Dan and Phil and The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 1

Daniel Howell pants heavily as he runs down the cobbled school corridor. He is closely followed by Phil Lester, his best friend. Dan slows down his run to a fast walk as they both stumble into their class. He pushes his curly brown hair out of his face.

"You boys certainly are cutting close to being late," said Professor McGonagall from behind her desk. Her hair sat in a tight bun on top of her head, not a single strand out of line. The glasses perched on top of her nose framed her eyes staring down at the two boys in disapproval.

"Sorry, Professor," said Phil breathlessly, his straight black hair untidy from his run. "The stair cases changed on us. We were stuck for quite awhile."

"The staircases always change at the same time everyday, Lester," said professor McGonagall with her usual no-nonsense tone. "I would think that 2nd years like yourselves would've already discovered this." Phil turned to Dan, who gave a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "Well I can tell you that your seats do not move at all, so I trust those will be a bit easier to navigate." Dan and Phil quickly found their seats, accompanied by a quiet snicker from the rest of the class.

"I told you we should've left earlier for class," whispered Phil a few minutes later, once the class had started.

"Don't blame this on me!" Dan whispered back. "You're the one who spilled ink all over my robes."

"Maybe if you hadn't left them on my bunk bed, I would've been a bit more careful."

"Are you saying that you aren't careful about spilling ink on your own robes?" Whispered Dan with a raised eyebrow.

Phil shrugged. "They're both the same color anyway, you can't tell." Dan shakes his head and turns to the rat sitting on his table. He was supposed to be turning it into a tea cup, but so far he had only succeeded in making its tail turn into a tea cup handle and immediately turn back to normal.

"Remember students," said the transfiguration teacher as she walked around the room. "This spell relies heavily on the wand motion. If you do not properly perform it, the transformation will not work." From the other side of the room, a chorus of laughs were heard. Dan turns his head to see another boy in their class staring at his hand in horror. Or rather what would be his hand. It no longer was a hand, but looked identical to the tea cups they were all trying to change their rats into.

Professor McGonagall marched over to him and with a wave of her wand turned his hand was turned back to normal. "Longbottom, perhaps you would be best if you moved to a different desk away from Percy," she said, aiming a quick glance at the sheepish looking boy.

The rest of the class went smoothly, no more students had their appendages changed to tea cups, but one girl had the end of her hair changed to a lid.

"I nearly got my rat completely changed," said Phil with a sigh as they left the class to head to lunch. "I swear my rat was harder to change than anyone else's."

"That Hermione girl got it on her first try, no surprise there," said Dan.

"Yeah, no surprise there, she's an bratty know it all," said a voice beside them. They turned their heads and saw a greasy yellow head of hair. Accompanying were two larger boys, Crabbe and Goyle.

"Malfoy," Dan said with distaste, "I think you could do to pay attention to her, you barely even changed your rat a different color."

A tint of color rose in his pale face. "Shut up, Howell," Malfoy spat. "You've really gone to the dogs, befriending one, then standing up for a mudblood."

The words barely left his mouth when Dan lunged at Malfoy. He pinned him against the wall and brought his arm back to punch him, but a pair of strong hands grabbed him. Dan was ripped away from Malfoy and thrown to the ground.