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Chapter Text

Carnation gets out of her car and stands in front of the gate entrance to hogwarts. It took a lot of effort to drive up here instead of heading back home and never coming back. She couldn’t help, but feel nervous as she looked at the castle. It was a beautiful sight, but she didn’t see it like every witch and wizard did.

She only had to wait a few minutes for professor McGonagall to come greet her. This was the first time they have seen each other in ten years. Carnation noticed how McGonagall didn’t look like she aged a day since she first saw her, while McGonagall saw how much she had grown since then. Her hair was longer, almost touching the floor, and was a different color at the bottom, being a bright teal.

As they walked to the headmaster's office they chatted and caught up with each other. By the time they reached the office Carnation was already hired and all that was left to do was paper work.

After Carnation left McGonagall went to the staff room to tell the others the news.

“I have found our new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.”

This wasn't a surprising thing to hear as they had a new one each year. What was surprising was that they were looking for a new muggle studies teacher as it was agreed that Quirrell would be the new DADA.

“B-but it was a-agreed that-”
“That's great, who.” interrupted Kettleburn, saving everyone from having to listen to Quirrell stutter his way through a sentence.

McGonagull smiled as she told everyone “Carnation Evans has agreed to teach this year.”
This was met with a general agreement that they would be a great teacher. The only one who didn’t was Quirrell who instead asked “W-who.”

“Lily’s younger sister, we were friends while they were at Hogwarts, they were quite good at potions.” said Snape.

“They were more than that, they once managed to catch a grim and bring it to class, to bad it got away.” replied Kettleburn

“She managed to get Outstanding in all subjects.” McGonagull mentioned.

“They managed to make friends with people from all houses.” Sprout brought up.

“I saw them climb a wall in seconds with something they call parkour.” spoke Flitwick.

All this just brought up more questions about where they have been for the last ten years.

It also made Dumbledore more certain he should have looked into her more when they first met.

It was November 1981, Dumbledore was talking with McGonagall.
"It's the best place for him. His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he is older. I've written them a letter." Dumbledore said firmly. He expected any number of complainants. What he didn't expect was for there to be someone he didn't know.

"Carnation would be a much better and safer place for him. She is even a wizard so I know she would be able to explain this a lot better."
"Who is Carnation."
"A skilled wizard who lives in the muggle world and happens to be Lily's sister." As McGonagull said this she looked at him as if this should ring a bell.

before He could ask more questions a low rumbling sound broke the silence.

Hagrid got off the motorcycle and brought harry forward allowing McGonagull and Dumbledore to see the scar on Harry's forehead. While this distracted them for a bit, McGonagull remembered why they were there soon enough.

"I still say we should give Harry to Carnation. She would be a great parent."

"Isn't she a muggle." Hagrid said not seeing the difference between her and the Dursleys, having heard Lily talk about hoping they were safe in the muggle world.

"No, she just went back to the muggle world when the war started to get violent, she was so young when this war started. Shame she didn't graduate."

Before they could continue discussing it the rumbling of a motorcycle interrupted them again, this one wasn't flying.

"I heard that you had Harry." said a woman as she ran up to them. She was clearly distraught as she ran up to them. Her hair was a mess and there eyes were red and puffy.

"Carnation, I am so sorry for your loss." McGonagull said as she began grabbing Harry to hand to her. "How did you find out we had him."

"Asked round for flying motorcycles" was the last thing she said to them before she set her sight on Harry and stopped paying attention to them.

It didn't take long for them to go their separate ways. When he got back to Hogwarts and looked through the records Dumbledore learned that She did indeed graduate. Top of her class even. He is left with none of his questions on how he missed her answered, wondering how someone so bright didn't join the order of the Phoenix.

Carnation drove her car into the drive way and honked two times. it didn't take too long for a smiling Harry to come and open the door talking a mile a minute about what he and Hermione did over the weekend. Eventually he asked the question that she knew was on his mind from the beginning. "Did you get the job."

"Of course I got the job. All I needed to do was tell them I went to school to teach. Enough about that though, what are we going to do for your birthday "At this Harry looked a little unsure. "Whatever it is I am sure we can afford it and as long as it is doable we will do it."

"Well I was hoping we could do our shopping on my birthday and invite Remus, Hermione, and her parents." Harry said, looking a bit reluctant.

"That is a great idea and it makes life easier on me." Carnation said, relieved it wasn't another dog, that she had to give to Derek and Vanessa. At least Brownie got Hermione out of the house more.

the rest of the drive was quiet and neither thought about Hogwarts for the rest of the ride. When they woke up the next day Harry got his Hogwarts letter and went out to celebrate with Remus, while Carnation had to stay behind to make syllabus for the school year, a process that she hadn't had to do in years about a subject that she never took and figure out how to replicate spells. She never felt so under prepared for a job before.

She also had to figure out how to deal with the fact she couldn't see the castle, it would suck to have a student see her walk into a wall.

Chapter Text

The six of them walked down London until they reached the leaky cauldron. Derek and Vanessa couldn’t see it till Hermione pointed it out. “Do you think Hogwarts works like that too?” Harry was always curious about the way things work.

“I don't think so, the Leaky Cauldron has to work this way so muggle parents can see it, while Hogwarts is only for people with magic.” Hermione smiled as she said this, she was always happy to be able to figure out the answer to questions.

“Correct, even if a muggle knows where Hogwarts is it is still invisible and no matter how long they stay they will always feel the need to go home and never come back. Someone pointing it out makes no difference.” Carnation answered, glad that experiment amounted to something.

“And how do you know that?” Remus asked. While she is someone who would do this as an experiment he probably would have heard about this. Her and Padfoot did things like this all the time.

“That is a story for another time.'' This got a lot of grons, probably because another time was usually used as a distraction from a story that sounds even more interesting.

When they got through the bar and reached the wall Carnation took her wand out. It was an 11/inch spruce wand that was pretty flexible, but what was interesting about it was the stones that wrapped around the handle. They are all kinds of colors and have different runes designs on them, similar to the ones painted on the nails of her right hand. As she taped the wand to the wall the big orange one in the center glowed a little.

Harry remembered asking about them once, she said they were like good luck charms and that the big one was made by lily while the smaller ones are based on her designs. He always got distracted before asking about them again. Derek asked once and was told that he had to have read a lot of runes books before they made sense.

As the wall opened up the kids looked in every direction in amazement. Harry looked at all the shops in amazement and Hermione looked at all the magic openly displayed. Her parents were also amazed as the only magic they had seen was accidental magic, spells used by Remus, and the one time Carnation rode a broom around their house.

Remus and Carnation just smiled at their amazement as they led the group to Gringotts bank.

After a cart ride and a bunch of questions that Remus had to answer from Hermione and Derek, and some from Harry too, about how money works and goblins, they went to get their robes.

While there Hermione and Harry met a blond-haired boy who had a smug attitude and went on and on about how slytherins were superior to any other house. That was something they had to correct. They both knew that wasn’t the case as hufflepuff was obviously superior.

This started a big fight that almost got them kicked out.

“Why are you guys fighting?” Derek said in his ``I'm probably going to agree with you but still punish you``voice.

“He said slytherin was the best house when we all know that hufflepuff is the best house.” said Harry with the full confidence that can only be found in an 11 year old.

“No house is better than the other.” Remus said at the same time that Vanessa said “Your both wrong gryffindor is obviously the best house.”

“Ravenclaw is pretty cool too” Derek joined in so that all houses can have representation.

The fight that happened next did get them kicked out. Luckily Carnation already got their robes.

After the fight there were no winners as the only information that they had were stories. “How about when you get to the hat you let it decide without telling it where to put you and wherever you end up is the best house.” Carnation said after she heard the tail end of their argument.

They agreed, ignoring the issue that if they get different houses then they will fight about this again.

The next stop was the book store. They stayed there for hours. Carnation and Vanessa had to go buy a suitcase for each of them to put all their books in. When they got back they were greeted by a bunch of excited chatter about the books they found.

One that caught Vanessa's attention was a spell book that Remus bought. “You know if I could learn spells I would pick one at random to decide which one to learn.”

“It would probably be a lame one.”

”Any spell would be cool to see, muggle here.”

“Well if it’s cool I will learn it.” Remus said as he flipped the book open to a random page. The page it landed on was a high level fire spell that Remus had to admit looked like it would be fun to learn.

“Dang that looks kinda hard. Looks like you will have something to do while house-sitting.”

Because of how long they spent at the bookstore, they split up to get the rest of their school supplies. Carnation went with them to get their wands and the others went to get the other school supplies.

As they were going to Ollivanders they saw the pet shop.

"We have to get a pet." Harry said. It was not a statement but a fact.

"Why is that, you both already have a pet at home." Carnation asked, she didn't want to have to pass on another pet to the Grangers.

"The snakes I talk to in the garden don't count as pets."

"Dogs aren't on the list of pets you can bring, and besides my parents would be lonely without Brownie."

This was not enough to convince Carnation that they should get a pet. It was enough to convince her to listen to their 30 minutes explanation of why an owl would be important to have. They stayed up late planning for this, they were both getting a pet they could bring to Hogwarts no matter what.

"Okay I understand why Hermione needs an owl, but both of you don't."

"But it is my birthday."

"Okay but it has to be a cat."

"Of course."

That was how Hermione ended but with an owl that, after going over the choses, was named Hedwig and Harry with a cat named Crookshanks.

Hermione was glad that Harry went up to her and made friends with her. Without him she would have never known she had magic till she got her letter. While McGonagall is nice she had way more fun getting her school supplies with her best friend

Hermione was nervous for second grade. The other kids always thought she was too much of a bookworm and didn't like playing with her, they thought she was weird for no reason. Or maybe a little bit of a reason, but she can’t help when weird stuff happens.

The school day went by as any first day, with introductions and then syllabuses being passed out. Then recess happened and she was left alone with only her books. Which was fine, that meant it was quiet and she could read in peace.

Then a kid with messy hair that seemed to sweep to the side, the edges were kinda teal, came up to her and asked what she was reading. They talked for a bit and soon they found out that they both liked fantasy books and started talking all about their favorite books. Then the next day they did the same thing and the next week and then the next month.

Harry didn’t care that she was a bookworm and she didn’t care that he sometimes said things that couldn't be true like, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but my aunt is a witch’ or ‘she can fly around on a fancy broom.’ She liked that he was a little weird. It made her feel like he wouldn’t stop being friends if she did something weird.

He also stood up to her bullies and soon they started to go to each other's house.

“It will probably be best if I stay outside.” Carnation said as they got closer.

“Why is that?” Harry asked.

“Well I don’t think Ollivander likes me.”

“It will be fine.” Hermione said.

When they walked inside, Ollivander greeted them. “Good afternoon.”

“Ah yes, yes yes. I thought I’d be seeing you soon. Harry potter. You have your mother’s eyes. It seems only yesterday-”

Ollivander stopped and looked at Carnation, “How is the unicorn core suiting you.”

“Great.” They glared at each other before he went back to telling Harry his parents' wands.

After what seemed like forever Harry and Hermione left with a 11 long, made of holly, and possessed a phoenix feather core and a 10 ¾ long, vine wood, dragon heartstring core wand respectively. Harry also got a cryptic message and kinda creeped out.

They then met up with the others and Hermione and Harry gushed about their wands. It wasn't long before they realized that they were also holding their new pets.

"I am so sorry, but I got Hermione another pet."

"Probably should have expected this."

“Well this was a long day. Who wants to choses what's for dinner?” Vanessa asked as they walked through diagon alley.

Chapter Text

After spending most of the summer reading, trying spells before the trace got placed, and getting to know their new pets, Harry and Hermione were ready for school, but they couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

Harry grew up his whole life knowing he was famous for something he did as a baby, but he didn't realize until now that people are going to treat him differently from his peers. Whenever he went out, he always kept his scar covered and never went to the Wizarding world, so he never thought about how others would treat him until Hermione pointed out how much he was mentioned in the books she bought for school.

Hermione was nervous for an opposite but similar reason. As a muggle-born, she was going to be treated differently. Remus and Carnation told her this, but they also said it has been years since they went to Hogwarts, so things may have changed.

It helps knowing that Carnation will be there as a teacher.

The group of 6 met up again the day before to have dinner at Carnation's house and to make sure the kids had everything on their school lists.

"You have all your books?"

"Yes."

"Extra quills and ink?"

"Yes!"

"Magic mirror?"

"Aren't these questions you should ask Harry. I have everything, Moony,” Carnation said somewhat exasperated, but was grinning the whole time.

"You say that, but I remember when you forgot to pack all your books and had to borrow from a different person everyday until your parents sent an owl,” Remus countered smugly.

"That didn't happen!"

"It was how we were able to put spells on everyone's books to activate on Halloween."

"That may have happened but it hasn't happened any other time."

The next morning they woke up early so they could get breakfast before going to the train station.

"So where is platform 9 ¾?” Vanessa asked, as she parked the car.

"Exactly where it says it is. Of course to get through you're going to have to hold on to someone magical." Carnation answered

They got through the wall easily with Hermione's parents holding on to her and Carnation pushing Harry forward when he got a little nervous.

On the other side it was bustling with movement as families were saying goodbye to their kids. It was slightly agreed that it was best to wait until the chaos died down a bit, partly because they wanted to spend more time together.

The next family that came through the wall was a large family of redheads, who immediately recognized Harry.

"Is that Harry Potter?!" Said the youngest of the bunch, she ran over to Harry and started saying what a big fan she is, this got the attention of what felt like everyone in the station.

Remus put up his best disillusioned charm on Harry and the rest of them and they skillfully, less so in Vanessa and Derek's case, made it to the train.

"Please tell me it's not going to always be like that?" Harry groaned desperately. While he wouldn’t say he’s shy, he doesn't think he would do well with people crowding around him like that all the time.

"Well it's the first time anyone has seen you in the magical world in years. Maybe it will calm down over time,” Hermione said hopefully.

"Well I guess this is goodbye till winter break," Derek said as he reached down to hug Hermione.

As Vanessa and Harry joined the hug, Remus and Carnation said their own goodbyes.

"Make sure the house is still standing when I come back,” Carnation joked.

"I will, but be careful. We both know the DADA position is cursed,” Remus said cryptically.

"Really I didn't know that." Remus glared at her for that one. "Of course I know, but I wouldn't have known if I wasn't told that in one of your endless rants."

"You didn't notice we had a different teacher each year?" All Carnation did to answer was shrug before changing the subject.

"Well even if the position is cursed it won't get me because I will resign at the end of the year."

"What will you do after Hogwarts? You already told your old job that this was permanent."

"Maybe I’ll manage to open up the History of Magic position before I resign. The history grades have been horrible so I might as well get that teacher to retire,” with a shrug Carnation added, “I wouldn’t mind teaching History.”

"Catmint, you're going to get the teacher who is a ghost and hasn’t stopped teaching since he’s died to retire?” Remus’ eyebrows arched together in disbelief.

"I'll figure it out." Carnation said, but she sounded and looked unsure at that. "If worse comes to worse I will get the muggle studies teacher sacked as a plan B and plan D is to live off of the rest of my college fund until I can find a job."

"You wouldn't be able to watch Harry that way though."

"That's why you gotta get the job next year, Moony." Before Remus could say anything back she went to put her luggage on the train.

It was two months after she got Harry and it was proving difficult to find a babysitter every weekday. At this point Carnation was thinking of dropping out until Harry was old enough to go to school.

Then she remembered that Lily and James had friends who would likely love to help her out and watch Harry while she was at school. Of course to contact any of them she would need an owl.

This was her first time visiting the Wizarding world since the war started. It was kinda nerve racking. It seemed like everyone was still celebrating. Like everyone was reminding her that her sister was dead and Harry lost his parents.

It took awhile, but eventually she got to the post office. She wrote a dozen letters to all the people who she remembered were friends with Lily and James asking how they were doing, most didn't leave at all. The clerk told her this meant they weren't around anymore. Only four left.

Two letters came back saying the Longbottoms were in the hospital and only family was allowed to visit at the moment, but they will contact her when they recover and friends are allowed to visit.

The third one, who she forgot to check the name of, never responded.

The one she sent to Lupin did get a response. They wrote a bit back and forth, catching up before deciding to meet in person.

They met at Florean Fortescue’s Ice-Cream Parlor. Lupin was already there by the time she arrived.

"Nice to meet you Lupin."

"Catmint, I know it's been years but I wouldn't say that this is our first time meeting."

"It's nice to see you again, Moony." Carnation said with a smile; it had been a while since she was called that.

They had ice cream and talked for a while.

"So what have you been doing?" Carnation asked after she realized that they had been talking about times at Hogwarts and how she had been doing with college, but not what Lupin had been up to.

"As you know, being a werewolf kinda makes getting a job difficult." Carnation did not know that, but thinking about it, it made sense. With how werewolves were mainly on the other side of the war and already seen in a negative light.

"Well I have a job for you." Lupin looked at her like he didn't expect much. "As you know I have to go to college, which makes raising a kid kinda difficult. You would think finding a babysitter would be easier."

"You have a kid?"

"Where did you think Harry has been this whole time?"

After a bit of negotiating they decided that Lupin would babysit while she was at college and in return he got a room at her house. Eventually, Lupin became uncle Moony or Remus and babysitting just became an excuse to have him over. Not to say he doesn't babysit Harry and Hermione when the Grangers and Carnation aren't available.

They all went on to the train and found a compartment. Before long though a kid came in looking for his toad so Hermione went to go help him, Harry didn't go because he wasn't ready to become swarmed again.

After they left Ron came in.

"Hey sorry about my little sister. She shouldn't have shouted your name for everyone to hear like that."

"It's okay, well not okay but it's best to learn now how being ‘the-boy-who-lived’ is going to be"

Ron stared at him in amazement for a moment before realizing and turning to look out the window.

Harry decided to change the subject. "So you have three older siblings, that sounds cool."

“Five," said Ron. He looked gloomy at admitting that. He went on to talk about the expectations that come with having that many siblings and then took out his rat.

"Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff-- I mean, I got Scabbers instead."

Ron's ears went pink. Harry didn’t know what to say, he never thought about not having enough money to buy things. Carnation always had a job or money to fall back on. One time she told him that when he turns 17 he would get access to the potter fortune.

What Harry did know was how it feels to have people's expectations on you.

"I get what you mean with your brothers, I'm Harry Potter so people think I am going to do great things and be the best wizard, but I rather not have everyone looking at every action I take."

This seemed to cheer Ron up a bit. There was a great clattering out the door and an old lady came up and asked if they wanted anything from the cart. Harry bought a few candies and then some pumpkin pasties and extra treats when Ron said he would just eat his sandwich. Ron was a bit reluctant but agreed to take some of the sweets Harry offered.

They opened up some chocolate frogs and showed each other what cards they got. "My Dumbledore left. Still can't get over how all photos move in the magical world, in the muggle world they don't move."

"Really? Weird."

Their compartment door opened up and Carnation came in. "Looks like you're making friends too. Hermione and Neville found the toad and hadn't stopped talking yet, last I heard they were talking about plants.” Upon noticing Ron, she asked "What's your name? I'm Carnation, the new DADA teacher."

"I'm Ron." He seemed a bit nervous, so Carnation decided to change the subject.

"You have a pet rat that's pretty cool, I didn't know you can bring pets not on the list. I would have had Hermione bring Brownie."

"I guess, I mean he might have died and you wouldn't know the difference, I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look…"

He took out his wand, it was chipped in places and Carnation could see the unicorn hair inside it.

He took his wand and pointed it at the rat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, turn this stupid fat rat yellow." It did nothing, Scabbers stayed gray and asleep. "Stupid spell, George gave it to me, bet he know it was a dud."

"While yes that didn't sound like a real spell, I can give it a try." Carnation said, and while she sounded genuinely the look in her eye was the one she had when she was going to play a prank or some other form of mischief.

She took her wand out and did the same spell, though Harry noticed that she tapped some of the gems with her nails. They glowed yellow and soon the rat turned yellow too.

"It worked!” Ron exclaimed incredulously.

"It did, you know you should show your brothers I bet they would be impressed if you tell them that you managed to do the spell after the sorting."

Ron smiled and considered this, but then his smile fell as remembered that he was going to get sorted.

"Something wrong?"

"My brother told me that to get sorted we have to fight a troll,” Ron began to look ill.

At this Harry laughed because he couldn’t help but imagine eleven year-olds fighting a troll to get sorted. How would that work? Not to mention the fact that Ron believed it. Harry suddenly wanted to meet Ron's siblings now.

"What's funny?”

"You get sorted by a hat not by fighting a troll." Harry said.

"Well it could have changed since then, a troll does sound like something that Dumbledore would do,” Carnation said thoughtfully.

"What!" Both Ron and Harry were now worried that this was a possibility. The rest of the trip was spent with Carnation giving them tips on how to fight a troll and stealing some of the candy Harry bought.

Carnation struggled to stifle her laughter the whole way.

When they got off the train, Carnation went ahead to meet with the other teachers and Harry and Ron met up with Hermione and Neville.

Chapter Text

They all shared a boat together and Harry and Hermione introduced their new friends. Hermione didn't instantly click with Ron like she did with Neville. They did eventually connect after Hermione started teaching Ron about electricity. Neville and Harry chatted a bit and when Neville said he was probably going into Hufflepuff, Harry started talking about how amazing being in Hufflepuff would be.

Neville cheered up at that and they decided that they were going to share a room if Harry also got sorted into Hufflepuff.

This confused Ron who's family is all Gryffindor and have said that Harry Potter was definitely going to be Gryffindor like his parents.

"Wouldn't you like to be in Gryffindor?" Ron asked.

"I would be fine with it, but my aunt has told me all about her time in Hufflepuff and she is the coolest person I have ever known. So I really want to be in the same house as her," Harry answered.

Ron was about to ask more questions but all conversation ended as they caught sight of Hogwarts.

It looked even more beautiful than Remus made it sound. When they asked Carnation what it looked like she said a run down castle so they weren't expecting much even though they thought she might have been pranking them at the time. When they got to the castle they lined up outside the door and McGonagall told them about all the houses and what they represented.

As the doors opened and they went inside they saw it was just as beautiful on the inside. Harry was a bit curious as to how the candles didn’t drip wax on the students and food. The spell combination that it would take to make it work… Maybe they were runes too. He decided that he and Hermione were going to have to research that.

It was then revealed that a hat would sort them after singing a song about the history of Hogwarts’ four founders. As reliving as it was for Harry to not be sorted by a troll, he was feeling kinda silly that he fell for it even after all the stories he heard of the hat and Hogwarts.

They all got in line and the sorting began. When it first started Harry tried to remember all the names, but by the time they got to g’s he wasn't paying attention. Then Hermione's name got called. There was a few seconds of wait before the hat called out Ravenclaw. He doesn't think anyone who has met her is surprised.

The next person he paid attention to was Neville, his sorting took less time than Hermione. He got Gryffindor, while he looked happy, he did look at Harry apologetically. The crowd seemed to cheer louder than it did for Hermione. Partly because Gryffindors cheered the loudest.

When Draco went up the hat seemed like he was about to say Slytherin but stopped himself. After a minute people at the tables started to whisper to each other. Then the hat said Hufflepuff. The whole hall went quiet, even McGonagall took a second to collect herself. When McGonagall lifted the hat it was easy to see that Draco was embarrassed, he quickly left the seat and went straight to the Hufflepuff table, making sure not to look at the Slytherin table. Harry thought that was a good thing seeing as some of the students seemed to be laughing at him.

The rest of the sorting went quick compared to that, until Harry's name was called. He went and sat at the stool and prepared to be sorted into Hufflepuff. Then the hat went on his head and spoke to him, or maybe muttering about him is more accurate.

“I see bravery and loyalty, yes but definity more smarts. Some cunning but more of a thirst for knowledge. Really any house would be good for you, but where would be best.”

“Hufflepuff.” Harry thought, before remembering the bet he made with Draco and how Draco definitely followed, “But I’m fine with whatever you chose.”

The hat called out Ravenclaw. Thinking back on it Harry wasn’t surprised, and this meant that he would be in the same house as Hermione. Derek would be happy that he was right about the best house, with both Harry and Hermione in it. It is a little disappointing to not be in the same house as Carnation or Remus and his parents. As he saw the surprise in everyone's face he couldn’t help but be nervous. No one was clapping till Neville and Hermione started to.

Now all there was to wait for was Ron’s sorting. When he went up he got the hat placed on him and was instantly placed in Hufflepuff, his sorting was the quickest. Ron looked at the Gryffindor table where his brothers were, they were cheering the loudest for him.

After the sorting ended Dumbledore came up to the front and gave a speech before welcoming Carnation down to introduce herself.

“Hello everyone, it's great to be back in Hogwarts. My name is Carnation and I will be your new defense of the dark arts teacher. I hope I have a great year teaching you guys.” She smiled at the students before going back to the teachers area. Kicking one of the teachers chairs on her way. Harry looked at the teacher, trying to figure out why she didn't like him, but when the teacher noticed he glared at him.

He was distracted from wondering who he was. His head started to hurt when he looked at another teacher.

Carnation was nervous and wanted to leave, so she tried focusing on making sure she didn't walk into a wall. When she met with the other professors she didn’t know what to expect. Seeing Severus wasn’t something she ever thought would happen and she was mad. Last she heard he was a death eater and hated her and Lily because of their parents.

Last she heard Lily and him got in a big fight. Lily talked about it all summer and Carnation never talked to him again. Yet here he was, a professor at Hogwarts. He always supported her dream to be a teacher, but she never thought that he would want to be one.

She sent him a glare and hoped he would explain on his own afterwards. She didn't get to ask as they had to sit down for the sorting.

While she was excited to watch the sorting and see Harry and Hermione get placed, she kinda already had a guess and was proven right when Hermione got sorted. They were both bookworms and the fact that they thought they would be placed in Hufflepuff was kinda funny.

Looking at the other teachers it seemed that they all knew her, but one. That would make things a little awkward as she only knew a few of them. She would just have to avoid them till she knows more about them, and with the talk she is going to have with Severus she had the perfect excuse.

As the sorting went on she tried to pay attention but couldn’t help but find it a little boring. Then the room went silent when Draco was sorted into Hufflepuff.

"Why is everyone so quiet?"

"He is a Malfoy and yet just got sorted into Hufflepuff." Severus said as if that explains everything. It didn't.

"What's wrong with being a Hufflepuff."

"We are not having this fight again." Carnation didn't know what fight, but she was totally going to have this fight again. Later though because the sorting was still going on.

After everyone was sorted she got to introduce herself, most students didn't look like they were paying attention.

Then she listened to Dumbledore make a speech and talk about something on the third floor that she was definitely going to check out. For the students' sake of course.

After the sorting, Ron was a bit nervous. Everyone in his family that he knows is a Gryffindor, well everyone except him. Of course when all his siblings came and acted like it didn’t matter those nerves went away.

“I managed that spell you showed me.” Ron said as he brought out Scabbers, who was still yellow. This confused the twins who made the spell up, but couldn't say anything as Percy was already congratulating Ron over completing what he thought was Colovaria.

Neville was glad that he was in Gryffindor or more accurately his grandma is going to be when she hears. He doesn't really know anyone as all the friends he made have been sorted into different houses. He couldn’t help but wonder were they still friends? He wanted them to still be. He thought that Ron would be in the same house but in the end he doesn't know anyone here.

He was sitting in front of Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil. At first he wasn’t sure he would be able to make friends with them, but then he thought about how easy it was to talk about plants to Hermione and started to tell Lavender about all the meanings lavenders have.

Harry and Hermione were having a great time debating with all the Ravenclaws about how they thought the candles worked. Library trips and study groups were planned.

Draco was having a horrible time. First he was sorted into Hufflepuff, which is going to make his parents disappointed, then nobody at Hufflepuff would talk to him because he was a Malfoy. Not that Draco wanted to talk to anyone in Hufflepuff, seeing as most were all half-bloods and muggleborns. The worst part was that he didn’t have to look to know that all his old friends were laughing at him and that they weren’t friends anymore.

When dinner and dessert was over the prefects led them to their dorms and showed them the entrance to their common rooms. Each house was introduced to their head of house, except for Slytherin. Snape was busy and had to have the prefects assign students to their rooms.

When rooms got assigned it caused quite the spectacle in Hufflepuff as Ron and Draco started a big fight when they got put in the same room, but other than that it was a quiet affair as everyone was tired from the train ride.

Snape and Carnation found a room after the sorting to have a quick chat, which quickly turned into a screaming match before quieting down. The Slytherins heard some parts as they walked passed. Many first years learned new words.

For Snape the fight was rehashing old fights and realizing that there was a reason that Lily stopped being friends with him. He still didn't want to admit that, because that would come with admitting that Carnation was friends with him longer then she should have been.

She was there no matter what and stood up for him when James and his group went too far. He never told anyone but her how he felt on most things because he didn't really trust anyone in Slytherin. That should have been the first red flag, but Carnation couldn't always be there for him and he got lonely and wanted the respect that came with being a Deatheater.

For Carnation the fight made no sense and was zipping between random subjects like the houses to the war. It went on longer than she was planning. She won in the end when Snape admitted that he was a horrible friend even though she stuck with him until he became a death eater.

"Well you're not anymore right." Carnation said. She knew that had to be true, or Dumbledore was an idiot. She didn't know how he escaped getting in trouble, but she can ask later. "Guess that means we could be friends again."

"You want to be friends again." Snape said, confused. He didn't believe they would ever be friends again after the fight they had in his final year at Hogwarts.

"Are you saying you don't?" While Snape has obviously made some mistakes while younger, Carnation couldn't help but hope they could be friends like they were before Hogwarts.

It was late but they made plans to catch up with each other the next day.

Chapter Text

Harry and Hermione were having a great time. Remus and Carnation told them the rumors about the Ravenclaw library but that didn't compare to the real thing. There were books of all kinds and the atmosphere was perfect for reading. They would have been late for breakfast if Cho (a second year they became friends with because she sided with them during the candle debate that happened at the feast.) didn't tell them what time it was.

When they got to the great hall they couldn't see Carnation, but that is to be expected with how it was the first day of school and she had to get ready. Before they could start eating a howler went off. All eyes went to the Hufflepuff table where Draco sat with a defeated look as his dad insulted Hufflepuff and Draco before telling him that he better not fail at any of his classes.

The whole hall could hear the Slytherins laughing. From Ravenclaw they could see that it was more like a few groups laughing and the rest just ignoring them and focusing on their schedules.

Harry and Hermione decided to do the same thing.

On the other side of the hall Ron was left staring at Draco, conflicted on whether or not he should comfort him. In the end he decided to tell him his dad sucks. This would lead to the beginning of a great friendship, but Draco still thinks his father is always right and isn't going to let a Hufflepuff blood traitor insult his father. The food fight lost Hufflepuff a lot of points that they didn't have. No one knows who started it, but most believe it was Draco. Everyone knows it was the twins that got the Gryffindors involved.

In the morning before class, Carnation couldn't help but be a little nervous. She was going to be teaching her first class at Hogwarts. This was like a dream come true for her.

Snape and Carnation were talking as they had breakfast, unknowingly lowering the students' expectations of her. They were mainly talking about Snape's time being a professor.

"What do you mean you don't go over safety instructions?" Carnation was expecting for Snape's plan for the first day to be something more than telling the kids to make a potion.

"Why would I, it's in the book." Snape was annoyed that Carnation was focusing on this. He wanted to talk more about some of the potions he made while she was living with muggles.

"Kids don't read the book most of the time and especially not before the first day. What if they get injured?" Carnation was slowly starting to panic.

"Then it's their fault."

"Why are you a teacher?" Carnation asked in despar. She was terrified at the thought of all the kids who never got the basics of potions because it wasn't taught.

Before Snape knew it, Carnation was pulling out a mirror and walking away.

"I expected more than a day before you called." Remus answered from the other end. He was just starting to make breakfast before he saw the mirror light up.

"You need to owl all my teaching books now." Carnation said frantically, she only had one hour before class starts and she has to make sure the teaches all aren't as incompetent.

"I thought you had them all." Remus replied. He was going to say he knew she was going to forget something, but the look on her face stopped him.

"I need my school books from college." She said before hanging up and making sure the other professors had a plan and didn't just tell the kids to learn from the book. The good news was that Snape didn't teach first years today.

Carnation had her first class. Her nervousness of it going well disappeared when she handed out the syllabus and did her introduction. The class seemed like they were actually excited. By lunch the students at Hogwarts that had DADA were already talking about how amazing the teacher is. This is mainly because during each class she showed a spell that she was going to teach them. Being able to perform spells is something most of the past teachers couldn't do.

After lunch she had 4th years. During class she almost got pranked no less than 3 times, it reminded her of the marauders, except they would actually manage the prank. That wasn’t to say they were bad but it is easier to do a prank with four people than it was with two and McGonagall gave her a warning about them. Which made her think about the map. She was told that Flinch took it, which meant it could still be there.

After her last class there was a staff meeting to talk about some announcement Dumbledore had.

"As you heard yesterday the 3rd floor is off limits, this is because I have hidden something there. We already have Fluffy guarding," Dumbledore said as he gestured to Kettleburn and Hagrid. "but I would like for there to be more traps and I have decided to ask you guys to set some up."

This was the fun part of being a teacher. Being able to know things students didn't and set up events for them. Still Carnation was a bit sad she couldn't figure it out herself.

It made sense for the Transfiguration, Potions, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Charms, and Defense against the Dark arts professors to be a part of this.

The rest of the day Carnation worked on trying to figure out what to do for this and ignoring Kettleburn's suggestions of catching another grim. Even if that was possible she wasn't going to put a grim somewhere kids are almost certainly going to go.

She called Remus to talk about her day, it felt like when she was a kid, but this time she was the one with the fun adventures. He had some ideas for what to do as a trap. In the end they decided to make it do with what she is best at, ruins.

The rest of the first week went by quickly. Carnation got her school books and spent her free time teaching Snape the basics and getting mad when she learned that he was still using the old books even after all the times he complained about how he could improve the recipes. In the end Snape agreed to have the first day for the first years be a safety class and that for all years he would show ways to improve their potions and explain why doing things a certain way would ruin the potion or result in a better potion.

While Harry and Hermione got to know the rest of Ravenclaw. They didn't make many new friends as most just hung out with them to talk to Harry and the ones who didn't get attacked by Crookshanks.

By Wednesday Hermione realized that they hadn't hung out with the friends they made on the train. Asking older years revealed that they didn't hang out with other houses much either.

"I can't believe this, if no one hangs out with people from other houses then everyone is going to only hang out with people who think similarly." Hermione ranted, she went on about how it sucks that they couldn't be friends with anyone from other houses.

"No one says we can't, didn't Carnation make friends with people from all houses? We can still hang out with Ron and Neville." Harry said. He hadn't noticed that they didn't see them except for class until Hermione pointed it out. He wondered why Remus said that as if it was impressive.

They made plans to ask if they wanted to hang out during the weekend.

On Friday Carnation got a letter from Hagrid asking to meet up and if he could see Harry too. She wasn't going to go until she remembered that Hagrid had Sirius' motorcycle and she wanted to know what happened to it. She decided to leave it up to Harry.

It was Friday which meant that it was time for their first potions class. Harry didn’t know whether or not he was excited, on one hand he could find out who the teacher that Carnation talks to every morning was. On the other hand, he didn't think he would be very good at potions. Remus said he wasn't either but he also said that Carnation was amazing at potions. Harry read the book but knowing how and actually doing were different.

When they first entered the class and saw they had to sit in pairs of two they sat together, but then they saw that this was a doubles class with Hufflepuffs.

"This is a good chance to talk to Ron." Hermione brought up.

"But this means one of us is going to be without a partner." Harry said as he raised his hand for rock paper scissors. Hermione won by picking paper and went to sit with Ron.

This left Harry without a partner and everyone wanted to be partners with the boy-who-lived. Snape wasn't very happy when he came to his classroom and everyone was fighting to sit next to Harry. 50 points were taken from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

In the end Harry sat next to Susan Bones because she was one of the people not trying to sit next to Him. Snape made a seating chart because he didn't want to deal with this everyday, it was one of the things Carnation said muggle teachers did if the class caused disruptions. Snape was disgusted he had to do something muggles do, but he had to admit that it worked.

After that was dealt with Snape took roll call. At Harry’s name he paused and looked kinda annoyed. Most likely because of the commotion he caused. Then Snape made a big speech to introduce himself.

Harry will admit that he wasn't paying attention, but he was speaking barely above a whisper. "Potter!" Then he was called on. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"Draught of Living Death"

"Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

"The stomach of a goat."

"What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"I don't know."

At this Snape just glared at him like he was stupid for not knowing and said two points for Ravenclaw before asking if anyone else knows the answer. Hermione answered correctly that they are the same thing, earning another point.

The rest of class was on safety and what not to do when brewing a potion. It was really dramatic and some kids looked like they were actually scared.

When Carnation asked if Harry wanted to go to Hagrid's he said yes and of course that means Hermione is coming. Then they asked Neville and Ron if they wanted to come. Of course they said yes, glad that they were still friends. They both decided to introduce them to the friends they made at their houses and so invited Susan Bones, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil. Seeing as they were inviting house friends, Hermione and Harry did the same and invited Cho Chang.

In the end Carnation had to put an expansion charm and ruins on Hagrid's hut so they could all fit. She had to call Remus to figure out how to do this.

Fang was happy about that.

Most of the talking was introducing everyone, Lavender and Parvati getting over their hero worship by realizing Harry is a bookworm and not a dragon riding hero like in the children's books, and learning that Harry’s aunt is the DADA professor.

"So how were potions?" Hagrid asked to try and get involved with the conversation. This instead made the Gryffindor girls start talking about how much Snape hated Gryffindors and insulted them when they got something wrong, while Neville told them about how his grandma said he tortured squibs.

"Snape didn't torture squibs… actually he might have but before he got his job at Hogwarts." Carnation replied, this didn't clear up any of Neville's worries. It did lead to the topic of how Carnation knows Snape. So Harry asks the question that has been on his mind for a while.

"How do you know him?"

"I'm sure I told you about Sev. Slytherin friend who became a death eater." Carnation said.

"The way you talked about Sev made us think he was in Azkaban." Hermione told Carnation as it was clear Harry was busy trying to see the person who was a close friend of Carnation with Snape. It was hard with all the stories of him making potions for the marauders to use for pranks.

"I thought he was. I didn't have any wizarding newspaper to be in the know with." Carnation said, annoyed that she didn't think of doing that. She would have to look into subscribing to one.

"Really, but I got the feeling he didn't like Harry." Ron stated. He was sitting in the front row, which resulted in getting first row seats to Snape asking questions that Ron didn’t know the answers to. He didn't see how someone like that could've been friends with Carnation with how nice she is.

"Probably mad that Harry isn' as good as he 'spect 'im ter be." Hagrid responded. He then went on to explain the rivalry Lily and Snape had in potions and how Carnation is said to be just as good but because she was two years younger didn't have a rivalry with anyone.

"I did, they just weren't as good." Carnation said instead of admitting that her rivals were a bunch of Ravenclaws she didn't know the names of who declared war on her whenever they saw her.

Eventually the kids started talking about their pets and Carnation saw her opportunity to ask about the motorcycle. "Hey, do you still have the motorcycle?"

This resulted in Hagrid showing Carnation where the motorcycle was while the kids got absorbed fighting over which pet is better, so far it was between owls and cats. Owls were winning but Harry wasn't going to give up without a fight.

It was just as Carnation remembered it. The motorcycle was black with white on it, on the bike part there is a wolf and dog illustrated on it and on the side car there is a stag, cat, and rat. On the engine the Canis Majoris constellation is painted with the Sirius star being done extra bright.

Carnation wouldn't admit it but she did cry a little as she saw the motorcycle she helped build. It had been years since she saw it. The last time being when she first saw Harry, but she was focused on other things to worry about the motorcycle.

When Hagrid asked if she wanted it she was tempted to say yes, but she didn't need it and Hagrid probably uses it as his own method of transportation. He had it for years and if she wanted a motorcycle she could buy one herself. Which she was thinking of doing now.

While Hagrid did use the motorcycle, he thought that Carnation should have it because she obviously cares for it. It’s too small for him anyway.

In the end they decided that Carnation would make a motorcycle big enough for Hagrid and then they could trade.

Eventually the kids noticed that Carnation and Hagrid weren't there. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville went to look for them, leaving Cho, Lavender, Parvati, and Susan in the hut to find a newspaper talking about a break-in at Gringotts.

It was easy to hear Carnation talking about charms to make a motorcycle go really fast. They also heard Hagrid insisting he doesn't want anything too fast. The fact Carnation liked motorcycles let alone that she could make one was news to Harry and Hermione.

Overall the trip to Hagrid's place led to Cho, Lavender, Parvati, and Susan becoming a group and Hermione, Harry, Ron, and Neville figuring out how to hang out even if they were in different houses. It also resulted in Carnation having a new hobby to work on.

The rest of the school was a little confused when Cho and Susan were at the Gryffindor table and Ron and Neville were at Ravenclaw.

Chapter Text

This morning Ron was really excited, there was a notice pinned up that said that flying lessons for Hufflepuffs was going to be Thursday and if that wasn't cool enough they were doing lessons with the Ravenclaws.

Harry and Hermione weren't as excited. They already rode on brooms before, and they were enchanted to be extra fast not that they knew that. Hermione fell off the broom and hasn't ridden since. Neville was similarly scared of that happening to him. Ron tried to get others interested in flying but they were more interested in the remembrall that Neville's grandma got him. Not that the possibilities weren't cool, but they were first years, there was no way they would be able to do the spells necessary.

("What even is the point of it." "It would be more useful if it told you what you forgot." "Maybe we can try to upgrade it to do just that.")

The only other person Ron was friends with who was interested in quidditch was Cho, but she was a 2nd year and wouldn't be at the lessons. It was still cool talking to her and chatting about what position they would want to play. Ron was undecided, while Cho had her heart set on seeker.

Ron was certain that he could get the others to want to fly too.

Until Neville ended up in the hospital wing from falling off his broom from 20 feet and breaking his arm. Hermione decided not to go to flying lessons, she told everyone it was because they don't give a grade for that class.

Parvati came in ranting about the Slytherins and what snakes they are. Lavender explained how as soon as Madam Hooch left most of the Slytherins started laughing and making fun of Neville. Parvati was pissed at this and got into an argument in defense of Neville but then when McGonagall came she got detention along with the Slytherins. They left out that Parvati punched Pansy in the face.

She probably would have gone on insulting Slytherins for an hour if they didn't hear steps walking towards them. A Slytherin came up to them holding something in his hand. When he got close to them they saw it was Neville's remembrall.

"A few other Slytherins were laughing while playing with this. Apparently Neville dropped it." He said before handing it to Neville and quickly walking out of the hospital wing. Leaving the group in silence

"I guess maybe not all Slytherins are bad." Lavender said before asking the others if they knew who that was. Neville told the others that that was Theodore Nott.

When flying lessons for the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws came, Harry, Ron, and Susan were prepared. Susan to learn how to fly, Ron to prove flying is cool, and Harry to try not to fall off.

When they said "up" the brooms went into their hands on the first try, they were ready. When Madam Hooch counted down from three, everyone went up into the air.

Ron was not ready. He was not ready for Harry to say "This is so much slower then the broom I'm used to." And then be better than everyone in the class. He was not ready for Draco to fly up and start being better than him. He wasn't ready for Susan to learn how to fly faster than he did. He most definitely wasn't ready for Draco and Harry to start throwing rocks in the air and catching them and then the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw quidditch captains seeing them and having them be put on their house teams as seekers.

He wanted Harry to like quidditch but not like this. He didn't want to seem envious but he was envious. He wasn't the only one as Cho was jealous. She wanted to be Ravenclaw's seeker and yet Harry became it when he didn't even like quidditch.

Draco was freaking out. While he knew that quidditch tryouts were happening this week he didn't know that they would be happening during flying lessons. So when he wanted to make flying more fun by throwing rocks and catching them he didn't think that there was a chance that it would lead to the captain of the quidditch team, Cedric Diggory, talking to Professor Pomona Sprout about letting him on the team.

Harry joined in and so they started to take turns throwing rocks before asking Susan to throw the rocks and racing to catch them. Draco was bored enough to let them join. Harry was better but because he was used to a faster broom overestimated leading to Draco catching more.

While he could have said he didn't want to be on the team, who would say no to being on a quidditch team even if that team is Hufflepuff. The fact that this was also happening to Harry didn’t lessen how exciting and kinda nerve racking this was for Draco.

This would also give Draco people to talk to. Not that he would admit that that was a reason for him to join the team.

It was lunch and Carnation finally had the free time to go check if Flinch had the marauders map. Knowing him he probably did.

As it was only the second week of school, Carnation didn't expect there to be so many people. Parvati Patil, Pansy Parkinson, Lavender Brown, Blaise Zabini, and Vincent Crabbe were there because of what happened at flying lessons and the Weasleys twins are there because of a prank they played that involved fireworks in the Gryffindor common room.

The students didn't pay much attention, luckily, Carnation didn't want them wondering what she was looking for. She didn't find the map, but it was for the best that a student gets it, who knows maybe it could even be a prankster who found it. Hearing about the pranks Fred and George Weasley got up to, she has a guess as to who might have found it.

She wouldn't know for sure unless she catches them while doing a prank, but if they have the map that is going to be hard to do.

When Harry told his Gryffindor friends how he and Draco are now seekers for their respective teams, Neville pointed out something that made Ron have hope that he could be on the team.

"So that makes you and Draco the youngest players since Carnation." This surprised Harry and Hermione, while they did know that Carnation was a seeker they didn't know she played in her first year.

The group asked her later how she did it and she told them how she just snuck into the tryouts by pretending to watch some older friends tryouts before grabbing a broom and showing off her skills so well that they had to let her on the team. This gave Ron the idea to do the same after all three other first years managed to get on the team by doing that, why couldn't he.

Carnation was left feeling guilty after she told Harry and his friends how she got on the team. While that is how it happened she wasn't the one on the team. So when she called Remus to tell him that Harry made the team as a seeker, she couldn't help but make a face when he said just like you. Remus caught on that something was wrong and asked about it.

She didn't tell the full truth, she will eventually, but just didn't know how to. How were you supposed to tell someone you have known for years that most of the things they thought about you were wrong? How was she supposed to tell him that she wasn't some amazing witch who got all o's on her grades and did pranks with them? How was she supposed to say that she was a muggle only pretending to do magic by using a stone Lily gave her and the right runes? How was she supposed to tell him that it was all a prank that never got revealed?

So she didn't. She just told a little of the truth and let him make assumptions."So you know how Sirius got the captain of the quidditch team mad at him resulting in not being able to join the team."

"What does that have…" Remus paused as the realization hit. "You didn't join the Hufflepuff quidditch team."

"No, Sirius took polyjuice to look like me and I took polyjuice to look like him." It was what happened, just not mentioning how she had to sneak into Hogwarts to watch the games.

"I always wondered why he cheered for Hufflepuff." Remus being Remus, was used to the group always doing stuff like this and wasn't surprised. Usually he was told but with the war happening right after he graduated and it being hard to talk about Sirius it made since he wasn't told until now.

Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw were doing chaser tryouts together and this worked out for Ron. He didn't know many older years but he did know Cho and while she wanted to be seeker she was fine with helping Ron be chaser.

No one thought it was strange that Ron came to watch Cho tryout with Susan and Parvati. What they thought was strange was that Cho was trying to be chaser after how she reacted to Harry getting seeker. Cho was actually better at being a chaser so it was for the best.

Then halfway through tryouts, when all the people trying out showed up, Ron took out his broom, the twins let him borrow it when he told them his plan, and flew out to the quidditch field. After showing off his flying skills by doing some tricks Charlie and Bill taught him before Hogwarts, Cho flew up with the practice quaffle and with a few other friends, who decided to humor Ron when she told them about this, and they did a practice match.

Ron wasn't the best chaser there but there were three spots and Ron ended up claiming one on the Hufflepuff team. Cho got a spot on the Ravenclaw team and decided that being chaser wasn't that bad, but she was still disappointed about not getting the spot she wanted.

By next week Dumbledore had to announce that first years could try out to stop the first years from breaking into the tryouts and making everything disorganized. Ron got detention for starting all this, but it was worth it.

Soon the school days were passing by and Halloween was coming up. Parvati, Cho, and Lavender were in the library studying when Susan came in claiming she figured it all out. It sounded like a conspiracy theory at first, but then she explained it and it all made sense.

Dumbledore has hidden the Philosopher's Stone on the third floor. The break-in at Gringotts, the fact that looking into it she found out that the vault that was broken into belonged to Nicolas Flamel, and that when she went to the third floor she found a cerberus.

They then started planning how to get past the cerberus so they can know if her theory is right. Carnation, who didn't mean to eavesdrop, but developed the skill from her years as a teacher, was very concerned. Carnation just came here to try and find out how to get rid of a ghost. She thought that the 3rd floor was something for students. If she knew that it was to protect something she would have made her puzzle more challenging. Thinking of what the rest of the professors have done she is sure they had the same thought process, after all Sev's was a riddle and McGonagall made hers a game of chess.

Their theory could be wrong. She would have to see what is at the ending to be sure, but that could ruin it if it was for students. As she listened to them chat more she remembered that these were first years and a second year. She would have time to figure out what to do.

She thought about it for a bit as she walked to the great hall for dinner. Looking up and wondering what the candles that Harry and Hermione decided so beautifully looked like. As she did she thought of a great prank idea, but unlike when she was a kid she didn't have anyone she could tell that could do the prank for her.

As she sat down she noticed that some Slytherins' hair was turning red. Then at the Gryffindor table McGonagall was asking the twins if they did it and Snape was already getting ready to take points. Maybe there was someone she could tell her prank ideas to. She might get in trouble if she did that though.

Then she saw Hedwig coming down with a letter from Hermione's parents. Even though Remus and Carnation offered to let them use the mirror, they still wanted to experience how it was to communicate by letters. At this point it is only spite that is keeping them from stopping. Remus shouldn't have said they wouldn't last a week doing that.

This felt like a sign to Carnation, so right after dinner she went to her room and wrote a letter addressed to Fred and George Weasley. She described the prank and runes she would use. At the bottom she signed Catmint and drew a little cat. In the morning she sent it and hoped for the best. If nothing came from it that was fine too, she could just talk about the pranks with Remus and maybe they could do them next year, she would just have to get rid of that ghost.

Chapter Text

While eating breakfast, Fred and George were trying to figure out a prank to do for Halloween. It was hard to think of something and Halloween was only in a few days. Everyone expected them to do something grand too after the prank they did on the Slytherins.

It was then that a small school owl came flying towards them and held out a letter. When George tried to take it the owl didn't let go and when Fred grabbed it he nearly ripped the letter. They tried ignoring it but the owl started pecking at them.

The owl finally let go when they grabbed it together. When they opened the letter they were surprised by who it was from.

Dear Fred and George Weasley,

I have seen some of your pranks and can tell you have potential to be amazing pranksters. Something I noticed about your pranks is that you mainly use charms, and while yes charms could be used, there are other methods that you are ignoring.

I was part of a group when I was at Hogwarts and we each specialize in a different thing leading to us being the best pranksters. I was the one who did runes, so if you want I could teach you a thing or two.

I also recommend that you figure out how to use potions in your pranks seeing as George does quite well in that class.

To prove how runes could lead to better pranks I have written instructions on how to do a prank I thought of involving runes.

Sincerely, Catmint.

Underneath was instructions for the prank and a drawing of a black cat with teal eyes.

Fred couldn't believe that a marauder knew of them and wanted to teach them how to make their pranks better. It was like a dream come true.

George was more focused on thinking of all the pranks they could do with potions and the fact that Catmint thought he was good at potions.

It wasn't until later that they realized that Catmint must be at Hogwarts to know who they were. They spent most of the day studying the map and wondering which was Catmint.

Carnation hated Halloween. Even before she didn't like Halloween much. Before Halloween meant staying home alone because Petunia didn't want to watch her. It meant staying up wondering what the marauders or Lily were doing at Hogwarts and learning the next day, how fun parties with magic are from letters gushing about how cool they were. Halloween was feeling jealous she couldn't be there instead of with her parents giving candy to other kids.

Then it meant the anniversary of Lily’s death, of James' death, and the day the Sirius she knew died.

Every Halloween she went to her storage unit, where she kept all of Lily’s things. Remus took care of Harry on Halloween the first 4 years. Then Harry spent his Halloween with Hermione and her parents while Remus went with her.

This would be the first Halloween not doing that. Carnation was OK with that until she learned how much Hogwarts loved Halloween. Especially the ghosts. There were decorations everywhere and all the food was Halloween themed and it all felt like too much.

She was able to ignore it in class. She had to decline some invites to house parties that were happening that night but that was routine she did that with college and staff parties.

All that was left was the feast before she could go to sleep or maybe call Remus. This was his first Halloween alone and Carnation never asked what he felt about Halloween.

Then the muggle studies professor came in and said there was a troll in the dungeon before fainting.

Dumbledore went up and told the prefects to lead the students to their common rooms, and they were going to before Carnation put a stop to that plan. It would be dangerous for the students to go into the halls with a troll on the loose. Even if she taught most how to defend themselves with magic, the under years would struggle and the upper years would have to protect them. Snape took 100 points from Gryffindor and claimed that Dumbledore was technically a professor.

So she made a new plan with McGonagall. The students stayed in the great hall with Dumbledore and the less skilled teachers and kept the door closed, while the teacher who could duel went to deal with the troll.

Quirrell tried to go with the group fighting the troll but everyone saw him faint.

This was how Carnation ended up face to face with a troll. All she knew of trolls was that they were strong and used big weapons. Looking at the troll in front of her she could tell that was true.

The troll swung its club at her and she barely managed to put up a shield charm in time. She would have to get rid of the club before she could do another spell. She used a levitation charm to lift the club, and while the troll was confused for a little bit, once it looked down and saw her, it went to grab her.

Carnation dropped the levitation charm to put up the shield one again. Doing this made the club fall on the troll's head, knocking it out. It fell with a loud bang that attracted the other professors' attention.

Snape and McGonagall got there first and congratulated Carnation. Carnation was more focused on how that was the scariest moment of her life. She never felt like she would die if she messed up like that. It was kind of fun, but mostly scary. At least now Carnation could say she defeated a troll.

The teachers went back to the great hall and the feast was able to continue. The twins decided that this was the perfect time to set the candles off. The whole hall was amazed as the candles lit up like firecrackers, sparkling in Halloween colors. It was beautiful for all able to see it but Carnation wasn't able to see it, just another thing that sucked about Halloween, but she kept a calm face and ate her dinner. She would have to get used to it as she made a few different color pallets and there was no way the twins weren't going to use it again, especially with how many people cheered out in the hall.

The twins looked around the hall for someone who could be Catmint. They already crossed out most professors for not acting like a prankster would and how Catmint has in the few letters they have exchanged so far (Snape, Quirrell, and Sprout) and for being too old(McGonagall and Dumbledore). As they looked around the hall they saw the new DADA professor, Carnation, not paying attention to the candles and looking kinda down, so they crossed her off the list. Catmint would probably love to see the prank they suggested. It was a little disappointing as she was one of the top suspects.

Remus doesn't hate Halloween. Well he doesn't like it, but after spending his Halloweens with Carnation and Harry he doesn't think he could. That doesn't mean he sees Halloween as something fun like Vanessa and Derek do.

This being their first Halloween without Hermione in a while, they have decided to invite Remus to go with them. Somehow plans change from going out to staying at Carnation's house and drinking fire whiskey. Vanessa was the most excited at this turn of events.

This led to a drunk Remus deciding it would be a good idea to show off the spell he has been working on. Vanessa wasn't impressed because it looked like just a fire spell shaped like animals. Being drunk and doing a difficult spell isn't a good combination.

Remus lost control of the fiendfyre and it burned part of the guest room. They all heard a screeching sound and when they ran up to the room they saw black smoke coming from the wreckage that looked kinda like a face before dissolving. They all sobered up quickly.

"Carnation's house is haunted." Derek said after they stood in the entrance of the room in silence for longer then he was comfortable with.

Remus walked up to the burnt drawers and dug around before finding the burnt up remains of a locket. It was green and looked like a serpent. "I think this is Slytherin's locket."

This was how Remus spent his Halloween answering questions Derek and Vanessa had before planning to call Carnation to answer the questions he had. One being why she had a haunted legacy artifact in her house.

Harry likes Halloween. It's not his favorite holiday, but every Halloween has been fun. He usually spends it with Hermione's family and he understands why, but that never took away from the fun that he had trick or treating and the party's that they sometimes go to.

Sometimes he feels bad that he never really grieved his parents like Carnation and Remus do and that he doesn't remember them. Sometimes he imagines what it would have been like if they didn't die. In the end Harry is happy with his life and Halloween is just a holiday to him even if it isn't for Carnation and Remus.

Hermione never seemed to understand this. She always went out of the way to make the day fun for Harry even when he insisted that wasn’t necessary.

During Halloween, Hermione got all their friends together to do different activities, like board games, exploring the castle, and hanging in the kitchen. Susan and Parvati notice something was wrong when Hermione said they could start their homework later.

Ron couldn't help but ask a question that had been on his mind. "Why did Carnation look so sad at breakfast?"

Hermione glared at Ron for asking that, but Harry just said she didn't like Halloween and changed the topic. Everyone noticed, but didn't say anything.

During the feast there was a troll in the halls that Carnation defeated and a light show with the candles that the twins made. It was beautiful, the whole hall was silent before erupting in cheers. Harry and Hermione would have to ask how they did it as it might give the answer to the candle debate.

Near the end of the feast Harry couldn't help but brag that his aunt is Carnation. Everyone was talking about how she defeated the troll so he thought he might as well let his classmates know. Next thing he knew people were asking about if she raised him and he didn't see the harm in answering. Eventually he managed to get them to leave him alone, or Hermione and Cho did.

When the day started Carnation thought that it was going to be worse than Halloween. Carnation woke up and went to breakfast and expected maybe a few comments about the troll. That wasn’t what happened.

The Daily Prophet wrote a story about how she took down the troll and organized the search for it. That wouldn't be enough for a story usually but it seems that this event brought attention to Carnation. The paper also revealed that she was the one taking care of Harry.

A lot of people were asking how it was to raise the boy-who-lived. She wasn't able to teach much class that day. Carnation didn't like being well known, with everyone looking at her if she made a mistake everyone would know.

She should probably subscribe to a newspaper, so these things don't catch her by surprise.

The day got better after class. She continued her work on the motorcycle. It was going well, she even got started on carving the runes in. She chatted with Hermione and Harry for a bit before Susan came and started asking what she would do to make a trap. That got her talking about runes as Susan tried to write down everything she said.

She hung out with Snape after and he told her about the potions he invented, one being able to help a werewolf control themselves during full moons. After a bit of talking he agreed to send some to Remus every month.

("I didn't know you kept in contact with him." "Of course I did, we even live together.")

Then after looking in the restricted section she found a spell that is able to make ghosts move on. Only problem is that the spell involves feelings. The problem with that is runes can't recreate feelings. The only way to put feelings into a spell is a wizard or which putting their magic into it.

Carnation was going to have to get someone else to do this, and Snape doesn't seem like he would go along with this. The spell is too advanced for 1st and 2nd years. The other staff members don't seem like rule breakers.

Maybe Kettleburn would. Before she could focus on it too much Remus called.

Carnation then remembered she was supposed to find out how to destroy a horcrux. She might have forgotten about that, but better late than never and now she knows how to destroy a horcrux. She told Remus about how she got it and thanked him for destroying it before hanging up.

Chapter Text

Harry was anxious; he was going to play his first quidditch match soon and it would be against Ron. Well, he would be playing against Draco more than Ron as he was a seeker. Harry didn’t think he would be this excited for quidditch and yet when he got on the team he couldn't help but be.

Harry went up and waited for the snitch to be released. He gripped the school broom and looked out at the stands. He had to use a school broom because his broom would be too fast, which was a little disappointing but Carnation was more upset about that.

Carnation said she would cheer for Ravenclaw when Hufflepuff wasn't playing, which meant she would be cheering against him this first game, but that's fine cause Ron is going to need cheering when he loses. Hermione, Neville, and Lavender are cheering for him and Cho, while Parvati and Susan cheered for Ron.

The game was more exciting than the Gryffindor Slytherin game, the Slytherin team won easily in that game, it only lasted for 5 minutes. As Harry was about to go for the snitch, his broom started to jerk around and he couldn't control it.

Hermione started to look for the cause as soon as she noticed. Looking at the Hufflepuff side she saw Snape pointing his wand at Harry and saying some kind of spell. She was about to go over and stop him when Lavender stopped her and pointed out that Carnation was sitting a row behind him and would notice if he was trying to kill Harry.

Carnation wasn't worried, if he fell she would just catch him with a slowing charm. Harry also isn't worried, he fell off his broom so many times and was always caught, either by Remus or Carnation. He didn't fall in the end as whoever was doing the spell must have given up.

This distraction led to Draco getting the snitch and winning the game for Hufflepuff.

Carnation tried to find out who was trying to make Harry fall, but no one had any leads.

Winter break was coming soon and Harry was excited. Less so when he found out that Ron was staying at school for Christmas. Plans were made to go to each other's houses and everyone promised to write Ron letters.

Susan, Cho, Lavender, and Parvati were more focused on their current problem. None of them were good at chess. Lavender figured out how to get Fluffy to sleep and sang to it. Parvati managed to cast bluebell flames to deal with the devil's snare. Cho got the flying key easily, but then when they unlocked the door it led to a chessboard.

They know how to play chess, but none of them are good at it. They lost the game and decided to retreat and try to find some other way around. Susan was the most upset about it and Ron was able to tell.

"Did something happen? Are you not actually going home for winter break?" Ron asked. He was going to be stuck at Hogwarts without any of his friends so, even if it's selfish, he wishes someone else would also be stuck here with him.

"No, it's just that I suck at chess."

"Well, I'm good at chess." That was how Susan spent most of her free time before winter break losing to Ron. She didn't feel like she was getting better, but she did learn that magic chess boards could be mean. Every time she made a mistake the pieces would point it out with creative insults.

Carnation couldn't wait to get back home. While seeing each other in a mirror is nice it had been too long since she had seen Remus and he had to spend those full moons alone. It would also be great to hang out with Derek and Vanessa.

Carnation kinda misses the muggle world too. Living in the Wizarding world is nice, but she misses TV and driving.

Going home for winter break will also give her the chance to get more runes. While she did get enough for the circulation she designed, a lot of kids learned fast. Mostly Ravenclaws, but from each house, there are kids who didn't have any work to do. So she planned to use winter break to figure out how to do more spells to teach them for extra credit.

As of right now she was hanging out with Harry and he was telling her about how Ron has started to challenge everyone to chess. Apparently Susan asked to play and after losing a bunch decided to have Ron go against the others in their group. Hermione has given up and the only ones still going against Ron are Susan, Cho, and Neville. Lavender gave up after one match and Parvati decided to not even play one after watching how badly she lost. After most in the group started to give up Ron started asking upper years and winning. He only lost to a 7th year but even that was a close game. Each game Susan watches and takes notes.

Ron has been riding this high since. He's even thinking of starting a club. That wasn’t the part Carnation was paying attention to. She did say she would sign the necessary papers for it to be official, but what she was more focused on was that Susan asked to play chess. She knew McGonagall set up chess for her trap, which means they have to be halfway way done.

It was about time she did something about that.

Carnation only played chess a few times and has lost every time, once she lost to Harry when he was 7, she gave up chess after that. She also can't fly brooms that aren't powered by runes. Then there is the fact that potions only have a 50/50 chance of working on muggles, when they don't it can range from a simple rash to a week in bed. They stopped testing potions after that.

She could tell Snape her suspicion, but he would wonder why she didn't do it herself. While she trusted him, especially after he tried to save Harry, she didn't trust him not to go to Dumbledore. Carnation wasn't going to risk getting fired.

What is an innocent way to get someone to check what is at the end. James always said that if you wanted to get away with something just say it was a prank. He was referring to cheating on tests, but why can't the same be said for this. She knows from Ron that all the Weasleys are staying at Hogwarts so there would be plenty of time for the twins to complete the course.

She wrote a letter to them explaining her thought process for why she thought it was for students, leaving out how she didn't think that anymore. She then wrote that Dumbledore probably didn't put a prize and if they could check and see, and maybe add a prize for the winners. She then sent it with the owl they started to use and hoped for the best. They were going to have to come up with a name for the little guy, she couldn't keep calling him small owl.

Draco couldn't wait until winter break. While his father was mad at him for the beginning of the year, once he tells him he's getting good grades and managed to get on the quidditch team as a first year that has to change. While he has sent letters with that information his mother had written to him to say that they were never opened. At least she was proud of him.

It would also be great to spend some time outside of Hogwarts, he was starting to consider the Hufflepuff quidditch team his friends and that wouldn't do. Once his father understands that the hat made a mistake and tells his old friends, they could hang out again. He misses the times they had together and hasn't had any luck talking to anyone his age. Except Ron but that is just quidditch stuff and he's a Weasley. Malfoys and Weasleys have a rivalry and wouldn’t like it if he started to hang out with them.

All those plans were destroyed when he got a letter from his mom saying it would be best if he didn't come home this break and maybe spring break instead. Draco could tell that he wouldn't be going home during spring break either, most people don’t with how close it’s to the end of the year anyways.

This left Draco staying at Hogwarts. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that as far as he knows, the rest of the quidditch team is going home. So far Draco's time at Hogwarts has just been spent studying and practicing Quidditch.

He watches as the other Hufflepuffs carry their luggage to the train, chatting about plans and what they're going to do with their families. Soon the common was empty of anyone but Draco. Well Ron is there looking miserable. Draco knows that he shouldn't, but his father is already mad, so what would it matter if he talked to a Weasley, he wouldn’t find out.

He walks up to Ron and asks to play a game of chess.

This turns out to be a mistake as he ends up losing, again and again. In the end Ron makes a comment about how he should just play against himself that gives Draco an idea. He tells Ron about how maybe he could. This leads to Ron having to sit through a lecture on how portraits work and theories on how to leave imprints on a chessboard so that the pieces for one side could move in response to him.

Ron sits through it because it reminds him of what it's like to be at Ravenclaw table even if Draco explains it with more condescension. Together they plan visits to the library and winter break is less lonely.

It was only a day into James and Lily going into hiding and Lily was bored. Well she was bored in the times she had between taking care of Harry and worrying about her friends in the Order. She missed being able to go outside the house or writing letters to her friends and her sister.

Lily hadn't seen her sister since she got married. She couldn't help but be scared the death eaters might go after her. They already tried to attack her parents before but failed because of the protection wards she put up. Carnation said she was safe, but how could she be sure?

Lily was brought out of her thoughts by James. He always seemed to know when she was thinking of things out of her control. After they chatted and he reminded her that they couldn't find Carnation in the muggle world, she had to go feed Harry.

While feeding Harry she remembered how her sister always snuck into her room to read her school books and played with Snowy, her owl. How sad she was when she didn't get a letter. How much she loves magic. All the time she spent hanging out with the marauders every chance she got. Eventually she got Harry to sleep and tried to go to sleep herself, but couldn't.

Thinking of her sister reminded Lily of a project she started at Hogwarts. Full of energy she got out her notes and saw that she had all the things she needed. She started this project because she wanted Carnation to be able to use magic even if it’s just a little. She only ever finished the battery because of the war, but with all the free time she had she could do more.

When James came in he was kinda concerned, Lily had been working on… James actually didn't know what she was working on but she had been doing that for hours at this point.

"So are you going to let me in on this new project you got." James asked when Lily hadn't noticed he came in.

"Remember when I was trying to use runes in a way that would let muggles use magic." Lily said, before James could respond she started showing him the runes and explaining how she already designed the runes necessary for a stunner and shield spell, all she needed was to make something to send out the output like how a wand does.

"That's amazing." It really was. With the battery slowly collecting more magic on its own it could collect more than most wizards are able to use. James joined in on helping Lily for a bit, but slowly started to realize some spells wouldn't be able to be created. Spells that involve feelings.

James ended up voicing this thought with the Patronus spell being an example. Lily took this as a challenge. The day before Halloween Lily presented James with a light blue stone that shined brightly, it was about the same size as the battery.

And when Lily connected them out came a glowing, silvery-white doe. It walked around in circles around Harry’s crib, while he tried to reach up and touch it.

James stared at Lily in amazement before realizing that she just put her own Patronus into a stone. They laughed and while Lily may not have been able to remake the Patronus with spells, it was still impressive. With this a Patronus could be summoned even without a positive memory.

They had dinner and left the stones. Lily said she would take her Patronus out later.

She never got the chance

A lot of the students were ahead of the others. This was great as it meant that she could have students help out their classmates. Sure most were doing it for points, but that didn't change the fact that they were doing something other than sitting and waiting for their classmates to catch up to them. The problem was that it meant outside of class the students were bored. None have said this but in her experience students don't study if they don't find the class fun and most students don't find class fun if they are too good at it.

This might be different for magic because it is magic, but it is the 5th years and up that have a bunch of students that are all caught up and by 5th year magic might be a little boring. That was about the time Lily started to not be as excited for school, but that could be because of the war. Apparently that was when death eaters were being recruited according to the books she started to read in case she became the history teacher.

So she decided to start a study group to learn advanced spells and she knew just the spell to start out with. The Patronus spell. Not only does it look cool, it is useful for sending messages and is made of your happiest memory. How could a spell like that not be fun?

The books all say this is an advanced spell so the club will be for 5th years and up. Now she just has to get the stone Lily made and she is ready for the school year. Or will be after figuring out a few more spells for the club. Finding time to do that is more difficult than it should be as Harry and his friends had planned out the entire winter break. Not a day of break in-between. She could just stay home but it was a great opportunity to meet his friend's parents and she never skips an opportunity to go to the amusement park and soon she and Remus are the ones watching the kids when they want to go somewhere. By the time she goes to get the stone, winter break is almost over, and she doesn't have time to figure out how to do more spells. She stills sets the club up but it is only to learn how to cast a Patrones.

It is a quiet day for Harry and Hermione. After how they spent their winter break they look forward to spending the day reading. Of course they also had never been to Carnation's storage unit. Remus says it is mostly empty but Harry and Hermione know that it has things from Carnation's time at Hogwarts. They never asked before because she usually goes during Halloween or when they have already made plans. This time they are going with her for sure.

"Can we go with you." Harry asks, he made sure that he was useing his puppy dog eyes to full effect. This was useless because she didn't even look at him before responding.

"Sure." Carnation didn't get why they were so excited. The only things she kept in there were letters, runes, and Lily’s school supplies along with the things Sirius bought for her to pertend to be a student. She never was able to bring herself to get rid of them. She never told them they couldn't go as they never asked, so she didn't know why they wanted to go in the first place.

The drive there Hermione and Harry talked about what they thought was inside as if it was something Carnation kept quiet about.

When Carnation opened it to reveal that it was indeed half empty like Remus said they were disappointed. That disappointment didn't last long as Carnation showed Harry the letters Lily sent her before she was eleven and the letters from James during summer. Hermione spent the time looking through the school book and trying to decide what electives she would take during third year. She felt the letters were too personal to look through them with Harry and looking through the books helped Hermione decide that she definitely wasn't taking Divination.

Harry decided to save the letters for later and started to look around and realized that in the corner there was a tarp over something. He grabbed Hermione and they went over to stare at it. After a while Hermione just pulled the tarp off to reveal a heap of trash. They could tell it was metal but it was all rusted and they could see stains of oil all over the floor.

Carnation walked over and when she saw what they were looking at she froze. Harry looked over at her and saw a face he only remembers seeing on a really bad Halloween. She looked devastated, but before he could ask she said that she was done here and it was time to head back before grabbing the tarp and putting it over the pile. The car ride was silent until Harry asked what was under the tarp.

"My old motorcycle. I could never find the time to throw it away. It got destroyed and there was no point in rebuilding it." Carnation said. Harry could tell there was more but before he could ask how it got destroyed Hermione shushed him and changed the conversation to the electives Hogwarts has.

When they talked about it later, they decided they were going to fix it as it obviously meant something to Carnation. After writing letters back and forth with Ron, they found just the person to be able to fix it. They just needed to wait untill spring break.

Chapter Text

Fred and George were planning on spending their winter break playing pranks on Percy and planning a big welcome back prank for when students started coming back from winter break. That plan was replaced with helping Catmint. The letter didn't really say what to expect, but based on the fact that it is for students it couldn't be that hard. Of course doing a little research on what the teachers planned wouldn't hurt. Unfortunately Ron wouldn't stop trying to get them to help enchant his chessboard. George asks him what he's looking at once and now they have to use the map to avoid him whenever he's in the library, which is a lot more than they expected for Ron. He also seems to be hanging out with Draco Malfoy and someone named Peter, but one problem at a time.

While usually they would be proud to help, they didn't really know how to copy parts of someone into an item or they would have done it already. They have so many ideas for pranks that involve that and Catmint would too. They tried to figure out how a month after they found the map, but all that ever led to was realizing that the map is really complicated and they weren't going to figure it out as first years. They probably weren't going to figure it out as 3rd years either. No wonder it took 5 people to make it.

If they had something simpler to study then maybe. None of the paintings let them look at their magic and it would feel rude to do so without permission. So they made a deal with Ron, that if he could get the prize in the third corridor they would enchant his chessboard.

Ron knew that they said that as an excuse not to help him, but he decided why not try. Maybe he was trying to prove something or maybe he just wanted to take a break from reading books, but Draco wasn't against getting help from an older student, even if Ron did leave which sibling he was talking about. Draco was hesitant to go into the 3rd-corridor, but the evidence that it was for students was enough for him to agree.

Opening all the doors led to them finding one that was locked. Draco easily used an Alohomora on the door and opened it to reveal a three headed dog. They closed it and thought about if this was worth it.

"I can cast a bewitched sleep on it but it won't last long." Draco said.

"I saw a trap door under it, I'm sure we can make it to it if we run." Ron replied. With renewed determination they opened the door and started running as soon as Draco finished the incantation, they barely made it in time but that just led to them being caught in a bunch of vines.

"Fire usually stops plants." Ron says, which while true isn't helpful when they don't know any fire spells. Ron looked through his pockets for anything that he could use. Draco gives him an unimpressed look as he pulls out candys and other useless junk.

"Is now the time for that. All you're doing is moving, which is causing the vines to wrap around us quicker." Draco says as the vines prove his point. Then Ron pulls out a fire crackle that Fred gave him. He activates it which causes the vines to retreat from them.

Ron just looks smugly at Draco as he continues walking towards the vines. Draco scoffs but Ron sees the start of a smile as Draco turns around and walks out of the hall. Ron throws the fire crackle at the vines and runs to keep up. The vines are all gone by the time the twins come through.

In the next room were a bunch of keys flying and a few brooms. "Race you to see who gets the key first." Ron said as he was already in the air. Draco got the first key and the second and the third key, but Ron got the correct key. The next room was a chessboard.

Draco sat on the side fuming that someone did his idea before he even thought it as Ron won the chess game. The next room had runes next to music notes around the room and when they stepped in a melody played. They had to wait for the melody to play again once they realized what they had to do. They didn't recognize any of the songs that played and neither of them knew what music notes meant, so it took a lot of trial and error before they figured out which sounds went to each note.

After they finally got the melody right they heard a soft chime and another melody played. They had to do 5 songs before the door unlocked.

The next room was much easier and Draco solved the riddle quickly.

"We better be getting the grandest prize ever for doing this." Draco complains before opening the door and coming face to face with a mirror. "The prize is a mirror?"

Ron walks up to the mirror, ready to pick it up and drag it all the way back, when he sees a red-orange light in his reflection hand. He watches as Mirror Ron puts the light in his pocket.

"Do you need help carrying the mirror?" Draco asks after he realized that Ron wasn't following him.

"I don't think the mirror is the prize." Ron says as he takes out the stone.

"Well that makes the trip back easier."

The twins were surprised when Ron slammed down a rock on the table and demanded their help. Catmint was right Dumbledore didn't know what a good prize was if the prize was a rock. They stopped researching what the traps would be after seeing that Ron completed them in a few hours with no research.

Going through the traps they saw how as they easily befriended the giant dog, levitated each other down the hole, Accio all the keys to them, used the brooms to fly over the chess board, did the rune puzzle and got Rick rolled, and solved the riddle. The last room wasn't big and had a mirror in it for some reason, but it was the perfect place for a prize of glitter and confetti.

The twins put the stone somewhere in George's bag and started helping Ron with his chess set. A little surprised to see that Ron was in fact friends with Draco, but warmed up to him when he gave them some ideas for pranks, even if he was being sarcastic.

("Why did you tell them to send flying frogs loose." "I didn't think they would do it.")

Using the giant chess board as a guide all that was left was for Ron to play against people a bunch of times. That would be easy with the chess club starting after break.

In the next letter the twins sent to Catmint they mentioned that they completed their mission and that the traps were so easy a first year could solve them.

Harry didn’t know what to expect when he went to his Hogwarts bed for the first time since winter break, but a present that didn't have who it was from wasn't one of them. He told Hermione and she dragged him and the gift to Carnation. Who then dragged them to Snape so he can do a bunch of spells on it to make sure it isn't anything dangerous. They eventually got the all clear and Harry was able to open it to reveal a cloak.

"That's James' invisibility cloak, so many pranks were done with this." Carnation said fondly. She lifted it over herself to demonstrate and disappeared completely. "Remus and I looked all over for it but weren't able to find it."

Carnation handed it to Harry with a smile. "Don't cause too much mischief, I'm a professor here so I am going to have to give you detention if you pull any pranks in my class."

"But in anyone one else's class I can pull as many pranks as I want." Harry asked. Hermione gave him a look that said the answer was no. The main reason Harry hadn't turned into a prankster after being raised by two marauders is because of Hermione and her stare of disappointment. The amount of times she tried to stop Carnation from pulling a prank were in the double digits. The amount of times she actually succeeded weren't but it's the thought that counts.

After telling them stories about the places they broke into with the cloak, Carnation went to teach her next class. While it's nice to talk to Harry and Hermione, she wishes she had more time to figure out how to get rid of a ghost. Not that she would figure out what to do in the time it took to eat lunch. As the fifth year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws walked in to learn about spells that needed emotions to work, she realized that they would totally banish a ghost if it meant they got a good teacher.

She wasn't going to get a bunch of kids to get rid of Binns for her. She was just going to point them in the right direction and hope for the best.

Most kids probably wouldn't think about the fact that there are spells that could make ghosts pass on and connect it to making Binns pass on. Besides they would be distracted by her telling them to go do the puzzle in the third-floor corridor.

The twins hinted that the prize was a prank and there was no way she was going to have Susan, Cho, Lavender, and Parvati be the only ones to get caught in it. By the end of the day 3 groups of students were covered in glitter. They covered it up as just having gotten pranked and some even started convincing others to go the corridor.

Percy was frustrated, this entire month had been terrible. The twins had up their prank game this entire year, it was like they were trying to impress someone. He never said this out loud because that would mean admitting that pranks could impress anyone.

Then there was the fact that he was struggling in magic history class. It was all because Binns was the worst teacher ever and only focused on one part of the history and he didn't grade the homework he gave, a fact that Percy didn't realize until Fred pointed it out, at least he thinks it was Fred. Ron called him George later and he responded with a laugh and said he was Fred, but they could have been pranking Ron. Ron should be able to tell the difference since he hangs out with them more than Percy does.

His grade for history isn't perfect because of the random grades Binns gives each assignment that have nothing to do with work and more to do with who you look like, and sadly past Weasleys weren't getting the best grades. He spoke to McGonagall about it and she said she would look into it, which was code for 'there is nothing I could do'. You would think that he would have been replaced already. He was thinking of looking for that spell Professor Carnation mentioned, but that would be breaking all kinds of rules.

He also was the first to get pranked after completing the puzzles on the 3rd floor. The only reason he hasn't told any of the teachers about how the twins messed with the course was because Oliver convinced him not to. And because that would mean admitting he fell for it.

He led his group of Penelope, Oliver, and Cedric through the course on the first try just so they could get a face full of glitter that he still hasn't been able to get rid of. He knows he saw the flash of a camera in the background so it's probably too late to deny falling for it but he might as well keep the fact that they were the first group a secret.

There was one thing that was looking up this month. Professor Carnation is starting a study group to learn how to do the Patronus spell. While Percy has never really wanted to learn the spell, Penelope was really excited to learn it. He couldn't wait to impress her with whatever animal he was able to create. The way the animal says something about the person who summoned it was interesting and Oliver was trying to guess which animal they would each get.

He would probably only need a few days to learn the spell. The club would last for two months, up until spring break, which made sense as not everyone learned as fast as he did and he already accepted that he would have to wait up for his friends to learn the spell like usual. He liked helping his friends with difficult spells. There also might be some people who joined late after hearing about it from a friend.

Percy didn't think for even a second that he would be one of the ones to struggle with the spell or that he wouldn't learn it in the two months.

Carnation had more people sign up for the club than expected.

This was good as she thought that only a few students would, which in hindsight was dumb as who wouldn't want to learn a cool spell. The problem was that the classroom wouldn't be big enough. She spent the week looking for a classroom that would work, even got Snape to help her out, but none were what she wanted. Maybe she was being a little picky, but this was important to her, she was going to be teaching them a spell she only ever showed Remus. They are going to see Lily’s Patronus and then be able to create their own. No one would ever know how significant this was.

On Friday as she was going to give up hope on finding a room that would be perfect she found it. She was wandering back and forth the halls thinking of the room when it appeared. She didn't know how she missed it until later. It was big enough, had the right acoustics for everyone to be able to hear her from the front of the room, and it looked exactly like what she imagined, which was a surprise because that meant she saw it. She came back to make sure it wasn't a dream but she really was able to see the room.

It took a bit of testing for her to figure out that the room was magic. She had to walk through the hall three times for it to appear, which worried her at first as she had to feel the wall to know where she was going and it was weird to be feeling the wall and have it appear right under her hand.

She showed it to Harry and his group of friends but they wouldn't be able to understand what it felt like to be able to see the walls of Hogwarts not look like ruins.

Chapter Text

Snape respects Dumbledore, like most wizards and witches. That doesn't mean that he doesn't sometimes think he's an idiot. His plan to hide the stone at Hogwarts wasn't one he agreed with, but he understood the point. Snape can't say he's surprised that the twins turned the stone's defenses into a prank and did who knows what with the stone. All they can hope for is that they don't realize the power they now possess.

The meeting with Dumbledore and McGonagall wasn't productive as all they concluded was that telling the twins would mean admitting that they messed up. The only bright side was that the prank wasn't widely known even if a lot of people got pranked. Which meant that they might still be able to lure out Voldemort.

"Since the start, they reminded me of James and his group, but recently their pranks have been getting even better." McGonagall reminiscences. Snape has been hearing more and more comparisons from the old staff and it has been getting on his nerves. Especially when even Carnation was pointing out how they were doing their pranks and what spells and runes and potions were used. He would almost say she was bragging, but that would imply she had anything to do with the prank…

Snape would deal with that realization later, now he has to deal with trying to get the stone back. It should be easy to use a prank as an excuse to look through their bags.

"Fred and George are good but I doubt they would surpass the pranks that the marauders thought of." He said back to McGonagall when he realized she was looking for a response. The marauders would always be the best prank group in his opinion and that isn't just because he helped them with some pranks, even if Carnation was helping them the marauders were a group of 5 who were skilled in a variety of subjects.

"Is that fondness I hear?" McGonagall said. "I know you were friends with Carnation, but did that extend to the rest of the group."

"No, I was only friends with Carnation." Snape responded, perhaps a little too quickly but McGonagall didn't question it. It was one of the reasons he liked hanging with her, she never pushed even when she should have.

It is true he wasn't friends with James, Remus, and Peter. James and him had a rivalry, they never went too far, and Carnation and Sirius were there if they did. Remus he avoided because he was a werewolf. Peter avoided Snape because Snape was a Slytherin.

It was Sirius that he used to consider a friend. Looking back he was probably using him for his potions knowledge or to get an in with the death eaters. At least that's what he tells himself even if none of those explanations fit quite right. Carnation was always trying to get them to be friends, it was probably part of her plan to get him not to join the death eaters. He remembered times when he would hang out with Sirius and talk about anything from potions to how his brother was doing to other Slytherins.

He could have just been getting information, but sometimes it felt like he was talking to him because they were friends. Snape doesn't know which one he prefers.

McGonagall changes the subject and they focus on finding the Weasley twins but it seems that along with getting better at pranks, they were also getting better at not getting in trouble.

Susan and Parvati decided to invite the others to come with them. It wasn't fair to just not include them. Neville wasn't sure, but they convinced him to come. Ron just said he wasn't interested and they couldn't convince him to come, which was strange. He was also staying longer after practice.

Susan led the group through the traps, she was a little surprised that the Devil's Snare was gone but they are weaker to fire than other plants. It was a bother to have to levitate each other down, but then Harry showed off a spell that slows down falling and they got by much faster.

They got through the traps even faster than last time and managed to get past the chessboard. The runes puzzle stumped them for a bit and Harry didn’t want to tell them the answer as he already knew it. Hermione ended up doing it for them when she got tired of watching them fail. Susan did the riddle and they opened the door to get a face full of glitter and confetti and suddenly Ron not wanting to come made sense.

All the work of learning chess and finding a spell that plays music was to get pranked. There was no way the twins could have set up all the traps, like getting a Cerberus here, so they must have gotten here first and then just edited the ending.

When she told the others her thoughts Lavender pointed out that the original prize could still be here. Pushing past the prank and looking around all they found was a mirror.

Looking into it Susan saw herself but with her family behind her, looking back she saw that only her friends were there.

"Guys look in the mirror and tell me what you see."

Lavender explained that she saw herself winning awards for transfiguration. Parvati saw herself as a famous fashion designer. Cho said she was riding a broom and wearing a Tornado's uniform. Hermione saw the greatest library ever.

Neville said he saw his parents too.

Harry just stood there looking at the mirror in confusion. "I just see a mirror." He said but nobody listened. They were too busy looking at the mirror as if it was the most amazing thing ever. All he saw was that he was going to be stuck with glitter in his hair forever. Living with two pranksters has taught him that glitter stays forever.

Harry had to step in front of the mirror to tell them they should get going. It was like breaking them out of a trace. After they left it was concluded that the original purpose of the traps was to stop people from getting stuck looking in the mirror forever. It was a good thing that most people wouldn't go around the prank.

Patronus lessons were a success. On the first day, Carnation talked about what a Patronus is and how they can send messages and fight dementors. She then showed everyone the incantation and wand movement and told them to think of their happiest memory, before giving a demonstration. She released Lily's Patronus and let it run a circle around all the students.

There were students from every house, most from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. Carnation saw a few 4th years but decided not to say anything as Patronus wasn't a dangerous spell to learn. No one managed the spell on the first try, but that was expected.

Carnation spent the lessons walking around and helping students with their pronunciation and thinking of happy memories to try. By the end of the first class, she had three 7th years managing a corporeal Patronus and a lot of excited students. In the next class, she had even more students.

Some of the ones who managed the spell decided to help others, others left but came back the next day with friends who weren't there before.

A month into lessons and most of the students who stuck with it managed to make a corporeal Patronus. Most were 7th years as to be expected, but she had a few 5th years manage to do it. Almost every student was able to make a lot of mist.

It was late and Carnation was about to leave for the day once all the students left, but one group of four was still there. She didn't want to be rude and kick them out, but it was getting late and she wanted to work on seeing if there was a way to describe emotions with runes. While the answer was looking like a no it was still fun to experiment with.

Oliver and Penelope already managed their Patronus, them being a snidget and hummingbird respectively. Cedric was getting close as when he did the spell Carnation could see legs and what looked like a head. The reason they were still here however was because Percy could still only make a little cloud of mist. He was the only student who hadn't given up and couldn't get even a glimpse of what their animal could be. She was impressed he hadn't quit, but that was probably because his friends were still here.

She was a little surprised that Percy couldn't do the spell but spells that require emotions might be harder for some people. At least that was Carnation's theory. It was kinda sad but he probably wasn't focusing on the right memory. She had a Ravenclaw 7th year unable to make the mist form anything until she helped her find a happy memory. Then she got it on the first try.

She tried to help Percy before but at the beginning, he was too confident to accept help, and later on, other students asked while he didn't. She was also hoping his friends would be able to help him as when she walked by they gave sound advice and she saw Penelope helping other 5th years. Penelope was the first 5th year to do a corporeal Patronus so it wasn't too much of a stretch that she would be able to help Percy. It was getting late but Percy wanted to continue so his friends left without him.

She watched before stepping in to get a guess at what he was struggling with and got confirmation that he was doing it perfectly and was probably just messing up on the memory part. "What memory are you using?"

Percy seemed startled before answering. "I'm using the memory of when I got my letter telling me I was going to be a perfect."

"Well, that memory doesn't seem to be working. Is there something that might be making the memory more bittersweet than just happy?" It was the best guess she had of what was happening. While she has no idea how it feels to do the spell or any spell, many students told her about how it was for them when they were thanking her for helping them out.

"What do you mean by that?" Percy sounded frustrated, which made sense seeing as he was the only one here.

Carnation has no idea how to explain it and it would probably be rude to use another student as an example without asking if she could share their experience. So she does what she does best and makes it up based on the truth."The first time I conjured up a Patronus I used the memory of the first time my sister took me to Diagon Alley. After she died that memory wasn't the happiest because it made me think of Lily. So now I use the first time I took Harry to Diagon Alley."

Percy's eyes lit up with understanding and then fell. "I guess the reason the spell isn't working for me is that that memory was right before the twins pulled a prank on me." It's obvious that isn't the full story but she doesn't need the full story to help him figure out a different memory

After a while, Percy seems to look even sadder than before. "All my memories of celebrating my achievements have someone take away the attention or say something about how it isn't as impressive as Bill or Charlie already did it. That shouldn't ruin the happiness as much yet it still reminds me that…" Percy stops talking but the sentiment is clear. As a teacher Carnation had seen how many kids from big families feel the need to fight for attention, it makes sense that with so many talented siblings Percy feels like he can't have his parents' full attention.

"Well, how about you make a new memory that could be your happiest memory. You have great friends, how about you have fun with them and figure it out from there." Carnation says and Percy gets back that determination he has when learning a new spell.

Over the following weeks she sees glimpses of them hanging out, but seeing as they took to hanging out in the library she doesn't have much hope that they're doing things that are fun for the whole group. Oliver and Cedric are more of the active type and even Penelope gets bored of studying sometimes.

Harry was having fun with quidditch and his friends but he can't help but feel like he is missing something. Then it hits him, he hasn't made any Slytherin friends or really any other friends from outside his group. In the beginning, he used the excuse that being famous made everyone he talked to not people he can make friends with, but by this point, everyone is starting to calm down and he can talk to them like classmates. The problem is that it's hard to make friends outside of his friend group.

He started talking to a girl named Padam, only to learn that she is Parvati's twin sister. The others made fun of him for not realizing that they were sisters when they looked alike.

It got Ron to ask if he thought Fred and George looked different which Harry was embarrassed to admit he did. Less so when everyone got impressed at that. Harry assumed that it was a prank until he compared Fred and George and realized they didn't have many differences. Still, he didn't think they were being serious when they said that everyone mixes them up. He asked Carnation but he didn't know if she said yes because it was the truth or to prank him.

Even if he counted Padam as a friend that was only one friend outside of the group. Cho mentioned that technically they could be counted as friends with the quidditch team but Harry didn’t see them as friends as they only talked during practice but Harry could work on hanging out with them more.

Roger Davies seemed nice and he and Cho talked a lot, but that could just be because they're both chasers. The team was happy to spend time with him too, and not just cause he is famous but because he is great at quidditch. After a bit, Harry kinda counted them as friends.

This was still him being friends with only his friend group and people from his house. Susan let him into the Hufflepuff common room so he could meet more Hufflepuffs and it was more intense than their reputation would lead you to believe. Apparently, it was even more so when the chess games were taking place here, luckily they got their own classroom.

Harry didn’t have much - or any- luck making friends with Hufflepuffs. He did make a lot of vague promises to hang out in the future but he didn't connect with any of them. Making friends with the Gryffindors was easier but a lot of them said he was like an honorary Gryffindor as if being a Ravenclaw was bad, or boring as a lot had said. Dean and Seamus were cool and he was hanging with them again. He might try to get Neville to hang out with them more.

Trying to make friends with Slytherins would be harder as, unlike the other houses he didn't have an in with them. There was also the fact that having a lot of friends was hard.

This all leads to Harry hiding from the Hufflepuffs trying to make friends with him, which while it seems counterproductive and kinda is… Harry hadn't been studying in a while and he was not hiding from his problems. Carnation was proud of him when she learned he was making a bunch of friends. Before coming to Hogwarts his only friend was Hermione, so of course, Carnation was glad he had new friends now. She even said that Lily did the same, having only been friends with Snape before. She doesn't compare him to his mom a lot, or at all. She told him stories of her and he saw how they were alike and different but unlike how everyone in the Wizarding world who met his mom wants to tell him they have the same eyes, Carnation never tells him that. She always seemed to distance him from Lily.

For most of his life he appreciated that but now he kinda wants her to tell him that he is as smart as Lily or as good a seeker as James. It's dumb because of how annoying it is when adults he doesn't know tell him that and that Carnation dose compliment him when he plays quidditch and gets good grade.

It felt good to be told that he was making friends like Lily did and Harry felt a little jealous when Carnation compared the twins to James. Maybe he should do a few pranks on them.

But on the issue of friends he has learned that he doesn't want too many. Friends feel so time consuming and stressful. Having so many also takes away time from hanging out with his main group. Harry also feels bad that he likes hanging out with his group of friends more than everyone else. He's sure he could just avoid everyone until they stop wanting to be friends with him but then Carnation wouldn't think he's like Lily anymore.
"You aren't studying with Hermione." Carnation said from behind him. Harry always hated the way she sneaks up on people.

He noticed that she was in the library more often but he didn't think she would be here now. He was thinking of telling her that he was just studying and letting her continue to believe that he was making a lot of friends, but she always sees through that. "Friends are hard."

"What happened? Did you have a fight with someone." Carnation asked. The worry was clear in her voice. Harry wished that was what he was dealing with.

"I want to have a lot of friends but I don't want to deal with having a lot of friends." Harry didn’t know if he was articulating his emotions right but Carnation was always able to figure out what he meant.

"Want to know a secret." Carnation waits for Harry to nod his head before continuing. "I didn't have a lot of friends despite what everyone thinks. I had the marauders, Lily, and a few people from Ravenclaw. The reason everyone thinks I was a social butterfly was because James was really popular and I went to all the parties. I talked to people and they said to others I was their friend but they weren't really. I wasn't there for them when they needed a friend and they weren't there for me.

To some people that would suck because having a bunch of people say your friends and then not have your back when you need them would suck if you didn't realize they weren't your friends. To me this worked out because the only ones I wanted to be friends with were the marauders and the other few I became friends with because of how popular I became."

"So you're saying I should be fake friends with everyone except the people I want to be real friends with." Harry asked, confused.

"I'm saying you already did. Why do you think no one noticed that you're hiding? They just assume that you're hanging out with other friends. You being famous made it easier as everyone wants to say they're friends with you. It took years for people to assume that about me." Carnation explained.

"I guess that makes sense." Harry thought that it was because of his invisibility cloak but if he made a way for no one to question where he was, that could be useful in pulling a few pranks. That was probably what Carnation used it for. Harry could also use it to get some time to himself, something he hasn't had since coming to Hogwarts.

Harry asked about what Carnation was working on and spent the next hour learning about runes and got a few ideas for pranks. If the twins were pranked a few times over the next week it couldn't have been Harry as he was hanging with his friends. Which friends? Who knows he has so many.

Chapter Text

Percy hadn't meant to steal professor Carnation's notes, but she left before he could tell her she left her book and the notes inside were so interesting. When she came back he was going to give it to her but the way it described runes so simply and broke down how they worked was really helpful and he put it on her desk the next day so it wasn't stealing.

He did make copies beforehand but making copies of things isn't against any rules. Percy felt a little bad but he knows these aren't her main notes seeing as these just focus on theory. Which is fascinating but also just seems to be showing what isn't possible with just runes. It's most likely just for fun seeing as the spell the runes are trying to do could easily be done by casting a few charms onto it.

Percy would love to test that thought but the spell is for banishing ghosts and that is illegal in most cases. The spell was most likely chosen randomly but it's still interesting to read professor Carnation's thought processes. It's way more interesting than the lecture Binns is giving. He even wrote down how he would do the spell most effectively. It was more fun than he was expecting and he must have been smiling for Oliver to have decided to look at what he was working on.

"Is that why we've been hanging in the library forever? If so it's worth the time I could have been playing quidditch if it works." From the way he was looking at Binns it was clear he meant using it on their history professor. Percy would have said that was a bad idea if he hadn't thought of doing the same himself a few times. Oliver was probably joking anyway.

"That is so amazing Percy, some of those runes look really advanced." Both Penelope and Oliver smiled and talked about how they should pull it off but Percy couldn't hear them over how loud his heart was beating. They thought he came up with these on his own and that they were going actually use them. He couldn't tell them he stole notes from a professor, but he also couldn't bring himself to tell them that they shouldn't banish Binns. He couldn't bring himself to tell the truth and soon they were working on when to do this.

"We would need a distraction so that no one would know it was us, this is kinda illegl." Percy said hoping they would realize this wasn't a good idea.

"Fred and George are good at pulling off distractions, especially ones that take up the professors' and prefects' attention." Oliver brought up. Percy really didn't want to bring the twins into this.

"They wouldn't help if I'm the one who asks."

"Then me and Penelope will and you will banish Binn" Oliver said, like that was the problem.

After class Percy was left wondering how this happened as he worked on perfecting the ghost banishing spell.

The twins had a rival. Or maybe someone just didn't like them. They were trying to set up a prank when someone used a tripping hex on Fred, this caused him to set off all the stink bombs. Then when they looked no one was there. The map showed a group of Hufflepuffs were nearby but none of them were the pranking type. They managed to get out of there before Flinch or another professor caught them. Snape and McGonagall have gotten more persistent in trying to catch them in the act as if they didn't know it was them doing the pranks.

They talked to Ron and his group of friends to see if they would want to help them find who was pranking them but Susan was still mad about the glitter, which was fair seeing as she still had some in her hair a month after. When Catmint said muggle glitter is forever they didn't know how right she was. While magic glitter could be spelled away, muggle glitter couldn't be. It was one of the many things they were taught in the letters.

At quidditch practice, someone charmed the Gryffindor brooms to go extra fast which led to this likely being the first and last time Ravenclaw played a practice game against them. They lost because going fast is a disadvantage when you're not used to it and also because Harry ended the game before their team could even try to slow down.

After the game, they found out the brooms had runes carved into them to make them go faster, which gave them detention when Madam Hooch didn't believe that they weren't the ones who did. While they have been using runes a lot more that didn't mean they were the only ones who knew how. They messaged Catmint but she just told them that 'he does that sometimes and then turns around and says he doesn't like pranks, just wait it out.' Which only told them it was a guy and that Catmint also knew him.

At detention, a glitter bomb went off, which was either Susan or the person who has been pranking them. The way Susan laughed at them as soon as they came out of the room pointed towards her, but how she was able to get muggle glitter when they had to ask Catmint for it would be a mystery. She wasn't mad at them anymore at least.

The rest of the week went the same but just like Catmint said they suddenly stopped getting pranked. It sucked that they weren't able to continue to look for the mysterious prankster but they weren't bored for long.

Oliver and Penelope came up to them and asked to collaborate on a prank with them. They didn't have any great ideas but they were smart and knew the perfect time to strike.

So together Fred, George, Penelope, Oliver, and Lee worked together to set up a prank for spring break. They decided on spring break because no school and yet most people stay at Hogwarts because of how close it is to exams and that there are no wizarding holidays.

They let Lee do most of the planning to make up for the fact that they forgot to tell him that they set up a prank on the third floor and that they started writing to a marauder.

Finals were coming and the Ravenclaws were studying like crazy all spring break. They were even infecting others with the need to study and learn. They already took Neville and were working their way through the Hufflepuff quidditch team. Hermione and Cho got Susan and Lavender. Parvati was standing strong but her sister asked her to join the Ravenclaw's study group and used the fact that they hadn't been hanging out lately.

Ron wasn't going to fall into finals anxiety. At least he wasn't until betrayal came from an unlikely source. He knew his friend group was full of bookworms so he was prepared to avoid the study groups even if he couldn't use quidditch practice anymore.

He should have seen it coming. He knew that the Ravenclaws were using the fact that the teams were starting to relax to get them to study, but he didn't know until too late that Percy was friends with Cedric. Draco got him stuck in a room full of torture and death, also know as books.

Well books weren't too bad but trying to read in silence was hard and there can't be any sound in a library. Draco was so smug. He was reading and probably thinking of his victory.

He was less smug when Ron got them kicked out.

"Why am I friends with you?" Draco sighed as he mourned the loss of the library for most likely the rest of the year. Ron would feel bad if it wasn't for the fact that he most likely saved Draco from having to study. Draco didn't need it anyway he had perfect memory and would likely do fine.

Draco convinced him that it would be fun to sneak into the restricted section. It was only after he saw Draco take books off the shelves in the normal section that he realized that it was an excuse to get them back in the library.

After spending the afternoon studying in the restricted section he didn't mind having wasted the afternoon. They were far enough away that they were able to be a little bit louder and Draco let him bring snacks with them. The thrill of sneaking in under Harry’s invisibility cloak was also fun.

And maybe he learned a little and felt more ready for finals. The fact that he agreed to do this every few days was because he got infected with the study virus and not any other reason.

"Hagrid's motorcycle is almost done and just in time for the end of the year." Carnation tells Harry. Harry wasn’t really paying attention and focusing more on the fact that Carnation wasn't looking at where she was walking. This would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that they were going up the stairs.

Carnation almost walked off the edge 3 times. The only reason she didn't was that the stairs decided to move to where she was at the last second. It was like the stairs were trying to give him a heart attack.

"Please stop doing that." Harry pleads as he watches the stairs move while they were on them, bringing them to their destination.

"Doing what?" Carnation asks and Harry doesn't see any sign that she's joking.

"The thing with the stairs. You don't even look at them. What if you fall?"

"Harry I get your concern but as an adult who has walked many stairs before I don't need to look down to make sure I don't fall." Carnation explains in the condescending tone she uses when kids worry about something she sees silly. Harry is about to give up and walk away when the stairs he is on move.

He can faintly hear Carnation yell out "the stairs move!" Before he ends up at the other side of the castle. He doesn't know how she didn't realize sooner but he does know that he isn't going to make it to the library in time for the study group. They barely managed to get Ron to join them too.

This is not how Harry thought his spring break would go. He didn't think they would spend the whole time in the Hogwarts library or that they would be at Hogwarts at all. They didn't celebrate Easter this year, and while it's not his favorite holiday and they don't believe in a religion, he can't help but miss home. He had barely been in his room since he got on the train and he hadn't seen Hermione's parents and Remus in a while. The mirror didn't count.

Maybe it's good that the stairs gave him an excuse to not go studying today. While he liked school he never liked it as much as Hermione and Remus and Derek and Vanessa did. Carnation was the only person before Hogwarts that didn't spend every second in the library. Now that wasn’t even true.

He was actually hoping that Ron wouldn't start studying yet. Hermione wasn't going to let him stop this close to finals and now Harry didn’t have any friends who weren't studying. They could have been home but the other Ravenclaws saw them packing and told them about how spring break was just for studying and now they have to spend it at Hogwarts because of the library.

The stairs keep moving and soon he ends up near the dorms. He had the mirror from the last time they talked to Remus. Vanessa joined them and kept asking questions about magic so Carnation let them keep it for the night. He forgot to return it today, which meant it was still in his room.

The mirror would never be the same but that didn't mean it wouldn't help to use it. Maybe he could convince Remus to get Hermione to stop studying for a day. He never thought that he would miss the days of not having access to a library full of books on magic and yet here he is.

Harry and Remus spent the rest of the day talking and by the time Hermione comes in to ask why he didn't come to their study group Remus is on team 'take a break'. They spend the rest of the day playing Exploding Snap. The twins joined them for a bit but left when Lee told them that he had a prank idea.

Fred, George, and Penelope were setting up the wall in the great hall. The plan was to add ruins so that the pictures wouldn't be easy to take down. While doing this Oliver and Lee picked which photos to use. A bunch of groups got blasted full of glitter, more than they could fit on the wall.

Some pictures they already knew they were putting up like Percy's group because he was the first to complete the course and they never miss an opportunity to embarrass their brother. The picture of the muggle studies professor is also definitely getting put up because they are still laughing at how they managed to get a teacher to fall for the prank.
When everything was set up all they had left to do was cancel the notice-me-not spell at dinner. Dumbledore seemed to have already noticed and was trying to hide his smile. When they did so the whole hall slowly noticed and the chatter got louder as more and more people pointed to the wall. Most people were laughing or being embarrassed about their photo. Most of the professors got to work trying to take the photos down but weren't having much luck.

Fred was a bit disappointed that he wasn't able to see Percy's reaction. He hadn't seen Percy at dinner at all but with how he moved into the library he knew that was most likely where he was.

Dumbledore was waiting for all the professors to come to the emergency meeting he set up. The wait sadly made it so he had plenty of time to wonder how this happened.

This year he lost two teachers. Professors Binns and Quirrell. He fired Quirrell after seeing his picture on the wall showing that he had tried to steal the Sorcerer's Stone. He wasn't sure at first if he was working for Tom until Snape confirmed it. One loss was fine, especially with the fact he already had a replacement in mind. Until then he took over muggle studies and said that Quirrell got sick and had to quit.

He didn't learn that Binns had somehow gone missing until finals were already over. Apparently the students got together and decided that 7th years who had free periods and were good at history would teach the younger years. The grades for history were the best they had been in years. That was the only bright side as he had no idea where he was going to find a history teacher for next year.

He expected the other professors to be sad when they heard the news that the ghost who had been with them for many years had passed on but they were just surprised. McGonagall then asked who would be the new history professor.

"Can I be the new history teacher?" Carnation asked when Dumbledore tried to avoid answering. Which isn't a bad idea. He looked over her grades when she was in Hogwarts and saw that she got all owls in her last year. She also had been a good professor for DADA and would have to quit anyways if she wanted to avoid the DADA curse.

Looking into her eyes he saw that she had been preparing to take over the position for a while. Which was suspicious but he also saw that she was as surprised as everyone else that Binns went missing.

Dumbledore then went on to announce that Quirrell had to quit because of his sickness. It wasn't entirely untrue after all as Quirrell did end up dying after not being able to get any unicorn blood. The fact he had Tom on the back of his head was gross but it got rid of that problem.

Carnation then asked if she could get the muggle studies position instead. Dumbledore said no as Charity Burbage had already agreed to take the position. Overall the meeting was more productive than he expected.

Before he could leave, Carnation then asked if Remus could get the Defense Against the Dark Arts position next year. Which he had no reason to refuse.

Dumbledore was a little disappointed at this turn of events as he was planning on hiring Gilderoy Lockhart so that the cures would expose him as a fraud. While it would be unfair for the kids to have to learn from him, exposing Lockhart would be more beneficial. There is always a next year with the DADA position so having to wait one more year wouldn't be a problem and he was going to have to wait another year anyways because of how Quirrell wanted the position. Dumbledore could argue that he already had someone in mind but McGonagall would be mad if he chose Lockhart over Remus. The only way she would allow Lockhart to teach is if there really was no one else.

Chapter Text

Summer went by peacefully, it helped that Harry and Hermione learned that visiting friends didn't have to take up all of their break. Well for the kids it was peaceful. The wards around the house kept going off and Carnation had no idea what it meant.

She knew wards went off when someone tried to teleport inside but because she doesn't have any magic she couldn't figure out anything about who was trying to break in. She told Remus but because he wasn't the one to make the wards he couldn't do anything either, so all telling him resulted in was making them both panic. Remus panicked even more when she told him that Sirius was the one who set the wards up.

Luckily they were able to keep their panic hidden from the kids as they worked on whatever project they invited Mr. Weasley over to help with. Which led to the Weasleys visiting the house quite often. Having the Weasleys over was chaotic because the twins started a prank war with Remus. Every time they came over, the pranks got more and more intense and they even got their little sister involved (Ginny wasn't on either side as she pranked both the twins and Remus until Fred teamed up with her to prank Remus. Ginny ended up losing the war when Remus and George teamed up to take her and Fred down). Carnation wanted to join in but she didn't want to reveal she was Catmint yet and Crookshanks was already on edge with just those four doing pranks.

Even if she wanted to do something else, Carnation still had to learn all the history of the Wizarding World. Eventually, Percy saw she was working on this and joined her, which led to Hermione coming over and bringing a few others. Each time it was a different group joining them in their history study group.

Arthur was a great conversation partner. He listened as Carnation told him all about physics and how electricity worked. He also got along great with Derek and Vanessa, but there were a few times that Vanessa tried teaching Arthur something only to realize she didn't know much about it either. Arthur also must have been where the twins got their mischief from as he somehow managed to convince both Hermione and Harry that he didn’t know what a rubber duck was and thought they were important to muggles. The two families decided to go to Diagon Alley together, after all the visits to each other's places it only made sense.

Ron was having the best summer ever. Unlike winter break where he was trapped at Hogwarts, this time he got to go to his friends' houses and see the muggle world. His family visited Harry’s place the most because they were rebuilding Carnation's motorcycle. Ron wasn't as interested as his dad was but it was still fun. From what Ron understood, from the many rants about how amazing the motorcycle was that no one but Arthur the one going on the rants could understand, some runes made the motorcycle able to go invisible, be indestructible to magic, and fly. Ron didn't see what was so amazing as that was just magic. Arthur did most of the work and it was estimated that they would be able to finish before school started.

Ron was a little bummed out that he couldn't hang out with Draco but their families didn't get along, they were still able to talk through letters. They might even be able to see each other when they go to Diagon Alley. But even if they do see each other Ron is still going to stay with his family. Especially since this is Ginny's first year. He remembered how excited he was for his first year like it was last year. Which it was, but that just shows that Ron knows how excited Ginny is. Even if it seems that she is more excited that they are shopping with Harry, than the fact that she is going to Hogwarts.

Going to Diagon Alley was the same as last year except this time they met up with Harry, Hermione, Carnation, and Remus. Shopping went by quicker this time as Carnation and Remus made a schedule so they can get everything quickly. It also helped that they knew where to find the books for their classes.

Carnation didn't go with them to get Ginny's wand but she did give Ron enough money to also get a wand for himself. After that, they were heading to get ice cream before leaving when the group ran into the Malfoys.

Ron wasn't paying attention because he was busy gushing about his new wand to Draco, so he was surprised when his dad and Draco's dad started yelling. The kids as a collective decided to just get Ice cream on their own while the adults stayed to watch.

Overall the trip was still fun and after getting home and trying his new wand he can't wait for Hogwarts.

(The twins watch in fear as Ron completely butchers the words of the spells and yet is still able to do the spell. Scabbers haven't ever been as yellow because Ron was able to make him yellow with the fake spell. The twins tried it and it didn't work for them. They don't know if Ron is pranking them, but they sure hope that's the case.)

To say Lucius wasn't expecting to see Carnation again would be a lie. She was always a menace, from her days at Hogwarts where she corrupted the minds of pure blood Slytherins to later on when it was revealed that she had been the one taking care of Harry Potter. Always doing things that went against pureblood ways and couldn't even say it was because she was raised by muggles and didn't know better as he knows for a fact that she went out of her way to learn all about pureblood customs just so she could do the exact opposite.

She probably used magic to make the hat put Draco in Hufflepuff to spite him, just like how she changed her grades. He wasn't able to prove it then and most likely won't be able to prove it this time.

To say he was mad when he learned Carnation was the DADA professor would be an understatement, but he was content with the fact that the cures would most likely take her out. Then Binns was banished, most likely by Dumbledore so she could continue corrupting the minds of the young, and Carnation was announced as the new history professor.

He was already planning on causing a distraction so he could sneak a book into one of the Weasley kid's luggage but what better opportunity than to start a fight with Carnation? Or it would have been a fight with her but she set Arthur on him to defend her. She always had other people do the talking whether it be James, Sirius, or Mary, always some Gryffindor with more bite than brains. She always just stood back and let others do the work-

The punch to the face was unexpected as was the detailed rant insulting pureblood ideology. The flash of the camera told him this was going to be all over the papers. The worst part was that he didn’t even notice that all of the kids were gone. If this was going to end up in the papers he wasn't going to let it be for nothing.

Hopefully Carnation is dumb enough to write in the book that she finds in her bag. Even better if Harry gets his hand on it but Lucius knows better than to hope. He will just have to leave it up to luck.

Years of pretending must have been all for this moment. All the skills she has acquired from lying were so she could act happy when presented with her old motorcycle. It was all so she could act like she wasn't remembering all her happy memories that got tainted with betrayal.

That might have been a bit of an overreaction as the interaction just lasted an hour at most and was just Carnation thanking everyone who rebuilt it. Really it wasn't a big deal, as it being built doesn't change the fact that it is just going to stay in the storage unit collecting dust.

It is even a great thing as it leads to a really intriguing conversation with Arthur. He turns out to have made his own car. It is even able to fly.

After the Weasleys leave, Carnation couldn't wait to write all her new ideas. Maybe she could make her car fly. Opening her bag reveals a book she definitely didn't buy.

Carnation thinks for a second that she might be a shoplifter now and didn't even steal something that looked cool when the thought to write in the book enters her mind.

Never one to not trust instinct she writes her thoughts on how to make her car fly, only for it to disappear. A prank book. That explains why it suddenly appeared in her bag. Now to figure out if it was Remus or Harry who pranked her. Maybe it was one of the twins.

Then writing appeared and never one to turn down a conversation on magic, Carnation spent the rest of the night chatting with her new friend, Tom. He was smart and knew runes almost as much as Carnation, well not almost but she had years over him and he was stuck in a book. He was the perfect person to bounce ideas off of and was interested in all the pass runes she worked on. The last few days of summer passed by quicker than they should have.

There weren't many things that Carnation could say were completely hers and not hers and Sirius or hers and Lily’s. Her motorcycle was made with Sirius' help, her wand was a gift from Sirius and is loyal to him, the runes were all Lily’s design and she made the important ones.

Catmint had always been the nickname for Sirius pretending to be her, not her until Remus called her that the first time, not her until Harry and Hermione called her auntie Catmint, not her until a letter written to Catmint came to her. When she wrote to the twins the first time and signed Catmint, she was scared that the letter would go to Azkaban and not to her, but it came to her and for the first time it felt like Catmint was her name. That didn't mean it didn't take a second to realize it was her they were talking about when anyone said Catmint.

One thing that had always been hers was being a cat. The plan when the marauders first became animagus was for Carnation to be too young to do such advanced magic, which would be true for any 3rd year even if they were getting straight O's. Carnation was fine with this, sure being any animal would be cool but she couldn't do magic and accepted this. It was a fact of life, Remus was a wizard, Lily was a witch, Carnation was a muggle.

It just didn't make sense that spells could turn people into animals but turning yourself into one was a huge achievement. Well it did in a way that the hard part would be concentrating when turning into an animal but from how complex the process was that didn't make sense. She asked Sirius if he could just turn her into an animal but he said that it would be risky, as if he didn't get an O in transfiguration.

So Carnation did it herself.

Runes were amazing in the ways that they could complicate the most basic spell and yet a few runes carved around a magic rock and she could change into a cat at will. Turning back was a bit difficult. Sirius always did it for her at school but after she had to figure it out if she still wanted to spend full moons with Remus.

She could have told him her secret but he was a stranger even if it felt like she knew all about him. She never met him before, only having gotten to Hogwarts after the moon was high in the sky. It fit with the excuse of escaping her Hufflepuff friends or Sirius just dispelled the illusion of her when she got there. She had to leave before he woke up if she didn't want Petunia to notice that she was missing every full moon and think she was a werewolf.

The new runes were better in the way that she didn't have to replace the stone every year and could change back without help. They did have the drawback of her needing to know how long she was going to be a cat for and that she had to use the magic stone Lily made, but being a cat was still an achievement that she did all by herself. She carved the runes and designed the cat, even if the color she was going for wasn't black and the eyes weren't supposed to be teal. At least she looked like a cat and didn't die in an explosion. She did it and she was the reason Sirius was just as surprised as James and Peter when she showed off her new form.

Being a cat was freeing. Being a cat made her feel like more than a kid playing pretend. She spent every full moon with Remus after he became Harry’s babysitter and uncle.

She felt bad that while she was at Hogwarts he would be alone, but he reassured her every full moon that he had Brownie with him and full moons hadn't been a problem for a while, they especially stopped being a problem after Snape started sending him wolfsbane potions.

The first full moon was a mess for her but Remus would hopefully never find out about that. If he asks she would tell him but she hadn't told him about being a muggle yet so she definitely wasn't going to tell him about that.

The wolf went from hanging out in wolf packs and alone to having Catmint back, but not any of the others. It was clearly confused and kept howling and looking for the marauders. Carnation felt bad for most of the night than after the moon came up and Remus transformed back she realized that she timed it wrong and would have to wait an hour before she could change back. This was better than transforming an hour sooner but wasn't great as it meant she couldn't move Remus to his room or really do anything. Being a cat was fun but not really practical. It was a last minute decision to join Remus but she couldn't let him spend his first full moon at her house alone.

Remus, luckily, didn't wake up in that hour, but she still had no idea how to transform back without help so she would just have to time it right. Which shouldn't be too hard, of course she would give herself a 10 minute delay and not transform right when the moon is supposed to go down.