Chapter 30: Hermione the Cat
Once Harry and Ron were sorted, taking care of Crabbe and Goyle, I headed straight to the bathroom to ensure that the potion remained in the same shape I had left it in. When I arrived, I discovered that the potion was emitting a thick, black smoke.
"Oh no!" I cried in dismay, dropping my bag to the floor and rummaging through it until I found Moste Potente Potions.
"It's been doing that for about three hours," Myrtle informed me matter-of-factly.
"And why didn't you come and tell me?" I demanded irritably as I flipped through the book to the page with the recipe for the Polyjuice potion. "It's not like you can't leave this bathroom. I know you wander the castle now and then. You could have told me as soon as it started smoking and I could have done something about it!"
"It's none of my business what you're doing with that thing," Myrtle shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. "Besides, if this potion is ruined, then you'll just have to brew another one, right? And then your friends will have to spend more time here."
"I don't have time for you and your crush on Harry right now Myrtle," I grumbled, scanning the page for any mention of black smoke. "I've got a bit of a crisis situation going on."
Grumpily, Myrtle retreated to her cubicle and I flipped to the next page. I let out a sigh of relief as I read the paragraph at the top of the page.
If potion is intended for immediate use, ensure that it has completely cooled before adding the final ingredient. If potion is intended for prolonged storage, add three drops of natural spring water for every four months, to extend shelf life. Please note that if potion is left too long without being treated for storage, it will begin to smoke. This will not affect the effectiveness of the potion, but will make it more difficult to store, as it will now go on smoking forever.
"Phew," I breathed. I hadn't originally read this part of the recipe since we had no intention of storing the potion long-term. I mentally chastised myself for not having read it through though. I'd gotten lucky, but the paragraph could have just as easily said that once the potion began to smoke it would be rendered useless.
I decided to take this as a learning experience, and carefully stirred the potion a couple of times to make sure that it was thoroughly mixed before being consumed.
Harry and Ron arrived with hairs from Crabbe and Goyle and I began to ladle out the potion into three glasses. Then I put them down and reached into my bag for the bit of Millicent Bulstrode's hair that I would be using for my own transformation. I uncorked the vial I'd been keeping it in and shook the hair into my glass. The potion hissed and started bubbling like mad. Then it settled to a sickly sort of yellow.
Harry and Ron added Crabbe and Goyle's hairs to their own glasses, and then the three of us separated, each taking a different cubicle for the transformation. Harry called out a countdown from three, and as he came to the final number, I shut my eyes forcefully and raised the glass to my lips, already cringing before the potion even touched my tongue.
It tasted horrible. I immediately wanted to throw up, but I forced myself to continue ingesting it until the entire glass was drunk. Almost immediately, I could feel the potion taking effect. I could feel my insides churning, moving, changing. Then, I started to feel a strange sensation. Hair was poking its way up from under my skin all over my body; even on my face. I could feel my ears getting bigger and bigger and hairier and hairier. I felt a strange zap behind my closed eyelids, and I assumed my eyes had changed color. Then I felt the strangest thing of all. Something long pushed its way out of my lower back and began swinging back and forth. I could sense it in my body; control its movements, like it was another arm or leg.
In horror, I opened my eyes and reached around, only to grab hold of a huge, furry tail sticking out of my body. I was pretty sure Millicent Bulstrode did not have a tail, and I began to panic. Clearly the potion had not worked. I could hear Harry and Ron talking outside my cubicle, but I was in too much of a panic to listen. I plunged my hand into my bag and grabbed a mirror, holding it up to my face.
When I saw the reflection, I almost screamed. Instead, I backed away from it into the stall wall and dropped it back into my bag, willing it not to be real. I had the face of a cat. I still had my hair and my body shape, though all the extra hair I had felt sprouting up all over had turned out to be fur. The worst though, apart from the tail, was my eyes. I had been right about them changing color. They were now a bright, piercing yellow.
I heard a bang on the stall door. It was Ron, impatient to get moving.
Forcing myself to respond, I told him that I wasn't going to go after all. I could tell Harry and Ron were confused – I'd been so committed to this plan, so determined to see it through. Why would I back out at the last minute? But I couldn't let them see me – couldn't let them know just how badly I'd messed up. They'd never let me live it down if they knew the truth.
No, I would just wait here in my cubicle for the hour until the potion wore off. Harry and Ron would get the answers we needed, and nobody would have to know about my colossal mistake.
Thankfully, the boys accepted my decision to remain behind. I heard the door open; I heard their footsteps move out into the hall, and then I heard the door shut behind them. I was alone.
Sitting down on the floor, and I opened Moste Potente Potions in the hopes that there was some mention of animal transformations somewhere that would give me any useful information on my current condition. If I was lucky, it would say that I would be back to normal in an hour, just like Harry and Ron. If I was unlucky…
The Polyjuice Potion is used to temporarily transform the drinker into the physical form of another. The use of the Polyjuice Potion must be limited to human transformation, however, as the attempt of an animal transformation would lead to a permanent and incomplete transformation.
I gasped in horror. A permanent and incomplete transformation. These words stared out at me from the page. I was stuck like this forever. Forever is a long time. I felt a whole bunch of emotions run through me which resulted in an onslaught of tears.
"Who's crying?" came a voice I recognized as Moaning Myrtle's. I tried to quiet my sobs, as I really didn't want her to see me, but it was no use. She floated into my cubicle, and upon seeing me, she began to laugh hysterically.
"What happened to you?" Myrtle asked.
"Nothing," I replied, hiding my face.
"You turned yourself into a cat. Now everyone's going to call you Her-meow-uh-nee," Myrtle cried, as she burst out laughing.
As she continued laughing and taunting me, I pulled Moste Potente Potions back into my lap, as I had dropped it, and tried in vain to find anything that would help me. Maybe there was a chance, if I acted quickly. Maybe there was still something I could do.
But for all my searching, no matter how many times I re-read the section on the Polyjuice potion, there was nothing new to be gleaned. I was stuck like this forever. Serves me right for not double checking the hairs before adding them to my potion.
After a little more than an hour had passed, I heard the bathroom door open and slam shut. I knew Harry and Ron were back, and I panicked. I wasn't ready yet. I hadn't figured out what I was going to tell them. I hadn't had enough time to come to terms with my new reality.
Tears prickled at my eyes as Ron pounded on my cubicle door. By now they would look like themselves again, but I would never look like Hermione. I would forever be half-cat, and half-human. Maybe I could shave the hair off my face, and maybe I could get contact lenses that matched my old eye color, but I would still have a tail. I would still have huge cat ears sticking up above my hair. I was a freak, an abomination.
I was ashamed.
"Go away!" I cried out, knowing it would be no use.
Harry and Ron were much too good of friends. I knew they wouldn't leave without knowing what was wrong, convinced that they were that they could somehow help me. Of course, I knew there was nothing to be helped, but it wouldn't stop them. So, filled with trepidation and woe, I stepped out of my cubicle and allowed them to see what I'd become.
The looks on their faces made me want to turn around and lock myself in the cubicle forever. This was how people would look at me from now on. I wouldn't be able to go anywhere without freaking people out. Children would run scared from me. Adults would look at me in disgust and then ridicule me.
I explained to the boys what had gone wrong, unable to help myself from crying a little bit. Ron was altogether unhelpful, muttering 'uh oh' and furrowing his brow, as if he could come up with a solution by himself if he frowned long enough. Myrtle only continued to tease me mercilessly. And Harry, to my dismay, insisted I go to the hospital wing.
I tried to protest. I didn't want anyone seeing me like this, let alone Madam Pomfrey. And I didn't want the adults to realize just how big of an idiot I was. In the end though, I agreed to go, because I couldn't just live in the bathroom for the rest of my life.
When we arrived at the hospital wing, Madam Pomfrey was surprised to say the least, and immediately asked what had happened. I told her I drank an unknown potion, as I would have been in great trouble if the adults discovered I had brewed an illegal potion using a book from the Restricted Section of the library.
At first, I wasn't sure Madam Pomfrey was satisfied with this answer. She pursued her lips and gave me a calculating look, but in the end, she simply prepared a bed for me and gave me a potion to drink. I wasn't convinced it would help. Moste Potente Potions had been clear that my transformation was permanent. But I trusted that Madam Pomfrey knew what she was doing, and so I drank the potion without argument.