Pyjama Party
"Defence today." Ron said, suppressing a shudder. So far they'd only had a couple of lessons, one of which included the showing of the three unforgiveable curses. The others were mostly tame, just note taking and a few duels. But Moody had warned them at the end of their previous lesson that he would be putting them all under the imperius curse next time he taught them.
"I still think it's highly illegal." Draco muttered. Since he had apologised, Harry and Daphne had been forcing him to sit with the group at the Gryffindor table every morning, much to his disdain. Especially as Harry kept trying to force-feed him jam at every given opportunity.
As much as Draco hated to admit it, he had found his place within the ever-growing group of friends. He, Harry, Ron, Ginny would debate about quidditch for hours, Krum and Cedric joining in when they weren't busy with their own friends or studying. Ginny was adamant Holyhead Harpies were the best team, whilst Ron favoured the Chudley Cannons.
"But they're always the bottom of the league!" Draco had exclaimed in exasperation. "The Appleby Arrows are far better." Harry nodded in agreement. He'd loved the Arrows since Lupin had told him it was his father's favourite team. He also supported the Holyhead Harpies with Ginny, he thought they were pretty good players.
Draco even found common ground with Hermione. It turned out Draco was also obsessed with his studies, and he and Hermione would often be found in the library studying in companionable silence or arguing over mundane things. He backed Hermione up when she tried to force the others to study, which Ron hated.
Ginny and Draco fought the most, but it was in a jokey way. Mostly.
"Apparently he has Dumbledore's permission." Daphne said, before snatching Draco's toast of his plate and taking a large bite out of it.
"I wish you'd stop doing that." Draco grumbled, picking up a green apple instead. Daphne just smirked at him and winked.
"Come on, we'll be late." Hermione said, standing up, "Unless we just... don't go?" She suggested.
The four other fourth years turned to stare at her, open mouthed.
"Hermione? Are you feeling okay?" Ron asked in shock.
Hermione shrugged. "Not really, no. I have a bad feeling about this, it isn't right."
"I know what you mean Hermione, but Moody will be suspicious if we all skip class." Harry reasoned. "Let's just go and get it over with." Harry got to his feet and offered her his hand.
"Fine." She sighed, grabbing his hand. He grinned at her and tugged her out of the hall. The rest shared a long-suffering look and followed after them.
They made it to class on time, only to find all the tables pushed to the side and the other students standing around the edge of the room, with Moody in the middle.
"Come on guys, we're playing ring-a-roses!" Harry shouted, waving wildly at his friends. Hermione rolled her eyes.
"Shut it, Potter. Find a place to stand, you three, and be prepared to fight off the imperius curse. Granger, you're up first."
"It'll be okay." Harry whispered to her, shoving her gently towards the middle. She gulped, but stood in front of Moody bravely.
"Imperio." He whispered, in a voice quite unlike his usual scratchy, gravelly tone. Harry narrowed his eyes, but didn't point it out to Ron.
Hermione began to sing a muggle song, and skipped around the classroom. When Moody lifted the spell, she quickly returned to her place beside Harry.
"You're a good singer." Harry complimented. Hermione blushed.
Moody, Harry thought, seemed to be quite enjoying putting the imperius curse on students. Dean did a weird dance, Draco imitated a chicken, Susan scampered around all fours like a dog. One by one, each student was placed under the curse and failed to throw it off. Until it was Harry's turn.
"Before you curse me, I will warn you that I'm secretly Snape in disguise and I will get my revenge for this." Harry said seriously. Moody barked out a laugh.
"Ha! You wish, Potter. Now, focus. Imperio!"
Harry casually stepped to the side, and the spell flew past him and hit the wall.
"Potter, you have to let me curse you!" Moody growled.
"I do? Sorry, I thought we were playing magical tag." Harry said. He closed his eyes and spread his arms wide. "Fire away, Sir."
"Imperio."
Harry's mind went blissfully blank, and he revelled in the feeling.
"Jump onto the desk."
"Aw man, but dancing would be so much more fun!"
"Jump onto the desk."
The class watched at Harry began doing the macarena.
"I thought for sure if anyone would throw it off it would be Harry." Seamus said, sounding slightly disappointed. Moody, however, looked delighted.
"He hasn't fought it off just yet. He's still under the curse, but he's disobeying my orders. I told him to jump on the desk." Moody lifted the curse and Harry swivelled his hips for a final time before blinking up at the professor.
"Eyyyyy, Macarena! Next time, can you tell me to do something more interesting?" Harry asked casually. Moody laughed again.
"As you wish Potter. This time, try and fight it off completely. Imperio." Harry staggered for a second before his eyes went glassy once more.
"Do a cartwheel."
"No thank you, I want to do something fun."
The rest of the class watched as Moody was forced backwards by the force of Harry throwing off the spell. Harry began spinning around in circles, faster and faster.
"Good one Professor!" Ron laughed.
"Not my doing, Weasley. He beat the curse, that's just Potter being Potter."
Harry began to hum, slowing his spinning and wobbling.
"Cartwheeling is boring. That was far more fun." He said simply. Moody looked positively delighted.
"You're a force to be reckoned with, Potter. They do say the insane find it quite easy to throw the spell off, as there is no sense of instruction in their mind to begin with."
"I'm not the insane one, Potter is." Harry said, in a poor imitation of Snape. "My Polyjuice potion will wear off soon, mind if I leave early so I can change back somewhere more private and plot my revenge?"
"Sure Potter, get out of here. The rest of you stay, until I decide you are decent enough at throwing off the curse." The other students groaned as Harry skipped out of the classroom, dragging Hermione with him.
"Thanks, Harry." She said gratefully.
The rest of Harry's lessons that day were just as entertaining. In transfiguration he had a conversation with McGonagall about whether a dog animagus would die if it ate chocolate, and her answer gave him an awesome prank to try on Sirius. In Herbology he befriended some venomous plant that tried to bite him several times, but seemed to give up when Harry summoned one of Luna's dresses to dress it up in. Sprout took ten points of Gryffindor, then added twenty as the plant seemed to like its new look and ceased trying to bite everyone that walked past it.
Divination was one of his favourite lessons of the day.
"What do you see in the crystal ball, Harry?" Trelawney had asked him.
"I see a frog wearing a pink hat." Harry said solemnly. Trelawney blinked.
"I see. And what do you think it means?"
"I think it means the frog really likes pink. I also see you, Professor."
"Me? Really?" Trelawney looked beside herself with excitement. "What am I doing?"
"You're- you're kissing someone." Harry said frowning, peering more closely into the completely blank crystal ball. OH MY GOSH!" He yelled suddenly, making Trelawney jump. "It's Lockhart! You're kissing Lockhart! And- oh, I can't watch anymore." Harry put his head in hands as Ron, Neville, Dean and Seamus began to laugh loudly. Parvati and Lavender looked far from impressed.
"Weasley, what about you?" Trelawney said hurriedly, looking flustered.
"Hmmm." Ron made a show of looking closely into the crystal ball.
"I see a dark shape, it's kinda hard to tell what it is."
"Look closer." Trelawney encouraged. Ron frowned.
"It looks like a horse." Ron said suddenly. "A big horse with wings."
"Like the ones from the Beauxbatons carriage?"
"Yes, except these ones are bright pink. Oh, Harry's frog is there! He has a sword! The frog is using the flying horses to start a war!" Ron exclaimed, looking panicked. "We have to escape!"
"RUN!" Harry yelled, leaping to his feet and dragging Neville with him by the front his robes. "Run for your lives!"
He ran out of the classroom, Neville being pulled along. Ron wasn't far behind, waving his hands in the air and screaming. Dean and Seamus shared a look before following them.
Luckily for no one, they had astronomy that night, so Harry's chaos didn't end with Divination.
"Sorry I'm late professor, I forgot it was the pyjama party tonight." Harry said brightly, standing in his pyjamas. Ron stood next to him, identical grin on his face, also in his pyjamas. Hermione had refused to be a part of it and was in her uniform, looking fed up. Draco stood next to her, muttering about "imbeciles".
Daphne had surprisingly decided to wear pyjamas too, and was busy laying blankets out on the floor.
"Well, a pyjama party wasn't what I had planned for today's lesson." Professor Sinistra said, sounding faintly amused. "We were going to study Orion's belt today."
"But professor, life is so stressful at the moment what with the tournament and all." Harry said mournfully. Ron nodded in agreement, doing his best to look sad. "And the house elves have spent ages making food!"
"Well, we can't let the house elves good work go to waste, can we? How about a deal?" Sinistra offered.
"Sure!" Harry said eagerly.
"We spend the first half of the lesson studying Orion's belt, then afterwards we can have your 'pyjama party'."
"Deal. You're the best Professor ever!"
"30 Points to Professor Sinistra!" Hermione declared, losing her annoyed look and grinning now that she knew she'd get to do at least some work.
"Thank you, Miss Granger!"
The group left the tower an hour later, looking pleased with themselves.
"We had fun and still did work! Harry, you're a genius!" Hermione exclaimed.
"I wasn't planning on her making us do work first." Harry grumbled. "But that was such a good party! Snape is going to be so jealous when I tell him Professor Sinistra is my new favourite Professor." Everyone knew Harry had claimed Snape to be his favourite for a few weeks, and potions was the lesson he acted up in the most. If Sinistra was taking that spot, it meant nothing good for her and everything good for Snape. Supposedly.
"He'll probably be delighted." Draco drawled. "He'll think it means you'll stop annoying him."
Draco was right.
"Professor Snape?" Harry called out at breakfast the next morning. Some students didn't react, used to their meals being interrupted. Some looked up interestedly, looking forward to seeing what Harry had planned next. Some looked faintly annoyed at yet another interruption.
"What now, Potter?" Snape sighed, exasperated.
"Professor Sinistra is my new favourite."
"YES!" Snape yelled, looking triumphant. "No more crazy Potter in my classes! He's all yours Aurora." Then he remembered where he was and sobered up immediately, looking faintly embarrassed.
"I'm not crazy in your classes, I'm my usual self. That isn't going to change, everything will remain as it usually is." Harry said innocently. Sinistra laughed loudly and Snape looked like someone had confiscated his favourite cauldron.
"Let me die." He begged quietly. "Please let me die." McGonagall smirked at him.