That was the beginning. Over the next few weeks, the pranking escalated. Students from many houses and years suddenly found themselves sporting green or silver hair from a hex that hit a light fixture wrong. Suddenly, the entire school was involved in the prank war. No matter Filch's threats, curses and hexes were thrown about like so much... stuff that is thrown about. The students stopped short of pranking in class, but only just. One ingenious third year snipered fellow students with balloons filled with bobotubor pus in the yard below while a once-again-oblivious Professor Binns droned on about the Waffle Wars of Warsaw.

One night, during dinner in the Great Hall, Snape swept into the room quite late considering they had lima beans for dinner. Usually Snape was very timely for lima bean night. As he passed, the students fell silent. On Snape's back was a giant Hogwarts crest with the four house mascots singing, "It's a Small World After All," in high, tinny voices. His hair was dyed to match... red, yellow, green, and blue stripes. Fortunately, his expression was black enough to remind all the students that he was still Snape, and quite menacing thank-you-very-much.

At the front of the hall, Snape turned and barked, "Potter, Weasely, Malfoy... come with me." He then turned again and swooped like a giant, techni-color bat out of the hall.

"Good luck," Hermione whispered.

"Are you kidding?" Ron said. "For Snape, that was positively pleasant. Save me some cake."