The End-of-the-Year Prank

"The End-of-the-Year Prank"

"Okay, Mr. Potter, Miss Granger, and Mr. Weasly, please explain yourselves," Dumbledore said, sitting down at the head of the staff table. Snape sat at his right hand.

"They caused a cow to fly, Headmaster," the greasy haired professor sneered.

"Let them tell the story, Severus," Dumbledore said kindly.

Harry Potter glanced at his two friends, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasly, then looked back at Dumbledore and sighed.

"Well....It all really started about six months ago, sir. You see, I had been out late practicing Quidditch and had Divination second thing the next morning. Apparently, because of my lack of sleep and the perfume Professor Trelawney always has coming out of her fire, I had fallen asleep...."

* * * *

"Harry! Harry, wake up!" Harry heard Ron whisper urgently.

Harry woke up abruptly. Professor Trelawney, in all her gauzy glory, stood over him.

"What did you see?" she asked, using the most heavily misted voice Harry had heard yet.

"What?" he asked groggily. He was vaguely aware that everyone was staring at him.

"You were mumbling in your sleep, Harry," Ron murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

"In the dream, what did you see?" Professor Trelawney persisted.

I can't honestly remember, Harry thought, but she'll never buy that.

"A cow," Harry said, suddenly thinking he could make this situation funnier than it was. "I saw a cow, flying around and around the school. I remember hearing a first year yell, 'It shall fly!' at it."

Trelawney, Lavender Brown, and Parvati Patil gasped. Lavender and Parvati were among the few who took this class seriously.

"A prediction of what there is to come," Trelawney said. "You heard, 'It shall fly' which is close to 'It shall pass'. It will come true."

Ron and Harry glanced at one another. The bell rang.

"Harry," Trelawney said as Harry and Ron retreated from the classroom, "beware cows!"

The two boys burst into laughter as soon as they reached the corridors and continued to laugh even as Hermione joined them, coming back from her Arithmacy lesson.

"What's so funny?" she asked as they continued to their next class.

Harry and Ron filled her in on, what was becoming known as 'The Cow Dream'. She laughed right along with them.

* * * *

Snape scowled; Dumbledore looked as though he were fighting a grin.

"You lied to your teacher," Snape said acidly.

"Not really, sir. I really do think I saw the future. Two nights later I had an actual dream of a cow," Harry said.

Ron snorted; Hermione went rigid; Snape glared; Dumbledore chuckled.

"So, Harry, it took the three of you six months to plan this prank?"

"No, sir," Ron said. "Only about a day to plan and a couple of minutes to plant the.....proper points."

"You see, sir, the joke just stayed with us that long," Hermione stated.

"Very well. Continue, Harry," Dumbledore nodded.

"Well, about six months later, we were in the Gryffindor Common Room, talking with Fred and George..."

* * * *

"We should do something," Fred said.

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"Well, both Dumbledore and McGonagall are gone, trying to convince the ministry about You-Know-Who, so we should do something. Something like an....end-of-the-year prank," George said.

Ron stared at his two elder, twin brothers then started to laugh hysterically.

"What is it, Ron?" Harry asked.

Ron retold 'The Cow Dream'.

"Wouldn't it be funny if we could pull of that prediction?" he said.

Fred and George sighed, declared it impossible, and walked away.

"Then we should do it," Ron said, staring at the twins' retreating backs.

"No. We can't," Hermione said.

"Oh, Hermione, what are the odds of it working?" Ron shrugged.

"Yeah, but it would be fun to try," Harry said.

The next day, as Harry and Hermione waited nearby on the castle's steps, Ron approached a young, first year girl. The girl was trying, to no avail, to use Wingardium Leviosa.

"You know," Ron said, "take it from me, if you're having trouble learning that spell, you should start with something big."

The girl looked uncertainly down at the feather she was trying to levitate.

"Like what?" she asked.

"Um.....a cow," Ron said, and he walked off to rejoin Harry and Hermione.

"Stage one: Complete," he said.

"My turn," Harry said.

He walked over to a first year boy, who held a broken mirror in his hand, that Ginny had introduced to them as 'the boy who has bad luck'.

"You know," Harry said, "it's good luck that if you see a cow flying around something, to yell 'it shall fly' really loud."

The boy started, but nodded. Harry, proud of himself, walked off. No way this was going to work.

* * * *

"Manipulating first years," Snape growled at them.

"We didn't think they'd be...naïve enough to do anything!" Ron protested.

Dumbledore raised his hands. "Yes, Mr. Weasly, we understand. Severus, no more interruptions until this story is finished."

Snape glowered, but nodded.

Harry continued, "Two days later, we were walking up on the sixth floor of Hogwarts..."

* * * *

"Man," Ron said, "I'm so glad that's over. If I'd have to wait any longer, I could've eaten-" He went suddenly dumbfounded- "a cow."

"A cow, Ron?" Hermione asked. Ron rushed to the window they were standing by.

"A cow! I saw a cow!"

"Ron, there's no.....cow" Harry said as a black and white cow went flying by. He soon heard someone yell, "It shall fly!"

The trio stood there in a stupor as, slowly, several more people could be seen leaning out the windows to see the cow. Suddenly, Snape appeared behind them.

"What's the problem with you three? Have you all been hexed?"

The trio was in such a stupor that all they could manage was to point out the window and say, "Cow."

"Cow?" Snape asked. "There is no-" the cow flew by, "cow. Stay here. I know you three have something to do with this!"

He ran down the stairs and could soon be seen down on the grounds, trying ever spell he knew to bring the cow down. He made some progress. The cow had stopped flying around the school, but now it was stuck on the roof.

"Jump, Cow!" Fred yelled. "Snape'll catch you!"

"Shut up, Mr. Weasly!" Snape called back at him. Finally, Snape managed to get the cow done, but suddenly something very strange happened to the cow.

"Oh my God!" Hermione gasped.

* * * *

Dumbledore stared. "And then I arrived," he stated.

"Yes, sir," the trio stated.

"And, Severus, what has become of the cow?"

Snape reached into the pocket of his robes and pulled out a small figurine of a black and white cow.

"Well," Dumbledore sighed. "There's really no rules against making a cow fly. So I really can't punish the three."

"WHAT?!" Snape yelled, shaking the figurine at Dumbledore. "Look what they did to the cow!"

Dumbledore started to laugh.

"This is hardly funny, Headmaster!" Snape persisted.

"Severus, I've dealt all day with the ministry. Anything's funny," Dumbledore chuckled.

Snape snorted angrily and walked out.

"The three of you may leave," Dumbledore said.

Ron and Hermione stood and left. Harry stood, but before he left, he turned to Dumbledore and asked, "Professor, the cow figurine, do you think Professor Snape'll keep it?"

Dumbledore laughed. "Maybe, but if he doesn't, Harry, I'll make sure it gets back to you."

Harry nodded and left.