Part Five

DISCLAIMER:

This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Four days later the potion was made, the spell translated and the cast of participates assembled.

Harry stood tiredly beside Madam Pomfrey; his shoulders slumped and face morose. The NEWTs were upon him and this little sideline into advanced counter spells was draining. He had had enough of acting as Snape's translator and censor. The Professor's sarcasm and anger had intensified the longer he stayed a snake; the animal within slowly yet surely taking over. The only thing that kept Harry from clamping his mouth shut and refusing to cooperate further was the thought of Hermione and Lavender being stuck forever as a Kermit and Miss Piggy.

"Ready Harry?" Pomfrey patted Harry's arm sympathetically; she knew it had been a difficult time for everyone concerned.

He nodded at her then to Flitwick and Dumbledore, as they stood about the workbench in tense silence.

Snape looked up from one of his potion texts to eye the bottle of potion Dumbledore had placed on the table before him.

"It appears adequate." He hissed, his voice strained… it was taking him longer to find the words. "It must be performed in reverse order. Miss Granger first."

Harry glanced at the little frog in the small fish bowl that was now her home. She floated in the water like a leaf, her arms and legs splayed out, her expression blank. Harry's mouth thinned and his eyes hardened. This was getting too hard to do. Ron had cut down his visits, he too sensed that Hermione was slipping away.

"Shall we begin?" He asked.

Snape assented. "Have Pomfrey give Miss Granger some of the potion, the instant she swallows it chant the spell with Flitwick."

Harry waited while Pomfrey put on some gloves and caught a reluctant and slippery Hermione. Meanwhile Dumbledore found an eyedropper and drew up some of the potion and Flitwick flexed his shoulders; his wand trembling. Taking the eyedropper from the Head Master, Pomfrey poised it over Hermione's mouth and gently wriggled the tip in and squirted. "Now!" She commanded.

Harry lifted his wand and aimed it at the small frog clutched between the Mediwitch's finger and thumb and began to recite from the scroll of parchment. Beside him he could distantly hearing the muttering voices of Dumbledore and Flitwick as they did the same.

Amazingly (it always surprised Harry) the magic began to be woven. His eyebrows lifted in wonder as Hermione started to glow, a small emerald light that cast a green glow over Madam Pomfrey's hand. Her golden eyes shot out rays of white light and her mouth opened in a silent croak.

Only three more lines of the spell to go…

The salty itch of sweat prickled under Harry's arms and he felt rivulets run down his side.

"Concentrate Potter!" Snape's words slashed across his mind.

Harry felt a flash anger. He blinked and gritted his teeth, spitting out the last line only to instantly want it back. Regret etching every line of his face.

"No!"  Harry had spoken in parsel tongue. He had said the last line of the counter charm in snake.

The magic did not care; replete it surged forth from the three upraised wands and converged on the body of the little frog.

"You idiot boy!" Snape seethed, twisting his body in absolute fury. "I will have your wand for this!"

"Oh Harry…" Flitwick looked at him with a mixture of dismay and sympathy.

Dumbledore for once said nothing; he just looked at Madam Pomfrey's gloved hands with a mildly startled expression, his wand dropping to his side.

"Hermione?" Harry husked out her name watching the glowing frog twist and bulge and change.

A loud pop exploded in the air and the spell was over. Everyone reluctantly looked down at Pomfrey's hands to see a length of green nylon rope… that moved.

"She's a snake!" Flitwick excitedly hopped off the stool and came up to gaze at the writhing creature in Pomfrey's hand.

Dumbledore looked down his nose at the pretty green reptile. "More precisely she is a grass snake, Phineas. An adder."

"An adder?"

"Another one?"

"Thank you Potter. From the pit of my stomach, thank you."

"It worked!"

"Ravenclaws are the only subspecies of wizard who could possibly see failure as success." Snape hissed derisively.

"Hermione?" Harry asked softly and she raised her head and cocked it at him.

"Who?" She asked, her voice strangely soft and sibilant.

"Hermione? It's me Harry, remember?"


A pause and a snake yawn. "No, but it's nice to meet you. You have a very good accent for a human."

Harry's ears turned pink and he blushed. "Thanks."

"Potter!" Snape slid over the table and arched up a good four inches to look at Hermione who was still clasped in Pomfrey's hands. "Congratulations, she's amnesic."

Dumbledore stepped forward when he saw Snape's quick movement and asked. "What is it Harry?"

"She doesn't remember who she is."

The Head Master frowned and glanced worriedly at Pomfrey.

"A fine kettle of fish Albus Dumbledore! How do we explain this to the Ministry?"

Harry ignored the Professors and continued to speak softly to his friend, "Your name is Hermione Granger."

"It is?"

"Yes and you used to be a human girl."

"I was human?"

"Head Girl at Hogwarts."


"That's nice. I have no idea what you that is, but it sounds nice." She wriggled in Pomfrey's hands and complained. "Could you tell the sharp smelling lady with the gloves to put me down please."

Harry asked Madam Pomfrey to put Hermione on the workbench. Once on the smooth surface she slid over the toward the potions textbooks only to come face to face with a black and angry Snape.

"Miss Granger." He growled and reared up to sway over her. Old habits died hard and even as a snake Snape tried to be intimidating.

"Excuse me? Do I know you?" Hermione unperturbed fixed the other adder with a sharp green eye and pulled herself up to her smaller yet impressive height.

Snape sunk down to hiss in her face. "Yes!" His black jewel eyes glittering, "You are the reason I am like this!"

"oh," Hermione said in a small voice, "sorry." Bowing her head she peeked out to see the black adder skulk away to the radiator.

"Don't mind him, Mione." Harry said. "He was you teacher and-" He whispered, "He was always nasty to you."

"Oh?" Hermione perked up instantly, "Nasty?"

"Very." Harry added, thinking it odd how intense she suddenly seemed, her nostrils flaring and forked tongue tasting the air "Every time he saw you particularly."

"A word please, Harry." Dumbledore drew Harry away from the table and into a conversation about trying the counter spell the following day.

They were too engrossed in their conversation to see the little green adder twist her head and consider the black male warming himself on the windowsill. Too busy sorting through times and classes to note the sly smile upon the snake's lips and the predatory in her eye - and even if they did notice what of it?

No human, wizard or witch knew of the word that once uttered in snake triggered the twisting, dancing, lusting mating urge in whatever snake heard it, no one but a snake would have known the significance and no one would have ever guessed that word was 'nasty.'


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tbc