Saturday 8th January
Harry and Hermione were eating breakfast in the great hall. They had awoken in the Room of Requirement that morning and had gotten back to the common room about an hour after curfew was lifted. They claimed that they had gotten up early to go for a walk when they ran into Percy, who was the only Weasley Harry knew, apart from their mother, who was an early riser. A quick shower and a change of clothes later, and the two of them had headed down to breakfast.
Harry was just finishing up his tea and toast when the mail came in. When Harry had first arrived at Hogwarts, the sight of hundreds of owls swooping into the hall had looked spectacular; now that he was in third year, it was just the mail. He looked up to see if he could see his Hedwig.
Harry didn't see his familiar when he had looked, and so was startled when she swooped in from behind him and landed on the table. Harry untied the bundle from her leg and grabbed a bit of bacon, ripping it into bits that Hedwig could easily eat.
Once he had finished spoiling his owl, he inspected the bundle she had brought. There was a letter each for him and Hermione; there was also a tube wrapped up in brown paper.
He handed Hermione her letter and opened his note. It was from Dan and Emma. Harry was glad he opened the note first, as it explained that the package was a copy of the Muggle newspaper 'The Mirror', that had updates on a certain Marge Dursley's trial.
Harry quickly shoved the package into his robes; the last thing he wanted was people asking questions about why he wanted Muggle news all of a sudden.
Hermione, who seen him stow the wrapped paper, looked at him questioningly, so he handed her the note. She quickly read it and handed it back.
The look on her face told Harry that she wanted to say something. However, she held back, probably waiting until there was no one around to eavesdrop.
Hermione showed Harry what her parents had sent her. Her letter was mostly from her mum, telling Hermione that she understood why her daughter had lashed out at Ron while defending Crookshanks, but that just because her actions were understandable, that wasn't going to stop the consequences of her actions.
She advised Hermione to keep her head high, and to remember that four nights of detention was a good price for protecting her pet. The letter went on to talk about a few topics that didn't hold Harry's interest.
What interested Harry was the second envelope inside Hermione's letter. It was torn open from where Hermione had already looked at its contents. Upon inspection, the envelope contained a number of photos, which Harry pulled out to give them a better look.
The photos were all of Harry and Hermione, and all from that New Years eve. There were one or two that had either Harry or Hermione alone individually, though most of them had the two of them together.
There were ones Harry knew about, like when they had posed for Dan to snap a photo of them together before they went out.
However, the envelope also contained a number of surprise photos, like the one of the two of them dancing, or when the two of them sat at one of the tables, with Harry having a large grin on his face and Hermione looking as though she had been caught in the middle of a laugh; moments where they either didn't know or didn't care that there were other people there.
Harry tried to remember what it was he had said to get her to laugh like that, but drew a blank.
There was one more picture, of the two of them standing in a crowd of people outside, everyone around them ignoring them as they were too busy cheering in the New Year.
Harry and Hermione, however, were too absorbed by the kiss they were sharing to give the New Year even a moment of their time. Harry realised that this photo must have been taken mere seconds after Hermione had told him that she loved him.
Harry slipped the photo back into the envelope and handed them back to Hermione, who had been anxiously waiting for his reactions to the photos, "Do you like them?" She asked. She hoped that she hadn't embarrassed him by capturing some of their intimate moments on camera.
"I love them," he replied with a smile; he hadn't thought of taking photos, and was glad that they had something to remember those moments by.
"Do you want copies of any of them?"
Harry thought about it for a few moments. He really wanted a copy of the midnight one, but did he want a copy of any of the others?
"Well, I definitely want a copy of the one from midnight."
Hermione smiled. "I like that one as well."
"I think I also want the one of the two of us, where you're laughing, and also the one of just you, from before we left the house," he finished.
Hermione nodded as she pulled out a Muggle pen and wrote Harry's choices on the envelope, "I also want that one."
She put a 'x2' mark next to the note for the midnight photo, "I also want two of the one with all four of us, and a copy of just you," She added her own wants to the list.
"Why two copies of the group shot?" Harry asked, confused.
"Oh, I'm going to cut one of them up, to put in my locket." She indicated the present Harry had gotten her that was hanging around her neck. Hermione, who Harry had never known to wear much jewelry, had barely taken off the locket since Harry had given it to her.
Harry finished his last couple of bites of his toast and got up, "I'm gonna go up to the room and take a look at what I was sent."
Hermione nodded, "I'll come find you in a while, I got a few things to take care of first. Then we can go to our lesson with Professor Lupin together."
Harry told her that he would see her later and began the long climb to the seventh floor. He was glad Hermione had reminded him about their patronus lesson with Professor Lupin; after all that had happened during Christmas break, he had completely forgotten about it.
He arrived at the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy and the dancing trolls, and after a quick check that the corridor was clear, he started walking back and forth to summon the room. The door popped into existence and Harry went in.
Instead of what Harry had come to think of as the date room, this time the room had remade itself into a study. The room was smaller and had a large writing desk against one wall, with a window that filled the room with a warm sunlight, which had to have been fake, as the weather around the castle was cloudy, cold and gloomy.
Harry unwrapped the copy of the daily mirror that Dan and Emma had sent him and set it on the desk before he sat down to read it. The headline was about a small plane crash in Ohio, America. It didn't take long for Harry to find what he was looking for;
JUDGE IN DURSLEY CASE RULES IN FAVOUR OF THE POLICE.
Yesterday, in Guildford Crown Court, the judge the right honorable John Deed*, who is praising over the case of Marjorie Eileen Dursley, opened the case against the women, that the media has dubbed the evilest women in Britain, by ruling against her motion that the evidence against her was collected illegally when the police entered her property in response to a call to the emergency services.
Mrs Dursley claims that no such call was made and that it was a fabrication of the authorities to cover their illegal presence on her property.
Evidence supplied by the production though included a tape of the 999* call and a record from Mrs Dursley's telephone provider showing that a call was placed to emergency services from her place of reference at the same time the emergency services have for the records call.
When he gave the ruling, judge Deed said, "in this matter, it is not for me to determine whether Mrs Dursley made such a call, but whether the police had reasonable grounds to believe that a call was made when they entered the property. Given the evidence provided by the prosecution, I find that there was indeed reason to believe that such a call was placed from Mrs Dursley's residence on the night in question. With that in mind, I have to rule that entry to the property by the officers was in line with police policy and British law. As such, all evidence that was collected that night is deemed admissible in this trial."
Mrs Dursley's defence immediately tried to get the trial dismissed on the grounds that with the media coverage surrounding the case, there was no way that she could receive a fair trial. The same defence that was infamously tried by O.J simson in America after he was accused of murder. The judge, however, dismissed the motion almost immediately.
As the defence has rejected the plea deal that the prosecution offered, the trial will begin on Monday the 10th, when the prosecution will give its opening arguments.
Harry leaned back in his chair and relaxed. Until this moment, he hadn't realised just how much stress the thought of her getting away with what she had done to those other kids was putting on him. He knew that she wouldn't be punished for what she had let her dog do to him, but the idea of her being sent to prison where she deserved to be was enough.
On the contrary, the possibility that she could be caught red-handed, then get away with it all on a technicality, had stressed him out so much that he could literally feel the tension leaving his body after reading the article.
Harry didn't know how long he sat there, just enjoying the feeling of being relaxed, but soon he was interrupted when Hermione came in.
"It's so different from how we normally have it," Hermione commented on the study setup, and a second chair appeared next to the desk and Hermione sat down. She reached for the paper, "May I?"
"Go ahead."
She quickly scanned the article, then read it in full. She had a quick look through to see if any of the other articles caught her eye. She read a few before she handed him back the paper, "Well...that's almost unbearable."
Harry looked at her, confused.
"Mr blobby* is still in the top five of the charts."
Harry suddenly remembered the ridiculous bit of music that had been on the radio when they had gone home for Christmas. He just didn't get how that song had made it into the charts, let alone to number one.
Harry couldn't help it; the sudden jump from the serious topic he was expecting to the ridiculous bit of music was too much, and he couldn't stop from laughing.
When he finally got himself under control, he found Hermione just sitting there, grinning like the description of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. "That's better. You were far too serious and brooding for such a good bit of news," she said.
"I was relaxing , not brooding ," Harry insisted.
The two of them spent the morning going over their homework, hoping that if they could get enough done, then they would be able to spend Sunday in the library doing research for Buckbeak's case.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Dan and Emma opened up their dental surgery. They were the first in, like every morning. Dan went to switch on the heating and put on the kettle to make himself and his wife a nice hot mug of tea to ward off the January weather.
Emma picked up the business mail and began sorting through it.
There was today's paper. She gave it a quick glance to see if there was anything on the Dursley case, but it was void of any new details, so she put it and the few magazines that had been delivered on the small table in the waiting room, so that their clients would have something to read while they waited, then continued going through the mail.
Bill, bill, junk, invoice of a paid bill and an invitation;
Dr E Granger & Dr D Granger
I am writing to invite the two of you to dinner with my wife and myself. It is my hope that with some good food and pleasant surroundings, we can finalize the contract for the drills for your network of dental surgeries.
If you are agreeable, please contact my office so that we can arrange a time and date.
Hope you had a lovely Christmas,
Vernon Dursley
CEO Grunnings specialty drills
"Fucking asshole." Emma swore, after reading through it.
Dan poked his head out of the office, "What did I do now?" He held up a steaming mug of tea in her work mug "tea?"
Emma swapped the invitation in her hand for the tea in Dan's. She sipped on her tea while waiting for Dan to read the letter.
Unlike her daughter, who had been raised on artificial sweeteners, Emma couldn't stand them, so she was enjoying the one cup of sweet tea made with real sugar she allowed herself a day. When she looked back at her husband, she was surprised to see an almost predatory grin on his face.
"What's got you smiling? It's an invitation to spend an evening with human trash," Without Harry or Hermione around, Emma didn't bother to hide the venom in her voice.
"Dursley has moved to the hard sell. He is growing impatient, and that's just what I want," Dan explained.
" Oh yes , this mysterious plan of yours…"
Dan had had an idea when he'd discovered that the company that was trying to sell them new dental drills was partly owned by Harry's uncle, but, much to Emma's frustration, Dan had not shared his plan with her. All she knew was that it involved them not buying their new drills from Grunnings.
Emma thought about trying to piece it together again, but gave it up as a waste of time. Dan wouldn't reveal anything till he was ready and she did trust him. Instead she just went back to her cup of tea.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
After a few hours of occupying the office that had been created by the Room of Requirement, trying to get as much of their homework done as possible, Harry and Hermione now were knocking on the office door of their Defence against the Dark Arts Professor.
The door opened and the Professor's scarred face broke into a smile at the sight of his two students, "Miss granger, Mr Potter, right on time. Come in; I'll just put the kettle on," As the professor fixed tea, Harry and Hermione cleared a place for them to sit.
All the chairs, except for the one Professor Lupin had obviously been sat in, were covered in books and student assignments.
Hermione cleared the assignments while Harry moved books. She was careful to keep the loose bits of parchment that students had handed in organised by year and house so that the Professor wouldn't lose track of his marking.
Just as they were sitting down Professor Lupin brought over the tea, "So, I heard that the two of you had a good Christmas," he said as he put the tea tray on the coffee table next to the neatly stacked assignments that Hermione had just placed there.
"Um...yes, it was a nice break, but how did you hear about it, sir?" Harry asked.
"Professor McGonagall mentioned to me that she had gone from talking to you about a nice Yule break to giving Hermione detention within a couple of hours. She was a little surprised at how quickly things had changed in Gryffindor tower," Lupin explained as he poured tea into three mugs, handing them out but leaving Harry and Hermione to help themselves to milk and sugar.
They talked about the incident of Hermione's detention, and how it came to be, for a while. Harry blamed the altercation, and resulting punishment that Hermione received, on Ron, who went off on one the moment he'd seen Hermione, going on about how Ron blamed Hermione's cat for the loss of his pet rat, even though said cat wasn't even in the tower at the time.
They went on to talk about more trivial things, such as the Grindylow that the Professor was keeping in the tank in his office. After they had finished their tea however, the topic moved on to why they were there.
"Hopefully, since the two of you seemed to have such a good Christmas, maybe you'll have made some good memories that you can use when trying to produce your patroni," the Professor suggested as they stood there, waiting to try casting the charm again, "Now, it's been a few weeks, so I'll show you the wand movements again, and remember; the incantation is expecto patronum," he demonstrated the wand movements once again.
The two students considered the advice of Professor Lupin, and both separately drew upon the same memory.
New Years , when they had finally stopped dancing around the topic, like they had been for almost a year, saying what they had both been feeling for a while.
As they each thought about the memory, a memory much more recent and vivid than any they had tried so far, they remembered how they'd felt; that amazing feeling they'd had when they heard those words, and said them to each other for the first time.
"I love you".
"Expecto patronum," Hermione had gone first, and a silvery mist shot from her wand, like it did for her every time now. Only this time, the mist was a lot thicker than she'd ever managed before, and instead of wrapping itself around her, it formed a kind-of cloud in front of her.
The cloud was thick and had a definite shape to it. It was some kind of four-legged animal, and a big one at that. It wasn't as big as a horse, but it was definitely bigger than even a large dog, such as an Alsatian.
Unfortunately, that was all Hermione could tell, as despite the cloud shifting in shape, it didn't seem to be able to coalesce into what the Lupin had referred to as a corporal form.
Spurred on by Hermione's leap forward, Harry tried his next, "Expecto patronum," just like Hermione, Harry had made a leap forward, and like Hermione's, his Patronus was also trying to take its form.
His patronus was similar to Hermione's, in that it was a four-legged animal. However, his seemed taller but less stocky, possibly an animal that was built for speed, where as Hermione's appeared to be built for power.
Hermione's patronus looked as though it was looking at Harry's, before floating over to the other mass of luminous silver mist. When the two of them touched, there was a small crackle of magic, along with a burst of light.
Suddenly, Harry and Hermione were experiencing the emotions of that night once again, as though they were living it once again, only a second time.
But...the emotions, they weren't quite right; Harry was feeling a mix of nervousness and determination, then followed by elation, all while a strong mix of desire, affection and love fought to overwhelm him.
Hermione felt a little off as well, not remembering feeling curious, before suddenly feeling like she had won the lottery. The strong feelings of love, admiration and desire felt close, but still not quite right.
After a few moments, the feelings vanished as quickly as they came.
"Well, you don't get to see that every day," Professor Lupin quipped, as he took a seat in one of the chairs, looking at the two puzzled students.
"What..." Harry started, but didn't finish.
"What...just happened?" Hermione finished for him, "It was like I was feeling my memory again , only the emotions were...a little wrong."
Professor Lupin sighed, "It's a rare phenomenon that happens sometimes, when two people use the same memory to cast a patronus. No one completely understands it, but it seems to require two people using the same memory, and for them to be feeling similar emotions within that memory.
The reason your emotions felt a little off was because you weren't feeling your emotions, rather, you were feeling how the other person felt in the memory."
Hermione gasped were as Harry seemed frozen in thought, or in shock.
"The phenomenon is mostly seen when a married couple use their memories of their wedding to call a patronus at the same time. But even then, it happens less than once in a thousand times."
Neither teen appeared to be listening to Professor Lupin at this point, as he carried on explaining. They were each too preoccupied with being awed by the emotions and the experience they had just felt. It was one thing to know that your partner loves you, but it was something else entirely to actually feel it.
To feel the love they felt for you...it was huge, absolutely overwhelming in such a way that neither of them could fully comprehend just yet.
The two of them were pulled partially back into reality by Professor Lupin, "Harry, Hermione, are you two listening?"
"Sorry Uncle Moony. My head was elsewhere," Professor Lupin's use of Harry's first name had him reflexively switch to calling Lupin by his nickname Uncle Moony.
"I understand. It must be profound to feel someone else's emotions, even if for only a few seconds."
"I'm sorry we got distracted Professor. What were you trying to say to us?" Hermione said
"I was saying good work . The two of you have made massive progress since our last lesson," Harry and Hermione smiled at the praise, but Lupin wasn't finished, "Unfortunately, it's only going to get harder from here. While your patroni are not fully corporal yet, they are viable, so now we must shift to being able to cast the spell when it's difficult to be happy. It's relatively easy to cast a patronus when we are in a nice, warm office, after drinking a good cup of tea. But, Dementors need their victims to be unhappy, so they pull your worst memories to the surface so that it's harder for you to defend yourselves against their Kisses. Being able to cast a patronus when you need to is what we will be working on from now on."
"How are we going to do that?" Harry asked nervously.
"I am not sure yet. It's not like we can go for a walk and practice around the Dementors. Not only is that extremely dangerous, but Dementors aren't controlled creatures in the slightest, and won't hesitate to Kiss you soul, even if they are under strict rules not to."
Harry sighed in relief, "Thank goodness. Those things are terrifying."
"I suppose after an attack like you experienced at the Quidditch match, they would be even more unnerving," The Professor sympathised with Harry's opinion, "However, we are going to need to be able to experience that effect that Dementors can have, in some way or another."
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Sunday 9th January
Harry was passing up and down in one of the Castle's many corridors. He had spent most of the day in the library with Hermione, as the two of them looked through book after book, researching British magical creature laws. In order for them to work out exactly how to defend Buckbeak, they first needed to understand the exact charges against him.
They had made some progress, but there were still a number of busy library sections in their future. They didn't mind though; they would do all that was in their power to help Hagrid and save Buckbeak.
What Harry was pondering now was how to deal with the twins. He had gone to Fred and George after he heard they were making fake wands. He wanted some wands that he could use to practice on for his Rune's project, but he didn't want to risk a real wand until he was a lot more sure about his plans.
The last thing he wanted was for a real wand to get smashed into a wall because there was too much power, or for it burst into flames because he had carved a Rune backwards.
The twins were able to make him a few blank wands, but they had wanted something in return. Harry had offered gold, but the puckish twins wanted something far more nefarious. They demanded that, if Harry wanted blank wands, then they wanted him to live up to his father's Marauder legacy, insisting that Harry pull a prank.
Harry was of two minds on this. On one hand, Hermione probably wouldn't approve, especially not if it disrupted lessons. On the other hand, however, was Harry's father.
James Potter, also known as Prongs, was a Marauder . The legends of the Marauders were still told in the castle even now.
It was possible, maybe even probable, that if Harry had grown up with his parents, his dad might have encouraged Harry to commit pranks while he was at school.
Maybe he should do it.
Just this once.
One time to get the blank wands and to prove to himself that he had what it takes to be like his dad.
That Harry could be a Marauder, if he wanted to be.
But that only led to another question. What prank should he pull? Part of him just wanted to put a whoopee cushion on a chair and be done with it, and walk away with the wands claiming that a deal is a deal. Yet, he was the son of the legendary Prongs; Prongs, the Marauder who, according to Moony, had pranked the whole school by giving them all a French accent.
That was the legacy he had to live up to if he was going to do this.
--- ϟϟϟ ---
Monday 10th January
"Harry, what's up with you? Are you ok?" Hermione asked.
Harry and Hermione were sitting down for breakfast, only Harry wasn't enjoying it as much as he normally was. He was fidgeting and kept looking at Hermione.
He was nervous. So nervous, that if it wasn't way too late, he would consider calling the whole thing off.
"It's nothing Hermione. Don't worry about it," Harry wanted to believe that himself as much as he wanted Hermione to believe it.
"Here, drink this," She handed him a goblet of chilled pumpkin juice, "I don't know what has gotten you so worked up, but it can't be that bad," Harry stared at the pumpkin juice he had just been given like it was going to jump up and bite him.
While Harry was busy staring at his drink, Hermione poured one for herself.
She drank it down quickly. Hermione really wasn't a big fan of pumpkin juice, she preferred orange or apple like she had growing up. But, she was thirsty and didn't want to slowly sip at hot tea right now.
If Harry had been paying attention, he might have stopped Hermione from drinking the pumpkin juice. Instead, he only noticed when he heard her set her goblet back on the table.
Harry was then hit with a flash of clarity.
Oh no.
He had let Hermione drink that. How could he be so stupid?
After what happened to her last year, she was going to freak out and dump him when she realised it was him. He looked at his own goblet. Drinking it didn't seem at all that bad next to the idea of losing Hermione, and wasn't anywhere near as scary as it had been only moments ago.
He downed his goblet of juice. All that was left now was to hope that Hermione would forgive him.
"Ok Harry...what's in my pumpkin juice?" Harry was so preoccupied with the fact that Hermione had drank the juice, that he hadn't noticed that she was still watching him.
"Uh...what do you mean?"
"Harry, I can see how you're reacting to me drinking, so I will only ask you once more; what is wrong with my pumpkin juice? " Hermione's stern voice got sterner with each word and the look on her face demanded an answer.
Harry was extremely anxious, but he knew he couldn't keep it from Hermione, "Firstly, it's not just your pumpkin juice, more so it's all of the pumpkin juice in the hall. It's a potion Dobby helped me put in them," Hermione's eyes went wide at the mention of a potion. More specifically, a potion which she had been spiked with without her knowledge, "I promise it won't hurt anyone. The twins had some stuff I wanted from them for my Runes project.
But...they would only give them to me if I pulled a prank. I got so caught up in planning it that I forgot that you might have a problem with being slipped a potion, even if it is relatively harmless..." Harry's confession trailed off into silence as he watched Hermione for her reaction.
Hermione wasn't reacting at all.
Instead, she was almost like a statue, as close to perfectly still as a living human could get. Harry was sure she was about to dump him, and he definitely deserved it.
"You said it was all of the drinks. Why?"
Harry was surprised that she asked that, but sat there fidgeting with nerves as he explained, "There were two reasons; firstly, I thought if I singled people out to be pranked it would be bullying, turning a few people into a spectacle. But, if I got everyone, then no one is targeted, and everyone knows that they weren't singled out." Hermione only nodded towards his reasoning.
"The second reason is, I...I wanted to do a prank that my father would be proud of. I remembered that story that uncle Moony told us, about how my dad made the whole school talk with a French accent. I wanted to prove that I was good enough.
Good enough to do what my father did. Good enough to be his son.
I'm sorry 'Mione. I understand if you don't want to talk to me ever again."
"Harry James Potter, you understand this right now, because I am only going to say this once. I am upset that, after what happened to me last year, you would slip me a potion. It doesn't matter that you didn't target me; you are my boyfriend and should have considered me in your plans. I am angry at you.
You have a lot of apologizing to do. But , I am not going to break up with you, and I'm not going to stop being your friend. And yes, I still love you, even if I want to hex you to the moon and back right now.
Now tell me, what will this potion do?"
During Hermione's little speech, Harry felt the tension build with every word. She was right; he should have remembered about last year. As her boyfriend, he should have considered Hermione first. He was convinced that she was building up to breaking up with him right there and then, until she said she wasn't. Yes, she was angry at him, and yes, he needed to come up with an amazing apology, but he could deal with that.
"About what it does...I think you should just wait and see," Hermione shot him a look that could freeze a cauldron full of bubbling hot potion, "I-I just meant that it would take longer to explain than waiting to see for yourself. It should start any moment now," Hermione nodded once again, accepting his explanation.
Hermione noticed the first one about thirty seconds later; it was at Hufflepuff first, then at Gryffindor a few seconds later, followed almost instantly by Slytherin. Soon, each table was filled with students wondering what was happening as one by one, all their friend's hair changed colour to match their house banners.
Every single Gryffindor male was suddenly looking for any reflective surface so that they could see the scarlet hair they suddenly had. The girls were doing something similar, all of them trying to quickly examine their newly golden hair.
The same scene was playing out on each of the house tables, the only difference was the colour of their hair.
The Ravenclaw boys had bright blue hair, while their counterparts of the fairer sex had a coppery bronze. Slytherin had a pick of green and silver, with the gents sporting green to the ladies' silver. At Hufflepuff, all the males had suddenly developed a lot of yellow hair, with black the colour for their female housemates.
Harry looked at Hermione to see how she looked.
He hoped she looked Ok. Hermione wasn't a vain girl, but Harry was sure that if she looked good, he would have a much easier time apologizing. Harry was surprised and not disappointed.
Surprised, because the fur on Hermione's tail and ears had also changed to gold to match her hair. And while he prefered Hermione's normal hair, she hadn't lost any ground in the looks department. Hermione was currently borrowing a make-up mirror from Lavender to look at her change in appearance.
"How long?" Hermione asked in a quiet voice, so that no one else would hear.
"Eleven to thirteen hours, depending on how much someone drank and how big they are," There were some equations in potions for working everything out really accurately, but you had to do the calculations for each person you wanted to know the answer for, and Harry hadn't bothered to do all that. Instead, he had just used the provided info from the potion he had modified to do the prank, one of the vials of potions he had gotten from the twins at Christmas.
Hermione looked like she was about to say something, but she was interrupted by a series of loud bangs in quick succession. Harry, Hermione and every other student in the hall turned to look at what had caused the noise, only to find the Headmaster standing with his wand raised.
He had obviously made the explosions to get the attention of all the students, "Well, it seems that either we are witnessing an unprecedented showing of house pride, or this is a school wide prank, the scale of which hasn't been seen at Hogwarts for a number of years," The headmaster was actually smiling, "As the extent of this seems to be limited to hair colour, lessons will continue as normal. Now, off you go, it's time for your first lessons."
All the students got up and started making their way to their respective classrooms. Harry had just gotten up and offered Hermione his hand to help her stand, but she instead put her bag in Harry's hand and stood up on her own. She began walking to Transfiguration, leaving Harry to follow her while carrying her books.
"Right, she's definitely mad at me," Harry mumbled under his breath. He silently followed Hermione to transfiguration while he tried to figure out a way to apologize