That afternoon, Leo, Fred, and George stood some distance away from the two-meter-tall box jam packed with the Weasleys' own enchanted fireworks.
"Ready?" Leo asked.
"When you are," the twins chorused.
Leo lit up his fingertips and sent a fireball spinning neatly to the box.
It happened in an instant. There was a blinding flash of light as they all lit at once, then colors spewed everywhere, sending sparks ricocheting along the walls. Cheering gleefully, the trio watched as dragons made of sparks, five meter long Catherine wheels, rockets composed seemingly of pure color, swear-word-writing sparklers, and firecrackers that let out loud bangs of explosions of noise and light flew out in all directions until the air was thick with glorious destruction.
"Come on," Fred said grinning largely. "We've got a spot to watch from."
Leo ducked behind a hidden alcove behind a tapestry with the boys. After a neat spell from George, the tapestry seemed to vanish, although Leo had the impression it was more of a one-way window.
Students and teachers were running towards the disruption. Umbridge and Filch were both hurrying over, Umbridge with a rather violent waddle and Filch hobbling along Behind her. As soon as they saw the commotion, their eyeballs nearly simultaneously fell out of their skulls.
Fred and George high fived. "Mission accomplished," they both whispered.
>>>•O•<<<
Leo carefully placed the small bronze ball on the windowsill. Pulling out his wand, he tapped it twice and the ball unfurled into a small shining dragonfly that rose in the air. He watched as it zipped off to wherever they went to.
He must've made hundreds. Bugs, birds, small animals, mice, rodents, and (shh, don't tell Annabeth) spiders. Someone must've noticed them by then. But maybe they were too busy with the rogue fireworks that had been set off earlier that week.
As if cued by his thoughts, a spinning blue-and-gold Catherine wheel burst into the room with a resounding wheeeeeeeee!
"I'll go tell Professor Umbridge there's another one loose," said Anthony Goldstein, watching it fly around the room. Terry Boot's four-poster-drapes caught on blue and gold fire.
"Ooh, we'll want to see this," said Michael Corner with relish as he swatted out Terry's flames.
The boys hurried down the stairs, and Anthony slipped out the door. A few minutes later, they heard voices by the door.
"Just in here, Professor," said Anthony.
"Well, what's the password?" Umbridge asked irritably.
"Oh, there is no password," said Anthony like it was obvious. "You have to answer a question."
"What's the question then?"
A melodious voice rang out from what Leo knew to be the brass eagle knocker. "What am I?"
There was a moment of incredulous silence. "What are you?" Umbridge repeated in her high girlish voice. "What does it mean?"
"Exactly what it means, Professor," Anthony said in a perfectly normal voice. Leo had to hand it to him, the boy was an excellent actor. Or so he assumed from the voice. He couldn't see Anthony's face.
"Well, I suppose you are an eagle."
The brass eagle didn't respond.
"An enchanted brass eagle," Umbridge said slowly again. Still there was no response.
From his position with his ear pressed to the door, Leo smirked. He had made that same mistake himself the first week he arrived: trying to answer in the most obvious way there was. It wasn't until Luna had told him that he had to think outside of the box did Leo finally get the hang of it.
"Do you need help, Professor?" Anthony asked. There was no change in tone but the taunt was as clear as day.
"Antonio I am perfectly fine," Umbridge replied sharply. "Now tell this— this— doorknob to let me in!"
The Catherine wheel whirled through the common room before spinning to the girl's dormitories.
"What am I?" The musical voice asked again.
"Alohomora!" Umbridge cried.
And so it went. Umbridge trying and failing to answer the question and then casting spells. After what seemed to be twenty minutes of failure in which case the Catherine wheel had long sailed out the open window, they heard Umbridge finally say,
"What is it, Anthony?"
"What am I?" The brass eagle asked again.
Anthony answered without hesitation, "a question."
The door swung open and the three boys, now joined by several others, skirted out of the way. Umbridge stalked in, red-faced and furious.
"Well?" She asked expectantly. "Where is it?"
"It flew out the window some ten minutes ago," a sixth year piped up. "Somewhere our on the grounds."
They gleefully watched as Umbridge turned even darker and stormed from the room, steam nearly billowing from her ears.
>>>•Piper•<<<
All that week, Chaos ransacked the school. Dragons soared in and out of classrooms, breathing multicolored flames. Rockets bounced off the walls, never seeming to run out of energy. Sparklers were like hundreds of copies of Peeves as they scribbled large and vibrant swear words, but the teachers didn't seem to mind.
"Oh, dear," Snape said lazily as a firecracker exploded a sample of pickled goat horns. "You, Smith, run down to the headmistress office and tell her we have another firecracker in the dungeons?"
And so it went. McGonagall simply closed the windows so that the sparks couldn't escape. Firenze didn't seem to care that there were swear words being written in the smoke of the sage fumes. Flitwick, like Snape, simply sent for Umbridge to help. The rest of charms was spent with everyone sitting on the desks along the wall and watching Umbridge play tag with a rocket.
"Thank you so much, Professor!" squeaked Flitwick after Umbridge managed to shoo it out the window. "I could have got rid of the sparklers myself, of course, but I wasn't sure whether I had the authority..."
And he slammed the door shut in her face.
Draco, Pansy, Crabbe And Goyle, and the other members of the Inquisitorial Squad were running around as wildly as Umbridge. Piper halfheartedly tried to help, but she enjoyed watching the colors spinning brightly away as much as everyone else.
"To be fair, there's not much we can do," said Piper when Pansy interrogated her on the fact. "Except herding them up only to have them fly away again."
"And you have to admit," said Draco in a low voice. "They do actually make class pretty interesting."
>>>•Leo•<<<
"Hey, guys," Leo said happily as Fred and George approached him a few days later. "Fireworks still going strong, eh?"
"Yeah. The Toad's gone and shoved them all out the window now, so there's a lot less, but we still think there's a couple hiding around the corners," George said airily.
"Business is going great," Fred added. "But we were thinking that maybe it was time we approached broader horizons."
"You ready, mate?" George asked, clasping Leo on the shoulder.
"Hell yeah," Leo replied, grinning, before they could make another comment on how he didn't have to go. "So when?"
"Today—"
"— as soon as class is over—"
"—in the Great Hall."
"We sent our trunks ahead already, figured you might want to do the same."
"Number ninety three, Diagon Alley."
"Cool," said Leo, unfazed by the whole twin-talk. "See you then, I guess."