Harry and Ron were totally embarrassed when they had to appear in public following the incident with the vampire ants. Ron especially had argued vehemently against having his hair shaved off, but Madam Pomfrey had been adamant it was the only way to be rid of the insects, so he was left with no choice to have his hair shaved off alongside Harry. Although their lack of hair wasn't the only issue as both wizards were covered in itchy red blotches where the ants had bitten them.
Madam Pomfrey had given them cream for the bites, and assured them that they would be cleared up in a couple of days. And she'd given them a potion to ensure their hair grew back in a week. However, knowing their embarrassment was only temporary didn't help the pair when they had to face the rest of the school and found themselves the butt of all the jokes.
The Slytherins especially took full advantage of the situation and they ribbed the two Gryffindors mercilessly. Blaise publicly bumped into Ron, and then told him that he hadn't seen him without his garish red hair. Draco then goaded Harry and Ron into an argument and told them to calm down and keep their hair on, much to the amusement of his friends and the other students who were around at the time.
As for Hermione, she enjoyed the show and just waited for Harry and Ron to take their heads out of their backsides and realise that she was behind recent events. However, the pair proved even more foolish than Hermione had predicted, and despite overwhelming evidence that Dean, Seamus and Neville hadn't been involved in their accidents, they continued to stick to their guns and refused to apologise. It meant that they were totally out on a limb among the Gryffindors, and even Ginny was finding it hard to side with the pair.
Sadly, the pair were only the centre of attention for a week, and once their hair had grown back people soon forgot what had happened. When the fuss began to die down, Hermione's friends asked her what their next move was, but Hermione informed them that she planned on waiting before striking again. As it turned out she waited almost a month, before she gathered her friends and announced it was time to act again.
"So what do you have up your sleeve?" Draco asked his girlfriend.
"Well, this one just involves Ron," Hermione replied. "But if they carry on to accuse people without thinking, it could alienate them from the only slight bit of support they have."
"Weaselette," Draco said. Ron's sister was one of the only people still talking to the pair, but even then it was clear she wasn't agreeing with their accusations.
"Ginny," Hermione confirmed with a nod of her head. "What I need is a time when Harry and Ron aren't in Gryffindor Tower. I also need Ginny away from the tower, and the password so I can get in using polyjuice potion. Oh yeah, I also need a spider."
"A spider?" Theo queried with a frown.
"I was thinking one of the large spiders from the forbidden forest," Hermione said.
"But why a spider?" Blaise asked.
"Did you not pay attention to the boggart lessons in third year?" Hermione asked with a chuckle. "Ron is terrified of spiders. Imagine his fear when he goes to get into bed and finds one tucked among the covers."
"But how will you make sure his sister gets the blame?" Daphne asked.
"I'll have to use her to get into Gryffindor Tower, so all I have to do is make sure someone sees me entering the boys dorms," Hermione replied. "You've seen what Harry and Ron have been like. As soon as someone mentions seeing Ginny in their dorms, they'll assume she's responsible. Just look at the way they'd jumped on Dean, Seamus and Neville. All they have to do is take a breath and think it through and they'll realise they're being played. But I have to say, they've exceeded even my expectations of their stupidity."
"Yeah, I thought they would have caught on by now," Draco agreed. "How do they not know that their friends have nothing to gain by pushing them down the stairs and drenching them in vampire ants?"
"As I said, they're stupider than I thought," Hermione replied with a shrug. "But let's take advantage of their stupidity before it wears off. Sooner or later they are going to realise who is really behind these incidents, but until they do, let's have a bit more fun with them."
"And don't forget, we've still got the big potions accident to come," Draco added.
"That can be our grand finale," Hermione said. "Professor Snape was telling me the other day that it's going to be another few weeks before we'll be making a potion we can cause a bang with."
"So who's doing what?" Blaise asked.
"Well, we've got the hairs and polyjuice potion," Hermione said. "But we need the password for Gryffindor Tower and the spider."
"I'll take care of the password," Draco replied hastily, not at all keen to venture into the forest to get hold of a spider.
"Yeah, I can help there," Blaise said.
"Me too," Theo added eagerly.
"Do you think the boys are scared?" Daphne asked Hermione with a laugh.
"What, three strapping young wizards scared of a forest and some cuddly spiders? I don't believe it," Hermione teased.
"We're not scared," Draco insisted.
"Then you three won't mind going to get the spider," Daphne said, shooting the three boys a sweet smile. "I'm sure Hermione and I can manage to get the password for Gryffindor Tower."
"I've got an unbreakable jar you can put the spider in," Vince offered, digging in his trunk and handing Draco a large glass jar.
"Thanks Vince," Draco muttered, sounding anything but thankful.
"Well that's all sorted then," Hermione said with a slight smirk. "Let's try and do this on Friday evening. It'll make the weekend go off with a bang."
Hermione could see that her boyfriend wanted to argue about going into the forest to grab a spider, but when she gave him a look challenging him to try and change the arrangements, he shook his head and started making plans with Blaise and Theo to venture into the forbidden forest to grab themselves a spider.
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"How the hell did we get stuck doing this?" Theo questioned for the tenth time in half an hour as he, Draco and Blaise crept into the forest to find themselves a spider after curfew on Thursday evening.
"I think our masculinity was questioned," Blaise replied. "Damn Daphne and her digs about us being scared."
"As if we were scared," Draco scoffed, just as something in the forest howled and he jumped a mile. "Bloody hell, what was that?" he asked, his eyes darting from side to side as he tried to work out if they were in danger.
"Hell if I know," Blaise muttered with a dramatic shiver. "This forest gives me the creeps. Let's get this sodding spider and get out of here."
"I second that," Theo added with an eager nod of his head.
Not wanting to be in the forest any longer than necessary, the trio moved deeper into the forest. Even though Hermione had told them the spiders had a lair in the forest, she hadn't been able to tell them where it was located, so they were exploring blind. All three boys were keeping their eyes out for spiders, even little ones, hoping they would lead them to a decent sized one.
"I think that's a spider," Theo called half an hour later, using his lighted wand to point to where he thought he'd spotted a darting spider.
"Where?" Blaise asked, peering at where Theo was looking and seeing nothing.
"There," Theo said, as a shadow darted through the light shining from his wand.
"I saw a tail," Blaise said, giving Theo an annoyed look. "Last time I checked, spiders don't have tails."
"It could have been a spider," Theo muttered as Blaise turned away to continue the search.
Fifteen minutes later there was another sighting, and this time it was a spider Theo had spotted. However, it was only a smallish one and not wanting to disappoint Hermione, Draco suggested they keep an eye on the spider and hope it led them to a larger one.
"Surely spiders are spiders," Theo moaned as they followed the spider deeper into the forest. "If Weasley's afraid of them, he'll freak out even if it's just a little one."
"Hermione wanted a big one," Draco insisted.
"In that case you should send her to me, I've got a big one," Blaise joked.
"I'm more than enough for Hermione," Draco returned with a smirk. "And if you dare try and move in on her, you won't have one at all, Zabini."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get the message," Blaise laughed. "Hermione is off limits."
"Just you remember that," Draco warned.
"Will you two stop it," Theo hissed. "Let's focus on grabbing this spider."
"Yes sir," Draco answered mockingly.
However, he was just as eager as Theo to get the job done and get back to the castle, so he and Blaise stopped joking around and kept a look out for a larger spider. Thankfully, a few minutes later they spotted more spiders and some of them were considerably larger than the one they'd first gotten their eye on. Picking a one to use, Draco sent a stunning spell at the arachnid. With the spider stunned, Blaise then used magic to transport it into the unbreakable jar.
"Done," Blaise declared with a triumphant grin as he sealed the lid of the jar so the spider couldn't escape.
"Let's get it back to Hermione," Draco said as he turned and led the way back towards the castle.
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Friday evening was planned to perfection, and everyone had a job to do. Draco and Theo were tasked with making sure Harry and Ron stayed away from Gryffindor Tower, no matter what it took. Blaise had volunteered to keep an eye on Ginny in the library and make sure that she didn't leave. And Vince, Greg and Daphne were all positioned in the corridors leading to Gryffindor Tower, as the last line of defence in case any of the boys messed up and Harry, Ron or Ginny came back too early. As for Hermione, she had the polyjuice potion and the spider and was ready to give Ron a surprise he would never forget.
From her hiding hole in an alcove near to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione watched as first Harry and Ron left Gryffindor Tower, and then Ginny headed off to the library, where according to a conversation Daphne had overheard she was meeting Luna to study. Trusting that the boys would do their jobs and keep the trio away from Gryffindor Tower, Hermione uncorked the polyjuice potion in her pocket and drowned it in one nasty gulp.
"Horrid stuff," she muttered to herself as she felt herself begin to transform into Ginny.
Once she was polyjuiced to look like Ginny, Hermione used magic to alter her clothes into the ones she'd seen Ginny wearing when she'd left Gryffindor Tower. She then waited another couple of minutes until she heard voices heading towards the common room before she stepped out of the alcove and made her way towards the portrait of The Fat Lady.
"Butterscotch," Hermione said, giving the password she and Daphne had worked out by lurking around Gryffindor Tower earlier that day.
When The Fat Lady's portrait swung open, Hermione stepped into the familiar common room. For a moment, Hermione stopped and took in the common room which for the first four years of her time at Hogwarts, had been hers. It felt strange to be back in Gryffindor Tower when Hermione had never thought she would see it again. However, she had a task to do and she wasn't going to hang around and risk being caught out.
Spotting Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil sitting near the stairs to the boys dorms, Hermione plastered a smile on her face and strode towards them. Making sure she greeted both girls, she made an excuse about borrowing a book from Ron, before darting up the stairs to the boys dorms. Thankfully, the other boys weren't in the room, and Hermione made her way to Ron's bed, stepping over dirty clothes on the way.
"Ugh, someone needs to tidy this place," she muttered, kicking at a pair of garish orange boxers she suspected belonged to Ron as they were in his beloved Chudley Cannons colours.
When she reached Ron's bed, Hermione pulled back the covers and removed the unbreakable jar containing the spider from her bag. Carefully she unsealed the jar and putting it on it's side on the bed, she coaxed the spider out onto the sheets.
"Be good, little fellow," Hermione muttered as she cast a spell on the spider to make sure it remained on the bed. "And give Ron a kiss from me," she cackled, replacing the covers on Ron's bed.
Wishing she could stick around to witness Ron's reaction when he got into bed, Hermione flounced from the bedroom. Heading back down to the common room, she made a big show of saying goodbye to Lavender and Parvati before exiting Gryffindor Tower. Once back out of the tower, Hermione took the back passages away down to the dungeons. By the time she reached the dungeons, she could tell the potion was nearly wearing off, so she ducked into an alcove until she was herself again.
Back to normal, she then headed back to the Slytherin common room, where over the next ten minutes she was joined by her friends. Now all they had to do was sit back and wait to see what sort of a fuss Ron caused when he went to bed that night and found he was sharing his bed with a rather large spider.