Harry nodded. "Ingenious."
"If you hadn't lent me those books I wouldn't have found out how to do it," Draco said. Harry had lent him some of his less age appropriate books over the summer when Draco was complaining about a lack of inspiration. He knew the boy wouldn't judge him and as they were not actually Dark arts books, Harry didn't fear lending them to his sort of cousin.
Harry smirked. "I'm glad I could help." ~
As Neville and Draco's pranking vendetta continued, Harry wasn't surprised when he was suddenly pulled into a hidden alcove. He had felt their approaching magical signatures and he was wondering what they wanted.
"Look here, Gred!"
"I can see Forge, we've caught ourselves a baby bird—"
"—a naughty baby bird, who's making our ickle Ronniekins very mad—"
"—oh, yes! Very, very mad!" Harry laughed at their byplay before he felt a pang in his heart as he remembered the last time he had seen his Fred and George acting like this, so carefree and happy. He had missed them and seeing them together made him realise just how much.
"Not that I don't find myself loving being hidden in dark alcoves with handsome men, I must ask, what do you want?"
Fred and George sent each other shocked looks before they burst out laughing,
"We like you," they said simultaneously.
"We admire your pranks and, as fellow pranksters, we thought it introduce ourselves," Fred said.
best
to
"He's Gred and he's Forge," they said indicating to each other with smiles.
Harry smiled. "It's a pleasure. I'm Harrison Potter as I'm guessing you already know."
"Smart birdie we caught Freddy boy," George said.
ourselves,
"Smart birdie indeed. Now, we normally wouldn't allow somebody to target our family but the way we see it, Ron-Ron has made his bed," George said.
"His actions not only reflect badly on him, but on our family," Fred said, being surprisingly serious.
"We just wanted you to know that we don't condone his actions," George continued.
"And we support yours. I must say, the colour prank was particularly exceptional."
Harry smiled. "I would thank you, but I would hate to take undue credit. The real geniuses behind it are Neville Longbottom and Draco Malfoy."
The twins shared a look. "Innocent baby Nev and the little snake?" they asked simultaneously. Seeing Harry nod, they smiled. "Such a pair! They obviously love their leader," George said.
Harry shrugged. "I don't know about that. I think they just find his particular brand of Gryffindor courage to be... less than ideal."
The twins laughed. "Well then, tell your friends that if they ever want to collaborate then we would be honoured."
"Such talent like ours deserves to be shared," Fred said, grinning.
"I will. However, I must be off. Not that this hasn't been insightful, but I do have to get to Potions." The twins nodded and stepped back. "We'll be watching you, baby bird."
Harry nodded before walking away, careful to keep an eye out for any pranks they might send at him. He didn't know what to think about the twins; he didn't want to get his hopes up, but he wished more than anything to have them back in his life.
~
The only other interesting thing to happen in Harry's first week was his first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson. Like last year, Defence was shared across the entire year, so Harry found himself sitting with Neville on one side and Susan on the other, Hannah taking the final place in their row. Harry's new Slytherin friends were sitting in front as Harry had claimed the back row, trying to put as much distance between him and the fraud as possible.
"I can't believe he's actually going to teach us!" Susan gushed.
"I know, think of all the incredible things we'll learn," Hannah said.
Harry rolled his eyes. "All we could ever learn from this buffoon is how to write a fantasy book."
"And not a good one," Blaise added from the front, sending Harry a smirk. Harry wasn't surprised that the Slytherins held his disdain for the man they could probably see through his lies easier than most.
"But he's a member of the Defence Association," Hannah argued.
"Have you read his books? Half of the facts don't even line up," piped up Pansy, sounding exasperated. She appeared to be the only girl who wasn't blown away by Lockhart's looks. Harry figured it was because of her practicality, which Draco had mentioned.
"It wouldn't surprise me if he just took the credit for others' achievements," Harry commented, making all of those around him, bar Hannah and Susan, agree. Even Neville, who was usually saw the good in people, nodded along. Little did they know he was actually telling the truth about Lockhart.
However, before the two loyal badgers could argue his defence, the man in question entered the room from the office he had installed upstairs. Harry rolled his eyes at the lilac silk robes the fool was wearing and prayed the lesson would be over quickly.
"Settle down children. Now, I know you're all excited, you're in the room with your hero - and no, Mr. Potter, I'm not talking about you," the man had the audacity to say, before winking at Harry and causing him to clench his fists in anger in order to avoid hexing the smarmy bastard. "However, I think I should do this right! Hello class, my name is Gilderoy Lockhart! Now, let's get some facts up about me," he said pulling out his wand and flicking it at the board, which was next to a giant portrait of the man.
On the board words appeared: 'Gilderoy Lockhart: Order of Merlin Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five-time winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award.'
The man in question read them aloud and added, "But I don't talk about that. I didn't get rid of the Bandon Banshee by smiling at her!" At the end he turned and looked expectantly at the class.
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