The Hogwarts Express chugged its way through the English countryside. Harry and his friends were sitting in their enjoying catching up with all of their summer news when the door swung open. Harry braced for the annual Malfoy visit.
But this was worse.
Fred and George Weasley stepped dramatically into the compartment. With their hands on their hips they glared down on Harry. It was enough that his friends unconsciously shifted away in anticipation of a Weasley twins prank.
"Mr Potter…"
"it has come to our attention,"
"that you now consider yourself a Marauder."
"Oh, you have have you?" Harry answered the twins but with a glare thrown in Ron's direction.
Harry's roommate flushed. "I mentioned you were going to the World Cup with Professor Lupin. Mum said something about he was a very nice man for a werewolf. She was a bit worried though about you being bothered by people for being out in public with a known werewolf. I said you'd be fine with Moony. That's when these two went off their nut."
"Our youngest male,
"and most disappointing sibling,
"also mentioned your new guardian's home,
"being called the Marauder's Den."
Harry grinned at the glowering twins. "Yep. Padfoot wanted to call it Padfoot's Shag-a-delic Love Shack, but Moony talked him out of it." Harry pretended to consider. "His new girlfriend would have probably made him change it now anyway."
An awed look crossed the twins' faces. "You are really living with the Marauders?"
"What happened to Prongs?"
"And Wormtail?"
Harry threw Ron a questioning. 'Did you tell them about the end of last year?'
Ron shrugged and shook his head. 'Nope.'
Turning back to the twins, Harry said," My dad was Prongs. We don't talk about Wormtail anymore. He's no longer a Marauder." Shock and surprise warred on the twins faces.
"You may call me Mr. Jack." The twins narrowed their eyes at Harry's announcement.
"As the current Prank Lords of Hogwarts,
"we challenge your right to call yourself a Marauder,
"as you have no pranking credentials to speak of." This last was met with general snickering by the younger students. The twins shared a glance wondering what pranks they could have missed.
"Best prank of the year without getting expelled
"bonus for not getting caught and artistic execution,
"but no use of any assistance
"by non-Hogwarts residents!
"So you may use your little friends here."
Harry's grin widened. "Fine. And you two can keep your agreement with Peeves since he is a current resident." The red-headed twins looked a bit surprised that Harry knew of their pranking agreement with the poltergeist. They nodded respectfully and left the compartment.
The door hadn't completely closed when they heard, "This is going to be so wicked! Us against the second generation of Marauders!" Harry glanced out to see the twins skipping down the corridor in excitement.
Back in the compartment, Hermione sighed. Padma asked her what the big sigh was for.
"Well, every year it seems Harry gets into some kind of trouble. Usually it is Dark Lords or escaped murderers. Now, its self-proclaimed Prank Lords. I thought maybe this year would be different."
"Don't see why," Ernie commented. "He's cursed this one is. The big fuzzy ball is a trouble magnet."
"Oi!" Harry protested. Unfortunately for Harry, the rest of his friends simply nodded agreement.
....
The Great Hall overflowed with energy on this September 1st. Harry's class and the ones on either side had been rather small due to the war of the time. Not many wanted to start families when Death Eaters attacked almost every night. However, the night of October 31, 1981 changed all that.
The people of magical Britain threw a party unequalled in centuries with the announcement of the fall of Voldemort. The large amounts of alcohol and recreational potions consumed probably explained why nine months later, a baby boom started. The first of these baby-boomers were born on July 29, 1982 and the boom continued to run for the next five years. Ironically, where Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter were the only magical children born on July 30th and 31st in 1980, two years later over twenty magical children were born each of those days. The incoming class Harry's Third year was seventy-five per cent larger than Harry's cohort. This year's class was half as large again as the one before it. Where Harry's cohort was forty students, there were now seventy Second years and 105 new First years waiting to be Sorted.
"Bloody hell! Look at all of the little gnomes!" Ron groaned. "It will take forever to Sort'em all! I just want to get to the feasting!"
"Easy there, Friar Tuck," Harry reassured him as they watched the First years enter behind McGonagall. "Here, I saved this from the train." He handed his red-haired friend a chocolate bar.
Ron took the candy and ripped off the wrapper. "Cheers, mate. You're a lifesaver."
Harry shrugged. "Not a problem. I think the twins left it for me to find." Dean Thomas screamed like a little girl when Ron suddenly spit out the chocolate straight into his face.
"Merlin, Harry! What are you doing giving me that? Who knows what crazy shite they did to it?!"
Harry made a play at patting his pocket before pulling out an identical candy bar. "Oh wait, this is the one the twins left. My bad." The Gryffindors started to laugh at the glare Ron was giving Harry. Harry simply smiled unrepentantly.
"Cruel, that was just cruel, that was," Ron complained. "Waste of a perfectly good piece of chocolate."
"Oh, would you two grow up," Hermione huffed. "Look, they are almost done the sorting so you two can stop playing."
Harry and Ron turned just as Dumbledore stood to give his welcoming speech. It was fairly standard until the Headmaster announced the new Defence Professor had been detained but would be joining them shortly. Not ten seconds later the huge doors to the Great Hall slammed opened and in stomped the ugliest man Harry had ever seen.
"I'm here, Dumbledore. Some wanker Dark Wizard tried to get the best of me. Had to deal with the mess," the scared man announced as he stomped up the aisle with his peg leg. The man had a large blue orb where his right eye should be. More than one student felt vaguely nauseous watching it swirl as it seemed to search the room for something. Some students noticed the orb seemed to pause several times on their most famous (or notorious) student, Harry Potter.
Dumbledore ignored the other wizard's language and simply said, "Welcome, Professor Moody. Please take your seat." The former Auror merely grunted and stomped over to the indicated chair. His blue eye seemed to be searching the chair and everyone around it for threats.
"Off his rocker, that one is," Ron whispered to Harry. "Dad had to go out last night to help the DMLE settle things when Moody destroyed his Muggle neighbour's garden. Claimed a Dark wizard attacked him then too. Supposed to be a total nutter but a great Auror."
Dumbledore was just restarting his welcome speech when the doors slammed open again. Only this time they admitted an enraged and crying caretaker.
"Who did it?! I want them DEAD! Send the little creeps off to Azkaban!" Filch screamed. He focused on Harry. "Was it you, Potter?! Trying to finish of what you started yer Second year? I'll kill you!"
"Argus!" Dumbledore shouted. "What is the meaning of this?"
"He kilt her! He did it! Wanted to finish the job 'e started!" The caretaker held out a bundle he had clutched to his chest. "He kilt Mrs Norris!" The students and much of the staff drew back in disgust at what was inside the thread-bare blanket the old man held out. Some of the students were already throwing glares in Harry's direction.
For Harry's part, he felt sad at the news of the cat's death. While Mrs Norris had a disposition to match her owners, he'd respected her as a something of an honoured opponent. The devil-cat tried to get him in trouble while the Beast played at evading her while trying to sneak up on her in turn.
"Mr Potter has been here or with his classmates since arriving on the Express, Argus," McGonagall was saying. "There is no way he, or any other, student could have done this."
Dumbledore nodded agreement. "Quite so, Professor McGonagall, quite so. Hagrid, would you please escort Mr Filch to my office? We can deal with this once the students are dismissed."
"'Course, professor. Come'on Filch. Let's get ya something to drink. The perfessor will sort this all out. Tis a shame what happened to yer friend."
"'E kilt my cat, Hagrid!" the man cried at the giant Care of Magical Creatures professor led the man out of the Great Hall. The doors shut as Hagrid was heard saying Harry wouldn't do such a thing. Harry appreciated the big man's support.
Once the students had settled, Dumbledore started his welcome for a third time. The news of the cancellation of the Quidditch season due to the newly announced Tri-Wizard Tournament was met with silent shock. Most of the students were still distracted by the death of Mrs Norris and Filch's accusation against Harry and the news that students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons would be joining them this year.
It was a dazed student body that left the Hall that night.
...
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