Disclaimer: Harry Potter and friends belong to J.K. Rowling. I make no money from this story.
**Any print in italics is quoted directly from J.K. Rowling. I will note which book it was taken from at the bottom of the chapter.**
WARNING: THIS STORY WILL BE RATED M FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS.
A/N: Sorry my faithful readers for missing a week, in return I promise to post 2 chapters. Here is the second one.
Please, if you see any glaring grammar errors, please let me know so I can correct them.
By the way, a big thank you goes to my new Beta – breaniver for his suggestions and corrections.
-Cosmyk
Chapter 8:
"What were you thinking, hexing another student?" Severus Snape hissed at his ward as she scrubbed out cauldrons in the potion's classroom. He had made sure to muffle the doors so no one would be able to eavesdrop.
"I-I'm sorry, I let my temper control me. I am not proud of what I have done." She burst into tears, hiding her face in her hands. A gentle touch on her shoulder had her looking up, eyes red from crying.
"I don't scold you because I am angry or because I hate you, I just want you to be safe and if you let your fear or anger control you, you leave yourself open to influence by your enemies." His hand gently rubbed her back as she turned and sobbed into his robes.
"I was scared of that Hagrid and that dragon he's got. We went to have tea with him because we wanted to find out more about that three-headed dog and the Sorcerer's stone." She explained, all of her fears pouring out of her in her uncle's comforting embrace.
Severus swore. "Damn, I should have figured Hagrid would get something like that. Did he say where he got it?"
"Uh-huh, he said he won it off some guy at the pub. I assume he means the one in Hogsmeade," Harriet explained, drying her eyes.
Severus swore again, louder this time. "How did you find out about the Sorcerer's stone?"
Harriet explained about all of the things they had found out. "I tried to tell them that I didn't think you were trying to kill me, but they don't believe me."
"It's best they suspect me anyway. We can't have anyone figuring out where you live or you won't be safe. It will also protect my cover should Voldemort return. Be careful investigating that stone. I have a feeling Dumbledore only brought it here to test you. If you think it is in danger, let Professor McGonagall know right away. Stay away from Quirrel, I don't trust him. I've caught him trying to get past Fluffy several times," Severus instructed her.
"Fluffy?" Harriet giggled. "Who in their right mind would name a Cerebus Fluffy?"
Severus rolled his eyes, "who else but Hagrid of course. It is his pet. Speaking of pets, your friend Rhonda's sister works at a dragon preserve does she not?" At Harriet's nod, he continued, "Suggest she get ahold of her sister and have someone come get that dragon before someone gets seriously hurt. If you send me a letter letting me know when they will be here, I will see that they are escorted to and from Hagrid's Hut with no one the wiser." He looked at the watch normally concealed beneath the sleeve of his robes. "It is nearly curfew. You are dismissed from detention, go straight back to your dorm, no side trips." He gave her a final hug before removing the MUFFILATO from the door. "Now, Miss Potter, I expect you to head straight to your dorm. No more fighting in the halls." With that, he held open the door and she departed.
"How was detention?" Rhonda asked when she returned to the common room.
"Ugh. I hate scrubbing cauldrons. He doesn't even let you use magic to do it. We have to scrub them by hand like muggles do," Harriet collapsed into the cushy red chair beside where Rhonda and Herman were playing wizards chess; Rhonda, as usual, was winning.
"Eew, I hate scrubbing cauldrons. Mum has us do that too when she is really mad at us. Either that or de-gnoming the garden, not sure which is worse," Rhonda moaned in sympathy.
"De-gnoming the garden?" Herman asked curiously.
"Rhonda smiled at him, "I forgot you grew up in the muggle world. Gnomes are a garden pest, they destroy plants and make a general nuisance of themselves, so every so often we have to go out and hurl the gnomes out of the garden. They always come back again, but it takes a while."
"Odd. Personally, I'd rather wash dishes than do laundry. I swear if I have to wash another pair of mum's fancy knickers I'm gonna gag. When she's mad that's the chore I get. She knows how much I hate it." Herman glared at both girls as they started snickering at the look on his face.
"S-sorry, but the look on your face was so funny," Rhonda stammered, trying unsuccessfully to look contrite. Harriet nodded in agreement, afraid that if she opened her mouth again she would start laughing.
Herman rolled his eyes, "God, you girls giggle more than my sisters." He looked at Rhonda, "Shall we finish the game?"
Bored with watching them play, Harriet pulled her charms textbook out of her knapsack and began reading as the other two bent over the game.
It was two weeks before they received a reply from Rhonda's sister. The day before Easter, an owl arrived. Rhonda opened the letter and perused it. "She says her friends can be here on Tuesday. They will be at the Astronomy tower around midnight."
"But we will get in trouble if we are out that late," Harriet worried. She didn't want to get in trouble again.
"What about your invisibility cloak?"
"It won't cover us and the dragon too. You know Herman is going to be really disappointed when he finds out."
"Yeah, but it is for the best; that dragon is a menace," Rhonda sighed, brushing back a strand of orange hair that had fallen into her face.
Harriet thought for a moment. "Tell your friends I will meet them at the top of the astronomy tower. I will get Hagrid to put Norbert into a crate and help him carry it to the tower." She had no intention of being the one who helped him, but Rhonda didn't need to know that.
"I thought you didn't like Hagrid," Rhonda said.
"Not really, He's huge and scary and I worry about some of those creatures he keeps as pets," Harriet replied, rubbing her scar absently, "but how else are we to get that dragon out of here?"
"Maybe we can find another way," Rhonda suggested.
Harriet shook her head. "This way will be the best. Once that dragon is gone, we won't have to worry about it hurting anyone." Herman came into the room just then, a big bandage on his hand.
"What happened to you?" Rhonda asked, lifting her book bag off the chair beside her so he could sit down.
"That thrice-cursed dragon bit me." He whispered, looking around the mostly empty library. He leaned forward in a conspiratorial fashion. "Want to know something weird? I got to the hospital wing and Madam Pomphrey was talking to Professor Snape. He took one look at my hand which was really swollen and before I could say anything, he pulled a vial of purple liquid out of his robes and handed it to her. He said I'd need it. Madam Pomphrey asked me what I'd been bitten by, I told her it was a dog. I don't think she believed me. Whatever was in that potion Professor Snape gave her worked well though because my hand is all better now."
"You think he knows about that dragon?" Rhonda asked, worry evident in her tone.
"Maybe, I thought I saw Malfoy running back towards the castle the other day, but I don't know if he said anything. I would think if Professor Snape knew he'd have said something by now," Herman pulled books out of his bag with his un-bandaged hand.
"Perhaps he hopes to find out how to get around that three-headed dog." Harriet suggested, following her uncle's suggestion about not defending him.
"I don't think so. I got Hagrid talking and he says he told the gentleman in the pub all about the dog, Fluffy and that if you play music for him, he falls asleep," Herman explained, "I bet Snape was the person in the cloak who Hagrid won the dragon egg from."
"Fluffy?" Rhonda blurted out, incredulous, "Fluffy?" She and Harriet burst into loud giggles, bringing a glare and a harsh shushing sound from Madam Pomphrey.
Harriet clapped her hand over her mouth and blushed. "Oops, we need to be quieter in the library." They lowered their voices and under the pretext of studying, they filled him in on recent events.
Harriet slipped her invisibility cloak over her head. "Am I completely covered?" She whispered to Rhonda.
"Yes. Be careful, Harriet. Charlie's letter disappeared and Draco has been giving me weird looks, I think he may have found it. Keep your eyes out." Rhonda whispered back, glancing around the room to where Lavender and Pavarti lay sleeping.
Harriet tiptoed out of the room and silently exited through the slumbering portrait. It took almost fifteen minutes to reach the seventh floor and the portrait of the dancing trolls. Uncle Severus had instructed her to meet him there and half to midnight. She was surprised to find that where the portrait had been, there was now a door. Glancing around to make sure no one was near, she lowered the hood of her cloak. Harriet let out a quickly silenced shriek as the door opened and a large hand pulled her inside.
"Merlin's balls -" she swore, only to be cut off with a hiss.
"Don't swear, it is unbecoming of a well-brought-up young lady," her uncle scolded.
Harriet looked around the room in awe. It looked a lot like the Gryffindor common room but it was done up in cool blues and grays. She chose a soft gray armchair near the fireplace and sat down. She watched as Uncle Severus pulled out a set of Slytherin student robes and tapped the emblem on it twice. Harriet gasped as it became a Gryffindor logo. He looked over at her.
"I'm going to need your glasses and your tie. You are to stay here until I come back. This room is called the Room of Requirement. It will supply anything you need except food and drink. If you are hungry, call Teeny and she will bring you something to eat and drink. Oh, and I'll need your cloak too," he instructed, pulling out a vial of snot colored yellow potion. Uncapping it, he reached forward and pulled a single strand of black hair from her sleeve and dropped it in. The potion bubbled for a moment and then turned golden. He raised it to his lips and tossed it back, grimacing. "Ugh, that's nasty," he groaned.
Harriet watched in shock as his body began to twist and shrink. In moments she was staring wide-eyed at herself. "Uncle Severus?"
"Yes, Harriet, I'm still me. That potion you saw is called Poly-juice potion. It can turn someone into someone else for a short time." He stowed the vial in his pocket before reaching for the robes, tie and glasses. "How do I look?"
Harriet giggled. "Like me, well, except for the voice that is. I suggest not talking if you can avoid it," she teased. It was strange hearing her uncle's voice coming from a girl's body.
He shot her a mischevious grin that looked strange on her delicate features. Swirling the invisibility cloak over his shoulders, he opened the door, "Well, I'm off then, see you soon."
Harriet was absorbed in reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a muggle novel by Jules Verne, when he returned. She looked up at her uncle and giggled. "You know you are still wearing Gryffindor house robes, right?"
He shot her a dirty look before waving his hand over his clothes, turning them into his normal professor robes. Reaching into the pocket, he pulled out her glasses and handed them to her and then removed the Gryffindor tie, also passing it back to her.
"Remind me to take you shopping this summer. You need some more clothes, you are outgrowing these." He draped the invisibility cloak over the arm of her chair. "Now, you need to be careful heading back to the dorm. McGonagal caught a couple of Gryffindors out of bed and she's on a rampage."
"Right, I'll be careful." She pulled the cloak around her and disappeared, the door to the Room of Requirement silently opening and closing as she exited.