Chapter 10

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Albus was rudely awakened the next morning to unholy screams. He jolted up in a panic, immediately clutching his wand. Slowly he crept towards the source of the noise, the bathroom. He paused outside before pushing slowly on the door. To his surprise it was open and he stumbled in, caught unaware. Instantly his wand was up, looking in every direction for the threat. But nothing could ever prepare him for what he was about to see next.

Scorpius was standing in front of the mirror, staring at himself in utter horror. His skin and clothes were neon green with bright purple polka dots and his hair, usually perfectly slicked back and blonde, was now a mop of glaring orange! Albus stared at him for 2 seconds before erupting into raucous peals of laughter. Scorpius turned to glare at him but Albus just laughed even more. It was extremely difficult to be intimidated by a face of purple polka dots.

Then suddenly Scorpius started laughing at him! What had they done to him? He took one look in the mirror and marched out angrily, on a furious hunt for his brother. He stormed out of the room only to find himself hanging upside down in the middle of the doorframe.

"JAMES POTTER!" As soon as those words left his mouth his skin changed colour. Originally it had been the same hideous colours as Scorpius and he was now completely pink with red hearts dotting across him!

Scorpius was bent over wheezing at that point. "Oi shut up idiot! You look stupid too!"

"Yeah, but at least I look better than you!" Scorpius choked out, still shaking with mirth.

"He's right, dear brother. He does indeed look better than you. Although, I must say, pink really is your colour!" smirked James, appearing out of nowhere.

"Albus gritted his teeth hard. "James Sirius Potter, if you don't let me down at this second, I swear to Merlin-"

"Fine, fine. You people are no fun," James rolled his eyes as he waved his wand. Albus dropped to the floor in a heap and got up, still glaring at his brother. "Bye!" called James skipping away. Albus stared after him suspiciously. "It's not like him to let us go so easily."

"We're still colourful though, and you still look like Valentine's day threw up on you," put in Scorpius. Albus rolled his eyes and shook his head helplessly.

"Maybe he decided to abuse someone else?" suggested Scorpius. Albus snorted. Ha! He and Scorp were his brother's favourite targets and Albus had no idea how they had gotten off so easily. "Let's just go," he said.

As they made their way downstairs they soon discovered what else James had done. As they passed the third last step on the way to the kitchen, Scorpius had the uncontrollable urge to skip down the last few steps singing 'Mary had a little lamb' while occasionally petting his non-existent lamb.

Albus on the other hand began singing 'You belong with me' in Sirius' direction. The two songs, both sung horribly out of tune, clashed with each other more than the colours on the boys' clothes. They exchanged horrified glances but weren't able to do anything. Albus continued in Sirius' direction, his eyes flashing pink hearts like the emoji.

Somehow their singing was increasing in volume, so they could still be heard amidst the cacophony of laughter in the kitchen. Sirius and Remus especially appreciate the genius of this prank as well as the spell work that would have gone into it. The twins, James and Fred (II) were being heartily congratulated by everyone except Mrs Weasley and Hermione, and even they were hard pressed to keep from laughing. Finally Scorpius' song ended and he breathed a sigh of relief which turned into a snort of laughter as he caught sight of his friend.

Poor Albus had reached Sirius and was now attempting to kiss him! Sirius, who was now slightly alarmed, began dodging and Albus kept trying, all while singing. His eyes were now dark pink hearts that kept beating. At this point everyone was in tears or rolling on the floor from the hilarity of the situation. Finally, finally, after what felt like an eternity to Albus, the song ended and he went back to normal.

He looked around. The entire room, including Scorpius, was roaring with laughter. He had been preparing to murder James very painfully but seeing Lily laughing genuinely again comforted him. She had never truly laughed since that night and seeing it again was wonderful. And it had been funny, he supposed. Reluctantly he felt the corners of his mouth start to lift. Soon he too was laughing with the rest and the mood in the kitchen was instantly lifted from the sombreness of yesterday.

All of the kids, future and past were put to work cleaning the house which was getting done very slowly as people were randomly bursting into laughter as they remembered the pranks in the morning.

As he sunk into another fit of giggles, Teddy saw something out of the corner of his eye. Going closer to look at it, his face turned serious immediately, something that went unnoticed by all but Victoire. She discreetly crept closer to him.

"What's wrong?" she whispered.

"That," he replied quietly, gesturing to a large locket with an 'S' on it. Victoire gasped before catching herself and bursting into laughter again to distract anyone who had looked at her.

"That's the real thing!"

"I know, but I don't know what to do with it. It's already a horcrux, should we put it somewhere Harry can find it more easily next time?"

Victoire paused to think about it for a while. Finally she said, "No, I think we should just let what happened last time happen again. We have no idea what details were left out of the textbooks. The journey to retrieve it could have played a huge part in the end. So we shouldn't meddle with anything more than we already have."

He nodded in agreement and brought the locket to the others' attention. Fred gasped softly but was immediately elbowed by Rose who had obviously come to the same conclusion as Vic, just a lot faster. She managed to pass on the message to the rest of them from the future and eventually the locket was stuffed in a bag with the other weird heirlooms. Teddy kept an eye on the bag long enough to see Kreacher sneak away with the locket clutched tightly in his fist. 

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