Chapter Text
Harry groaned as he and his fellow fifth years collapsed onto one of the various study tables in Gryffindor Tower. Katie and Leanne were leaning on each other across from Harry while Evan mumbled something Harry couldn’t quite make out to his right. He rubbed his forehead, attempting to rid himself of the constant ache that had followed him all day long. Harry took a few deep breaths with his eyes closed until the pressure around his scar faded. He took a quick glance at the rest of the table to make sure no one else had seen it.
Katie and Leanne were currently banging their heads together, mumbling obscenities while doing so. It reminded him of his and Katie’s pregame ritual from way back in their second year, the memory caused Harry to let out a chuckle. When he turned to Evan, his grin turned into a grimace. He was currently thumping his forehead with the standard book of spells. Harry put his hand between the book and Evan’s head to prevent further damage.
“If I'd known how awful OWLs were I wouldnae have come tae Hogwarts.” Evan groaned.
Everyone laughed at his statement before the rustling of bags and paper filled their corner. As he got ready to start his work, Harry thought back on the day. Six classes, five speeches. They were thankfully spared by Binns who in all likelihood didn’t even realise this was their OWL year.
“You’d think they’d at least know not to give the same damn speech every class.” Harry said. Cracking his knuckles, a habit he had picked up from Sirius, Harry began working on the mountain of essays they had been assigned.
“This year will be unlike any year from before.” Katie started in a mock tone of Professor McGonagall.
Leanne laughed before adding in an excited yelp similar to the diminutive Professor Flitwick, “You shall be tested against everything we have taught you for five years.”
“Any attempting to glide their way for the next ten months will be sorely disappointed.” Even responded in the soft nature of Professor Sprout.
“CONSTANT VIGILENCE!” Harry shouted as he slammed his fist on the table top, causing the entire table to jump.
“You prat!” Katie yelled as she chucked her quill at Harry, who caught it with the ease of an experienced seeker. He just laughed as he tossed it back to her, shooting Katie a mischievous grin.
“So who are we starting with?” asked Leanne..
Shooting one last glare at Harry, Katie looked through her notes. “Let’s start with McGonagall’s, all the rest will seem easy compared to hers.”
“Do we need tae do this so soon? It's nae due for a week” Evan complained.
Katie rolled her eyes and Harry snorted at the scene. “They’ll assign more over the rest of the week. If you don’t want to fall behind in the first week back, you’ll get started with us.” she told Evan.
“Awright, hold ye horses, mam. I was only making a suggestion.” Evan replied with a self satisfied smirk.
“If it wasn’t for the accent,” Leanne said to Harry, “one would think these two grew up together.”
“Least they aren’t going at each other about football again.” Harry replied. “I swear these two were going to strangle each other before the train even left King’s Cross.”
“Can we please just get started, I have things I’d like to get done before the common room fills up and I can’t focus.” Katie snapped. Harry and Evan saluted Katie with a “Yes ma’am!” and pulled out their notes from the day.
With relative calm restored for now, the group began comparing notes and making suggestions to each other about the various laws of transfiguration.
For the next hour, the common room was filled only with light chatter as the various groups of fifth and seventh years worked diligently on the day’s coursework. So focused was Harry that he didn’t notice when the final bell rang for the day and just a few minutes later, a pair of red headed twins snuck up on the raven haired boy.
Without warning, Fred and George Weasley appeared on either side of Harry before speaking in unison, “Harrikins! Our most beloved prince of pranks!”
Harry nearly leapt out of his chair, spilling ink on two of his completed essays. “Merlin’s pants! Will you two quit doing that?”
“No can do Prongslet.” Fred grinned.
“It’s just not in our nature.” agreed George.
Harry groaned into his hands, causing Evan to snort. Harry shot him a glare before returning to his writing.
“What do you two want?” He asked.
“It seems the stress of the infamous first day of fifth year has already hit our sweet prince Forge.”
“Right you are Gred, our normal Harry would never turn down the opportunity to participate in the first week prank.” replied George.
Harry perked up instantly and started to put away his work with a wave of his wand. “Let me grab the map and cloak-“
“Absolutely not!” Katie interrupted.
The trio turned to Katie in shock. She blushed slightly at their incredulous looks before returning a stern look to her face. “We still have a lot of work to get through tonight.” she reminded him.
“Not like we’ll be able to get much more done anyways.” Harry reasoned.
“It's going tae be harder tae focus now that everyone's pouring in.” Evan stated, pointing to the portrait hole that now resembled a revolving door with groups of students walking in from the various years.
Katie let out a sigh before closing her books. “I don’t know…”
Harry shot a grin at Katie. “For the last four years, we have pulled the best opening pranks Hogwarts has ever seen. The four of us. Together. Are you really going to miss this year’s prep just to get ahead?” He asked while pouting.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Potter is attempting to guilt Bell into a prank.” Fred stage whispered.
“It’s been a tried and true method for many years in Potter’s favor, but will the early stress of OWLs give Bell the edge she needs?” announced George.
“Well, F and G, it looks like Katie's eye's twitching! That's normally a sign that says she's aboot tae break!” Evan added.
Harry held back his smirk. He got her, he didn’t want to ruin it when her resolve was so close to breaking. “Come on Kit Kat, you wouldn’t want to miss this.” He said while taking her hand in both of his.
“Aaand there’s the closer.” sighed Leanne as she closed her books and put her parchment away. “I’ll see you when you get back.” she added with a laugh.
Leanne grabbed her bag and walked away. Harry could have sworn she muttered something about ‘that damn Potter charm’ as she headed up the girl’s stairs.
“Fine. But you have to agree to an extra two hours of study this week.” Katie relented with a small smile.
“GOAL!” The four boys shouted in unison. Fred, George, and Evan slapped Harry’s back in victory. “Alright alright!” Harry winced with each pound. “Enough celebrating. I’ll meet you guys back here in five.”
Harry grabbed his bag and rushed upstairs. After grabbing his invisibility cloak and the Marauders Map, he made his way back down to the group. With only a quick glance at one another, the group left the common room with matching evil grins.
Harry and Katie huddled close under the cloak as they neared the defense classroom. While curfew had not yet started, they had no desire to be caught by the paranoid professor. Throughout the walk, they had bounced various ideas of what exactly to do off of each other.
“I still think having the feeling that he’s being followed is the best so far.” Harry whispered.
While he couldn’t exactly see her, Harry could feel Katie’s eye roll. “And I told you that we can’t do that unless we want this guy hexing random students left and right.” she argued back. “Besides, waking up to everything being colored pink would not only be funnier, it’s safer.”
It was Harry’s turn to roll his eyes. “One, we wouldn’t get to see the results. No fun in that. Also, he’d still be extra paranoid knowing someone’s been in his quarters. And since when do you like playing it safe, Bell?”
Katie had turned to face him, likely to respond, but Harry quickly put a hand over her mouth before pointing out the door to the D.A.D.A. class. Still under the cover of the cloak, the pair put themselves against the wall, waiting for the signal from Fred and George that the coast was clear.
When a paper airplane landed in front of the door, Harry knew they were in the clear. He quickly tore the cloak off of them and stuffed it in his robes. Harry stood back as Katie waved her wand in front of the door, looking for any detection spells. Once she seemed satisfied, Katie waved Harry into the classroom and the pair crept quickly inside, shutting the door quietly behind them.
Together, they walked up to the office door where Katie repeated her earlier wand movements. Harry stood transfixed as he watched the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth. He had half a mind just to clear his throat or make a loud noise just to mess with her, but remembering what happened the last time he broke her focus, Harry decided it was safer to just keep quiet for now.
Katie finished what she had been doing and stepped back. “Looks like some simple stunner set to go off if anyone underage steps through. Care to take it down?” she asked, wiping the sweat from her brow.
Harry smirked as he swept his unruly hair from his lightning shaped scar. “This’ll be easy, KitKat.” With his eyes closed, Harry raised his wand in an arc over the door, feeling for the source of the magic. On his second pass, he felt a slight tug as his wand waved over the top stone of the doorway.
“Gotcha!” Harry exclaimed as his eyes shot open. He started to mutter the counter charm as he shot a wry grin to Katie. “For someone so paranoid, you’d think his security would be better. Even you could have taken this down-“ Just before Harry could process the growing smirk on Katie’s face, he was thrown backwards into a desk.
Harry groaned as he sat up, rubbing the top of his head. “Bloody hell, Katie!” Looking over, he could see her doubled over, holding her stomach as she laughed. Seeing his scowl only set her off even more.
Once she was done laughing at him, Katie approached Harry with her hand outstretched. Just as she got close enough, Harry flicked his wand and sent a tripping jinx at her. She fell face first and Harry made sure to catch her as she neared the ground. Katie’s chocolate brown curls were splayed out across his legs as she grunted with contact.
Lifting her face, she sent a glare that would rival Mrs. Weasley’s. “Your knees are boney, Potter.” Her face fell back into his lap, causing Harry to let out a chuckle. When Katie silently lifted her arms above her head, Harry huffed and pretended to struggle to help lift her.
“I know we don’t have quidditch this year, but you really shouldn’t let yourself go like this- OUCH!” Just as he had gotten her into a sitting position next to him, Katie had pinched Harry on his ribs. “Watch where those hands go, woman!”
“Watch what you say about a woman’s figure arsehole.” The two fell silent for a moment until they looked at each other. Blazing green met soft brown as the silence stretched on for a little bit longer.
The serious moment was broken by Harry holding back a snort, which broke the flood gates and the pair broke out in laughter. They helped each other up and Harry walked back to the door to Professor Moody’s office.
“Any other charms you failed to let me in on, or was the knockback jinx it?”
“Hmm.” Katie pretended to look thoughtful as she stroked an imaginary beard. “There may or may not be a jelly legs curse, bat bogey hex, and a caterwauling charm in that order.”
Harry groaned as he once again moved his hair away from his scar. “We’ll be here all night trying to break those down. Not to mention putting them back up.”
“The twins will be so disappointed in you.”
“Maybe if you were better at taking them down, we could have done this in one go.”
“That’s not fair, and you know it! Only one of us gets special tutoring by Sirius Black every summer.”
“Not true. I invited you and the twins this summer and none of you showed up!”
“I told you about my trip to the continent on the train home.”
“Yeah… well…” Harry sputtered off as he failed to think of a comeback. Katie grinned in victory, but before she could celebrate, a paper airplane flew into the room and landed next to her.
“Shite, Moody’s on his way. Can you put the stunner back up?” She asked.
“Do you even have to ask?” Harry quickly waved his wand over the stone and the pair donned the cloak before slipping out the door.
The pair fled quickly to the fifth floor and stopped just outside the prefect bathroom. Harry had his hands on his knees, panting from the run. He could feel the heat and sweat on his face.
“And you were saying I was the one out of shape.” Katie joked. Harry saw the blush on her cheeks but decided against mentioning it.
They didn’t need to wait for long before Fred and George showed up, map in hand.
“So how bad’s the damage?” Fred asked as the twins grinned at the sight before them.
“If it wasn’t for the map, I would have said these two found a broom cupboard instead of Moody’s office with how they look.” George laughed.
Katie shot a glare at the pair before letting loose a few swears about where they could stick their wands if they ever made that joke again.
“Not great.” Harry answered once Fred and George had called down from their cackling. “At least five charms, one of them a caterwauling charm.”
Fred grimaced while George looked thoughtful.
“We could cause a distraction during lunch one day, give little Pronglset enough time to take down the defenses.” George suggested.
“Then Katie and Harry could set up the trap!” Fred agreed. “But what could we do to give them long enough?”
The group fell into silence for a moment before Katie spoke up. “What about those toffees you made? Sneak them onto the tables of all four houses, let the professors all deal with the aftermath.”
“That’s brilliant, Katie!” exclaimed Harry as he slapped her on the back. As he turned his focus onto the twins, he missed the furious blush that lit up Katie’s cheeks for a moment. “Just make sure McLaggen gets a couple. How that idiot got prefect is beyond me.”
Just as he made the suggestion, images of various pranks, each one more humiliating and ‘Sirius worthy’ than the last, flashed through Harry’s mind. Maybe the right prank would show Professor McGonagall that Cormac wasn’t worthy of the badge, especially since Harry suspected the prat didn’t care about his duties other than using his position for his advantage.
“That should give us enough time to do what we need to.” Katie said, breaking Harry from his thoughts. “Just need to iron out the details.”
“Leave that to us, Bluebell.” chorused the twins.
“Don’t ever call me that.”
The twins paled and Harry bit back a laugh at their expressions, not wanting Katie to turn her ire onto him.
“Alright. Let’s get planning.”
The next few days were a mixture of planning, homework, and the despondent moans of the six quidditch players whenever the weather was nice enough to practice.
Angelina had been the most vocal so far, and Harry had understood why. Everyone knew she was set to take the badge after Wood left the previous year, and she only had two years left to showcase herself for the league.
By Friday, everyone was getting restless and cranky. With classes over, Harry decided enough was enough. While he sat on the couch with Katie, Evan, and Leanne, Angelina had flopped down on a chair next to Alicia. Fred and George had taken over a corner in the back of the common room with Lee.
“This is depressing.” Harry stood from the couch and walked over to Angelina and Alicia. “Come on Captain, let’s go flying.”
“Did the twins test something on you Potter? No quidditch this year.” Angelina replied morosely. “Besides, I wasn’t named captain.”
“You all should be studying for your exams.” Alicia told him.
Harry motioned to the rest of the team. Even Fred and George looked exhausted. “Does it look like anyone can focus right now? A little flying will do everyone good, including you two.” When Angelina still made no move to get up, Harry sighed. “Are you really going to tell me that I need to convince you of all people to get out and fly?”
A flash of anger was quickly replaced by excitement as Angelina bolted up out of her chair. “Pipsqueak is right. We shouldn’t let ourselves go to waste just because it’s an off year! Fred, George, Katie, arses on the pitch in fifteen minutes or its laps for all of you!” Angelina barked out her orders. Turning to Alicia, she grinned. “That includes you, Leesh.”
Alicia groaned but stood up and walked towards the dorms with Angelina anyways. “Thanks a lot Potter!” She called out as she flipped Harry the bird behind her back.
Harry couldn’t help but laugh as he watched his closest friends scramble up the stairs to make sure they wouldn’t be doing anything but flying today.
It took everyone less than ten minutes to get dressed and march out onto the pitch. Whatever mood Angelina and the rest of the team had been in before was gone, replaced by the anticipation of being in the air once more as a unit.
“We may not be playing this year, but I’ll be damned if any one of us are getting out of shape because of it.” Angelina said. “Next year is the last year for over half of this team, and we will come out on top. That starts here and now. Is that understood?”
“Yes captain!” cheered Harry, Katie. Fred and George with mock salutes. Alicia simply rolled her eyes as they all mounted their brooms.
As Harry took to the skies, he couldn’t help letting out a gleeful whoop. The wind in his hair, the wood beneath his hands, the feeling of freedom lifted his spirits.
The following hour was filled not with drills, but with games and laughter. Fred and George spent half the time hurting bludgers at each other, before noticing Katie laughing at them. They proceeded to chase her with the bludgers. Angelina raced Harry around the pitch multiple times, while Alicia cheered her on, always keeping a safe distance from the twins.
As night fell and the group returned to the ground, Harry looked around him and smiled.
OWLs be damned, Harry Potter was going to have a great year, no matter what.