Disclaimer: I own nothing; it all belongs to J.K.Rowling. I'm just borrowing the characters to play with for a while. This is for pleasure only, no profit is being made, and no copyright infringement is intended.

CHAPTER TEN

"Well Neville, it does sound like the Kiss of Ra could very well be a potion to help your folks. There are a few ingredients here that may be difficult to locate though, but the Moonflower Daisy petals would have been the only one I would have considered impossible." Hermione explained to her friend.

Neville smiled and grimaced. "I was afraid of that. Darn sassy cheekhead."

"What'd Harry do besides provide you with an opportunity to help your parents?"

"He's tricking us into confronting Professor Snape. Maybe even befriending him."

"Oh Neville, he's not that bad."

"Do you not remember any of my Potions classes at all?"

Hermione winced. "I was hoping you might have forgotten those, but I guess not."

Neville narrowed his eyes. "He used to be my boggart for goodness sake. It's not the easiest thing in the world to forget."

"He's not your boggart anymore?"

Neville shook his head.

"Well what is?"

"It's kind of personal and I'd rather not say."

"Oh I'm sorry. Of course Neville." Hermione apologized. "Would you like me to come with you when you ask for Professor Snape's help?"

"You bet your butter you're coming with me. Let's get this over with. Now." Neville exclaimed before leading the way out of the History of Magic classroom and headed down towards the dungeons.

Hermione quickly caught up and walked with Neville. "Is it spiders?"

Neville turned to her. "What? No. I'm not afraid of spiders. That's just Ron."

Hermione kept walking and thinking. "Is it girls?"

"No. Don't be silly." Neville said as they continued. "Hermione, did you just ask me that because you think I'm gay? Or because you think I'm straight?"

Hermione shook her head. "Never mind." She was quiet for about five seconds before she asked, "Does it have to do with your grandmother?"

"Hermione! I said I didn't want to tell you."

Hermione pouted. "You never said I couldn't guess though. So, is it a plant?"

Neville was getting frustrated and stopped walking. "Alright! Fine." Neville yelled. "Have you ever seen Little Shop of Horrors?"

Hermione's face split into a smile. "Yes!"

Neville looked her in the eye and said, "Well it has absolutely nothing to do with that." And he quickly turned and headed on to the dungeons.

"Come on Neville. That's not fair. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"Oh please Hermione. What's next? You going to pinky swear to be my best friend? And besides I already know yours."

"You do not! It's probably changed since you last saw it anyway."

"Yeah. I know. Now your greatest fear is to receive an ancient magical tome and to accidentally ruin it by writing grocery lists in it."

Hermione was blushing now and getting angry. "Fine. So it is. But now you have to tell me yours."

"Forget it Hermione. You've already got enough things to make fun of me for. And I still owe you for petrifying me in first year."

"In fairness Neville, if we'd let you stop us that night, Voldemort would have gotten the stone and become immortal."

"Oh geez. You hide behind that excuse for everything. It's always 'Voldemort would have won' or 'Harry would have died' or 'I don't care if they're enjoying it! No more House elf flying experiments!' I'll tell you what Hermione, you show me your breasts and I'll tell you."

Hermione shrieked. "Neville! That is completely inappropriate to even ask! And it's crude and way too personal!"

Neville just raised an eyebrow and stared at Hermione in response.

Hermione just huffed angrily. "Alright. Fine. I get it."

Neville smirked victoriously and was about to change the subject when Hermione quickly looked both ways down the hall and pulled up her sweater, shirt, and bra and flashed Neville.

"Buh…err…duh…" He mumbled out.

"But now I'm getting proof. We're going to Nicholas's office and getting a boggart." Hermione grabbed Neville by the elbow and quickly headed towards the DADA office.

Professor Flamel explained. "Sure. Got a couple boggarts in boxes in the back. Let me grab one."

He returned moments later. "Neville, you sure you're ready for this?"

He was still occasionally making sounds with his mouth. "Duh…err…"

Nicholas smiled and said "Works for me," before lifting the lid on a box and aiming it towards Neville.

Professor Flamel watched the boggart shift forms and shapes before settling on something very recognizable. "Wow! That's a heck of a nice looking pair! Whose are those Neville?"

Hermione eyes nearly popped out of her head as she let out a loud "Eep!" and grabbed Neville quickly leaving the room. She yelled back from the hallway, "Thanks Professor Flamel. Bye."

"Somehow this is Harry's fault I know it. Argh!" an embarrassed and angry Hermione was yelling.

"Erg…umm…homina…"

Hermione couldn't take anymore and slapped the young man harshly across his face.

"Ouch!" he yelled tenderly rubbing his cheek. "Umm…thanks Hermione. You know, for everything."

Hermione just shook her head. "At the very least Neville, will you tell me what your boggart used to be?"

"It used to be Professor Snape. You know that."

"No! I mean after that."

Neville giggled. "Oh, no, it's always been Snape. I was just lying and wondering if you would show me the twins. In seventh year Harry taught me a trick with your mind to focus on an image and control what a boggart becomes. But I'll call us even for the Petrificus now." Neville finished with a goofy grin and headed on towards the dungeons again.

She was thinking 'I knew this was Harry's fault!' but continued to scowl at Neville.

"Come on Hermione. Don't hate the player. I'm trying to get into a Slytherin mindset, so I can relate to Snape better."

Hermione just huffed but walked beside him none the less. "I can't help but wonder if Harry's cheek is contagious and spreading."

They knocked on the Potions Master's office.

A silky voice from inside said, "Professor Granger, Mr. Longbottom. What a pleasan- ...mmm. Well, what a surprise."

Hermione just rolled her eyes. "Professor Snape, Professor Malfoy. Perhaps you both can help us. We have a bit of a challenge for you."

Professor Snape raised an eyebrow but noticeably absent was his traditional sneer. "And what would that be?"

Neville straightened himself a bit prouder than he felt. "I was hoping you might be willing to make the Kiss of Ra."

Draco and Severus's eyes both widened at this opportunity. "I'm assuming you have some notes on it, because as far as I know there aren't any copies of instructions or ingredients on that potion in any book I've seen."

Hermione nodded. "Yes we do. We think it fell out of most knowledge because there weren't any more Moonflower Daisies around to be able to make it."

Draco nodded. "That would make sense. I'm assuming your intent is to try this out as an alternative healing method for your parents?"

Neville was feeling slightly scared that no one had made fun of him or said anything crude about his parents. "I was hoping to give it a try. Professor Flamel suggested the idea to me, indicating it seemed awfully convenient that I received a Moonflower Daisy, Hermione received a tome of ancient information, and you, Professor Snape, received many powerful and rare potions ingredients."

Draco smiled. "Ah yes, the Slytherin in Gryffindor clothing. This does sound like his sort of machination."

"Hush apprentice! You're dirtying the noble name of Slytherin." Snape scolded. "Alright Mr. Longbottom, I'll tell you what. You continue to provide me with a healthy amount of ingredients or grow and harvest some of the more rare ones I need, and I will make you the potions you request."

Hermione turned to Neville. Neville's eyes were wide and he wasn't sure how to respond to this courteous Snape.

Snape saw the young man was struggling. "I'm well aware that despite how dismal at Potions you are, you are an excellent herbologist, botanist, and Earth elemental. We can help each other out this way."

Neville slowly nodded. "Ohh…kay."

Hermione handed them a copy of the notes on the potion as well as a small bag full of Moonflower Daisy petals. "We were hoping you would have the other ingredients, as none of them are extinct to the best of my knowledge."

Severus looked over the ingredient list. "Mmm. Yes I do believe I have all of these. But it looks like it takes a couple months to brew. Two separate steps requiring a full moon."

Neville still stood there a bit dumbly.

"Well, anything you need you can ask me or send Neville an owl." Hermione explained giving a curious look towards Neville.

They all stood in silence for a few seconds. Hermione elbowed Neville. "Say 'Thank you,' Neville." She whispered out the corner of her mouth.

Neville nodded and said "Thank you, Nev-" was as far he got before Hermione slapped her hand over his mouth.

"Good day Professors." She said and walked out of the dungeon dragging a slow moving Neville with her. Neville was taking small steps backwards afraid to turn his back on these two Professors.

The next couple weeks, there were numerous pranks around the school. It seemed like some students were taking advantage of the fact that everyone blames Harry Potter first. Or it's also possible Harry was being busy and quite childish, and even threw in a few amateurish pranks to throw people off his scent. The Professors had by now all learned to roll with the punches. Many of them just wrote it off that if there hadn't been any Voldemort, then they would have had a horrible 7 years of the Marauder heir with his best friend strategist, and the schools most brilliant witch assisting him. When Albus offered that comparison, the happenings of the school seemed quite mild.

Albus had asked a number of Order members to help chaperone the Costume Ball for Halloween for a couple of reasons. One, so that he would be free to corner and interrogate his DADA Professor, and two, so that whatever Harry inevitably did, others would have to deal with it. And it was for this reason Remus, Ginny, Fred, and George could be found at Hogwarts in the afternoon of October 31st.

They all brought their costumes or had planned them out and were sitting in the History of Magic classroom talking with Tonks and Hermione. Fred and George had brought Padfoot with them and were doting on their puppy like a couple of mother hens. Padfoot had grown up a lot and was covered in spots all over. He was quite playful but extremely shy around people he didn't know. He sniffed all these new people, but seemed scared of Tonks.

Hermione asked, "Can Padfoot do any tricks yet? Or are you teaching him any?"

Fred looked at George with a smile. "Of course he can! Watch this." Fred set down Padfoot and all the adults were seated around watching the little puppy.

"Speak Padfoot! Come on boy! Speak!"

Padfoot looked at all the people staring and bowed his head shyly.

"Come on boy! You can do it! Speak, Padfoot, Speak!"

The cute little puppy looked around again, and settled his eyes on Hermione. An oddly normal but quiet voice came out of his mouth, "Hello."

"Aaaaahhhhh!" Tonks shrieked and jumped to her feet. "That dog is the devil."

Padfoot saw the playful pink-haired girl having fun and said louder, "Hello."

She screamed some more and was backing away.

Padfoot saw an opportunity to play and again said "Hello."

Tonks began to run away from the hell spawn, while it chased her around the room yelling out "Hello! Hello. Hello!" Her screaming back seemed to just incite more loud "Hello" responses.

Hermione, Ginny, and Remus were all torn between abject horror at the puppy and complete hysterics at Tonks reaction. They were laughing and snickering at her, until Fred and George snuck up behind Ginny and Hermione and said "Boo!"

The girls responded by shrieking much like Tonks and Padfoot began running at them barking as loud as he can the word "Hello!"

Remus gave into the hysterics and realized that perhaps the spirit of Padfoot was in this puppy. Sirius would probably love being the dog doted upon by the Weasley twins, and would have sold a piece of his soul for the ability to say 'Hello' as a dog.

Eventually they all calmed down, though the girls still jumped every time Padfoot would say 'Hello'. This would make the guys all laugh which in turn would give Padfoot the necessary positive reassurance that he was a good puppy.

It was time for them to help chaperone the Costume Ball, so they all were switching into their costumes. Remus pulled on an extremely large and fluffy white cloud like looking object. Ginny asked, "Umm Remus, what are you supposed to be?"

Remus smiled at his own cleverness. "I'm a sheep."

Hermione was the first to spot the irony and said. "Bad pun Remus. But nice costume."

Fred came out, with streaked black and white hair, a huge fake fur coat, and a woman's dress on. Hermione asked "And what are you Fred?"

He smiled and said "I'm Cruella De Vil."

Ginny asked, "Are you trying to horribly scare Padfoot?"

Fred shook his head. "Nope. That's George's job."

George came out with a chef's hat on, and a bloody apron that read at the top "What's your favorite kind of dog?" Below in smaller letters it said, "Mine is medium rare." And it listed the restaurant it was from, "Wok the Dog: Seoul, South Korea."

Remus was snickering, while Padfoot was happy and jumped into George's arms. They decided not to do anything too bad to Padfoot while he was still developing some. So they took a marker and drew a lightning bolt scar over Padfoot's eye.

Ginny was sick of being small and called things like lithe, slender, and spunky so she was going as a Giantess to the Ball. She had an oversized head and was a good 15 feet tall now. She was carrying a club for good measure, though she had to charm it, because she certainly wasn't as strong as a giant.

Hermione was quite proud of her costume. She had the fake beard, the balding head, and the glasses. It greatly surprised Hermione that no one recognized Melvil Dewey, the famed inventor of the Dewey Decimal System and the Dewey Magical Notation System. But even though no one recognized her, she took great pleasure in explaining her costume and a large chunk of Melvil Dewey's life story to anyone who inquired.

Tonks was just plain cheating. As a metamorphmagus, she didn't even have to really try for her costume. She got vetoed on being Harry Potter. Apparently that would be too easy, and probably make Harry too happy. So instead, she was going to the costume ball as Voldemort. A fine costume for a chaperone, although a difficult one if she was hoping to do a lot of dancing.

They all walked into the Great Hall just as the Headmaster, Professor Flamel, and Professor Flitwick were putting the finishing touches on the decorations. The three older professors all got out of chaperoning in exchange for doing all the set up work. Tonks found that a bit unfair, but apparently the 'young whipper snappers' don't get an equal say. Though even if she did, there is no force in magic as strong as 'tenure' anyway.

Albus had asked Nicholas to join him for a drink, while the Halloween ball was going on. He had left the emceeing duties to Minerva, and would hopefully be able to finagle some answers out of his old friend.

"Welcome, Nicholas, welcome. We're already two months into term and we haven't had the opportunity to just sit down and talk."

"Thank you Albus. I suppose our needs aren't so pressing without a Dark Lord out to kill your favorite student."

Albus nodded. "I am grateful for that. Could I interest you in a firewhiskey? Or perhaps a Flaming Margarita?"

Nicholas got a mischievous smile. "Can you make my Flamer with tapioca?"

"Of course Nicholas. I wouldn't have offered if I couldn't have."

The two old men were relaxing and sipping their smoldering fruity beverages. Albus began, "So tell me, how goes the research project?"

Nicholas shook his head. "Albus. You know it would just frustrate you if I was able to say anything, because it simply wouldn't be enough."

"You're already frustrating me old man!" Albus growled back. "Oh my. Excuse me. Sorry."

Nicholas just smiled. "No apologies necessary. I know how you are when you drink."

Albus shrugged and took a big swig of his Flamer. "Alright, so frustrate me anyway. Just knowing that it's out there is killing me. Can't you tell me what you're studying?"

Nicholas was settling himself and looked over at Fawkes. "Hmm well, not exactly. But I can say a number of these discoveries will make impossible things possible."

Albus frowned. "I assumed that was the point of calling something a discovery. It changes the way we believed things to be. But it looks like you're going to continue to be useless to me." He ended bitterly.

Nicholas just snickered. "Albus, how about this: I should be able to at least tell you the substance as a Christmas present."

Albus realized he had very little to bargain with and said, "That is acceptable. Now tell me how the hunt for Mr. Potter has been going."

Nicholas chuckled. "You know Dudley Dursley was the first person to coin the term 'Harry-hunting' although it seems like we've all adopted it in a somewhat affectionate way. As for our findings we are not having much luck. We know he's been in the castle many times, Tonks was wrestling with him the second day of term in fact."

"Miss Tonks was wrestling with him? How did we miss him?"

Nicholas looked away. "Umm yeah, well you see, Professor Granger and I sent stunners at them both, but since they looked identical we didn't know which was which. He kind of played with us before popping away. Dern House elf tricks."

Albus was chuckling, "I sense a lot more behind the innocuous comment 'he kind of played with us' but I think what I am imagining is probably as funny as the truth."

Nicholas cleared his throat quite loudly. "Anyway, no concrete spottings, but we're pretty sure he's in the castle often, and he is also in possession of and is perhaps using a time turner to appear in several places at once, and throw people off his trail."

Albus nodded thoughtfully. "I will tell you, Hogwarts is also trying to protect him herself, but she did slip up and mention that he has been in here non-stop since school started. I was curious if you had any thoughts as to where he might be hiding."

Nicholas eyed Albus carefully. "We were entertaining thoughts that he may have been at the Order meeting just before term as well. I wondered if he was impersonating an Order member, or was just another hidden fly on the wall. Do you think he may be at Hogwarts impersonating a student? Or for that matter a staff member?"

Albus sighed and shrugged. "I certainly wouldn't put it past him, but I have no leads and this is killing me. I just can't stand not knowing!"

Nicholas chuckled. "You sound like Professor Granger."

"And you don't seem to be taking your Harry-hunting responsibilities seriously enough!"

Nicholas rolled his eyes. "Please Albus. I make it no secret that teaching and my research project both take precedent, but I am doing everything I am capable of to help. I may not be able to physically clearly say some things, but I have been leading people towards the right directions as best as I can."

A resigned Albus responded "I know Nicholas, I know. What would you think would happen if I called in my life-debt from you and forced you to tell me everything you know about Mr. Potter?"

Nicholas's eyes were wide. "That just might work, you know. But as a friend, I would advise you not to do that. At least not yet. I think there might be a risk to me, but a pretty slight one."

Albus looked over at his friend and sighed.

"Albus, you may need to look at this more from Mr. Potter's perspective. He has been leaving clues to a puzzle of sorts. He is playing a game with us all. Professor Granger has been mildly successful at predicting his patterns. Calling in a life-debt to get the answers out of me, would be like cheating at the game. I think he wants you to figure it out. I'm just a shield he's manipulating and hiding behind. I think I'll be able to spring a trap on him or turn around and bite him when he least expects it though."

Albus finished off his Flamer. "Very well Nicholas. I won't force you to break your oath." He was shaking his head. "Yet."

Nicholas nodded and smiled at his frustrated friend.

Angry Albus rose to the surface again, "But you better come through for me on Christmas!"

Nicholas nodded. "Who knows? Maybe we will have 'caged the beast' by then, as Professor Snape so eloquently put it."