Hey! It's Chapter 3! Schwing Schwing Schwing! Oh, and if anyone really cares, this takes place after GOF. Schwing!

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Disclaimers: See Chapter 2. ~8]

Chapter 3: Snake Repellent

Once the students were out of the Dungeon, the trio felt it was safe to speak to each other again.

"You know, its too bad they don't hand us a new Potions teacher as often as they gave us a new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor," Hermione quipped.

Ron sighed. "You got that right, Hermione. If you ask me, I think Snape needs a vacation from his own greasy and bitter self for a while. A looong while. Preferably at St. Mungo's…"

"Not only that," Hermione continued, "but I was reading that in the Middle Ages, Witches and Wizards never even used such disgusting things like those Snape's got us brewing to make potions. It was all done with herbs, and such. I wonder when they began to use animals and the like?"

Ron cocked his head in thought. "Somewhere, somewhen, a ball of slime learned to walk, talk, and teach, and thus began the Snape Family Tree, with rotting bark, infestations, and I hear it goes straight up, if you know what I mean…"

"Not unlike yours, Weasel."

Ron and Harry saw Hermione roll her eyes at the sound of Malfoy's snide remark. The boys looked over their shoulders to encounter Malfoy flanked by the Slytherins from the Potions class. Draco took a step forward, asserting himself as the 'gang leader,' as if it wasn't already known.

"That was quite a show Neville gave us, wasn't it, Potter? But, then again, you were too busy Frenching Weasel here in the back row to notice, now weren't you?"

"Shove off, Draco," Hermione interjected, without any attempt to conceal her disgust. She had grown quite brave in standing up to the little blonde bastard ever since she popped him one across the face. That had felt good, and she was quite sure she was capable of doing it again.

"I wasn't talking to you, Mudblood, this is between me and the boys here. Besides, I want to ask them a question." Ignoring the heated faces of both Harry and Ron, whose cheeks burned red at the mere mention of the M-word, Malfoy slithered even closer to the pair. "We were just wondering, my fellow Slytherins and I, what an interesting exclamation 'You' is. Now what question could have prompted Weasel here to utter such a word as 'You'?" He turned to his pack. "Any ideas, guys?"

Crabbe was the first to speak up. "'Guess who gave a hand-job to Snape?'" "'You!'" the Slytherins yelled back.

"'Who do you love the most, Ron?'" yelled Goyle. "'You!'"

"'Who hasn't got any parents and is the most pathetic fucking loser in the world?'" screamed Pansy. "'You!!'" the Slytherins shrieked with laughter. Draco didn't even have time to come up with another retort when Ron surged forward suddenly, roughly jerking Malfoy by the robes so that they were nose to nose. He had learned something from Snape that day. If you want to scare your enemies shitless, do so as calmly as possible.

"I'm only going to tell you this once, Malfoy," he began, more evenly and steadily than he ever thought possible, "if you ever, and I mean ever talk the way you just did about Harry's, Hermione's, or my family ever again in front of anybody else other than your own reflection, so help me Gods I'll hunt you down and rip you a new one, you bloody prick-nosed bastard." When Ron finished speaking he quietly released the other boy, then turned and walked away in the opposing direction. Harry could plainly see how this had ruffled Malfoy, who in response merely tugged hard at his robes to straighten them. At a loss for words, he simply glared at Harry until he and Hermione turned to follow Ron. Harry could hear the retreating footsteps behind him of the Slytherins going down the stairs in silence.

* * * * * * * * * *

When the trio reached the portrait of the Fat Lady outside the Gryffindor Common Room, Hermione finally let out what she'd been holding in ever since Malfoy and his band had slithered away. "Oh, Ron!" she shrieked, "that was wonderful! You should have seen his face after you'd left! Oh, what I wouldn't give for a picture!" Harry nodded enthusiastically as well. "Yeah, Ron, you were great! I've never seen Draco so pissed before! He's had it coming for years now."

Ron, however, wasn't exactly joining in on the festivities. "I'm a dead man, aren't I?" he questioned dejectedly, until Harry came around and tugged an arm around Ron's shoulder. "Cheer up, mate, girls love this sort of thing. They'll be all over you now. And think how proud Fred, George, and Ginny'll be of you! Granted they don't tell your parents, that is." Ron smiled broadly at the thought. "Yeah, guys, you're right. I was pretty damned good, wasn't I?"

"You really were, Ron," Hermione chimed in again. "But one question though: why did you yell out 'YOU' in class?"

Harry had almost, almost been able to forget what he had seen earlier that day. Now, however, the initial surge of panic he had originally felt returned full force with the realization of what had passed.

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Okay, this we'll call an 'interlude' of sorts. Not many more, I promise. Hopefully this'll keep Malfoy away for the time being as we get to the deeper root of the problem, which is stated so very nicely in the summary ~8] I'll try to post two chapters at a time or at least one which is related to the core of the story before I leave you in a nice cliffhanger-like fashion. Much like I'm doing……now………………………………………………………………………… ~8]