Harry and Ollie explained to Draco how the new substitute at their muggle school singled them out during classes and made them do extra work or stay behind during lunch or after school for stupid reasons, and how he clearly had it out for just the two boys and no one else. Even their parents believed the teacher over them. They informed Draco that Mr. Alarie even confessed to knowing about the wizarding world and claimed that he came from a line of purebloods but that the magic had skipped him for some reason. Draco listened intently while pretending to read his notes from their lesson while Severus cleaned up.

               “So, what do you think about the magicless wizard?” Harry asked Draco, leaning close to whisper softly so Severus didn’t hear.

               “First, stop calling him that,” Draco whispered back. “It’s a dumb name. If he really is a wizard-born with no magic, he’s a squib. That’s what they call those.”

               “Dad didn’t seem to know what we were talking about,” Harry said.

               “Probably because you used that stupid name and Severus had to think fast in front of what he thinks is a muggle. Squibs aren’t common, you know. It’s such a disgrace to have one born in your family, it could ruin your whole status in the wizard world. Father says so.”

               “Are you boys done writing your summary notes of today’s lesson?” Severus asked as he paused in front of the table the three boys sat.

               Harry, Ollie, and Draco nodded simultaneously.

               “Very well. You boys are dismissed. Go play outside or something until lunch, okay?”

               “Yes, Daddy,” Harry said, jumping down with his parchment in hand and running out of the lab, Ollie and Draco quickly following his lead. They went to Harry’s bedroom first to put their notes away while Draco stopped in the guest room to put his notes away. They paused in the hallway.

               “So, he’s a squid?” Ollie asked curiously, frowning at the image that created in his head.

               “Squib,” Draco reiterated with a roll of his eyes. “Not squid. Your new teacher was probably disowned as soon as he was old enough to live on his own and took on a new name. He’s probably been living in the muggle world ever since. Alarie, huh? Hmm.”

               Draco closed his eyes tightly as he tried to think of names.

               “It sounds so familiar . . .,” Draco muttered as he shook his head. A few seconds passed when his eyes shot open, and he smiled. “Ah, Avery. That’s what it sounds like. And Father said the Averys’ are lucky to still be considered one of the Sacred because of the poor offspring they create. That must have been what he meant—they have a squib in the family.”

               “Why is that such a bad thing?” Harry asked.

               “Being a squib? That’s like being a muggle!”

               Ollie folded his arms and glared at Draco.

               “No offense,” Draco said to Ollie.

               Ollie rolled his eyes, knowing that was all he was going to get out of Draco.

               “To purebloods,” Draco tried again, “a squib in the family is a sign that the family has—what did Father say—weak magic. It’s bad socially, and the squib obviously cannot take over the family and keep the magic going since they don’t have any. It’s just not a good thing at all.”

               “But why would he be angry at us?” Ollie asked. “It’s not our fault we have magic and he doesn’t.”

               “I don’t know.” Draco shrugged. “He could just be angry at being disowned and kicked out of the wizarding world.”

               “Well, that’s not fair,” Harry said. “He’s taking it out on us, and we can’t do anything about it. Dad didn’t even believe me when I tried to tell him.”

               “Maybe try telling him again with the right word this time,” Draco suggested. “Cause if either of you say, “magicless wizard” again, I’m going to explode.”

               “But it’s not like Severus can fire him,” Ollie said. “Even if he believed us, what can he do about it?”

               “Hmm.” Harry tapped his chin in thought. “True. We need to get Mr. Alarie fired.”

               “How do we do that?” Ollie asked.

               “Well . . . he really didn’t like magic. Maybe we can annoy him enough with magic that he’ll snap in front of everyone to see.”

               “He’ll know it’s us.”

               “But no one else will. It’ll make him sound crazy.”

               “Maybe . . .. But you can’t control your magic very well. That means I have to keep moving things and it makes me so tired sometimes.”

               “I have something that might help,” Draco said with a smirk.

               “What?” Harry and Ollie asked eagerly.

               Draco led the way to the guest bedroom and dug through his bag. He pulled out several items: two round dungbombs, sticky paste in a jar, ooey-gooey green glowing slime, a handful of sneeze powder in a bag, and four hiccough sweets.

               “I was saving these for Harry and I—and you, too,” Draco quickly added when Ollie gave him a look. “To use on the MacAuleys’ during our visit. Sometimes, I can get Severus with just one joke, and he’s usually pretty cool about it, so I thought the MacAuleys’ would be no different. But I think you guys have a bigger enemy.”

               “What are they?” Ollie asked, picking up one of the dungbombs.

               “Careful with that,” Draco warned. “These are joke products from Zonko’s. That’s a dungbomb—you drop that, and we’ll be smelling like a bundimun for days. I managed to convince Mother to buy a few things for me when I went on my last sleepover. You guys can take these to school and use them against your teacher.”

               “We’ll never be able to set anything up with him watching us like a hawk,” Harry said.

               “We could . . .” Ollie began to say as he tapped his chin, “. . . go in now.”

               “We could? I thought they locked up the school when kids are gone.”

               “They do. But the janitors go in and clean during the day. Cian forgot one of his favorite toys once and wouldn’t go to bed without it and screamed all night. Mam went back to the school in the morning and a janitor helped her fine it. We might be able to get in the school now.”

               “Nana volunteers at the library this afternoon,” Harry said. “It’s right across from the school. We can ask to go with her.”

               “Then we sneak into the school,” Draco said with a smirk, “and set up our traps.”

               “This is going to be so wicked!” Ollie said excitedly.

               “I bet Nana is making lunch right now,” Harry said, standing up. “We can go ask her.”

               “Wait,” Draco said, stopping the boys from running out of the guest room. He hesitated and bit at his lower lip before taking a deep breath and standing tall. “How does one “make a bed?””

               “Make a bed?” Ollie asked, frowning. “You don’t know how to make a bed?”

               “Where I come from, it is not required of me. So no.”

               Harry smirked while Ollie burst into laughter. Draco deflated some and glared at Ollie.

               After a quick lesson on bed-making, it was not hard to convince Eileen to take the three boys with her to the library during lunch. She seemed pleased that the boys wanted to go to the library with her, but Severus gave them each a suspicious look before he agreed that maybe some time outside of the manor would do them some good while also giving him some peace and quiet. They changed Draco into some of Harry’s muggle clothes, a blue polo top and dark trousers, which Draco sneered down at but accepted. Eileen walked the boys to the end of the estate driveway and past the gates before pulling the boys close to her and apparating to a garden park near the library, appearing behind some trees and out of sight. The boys followed her to the library.

               Eileen spent an hour reading to younger kids nearly every Saturday before directing the kids to arts and crafts, usually creating something related to the book they had read. It was an hour that gave many parents a moment away from their kids to run an errand or read a book themselves, but this hour gave Harry, Ollie, and Draco limited time to get their plan in action and return to the library before Eileen even knew they were gone.

               They taught Draco how to play air hockey while they waited for Eileen to settle in and read a few pages of the chosen book of that day. As she really became engaged with children who were engorged in the story, the three boys slowly slinked away from the kid’s play area before taking off in a run when they were out of Eileen’s sight.

               They ran out of the library and stopped at a crosswalk, looking both ways and waiting for cars to pass. Ollie pushed a button that made the lights change and gave the okay signal for the boys to cross the road.

               “I didn’t know muggles had magic like that,” Draco said as he studied the button Ollie had pushed after crossing to the other side. He gave the button a few curious taps, staring back at the cars and the lights hanging in the air above them that shined a red color. Clearly this was some kind of control device for muggles to use against each other. He smiled as he kept pushing the button.

               “Stop it,” Ollie said as he grabbed Draco’s arm and pulled him away. “You’re going to make them angry.”

               Draco hmphed but followed Ollie and Harry to the front door of the school.

               It was locked.

               “Let’s try another door,” Ollie said. He ran around the building, leading Harry and Draco.

               They came across a side door that was unlocked. With victorious cheers, they ran inside. The halls were lighted by the sunlight streaming through the windows, and they could see well enough to find their classroom. They peeked inside the classroom first to make sure it was empty before stepping inside and closing the door behind them.

               “Where should we start?” Ollie asked.

               “Over here,” Harry said, waving his friends over to the teacher’s desk. I think a dungbomb right in the top drawer.”

               “Brilliant,” Draco said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out one of the dungbombs. “If we set it up against the papers like this, when he opens the drawer, it should make it move enough to explode on him.”

               As the boys helped shuffle the papers, Harry found parchment paper and pulled it out, studying the words.

               “Look at this,” Harry said. He read the words. “Kwikspell: Intro-duct-ion to Beginner’s Magic. Course one.”

               “Is that like a school for people without magic but who knows magic exists?” Ollie asked.

               Harry and Ollie looked at Draco for an answer, but the young blonde shrugged.

               “Don’t look at me. Father has his eyes on Hogwarts or Durmstrang. I don’t know much about the other schools.”

               Harry set the parchment back in the drawer and placed the dungbomb carefully, then slowly closed the drawer so as not to set it off. Then, Harry helped Draco dump the transparent sticky paste on the teacher’s chair. Apparently, it did not dry until something else adhered to the other side of the paste, making it perfect for long term pranks where waiting was required. Once the entire chair was coated in the sticky paste, they left the slime and powder at Harry’s and Ollie’s desks to be used the day of, along with the hiccough sweets. They couldn’t wait until Monday.

               “Okay, we’re all set,” Harry said. “Let’s get out of here.”

               The three boys ran out of the classroom and back down the hall that led to the door that had been unlocked. However, as they pushed on the door, it did not budge.

               “Oh no,” Ollie said. “We’re locked in.”

               “I hope there’s no alarms in here,” Draco said.

               “They probably go off when the door get’s broken into,” Harry said, recalling how the Dursleys’ alarm system did that. “So we can’t just force the door open. We need a key.”

               “Where are we going to get a key to get out of here?”

               “Shh!” Ollie shushed.

               Ollie closed his eyes and focused. He raised his hands toward the keyhole, then slowly acted as if he was inserting a key and turning it. He pushed on the door, but it remained locked.

               Sighing, Ollie tried it again, really focusing his magic on turning the mechanisms in the keyhole. He pretended to insert a key and turn it again.

               It did not work.

               “Come on, Ollie, you can do it!” Harry cheered for him. When Draco said nothing, Harry nudged him with an elbow.

               Draco sighed.

               “Yeah, Ollie,” Draco said. “You have to get us out of here or we’ll all be in trouble. Open the door! Open it.”

               “You can do it!” Harry encouraged. “You can open it.”

               Ollie took a deep breath. He pretended he had a key, a sturdy strong key that would fit perfectly into the keyhole. He imagined all the things he was able to move and pushed that energy into this imaginary key. He reached toward the keyhole and inserted the key in his mind. Then turned it.

               Finally, the door clicked as it unlocked, and the boys cheered as they pushed the door open and ran out into the sunlight. They gave Ollie congratulatory pats on the back, even Draco as he reluctantly remarked that Ollie did an amazing feat of magic.

               The boys ran over to the crosswalk, pushed the button, and when the light turned red for the cars, they ran across the road and back to the library.

               “Where have you been?” Eileen asked as soon as she spotted the boys sneaking over to the air hockey table. She rested her hands on her hips and glared at the boys.

               “Err, to the restroom,” Harry said with an innocent smile.

               “Outside?” Eileen asked, her brows shooting up.

               “Then we wanted to see the park,” Ollie piped up.

               “I’ve never been to a muggle town,” Draco said, his hands clasping together behind him as he stood tall. “They were showing me around.”

               “You should have asked before you left the library if you could go check out the park,” Eileen said. “I’ve been looking for you three for nearly fifteen minutes. I wasn’t sure what to think when I couldn’t find you.”

               “Sorry, Nana,” Harry said softly, guilt swelling in his chest for making her worry.

               “We’re leaving,” Eileen decided. “And you can explain to your father why we had to leave the library early.”

               Harry swallowed nervously at that, and Ollie and Draco shared a look.

               Back at MacAuley estate, the boys stuck to their story of using the restroom then showing Draco around the garden park. Draco even tried to make it sound authentic by describing his surprise over the crosswalk button that controlled the lights and made the cars stop. Severus seemed amused by Draco’s discovery, but overall, he didn’t seem that angry.

               “Harry, I’ve told you many times to tell either me or your grandparents about where you will be or where you want to go when you go out with them,” Severus scolded lightly. “We don’t tell you that to hear ourselves talk but to ensure your safety. We need to know where you are at all times. What of something had happened to your or any of you? We would have no idea because we thought you were within the safety of the library.”

               “I’m sorry, Dad,” Harry said, hoping he sounded sincere enough. He was sorry for worrying his Nana, but he was not sorry for why they left the library to begin with. He only hoped Severus didn’t pick up on that he wasn’t being totally genuine.

               Severus narrowed his eyes at Harry, but after a moment he nodded his acceptance of the apology.

               “There will be no dessert for any of you tonight or tomorrow,” Severus decided. “Now, Draco, I believe you have an essay to work on.”

               “Can we work on one too?” Harry asked. “It’s about our lesson today, right?”

               “I don’t see why not, but no copying off each other or distracting Draco from finishing his essay. You may share reflections and notes, but I want each essay to be in your own words. I will grade yours tonight, Draco, so you may have it to hand off to your father when I return you home tomorrow evening.”

               Severus waved his hand and two rolls of parchment, and a notebook appeared with two quills and a pen. Draco’s potions book also plopped down on the table. The boys sat down at the table and began working on their assignment. When Severus stepped away after making sure they were following his directions, Draco whispered to Harry.

               “Owl me all the details,” he said.

               “I will,” Harry said.

                Monday came quickly, and sitting at their usual desks, Harry and Ollie waited patiently for the teacher to arrive. While the other kids ran around the classroom laughing and playing, Ollie and Harry had gone over their plan a couple more times quietly. Finally, Mr. Alarie stepped into the room with a cheerful “Settle down, class.”

               Everyone ran to their seats and sat down.

               “Good morning, Mr. Alarie.”

               “Good morning, class,” Mr. Alarie said. “Today, we will start off with a reading assignment. First, everyone, pass up your homework to the front of the class and I shall collect them.

               All the students began passing up their homework, and while Mr. Alarie collected and glanced through to make sure everyone’s names were accounted for, Harry tapped the shoulder of the little brunette with glasses next to him. She gave him an annoyed look.

               “Candy?” Harry asked in a hushed voice, offering her one of the hiccough sweets.

               She smiled and nodded.

               Harry handed her the sweet, and then handed one to the boy behind him when he asked if he could have one.

               Ollie did the same to two kids sitting across from him.

               “Mr. Snape and Mr. Fowey, what are you doing? Up to no good already?” Mr. Alarie asked as he marched in their direction.

               “No sir,” Harry said, shaking his head. “Just sharing candy.”

               Harry and Ollie pretended to suck on candy.

               “It is too early for sugar. You boys are up to something, and I don’t like it. Mr. Fowey, take that seat in the back corner. I don’t want you two next to each other . . . for the remainder of the school year.”

               The boys shared an annoyed look, but Ollie did as he was told, grabbing his things and moving back to the lonely chair the teacher had pointed to. They were confident their plan would work, so the change in seats would not be long term. Once Ollie settled into his new seat, Mr. Alarie gave a satisfied smile and returned to the head of the class.

               “Now that that is taken care of . . .” he began.

               The brunette girl with glasses hiccoughed loudly. A few kids laughed and she smiled before hiccoughing again.

               The boy behind her started hiccupping as well, along with the two kids opposite of Harry. Everyone in the classroom was laughing now, even the hiccoughers, who found their shared dilemma hilarious.

               “Settle down, class,” Mr. Alarie said. “Are you kids, okay? Do you need a drink or anything? I hear plugging your nose and drinking water at the same time may help with those.”

               The kids shook their heads as they finished their candy and the hiccoughs slowly died down. Mr. Alarie seemed relieved, though he did give Harry and Ollie suspicious looks. He moved to his desk and picked up several copies of a book that he started to pass out to the class.

               “Everyone will read a page from the book, starting with Miss Hawlley, and we will work across the front rows to the back. Turn to page one. Miss Hawlley, you may begin.”

               As the little blonde in question started reading the first page, Mr. Alarie sat down at his desk and held the book up to follow along with the reading. Harry nearly grinned when he noticed Mr. Alarie frown at something on the desk. Ollie had made sure to shuffle things around and leave the drawer with the dungbomb slightly askew so Mr. Alarie would be forced to investigate his desk. And the teacher did just that. He adjusted some items on his desk, then jolted the top drawer of his desk open.

               Bang!

               The desk was quickly surrounded by a messy and foul substance that Mr. Alarie choked on, waving his hand around futilely in an attempt to clear the dusty air. He tried to stand up, but his bottom was stuck to the chair, and the chair rose with him when he stood.

               Kids in the classroom were holding their nose and making disgusted sounds while Harry and Ollie snickered behind their hands.

               Mr. Alarie managed to rip the chair off himself, which left a tear in his trousers, revealing his polka dot boxers underneath and many of the kids started laughing in the classroom. Red-faced and ears steaming, Mr. Alarie started stomping toward Harry.

               “You did this, Potter, I know it! You and your pesky little—”

               Harry pulled the slime from the cubby under his desk and squeezed out the bag as Mr. Alarie drew near. The slime shot out of the bag and coated the floor between himself and the furious teacher, who flailed his arms around as he slipped on the slime and dropped to the floor.

               It was amusing watching the man try to stand up on top of the slippery substance. He struggled for nearly two minutes while everyone started laughing at his moves, his arms swinging like windmills and his legs sliding back and forth and side to side.

               “That’s it!” Mr. Alarie shouted at Harry as he tried to push himself up. “To the principal’s office with you! We’ll see how your father likes your little jokes!”

               “Sir, let me help you,” Ollie said, running over to Mr. Alarie and pulling him off the slimey goo. He handed Mr. Alarie something round, then gave it a rough smack before running to the other end of the classroom, Harry following him.

               Mr. Alarie barely had time to register the device in his hand before it exploded with more of that foul smelling substance that coated his clothes and face. The kids in proximity to him jumped from their chairs and ran to the other end of the classroom screaming and plugging their noses.  

               Harry didn’t think Mr. Alarie could get any redder. He almost looked like he might pop any minute.

               Mr. Alarie threw what remained of the dungbomb on the ground, which was a mistake as the rest of the bomb went off, filling the classroom with more rotten egg smells.

               “Mr. Potter and Mr. Fowey,” Mr. Alarie snapped. “To the principal’s office at once!”

               “It’s Snape, can’t you get anything right?” Harry snapped.

               “The principal’s office!” Mr. Alarie reiterated.

               Perhaps it wasn’t their best plan the boys had come up with, but they weren’t finished yet. Now that Mr. Alarie was no longer the polite, respectful teacher before the eyes of other adults, Harry and Ollie were actually pretty relaxed as they sat in the two chairs in front of Principal O’Loof’s desk. The principal had called their parents, managing to reach Ciara and Eileen. Harry was sure Eileen would let Severus know and he would be the one to show up. As they waited for their parents to arrive, Mr. Alarie was still raging as he paced back and forth in the office.

               “I want them suspended!” he demanded. “Expelled!”

               “Calm down, Mortagus,” O’Loof said. “I am still trying to make sense of what happened.”

               “Nothing happened, Principal O’Loof,” Ollie said in his sweetest tone. “I don’t know why he sent us here. We were doing exactly what he said and then he tripped and got angry at us.”

               “Now, Mortagus,” O’Loof said, “maybe you should consider taking the day and letting whatever personal problems at home . . .”

               “This isn’t an at home matter,” Mr. Alarie said with a glare at the boys. “This is between me and those miscreants that attacked my classroom with their . . . tricks and witchcraft. The proof is in the classroom where it still smells like a dead skunk.”

               “Are you sure that’s not just you?” Harry asked, and Ollie laughed.

               “Boys,” O’Loof scolded, giving them a look before returning to try and calm Mr. Alarie down. “Mortagus, their parents will be here soon, and I’d rather have you calm and collected when they arrive so we can discuss this rationally.”

               “They are menaces,” Mr. Alarie said. “They think they’ll get away with this. They think that because they are gifted and privileged that they will get off scot-free with their little joke, disrupting the class, ruining my clothes, but I insist they be punished appropriately.”

               O’Loof seemed to sigh in exasperation when there was a knock at the door and the secretary opened the door.

               “The parents are here,” she said before stepping out of sight and Severus and Ciara stepped into the office.

               “I’m sorry to call you both in so early in the morning,” O’Loof apologized, “especially as school has barely begun, but it seems that we had an incident in the classroom yet two different stories.”

               ‘Your children assaulted me,” Mr. Alarie accused, pointing at the boys in question.

               Severus eyed Harry, though his face seemed more confused than anything else. Harry shrugged at his father, hoping his eyes weren’t giving away his guilty feelings inside.

               “Mr. Alarie, please,” O’Loof said. She turned her attention to the parents who stood behind Harry and Ollie respectively. “From my understanding, Harry and Ollie played a few jokes in the classroom on Mr. Alarie, and it may have gotten out of hand. Though they do plead innocent to some of the jokes Mr. Alarie is accusing them of.”

               “We put glue on his seat,” Ollie admitted, looking up at his mother. “We didn’t think it’d rip his clothes, but that was all we did. He started yelling at is for no reason after that.”

               “Ollie,” Ciara scolded, her hands finding their way to her hips as she looked down at her son.

               “Liar,” Mr. Alarie interrupted.  

               “Mortagus,” O’Loof hissed through her teeth.

               Severus gave Mr. Alarie a frown, but he kneeled next to Harry and whispered in his son’s ear.

               “I know Draco had several joke items in his bags and which ones they were, so I hope you are being completely honest that you did no more than put glue on your teacher’s seat, but if that is not the case, you better fess up now.”

               Harry swallowed dryly as he felt his face heat up with shame, much to his chagrin. How could he have thought that Severus wouldn’t know Draco had joke products? His father seemed to know everything, he always had ever since he first met him back at the hotel. Of course, the goal was to try to make Mr. Alarie expose himself, so sacrifices had to be made. Harry glanced at Ollie before speaking.

               “We did it. We set up a bunch of different jokes in the classroom before Mr. Alarie came in.”

               “Aha!” Mr. Alarie cried victoriously.

               “We were just having fun,” Harry said, looking at Ollie and nodding his head. Ollie nodded back in understanding, his hand reaching for his pocket. “He picks on us and no one else. We just wanted to get back at him for it.”

               “If you two weren’t so disruptive,” Mr. Alarie argued, “you’d be treated just as fairly as everyone else.”

               “I find it hard to believe,” Severus said, still kneeling next to Harry, “that my son has been that much of a disturbance in your class. Though I am surprised at your behavior this morning, Harry. It’s rather unlike you.”

While everyone was talking, Ollie slowly slipped a pinch of sneezing powder out of his pocket. He focused his energy on moving toward Mr. Alarie, and with a flick of his wrist, the powder shot forward and struck the teacher in the face, making him blink and crunch his nose. Ollie quickly rested his hands on his lap, resuming his innocent sad looks.

               It did not take long for the powder to cause Mr. Alarie to start sneezing uncontrollably. His eyes widened in understanding, making the man look more crazed than he already was.

               “They’ve done it again!” He said before sneezing twice in a row. “This is another one of their doings.”

               “We’ve all been sitting right here,” O’Loof said, frowning at Mr. Alarie. “No one has moved. It is allergy season, you know.”

               “It isn’t allergies,” Mr. Alarie insisted. He sneezed three times more. “It’s these brats. I want them expelled for this. They are nothing but trouble; the little magical freaks!”

Ciara and O’Loof glared at Mr. Alarie while Ollie crossed his arms and shot daggers at the teacher. Harry flinched back at Mr. Alarie’s words. He hadn’t heard anyone address him as that word in a long time, and Harry knew Severus was very aware of it as his father’s body suddenly tensed. Severus rose slowly and turned an ominous look on Mr. Alarie.

               “What did you just say?” Severus growled, his fists clenching at his side.

               Harry smirked as the color drained from Mr. Alarie’s face.