Disclaimer: Everythings belongs to J.K.R.
AN: A big THANK YOU to Federer Rex for editing this story with the speed of light.
This story was inspired by a prompt from Fuzzpot. Thank you for that, Fuzzy!
More author's notes at the end of the chapter
During the last week of the term, the castle hummed like a bee hive with the excitement of the students ramping as their interest in classes dwindled. You couldn't help but be in a festive mood, with Christmas decorations everywhere and the suits of armour in the hallways serenading you with Christmas carols each time you walked to classes. They might be a bit off key and quite rusty on the lyrics, but most students and a couple of teachers would spend the rest of the day humming.
It was a time of joy, and it was also a time of pranks.
Just one look at the broad grins on the faces of the twin's as he came down to the common room on the last days of classes told Harry someone was in for an uncomfortable day. If he had to guess, they were planning an epic prank on the Slytherins, as it had become somewhat of a tradition on the last day of the winter term ever since he had first attended Hogwarts.
Ron and Hermione walked by his side, engaged in their love language, this time bickering about their pets Crookshanks and Scabbers. He tried to block them out as he clambered through the portrait hole and kept a wary eye on the twins.
Their ginger mops were just ahead of them, and the way they stuck their heads together and bumped shoulders didn't bode well for the Slytherins.
He sighed, his festive mood all of a sudden dampened. Hopefully, they'd wait until dinner to unleash their dastardly plan. He had Potions today and wasn't looking forward to a lesson with Snape being even more sour than normal just because he couldn't undo whatever the twins would come up with.
As they passed one of the narrow windows of the corridor, Harry caught a glimpse of the weather outside. The leaden-coloured sky promised loads of snow, and he shivered at a sudden icy draught coming from the gaps around the window. The grey silhouette of a Dementor floating over the Forbidden Forest didn't help to lift his mood, either.
What a way to start the holiday.
As they entered the Great Hall, Hermione gave the boisterous pair a suspicious look and then guided Ron and Harry to sit as far away as possible from the twins.
Ron, of course, noticed nothing. At the sight of the long tables loaded with breakfast goodies, his face lit up. He stopped his bickering with Hermione mid-sentence, plopped in his seat and pulled a platter of sausages towards him.
Across the table, Harry and Hermione exchanged a smile and an eyeroll, then turned to their own breakfast.
A hearty breakfast diverted Harry's attention. Mealtimes were the only times Ron's mouth was so busy that he stopped quarrelling with Hermione over the smallest thing. It hadn't taken Harry long to appreciate mealtimes.
His good mood restored, he poured himself a last goblet of pumpkin juice, snatched a lonesome, forgotten rasher of bacon from the plate between Ron and him before his friend could get it, and leaned back to watch people.
Wherever his eyes rested, there were smiling faces and animated conversation, even at the Slytherin table. It seemed none of the students were too bothered about classes, they were all busy looking forward to the Hogsmeade trip tomorrow, and to going home the day after. Well, the Hogsmeade trip had to take place without him, as long as Sirius Black was still on the run and as long as Uncle Vernon wouldn't sign his permission slip. If only–
BANG!
A cannon blast reverberating from the Slytherin table silenced the good cheer. All heads turned towards the source as if pulled by the strings of an invisible puppet master.
All students of Slytherin house now sported Gryffindor-red hair.
For a stunned moment, silence reigned.
Then a snort echoed through the cavernous room, and another one, followed by giggles. Like water breaking through a breach in a dam, the students of the other houses dissolved into laughter.
"Brilliant!" Ron said. "Serves the gits right. I'd call that payback for each time they did one of their shitty pranks on us."
Hermione frowned. "Don't generalise, Ron. Not all Slytherins were involved in those. It's mostly Malfoy and his goons and the Quidditch team. The majority of House Slytherin keep their heads down, and it beats me what their firsties did to be humiliated in front of the whole school. Some of them look like they'd want to burst out in tears."
Harry, who had laughed along with the rest of the school, sobered. Hermione's words were like a bucket of cold water dumped over his head. Put like that, the twins' prank sounded like bullying. He, of all people, should know how awful that was, shouldn't he? But surely Hermione was exaggerating?
He took another look at the Slytherin table and zoned out the argument between his best friends that followed Hermione's statement.
The bookends Crabbe and Goyle cracked their knuckles and threw dark looks at the Gryffindor table. The colour of Malfoy's, Parkinson's, and Nott's faces almost matched the colour of their hair, although Malfoy sported a bright, blonde strip across the middle of his head. Was that on purpose or didn't the twins' prank work as it was supposed to? It didn't matter, Malfoy looked as if he was ready to spit nails, and Harry grinned. As far as he was concerned, Malfoy had asked for it and he wouldn't lose any sleep about the git's hurt feelings.
He looked at the other Slytherins of his year, that quiet boy, Zabini, and three girls. It took him a second to remember their names. Wait, Roper, Davis, and Greengrass, wasn't it?
Zabini sipped from his goblet, a resigned expression on his face, while Roper and Davis continued eating their breakfast as if nothing had happened. Greengrass, who also had only partly dyed hair, had put her arms around a younger girl next to her who looked like a younger double of herself, except for the short pigtails dangling at the sides of her head instead of Greengrasses long locks that fell down to the small of her back.
Greengrass' sister, going by their likeness, was a cute little thing. Something tugged at his heartstrings at the sight of the older one comforting her, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a soft smile.
The younger girl stuck out a wobbly bottom lip. The next moment, tears spilled down her face.
The smile froze on Harry's face. Sweet Merlin! Hermione was right, this was like kicking a puppy. Harry averted his eyes from the girls and looked over at the head table.
Snape's face was as dark as a thundercloud. His wand in hand, he tried to reverse whatever spell had been cast at his Slytherins. Next to him, Professor McGonagall had the same idea.
However, 'tried' was the operating word.
Professor McGonagall was the first to realise the futility of their attempts. To audible sniggers from the rapt audience, she put her wand away, stomped down the few steps that led from the pedestal into the Great Hall, and marched straight towards the Gryffindor table.
"Uh-oh," Ron said and ducked his head between his shoulders like a tortoise afraid of danger.
Hermione's attention was still on Snape. She tsk-ed. "As a Potions Master, he should know that it is not possible to reverse the effects of a potion or spell-enhancing rune arrangements with a counter spell. That Professor McGonagall stopped is a sure sign that the change was either done by a Transfiguration spell too strong for her to overcome, which suggests a rune arrangement somewhere close powering it, or that the prankster used a potion and probably a rune arrangement added to that to distribute the potion."
"I don't know what you are talking about, but you're probably right," Harry said. His head of house towered over the twins, and he watched the unfolding spectacle with the morbid fascination of a bystander watching a train wreck about to happen.
Professor McGonagall opened her mouth.
Ron flinched and retracted his head even deeper between his shoulder blades. A smile of grim satisfaction spread across Hermione's mouth.
"I'd like to thank Mssrs Weasley for the morning entertainment and kindly ask you to attend classes now, although I'm sure that on the last day of school your thoughts are elsewhere," Professor Dumbledore's amplified voice sounded through the cavernous room.
Professor McGonagall's head jerked up, and she stared at her superior.
Professor Dumbledore replied with a serene smile.
Professor McGonagall harrumphed and stepped back. "You'd better do as the headmaster told you, Mr Weasley and Mr Weasley. Get going!" She motioned towards the door of the Great Hall.
The twins stood up, bowed first to the head table, then to Professor McGonagall, and at last to the students. Under the thundering applause from three houses and the glares of Professors Snape and McGonagall, they walked out of the room.
Almost as one, the rest of the student body stood up from their seats and moved out of the Great Hall in untidy rows, laughing and chattering.
Harry followed in the wake of a still frowning Hermione. Something about Professor Dumbledore's actions this morning seemed not right to him, although he couldn't point his finger on what disturbed him.
t.b.c.
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