I Own Nothing!
"Yes Mr Potter, I'd like to ask you a few questions too." He beamed.
Harry narrowed his eyes, and muttered "You are only allowed one question Professor, that was the deal."
Slughorn gave a little jump, and looked appalled. "Oh no Harry I wouldn't ever dream of asking more than you are willing…Besides I only really have the one question that I desperately need you to answer." Harry sighed, wondering whether or not he'd ever get used to the potions master's efforts to always please him.
He nodded in understanding and gestured tiredly for him to carry on. "Well my dear boy, after these first few revelations, I have come to realise that you three are quite the scallywags aren't you?" He looked on at them in what could only be described as sickly affection and winked.
They smiled back with varying degrees of dislike and sweetness. "When I first regained my position as potions master here at Hogwarts, I of course made time to visit my old Pupil Severus- Merlin bless him- and ask for any advice about you all. He seemed quite eager to avoid me at first, but when I asked about your year, his only words were 'Keep Potter out of your store cupboard, he has very sticky fingers.' And as you can see I was at first quite confused, thinking 'why on Earth would dear Harry want to steal from my store cupboard?' and so I dismissed it. But after these interesting revelations my curiosity has been rekindled. So why would Professor Snape think you stole from his private store cupboard, and what would you possibly need to do that for?"
The three were very alert, and immediately turned in a huddle.
'Muffilato….there we should be able to talk freely now, the sneaky gits.'
"Okay, Ron and I have already done one question each-"
"Oh no. No. That was your idea in the first place Hermione, you say! I had nothing to do with it!"
"Harry it was you who he directed the question at! It was you Snape suspected!"
"Yeah but…Hermione you brewed the potion, and you stole the ingredients."
"Ron! You're not helping!"
"Hermione…I honestly think you'd be better to do this one."
"…."
"Yeah Hermione, you're the best with arguing your point and to be honest if you let Harry do it he'd just end up shouting straight away."
"Hey!"
"….Okay. But Harry can answer the next question!"
"Deal!"
"Ron! Alright. I don't like it but. Hermione?"
"Yes Harry?"
"Just try to avoid telling them about anything illegal, in fact avoid telling them anything that will make them too mad."
'What does he think I am, stupid?' "Of course I won't Harry!" As the three unravelled themselves from the huddle they looked up to see 11 curious faces eyeing them back.
Hermione went and stood in the centre again, feeling a sense of dread, and trying urgently to look unfazed. "Well Professor… You see Snape always thought that Harry had stolen some ingredients from his private store cupboard because in our second year some things went missing. I can honestly say that Harry stole nothing." She was comforted at her ability to still bend the truth. "So you see, there's not really that much too it…" She smiled sheepishly and noted Harry and Ron looking surprised, but pleased. Elbowing them so they wouldn't give her away, she decided it would be best to move on quickly. "So who wants to ask the next question?"
"Wait a moment please Hermione." Minerva was observing her with suspicious eyes, and looked to be noting her every movement. Hermione became still at once. "I am not convinced that that is all there is to it. If Harry didn't steal from Professor Snape, who's to say you, or Ronald did not?" This instantly caught the attention of the others in the room and Hermione's heart stopped.
"Why on Earth would I ever need to steal from Professor Snape?" She laughed and the elder woman's eyes narrowed further.
"You still haven't answered the question." Hermione started to feel trapped.
"I…Uh. Never in our lives have Ronald or-" As much as she tried to get the rest of the sentence out of her mouth, Hermione couldn't. It felt like something was blocking it with a ball of cotton and every time she cleared her throat to try again it grew. Eventually she stopped defeated. 'Damn you.' "Hmm. Yes well." She chose an interesting spot in the carpet to glue her eyes to. "Ronald has never stolen from the store cupboard. I have however."
An eyebrow quirked and the accent was back. "Why ever would you need to seal from the stores Hermione? I'm sure all of your needed ingredients for second year would be in your potions kit."
Hermione fidgeted again, squirming uncomfortably. At this moment in time Minerva had transformed back into their stern head of house, and she had the uncanny knack of making Hermione feel like she was eleven years old again. "I wasn't brewing a second year potion." It was true she couldn't lie; nevertheless, she wasn't going to make this easy for them.
"Pray do tell, what exactly were you brewing?" The killer question that she didn't want to answer had appeared.
"Oh. Is that really relevant to the question Professor? Professor Slughorn asked why Professor Snape would suspect us." She prayed again. 'I seem to be doing this a lot lately.'
Alas, the doddery Professor seemed just as determined to get as much out of her as possible. "Yes Miss Granger, but I also asked what you might need the ingredients for, didn't I?"
Muttering a few choice words under her breath that would render her past self speechless, Hermione resigned herself to her fate. "We brewed three doses of polyjuice potion."
She fancied herself to soon become accustomed to the various reactions around the room. Molly, she already knew would start to redden at the neck with anger and disbelief, the Gryffindor head of house's accent would become more defined, and Neville would let out a small squeak of surprise, much like Flitwick. Arthur reactions were progressively getting worse, and Hooch seemed even more delighted each time Hermione got into trouble.
"What could you have possibly have needed three doses of polyjuice potion for?" She looked to Harry and Ron, who shrugged.
"We were trying to figure out the chamber of Slytherin's heir, and went to investigate in the dungeons."
"How on Earth did you make the polyjuice?"
"Why you sneaky little pranksters, you!" It was the first time George had spoken up, and Hermione found his light tone and sneaky smile had a calming effect on everyone. "You would've made a great full time prankster, you know that Hermione?" He had a wistful look in his eye as he spoke. "With your brains, Ron's ideas and Harry's ingenuity, well you would have made history!"
"Well it's a bloody good thing they didn't! The school barely survived you!" Poppy looked outraged. "Imagine all of the damage, I'd have never have been able to keep up!"
"Heh hem. I still think we'd like the question answered Hermione." This time it was Molly speaking, although her voice was significantly less harsh. Still, Hermione couldn't help feeling that the three of them were treading on a very thin line.
"Erm….Well I acquired the book from Professor Lockhart- he gave me the pass to the restricted section- and stole the ingredients we didn't already have from Professor Snape, an I guess I just followed the instructions." At the look of bewilderment on most faces, she stepped back, trying to look modest. McGonagall, Flitwick and Sprout were whispering darkly about second-rate Professors who put student's lives at risk.
Slughorn look positively delighted "My dear girl that is absolutely marvellous! And at such a young age too! My, oh my, this is wonderful! I daresay you will go far! I have just the right person to meet with you, he can help! Oh the things you will accomplish my dear! Now if you could just-" He was interrupted by a frosty McGonagall telling him that Hermione would need to think it over, and consider all of her options before choosing her future. She also added in that Slughorn shouldn't be praising her for putting herself in danger at all.
The girl herself was grinning like a Cheshire cat. That grin was soon wiped off her face as the frosty McGonagall wrote something down on a piece of parchment.
"Err…Professor? What are you doing?" It was Ron that finally asked.
"I'm recording your entire mischief making history, so that we do not forget about anything. I dare say I shall not forget about much though. With all of it down on paper I can assess how you were able to do it and stop it from happening ever again." The voice she used was firm and not to be argued with. The trio fell silent and looked at each other, wondering whether or not there would be any point making plans for the next year or so.
In an effort to be as good as possible, Harry asked if there were any other things that they'd like to know concerning the potion. He was taken aback by the enthusiastic amount of hands that went up.
"Did the potion work well?" Professor Slughorn.
"Yeah, Ron and me turned into Crabbe and Goyle."
"What did Miss Granger turn into?" This was Madame Pomfrey, and she looked to have a sneaking suspicion so as to the real answer.
"Hermione made the potion well, but unfortunately the hair she got was of her targets cat, and not human. So she kind of turned into a cat person." With this in mind he sneaked a glance to Hermione, and gave an evil grin. She merely narrowed her eyes at him and muttered a low threat. Covertly tensing his muscles, Harry decided to lighten the atmosphere. "There weren't any bad side effects, but she still purrs when she's asleep you know…"
He leapt up and deftly avoided Hermione's lunge. Running around her, he swiftly dived behind Ron, only to have Hermione catch his foot so he slipped, landing on top of Ron, who in retaliation reached up to grab his arm. The whole thing very soon turned into a free-for-all in which Neville tried to step in, but ended up being dragged in, and where George simply jumped in and got Ron in a tight headlock. At some point Hermione conjured a pillow and started to hit the boys with it, only for it to be returned tenfold when they started to tickle her.
The adults simply looked on with bemusement, and laughed when Hermione managed to cast Rictusempra on the lot of them. As she wriggled free, she hid behind her former head of house, in the hopes that she wouldn't rat her out, and the boys wouldn't drag her out for fear of hitting the scary woman.
"Hermione? Where are you? It's over now…we forgive you!" But after spending eight years with the boys, she knew them, and she knew that they'd be out for revenge. What really unnerved her was when they fell silent, and she shrank back further, hoping none of the others would tell them where she was. Before she knew what was really happening, she felt herself getting smaller and smaller, and her skin felt tingly. She opened her mouth to ask them what they'd done to her when…
"Meow?" '
Merlin help me.' She glared at them the best she could when she felt soft hands scooping her up, and placing her in their lap.
"Well doesn't she look adorable?" The mirth in the transfiguration Professor's voice was unmistakable. "Quite a good piece if transfiguration boys, I assume you decided that a kitten would be too harmless?" The older woman had begun scratching her around her ears, and to her mortification Hermione started purring!
"Yeah Professor, we decided that our Hermione has too many claws to be a house cat, so we chose a cub instead." George chuckled and bent down to look her in the eye. "I must say I think this is an improvement Hermione." She hissed at him, and batted his nose. "Ouch!" He looked at her much like one would look at their disobedient child. 'I'm nineteen years old for Merlin's sake, turn me back!' He chuckled and moved away.
"Aw, can we keep her?" Hermione tried to leap out of her Professor's hands so that she could attack her boyfriend, only to be held in place. By this point, most were laughing uncontrollably, or grinning at her predicament.
"Hermione behave." Huffing, she settled down and glared at Neville, knowing that he'd give in the easiest. As her penetrating glare continued to batter his mental barriers, she was astounded to hear his hearty teasing.
"Hermione, you look so cute when you do that!" Startled and vexed, Hermione turned around and nuzzled into the soft floor, before promptly getting up as she realised that it was her mentor's lap. Frustrated, she let out a small mewl before settling down.
Molly smiled and started stroking her fur, which felt very soothing, before assuring her that she'd only be like this until the next question was over. Fighting the urge to sleep, Hermione watched as Poppy asked her question, still fuming at the boys and their jokes. 'Oho, I'll get them all for this…'
Couldn't resist ^.^ George was there, of course he'd pull a prank, and pulling one on Hermione takes guts, so he enlisted help! Of course all the adults are finding it hilarious :) And poor Hermione is left as a cub, even though every person in the room could turn her back.