Headmistress McGonagall knew, after one look at Harry Potter on the first of September, that the next school year was going to be...interesting to say the least. The firstborn child of the Marauders, for all intents and purposes their crown prince and heir, was at Hogwarts, and for the first time in seven years, did not have the threat of a psychopathic dark lord out for his blood looming over him. Now, apparently, he had decided it was time to play.

A few weeks later she sat in her office, nursing a brandy, torn between exasperation, amusement and indulgence. After all, the boy had more than deserved it, and thus far none of his pranks had harmed anyone in anyway. That is not to say she appreciated being stuck with cat ears, whiskers, and a sign over head reading "McKitty is da bomb." At least neither the Mauraders nor the Twins had had Hermione Granger and a Malfoy on their side.

To the bemusement of the rest of Hogwarts, the Gryffindor Trio and their Slytherin yearmates had called a truce at the beginning of the year. They had further shocked the school by not only following through on the truce, but getting along frighteningly well too. If she wasn't mistaken, the current outbreak of pranks was the result of some sort of competition arranged between said teenagers. The teams, as far as she could tell, there were Ron, Neville, and Luna; Ginny, Blaise and Pansy; and, the most dangerous trio by far, Harry, Hermione, and Draco. They were menaces. Absolute bloody menaces.

And she didn't have the heart to punish them too severely. After Quirrell, the Basilisk, the Dementors, the Triwizard tournament, Umbridge, Death Eaters, and the whole of the last year, well, it was good to see the children, if they could still be referred to as such, laughing and having fun. Even if it was at her expense.

Although… it probably wasn't good for them to be let off so easily for their shenanigans. She wondered, eyes gleaming in a manner that had, over the years, caused many, many people to look at her with fearful caution and back away slowly in the most nonthreatening and unobtrusive way possible, if Filius and Pomona were free at the moment. It wouldn't do to let the students get too high an opinion of themselves after all. And they hadn't dealt with so many generations of pranksters without picking up a trick or two.

In Gryffindor Tower Harry Potter shivered suddenly as the hairs on the back of his neck prickled.