Coming up next: a disclaimer!
... No?
Harry slowly released the air from his lungs as the footsteps belonging to Snape faded away. "That was far too close."
"Now what on earth is going on?" Pomfrey demanded more than asked of the three students.
Harry responded immediately. "Snape made me make a Drought of Living Death and test it on myself," he said promptly, then back-pedalled, finally realising what had been at stake. "Wait, did you say before that Snape saw Fog?"
Hermione sighed and began to explain. "That was why he was here in the first place, Harry. He tried to pick you up after you drank the potion, but he couldn't, so he cast Finite and dispelled Ron's illusion."
Ron made a sound that probably should have come from his dragon form. "Bloody hell, but Snape's powerful," he complained, "he didn't even have to try to overpower the glamour!"
Madam Pomfrey sighed. They'd probably be chatting for hours unless she could distract them with something- "Why not create a glamour rune?" she asked, surprising even herself. "They aren't affected by Finite."
After a few minutes of gaping and wondering why she hadn't thought of that, Hermione broke the uncomfortable silence. "It's a brilliant idea, but we haven't studied that-"
"Harry," Ron interrupted, then tossed him a runestone. "Craft a Lumos rune." Harry deftly caught the small rock, looking from it to Ron with curiosity plastered on his face, but when he finally pulled out a chisel, Ron leapt forwards. "Do it as Fog," he amended, and Harry Fogged up, then tried to figure out a way to dig through the solid stone without tools.
He eventually settled on trying to concentrate his vapour, but couldn't seem to get it to flow right out of his front paws. Hermione, despite having no clue what was going on, gave a useful nugget of inspiration. "What if you used your tail? It seems like it was designed for shooting water vapour!"
Fog nodded his acknowledgement and set the stone onto the damp bed, then took a few steps back and pulled his tail out from behind him. He grabbed onto it with both paws to compensate for any recoil, and started streaming vapour through the tip.
Surprisingly, the tip of Fog's tail seemed to be the most effective way to shoot steam, and he found he actually could concentrate it into a cutting edge, just like he'd been planning. He doodled a few circles onto the stone, Ron looking on smugly and Hermione in confusion.
After ten minutes of non-stop carving, Fog collapsed on the bed, and the others rushed forwards in a panic. Pomfrey casted a spell or two and sighed in relief as Fog struggled to stand up, and she pushed him back into bed, where he instantly fell asleep. "Fifty minutes past," she muttered, happy with the progress of 'Operation: Make Fog Sleep Between Lessons', then she rolled her eyes. "Honestly, magical exhaustion on top of his need to sleep, it'll be a wonder if he wakes up at all today. That concentrated blast of steam must have used a lot of magic..."
Ron, having understood that his best friend wasn't in any danger, picked up the grey runestone, a satisfied smirk in place. "Reformo visum!"
The females of the group leapt back from a now human Harry Potter, and swivelled to face the redhead blankly. "What was that?" Hermione finally asked, and Ron shrugged.
"An experiment. I distracted Harry enough that he forgot about my asking for a Lumos. When he started crafting, I guessed that he would just automatically make the rune that he needed the most. And I was right!" He shrugged again at the girls' nonplussed expressions. "I noticed that Harry just seemed to create what he wanted, even if he didn't know he wanted it, so I took advantage of that."
Ron had changed almost as much as Harry since the beginning of the year. He seemed much less... completely Gryffindor. He was as mature and book-smart as any Ravenclaw, especially in runes; he was loyal almost to a fault and had become far more hardworking in the few months past; and most oddly, he now bested most Slytherins in cunning and ambition. Oh, he was as reckless and foolhardy as he ever had been, but now it was balanced by many other qualities. Hermione smiled at how far the redhead had come since she first met a certain obnoxious eleven year old.
Ron studied the runes closely, unaware of Hermione's thought process, and tucked the stone into illusion-Harry's breast pocket, knowing that to be where Fog lay. "Now that I've activated it, the rune should run off Fog's magic while he's asleep; he just has to remember to carry that."
Having heard Ron's speech, Pomfrey jolted out of her daze, and immediately sent the two human students off. "Yes, that's all well and good, but Fog and/or Harry needs some rest, and you aren't helping by chattering your heads off in here!"
When Fog woke up the next day and left the hospital wing, he absently noted the exact replica of his Harry, as he had come to call his own human form, plodding tiredly underneath him. The brown mouse was a little creeped out by this, so he sped up his flight. Unfortunately, the strange Harry was a bit of a speedster, keeping up easily with the not quite broomstick-level speeds of Fog. He actually looked quite ridiculous, sprinting at almost 30 miles per hour, and Fog was glad that he didn't run into anyone during the short burst of speed.
Fog slowed to a walking pace, and below him the fake Harry did too. They slowly made their way to the Gryffindor tower. Unfortunately, here Fog realised something. If he was going to get through the portrait, he would need to come within arms reach of the fake Harry. He hesitated slightly, frowning downwards, and the fake Harry did too. The draconemus had an idea and threw out his stubby right arm. Fake-Harry did the same.
By the time Fog made it to the Fat Lady's portrait, he had forgotten about the problem. It came back in full force, however, when the woman asked Fake-Harry for the password.
"Golden Snitch." As Fog mewed the password to the Fat Lady, Fake-Harry did likewise. Well, he spoke rather than mewing, but it didn't matter much to Fog as he flew through the entrance, ears pressing against the ceiling in his attempt to stay away from the human abomination below him. He manuovered Fake-Harry over to the fireplace, where Hermione and Ron sat talking with the rest of the Animagickal group. Animagickal sounded like a good name for the nine friends, he thought, but got his thoughts back on track quickly.
He coughed lightly into a paw and the group stopped what they were doing to turn towards Fake-Harry. Hermione leapt out of her seat and gave Fake-Harry a bone-crushing hug, which... passed straight through him.
Hermione stumbled back to her seat, glancing once or twice at Fake-Harry in fright, and Fog and Fakey sighed in unison. Fakey was a fitting name for that- No! He needed to concentrate! Fog and Fakey took a calming breath, then began explaining in a somewhat psychotic voice, with wide, fearful eyes that really didn't help.
The content of his rambling didn't seem much better. "Guys I'm actually five feet above myself at the moment and it's really confusing and scary but I'm Fog and this Harry is a fake and he's following me and copying me and seriously I don't know if this is real and please Merlin save me from my human self which I've called Fakey because did I mention he's a fake and I'm the real one but I don't really know if that's true and oh god this is terrifying and creepy please help."
Everyone stood stock-still for a grand total of seventy two seconds, before Hermione stood up, took a few steps back, and charged towards Fakey. At the last second she jumped, grabbed a hold of Fog, and landed crouched over him. Something fell to the floor, elicitting a thunk, and the illusion lifted. Fog finally registered that he had been invisible, and was relieved at seeing his own limbs once more. Then everything went black.
Fog awoke, tangled in something extremely bushy and brown. He recognised it instantly as Hermione's hair, which calmed him; he'd much rather be here than anywhere else at the moment. It was warm, comfortable, safe... It was perfect.
Moving on from the perfection that was Hermione's hair, Fog glanced warily around at his surroundings. He was still in the Gryffindor common room, but this time, gigantic faces loomed overhead like monsters. He drew further back into the locks, shivering slightly, and felt something descend upon his back.
It was comforting, surprisingly. It was huge, but it wasn't scary-huge. It was more the sort of huge that made him feel protected. His shaking stopped and he purred lightly, delighting in the warmth of what he now recognised to be Hermione's hand.
"It's alright, Fog, just sleep for now," she cooed gently. "I'll protect you until you wake up." He felt Hermione pulling him closer, and buried himself deeper in her hair, snuggling up to the side of her neck. He heard Hermione speak again, but this time it seemed distant, like she didn't want to disturb him. "Guys, back, off, he's disorientated enough without you staring at him. Even human Harry hates staring, imagine how badly he'd react with seven giants looking at him!"
Fog closed his eyes and drifted off again, blissfully unaware and uncaring of the heated discussion going on without him back in the realm of the living.
When Fog woke up, it was once again to the protective feeling that Hermione seemed to naturally give off. He silently stretched and yawned, but that still alerted the bushy-haired girl, who asked softly, "Can you understand me, Fog?"
He nodded slowly, careful not to make any sound in case he woke up those giants he had seen earlier, and felt more than saw Hermione's sigh of relief. "That's good," she told him, "I have a lot to tell you." Fog's ears pricked up; if she had something to say, he wouldn't want to miss it, after all.
Hermione sighed again, this time in preparation for her speech. "Fakey, as you called him, was an illusion that you created on that rune before you fainted, Fog. It's hard to explain, but Ron said that if you're distracted, you'll make whatever you subconsciously want, or something." She stopped for breath, something that she never would have done before this year, and asked, "Do you understand me so far?"
Fog nodded, still wary of the unseen surroundings. Hermione seemed to pick up on his fear, because she said gently, "Come out and sit on my lap. Nothing out here can hurt you, Fog." The black and brown mouse uncurled his tail charily, then slowly untangled himself from the frizzy hair and pattered down the girl's arm and onto her legs. She giggled, but quickly stifled the sound and once again began stroking him calmingly.
As Fog observed his surroundings, he absently noted the dank wooden walls, desk and bed, and came to the conclusion that they were in the Shrieking Shack. One of the giants was there, with hair and face an angry red, but as Fog finally recognised the creature as Ron Weasley, the colour became cheering, like a lit fireplace, warming up the entire room.
Once she deemed Fog responsive enough, Hermione continued. "The rune created a Glamour charm, which would make you look like Harry while sleeping, but we didn't know it would stay active while you were awake, Fog."
"I'm really sorry, mate, I didn't even think about what you would think," Ron mumbled, something etched into his face. Fog had to stare for a second before he recognised that something as... sorrow? No, not quite. It seemed like he was apologetic, and that did make more sense.
Fog felt that he could open a link with the redhead by now, so he did. -'S fine... Sorry I panicked earlier,- he managed, before the connection forced itself shut.
Ron reopened it for a gasping-for-breath Fog, this time including Hermione in the conversation. -What happened to Fog anyway, Hermione?-
-He hyperventilated,- she returned simply. -When I grabbed you, Fog, you dropped the runestone and it chipped, so you don't have it anymore. Ron memorised the runes, though, if you want to-
-I don't want to look human anymore, that was creepy,- Fog butted in, and shuddered. -Never again do I want to see Fakey.-
Ron laughed out loud, but Hermione still seemed worried. "Are you sure you're okay?" she asked, forgetting the link, but Fog simply made use of the special features and sent her the image of a thumbs-up.
"Well, if you're sure, we have Arithmancy in an hour, so we should get ready soon."
Two hours later, the three students walked out of the stuffy classroom, and Harry nearly collapsed with relief, shouting "Thank Merlin!" and Fogging up.
"Honestly, Fog," Hermione berated the somersaulting mouse. "Someone will see if you just do that as soon as we leave lessons! Why don't you stay human for a little while?"
Fog just stuck out his tongue and proceeded to chase a beam of light cast by Ron.
I take back what I said about each chapter being longer than the last. Screw that, this takes long enough as is.
Fog gets a reminder that yes, he is an animal. I don't know how all this happened, I just wanted to address Harry's Potions classes this chapter, and it turned into this...
Call it talented writing, but even I didn't know Fog/Harry's skills would fit in with the story that well. Looking back, there's even foreshadowing for the 'make whatever he wants' plot point.
I'm an accidental genius, and it feels good.
Smell ya later!