Recap: Neville noticed a single stack of papers sitting on the desk in front and went forward to see if they might help them figure out who was thinking this. As he passed the table directly in front of the teacher's desk, the cauldron spewed forth a boiling mess of a deep red potion. He jumped out of the way as the potion hit the floor where he had been standing and slowly began to eat away at the stone.
He turned to Luna, "That was cl--,"
But sadly, before Neville had even finished thinking that it was close that he wasn't hurt by the crazy potion, almost every other cauldron seemed to think now was the right time to spew forth their entire contents, simultaneously, and covering both Neville and Luna.
Weird Happenings in the Room of Requirement
Who Wants to be Draco Malfoy?
Strangely, as Neville and Luna were doused in whatever potions bubbling in the many cauldrons, Hermione was the one to let out a blood curdling scream. She felt so helpless as a tiny black cauldron on the edge of a table.
In the instant before anything drastic happened, Neville looked at Luna with fear, not sure what could happen to them in this room. But before another word could be spoken, two Draco Malfoys seemed to take their places (both wearing Gryffindor robes, how odd).
A disillusionment charm? How peculiar! Hermione thought, now why would it do something like that, and change into a person we actually know? Whoever this person thinking all of these lovely things is certainly full of imagination.
The she version of Draco looked down at her hands, and ran them through her hair. She glanced over at the he Draco, noticing that he was doing very similar things.
Luna ran towards the door, attempting to pull it open, before letting out a frustrating scream. As she continued to tug on the stubborn doorknob, Neville ran to help. But all three students began to realize there was no hope.
They were officially trapped in the room.
"Alright, let's not get too frustrated by the current situation." Hermione said, attempting to comfort. "We'll figure something out, and come on, it's not that bad!"
"Not that bad? Not that bad! Are you seriously kidding, because Luna and I are standing here as Malfoy! If I could speak for the two of us, I'm fairly sure neither of us want to be the blonde little ferret for any length of time." Neville was breathing heavily, a bit of red flushing into his cheeks.
This was now the second time Neville had spoken up, and this time, Luna decided to chime in to agree.
"Hermione, let's not think this whole situation is all rosy. Honestly, you're getting annoying, with the screaming, and then the over optimism."
If a cauldron could blush, then that's what one would describe Hermione's expression as. She looked down, and mumbled softly, thinking she was only trying to be helpful. Now it's just going to get terribly awkward, both of them are just going to turn on me and then leave me! They might as well, I'm only trapped as a cauldron, but it's not as if either of really care, I'm too drastically annoying. Luna, Luna, Luna, being so obvious with your love for Neville I'm in the middle of it too, and I bet you're for whatever reason jealous. How silly, I just need to get out of here, end all of this craziness now!
Hermione began crying softly, but being a small cauldron, she couldn't turn her face away from Luna and Neville. She was clearly concerned about not being in her actual form, and it seemed as if no one really wanted to help.
Luna noticed her tears first and rushed over, tripping over her now overly large feet along the way.
What many people don't realize is it's very hard to comfort a cauldron, but that is exactly what Luna tried to do. Poor Hermione, she thought, here we are fighting about all of these things and we should just be helping her. I'm too caught up in this situation with Neville, although if he doesn't realize it now, he probably never will.
Luna stood awkwardly trying to comfort Hermione with her now Draco arms. Neville's cheeks flushed even more deeply, and wishing he could take back what he said.
Instead of letting things get more hairy, Neville wandered to the opposite end of the classroom, looking through cabinets, under desks, and on chairs. He hoped to find whatever the object it was they were looking for. The sooner we can get out of here, the better off we all are.
As Neville wandered towards a desk in the far right corner of the room, he noticed something seemingly out of place. He half ran, half trotted to it, picking up a large piece of dark brown fabric from under one of the desk legs.
Neville smiled knowingly, and ran to the girls. Hoping this happy turn of events might cheer both of them up he smiled even brighter.
"I know who's controlling the room!"
