Author's Note: Ok, sorry I haven't updated in a bit. This next chapter is mostly just for fun. Hope you like it. Thank you, thank you to those of you that reviewed. You know I love you guys.

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chapter 38: CONFLAGRATION - hell hath no fury

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Outside, feet could be heard pounding rapidly down the hallway. All heads had turned to the door, and Professor McGonagal had paused in her lecture and raised one eyebrow, when Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy burst into the Transfiguration classroom and hurried to take their seats near the front of the class.

"Ah, Mister Malfoy and Mister Weasley," McGonagal said with a quirk of her lips. "Professor Snape kept you overlong at detention, did he? I wonder how that could have happened." With that enigmatic statement, she turned back to the board to continue her lecture. Ron and Draco, still gasping from their long run up from the dungeons, exchanged baffled looks before turning to dig in their book bags for parchment and quill with which to take notes.

On the other side of the room Hermione shook her head and tried to return her concentration to the lecture. One never knew when it would be advantageous to transfigure one's legs into a fish's tail, and she was determined to learn the fine points of the exercise. She had to admit to curiosity, however, as to what had detained Ron and Malfoy. It didn't help that she knew they hadn't really been serving detention. Glancing at them out of the corner of her eye, she surmised that it didn't appear as though they had been fighting, so that couldn't be it, at least she didn't think so. She looked over at Harry to see what he thought and found that he had abandoned taking notes in favor of giving Malfoy the evil-eye. She sighed, elbowing him in the ribs, and hissed at him to pay attention. No sense in one of them getting detention for real when Ron would probably just tell them why they'd been late at dinner anyway.

Suddenly, there was a thump on the back of Hermione's chair. She resisted the urge to turn around and glare. Blaise Zabini was kicking her chair again and she really couldn't believe just how childish some of her classmates still were. Really!! He was acting like a first year. Was there even a point to it at all? She gripped her quill tighter and resumed her note taking. On top of everything else, she did not need this right now.

She was right in the middle of a word when it happened again. Two thumps this time, in quick succession. She hissed in frustration as her hand slipped and ink blotted out what she had been writing. What was wrong with that boy?! She clenched her teeth and resisted the childish urge to hex him, resolving to just ignore it. There was only fifteen minutes left in the period. She could wait him out. She glanced again toward the front of the classroom where Ron sat next to Malfoy. Both boys were concentratedly taking notes, each ignoring the other. Well, if they could do it, she could do it. Their animosity was legendary, and she could only imagine that their present situation only worked to agravate it.

It was just as Hermione was thinking these thoughts, her back straightening with resolve, that she began to feel a strange prickling, itching sensation on either side of her forehead, just above her temples. Reaching a hand up in confusion, she was surprised to feel, unmistakably, horns growing out of her forehead.

A cold feeling of anger settled grimly in the pit of Hermione's stomach. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt who was behind this and she Was. Not. going to stand for it. Gripping her wand tightly, she stood up and whirled around to face him. What she knew to be true was only confirmed when she saw Blaise Zabini sprawled lazily in his chair, a leering smirk plastered across his face. Oh he was going to pay for this.

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Blaise couldn't help but grin at the beautifully perfect sight before him. It couldn't have been more exquisite if Merlin himself had orchestrated it. There stood Hermione Granger, in all her searing, bushy-haired fury, ebony horns curling outward from her head and wand raised threateningly as though to call down lightning from the very heavens to strike him dead. He'd been waiting a long time for this, waiting to see her crack and sentence herself to a good long detention. Of course, he would probably get detention too, but it would be worth it, in more ways than one.

He'd been testing her for weeks now, telling himself it was just because he liked to watch the bossy Gryffindor squirm and that he had nothing better to do. He could safely say that no one could get under Hermione Granger's skin as swiftly and efficiently as could one Blaise Zabini. He had been testing her limits, probing her, until he could tell precisely what it would take to make the girl snap.

When the youngest Weasley had come to him with her proposition, it had provided the perfect excuse to put his new skill to the ultimate test. He would admit, he had been surprised that Ginny Weasley would seek his, a Slytherin's, assistance in anything. She had always come off as such the perfect, upstanding Gryffindor. No matter. The recompense she promised for this favor would be more than adequate, and the task itself was simple enough. Besides, what she wanted called for a distraction, and ever since the incidence in Potions, Blaise had been just waiting for the right opportunity to get Hermione Granger back.

As much as he wanted to know what Hermione was about to strike him with, what hideously awful spell was going come flying from her wand tip and straight for him, Blaise knew that this encounter was going to have to be prolonged if he was to pull off his 'assignment' from Ginny, and that once Hermione had him incapacitated the situation would diffuse rapidly enough. Knowing that once Granger lost it, he would have mere seconds before her hexes came flying, he had readied his next spell the moment the one for the horns had been complete. With a flick of his wand, before Hermione could make another move, Blaise cast his spell perfectly and froze Hermione dead in menacing wand sweep.

Now that was worth it. He never would have guessed that Hermione Granger could turn such an astonishing shade of purple. Her mouth worked silently and such rage stormed across her face that it took his breath away. Professor McGonagal had stopped her lecture and was about to come intervene, so he spoke quickly. Putting such a sneer into his voice it would make a Malfoy proud Blaise said, seemingly off-hand, "You can still speak, you know. There's no need to go sputtering on in silence." That did it. The stream of curses and obscenities that issued forth from Granger's mouth was beyond spectacular. Blaise was quickly on his feet to counter them, then Harry was up to defend Hermione, and before he knew it, the entire class was on it's feet and in an uproar. Distraction indeed, this was perfect, and well worth any punishment he would be receiving from McGonagal.

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Ron had decided that the only way to keep himself from worrying would be to focus entirely on the lesson. Little doubts and feelings of helplessness kept nibbling at his insides, and flashes of memory of what had happened with Ginny kept appearing before his mind's eye. To keep them at bay, he wrote furiously as McGonagal talked, vowing to himself that he would write down every word that passed her lips. He stopped the mad scribbling of his quill, however, as he heard the Professor falter in her lecture and fall silent. He looked up to see what the matter was and for a moment the entire class-room was utterly still.

Then, from the back of the class, he heard the sneering voice of Blaise Zabini. Turning in his seat, he was just in time to register the fact that Hermione was standing, facing Zabini with her wand raised, before she started screaming obscenities and the whole room erupted into chaos, with McGonagal pushing through the fray, trying to get things to settle back down. Such was his shock, that it was several moments before he realized that the funny thing poking up on the other side of Hermione's head was a horn. So help him, if she hadn't been his best friend, and frightening as all the hordes of Hell when angry, the sight would have made him laugh. Malfoy, seated next to him, wasn't so constrained, and he could hear him snickering next to him as he stood, trying to get a better view of what was going on.

All seemed to be jostling chaos, with students milling back and forth, trying to get a better view of what was going on. There seemed to be a higher concentration of Slytherins in Ron's vicinity and they snarled at him as they were all jostled again. Ron was taller than most of the others, though, so he was still able to see a bit of what was happening. Who would have thought that only one classroom of students could make such a crowd? From the glimpses he caught, it looked as though McGonagal was trying to placate Hermione and at the same time, take Zabini to task. Neither attempt seemed to be succeeding.

Whatever had been holding Hermione back must have been broken, for all of a sudden her shrieks reached a terrible pitch, and a sudden flurry of movement produced a loud explosion that fairly rocked the classroom. As his eyes recovered from the bright flash and the smoke began to clear, Ron had to bite his tongue to keep from reacting to the sight now before them. It was most impressive, and Ron knew, if he hadn't already determined the truth of this, that Hermione was one witch that should never, ever be crossed.

The force of the explosion had sent Zabini sailing from his chair and pinned him firmly to the opposite wall. His robes were in tatters and scorch marks covered his face and hands. However, Hermione seemed to have gone for a multi-facetted approach to her attack, for more than just the effects of the explosion showed themselves on the stunned boy. Quite appropriately, he now had a pair of massive black horns curling up from his forehead, but it didn't stop there. Smaller black spikes and horns stuck out every which way from all over Zabini's body, almost making him look like a pathetic attempt at a porcupine. Perhaps that was why he still hung there on the wall like that. Some spikes on his back must have latched themselves into the plaster of the wall and kept him snagged up there. That didn't seem like it would be very comfortable.

For long moments, no one moved or said a word, even Hermione seemed to be at a loss in the face of what she had done. Finally, it was Professor McGonagal who broke the stillness. "Well, I hope you two are quite finished." McGonagal's tone was steely and Ron felt like slinking into a corner to keep her from accusing HIM of anything. "I hope you have both learned something today, and I hope you learn more over the next two weeks of your detentions. Behavior like this is unpardonable, inside the classroom or out, provoked or not." Blaise blinked owlishly from his position on the wall, but it was clear he had enough consciousness to understand what she was saying. "You will both be reporting to my office tonight after supper, once I have had a chance to confer with the Headmaster and the other heads of the houses about a suitable punishment." McGonagal's face was pinched and stern, but it softened a fraction. "First, though we need to get Mr. Zabini down and the two of you to the infirmary." The professor raised her wand to unhook Blaise from the wall.

It was at this point that the final effect of Hermione's curse became known, and it was just as impressive as the rest. Blaise Zabini simply would not come down, and it had nothing to do with spines hooking him to the wall. Zabini, still shaky, rose to his feet and stood unsteadily, but it was not the floor he was standing on, but rather the wall itself. Some giggles broke out among the students and again everyone started talking at once and shuffling back and forth. Once again, McGonagal was having trouble bringing peace to the room as Blaise scurried frantically back and forth across the wall, trying to find a way to get down.

Out of all the people jostling around him, one touch on his arm registered and Ron looked over to see Draco standing next to him. His expression was difficult to read as he looked up at his classmate on the wall, many different emotions combining on his face, bitter humor not the least among them. Ron had to agree with that at least. Despite the shock of what Hermione had done, there was something undeniably funny about a boy in tattered robes and covered all over with spines who couldn't get off the wall.

Draco tapped at Ron's arm again and Ron glanced down to see a piece of parchment held discreetly at his side. He took the paper and quickly looked down to read the note, before crumpling it up in his hand. "The library. After dinner," was all it said. Ron nodded once to indicate that he understood and would be there. Then the bell rang and people slowly began to disperse out the doorway as their next class called them away from the sight of the unfortunate Slytherin stuck on the wall. Ron went and gathered up his things, following them out. As surprising and interesting as this had been, and as sorry he was that Hermione would be facing two weeks worth of detention, he had more important matters on his mind and no good would result if he was late for his last class and possibly got himself a detention as well.