What if... (Harry Potter One Shots)

Harry - If Voldemort Had Chosen Neville

"Harry!" Harry Potter spun around to see Hermione storming towards him with Ron clinging sheepishly to her heels. 

Her hair flew behind her as though it too were mad at him. With her wand in hand and that look of fury on her face, she looked like she was going to kill him. After that prank though, it was totally worth it. 

"Hermione-" he began but she cut him off with a silent wave of her wand. 

He sighed internally and raised an eyebrow, conveying with only his expression how much her non-verbal magic was really starting to annoy him. 

"No! I don't want to hear any excuses. Just because you're father and godfather enjoyed being vandals and criminals doesn't mean you have to be as well!" she stood there with her hands on her hips but Harry simply leaned against the table and grinned. 

"Oh, come on, Hermione! What's wrong with a bit of fun?" Fred grinned at her from the other side of the Gryffindor table and George snickered into his pumpkin juice. 

"Fun? That wasn't fun! I had to clean up all your mess! Did you really have to flood the bathrooms and annoy Peeves into removing every portrait from the walls?" this sent guffaws of laughter from everywhere across the Great Hall as Hermione threw her hands into the air in frustration. 

"It's coming close to our exams, 'Mione. Everyone just needed something to take their minds off the stress," after finally removing her silencing charm, Harry glanced at Ron, who was making rapid motions to stop talking but seeing Hermione in any other emotion besides stressed these days was really good for her. This anger would probably last a few days at least; less stress that way. 

"That is the last thing people need! They need to concentrate on their studies!" she was positively seething. "I told you last year if you ever made this much mess again, there would be consequences, Harry James Potter!" 

"Technically we made more mess this year," George put in and Fred snickered into his pumpkin juice. 

She glared at the three of them before hissing, "Twenty points from Gryffindor for your disrespect to the school and the teachers!" 

The whole Gryffindor table groaned; this put them ten points behind Slytherin. 

"We respect the school. Why else would we do this?" both of the twins chuckled this time. 

She pointed her wand at him. "Don't make it thirty points!"

She and Ron sat down at the table on either side of Harry and began eating their breakfast. A shrill cry interrupted them all halfway through their plates (firsts for everyone and fifths for Ron), announcing the arrival of the morning post. One of the first owls to swoop through the high ceiling was the Potter's family owl. Breakfast and their own mail was abandoned as everyone craned to see what mail Harry was receiving. Arthur, the Potter's family owl perched in front of Harry and plopped down onto his plate...a Howler. Whispers soared throughout the Great Hall as bets were placed as to who the Howler was from. Whether it was Lily yelling at him or James and Sirius congratulating him. Both had happened in all of his years of pranking at Hogwarts. Tentatively, Harry opened the Howler only to groan at his mother's furious voice roaring from the insides of the paper folds. 

"HARRY JAMES POTTER! HOW DARE YOU DISRUPT THE HALLS OF HOGWARTS WHEN PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO STUDY! WHEN YOU GET HOME, YOU ARE GROUNDED FOR THE ENTIRE SUMMER HOLIDAYS!" the Howler stopped for a minute before continuing in a softer voice. "Now, Hermione. I hope you took off enough house points to make him remember that he is not allowed to behave like that." 

At that Hermione nodded firmly with a pointed look at Harry as though she had just made her point. In return he poked his tongue out at her. Without another peep, the Howler tore itself up into shreds. The Great Hall was silent for a minute and Harry took a peek up at the teacher's table just in time to see Professor McGonagall begrudgingly handing over ten galleons to Professor Dumbledore. Catching his eye, Professor Dumbledore winked at him and grinned, causing Harry to grin as well, despite the pit in his stomach at disappointing his mother. 

After a few minutes, conversations started up again as people finished their breakfast and opened their mail but before anyone could finish, Hedwig swooped low over the tables, showing off, knowing full well that she had everyone's attention. She came to a stop before Harry and gently placed another Howler in front of him before pecking the back of his hand and flying back out to have her breakfast. Harry glanced at Hermione and Ron, unsure of who it was from and whether or not he should open it. 

Ron gave him a nod and whispered, "You'd better open it. I once got one from Mum and didn't open it. It exploded in the middle of the night. Trust me, you want to open it." 

Tentatively, he opened it and was so glad he did when his father's laughter rang throughout the hall. 

"Harry! You genius! That was amazing! You should have seen your mother's face when we heard about it this morning! Oh, it was priceless!" he could hear the laughter in his father's voice and the tears in his eyes. "Oh, and getting Peeves to work with you was brilliant!" 

"It was great!" he heard Sirius yell out in the background between his cackles. "You should have put a bubble mix in the pipes, though! Then it would have made so much more mess! Priceless! Good job!" 

Their laughs filled the Great Hall and he felt himself chuckled along with them until an angry voice erupted from the paper folds. "JAMES! SIRIUS! YOU HAD BETTER NOT BE SENDING A HOWLER TO HARRY DOING ANYTHING OTHER REPRIMANDING HIM OR NEITHER OF YOU WILL BE ABLE TO SIT ON A BROOM FOR A VERY LONG TIME!" 

"Oh, Merlin. Sorry, Harry. Talk soon," his father's hurried voice whispered, followed by the sounds of James and Sirius scrambling to stay away from his mother's wrath. 

Laughter reverberated throughout the Great Hall and Harry turned to face the teacher's table again to see what they thought of his parent's reactions. He didn't see their reactions but rather the result of their bets. Both Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore were handing over ten galleons each to Remus. Remus, both of his parents' best friend, put his winnings into his pockets and turned to Harry with a smile on his face as he mouthed 'thanks' to him. Harry grinned and faced his friends, thinking about how truly great his life was.