Harry Potter: The Alchemists' Quest

by The Ferryman

The cards have been redealt but the game is the same, and the only thing on the line is the future of the world. A Shade stalks the corridors of learning, shadows gather on the horizon. A prelude to approaching war. Hufflepuff Harry, Year 1, post-Downfall

8. Chapter 8:Consequences and Rule Breaking

Chapter 8: Consequences and Rule-Breaking

"If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun."
Katharine Hepburn

So that was it. Harry wondered dejectedly what they were going to tell the school when he suddenly disappeared. Harry Potter was expelled for trying to do the right thing, probably, or something similar at least. He wasn't certain how Neville's remembrall had ended up on the grass, but it probably had something to do with that accident that Ron had been talking about. Well, actually he had talked mostly about the fight after Madam Hooch had dragged the injured Neville away and the points Professor McGonagall had taken from Gryffindor. Between that and the deductions from Professor Snape Ron hadn't broken the record for most points taken during the first month at Hogwarts—currently his brothers were co-holders of that particular record—but he was well on his way to getting there.

But then Zacharias Smith…

Harry shook his head. If there was one type of person he detested it was a bully, and he'd lived with the rumors that Dudley had spread long enough to realize that those who bullied someone behind their backs were even crueler than those who did it to their face.

He considered this as he walked. Yes, Smith had said rude things about the Gryffindor, but unlike Dudley Smith hadn't gone out of his way to belittle Neville on any other occasion the way Dudley had hounded him. Until the incident Harry wasn't sure if Smith even knew Neville. Nor had there been any real malice in what the other boy had said either, or at least Harry wasn't sure if there had been or not.

And yet somehow the…casual indifference of Smith's remarks seemed to make the whole thing even worse, in Harry's mind.

Trying to back Smith down after he'd found the magical device and threatened to smash it was a matter of…principal. Harry toyed with the word in his mind for a moment, his Horoscope-of-the-day said he shouldn't let go of them and he wondered if this was what it had meant.

It was as good a word as any, he decided with a shrug, though he probably could have handled the situation better. How, exactly, he wasn't certain. Reasoned calm hadn't achieved anything, nor had being polite, but they hadn't exactly worsened it. That hadn't happened until Justin and Ernie had stepped up behind him and Susan had tried to reason with both of them, and then the Ravenclaws, seeing a chance to drive a wedge in the Hufflepuffs' normally rock-solid house unity, had stepped in…

How it had gone from Zacharias Smith threatening to smash it to Morag McDougal throwing it into the air for them to catch as a demonstration of broom skills while Madam Hooch escorted Sally-Anne to the hospital wing, Harry had no idea.

He'd won, scraping his knuckles on the side of the castle as he got between it and the remembrall. His entire left side felt like one massive bruise where he'd slammed sideways into the stone when the braking charms on the broom didn't slow him down fast enough. It could have been worse. If Professor Sprout hadn't come out right then and put a cushioning charm on the ground after he lost control following his collision with the school…

Justin had probably had the right of it. Brooms were bloody dangerous things to be flying around on.

Harry shook himself from his musings as Professor Sprout turned and started up a staircase that, being Tuesday afternoon, led to the transfiguration wing.

It really was the perfect end for the thoroughly horrible day he had been having.

He had been looking forward to his first broom-flying lesson ever since Bryce had told the first years that lessons usually started up in the second week to give everyone a chance to acclimate to the school. But Professor McGonagall had assigned them a foot-long essay the day before, and Professor Flitwick had set them to practicing common wand movements—and the less said about Professor Snape's schoolwork the better. Allie had apparently come down with something and had looked absolutely miserable the few times he'd seen her in the halls between classes, and Ron had stopped talking to him because of his friendship with 'that slimy snake.' And then, once they had gotten out of the classes, they found the weather had settled into the kind of oppressive grey overcast that said 'I really need to rain' but didn't, and instead made everything cold and clammy and miserable.

Harry started to ask where they were going, but was stopped as Professor Sprout suddenly turned on him.

"Do you have any idea how incredibly foolish that was?" the short witch demanded. "Of all the insane, reckless, dangerous things you could have done…" she turned and continued up the stairs. "You've never been on a broom before today?"

"Not that I can remember, Professor," Harry said.

"Hmm…"

They stopped before the Advanced Transfiguration classroom and Professor Sprout knocked on the door.

The door swung open and she popped her head in, "Mind if I borrow Ms. Capper for a moment Professor McGonagall?"

Apparently Professor McGonagall didn't mind because a moment later an older girl Harry vaguely recognized from the common room came out. She was a little taller than Professor Sprout with a solid frame, a square jaw, blond hair, and a nose that was crooked from being broken on more than one occasion. She reminded Harry of a friendlier version of one of his Aunt Margie's bulldogs, but only slightly friendlier.

"Professor Sprout, what's going on?" she asked with some surprise. She glanced down at Harry, then back up at her Head of House. "Its N.E.W.T. year and you know I—"

"How do you feel about winning the Quidditch Cup?" Professor Sprout asked, uncharacteristically interrupting.

The girl frowned, "We're rebuilding this year, Professor. I'm hoping to leave the team in good position for next year…why?"

Professor Sprout didn't reply, just got very bubbly as she headed down the corridor. Five minutes later they poked their heads into the Hufflepuff common room.

"Diggory, we need you outside," Sprout said.

Harry followed them up to the entrance hall and out onto the grounds. The two older students traded questioning looks, but otherwise walked in silence while Professor Sprout had a bounce in her step that was almost, but not quite, a skip. He couldn't imagine what she needed the older two students for. Cedric was something of a mentor for the first-year boys, someone older who didn't have the awe-inspiring seniority of Bryce, the Junior Hufflepuff Prefect, who was responsible for them, but he had never really met Capper. He knew she wasn't a Prefect, and wasn't the Head Girl—a Ravenclaw held that honor this year.

The dread feeling was slowly easing. Surely they'd be going to the Headmaster's office if Professor Sprout had felt like expelling him. But he couldn't help but feel uneasy at this unexpected turn.

"I've found you a replacement Seeker," Professor Sprout said abruptly.

"A what?" Harry asked before either of the other Hufflepuffs could respond.

"Did you really?" Cedric asked, giving Harry a curious look.

"He's got the build for it," the girl said after a moment.

"So does any first year, for that matter so do most second years," Cedric said, "unlike myself," He half-waved towards himself. He was taller than Harry by a not inconsiderable amount, and his broad shoulders hinted at the build he had yet to grow into.

"Can someone please explain to me what you are talking about?" Harry asked. "Am I not being expelled?"

"Expelled?" the girl asked.

Harry crossed his arm, "Yeah, I got on the broom when I wasn't supposed to, okay? No need to mock me."

"Nobody's mocking you, Harry," Professor Sprout said soothingly. "I'd like you to consider being on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team. It'd be a tremendous amount of work, that's why first years normally aren't allowed to be on the team, but it seems as though you have the knack for it."

"What exactly did he do?" the girl asked.

Sprout took out the remembrall. "He caught this in his hand after a fifty-foot dive—Charlie Weasley couldn't have made that catch—on his first time up on a broom."

The girl looked intrigued while the boy took the remembrall and tossed it lightly in the air before catching it again.

"Be careful with that," Harry said. "It belongs to a friend."

"Who?" Sprout asked.

"Neville Longbottom, he's in Gryffindor," Harry said as the girl passed it to Cedric. "See? His name's inscribed on it. It must have fallen out of his pocket when he had broom lessons."

"Hmm," Cedric considered it, then handed it to Harry who put it carefully in his pocket. "It's larger than a snitch, easier to spot too."

"What's a 'snitch'?" Harry asked.

"Have you ever seen a game of Quidditch?" the girl asked.

Harry shook his head. "Ron tried to explain it on the train, but…" he shrugged.

"The basics are easy enough," the girl said. "It's a game, played on brooms, by two teams of seven people. Three people, chasers, try to throw one ball through one of three identical hoops on their opponents' side of the field. Each team has one person, a keeper, who tries to keep that from happening."

Harry nodded.

"Each team also gets two beaters who each have a bat. There are two more balls that are charmed to fly around randomly and try to knock people off their brooms. The beaters try to protect their team's players while sending those balls after the players on the other team."

"And the last person?"

"The last person is the seeker," she said. "His primary duty is to catch the last ball, the golden snitch. It's about the size of a walnut, wicked fast, and darn near impossible to spot. The game ends when the snitch is caught, and that team gets one hundred and fifty points."

Harry frowned, "That many points seems unbalancing."

"It can be," Cedric shrugged. "But there are a lot of teams that only win, and then by very small amounts, because their seeker catches the snitch—and I've been to games where one side wins even when the other team gets it. But really, wins doesn't factor into standings. Games are played in series. The number of points picked up in a series determines overall standings. There was one season ten or twelve years ago, I think, where Ravenclaw lost all of its games but took the Quidditch cup because its combined point total was more than that of any of the other House Teams. For that matter the Winborne Wasps posted more losses than wins last year, but their point totals were enough to get them the third seed in the post-season."

Harry looked at Professor Sprout, "And you want me to play?"

Professor Sprout nodded, "I think you'd do very well."

Harry frowned, "I bet there are a lot of people loads better than me."

"Decent seekers are a sickle a score," the girl said. "Great ones…those are harder to come by." She offered her hand, "Samothrace Capper, Quidditch Captain. Call me Thrace."

Harry shook it.

"This is Cedric Diggory," Thrace said. "He used to have your job."

"He did?" Harry asked, confused. "But I don't want, I mean," he turned to Cedric. "You can keep it…if you want to."

"That's the point, Harry," Cedric smiled. "I don't. I'm good on a broom, Harry, but—"

"But Ced's too modest," Thrace rolled her eyes. "He's probably one of the top three flyers in the school. The problem is that his best position is chaser and before now we just didn't have anyone else who could play seeker reasonably well. If you're even half as good as Professor Sprout thinks it means I can move Cedric back to Chaser and reshuffle our entire lineup."

"Move Scott to reserves?" Cedric asked.

She nodded. "He needs another year of seasoning and that way he can be slotted in as one of the Chasers next year after Tonks and I graduate." Thrace turned to Sprout. "We'll have to find a good broom for him, Professor, Merlin knows the school brooms are useless. I'm tempted to go for a late-model Nimbus."

"You'd over-broom him with something like that," Cedric said with a frown.

"Over-broom?" Harry asked.

"How much do you know about brooms?" Sam asked.

"They fly?" Harry asked.

Cedric chuckled. "It goes like this, Harry. Brooms are heavily enchanted to fly. Some brooms have more, or better, or more complex enchantments—the three aren't exactly the same—than others. Some have a higher top speed, others accelerate faster, and still others are more maneuverable. There is a tendency to look simply at those statistics when determining what broom is 'best'. In that sense over-brooming is when you put a flyer on a broom that is too powerful for their experience and ability, okay?"

"Makes sense," Harry said. "It means that they'll have accidents that more experienced fliers won't, right?"

"And that they can't get the full performance out of the broom," Thrace added. "However, there is another aspect to brooms that most wizards and witches overlook. The slump."

"The slump?" Harry asked.

"The slump is…complex," Cedric said. "It's even debated on whether it's real or something that only exists in the minds of Quidditch players and professional broom racers. You see brooms are sort of like wands. They don't 'choose a wizard'—to use Olivander's expression—but a broom that is ridden by a single wizard becomes more…attuned to that wizard. That connection between broom and rider is what we call the slump. The deeper the slump, the more attuned the broom is capable of becoming.

"You rode one of the school brooms, right? How did it feel?"

Harry frowned, "like I was riding a broom."

Cedric and Thrace laughed and Professor Sprout smiled.

"A good broom feels like an extension of your being," Thrace said enthusiastically. "One of the reasons why the school brooms are so bad isn't because they're old, it's because they've had so many riders that they're senile. The main problems with some of the later high-end brooms is that either the slump is so deep that you might be able to get the full technical performance out of the broom but it'll be the broom doing most of the work so you don't really get any better as a flyer. Or, the slump is so stiff that it takes a long time to really attune.

"Not that they aren't desirable qualities," she added quickly. "A deeper slump is favored for some Quidditch positions by those who are already highly skilled. And a stiff slump is useful for some disciplines of broom-racing. They just aren't qualities you'd want in your broom as a new flyer."

"And the better I am as a flyer the…more I can get out of a broom, no matter what its…technical abilities are?" Harry asked carefully.

"Exactly," Cedric said. "I've seen some Quidditch players get well beyond what their broom's specified capabilities were supposed to be simply because they were excellent flyers and their brooms were highly attuned to them. There is a hard limit on what any given model of broom can do that even the best flyer can't get past, but it shouldn't be a problem for you any time soon if you haven't flown before."

"So ideally I need a broom with fairly good technical abilities and not a really deep or stiff slump," Harry said.

"By Merlin, I think he's got it," Thrace said.

"What will happen if I do get one with a lot of slump?" Harry asked. "It'd pick up on my bad habits?"

"Not as such," Cedric said. "What would happen would be the broom doing more of the work so you wouldn't really be improving as a flier."

"Okay, so…what kind of broom would you recommend?"

"Mid-range Cleansweep?" Sprout asked Thrace. "Maybe a five or six?"

"Six," Thrace said with a shake of her head. "The five is more of a beater/keeper broom, stable and maneuverable, but the acceleration rate drops off fast after the initial burst. Maybe a Comet deuce-sixty, that's what the Claw's new reserve seeker is using."

"I will talk to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Merlin knows we need a better team than last year, rebuilding year or no. Flattened in that last match against Slytherin, I couldn't look at Severus for weeks…not that Minerva's lions did any better."

Professor Sprout gave Harry a stern look that was mostly ruined by a broad, dirt-smudged smile. "I want to hear that you're training hard, Harry, or I may change my mind about punishing you."

She turned and started to head down the hall with a little skip in her step, only to stop suddenly and turn back. "Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was quite the Quidditch player himself." She turned and continued down the hall, humming a bubbly little tune.

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"You're joking," Ernie Macmillan said.

It was dinnertime and Harry had just finished explaining to his housemates what had happened after he'd left the grounds with Professor Sprout. Ernie had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but had completely forgotten about it.

"Seeker?" Justin asked, "What's that?"

"Seeker?" Ernie repeated his friend's question while Susan Bones tried to explain Quidditch to the muggle-born Justin. "But first years are never allowed—you must be the youngest house player in about—"

"—a century," Harry finished. "Thrace told me." It felt a bit unusual calling someone so much older by their first name, but it was apparently the custom to do so in Hufflepuff, at least amongst themselves. The single exception seemed to be one seventh year that Cedric had introduced a 'Tonks' who was also on the team as one of the Chasers. On meeting Harry she had said 'Wotcher', shook his hand, and then threatened grievous bodily harm if she ever heard him mention her first name.

"When do you start training?" Wayne asked.

"Next week," Harry replied, "Only don't tell anyone. Thrace has completely shuffled the lineup and wants to keep it, and me, secret."

The others traded dark looks.

"Hufflepuff hasn't won the Quidditch cup in ages," Ernie said.

"Sixty-eight years," Susan chipped in. "My Aunt was on the team. She said the only reason they took the cup was because the Gryffindor Team came down with scofungulus and had to be quarantined during one of their matches, and Slytherin forfeited a match when an accident in potions caused half the team to start laughing like a pack of hyenas.

"And historically-speaking, if you get the Quidditch cup you have a better than even chance of getting the House Trophy. Can anyone think of when Hufflepuff last had that trophy?"

Harry traded blank looks with the others at the table but most of them shook their heads.

"It's been ages, I know that much," Ernie said. "A century, maybe more?"

"More," Allie said from behind him. "Can you move over so I can sit with my friend?"

Ernie frowned at her, but he moved his place setting over. "How much do you know?" he asked suspiciously.

"How much do I know about what?" she returned blandly before turning to Harry. "So, I hear congratulations are in order."

"Thanks," Harry said, shaking the proffered hand. "So, er, you do know about…well, what happened?"

"Not everything, of course," Allie said. "Hogwarts has a fast rumor mill but it isn't quite that fast and Hufflepuff has done a fair job keeping the news in-house, so to speak. Besides," she grinned suddenly, "Unlike what some people seem to think—" she gave a pointed look over to where Ron was sitting at the Gryffindor table "—I'm hardly running a spy ring to gather Quidditch secrets." She paused for a moment, then shrugged, "Not that there's been enough time to establish much of a network if I was."

"Then how do you know about Harry?" Ernie asked.

Allie didn't reply.

"Please?" Harry asked. "If the secret gets out…"

"It'll hardly be the end of the world," she observed dryly. "But since you asked, Harry, it wasn't any one thing. Professor Sprout was seen dancing in her greenhouses, your Captain has suddenly booked the Quidditch pitch solid through for the next week, Cedric Diggory checked out all of the books on brooms and broom catalogs even though according to Marcus Flint—who is captain of the Slytherin team—he just got a new broom last year."

She grabbed a plate and helped herself to some mashed potatoes, to which she added a very generous blob of butter. "Professor Sprout wasn't exactly subtle about it either, pulling one student out of class like that, and then being seen walking through the halls with the Hufflepuff Team Captain and Seeker with you in tow, and not even taking points from you. You really should have seen about getting assigned a detention or something, although watching Draco froth at you getting away with rule-breaking is really quite amusing."

Harry traded looks with Justin and Susan while Allie sampled the potatoes. Justin gave a short shrug, as though to as 'what do you want us to do?' while Susan just gave him a grim look.

"Oh relax," Allie said with a grin. "I keep other peoples' secrets like I keep my own…as long as those I trust with them keep them in return." She gestured broadly with a fork covered in potato that was gilded with butter, "It's probably a bit late to get yourself a detention, though you might want to tell Capper to do something about those pitch reservations though."

"Shouldn't you be off crawling around with the rest of the snake pit?"

Harry frowned. None of his other Housemates had really had a problem with Allie once the novelty of a Slytherin joining him at their table had worn off. And this was the first time Smith had really said anything at all. But—

"Zacharias Smith, blunt and rude," Allie said coolly before Harry could formulate a response. "Your reputation precedes you."

Smith flushed.

"You know each other?" Harry asked curiously.

"I know of him," Allie corrected with a shrug, "but then, I know of a lot of people. Why don't you introduce me to your friends?"

"Okay," Harry said. "Next to you is Ernie MacMillan, across from him is Susan Bones, and next to her is Justin Finch-Fletchley. This is Allie, er, Elissa Blackthorn."

"Call me 'Allie'," she said dryly. "Elissa came to a sticky end."

Harry looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean?"

"Elissa was a name that Dido, the Queen of Carthage, was known by," Justin said. "She stabbed herself and jumped in a bonfire rather than betray the memory of her first husband."

Allie blinked, "You've read the classics?" she asked.

Justin shrugged half-heartedly, but it was too late and Allie narrowed in on him.

"Finch-Fletchley?" she asked. "Of the—"

"Yes," Justin said tersely. "I'm surprised you know of them."

"Why?" Allie asked.

Justin looked over at the Slytherin table. "I have discovered that the wizarding world is very, um…insular compared to the non-magical. It was a bit of relief, actually, finding out that the only people who really know of my family are those that are non-magic-born." He grinned, "It was quite funny to see the expression on Father's face when he realized the same thing when Professor McGonagall took us to Diagon Alley."

"Which doesn't explain me, of course," Allie said.

"I had assumed you were one of those 'pure-blood' types," Justin said. "I apologize."

"Nothing to apologize for," Allie said. "You'll find that there a purebloods, and then there are purebloods. The former are those that define themselves by it, and then there are those who define themselves despite it. Fortunately there are more of the later, but the former are usually louder and more annoying."

"Speaking of which, isn't it…bad for you to be here?" Harry asked. "I've gotten the impression that Slytherins don't really approve of Hufflepuffs."

"Most Slytherins don't really approve of anyone or anything unless it gets them ahead," Allie said. "The older students in my house couldn't care less. Those that follow Draco Malfoy's way of thinking do not, currently, matter a great deal. As far as both are concerned I'm here furthering my own agenda, which is exactly what I told them I was doing."

"Are you?" Harry asked bluntly.

Allie grinned at him, "Well of course. Right now my agenda is congratulating my friend on breaking the rules, getting caught, and not getting so much as a point taken. If you misconstrued that to mean congratulations on finding a spot on your house Quidditch time, well, I have no comment to make. All in all, I'd say I'm well on my way towards furthering my 'cunning little plan'."

Harry couldn't help but grin back at her and chuckle. Ernie, Justin and Susan all laughed, but the other Hufflepuffs—once reasonably certain that the snake in their midst wasn't Up To Something—had turn to their own conversations.

"Is that really what you told them?" Justin asked.

Allie shook her head as she filled a glass with pumpkin juice, "Of course not. Just that I was furthering a private agenda. What that agenda is, is none of their business."

"You lied," Susan said with a disapproving frown.

"No, I didn't," Allie said. "What I did was tell them something that was perfectly true and let them draw their own conclusions from it. It certainly isn't my fault if they came to the wrong ones and I'm not under any obligation to correct their…um, short-sightedness. Besides, in a way I'm doing exactly what they think I'm doing."

"Huh?" Ernie asked.

"She's making connections," Justin said, "Business connections. Not ones that are profitable now, but may be, will be, so in the future."

"Very nicely put," Allie said, raising her pumpkin juice glass in a salute.

"I don't follow, Justin," Harry said. "I thought she was here because she's our, or at least my, friend."

Justin nodded, "That's it exactly, Harry. But look at us. Ernie here is a pureblood back what, eight generations you said?" he asked his friend.

"Nine," Ernie said.

"Nine," Justin said with a nod. "And Susan has an Aunt who is head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry. Harry, you're famous, your parents died in the last war making you a tragic hero."

"The Potters are a really old family and highly thought of," Ernie added.

"And I," Justin said, placing a dramatic hand on his chest, "well, the Finch-Fletchleys have done moderately well in business."

Allie choked on her pumpkin juice, set her goblet down, and wiped her mouth with her napkin. "'Moderately well in business?'" she repeated with a snort. "You've found all that in less than a week. Now it's my turn to be impressed."

Justin shrugged and didn't smile, "Yes, well… So how did you know about my family? From what you said you are a pureblood, right?"

"Allie spent some time living in the non-magical world," Harry said.

"Really?" Ernie asked with wide eyes.

"Master G, the wizard I was apprenticed to, didn't really care for the mainstream wizarding world," Allie said.

"You were in an apprenticeship?" Susan asked.

Allie nodded. "Never did get much of Professor Snape's 'wand-waving foolishness' so I'm not really ahead in the way of charms and transfiguration…as I'm sure you've all heard."

Harry grinned as the others laughed. It had quickly become clear that his friend was nearly as hopeless in those two classes as Neville Longbottom was in Potions.

Allie glanced towards the Slytherin table, then back at Harry. "I've got to go. I overhead Lee Jordan telling the Weasley twins he found a tunnel out of the castle. I followed him to where I think it is and I want to leave a little surprise for them for all the pranks they've pulled recently."

"Well that was interesting," Ernie said as Allie got up and walked briskly towards the entrance of the Great Hall. "Do you know what kind of magic she studied?"

Harry looked at him.

Ernie shrugged, "It's just that she seems to be…pretty bad at everything except potions."

Pretty bad, Harry reflected, didn't begin to describe it. Burning her desk in charms had simply been the most dramatic of her failures. In transfiguration she had yet to effect any changes, in herbology any plant she touched wilted and died, and the school brooms had flatly refused to work for her.

"Oh," He said after a moment. "I know she studied runes, defense warding too, I think. I'm not sure. Some of it she was vague about and some of it went over my head." All of which, he decided, was perfectly true even if it didn't tell them anything more than he really knew. "I know she was pretty put out that she has to wait two years before she could study runes and arithmancy."

Ernie made a face, "What we study isn't hard enough for her?"

Harry shrugged, but before he could answer someone far less welcome turned up. Draco Malfoy flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.

"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the muggles?"

"Hello, Draco," Harry said blandly. "I'm fine, thank you for asking. How are you?"

Draco's smile became distinctly unpleasant. "You've heard about Smith, haven't you?"

"I've heard a lot about Zacharais, you'll have to be more specific," Harry said with a level voice that hid the nervousness he felt.

"He's getting off without even points taken," Draco said smugly. "I told you on the train, Potter, that you didn't want to be making friends with the wrong sort."

"Yes," Harry said. "That's why I have friends, and you have bookends."

Standing on either side of Draco, Crabbe and Goyle did look like bookends…or maybe very small trolls. But since they were in the middle of the Great Hall and the High Table was filled with teachers, there was very little they could do besides scowl and crack their knuckles.

"It's why Smith is still around and you are getting expelled!" Draco snapped.

"Potter's getting expelled?"

Harry glanced down the table. Hearing his name had apparently drawn Smith into their conversation.

Draco hesitated. "Well of course he is," he said. "Professor Hooch made it clear what would happen to anyone who left the ground."

"But Smith isn't being expelled," Harry pointed out. "And McDougal isn't either.'

"My father is on the Board of Governors," Draco said. "I told him about what happened and how they're refusing to enforce the rules. You're out of here, Potter, mark my words."

"Oh, well, as it happens I'm not being expelled," Harry said. "Professor Sprout decided that since it was a first offense she'd just give me a lot of extra work to do for the rest of the year…to keep me out of trouble."

Draco grinned, "She put you in detention for an entire year?"

Harry bit a lower lip to keep from bursting out laughing, but couldn't resist egging on the other boy. "Well…she didn't actually call it detention, but…"

"Oh this is priceless," Draco crowed. "See you around, Potter. I have to tell everyone about this!" He walked away from the table laughing.

Susan leaned over and spoke in a low voice. "You do realize that people are going to think that you—"

"Yes," Harry said, trying not to laugh. "But it's like Allie said, right? I don't have to go around correcting people when they make a mistake. Do I?"

"Merlin no," Ernie agreed. "If you did you'd be like—"

"—Granger has done now?" Ron demanded as he dropped into the empty spot that Allie had vacated only minutes earlier.

Harry couldn't help but noticing the suddenly forced looks on the faces of his housemates as Ron reached across the table to help himself to a chicken leg and tore a bite off before gesturing with the fowl limb for emphasis.

"She's insisting on creating study schedules, for all of us, and she's badgering the upper years for their first-year notes."

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Despite it being after curfew people were still awake in the Hufflepuff common room that evening. The fifth and seventh years were already starting to feel the pinch that preparation for the upcoming O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. examinations would have on their free time. Sixth and fourth years were determined to get an early start on their schoolwork, while the third years were reading the textbooks for their new elective courses. All of these, as well as the new second years, were rereading the material from the previous year.

Not that studying was the only thing happening. Samothrace was crouched with Cedric in one corner, the two of them moving miniature Quidditch players around a model pitch using their wands as they talked furiously in hushed voices. Down by the fire a couple of students had broken out musical instruments and a dozen other Badgers were singing rowdy songs that outside of their immediate area had been magically quieted so they served as background music for those studying. Winifred Meles, the single fifth-year on the Quidditch Team, was teaching an obscure card game that included cards that magically changed their suit and value in mid-hand at seemingly random intervals. The first-year Hufflepuffs didn't have a class early on Friday mornings so Thursday evenings had, in less than two weeks, become a time for those that wanted to talk about what new experiences they'd had and interesting things they'd seen, heard, or learned.

Harry was just finishing a story about how a stair that had, on Tuesday, led up to the fourth floor had shifted so that on Wednesday led to the Forbidden left-hand corridor on the third floor where he had been caught by Filch, when bells began to chime softly. Where exactly the bells were—or even if there were bells at all—was a matter of some debate, but they only tolled when someone other than a Hufflepuff student was making their way down the primary entrance into Hufflepuff. The Professors, he'd been told, each had their own separate melody, as did those from Ravenclaw and Gryffindor. So far Harry had only heard the Ravenclaw melody, something airy and cold that used a lot of high-pitched bells.

This was different. It used a lot of low bells in a strangely hypnotic melody.

"Grieg," Justin said.

"Excuse me?" Ernie asked.

"Muggle composer," Justin told his friend. "That's one of his better-known pieces. It's—"

Exactly what it was Harry didn't learn because the bells stopped abruptly as Allie stuck her head around the corner into the common room.

"You're out after curfew," one of the older students, a prefect, said.

"No, I was out after curfew," Allie said, "now I'm simply not in the right common room after curfew." She looked around, "Nice place, much more inviting than the Slytherin common room though we have a better view of the lake."

"How did you find our common room?" Thrace demanded.

Allie shrugged, "You're the one with the open door policy, not me."

Thrace smiled a cold smile that reminded Harry of the look Dudley sometimes gave him. "Unless you have a very good reason for being out I suggest you answer the question…unless you'd rather explain lost points to your housemates?"

"Frankly I could care less about points. There are things more of more importance than a shining cup that is trotted out once a year."

"Maybe," another seventh year said. "Or maybe that's just the voice of someone who has seen it regularly trotted out for them."

"Since this is my first year here I couldn't tell you," Allie said blandly. She shrugged and added, "But since you're so curious about how I found this place the answer is simple. I asked the Fat Friar."

"And he told you, just like that," Thrace said.

"I told him I needed a friend's help," Allie admitted.

"My help, after hours?" Harry asked.

"Sure," she said, "mind you it isn't something you can help me with here so if you don't want to go sneaking around after hours—"

"No," Harry said. "It sounds like fun." He stopped suddenly and glanced around the room, "Um…"

Thrace rolled her eyes, "Go."

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Everyone goes exploring after hours sooner or later, Harry," Cedric said as the other older students chuckled or traded knowing looks. "I admit that most don't usually announce it to their whole House before they do it, though. Go, have fun, just don't get caught."

"Well if that's the attitude here, we could use one more," Allie grinned. "Preferably someone that's good at complex third-order switching charms utilizing runic symbols as point-anchors. A passable familiarity with runes and spell construction would be nice."

"That's…pretty specific," one older boy Harry didn't recognize but who wore the silver badge of a Prefect.

"What do you need that knowledge for?" Cedric asked.

"What's the best kind of prank?" Allie returned.

"This is Hufflepuff, not Ravenclaw," a girl sitting at the card game said.

Allie shrugged slightly.

"The best kind of prank," Tonks said slowly as her hair changed color to a jade green, "is one that doesn't hurt anyone, humiliates its intended targets, and doesn't splash over on anyone else."

Harry looked at her. He'd met the other seventh year on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team earlier in the evening when Thrace had introduced him to the team. Aside from colorful hair and dire threats muttered if anyone should invoke her first name, she had come across as standoffish and kind of rude. She was the last person on the team he'd have expected to show any amount of interest in a prank.

"Interested?"

"Who?" Tonks asked.

"Weasley twins."

"Excellent," Tonks said. She stood, took two steps, and tripped over her left shoe.

"Tonks!" Thrace said, pushing through the other students.

"I'm alrigh', Cap'n," Tonks groaned. "In fact, I think I'll just lay here for a mo'ent."

"Thrace?" Cedric asked.

"She's fine," the Quidditch Captain told the common room as Tonks slowly climbed back onto her feet. "Just making up for lost time, I think. I knew it was too good to last."

Cedric turned to Harry and Allie. "I'll come."

"Are you sure?" Harry asked.

He nodded. "Someone has to keep Tonks out of trouble and. Besides, I aim to make Prefect next year so I'm well motivated. Getting caught out after curfew would really spoil those plans."

"Can Ernie and I come?" Justin asked.

"Sure," Harry said.

"Alright," Allie said reluctantly. "I suppose we can use a few guards, and eight isn't a whole lot more noticeable than five."

Cedric helped up Tonks as Harry followed Allie down the passage out tumbled out of the painting that led to the Hufflepuff commons, followed by the other four Hufflepuffs.

"You said you were getting a little extra help, Allie, I didn't think you meant half the Hufflepuff Quidditch team," Padma said.

"Don't you mean a third?" her sister asked.

"Harry made the team," Padma informed her.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," Harry said shortly. "Don't tell anyone, please?"

"Harry," Parvati said, sounding hurt. "When have you ever known me to gossip?"

Harry looked at her. The first month of school was not yet over, and Parvati and her roommate Lavender Brown had firmly established their reputations as the biggest gossips in their year, and where making significant progress in their efforts to become the co-Gossip Queens of Hogwarts.

"I mean when it was something important," Parvati said.

Harry nodded slowly.

"Okay, for those of us who haven't managed to already memorize all of the House quidditch teams' starting line-ups, could you do introductions, Harry?" Allie asked.

"Sure," Harry said. "Cedric, Tonks, these are Padma Patil of Ravenclaw, her sister Parvati of Gryffindor, and Allie, Elissa Blackthorn of Slytherin. Allie, Padma, Parvati, these are Tonks and Cedric Diggory, I think you all already know Ernie and Justin?"

"I thought you were only going to pick up one or two people?" Parvati said after nodding politely to the two older students.

"Yeah, well, I picked up a few extra people to keep watch," Allie said as Cedric and Tonks flicked their wands so that light poured from the tips. "Put those out."

"But—"

"Light carries further than we can see," Padma pointed out quietly.

"The point is not to be noticed, not alert people that we're sneaking about," Parvati added. "Put a hand on the wall to guide yourself. There aren't any pictures down here except that big still-life with the fruit."

"So what's the plan?" Tonks asked as Allie led them down the corridor towards the stairs that led up to the Entrance Hall.

"Fred and George Weasley's pranks are heavily reliant on potions," Allie said. "Not all of them, of course, but the ones they've been pulling that affect an entire house at meals? Those ones are almost entirely potion-based. There are only so many ways to mass administer potions."

"Food," Tonks said. "The house-elfs?"

"That was my thinking," Allie said.

"House-elfs?" Justin asked quietly.

"I'll explain later," Ernie whispered back.

"So why don't we get the house-elfs to slip something into their food?" Tonks asked.

"First, I'm not sure they can deliver a dosed meal that precisely. Remember, they're targeting an entire house," Allie said. "Second, I'm pretty sure the elfs would tell them if we tried something like that. I know that if I'd suborned them I'd make sure that they would inform me if someone else tried to counter-suborn them."

"What have we here?" a voice asked a moment before Peeves popped into existence in front of them.

"Peeves," Cedric hissed.

"Students of out bed," Peeves grinned at him.

Harry heard Allie mutter a word too quietly for him to make out, but probably wasn't one that the upper years would have approved of.

"Wait, I demand the Riddle," Padma said quickly from behind him.

"The Riddle?" Peeves repeated dubiously. "What is the Riddle?"

"It's in the Rules of the Prank," Padma said. "When one Prankster meets another in execution of a Prank, the first may demand that the second answer a Riddle. If the second fails to do so he is not allowed to call attention to the Prankster, while if he succeeds he can do as he pleases."

"Very well," Peeves said with a nasty grin. "Peevesie has a riddle—"

"Not so fast," Harry said, picking up from Padma. "We demanded the Riddle, we are, therefore, the Prankster. You must answer our Riddle."

"Very well," Peeves said with a sour expression.

"When is a Prank not a Prank?" Padma said.

"And when is not a Prank a Prank," Parvati added with a grin.

"What is the best sort of Prank?" Tonks asked, giving the twins a sideways look as she repeated Allie's question.

"And finally," Allie cut in, "how, by Pranking nobody, can we Prank many?"

"You prank but you do not prank?" Peeves asked. "Bah, what talk is this of Pranking?"

"Tomorrow morning, breakfast, be there and find out," Allie said.

Peeves glowered at her, but then went zooming off.

Cedric, as he had the most experience with Hogwarts' many tricks and none of them were inclined to trust the bubblegum color-haired seventh year, led the way up. If he did run into someone he could wave them off in time for them to hopefully avoid getting in trouble while he tried to talk himself out of it. But the Entrance Hall seemed clear and they gathered at the top of the stairs.

"Great Hall?" he asked Allie as Harry peered around.

The Entrance Hall was very different at night with the high windows closed and all of the torches and lamps put out. It felt very…big. He could barely see across the hall to where the doors of the Great Hall were closed, and the suits of armor that stood sentry to either side of it were little more than blobs of darker shadows. The ceiling and upper floors were swallowed up by an impenetrable blackness.

As he watched, tiny flecks of light appeared a few floors above them light appeared and began bobbing and weaving as they slowly moved down the grand stairs.

Harry reached over and tugged on Cedric's sleeve and gestured upwards.

"Wand-lights," the older boy said in a hushed tone. "I don't know the prefect's patrol schedule. Tonks?"

"Do I look like a bloody prefect?" she hissed.

"It's okay, I have a distraction ready," Allie said.

Padma made a sound.

"Okay, Padma has a distraction ready," Allie said as a ghost emerged from the doors of the Great Hall. "But I have someone scouting for us."

It floated across the Entrance Hall until all could recognize the Bloody Baron. Then the ghost made a short bow, then drifted off to the right and disappeared.

"Great Hall is clear," Allie said. "There aren't any wards or alarm spells on the doors, I checked last night. How about that distraction?"

"Any second now," Padma said. "I don't know any good timing spells so I had to use a potion that'd melt through the stopper of an inverted vial in a certain amount of time. When that happens it'll spill into a beaker of another potion and will cause a brief explosion and produce fumes with mildly hallucinogenic effects."

Cedric looked at her askance, then at Harry as though to ask 'just what have you gotten me involved in?'

Padma must have caught the look because she shrugged. "There was a recipe for a luminescent skin cream in July's Teen Witch that involved blending two potions together. The explosion is a part of the process which is why the recipe calls for a broad-brimmed cauldron, the blast-wave has a lower pressure wave."

"I remember reading that one," Parvati hissed. "The most common error is not stewing the ergot long enough resulting in the fumes, and using a small cauldron—"

As she said this there was a flash of light from somewhere above them accompanied by a muffled whampf that echoed from down a long hallway. The wand-lights, still well above them, stopped, and then hurriedly disappeared.

"Let's go," Harry hissed. Allie moved and he led the way across the hall, quickly opening the door of the Great Hall wide enough for the others to slip through, and turning to watch as they crossed the Entrance Hall. Cedric followed after with Tonks and managed to keep her from tripping over her feet.

"Okay, now what's this great prank?" Tonks demanded after Harry had quietly closed the door.

"Rules of the Prank?" Harry asked Padma.

"It did sound good, didn't it?" she asked, clearly pleased with herself.

"You mean they don't actually exist?" Justin asked as someone snickered.

"They do now," Parvati said. "One of them anyway. We'll just have to come up with a few more."

"Quick thinking, Padma, Harry," Allie said.

"Thank you," Padma replied.

"I don't believe…they got one over on Peeves," Cedric muttered to himself. "I didn't think that was possible. Heck, it isn't natural. Just what have you gotten me involved in, oh Seeker-of—"

"Seeker!" Padma blurted. "Is that what Professor Sprout has you doing?"

Harry hesitated, "I, uh…"

"What are you talking about?" her sister asked.

"His position," Padma said. "I thought they had put him on reserves or something, but that isn't the case, is it?"

"Padma," Parvati growled.

"I thought they had put him on the roles as a reserve of their quidditch team," Padma explained. "But Cedric is, was, the Hufflepuff Seeker. If Harry has that role now it means he's on the primary squad. You know how Malfoy's been telling everyone that Professor Sprout has him in detention for the rest of the year? Well I bet those detentions are cover for quidditch training, aren't they?" she asked rounding on Harry.

"I didn't say anything about detentions and Professor Sprout didn't say anything about detention," Harry said.

"Clever, Harry," Padma said. "Nice evasion, been taking lessons from Allie, have you?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips. "I note you haven't denied it."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Parvati demanded.

"Because it is supposed to be a secret," Harry hissed. "I just told Draco that I was being let off light because it was the first time I broke the rules and that I was being given extra work for the rest of the year."

"Don't knock it, Harry, you convinced him that you've been punished," Allie said. "Thanks to him the rest of the school thinks you've been given detention for the rest of the year."

"You knew?" Padma demanded.

"I figured it out," Allie said mildly.

"Then why didn't you tell us?" Parvati demanded. "I thought you were my friend!"

"Do you want me to tell Padma about the pink elephant?"

Parvati paled and shook her head vigorously as Padma asked "Pink elephant?"

"Then don't expect me to tell you other peoples' secrets if you don't want me to tell them yours."

"As fascinating as this is…the prank?" Tonks asked.

"Magic has a signature," Allie said. "Usually trying to identify it can be problematic unless you're in an area where a person has done a great deal of magic or the spell was really powerful."

"You cantrack a spell back to a wand…and you can use a known wand-signature to filter spells," Tonks said. "At least you usually can."

"Elphabates' Third," Cedric said, nodding slowly.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"One of the laws that explain what you can and cannot do," Cedric said. "You'll pick up Elphabiates next year."

"True enough," Allie said. "But there are other ways of identifying a magical signature than using a wand. And as Tonks pointed out, once you have a signature—and it doesn't even need to be that of a wand—you can filter for it."

"Which I suppose you have?" Padma asked. "Okay, then what are third-order switching spells?"

"First-order switching spells swap objects," Cedric said slowly, as though reciting class material he wasn't quite sure of. "At the most basic they have to trade like, or at least similar, objects, though more complex ones can exchange dissimilar objects. Second-order spells can be used to swap an object's location, rather than swapping the object itself with another."

"You can swap something's location?" Parvati asked skeptically.

"In effect," Tonks said. "First order spells switch objects at points 'A' and 'B'. Second order can move something from point 'A' to point 'B' without there being something to move from 'B' to 'A'."

"Right," Cedric said, nodding. "I'm not sure what third-order spells do." He looked at Tonks.

"Area-effect," Tonks said. "But how are you going to define limits to the area of effect? For that matter, just what are you planning on swapping whatever the Weasleys have dosed with and how are you going to limit the effects of the switching-spell to just the tampered items?"

"The corresponding food from the High Table," Allie said.

"You want to prank the teachers?" Padma hissed.

"No," Allie said. "The Weasleys are going to prank the teachers, they just won't know it."

"Devious, cunning, get pranks on the teachers without actually doing anything, using other peoples' work for your own ends…what a perfectly Slytherin prank," Parvati said.

"You're just upset you didn't think of it first," Padma retorted.

"That's great, but I have no idea of how to do a switching spell like that," Tonks interrupted. "I mean, you want to define a limit to the area of effects, there has to be some way of timing the whole thing, and you didn't say how you were going to limit the spell to just tampered items. I'm assuming you plan to use some kind of filter?"

"Thaumaturgic filters keyed through runic point-anchors," Allie said. "That's why the need for a third-order charm. You'll see what I mean. Padma, Parvati, did you get the things I asked for?"

Padma produced a length of string, some colored chalk, and a few vials, while Parvati took a few flasks of some glowing potions out of her pockets, and then a pairs of labeled vials that didn't seem to have anything in them.

"Excellent."

Harry watched as Allie moved off to the center of the room, and having Padma hold down one end of the string, used it and the chalk to begin drawing out circles in the center of the Hall between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables.

"Justin, Ernie, keep a lookout," he said.

One magical circle comprised of two circles, one inside the other, was already done, and Allie was using a stick of colored chalk and one of the vials to mark down runes in-between the lines. There were marks for where two more sets of circles should be centered, so Harry took a piece of string and gestured for Parvati to hold down the center as he laid down two more sets of circles to either side of the one Allie was working on. With the three circles down he began copying the runes that Allie had inscribed into the first circle into one of the ones he'd just drawn, including a triangle that filled the center of the circle.

"Very nice," she told him, observing his work. "Of course, a thaumaturgic triangle is just about the simplest pattern there is, but we don't need anything more elaborate for what we're doing.

"Parvati, that rune has to be drawn in one go, you can't lift the chalk after each line. Each line has to flow from the proceeding line and into the succeeding line."

"What do you want me to do next?" Harry asked after he finished working on his circle.

Allie pulled out several pieces of parchment and unrolled them on the Hufflepuff table. Each had a separate triangle filled with a drawing.

"Runes?" Harry asked.

She nodded. "Technically they are sigils, but for our purposes you can call them runes. They have to be drawn exactly, so don't be afraid to rub it out and start over if you make a mistake."

"Cedric, Tonks, each of the house tables needs seven of each of these designs spaced equidistantly down their length."

"I'm not sure I see what you're doing," Cedric spoke up. "The runes clearly link the two, so I'm assuming that the ones on the floor are some way of identifying a magical signature."

"Parvati lifted some hairs from each of the twins," Allie explained. "I can use that as a source to identify their magical signatures for the filters."

Tonks and Cedric traded looks.

"Using body parts is border-line Dark Magic," Tonks said.

Allie frowned at her. "Body parts like hair or nail clippings can be used for some pretty bad stuff, but it can be used for some very helpful stuff too. Calling it Dark Magic because someone can abuse it is a lot like calling the levitation charm Dark Magic because someone can use it to levitate another person off the Astronomy Tower."

"The levitation charm isn't rated for human use," Padma interjected. Everyone turned to look at her. She shifted uncomfortably, "which isn't really the point."

"What I'm doing is a pretty basic thaumaturgic identification spell. The sigils on the tables will anchor it. The sigils will also act as point-anchors for the Switching spells. By spreading out the number of sigils it helps stabilize the identification spell while spreading out the load from the switch spells so that they don't overpower the thing. The tricky part for you, Tonks, is that we want the Switching spell to flow equally between all of the sigils, but we don't want the sigils themselves switched."

Cedric's eyes widened and he pursed his lips in a silent whistle.

Tonks' was more enthusiastic. "That is some seriously neat magic."

"I thought so," Allie said.

Harry waved Justin and Ernie over and explained the rune and how to draw it on the tables and where, and offered to let them work on it while he stood guard since he had done the circles on the floor.

He had only been watching for a few minutes when he saw movement on one of the stairs. "Someone's coming," he hissed. He heard the scratching of the chalk cease, and a moment later someone pressed against his back and he looked up to find Cedric leaning over him to peer outside.

The figure was shadowy, not using a wand-light to find its way, and it moved without pausing to the front doors and opened one wide.

"That's Professor Quirrell," Harry said softly as moonlight revealed a turbaned figure. His robes felt stifling as the suddenly oppressive tension grew thick enough cut.

Quirrell froze and looked around.

Harry and Cedric both pulled back from the door, as if simply being near it would be enough to alert the DADA Professor to their presence. But at last the front door closed with a soft thud, and when Harry looked again the hall was empty. "He's gone," he reported.

Cedric checked for himself before nodding in agreement. "We're clear."

The scratching of chalk resumed.

At length Justin and Ernie returned to take up watching again while Harry returned to doing runes down the length of the Gryffindor table as Allie checked on the others' work.

"Okay," he said, once he'd finished his last rune and saw the others had all finished with theirs. "Twenty-one runes per table, spread down the length of each of four tables, plus…only three on the Head Table?" The three on the Head Table were much more elaborate than the simple runes on the house tables, almost miniature copies of the circles on the floor.

Allie nodded in agreement.

"What next?" he asked.

"Parvati managed to procure for us samples of some of the potions they use," she said, gesturing to the flasks that were now sitting inside the circles. "She also got a sample of their hair, which we can use to tie their personal magical signatures to each." Allie held up the vials, and on close inspection Harry could see a number of ginger-colored hairs inside of them. "And now everybody just takes a step back and lets me work."

Harry gestured the others back, though all watched as she sat down cross-legged by the three circles. Even Ernie and Justin had moved from the doors to watch.

For a while she just chanted softly. The flasks began to glow. More chanting, this time accompanied by motions of a knife Allie had gotten from somewhere. She carefully added a pair of hairs from each vial into each of the circles. For a moment Harry thought he saw sparks crackle along the chalked lines of the circles, but the next he wasn't sure.

Slowly Allie stopped chanting, and as she did so the circles stopped glowing.

Allie stood carefully. "I need someone to picture all of the runes on the house tables, but not the Head Table, turning the color that the circles glowed, and then poke into the central circle with their wand."

"Makes sense," Cedric said from somewhere behind him.

Harry closed his eyes, visualized the color moving into the runes the same way he had first lit the candle, and then poked the blob of magic color. It felt thick, like he was trying to poke jell-o or the balloon from one of Dudley's birthdays that he had discovered forgotten behind the couch one time, and he'd been able to play with it for a full five minutes before his Aunt Petunia had shrieked at him and snatched it away. But after several seconds his wand slowly slid in.

"Wow," someone said, and he opened his eyes. Ribbons of light were streaking from all three of the glowing circles to each of the runes like continuous, silent, perfectly-straight bolts of colored lightening.

"Interesting affect," Tonks said. "I didn't think it was supposed to be so colorful."

"It wasn't," Allie said clinically as the lightshow played out around them. "A side-effect of using a magical device instead of a ritual tool, I think."

Harry turned, trying to watch everything at once and saw Ernie and Justin standing in the middle of the room. "Justin, the door," he said quickly.

Justin tore himself from the lightshow long enough to check to see if anyone had seen the light, but no one hand and he waved that they were still okay.

"Charms now?" Tonks asked when the light died.

"Now the charms," Allie agreed. She passed over a scroll. "Each of the runes on the house tables needs to be linked with one on the High Table. I made a map so you can see which one needs to be linked where. Then I have one more rune I need to put in, the control rune."

"What if you can't get to a particular spot at the Slytherin table?" Cedric asked. "I mean…apprenticeship or not, you're still a first year."

"That's why I'm putting it at Hufflepuff," she said. "Harry and his friends have been sitting in pretty much the same spot. I'll put it there."

"Okay," Cedric said, tagging after Tonks who was casting switching spells.

"Harry, this is a one-shot deal. There is a tiny flaw in the runes that will cause them to…burn out, for want of a better term, once they've been used. If it isn't triggered the magic will naturally degrade," Allie told him. "I'd be surprised if it lasted more than a couple of weeks considering how magically powerful this place is. However, you can't activate it if the Weasley's haven't put any of their doctored stuff out. Doing that would be…bad."

"Understood," Harry said. "Er, how do I turn it on and off?"

"Um," she bit her lip and considered the tables. "Do you think a wand tap would be too much?"

Harry shook his head. "That sounds good."

She nodded and dived under the Hufflepuff table near where he usually sat.

"Can I start cleaning up the circles?" he asked.

"You need to open them first, but yes."

Harry went to the first circle and reached out with a hand, slowly approaching until the palm of his hand brushed against the intangible something that he had just pushed his wand through. He took a deep breath and steadied his legs as his hand went numb and all the hairs on his neck stood up in the wash of power from the circle. Closing his eyes he pictured the circle and the energy it contained. Allie had shown him how to do this one time when she had visited the Patils in August, but it was the first time he was going to try to break one on his own without her closely monitoring him. Picturing the energy remaining contained he quickly brushed his foot over the outer chalk line, smearing it and breaking the magic that contained the spell inside the circle.

Instantly the magic began to pour out of it in a flood and Harry pushed against it, trying to imagine himself as a dam and slowing the rush of released energy. His body went numb a moment before the magic began to course through him. It reminded him of a cross between his first hot shower, and what he imagined grabbing a live electrical wire would feel like.

The well of power tapered off until it was little more than a trickle, and then it wasn't even that. Despite his eyes being closed he could see the circle he had just drained. The other two were still bright, live with magical energy, but the one in front of him was little more than chalk lines on the floor. He reached out to the other two without moving, grasped the power they contained, and pushed it 'down'. He didn't have to physically break the circles like he had with the first, just reach out with the power that was now—at least for the moment—indescribably his and willed them to release their power into Hogwarts.

Harry opened his eyes to see the tables, walls, everything in the Great Hall, literally crawling with a light so intense he brought up a hand to protect his eyes.

"What was that?" he heard Tonks hiss.

"Harry was showing off," Padma said, her voice soft in wonder.

"Not intentionally," Harry protested. "I had to drain off the power still inside the circles in order to break them."

"And we all felt it," Justin said.

"Everyone in the entire castle probably felt that," Parvati retorted.

"Harry," Allie said, crossing to him in three brisk steps. "Are you all right?"

"I'm wonderful," Harry said, staring intently at his hand. He could see the magic flowing under and above his skin through tiny, insubstantial, vessels.

"You don't look all right," Cedric said.

Harry turned and started to say 'I'm fine', but he stopped, the words unspoken. Before him stood two figures in armor.

Cedric—unmistakably Cedric though he bore little resemblance to the 3rd year—was older and bigger than the version he knew, and was wearing heavy plate armor. He had a shield that was split evenly yellow and black, and had a matching tunic-like garment over the armor that split into a checkered pattern below a broad leather belt that was circled twice about him. A yellow cape was slung about his shoulders and fell to trail behind him on the ground. He had a helmet, though its visor was up, and while he wore a sword belted at his side in his hand that wasn't occupied with a shield he held a heavy metal club with a flanged head.

Tonks was also older and a little taller, with long black hair that flowed freely behind her in some unseen wind, and her eyes hidden behind a white bandage. She wore a suit of plate armor, but where Cedric's was plain and practical, hers was polished to a silvery-bright shine had a fantastic quality to it, like it was the idea of armor more than it was armor itself. She brandished a sword before her that shone like a rainbow twisted into steel in her right hand, while in her left she bore a set of scales. Her face managed to look both joyous and implacable, and yet incredibly serene, and he had a feeling that despite the blindfold she could see everything.

"Harry?" Allie repeated.

At his name he turned to look at her, and instantly wished she hadn't. Allie wore robes that were threadbare and old, and she leaned heavily on a staff that was carved with half-finished runes. She didn't look much older, but the familiar smirk was missing from lips that were thin and pinched. Her black hair hung in limps locks that partially shielded remote and tired-looking eyes from the pale green glow coming from the heavy metal lantern she carried.

Behind her, hovering like a malignant specter, was another image of her. She had none of the tiredness of the first image but her eyes danced with unholy glee and her smirk was cold and cruel in a way that he couldn't recall the real Allie's ever being. Her robes were of some rich fabric and heavily decorated, and the staff she bore was fully carved with elaborate runes.

Most disturbing, however, was that fatigue aside the first image still looked basically health while the specter that overshadowed her was anything but. Her skin was stretched tightly over her bones, webbed with blue veins on her hands and sallow where purple, green and yellowing bruises hadn't marred her face. Burst blood vessels made her eyes—filmy with cataracts—appear red.

The tired woman lifted the lantern a little higher, turning to brandish it at the specter which retreated with a pained scream. The odd, pale green light extended a little further, and flickering at the edges of it Harry could see a vast horde of human figures that recoiled in concert with the specter.

He jerked away and what he saw next made him want to weep. Standing in the doors of the Great Hall was the girl he remembered from the train, Hermione Granger, or an older version of her, wearing glowing white robes of some archaic style—Greek, or perhaps Roman? He wasn't sure—and her bushy hair was held back by an ancient-looking helmet. Her eyes were filled with crackling white lightning as she read from a massive tome in her left hand. An owl, large and pure white in a way that even Hedwig wasn't, rode her left shoulder, and she held a spear with a shaft of silver-blue metal that was taller than him and had a blade formed of perfectly white light that was longer than his forearm.

She lowered the spear, pointing with it, and Harry turned to see a badger, well, what he supposed a badger would look like if it stood on two legs and had arms and hands like humans did. It was short and stout, and its black fur was grizzled around its jaws.

Something wrapped itself around his forehead and jerked his head back, breaking the…vision? He wasn't certain. A band tightened around his head, pulling hairs that were trapped in it, and his head was jerked again as a knot was tightened.

"Are you with us now, Harry?" Allie's voice asked sharply.

Harry looked around the hall. Thousands, millions, of tiny, tightly-spaced glowing runes still flowed up the walls and across the tables and floor, only to ripple where the others stood. He chanced a quick half-glance towards where he thought Tonks stood, not wanting to look at Allie again. Tonks—normal, bubblegum-haired Tonks—looked at him worriedly.

"You don't need to go to the hospital wing, do you?" she asked.

"I'm fine," Harry said, "I think." He reached up to touch the—bandage?—tied around his forehead but Allie slapped his hand away.

"What the hell happened?" Cedric demanded.

"Harry forgot to dispel the magic inside the circle before breaking it," Allie said. "Then he tried to use his own power to slow down the rush of energy instead of getting out of its way, so he got his third eye blasted open."

"You knew this would happen," Harry said.

"Only if you didn't de-power the circle first," Allie said. She turned back to him, "And you won't ever make that mistake again, will you?"

"No," Harry said with a shudder, the disturbing double-image of his friend was still as sharp as if he were still watching it.

"And the light show?" Cedric said.

"Harry fed the power of the other two circles directly into the school, into the wards I mean, rather than releasing it into…ambient energy. Look, Diggory, it doesn't matter right now. What matters it that probably everyone in the school felt that."

"Which means we have to leave," the boy said quickly. "Can those circles be safely vanished?"

Allie nodded. "Harry did the hard work; they're not more than chalk lines now."

"Scourgify," Cedric said, waving his wand at the floor between the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables just as the door of the Great Hall opened.

Harry whirled towards the doors, his wand in his hand though he couldn't recall drawing it, but the person who'd entered the room wasn't the Professor he had thought. It wasn't even a prefect. It was the figure from the vision minus the robes, armor, owl, spear, and massive tome.

"Granger?" Parvati hissed. "What are you—you followed me?"

"Of course I did," Hermione said. "I was trying to stop you before you did something foolish." She looked at the glowing hall, then at the doors. "We're going to be in so much trouble," she moaned softly.

"We're not far from our common room," Tonks said.

"The burrows?" Harry asked aloud, more to himself than his housemate. He nodded sharply, "right, we'll do that. Cedric, take Tonks across first." He hadn't asked, didn't really know the older girl, but he just knew that the fall in the sett hadn't been a one-off.

"Not only sneaking around, but you injured someone too?" Hermione asked. "The hospital wing—"

"Granger," Allie said, "unless you want to explain to your housemates how you not only lost an incredible number of points for Gryffindor, but why you were found tied up in the Headmaster's chair in the Great Hall with rabbit ears, I suggest you be quiet."

"The Professors would believe me," she said sharply.

"That what, a cabal of students from all four houses secretly tricked you into roaming the halls after hours so that they could tie you to a chair in the Great Hall? Because really, that's what this whole thing was about."

"If you two are done?" Cedric asked, brushing past them to crack open the door. "Looks clear," he reported.

Tonks stumbled into one of the suits of armor flanking the doors of the Great Hall, but Cedric was able to catch her and Harry caught the armor before it clattered to the floor. He was only just barely able to hold it up, but then Justin, Ernie, and Allie were there and they quickly got it standing again.

Harry clapped Justin on the back, the muggleborn grinned back at him and then he and Ernie took off across the Entrance Hall. They made it across as well, for some reason the Entrance Hall seemed much brighter than he remembered it being when he'd been standing guard. He could see Cedric wave for him to send the next pair, and Allie almost sent Padma and Parvati across before he stopped them.

She turned to look at him and he pointed to the floor of the Hall to one side. A swatch of stone floor was clearly lighter than the rest.

"Someone is coming up the cross corridor at the end of the hall," Hermione announced from behind him, but at least she had kept her voice low. "We're all going to be caught."

"No," Harry said, he pointed towards a side staircase that he couldn't remember seeing during the day. It was on the same side as the corridor emerged from, and more importantly they didn't have to go across the hall to reach it.

"Move, Harry," Allie hissed. "We'll be right behind you."

Harry scrambled as quietly as he could to the staircase. It was old and made of wood, but he had had enough practice with the Dursleys' staircase. By only stepping on the sides of the stairs, rather than the middle, he was able to keep it from squeaking. The staircase led to a broad hall lined with statues and a heavy rug that padded the middle of it so his feet left no sounds. Despite there being no torches or windows he could see quiet clearly. In fact, everything around him seemed to give off a soft light.

"Slow down," he heard Parvati hiss. He turned to find Padma and Parvati flanking Hermione, Allie was behind them, a hand on a shoulder of each twin as she guided them down the hall. "How can you even see where you're going?" she demanded.

"I just can," he said. "Everything is glowing."

"Mage-sight?" Padma asked. "How'd you develop mage-sight?"

"Backwash from releasing the circles," Allie suggested. "And it's probably only a sensory boost, making his eyes more efficient. True mage-sight is linked to the third-eye and I've already shut that down." She pulled out a pocket watch with slightly glowing hands. "We were too efficient."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione demanded.

"It means we've got a while yet before my next diversion goes off," Allie said. "What?" she asked, "Did you honestly think Padma was the only one who set one up?"

"Never mind," Padma hissed. "Does anyone recognize where we are?"

"Doesn't matter, does it?" Harry asked. "We can only go forward."

"Fair enough, oh mage-sighted one," Parvati said, grinning at him. "You go first."

Harry led them down the corridor, feeling rather foolish with an upraised wand that he didn't know how to light and didn't need too as he could see quite well without it. There was an abrupt alcove to the right that turned out to be a landing for a staircase.

"I know this stair," Hermione said. "It's a corridor and another staircase away from Gryffindor Tower."

But the stair did not lead to a corridor. It led to a large room filled with dusty display cases. The walls were lined with shields and plaques, while banners and tapestries hung from the ceilings. Heavily engraved cups and plates twinkled from their stands, and statues lurked between the display cases and in the corners of the room. There was a heavy silver chalice on a velvet pillow in its own display case near the center. Near it, in another case, was a very plain-looking iron cauldron. A trio of long cases held gold and silver-colored swords, while a collection of crowns, scepters, and objects Harry couldn't begin to identify they were so gem-encrusted, glittered nearby.

"The Trophy Room," Parvati said flatly. "We're miles from where any of us need to be."

Hermione scowled at her, "But the map said quite clearly that—"

"Maps don't work in Hogwarts," Padma hissed at the Gryffindor. "Haven't you figured it out yet? Hogwarts moves around too much for maps to work."

There was a noise in the next room that made them jump.

"Sniff around," a cold, dry voice hissed in the darkness. "Sniff, sniff around, my sweet, those terrible students may be lurking in a corner."

It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the others to follow him as quickly as possible. They scurried across the room towards the door furthest from the one Filch was coming from. Padma's robes had barely whipped around the door when they heard Filch's voice again.

"They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter. "Only one place those Entrance Hall stairs lead at this time of night. Check the corners, my sweet, that's where they'll be hiding."

"This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armor. They could hear Filch getting nearer.

"Uh oh," Parvati said.

"Uh oh?" Hermione demanded in a furious whisper. "What does that mean?"

"When Allie asked Padma to set up a distraction I, uh, couldn't resist putting in one of my own," Parvati admitted.

"So?" Harry asked.

"I, um, used one of Neville's potions and sort of hid it in a suit of armor in this gallery. What?" she asked as the four turned and gave her furious looks, "it wasn't like I knew we were going to be making a secret getaway down—"

A suit of armor shrieked as its legs dissolved into a puddle of purple goo. The rest of the armor toppled to the ground. The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the castle that had managed to sleep through the rush of magical energy.

"RUN!" Harry yelled, and the five sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether or not Filch was following—they swung around a doorpost and galloped down one corridor, then another, with Harry in the lead and no idea where they were or where they were going.

They hit a stairway going down, and Harry, in a spurt of half-crazed glee, hopped up on the polished banister and rode it down faster than he could have run the stairs. So fast, in fact, that he couldn't get his legs under him in time and he stumbled towards a wall. He managed to get his arm up, but instead of colliding with the stone wall he barreled through a tapestry into a secret passage. The extra room was enough for him to get his feet back under him, and the four girls followed hot on his heels until they emerged from the secret passage near the Charms classroom which was nearly on the opposite side of the school from the Trophy Room.

"I think we've lost them," Harry panted, leaning against a cold stone wall and wiping his forehead. Allie nodded from where she was leaning against the wall opposite him and breathing heavily.

"I—told—you," Hermione gasped, clutching at a stitch in her side. "I—told—you."

"We have to get back to our dorms," Padma said quietly though she too was breathing heavily, "as quickly as possible."

"I can't believe we destroyed a suit of armor," Hermione moaned. "We're going to be in so much trouble. Out after hours, running in the corridors, destroying school property…"

"Hey," Parvati said suddenly. "I destroyed a suit of armor. Hmm."

"What?" Padma asked.

"Oh, I was just thinking. My horoscope told me a knight would fall for me. I just didn't think it meant it literally."

A doorknob rattled and Harry hissed "Quiet." A moment later something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.

It was Peeves again. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.

"Shut up, Peeves," Harry hissed, "Please—you'll get us thrown out."

Peeves cackled. "Wandering around at night, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."

"Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."

"Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."

"Wait," Padma said desperately, "I demand a Riddle."

"Can't," Allie said softly. "We're in the egress phase."

"STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"

Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives down the corridor and down a flight of stairs, not sure of where they were. They found themselves in another corridor and raced down it as well, right to the end where they slammed into a door—and it was locked.

"End of the line," Parvati said in a ghastly whisper. "We're trapped."

They could hear footsteps. Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves' shouts.

"Heck with that, someone use the unlocking charm," Allie hissed.

"Why don't you come up here and use it?" Parvati hissed at Allie who was at the back of the pack.

"Because if I do I'll either blast the door off its hinges, or start a fire that no one can put out," Allie retorted.

"Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She snatched Harry's wand from him and tapped the lock, whispering as she did so, "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked and the door swung open with nary a squeak. They piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.

"Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."

"Say 'please.'"

"Don't mess with me, Peeves, now where did they go?"

"Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his most annoying sing-song voice.

"All right—please."

"NOTHING! Ha ha! Haaaaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" and they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.

"He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay."

"Maybe not, Harry," Padma said softly. "look."

Harry wanted to sink against the stone floor. His robes were warm and damp with sweat, his breathing was ragged, first from the terrifying run through the school and then the tense minutes of not daring to breathe as they waited for Filch to leave. turned around. For a moment he was quite sure that he had walked into a nightmare—this was far too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.

They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden.

They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.

It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't yet dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.

Harry groped for the doorknob—between Filch and death, he'd take Filch. But the door had relocked itself and the knob was still in Harry's hand. It was Padma who pushed him aside this time and tried the unlocking spell, but the spell bounced off.

"Warded door," Allie muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Parvati demanded.

"That whoever set this up didn't want anyone who got in the way we did, to be able to get out the same way," Allie said, her voice calm as though not at all concerned about her impending demise. "Or it could be that the door has some kind of enchantment that learns so that once a spell is used it becomes warded against that spell. Or it could be a one-way portal. A door from the outside but a wall from in here. That's the way I would have set it up if I were doing the warding, have a seperate exit."

"Can you get us out?" Harry asked.

The dog made up its mind about which of them it was going to kill first and started to lunge for Hermione, but a thin wailing sounded echoed through the halls of Hogwarts. It slowly grew louder, accompanied by a droning noise.

The giant dug huffed angrily and the left head yawned, its gaping jaws wide enough that Harry could have stood upright in them. The dog huffed again as it lay down, and went back to sleep.

"Bagpipes?" Hermione asked.

"Asked a ghost I met," Allie said as the piper, apparently satisfied with that his instrument, took up 'Scotland, the Brave'. She bent over the lock. "I can probably disrupt the warding so that one of you can cast the unlocking charm and get us out, but that will let whoever set this up know that someone was here. On the other hand…" she reached into a pocket and came up with a couple pieces of twisted metal. She fed them into the lock, and shortly later there was a heavy thunk and the door swung open.

They spilled through it onto the floor and Harry swung the door shut again. Filch must have gone to search for them elsewhere because he was gone. Aside from the bagpipes echoing through the corridors there were no signs that anyone else was even still up.

"Lockpicks?" Harry asked.

"Sometimes the non-magical solution is still the best solution," Allie said satisfactorily as she pocketed the pieces of bent metal.

"Well," Padma said, falling to the floor and trying not to giggle. ef thy felt was a heady, almost palpable, thing. "That was interesting."

"Yeah, how are we going to cheat Death next week?" her sister asked, she wasn't trying not to giggle.

"Not that," Padma said. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"

"The floor?" Harry suggested. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy looking at its teeth."

"No, not the floor," Hermione said crossly. Unlike the other students she had picked herself up and brushed off her robes as soon as the door was shut. "It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something." She glared at them. "I hope you're pleased with yourselves. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go back to Gryffindor Tower and go to bed before any of you come up with another brilliant plan to get us all killed—or worse, expelled."

With that, Hermione turned and stalked down the corridor.

"Well," Harry said sardonically as he watched the twins, "I suppose it's nice to know that somebody has their priorities in order."

The effect was every bit he could have hoped for.

The twins cracked up and Allie shook so hard keeping her laughter silent that she had to brace herself against the wall and made choking sounds.

"She's right about one thing," Padma said after the moment passed. "I'm going to bed. I don't want to be late for breakfast."

"You want us to take you there?" Parvati asked.

Her sister shook her head. "Ravenclaw Tower isn't that far."

Harry shook hands with Parvati and then Allie who both left shortly thereafter with an injunction that he was not to remove the bandage she had tied around his head until after the sun had risen and then to burn it. But Hermione had given Harry yet another thing to think about as he headed by himself towards the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, not even noticing that the mage-sight—which had so helpfully allowed him to see in Hogwarts dark corridors—was gone. The dog was guarding, something… What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something that you wanted to hide—except perhaps Hogwarts.

It looked as though Harry had found out where whatever it was that Hagrid had been sent to collect from Gringotts—and that someone had later tried to steal from the same place—had ended up.