Digging his Own Grave

~ by Healer Pomfrey ~

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.

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Harry slowly felt the white mist around his head clear up as the potions took effect. He blinked, noticing that Hermione and Professor McGonagall were standing a few metres away, talking in hushed voices, but his ears were still strangely clogged up, so that he couldn't hear what they were saying.

"What happened?" he asked quietly. "Snape…"

"Harry, I thought you had fallen asleep," Hermione said softly and sat on the edge of his bed.

"Are you feeling better, Harry?" McGonagall asked gently. The edges of her mouth pulled up to a slight smile as she looked down on him.

"Much better," Harry replied in confusion, "but I don't understand. What was that with Snape and Ron? Did he take Ron to Slytherin, or was that only my imagination? I think I'm delirious." He thoughtfully rubbed his forehead.

"Professor Snape and I decided that Mr. Weasley should stay in the Slytherin dormitory for the time being, so that you can get some rest," McGonagall informed him firmly. "Ms. Granger will be allowed to visit."

"You won't send me to the Dursleys?" Harry enquired in a barely audible voice, glancing anxiously at the professor.

"No, we won't, and now try to sleep for a while," the professor instructed him. "I'll be back later."

Mere seconds later, Harry succumbed to the potions and drifted off to a much needed Healing sleep.

"Apparently, he was too bad off to understand what happened. Maybe we shouldn't tell him until his condition has improved greatly," Hermione suggested, glancing at her Head of House.

"That would be the best. Now I'll have to speak with Mr. Weasley's brothers," McGonagall replied and headed for the door, which was opened just before she could reach it.

"Professor…"

"Can you tell us what happened to our brother?"

"We heard some rumour that he was going to reside in Slytherin during the holidays," the twins queried.

The professor motioned for the twins to follow here into the common room and quietly filled them in on what had happened.

"Oh no!" the twins exclaimed simultaneously, looking at their Head of House in shock.

"We always knew that he was a jealous little git…"

"… but Harry was his best friend!"

"If it was any other student, I'd have expelled him on the spot, but I know your parents so well…" McGonagall slowly trailed off.

"Gred, don't you think it's time…"

"… to reveal to the professor…"

"… our Animagus forms," the twins whispered, before they said simultaneously, "We're fly Animagi, and we're going to play flies on the wall of the Slytherin common room for a few days."

"You managed the Animagus transformation?" McGonagall asked in disbelief, looking sternly at the twins.

Instants later, her little lions began to shrink until two small flies were sitting on the sofa. "One hundred points each to Gryffindor for a very advanced Transformation. Since when have you been able to transform?"

The twins chuckled. "In fact, we tried to become Animagi when we were ten in order to spy on our brother Percy. We already managed to transform before we came to Hogwarts."

"Very impressive, Messrs. Weasley," McGonagall commended the boys, and a rare smile played on her lips. "Well, have fun spying on your younger brother, but try to not get into trouble. I expect you to be back here by curfew at the latest," she instructed the twins and left the common room.

Fred thoughtfully looked at his twin. "Do you have an idea how we can get into the Slytherin common room?"

"How about asking Dobby, Harry's elf friend to take us there? He should be able to get in," George replied slowly.

Fred agreed and called the elf, who appeared with a pop and bowed deeply. "Yes, Fred and George Weasley, good friends of the great Harry Potter, I can take you into the Slytherin common room." Dobby held out his right hand and invited the twins to transform and step on the back of his hand. With a pop, the twins found themselves in an unknown room, which from the colours seemed to be the Slytherin common room.

"Call Dobby if you need to be taken back," the small elf whispered, and the twins gratefully left his hand and made themselves comfortable on top of a huge portrait of Salazar Slytherin that was decorating the wall above the fireplace.

They looked around curiously. The room, even if in Slytherin colours, looked very comfortable. It was equipped with several groups of old sofas and seemed to be at least as cosy as their own common room. Ron was sitting alone in one corner of the room, reading what seemed to be an older copy of Quidditch Quarterly. In one of the other corners, three boys and one girl were playing Wizard's Chess. One of the boys and the girl were first years, and the twins didn't even know their names; however, the oldest boy was a sixth year, and the twins knew that his father was a Death Eater. The last boy was Ben, a very nice boy of their own year. The twins often spoke with Ben and got along very well with their Slytherin classmate.

"He is so stupid. Why doesn't he play with them?" one fly mumbled to the other. "I'm sure Ben would be kind enough to invite him."

"Because he absolutely detests the Slytherins. Serves him right to have to stay here…"

"… after what he did to Harrykins."

All of a sudden, the Slytherin Head of House entered the room through a hidden side door. "It's dinnertime," the professor stated and waved his wand at one of the sofa groups, transforming the furniture into a dining table with six chairs around it.

The twins noticed that they were slowly getting hungry as well as they looked at the delicacies that popped up on the table with a flick of the professor's wand. However, in front of Ron, a bowl with chicken broth appeared. The twins chuckled as they observed their younger brother frown and turn to the professor with an angry expression on his face.

"Why do I get soup?" he queried, sounding very upset. "It's Christmas Eve. I want what everyone else has, or better yet, let me go back to Gryffindor."

"No Mr. Weasley; it's Christmas Eve in Gryffindor as well, and I just came back from force feeding your best friend a few spoonfuls of chicken broth. Do you know what the difference is?"

Ron merely glared at the Potions Master, who sneered, "That it's not his fault that he can't stomach anything else. However, it's your fault and therefore, you will get exactly the same meals as Mr. Potter."

Mumbling something incoherent, Ron jumped up from his seat and fled the room. While the four Slytherin students snickered as they observed him run towards the dormitory, Snape showed a blank face and continued to eat his meal.

"Professor, what exactly happened?" Ben suddenly asked.

Snape quickly informed his students, before he instructed Ben to go and fetch Ron from the dormitory. "He should not think that he'll get away with this behaviour," he said, smirking.

A few minutes later, Ron hesitantly returned to the common room. "What?" he asked, looking at the professor.

"Mr. Weasley, let me assure you that you are close to being expelled," the Potions Master drawled. "It is merely out of pity towards your mother that Professor McGonagall refrained from doing so and instead asked me to deal with you. Therefore, I am not inclined to take points from Gryffindor for your insolence. Instead, we're going to begin with your detention right away. Now eat your soup before I make you eat, and then follow me into my office."

"I hope he's not going to poison Ron," one of the flies whispered to the other.

"I don't think he will, although I have to agree that Snape looks as if something was off with the soup," the twin fly agreed. "Anyway, we have to fly onto his robes, so that we can accompany them to his office."

tbc...

Thank you so much for your kind comments that made me continue my story, which was originally intended as a oneshot.