Title: The Terrible Task
Category: Books » Harry Potter
Author: Fantasy-SciFi-lover
Language: English, Rating: Rated: K+
Genre: General/Humor
Published: 08-10-07, Updated: 08-10-07
Chapters: 1, Words: 2,704
Chapter 1: Terrible Task
I like to change some circumstances in stories that I have read or shows that I have seen. I like to put myself in the stories, so that I have a fictional place where I can just have fun. This is my first fanfiction, so please be nice. I don't own any of the characters (except Amaryllis). Some places are switched, so basically, Harry is Hermione, Amaryllis (being Harry's twin) is Harry, and Ron is Ron. Anyway it made sense in my head. Please enjoy!
It takes place after Buckbeak attacked Draco Malfoy. By the way, Amaryllis and Harry are twins.
"Potter! Weasley!" drawled the familiar voice of Draco Malfoy. "Professor Snape has assigned you two to help me by carrying my bag, cutting up my potion ingredients, and stuff like that." He finished with a sneer on his face.
"Like we're gonna run around after you all day! As if we have nothing better to do!" retorted Ron.
"Well actually you two don't have much say in the matter." said Malfoy lazily. Pulling a bit of parchment out of his robes, showing it to Amaryllis and Ron.
I Professor S. Snape assign to Amaryllis Potter, Ronald Weasley, and Harry Potter the privilege of helping Draco Malfoy with whatever help he might need, due to his injury.
Signed,
Professor Severus Snape
The Potions Master
Amaryllis grabbed the piece of parchment from Malfoy. Now that Snape had written a letter and signed it they really had no say in the matter. Amaryllis finally looked up from the piece of parchment, passing it to Ron. Malfoy seemed to be on the verge of jumping up into the air and giving a great whoop of victory, so when he didn't not only was Amaryllis surprised but slightly grateful.
"Well, Malfoy I suppose we really have no choice." said Amaryllis in what sounded like a defeated voice, Ron gaped. "Where do you want us to take your pack to?"
"Take it to the Entrance Hall" sneered Malfoy, before turning and walking away.
When Ron had finally found his voice he still couldn't believe what had happened.
"How could you just give in like that!?" he said exasperatedly. "You just-" When Ron looked up into Amaryllis's face he saw that there was a smile of triumph on her face. "Why are you so happy?" said Ron surprised.
"Ron I just had a brilliant idea. We don't have to really carry this to the Entrance Hall, and set it down."
"What do you mean? Of course, we have to. In case you've forgotten Snape wrote a letter telling us we have to."
"Well, your right he did write the letter," said Amaryllis, with that certain mischievous sparkle in her eyes. "but he said we were to help Malfoy with what ever he needed. He did not specify how."
"What?"
"I'll explain on the way to the common room. Come on."
Finally Ron and Amaryllis were standing outside of the portrait hole.
"You aren't going to bring that in are you" said Ron, indicating Malfoy's bag.
"No, of course not. I plan on leaving it out in the corridor, and maybe someone will walk by and steal it."
"Good."
"Are either of you going to say the password, or will I have to wait here for your conversation to end?" said the fat lady in the pink silk dress, who was on the portrait.
"Sorry, ummm, Fortuna Major" muttered Ron.
As the portrait hole swung open Amaryllis dropped Malfoy's bag to the side of the hole and stepped inside. Together they made their way across the common room and up to their dormitory. Where they put their bags on their bed and went back out the portrait hole, Amaryllis just barely remembering to pick up Malfoy's bag on the way out.
"I suppose Harry is in the library-" started Amaryllis.
Ron whimpered.
"What's wrong with you, and would you stop poking me."
"It's n-n-not me."
"What?" Amaryllis swung the bag around, and just caught a glimpse of a hairy jointed leg quickly going back in the bag.
"Sp-sp-spider" stuttered Ron taking a step back.
"Malfoy never said not to open the pack" said Amaryllis thoughtfully.
"Yeah, I wonder why" said Ron sarcastically. "Maybe he was hoping we would be nosy and have ourselves a look."
"One hairy leg doesn't mean it's a spider. Come on Ron where's your sense of adventure?"
"Back in the common room" muttered Ron.
" Oh come on just a little look" said Amaryllis already starting to open the bag.
"No-" started Ron half-heartedly, but the clasp on the bag had already been undone. As Amaryllis opened the mouth of the bag a bit wider, for a better look, Ron who out of curiosity had decided to stand slightly behind Amaryllis, gave a terrified jerk, and sent the bag tumbling down toward the floor of the Entrance Hall. They were just going to say how relieved they were that no one was standing underneath them when someone stepped right into the line of fire, none other than Professor Snape, who would be looking for the perfect reason to land them both in detention for a month.
Ron looks at Amaryllis horrified. "Do you know how much trouble we'll be in?" he said in a hoarse whisper.
"Actually it could be worse, Ron, you could be standing down there." Joked Amaryllis.
"Come on. We have to get-" Ron started, but was interrupted by a soft noise meaning the bag had hit something, a shriek of surprise, and then "POTTER! WEASLEY!" , and the stomping of someone coming up the stairs.
"Run!" whispered Amaryllis and Ron in unison, and together they ran, and ran, and ran passing so many people and things that they didn't even notice that they had gone down a floor, instead of up one. Apparently Snape had made his way up to the third floor, because they could just barely hear the stomping of his feet above him, and the occasional shout of "POTTER! WEASLEY!"
"Can we please take a break from running?" panted Ron.
"Well, ok, but first we have to find out what floor we are on now."
"I think we're on the first floor" said Ron looking around.
"Yeah, I can see all of the teacher's offices" replied Amaryllis. "OK we can have a break now, but we must keep walking."
"Fine. It's better than nothing."
So they walked along the first floor's halls and corridors. When they accidentally bumped into someone. They looked up and to their relief it was Professor Lupin.
"Hello, Professor Lupin" said Amaryllis with as cheerful of a voice as she could muster.
"Oh, hello Amaryllis. Hello Ron." he replied "It looks like you have been running."
Ron and Amaryllis glanced sideways at each other.
"Do you want to tell me what you're running from?" he pressed on.
"Well, I guess you could put it this way," said Amaryllis thinking very hard. "We are running from-"
"POTTER! WEASLEY!"
Amaryllis and Ron gave a startled jump and looked up. There stood Snape now on the second floor, but he wasn't looking at them.
Forgetting about Professor Lupin, Ron said "He could have seen us."
Amaryllis nodded, "Time to go!"
They started off again, but they didn't get very far when they felt that someone had grabbed them from behind. It was Professor Lupin.
"Please Professor let go," pleaded Amaryllis "Snape's gonna skin us alive, and use us for his next potion ingredients!"
"Wait, I can help you."
"How can you help us?" replied Ron suspiciously.
"Well, I know of a secret passage that will get you into the Entrance Hall, unseen."
"Great!" said Amaryllis excitedly. "Can you tell us?"
"No, I can't tell you," Lupin replied "but I can show you."
"Lead the way" said Amaryllis and Ron.
So at a hurried walk they followed Professor Lupin to the end of the corridor that they were in, took a left turn and found themselves in a dead end.
"It's a dead end" said Ron accusingly.
"Ron, Professor Lupin said it was a secret passage. Chances are it won't stand out."
"Very good. That's true it doesn't stand out, but what do you two see in here?"
"Well, there's a tapestry on the wall" said Ron, as he looked around.
"And there is a table next to the tapestry, with a blue vase on it" said Amaryllis, walking closer for a better look. She touched the vase, and tried to pick it up "It's stuck" she said.
"Yes, that's right, this is what you have to do," said Professor Lupin taking out his wand, "first, you two move the table about two stones to the right. OK, now you point your wand at the stone that is two to the right of the tapestry, and eight up from the floor."
"Right, two to the right, and eight up" repeated Amaryllis taking a mental note.
"OK, now here's the tricky part. You must point your wand to that spot on the wall, and say expositus. Can either of you tell me what it means?"
After sharing a look of complete confusion, they shook their heads, and Ron mumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like "bet Harry could".
"Expose?" asked Amaryllis, thinking we don't have time for this.
"Close, but no, it means open. Go on try."
So Amaryllis followed Professor Lupin's instructions and sure enough, the words had barely left her lips, when a hole appeared in the wall quickly got bigger, so that a person would be able to walk through.
"Thanks Professor" said Amaryllis hurriedly.
"No problem, Amaryllis. Now hurry, go!"
So Amaryllis and Ron walked through into the passage, as they started to hear heavy footfalls at the end of the corridor. Then as soon as they stepped inside, the wall closed back up again, leaving them in pitch darkness.
"We might want some light" suggested Amaryllis.
"Right."
"Lumos" they said together, and two lights appeared at the ends of their wands. Now that they had light they could see that most of the passage was down hill, so they started walking until they cam to a left turn in the path and then a dead end.
"Hey, Amaryllis I just thought of something Professor Lupin didn't tell us how to get out."
"I have been thinking about that, and actually I think he did."
"What?"
"Remember how he went through the whole definition of expositus?"
"Yeah, that was kind of pointless."
"Not if we were going to use it again" Amaryllis said. She muttered "nox" and then pointed her wand at the wall, that had appeared in front of them, and said "expositus". Sure enough the wall started opening again. She and Ron stepped out and with the light from Ron's wand they could see that they were in a broom cupboard.
"This must be the broom cupboard that's right off of the Entrance Hall" said Ron.
"Yeah, must be" replied Amaryllis, "I'll go first, and knock twice if the coast is clear."
"OK"
Amaryllis opened the door a crack and saw that there was no one there, so she walked out. Now that she was out she could see the whole hall was deserted, except for Fred and George who had just turned a corner and started walking down the stairs. Amaryllis knocked twice on the door then headed toward Fred and George.
"Hey, Am" Fred called.
"Hi, Fred" Amaryllis replied. Then added, "Could you try not to say my name so loud?"
"Sure, but why?"
"What have you done this time?" George said shaking his head, his voice holding a fake tone of disappointment.
"I'll tell you later in the common room, but till then if Snape asks any questions Ron and I were with you in the common room, ok?"
"Sure."
"The four of us will walk into the Great Hall together and make like we've been together all afternoon. Come on Ron."
After dinner Fred, George, Ron, and Amaryllis were on their way to the Gryffindor Common Room when they heard "Miss Potter." It was Professor McGonagall head of the Gryffindor House.
"Yes, Professor?" Amaryllis replied in an innocent sort of voice.
"Please follow me." Said Professor McGonagall, before turning and leading the way.
"We'll meet you back in the common room." Fred said. Amaryllis nodded to show that she heard, and turned to follow Professor McGonagall.
"Professor where are we going?" Amaryllis asked after they had started up a staircase.
"To Professor Dumbledore's office, Potter" replied Professor McGonagall.
"Oh, am I in trouble?" asked Amaryllis trying to sound confused, but Professor McGonagall didn't answer, and continued walking down the corridor toward the statue outside the entrance to the headmaster's office.
Once they were in front of the statue of a phoenix Professor McGonagall said "Lemon Drop", which apparently was the password to get into Professor Dumbledore's office. As soon as she said the password the phoenix started rising skyward as stairs appeared following it, like a giant spiral escalator. Professor McGonagall stepped on to one of the steps, and indicated that Amaryllis do the same. Finally as they reached the top they saw a door. Professor McGonagall knocked on the door, a voice said "Come in", so Professor McGonagall opened the door. As Amaryllis entered the all to familiar room of Dumbledore's office she noticed that Professor Snape was already there. Professor Dumbledore was sitting behind his desk, while Snape was sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the desk.
"Will you please have a seat, Amaryllis" said Professor Dumbledore.
Amaryllis sat down in the other chair in front of the desk, and inched it away from Snape's chair.
"Professor Snape has just finished recounting all the events that happened to him this afternoon, and there was one that sounded a bit odd to me."
"What was that, professor?" said Amaryllis with the same innocent voice.
"Apparently someone's school bag containing an overly large tarantula was dropped on his head."
"And you, your brother, and Mr. Weasley are to blame!" shouted Professor Snape.
"Now, Severus do you have any proof?"
"Well, no, but I know it was them!"
"Innocent until proven guilty" replied the Headmaster. He then shifted his piercing blue eyes to Amaryllis. "Amaryllis are you responsible for what happened to Professor Snape?"
Amaryllis shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
"See I knew it"
"It was an accident."
"I highly doubt that" snapped Snape.
"Professor Snape you are free to go tend to any business you may have."
With that Professor Snape stalked out, but before he walked out he gave Amaryllis amurderous glance.
"Now, Amaryllis will you please tell me everything that happened" asked Professor Dumbledore.
"Ok, I'll tell you what happened" said Amaryllis, while she took out the letter that Professor Snape wrote.
She recounted their adventure exactly as it happened, leaving out the part with Professor Lupin, and making it sound like they met Fred and George and walked down the staircase together to dinner. When she had finished Professor Dumbledore agreed that it was an accident. As Amaryllis entered the Common Room Fred, George, Ron, and Harry came over.
"How did things go?" Fred asked.
"What's our punishment?" asked Ron nervously.
"Our Punishment?" asked Amaryllis.
"Don't tell me that you played the hero and took all the blame!"
"No, I didn't take all the blame. Instead I was able to convince Professor Dumbledore that it was an accident, and he even said we don't have to do anything for Malfoy anymore."
"You-…what?"
"Come on I'll tell you everything."
So they all went by the fireside, and Amaryllis told them everything that had happened. When she was finally done she had even impressed Fred and George, who are known throughout the school for causing trouble, because they usually take the time to plan.