A/N: Hope you enjoyed the last two chapters... otherwise... (sigh) Why are you still reading? Don't read something you are not enjoying!... But, if you are liking it then YAY! Thanks for all the reviews, keep em coming.

The shrieks and cackles of hyenas were getting closer and Simon was getting tired. Suddenly, the dining hall seemed very far away.

"Where is Elspeth?" he gasped, glancing over his shoulder. The hyenas were right there. He was surprised that they had made it as far as they had; unless the hyenas were playing with them, they should have been caught by now. Maybe they weren't used to their hyena forms yet?

Unless the hyenas were playing with them...

Agatha was whimpering. "We're gonna get eaten, just like Ralph!"

Dev choked at the thought. "I'm too young to die!"

"Shut up!" Simon shouted, turning a corner. "Both of you! We are not gonna die. Are we magicians or aren't we!? We'll figure something out!"

Almost as soon as the words were out of his mouth, Elspeth ran around the corner in front of them. She yelped when she saw what was behind them and started running along beside Simon as they passed her.

"Took a shortcut," she panted. "Plan didn't work like I thought it would."

"What does that mean?!" Simon yelled at her, his voice going an octave higher.

A snarl sounded behind them, a very familiar snarl. Simon glanced back and saw that Baz was back, in the lead, and gaining speed. Clearly, if the others weren't, he really was trying to catch them.

Crap, thought Simon. Vampire speed, hyena speed, and normal human speed, all mixed together! CRAP! We are so screwed...

"It means, I didn't lose him," Elspeth snapped back and let out an excited noise as the doors to the main hall came into view.

Something hit Simon in the back so hard that he fell forward with a yelp. Simon was pretty sure that if he fell one more time, his skull would split open on the floor. He barely caught himself and flipped over to see Baz, standing a few feet away.

Simon scrambled backward as the gray-eyed hyena took a step forward. He could hear Elspeth telling the others to go on as she started running back for him. Well, at least someone cared.

Penelope was coming up behind Baz, her fur spiked up, head low, brown eyes narrowed darkly. Baz's ears pricked up when he heard her growl.

He turned to look at her. Penelope paused in front of him, her tail went up and she suddenly swiped Baz across the face with one large paw. He yelped as she knocked him over and shoved him away. His face was bleeding with four long slashes across the muzzle.

Elspeth grabbed Simon's arm and yanked him to his feet. "Listen," she grumbled as they started to run again. "Would you rather get out of here, or stare at Baz all day."

"Why'd Penny do that?" Simon gasped.

"She's a female hyena. Females are always more dominant."

Simon shot her a glance and she rolled her eyes.

"What? I'm not allowed to know things? Is that only Penelope?"

Agatha and Dev were waiting by the doors, they yanked them open as Elspeth and Simon got near enough and slipped inside. Just before he rushed inside, Simon glanced back and saw hyenas gathering around the place where Baz was lying.

He made a frustrated noise in his throat and raised his wand.

"Stand clear!" he shouted and the hyenas were blasted backwards away from Baz, who was lying on the ground in a ball.

"Simon!" He was yanked inside the dining hall and almost fell again.

After the door was closed and locked again Simon leaned against the wall and sighed. The Mage, teachers, and a bunch of kids were inside. Fussing over Agatha, Dev, and Elspeth. Asking them questions, listening to their stories, making over-dramatic faces.

Hmm... That was weird. This whole hyena thing seemed to only be happening to the eighth years... Literally everyone else in the school was fine. And... only one kid out of every room seemed to be turning into a hyena.

The Mage was talking to him. The entire room had gone quiet and Simon wasn't even listening. He shook his head and looked at the Mage again.

"Sorry, what?"

"Did you find anything out there?" the Mage repeated. "Who was calling you?"

Simon's mouth went dry at the memory. "Um... Well-"

WHAM!

Simon whipped around as the door was knocked over. Baz's striped form was standing on top of it. Shoulders hunched and head dipped low, ears flat to his head. His dark eyes found Simon and he started forward.

Panic and fear was all Simon could think about, all he could picture was Baz ripping him apart. He stumbled back and Baz let out a high laugh.

"Why," Simon panted, holding his hands out in front of himself protectively, "are you following me, Baz!?"

"That's Baz?" he heard someone gasp.

The hyena suddenly stopped and let out a low whine. Crouching down and giving Simon the biggest puppy-dog eyes he'd ever seen.

For a moment, there was silence. Then Baz made a dark noise in his throat and stood, taking a threatening step forward.

He snarled, letting out a high pitched laugh that made Simon swallow nervously. What was Baz doing? Why didn't he just attack already?.

As if that thought were all he had needed, Baz lunged forward and Simon yelped as he was knocked to the ground. He grabbed Baz's throat and tried to hold him back as the large hyena snapped at his throat.

He could see a light in Baz's eyes. Hunger. Simon let out a yell as Baz snapped at him again.

"Agatha!" he screamed. "Don't drive while drunk! Do it! NOW!"

"Oh!" Agatha brought out her mirror and murmured the words under her breath.

Baz stopped and shook his head, he stumbled away, ears flat to his head he lost his balance and fell to the ground, laughing.

Baz jumped to his feet and snarled at Professor Psych, he appeared to be in some sort of frenzy. He jumped around and snapped at Simon before whirling around again and charging out of the room.

"What's wrong with him?" demanded Dev. "That's not like Basil at all! What's going on here!?"

Professor Psych burst out laughing as if something were funny. Simon looked at him in horror. Not the professor!

But Professor Psych stayed perfectly human, and even calmed after a moment. Saying something under his breath and repairing the door to it's normal stage.

Professor Glyph shook her head in disapproval. "I knew it. I knew it. Shawn, out of all the stupid things you've done to test the eighth years, this is the most horrible!"

"Yes, I know." Professor Psych wiped his eyes. "But Crowley, it was worth it!"

Simon looked in between the two teachers. And then it all clicked.

Every year, Professor Psych would somehow test the eighth years to see if they had paid attention in his class. He wouldn't tell anyone when or how he was going to do it. One day, something would happen to the eighth years and they'd have to reverse the hex by using the counter curse.

When Simon had learned this, he thought it all had to be some kind of joke. It was just ridiculous that a man named Psych would play tricks on people.

And Simon had forgotten about it! Even though it was his eighth year!

"Professor Psych," sighed the Mage. "Did you really have to go to such extremes?"

"I admit," said Psych, "I haven't really ever tried anything like thing before, and it's a bit more risky. But it's the Mage's Heir's eighth year! I thought 'What the heck? He needs a challenge!' And it worked!"

Simon had never seen the professor so excited before and couldn't help but be slightly relieved that it wasn't anything worse.

"Psych!" giggled Professor Psych. "Gotcha! Haha! I am relieved that I decided to turn Miss Bunce into a hyena. You all would have figured it out by now, if I hadn't."

Professor Somnia and Professor Chilblains both sighed and shook their heads while Professor Glyph slapped Psych on the arm.

"You scared those poor children half to death, you beast!" she screeched at him and he tried to duck out of her reach. Unsuccessful. Professor Glyph wasn't having it.

Simon loved that teacher. He wanted to strangle Professor Psych himself.

"Well," he growled. "What's the counter curse?"

Professor Psych fixed him with one of his goose-like, disapproving glares. "Figure that out on your own. My rules still go, even if I couldn't keep my mouth shut this time. And I'd hurry if I were you. If you don't reverse the spell before nightfall the rest of you eighth years will slowly start turning into zebras."

"Zebras?!" gasped Agatha. "But... hyenas eat those!"

"Exactly, my dear."

Simon was flabbergasted. "You're insane!"

"I think you'll find that sanity isn't much different than insanity," Professor Psych tutted. "Oh! Speaking of sanity. Your hyena friends will be losing more and more of theirs the longer you take. So..." He shrugged.

"Wait," said SImon. "Why did Baz start laughing in his sleep, before you were even gonna turn them into hyenas?"

"Well, I had to test on somebody," sighed Professor Psych. "So I thought 'Why not Snow's roommate, that'll give him some excitement to think about.'"

Sucks to be me, Simon thought angrily.

Dev started to whimper. Simon wanted to beat his head against the wall and force himself to remember the counterspell.

When did they even have this lesson? Simon couldn't remember. All the could think about was the sound of his pounding heart and bodies slamming into the door outside. The knowledge that he was about to turn into a zebra. All he could focus on was the thought of Baz tearing him apart with neither of them being able to do anything about it.

The door was flung open. At the same time, Professor Psych cast a shield spell around the teachers and the other kids in the room. It was only the eighth years and the eighth year hyenas now.

Penelope was in the lead. She snarled at anybody who tried to pass her and laughed at everything else.

Simon stumbled back as hyena after hyena fought their way inside. They were about to get eaten like Ralph. He was sure of it. Baz and Malcolm started fighting again. Batting at each other with their paws and snapping at each other with their fangs. Tearing each others ears, muzzles, feet, tails...

The entire room was filled with the horrible sound of that shrieking laughter. It was echoing off the walls and bounced back around the room, so that one laugh sounded like ten different ones.

Penelope leaped after Agatha and Dev. Snapping her jaws at them and cackling.

Simon pressed up against the wall as Baz jumped away from Malcolm and started stalking towards Simon. His gray eyes glittering, teeth bared.

Simon swallowed loudly. But he couldn't hear it. All he could hear was laughter.

Laughter.

Laughter!

Simon jumped up and pulled out his wand, waving it around. Baz sprung forward, jaws snapping.

"LAUGHTER IS THE BEST MEDICINE!" he screamed over the noise.

Baz slammed into him, knocking the breath out of Simon and sending them both tumbling to the ground.

For a second, Simon's eyes wouldn't focus on anything, so he closed them for a moment and waited for the dizziness to stop.

"Oh gods."

He cracked an eye open and saw Baz-pale, cold, snotty, vampire, normal Baz-on all fours, standing over him. He was rolling his eyes, as if he couldn't believe that Simon would have the nerve to reverse the spell just as Baz was about to kill him.

Simon couldn't stop the enormous grin from spreading across his face. It had worked!

Baz got to his feet and helped Simon up as well. The room was filled with stumbling students that had recently been turned into hyenas. Penelope was getting up and apologizing over and over again to Agatha and Dev. Agatha just hugged her.

"I knew it was Professor Psych," Penny said. "As soon as I started to giggle in class, I knew it was him."

Agatha just laughed with relief. A human laugh, thank Merlin.

Baz was starting to sway slightly and Simon looked at him.

"You okay?"

Baz nodded. "Yeah... I'm fine. I think I'm gonna go lie down, though." He turned and hurried out of the room. Simon thought he had walked a little too fast.

The teachers started clapping.

"Well done, Simon Snow," said Professor Psych. "I was starting to wonder who was going to figure it out."

Simon rounded on him. "We could have been killed!" he spat.

The professor waved his hand dismissively. "Nonsense!" he laughed. "The boys and girls that were turned into hyenas were all incapable of doing something they did not want to do. No one was eaten. Everything that happened today was something that they had no problem doing!"

Simon's jaw dropped. "But... Ralph-"

"Is perfectly fine," Professor Psych said cheerfully. "Maybe a bit traumatized at the moment, but nothing a calming spell won't fix."

"So... we wouldn't have been eaten?"

"Well... if you had waited to become a zebra that would have been a whole different problem. You see, the students don't want to eat people, but they wouldn't have had any problem eating something that looks like an ordinary meal to them... anyways, it all worked out fine." Professor Psych patted Simon's shoulder.

"But… they've been chasing us around the school-"

"They probably enjoyed the look of horror on your faces. And they didn't have complete control. Some part of them probably had an urge to kill you, but most of them didn't."

Across the room, Professor Glyph was talking to some of the eighth years. Patting them on the shoulders and telling them about what had happened.

"Really no need for that," Psych sniffed. "They can remember everything that happened."

Suddenly, Simon remembered something.

"Wait," he began. "So, you're saying... That they couldn't do anything they wouldn't have wanted to do as a human?"

"Correct!" said the professor. "Brilliant, isn't it?"

Simon nodded distractedly. "Um yeah... Listen, I have to go. See you later."

"Where are you going?" asked Professor Psych.

Simon didn't answer right away as he headed toward the doors.

"I'm going to have a chat with Baz," he murmured.

A/N: Hey, sorry that this story is so short. There are only two more chapters left to do, but I'm working on more fanfiction stories so you will have more to read I'll fill you in on more later. One of my other Simon Snow fanfictions should be ready to start posting by the time this story is done. Thank you all for reading and please review if you have the time.