Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnegan slipped out of the Common Room after curfew and followed the directions on the note they had been given. After ten minutes they arrived at a remote, no-longer-used classroom. Hermione Granger was waiting for them.
'What's this about, Granger?' Seamus yawned. 'I want to get some shut-eye.'
'Which is more important, Finnegan?' she scolded the boy. 'Getting some sleep or stopping Aries Black?'
Ron's ears perked up. 'What do you mean about stopping Black? What's he up to?'
Hermione groaned. 'Isn't it obvious? The son of the second-most-feared wizard in all Britain comes to Hogwarts and is Sorted into Gryffindor. He uses his family money to buy himself friends, and he's even earning House points for practising Dark magic.'
Ron frowned. 'I don't follow you.'
Hermione took a deep breath before continuing. 'I think Aries Black is trying to infiltrate Gryffindor. I think he wants to be the next You-Know-Who.'
'The next You-Know-Who?' Ron scoffed. 'Are you mad?
Hermione ignored him. 'I've been spending a lot of time with Hagrid, and he let slip that Dumbledore is hiding something in the school, something very powerful. I don't know what it is, but I bet Black is trying to steal it, in order to help him rise to power.'
Seamus paused, then nodded. 'That does make some sense. Black and Malfoy are always sneaking around. The other day, I woke up to find them coming into the dormitory at six in the morning.'
'They keep a lot of secrets too,' Ron conceded. 'Whenever I walk in on them they switch to some other language, like they don't want me to know what they're on about.'
Hermione sat pensively. 'We should start following Black and Malfoy around. That needn't be too difficult, as we all have the same class schedule.'
'I don't know about that,' Ron said reluctantly. 'They get up awfully early.'
Hermione glared at him. 'Then you'll just have to get up earlier.'
'Don't you think you're taking this a bit far?' Seamus asked.
'Don't you two get it?' Hermione snapped. 'Haven't you heard what it was like when You-Know-Who was around? Black wants to bring back those times.'
'We're just kids,' Ron protested.
'And imagine how things might have been different if a bunch of students had taken things into their own hands when You-Know-Who was in school,' Hermione pressed.
Both boys nodded reluctantly.
'What did you have in mind exactly?' Ron asked.
'First of all, I think we need to figure out what Dumbledore is guarding,' Hermione said. 'I bet it has something to do with the third-floor corridor.'
'The one that's forbidden?' Seamus asked.
Hermione nodded grimly. 'I think we need to find out what's behind that door.'
....
A couple of weeks before the end of term, McGonagall collected the names of students who would be staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays. Harry and Draco both scoffed at the idea that anyone would want to do such a silly thing, and were surprised when they saw Fred and George queuing up to put their names down.
'Aren't you going home for Christmas?' Draco asked.
Fred shook his head. 'Our mum and dad are going to see our brother Charlie in Romania.'
'Well, you can't very well stay here!' Harry protested. 'All alone in this draughty castle on Christmas? You're coming home with us.'
George raised his eyebrows. 'You can't be serious?'
'Why not?' Draco said. 'I'm sure either his dad or my granddad will be happy to have you over. We'll have loads of fun.'
Fred and George gave each other a look. They sighed simultaneously.
'We'd really like to,' Fred began.
'We definitely appreciate it,' George added.
'But we can't just leave...' Fred continued, but was suddenly interrupted when Ron barged between them.
'You're holding up the queue, you idiots,' he growled at his brothers before going over and adding his name to McGonagall's list.
Fred and George shared another look and then turned with one accord to Harry and Draco.
'On second thought,' George said. 'We'd be absolutely delighted to join you for Christmas.'
Harry and Draco both grinned at that.
'Excellent,' Harry said. 'I'll let Dad know.'
....
Two days before the start of the Christmas holidays, the twins, the cousins, Lee and Dean launched their enormous prank. It began with lunch in the Great Hall, as each person who entered without saying the appropriate password had their hair turned either red or green. It was specifically designed so that Ravenclaws and Slytherins got red hair, whilst Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs got green hair, which had taken quite a bit of clever spellwork.
The tables, meanwhile, had been charmed to break out into loud, off-key Christmas carols each time someone said the word 'Christmas'. They had enchanted the Christmas trees to applaud whenever anyone mentioned Professor McGonagall, or else to boo and heckle whenever someone mentioned Professor Snape.
That alone would have merited recognition as the prank of the decade, and certainly produced a fair amount of merry uproar amongst the student body, along with a good bit of annoyance amongst the teachers. Lee and Dean were both more than satisfied with the accomplishment, and determined to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labours. But the twins and the cousins were equally determined not to be outclassed by each other, and kept pushing the boundaries of what was possible.
All day Sunday, fireworks exploded in the corridors, gargoyles sang and students' hair kept changing colour. Harry and Draco enchanted the suits of armour to insult the students in English, the teachers in Latin and the Headmaster in classical Arabic, whilst Fred and George adorned every portrait in the school with artfully arranged and festively coloured toilet paper.
The crowning achievement came late Sunday night, when Harry and Draco managed to Stupefy Mrs Norris, sneak into the Sytherin Common Room with the Invisibility Cloak and Spellotape the wicked old cat to the chandelier. When they reported their success to the twins on the train the next day, the Weasley boys reluctantly acknowledged that they had finally met their match.
.....
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