A/N: Thanks for the comments on my first chapter! I must admit, I didn't get many…but this is a new story, right? And I apologize for not getting to "the switch" yet in this chapter…but soon, my friends, very soon…*another evil cackle*
SilverSparrow21: I knew YOU'D give me a positive review, haha. Yes, I must admit, I do think up pretty convincing fights, don't I? I've had years of experience.
Shania Maxwell: Yes, I can't wait to get to the switching part either! But every good story has to build up before we get to the main center of the plot.
Shadowfox5: That's what one might think when they first read my story, but aren't most stories like that? The first chapters are sort of just an introduction, but you catch on as the story continues? Thanks for saying it was well written. I do try my best.
'Mione Weasley: Thanks!
Raven and Chelsea: Thanks!
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Chapter Two
That night, Hermione and Ron could be found sitting in opposite corners in the Gryffindor common room, dreading nine o'clock, which would be the time of their detentions with Snape. Both was so furious with the other that they forced themselves to stare at the wall – or maybe that was to avoid the looks their fellow sixth years were giving them.
Harry tried on more than one occasion to console them both and tried to get them to talk, but it would have been smarter if he'd kept his mouth shut and worked on his homework. Hermione was so angry at Ron for being embarrassed in front of the whole class and a teacher that she wouldn't even think of speaking to him. Ron was livid at the fact Hermione would even try to tell him he was adding the wrong ingredients to his potion, thus starting the whole fight in the first place. After an hour of running back and forth across the common room, Harry slumped into a chair, deeming his mission utterly pointless.
Alas, as it would have sooner or later, the nine o'clock bell chimed around the room, signaling Ron and Hermione's feared detention. Harry watched them leave – Hermione got up first and exited through the portrait hole while Ron waited a full minute until she was gone before doing the same. It was rather amusing how much energy they put into ignoring each other, Harry thought dismally, when the simple solution would just be to apologize. But that wasn't going to happen anytime soon, he realized, when the subjects were Ron and Hermione.
Hermione arrived in the dark and gloomy Potions chamber five minutes past nine. Snape wasn't there yet but on his desk at the front of the room stood a large cauldron and several vials of ingredients. It was clear they would be brewing a potion for detention. Hermione took a seat in the first row like in class and waited for Snape to appear.
Instead of Snape entering the room was Ron. He too saw the cauldron and ingredients on the desk and groaned; it was going to be just like class. Hermione was sitting at the front, and Ron didn't want to give Snape the impression (though he was sure he had years ago) that Hermione was going to be the suck up in this detention, so he too took a seat in the first row, several desks away from Hermione. She, however, paid no attention to him.
They sat in silence for ten minutes before the door swung open again. Snape walked in this time, looking slightly agitated. He was muttering to himself and jumped when he saw Ron and Hermione. They were surprised to see Snape so unorganized and unlike himself, but he quickly gathered up his cool and flew like a bat to his desk.
"I apologize for being slightly late," he said. "A staff meeting ran overtime." His voice was full of annoyance and enmity. "But now we shall start your detention. Remember, you will come here at nine o'clock every night for the rest of the week. If not, the consequences will be dire. And don't forget your reason for being here in the first place. You are being punished for disrupting my class with one of your little arguments."
Ron and Hermione sat in silence, pretending to not be affected by Snape's words at all, while Snape gathered up the cauldron and vials. He levitated them to a table next to his desk with a swish and flick of his wrist and then beckoned Ron and Hermione forward. They accepted and stood in front of the little desk, avoiding eye contact with both each other and Snape.
"For tonight and the rest of the week," Snape explained, "you will be working on a potion called the Dilating Draught. It is a complex concoction that will, therefore, take several nights to complete. I have left the necessary ingredients and a page of instructions. I will be back at exactly midnight to check your progress." And with that, Snape swept from the room, once again leaving Ron and Hermione alone.
The two stood in silence for a minute, unable to look the other in the eye. It was indeed an awkward situation. Hermione was the first to make a move. She stepped forward, examining the instructions, and muttered more to herself than Ron, "We'd best get started."
Ron, however, did not notice. He was staring at his shoelaces with a look that clearly said "I am not taking part in this stupid assignment." Hermione caught his attitude and spoke, this time, to him.
"Ron, if you aren't going to do your share in this, then I won't do anything. I just don't know how we'll explain to Snape that no progress was made…"
She stood with her hands on her hips like a mother addressing a little child. Ron growled under his breath, muttered a "Fine" and grabbed the parchment from Hermione. He read aloud the introduction.
"The Dilating Draught is a potion often used to enlarge objects. It is very complex and could go wrong even if the tiniest error were to be made. At the end of the week, if the potion has been brewed properly, I will test your work on each of you in turn. If it is correct, you will grow several feet. If it is incorrect, you will most likely shrink, which is irreversible, and which will also cost many house points to be subtracted. I don't recommend going wrong unless you wish to spend the rest of your lives as midgets."
Ron and Hermione absorbed the information Snape had written after Ron set the paper down. It looked as if they were going to have to work together to get this potion right; otherwise, they would be spending the rest of their years at Hogwarts as three-foot-short midgets.
Hermione read aloud the first instruction, still avoiding Ron's gaze, "Fill cauldron halfway with water boiled to 350 degrees." She lit a fire under her cauldron and took a thermometer out of Snape's cupboards while Ron went to fill a bucket with water. Hermione inserted the thermometer into the cauldron and Ron poured the water into the cauldron, leaving it half empty, just as the paper had said. It looked as if things wouldn't be that bad.
An hour later, however, things changed.
"I said two cups of Bogweed, not three, Ron!" Hermione exclaimed while scooping out some of the slimy green grass from the cauldron.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ron mocked. Evidently, he was not. "Forgive me. I'll listen better next time, even if it bores the hell out of me."
Hermione glared him. "Then maybe I should just do this whole thing alone," she fumed, "or tell Snape that my partner has a lack of communication skills when you turn into a midget!"
"Tattling to the teacher, are we, now?" Ron grinned at his own scorn. Hermione did not. She dumped a large bag of dragonhorn powder into the boiling cauldron, sending puffs of smoke into their faces. They coughed until the clouds of powder disappeared and Ron took control, muttering about "showing her."
"An ounce of doxy skins," he read. Hermione checked the bags on their table for doxy skins but couldn't find any. "Go to that cupboard," she said, pointing bossily across the room, "and take out a bag of it. We haven't got any here. And make sure you get the right bag."
Ron made a rude face at her before obeying. He opened the cupboard, mimicking Hermione under his breath, and faced several shelves all labeled Skins. He scanned the rows for doxy passing several others that were most unpleasant to think about using. Finally he found the right bag, next to unicorn. He walked haughtily back to the table, pleased with himself for showing Hermione he was capable of doing tasks on his own.
Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron and grabbed the bag, examining the label. She groaned and shoved it back into Ron's arms, smirking. "Check the labels next time," she said. "I said doxy, not pixy. Honestly."
Hermione did the rest of the work that night, in fear Ron would mistake an ingredient for something else and turn them into midgets. Snape arrived at ten past midnight. Hermione was adding lacewings to the potion when he told her to stop. He examined the potion and the list of ingredients (they had already checked off several) and seemed to be satisfied enough to let them go. They raced from the dungeon before Snape could find a reason to stop them and didn't stop (or talk to one another) until they got to Gryffindor tower where bed was only a step away.
* * *
The rest of the weeks' detentions continued in the same manner: more fights and more ignoring. It seemed as if they were going to get through the last night uneventfully as they walked down to Snape's chamber (actually walking together this time, but still not talking). Once again, Snape left the instructions and ingredients on the table and left them alone, but this night, he told them to both take a drink of the potion when they were finished and if, when he came back, they had grown taller and not shorter, they would be dismissed without any trouble.
They added several small ingredients before Hermione read aloud, "Two teaspoons of Hungarian Horntail blood. And don't bring back anything else."
Ron, who was in higher spirits that night, bounded over to the cupboards again. There were vials atop of vials of different creatures' blood…this cupboard was more massive than the skins one. Ron wondered where Snape got these from as he scanned the rows…bowtruckle, acromantula, puffskein, kelpie, Hungarian Horntail…there it was.
"Hurry!" Hermione commanded from behind him. Ron grabbed the vial and proceeded back to the cauldron, pouring it in. A blue wisp of smoke rose from the cauldron momentarily before disappearing. Hermione re-checked all the ingredients on the parchment before setting it down with a sigh of approval. The potion was done.
"Well…time to drink it…" Ron murmured. He raised his head and his eyes met with Hermione's for the first time since before their fight. Her eyes bore the same look as his – anxiousness. Neither of the two wanted to turn into midgets or get more house points taken away…really, all they wanted was to end their fight and be friends again, but neither would admit it, either…
"Let's do it at the same time," Hermione suggest. Ron shrugged and dipped a goblet into the potion, which was now a bright blue. Hermione did the same. It was steaming and smelled of cabbage – it did not appear appetizing. She and Ron looked into the mixture they had made with looks of disgust.
"This better be right," said Ron before he and Hermione tipped their cups upward into their mouths. It bubbled and frothed all the way down, making them slightly dizzy, but it seemed safe, at least – they didn't drop dead upon drinking.
Hermione looked up at Ron, expecting him to shoot up several more feet, even though he was tall enough. Ron anticipated the same while staring at Hermione. But nothing happened. They remained the same.
"It didn't work," Hermione whispered. "We must have put a wrong ingredient in."
"Well, at least we aren't midgets," Ron said. Hermione glowered.
"This is your fault!" she screeched, throwing her goblet down. "I know you put something wrong in, you couldn't get an ingredient right to save your life!"
"And be it far from expected that Hermione Granger would do something wrong!" Ron shot back, his ears now tinted pink. "Just blame it all on the stupid one, eh!"
"You're not stupid," Hermione said. Ron stared. "You're brainless."
"Perfect, smart, know-it-all Hermione," Ron teased in a high voice not unlike Hermione's own. "Oh, no, I did something wrong! The world will come crashing down any moment now! Oh, dear, oh, goodness, oh, my –"
"Finished, I presume?" came a cold voice from the doorway, interrupting Ron's rant.
Snape was standing there, shuffling papers, with a look of amusement on his face. Obviously, he had listened to the whole thing from his expression. Ron's ears turned a full red and a blush rose into Hermione's cheeks. Caught again.
"You must be if you have time to do that again," Snape said quietly. He swept over to the potion and then looked at Ron and Hermione. His expression changed immediately into one of highest irritation.
"It's wrong," he said needlessly. "But I'm surprised you haven't been turned into midgets. Of course, this was most likely expected, but I had wanted to use this potion for a personal reason of mine." He prodded the top of the water with his wand, making blue swirls across the surface. "A wrong ingredient was added. What a waste of good potion supplies. Obviously, your lack of paying attention in class has paid off."
Ron and Hermione cast their eyes down again as they did most often when Snape was ridiculing them. He, however, continued, gaining liking to it. "That will be, lets see…twenty points each for failing to read instructions correctly and another weeks' detention. Let's hope you'll get it right then. I expect you back here on Monday night. That is all."
Without a back glance, Ron and Hermione scampered from the room in crushed morale. They had both been hoping to get the potion right to prove Snape wrong, but failed. And it was interesting that they hadn't shrunk, but stayed the same…Hermione escaped up her staircase to the girls' dorms without another look at Ron, and Ron went to find Harry to tell him of the night's events. But little did the two of them know that more had happened that night than they knew.
