Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. JK Rowling does. I'm just an avid fan.

Word Count: 2738

Thank you to salilurker for listing my fanfic under your community 'sarah's collection. I am honored.

Chapter 23: James Potter's Unfortunate Day

With Cadmus' strategic-thinking and the Weasley twin's mischievous streak, they formulated the perfect plan to get back at a certain Hogwarts Professor. They had meticulously formatted every detail and double-checked the probability of their success for a week before they could set the plan in motion. Finally, it was finished and they were ready to let it run.

The prank started diminutive. In the morning, as the owl post flew in, Cadmus received a boxy package from his uncle Edward and his cousin Vincent. They were both back to New York for Vincent's school year after they stayed in Hawaii for their summer vacation. Cadmus opened the letter that came with the package first. It read:

Dear my nephew Cadmus,

Your mother and father told me all about your selection to represent Harvard in the Triwizard Tournament. I want to congratulate you on that. Not many people alive can say that they are champions of the tournament. I know this year's security has increased and, the tasks are modified, but I still want you to be safe, alright? Good, now onto the package that came along with this letter. Open it. It contains a camera. Vernon and Petunia wanted to buy a camera for you so that you could capture moments during the tournament. But since it is a No-Maj technology, I hired one of my old pals that works in the film industry to add some wizarding components to allow it to work. Think of it as a sort of joint gift from your No-Maj relatives and us. We are sorry we cannot get to watch and cheer you on but, sending us photos will let us feel like we were there.

Have fun,

Uncle Edward

Cadmus smiled as he set the letter aside and grabbed the box. He gingerly ripped the wrappings off and opened the box. Inside was loads of foam to cushion the camera but, he could see a spot of black metallic surface gleam under the sunshine.

"Woah, it's the latest version of the Nikon Digital Cam!" Casper gushed incredulously. Cadmus took the camera out and examined it, it was sleek and beautiful. It even had his name engraved on it. The camera was perfect and it wouldn't be long until he used it.

Cadmus was right; he had eagerly anticipated this morning to come as the prank would go off the second it arrived. James Potter was seen striding into the Great Hall for breakfast and settled down at the High Table. The second he sat down, a large brown owl swooped down from the open window with a box and dropped it on his lap. Everyone exchanged confused glances because usually professors never receive packages in the morning; they were either privately sent to their offices or delivered personally. Over at the Gryffindor Table, the Weasley twins shared a mischievous grin.

James Potter looked just as perplexed as everyone else. He cautiously opened the box, which was sent by an anonymous person, and opened his eyes to see nothing. He blinked again and shifted the box upside down to shake whatever was inside out. Nothing came out, except now he was being laughed out. Did he look silly uselessly opening an empty box? He was oblivious to the appearance of himself where he was now sporting a light shade of neon green hair. James Potter looked around aimlessly at his colleagues, who were all grinning and laughing at him. Something must have happened.

Snape, who sat four seats down the table from him, stifled his laughter which came out sounding like a short cough. James glared at his school nemesis as he frantically tried to look for anything strange that happened to him. Lily Potter, who sat next to him, looked slightly amused, biting her lips from laughing. She conjured a mirror and gave it to James. James grabbed the mirror and looked at his face but, when he tilted the mirror upwards, he saw green hair instead of black. Perhaps he screamed because the next second, he was scrambling for his wand with a panicked expression on his face. His reaction was priceless. Cadmus found good use of his new camera by snapping several photos of James Potter's unusual state.

The more James Potter cast reversing charms on his hair, the darker the shade of green got. Everyone laughed as they got to see their least favorite professor pathetically exacerbate his hair further. After what seemed like ages, the green hair vanished. But it wasn't due to James Potter's reversing charms; it was the prank spell wearing off. James Potter sighed in relief as he had thought that the one prank was all.

Unfortunately for him, the Weasley twins and Cadmus weren't finished, animated toy snakes hissed and attacked him at every unsuspecting corridor. Peeves even joined in the fun splashing bucketfuls of water on James Potter, leaving him drenched and his mood sour. Then as he neared his office, he slipped on some sticky puddle of slime and remained stuck until one of the students fetched Professor McGonagall.

Everything had calmed down after the prank for a while, but you know that the Weasley twins are relentless, so the prank got better at noon. In early noon as James Potter was starting his first defense lesson of the day with sixth-year Gryffindors and Slytherins, his voice slowly became squeaker.

"So when you perform the non-verbAL spElls-" James Potter winced at the crack in his voice and massaged his throat before continuing, "Ahem..um..yes when you perform THe NON-verBAL spELLS, yOU need too.." The rest of his sentence wasn't finished as James Potter felt his throat go wack and started emitting high-pitched sounds. Several of his students shared amused looks while others tried to keep straight faces but failed miserably.

James Potter felt his face go red and quickly tried to think of a way to fix this larynx issue. He grabbed the glass of water on his desk and drank it, hoping that it would help relax his vocal folds. He cleared his throat again and tried to forget what happened.

"So you need to think of the SPell ANDDD-" he quickly halted speaking as his voice started going off on a high-pitched note. Everyone burst out in uncontrollable laughter at the horrendous shrieks that came from their professor. Their faces turned red from lack of oxygen and continuous laughter, others holding onto each other for stability. The Weasley twins were the loudest and most vocal of them all as they caricatured a girlish version of James Potter making flirtatious gestures.

Having enough of the situation and feeling extremely humiliated, James stormed out the classroom and put as much distance from his class as possible, venting out his frustrations on the way. The class immediately trailed their professor, jeering and teasing him about sounding like an overzealous fan. He couldn't get rid of them, everywhere he went they followed until he threatened to land every single one of them in detention every day until the end of the year.

That momentarily shut them up as they slouched away unhappily, muttering about professors who ruin the fun out of everything. But along the way, their jeers and taunts captured the other occupants of the castle's attention and they found James Potter's misfortune hilarious. The other Hogwarts students didn't like James Potter at all; he was offensive to his students even if his comments were placed in a jocular manner. Secondhand accounts spread quickly through the Hogwarts, Harvard, and Durmstrang populations until everyone, even the busy house-elves, knew of the comical ingenious prank on James Potter.

James Potter was in a grumpy mood by the beginning of the afternoon as he was absent for lunch and all his afternoon classes, causing Albus to grudgingly cancel all defense lessons for the day. During the day, students who passed by the Weasley twins praised them for the successful prank on James Potter but they didn't know that the majority of the prank was spurred from Cadmus' idea of revenge.

James Potter had run off to the Headmaster to get help but the old man simply chuckled at his defense professor and acted like he didn't hear of the prank.

"What is it, James? Something bothering you" Dumbledore chortled, keeping a straight face but his eyes twinkled with laughter. James opened his mouth to answer and loads of high-pitched noises streamed out. Dumbledore smiled with amusement.

"Ah, I seem to see the problem" Dumbledore mused and just sent James to the hospital wing.

Much to everyone's disappointment, James Potter's voice was corrected by Madam Pomfrey and he was back at the High Table for the dinner feast. Despite all the humiliation and taunts he had received, James Potter seemed to be slightly on the brighter side. He still glowered at the students who laughed at him and was in a disgruntled mood when Flitwick brought up the topic.

The photos Cadmus took were now treasured as he was the only one who had taken evidence of the prank and everyone wanted a hard copy of it to relive that memory. One of the Gryffindors, a young energetic one named Colin Creevey, had prattled his ears off about his photography at Hogwarts as well and asked for his autograph. Confused Cadmus watched as Colin pulled out a small photo of Cadmus standing up in the photograph when his name was called, the background was dark because the lights were out but he could make out the Ravenclaw table up and cheering. It was a breathtaking and great photo as it had captured a moment of glory in a dark background with only the Goblet of Fire's flames glowing blue giving that source of light for everything else.

Awed by the majesty of the photograph, Cadmus took it and didn't hesitate and signed it. His first Triwizard champion autograph, probably the first of many he would be signing but Cadmus made sure Colin's autograph was the only special one by drawing his symbol. A lightning bolt. Of all the symbols out there in the world, of all the stars and shapes, Cadmus chose the lightning bolt. Why? Because it represented power, something that he was known for during his dueling years.

Colin thanked Cadmus and promised to print another copy for him to keep. Cadmus was very pleased and told Colin that if he was going to sell any photos of him to people, that he would have permission from him first. It would have been better if Perenelle oversaw this whole thing however Cadmus trusted Colin enough to have self-awareness.

After they finished dinner and were dismissed by Dumbledore, the mass of Harvard students dragged their bodies back to their dormitories on the seventh floor. As they settled in their respective dorms, Cadmus laid in bed, his stomach rumbling from all the food he ate. Spurred by a sudden thought, Cadmus sat up and opened his suitcase and pulled out the map Remus had given him. He hadn't used the map at all since the day and today would be the perfect night to walk through the castle. Cadmus thought of asking Daphne if she wanted to come along but then he discarded that idea as he didn't want his friend to get in trouble for being out of bed past curfew.

Cadmus showered and then slipped into his bed pretending to be asleep like the rest of his classmates to deter any suspicion. Not long after, the dormitory was filled with the consonance of snores and the sounds of quiet humming coming from their central heater. Cadmus opened his eyes and checked to see if everyone was sleeping. When it was confirmed, Cadmus slipped on a jacket and his sneakers grabbed his wand and map and left the dormitory. Thankfully, the entrance to their dormitory was not a portrait instead operated by keypad so no one could know he left.

Cadmus took out his wand and tapped his wand on his head muttering a spell. He felt the familiar cold trickling down from his head and immediately knew that the Disillusionment Charm worked. Now he was invisible to any unwanted prowlers and guards at night. Cadmus opened the map and remembered what Remus had instructed him to do. Tapping his wand on the center of the parchment, Cadmus muttered, "I solemnly swear I'm up to no good."

Instantly thin ink lines began to spread out like a spider's web from the tip of his wand until the lines connected and formed outlines of the castle. There were some words in green ink at the bottom but Cadmus skipped over them and excitedly examined the map. It was extraordinary; it showed every detail of Hogwarts castle and its grounds and little black dots with minuscule names following them around. Looking at the map, Cadmus saw his dot in the middle of the seventh-floor corridor despite being invisible. Next to his dot had the name Cadmus Flamel floating next to it and a little * right after his last name. Cadmus thought nothing of it but if he had properly looked at the green ink at the bottom of the page it read:

*subjects are either under the influence of Polyjuice Potion or have undergone the effects of blood adoption. See Marauder's Map Manual Section E for more information

Cadmus saw that Mr. Filch the caretaker of Hogwarts was prowling the third-floor corridor with a few Aurors spread out on each floor except the seventh. Cadmus was curious why; perhaps since that last incident with James Potter, they didn't want to push the boundaries of their tournament negotiations by prompting further attacks.

His sharp eyes scanned over the professor's offices and saw that everyone was either pacing around or fast asleep on their beds. However, when Cadmus observed the Potter dormitory for both Lily and James Potter, he found that no one was occupying it. Why weren't they in their offices? Cadmus shook his head wildly, he didn't care what the two Potters were up to, it wouldn't be right to poke his head in other people's businesses. But as his eyes surveyed the castle grounds, his eyes caught something happening near the Hogwarts entrance near the Forbidden Forest.

It was Bagman and the Potters were walking straight towards him. Now Cadmus was deeply intrigued about what the Potters were up to. What were they doing up past curfew talking with one of the Triwizard Tournament organizers? Then it dawned on him - they were there to bribe Bagman into revealing what the first task entailed. Cadmus' heart raced, who else knew about the first task? Karkaroff must be one of them as he had been the most suspicious stiffening when they announced that champions aren't allowed to receive help from professors.

Cadmus blinked again, now Bagman and the Potters were heading towards the Forbidden Forest together. Whatever the first task was, the obstacle was in the Forbidden Forest and Jamie Potter would know all about it. Cadmus quietly made his way to the lower floors and tiptoed past one of the Aurors with pink bubblegum hair. She didn't notice anything at all, nothing about seeing the Potters bribing Bagman to help their son cheat, nothing about how easily he was able to slip past her presence.

Hidden behind one of the stone statues, Cadmus took the opportunity to steal a look at the map again and saw the dot of Karkaroff stealthily following closely behind. Looking out the entrance, he saw that he was right, he saw the distinct silhouette of Karkaroff in his large fur overcoat following James Potter.

'So Krum's going to know too' Cadmus cursed mentally. That meant only Cedric and himself wouldn't know what the first task was. He was very tempted to follow Karkaroff but he was noble and was a huge advocate for equal fairness. Besides if he didn't cheat, it could be used against the other schools and punish them for not abiding by the rules.

Cadmus sat by the entrance and stared out into the night sky, looking at the full moon which shone brightly and feeling the chill of November breeze. He heard the chorus of wolves howling from the distant trees. Cadmus knew he had to leave but as he got up and felt someone grab his shoulder firmly.

"What are you doing here?"

A/N: Ohh, left you guys on a cliffhanger. Are you angry at me? Please don't kill me, it wasn't intentional. So what did you think of my prank on James Potter? Good? Bad? I'm not the best at writing and planning pranks but I'd thought it would make everyone feel better if James Potter got what he was asking for when he attacked Cadmus. Serves that bigoted pureblood right. And then Cadmus being very mischievous in this chapter, playing the prank and then sneaking out at night. But he catches not only Karkaroff cheating but the Potters too! Will he expose them? Especially Bagman as he is the organizer of the Tournament. I feel bad for Cedric, he doesn't know or will he? How did you think I wrote about the map? Having the * and Cadmus not seeing it. If James also has a copy of the new map, there will be trouble.

Alright, I need some of your help. Should I have the next chapter on Potter's POV on bribing Bagman and cheating? Or should I skip right to the First Task? I would rather skip right to First Task and write that but I want to ask your opinions. Next week I'll only write one chapter so make your decisions the best one! Also if you haven't, go check out the poll I made, the link is on my profile. As always please review, favorite, follow, share, and all that good cuz I'm loving it!

Stay safe and happy,

mintloveme523