Dear Scorpius,
I must say, I was very upset to learn that you wouldn’t be coming home for Christmas. I’m sure that the holidays weren’t nearly as pleasant at Hogwarts as they could have been. However, it was your choice. It would have been nice to get a decent letter home, though, not just a quick owl telling us this.
Everything’s fine and well at home, besides your Grandmother Narcissa recently falling ill to a stomach bug. She’s fine now, though. Your father is enjoying his new Vice Presidential position; we’ve already been invited to dinner with the Romanian Head of Department of Magical Co-operation. I’m sure you can tell this is a big honour!
Middy took the time to bake you this care package. Lemon tarts are your favourite, are they not? Anyway, I don’t think they’re very good. It’s so hard to find good house elves these days!
Love from,
Mother.
“Thanks, Scorpius!” my friends said as I handed them the professionally-wrapped food package.
“Sure you don’t want any?” Rose asked me.
“Nah, I’m allergic to lemon,” I replied. Thanks for remembering, Mummy Dearest.
Dear Scorpius,
I never did mention in my last letter about your friends. Have you been keeping your Slytherin acquaintances as I instructed? Quillon Flint and Parker Nott are in your year at Hogwarts, are they not? I have tea with their mothers on Wednesday mornings. It’s a wonder that you haven’t mentioned them in a letter. I hope you three are becoming fast friends.
Also, you should think about befriending some of the older, influential Slytherins. Parker’s cousin, Sean, is a sixth year Prefect. He has fabulous connections; in fact, there are already talks of you becoming betrothed to his sister, Louise! How wonderful would that be, to see our families united?
Hope that you’re well and that your studies are progressing well. Its February, you should know a lot of magic by now! Your father says hello.
Love from
Mother.
Dear Scorpius
I understand that these days you might be busy, but it doesn’t mean you can just simply ignore letters from home! You’d think that once in a while, you’d write back home to check up on your mother and I. She’s simply crushed that you’re not writing home! Your Grandfather Lucius recently found out you were sorted into Gryffindor “ he was positively livid! All this nonsense of disowning you “ however, you’ll be pleased to know that I put my foot down on that one. You’re still family.
I’m guessing by the long absence of contact that you’re mad at your mother and me. What did we do wrong? It’d be nice to know why if we’re getting the silent treatment.
Love from
Father.
Scorpius
Please. Write back. We’re getting worried. Is everything okay? Just tell us what we did wrong, and we’ll fix it! Are your friends “
“Just reply to them,” Rose sighed one morning over breakfast. It was March, and I hadn’t been in contact with my parents since November, when I told them I wasn’t coming home. I was reading my latest letter from my parents, which had been delivered into the Great Hall a few minutes ago by Lautitia, Dad’s owl.
“No,” I replied stubbornly.
“Scorpius, do it,” said Al, ganging up on me with his cousin. “We’ve all watched you grow steadily more miserable since January over this. They probably don’t even know why you’re upset.”
“Al, I see it only one way. They don’t want anything to do with me, because I’m the Gryffindor in their family of pureblood Slytherins. I don’t want to be rich, influential and powerful. I want to be normal. They don’t care what I do!”
“Apparently, they do,” Claudia pointed out. “They’ve been really worried; you only have to see it in your parents’ handwriting.”
“I agree with these three,” Adam joined in, gulping down some eggs. “You’ll feel better when you answer to your parents.”
“No I won’t! I’ll feel worse!”
“Fine,” Rose said, slamming down her books. “Be a baby about this, then.”
“Maybe I will,” I replied childishly, before picking up my book bag and storming off to our first class, History of Magic, alone. I was so frustrated that I didn’t watch where I was going and crashed into someone as I rounded the corner in the fifth floor corridor. It was James Potter.
“Hey Scorpius!” he greeted cheerfully.
“Hi, James,” I replied less enthusiastically. He studied my gloomy expression, frowning.
“Why so gloomy, kid?” he asked. I scoffed. Kid? He was only a year older than me!
“Nothing important, really,” I sighed.
“Not to worry, Scorpius. You’ll feel better soon. In fact, I’m organising a little meeting in the common room tonight for all the Gryffindors. Be there at eight sharp. We have vital issues to discuss.”
This could only mean bad things for the Hogwarts staff.
The news of the meeting had spread like wildfire amongst the Gryffindors throughout the day, and when eight o’clock came, the Tower was packed to the rafters of students waiting excitedly for what would happen. I sat with my friends near the fire; everything was forgiven and forgotten between us.
Suddenly, the lights in the common room were extinguished. A few people screamed, but most of the crowd laughed. Suddenly, we heard a mutter.
“Blasted wand… Lumos, there we go,” the voice said, and suddenly, James Potter’s face was now solely illuminated by the light of his wand.
“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…” he began mystically, much to the giggles of everyone present.
“The special day is approaching…” another voice joined in, and when they lit their wand as well, it appeared to be Dom speaking. Fred mimicked her actions.
“The one you wait all of March for.”
“The day we practical jokers love,” an unfamiliar face said.
“And the one that Prefects, Heads and teachers hate,” James added.
“Sign up for the biggest, most epic practical joke that Hogwarts has seen! It’s an unofficial house unity project that you don’t want to miss!”
“Just come up to James, Dom, Tyrone or myself if you’re interested,” Fred said.
“And… yeah, we’re done,” Dom added. With a flick of her wand, the lights came back on. There was a stampede of people who wanted to sign up, and a general level of excited chatter spread throughout the Tower.
“What do you reckon?” Albus asked us.
“I’m in, for sure!” Adam grinned, and jumped up to join the queue of Gryffindors.
“Ditto!” squealed Claudia, and she ran after Adam.
“Rose?” Al asked his cousin warily.
“Umm… I’m not sure. We could get in trouble for this…”
“Come on!” I urged her.
“Does this mean you’re in, Scorpius?” Al asked, facing me. I grinned at him excitedly.
“Course! I wouldn’t miss it for the world!” I replied, my enthusiasm growing with each passing second. This was going to be epic…
“Rose, please?” Al gave her his puppy dog eyes. Merlin, he looked ridiculous, but it seemed to work on her. She smiled broadly.
“I’ll do it!”
Laughing, she went and stood behind Claudia and Adam, who looked like they were wetting themselves with glee. Albus and I chuckled and followed after her.
Claudia
There were ten of us out of the fourteen Gryffindor first-years. Apart from us five, Emma Wilson and Yasmine Depiesse, two of my roomies, joined in, as well as Josh Stone, Ricky Cartwright and Jayson Chang. Strangely, Nina didn’t join in. She’d been very quiet since Halloween. In fact, I barely saw her at all. Not that I was complaining.
We were given our assignment two days before April Fool’s Day. When James told us what we’d have to do, Josh practically fainted.
“Are you insane?” he asked James, his voice full of concern and doubt about the situation at hand, as well as James’ mental health.
“It’s so insane that it might just work!” he replied gleefully, his hands dancing in his lap. “Is everyone still in it?” The ten of us nodded our heads; Rose reluctantly. “Good. So, we need you guys to get the following things…”
I woke up on the first morning in April full of determination and nerves. The sun was shining brilliantly into the dormitory; I was surprised that I had only woken up just now. It was still pretty early, and my six other roomies were all still fast asleep. Randomly, I realised a very important fact “ I’d been at Hogwarts for seven months already! Time really did fly by when you’re having fun. The strange thing was that all these strange things were normal.
After Rose had awakened and the two of us had gotten dressed, we went down to breakfast to find the Gryffindor table alert and suspicious. They were all waiting for something to happen, and those who were involved with the planning looked very pleased with themselves. I grinned and sat down next to Al, grabbing a piece of toast and the marmalade jar.
“Alright, Al?” I grinned.
“Never been better, Claudia.”
It was then where James, Dom, Tyrone and Fred came into the hall, looking triumphant about something. No guesses as to what. Our whole house looked liked they wanted to burst into applause. However, we abstained from doing it, simply because our targets would become suspicious.
“Phase One is a go,” James said quickly to Al as he passed us. He slid into a seat beside Fred and helped himself to some porridge.
Breakfast went on as normal. The Gryffindors all knew something was about to happen, but most of us had no clue what would happen. We were all beginning to get slightly bored when some strange things were occurring over at the Slytherin table…
“Aaaarrghhhh!”
Everyone turned to look over at the source of the noise. A fifth year Slytherin was now currently standing on the bench she was sitting in, pointing to the floor and looking absolutely petrified.
“SNAKE! ARGH!” she squealed.
Pandemonium erupted. Slytherins ran left and right, or else sprinted out of the Great Hall. Some of them stood on the bench like the fifth year, but the Slytherin table was strangely empty. Come on, I thought. It was one snake, what’s the big deal?
It wasn’t one snake. It was one hundred. Oh yes, James Potter and his friends set loose one hundred snakes upon the Slytherin table.
How cool is that?
By now, most of the school were aware of the huge problem and were running after the Slytherins. The snakes were starting to slither their way towards the Gryffindor table; Adam and Albus promptly got the hell out of there. Rose, Scorpius and I stood on the seats, not wanting to go near them but not wanting to miss out on thing. James, Fred, Dom and Tyrone were dancing for joy on the seats, relishing in the success of their prank.
The teachers kicked into action. They, along with Victoire Weasley and Mason Wood, the Head Girl and Boy, started to Vanish the snakes with their wands. After about five minutes, they were confident that the Great Hall was serpent-free. Professor McGonagall stood in the middle of the Hall and muttered “Sonorus” and her voice was magically magnified.
“All students must return to the Great Hall, which is clear of any snakes.”
Slowly, waves of students came back in, cautiously checking that the coast was clear. When everyone had reassembled back in the Hall, Professor McGonagall began angrily addressing us, her voice back to normal, and her temper still fierce.
“I understand that this was an April Fool’s joke,” she began, her nostrils flaring, “but it does not give you the right to get away with it. We’ll be investigating as to who performed this dangerous prank, and they’ll be severely dealt with.” She sighed. “Let this be a warning to all students “ beware of what you might be planning today.” James, Tyrone, Fred, Dom and all of the other Gryffindors kept a straight face, although the Headmistress’ comments seemed to be directed to them.
And on that happy note, we all went to first period, ready to play another prank that afternoon.
Albus:
Phase 2.1 began shortly after lunch. I say 2.1 because this was the second phase in our three-phase plan, but it was the first offset of Phase Two. Do you understand that? Phase One was just a warm up compared to what was going to happen soon.
Lunch was actually quite funny; people kept checking underneath the table for any creatures that might just happen to bite and poison them. The funny thing was that the snakes that James and his friends set off had no fangs, and were purely harmless. But why tell people these things? They should figure them out for themselves.
Professor Zabini was on alert from this morning, waiting for something bad to happen. The Potions dungeon seemed even drearier than usual. The Gryffindors that were involved in our mastermind plan were even more nervous. What was even funnier was the Slytherin’s anxiety “ they could feel the air of April Fools in the room.
“Professor,” Adam called from the student supply closet. “I can’t seem to find the dead spiders.”
“Let me take a look then, Finnigan. It should be there.” He wandered over to Adam, not realising his huge mistake.
Rose gave me the signal when Zabini’s back was turned. Reaching into my bag discreetly under my desk, I pulled out my weapons “ Weasley’s Wildfire Whiz-bangs “ the most successful Weasley product ever, with U-No-Poo coming in a close second. That reminds me of a funny story “ when I was seven, George gave me a batch of U-No-Poo. That night at tea, I put some in my brother’s pumpkin juice. He now hates pumpkin juice.
Anyway, everyone was busy making their Colour Change Potion and nobody was paying attention to me, but half of the class were waiting for what was going to happen.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” I muttered with my wand, and I levitated the Whiz-bangs into Adam’s cauldron. A few seconds passed without anything happening, and then…
“BANG!”
A huge, ear-splitting noise came from his cauldron. The cauldron shattered into a million pieces, splattering bits of potion everywhere and suddenly, Adam’s half finished Colour Change Potion was pouring over the sides of his scorched, burnt desk and onto the floor. Everything that the potion touched was now becoming a different colour of the rainbow “ the stone, grey floor was now neon green and Josh Stone’s brown hair was now a lurid shade of pink. Screams, laughter and giggles were echoing off the walls, and the previously silent classroom was now deafening.
Meanwhile, the fireworks were trying to escape the small, cramped dungeon. As we’d planned, Claudia ran over to the door and flung it open. It took only a split second for the loud, ricocheting fireworks to make their way outside. Breaking into a run, and praying that the other Gryffindor’s plans were successful as well, all the Gryffindors sprinted up to the Entrance Hall. Noticing that a huge scene was going to follow, the other Slytherins followed us.
Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang! Bang! BANG!
A sea of humanity was pouring out of various hallways, corridors and staircases. Everyone was coming down. Along with our batch of Weasley Wildfire Whiz-bangs, nine other batches were joining ours. Almost every single class with a Gryffindor in it was now partially destroyed.
People were ducking, screaming, hiding and in some cases, laughing, as the fireworks collided and multiplied. Teachers were trying desperately to halt the noise. It was freaking awesome.
Twenty minutes later, we were in the Great Hall again, but no food was being served. The after smell of today’s lunch, steak-and-kidney pie, could be smelt, and my stomach rumbled with hunger. Professor McGonagall was standing before us, her face positively livid.
“This has gotten OUT OF HAND!” she screamed. “FIREWORKS? Really! This is a place of learning, NOT an exhibition!”
Someone let out a muffled snigger.
“Fortunately, nobody was injured. That is so incredibly lucky! Also, all property that was damaged in the incident has been repaired. However, SERIOUS damage and destruction could have occurred!” Her throat became hoarse.
“Let’s hope that that was your last prank, for all your sakes. Back to class, NOW!”
We trouped out of the Great Hall to collect our belongings. The next class was Charms, but it was no fun as Professor Morgan had us doing theory and kept an extremely close eye on us to ensure no other incidents would occur.
Dinner that night was far from normal. Everyone was on edge, either anticipating or fearing another ‘attack’. Even the weather - a stormy, overcast night “ seemed tense. The teacher’s faces were tight-lipped and anxious, expecting the worst “ more loud explosions. What they actually received was something much stranger.
“Teachers and fellow students,” said a voice, and James Potter got up from his seat, followed by his three other comrades. They all stood on the Gryffindor table. Everyone paused from eating their dinners.
“It may not surprise you much,” he began, “but the two incidents that occurred today were the work of Alfred, Dominique, Tyrone and myself.” Fred gave his cousin a filthy glare for using his full name.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” Dom spoke, “we assure you that no harm was intended for both pranks. They were little, harmless April Fool’s Day jokes.”
Fred cleared his throat. “The snakes were non-venomous and were trained to not bite a single human.” A few Slytherins seemed to be disgusted now with their antics. “The Weasley Wildfire Whiz-bangs were designed to reverse the damage thirty minutes later. However, our wonderful, superb Hogwarts staff managed to manually repair everything by themselves.”
“However, we feel it is time to step down from our campaign. It was a brave fight, but we wish to not cause any more damage to our wonderful school or harass our teachers.” Tyrone finished. In total silence, they sat down again. I swear I heard a cricket chirping.
Professor McGonagall got up. “Well, I’m shocked. This is…” Her words trailed off at the sight before her.
Every single Gryffindor had taken their wand out of their pockets or robes and were now pointing up at the ceiling, including Rose, Scorpius, Claudia, Adam and I. It looked pretty darn impressive. As we’d be told, we just posed there for a few seconds.
Suddenly, the Great Hall’s invisible roof malfunctioned, and a great roar of thunder rippled through the ceiling. A cold breeze fluttered through, making me shiver. And then, the high heavens opened up.
Thick, heavy rain poured down at lightning-fast speeds, causing everyone to become drenched within seconds. People laughed, screamed and shrieked with joy. The teachers ducked and most of them ran out of the Great Hall. A few students followed.
The rain only lasted for thirty or so seconds, and the roof magically closed up with a subtle flick of Dom’s wand. The four of them stood back on the table, clasped hands and to a deafening roar of applause, bowed to their audience, proudly beaming at their success and praise. It was one of those rare times when everyone in the school was united and happy.
“Thank you! Thank you, everyone!” James cried, blowing kissed to the other Houses.
After everything had died down, we all turned to look at the staff table. Professor McGonagall, soaked and disgruntled, stood to address the students. The four masterminds became worried, but were happy to take any punishment offered. They knew they wouldn’t be expelled, but surely she would scream at them all hoarse…
She laughed. She actually laughed. At first, it was more of a hoarse chuckle, but it turned quickly into bursts of laughter. Nobody, nobody was prepared for this. The teachers looked at her as if she’d gone mad. James, Dom, Tyrone and Fred couldn’t believe their luck. But soon, everyone was joining in.
“Happy April Fool’s Day, everyone!” James cried again, and another round of applause came their way.
That’s probably the most school spirit we’ve shown all year.