Previously:
Boom!

It was the day of exams, and the twins messed everything up. Per usual.

Not that I was complaining, I was bored out of my mind watching kids write on parchment for hours. I was also tired of reprimanding Malfoy and his friends for disturbing Harry and his friends as they took the test. Waiting for us to get to the practical portion of the DADA exam was proving to be unbearable. Even Penny was dying. She tilted her head so far back in her seat, I half expected her to fall backwards.

She and Medusa had been experimenting on something in the forest earlier that day but Medusa deemed it too dangerous for the experimenting to continue with Penny there so she sent her back.

Therefore, the fireworks exploding in the hall right outside my classroom came as a welcome distraction.

"Quick, everyone, have you finished your exam?" I stood from my chair. I got a general nod around the room. "Good. Those of you who haven't stay and finish up with Miss Clearwater, everyone else, get out."

[...            ...            ...]

A bang on the door made us jump. We shared a look and left the room only to see a few rough housing students and campers trailing after the fire works promoting the twins' new store.

I shrugged and hooked her arm in my elbow. "May I interest you in a picnic this evening under the stars?" I asked as charmingly as I could.

Penny beamed up at me. "Indeed you may."

Why did it have to be on the day of exams? Now I need to pretend to be annoyed. More for the camper's sakes than my family's. And I guess so McGonagall doesn't give me her disappointed look as well. I didn't realize I would have a problem with the day of pranks that was to inevitably happen when Fred and George collaborated with the Stoll brothers.

"Penny, remind me to give the four of them random points throughout the day tomorrow." I said as we walked through the hall from my classroom.

Small, spinning fireworks scattered the air in the hall. Some of them spelling out the name for their shop. They changed colors with every turn. They not only changed colors, but split off into other fireworks so the numbers grew with every passing second.

"Percy, you can't just do that." Penny said, exasperated.

"Why not? Their charm work is amazing." I said. "Besides, how else am I to show them I approve?"

Penny was stopped from answering as we turned the corner. Covering the entire length and width of this corridor, was a swamp. A smelly, and unfortunately messy swamp.

"Well, how are we to get to the Great Hall for lunch now?" I said.

"Don't worry, Professor, I know a short cut." A new voice said.

"Harry?" I turned to see him and his two friends smiling at the swamp. Hermione especially seemed impressed.

"Short cut?" Penny asked confused. "I've gone to this school for seven years. Don't you think I would have heard of a shortcut from here to the Great Hall by now?"

"It's a parselmouth password protected passage." Harry explained. "I've been exploring the castle more since Dobby showed us the Room of Requirement."

"Excellent, lead the way, Mr. Potter." I said.

He led us through a painting of a young girl who was almost too excited to wait for the password.

"Eloise hasn't had anyone use her passage since Salazar Slytherin's great grandson went to school here." Harry explained. "She was almost offended that Tom hadn't bothered to look for her."

We arrived at the Great Hall for lunch only to see that the entire room was a deep purple. Everything. Even the floor and ceiling. Oh, and the students. I don't know how they managed it. The instant we stepped in the room, we also turned purple. Even the food! It was very strange taking a bite out of a purple chicken sandwich.

"Alright, there, Percy?" It was Fred. He and George were sauntering up to the teacher's table with very purple smug grins.

"I'm fantastic! However did you manage it?" I said excitedly.

"That's our secret." George said.

"But we learned a few things from our friends from America before we stopped talking to them." Fred continued.

I frowned. "Why—?"

"Because of you, Percy." Penny said. "They're mad at the campers because of what they did to you."

"Oh." I shook my head. "You don't need to—"

"Oh, look, there's Ronnie-kins!" Fred said, ignoring me completely.

"Shall we go say hello?" And they were gone.

I sighed in resignation.

"At least it saved some damage to the school." Penny said. "No doubt with the four of them together, they would have destroyed a tower or something."

"I certainly hope you told your miscreant brothers to clean up their mess." A nasally voice broke into our conversation. "And have given them detention."

"No, and I—"

"Of course, I have!" I spoke quickly, so Penny didn't give them detention with Snape. I just know if I didn't give it to them, Snape would. "They will be meeting me at my office tonight."

Snape sniffed and walked off to his own seat for lunch.

"Percy, we can't prove they did it." Penny said. "We can't give them detention."

"No, but he would find some reason for it anyway." I replied. "Besides, I didn't actually—"

Screams interrupted me. I looked in the direction of the Gryffindor table to see a purple lion running along the table. More screams from the other side of the room showed a giant badger doing the same. Soon, a giant snake joined the lion and badger and a giant eagle soared through the air.

Eventually, as everyone realized they weren't doing any harm, the screams died down. As soon as they did, small puffs of smoke appeared around the animals and they turned into wide eyed students breathing hard. Then other lions, badgers, snakes, and eagles began running around the hall. One purple lion even coming from McGonagall. Even the Slytherin table ended up joining in on the laughter.

I kept trying to find the food that would turn me into an animal but couldn't find it. Pouting, I turned to Penny, now a giant eagle sitting next to  me. "How come I'm not turning into an animal?"

She looked confused for a second before screeching in alarm. One of her wings slapped me in the face as she took off. I watched her circle the Hall a couple times until she dove down, landing with perfect timing. Now a human Penny once more, she grabbed the twins and pulled them in my direction.

"What the bloody hell are you doing, Penny?" Fred asked.

"You can't prove anything!" George cried.

Penny cut off their protests by leaning in close between them from behind. "Percy here never attended Hogwarts, so he was never sorted. Would that be why he hasn't turned into a great purple lion?"

The twins' eyes grew wide. Mine quickly followed as I realized what that would mean.

Penny rolled here eyes. "Were the Stoll brothers in on this debacle?"

The twins quickly scrambled to pull me out of the Great Hall. "Sorry about that, Percy." George said.

"Yeah, we forgot that small detail." Fred grinned sheepishly at Penny and me. "You might want to avoid the Great Hall during dinner then too. We planned a similar prank then."

"Oh, don't worry." I said. "Penny and I were going to have dinner alone tonight."

"Really?" George said, his eyebrows wiggling.

"Don't stay out too late." Fred teased. "Remember; nothing good happens after 2am."

"Oh, shove off!" Penny exclaimed, pushing them away even as they laughed. She turned to me, blushing. "Let's just go." She took my arm—I don't know how it happened—we were suddenly in the library.

"We can hide here until the chaos dies down." Penny said. She was still blushing.

That's okay, I'm almost positive I was blushing too.