— CHAPTER TWO —

The Serpent of Professor Snape


'No I didn't, sir, she did,' said Malfoy at once. 'She said she'd missed her Transfiguration lesson and needed to practise.'

Hermione spluttered in wordless indignation.

'Silence!' snarled Snape. 'Stand away from him, all of you!'

The feet -- the human ones, that is -- moved away from Harry. Snape barked out some unfamiliar words and Harry felt as though the blanket he was wrapped in was starting to unwind. Somehow, he pulled it tight to his body. After the events of that morning, he was in no mood to cooperate with anything Snape was trying to do to him. Snape performed the spell twice more and both times Harry stopped it working.

Snape took several deep breaths, then said, 'Mr Malfoy, go and fetch Professor Dumbledore. He should be in --'

Dumbledore! With a tremendous effort, Harry wriggled free of whatever it was that held him bound. The room returned to its normal size and Snape broke off in mid-sentence. Harry stood up, doing his best to seem innocently confused.

'What happened?' he said. 'What was I doing on the floor?'

This turned out to be a complete waste of his acting skills. After sending the rest of the class off to the library to write essays on Sweating Solutions, Snape marched Harry to the hospital wing, leading him through a door at the end of the ward up a corridor Harry had never been in before.

Through an open doorway off it, Harry could see Dumbledore in an armchair reading a large and dusty book. Professor McGonagall was sitting up in a bed with an even larger and dustier book propped against her legs. She wasn't reading it at the moment, as her head was turned to allow Madam Pomfrey to peer into her ear with a tiny brass telescope. Dumbledore glanced inquiringly up at Harry and Snape as they stepped inside.

'There's been another incident,' said Snape abruptly. Madam Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall stopped what they were doing to listen to him. 'I arrived at my afternoon Potions class to find that Miss Granger had turned Mr Potter into a serpent.'

Harry wasn't letting this go unchallenged. 'Hermione? The last thing I remember was Malfoy pointing his wand at me.'

Professor McGonagall gave Snape a sharp look.

'Potter and his friends are constantly disrupting my lessons -- naturally they would try to shift the blame to someone else,' said Snape venomously. 'The point is, I was not able to reverse the Transfiguration. After performing the reversal spell three times without success, I was about to send for the Headmaster. At that instant, the Transfiguration reversed itself. Mr Potter claims to have no memory of anything that occurred whilst he was Transfigured.'

Professor McGonagall began flicking rapidly through the pages of her book. Dumbledore gazed at Harry, a grave expression on his face.

'I think, before anything else, Harry should be checked for after-effects,' he said. 'Poppy, if you would be so good ...'

Madam Pomfrey took Harry to the dormitory for a thorough examination. After apparently finding nothing much wrong with him, she brought him back to Professor McGonagall, who questioned him intensively while Dumbledore looked keenly on. Harry was by now deeply regretting his impulse to resist Snape's efforts to untransfigure him, but didn't dare admit the real reason why the spells had failed. He told Professor McGonagall that all he remembered was a lot of smells and noise, and then finding himself lying on the floor.

'But honestly, I feel fine,' he said. 'Malfoy probably just mucked up the Transfiguration somehow.'

'There seems to have been no lasting damage done,' Professor McGonagall finally said. 'And some amount of confusion is only to be expected in a non-Animagus. This was the first time you've been Transfigured, Potter?'

Harry nodded.

'Spontaneous reversal of a Transfiguration is unusual but not unheard of,' she continued, 'and as this was the work of an only partly-trained wizard --'

'Witch,' corrected Snape tersely.

Professor McGonagall's beady eyes grew beadier yet, but she nonetheless amended, '-- wizard or witch. As for the failure of the reversal spell ... Transfiguration never was your best subject, Severus. You probably weren't bending your wrist properly on the down-stroke. Here, let me show you -- Potter, you may go.'

'I know perfectly well how to reverse a Transfiguration!' Snape spat, as Harry exited the room.

Harry had to fight down a grin.

After leaving the hospital wing, Harry made his way to the library and sat down at the table where Ron and Hermione were studying. 'Guess what?' he said quietly, 'I saw Professor McGonagall. She was in the hospital wing, Snape took me there --'

'Was she OK?' said Hermione. 'Was she -- human?'

'As far as I could tell,' said Harry.

He filled them in on what had happened.

'Another incident?' said Hermione, her eyes widening. 'Could Professor McGonagall have not been able to change back either? Perhaps there's something interfering with Transfiguration reversals ... Snape was doing the spell correctly, I would've told him if he wasn't.'

'Good thing you didn't, he'd've probably taken fifty points off Gryffindor,' Ron snorted.

Harry looked around carefully and said even more quietly, 'I don't know what was up with Professor McGonagall, but the only reason Snape couldn't change me back was because I wouldn't let him. Stupid thing to do, really, but I was angry with him for scaring me about Hedwig. When he was going to send for Dumbledore, I changed myself back.'

'Harry, that's impossible,' said Hermione. 'There's no way for a Transfigured person to counteract a reversal spell -- or to reverse the Transfiguration themselves.'

'I did,' said Harry. He tried to recall exactly how he'd done it. 'I could feel something pulling at me ... and I pulled back ...'

The library and its contents swelled to enormous proportions, smells became much more pronounced and the odd feeling of being wrapped in a blanket returned. Ron leapt up, knocking over his chair, and Hermione let out a strangled scream. Harry, realising what he'd done, quickly transformed back. Some of the students at nearby tables were twisting their heads to stare, and Madam Pince the librarian was bearing down on them with a fire in her eyes, but luckily no one seemed to have noticed that Harry had been a snake for a few seconds.

'Let's get out of here,' hissed Hermione.

She and Ron hastily stuffed their books into their bags. The three of them hurried out the library just ahead of the wrathful Madam Pince. Hermione pushed Harry and Ron into the first empty classroom they came to.

'You're an Animagus,' Ron said to Harry in amazement, as he shut the door.

'But you couldn't be,' said Hermione. 'You didn't understand the Waldemar Effect until I explained it to you last week ... or the Petrovich Principle ... and -- and when did you have the time to train? Did you get a Time Turner too?'

'Of course not,' said Harry. 'I've never trained for anything except Quidditch, and I still don't understand that Petro-whatsit thingy. I just ...'

He transformed himself again. Ron and Hermione, now hugely tall (and rather smelly), bent over to peer at him.

'Harry?' said Ron.

'Yeah?' Harry answered.

Ron and Hermione jumped back.

'You can talk!' said Ron.

'Yeah ...' said Harry. 'And Animagi can't, can they? Not when they're animals?'

'Usually not,' said Hermione. 'There was a raven Animagus in the eighteenth century who had her tongue split ...'

Hermione pulled her Transfiguration book out of her bag and began leafing through it. Ron simply stood there, goggling down at Harry.

Harry lay on the floor, exploring the very strange sensation of being a snake. He could feel vibrations in the flagged stones as people walked past the classroom. He tried slithering along the ground, which wasn't as easy as it looked. It was a most bizarre feeling to have his body curving back and forth from side to side behind him.

He flicked out his tongue and the scent of Ron and Hermione filled his nose. The soapy parts of their respective odours were much the same, but their sweat smelled quite different, in ways Harry didn't really have the words to describe. Maybe he should find a real snake and ask it for advice ...

'Hermione, could this have something to do with me being a Parselmouth?' said Harry. 'Can they turn into snakes as well as talk to them?'

'Not that I've ever heard,' said Ron.

'But Parselmouths are so rare ... there isn't all that much known about them,' said Hermione, raising her head from her book.

'Dumbledore said I was a Parselmouth because Voldemort put some of his powers into me,' said Harry. 'Could he have been an Animagus and passed that on too?'

'If he was, nobody knew about it,' said Hermione. 'Of course, that doesn't mean much where You-Know-Who's concerned. But even if you are an Animagus, you shouldn't have been able to block a reversal spell.'

'Harry, change back. This is weird ...' said Ron. He had been looking extremely nervous ever since Harry mentioned Voldemort's name.

Harry changed back.

'Could Malfoy have done this somehow?' said Ron. 'Accidentally Transfigured Harry into a snake Animagus instead of a snake?'

'You can't make someone an Animagus by Transfiguring them,' said Hermione. 'Mind, it looked like Malfoy was trying to change Harry into a toad, not a snake,' she went on, sounding a bit puzzled. 'I don't think he was doing it quite the right way, but he shouldn't have got a perfect snake from a botched toad Transfiguration. Harry should've just gone all green and warty or something. We need to tell Professor McGonagall about this.'

'Hermione, we can't!' said Harry. 'Snape would know I'd been messing him about! He'd say we faked the whole thing to get Malfoy in trouble! And it's illegal for me to be an Animagus anyway, I'm not registered with the Ministry!'

'But if other Transfigurations haven't been working properly, Professor McGonagall needs to know!' said Hermione.

'We don't know that this has anything to do with what happened to Professor McGonagall,' Harry said.

'And Snape's taken enough points off Gryffindor for one day,' Ron put in. 'Let's at least wait and see if any other weird Transfiguration stuff happens first.'

After a little more argument, Hermione reluctantly agreed to this.

*

Professor McGonagall was back at breakfast the next day, apparently none the worse for wear. Hermione, with Harry and Ron trailing after, went over to the staff table to ask her how she was feeling.

'Quite well, thank you, Miss Granger,' said Professor McGonagall crisply, in a voice that discouraged further questioning.

Ron and Harry had to drag Hermione back to the Gryffindor table -- she was plainly bursting to tell Professor McGonagall the whole story. Next Transfiguration lesson, Harry was very glad she hadn't. Professor McGonagall gave the class an extremely stern lecture on the dangers involved in the Transfiguration of human beings.

'Any unauthorised experiments and I will personally make sure that all students involved are expelled,' she finished, her nostrils flaring.

'You see?' said Harry to Hermione, once they were back in the Gryffindor common room. 'We can't tell Professor McGonagall, we'd be thrown out of school.'

'But -- we don't know why you can turn into a snake,' said Hermione. 'You're not a normal Animagus -- and human Transfigurations aren't safe, you heard Professor McGonagall. She might be able to --'

'I'm not risking being sent back to the Dursleys over this,' said Harry flatly. 'If you go to Professor McGonagall, I won't back you up. I'll tell her you're lying, or having hallucinations ...'

Hermione looked at him as though he had slapped her in the face. Harry felt terrible, but didn't back down.

'It's for your own good,' he said. 'Professor McGonagall would know I couldn't have become an Animagus by myself, my marks in Transfiguration aren't good enough. And after Malfoy said you were the one who Transfigured me in Potions -- really, it's more likely they'd expel you than me.'

'And I reckon that's why Snape did it,' said Ron suddenly.

'Snape?' said Harry and Hermione, almost at the same time. Completely distracted from their quarrel, the pair of them rounded on Ron.

'How could Snape have done it?' said Hermione. 'He wasn't even in the room.'

'And he's rubbish at Transfiguration, Professor McGonagall said so,' Harry pointed out.

'He must've given you a potion -- at breakfast that morning, probably,' said Ron. 'Like the Polyjuice Potion, but instead of turning you into another person, it made you able to turn into a snake. It activated when Malfoy tried to Transfigure you -- I bet Snape put him up to it and came in late on purpose. And Professor McGonagall -- funny how Snape knew exactly where to find her after you told him she was missing. No doubt he's planning to blame us for that one too. We'd be playing right into his hands if we said anything about this.'

Hermione looked sceptical. 'There're potions that can turn people into animals, but I've never heard of one that would let someone change back and forth.'

'Well, I think Snape knows a few things about potions you don't,' said Ron. 'He is -- '

Ron abruptly fell silent, staring at Hermione in astonishment. Harry didn't blame him -- never before had he seen such utter horror in Hermione's face.

'No,' she breathed. 'He wouldn't have ...'

'Wouldn't have what?' demanded Ron.

'There is a potion ...' Hermione whispered, staring at the floor. 'It lets werewolves transform at will, painlessly, and keep their minds ... but to make it you have to -- to kill someone.' She looked up at them bleakly. 'You-Know-Who invented it. That was how he got a lot of the werewolves on his side. And how the Wolfsbane Potion was discovered -- it was the closest anyone could get to a formula that used legal ingredients.'

'But I'm not a werewolf,' said Harry uneasily.

'You're a Parselmouth,' said Hermione. 'You must have a bit of snake in you somewhere, to be able to talk to them.'

'Kill someone?' said Ron. 'You mean Snape gave Harry a potion with bits of people in it? Eurgh!'

'And not bits they could spare, either,' confirmed Hermione.

Harry felt as ill as Ron looked.

'But if it was a potion, it should've worn off by now,' said Hermione more briskly. 'Harry, can you still change into a snake?'

Harry concentrated for a moment. 'I feel as though I could,' he said, with some relief. 'But I'm not going to. Professor McGonagall said it was dangerous, and what if someone saw?'

'Snape might still be putting the potion in your food,' said Ron, clearly unwilling to give up on his idea.

'If he is, he's putting it in your food too,' said Harry, annoyed. 'We eat out of the same dishes. Everyone in Gryffindor would be getting some!'

None of them had much appetite that evening at dinner. Harry picked at his food morosely, wondering if he'd ever dare eat anything from the Hogwarts kitchens again. He'd been expecting Snape to try and get some sort of revenge on him, but this was worse than anything he could have imagined. Snape would have to be truly mad, killing someone just to make a potion to get Harry into trouble. If he was willing to commit murder, why not simply kill Harry?

Harry was worried enough that he skipped breakfast the following morning. During lunchtime, he slipped down the tunnel behind the one-eyed witch into Hogsmeade, where he bought a large bag of sandwiches from the Three Broomsticks and a box of Chocolate Frogs from Honeydukes. Next three days, Harry stayed away from Hogwarts meals entirely, but after finishing off the last of his food from Hogsmeade, he was still able to transform.

*

In the weeks that followed, there were no more Transfiguration accidents, nor did Professor McGonagall miss any more classes. Hermione spent a great deal of time in the library, but found no useful information. After the sandwich experiment, Harry didn't try to change himself into a snake again. Apart from not wanting to be expelled, he'd been made rather nervous by Professor McGonagall's lecture on human Transfigurations gone awry.

Snape made no move to unmask Harry as an illegal Animagus. Malfoy on several occasions threatened to turn Harry into a snake again and leave him that way. He seemed immensely frustrated at how thoroughly unimpressed by this Harry was. If Malfoy had somehow given Harry the power to become a serpent, he didn't appear to realise it.

Most unfortunately for Malfoy, about the fourth time he did this Professor Moody overheard him. Moody hauled Malfoy off to his office, muttering something about 'a long sharp shock, this time'. Malfoy reappeared at dinner that evening, looking considerably paler than usual and severely shaken. The threats stopped, and for the next few days he avoided Harry altogether.

Then, at the end of October, Harry was chosen as the fourth Triwizard Champion, and the snake incident was driven from everyone's mind.

*

So matters stood, until one afternoon soon after the Christmas holidays. Harry had forgotten his Charms book in Gryffindor Tower and was going back to get it when Snape's voice stopped him in his tracks.

'Potter!'

Harry turned and felt a sudden nasty pang of apprehension. Snape was obviously trying quite hard not to smile. He only ever looked that pleased with himself when Harry was in very deep trouble.

'So you finally found the counter to the Tangler Charm,' said Snape, a malevolent gleam in his eyes.

Harry's nervousness was replaced by utter confusion. Not only had he not found the counter to the Tangler Charm, he hadn't even known such a spell existed.

'The what?' he said.

'I know you've got it,' said Snape, his eyes glittering. 'You were clever, but not clever enough. You broke the Tracing Charm on the card. You broke the Tracing Charm on the Spellotape. You neglected, however, to break the Tracing Charm on the chalk dust on the back of the Spellotape!'

Light suddenly dawned. 'Someone took your Chocolate Frogs card?'

'Yes!' snarled Snape. 'You did! Pull out your pockets!'

Harry pulled out his pockets, taking out some Chocolate Frogs, his wand and the latest Quidditch scores from the Daily Prophet.

Snape glared at him. 'Your bag, empty it out!'

Harry emptied out his bag. Books, quills, parchment and bottles of ink spilled onto the floor. Snape waved his wand, causing each of Harry's books to magically rise into the air, flip over and shake itself out. He turned Harry's bag inside out and ran his hands over every inch of it, searching for secret compartments. He tapped each pack of Chocolate Frogs, making the wrappings go transparent to reveal the cards they carried -- Nostradamus, Anne Boleyn and Saint-Germaine, but no Harry Potter.

'So you've already made it to Gryffindor Tower and back,' said Snape, sounding furious but undeterred. 'Fast work, but I'm sure you know all the shortcuts. Very well. We'll go back there and have a search of your dormitory. Follow me.'

Harry followed. He wasn't particularly worried about his dormitory being searched. Snape wouldn't find his Famous Wizard card there ... but he would find the two copies of it Harry had dug up over the summer. Harry felt twinge of fear, but only for an instant. The other cards and the letter they all came in should be proof enough that neither was Snape's missing card.

Harry wondered idly what Snape would make of the card with Sirius as a dog on it. Although Snape knew Sirius was an Animagus from overhearing Professor Lupin in the Shrieking Shack, he didn't know what animal Sirius transformed into, only that it was very large ... and that its nickname was Padfoot.

Utter panic flooded through Harry. He couldn't let Snape find the letter and cards -- not only would Snape realise what kind of animal Sirius was, he'd have a picture of him to give to the Magical Law Enforcement Patrol. And Sirius was back in England now ... Harry had to get to Gryffindor Tower before Snape and get rid of the evidence. With a sickening sense of deja vu, Harry darted past Snape, ignoring his enraged shout, and tore off down the corridor.


Disclaimer: All characters and concepts from the Harry Potter series copyright J K Rowling.