Chapter Ten: Second chances
A/N: Hahahahah I know! Last update was last year! You guys can kill me now because taking so long!
[FAST FORWARD FOUR DAYS]
It had been four days since the transformation took place. Hermione and Pansy had explained to them about what were happening. It didn't do much for eight-year-old boys. They still didn't have any memory of their previous life other than after the potion incident. Professor McGonagall insisted it's better without them knowing their past. Hermione did noticed Draco's controlled movement like how his behaviours on table manners. It looks like he was expected to act that way. And Harry's restless behaviours did not go unnoticed. They will only act carefree when they were with each other. They did sometimes ask about their parents. That leaves Hermione, Pansy and Ron quite restless. How can they explain without mentioning about the wars?
"Hermione! Look what your boys did to me." Ron whined.
Hermione sighed. One thing that did not change was the boy abilities to jump into trouble. They managed to kidnap Ms Norris again for the fifth times! and chucked her at third floor broom closet. They also spilled chocolate fudge all the way from Great Hall to Divination class. Mr Filch definitely did not like the ideas of two eight-year-old boys running around the castle and has brought the matters several times to the headmistress. Which earned her a long lecture about keeping an eye to the boys and it was only been four days!
"No... we didn't do that Hermione." Harry said.
"We just wanted to borrow Ron's quilt to play some games." Draco tries to explain, slowly.
"Yeah and manage to snap it into two!" Ron exclaimed.
"No, we did not snap it. We just misplaced it on a.. unusual place."
"You mean beneath Draco's butt?"
"That was very immature of you, Ron. It's just a quilt. You can have mine." Hermione tried to reason him. She was getting sick of Ron whining.
"What? Hermione! This is my favourite quilt. You know that! I spent a lot for it and Draco decided to sit on it!"
"It was an accident. I did not see your wand!" Draco argued.
"It is always your fault!" Ron argues back.
Hermione slammed shut her books and dashed towards her room. She didn't usually like this but a lot of things going through her mind right now.
"Uuo Uuuooo. That was very immature of you Ron." Draco mimicked.
"Uu ooo, Tsk tsk tsk." Harry added.
Ron groaned. "It was your fault too."
Hermione was lounging on his chair in front of fireplace when a soft knock was heard. She knew it was the boys, trying to seek for her forgiveness. She didn't really mad at them. A part of her just wanted to see how the boys react when she's the one who was making a fuss.
"Come in."
Soft footsteps are heard and from the sound where it stopped, Hermione assumed they were lining up close to the door.
"Ummm Hermione, we are sorry."
She turned around and indeed saw her three favourite boys lined up, looking like a lost puppy.. sort of, at least Ron did look like it.
"I'm sorry too." She sighed.
"It's okay Hermione. We know you are tired looking after us. You can get a day off tomorrow." Draco said, waving his hand.
It warmed her heart looking them like that but she would love to see how they manage a day without her.
"We promise to be good tomorrow." Harry asked, fumbling with the hem of Draco's shirt.
"Hmm let see... Okay then. I'll take my leave tomorrow. You can go to bed now." Hermione finally said after a moment.
"Yay! Goodnight Hermione!" Draco and Harry said simultaneously.
They practically skipped towards their shared bedroom, leaving Ron stood nervously at Hermione's room.
Hermione chuckled. How innocent her boy was. They had no ideas what will happen if Ron was the one who took care of them.
"I'm sorry 'Mione. I'll take charge of them tomorrow." Ron mumbled, looking miserable.
"It is nice of you Ron. Don't forget to prepare their school stuff for tomorrow. Make sure you prepare their robe by tonight. Wake them up at 7.15 a.m sharp especially Draco. He will force you to do many things until he satisfied with his look. Make sure they get dressed and leave for breakfast by 8 a.m. Leave the Great Hall by 8.45 a.m" Hermione informed.
Ron was lost of words. "But.."
"Thank you Ron." Hermione smiled sweetly at her boyfriend.
"Hmm 'mkay" Ron sighed, defeated.
Ron turned around and before he reached the door knobs, Hermione added "Oh, don't forget their nap at 3 p.m."
Ron groaned and with heavy footsteps, he headed to his room.
The next day was quite hectic for Ron and the boys as he woke up at 7.30 a.m and was running late, very late, for everything! Draco whined at him for not waking him up sooner. Harry's tie was missing and they ended up with Slytherin's tie which he took from Draco's dresser. And when they finally arrived at the Great Hall for breakfast at 8.50 a.m, breakfast left near to nothing aside from some leftovers, which makes Ron very grumpy. They managed to stumble to their double herbology class fifteen minutes late.
"Phew! We made it boys!" Ron shouted.
"Not quite Mr. Weasley. Please take your seat." Madam Sprout said.
"Ouh. Didn't see you there." He mumbled.
Hermione knew they will be late today. She already saved seats for the three of them.
"Hi Hermione! How it's going?" Ron asked, taking his seat while the boys sat between them.
"Professor Sprout asked us to do some field work today. We have to identify plants within Hogwarts ground and why Harry's wearing a slytherin tie?"
"Couldn't find his tie." Ron smiled sheepishly.
"Hi boys!" Pansy greet cheerfully and then followed by a gasped. "Why did you wear Slytherin tie Harry?"
Ron groaned at the repeated question.
"We couldn't find my tie. Draco said I can wear his tie." Harry said, unconsciously stroking the tie.
"Well, I must say you look good in it." Pansy put on the famous slytherin's smirk.
"Is it safe for them to take part in this project?" Ron asked referring to Draco and Harry.
"Hard to say but I'm sure we could stay within a safe territory. I'll ask Professor Sprout." Hermione stood to see Professor Sprout.
"Where are we going?" Draco asked after watching Hermione made her way to in front of the class.
"We are going to have a walk."
"No we didn't." Pansy said
"Umm yes it is." Ron interjected.
"Nope. You just too lazy to explain didn't you Weasley."
The conversation stopped there when Hermione returned to their place.
"Ron, did you pack Draco's dragon hide gloves?" Hermione asked, highly suspect Ron forgot to bring it along.
"Errr... I might not pack it."
"Ron! You know how fussy Draco can be."
Hermione fully aware Draco won't wear any clothes that didn't belong to him. She learned it after the transformation when Draco refused to wear Ron's robe. They were having a walk by the lake and it was a windy evening. Draco against the idea of borrowing Ron's robe and ended up having a cold for a week despite the warming charm Hermione had put him into.
"S'okay Hermione. We wouldn't do anything today. No need to wear." Draco finally spoke.
Hermione sighed. "You need to wear it Draco. We will be collecting some plants today. Some of them might be poisonous."
"Liar." Draco shot a look to Ron.
"Wait 'Mione! I'll get it." Harry chirped.
"But it's too.." Hermione sentence stopped midway when she saw Harry's eyes scrunched shut.
Harry's face twisted like he just came across with a very acidic lemon. He was breathing heavily while concentrating. Quite a cute face for an eight-year-old, Hermione thought. Nevertheless, the thought was quickly wiped away when two foreign objects came flew towards them and Harry caught them easily with his right hand. It was two pairs of dragon-hide gloves.
"Here's your gloves Draco."
Harry handed his gloves to Draco and look up when Draco did not take the gloves.
Hermione, Ron and Pansy were gaping at him including the rest of the class.
"Huh?" Harry shifted uneasily.
"Bloody hell!" Ron said in awe which earned him a good smack from Hermione because of the foul word.
"Cool! How did you do that Harry?" Draco asked.
Hermione dumbfounded, Harry and Draco didn't have their wand since they were considered as still young, technically. She knew a full grown Harry Potter can perform wandless magic, non-verbally, but she didn't expect he could do it at the age of eight! She made a mental note to consult this matter with the headmistress.
"Um, don't know."
"Nevermind then, Okay boys, we need to get going before all the good plants gone." Pansy interrupt.
Waving the little incident off, they spend the rest of their morning identifying and collecting plants. It was only valid for the first period for the boys though. Second period found Harry and Draco playing around while Ron and Hermione were doing report on their little project to be handed to Professor Sprout at the end of the class. Pansy was nowhere to be seen.
Harry was currently chasing Draco with a worm in his hand. They were outside Hagrid's hut.
"Hermione! Hermione! Herminny! Herminny!" Draco shouted. He ran straight to Hermione and hid behind her legs.
Hermione was currently standing near the big pumpkin outside Hagrid's hut to collect another harmless plant and was shocked with the action but she quickly recovered and patted Draco's head.
"Now now, play nice you two." She warned.
"Hihi, little wormy just want to be friends with Drayco." Harry cooed.
Draco was whimpering behind her skirt.
"Harry, that wasn't very nice of you." Hermione said in a strict voice.
"Awwhh Mmm'kay." Harry said disappointedly. He released the worm.
"Phew." Draco finally came from behind Hermione. He then walked towards Harry.
"Gotcha!" Draco shouted. He put worms on Harry's head, which he hid earlier. Well, he only willing to touch the worms with the aid of his gloves.
"Hermione!" Harry shrieked.
Pansy, who just returned from her potion-ingredient-plant hunting, was laughing her ass off at the scene before her.
"Good one Draco! Show 'em your Slytherin side!"
After dinner that day, Hermione made her ways to the headmistress office. She left Draco and Harry in the company of Pansy. Upon her arrival, she saw Professor McGonagall was having a conversation with Professor Dumbledore's portrait. Madam Pomfrey was present too and currently enjoying her tea while waiting.
"Umm Professor McGonagall?"
"Oh Ms. Granger. Have a seat please. Would you care to join me with tea?"
"No thank you."
"Now, what is it that so important until you had to seek me here?" Professor McGonagall asked.
"Umm, I'm just wanted to ask. Is it possible if Draco and Harry's magical core was undisturbed despite their current physical?"
"What do you mean?"
"Umm it's just, I saw Harry did wandless magic earlier this morning. It's not foreign to me though, if Harry is an adult but in this case I didn't expect a young boy can do wandless magic."
"I do believe their magic was completely unharmed. Their physical might change but nothing can fool magical core ."
"Nevertheless, to control such a powerful gesture like what Harry did this morning was quite an achievement. He must be really powerful to control that" Madam Pomfrey pondered.
"Umm, in that case, how much time left before they can be normal again?"
"Possibly around next week. We have arranged a mediwitch from St. Mungo to monitor the next antidote."
Hermione perked up at the mention of St. Mungo.
"People had already discovered the news Ms. Granger."
Professor McGonagall handed a copy of Daily Prophet that was meant to be distributed out tomorrow.
"THE BOY WHO LIVED AND DEATH EATER POTION ACCIDENT?"
The front page was covered of Harry and Draco's face.
"The wizarding world will found it out the moment they woke up tomorrow morning. The ministry fire-called me many times this morning for clarification. We couldn't avoid the ministry involvement this time Ms. Granger." Profesoor McGonagall informed.
Hermione stared in disbelief. She then turned the page over to read the articles.
She then read quietly to herself. "Is Draco Malfoy, EX DEATH EATER planned to kill Harry Potter and become the next Dark Lord."
She almost snorted at the bold of the 'ex death eater' words went Professor McGonagall spoke again.
"I have blocked any unwanted mail from coming . We wouldn't want howlers screaming at the boys face. Narcissa Malfoy has been informed of this news and she was quite unhappy when receiving the news. She wished us to take a good care of her son."
"How could this happen? What would we do next Professor McGonagall?"
"We can't control rumours Ms. Granger. I'm afraid aurors will come by tomorrow to monitor the boys."
The office's fireplace flared to live indicating Professor McGonagall received a fire-call.
"You may dismiss Ms. Granger. I have a call to answer."
"Thank you Professor McGonagall." Hermione bid her goodbye and retreated to their common room.
When she stepped inside the common room, a paper bird smacked on her forehead and was followed by a set of laughter. She saw Pansy snickered while Ron and Neville were hiding a smile, trying so hard to look like they are focusing on the chess games in front them.
Hermione roared and conjured a paper dragon.
"I'm going to eat you!" Hermione charmed the dragon to chase after Harry and Draco.
The boys squeaked and ran around the common room, knocking almost everything until they were tired and ran towards their room.
They were lounging in front of the fireplace late that night. Pansy was stroking Draco's soft blond hair, lulled him to sleep. Harry already slept on his stomach, on a big plush pillow near Hermione and Ron.
"Daily Prophet found out about them." Hermione started up the conversation.
"What do you mean?" Pansy whispered. She did not want to wake Draco.
Ron looked up at her, puzzled.
"They found out about the potion accident. The boys' faces will be all over the media tomorrow."
"But how? I thought students are not allowed to talk about this matter to the outside world?" Ron asked.
"Daily Prophet always found ways, Ron. Aurors will come by tomorrow. They will monitor our movement as well as protecting Harry from any harm."
"Bullshit. We are capable of taking care of them." Pansy hissed under her breath.
"Nothing we can do. Ministry has found out. The worst they can do is trying to separate Harry and Draco."
"Oh, over my dead body!" Pansy voice slightly raised which caused Draco to stir.
Hermione quirked her eyebrow at the outburst.
"It just..they are quiet clingy. There's no wat they can be separated." Pansy added far too quickly.
"There's only one way to find out. We will see tomorrow." Ron added.
A/N: As usual! Reviews! Reviews! Tell me what you think. Ouh and I do not have a beta. So hopefully you guys can understand this chapter.