Just then the bell rang.
Harry turned to his friend and said with a smile, all thoughts of the previous altercation with the uppers pushed to the side (he'd get back at them later) and said, "How about we both tell her why we're late. No reason for you to get in trouble just because you were trying to calm me down. Thanks, Hermione. You're a good friend."
"Some friend, Harry. I was going to berate you for picking a fight…"
"Berate, befriend, I'm not choosy. C'mon, let's go."
Professor McGonagall didn't require any explanation from Hermione once they got to class and simply told them to take their seats.
As they sat down, the one thing Harry was grateful for about this entire situation was that no one had noticed he'd used wandless magic when he'd "punched" Stamro.
Wednesday evening (Great Hall)
By the end of the day it was all over school that Harry had fought a dozen purebloods and had wiped the floor with all of them, even sending the upstart Jonathan Stamro to the infirmary. Malfoy saw Potter come in talking with one of the girls that routinely hung around him. He didn't know how to peg Hogwarts' apprentice. True, he had managed to make a fool of Longbottom on a routine basis (a positive that), but today he'd thrashed a pureblood to within an inch of his life if the rumors were to be believed (which meant they were not) - and that was frowned upon. But said thrashing was of a Gryffindor (another positive). That Potter boy was certainly an enigma.
Harry noticed Malfoy staring at him as he and Hermione came into the Hall. Throwing caution to the wind, he winked at the Slytherin and gave a crooked grin. Then he steered Hermione to the Hufflepuff table where they sat with Edward, Pam, and Hannah.
Malfoy's frown deepened. What was the blasted significance of those winks he kept sending him? That book was absolutely of no use! He needed to ask someone. But who?
The Great Hall continued to fill up for dinner like it normally did. Some students skipped dinner to begin their arduous year of study (those with OWLs and NEWTs), figuring they would just nip down to the kitchens later on and grab whatever. But most of the student body was in attendance when something different happened.
For the past few weeks, the first years had noticed a trend that all the other years had long since become aware of. When the 7PM chime dinged, the tables would begin filling with food. It only took a few seconds for everything to show up, but it was kind of fun to watch as the food began filling up on the head table and then filtered down to the rest of the tables, like a ripple of water moving outwards. There was the usual assortment of meats, potatoes, and vegetables that only the upper years ate since the younger years knew better than to eat them (yuck, Broccoli). There were the usual beverages in tankards, steins, goblets, cups, glasses, and pitchers.
Only this time there were some new things on the table. Well, the head table to be exact. As predicted, those with muggle ties instantly knew what it was and were looking forward to getting their hands on a can of Pepsi. It had been too long with only Pumpkin juice to drink. They needed some real caffeine.
At the head table, Albus Dumbledore, big cheese in charge that he was, raised an eyebrow as he noticed a can of soda in front of his plate. A quick glance to the right and left showed that each teacher had a can of soda with the word Pepsi on it in front of them as well. Touching the can he instantly felt that it was still cold.
"Headmaster," Professor Sprout said, holding her can, "what are these?"
"If I'm not mistaken, it's a can of soda."
"Right you are, Albus," Professor Bark replied. "Why, I remember having one like this back in the day. All you need do is pull the opening tab off of it to open it. Like this." With that, he put his finger in the opening and pulled. Nothing happened. He pulled again and again nothing happened. "Tricky little devil," he muttered, pulling his wand. "Accio little piece of metal that opens the can!" he incanted. The pull piece came off but the can remained closed.
"Huh. How about that. Didn't work."
Severus Snape snorted in contempt. "Honestly, man, how did you survive in the wilds? Look at the can. You don't pull it off; you push it down… like this."
SSSPPPPPPRRRRAAAAAYYYYYY! FWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!
The Great Hall went silent as the Potions Master was bombarded with a brown spray of geyser proportion. It stopped within seconds but the damage had been done. He sat there with a wild look of confusion mixed with righteous anger. Oh, when he found out who… there they are! "Weasleys!"
Fred and George Weasley, who had been planning a prank over mashed potatoes but stopped to watch the spraying show, raised their hands in surrender. "It wasn't us!" Fred immediately said.
"A likely story, Mr. Weasley," Professor McGonagall said, marching down the aisle towards them. "Detention. Both of you. For a week. Helping Mr. Filch unplug that pesky drain on the second floor."
Suddenly, more cans began to fill the rest of the tables. Students looked at the cans and then back to the still-soaked Potions Master. They pushed the cans to the middle of the table. A few muggleborns knew that the fizz would eventually go down so pocketed them for later consumption and advised their friends to do the same.
....
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