The New Trio and the Madness Within

Chapter 10: The Servants of Lord Voldemort

Notes: Okay, so here's the last chapter for book 3. Look out for chapter 1 of book 4 in my works on the 24th of October. Enjoy!

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The weeks passed after the joyous win of Gryffindor. Harry and Draco went on another date, this time two days before Valentine's Day, in Hogsmeade, where they discovered that Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, which was meant to be the romantic date venue, was in fact tacky and quite horrifying. They both promised never to go there ever again, and ended up having a make-up date on Valentine's Day in the Room of Requirement; Draco picked the 'location' this time, and so they spent the evening sat at a table on top of the Eiffel Tower. It was obvious to Harry that Draco was a true romantic, and he vowed to be more romantic with him in the future.

February turned to March, and Ron's 14th birthday, which was celebrated in the Gryffindor common room with as much food as could possibly fit, and a bunch of presents from the majority of Gryffindors. Ron had truly come into his own during his time at Hogwarts-he had mellowed out from the slightly petty, easily jealous person he'd been before, and was friendly with most Gryffindors and the odd Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Harry knew that Ron had secretly expected to go on all sorts of adventures with Harry and Neville, but as he simply didn't know about any of the mysteries Harry and his friends got into, he had settled down and started to enjoy being at Hogwarts like the aspiring social butterfly he was.

April Fool's Day was the twins' birthday, and this meant that the Marauders' Recruits went on an all-out pranking spree; filling bathrooms with skin colour-changing soaps, watching E.T. in History of Magic, and convincing the house elves in the kitchen to put huge googly eyes that were enchanted to move on each food. Fred and George commandeered a spare classroom on the fourth floor and invited everyone in the school, even the staff, to party with them. As was expected of the twins, all the foods were pranked, and the twins showed off the products they'd been working so hard on-Fred smashed an Instant Snow-Day bottle and the room was filled with flurries of snow, which led to a snowball fight (in which everyone learned that McGonagall had a wicked throwing arm), and George let off some of his more mild Wildfire Whiz-bangs at the very end of the party.

The week after was the Easter Holiday, which wasn't really a holiday at all, since no one actually went home because they had been flooded with homework and exam revision, and the following weekend was the Quidditch final. It turned out to be an incredibly close game, and Ron got his first taste of a proper Quidditch game when a Bludger knocked out Oliver in the last ten minutes of the game. He did quite well, considering he'd only ever been the reserve Keeper and even though he'd been to every practice, it couldn't compare to having the stands packed with students and having to try to defend the goal hoops from the cheating Chasers Slytherin had this year. After a gruelling match, Harry caught the Snitch and was carried away to Gryffindor Tower on the backs of his teammates. This time, Sirius was at the game, and was one of the people to help carry Harry away from the cheering stands.

The month of May was filled to the brim with frantic exam studying, at least on Hermione's part until she was taken into a side room the Room had created for Fred, and she came out after a while with a giddy grin and a much more relaxed air. After that, the studying was much more fruitful and full of laughter and conversation, although Hermione still insisted they actually study, instead of just talking, as that could be done at any time. It was helpful that their group was made up of some of the members of three year groups, because the fifth-years helped the third-years, who helped the second-years, meaning that the third-years and second-years had a much better idea of what was in their exams, and the fifth-years found they could recall things easier when they walked the younger years through their exams. On the fourth of May, Potions classes were cancelled, and Severus took Draco to St Mungo's because Narcissa had gone into labour. Early the next morning, Draco slipped into Harry's bed, waking him up. "Wuzzit?" he murmured sleepily.