Advance Arrangement
by Teddylonglong
All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.
On Sunday morning, Harry and Bobby excused themselves from their friends and waited in the entrance hall, as they had promised Merlin before coming to Hogwarts. The Unspeakable arrived punctually and motioned them to follow him.
He led them through an unused corridor behind the hospital wing, where a life-size portrait of the four founders of Hogwarts allowed them entrance into the founders' quarters.
"These are my many times great grandsons, Harry and Bobby Potter. Please give them access to these rooms at any time."
"Of course, we will," one of the witches in the painting replied, before she turned to the twins. "Welcome to our private rooms. We are happy to meet you."
Their conversation was kept short, as Merlin ushered them inside. They arrived in a large living room, which was not only equipped with another life-size portrait of the four founders, but also with a large fireplace. Comfortable looking, modern sofas were grouped around the fireplace.
Harry and Bobby smiled upon realising that their mother, father and grandfather were waiting for them.
"Good morning, boys." James was the first to speak. "I heard that you had an exciting first week at Hogwarts."
Harry grinned. "Absolutely."
"It's just that Harry had all the fun for himself."
"Bobby, you did the right thing though." Lily gently hugged him and then Harry. "It was good that you took Hermione back to Gryffindor at that time."
"Bobby and Harry, after your training with the Unspeakables today, we'll come back here and think of another prank, which you can play together. How's that?"
The twins nodded. "Thanks, Dad."
"Marauders." Their grandfather shook his head, feigning annoyance, however, they knew that he was highly amused.
Their mother shook her head. "Be careful that you won't get into trouble."
"We will," Harry and Bobby promised. They swiftly followed the adults through the fireplace into the Unspeakables' quarters, where they spent the rest of the morning training with Devil.
When they returned to the team room of Team 1 at lunchtime, their mother instructed them to take the Floo back to Hogwarts and attend lunch in the Great Hall. "Afterwards, you may come back here if you want to study with us for a while."
The twins exchanged a look, before they transformed into their Paciguise forms and further into phoenixes and flashed, aiming at a small alcove beside the entrance hall. Unfortunately, Harry failed to arrive in the alcove, but appeared right in the corridor in front of their Granny Minerva, who was approaching the Great Hall in a fast pace.
Harry quickly jumped out of the way and trilled a soothing apology.
"Harry? Bobby? Is that one of you?"
Harry quickly changed back, noticing in relief that Bobby stepped out of the alcove. "Yes, Granny Minerva…"
"Sorry…"
"We were running late for lunch…"
"… and decided to quickly flash here."
The old witch let out a sigh. "While there is no exact rule against flashing through the castle in particular, as there is no other phoenix Animagus at Hogwarts except for the headmaster, I believe that you won't want anyone to know that you're phoenixes. Please see to it that you don't get into trouble."
"Thank you…"
"… Granny Minerva."
With that, the twins hurriedly followed their surrogate grandmother into the Great Hall.
HP
Heading to the Slytherin table, Bobby cast a look at the hight table. 'Harry, I have an idea.'
'Another prank?' Harry thought back with a combination of eagerness and amusement.
'Naturally. We could try to steal other things from the headmaster…'
'That's an idea.'
'Exactly.'
'Do you have a plan how to achieve that though? I suppose that the house-elves have eyes everywhere.'
'As have the professors and the prefects.' Bobby let out a deep sigh, as they sat between Draco and Blub.
"Why are you sighing? Did you have a boring morning?"
Harry and Bobby nodded. "That about sums it up."
HP
After spending two more hours at the Unspeakable's office in the afternoon, the twins returned to the founders' quarters at Hogwarts, closely followed by their family.
"Merlin…"
"… do you perhaps know…"
"… if there's some place at Hogwarts…"
"… where we can make brooms?"
Merlin chuckled. "Did someone see your broom and want one for themselves?"
The twins exchanged a glance. "We're Keeper…"
"… and Seeker…"
"… on the house team…"
"… and we promised…"
"… to make brooms…"
"… for the whole team."
"Congratulations for making the team as first-years." James grinned, broadly.
"Why don't we ask Sparkle to add an Alchemy lab to these quarters?" Merlin cast the founders in their painting a questioning look.
"Feel free to do so." Godric Gryffindor nodded, affirmatively. "Perhaps, she could make the room just opposite of our painting, so that we could at least supervise the boys to a certain extent."
"That's what we're going to do," Merlin decided and called Sparkle, instructing Santa's elf to prepare the lab accordingly.
"Eh, Merlin…"
"… May we bring our friends from the primary school…"
"… into the founders' quarters…"
"… so they won't wonder where we are…"
"… all the time?"
"Harry and Bobby," Rowena Ravenclaw addressed them from the portrait, "you may bring your friends under the condition that you introduce each of them to our portrait which is guarding the entrance."
"Please note that we won't let them in without one of you," Salazar Slytherin added, sounding slightly grumpy.
"All right, sir…"
"… thank you very much."
The twins exchanged a look. 'We need to bring them all,' Bobby thought to Harry.
'All,' Harry repeated, 'including Hermione.' He stared at his twin in surprise, when Bobby suddenly began to grin broadly.
'What?'
Bobby merely grinned. 'This time, it's my turn.'
tbc...
Thank you for the kind reviews for the previous chapter. Please continue feeding my muse. Any ideas, suggestions or opinions are welcome.
