(Word Count: 1,080)
The next morning, Harry was reading through the letters he had gotten. One was from Sirius. Several detection charms deemed it safe enough, so he opened it. Though Hermione next to me scooted away, remembering the first day.
Dear Plumes,
Ha! I figured out what you did! You even got Tripsy to help you? For shame, Harry! And for shame, Tripsy! You should have seen the old elf giggle when I found out. Gave me nightmares. You can look forward to some payback when you come back for Christmas.
Sirius.
I didn't stoop to your level and didn't tattle about your feelings to Tonks. Your secrets are safe. For now.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
"What did he say?" Hermione asked.
"Oh, nothing important. He figured out what my prank was. I think I'll be staying here for Christmas break," he said.
He opened the next letter, this one from Remus.
Dear Harry,
Sirius finally figured out what it was you did. He's been giggling evilly to himself since, so be on the lookout for any mail from him. Don't let this get too escalated. You don't want to be plucking feathers off your backside every day when it's time for testing. Trust me. Not fun.
I've heard from Flitwick that he'll be tutoring you in duelling every week! Congratulations! Make sure you give it your all. He may be small, but he's seriously skilled. Learn everything you can from him, and don't be afraid to ask him about your own theories. Flitwick can go on and on about the intricacies of spellwork.
Love, Remus
The next letter was from Ginny, and it was mostly asking about how Hogwarts was, and telling about some of the things she's overheard about it from her older brothers. She also warned him to be careful of any pranks from the twins.
The next letter was from Luna. The Lovegoods were going to go on a hiking trip next month, to try and find something called the "Weetimorousbeastie," where they'll be going up and down the River Clyde in the area around Glasgow, Scotland. Apparently Xenophilius had read Gilderoy Lockhart's book "Marauding with Monsters" where he did the same in search of the Weetimorousbeastie. Xeno wanted to find this strange new creature.
As long as they had one of the expanded wizard's tents, that expedition could actually be really fun. Going camping with the family, searching for a new magical creature? All without losing out on the creature comforts of home? That was something Harry could do.
Though that reminded Harry that he had forgotten to deal with Lockhart yet. Eh. He'll deal with him when the time comes.
The last letter was from Dora.
Wotcha, Harry!
How'd your first week at Hogwarts go? If you pull off anything crazy, you've got to tell me, okay?
Me, I'm dying in this Auror training. They stuck me with Mad-Eye Moody, of all people! He has a magic eye that can see through anything! He's lucky he's too serious and paranoid, or people would think the worst about that. If it was anyone else, I'd hex him to pieces, just on principle.
Love, Dora.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle. Yeah, if Moody had any other type of character than his paranoid war vet, there would be no getting around those types of rumors. Still, he was glad that Dora was getting some serious training. It was good for her.
Sirius and Remus's letters didn't need a response, so Harry just quickly penned a letter to Dora, telling her of his first week. Complaining about the classes with Snape, about the study group he put together, telling her about encountering Fluffy, and exploring the Forbidden Forest and finding the herd of unicorns. He then told her about his plans to train under Flitwick, and ended the letter with "CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"
He then charmed the letter to explode into confetti, to fall down and spell out "have fun with the extra laps Moody will put you through" on the ground.
Harry didn't tell her about the prank on Sirius because, knowing her, she would go and laugh at him, then Sirius may or may not out his crush as revenge.
He then penned another letter detailing much of the same things for a letter to Ginny and Luna, though he spent more time writing about the Forbidden Forest, the unicorns, and his "adventure" with Ron and finding Fluffy, rather than complaining about Snape. He duplicated the letter, then wrote in "Dear Ginny," and "Dear Luna," respectively. To personalize the letters some more, he wrote about the flying class and the quidditch pitch in Ginny's letter, and wrote about the thestrals and some of the other creatures he found in the Forbidden Forest and his plans on befriending the local murders of crows on the school grounds for Luna's letter. He wished Luna and her parents luck in finding the "Weetimorousbeastie," and to make sure they tell him how it went.
Harry sent the letters off with Hedwig. Hopefully, Dora's letter will find her wherever the Aurors train, and not at home. Otherwise, the prank won't make much sense.
Hermione was finished with her own letters to her parents. "Do you want to go to the library, or back up to the room?" He asked.
"Let's stick with the library today, we don't want to overuse the room and make people suspicious on where we disappear off to," Hermione said.
"Good call. Let's stay visible so others can find us if they need to," Harry nodded in agreement. "Still, we can also use the room to get access to the books in the restricted section as well. So if there's any books you need access to, we can go up to the room to get it."
"Harry!" Hermione was scandalized at the thought of abusing the system.
"Hey, it's not like we're ones to do anything bad with it! Besides, think of all the spells we can learn? The divination spell I did was from a book in the restricted section, by the way."
Hermione looked guilty as she considered it, biting her lip in thought. Her two sides were warring with each other. Eventually, her bookworm side won. "Okay, but we'll be responsible with it!"
"Of course, of course," Harry said soothingly.
"And I'm not even done reading the books on the Mind Arts yet!"
Harry led them to the library for their morning reading session.