Life update: First of all, I am truly sorry for not updating in such a long time (and I realize that I start all my chapters with such an apology now). But I have finished my diploma thesis (I got the Austrian equivalent to a B) and on July, 5th I had my diploma exam. I passed and am now officially done with university (forever). I thought I would get to post a lot during July but well, I seem to get even less time to write now. I've been travelling all of August (2 weeks of Japan, 2 weeks of Germany, Netherlands and Belgium) and now had a few seminars and conferences. On Monday the rest of my life started. I now work as an English as a foreign language, psychology and philosophy teacher. More stress, but also more stability in my daily schedule. I won't promise anything, but I'll try to write regularly.
Secondly, another reason why this has taken so long, we are finally getting closer to the end. I started this story as kind of a stress relief and as a way to beat writer's block. I think I mentioned it in the first chapter. I am a bit of a perfectionist, and always felt like I needed to plan out the whole plot before starting to write, and I should write most of it before posting anything. But that attitude kept me from writing and posting anything at all. So I started this story. It did not have to be good. I just wanted to write and post and have fun, because I do love writing. With the first few chapters I had no idea where this was going. Once I got the idea of saving Sirius and having Draco befriend Neville (For the longest time the word document I write this in was named "Draco and Neville's badass time travel story") I had a rough plan for the first 43 chapters. We can call that phase one, I guess. Phase two is then year four up to this point. Again, I had no real idea where I was heading (I know the last chapters, but had no real plan of how to get there) and maybe the story dragged a little and lost its focus (I hope not too much, though). But the things that happened were necessary. (I could have skipped a lot, I guess, but the Yule Ball just happens in year four and I could not ignore it...). This is the last of phase two. A bit of fun to celebrate the story, the characters, and my graduation. After that, it's pretty much the final countdown. Still, about 20 chapters probably, but everything that will happen from now on has a clear purpose. So I am stuck at planning every little detail again. All the loose ends need to be tied up, Draco needs a plan, Dumbledore needs a plan, Voldemort needs a plan. A lot of plot, a lot of action, a lot of emotions.
I hope you'll enjoy chapter 63, the last of phase two. It is a bit of a metaphorical preview of what will happen in phase three, although, perhaps not in any way you can guess. As always, I am happy to hear your thoughts.
Read, enjoy and review :)
oooOOOooo
"Do we have everything?"
"Hmm… let me check…" Fred, standing in the middle of the empty Hogwarts kitchen, leaned over a table, examining the items scattered there, "Puking Pastilles? Check. Headless Hats? Check. Portable Swamp? Check. Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder? Check. Wildfired Whizz-Bangs…" he grinned devilishly, "check."
"Don't forget the Canary Cream," George mirrored his mischievous expression. "Tomorrow will be legendary."
"They will write books about this day," Fred added, his eyes wild.
"No one will remember this as the year of the Triwizard Tournament. Instead, the people of Great Britain will remember this year as the year of the biggest, most spectacular,…"
"Most remarkable," Fred continued.
"Most magnificent prank fest…"
"In the history of pranking," they finished together.
A small popping sound drew their attention away from the items on the table and to the corner of the room. A small creature with bat-like ears, wearing a tea-towel apparated into the kitchens.
"T-Tibby is sorry to interrupt s-sirs. Someone i-is coming," the house-elf hiccupped.
Fred and George looked at each other in alarm, before Fred started to throw the items on the table into a backpack.
George meanwhile turned back to Tibby. "Thank you, Tibby."
The house-elf squeaked and then disappeared with another pop.
With practiced ease, George cast a disillusionment charm on two cauldrons that were bubbling in the corner of the room.
The next moment, the door swung open and Draco walked in.
"Ah- uhm, Draco, what a pleasure to see you," George started, slightly relieved it was not a teacher that had decided to pay them a late-night visit.
Draco raised an eyebrow at them.
"Here for a little smooching session with your lovely little lady?" Fred asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "It saddens me deeply to inform you that this hiding place is already occupied." Fred's face fell when Astoria entered the room behind Draco, glaring at them.
"One of these days," Draco muttered darkly, "I will have to kill you both."
"If I don't beat you to it," added Astoria.
Fred and George laughed.
"But seriously, what is this?" George asked, examining the two new arrivals. "Is it a party? One we weren't invited to?"
"Not quite," laughed Draco.
"We just wanted to see what you guys are up to," supplied Astoria, walking closer to the backpack on the ground, trying to peer into it.
George gave it a kick, so it was out of sight under the table.
"Up to? Us?" the twins answered in unison, their expressions innocent.
"I don't know what you could possibly mean," Fred said.
"So… no nefarious plans for tomorrow?" Draco asked, walking into the direction of the disillusioned cauldrons.
"Not the slightest idea what you could be referring to," George replied innocently.
"No exploding toilets? No portable swamps? No speaking another language after eating lunch?" Draco prompted.
"We've never done any such things," Fred sounded affronted, but his eyes gave away his amusement.
"Great ideas though, thanks," George added, grinning.
"Sooo… tomorrow will be a day like any other?" Astoria asked, looking rather skeptical.
Fred and George looked at her but kept an eye on Draco who was still standing too close to the invisible cauldrons for their liking.
"The first of April," she added.
"Ah, yes," George said. "I wouldn't know of any special occurrences tomorrow."
"Me neither," nodded Fred.
"Neither do I," Astoria smiled sweetly. She reached for an apple in a fruit bowl, accidentally pushing the bowl off the counter, which hit the ground with a loud smashing sound and burst into pieces, leaving the apples rolling around on the ground.
"Oi," yelled George, startled at the crashing sound.
"What are you doing?" Fred asked, getting his wand out and casting a quick "Reparo," on the bowl. Pieces of porcelain flew through the air, finding each other like pieces of an intricate puzzle, putting themselves together at the point of impact. The apples stopped midmotion, began to roll back and hopped into the bowl.
"You have to be quiet if you are out after curfew. What if a teacher heard that?"
"Oh dear," Astoria said, picking the repaired bowl up and putting it back on the counter, "I am so clumsy sometimes."
Fred and George looked at each other. Something smelled fishy, and it wasn't any of the food in the kitchen.
"Just to be clear," Draco walked up from behind them, "there is no reason not to enjoy any of the food in the Great Hall tomorrow?"
"Of course not," Fred grinned.
"I won't be electrocuted again if I eat my toast?" Draco probed with a raised eyebrow.
"Electrocuted is a strong word, don't you think?" George grinned. They had indeed miscalculated the amount of potion needed for the slight shock they had intended.
"Rrright," drawled Draco, still looking skeptical.
"Nothing to worry about. Eat as much as you want. It will taste just like it always does and won't kill you, promise," Fred smiled sweetly.
"We wouldn't lie to you," George added. And technically they weren't lying. The food would still be perfectly edible, after all. Tasty as well.
"Alright," said Astoria. "Why are you two here then?"
"Midnight snack," Fred supplied, without missing a beat.
"We were hungry," George added.
"Right," drawled Draco, first examining them and the lack of food on them, then turning his attention to Astoria. "We'll be leaving you to your midnight snack, then."
"We apologize for doubting your intentions," Astoria said, smiling. "Good night."
"Night," muttered George and Fred simultaneously.
Once the intruders were gone, they looked at each other.
"That was weird," George finally voiced what they both had been thinking. "Very fishy."
"Definitely dodgy," agreed Fred. "Do you think there is any chance they really just wanted to check whether we weren't up to anything? As if there has ever been a time where we weren't..."
"Could be. But Draco's sly… and don't underestimate the little Greengrass. I don't know. They definitely know that we are up to something."
"Better keep an eye out for them tomorrow."
George nodded in agreement.
They turned their attention back to the two cauldrons.
Once made visible again, Fred said, "I'll put some more rat spleen into the shrinking potion."
But as soon as he did that, the potion's color turned from green to blue, and exploded, covering the twins in light blue slime.
"That shouldn't have happened," Fred muttered.
"Maybe you put too much rat spleen in?"
"Maybe you forgot the counter clock stir?"
After they had used some cleaning charms, put the cauldrons away, and talked to the house-elves, they decided to call it a night. They trotted back to their common room, dodging the prefect patrols and using a few secret passageways. It was close to midnight when they finally set foot into their common room.
Still very much awake and occupying the common room were Hermione, Ron, Harry and Neville. They were huddled together in front of the fireplace, avidly discussing something.
The twins looked at each other, started to grin, and approached the group, which quickly fell silent once they noticed the twins approaching.
"Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie," they started in unison.
"What would mother say if she knew ickle Ronniekins were up at this ungodly hour?" George finished.
Ron just glared at them. "She'd know you were up as well, if you told her."
The twins looked at each other again, before they both shrugged.
"Any plans for tomorrow?" asked Hermione ingenuously.
"Why is everyone so interested in our affairs, all of a sudden?" Fred wondered aloud.
George leaned over to Hermione, and whispered, "ask us no questions and we'll tell you no lies."
Hermione huffed in annoyance. She turned to the rest of the group. "Good night boys, see you tomorrow," she said lightly. Then she turned to the twins. "Night."
The rest of the group dispersed as well.
"Where have you been?" groaned a sleepy Lee Jordan from behind his closed curtain the moment Fred and George entered their dorm.
"Around," answered George mischievously, throwing their backpack into a corner.
Lee just groaned. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
The twins just shrugged their shoulders.
Fred put on his pajamas and disappeared behind the curtains of his bed.
"Lee, can you turn off the light?" George asked, once he had put his on and had thrown himself onto his bed.
When no response came, George groaned, "Fine, be that way," and made for the last burning candle himself.
He fell asleep instantly, a smile on his face, thinking of the spectacular day that lay ahead of them.
oooOOOooo
"Wakey, wakey," whispered someone next to Fred's ear the next morning. He opened his eyes to look into eyes that could have been his own.
"Happy birthday," he murmured, rolling over and closing his eyes again.
George was not happy with that reaction. With a hard shove his brother landed on the ground.
"Hey!"
"You've had enough sleep. We have important things on our agenda."
"Right," muttered Fred, getting up from the ground and stretching. Then his eyes twinkled. "Let's open our presents."
"Here," George threw a small parcel at his brother, "mine first."
Fred rolled his eyes, getting out the present he had organized for George and threw it at him. "Same time?"
They both went on to carefully unwrap their presents. They managed to open them at the exact same time, at which a loud bang could be heard, and the small parcels exploded into confetti and glitter, covering both of them head to toe.
They looked at each other, before they both began laughing like maniacs.
"You stole my idea," they mockingly accused in unison, blinking away tears.
"That must be the tenth time in a row," laughed George, shaking his head to get rid of the glitter and the confetti.
The curtains of the bed closest to the door swung aside and a sleepy looking Lee got out.
"Morning," grinned Fred.
"Did we wake you?" asked George innocently.
But Lee looked right past them, put on his clothes, and left the dorm without exchanging a word with the twins.
"What's wrong with him?" growled George.
Fred shrugged. "Maybe he is still mad we got back so late yesterday."
George nodded his head and looked around the room. "Where are our presents?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well," George explained, "usually when we wake up on our birthdays there are tons of presents lying around."
Fred also looked around the room. "Maybe they are in the common room?"
"Probably," agreed George. "Let's go and check it out."
Still in their pajamas they went to the common room, which was already full of people. But just like in their dorm, no presents were in sight.
"Weird," muttered George. "Do you think they forgot?"
"How could they?" Fred answered. "They are usually hiding from us till the worst of the pranking is over. And they definitely remembered yesterday."
"Maybe they want to turn the tables this year and prank us."
"By hiding our presents? One should think they could do better after living with us for a few years."
"Oh, seems like not everyone has forgotten us," George said, pointing at Ron, Neville and Hermione, who were walking towards them.
"Good morning, Ronnie," they greeted in unison, but the trio ignored them.
"Apparently they haven't just hidden our presents, they are ignoring us as well."
"Jerks," huffed Fred, but his expression was more concerned than angry.
The trio came closer and closer and did not seem intent on stopping. Only by jumping aside could the twins avoid being run over by them.
"What the hell!" yelled Fred, who had landed roughly on the ground.
"Hello!" yelled George into the room but got no reaction. "Fred?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't think they are ignoring us."
They looked at each other. "What do you mean? That they… can't see us?"
They looked around the room, then again at each other. "We are invisible," they concluded at the same time.
"Bloody…" George started.
"Brilliant." Fred finished, grinning at his brother.
They ran back to their room, grabbed their backpack and without caring for actual "daytime clothes" sprinted down to and then out of the Gryffindor common room.
They soon arrived in the Great Hall.
"You sure they can't see us?" Fred asked.
"Positive. We are standing here in our PJ's and no one is even looking our way."
They grinned at each other mischievously. "You know what that means?"
"That we don't need the house elves to get the students to eat the Canary Creams and Puking Pastilles?"
"Oh, not just that, brother," grinned George, "no one is off limits today."
"You don't mean..."
"Yes," grinned George. "The teachers."
They tiptoed towards the High Table and carefully put some of their Canary Creams on a plate filled with real custard creams.
Both Snape and McGonagall reached for them. It must have been Snape's year-long potions experience that made him look skeptical as soon as he had one in his mouth, but that did not save him. Within seconds Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape were gone, and in their stead sat a very perplex looking huge canary and next to it the probably most murderous looking canary in the history of birds.
At first no one noticed, but soon someone from the Hufflepuff table had seen and yelled, "look at the Head Table." Poor boy would spend the rest of his life in detention with Snape.
First the hall fell silent. Then it erupted in laughter. Fred and George almost fell over laughing.
"We should have made some that turn people into bats," George commented, once the laughter had died down and the shouting from the now turned back Professors had started. "We could call them Bat Biscuits... or Greasy Dungeon Bat's Gourmet Dolly Butterscotch."
They spent the rest of their morning pranking. They used all of their Puking Pastilles and Canary Creams on students in the Great Hall, turned the Entrance Hall into a huge swamp and made it impossible for the students to flee to their dorms by using Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder in the hallways.
By the time lunch came around, they had run out of things to do. They sat and ate at an unoccupied part of the Gryffindor table, close to Ron, Hermione and Neville. The three of them were discussing the second task, which had seen Harry as the clear winner when he had saved their sister Ginny just a few weeks earlier. Very few people were in the Great Hall, most too afraid to eat anything.
"What do you think caused this?" George asked, while eating his soup.
"Maybe the screwed up potion from yesterday? Maybe we confused the cauldrons and it was the Polyjuice that exploded? Instead of taking on the form of another we took on the form of nothing."
George considered this. "Makes sense. But why can we still see and hear each other?"
Fred shrugged his shoulders. "We were both covered at the same time, maybe that's why. What I'd like to know is why no one seems to be missing us?"
"Wait-What?"
"It's not just that people can't see and hear us. That could be explained in a number of ways. Maybe we confused the potions, maybe the potion did not react well to the disillusionment charm,... But why is Lee not wondering where we are? Why are the teachers not looking for us when we are clearly skipping classes? It is our birthday, shouldn't Ginny and Ron at least remember and look for us?"
George stared at his brother. "What if we didn't make ourselves invisible? What if we turned us into ghosts?"
Fred gulped. "You think we might be dead?"
George grew paler and paler. "It is... a possibility. Maybe the explosion killed us?"
"But why then is no one mourning us? Shouldn't they be mourning us? I'd be mourning us."
George scratched his chin. "Maybe we made it so we were never born? I heard that has happened to some who experimented with time travel. Or perhaps we traveled into a parallel universe in which we don't exist?"
Fred looked at his brother in horror. "But how? We definitely did not experiment with time travel. And parallel universe? Really? Have you been reading those books Lee always leaves lying around?"
George shrugged his shoulders. "But what then? Either of the potions could not possibly have caused this..."
Fred shot up. "Unless someone messed with it."
George's gaze hardened. "A possibility. Do you think... Draco? He and Astoria did behave kind of funny..."
Fred looked at his brother but did not say anything.
"Okay, let's not jump to conclusions. He couldn't possibly have known what we were brewing and what to add for this to happen and all of that in a few seconds. And why would he do this to us?"
"I could think of a few things..." Fred admitted, remembering what was now commonly referred to as the "electrocution toast". "But spontaneously altering a potion like that? I doubt even Snape would be able to do that."
"Perhaps it was Snape." They briefly entertained that thought, more out of fun than any actual merit to the idea.
"I doubt anyone, even a highly-skilled 7th-year would be able to pull something like that off."
"An accident then? Astoria did throw over some stuff close to the potions."
"You know - the more I think about it, the more I believe it wasn't the potion at all. Lee still talked to us when we got back to our room, and that was hours after the explosion."
They both exhaled in frustration. At first their predicament had seemed like fun, but it quickly started to lose its appeal.
"Let's try to establish contact," George finally suggested.
Fred nodded.
They first approached Lee and Angelina, who were just leaving the Great Hall together.
"I can't wait for this year to be over," Angelina muttered. "No quidditch - who came up with this torture?"
"What should we do?" Fred asked over their conversation.
George just shrugged, so Fred reached out and put a hand on Angelina's shoulder. She flinched and swirled around.
"What is it?" Lee asked.
"I- I don't know. I thought someone had touched me. Probably just my imagination."
They continued walking.
George sprinted into the Great Hall and returned with a plate.
They began to use their fingers to spell HELP on the wall, but they only got to HEL before Lee saw the message and shrieked. Lee and Angelina looked at each other, before they hurried off, their faces pale as if they had seen a ghost.
Snape walked by the wall and, upon seeing the letters on the wall, put an innocent Hufflepuff in detention for besmirching school property.
"Well," George started, "this did not go quite as expected."
"Really now?" Fred asked in annoyance. His good mood now completely gone. "Let's go back to the Great Hall."
They stood close to the Slytherin table, where Draco was talking to his Slytherin and Durmstrang friends. There were hardly any other students in the Great Hall anymore.
"Oh, look what a great time everyone is having," George growled when the table burst into laughter at a joke Serge had told. "And we don't even get a birthday party because no one remembers us!"
"Look at us!" he yelled, grabbed a glass pitcher from the table and smashed it to the ground.
Daphne sprang up shrieking and the rest of the table also looked quite shocked. Everyone, everyone except for Draco, who was laughing his ass off.
"Oh, that little Slytherin weasel," George growled.
Soon after that, all of them got up and left the Great Hall.
"Let's follow them," the twins said in unison.
Unlike they had expected, the group did not make their way down to the dungeons.
"Where are they going?" Fred asked.
"Looks like they're heading for... the Room of Requirement?"
A recent discovery by the twins, but one they had quickly grown fond of.
And indeed, a door materialized in front of Draco and his friends.
Unexpectedly, they left the door open behind them. Fred and George looked at each other. It was dark behind the door and the whole situation was quite suspicious. In the end, they followed them.
The room was too dark to see anything at first. But then what seemed like a thousand candles lit up, a chorus of "Suprise!" could be heard and they were covered in confetti.
"What the-?" Both of them asked in unison. They were surrounded by their friends and classmates. Mostly Gryffindors, but also a few from other houses and the other schools.
Harry Potter materialized in front of them, holding robes in his hands. "You should change into these," Harry grinned and gave them the clothes, "no one else can see you."
Fred and George, although perplex, did not question Harry and went behind a drawer. They changed quickly.
Once they stepped back into the middle of the room, everyone applauded, laughed or wished them a happy birthday.
"What is going on here?" asked Fred, looking at Harry and Draco.
"A prank," laughed Harry, "It's our gift to you."
"All of this... was a prank? That we thought we had accidentally nihilated our own existence and that no one could remember us... a prank?"
"Uhm... yeah."
"Bloody," Fred began.
"Brilliant," finished his brother, grinning. "Best birthday gift ever."
"How did you do it?" Asked George.
"Well, Draco got the idea from your Headless Hats," Harry replied.
"They are exceptional magic, really," Draco said, stepping forward. "The bending of light and sound waves… absolutely brilliant. It was quite hard to figure out how you did that - we actually needed a lot of help with that - and how we could make it so it would cover you both- actually, you two and Harry. We needed someone to keep tabs on you and he was the logical choice with his Invisibility Cloak. Once we had figured out how it worked, Neville, Ron and Lee put the charm on your PJs while Astoria and I were making sure you wouldn't return too early."
"I kind of expected the joke to only last an hour... I really thought that at some point you would put on real clothes," laughed Astoria.
Fred and George grinned sheepishly.
"And everyone was in on it?" George asked.
"Well, almost," said Neville. In the background, Angelina glared at Lee. "Some we just told you weren't going to be here today and that they shouldn't worry about that or any weird stuff going on today."
Fred and George nodded their heads appreciatively. "You should have been a Gryffindor, Draco," Fred said.
"Because I like pranking? I am pretty sure Salazar himself invented the prank. You guys should be in Slytherin."
"I think you should have all been Ravenclaws," laughed Astoria.
"Enough of that," complained Ron, "we have cake and butterbeer and pumpkinjuice."
Fred and George laughed. "Best birthday ever," Fred smiled.
They all sang Happy Birthday, ate cake and celebrated deep into the night.
TBC
A very fun chapter to write (which I mostly did on planes and trains while traveling). Hope you enjoyed it. Next one will be focused on Draco again and it will be the beginning of Easter break, which will start a very exciting (mostly not the good kind of exciting, though) period in Draco's life.