Running to her trunk, Ginny quickly threw it open and pulled out the diary. She flipped it to the last page she had written. It had been ripped out! First Harry had read it and now Hermione was stealing pieces of it. She burst into tears. How could they! Suddenly all her idols seem to turn into monsters who were trying to make her life as miserable as possible. She had to find a new hiding place. Maybe she could ask Fred and George for a hiding place, but then they might discover her diary too. Perhaps she could steal a piece of Harry's invisibility cloak and wrap the journal up, but then she might lose it. Her best bet was to transfigure it into something inconspicuous. She put the diary on her desk and took out her wand.

~*~

Draco had been writing hurriedly in Ginny's journal. The journal began to shimmer but he ignored it. Suddenly, he felt his quill get wrenched out of his hand. "What," he shouted. A very angry looking hedgehog glared at him as it devoured his favorite quill. Draco cursed and tried to think of what spell Ginny had used. He couldn't think of any. The duplicating charm seemed to have its drawbacks.

Now what was he going to do with a hedgehog in his room? He heard voices; Crabbe and Goyle were coming. He reached to grab the hedgehog and then jerked his hand away quickly. The little beast had bristled and now it looked like an overly large pincushion. He opened his trunk and picking up his pillow. Quickly he swatted it into the trunk and slammed it shut.

He could hear scratching noises coming from the inside and he sat on it right when Crabbe and Goyle entered.

"Hi Crabbe, Goyle," he said casually. His hand was quickly trying to find the clasp to shut the trunk.

"Hi." They said in unison. Draco was thankful that they were so stupid or else they might have found out what had happened.

"Should we bother the mudblood lovers now?" Crabbe asked, his ugly face contorted into something that might have looked like a smile.

Draco started to say yes but then remembered Professor Binn's warning. He also remembered the switch in the closet with strikingly detail. He did not want to be reintroduced to it when he came home on winter holiday.

"Uh no. I have homework to do." Draco said quickly, the barest trace of a squeak in his voice.

"You're starting to sound like that rat-faced mudblood." Goyle pointed out.

"I expect to be better than some stupid mudblood in all aspects." He said pompously, regaining himself.

"What are those things on your bed?" Crabbe asked. For the first time, Draco noticed the half dozen porcupine quills lying on his bed. They were about as long as his middle finger and were glowing softly.

"Transfiguration homework." He said quickly.

"I don't remember having to do that," Goyle started.

"Extra credit. I have to beat Granger you know."

"Oh."

"Now, go see if Pansy is still in the hospital wing." Picking up of the quills, he concentrated hard. The tip of the quill exploded into a silver blossom. Leaves budded from the sides as the quill got longer and slimmer. "Give her this." He handed Crabbe, the more careful of the two, the silver flower.

As soon as they were gone, he threw open the trunk. The nasty little hedgehog had eaten two of his quills, a good piece of parchment, and now was idly lapping up some ink. Taking out his wand, he muttered some words. The hedgehog only hiccuped, curled into a ball, and went to sleep. He cursed again, he was stuck with it. Perhaps he could give it to Hagrid, but what if it turned back into a book? Taking his dragon hide gloves from his bedside table, he picked it up and put it into his cupboard.

He cleaned the out the trunk and made a barrier down the middle. He lined half of it with past versions of the Daily Prophet. Then going through his potions kit, he found an empty vial and transfigured it into a bowl. He found the bright pink ink Pansy had given him and poured some into the bowl. Then he diluted it with three parts water. He hoped it would eat the newspaper, because he wasn't going to waste perfectly good parchment on it.

He lowered the sleeping hedgehog back into the trunk. It looked kind of cute, he thought dreamily, I always wanted a pet but mum wouldn't let me have a dragon. He shook himself hard, I am only keeping it so no one will find out that I impersonated Ginny's diary, he told himself. Yes, that's the only reason I'm keeping this filthy little thing. He put his things back into the other side of the trunk, he had to shrink the cauldron a bit. He dusted the quills off his bed and started his homework. I must beat that Granger girl, he thought.

After a few minutes of busily writing an essay on how the world was revolutionized by the invention of the broomstick, he felt an anxiety pecking at him. Did the hedgehog have enough air? What if it suffocated? Draco had always been a rather malicious person, but never a murderer. He opened the lid of the trunk. The hedgehog was sprawled on his back; its tongue was hanging out of its mouth. Tentatively, he poked its soft underbelly with his finger. Before he knew it, it had hooked its little fangs on his finger.

He screamed and shook it, but it held on adamantly. He hoped it didn't have rabies. He banged his hand against the wall and the monster let go. It fell toward the ground and turned back into the book.

Ginny's spiky writing flowed across the page.

Dear journal,

I finally figured out how to change Cotton Ball back into a book, but I think I love her more as a hedgehog. She's so cute and she likes it when I scratch her belly. Is she the soul of my journal? She's so sweet and when I talk to her, she seems to understand me.

The best thing of all is that no one will know what I said.

I going to turn her back into a hedgehog now and I'm never changing her back. So bye, journal. It's been nice knowing you.

~Ginny

The book shimmer and Draco's little monster reappeared. It snarled at him.

"Well, now that I'm stuck with you. I might as well name you." It growled at him.

"You're such a little monster. That's what I'll call you, Monster." He did a summoning charm and his dragon hide gloves flew across the room and landed in his lap. He put them on and picked up Monster. He put it back into his trunk. After making a row of air-holes, he got back onto his bed and continued his homework.

He was just about finished when he heard a high shrill noise coming from his trunk. He opened it. Monster was screeching angrily. The front page had a large picture of Harry Potter and Monster was snarling at it. He pounced suddenly and tried to eat the Boy-Who-Lived. Draco admired his pet's good taste. Potter took his wand out and sprayed a shower of ink stars at Monster.

Monster's white muzzle turned completely black. It squealed and ran for a corner. It looked pitifully at Draco and whined. An ink version of Potter was chasing it, appearing in pictures as he rushed closer to Monster.

"What?" Draco asked. "First you attack me and now you ask me to save you." Sighing, he reached down and gingerly picked the hedgehog. Its needles didn't spear his fingers.

"Coward," he said affectionately as he stroked the hedgehog.