A True Riddle

Chapter 12 - Pranks

It started innocently enough. It could have just been good old pranks between houses. And if people got hurt, they were fine in a few days, so no teacher tried to stop it, after all, kids will be kids, better they prank each other rather than the teachers. By the time they realised that it was more, though they still had not realised how much more, it was too late, the seeds were planted and had bloomed.

First it was the Weasley twins' puking pastilles. Dropped into the Gryffindor's breakfasts, plus a few Ravenclaw and Hufflepuffs for good measure. Not long after breakfast many students across the school began violently vomiting. Unfortunately for the 4th year Gryffindors they were having flying lessons when the pastilles kicked in. Anyone flying below someone else got covered in vomit, as well as this, several people lost control of their brooms, causing them to crash. Many people were taken to the hospital wing to be treated for the vomiting and the various other consequences that had occurred from the puking. Ginny Weasely had experienced several of these consequences, for not only had she been flying below another student who had been dosed, but she lost control and crashed her broom. Later the Weasley twins discovered that the majority of their puking pastille stash had been stolen.

Next it was goats, let into the Gryffindor common room during the night so when they got up the next morning they found the room trashed. Random pieces of furniture and books had bite marks taken out of them. Things were scattered everywhere. As the students stepped foot into the room, goats would be disturbed, and decided they did not like intruders in what was now their space, so they charged. Several Gryffindors could be found in the hospital wing, suffering with several headbut induced injuries. One of those was Ron, who had foolishly decided to remove the goats by levitating them. To say they were not happy is an understatement.

Then it was veritaserum, slipped into everyone's pumpkin juice at breakfast, even the Slytherins'. No one got hurt from this 'prank', or at least, not directly. There were several relationships that got broken up. Several bonds were created, or made stronger. And several new vendettas formed. Overall, that seemed like the most mild prank of them all, until the end of the day, when it finally revealed the truth that it was used to uncover. And it was a complicated one. Cho Chang was known to be dating Michael Corner, though that wasn't the secret. What was the secret was that she was cheating on him with Seamus Finnegan, who was revealed to be dating Dean Thomas. So in total there was a tangled web of cheating. These revelations caused every couple to break up; Michael broke up with Cho, Dean broke up with Seamus, Seamus broke up with Cho. By the end of the day, Seamus's life wasn't great because people knew that he was gay, which wasn't that bad, apart from the fact that his family didn't really like it. But people also knew that he was a cheater, which was much more damaging. Cho's life wasn't much better either.

This was where the 'pranks' began to divert from just the students being pranked, but the teachers as well. And so they began paying attention, but it was too late. During one night portraits of the teachers were hung behind their seats at the teacher table. But the majority had different titles. Some directly implied the teacher lied, such as Professor McGonnagall's, titled 'Shifter of Truths' and Madame Hooch, who's said 'Flying High on Lies'. But others were a bit more subtle, Madame Pomfrey; 'The Hider' and Professor Flittwick who was 'The Charmer'. Others merely suggested that the person was affiliated with someone who lied, like Hagrid's, which was 'Indebted to a Liar'. Perhaps the most unique was Professor Snape's, that was just titled 'Snake's Consort'. The only teacher missing from the display was Professor Umbridge, in her place was a picture of Dumbledore, titled 'Liar Lord'. This didn't mean Umbridge was excluded however, at the front of the table where she sits their was a plaque, it said 'Spreader of True Lies'. All of this made the teachers mad, but Umbridge left it for a day. That day made all the difference.

The final straw came the next morning. When Umbridge went up to her office, she found broken china littered on her floor. Her thousands of cat plates had all been broken, creating a minefield that she had to walk through to get to her desk, where she found four toads. They had all been coloured pink and they each had a single word inscribed into them. One by one they hopped up to her, showed off their word, and then exploded. By the end the message was 'I Have Spread Lies.' She gingerly brushed one of the bodies and they all disappeared for they were just and illusion, they left four quills in their places. She recognized them as her special quills that use the writer's blood, and in the process, writes in their skin. Slowly, carefully, she picks one up, and it explodes, carving a message into her hand. The same message that the toads had carried, 'I Have Spread Lies'. After the message is in her skin, the next quill leaps up, touching her and exploding, carving the message again. Then the next quill, and the next. With her hand dripping blood she leapt up and ran downstairs to the Great Hall, determined to find the students who had done it. But when she got there she saw all the students gathered, whispering and pointing at the picture of Dumbledore that had reappeared, but instead of saying 'Liar Lord' it now read 'The True Dark Lord Was Never Gone'.

The fastest owl was sent out that morning, a letter wrapped around it's leg. A letter that said 'Minister,

I hope this finds you well. There is something happening here, something to do with Albus Dumbledore. A picture of him has appeared with the words 'The True Dark Lord Was Never Gone' written on it. I believe he may be trying to come back, or at the very least, try to continue to spread his lies. I intend to talk to the students at dinner, and I think they will benefit greatly if you were to come talk to them.

Dolores Umbridge

Ministry's Representative

Hogwarts High Inquisitor

Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry'

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A/N: I chose Break The Rules by Charli XCX for kind of obvious reasons, it's about breaking the rules and causing a bit of chaos, which is what happens in this chapter.