§ 'Parseltongue!' §
'Thoughts'
Chapter Twelve!
5th of September 1994
It was Monday morning and Harry was sitting in the Great Hall eating breakfast with Luna beside him, thinking about the weekend. He'd woken up on Saturday morning snuggled together with two naked girls, their arms wrapped around him, their legs entwined with his, feeling more alive, self-confident and horny than he had in weeks.
Failing to master his forms had really gotten him down, but after Friday night it didn't seem as important anymore. When the girls had woken up he started to talk, explaining to Luna that as much as she might want to call him Master in public, she should instead call him by his name since he didn't want their new relationship to be used against them. He did, however, tell her she was going to become his 'friend', allowing him to protect her from any bullying without raising any suspicions. He regretfully told Medusa that as much as he would like her around him all day, a new girl appearing out of nowhere wouldn't go unnoticed. Inevitably they she conceded she would have to remain in the chamber. He also told her that he wouldn't be able to spend every night in the chamber fucking her no matter how much both of them wanted to, because like her sudden appearance would have, his disappearance every night would start being noticed. After that it wouldn't be long until they would discover his coming and goings to the chamber and they could discover her consequently. He worried if they did she would be killed or experimented upon to see how Salazar Slytherin turned her from a basilisk into a human. Neither of the girls liked that idea, so with a heavy heart, they agreed to his orders.
Luna and Harry left the chamber at around five o'clock in the morning. Harry reminded her to join him at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, so that they could publicly show they were friends and have people get used to seeing them together. Harry didn't know at the time, but by doing this, he would end his friendship with Ron.
3rd of September 1994
"Why the hell is 'Loony' sitting with us?" Ron sputtered, as he sat down at the Gryffindor table. Seeing it was a weekend, he slept in.
"Ron! She's my new friend, so apologize!" Harry snapped back at him, clearly upset and angry that Ron would speak that way about her.
"Why the hell should I, she shouldn't be here anyway!" Ron retorted, as he stood, moving towards her.
"Because I asked her to be, now apologize!" Harry growled out, moving to stand between the still sitting Luna and Ron.
Moving to try and tower over Harry in a useless show of intimidation, and failing due to Harry's potion-assisted growth spurt, he asked. "Why the hell would you want 'Loony' as a friend?"
Quicker than the sleepy students could see Harry kneed Ron in the stomach and then bounced his head off the Gryffindor table, growling out once more, "Apologize. Now!" He snapped, not even needing to raise his voice.
His head swimming Ron staggered to his feet, "Fine! Fine! I'm sorry, you git. Why the hell did you do that? I'm your best mate!" He whined as he checked his nose, making sure it was only bleeding and not broken.
"You know me, Ron, I'd defend any of my friends new or old, against anyone - even from my other friends. Now sit down and shut up before you do something else stupid!"
"It me or her, Harry, me or her!"Ron petulantly declared as he stormed off out of the Great Hall.
Harry gently pushed Luna back down into her seat from where she had gotten up to leave before sitting back down next to her, shaking his head at Ron. What had he expected him to do, run after him and beg for forgiveness? Like that was going to happen, the only thing he could imagine given the redhead's behaviour, which was disturbingly Draco-like, was a punch to the jaw. Snorting to himself, the choice between the two different pussies wasn't difficult, Luna's was far superior.
Looking about the Great Hall he was relieved that there were no professors or prefects about, he knew he would have just lost house points and probably got a detention or two.
"You don't need to go, Luna." Harry reassured her as he discreetly ran his hand up and down the inside of her thigh.
"Thank you, Harry," He heard Luna reply as he looked at Hermione to make sure she wasn't about to explode at him for hurting Ron. He was surprised that she didn't, but decided not to say anything at the moment.
Seeing that Hermione wasn't going to say anything, Harry turned back to Luna and spoke, "You don't have to worry about Ron, he was being a prat. He should know better than to speak like that."
During all this, Hermione was going through her thoughts about everything that happened the night before that morning. She had woken up, her pussy sore, its lips red and puffy, her pubis matted with cum and a puddle of it staining her bed sheets. Her shoulder and neck were throbbing and looking at it in a mirror, she saw a bite mark,clear as day, where someone had bitten her. It was then that she started to remember what happened the night before, Harry had mated with her and had marked her as his. As she started to sort out her memories of what happened the night before, she picked up her wand and cast a glamour to conceal the bite, as she didn't want people to ask questions about it.
As she cleaned herself up and memories started returning to her, she had mixed feelings about last night, she felt great about what Harry had done to her but she was undecided about how he had treated her whilst and after doing it, she was also upset with how he had treated Crookshanks. Harry had possibility blinded Crookshanks, and very possibly made it so Crookshanks couldn't have kittens.
Knowing it would take some time to figure out her feelings she did the one thing she could, she helped the hurt Crookshanks. She took him down to Hagrid, explaining that she had found him this morning in a state. She wasn't very surprised when Hagrid confirmed her assessment that Crookshanks would indeed be blind and scarredin one eye, but she was glad to hear that Crookshanks would be able to mate with another female cat and have his own kittens, granted it would be painful to do so. That last fact made her a little sad; she had a good grasp on Crookshanks' personality and it was doubtful, all things considered, he would ever make the effort to impregnate a female because of the pain involved in the act now. She was, however, relieved to hear that Crookshanks would be fine within a day or two as Hagrid was able to heal his wounds. He would have to be left in Hagrid's care, to make sure he didn't miss anything. Hagrid also warned her that she should keep Crookshanks away from the other male cat that had done this to him. As she left Hagrid's hut and made her way to the Great Hall for breakfast she reflected on Harry's behaviour as a Kneazle the night before. She knew that when Harry had attacked and injured Crookshanks he had just been doing what his Kneazle instincts had demanded of him. After all, she had done things in her Kneazle form that her own instincts had demanded of her on more than one occasion. But she was also confused about how she felt about him treating her like a trophy. He didn't have to fuck her right in front of Crookshanks, she felt, but she knew he had to prove who the alpha cat was. The way he paraded her up to the Gryffindor Tower, showing her she belonged to him, it pleased her on a level she didn't understand, to be thought so worthy of his attention that he would want her close. It also made her angry, at herself mostly, wasn't she an independent person? She didn't want or need to owned! Didn't she?
Shaking her head in frustration she groaned to herself, this is why she had kept her Kneazle and human sides separate, her Kneazle side had no problem with Harry owning her. In fact, it encouraged it; he was her alpha, her mate, she should do anything for him. Her human side didn't want this, however, at least she thought she didn't, but she was clearly starting to merge more and more with her Kneazle side as she got older and she admitted to herself that if she had to view someone as her alpha, why not Harry?
As for this Luna Lovegood person, Hermione didn't know what to think. She HAD heard the rumours about her, but she preferred to form her own opinions. Sure, Luna acted strange, and believed in things that others didn't believe in, weren't in books, or both. Even so, to call her Loony, even if she was strange, wasn't right at all. She wasn't that shocked Ron would call Luna Loony, seeing that he was the kind of person to do so. She often had to wonder why she was his friend, the answer became incredibly clear with very little thought; she wasn't his friend. Ron was Harry's friend, Ron was just kind of… there, as acquaintance she tried her best to at least be civil with. At first the fighting between the two was both of their faults, Ron was a prat, and Hermione, as loath as she was to admit it,was a snobby know-it-all that felt she needed to shove her knowledge down other people's throats or she would be shunned for being a Muggleborn; behaviour that very nearly backfired spectacularly. Back to Luna, though; the way Harry stood up for Luna really surprised her. Mostly the fashion in which he went about it; he kneed Ron in the stomach and slammed his head down on the table hard enough for it to bounce back up an inch or two before growling out once more to Ron to apologize. The tone he used was so absolute it even made Hermione want to apologize to Luna, despite doing nothing bad to the girl. Ron did apologize but she, and she guessed Harry did too, knew that Ron didn't mean it. Normally she would say something about this, but with everything else that had happened to and around Harry recently, she was too overwhelmed to say anything. She had to wonder why Harry would defend Luna like this. Yes, as Harry boldly declared; he would defend all his friends new or old, but not like this. And as she thought about it, she had to wonder if the reason for Harry defending the younger Ravenclaw so vehemently was because both Luna and Harry's scents were all over each other, both reeking of sex. Were they lovers or something? Part of her wanted to say no, seeing that Harry said they were friends, but the smell of sex said otherwise, and she knew that Harry wouldn't just have sex with someone who he just met for no reason. Right? At the end of last year she would have said no; he wouldn't, but now she wasn't sure. As a lot had changed within Harry over the summer, and she was still working most of these changes out. This was just another thing to add to her growing list of things to think about when she was alone.
5th of September 1994
Harry sat reflecting as he ate his breakfast, since the breakup of their friendship things had gotten a bit uneasy in the fourth year dorms. Neville didn't want to take sides but Dean and Seamus took Ron's side from the start. They couldn't fathom why Harry would be friends with Loony Lovegood. So Harry had spent the last two nights sleeping in the common room on the couch, which suited Harry fine, as he could leave to visit the chamber without any questions as long as no one got up during the night and came down. He had to be careful when he left the Gryffindor Tower completely but it was going to be much better than getting to visit it once every week as he thought would happen. For a short while on Saturday he did have a problem with Fred and George, but that was to be expected. It was quickly sorted when Harry told them why he did it. When they learnt the whole truth, they were just as upset with Ron as Harry had been about the way he was acting. Luna and her father were family friends of the Weasleys', and to treat her like he had been was unacceptable. They assured Harry they would be having wordswith their brother about his behaviour. While their eventual talk didn't seem to work, Ron had been rather pale for the rest of the day, so Harry counted that as a small victory.
On Saturday he did as much research as he could on runes so he would be ready for the exam later on that day. He also met up with a few older Ravenclaws and their Prefects; warning them that Luna was now under his protection and if he was told that she was picked on or at least suspected of being picked on, he would come back to deal with the offender. And if anyone touched her in the wrong way, he would show them why they shouldn't anger the Boy-Who-Lived. Seeing that he was much stronger, visibly and magically than the year before and the demonstration with Ron earlier some had witnessed in the Great Hall, they nodded as fast as their necks would allow.
On Sunday Harry got ready for the week ahead and did his workout. He found out at lunchtime that he'd passed runes and would be able to take the class the following week. The only interesting thing that happened that day was a House Meeting, which didn't happen often and when he heard about it, he wondered what was going on. Once everyone was in the common room that night, Professor McGonagall told them about the changes in classes. She informed them that the reason for the changes were someone, she didn't name who, had pointed out that things weren't as they should be and she wasn't doing her job. Because of this she knew that things had to change and as the Deputy Headmistress she, using her authority to its fullest, would be doing just that. When she told them of the changes, the lazy students were unhappy about them, as they would lose some of the extra sleep that they would get in History and would lose the easy O's in classes like Divination and Muggle Studies. But for the next week or so, History, Muggle Studies and third to fifth year Care of Magical Creatures would be cancelled until the new professors could be hired and the books to be sorted out, so most of them, being the kind of people that wanted instant gratification and cared little for long term things, were placated. When they heard about Snape being reined in and that he would be sacked and potions would be cancelled until a new Potion Professor could be found, there were many cheers as for once potions would be more bearable for the Gryffindors.
Apart from that, the only other strange thing that Harry could think of was Hermione. Since Saturday she had been giving him strange looks and deferring to him when he hadn't expected her to. He'd had a feeling that she wanted to say or do something towards him but for the life of him he couldn't understand what or why. He would catch her purring at him when she was happy and give strange looks towards any girls that came near him. He even heard her give a strange hiss under her breath at any female cats that passed by him on occasion. Leaving him confused as he didn't know what to think, or how to ask her what was going on.
What he didn't know was that, although she had a hard time admitting it, seeing that that would take admitting she was becoming more like a Kneazle and less human, Hermione thought of him as her alpha. She knew that he was allowed to do whatever he liked, it was difficult for her human self to accept but her Kneazle side fully expected him to impregnate as many females as he could, it was the sign of a strong alpha after all. She just wanted him to focus on her, however, and since he hadn't specifically said not to she warned all other females off, she gave the human girls glares when they came near her alpha or hissed when a female cat came near. When Harry asked her what was going on, she lied; she didn't want to admit she knew his secret, as it would mean she had to tell him how she knew it. And THAT was one thing she wasn't ready to talk about, butshe knew that she would have to soon if she wanted to mate with him again.
Harry's thoughts were interrupted when Ron and his two new 'best friends', Dean and Seamus, entered the hall. They sat down near Harry; one of Ron's unsubtle attempts at trying to make Harry jealous and regret making friends with Luna. Harry snorted at Ron's obvious attempt, keeping in the laugher that was threatening to burst forth, as if something like this would make him rethink being friends with Luna.
Thinking over the facts made things incredibly simple, she was better-looking, she had a nice rack, she was interesting to be around and she was a great fuck, there was no way in hell he was going to give that up for Ron. Behind them were Fred, George, and their friend Lee Jordan, who were discussing magical methods of aging themselves and bluffing their way into the Triwizard Tournament.
"Today's not bad… outside all morning," Ron said to Dean and Seamus, running his finger down the Monday column of his schedule. "Herbology with the Hufflepuffs and then a free period thanks to needing to wait for a new Professor for Care of Magical Creatures… damn it, we're still with the Slytherins. Then we have Double Divination, I'm dreading it, I chose that class for an easy O, but thanks to the git who talked to McGonagall, I bet it's going to be harder. If I ever find out who talked to her I'll…" He mumbled something and had shaking motions with his hands before putting shoving some food into his mouth. Both Dean and Seamus agreed, as they, too, took the class for an easy O.
Harry ignored them easily enough, having had quite a bit of practice by this point, and smiled at Hermione when she sat down next to him, "I'm glad that I was able to change my class to Runes. I hated Divination since Professor Trelawney kept predicting my death. It was starting to get extremely annoying. Although I won't have the class 'till Wednesday, so I'll have a free day after Herbology."
Ron, Dean and Seamus sent him glares, envious that the 'lucky bastard' was getting the rest the day off. Even if Hermione had seen the glares she had gotten just as good at ignoring the new trio as Harry was, and continued talking like they weren't there, "I hope you're not going to waste the day away doing nothing, though," She commented before taking a bite of her breakfast.
"No worries, I won't be." He assured her. "I'm going to continue the training I started doing over the summer."
"And I still say you look ever so good because of it." Said a voice beside him. Turning, he smiled at Luna, while Ron, Dean and Seamus gave her glares, showing their dislike. They didn't do anything else, however.
"So what will you be doing today?" he asked.
"Well, I will be taking my first Potions class to start with,after that I've got a free period since History of Magic is cancelled, then after lunch I've got Double Transfiguration."
"Potions first thing on a Monday morning, not nice," Harry said regretfully, "let's hope Snape will be better behaved now that he's being watched."
Just then there was a sudden rustling noise above them, and a hundred owls came soaring through the open windows carrying the morning mail. The owls circled the tables, looking for the people to whom their letters and packages were addressed. A large tawny owl soared down to Neville Longbottom and deposited a parcel into his lap - Neville almost always forgot to pack something, so it was likely his Gran sending him the things he forgot. On the other side of the Hall Draco Malfoy's eagle owl landed on his shoulder carrying what looked like his usual supply of sweets and cakes from home. Since this was an everyday occurrence at Hogwarts, no one batted an eye at the massive amount of owls invading and, after some small talk and finishing eating their breakfast, they went off for their classes.
Once they arrived in greenhouse three, Professor Sprout was showing the class the ugliest plants Harry had ever seen. Indeed, they looked less like plants than they did thick, black, giant slugs, protruding vertically out of the soil. Each was squirming slightly and had a number of large, shiny swellings upon it, which appeared to be full of liquid.
"Bubotubers," Professor Sprout told them briskly. "They need squeezing. You will collect the pus-"
"The what?" Seamus Finnigan blurted, sounding revolted.
"Pus, Finnigan, pus," Professor Sprout repeated firmly, "And it's extremely valuable, so don't waste it. You will collect the pus, I say, in these bottles. Wear your dragon-hide gloves; it can do funny things to the skin when undiluted, bubotuber pus."
Squeezing the bubotubers was disgusting, but oddly satisfying. As each swelling was popped, a large amount of thick yellowish-green liquid burst forth, which smelled strongly of petrol. They caught it in the bottles as Professor Sprout had instructed, and by the end of the lesson had collected several pints.
"This'll keep Madam Pomfrey happy," said Professor Sprout, stoppering the last bottle with a cork. "An excellent remedy for the more stubborn forms of acne, bubotuber pus. Should stop students resorting to desperate measures to rid themselves of pimples."
"Like poor Eloise Midgen," Harry heard Hannah Abbott a Hufflepuff say, in a hushed voice. "She tried to curse hers off."
"Silly girl," said Professor Sprout, shaking her head at the girl's foolish actions. "But Madam Pomfrey fixed her nose back on in the end."
A booming bell echoed from the castle across the wet grounds, signalling the end of the lesson, and the class separated; the Hufflepuffs climbing the stone steps for Transfiguration, and the Gryffindors heading to wherever they wanted, seeing that the next class for them was a free period. Hermione and Harry went to the library to do some self-study in Care of Magical Creatures. They were there until lunchtime, during which Luna eventually joined them to work on her Potions. The three of them spent lunch discussing facts about creatures they had found in the books in the library before Luna and Hermione had to go to their next class.
When the bell rang to signal the start of afternoon lessons, Harry went down to the Chamber of Secrets whilst Luna and Hermione went to their classes. Moaning Myrtle was in her bathroom, so Harry talked to the lonely girl for a little while before he went down to the Chamber. He found Medusa in her Basilisk form, slithering around the chamber lazily. As soon as she saw him, she transformed, to Harry's shock, into a half snake/half human, her legs were replaced by a snake tail while her upper body was a naked human torso and her head. She looked like a Lamia from his Care books. Harry thought he was the only one to think of doing a partial transformation like that, but he realized that thought was silly. Animagi had been around for, if Medusa was any indication, millennia, and nobody really knew what they were capable of. Musings aside, the moment she transformed into this form, she slithered towards her Master and kissed him.
§ 'Greetingsss, Massster,'Medusa said in Parseltongue, as they pulled apart a short while later, § 'I've missssed you.' §
"And I've missed you too, my little snake," said Harry in English, which caused Medusa to let out a purr of approval at her pet name, "Now, as much as I enjoyed the kiss, I came down here to train."
§ 'Training, Massster?' §Medusa asked, she felt more comfortable speaking in Parseltongue than in English, so she did so. She would only speak in English when there are others around as she knew how uncomfortable Parseltongue made people.
"You remember Tom Riddle," Seeing the angry look in her face, he knew she wasn't going forget him anytime soon, "Well, you might have heard that I killed him about thirteen years ago, but three years ago he came back, he'd survived somehow. So over the summer, I had learned that he'll keep coming at me until I'm dead because of a prophecy. Because of this, I have to train so that I'll be ready for when he comes after me again."
Medusa hissed angrily, there was no way she was going let Him kill her Master,§ 'Massster? I would like to help with your training, I can teach you what Massster Ssslytherin taught me. I'm sure it will help you, the booksss that he left behind could help you too.' §
Harry knew it would be foolish to turn this kind of help down, "Thank you, Medusa. Whatever help you can give, I would like to accept it. But today I think I want to focus on one of my Animagus forms."
§ 'Formsss, Massster?'Medusa asked in shock, § 'Asss in, more than one form?' §
"Yes, my little snake, I have more than one form: a Royal Shadow Wolf, Owl, Kneazle, Battle Unicorn, and a Black Royal Dragon." He listed.
§ 'That is quiteimpressssive, Massster.'She commented, her tone taking on a lustful hint.
Harry detected her less than subtle shift easily, "No time for that now, Medusa, I need to master my Battle Unicorn form, and quickly. I have a feeling I'll need it soon."
Slightly put out, but curious, Medusa asked, § 'Why'sss that Massster?' §
"I've got a female centaur as a friend," Harry explained, "And her father doesn't like humans, in fact he flat out hates me. I fear that he might do something to make sure I don't go near his daughter again and I need to be ready for it when it happens."
Medusa nodded, happy her Master knew the importance of preparation. She also thought of the 'fun' she and her master could have with the female centaur, well if she could gain this centaur's trust and have her agree to join the fun anyway. She'd only known a few centaurs and they were big prudes, so with that thought, § 'Massster, if you want to massster your form, Massster Ssslytherin created a potion to help with it. It would take a week to make, but onccce you drink it, you can massster your form, or any other forms you need to massster, much faster. And when you massster the form, we might be able to have sssome fun with your cccentaur friend...' §
Harry thought about it, it would make things a lot easier and he could do much more with the time it would free up. He knew what Medusa meant, and had to wonder if sex was the main thing on Medusa's mind. Still… for the last year he had been thinking about Sara, how he would like to kiss her and recently, with his confidence boost, fuck her, but the problem is that she was a few years younger than him and even if she wasn't, he didn't want to ruin their friendship if she didn't feel the same towards him. "Do you know how to make this potion, my little snake?"
§ 'Sssorry, Massster,but I don't' §Medusa said in a disappointed tone of voice, she was upset that she couldn't help her Master when he asked for it, 'But I knowit'sss sssomewhere within Massster Ssslytherin booksss with hisss Library.' §
"In that case, it makes it more important I look though Slytherin's Library," Harry decided, "Not only to see if I can find any useful spells, but also to see if I can find this potion." And with that, Harry quickly went to Slytherin's Library and started grabbing books and the occasional scroll.
Over the next two hours Harry looked though the books. He found a few interesting sex spells, and a few Parselmagic spells, like making snake-men golems and a few nasty spells that could be used against his enemies. But none of the books had any information about the potion Medusa was talking about, or anything directly related to Animagi magic. He was sure he was just looking in the wrong section, but the fact remained he didn't find anything. During his studying Medusa had tried to distract him by either sitting next to him or rubbing against him. When none of this worked, she started talking about a tunnel out of the chamber that went everywhere around the school, allowing him to enter girls' dorm rooms, bathrooms or even the head girl suite. Still failing to distract him, she gave up on her 'subtle' approaches and pushed his robes up his legs and started to jack him off. Sighing, Harrycontinued to read as he pushed her hand away. Medusa didn't get a chance to try another approach because he pulled her head towards his crotch, allowing her to suck him off as he continued distractedly reading thought the sack of literature he had gathered. After getting her Master to cum down her throat, shivering at his groan of delight, she tried to get him to continue, but no matter what she did, he wouldn't play with her, so giving up, she asked a question that had been bothering her.§ 'Massster, what are you planning to do withHim?'
Harry knew who she was referring to because of the pure hate she managed to pack into the three letter word; Voldemort, "What do you mean?" He asked.
§ 'Massster,He hasss followersss, right?'Medusa stated more than asked,§ 'What are you going to do about them, you can't fight them and Him?' §
"Someone told me recently that I should build my own army," Harry said offhandedly, "And I'm seriously thinking about it as it would help me a great deal."
Medusa thought it was a great idea, and was thinking the same thing. But still, he was missing a few details, so she asked, § 'Massster, have you decccided on who isss going to be in thisss army? Are they jussst going to be humansss, or are you going to have thessso-calledDark Creaturesss? Also, what will your army's eventual goal going be? I mean not jussst fighting Him and hisss followersss, but after the battle. Are you jussst going to have the army to fight Him, or are you going to have another purpossse? I don't mind which you do,be it good or evil or both,asss I'll follow you wherever you go, ssseeing you're my Massster. I'm jussst trying to make sssure you have all your basssesss covered.' §
This stumped him, he'd never thought about it. All he'd been focusing on was fighting Voldemort and living to tell the tale, he'd never thought about what the aim of the army should be. Part of him said that he would use the army for good and protect people, but there was another side of him that wanted nothing more than to rule or destroy the world and keep just what he thought was his well protected. But he wasn't willing to admit that out loud, so he said, "I don't know, Medusa, I haven't really thought much about it." He checked the time and saw that it was almost dinner. "Medusa, I have to go, its dinner time and I need to go back up so no-one will get suspicious of where I go. I'll try to come back sometime this week at night, but if I can't I'll see you the same time next week." Seeing the sad look on her face he give her a long hard kiss before leaving, telling her he would be back as soon as he could.
o0OoO0o
As he entered the hall and walked towards the Great Hall, behind him he heard Ron say, "Miserable old bat," He said as they joined the crowds descending the staircases back to the Great Hall and dinner. "That'll take all weekend, that will-"
"Lots of homework?" Harry heard Hermione say brightly, behind Ron. Harry had to chuckle at this, Hermione had always loved school work and hated when she didn't get enough. 'She really needs to learn to have some fun,'Harry mused before he heard Hermione say, "Professor Vector didn't give us any at all!"
"Well, bully for Professor Vector," said Ron moodily.
Then as they were about to part and sit down, behind them they heard a voice behind them say, "Weasley! Hey, Weasley!"
Harry, his interest perked by the appearance of the Malfoy heir, along with Ron and Hermione turned. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing there, each looking thoroughly pleased about something.
"What?" Ron asked shortly.
"Your dad's in the paper, Weasley!" Malfoy said, brandishing a copy of the Daily Prophet and speaking very loudly, most likely so everyone in the packed entrance hall could hear. "Listen to this!
FURTHER MISTAKES AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
It seems as though the Ministry of Magic's troubles are not yet at an end, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Recently under fire for its poor crowd control at the Quidditch World Cup, and still unable to account for the disappearance of one of its witches, the Ministry was plunged into fresh embarrassment yesterday by the antics of Arnold Weasley, of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
Malfoy looked up smugly.
"Imagine them not even getting his name right, Weasley. It's almost as though he's a complete nonentity, isn't it?" he crowed. Everyone in the entrance hall was listening now. Malfoy straightened the paper with a flourish and read on:
Arnold Weasley, who was charged with possession of a flying car two years ago, was yesterday involved in a tussle with several Muggle law-keepers ("policemen") over a number of highly aggressive dustbins. Mr. Weasley appears to have rushed to the aid of "Mad-Eye" Moody, the aged ex-Auror who retired from the Ministry when no longer able to tell the difference between a handshake and attempted murder. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Weasley found, upon arrival at Mr. Moody's heavily guarded house, that Mr. Moody had once again raised a false alarm. Mr. Weasley was forced to modify several memories before he could escape from the policemen, but refused to answer Daily Prophet questions about why he had involved the Ministry in such an undignified and potentially embarrassing scene.
"And there's a picture, Weasley!" said Malfoy, flipping the paper over and holding it up. "A picture of your parents outside their house - if you can call it a house! Your mother could do with losing a bit of weight, couldn't she?"
Ron was shaking with fury, the only thing that was stopping him from attacking Malfoy was Dean and Seamus holding him back. As he was being held back everyone was staring at him, waiting to see what he was going to do.
"Ron, this is what he wants," Harry warned, breaking the silence that had been between them recently. Not that he wanted to break it, but Malfoy was winning an argument, or at least would win if Ron made a scene. "I bet Snape is waiting for you to attack Malfoy and deduct points and give you a detention."
"Get stuffed, Potter!" Ron snapped, but before he could continue, Seamus interjected, "Ron, he's right, it's the sort of thing what Malfoy would do, leave him be."
"Fine," Ron grumbled, turning towards Malfoy, he said, "One of these days, Malfoy, you and your family will get what's coming to you, and I hope that I'm there when it does. I would like to take my turn." With that he, Dean and Seamus walked off. Seeing that nothing was going to happen, everyone else also walked off into the Great Hall.
BANG!
Several people screamed - Harry felt something white-hot graze the side of his face. He plunged his hand into his robes for his wand, but before he'd even touched it, he heard a second loud BANG, and a roar that echoed through the entrance hall.
"OH NO YOU DON'T, LADDIE!"
Harry spun around. Professor Moody was limping down the marble staircase. His wand was out and it was pointing right at a pure white ferret, which was shivering on the stone-flagged floor, exactly where Malfoy had been standing.
There was a terrified silence in the entrance hall. Nobody but Moody was moving a muscle. Moody turned to look at Harry - at least, his normal eye was looking at Harry; the other one was pointing into the back of his head.
"Did he get you, Potter?" Moody growled. His voice was low and gravelly.
"No sir, he missed,"Harry replied, "And he wasn't aiming for me, his target was Ron. I have to say that Malfoy always did have a bad aim."
"LEAVE IT!" Moody shouted.
"Leave - what?" Harry asked, bewildered.
"Not you - him!" Moody growled, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at Crabbe, who had just froze, about to pick up the white ferret. It seemed that Moody's rolling eye was magical and could see out of the back of his head.
Moody started to limp toward Crabbe, Goyle, and the ferret, which gave a terrified squeak and took off, streaking toward the dungeons.
"I don't think so!" Moody roared, pointing his wand at the ferret again - it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more.
"I don't like people who attack when their opponent's back's turned," Growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. "Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do…"
The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly.
"Never - do - that - again -" said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again.
"Professor Moody!" A shocked and angry voice called out.
Professor McGonagall was coming down the marble staircase with her arms full of books.
"Hello, Professor McGonagall," Moody said calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher.
"What - what are you doing?" said Professor McGonagall, her eyes following the bouncing ferret's progress through the air.
"Teaching," said Moody.
"Teach - Moody, is that a student?" shrieked Professor McGonagall, the books spilling out of her arms.
"Yep," said Moody.
"No!" cried Professor McGonagall, running down the stairs and pulling out her wand; a moment later, with a loud snapping noise, Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing.
"Moody, we never use Transfiguration as a punishment!" Professor McGonagall scolded, her voice hard as steel. "Surely Professor Dumbledore told you that?"
"He might've mentioned it, yeah," said Moody, scratching his chin unconcernedly, "but I thought a good sharp shock -"
"We give detentions, Moody! Or speak to the offender's Head of House!"
"I'll do that, then," said Moody, staring at Malfoy with great dislike.
Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words "my father" were distinguishable.
"Oh yeah?" said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. "Well, I know your father of old, boy… you tell him Moody's keeping a close eye on his son… you tell him that from me. Now, your Head of House'll be Snape, will it?"
"Yes," said Malfoy resentfully.
"Another old friend," growled Moody. "I've been looking forward to a chat with old Snape. Come on, you…" And he seized Malfoy's upper arm.
But before he could do anything else, Professor McGonagall stared at him, and she waved her wand ather fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms. She said, "I would warn you now, Professor Moody, if I hear you doing something like this again, I'll see you fired. I'll no longer have Professors of this school think they can do what they like and think they can get away with it."
"I understand, Professor McGonagall."Moody said, looking a bit prideful at her attitude. "Now if you don't mind, I've got a friend to see," and with that and with Malfoy in tow, he marched off toward the dungeons.
"Don't talk to me." Harry heard Ron say quietly to Dean and Seamus as they sat down at the Gryffindor table a few minutes later, surrounded by excited talk on all sides about what had just happened.
"Why not?" Hermione asked in surprise.
"Because I want to fix that in my memory forever," said Ron, his eyes closed and an uplifted expression on his face. "Draco Malfoy, the amazing bouncing ferret."
Harry and Hermione both laughed, as Hermione began dishing beef casserole onto hers and Harry's plates.
"He could have really hurt Malfoy, though," she said. "It was good, really, that Professor McGonagall stopped it -"
"Hermione!" said Ron furiously, his eyes snapping open again, "you're ruining the best moment of my life!"
Hermione made an impatient noise and began to eat.
Not long after this, Fred Weasley seat next to Harry.
"Moody!" He said. "How cool is he?"
"Beyond cool," said George, sitting down opposite Fred. "Supercool," Said the twins' best friend, Lee Jordan, sliding into the seat beside George. "We had him this afternoon," He told Harry, Ron, Dean and Seamus.
"What was it like?" Harry asked eagerly. Although she didn't like what he did to Malfoy, Hermione too was interested to show any disapproval on her face.
Fred, George, and Lee exchanged looks full of meaning.
"Never had a lesson like it," Said Fred.
"He knows, man," Said Lee.
"Knows what?" Said Ron, leaning forward.
"Knows what it's like to be out there doing it," Said George impressively.
"Doing what?" Said Harry.
"Fighting the Dark Arts," Said Fred.
"He's seen it all," Said George.
"Mazing," Said Lee.
Ron dived into his bag for his schedule. "We haven't got him 'til Thursday!" He said in a disappointed voice.
TO BE CONTINUED!
Authors Note: Here is another repost, I hope new and old readers will review and let me know what you think and any ideas you might have. As I suspect the old readers might have some thought as to what they would like to see to happen.
PLEASE LEAVE A GOOD SIZE REVIEW!