Startup Prank

2nd of September, 1995.

Harry was up early the next morning. He was going to set up the lab. Considering what he was capable of he figured he could just grab a classroom somewhere and set everything up there. He disappeared into the castle to find a good place. He didn't want too many portraits around.

In the end, he found a classroom not all that far away from their common room that suited his needs. The dust layer was thick. He called Winky and they went to work fixing the room up. While Winky cleaned, Harry warded the room as best as he could. He wanted the walls to stay standing if one of their cauldrons exploded. He met up with Fred and George at breakfast and they headed up to their new lab together.

"This is awesome," Lee Jordan, Fred and George's best friend, said as he looked around the room.

"I think it is quite neat," Harry said. "Winky helped me set it up. I have guarded it against other students and I have made sure teachers won't pay attention to it."

"It is bigger than our last place," Fred said.

"I guess that is 'cause Harry wants enough room to set his own area up properly this time," George said.

"So what is the plan?" Lee asked. "Are you just going to use this place to create products?"

Fred and George looked at each other. "This is our last year." "We want to go out," "with a bang," they said.

"So first day of classes prank?" Harry asked. "Any ideas? I just say it can't interfere with learning."

"We don't want our fellow test takers to get angry at us," Fred agreed. He smirked. "Oh, I have an idea. I think mom would actually like this one because it drives her nuts when she can't tell if someone has showered or not."

George grinned. "It wouldn't be easy to do, but if we all work on it I think we can do it," he said.

"If it works maybe we should set it on repeat every so often," Lee commented.

Harry just rolled his eyes as they all got to work on what needed to be done.

Lee left them around dinner time. He loved being a part of Fred and George's prank ideas, but he didn't have the determination required to keep at it for as long as they did.

"So, how is your Occlumency training going?" Harry asked as they seemed to have hit another snag in their plans.

"Why don't you take a look," George said.

Harry grimaced. He knew that was the best way to see, but he hated rummaging around in other people's heads. "Sure," he said. As a Master of the Mind, he was capable of entering another person's mind just fine. He wasn't sure if Occlumency would protect against him though. He guessed he'd rather find out from Fred and George than some other unknown player. They sat down and Harry slipped into Fred's mind mostly because he figured they thought he'd start with George. He found the older twin's shields pretty quickly and pressed against them to see how strong they were. He could sense places where they seemed weaker. He wasn't dumb enough to explore those though. He knew the twins too well. He moved through the shield. It was strong, but it had a couple of holes that he would have to point out later. He didn't stick around for long inside the shield. He didn't want to be there after all.

He repeated the process with George quickly before letting go of the redhead's hands. "Okay so you have a couple of holes that you have to work on, but you've done a really good job so far," he said.

"Wait you're done already," Fred said.

Harry tilted his head to the side. "Yeah, I am," he said. He shifted position before he went into exactly what the twins could do to strengthen their mind-shields. He wanted them to be as safe as possible before he said anything. Fred and George were two of the group of people he wanted to tell the full truth to.

He was glad that Neville and Hermione already knew, and he was going to check their shields as well soon. He was a little worried about the fact that they ran around knowing without protection, but it had to be done.

The following day Harry checked in on Hermione and Neville before joining Fred and George once more so they could get their prank going. While they worked on that, Harry also started experimenting with candy for the pranks that Fred and George had already finished that summer. Winky had set up a fully functioning kitchen for him in their lab, so it was easy enough to work even if a lot of the things he tried were failures. It didn't matter though. As long as they were all having fun, who cared if it didn't always work out the way they wanted it to?

Late that night they set their prank up. Winky helped them with the other common rooms and the antidote would be administered at dinnertime.

4th of September, 1995.

Harry yawned as he woke up that morning. He headed out for his normal run and returned before anyone else had gotten up. He headed into the shower and cleaned up. He looked in the mirror. Seemed like their prank was working just fine. He finished up and headed down into the common room where both Fred and George were waiting for him. They were grinning.

"This," "is," "awesome," they said.

Harry laughed. "We look like some kind of candy monsters," he said.

"Well, you have," "spotted pink hair before," "and it suits you," "so that shouldn't be a problem," the twins said.

Harry laughed. "I see you didn't wash your hair," he said.

"No we don't wash our hair every day so today we didn't," George said.

Harry nodded. They looked just as strange with orange hair as he did with pink so it didn't really matter. They headed down to the great hall together and they could see a few other early risers as they entered the hall.

"Did you have to?" Cedric called over to them. He was ghostly pale with pink hair and blue teeth.

"At least everyone knows you are clean Cedric," Harry called back. That was all he had to say to let people know how this prank worked. From there the people in the hall figured out what the different colours meant.

People without white skin, pink hair and blue teeth showed up and laughed at everyone, but as they sat down by one of the four tables people moved away from them. Most didn't care about the hair colour since it was fine to not wash your hair every day. No one really cared about the glitter since not everyone needed to brush their hair but the other two were just common courtesy.

Angelina and Alicia showed up and gave the twins a knowing look. They looked just as ridiculous as everyone else and since everyone, bar those who hadn't cleaned, looked just as ridiculous no one actually cared. It was a soft start.

"Parents everywhere would love this," Angelina said. "Though they might prefer the opposite so their children look normal if they do clean."

"We were thinking about that and you are obviously right," Fred said.

"We are going to reverse the process, it will just take us some time," George said.

People who entered the great hall relaxed as soon as they arrived. It was sort of mortifying to know that you had been hit with a prank, but seeing everyone else hit by it too sort of took the edge off.

Hermione and Neville walked into the hall with all the firsties in a group. They seemed to have figured out how the spells worked just fine on their own and everyone looked just as ridiculous. "Was this necessary?" Hermione asked as she sat down.

"It is our last year Hermione," Fred said.

"Not that you can prove we did anything," George added.

"No, unfortunately not," Hermione said. She glared at Harry. "Why do you have to encourage them?" she asked.

"Because I can steer them from making the pranks not affect classes and other important things, Hermione," Harry said. "Who knows how many interruptions we would have this year if I wasn't reining them in."

Hermione looked annoyed for a moment before she decided that Harry was adult enough to know what he was doing. As long as the pranks weren't mean to anyone, she guessed she could live with it.

Eventually, McGonagall came walking down the table with their new schedules. Harry looked down at his once he'd received it. "History, Potions and DADA," he read the classes that they had that day.

"We have Transfiguration, DADA and Herbology," Fred said. They might only have gotten three OWLs each, but Sprout didn't mind him hanging around in Herbology as long as he behaved. Next to him, Angelina nodded. "I just have Care of Magical Creatures as well," she said.

"So it is basically a full day for everyone," Harry said. "And we all have the new teacher."

"Professor Douglas," Hermione said. "He seems to be enjoying the prank," she pointed out as she watched the head table.

"Hopefully that means he has a sense of humour," Fred said.

"As long as he doesn't have too much of a sense of humour," Harry said. "I do want to learn."

"What could he even teach you after Professor Moody last year?" Neville asked. "Didn't you spend part of your summer training with the Aurors?"

Harry sighed. "Unfortunately not," he said. "But he did teach me some stuff."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Either way it will be interesting to have him on the first day of classes," she said. "At least then we can get a feel for what kind of teacher he is early."

"And if he is another Lockhart we set up a defence club so we can at least learn some," Neville said.

"Hear, hear," George said and Neville blushed. He still wasn't used to gaining praise for his ideas.

The owls swooped in after that. Hedwig was among them and Harry took two heavy letters from her. Both Fleur and Gabrielle had written to him. He chuckled at the size of the envelopes they had seen each other just a little over a week ago. He didn't mind hearing from them though.

"Who is it from?" Hermione asked curiously. She knew Harry wouldn't tell her if he didn't want to.

"Fleur and Gabrielle," Harry said. "Gabrielle is bored. She wants to start school so she can have something to do, but at least ballet is starting back up soon. She is asking me to promise to come to the winter performance. They are setting up a mini swan lake." He looked through Fleur's letter. "Fleur has started her classes to become a midwife," he said. "She might continue after that, but she will see when she gets there. She mostly talks about how much she misses Bill and how horrible it is to be apart from him." He smiled. "It is very sweet," he said.

Hermione smiled too. She was glad that Harry had spent summer somewhere that made him happy. She wished she could have spent more time with him though. She had missed her best friend.

He stood up thinking that he might as well head over to the History classroom. "I'll see you guys in class,'' he told Hermione and Neville before he headed out of the hall.

He headed for the classroom and sat down at the back of the room before pulling his book out of his bag. He fished his notebook for the subject out and went through what he had already worked with.

He opened the History book where he had left off and started reading. He barely noticed when Hermione sat down next to him, or when Binns started the class. He was deep in his work already. Hermione had to shake him to get him to look up from his book as class ended. He packed his things down and followed her out.

They headed down towards potions together while discussing their take on the black plague and its impact on the magical world. Harry could see Ron's red hair bobbing in and out of view a few times. He wondered if he should try to mend things more with Ron. Maybe he would like to get in on the pranks? That really was up to his brothers though. He was not going to force Fred and George to work with Ron if they didn't want to.

It was a little strange to walk around in a sea of students where a good amount of them spotted pink hair all at once. They looked like some kind of strange cult. Harry had to stop himself from laughing as he saw Draco. It was obvious that Draco did not appreciate what had happened to him. His eyes narrowed as he saw Harry. "You did this Potter," he hissed.

"I will neither confirm nor deny that accusation," Harry said. "Though it is a little strange to hit yourself with your own prank and really the ones who look like candy floss at least know they are clean. I'd be more worried about the other guys if I were you."

"Ten points from Gryffindor," Draco spat.

"I challenge that," Harry said calmly.

The classroom door opened and they entered the classroom before anyone else could say anything. They sat down and the door closed behind them.

"Settle down," Severus said coldly. It wasn't necessary, but he would make sure they knew not to speak. "Before we begin today's lesson I think it appropriate to remind you that next June you will be sitting an important examination, during which you will prove how much you have learned about the composition and use of magical potions," he said as he swept over to his desk so he could stare down at his students. "Moronic though some of this class undoubtedly are, I expect you to scrape an 'Acceptable' in your OWL, or suffer my … displeasure." His gaze lingered on Neville who, while uncomfortable, didn't lower his own gaze or show any other reaction. He was pretty certain that he would get at least an Acceptable.

"After this year, of course, many of you will cease studying with me," Severus continued. "I take on only the very best into my NEWT Potions class, which means that some of you will certainly be saying goodbye." His eyes moved over to Harry.

Harry's expression remained neutral. He could probably score an Outstanding, but he wasn't certain he wanted to continue potions anyway. He wasn't that fond of the subject though it could be good for him as a healer to know more. That was the only reason he might go ahead and learn more about potions. He hoped Snape hadn't pushed aside the things he had learnt the year before.

"But we have another year to go before that happy moment of farewell," Severus said softly, "so whether or not you intend on attempting NEWT, I advise all of you to concentrate your efforts on maintaining the high pass level I have come to expect from my OWL students." He looked around the room. "Today we will be mixing a potion that often comes at Ordinary Wizarding Level: the Draught of Peace, a potion to calm anxiety and soothe agitation. Be warned: if you are too heavy-handed with the ingredients you will put the drinker into a heavy and sometimes irreversible sleep, so you will need to pay close attention to what you are doing."

Harry internally rolled his eyes. If he wanted to calm someone down there were so many easier ways to do it. He could calm the entire class right then and there without anyone being any wiser. He would still do his best just for the sake of it though. He copied down the instructions from the blackboard as they appeared. Having closer access to the notes would help both him and Neville as they started working on the potion since it seemed to be rather hard to make. He stood up with the others to pick what ingredients they needed from the store cupboard. He studied the recipe again and placed the ingredients in order of administration before he prepared every single step. He reached into his pack and took Fleur's hair clip out. He wanted to get his hair away from his face. After putting his hair up, he took a centring breath to calm down and then he heated the cauldron up. He sprinkled powdered moonstone into the water slowly before stirring.

Next to him, Neville was doing his best. He had followed Harry's lead and prepared himself the same way he had. Unlike Harry, he was just a bit too much in a hurry with adding the syrup of hellebore so his potion went a bit off-colour. It wasn't bad though.

They kept working with the potions as time flew by.

"A light silver vapour should now be rising from your potion," Severus said when they had ten minutes left to go.

Harry looked up from his potion. He could see the sparks flying from Seamus' potion. Without anyone noticing he threw up a ward around the cauldron. He didn't want to be covered in its contents if it decided to explode.

Severus passed by Hermione without a word before moving on to Harry and Neville. He knew the girl was good. He wouldn't be surprised if she was in his class the following year. Looking down into the two boys' cauldrons he was shocked. He shouldn't be. They had improved a lot the previous year. Both potions were definitely acceptable even if Longbottom's was off-colour. His potion would still do what it was supposed to.

Harry hid a smirk by pushing his glasses up as their Professor moved on without a word to either of them. Maybe he would get an O and quit just for the hell of it. Rhavaniel always thought you should do well or quit. He couldn't quit, so maybe he should just do his best. He could almost taste the disappointment from the Slytherins. He refrained from looking smug mostly because he could at least pretend to be the better person.

"Everyone, bottle your potions and bring them up front," Severus said. "Homework is twelve inches of parchment on the properties of moonstone and its uses in potion-making to be handed in on Thursday."

Harry waited until the line up to Snape's desk had dissipated before he walked up with his and Neville's vials. He placed them down and turned back around.

As Harry headed up to the Great Hall for lunch with Hermione and Neville he wondered what Snape would say if he gave the man a list of what you could do with moonstones on Nirn. He knew how to make armour out of the darn thing after all. He would probably get a fail.

They ate lunch in their own quiet little bubble. Harry didn't particularly enjoy speaking while he ate. Hermione was nose-deep in a book. Neville didn't mind the calm atmosphere, especially after Potions.

After lunch, Harry had a free period while Neville headed for Divination and Hermione went to Ancient Runes. Harry headed for the library so he could work on his own Rune knowledge for the period. He was so glad that Professor McGonagall had allowed him to drop Divination. He had no use for it and would much rather do his best to learn an interesting subject.

They joined up again for Defence and headed to the classroom.

Professor Douglas was something else. He was hyper and he held little regard for safety, but he was good. He spoke from experience, and he knew what he was talking about. He paired them up much like Moody had done the year before and had them practising spells that would be good for them to know come exams. The one thing Harry noticed that was maybe a bit strange from a professor was Douglas' dislike for the Slytherin students. Just like Snape most often took points from Gryffindor students it seemed like Douglas was the same but against Slytherin students instead. The number of points that Draco lost just in that first class could rival the point loss Harry had at times received from Snape. He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

He could hear Ron praising their new Professor and he couldn't blame him. Douglas had been good. It just nagged at him that they had yet another biased teacher even if it was in their favour.

"That was different yet very similar to last year," Hermione said.

Harry nodded. "Did you notice how he seemed to target the Slytherins?" he asked.

Hermione sighed. "It is sooo unprofessional," she said.

"Who cares," Ron said. He was sitting quite close to them for one and had heard Hermione and Harry talking.

"Well it isn't very nice for one," Harry said. "Not all Slytherins are bad people, but if you tell them all they are bad they won't have much choice in proving you wrong especially if you won't see the good they can do."

Ron gave Harry a strange look. "You can seriously say that Malfoy is a good guy," he said.

"Not necessarily no, but I have no evidence that he is actually a bad guy. He is arrogant and spoiled rotten, but that doesn't make him a bad person," Harry answered.

"He is a bully," Ron pointed out.

Harry nodded. "He is in a lot of ways, yes. You don't make a bully better by bullying them though," he said. "You have to show them the error of their ways, but you won't do that by being an asshole to them."

Ron looked back at his food while he thought about what Harry said. He guessed to some degree that Harry was right, but he just couldn't see Malfoy as a good guy.

As the students ate, their skin and hair returned to normal. The antidote had been administered and no one had gotten hurt. Harry, Fred and George called that a win.

After dinner, Harry, Hermione and Neville started on their potions homework so they would get it out of the way. It wasn't until then that they realised that their defence teacher hadn't actually given them any homework. That was strange and if it continued they would have to do something about it.

5th of September, 1995.

After Harry's run that morning he found himself in the lab. Fred and George had worked together on a whole range of candy that made you sick, but they didn't have any of the candy yet, so Harry got to work. His first period that day was a free period so he worked in the lab until it was time to leave for Charms.

Flitwick started his class by saying, "What you must remember is that these examinations may influence your futures for many years to come! If you have not already given serious thought to your career, now is the time to do so. And in the meantime, I'm afraid, we shall be working harder than ever to ensure that you all do yourselves justice!"

Harry parried up with Neville as they started revising the summoning charm. Neville had not been good at this spell the previous year. With his added confidence and the training they had gone through with other spells, he managed on his second try this time around.

Then it was Harry's turn and he quickly summoned the orb they had been given to practice on and waited for Neville to take it back. They continued for a little while before settling down with their books to start on the written assignment that the Professor had noted down on his blackboard. It turned out at the end of the lesson that it was their homework that Flitwick had allowed them some head start on. This year might be tough, but he didn't want his students to fall apart already.

People around Harry's group of friends were starting to grumble about the amount of homework already, especially since they had yet to set foot in Transfiguration or Herbology. Harry was glad that they were basically done with their potions homework and that they had all gotten a good start on the charms assignment. This was not going to be a year that allowed them to play around.

As Harry settled down to eat lunch, he looked his schedule over. His only major free block was Wednesday mornings. He doodled in a leaf to represent healing there. He would be going to see Neville's parents on Wednesdays. He also needed to fit in a meeting with the goblins. He had promised to meet with Ward Master Ragnarok at his earliest convenience and he figured that it would just have to wait until that weekend. He wrote a message to Dumac to let him know so a meeting could be set up.

In Transfiguration, after lunch, McGonagall started off by giving them a lecture as well. "You cannot pass an OWL without serious application, practice and study," she said. "I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an OWL in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work."

Harry noticed how Neville straightened as McGonagall spoke. He knew Neville had some trouble with transfiguration. He leaned over. "You can do it," he said softly. "We'll work hard."

Neville nodded. "Thanks," he whispered back.

Harry noticed a rare smile pass McGonagall's lips before she continued. "Today we are starting Vanishing Spells. These are easier than Conjuring Spells, which you would not usually attempt until NEWT level, but they are still among the most difficult magic you will be tested on in your OWL," she said.

After that, everyone got to work. They were handed snails that they were supposed to vanish. Harry pointed his wand at his snail and spoke the words. Nothing happened. He wasn't even trying really. He wanted Hermione to get it first.

Neville was looking down at his snail with a determined look on his face. He was going to do this. He pointed his wand at the snail. The first few times nothing happened at all.

Hermione was the first to vanish her snail earning a nice ten points for Gryffindor.

Harry stopped pretending. He cast the spell again. The snail on his desk disappeared. He watched Neville for a little bit. "Relax," he said calmly. "You are too tense."

Neville drew a deep breath and focused back on his snail. "Evanesco," he said. He sighed when nothing happened. "Evanesco," he said again. The shell vanished off the body.

Harry pointed his wand at the body and vanished the rest once he had made sure that McGonagall had seen Neville's progress.

"Thank you," Neville said nervously.

"Try again," Harry said encouragingly.

By the end of the class, Neville hadn't made much progress beyond the half-vanishing which he had done a few times. He had done a better job than most others though. Everyone that hadn't managed with the spells, which meant everyone bar Harry and Hermione, was told to practice it until their next lesson. "I bet you, you could pull off some practice during Care," Harry told Neville.

Neville nodded slowly. "As long as we aren't stuck with something too dangerous to deal with," he said.

The class turned out not to be the best spot to practice. Hagrid had brought Crups and while not deadly they could be dangerous just like any dog if you didn't pay attention. They looked an awful lot like Jack Russell Terriers if you didn't take in the extra tail. Just like any other creature in the class, Harry had no problems keeping them calm. Though, in this case, he didn't even need spells to do so. His calm and determined demeanour was enough to keep the Crup he'd been handed from doing anything he didn't approve of.

After class, he and Neville stayed outside so that Neville could practice the Vanishing Charm on various little critters they found around. Hagrid had given them homework too though so they had quite a bit to do. Transfiguration would just have to wait until after they had finished their written work.

6th of September, 1995.

Kato was sitting next to Alice early the next day. She was excitedly telling him about the plot of one of her Animal Ark books. He had gotten them for her so she would have something new to read. He hadn't done much to her mind since he wanted to be careful. Instead, he just spent time with her.

He returned to school in time for Herbology.

Professor Sprout started the lesson just like the other core class teachers with a lecture on OWLs, but it somehow didn't sound as alarming coming from her.

Herbology was fun. Paring up with Neville for that class had been one of the best decisions Harry had ever made. Hannah Abbot from Hufflepuff joined them as well. And they all spoke animatedly as they took care of some self-fertilizing shrubs.

Harry figured out pretty fast that the ideal way to deal with homework so you didn't get swamped with it was right away and as soon as possible. Somehow he, Neville and even Hermione when they managed to get her to not overwork things had more free time than any other Gryffindor fifth-year.

That evening they had Astrology as well. It was one of those classes Harry wasn't sure he wanted to continue since he didn't see any use for it. If he had wanted to become a potions master then he would have needed to know astrology for certain plants. He wouldn't become a Potion Master though so he didn't care.

The week passed by rather quickly. And before anyone really caught up, it was Friday.

8th of September, 1995.

The last lesson of the day was Defence. Professor Douglas was happily telling his students about how he had faced ghouls in his youth. His story was interesting, and he was teaching them how to handle ghouls.

Harry and Hermione were taking notes and they would compare them later. Then they would have to research ghouls because Professor Douglas still didn't give them any homework. That would have to wait until after Quidditch practice.

They were going to hold the first practice of the year. He walked into the changing room and dressed in something a bit more practical for playing Quidditch. He sat cross-legged on the pitch with his broom hovering behind him as he waited for the others. His eyes were closed in meditation. He could tell when the original team showed up and when their reserve team joined them. He felt hands land on his shoulders. "Hello Tanya," he said calmly. She sat down next to him followed by the rest of the team as they showed up.

"Someone should take a photo of this," Angelina said. "You should see the way it looks."

Harry chuckled softly. "You can't see Colin anywhere?" he asked.

"Unfortunately not," Angelina said.

Harry rose before helping Tanya up. "Now, I know we have good players here. Many of you are attending your last year with us. We won when Oliver ran his last year. We will win again this year. We can do it. You are all really good players," he said. "Just know that you cannot disappoint me. If you have a bad game that isn't the end of the world. I want you all to have fun, both during training and during games. Let's take to the air!"

The teams cheered and Harry let out the balls so they could start training. Sure they only had one keeper, but they worked around that by switching the rest of the players around.

Harry kept an eye on his team as he flew around. He wasn't looking for the snitch. He could train that on his own. Now he was searching for weaknesses. He wanted to help his team as much as possible. Slowly, he worked out different games that they could play to work on things they struggled with. He smiled as he watched everyone fly around. Tanya dived and caught the snitch. She cheered happily and Harry gave her a thumbs-up as she turned towards him. He didn't want to be the same kind of slave driver that Oliver had been. That smile was what he worked for.