Chapter 5: "Arachno!"
As Harry sat between Ginny and Hermione he asked, "Can you believe Ron?" At this he was looking at Ginny. "What happened?"
"Well," Ginny replied in a matter-of-fact way "As you know we moved into our manor over the Christmas break (Harry nodded) Well, it turns out that we are neighbors with the Malfoys (Hermione said "Oh"). Draco befriended Ron our first day there and they have been inseparable since," she gestured to the Slytherin table. "Draco convinced Ron he would be better of in Slytherin and first thing he did when he came back was ask Professor Snape to transfer. Snape agreed and now Ron is one of his favorite students along with Draco."
"But how could Malfoy convince Ron to transfer?" is all that came out of Harry's mouth.
"Well, Fred and George think Draco put him under a spell or something, but well, since dad was appointed the minister, Draco has been really nice and respectful to us." Ginny said.
"The fool," uttered Hermione under her breath looking at Ron.
"Well," said Ginny who had heard what Hermione had said, "you and Harry weren't around much and his only friends were Dean, Seamus, and I."
"I can't believe Ron would do this, though." said Hermione looking angrily over at the Slytherin table. Ron was doing a bucked-toothed impersonation of Hermione raising her hand excitedly, while Malfoy was doing one of Harry were he was saying "Cedric…Cedric…please don't die!" Hermione tore her eyes away from them to look at Harry, who was also watching them, but not with hatred but with pity.
"Well…aren't you mad at him!" Hermione demanded.
"No!" Harry said quietly. Ron and Malfoy were now laughing and pointing at Harry and Hermione. "I can't believe I did this to him. How can I be mad at him when I caused it?"
"Harry don't be a fool you didn't cause it. This isn't your fault!" Hermione said hugging him with tears of hatred in her eyes. (A/N: just for clarification they are tears of hatred toward Ron and Malfoy not Harry) "Harry don't make the mistake of thinking that this is your fault." Harry looked at Ginny. "It's not right?" Hermione asked.
"Well…" Ginny replied, but with a look from Hermione she quickly said, "He wanted to be friends with Draco. It's not like Draco forced him. Other than Fred and George's theory." With a thoughtful look at Draco and Ron, "and they do seem to be getting on alright." With another mean look from Hermione she continued "Well…I mean… Draco has been real nice to him."
"And since when did you start calling him by his first name?" Harry asked angrily.
"Since he bought me a Nimbus2000 for Christmas," she replied unembarrassed.
"Look let's go back to the common room," Harry said looking at Hermione. Hermione was looking at the Slytherin table like she was going to kill one of them. "Come on Hermione….at least he won't be there." As they walked along the Slytherin, she looked beadily at Ron.
"You need to learn how to respect your betters," said Ron looking at Harry (not noticing Hermione.)
"You too mudblood," Draco yelled. That was the last straw for Hermione she pulled out her wand, and yelled "Arachno" A black puff if smoke came out of her wand enveloping Draco within. As the smoke cleared a split second later Draco had turned into a spider that was crawling all over the table. This had freaked Ron out so bad, that as he jumped out of hi seat and had spilled his food everywhere. Crabbe and Goyle were running across the table trying to catch Draco. Meanwhile, Harry and Hermione were quietly laughing and sneaking past the Slytherin table.
"And what is going on here?" that was the last voice Harry and Hermione wanted to hear. Both looked up and saw Professor Snape standing over them looking furious.
"Um…." Was all Hermione could suppress. By now Ron had recovered and Crabbe had caught Draco and put him in a glass. "She," Ron said pointing to Hermione, "turned Draco into that!" at 'that' he pointed to the spider with disgust in his eyes.
"This will never do," Snape said as he was turning the spider back into Draco, "We can not have a Head Girl who has such atrocious behavior (Hermione looked on the verge of tears). Especially with the new privileges that we are giving to the Head Boy and Head Girl. I will have to talk to the Headmaster about this."
"But professor! Malfoy called Hermione a mudblood," Harry shouted as he felt his temper rising. "Harry Don't push it," Hermione muttered.
"I don't care how much he provoked her. She needs to learn how to control her temper," Snape said calmly, in front of Draco. "Are you all right?"
"Yeah, I'm just a little dizzy. Could you tell me, professor what are the new privileges?"
Snape smirked, "you get to take points from the houses and hand out reasonable detentions that you think suit the misbehaving student."
"I feel much better now," Draco said eagerly looking at Hermione with an evil glint in his eye.
"I knew you would," Snape replied, "Now if you will excuse me, I need to go talk to the Headmaster."