Chapter 66, everybody! This is the rest of the boys' summer, I do believe.
Yes it probably would have been better to not inform Fred and George of paintball, let's be real. Also don't know if that's true about dark spells eating through regular spells, but there's got to be some reason they're so feared and considering how sectumsempra worked and some of the spells at the end of book 5 I feel like there's a basis there. In other news, the boys are playing around with film.
So in rereading book 5…I'm kind of baffled that Harry acted disappointed that he didn't make prefect? He never really seemed to actually want it and in canon the only year Harry didn't have the whole school mad at him by this point was third year—the impression I get with prefect is it needs to be someone who's already somewhat respected by their peers, and considering Harry in canon could flip a coin to check to see if his peers think anything of him….So yeah Harry might be the Boy Who Lived but in canon he's also That Kid who put Gryffindor from first to fourth that time, let out a great big honking snake, fainted from Dementors, and snuck his way into the Triwizard Tournament. Legit it would be more surprising if canon Harry did make prefect. As for this version that doesn't misbehave as much…well the boys figured it out.
Slytherinsal, thanks for the review! Yes that's a good idea.
Juxshoa, thanks for the review! Probably. XD
Thanks for the review, guest! It's good to be updating regularly again, I agree. Well if you want to get technical Remus had his suspicions in fourth year (fun fact, I originally had them figuring out at the end of fourth year where in canon Harry figures out the fake Moody—that got axed when the Secret Order of Familiars got involved).
Harry Potter © 1997 J.K. Rowling
Arriving back at the Burrow had a lot of delirious cheering, mostly from the Weasley twins and Ginny, who kept dancing around the living room chanting "He got off he got off he got off—"
"Will you three do that outside?" Mrs. Weasley demanded. "And Harry, dear, we knew you would—it was a justifiable use, after all—"
"A full trial, though," Remus said, staring at nothing. "That doesn't bode well."
"You said from the beginning that they were railroading him," Draco pointed out.
"I bet they were expecting him to come in by himself," Ron mused. "And then when there was a full team Fudge was caught so flatfooted he didn't know what to do."
"That was about the sum and scope of it," Sirius said, nodding. "By the way, Draco, your mother is with her lawyer, she should be back later."
Draco nodded shortly, mouth in a thin line—Harry reasonably guessed that the whole divorce was still a raw wound.
"So now what?" Harry decided to ask, trying to move the conversation on.
"Well now that we have aiming down, I feel like we can cover dodging in greater detail," Remus said. "Probably do that tomorrow, Sirius will teach you kids a paint spell today so we'll know who got hit by who, please keep the colors you've been using, yes I'm talking to you, Fred, George."
"I see we have a reputation," Fred said, exchanging fist bumps with George.
"A well-earned one, I'd say," George agreed.
The paint spell reminded Harry enough of paintball to compel Fred and George to go to town after he mentioned it to learn more of the sport. Harry hoped he hadn't started something that would end in multicolored disaster.
The next day did sort of end in multicolored disaster, as dodging was still a concept and not a reality. Harry was very glad for cleaning spells that night, less glad at the fact that the twins had included glitter in their paint spells. At least it gave them more impetus to avoid being hit, and each day Remus set up a different obstacle course to keep them on their toes.
It wasn't until well into July that they actually moved on to covering spells—each day had them practice aiming and dodging, and then a different spell that would improve their abilities to defend themselves.
"Does anyone know why we didn't cover the shield spells before we covered dodging?" Remus asked.
"Because Protego loses against a killing curse?" Ron guessed.
"True, very true—matter of fact, most dark spells eat straight through most conventional shield spells. It's also a difference in mindsets—if you use a shield spell, you're more likely to stand your ground and stay in one spot, making you an easier target. If you get used to the idea of not being where the spell is aimed, you're less likely to get hit. Are you all with me so far?"
They were, and by the end of July they had functioning little wars in the obstacle courses—last one standing won, get enough wins before the end of summer break to get a grand prize of your choosing. Sirius was reasonably sure the extra impetus helped more than nebulous dark threat on the horizon—which, true.
Harry, personally, didn't need more impetus than that, and he wasn't sure what he'd ask for if he won the grand prize, but the competitiveness helped with the drive to improve. Currently, the one to beat was still Ginny—she had had a close encounter with Voldemort earlier than any of them (barring Harry's whole beat him as a baby thing), and thus had a greater reason to be taking this seriously. Or maybe this was just the end result of six older brothers.
Fred and George were the second runners by dint of constantly teaming—days where they were the last ones standing usually ended with them going back to back and then marching off to imitate old duels, and occasionally resulted in them knocking each other out.
Harry, Ron, and Draco were basically tied for third place—Ron had the most improvement out of all of them, and Luna didn't seem terribly concerned with winning, but Harry felt that they had all made leaps and bounds, sentiments shared by the adults. Staring out his window one night as Snips dozed in his bed, Harry was sure that while he probably wouldn't get the security of this time last year (or maybe earlier) back until Voldemort was taken care of, he did feel a little safer.
"I'm sure there's a good long word to describe that, but right now I'll settle for confidence," Sirius said when Harry tried to articulate this to him. "Just make sure that doesn't tip over into cockiness—I'm told that ends badly."
"It does," Remus called from the other room.
The Weasleys having a functioning TV now also meant that Ron was starting to be intrigued by the concept of movies and recording—especially after they proved that going to the movie theater did not result in Dementor attacks each time. With homework out of the way, their spare time was dedicated to rooting through Mr. Weasley's collection of Muggle artefacts until they found a camcorder, and then dedicating their time to getting it operational.
It was towards the middle of August that they finally succeeded.
"Okay! So the red light means it's recording?" Ron asked, aiming the camera.
"Yeah," Harry said, looking at the little screen as Ron put the lens to his eye (after having the correct one pointed out). "Wave, Snips!"
Snips didn't look very impressed, although Pig puffed up, hopping up and down in excitement.
"So how does this work? It's like a pensive, kinda, you said?"
"That's the closest comparison I can figure," Harry said. "Because see, you record the thing you're seeing, and then later you can play it back, and it's not like the portraits where you can interact with them, so yeah pensives are the closest comparison. Pensive? How do you pluralize it?"
"No clue," Ron said, trying to maneuver out the door—Harry helped to steer him. "Ah. Nice view." Turned and backed up a little so he could film Harry. "Say something, Harry!"
"Hi, my name is Harry Potter and you're watching Magic TV!" Harry said, waving. "I'm outside my friend Ron's house, his family calls it the Burrow—my house is down the street, my godfather Sirius is wanting to call it the Doghouse but my uncle Remus is trying to hold out and my…aunt? She agrees with my uncle. Also technically we're all related so that's cool."
"I dare you to call Mrs. Malfoy 'Aunt Cissy.'"
"I gotta think of the best time to spring it on her. This is Snips," Harry said when Snips flew out and onto his shoulder. "And…okay here's a question you know how the textbook says most Muggles can't see magical creatures or places? Is he even going to show up on the camera?"
"I mean he's showing up on the little screen here," Ron said, checking the camera. "Maybe it's different since we're wizards and we know what we're looking at? Wish there was a way to test this without violating the Statute of Secrecy."
"I mean we could always say it's special effects," Harry said. "Oh hey! Buckbeak! He's got a disillusionment charm on him, we could see if he shows up on film!"
"Yeah!" Ron said, following Harry up the road and filming as he went. "Down there is Ottery St. Catchpole, it's the local village and very Muggle—pretty sure everyone just figures we're the oddballs who live out in the country."
"I mean we are," Harry agreed. "And apparently they think we've been shooting fireworks off up here."
"I guess it's easier to say fireworks when we're not hollering spell names," Ron said. "Hey, I wonder if spells would show up on the camera."
"I bet that'd make a good business if they did," Harry said. "Muggles have how-to videos of a ton of stuff—imagine how-to videos for spells."
"Hey."
Buckbeak did indeed show up on the camera, to everyone's bafflement—Draco needed the device explained to him, was posing next to Buckbeak minutes later.
"Okay Malfoy, tell us about Hippogriffs," Ron said, vaguely gesturing with a hand.
"Uhh okay," Draco said, glancing at Buckbeak like he'd know what to do. "So this is Buckbeak, he's a Hippogriff, they're very proud and handsome creatures—first rule of Hippogriffs is that you need to be very polite to them, no name-calling or anything. And they won't let you near them unless you show you can be courteous, so when you approach you have to stop at a respectable distance and bow."
"Right," Ron said, arm waving as he tried to grab Harry. "Harry demonstrate this."
"Right," Harry said, waving Ron off. Approach, bow deeply, back off a step as he straightened and watched Buckbeak.
"So if a Hippogriff doesn't bow back you need to retreat, but Buckbeak knows Potter so…yeah," Draco said when Buckbeak bowed. "Now Potter can approach and—Hippogriffs really like being petted here and here, they love being scratched wherever they can't easily reach, but they get nippy if you get behind them."
"And they like it when you tell them how handsome they are," Harry said, petting Buckbeak.
"Well yeah that's a given."
After the how-to video on Hippogriffs they spent a chunk of time playing with the zoom lens and the other aspects of the camera—Harry had the distinct impression that Ron might be pursuing this as a full-time hobby, especially that evening when they managed to get it to play on the Weasley TV. The population of the Doghouse also watched, which was also how Mrs. Malfoy learned of "Aunt Cissy."
"Do shut up, Sirius," Mrs. Malfoy said, glowering at Sirius going down howling.
"Sorry, Mrs. Malfoy," Harry said, wincing.
Mrs. Malfoy had the lemon look as she brushed off her lap, obviously debating. "I suppose if us staying is long-term we'd have to have some level of familiarity eventually…."
"And we're all family here, aren't we?" Mrs. Weasley asked brightly, something in the way she was smiling at Mrs. Malfoy daring her to disagree while still feeling good-natured.
"I suppose," Mrs. Malfoy sighed finally.
The letters arrived a little before Hermione was scheduled to—Remus considered the book list, looked at the newspaper…finally looked at Kreacher. "I don't suppose you'd take care of the school supplies if we asked nicely."
"Kreacher will be happy to," Kreacher said, putting a healthy stack of pancakes and bacon on Harry's plate.
"Dobby will be happy to assist!" Dobby said brightly, saluting and splashing a bit of orange juice. "And if Dobby fails, Dobby will cast himself from the tallest tower Dobby can find!"
"That's not necessary," Sirius said, looking at Mrs. Malfoy. "Cissy, what are you teaching your house elves?"
"It can't be that bad," Mrs. Weasley said—they were eating over at the Burrow this morning. "Kreacher we've talked about taking over my jobs."
"Kreacher agrees that there have been discussions," Kreacher said.
"I don't know if it's that bad, but I don't trust that we'll all be able to keep calm heads if we do go," Remus sighed, looking at the Prophet. "Padfoot, I'm finally changing my vote."
"Excellent," Sirius said, thumping the table before pointing at Mrs. Malfoy. "You're the only holdout."
"Give me that," she sighed, taking the paper from Remus. "The rest of you might wish to stay uninformed, but there are things I want to keep an eye on."
"Like Quidditch scores," Ron said, coming downstairs. "Oh hey we got our school letters!"
"We did?" Draco asked, coming in from tending to Buckbeak. "Anything good? What does Defense look like?"
"Well it's not Lockhart," Harry said, looking at the list again.
"Kreacher and Dobby will be handling the shopping," Kreacher said, putting a plate in front of Draco as he sat down. "Kreacher and Dobby will also be willing to handle the Weasley shopping if needed."
"Thank you for offering, Kreacher, but it's no bother to me," Mrs. Weasley told him.
"Kreacher doubts this, but Mistress Weasley may do as she pleases."
"Is there anything saying we can't shop with her?" Dobby asked Kreacher in an aside.
"But anyway," Mrs. Weasley said after their moment of silence. "I can get that done today, do a bit of other shopping I've been meaning to do—give me your lists, kids, I'll…Ron, what's the matter?"
This prompted Harry to look at Ron, who had been very still and quiet ever since sitting down and opening his letter, staring at a little badge he was holding—Harry blinked when he realized it was a Prefect badge.
This sank in for everyone else a beat later—Mrs. Weasley and the twins couldn't have had more opposite reactions if they had tried.
"OH RON THAT'S SO WONDERFUL!" Mrs. Weasley cried finally as she hugged him, the first coherent bit she had been able to say. "That's everyone in the family!"
"What are we, next-door neighbors?" Fred asked, breaking off from his wailing to look affronted.
"We're shacking up with you guys, apparently," George said to Sirius and Remus.
"We need to add more guest rooms," Sirius said to Remus, not missing a beat.
"I told you one extra room wasn't going to cut it," Remus shot back, as Percy thundered down the stairs with his wand drawn.
"I was finalizing my report what happened!?" he asked, scanning the room from a few steps up, looking ready to fling hexes first and take names later.
"Ron made Prefect!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed.
Percy had to take a beat to process this, was vaulting over to Ron and tackling him in a bear hug when he did.
"FINALLY!" he gusted. "Thank you for following my influence I was so worried—"
"Hey, we followed your influence too," George protested.
"Yeah," Fred agreed. "We'd ask ourselves would Perce approve of this and if the answer was no we'd go for it."
Ron still seemed very dazed when Percy let go of him to jump up and down excitedly with Mrs. Weasley, moving on to exclaiming the news to Mr. Weasley when he came in—Harry waved a hand in front of Ron's face to see if he was still in there.
"Why me?" Ron asked finally. "It's not like I'm some stand-out student—why not Harry?"
"Probably the honorary Slytherin thing," Harry said. "And the fact that everyone thought I released a great big snake second year."
"That probably put a dent in it," Draco agreed, opening his own letter now that the jostling had died down. "I have concerns about the quality of Prefects this year—" Froze with his hand in his letter—turned it upside-down to send a badge similar to Ron's, but in Slytherin green and silver.
Remus looked at Cissy. "Will you be joining them then?" he asked, indicating the older Weasleys.
"No, we can celebrate in a dignified manner—" she started—
"Get her," Sirius ordered—he and Remus bounced up and dragged her over to join the celebrations.
"Okay now I'm concerned about the quality of Prefects this year," Ron said, leaning around Harry to look at Draco.
"I'm disappointed in you both, really," George said, shaking his head. "Just wait until Donald hears about this."
"At least Harry's still got his priorities straight," Fred said.
"Now if only he were more ambitious in his pranking."
"You two still have me," Ginny pointed out.
"This is true, dear brother," Fred said.
"You're our only hope, Gin," George told her.
Harry debated on whether he should introduce the Weasleys to Star Wars next, moved on to baffled and something a bit more snarly in his chest as he looked at the Prefect badges—he had given absolutely no thought to who would be the new Prefects, had had far more important things to worry about…if he had been thinking of them, would he have wanted them? That responsibility?
It was a question that bugged him as everyone ate, chatting excitedly about the new Prefects.
"This is excellent, though," Sirius said, reaching across the table to clasp Harry's hand while also patting Remus' back. "Having a Prefect friend really helps with getting away with stuff."
"Sirius," Mrs. Weasley scolded.
"I'm only speaking from experience."
"So you were a Prefect?" Draco asked Remus, still apparently on the fence about him.
"Yes," Remus said, reminiscing. "I think Dumbledore thought I could rein in certain people. Obviously, I failed miserably," he said, cutting a look at Sirius. Snips, on the table, growled at that.
"You'd try, we'll give you an E for effort," Sirius assured him.
"So you weren't a Prefect," Harry said to Sirius.
"Oh good grief no—me and James spent too much time in detention to qualify. Sad to say, we were the incorrigible ones."
That made Harry feel a bit better, knowing his father hadn't been Prefect either—turn his attention to Percy, excitedly going over Prefect duties regardless of whether Ron or Draco was paying attention.
"And I haven't even mentioned the amenities," Percy said. "Being Prefect affords you certain benefits—like the Prefect's bathroom—"
"Oh I remember that bathroom," Remus sighed, looking like he was going somewhere else for a minute.
"Hundreds of taps, each one with different soaps, a bath the size of a swimming pool," Sirius agreed, apparently in that same place.
"Okay, now I'm jealous," Harry told Ron.
"Oh that reminds me benefits of Prefect friends is they have passwords for places."
"I'll be sure to hook you up," Ron told Harry.
Mrs. Weasley and the house elves left shortly after breakfast, but not before dropping another bombshell on Ron.
"I mean we got Percy an owl," she was telling Ron, who still looked lost.
"Mum, what are you talking about?" Ron asked.
"Getting you a gift for getting Prefect!"
"On that matter, I should probably come with you," Mrs. Malfoy said, getting up from the table. "Anything specific, Draco?"
"Uhhh," Draco noised. "Um—saddle for Buckbeak?"
Mrs. Malfoy made a face at that one. "That won't be today," she pointed out. "I'll have to get someone out here to measure Buckbeak…." Trailed off at Draco's expression. "Fine, I suppose that was your big ask."
Draco cheered, ran out to tell Buckbeak—Ron looked at his mother, stepped a little closer so the others wouldn't overhear so much. "Um…a new broomstick? Not one of the really expensive ones!" he said quickly at her expression. "But—like the new Cleansweep, that'd be really nice…."
"Kreacher, go with her on that one," Sirius said. "We can go halfsies and cash in Ron's wins on that."
"Yes please."
When the women and house elves left, Ron and Harry looked at each other. "Congrats on making Prefect," Harry told him.
"Y-yeah…I wasn't kidding though, I figured it'd be you," Ron told him.
"It probably is the whole honorary Slytherin thing," Harry decided. "I mean it's hard to have a Gryffindor Prefect who talks to snakes."
"That probably does put a cramp in it," Ron agreed, thinking. "So…want to try filming something else? Maybe see if we can't do one of those how-to videos?"
"Or we can film the new Prefects," Harry said, grinning as he followed Ron up the stairs. "Gotta get it now before the glow wears off."
"Oh I bet it starts as soon as we get on the train," Ron sighed. "Yeah let's do it."
Hermione arrived a couple days later, having been briefed in the Malfoys staying over but nothing else. Thus, when she stepped out of the fireplace (having taken one from the Leaky Cauldron) to see three boys standing behind a table with two Prefect badges, her default response was a blank look.
"You have to guess," Harry told her.
She blinked, looked at the badges. "Well I'm going to say Draco gets the Slytherin one," she said. "So…Harry?" she asked, looking at him.
"Actually Harry got the Slytherin one," Ron said as Harry shook his head. "Something about the whole honorary Slytherin thing."
"Ron and Draco," Harry clarified for her.
"Wow," she noised, sounding genuinely surprised. "That is…not who I would have picked."
"We agree the quality of Prefect took a dive this year," Draco said. "Have you seen the new books yet?"
"Yes and the Defense one is absolute rubbish," Hermione said, tugging her trunk over to the group of trunks waiting by the door and thus missing the exchange of sickles. "Slinkhard doesn't know hexes from jinxes from countercurses and if the book is anything to go by we won't be doing any magic at all!"
"In our OWL year?" Ron asked. "That's so stupid—okay so I'm very glad we practiced all summer because from the sounds of it Defense this year is going to be a wash."
"Oh yes tell me about this is it too late to participate?" Hermione asked, looking at Remus when he came in.
"It's good to see you too, Hermione," he said, bemused. "And if you're asking about training, we were planning a flurry, rush, whatever you want to call it for the final week—I can give you a crash course real quick."
"Emphasis on crash," Ron agreed, rubbing his head.
Hermione agreed on that too, was absolutely livid when she heard about the Dementors and the hearing.
"Well of course they let you off there's hundreds of examples of such magic use being justified and then Dementors—"
"The Patronus Charm is probably going to be in that crash course," Harry said, nodding when Mrs. Weasley asked if he wanted more potatoes.
"We got to that right before dinner," Remus said. "She's got the mist started, at least."
"Hope you kids are ready though," Sirius said. "This week cinches it, the war to end all wars, for all the beans and marbles or however that saying goes—"
"Not like that."
"Make sure you duck if you see Ginny pointing your way," Harry told Hermione. "She fights dirty."
"You don't fight dirty, you fight to win," Ginny said, passing the peas.
"A very true axiom," Fred agreed.
"And just wait until they see what we've got in store," George rejoined.
By the night of August thirty-first, Harry was very much looking forward to the train ride the next day, wondering if anyone would notice if he just laid flat on his back in the hall. In the meantime, putting his new Standard Book of Spells book in his tote bag so he could look into summoning himself an ice pack later.
"I tell you what," Harry told Snips, crring at him. "I feel really, really good about this year."
Hopefully, that would stick.