Changing Ideals

Body



Disclaimer: I will send my dogs out to maul you over if you even attempted to sue me. Kapish? I don\'t own Harry Potter or any of the other characters. (As of yet!)

Chapter 7: Dinner Pranks and Boughts of Insanity

By the time dinner rolled around, all the Slytherins were tightly wound. One wrong thing said or done would set them off. Wearily they trudged to their table, being sure to watch for any pranks that might have been set up and keeping an eye on all the jeering occupants of the Great Hall. Couldn\'t these people understand that they just wanted to be left alone? It really wasn\'t that hard a concept. If you didn\'t give them a reason, then they wouldn\'t bother you.

Eventually everything seemed to quiet down and everyone sat down to enjoy what they thought would be a nice quiet dinner. Oh, how wrong they were. Not five minutes into dinner, in came Ron, Frend Gnd George Weasley, all with devious grins plastered on their faces, raptly watching the Slytherin table. That\'s when they knew that they\'d been had. Evidently those Gryffindors had decided a little retaliation was in order and had done something to their food. Let\'s just say that the proverbial shit hit the fan.

As a few Slytherins moved to get up from they table, they noticed that their feet had taken root to the floor, not allowing them the ability to leave at all. Others noticed that their skin had turned odd colors or their hair had fallen out. Slytherin after Slytherin seemed to be falling prey to the pranks of immature children, who needed to grow up and learn that the world was not fair and not all Slytherins were bad. Some Slytherins had sprouted feathers and shrunk in size, turning into little yellow canaries. Other\'s tongues grew to four times their normal size.

Finally having enough, Harry counteracted the spells and the students who were responsible knew they were in trouble. They should have remembered that Harry knew all of their pranks and how to counteract every single one. How dumb of them to use old pranks, they should have pulled out all the stops and used the experimental pranks on them.

\"Uh, no hard feelings there, Harry. We just wanted to liven you all up a bit,\" Fred said.

\"Yeah, you all seemed so down. Thought you could all do with a few laughs,\" his twin, George, stated.

\"Well, in case you failed to notice, none of us are laughing! The only one\'s laughing are the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. My suggestion to you is that you run. Very fast. I know quite a few hexes, and well, I\'m just itching to try them out,\" was Harry\'s reply.

Paling, the twins quickly took off as fast as they could, but Ron just stayed there. He simply stated that there was no way that Harry would do anything like that in front of the teachers because he would be punished. Harry\'s reply was that if the teachers were going to intervene, then they already would have. This caused Ron to attempt to hightail it out of the Great Hall, but unfortunately his escape route seemed to be blocked, by every Slytherin in the hall.

Seeing the distress of their fellow comrade in arms, the rest of the Gryffindor house got up to help him in his time of need. Eventually they would see what a huge blunder this was. Armed with their wands, curses and hexes started flying from the two opposing Houses. The other two Houses decided to get involved as well, the Hufflepuffs siding with the Gryffindors, and the Ravenclaws siding with the Slytherins. Becoming overly distressed by the situation at hand, the professors decided it was time to step in and stop this little fight. Of course they stepped in a little too late and found out they could not stop it. All they could do was cover their own asses and hope there were no casualties.

As the fight began to wind down, the more seriously injured were taken immediately to Madame Pomfrey. Those that could wait, were told they would have to live with their ailments. After all, it was their own fault for deciding to go in on the fight.

Damn, what a problem this is going to cause us if this gets out to the public. Students fighting students while teachjustjust sit back and watch. I bet that annoying bitch, Skeeter, would love to find out about this. How can I make sure this doesn\'t leak, and if it does, how can I turn it into my own personal gain? Dumbledore continued with his thoughts, and not even his teaching staff was able to get through to him to ask them what to do with theirdentdents. Deciding it was too late to do anything tonight, they all agreed that they would come up with a suitable punishment tonight and tell the students what it was tomorrow. Besides, they\'d need Albus\' full attention for this and they were pretty sure they weren\'t going to get it too soon.

Sending the kids to bed, the teachers guided Dumbledore to his office and sat him at his desk. All of the House Head\'s stayed around to try to speak to Dumbledore about punishments. After a long and weary night, the teachers finally came up with suitable punishments and headed to bed.

Meanwhile, in the Slytherin common rooms, a raucous party was going on in thanks to all of them for standing up for their fellow Slytherins. There was butter beer, cake, chocolates, sandwiches, and various other party foods. Music was blaring around the room from an enchanted boom box (provided by Harry) and the conversations were loud. With spirits high, many students danced. Finally, in the wee hours of morning, the rest of the partying students went to bed. They then realized that it might not have been the best of ideas to party on a night where they had school the next day.

Awakening to the dawn of a new day, many groans could be heard coming from the beds occupied by the Slytherins who had stayed up late to party. Harry, being one of the few sensible ones who went to bed at a decent hour, had no problems in getting up to revise his notes for Transfiguration. While this would be the first class, Harry had already taken notes on what interested him, what he thought they would cover, and what he had questions on. He was preparing to do well in every class, it was time they knew what Harry was capable of.

Making his way down to breakfast, Harry reread his notes and wrote the occasional question for the teacher off to the side. He also went over his homework, making sure it was in satisfactory order to turn into Professor McGonagall. Calmly putting his food on his plate, Harry wasn\'t even startled out of his reverie when Draco sat down next to him. He didn\'t even seem to notice that he was there at all.

\"Damn, Harry! You\'re already taking notes?! We haven\'t even been to Transfiguration yet! Are you sure the hat meant to put you in Slytherin? I\'m starting to think that Ravenclaw would be better suited. Maybe you could put that book down, AND PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT I\'M SAYING!\" Draco snapped at the boy when he noticed he was not getting a reaction.

\"Oh, Draco. Were you saying something?\" Harry asked, his voice practically dripping with false sweetness.

\"Very funny, Harry. You know damn well that I was! Hm, I can\'t wait until tomorrow. My complaint is going to be how you ignore us all!\" Draco continued on with his rant for another few minutes before he realized that Harry wasn\'t paying attention, again. Sighing in exasperation, Draco snatched the book from Harry. \"Pay attention! Now ,as I was getting ready to say before you decided to ignore me again, are you interested in playing a position on the Slytherin Quidditch team. I\'m not all that keen about giving up my spot, but there came an open chaser spot this year. I\'m a much better chaser than seeker. And, as much as it hurts me to say this, you have always been a much better seeker than me. Of course if you tell anyone I said that, I will deny it and no one will believe you.\"

\"Uh, I\'m not so sure. You see, everyone expects me to play and I\'d rather concentrate on my studies. I suggest finding another person to play seeker, you play chaser, and I\'ll be the reserve seeker should something happen to the original. I was never all that interested in the game anyway, it was just an excuse to go flying,\" came Harry\'s reply.

\"Shit, didn\'t even think about that. I mean, why would yealleally be that eager in it. You were raised by muggles. Well, we\'ll definitely do that then, since I am the captain of our team this year. Heh, I guess we\'ll actually stand a chance for the Cup this year since you won\'t be playing,\" smirking, Draco mused aloud as he began to eat his breakfast.

As breakfast continued, more and more people started making their way down to the Hall. Some were still amazed that Harry Potter was a Slytherin and chatting with Draco like buddies, while others didn\'t let it bother them. Walking down the aisle, Pansy Parkinson gracefully dropped herself into a seat next to Draco, while Millicent plopped herself down next to Harry.

\"Morning Drac, Harry,\" Pansy said. She wrapped her arms around Draco, resulting in him rolling his eyes, and gave a curt nod to Harry.

\"Lo, Draco, Harry,\" was Millicent\'s contribution to the conversation. \"Draco, our study session for potions will start tomorrow after the meeting, right?\" Receiving a nod, Millicent went on, \"Good. Harry, could you, maybe, help me in DADA when you help Vince and Greg. I\'ve got Transfiguration and Charms down, but I don\'t think I\'ll ever understand Potions. There are just a few minor details I need ironed out for DADA. I don\'t think I\'ll need your assistance all year long.\"

\"Yeah, no problem. Anyone who wants to join us is welcome to. Maybe we could turn our Sunday\'s into one large study session for the fifth years that are having problems. We could ask permission to hold it in the library and invite the Ravenclaws to join us. I\'m not so sure about the other Houses, but if they calm their behavior to us, they\'d be welcome too. Sound good to you?\" Harry asked.

Receiving enthusiastic nods from not only the Slytherins, but the Ravenclaws, Harry started to draw up a proposal in his mind that he could later commit to paper. He was positive that it would be no problem with Dumbledore. Rising with the other students, Harry made his way to Transfiguration with the Gryffindors. He wasn\'t looking forward to seeing them, but he couldn\'t wait for class to start.

\"Welcome to fifth year Transfiguration. This year we s sta start transfiguring small, live animals into objects that are inanimate and larger than they are. We shall also work on making larger animals into smaller objects. Now, if I ever hear of anyone using these spells on each other, there will be serious reprimands. You are already in a lot of trouble for the stunt you pulled last night. That\'s right, you didn\'t get away scot-free. Your Head of House will be coming around to inform you all what your punishments shall be. I shall be in the Gryffindor commons tonight, right after dinner. I expect you all to be there. Now everyone, parchment and quills out! It is time to take notes!\" Rambling on and on, all the students took dutiful notes on what Professor McGonagall said. Most of the class couldn\'t really pay attention though, they were far more worried about what sort of punishment the teachers had cooked up.

Finally the end of class came around and the Slytherins headed to their next class. Some went to Divination, while others went to Arithmacy. Those going to Divination cursed their idiotic selves, wondering why they weren\'t smart enough to drop the class when they had the chance. Harry was really not looking forward to this. The old fraud was bound to predict his death and put them all to sleep. Oh well, at least he wouldn\'t have to deal with the fanatical Lavender Brown and Parvarti Patil.

TBC


Now, as your bound to notice, I don\'t enjoy writing dialogue. That is why there isn\'t much dialogue in many chapters. Also, I portrayed Dumbledore protecting Harry as a form of his manipulation.
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