Finding out what Fred and Bellatrix had in mind in punishing Molly was an extremely difficult, but it did not take long to find out that they had already begun acting out their plan.
One morning, she had come down to the Great Hall as if she had a very bad limp on both legs and she was gritting her teeth the whole way down. She kept cursing at anyone who would ask what was wrong and the pained expression only proceeded to resemble one of anger and frustration.
"Molly, we warned you! You're the one who got on someone's wrong side!" One of the Prewett boys had scolded her near the end of breakfast. "You know you shouldn't do that!" A few Slytherins chuckled at the exchange, knowing she had gotten some form of punishment for her tyrannical grip over the younger students.
"I don't know who I angered! I haven't done anything; I'm simply enforcing the rules as I should be." She would answer right back. Everyone around her sitting at the other tables would groan and pull a face at the blatant lie. They weren't sure if she was lying or just plain oblivious to the entire situation.
"Well it's not our fault you got Bulbadox powder put in your drawers. We told you not to be so strict and you continued." The other Prewett finished. "You made your bed, now you lie in it." And with that, the conversation was clearly over and the two nearly identical brothers went to eating their breakfast while their sister awkwardly shifted as she ate toast.
Hermione and Antonin both looked to the Black twins and narrowed their eyes at the two siblings.
"You both did this." Antonin spoke first, accusation was clearly there and he was sure of it.
"No, we didn't."
"Prove it."
Hermione groaned at the two and looked back to the irritated Gryffindor Prefect, then looked back at her roommate and friend before shaking her head. The two just had to start finishing each others' sentences now. It was as if she and Fred had both returned to their previous years back in the Future.
"While I can't necessarily do that, I know you're responsible for this." Antonin continued after being shut down by the two. "But it's not entirely unwanted though. Thank you."
"Just wait until you see what we got the other prefects to do-"
"It's going to be wicked." and they continued with the sentence-finishing for the rest of breakfast.
"Once your potion is complete, bottle it up and label it with your name on my desk and you may leave afterwards." Professor Slughorn picked up a quill and began jotting down notes about the techniques used by his students such as amounts of stirs, figure 8 stirs or counter-clockwise, the speed, and even how the ingredients were dropped in.
One by one, the students brought their vials up with their names tied with a thread and left the class, many students waiting for their friends to finish.
The potions classroom was a lively study class that day, a good mood hanging above all the students as if a teacher had announced there wouldn't be an end-of-the-year exam, though sadly it wasn't the case. A rumour was going around that the prefects were being generous with point giving since breakfast after a young dark-haired girl, Cecilia Cooke, had gotten 5 points for finishing her bowl of oats completely.
It seemed to throw many older students into a confusion, as Prefects had originally not been allowed to give points, but everyone was being awarded points as if it was water and food.
One such instance happened after Potion's class that morning.
Walking through the halls with Annabelle Abbott, Bellatrix was on her way to Charms class after her Potion's completion when the halls filled up almost completely, marking the end of the scheduled classes at that moment.
"Miss Black!" The two girls heard the Hufflepuff HeadGirl call out to them from one of the classrooms. "Friends with a Hufflepuff? 10 points to Slytherin! My, my, what a beautiful sight to behold!" The tall girl gushed over the sight of the two first years so close to each other.
"I completely agree with you Ankita! A wonderful sight indeed!" A Ravenclaw prefect came into view and gushed with the girl. "Such House unity! 20 points to each of you!"
Once the HeadGirl and prefect left, Annabelle looked curiously over to Bellatrix to see a smug, satisfied expression on her face. "You... You wouldn't have anything to do with this, would you?" she narrowed her eyes at her Slytherin friend. "No, you definitely had something to do with this, didn't you..."
"Prove it." Bellatrix shrugged before walking off past the snickering portraits. "Come, we'll be late for Charms."
"I think we must've earned 100 points, and that's an underexaggerating." Kingsley claimed later that afternoon in the library. "I earned points for opening my book at the right page the first time."
"It's an interesting surprise, I like it." Isabelle Yaxley replied back with a smile.
"It's not exactly the best surprise, per say, but I do hope this doesn't become a daily thing. Prefects are going to go wild with it."
"Reward for doing nothing? I'll take it for sure." Rabastan Lestrange hauled the stack of books back to the bookshelf.
"Better than losing points, remember how prefect Mullens reacted when Diggle lost us ten points for tripping a student in the halls by accident?" The Ravenclaw students all proceeded to shiver at the thought of the punishment their prefect had if knowledge of points lost by them ever reached his ears.
"Let's... Let's not dwell on that, shall we?" Kingsley swallowed thickly before opening his book and taking out his inkwell and quill.
"Yeah... Good plan Shacklebolt." Isabelle agreed with a whisper. "Let's not think about it further..."
In the days that passed, the point-giving spree slowed down relatively quickly and the point-taking as well.
It seemed as if the end of the academic examination period had caused everyone to relax almost immediately, the seventh years gathering outside the burn their class notes that they deemed unworthy of staying with them and celebrated with a game of Quidditch between the OWL and NEWT students.
The students seemed to enjoy the informal Quidditch game as no points were being counted and Professor McGonagall had been the one to referee the entire match before finally stopping the game when the Snitch was caught by Ravenclaw.
That evening passed and the entirety of Hogwarts assembled into the Great Hall in order to begin the closing Feast, marking the end of a successful, and thankfully unstressing year for the students.
No hunts for Philosopher's stones or death eaters seemed to make Hermione dance on cloud nine as she was finally able to enjoy her education as she had originally planned the first time she had attended.
The same could similarly be said for Fred, whom didn't have to stress about his siblings running around the school trying to get themselves killed in the process. Only now, he had to worry about his sibling killing someone, even accidentally, and that seemed to be a bit less of a burden as he was in actuality, seemingly encouraging it to the best of his ability.
The encouragement seemed to have proven useful as Molly was still walking funnily and bubbles had begun coming out of her ears in the middle of the Quidditch game. She'd been cheering quite actively for her House when a green bubble had popped out comically from her left ear, only for a series of yellow and blue bubbles to follow, giving unwanted cheers to the three other houses instead of her own. Even now, sitting in her seat at the end of the Gryffindor table, students were still giggling at the green and blue bubbles that were making themselves more evident with the annoying pops they made.
A shuffling sound turned everyone's attention to the front podium where stood the Headmaster in his silver glittering robes. He cleared his throat and began speaking.
"Another year gone by so quickly," Dumbledore said cheerfully. "I do hope you've all enjoyed your classes and made many new friends along the way. I want to congratulate the upper years for their wonderful management of their stress during these examination periods." A snort or two were heard behind Dumbledore's twinkling glances around the room. " I want to congratulate Ravenclaw house on winning the Quidditch cup, and now, before I let you all dig into your feast," He took a pause and everyone looked up with excitement in their eyes. "The House cup is awarded, this year," He took another pause before waving his wand and changing the four banners to the ones decorated with badgers. "To Hufflepuff house!"
The house erupted in cheers and shouts of pride, kids jumping across the table to hug their friends. Annabelle Abbott had even left the table to go and hug Bellatrix, who did not seem to be enjoying the sudden contact and affection thrust onto her, and Annabelle certainly felt it as she back away just a bit before returning to hug her other friends.
The food materialized on the tables and everyone settled down to eat their meals, the happy air staying around them for the entire evening until everyone retired to their rooms for some rest, for the next day, everyone would be returning home for the summer break.
Two updates in less than a week? A miracle if you ask me!
I hope you all enjoyed this rather short chapter,
I enjoyed writing this very much :)
Also, If you want to contribute some ideas or comment what you'd like to see for the second year, feel free to comment! I'm running a bit low on juice for ideas so I would love some ideas. I hope everyone has some pretty great holidays and I'll try and updated before Christmas!