A Slight Mishap by sapphire-angel-gem

Summary: An AU fic set in the trio's sixth year. What happens when Harry is asked to test an ageing solution and everything goes horribly wrong once more?

A/N; If you could see me now, you'd probably see me smiling sheepishly at you all. This time I have nothing to say in my own defence except that I had other things on my mind and forgot to edit and then update. Hours turned to days, which turned to weeks, which eventually turned into one and half weeks, about. Amazing how time flies sometimes. I'm writing a story with my friend and it looks like we're going to be having two publishing companies looking at the first lot of pages! I'm so excited! That's part of the reason I forgot. The other part… well, I suppose I was just being lazy there… Enjoy!

Chapter Fourteen

Black's Run

Ron sat down next to Hermione with a thump, letting his books crash onto the table before he slouched down and covered his face with his hands.

"They're trying to kill me," he moaned.

"Honestly, Ron, it's only a few essays," Hermione sighed, not even looking up from the potions essay she was writing.

"Yeah, right," Ron snorted. "Only you could say it's only a few essays."

"Well, if you did your homework when you got it you wouldn't be stuck trying to finish five essays off in the one night," Hermione said primly.

Ron scowled, but there really wasn't much he could say to argue to that.

"Right," he muttered and sat up. It was then he noticed the absence of something rather important. "Hey, Hermione, where's Harry?"

Hermione's hand stilled suddenly and the girl's head jerked up to look at him with wide eyes.

"You mean you don't have him?" she asked incredulously.

"Me?" Ron spluttered. "I thought you were looking after him!"

"No, I gave him to you!" Hermione exclaimed.

"You did not!" Ron said. "I said I was going to the library for five minutes and asked if you could watch him for a bit!"

Hermione opened her mouth to retort, and then stopped, a thought suddenly occurring to her.

"Why are we sitting here arguing?" she asked. "When we could be looking for him?"

They looked each other and immediately jumped to their feet.

"First thing is to look around the Common Room in case he's hiding from us," Hermione said. "Then we'll go look up in your dorm."

It was a mark of how worried he was about where Harry might have gone and what he was doing that Ron didn't instantly rebel against the note of authority in his bushy-haired friend's voice.

Ron got down on his hands and knees and started looking under table while Hermione looked around the inside of the cold fireplace. She suddenly withdrew when there was a shriek and a bellow of pain.

She looked to see a fourth year girl standing away from the table she had been sitting at and Ron sitting under the desk, rubbing his head.

"Sorry, I was looking for Harry, I wasn't looking up your skirt," he tried to explain.

The girl huffed, collected her stuff and stomped off towards her dormitory. Hermione couldn't help the giggle that escaped. Ron looked grumpily at her.

"Shut it," he said sourly, standing up.

"Well, I suppose we can say he doesn't seem to be down here," Hermione said, deciding not to bring up what just happened… until she informed Ginny and Harry of the occurrence, of course. "And if he is, he's a good hider."

"To the dorms then," Ron said, moving towards the stairs that led to the boys' dorms. "And if he isn't there…"

"Then we panic," Hermione finished, following him.

They climbed up the stone steps, straining to here any sound that would indicate that Harry was up in the dorms. But they couldn't hear anything.

Finally they reached the door and Hermione pressed her ear against it, listening for a moment. She thought she could hear giggling, so she pushed the door open.

"Ah, Harry's just playing with Black," she said, glancing at the young boy tackling the large dog.

Ron's eyes were wide.

"Um, Hermione, when did Black get so big?" he asked weakly.

Hermione turned to stare. Indeed, the black dog was not the small puppy that he had been only a few hours before. He was now almost as large as Harry, and would probably be taller than him if the dog stood on his hind legs.

"Harry?" Hermione called, her mind firmly telling her to remain calm until she had assessed the situation.

Harry looked up and instantly a look of guilt wormed its way onto his way. Hermione raised an eyebrow in question.

"Harry, what happened to Black?" she asked.

"I didn't want to squash him," Harry explained, looking a little proud of what he had achieved. "So I maded him bigger!"

"That explains it," Ron muttered.

"How long will he be big, Harry?" Hermione asked, ignoring the red-head.

"I dunno," Harry said, shrugging his small shoulders. "I just maded him big so I could play."

Ron and Hermione exchanged a look. With Black suddenly as big as he was there was no way the boy and his dog would be able to keep out of trouble.

"Well, since Black is so big now, he'll have to stay in the dormitory until he is small again," Hermione said.

Harry's face fell at this, but he nodded anyway.

"Okay," he said.

"Let's go get our homework and bring it up here," Hermione suggested and the two teenagers hurried downstairs.

"What's wrong?" Dean said when they returned to the Common Room.

"Harry did magic again," Ron said with a groan. "This time he used it to make Black at least three times as big as he was."

Dean and Seamus exchanged a horrified look. There had been quite a few instances when they had been awoken by the small, excitable puppy jumping on them at Harry's askance. The thought that he might do that when he was that big was no pleasant at all.

"Why can't we take Black outside?" Harry asked innocently as he and his two friends climbed up the marble staircase after class the next day.

"Well, he's so big he would knock things over," Hermione explained. "And he would cause all sorts of trouble. When he's small again, we'll take him for a walk outside, alright?"

"Okay!" Harry said happily, appeased for now.

"Ron! Hermione!"

The two teens turned around at the sound of Neville calling their names and saw the other boy racing up to them, looking extremely worried. Harry sat down on the stairs and watched him in interest.

"Neville, what's wrong?" Hermione asked, alarmed.

"It's Black," Neville panted. "He's loose in the Common Room."

"How?" Ron asked. "I shut him in the dormitory this morning!"

"Seamus went up there to get a book so he could do some homework, and Black bowled him over," Neville said. "I was lucky to get out the portrait hole without him following me to come and get the two of you and Harry."

"Is he still really big?" Ron asked.

"Yeah," said Neville.

"Well, we better go calm him down," Hermione said with a sigh.

Harry scrambled to his feet and took the hand Hermione was offering to him as the group of four continued climbing the stairs, the four teenagers looking anxious. Harry stumbled a bit trying to keep up with them.

Finally they reached the portrait hole, only to see a third year student saying the password.

"Wait!" Ron said frantically, running forwards. "Don't open the portrait!"

The student looked around, alarmed, but it was too late. The portrait swung open to admit them, and at that moment a barking black blur raced out of it. The student stared at the dog, open-mouthed, before he was knocked off his feet as Black ran towards them.

"Wait, Black!" Harry yelled gleefully, stepping forwards to try and stop the dog.

But Black wasn't stopping, even for Harry. Harry's look of amusement turned to one of shock as the dog ran straight at him. Determined to stop his pet, Harry grabbed hold of his collar, and the next second was yanked off his feet and he was being dragged, shrieking, down the corridor.

Ron, Hermione and Neville stared in shock as the two disappeared around the corner, and it was then Hermione remembered that they were fast approaching a set of stairs.

"Move!" she yelled to the boys, racing down the corridor. A moment later they were on her heels as they chased the rogue dog.

Rounding the corner they could see Harry and Black about to descend the stairs. They saw that Harry had somehow managed to get his arms around the dog's neck and swung himself onto Black's back as though he were riding a horse. Suddenly the two disappeared down the stairs and the four teens raced after them.

"I'm telling you, Moony, no one ever comes down this way," Sirius said stoutly as he walked defiantly beside the werewolf.

"And I'm telling you that you shouldn't take chances," Remus argued. "You never know if a student might be lost and wander down this corridor… imagine what would happen if you were seen in the castle!"

"When we were students, no one even knew this corridor existed," Sirius said.

"Fine," Remus said exasperatedly. "But be it on your head if someone sees you."

Suddenly he stopped and cocked his head to the side, his brow furrowed.

"Do you hear that?" he asked.

Sirius frowned and listened intently. Now that his friend mentioned it, he could hear the sound of a young person screaming accompanied by barks and some other people yelling something indecipherable in the distance. And it was getting louder all the time.

Remus and Sirius looked at each other in confusion, wondering what was going on. By now they could both clearly hear the noise, which meant that whoever was making it wasn't very far away.

Sirius was just preparing to turn into a dog when a sight neither were prepared for made him stop and stare.

A suddenly very large black dog rounded the corner, a young black-haired young boy hanging on around his neck for dear life. Dog and boy went racing down the corridor, neither noticing the two men. Next came three teens, chasing the dog and yelling "Stop, Black! Stop!" or "Hang on, Harry!" to the dog and his rider.

When the strange procession had disappeared Sirius and Remus looked blankly at each other.

"Did you just see…?" Sirius asked.

"Yes" said Remus.

"Was that…?"

"Yes."

"And…?"

"Yes."

They exchanged another look and then, with yells, they raced after the teens to help chase down the dog that had apparently kidnapped Harry Potter.

"Bad, Black!" Harry shrieked. "Stop!"

He was desperately trying to keep his hold around the dog's neck so that he didn't fall off, and Black didn't see to notice that he was almost being strangled. Black jumped over something and Harry tightened his hold even more as he threatened to slip straight off.

"Black, stop!" he tried again.

The door just barked in response and sped up, bounding down the next set of stairs. Students and teachers alike leapt out of the way as boy and dog sped past, staring at them as they went.

Harry was quite aware of where his dog was headed. He knew Black needed to go outside, but 'Mione had said they had to wait until he was small again. Now the dog had decided to get there on his own.

He looked around. He could see 'Mione, Won, Neville, Moony and the large black dog he knew to be his godfather chasing them.

Suddenly Harry felt Black shrinking on the marble staircase, and Black gave a yelp of surprise. Harry's own eyes widened in shock.

"No, stay big, Black!" he yelled, hanging on.

But it was no use. With a sudden pop Black was suddenly a small puppy again and Harry was thrown forwards with the momentum from the sudden stop. He hit the stairs on his shoulder and hip and went tumbling down them.

"Quick, get him!" Hermione screamed, running down the stairs.

Harry rolled down the last steps and lay there for a moment, bruised and dazed. A second later the face of his female mentor came into his line of view.

"Harry, are you okay?" she asked anxiously.

"No, 'Mione," Harry said, his lip trembling slightly.

He hurt all over. Gingerly he sat up and winced as his back flared with pain from a large bruise there. Suddenly he was swept off the ground by Ron.

"Come on, Harry," he said. "Madam Pomfrey should be able to help you."

Black was yipping anxiously, bounding around them. Harry smiled at the dog; he couldn't be angry at him. It wasn't Black's fault after all.

Hermione tried not to hover, she really did. But she was feeling frantic. After all, how often does one's charge take a ride on a dog and then roll down a set of stairs?

"Hermione, you need to calm down," Remus said to her. "Harry is fine."

"I know," Hermione sighed. "But why does everything seem to happen to Harry, even as a little child?"

"If I had the answer to that, I'd probably be a millionaire," Remus said with a laugh.

Hermione smiled slightly at that. How trouble found Harry so often was a mystery, and she suspected that it would always remain so.

Next – Chapter fifteen; Why? To Ron and Hermione's horror Harry begins asking why things are the way they are… incessantly.

Thank you to;

Aldavinur, Freja Lercke-Falkenborg, hittocerebattosai, A, asdfjkl, stag-star, Saturnblue, Aria Dragoncrest, Dragonmage182, Mikee, tati and, emeraud.silver. Your reviews keep me going!