I own nothing but the plot, and not even all of that.
The Great Hall was silent. Gilderoy Lockhart had just beaten Severus Snape in a duel. Slowly, one by one, the students of three of the houses of Hogwarts began to applaud. They didn't go overboard. They all knew that Professor Snape would be marking every one of them that he saw and burning their grades if he could get away with it. The members of Slytherin House stood in defiance of the applause. Even the very few who didn't like Professor Snape dared not show even a hint of approval.
"Thank you, Professor Snape!" Professor Lockhart called out. He slashed his wand through the air and the ropes binding the Potions Master fell away. Snape staggered to his feet, composed himself, and retrieved his wand.
"And now," Professor Lockhart told the students, "after the duel is finished, it is sporting to shake the hand of your opponent. Show them there are no hard feelings, and acknowledge their skill." Lockhart walked over to Snape and offered his gloved hand. Snape hesitated. He knew he had to at least make a token effort. Reluctantly, he accepted Lockhart's hand which he shook very briefly before letting go.
"So!" Lockhart called out to the students. "Let's pair up, shall we?"
Professor Lockhart and a surly Professor Snape began pairing the students. Harry and Neville looked at each other and nodded, which was not missed by Professor Snape.
"I think not," Snape said, separating them. "I believe it would be far more interesting if Mr. Longbottom were to be paired with the one he is already paired with." He called over to the group of Slytherin students that were clustered together in one corner of the room. "Step over here, Miss Greengrass," the head of Slytherin House instructed. "Let's see how you fare against your betrothed."
"A lovers quarrel," Professor Lockhart said with a grin. "An excellent suggestion, Professor Snape." Lockhart ushered Neville and Daphne onto the stage and had them face each other.
"Now," Lockhart asked Snape, "what shall we teach them first? Disarming, stunning, maybe a nice jinx?"
"Perhaps it would be wiser," Snape countered, "if we first taught the students to block unfriendly spells."
"Ahhh, yes!" said Lockhart with delight. "I will teach the students the Protego charm, if you would be so kind as to teach the disarming spell, Professor Snape?"
Lockhart showed Neville the shield charm, while Snape taught Daphne 'expelliarmus.' When they were ready, they faced each other from either end of the stage.
"Bow to your opponent," Lockhart instructed. Neville gave a deep bow to Daphne, who curtsied to him. They smiled at each other.
"Now, now," chided Lockhart, shaking his finger at them as he good naturedly teased them, "This is a duel, not a date!" The pair blushed as titters swept through the watching crowd. "Wands up!" Lockhart called. Neville and Daphne raised their wands. "One, two, three, cast!"
"Expelliarmus!"
"Protego!"
Both students started to cast at the same time, but Daphne was faster. Her disarming spell slipped through just as Neville's shield was starting to form, and Neville's wand went flying.
"Good job, Miss Greengrass!" Lockhart praised. "Now switch sides and we'll go again." Now, Neville stood next to Professor Snape and Daphne watched Professor Lockhart as they explained the spells. It took Neville a few tries, but he eventually managed to catch her off guard and disarmed her.
"Next two, up!" Lockhart called.
The students queued up in pairs, with the professors switching some of the students around if they thought a particular pair would be an especially sporting match. Snape noticed Harry and Hermione stepping up to the stage together, and he intervened again.
"Not this time, Mr. Potter," he said. "I think it would be far more… educational if you were to duel someone from my own house. Mr. Malfoy, perhaps?" He gestured at Draco, who took the stage opposite of Harry. Harry would be trying to disarm Draco first.
"Bow to your opponent," Lockhart began. To Harry's surprise, Draco actually bowed. It shocked a number of the other students as well. Harry returned the bow, and they raised their wands at Lockhart's instruction.
On three, Harry cast a disarming spell, which successfully stripped Draco of his wand. Once Draco had retrieved it, they switched sides. Draco was fuming that he was disarmed by Harry's first try, and was determined to do the same. Harry, however, was proving incredibly quick with a shield spell. After three tries to disarm Harry, Draco decided a distraction was in order. He swung his wand down and shouted "Serpensortia!"
A large, brown snake with white, horizontal markings exploded from Draco's wand. It landed about halfway between the two boys. Harry was momentarily stunned into inactivity. This was far more advanced magic than Draco had ever displayed in class thus far. Draco himself looked a little shocked at what he had done. The snake began to move towards Harry with a sidewinder crawl, hissing and spitting.
"Stop!" Harry yelled at it as the snake got close to him, and for a moment the serpent halted. It wrapped itself into two C shaped coils, and stared at Harry. It kept moving, but still managed to stayed in one place. It was maintaining the double C coil, using its movement to rub the scales on one coil against the scales on the other. This produced a hissing, crackling noise that got louder as the snake sped its movements up.
"Don't move, Potter," Professor Snape said. "I'll get rid of it for you." Snape moved forward, but stopped as Professor Lockhart took out his own wand.
"Allow me, Professor Snape," Lockhart said. "Alarte Ascendare!" he shouted as he pointed his wand at the viper. There was a loud bang, and the snake was flung into the air. Harry didn't know if he intended to blast the snake away from him, or if he used the wrong spell, but he suddenly realized that the snake was going to land right on top of him. The Force surged in his mind and guided his hand up as the snake descended onto him, it's fangs bared. Harry caught the two foot long snake, and was holding it at arm's length. Unfortunately, Harry was unaware of how far a snake can contort itself to bite. With a hiss, the viper twisted its neck around and struck Harry on his hand. He felt it's fangs enter his skin, and the burn of the venom being injected into the veins seared his flesh. Harry screamed in pain. Looking past the snake, he caught a glimpse of Draco standing on the stage with wide open eyes and a horrified expression on his face.
"Vipera evanesca!" Snape cast, pointing his wand at the viper. An orange drop of flame sped towards Harry and struck the snake in its very middle. The snake squirmed in Harry's hand as it quickly disintegrated into a cloud of black dust. Harry stared at his hand in shock. Two puncture wounds were on the top of his left hand, bleeding. The blood was thin and runny, and refused to clot. Professor Snape ran to Harry and took him by the shoulders. Professor Lockhart also rushed to Harry's side, apologizing over and over.
"Lie down," Snape commanded, "and do not move." Harry obeyed. The potions Professor examined the wound, then dabbed his finger in the stream of blood running to the floor and smelled it. "I will take him to the Hospital Wing," he announced. "Potter," he said, looking Harry in the eyes, "I am going to help you. You must not move your arm, do you understand?"
"Y. Yes, Professor," Harry stammered. Snape immobilized Harry's arm and conjured a stretcher underneath him. With a twitch of his wand, Professor Snape floated the stretcher up and hurried it out of the Great Hall. Blue Team, which had been waiting out in the entrance hall per their instructions, took up formation behind him and followed.
There was silence as everyone stared at Draco Malfoy. Then, Hermione strode up to him and slapped him in the face.
"Miss Granger!" Professor Lockhart said in shock.
"Oh, shut up!" she shouted at the defense professor. She burst into tears and ran out of the Great Hall to follow Harry.
Draco didn't protest, and he did not retaliate against Granger. He just stood there and stared at the blood on the floor as he felt the stinging in his cheek where the red imprint of Hermione's hand remained. Professor Lockhart dismissed the rest of the students.
Doc was bored. There was a fairly steady stream of students that visited the Hospital Wing everyday, as they fell off of brooms, or were bitten by a carnivorous plant or were befallen by any number of other hazards of the castle. She and Rev were only allowed to perform basic first aid, however, and that was only allowed if Madam Pomfrey was busy. They spent most of their time on the holonet, researching ways to revive Master Kendet. So far, they had no promising leads.
She was surprised when the black clad Professor Snape rushed in with Commander Potter on a floating stretcher, with three members of Blue Team in tow. Her surprise didn't slow her reflexes at all, though, nor her training.
"Rev!" she yelled, "get the crash cart over here!" The crash cart was a gurney that was loaded up with medical scanners and equipment. They usually kept it out of the way, as Madam Pomfrey didn't like the electronic devices, but when the Jedi Commander came in, nearly unconscious and bleeding, then all previous agreements went out the window. Rev wheeled it near the bed which Professor Snape was levitating Commander Potter onto. Madam Pomfrey came running up, only to be stopped by Blue Team.
"What in Merlin's name is going here?" the mediwitch asked.
"Not now," Doc snapped. "This one is ours." She grabbed a scanner and began sweeping it over Commander Potter's body. "What's his condition?" she asked Professor Snape.
"He was bitten by a venomous snake," he answered.
"Left arm swollen," Doc told Rev, "two wounds in his left hand. Stop that bleeding." Rev took a quick blood sample for analysis, sprayed an antiseptic foam on the puncture wounds, and applied pressure with a bandage.
"What kind of snake?" Doc asked Professor Snape. The database of Earth flora and fauna was far from complete, but the Jedi had done a planetary study after Commander Potter had been taken in by the Jedi, and they might get lucky.
"I believe it was a carpet viper," answered Snape. Doc entered the search into her tablet.
"These wounds won't stop bleeding," Rev told Doc. She looked and saw that the sheets under Commander Potter were being stained crimson by the constant streaming of blood out of his wounds. Her tablet beeped at her and she looked at the results.
"No data on file, Rev, isolate the venom and run an scan," Doc ordered. She turned to Snape. "You wouldn't happen to have an cure for it on site, would you?" she asked him.
"Madam," he told Doc, "I am the cure." He brushed past her and sat on the edge of bed, on the opposite side that was becoming soaked with an alarming amount of blood. He gently felt Potter's swollen arm and noted the progress of the venom. The boy's arm was swollen to almost twice it's normal size and his teeth were clenched with pain. The Potions Professor noted blood coming from the boy's gums and collecting between his teeth. He checked Potter's eyes, and saw blood was also leaking from his tear ducts, which was turning the skin around his eyes red. The venom was working far faster than he had initially feared.
"Madam Pomfrey," Professor Snape called, "I require a bezoar and a glass of tepid water."
Madam Pomfrey, who was muttering about fancy contraptions and rude medics, already had one of the small, grey, wrinkled stones in her hand. She conjured a glass and filled it with the room temperature water Professor Snape had requested, and handed it to the potions master.
"Try to relax your jaw, Mr. Potter," he told Harry. Harry opened his mouth as a wave of pain swept through him. He screamed, and Snape shoved the bezoar in his mouth. "Drink this," he told Harry, "every drop." Snape began to pour the water into Harry's mouth, and Harry had to either swallow it or choke.
Harry drank the water, then shuddered as the venom began to be neutralized. Madam Pomfrey conjured another glass of water and handed it to Harry. Snape observed him for another fifteen minutes, and confirmed that the swelling was beginning to go down. The bezoar was doing its job.
"You will need to drink at least two glasses of water every hour for twenty four hours," Snape told Harry. "You will begin to feel better immediately, but you are not to leave this bed until Madam Pomfrey allows you to."
"I understand, Professor," Harry said.
Snape stood up and straightened his cloak. He was about to leave when he paused.
"I apologize for my role in this, Mr. Potter," he said, softly. "It was certainly not my intention for you to be injured."
"I know Professor," Harry said. "Thank you for helping me."
"You might as well come in, Miss Granger," Professor Snape called out. A frizzy head of hair peaked from around a curtain where Hermione had stationed herself. She glanced at Madam Pomfrey for permission, and upon receiving it, came to see Harry.
"You are not to stay longer than five minutes," the Mediwitch told her. "He's going to need a lot of rest." Hermione agreed. Professor Snape left without another word, and headed to the Slytherin dormitories.
"What's a 'bezoar?'" Doc asked Madam Pomfrey.
"Explain yourself," Professor Snape commanded. He was sitting at his desk in his office with Draco Malfoy sitting in the wooden chair in front of him.
"I couldn't hit him with the disarming spell," Draco said.
"And so you thought it appropriate to conjure a viper at him?" Snape inquired.
"I was frustrated," Draco said. "I wasn't thinking,"
"I think that much is clear," Snape agreed. "I believe," he said to the distraught boy, "that when I introduced that spell to you last summer, I taught you how to conjure a harmless grass snake. Would you care to take a guess as to what you just spat out of your wand in the middle of the Great Hall this evening?"
"I don't know," said Draco. Professor Snape walked to a bookshelf and pulled out an old leather book with 'Viperidae' written on the cover. He flipped it through it till he found the page he wanted and slammed it down in front of Draco.
"Echis Carinatus," Professor Snape said. "The Carpet Viper. One of the most deadly snakes on Earth." Draco looked down.
"I didn't mean to," Draco said. "All was wanted was to win the duel. How is he?" Draco asked.
"I was able to save Potter," Snape said. "but he won't be back on his feet for a few days, at least. Whether I can also salvage your Hogwarts education remains to be seen."
"I'm sorry," Draco said again. He looked miserable.
"Things are happening at Hogwarts this year, Mr. Malfoy," Professor Snape said in a grave voice. "The last thing we want is for you to make… a name for yourself."
There was a knock at the door.
"Enter," said Snape. The door opened and Professor McGonagall walked in.
"Professor McGonagall," Snape greeted.
"Professor Snape," said McGonagall. "I am afraid I'm going to have to ask Mr. Malfoy to come with me. As his Head of House, you should come as well." She led the nervous boy and, even though he didn't show it, an equally nervous Professor Snape to Dumbledore's office.
Draco had never been in the Headmasters office before. It was quite intimidating to see the gargoyle guardian move aside for them. He would have enjoyed the ride up the moving spiral staircase under other circumstances. When they approached the inner doors to Dumbledore's office, they opened on their own to reveal his worst fear. His mother was sitting in a chair facing the Headmaster's desk, and his father stood next to her.
Knowing his father would take offense if he hesitated even in the slightest, Draco did not allow his dismay to show on his face, or in his stride. He walked up to his mother, took the hand she reached out to him, and kissed it.
"Hello, Mother," he greeted Narcissa Malfoy. He then bowed to his father. "Hello, Father," he said. His father nodded his head at him in return.
"Draco," his father said in the smooth inflection Lucius Malfoy always spoke in. "Your Headmaster was just telling us about the events that transpired in your dueling club." He looked at his walking cane and polished the snake head top. "Do you have an explanation for the actions he tells us you have taken?
"I have no excuse," Draco said, looking down at his shoes. "I didn't mean for the snake to be venomous," he explained. "Any time I've used that spell before it's been a harmless black snake. "I was trying to distract him so I could disarm him."
"There, you see, Dumbledore?" Lucius said with satisfaction to the Headmaster. "It was an accident. A mistake made while under the supervision of your professors, I might add. Why, if it were not for that incompetent Professor Lockhart, Mr. Potter may well have been never been bitten" He turned his gaze to Draco. "My son will apologize to the unfortunate Mr Potter, and that should suffice for punishment for this accident."
"I'm afraid, Mr. Malfoy," Headmaster said, "that I will need to insist on a twenty point deduction and a weeks worth of detentions. He was, after all, instructed to only cast a disarming charm. Additionally, this is not the first time young Draco here has been involved in an altercation with Mr. Potter. I would like to drive home the fact that aggression against his fellow students will not be tolerated." Me. Malfoy gave his son a look to let him know that they would be discussing this topic in private. He turned back to Dumbledore.
"My, my," he said, "it sounds as though Mr. Potter gets himself into quite a few scrapes, doesn't it?"
Professor McGonagall was just about to respond to that when Mr. Malfoy continued.
"I care nothing for points," Lucius said, "and if it makes you feel better, he will serve as many detentions as you like, providing it does not impact his grades, of course. There will be no official blame for this on Draco's record. I have no doubt that Mr. Potter, who has proven remarkably resilient, will make a full recovery."
Lucius Malfoy reached out his hand to his wife, who took it and rose from her seat. He gave Dumbledore a short bow that conveyed only as much respect as was socially required.
"Draco," Mr. Malfoy said to his son, "I trust this will be the last time I hear from Hogwarts about such an incident."
"Yes, Father," Draco said.
Narcissa Malfoy kissed her son on the cheek, told him he was looking too thin, and allowed her husband to guide her to the fireplace. They each took a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the flames, which turned a bright, emerald green.
"Malfoy Manor," Lucius said, enunciating clearly. Husband and wife stepped into the flames together and disappeared.
The next morning, the whispers started. The Heir. The Heir of Slytherin. Draco didn't dignify them with a response, but the whisperers, as he mentally referred to them, took that as confirmation.
He went to visit Harry in the Hospital Wing. He told the other Slytherins that it was part of his punishment, but he knew that he would have gone anyway.
"I'm sorry," Draco said. "That wasn't exactly how that was supposed to go."
"How, exactly, was it supposed to go?" asked Harry.
"It wasn't supposed to be dangerous," Draco said. "It was just supposed to scare you so I could disarm you."
"I know," said Harry.
"How would you know?" asked Draco.
"I saw your face after that snake bit me," Harry said. "With all due respect, you're not that good of an actor."
"I hope you get better soon," Draco said. "I have to go to detention, where I'll no doubt be writing until my hand completely falls off."
"What?" asked Draco, irritated. He was in the Slytherin common room that evening after detention, and had been cornered again by Blaise Zabini. His fellow Slytherin seemed to have made it his mission in life to try to keep Draco in line.
"I asked you why you bowed to Potter?" Blaise hissed. "He's a halfblood."
"We were dueling?" Draco answered, his voice trailing up as if he were asking a question. "You bow to your opponent before a duel."
"He's not worthy of being bowed to," Blaise argued. "His father, perhaps, before he married that mudblood, but not to his impure spawn."
"My father taught me etiquette long before I came to Hogwarts," Draco said. "Since your mother apparently did not go over this with you, and neither did any of the unending stream of her husbands, I'll tell you what he told me. If you do not follow the rules of the higher class, then how can you hope to rule it?"
That shut Blaise up, at least for now. Unfortunately, it did not shut the whisperers up. If anything, it made them worse. Draco was painfully aware that his father would not be pleased if he heard these rumors in his day to day social calls with the pureblood elite. Sure enough, only three days passed since the dueling club before his father's owl was dropping a letter in Draco's lap during breakfast. Fortunately, there was no chance of his father ever sending a howler. However mad he got, the thought of broadcasting family problems to the entire school at top volume like the Weasleys did was inconceivable. He left breakfast early to read his father's letter in the privacy of the now empty common room.
Pansy Parkinson returned to the Slytherin dormitory after breakfast, and spotted Draco sitting in a double chair by himself with a sulky expression on his face. As she went over to him, she passed Daphne, and exchanged a greeting with her.
Before Greengrass went and got herself betrothed to that Longbottom boy, of all people, she was afraid she'd lose Draco to her. It had caused a great deal of tension in their shared room. Then, after the betrothal was announced, there was the backlash of Daphne arranging her own marriage to a Gryffindor. She knew that half of the Slytherin girls were of the same opinion as all of the boys on that score. They felt that Daphne had betrayed them, Slytherin House, and her upbringing by tying herself to a Gryffindor whose family was dangerously close to being labelled blood traitors. The other half were still being pissy, but only because they hadn't thought of it first. Pansy didn't care who Daphne got herself betrothed to, she was just happy it wasn't Draco. Aside from drama of the Chamber being opened, this year was going much smoother. Pansy was enjoying the peace and quiet in her dorm, and only hoped it lasted.
She sat down next to Draco. He barely acknowledged her presence, but his posture told her a lot. He wasn't irritated at her, and he wasn't raving against some other student. That left only one other source of conflict for him.
"What did he say?" she asked. Draco sighed.
"The usual," Draco said. "'I instructed you to keep a low profile,' and 'you have failed me,' and 'it would be inconvenient for me to replace you, so fix this now!'" Pansy shuddered at the implications of the words, but still smiled a little at Draco's imitation of his father. "He's obviously up to something," Draco concluded, "and it can only be about this Heir of Slytherin nonsense."
"How could he be involved in that?" Pansy asked.
"I don't know," Draco answered, "he won't tell me. Whatever it is, the school thinking I'm the Heir obviously interferes with his plan somehow."
"I thought he'd be pleased that the school thought you were were the Heir," Pansy said. "I mean, I know your not because I've studied your family history, but it's all about power and perception, isn't it?"
"But," Draco realized, "if the Heir were to kill someone, then that would bring the wrong sort of attention to the Malfoy name if everyone thought it was me." They sat and looked at each other for a moment in silence. Draco felt like something was testing him. Like he was being watched, and whether he allowed his father to continue on his course or not was entirely in Draco's hands.
"What are you going to do?" Pansy asked. Draco thought for a few more moments.
"Enemies of the Heir, Beware," he finally said. "I'm going to do what my father tells me to do. And so are you."
It was the right thing to do, Draco thought to himself. Being a pureblood was all about tradition. It was about family. And sons did not get in the way of their father's schemes. They certainly did not go to Dumbledore and accuse their father of… what? He didn't even know. So why did it feel like he had just failed a test?
The whispers continued throughout the week that Potter was in the Hospital Wing. Draco had hoped that it would die off if he just ignored them. If anything, however, the whisperers found his silence incriminating. He heard them outside of classrooms before he entered. They stopped the moment he walked into the room, but then they just stared at him. It really went a long way towards demonstrating that the common witch or wizard wouldn't understand subtlety if it smacked them in the face. Which it wouldn't. Because it was subtle.
The only good effect of Draco having gone to the dueling club was that Professor Lockhart seemed to have lost a little of his confidence. After his disastrous performance with the snake Draco had conjured, Lockhart's boisterous nature had taken a whole two days to recover. It did have the effect of damping his victory against Professor Snape. The Potions Master took no end of pleasure in making sure that was the case.
Draco was on a free period that Friday, wandering around and trying to stay away from the whisperers. Draco rolled his eyes at a group of first years who had seen him walk near them, squeaked, and ran out of his way. His family tree was public knowledge. Actually it was published knowledge. His grandfather, Abraxas Malfoy, had written a book detailing the Malfoy history after Draco was born. It would have taken the tiniest amount of research to prove whether Draco was the Heir or not, but everyone just kept speculating wildly.
Remembering that book made Draco stop and think. He might be able to use that to stop these rumors and obey his father's orders. He went to the library and found the volume sitting right where it was supposed to be. Sitting a few shelves away was another book that would help. The Genealogy of the Blacks. He took them both.
As he walked through the library to check them out, he overheard Ernie MacMillan at a table on the other side of a bookshelf. The whisperiest whisperer of Hufflepuff, he was talking to Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott about the Heir.
"His whole family have been in Slytherin since Hogwarts was founded," Ernie said. "And you saw that snake he conjured. I heard Parvati Patil call it a Carpet Viper, and it's incredibly deadly. If it's not him, then who?"
"But how could Draco be the the Heir?" Susan asked. "Both of his parents are still alive, as is his Grandfather. Surely if anyone is Slytherin's heir, it would be Draco's grandfather, and then his father, and then Draco." Draco was impressed. It was simple logic, but at least the Bones girl had some sort of a brain in her head. MacMillan, on the other hand…
"Maybe he got it from his mother, then," Ernie said. "She was a Black before she was a Malfoy, and they've been evil since…"
"I would hope," said Draco, emerging from behind the bookshelf and interrupting Ernie, "that if I were the Heir of Slytherin, which I am not, that I wouldn't be so crass as to steal the title from my living parents." Ernie shut his mouth so fast his teeth clicked.
"However," Draco continued, "both of my parents lineages have been traced back more than a thousand years, and I am sorry to report to you that we are not related to Salazar Slytherin." He placed the books onto the table Ernie was sitting at. "If you don't believe me," Draco said, placing his hand reverently on the covers of the books. "look it up for yourself. It's all in here." He looked Ernie directly in the eyes.
"If I were the Heir of Slytherin," Draco repeated, "which I am not, you would know it. You would know it because I would be crowing that fact from the roof of this school like a rooster. Fortunately for me, I am content to be a Malfoy." He turned to Susan and Hannah and gave a short bow. "Ladies," he said in farewell as he walked away.
And that, thought Draco, was how you shut them up like a Malfoy. Unless, of course, MacMillan was dumb enough to still not get it.
"I bet his parents taught him how to open the chamber," he heard Ernie whisper to the girls before he was out of earshot.
Sigh.
A/N - If anyone wants to see the movement of the carpet viper as I described in this chapter, and videos of snakes being snakes don't bother you, go to youtube and search for carpet viper. I found the way they move in place to warn of an impending attack was quite fascinating.
A/N 2 - Several reviewers pointed out to me that I used both venomous and poisonous to describe the snake Draco conjured. Deeply embarrassed, as I do know the difference, (venomous: the snake bites you, poisonous: you bite the snake,) I went through the chapter determined to make it right. That's when I realized that how I made my mistake actually makes a little bit of sense.
Snape uses the word venomous, as do I, the narrator. Draco Malfoy and Ernie MacMillan use poisonous once each. Snape would know the difference, as he's highly intelligent and educated. It makes sense that he would say it correctly. Would Draco or Ernie? I'm already finding that my characters tend to talk like adults, not like children, and I feel that having them speak every word absolutely correctly would end up making them all sound like little Hermiones. The mistake was mine, as I didn't realize this until after it was pointed out to me, but I think I'm going to leave it as it is. It's incorrect, and I very much thank everyone who took the time to point it out to me (not sarcasm, constructive criticism is good and I really do appreciate it,) but this is a bit different than if I'd simply misspelled it and missed it during proofreading.
If it still bothers you, I give you the following Omake.
"It wasn't supposed to be poisonous," Draco said. Professor Snape, who was standing behind Draco, smacked him in the back of the head.
"Did you serve him the viper for dinner?" Snape asked. "I believe you meant to say venomous."
"Yeah," said Draco, rubbing his head where Snape had hit him, "kind of like your temper."
A/N 3 - Ok, I lied. I changed it.