Becoming Alpha

Chapter Eight

The week following Christmas that led up to the other students returning was much more fun for Harry than the first. With the twins as friends, he was never bored. Whether they were teaching Harry spells of all kinds or planning pranks with him, the twins kept him busy.

Three times that week the three of them went outside for snowball fights. Ron even joined the second one, though it was obvious by his words and actions that he had only done it to hit Harry, which wasn't an easy task as Harry's reflexes were very sharp after ten years with the Dursleys; the fact that he played Quidditch didn't hurt his reflexes either.

All of Harry's friends had expected to come back to a gloomy Harry, but instead, they walked into the Entrance Hall as a group to see a smiling Harry with an excited gleam in his eyes that said he had something to tell them. After they all thanked one another for the gifts, Theo got tired of waiting and asked Harry what was up.

Smiling evilly, Harry called out, "Silver! Emerald! The school is back!"

Much to the surprise of everyone who had gone home for the break, especially the girls on the Gryffindor team, two boys stepped out of the shadows, one silver and the other emerald green. When everyone realized that they were the Weasley twins, the entire Entrance Hall burst out in laughter while a few asked how and why they had done it, but the twins only smiled and shook their heads. Both boys moved towards Harry and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, which surprised everyone but Harry as he had gotten used to it finally.

"We decided over the break –" the silver twin, who happened to be Fred, began.

"Before the break, but we did it over the break," George interrupted.

"Yes, we decided we'd show our true colors, so on Christmas Eve –"

"Christmas morning," George interjected.

"We turned our bodies green and silver," Fred finished.

"We'll go back to our fake selves in a week," George announced.

"OW!" both boys suddenly exclaimed as the hands not over Harry's shoulders went to their ribs while they glared down at Harry, who only smiled and raised an eyebrow at them. Sighing, they both gave in to his wishes.

"Since our young friend here doesn't like our statement –" Fred began while looking down at Harry.

"We're going to tell you what he wishes us to," George finished as they both sighed dramatically, which earned snorts from many people, Harry included.

"We were pranked over the break," Fred stated, sounding sad. Every person in the Hall froze at that.

"You see, we were careless and thought that none of the few students still at this lovely school would prank us, so we let our guards down," George said dramatically.

"Our young friend Mr. Potter here took advantage of our weakness and made us Slytherin mascots in Gryffindor."

"He won't tell us how he did it or why it lasts for two weeks, but he tells us it will wear off."

"So until it does, we're Slytherins residing in Gryffindor tower."

Everyone stared at the twins and then Harry, who smiled innocently and waved. No one could believe that the twins had been pranked, but the proof was right in front of them. Then, the four females on the Gryffindor Quidditch team step right up to the trio.

"Well, Harry, if you managed to prank these two idiots, you can't be all bad, right girls?" Angelina Johnson said with a smile. The other girls all nodded with their own smiles.

"Why thank you, Angelina," Harry replied, a small smile forming on his face.

With that, more of the students in the Great Hall began moving towards the group and some congratulated Harry on a prank-well-done. Harry could tell that this one moment might have just gotten him some more friends in the higher years, which was one of the things keeping the smile on his face.