"What do you got there, Harry?" Fred Weasley asked.
"Movies!"
Several heads at the Gryffindor table snapped in his direction filled with expressions of disbelief. Harry couldn't help himself: he laughed. "Give me a hand, I need to get this stuff up to McGongall's office before class. I think I know what most of us will be doing Friday night."
Harry spent Friday afternoon systematically going through, assembling and mounting the screen, projector and sound system. McGonagall as Deputy Headmistress had given permission for the enterprise and was as curious as a cat about what Harry was doing. She wasn't the only one. Flitwick had also made a beeline for the Great Hall after his classes to observe. Harry was a little bothered by the audience, but went about properly enlarging the screen and mounting it in the Great Hall from one of the support beams above the teachers' table.
Then came the finding the right place to mount the projector. Harry was glad he was a good flier because he had to concentrate not only on what the broom was doing he also had to work the various levitation charms to lift the various pieces of the mount and hover while he screwed them into place. Once he had the screen and projector in place he had to work even longer to figure out the speaker placement for the best sound and balance the speaker output with various charms. It was time for his private lessons before he was done.
Albus was scowling all through dinner that evening he really hadn't liked that he had been overruled by both his staff and the board of governors into allowing this "mooty" night. In his day students were encouraged to study. But instead tonight the Great Hall would be reconfigured and the student body would be watching something called "Star Wars". As if the children needed to be exposed to war between stars. If the student body liked it, nights like tonight would be happening every two weeks much to his displeasure.
At exactly seven forty five dinner disappeared.. The tables floated up and over the students to the back of the Hall and the first years enthusiastically moved the benches so they faced the teacher's table. Harry gleefully set the example by transfiguring the bench he moved into a row of comfortable seats.
Many of the sixth and seventh years followed his example as did Professor McGonagall. Harry then summoned the screen down and locked it in place then went to the back of the hall where he had placed a cabinet to house the DVD player, the soundboard for the speakers, and the projector controls. He activated them, then raced back to his seat between Neville and Draco. Draco was practically bouncing in his seat, He couldn't wait to be able to discuss the movie with his fellow Slytherins.
To say that movie night was an eye-opening experience for the teachers and students of Hogwarts was to understate the case. In the week that followed discussions and debates raged through the school. What were muggles capable of? Harry found himself giving impromptu lectures about how movies were made. What were the ethics of magic use?
When the discussions of the movie and the debate about magical ethics took precedence over the upcoming Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff quidditch match, Harry knew if there was ever a time to influence the future of the magical world it was then. So he asked Minerva if they could organize a formal discussion panel and ask the Minister of Magic, the Chief Witch of the Wizengamot, and head of DMLE if they could participate. He posted notices in all the common rooms asking for questions for the panel from the students. He asked Sue and Draco to help him moderate. Moving the British Magicals into the modern era really needed to start with the young, and he knew it.
Harry couldn't help but smile,things were going so well. Now if only his classes were going better. Perhaps he needed to think of some more pranks, light a figurative fire under a few of his professors.
Two days later Harry was slipping from the potions classroom. Getting past the wards Snape kept on his classroom had been very tricky. He had heard the seventh years were brewing Dreamless sleep today, and thought it was a perfect opportunity for a prank. Ordinarily pranking and brewing potions didn't go together, but these were seventh year students. Odds of a catastrophic reaction were very low, especially with a Potion Master like Snape. Harry had lightly coated the bottoms of all the cauldrons with a mixture of olive oil, billywig stingers, menthol, and eucalyptus.
A tablespoon per cauldron when mixed with Dreamless sleep's first five ingredients would result in a vapor that would make the person inhaling it talk in a high squeaky voice for a day. The nice part was it took about an hour to take affect, and it didn't affect the dreamless sleep at all. Smiling he made his way back up to the Great Hall. Dinner that evening was punctuated by high squeaky voices of the handful of seventh years taking potions that made most everyone laugh while Professor Snape scowled at everyone and resisted all attempts at getting him to say anything. Harry and the rest of the Gryffindors still got the chance to snicker over the voice change; their next potions class took place before the effects wore off.