Adventure 1977

10: Punishment

James Potter's POV:

Receiving a scowl from Lily in the morning was probably the only thing I regretted from what we did.

At first it was baffling how the Gryffindor house prank was what got us in trouble and not the Hufflepuff house.

But it turns out the Willard kid also set up a prank for us.

I eyed the Hufflepuff kid next to me who surprisingly took all the blame when it's obvious that he'd never done the prank by himself.

The five of us were on our way to the greenhouse where we were tasked to set up the dragon dung compost for the lesson later.

The soil mixed with dung smelled disgusting and all of us grimaced as we watched Professor Sprout demonstrate by putting each scoop of dung into the pots.

We squatted down and grabbed our own pair of gloves before starting out when Professor called for our attention.

"Make sure to finish the job and prepare a hundred pots before the class starts at 9 am. Until then do your best"

Professor Sprouts said with a smile while we all wryly smiled back.

We sighed heavily as the Professor left the place before we continued doing our work.

Soon the sound of footsteps disturbed us and we all turned around to see Lily along with Harry and two other Hufflepuff kids appear at the entrance.

The Willard kid widened his eyes as he saw his friends in crime show up.

"W-Why are you here?"

The Willard kid stuttered still staring in disbelief at his friends.

"I know you don't want us to get into trouble because you thought and planned for the pranks anyway"

The kid with black hair said with a shy look while looking down.

"But we did help you set them up so we ought to share the punishment as well"

The other kid with brunette hair added with a smile on his face.

"Oh come on, you don't have to"

The Willard kid snorted and looked back at his pot, both ears reddening.

"What about you two?"

I asked and smiled at my Lily and our son.

"Well Harry here is worried about you and keeps asking where you are"

Lily said and slyly grinned at Harry.

I looked at Harry in shock, feeling my heart warmed. It somehow makes me happy that he was worrying for me.

"Is that true, Harry?"

I asked smiling from ear to ear.

"Y- Yes"

Harry shyly stuttered and nodded his head with a smile.

"Glad to have you lot helping us out"

Sirius added with a grin while Remus and Peter nodded.

"How about we all get to work and finish up before breakfast time ends?"

Lily said and clapped her hands. She gently pushed the back of the kids and helped them dress up in gardening clothes before squatting down with us.

She cast a spell to lose our sense of smell for awhile so we could efficiently finish our job.

After we're done we all agreed to head back to our common rooms to clean ourselves before having our late breakfast.

The very next day was the same, the nine of us headed to our second day of punishment which is to clean and feed the beasts for the Care of Magical Creatures class.

Lily informed Professor Kettleburn that the four of them, in addition, will also help as well and Professor gladly take up the offer and lead us to the magical creatures himself.

We got introduced to a Griffin that we fed a few meat. A Horned Serpent that only hissed at us until we shoved in the prey for him to kill.

Watching the casual death of an animal in front of us made us frown and question life.

But we soon forgot it when we met a Jobberknoll, a small blue peckled bird that has the look that symbolizes peace.

The kids watched the bird in awe as it pecked its grains and ignored us.

Then we happily petted the Kneazles and Knarls and caught the Hufflepuff kids cooing the cute animals using a high pitched baby voice.

We looked at their act feeling amused while the three turned to us feeling embarrassed.

"That's about it. Thank you for helping me today kids. Next time don't cause any trouble to meet me again this early in the morning"

The professor joked as he nodded at us in acknowledgement.

"We won't ever get in trouble again, professor. And even without causing trouble we did have fun meeting and taking care of these creatures. We might visit again in our spare time in the future"

Lily said with a smile while patting Harry's head.

"Glad to hear that, Miss Ev- I mean, Lily. Now off you go inside kids and have your breakfast meal. You don't want to have your belly grumbling all throughout the day don't you?"

He ended with a smile and we all nodded.

The nine of us headed back to the castle and shared a few banter to each other.

I laughed while watching Harry getting along with the three Hufflepuffs, they exchanged mischievous grin amongst each other and they reminded me of me and my friends.

"By the way my room is located in the third door counting from the right. These two guys on the other hand was on the first door"

Willard suddenly said while pointing his friends and looking at me and my friends. The two Hufflepuffs nodded their head with a smile while all of us stared at them asking what they meant.

"You know. You can prank us that way and we won't tell anyone about it"

The kid explained looking proud. My friends and I exchanged looks at each other before laughing out loud at the realization.

"What a wonderful idea!"

Sirius shouted.

"Our room's on the 2nd floor while Harry alternately sleeps with either Lily and us. If you want to prank him, do so during his class"

I stated in response which made the kids grin back while Lily smacked me in the head with an angry glare.

"Remember, nothing hurtful alright?"

I reminded and the kids nodded.

That day ended with a promise between us to only prank each other in secret.

It was also fun to know that my son Harry had made friends with kids his age.

Well they're basically older than him since he's from the future, nevertheless I'm proud.

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End of the chapter