Chapter Twenty-Three: Revenge the Marauder's Way
The next day members of the DA came up to Harish for information; they wanted to know what had happened in the office, whether they were still going to have meetings, and what sort of punishment he received. They were all surprised when Harish told them he had received none, but he had not been. It was slightly annoying what little trust they had in him. Did they think he wanted to be expelled unnecessarily?
Of course at that point Harish would not have argued against expulsion. Without the DA, he no longer had anything at Hogwarts worth staying for. Slowly Umbridge had stolen what he enjoyed most: Quidditch, heading the DA, and any sort of freedom. The twins too were revolted by the sudden turn of events.
So they decided to take action.
Harish and the twins found Hermione, Daphne, and Ginny standing by the hourglasses that recorded house points. All three girls were gazing at emeralds in their hourglass with disgust.
"Noticed, have you?" Fred asked, sauntering up to Hermione.
"Some Ravenclaw girl just docked us a bunch of points," Daphne explained.
"Yeah, Montague tried to do us during break," George informed them.
"But he's in our house!" Hermione protested.
"He was one of the ones that never accepted the twins for their bloodtraitor status," Harish shrugged.
"What did you mean, 'tried'?" Ginny asked warily.
"He never managed to get the words out," Fred answered, "due to the fact that we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor."
Hermione looked very shocked.
"But you'll get into terrible trouble!"
"Not until Montague reappears, and tha could takes weeks, I dunno where we sent him," Fred said coolly. "Anyway…we've decided we don't care about getting into trouble anymore."
"Have you ever?" Hermione asked.
"'Course we have," George dissented. "Never been expelled, have we?"
"We've always known where to draw the line," Fred said.
"I always helped with that," Harish interrupted.
"We might have put a toe across it occasionally," George continued, as though Harish had not said a thing.
"But we've always stopped short of causing real mayhem," Fred finished.
"But now?" Ginny asked curiously.
"Well, now—" George replied.
"—what with no more DA—" Fred interrupted.
"—we reckon a bit of mayhem—"
"—is exactly what the school needs."
"Namely Dumbledore and a certain Ministry official," Harish expanded with a smirk.
"You mustn't!" Hermione whispered. "You really mustn't! They all would love a reason to expel you! Harish especially!"
"You don't get it, Hermione, do you?" Fred asked with a smile. "We don't care about staying anymore. We'd walk out right now if we weren't determined to have our revenge on Umbridge. So anyway," he checked his watch, "phase one is about to begin. I'd get in the Great Hall for lunch if I were you, that way the teachers will see you can't have had anything to do with it."
"Anything to do with what?" Hermione asked anxiously.
"You'll see," George retorted. "Run along now."
And the three seventh years squeezed into the crowd. They made their way into a corridor and dove into an alcove that was hidden by a hanging tapestry. There, the twins had stored a large wooden crate. Harish levitated it out into the reasonably empty corridor and they dumped its contents out on the floors. Then, with a flourish of his wand, all of the ignitions were lit.
The three boys plugged their ears and dove into the alcove. Seconds later, the entire floor shook in an ear-splitting BOOM!
There were screams and some fireworks made their way out of the corridor, zooming in every direction. The others shot around the corridor and ricocheted off the walls. Harish pulled the tapestry to the side far enough to get a good look.
Dragons comprised of green-and-gold sparks were soaring up and down the corridors, emitting loud fiery blasts and bangs as they went. Shocking-pink Catherine wheels five feet in diameter were whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers. Rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls. Sparklers were writing swearwords and insults in midair of their own accord. Firecrackers were exploding like mines all up and down the corridor, and instead of burning out the pyrotechnical miracles gained energy the longer they flew.
Harish almost dropped the tapestry for racking sobs of laughter at the sight of Umbridge and Filch standing transfixed in horror on the stairs. One of the Catherine wheels seemed to decide that what it needed was more room to maneuver; it whirled up toward Umbridge and Filch with a sinister wheeeeeeeeeee. Both adults yelled with fright and ducked as it soared over their heads, straight out the window behind them, and over the grounds. Meanwhile, several of the dragons and a large purple bat took advantage of an open door at the end of the corridor to escape toward the second floor.
Umbridge shrieked in fright and ran up into her office, where she stayed. Moments later, Dumbledore came flying into the Entrance Hall where the fireworks ran rampant. He whipped out his wand and waved it about. Instead of disappearing, the fireworks all multiplied by ten. Harish and the twins were near suffocation from their laughter.
"Oh, I hope he tries Stunning them next," George laughed, wiping tears out of his eyes. "They explode with enough force to blast through the wall!"
The fireworks continued to burn and spread all over the school that afternoon. All teachers were baffled with how to get rid of them. Any spell one could think of that would do the trick, Harish had thought of as well and had gotten the twins to protect the fireworks against it. The fireworks they used were a special batch—designed precisely to drive Dumbledore to frustration, and it worked. He was running all over the school, getting rid of them…After he had finally found a spell well past one o'clock.
The three young men were idols that night in the Slytherin common room. Many curious aspirers asked how the fireworks were made, to which George would reply, "Our little secret, my friend," with a shake of his head. Even Hermione fought her way through the excited crowd to congratulate them.
"They were wonderful fireworks," she said admiringly.
"Thanks," Fred replied, looking both bewildered and pleased. A deep red flush creeped up his neck.
"Weasleys' Wildfire Whiz Bangs," George informed her. "Lucky Harish had us make a whole new set for this purpose, or we would be out."
"I caught them planning to use up everything we had made so far," Harish said with a shake of his head.
"But it would have been worth it," Fred dissented.
Hermione returned to where Daphne and Draco were sitting. Daphne was reluctantly pulling out her schoolwork while Draco stared at his bag, as if wishing for his work to spring out and start doing itself.
"Oh, why don't we have night off?" Hermione asked brightly as a Catherine wheel was heard out in the corridor outside. "After all, the Easter holidays start on Friday, we'll have plenty of time then…"
"Are you feeling alright?" Draco asked skeptically with a pale eyebrow raised.
"Now, that you mention it," Hermione replied happily, "I think I'm feeling a bit…rebellious."