Hi all! Welcome to Chapter Three of Water Worries. This is a story request from a lovely person called xxxRainLoverxxx, so credit to the idea goes to her. She is a very talented writer but unfortunately due to negative reviews she no longer likes to post her stories which is a true shame for everyone. This story is complete and is Thirteen Chapters long, updates should be weekly unless something drastic happens.
Summary: Harry has a fear of water, when his nightmares manage to get even Ron's attention Ron comes up with a plan for how to keep Harry's mind off the second task. What happens when they go too far? AU. Contains Spanking. No Slash.
Warning: Story contains parental spanking of a teenager, if this isn't your cup of tea, don't read it.
Disclaimer: I do not now, nor have I ever, owned Harry Potter – as much as I'd like to I sadly do not. I did not make any money from this story, and I don't intend too. All characters and recognisable things belong to JK Rowling not me – as sad as that is for me.
A huge thank you to my wonderful Beta Jules Ann, who is again herself a very talented writer on here. Though she doesn't know Harry Potter, I am slowly trying to convert her.
~o~
Harry and Ron took a couple days to pick the next prank, they were torn between two that they both thought would be good for a while, before settling on one. Though they had a fair amount of homework to contend with, they took their time to sort out their next prank. Fred, George, and Ginny could not join in this one, so they didn't offer their help, Fred and George seemed very preoccupied with something they were keeping secret. Hermione shot them disapproving looks when she knew they were focusing on the prank and rather than their homework, but she did offer some help and advice.
Fortunately, by the time they could put the prank in place, they were ready, even Hermione had to admit it was going to be amusing. The day seemed to drag by, but finally they headed up for their second to last class of the day. Climbing up the North Tower and pulling themselves up the rope ladder into the stuffy heavily scented classroom, they found their usual table.
Trelawney was on top form, mysteriously and airily warning all of them of just how disastrous the current alignment of Jupiter and Neptune could be, especially for those who were born in summer.
Once Trelawney made pointed eye contact with Harry, he allowed his head to fall back, rolling his eyes as his head swayed ominously. When he brought his head back, he looked directly at his professor and spoke in a very accurate imitation of her mysterious tone. "All that glitters is not gold, beware of false prophecy foretold. Fear the words from a mouth that lies, for she who claims to have seen death often dies. The unlikely hero awaits, the one so far ignored by fates, hair of a flame with a speckled face, will soon ascend too his true place. His loyal fellow will soon find, his third eye is not blind. Together the pair will discover the fraud, and all around will applaud, when they do unveil the liar, and she is burnt at the pyre. The deceiver might yet escape her fate, if she can stop before it is too late. No more false predictions of death must cross her lips, or the end will begin upon the next eclipse."
Ron took his turn to act horrified and started shaking Harry, "Harry, Harry mate," he called urgently. His eyes were alight with his amusement as he shook Harry's shoulder though his expression remained serious.
Harry rolled his head back and rolled his eyes back once more before he shook his head. "Ron, get off, I'm awake," he grumbled. It was hard not to start laughing, but he forced himself to remain serious. He looked around him, as if just seeing where he was, "oh sorry, did I doze off?"
Professor Trelawney was speechless and staring at Harry and Ron as if she had never seen them before. "Get out! All of you! Leave!" She demanded, her voice losing its usual mysterious and airy tone.
Lavender Brown and her best friend Parvati looked horrified, "Professor?" Lavender asked concerned.
"Leave, now, class is over!" Trelawney insisted flapping her arms and attempting to chivey them out.
Harry and Ron, doing their best to hold in their laughter, packed their bags as quickly as they could and scurried out of the hatch and down the rope ladder. They made it about halfway down the spiral staircase before they could hold it no longer and burst into hysterics, clutching one another to remain standing.
Dean and Seamus soon joined them along with Neville and looked at the laughing pair, realisation dawning on them. "You made that up," Dean stated.
"Bloody brilliant," Seamus laughed.
"Don't know what you're talking about," Ron insisted between his laughter.
"What he said," Harry agreed.
"Course not," Seamus guffawed.
They continued on their way, heading to the Gryffindor Common Room the rest of the Gryffindor boys now laughing along with Harry and Ron, reciting pieces of their made-up prophecy.
Lavender and Parvati were aghast when they discovered it had all been made up and were extremely unhappy with Harry and Ron, but their disapproval mattered even less than Hermione's did.
They were still in high spirits when they headed to their next class, meeting up with Hermione who simply gave a long-suffering shake of her head. They had Charms now and Flitwick didn't mind if they sat and spoke, so they were able to give Hermione an accurate blow by blow of what had happened.
Hermione tried hard to maintain her slightly disapproving look, but she couldn't help but feel a touch of smug satisfaction at the old fraud getting a taste of her own medicine, "I still don't approve, but I can't say she doesn't deserve it. It's about time she got some comeuppance."
That evening, in the Common Room after dinner, Harry and Ron did a rousing rendition of their prophecy, to great applause from the rest of the Gryffindors.
Fred and George came over and patted both boys on the back, "brilliant that, simply brilliant!" Fred declared.
"That's it, we're going to have to admit they are our brothers," George supplied.
"Right you are, Forge, right you are," Fred agreed grinning.
Harry grinned at being included with Fred and George referring to him as a brother.
They sat down in the surrounding armchairs, "got any more ideas?" George asked.
"Yeah, something we could join in with?" Fred added.
Harry and Ron gave a shrug, they hadn't really been planning on doing anything tomorrow, having decided to wait until going to Hogsmeade and getting the needed supplies, but they were still riding the high of their successful prank so pulled out the list. Looking through it with Fred and George, they tossed around a few ideas before settled on one.
"That one," Fred and George declared together.
"Oi Ginny!" George yelled.
"Get over here!" Fred summoned.
Ginny, still giggling over Harry and Ron's prophecy came over, "trying to figure out who the one with hair of a flame and speckled face is?" She teased lightly.
"Well, it's no 'his eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad, his hair is as dark as a blackboard' but there really is no beating that now is there?" Harry teased Ginny with a grin.
Ginny flushed red and swallowed, "well, not everyone can be a poetic genius like eleven-year-old me," she quipped despite her embarrassment.
"Alright you two, enough flirting," Fred joked.
"Yeah, we've got another prank to plan," George joined in.
"You can snog later," the twins chimed together.
Harry and Ginny both spluttered in horror, flushing deep red. Ginny smacked both of her brothers, whilst Ron laughed loudly, and Hermione tried to hide her giggles.
As the laughter died away Ron explained the prank they were going to pull tomorrow, Hermione insisted she was not going to have anything to do with it but promised not to give them away. They decided to only involve one other person this time, someone to join in with Ginny, "after all, the only thing stopping Harry being a Weasley is that hair. Even so if Mum got the chance, you know she'd adopt him," Fred pointed out.
"Nah she wouldn't, she's too busy hoping Harry and Ginny will get married and give her red-haired, green-eyed grandchildren," George corrected.
Harry and Ginny both made loud noises of protest whilst Ron burst into loud laughter once more. Even Hermione burst into peels of giggles, mostly at the horrified looks on Harry and Ginny's faces. They spent the rest of the evening laughing with one another, joking, and having fun, planning for the next day, eventually they all headed off to bed, eager for tomorrow.
It came as a bit of a shock to Harry when he woke up having had no nightmares about drowning. Part of him felt like he could hug Ron, but then that would be awkward. He still felt incredibly grateful though, as he headed for the shower to prepare for the day. He shared an excited look with Ron as they got into their robes for the day. Heading down to the Common Room and sharing a nod with Fred, George, and Ginny. Hermione rolled her eyes but stood up to join Harry and Ron silently.
The trio headed down to the Great Hall and started helping themselves to breakfast, not talking amongst themselves for once. After eating they headed off to Transfiguration, taking their usual seats, Harry and Ron working hard to maintain a straight face.
McGonagall stood at the front of the class once everyone had taken their seats and began her lecture.
"What she'd say?" Ron shouted.
"It's Friday," Harry replied back just as loudly.
"Weasley, Potter, what are you on about?" McGonagall asked sharply.
The class were completely silent, wondering what on earth was going on, no one usually dared mess about in McGonagall's class.
"I haven't got a pout," Harry countered.
"I'm not some trout!" Ron protested.
"She wasn't talking about a drought," Harry argued with Ron.
Seamus, Dean, and Neville, having picked up on Harry and Ron's new desire to pull pranks, had to stifle their laughs, not wanting McGonagall to turn her ire onto them.
"That is quite enough," McGonagall scolded them both sharply.
"I am tough!" Ron defended himself fiercely
"I don't want to swap to Hufflepuff," Harry complained. "I like being in Gryffindor," he added.
"Nah, Neville has the loudest snore," Ron refuted.
Half the class was now trying hard to suppress their laughter, the other half were far too wary of McGonagall to laugh in class.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, each, and if you don't stop it'll be ten more," McGonagall threatened. Her lips were thin, and her eyes were furious.
"Why does she want us to go to war?" Harry asked bewildered.
"I'm not going to crawl on the floor," Ron denied affronted.
A few members of the class lost their battles with their attempts to hold back their laughter and were doing what they could to hide the fact they were laughing.
"Another ten points, Mr Weasley, Mr Potter, now be quiet and stop disrupting my class or you can leave," McGonagall warned icily. She was quite clearly at the end of her patience, not since the days of the Marauders had she lost control of a class like this.
"Wait why do I need to grieve?" Ron questioned.
"I don't have anything up my sleeve," Harry refuted passionately.
"No one is called Steve Harry," Ron told him shaking his head.
"No, I don't know who I want to marry," Harry insisted, "I'm only fourteen after all."
"Why do you want to brawl with someone called Larry? That seems a bit silly," Ron questioned.
The class was lost to their own laughter, even the ones who had at first been too wary of McGonagall's reaction were now desperately trying to hide the fact they were laughing. Seamus and Dean were actually clutching each other as they laughed and even Hermione was shielding her face with her Transfiguration book to hide the fact she was laughing.
McGonagall let out a noise maker from her wand and pointed to the door of her classroom, "out!" She snapped.
The bang and McGonagall's expression had everyone silent
Harry considered for a second whether to continue the game, but McGonagall's expression was scary. His Head of House looked even more furious than she had in their first year when she had caught them out of bed after sneaking Norbert up to Charlie's friends.
"Sure, we'll find the sprout," Ron agreed. With that the two of them got up and hurried out of the classroom, running down the corridor until they were well out of earshot and burst into laughter. They ended up having to lean against the walls to hold themselves up as they laughed until their stomachs hurt.
"That was brilliant," Harry declared once he could breathe around his laughter.
Ron nodded, wiping away the tears of laughter that were on his cheeks, "I can't wait to tell Fred and George about that!"
Harry nodded in agreement, the twins would get a good laugh out of it, "Ginny too," he insisted.
"Yeah, wonder how their first lessons went? I thought McGonagall was going to kill us," Ron admitted.
"I don't want to guess how close it was," Harry confessed, "so do we continue in our next class? We've got Herbology, Professor Sprout is still a little sore at me I think," he pointed out.
"Nah, don't want to turn the whole of Hufflepuff against you… again," Ron chuckled.
Harry rolled his eyes, "I suppose, being hated by the whole of Hufflepuff twice really should be enough," he agreed wryly, "no need to go for a third time."
Ron snorted in laughter and nodded. "Want to head back to the Common Room?" he suggested.
"Yeah, no sense waiting here and getting caught by Filch," Harry agreed.
The pair headed back to the Common Room, waiting out the double period playing a couple rounds of chess before it was time to head out to Herbology.
When they met back with the other Gryffindors, Dean, Seamus, and Neville laughed as soon as they saw them, "thought old McGonagall was going to kill you," Seamus stated with a grin.
"We did too," Ron and Harry admitted.
"That was hilarious! Neville was laughing so hard he fell off his chair," Dean commented.
Neville flushed in embarrassment, "McGonagall was utterly terrifying, I've never seen her look that angry," he confessed.
"Definitely the angriest we've seen her," Ron agreed, "though the beginning of our second year came close," he mused.
"After the car… yeah, you're right," Harry remembered, "I was so scared we were about to be expelled, but yeah, she looked pretty furious, now you mention it."
"You and me both mate, I was dreading having to go home and face Mum and beginning to wish the Whomping Willow had finished me off," Ron recalled shaking his head.
Professor Sprout called the classes attention together and the talking died out, once she had quiet, she began her lesson.
~o~
So, there you go, that was Chapter Three. Please review to let me know what you thought. I really hope you enjoy this story as I certainly had a lot of fun writing it! A slice of Molly Weasley's Treacle tart for those who do review!