Ok, I'm sorry I haven't updated in ages. I have a reason! Don't kill me! I was kind of in the middle of the Mexican jungle, living in tents and washing out of a bucket of rainwater. I'm now home in lovely Scotland and covered in Mosquito bites. I actually had an amazing time! Even if we regularly found tarantula holes near our tents and there was a scorpion found in what they labelled as toilets. Anyway, on with the show!

The next day dawned bright and early. The group of pranksters were scattered throughout the hall eating breakfast, though only a few had stuck to their own house table. Padma and Parvati were huddled together with Lee and George at Gryffindor, Adrian was muttering quietly to Tom and Fred over at Ravenclaw while Harry, Neville, Draco and Teddy were sitting together at the Slytherin table. This had once been an odd sight, but by now everyone in the castle knew not to even attempt to suggest that the group stop. If they did, they were only met with blank expressions and scandalised cries of, "Never! Why would we do that?"

Everything was quiet until the arrival of the post. Two things stood out for everyone instantly, the official letters winging their way towards the Heirs of House Malfoy and Nott, and the headlines of the Daily Prophet. The Prophet had finally caught hold of the Malfoy family split. The headlines screamed out the news.

Lady Malfoy a Lady no more!

A few days ago a shocking thing occurred. Narcissa Malfoy nee Black was paid a visit by her cousin, Lord Sirius Black. Lord Black is an acclaimed war hero and Godfather to The-Boy-Who-Lived, so this occasion should have made Lady Malfoy's Political and Social career. Unfortunately, this was no social visit. Lord Black, working off of information provided by Heir Malfoy, a close friend of his Godson, proceeded to not only annul her marriage to Lord Malfoy, but then went on to cast her out of the Black family. Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, one of the most prestigious names in our society is now Narcissa Nobody.

'What could have possibly caused this?' I hear you ask.

Well, dear readers, that is where things get truly interesting. It seems that Miss Nobody was the one responsible for Imperiusing Lord Malfoy during the last Wizarding War. Not only that, but she's been controlling him ever since using a heady cocktail of dark torture curses, Imperius and intimidation.

That's right, dear readers. This… woman is responsible for making an innocent man's life a living hell for their entire marriage.

The worst is yet to come, dear readers. She had planned the same thing for her son as soon as she deemed him old enough. She already had him living in fear of her, and she would have him be a good little dark wizard 'worthy of the House of Black.'

It appears that Narcissa Nobody is just as mad as her older sister Bellatrix Lestrange, who is famed for her masterful use of manipulation and the Imperius to trap Bartemius Crouch Jr.

With this monster as a role model is it any surprise that her practices have gone unnoticed for so long?

I would personally like to wish Lord Malfoy a speedy recovery and all the luck in the world in the future.

Rita Skeeter

The official letter clutched in Draco's hands was only a confirmation of the words splashed across the Prophet for all to see. Murmurs swept the hall as Draco leapt at Harry and half strangled his friend while sobbing out his thanks. Harry just sat there, cradling his relieved friend as he finally let go of all the nervous tension he'd been living with for so many years. Meanwhile, Teddy had opened his own official letter. It read as such;

To the Heir Presumptive of the Noble House of Nott

I, Lord of the Noble House of Nott do hereby release my Heir Presumptive into the care of the Ancient and Noble House of Black until his coming of age and beyond if he so chooses.

I name Mort Andrius Wild-Black as his primary guardian in my stead. May he care for my Heir as if he was his own.

This I swear, so mote it be.

Teddy could only stare at the words proclaiming his freedom for several minutes. The twins had done it, they'd actually saved him. And Death really had followed through on adopting him. This was a miracle, it had to be. Turning to face the Ravenclaw table, Teddy launched himself at Tom's back, enveloping the other boy in a hug while throwing the letter at Fred as an explanation. Upon reading the missive, Fred let out a whoop before passing it on to Adrian. Adrian's reaction was to blink in shock, this document stated that a Pureblood Lord had been persuaded into giving control over his heir over to another. This was unheard of. His respect for his new friends shot up alarmingly at this, not only were they plotting to outwit both Dumbledore and Voldemort, but had also worked to improve the lives of two of their number following the rules of their society. As a budding politician, Adrian could tell that these people would change their whole world and he planned to be right there with them.

By this point, Harry, Draco and Neville had all moved to join them and the joyous news shared with everyone. Harry laughed when he heard and said, "Mum's probably adding extra space as we speak. You'll both be staying with us indefinitely if she gets her way, which she always does. She's scarily stubborn."

Draco gaped at him at that pronouncement. His mouth flapped as he stuttered, "W-what? Why would we be there? We have a mansion."

Harry laughed again, "Our mum takes the term 'mother bear' to a whole new level. I can guarantee that your dad is currently being mothered within an inch of his life. You're both been adopted into our patchwork family and won't be escaping anytime soon."

Draco launched himself at both of the twins this time, barely able to believe the news that he now had such an amazing family. He hoped his father was ok. Lucius had always been kind to him when he'd managed to escape Narcissa's gaze for a while. He'd at least tried to be a proper parent and had shielded Draco from Narcissa as much as possible. The warm, fluffy moment was interrupted by Hermione sitting down next to Neville and proclaiming, "I want that explanation you promised me at the Sorting. Also, I want to know how you pranked Dumbledore."

The group stared at their female friend in surprise. They'd completely forgotten about their promised explanation to Hermione with everything they'd been doing. That was unacceptable, Hermione deserved better from them. Tom was silently nominated as spokesperson for this occasion, "Of course, Hermione. I'm sorry we haven't done that sooner. But not here, Padma and Fred will come get you after curfew tonight and we'll explain everything. There are still some others who need to hear the full explanation anyway. Will that do?"

The whole table could see Hermione's curiosity and her love for rules warring against each other, naturally, curiosity won out in the end and she nodded her assent. With that all agreed, the group all stood to head off to class for the day.

Surprisingly, the day stayed worryingly prank free. The twins thoughts all being filled with thoughts of this evening and the conversation to be had. All the teachers were in a state of disbelief by the time curfew rolled around. They'd had a quiet, prankless day and they all felt at a bit of a loose end because of it.

Meanwhile, unknown to all, the Order of Mischief were all sneaking towards the Room of Requirement, Hermione following along after them. Once everyone was seated, Tom stood up to explain everything to the gathered students, "Hermione wishes to understand why we dislike Dumbledore. I know you've all heard this already, but I feel like we need it put in a concise way so we can continue plotting how to combat the situation we are being faced with."

Murmurs of assent were heard throughout and Tom nodded before continuing, "Good. Now, Dumbledore has done many questionable things during his life but our personal grievances start with a 'prophecy' spoken by a known drunk and fraud during a job interview for the Divination position. Dumbledore took this to be the real deal, hired her, and allowed news of it to get back to Voldemort. This prophecy stated that a baby born at the end of 'the seventh month' would have the power to defeat 'the Dark Lord'. Three babies were born at the end of July. Harry, Neville and I. Harry and Neville fit the other parameters of the prophecy and no one knew I existed at this point so I am discounted. Voldemort picked Harry and went after his family. Harry survived and Dumbledore has been trying to gain control over Harry ever since. He would have succeeded immediately after the tragedy if it hadn't been for our mum and uncle. They've shielded us both from him and built up a strong family who all know not to trust the old coot. This is the first chance the fool has had to mess with Harry and he's really gone all out. He's hidden The Philosopher's Stone in the school, guarded by a Cerberus and goodness knows what else behind a door protected only by a simple locking charm. Not only that, but he's pointedly ignoring the fact that our DADA teacher is currently possessed by Lord Voldemort himself."

Hermione was openly gaping while the rest of the room just looked furious. Put so plainly, it all seemed that much worse. Finally, Hermione stammered, "H-how do y-you know all this?! How can anyone have worked this much out?"

Harry and Tom grimaced at that before Harry stood to explain that one, "This is a closely kept secret so I'd ask you to not speak of this to anyone and avoid looking Dumbles in the eye at any time. Our mum has a Mastery in working with unknown and obscure magicks, she used this to send both her and her brother's memories back to their younger selves' bodies. They're working with full knowledge of what could have happened if they hadn't stepped in. As it stands, I would be stuck in some orphanage and have grown up alone and bitter, and Harry would have lived with magic hating, abusive muggles. Neville's parents would be permanent residents of St Mungo's, Draco and Theo would have ended up being forced to join the Death Eaters and there would have been another Wizarding war by our fifth year. Oh, and Sirius would have been left to rot in Azkaban for twelve years without a trial. Needless to say, we're all incredibly glad that that didn't happen. As it stands, she's letting us go through Hogwarts under our own steam, only stepping in if we ask for help."

Everyone who didn't know there was something special about the Wild-Black siblings before were now openly gaping in stunned disbelief. This was talk about magic never thought possible before, and for it to be mentioned so casually was awe-inspiring. In that instant, Paradox gained two new devoted hero worshippers in the form of Hermione and Padma. No one could think of anything to say, so only nodded along dumbly, they'd have questions later once they had assimilated the new information. Realising this, Fred clapped his hands to gain the group's attention before deftly changing the subject, "Now that that's sorted, shall we start discussing Dumboldork's crazy plan and what we should do to prepare for thwarting it."

Everyone's attention immediately focused in on this problem as Fred picked up a pen and walked to the whiteboard, talking as he went. "Alright," He muttered,

"We know that the first obstacle is a Cerberus. He most likely got that from Hagrid, who is not someone you should trust with delicate information at the best of times. So, maybe he used other staff members to protect it. Who would he use?"

There was a few minutes of muttering before Parvati shouted out, "The House Heads."

Fred nodded eagerly, writing the names down with a space next to each name before saying, "Good. Now, each will probably have something to do with the subject they teach. So, for Sprout we're looking at a potentially deadly plant that's part of the first year curriculum. Neville? Any ideas?"

Neville straightened instantly as he responded, "If he was really trying to protect the stone there's so many plants that would work perfectly, however, if what we suspect is true then it's most likely to be Devil's Snare. That's deadly but easily dealt with."

This was instantly written up on the board next to 'Sprout.'

"What about Flitwick?" George called out.

It was Harry who answered that, "Well I'll bet that the goat has heard about my flying abilities so Flitwick's challenge is likely to incorporate that in some way. Severus' will be a logic puzzle of some sort, knowing him. That only leaves McGonagall."

Everyone nodded their agreement as Fred scribbled away at the board. Draco spoke up next, voice strong and confident sat among his friends, "The way I see it, hers and Severus' are likely to be the most difficult. Neither is likely to back down against Dumbledore and will actually put some effort into it. McGonagall is a Gryffindor who's lived through two wars. Hers will be a battle of wills involving a lot of strategizing. Similar to chess. Either way, it will simulate an actual battle in some way."

Harry heaved a sigh of relief, "Thanks, Draco."

Fred nodded solemnly in agreement as he added their theories on McGonagall to their list.

Once this was done, he returned to the table. Explaining as he went, "We can show the list to Pan when she visits next to find out if we're right about this."

Tom sighed in relief at Fred already having a plan in place for keeping Harry safe.

"Okay," He called, "Now we need to prank Dumbledore again. No one goes after Harry and gets away with it. He may not know why we hate him, but we can still make his life hell."

Tom was pacing by the end of his short tirade while Fred, George, Neville, Draco and Teddy growled their agreement.

"We've already hit his love of Gryffindor. What else can we do?"

Surprisingly, it was Hermione who answered that one, "What if…" She hesitated a moment before continuing on, "What if we attacked his wardrobe in some way. It really is too bright. We could try to find some way to permanently change anything he wears black or something."

Everyone stared at the rule loving girl before Parvati broke the silence,

"Hermione," She said slowly. "I could kiss you right now. That is genius!"

Hermione blushed bright red and tried to hide behind Padma. This set everyone off laughing at the poor girl. Finally, Teddy choked out, "Well at least her name's easy." The laughter died down at that as Hermione looked puzzled.

"Athena!" proclaimed Teddy proudly.

This started the laughter back up again before they went round introducing themselves again to the confused young witch.

Before the meeting could end though, Paradox and Death apparated in to the middle of the room only to be mobbed by the group of seven who knew the truth about them. Draco and Teddy in particular were enthusiastic with their greetings of the twins responsible for freeing them from the more oppressive members of their family. Everyone else was left to gape yet again at the people who had just apparated into Hogwarts. Something that was meant to be impossible. Upon realising who these people were, they soon calmed down though, after all, they had sent themselves back in time without causing untold damage. This was nothing compared to that. The rest of that meeting was spent quietly in smaller groups chatting about nothing in particular and just relaxing with friends and family. Fred was off in a corner, discussing the list with Paradox and editing it as he went. People were curious, but chose to leave it until tomorrow. There would be plenty of time to deal with that tomorrow. By the time everyone was ready to head back, Draco and Padma were both fast asleep, Draco curled up next to Neville as he chatted with Hermione and Parvati. While Padma had passed out on a beanbag in a quiet corner by the fire. Luckily enough, Fred and Adrian were able to get the two first years back to their own beds without waking them.