Warning: this is a long one. So get cozy, get some snacks, maybe some butterbeer ;), and enjoy!
"Morning everyone!" Prof. Sprout says, tapping her wand on a nearby pot. "Good morning Professor Sprout." the class replies. "Welcome to greenhouse three, second years. Today we are going to re-pot Mandrakes. Who here can tell me the properties of the Mandrake root?" She asks. Hermione raises her hand. "Yes, Ms. Granger." She says. "Mandrake or Mandragora are used to restore those who have been petrified, to their original state." Hermione says. Prof. Sprout nods in agreement. "It's also quite dangerous, Mandrakes cry is fatal to anyone that hears it." Hermione adds. "Excellent. Ten points to Gryffindor. Now as our Mandrakes are still only seedlings, their cries wont kill you yet but will knock you out for several hours which is why I have given you all a pair of earmuffs for protection. Come along right away." Prof. Sprout says. She motions for us to put on the earmuffs. We do as she says and slide them over our ears.
"Grasp your Mandrake firmly, and pull it out of the pot." As she does this, her Mandrake let's out a terrible screech. We all wince at the noise. "Got it.. and now dunk down to the other pot and sprinkle it with soil." She says. I hear a thud beside me and look down to see Neville, passed out on the floor. Prof. Sprout sighs. "Longbottom's been neglecting his earmuffs." She says. "No ma'am. He's just fainted." Seamus says, looking down at Neville. "Yes well, just leave him there. Right, on we go." She says. "Plenty of pots to go around. Now grab a Mandrake and pull." As we all pull our Mandrakes up, each of them let out a loud whine. I struggle to get mine in it's pot because the noise is so unbearable. Draco's Mandrake bites his finger and I stifle a laugh as he glares at me.
That afternoon in the great hall, I join Ron, Harry and Hermione at the Gryffindor table. Ron finishes taping up his broken wand. A first year comes up to Harry and snaps a picture of him. "Hi harry, I'm Colin Creevey. I'm a Gryffindor too!" He says excitedly. "Hi Colin, it's nice to meet you." Harry says politely, struggling to open his eyes from the bright flash of Colin's camera.
"Ron? Is that your owl?" Dean Thomas asks. We look up to see an owl swoop down and crash into a bowl of food. The Slytherin table breaks out into laughter. Ron cringes. "Bloody birds a menace." Ron delicately picks a red envelope from the owls beak, and the owl gets up and flies away. "Oh no." Ron says. "Look everyone, Weasley's got himself a howler." Seamus says. The Slytherin table laughs again. "Go on Ron, I ignored one from my gran once, it was horrible." Neville says. Ron opens it up and the letter begins to screech at him. "Ronald Weasley! How dare you steal that car! I am absolutely disgusted! Your father's now facing an inquiry at work! And it's entirely your fault! If you put even a toe out of line, we'll send you straight home! Oh and Ginny dear, congratulations on making Gryffindor. Your father and I are so proud." And with that, the letter tears itself into shreds.
Draco was making my life miserable. Any chance he got he would, taunt me, laugh at me, trip me, mess with me in class, make me lose house points, etc.
Out of everyone in the school, he chose to focus his cruelty on me. Why? I don't know.
The first Quidditch game of the year and it's Gryffindor against Slytherin.
I fly across the field and a Slytherin boy bumps into me, trying to knock me off coarse. I push past him and toss the Quaffle into nearest hoop, scoring us 10 points. We're 50 behind Slytherin.
One of the Slytherin chasers shoots past our keeper and sends the Quaffle through our hoop. Scoring 10 points. We're now 60 points behind them. The Slytherin towers applaud their team.
Draco pulls down next to Harry and shouts "Alright there scarhead?"
Harry ducks as a Bludger just barely misses him. "Watch yourself Harry!" Oliver says. "Wood, look out!" Harry yells, but it's too late. The Bludger comes flying back their direction and hits the end of Oliver'a broom stick. He goes spinning down towards the ground. The Bludger then proceeds to fly towards Harry yet again. Harry ducks out of the way and it begins chasing after him. It's been charmed. Harry flies as fast as he can to get away from it. "Blimey! Harry's got emself' a rogue Bludger! That's been tampered with that has!" Hagrid yells. The Bludger tears through the towers, still chasing after Harry. "Training for the ballet Potter?" Draco says tauntingly. Both him and Draco catch sight of the stitch and begin to go after it. "You'll never catch me Potter!" Draco says. Unfortunately for them, the Bludger still hasn't given up. All of the sudden Draco comes flying up and falls off his broom. He rolls across the ground and lands on his ass.
Harry continues to chase after the Snitch. He almost catches it, but the Bludger comes up and hits his arm, breaking it. I hear a crunch come from his arm and Harry winces. Somehow Even with a broken arm Harry still managed to catch the Snitch. We won. He smiles as the crowd cheers. But that damn Bludger still wasn't satisfied. Harry rolls to the side as it tries to squash him like a bug. Hermione runs over to Harry. "Finite Incantato!" The Bludger burts into sparks.
That afternoon everyone checks in on Harry. Across the room Draco was moaning and groaning. "Oh Malfoy stop making such a fuss, you can go. Out of my way, out of my way." Pomfrey pushes through the small crowd that formed around Harry's bed and poured him some of the same potion she gave me when my skull was broken.
Some time later..
To answer my question at the beginning of the school year, the Chamber of Secrets has been opened. Filtch's cat Mrs. Norris was petrified on Halloween. Followed by Colin Creevey, who was petrified about three weeks ago.
The culprit has been quiet since.
I meet Harry, Ron and Hermione for the first ever meeting of the dueling club. Harry and Draco were chosen to duel. "Wands at the ready." Lockhart says. They face each other and hold their wands up by their faces. "Scared Potter?" Draco spits. "You wish." Harry replies. They flick their wands down by their side, turn so that their backs are now facing, take multiple steps forward and turn once more. "On the count of three." Lockharts says as they move one hand up by their heads and the other holding their wands, pointing at one another. "Cast your charms to disarm you opponent. Only to disarm. We don't want any accidents here. One.. two.." before Lockhart can get to three, Draco fires a spell sending Harry flying across room. The Gryffindor's gasp and the Slytherin's laugh. Draco smirks, backing off a tiny bit. Harry quickly gets to his feet and fires back, causing Draco to spin across the room and land on his arse. "I said disarm only!" Lockhart says, but Draco ignores him. "Serpensortia!" Draco shouts.
A large snake comes shooting out of Draco's wand and lands a few feet in front of Harry. It hisses and slithers along the floor. I shiver, not a fan of snakes. But I'm impressed by Draco's knowledge of that spell.
"Now, Now Potter, I'll get rid of it for you." Snape says, walking towards the snake. "Allow me professor Snape." Lockhart says, stepping up. "Alarte Ascendare." The snake shoots straight up in the air, and falls back onto the floor. Now rather pissed off, the snake looks around and hisses. To everyone's surprise, Harry says something I don't understand. He was talking to the snake. Wait. I recognize that.. but why would I.. the closet. I've heard that language before, from Quirrell. I look for Draco, his eyes were wide. He looks at me. The snake turns and looks at Justin Fletchley. Harry says something in whatever language he spoke a few moments ago. Everyone is very still. Harry repeats his "words" and the snake turns around to look at Harry. Finally Snape steps in and mumbles a spell and the snake burns up into ash.
Parseltongue. Harry spoke Parseltongue that day during the duel.
Prof. Lockhart has barely taught us anything this year. All of his classes are on what he claims to have done. For what seems like an eternity, we sit there. Half listening to Lockhart go on, and on, and on about all the fabulous things he's managed to pull off.
Yet again, we're paired with Slytherin for the next few classes until the holidays. Which means, more time with Draco. More taunting, teasing, tripping, laughing, and everything else I've had to put up with. It doesn't really bother me or hurt my feelings, but it gets annoying.
"Today will will be working on a liquid healer. You will partner up, and have two hours and ten minutes to start and complete your potion. You better hope it works, because you will be testing them out of each other." Snape hisses. Everyone starts whispering around. I'm pretty decent when it comes to potions, so I'm not too worried about that part. However, I am worried about the partner part. Snape is very fond of torturing me and Draco by pairing us together when he gets the chance.
"Mr. Finnigan, you're with Mr. Longbottom." They sit down together. "Ms. Granger and Mr. Potter." They do the same. "Mr. Weasley and Mr. Thomas."
"Mr. Goyle and Mr. Crabbe." So on and so forth.
"Ms, Oakley and Mr. Malfoy." He says. My hearts sinks. Draco stands up and sits down at an empty table, waiting for me to join. I drag myself out of my chair and sit down next to him. He smirks. "Hope you know what you're doing. Wouldn't want to end up with a second head or anything." He spat. I narrow my eyes. "You may begin." Snape says.
I open up my books and quickly read the instructions. I gather, Wormwood, Bubotuber pus, Dittany and dragon liver. "Here." I try to hand Draco the instructions but he brushes me off. "Look, neither of us want to be here, doing this. But unfortunately, we are. And unless you want to end up with a third eye or and extra few nostrils, I'd read through the instructions to make sure we don't screw it up." I say. "Fine." He mumbles, taking the book.
"Your time is up." Snape snaps at us. "Now, bottle your potions and form a line." He adds. Draco pours the blood red potion into a bottle and we get in line.
Snape puts a quick cold charm over one of the students in each pair. Seamus and Neville's potion receives a cold stare from Snape as their potion puts various warts along the bridge of Neville's nose.
Harry and Hermione's potion receives a nod in approval as Harry's red nose and cough disappear.
Me and Draco's potion surprisingly works better than Harry and Hermione's. Draco gave me an impressed look when his cold instantly went away. I blush a tiny bit.
Me and Draco did the best in the class and earned our houses 25 points each. I grab my books and shove them into my bag. "Thanks for not giving me that third eye." Draco says, smiling at me. This shocked me. Draco was actually smiling? And not because his foot caused my face to end up in the dirt? Wow. "Oh um, you're welcome I guess." I say. "Yeah, you did a pretty decent job, for a mudblood." The hatred returning to his eyes.
It's now early December. Classes are different, Hogwarts in general, is different. There's something in the air. An unspoken fear in everyone's voices. Normally the cold winter brought, would be comforting. It would mean cozying up by a fire with blankets, warm fuzzy socks and a good book. But now it just adds onto the eerie chill running through castle. I'm in the Gryffindor common room with the twins. Suddenly there's whispering, and lots of it. Someone tells Fred what's going on and he quickly fills me and George in. "It's Justin and Nearly Headless Nick. They've been petrified." Fred says. me and George exchange a worried look.
Now that the winter holidays are upon us, the great hall is decorated with a big tree and lights. Snow fills the ceiling then gently falls down and disappears. It's my favorite time of year at Hogwarts.
Hermione, Harry and Ron have a plan to use a Polyjuice potion to transform into Crabbe, Goyle and Millicent Bulstrode. They plan to snoop on Draco. "Can I join?" I ask. They just look at me for a moment. "I won't tell anyone. Just want to get some dirt on Malfoy." I smile. "Ok, but you'll need to collect hair from one of the Slytherin's." She says. "Will do." I sit down next to Ron and they go over the plan with me. I'm supposed to meet them in the second floor girls' lavatory.
My eyes search the Slytherin table. Pansy Parkinson. That's who's hair I'll use. I quickly think up a plan, I've got an idea. I walk up to Pansy and grab her sleeve. She jumps. "Bloody hell, what do you think you're doing?" She asks. Draco looks over at us. "I need to tell you something." I say. "Whatever it is, I don't care, filthy Mudblood." She hisses. "It's about Draco." I whisper so he can't hear. She pauses. "Fine." I drag her away from the table and away from any and all eyes. "Well, what is it?" She asks impatiently. "He totally has a thing for you." I lie. I don't know much about Draco, but I know he can't stand Pansy. None of us can. She blushes. "Really? Did he say something?" She asks. "Yes. I heard from Lavender Brown, Who heard from Fred and George Weasley, that they overheard Draco and Crabbe talking about you when the twins were setting up one of their pranks on one of the Prof." I lie again. "What'd he say?" She asks eagerly. Everyone knew she has a huge thing for Draco. She has since last year.
I felt kind of bad playing her like this, but she wasn't exactly the nicest to me. "He's going to be up in the astronomy tower tonight, he wants you to meet him there." I say. She narrows her eyes at me. "First of all, why wouldn't he just tell me he wants to meet me? And second of all, why would I trust you?" She asks. I pull a note out of my pocket that I wrote just in case she didn't believe me. I hand it to her and she quickly reads it. 'Pansy, meet me in the astronomy tower tonight. I have to see you. -Draco.'
She bought it. I can't believe she actually bought it! I think to myself. I look down at the hair tie I borrowed from Pansy, it had a few stray hairs stuck to it. Genius. I'm an actual genius.
Hermione pours the Polyjuice potion into four cups. "We'll have exactly one hour before we turn back into ourselves." She says, handing us each a cup. "Add the hairs." She says. We all put the hair into our cups. "Ew. Essence of Crabbe." Ron wrinkles his nose. "Cheers." Hermione says. We all chug the potions. I gag as the taste of the potion hits my tongue.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Ron says. His glass hits the floor and shatters as he runs into a stall. "Me too." Hermione says, following Rons lead. I gag once more at the thought of Pansy's hair sliding down my throat. I jump when Harry's glass hits the floor, shattering. He leans over the sink and looks into the mirror. I turn because I hate vomit, and if he throws up, I don't want to see it. I freeze at the sight of these strange lumps dancing around my face. I feel my feet getting bigger, a little too big. I grow a few inches. My hair turns much darker. I look back at the mirror and instead of seeing my reflection stare back at me, I see Pansy Parkinson's. I wrinkle my nose. Harry was still leaning over the sink, he gained some weight around his face and his glasses were a tad snug. Ron and Hermione were still in the stalls.
I didn't want to waste any time so I made my way over to the entrance of the Slytherin common room. A Slytherin boy was coming out of the room. He frowns at me and I realize I'm still in my robes. "I um, spilt something on mine. Stole these from a first year." I say. He nods and continues on his way. I open my bag and take out the green sweater I had in my trunk from first year, before I was sorted. I take off my robes and slide it over my head. It still fit, I haven't hit puberty yet so there's not much for it to not fit over. Satisfied, I step into the common room, leaving my bag outside.
It's chilly in here, but there's a fire going. I take a look around. It's like a fancy dungeon. The lighting is very dim. There's two black leather couches my the fire. Across from the fireplace there's a small table with a green lamp on it. There's some spare parchment and a few quills. I'm assuming the dorms are up the steps I see. Other than that it's pretty empty. I look around for a bit but I don't see Draco.
I hear someone coming and I go to hide but them I remember I'm "Pansy". When the door opens I gulp. It's Draco, "Crabbe" and "Goyle". Ron/Crabbe makes eye contact with me. I give him a look, he realizes it's me and his shoulders relax a bit. Draco makes his way over to the couch and sits down next to me. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Draco asks them. They sit down across from us and look around. "You'd never know the Weasley's are pure bloods, the way they behave. They're an embarrassment to the wizarding world. All of them." Draco scoffs. I notice Ron/Crabbe's hand clenches into a fist. "What's wrong with you, Crabbe?" Draco asks. Harry/Goyle elbows him. "Stomach ache." Ron/Crabbe mumbles. "Why were you talking to that filthy mudblood?" Draco spits. Harry/Goyle looks at me and I realize Draco had turned to me. He was asking me, well.. Pansy, but he was talking about me. "She needed something but I told the ugly git to leave me alone." I spit, trying to sound like Pansy. "I thought I told you to back off?" He says to me. I furrow my brows, confused. "To leave her alone?" He snaps. Now I was even more confused. Why would he tell Pansy to leave me alone? "Right, sorry." I say. He rolls his eyes, turning back to face the boys.
I zone out when they start talking. My mind continued to question Draco's statement. Why would he tell Pansy to leave me alone? I suppose he just wants to bother me himself. I snap out of my thoughts suddenly. "You're wrong!" Harry/Goyle yells at Draco. Me and Ron/Crabbe stare at him. He realizes his mistake as Draco quickly stands up. "What? You think there's someone here, worse than Dumbledore?" Draco asks. Ron/Crabbe shakes his head. "Well do you?" Draco asks, annoyed. "Harry Potter?" Harry/Goyle asks. "Good one Goyle. You're absolutely right. Saint Potter. And people actually think, that he's the heir of Slytherin?" Draco scoffs.
"But then you must have some idea who's behind it all?" Harry/Goyle asks. "You know I don't Goyle. I told you yesterday. How many times do I have to tell you?" Draco says. He gets up and sits down on the small table. He picks up a parcel that was sitting there, and shakes it. "Is this yours?" Draco asks. We shake our heads. Draco puts the parcel in his robe pocket. "But my father did say this; It's been fifty years since the chamber was opened. He wouldn't tell me who opened it, only that they were expelled. Last time the chamber of secrets was opened, a mudblood died. So it's only a matter of time before one of them is killed this time. As for me, I hope it's Granger." Draco says. Ron/Crabbe shoots up. "What's the matter with you two? You're acting very.. odd." Draco spits. "Stomach ache. Come on." Harry/Goyle says. Draco reaches into his pocket and takes out the parcel.
I can feel my shoes suddenly fit again. "Scar." Ron/Crabbe whispers. "Hair." Harry/Goyle replies. We're changing back. Harry and Ron run out of the common room. "Where are you going?" Draco shouts after them. I try to follow but Draco puts an arm out to stop me. "Before you run after those two, let me make myself very clear." He gets really close to my face. I gulp. "If I see you talking to Oakley again, I'll make sure to tell everyone about that little incident we had last week." He says. "What.. what incident?" I ask, forgetting I should've known what he was talking about. "Don't play dumb with me." He says. "What do you care if I talk to her anyway?" I ask rudely. Did he just.. did he just blush? "None of your business. Now get out of my face." He snaps. I quickly walk out of the hall just before I feel myself shrink. I look down at my hair and it fades into its usual light brown.
A few weeks later Ron hurriedly finds me. "Her-Hermione." He pants. "What?" I ask. "Hermione, she's been- she's been petrified." He says in between breaths. I think for moment. "Do you.. know what happened?" I ask. He shakes his head.
Prof. Mcgonagall comes rushing into the Gryffindor door common room with a piece of parchment. "Can I have your attention please?" She asks, the whole room grows silent. "Because of recent events, these new rules will be put into effect, immediately. All students will return to their house common rooms by 6:00 every evening. All students will be accompanied to their lesson by a teacher. No exceptions." She rolls her parchment back up. "I should tell you. Unless the culprit behind these attacks is caught, it is likely the school will be closed." She says to us, then she leaves the room.
A week or so goes by and Prof. Mcgonagall comes into the common room once again and has a quick word with Fred and George. I watch as their faces grow pale. Mcgonagall puts her hand on Fred's shoulder. She looks at them for another second, and ducks out of the room.
I walk over to the twins. "What happened? Is everything ok?" I ask them. George shakes his head. "It's Ginny. She's been taken, into the Chamber of Secrets." Fred says. I see the worry in his eyes. I hug them both. "I'm sure it will be ok, everything will be ok." I say, trying to sound convincing.
Seamus comes running over to us. "It's Professor Lockhart, he's gone into the Chamber after Ginny!" Seamus says. I look at the twins. "Well I hope someone goes with him, if not.. Ginny's doomed." George tries to joke, but no one laughs.
The next night Harry and Ron fill me in on what happened last night in the Chamber. I wouldn't have believed them if Ginny wasn't sitting across from me. Nearly Headless Nick comes floating into the great hall. "Welcome back Sir!" I say happily waving at him. "Why, thank you!" He says.
"Harry, it's Hermione!" Neville says. Ron and Harry get up and I see Hermione running over, throwing her arms around Harry. They finally separate. And she goes to hug Ron, but she stops and they exchange an awkward handshake. "Welcome back, Hermione." He finally manages to say. "I'm glad you're alright." I tell Hermione. "Thanks, me too." She says.
Prof. Mcgonagall taps on her glass. "May I have your attention please?" She says as Dumbledore stands up. "Before we begin the feast.. let us have a round of applause for Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey's Mandrake juice. It has been so successfully administered to all who had been petrified, everyone has returned to their original state." He says as the room breaks into a loud applause. Everyone except for Draco, Crabbe and Goyle applauded them.
"So in light of recent events, as a school treat, all exams have been cancelled!" Dumbledore says. This time everyone including Draco and his douchebag buddies clap and cheer. Although, Hermione was rather disappointed.
The doors to the great hall fly open, and Hagrid comes walking in. "Sorry I'm late." He says. "The owl that delivered my release papers got all confused, some ruddy bird called Errol." Ron blushes from embarrassment. He stops in front of Harry, Ron and Hermione. "I'd just like to say that if it hadn't been for Harry, and Ron, and Hermione of course.. I'd still uh, I'd still be you-know-where so I'd just like to say thanks." Hagrid says. "There's no Hogwarts without you, Hagrid." Harry says, hugging him. Dumbledore begins clapping and everyone follows his lead. Hagrid blushes as the whole room stands up and cheers for him. He puts his fists in the air as if saying 'woohoo' and smiles gratefully.
I think about everything that happened this year with the students being petrified, Ginny being taken, Hagrid being sent to Gryffindor.. I'm surprised when my head thinks back to that night in the Slytherin common room. I spent the rest of the feast wondering. Wondering why the boy that taunted me through the whole semester, told Pansy Parkinson to back off. Why did he care? I look over in his direction and once again, catch him staring right at me.
I'm so excited to write the next chapter. It's gonna start getting ✨spicy✨
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