Jamie and Lillian entered the colourful joke shop. Normally packed full with Hogwarts students, the silence inside made it very creepy. Lillian shuddered.
“Are you scared?” asked Jamie, smirking.
“No! Of course I’m not. I’m just…cold. What, are you?”
“Why should I be? I’m in a joke shop! Maybe you’re just scared that Greyback will come and eat you!” Jamie bared his teeth and made his hands like claws.
“I’m not scared!”
“And your bones will crunch and-” He stopped as both he and Lillian heard somebody in the dark room behind the counter. Jamie felt his pulse quicken “ what if it was Greyback? Suddenly the story he was planning on telling his sister sounded terrifying.
“Who’s that? Come out!” A red haired man came out, his wand raised; fear carved into his face. He had what would be a handsome face, if it had not been for the sickning scar across his left cheek, a souvenir of a battle against Snape “ he was trying to protect his older brother, Charlie, who was badly injured. He lost that battle. He was knocked unconscious before Charlie could get away.
“Uncle George! You frightened me! How did you know that we were here?” asked Lillian, her brow furrowed.
“The alarm went off when you opened the door. What are you two doing here? You should be up at the school; if your dad catches you I’m dead.”
“Not scared of my Dad are you?” said Jamie, an amused smile playing on his lips.
“It’s not your Dad that I’m worried about; I just don’t want to be on the receiving end of one of your Mothers hexes. But you didn’t answer my question “ What are you doing here?” Lillian sighed at here brother and launched into an explanation of the competition.
“You’re both idiots,” said George, bluntly.
“Why?”
“She’s a Slytherin “ she’ll cheat. She’s probably bribed Peeves.”
“She seemed as surprised as us when she saw Peeves.” George rolled his eyes.
“Ever heard of acting?”
“Please, Uncle. Just help us. We only need a few large prank items; just enough to impress Peeves.”
George frowned at them both for a minute, then finally muttered, “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” and led them into the back room.
He rummaged around in a few cardboard boxes before pulling out a small plastic packet filled with what looked like foam animals.
“These are our new invention “ we haven’t got a name for them yet, so that’s why we’re not selling them at the moment, but they work.”
“What do they do?” George smirked.
“One drop of water and the foam animal will grow into a herd of that animal. For instance, this one is an elephant. So all you do is put a bit of water on the foam animal and ten elephants will grow for up to three days. If any teachers try to vanish them the entire group doubles and various other stuff happens if you try to stun them, transfigure them…”
“Wow… what other animals are there?” asked Lillian, her bright green eyes wide.
“Mostly African Savannah animals; Zebra, Giraffes, Antelope and loads of others.”
“They won’t hurt anyone will they?” asked Jamie suspiciously. George shook his head.
“I swear they won’t hurt anybody. Just give them a bit of a fright.” Lillian smiled maliciously.
“We’ll take them. What other pranks have you got?”
***
Jamie sat at the Gryffindor table the next morning, yawning widely through his breakfast. He stuck his fork at a sausage. The fork went straight through and hit the plate. He frowned and tried again. The same thing happened. No matter what food he tried to eat, his cutlery went straight through it. He looked up and down the table and saw that the exact same thing was happening to every other Gryffindor. He flicked his head round to the Slytherin and, sure enough, there was Sabriel, laughing loudly with all the other Slytherins.
“Oooh, you’ll need a good one to counter that!” Peeves was hovering right above him.
“So that was Sabriel was it?” asked Jamie, coolly. Peeves nodded, a large grin plastered across his face.
“Don’t worry, Peeves, my friend; that joke is tiny compared to what we’ve got coming up tonight. Be in the Defence block at sunset.” Peeves floated away merrily, tossing handfuls of chilli powder into people’s food as he went.
“I really don’t think you should go through with this, Jamie.”
Jamie swivelled round to see a frowning Lottie, her arms folded across her chest.
“You were okay with this bet yesterday.” She blushed a little and unfolded her arms. She placed both hands on her hips, in such a threatening manner that Jamie was forcibly reminded of his Grandmother.
“Yes, I’ll admit that I was. I don’t like that cow any more than you do. But this trick is going too far; people could get hurt.” Jamie shook his head.
“My Uncle promised us that that wouldn’t happen.”
“If you get caught you could be expelled!” Lottie exclaimed desperately, searching for any reason why Jamie shouldn’t do this.
“You’re just like my Aunt,” muttered Jamie.
***
Harry walked into an empty classroom. His feet aching from walking many miles around the school, he sat on a desk and swung his legs backwards and forwards, trying to get feeling back in them. He sighed heavily. The trip to the graveyard had shaken him and he was missing Ginny and Sirius badly.
A rhino ambled past the doorway and Harry could hear a nightingale singing- wait…rhino? He jumped off the desk and stuck his head out the door. He quickly withdrew it as several hundred safari animals raced down the corridor, creating a chorus of bleating, braying and snorting. A large buffalo trotted into the classroom, it looked like it was going to run into Harry, he raised his arms and cried in alarm, his feet seemed like they were stuck to the ground, and, at the very last moment, it swerved away from him and carried on running down the hall. Harry followed.
The ground was shaking under his feet as hundreds of hooves pounded the floor, students were shrieking in alarm and flattening themselves against walls, or ducking into classrooms.
The massive herd sprinted into the Great Hall and proceeded to swarm around the hall, knocking over suits of armour and ripping paintings with their various horns and tusks. Harry was soon joined by the rest of the staff and several students, most of which were bent over double from laughing.
McGonagall walked calmly over to Harry, a slight smirk on her face. He knew she was thinking of Umbridge.
“We can’t vanish them; I’ve tried it on an elephant. Its group doubled.”
“And when I tried to stun a gazelle it multiplied by ten,” said Kingsly, now joining them on Harry’s right side.
“I tried to transfigure a zebra into a rock and it just got bigger,” said Tonks, gloomily.
“It’s a Fred and George product. It’s got to be. Someone floo them so we can get rid of all these animals,” said Harry. Tonks ran off to the large fireplace in the Entrance Hall. He tangled his hands in his ebony black hair, watching a hippo yawning widely.
“Harry! Harry!” His head whipped round at the sound of Ginny’s voice.
“G-Ginny? What are you doing here?” He stuttered, disbelievingly. She was dressed in pale blue robes with a snow white apron tied round her waist. She ran up to him and flung her arms around his neck.
“I got a job helping Madame Pomfrey! I’m now assistant matron! Isn’t it great?” She exclaimed, a wide grin on her face.
“It is! But who’s looking after Sirius?”
“Oh, I left him at home; he’s old enough to look after himself and there’s plenty of food in the larder.”
“Ginny!”
“I’m joking!” She laughed at Harry’s shocked expression, “I wouldn’t leave him alone. He’s with Hermione and Ron and I- er… what’s going on?” She asked, suddenly noticing the few hundred animals roaming the Hall (With Harry in her sights she hadn’t paid attention to the surroundings).
“Oh…er… your brothers,” Harry stated. Ginny nodded as if that explained everything.
“Ah. I see. Well, I have to go down to the hospital wing, hope you manage to sort everything out,” she said, her eyes twinkling. She gave him a quick kiss and hurried off, suddenly aware of how many teenage girls were glaring at her enviously.
***
Jamie and Lillian shook with mirth at the sight of Filch racing down the corridor, screaming loudly as an elephant plodded after him. Peeves cackled above them, holding a little red notebook and a quill. Lestrange sauntered over.
“I suppose that was you?” Jamie grinned cockily.
“Why yes, that was one of our smaller pranks.” Lestrange scowled.
“And how do you make them disappear?”
“Ah, that’s the beauty of it! They don’t! They last for three days.” Lillian replied smiling pleasantly. At this Peeves practically exploded into peals of laughter.
***
“Go on! I dare you!”
“Get lost, Harvey!”
“You wimp, Jake!” Harvey teased. Harvey was fourteen and had bright blue eyes. His fair hair shone in the sunlight as he stood on the outskirts of the Forbidden Forest with his dark haired friend.
“I am not a wimp,” scowled Jake, and he marched into the forest. After three meters or so, he stopped and turned promptly to give Harvey a smug grin. Harvey grinned cockily back and ran a meter further than Jake, and so the game began. They went further and further into the darkness until Harvey suddenly stopped. Staring at a nearby thorn bush.
“What’re you staring at?” asked Jake. He moved forward, looked, screamed and ran. Harvey could feel his breaths becoming quicker and quicker as his fear increased, he wanted to run but his feet seemed rooted to the ground, he wanted to tear his eyes away from those blank, blue eyes of a man dressed in Ministry robes.
The Third War by dumbledorefluertwins
Chapter Notes: Ta-da! Here it is, at long last! Okay I've had lots of reviews from the last chapter saying "**gasp** can't wait to find out who dies!" Well... sorry to disapoint you all but... that last sentence was referring to Darren. If you don't understand then reread chapter five. If Harry had walked down he would have seen Bella stun Darren, and possiable saved him. Sorry to disapoint all of you who were waiting for a gripping DE attack. There are some. Just not yet.