Harry heard Hermione give out a little cry of alarm and then she practically whispered, "Ron, are you alright?"

Ron looked up at her, his eyes a bit glazed, his face blank, "What?"

"Are you alright?" She asked again, worried.

He shook his head, as if to clear it and said, "Yeah. Now." His eyes and face seemed more alive.

"You sure?" She asked again.

Ron rolled his eyes and said, "Hermione relax. I'll be fine. We have the cure right here." He pointed at the spine in Hagrid's hand.

Hagrid nodded, "We should be gettin' back. The sooner we mix this with some Calopus milk and get Ron to soak his arm, the better."

"Yeah, the sooner I soak my arm...What?" Ron said and turned to Hagrid stunned, "Did you say, soak?"

"Wha' did ya expect?" Hagrid asked, "At least ya don't have ta drink it."

"I...good point." Ron said and then asked, "Wait, there was nothing in the book about Calopus milk."

"My own little secret. Ya see, Tarasque venom, real magical, but like I told Harry, it can be real dangerous. If you eat it or it gets into yer blood stream, ya die almost instantly. So, the Calopus milk is to soften the affects."

"What does that mean?" Ron asked.

"It means, if I mix it with the Calopus milk, it won't kill ya. Ya just need a bit more of it ta work. But, we got a whole spine full, so we'll be alrigh'." Hagrid told him.

Ron nodded and stood up slowly, wincing as he moved his arm, Hermione frowned.

"The book didn't say the scales would grow like this either." She said, thinking.

"So, maybe I'm allergic to Nix eggs." Ron said sarcastically.

"Something to that affect, it seems to react worse with you. Remember, it didn't say anything about intense pain until...the end." She said.

Ron looked at her, nodded, and said, "Can we get this over with."

They walked through the Forbidden Forest toward Hagrid's hut.

"How do you think Snape is?" Ron asked.

Hagrid looked at them and said, "I was wonderin' why Snape wasn't with ya. Wha' happened?"

"What happened was that Umbridge attacked him." Hermione said.

"She attacked him?"

"Yeah, sent him flying into the wall. It looked painful." Ron said.

"He's up in the hospital wing now. Shouldn't be long before he gets better." Hermione added.

"Wha' happened to Umbridge?" Hagrid asked.

Harry looked at him and raised an eyebrow, "What's that suppose to mean?"

"Well, you were there when it happened, weren't ya?" Hagrid asked.

"Yes."

"So, I doubt ya took it lightly."

"So?"

"So, what'd ya do to her?"

"We stunned her."

"Harry."

"We all did, including McGonagall."

"McGonagall was there?" Hagrid asked.

"Yeah. We all hit Umbridge, including Snape before he was thrown back." Ron said grinning.

"That's five stunning spells!" Hagrid exclaimed.

"Yeah."

"Ouch." Which was all Hagrid said.

"Yeah."

"Yer gonna get inter trouble for that, mark my words." Hagrid said groaning.

"She deserved it." Harry said, justifying his actions.

"I have no doubt 'bout that, doesn't mean ya won't get inter trouble." Hagrid confirmed and Harry grinned, glad for Hagrid's support. Hagrid continued, "I just wish she'd get wha' she really deserved. She'll get off for this. Won't get inta a bit of trouble. The Ministry will just breeze over this, but you, you, they'll get ya."

Harry sighed, he didn't need any more attention, especially not the kind from the Ministry.

"What were we suppose to do?" He asked, feeling very tired at the moment. What he wouldn't give to fall asleep in his bed and have all of this just go away. To be normal and worry about things like girls and homework and teachers. To be a normal teenager. To not have to worry about Voldemort, his friend's arm infested with magical creature eggs that could kill him, or his teenage potions teacher. To not have to fight giant three headed dogs, basilisk, dragons, and Tarasques. He sighed, something that he did almost as much as breath.

Hagrid hadn't answered, he was watching Harry. When Harry looked up, Hagrid's head snapped forward and he said, "You coulda not attacked."

"No, I couldn't. You know that." Harry said.

Hagrid exhaled deeply and said, "Yer right, ya couldn't have. But ya could have tried."

"It wasn't a question, there was no thought. Trying takes thought. I didn't think."

"Well, ya could have tried to think."

"Once again, trying takes thought. I would have had to think about trying to think about trying to not attack Umbrige."

Hagrid shook his head, "I see wha' ya mean."

"No, I had no alternative."

"You had an alternative, just not a high percentage in that alternative." Hermione interceded, coming up behind them.

Harry shot her a look, "You attacked too you know."

"I do know. I had an alternative as well, but I had more of a chance to stop, which makes me worse. You on the other hand, didn't have that much of a chance to stop."

"Huh?" Ron asked from behind.

"She means that she had more control of the situation than I did. That with my history with Umbridge and the Ministry, I had much less of a choice to attack her than she did."

"Oh." Ron said, but he didn't sound like he completely understood. They walked on and finally made it out of the forest. Suddenly, Ron grabbed the spine out of Hagrid's hand and ran toward the hut. Hermione rolled her eyes and then chased after him. Harry grinned and followed.

They ran toward Hagrid's hut and burst through the door to find Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and two other burly Slytherins sitting inside.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Malfoy drawled, sneering.

"A pale, rat faced di..."

"Ron." Hermione scolded.

Ron continued, "di...creep."

Malfoy sneered even more and said, "Granger your master Weasely, she your slave driver? Does she whip you good?"

Ron literally snarled at Malfoy, a deep rasping growl. Everyone looked at him surprised, even Ron himself seemed shocked.

"What was that?" Malfoy asked, "All you caveman can do?"

Ron shook his head and said, "Get out Malfoy."

"Ooooh, so scared of the weasel and his growling, what is your brain not big enough to actually form words?" Malfoy goaded.

Ron glared at Malfoy and Harry could have sworn he heard a rumbling noise coming from him, but it could have been his imagination. Harry watched Ron warily, but Ron seemed to be acting normal, for now.

"Common, say something. Common." Malfoy provoked.

Hermione stepped between them and scowled at Malfoy, "What did you come here for?"

"Oh, I see how it is. You need know-it-all Granger to speak for you, cause you can't. Granger, interpret his growling and grunting for me. Cause I don't speak neanderthal."

"That's it!" Ron shouted and lunged at Malfoy, but Hermione was in his way and he ended up colliding into her. They both toppled to the ground.

"Oh, really smart Weasel. Really smart. I cans see your brilliance now."

Harry stepped forward and said, "Malfoy, what are you doing here besides making me believe more and more that man can live without a brain."

Malfoy snapped his head to Harry and said, "Of course you mean your friend. I completely agree, but I wonder if he ever had one or he lost it?"

Harry felt his wand arm raise and found himself face to with Malfoy's wand, "Don't even try Malfoy, Hagrid is coming."

"Hey, where is Hagrid anyway?" Hermione asked.

"Getting some...ingredients."

"What ingredients." Malfoy asked, actually curious, and lowered his wand. "For what?"

"None of your business." Harry snapped.

"Wow, did you and Weasel here take a stupid potion? Well, did you take a stupid potion?" Malfoy jeered.

"I'd shut your mouth Malfoy, actually no, keep talking and maybe someday, if you're lucky, something intelligent will come out of it." Harry said back.

Malfoy raised his wand again and was about to shout something when Hermione raised her wand and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

Malfoy's wand flew out of his hand, but it wasn't over yet. There was a momentary pause before Crabbe and Goyle were shouting something, along with the two other Slytherins. Harry ducked and felt something wiz over his head. Hermione wasn't so lucky as she let out a shriek and collapsed to the floor. Harry wasn't sure what had happened. Ron had dived to the side and was now firing spells from his wand randomly, one of the other burly Slytherins. Goyle charged at him and they began to duel. Ron seemed to take Malfoy's stupidity insults personally because he began to taunt Goyle.

"Hey Goyle, don't you need some kind of permission or license or something to be that ugly!" Ron shouted.

Goyle grunted and a spell shout out of his wand, but Ron blocked.

"Goyle, you always this stupid, are you just trying harder today?" Ron heckled and Harry rolled his eyes, these were getting annoying. They kept dueling and finally Ron was able to get behind one of Goyle's defenses and Harry watched as Goyle collapsed to the ground with a thud.

Harry spun around and started shouting, he got Crabbe and the other Slytherin, now all that was left was Malfoy. Malfoy had retrieved his wand, but he was almost shaking as he flicked it back and forth between the two.

"Back away!" He shouted.

"Malfoy, tell me what you're doing here?" Harry commanded.

"Piss off!" Malfoy shouted back.

"Malfoy. Don't make me." Harry said, trying to sound menacing.

Malfoy couldn't seem to help himself, he sneered and said, "Don't make you do what Potter? You trying to be scary is a laugh!"

"Oh, I didn't mean me." Harry said grinning and pointed at Ron.

Malfoy turned to Ron and laughed again, but then faltered as Ron began to growl again. It snarled and gnashed his teeth. Malfoy looked from Harry to Ron, stunned. Ron then let out a bone chilling roar and his eyes looked wild. His nostrils flared and his teeth were barred. Malfoy whimpered.

"You gonna make me?" Harry asked, "You gonna make me sick him on you?"

"What's wrong with him?"

"He hasn't been feeling right. We were about to fix it, but you got in the way."

Ron snarled and snapped at Malfoy, Malfoy jumped back. Ron cackled, sounding like a hyena, and then slashed his arms at Malfoy. Malfoy saw the scales crawling up Ron's arms and squealed. Ron cackled again.

"Alright, alright. I just wanted to see what you were up to. I knew you were out here." Malfoy told them quickly.

"Why did you want to know what we were doing?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"I wanted to tell Umbridge. Get back on her good side. I tried looking for her before, but I couldn't find her, so I came out here." Malfoy confessed.

"With your goons. You seem to be packing a bit more muscle."

"Well, you have more pals as well."

"I wouldn't call what you have pals." Harry said.

Malfoy frowned, "Can I go?"

"No." Harry said and stupefied him.

Hermione sat up and said, "You really shouldn't have done that."

"You alright? What happened?"

"They only stunned me, so relax, I'm fine."

Harry turned to Ron who was grinning wildly and rolled his eyes, "Nice growling. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I don't know, it just happened. But wasn't it awesome?"

"Yeah it was, but what was with those comebacks or insults or whatever?" Harry asked.

Ron blushed, but didn't answer, then he looked around, "Where's Hagrid?"

"I told you, he's getting ingredients." Harry said and sighed.

"But wouldn't he be back by now?"

Harry thought for a moment and decided that it probably had been awhile, "Let's go check."

They walked outside and looked around, they searched for awhile, but Hagrid was no where to be found, and neither was the Tarasque spine.