the other two by their sleeves and dragging them along.

They walked through the Slytherin common room, which was empty at 11 pm, and straight out the door into the corridors. In the past, whenever the boys would sneak out after dinner, Albus would feel the need to look around and make sure that Filch wasn't around. Now, though, he felt confident that no one would catch them.

After walking for several minutes, Albus, Louis and Fred found themselves at the door to the Potion's classroom. Louis tried to open the door and found it unlocked. He grinned at his cousins and they went inside.

The classroom was empty and silent. Slughorn's desk was piled high with rolls of parchment. There was a cup of tea siting on the only bare part of the desk, a spoon inside stirring the drink on its own. The tea was still steaming hot.

"Those must be the essays we turned in today," Louis said, gesturing to the pile on Slughorn's desk. "Hold on a minute…" He walked over to the desk and began rifling through the rolls of parchment. Finally, he found the one that had his name written on it.

"He gave me a Dreadful!" Louis exclaimed, "Rubbish!" A quick wave of his wand and the "D" written on the paper in Slughorn's handwriting rearranged itself into an "E."

"Why not give yourself an 'O'?" Fred asked, watching the ink settle on the paper.

"Gotta keep it believable, mate," Louis answered. He turned to face his comrades. "Alright, boy, let's get to work."

Fred pulled out a small rectangular box from his robes and placed it on Slughorn's desk. He opened the box and inside was a small firework.

"Are you sure this will work?" Louis asked, looking at Fred skeptically.

"It's one of my dad's products, of course it works! It's not even in the store yet. Slughorn will never see this coming, believe me."

Fred picked the firework up and waved his wand at it. It started to jump and twitch in his hands. He placed the firework under the pile of parchment on Slughorn's desk and backed away slowly.

"It won't go off until he moves the papers again," Fred explained, "It's designed to cause maximum chaos by exploding when someone is near it. It won't hurt him or set stuff on fire, but it will scare the living hell out of him."

"Excellent," Louis said, grinning from ear to ear. He turned back to the desk and placed his essay, which he'd still been holding, down onto the top of the pile.

Albus watched in horror as the roll of paper fell down the pile, knocking all of the essays off the desk. The firework at the bottom of the pile let loose with a loud BANG and showered the area in sparks. One of the sparks landed on Albus' robes and instantly caused his sleeve to catch fire.

"I thought you said it wouldn't light fires!" Albus screeched, waving his arm around wildly.

"It's not supposed to light fires!" Fred's expression turned curious, "Maybe that's why they're not in the shop yet…they are still prototypes…"

Louis pulled out his wand and tried to put Albus out, but the explosion had caused puffs of smoke to cover the area. Louis breathed in the fumes and began sputtering and coughing.

Fred tried to make a run for it but when he got to the classroom's door he crashed into something solid and bounced backwards, falling to the floor.

The chaos in the room ended abruptly and the three boys noticed Horace Slughorn glaring at them from the doorway. He was holding his wand aloft, having just simultaneously put out Albus' fire, waved away the smoke in the room, and conjured a pillow for Fred to land on when he'd hit the floor.

"What do you boys think you're doing?" Professor Slughorn asked, his voice dangerously calm.

"Um…" Albus said, "It was Louis' idea?"

"What?!" Louis said, "Thanks, Potter! Just throw me under the bus, some family you are!" Albus knew that there was no real malice in the insult.

"It was your idea!" Albus pointed out.

"Enough!" Slughorn interrupted. "I suppose that you three are the ones that stole my failed Felix Felicis potion?" He sighed and began picking up the rolls of parchment scattered on the floor.

"F-failed?" Louis asked.

"Yes, Mr. Weasley. Failed. If you had taken even a moment to listen in class, you would have heard me telling the class that the vial on my desk was filled with a failed attempt at making the liquid luck. I got one small step wrong, and the whole potion was ruined. Instead of bringing good fortune, it apparently causes terrible luck. I'm guessing all three of you drank it?"

The boys nodded miserably.

"You're lucky, then," Slughorn said, "There was enough potion in that vial for only two doses. By splitting it three ways, you may have caused the potion's affects to be dulled. Merlin knows what would have happened if you'd taken a full dose. You could have been killed."

Albus swallowed his fear and stepped forward.

"We're sorry, Professor Slughorn…Erm, thanks for not being mad."

"Oh, I'm boiling mad," Slughorn clarified, his eyes glinting with anger, "Now, I won't involve the Headmistress this time…Goodness knows she could use a break from seeing you three in her office every other day. But there will be consequences. 100 points from Slytherin…each."

"But you're Head of Slytherin!" Fred protested, "You really want to deduct 300 points from your own house?!"

"Of course I don't want to, Mr. Weasley!" Slughorn said, raising his voice. "But you three leave me little choice" Slughorn took a deep breath and let out an exasperated sigh. "And make no mistake; your parents will all receive detailed letters about what happened tonight."

"No, my mum will kill me!" Albus exclaimed.

"Maybe next time you'll think twice about stealing potions and playing childish pranks," Professor Slughorn said, turning his back on the boys. "Now go. I have work to finish."

Albus, Fred, and Louis raced towards the exit.

"Oh," Slughorn called after them, causing them to crash into each other as they halted, "And I expect three rolls of parchment from each of you on how to recognize a failed potion."

"Three rolls!" Louis yelled, "Are you mental?!"

Albus clamped a hand over Louis' mouth. "Of course, Professor," he said, kicking Louis' leg.

They fled the room quickly, tripping and stumbling all the way back to the Slytherin common room.

"At least it's all over," Albus sighed, rubbing his temples with his fingertips. He still had a headache from listening to three Howlers at once. The troublemakers were in the Slytherin common room, sitting at a table together.

"No, it's not," Fred said miserably, "Our parents will kill us when we go home for Christmas."

"Oh, it's not a big deal," Louis scoffed, "A Howler, some points taken away, and an essay. I've gotten worse punishments than that before."

He put his arms around the other two boys' shoulders and pulled them in close. Albus grimaced at the look of mischief on his cousin's face.

"So, boys…" Louis grinned, "What's our next plan of action?"

I would greatly appreciate any reviews! :D Also, I need some suggestions for the next chapter. :) Who do you want to see manage some mischief next time?