A Tick in Time – Second Year Part 1
A/N: ENJOY! R&R PLZ!
Hermione came downstairs just as the others had finished cleaning up after dinner. "It's time," she announced and the others looked at each other and silently trouped into the living room. They resumed their original seats.
Lily was the first to break the silence, "I contacted the professors, they couldn't get away from the school so they said to go on without them." Hermione nodded and swallowed. This was going to be a hard one for her to tell, like she was reliving it all.
Hermione cleared her throat, "Okay so the story of Harry's second year starts in the summer while he was with Dursleys. All of Harry's magical possessions were locked away in the cupboard where he used to sleep."
"How is he supposed to do his homework?" demanded Lily.
"Don't worry Lily, he got it done…after a fashion." Hermione added wryly thinking on the incident, "You see Vernon was having some business associates coming over for dinner. The Dursleys didn't want them to know about Harry so he was sent to his room and made to stay there however he had a visitor."
"Who?" chorused the group.
"A house-elf by the name of Dobby." Hermione held back the tears as she thought of the courageous little elf who gave his life for her and her friends.
"Wait a second I know that elf," Sirius said abruptly.
"You know him?" asked James incredulously.
"He works for the Malfoy family, before I ran away from home I had visited the manor once and saw him. Funny little thing but horribly mistreated." Sirius frowned remembering when he saw Lucius kicking the elf for not putting enough wine in his goblet even though said goblet was almost full.
"Well he was waiting for Harry in his room, he said he came to warn Harry about dangers that were about to happen at Hogwarts."
"What was going to happen?" James was on the edge of his seat as was everyone else.
"That's just it, he couldn't say. Every time he tried he was try to hurt himself and act as if he couldn't speak."
"His masters must have forbidden him from revealing anything," Sirius said knowingly.
"Yes well regardless he wanted Harry to swear that he wouldn't return to Hogwarts. Obviously Harry wouldn't so Dobby ran downstairs and dropped pudding on the guests' heads so Harry would get into trouble and wouldn't be allowed to go back."
"I'm thinking the Dursleys didn't take that well," Lily grimaced predicting her sister's reaction.
"No they did not, especially when they found out that Harry didn't tell about not being able to use magic; he had conveniently forgotten to mention that." Hermione smirked even though it had landed her best friend in a lot trouble. The Marauders grinned proudly while Lily shook her head at her sister's foolishness.
"How did they find out?" Remus asked.
"Well obviously, there had been magic performed so the ministry sent an owl to the house."
"But Harry didn't do it!" cried the room.
"True but Dobby had disappeared and there was no way to prove he was there. The magic was registered as Harry's. So, Vernon came up with a scheme. He locked Harry in his room with bars on the windows so that Harry couldn't get out without getting into trouble. They installed a cat flap in door so food could be pushed through." Everyone including Hermione growled at the thought. Hermione continued on, "But he wasn't there long. You see Dobby had been stopping Harry's mail in the hope that it would help discourage him from returning to school. But our friend Ron and his family became concerned when Harry didn't reply so he and his prankster brothers Fred and George took their father's flying car and to rescue him." Hermione had to stop here, just thinking about Fred made her choke up.
"At least someone comes to help him," Lily breathed out, relieved.
"A flying car? Only Arthur would think of something like that," Remus shook his head.
"I wonder what Molly's reaction was?" James mused.
"Well I know her reaction to her sons taking said car and flying it halfway across the country." The marauders winced knowing full well THAT kind of reaction. "It wasn't pretty but they made it out alive and Harry stayed there for the rest of the summer. Sadly for Ginny that had meant a few weeks of embarrassment."
"What do you mean?" Lily asked while the boys smirked.
"She had the unfortunate tendency of losing the ability to speak around Harry and she became quite klutzy in his presence too." Hermione allowed herself snicker knowing she could never do it in front of the redhead.
"Potter men, causing girls to fall over themselves for three generations," James invisibly toasted.
"Oh please," Lily said derisively. She turned back to Hermione, "By the way Mya, this girl sounds an awful like the fan girls."
"I know and I know where you're going with that but she grew out of it. Harry practically lived with her family in the coming years so the hero worship died out rather quickly. All that time they spent together, she got to know the real him, he eventually became just Harry. They are a great couple." Hermione sighed having watched the evolution occur, she could even pinpoint the exact time the hero worship fully came to an end. It was the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Right after the first task, Ginny realised that all those stunts weren't so glorious in real life and she started to respect Harry more for his bravery as a person and less like some great ideal hero. (A/N: Did anyone else notice that Ginny started speaking after the first task? Just saying.)
"That's good," Lily said appeased. "So Harry spent the whole summer with the Weasleys?"
"Yes. In fact, Harry's Hogwarts letter arrived there too so it was decided he would accompany the Weasleys to Diagon Alley. They were travelling by floo something that Harry had never done before so he made a mistake and ended up in Knockturn Alley."
"Oh no, that's not a very safe place at all," whispered Lily.
"No its not," Hermione agreed grimly knowing in detail the dealings of that particular street. "He ended up in Borgin and Burkes just as the Malfoys were walking in. He hid himself in a cabinet and witnessed Lucius selling a number of things to avoid trouble with the ministry."
Sirius snorted, "Of course he would do that."
"Anyway in the alley Harry ran into Hagrid who was buying slug repellant and he helped him out on to the main street."
"Good," James breathed out relieved.
"He met up with me and the Weasleys so we all went to Flourish & Blotts to buy our books and we saw that Gilderoy Lockhart was going to be there."
"Why is that important?" Lily asked.
"Well he is a very famous man at the time. He was supposed to have done all these amazing things in the fight against the darks arts. It was said that he took on werewolves and ghouls and vampires and things like that."
"That git? But I remember him, thought he was so good-looking and talented but couldn't charm a bug to fly. No one would believe that rubbish." Remus chuckled. The other marauders and Lily laughed but Hermione stunned the group by turning a deep shade of red.
"Hermione you didn't…" Lily said in shocked gasp.
"Anyway," Hermione said loudly, "it was there that we found out that he was going to be our next defence against the dark arts teacher."
"Good luck," Sirius remarked and Hermione spared him a grimace.
"So then we ran into Malfoys and Lucius was being a jerk to Arthur, pointing out the Weasleys' poverty because some second hand book of Ginny's and calling them 'a disgrace to the name of wizard' so they got into a fight right there in the bookstore. He gave Lucius a bloody lip," At this everyone cheered. "Lucius thrust Ginny her book back her and ran out the place. Nothing happened again until September when we were trying to get on the train. For some reason, Harry and Ron couldn't get through. So they were all by themselves at King's Cross and that was when they decided to take the car to Hogwarts."
"My son flew to Hogwarts! In-a-car!" Lily exclaimed. This was another one of those moments when James tried to look disapproving but failed magnificently. Remus and Sirius bit their lips lest they laugh and get a lecture from Lily.
"Yes he did, and when he was almost there the car started to run out of gas."
"Typical, of course," Lily muttered. "Dare I ask how the landing went?"
"They landed in Whomping Willow," Hermione answered.
"JAMES WHY THE HELL ARE YOU STILL SMILING YOU GIT!?" Lily roared.
"Love, I'm sure he and Ron were fine because there is more to this story, we are going to change this so he won't be in any danger and I know for a fact that those two are going to be heroes in the common room. This is one for the unwritten history books. Am I right?" James turned to Hermione.
"Hold on, you're jumping ahead a bit. First I should say that yes neither of them was injured but Ron broke his wand. Then they ran into our favourite teacher Professor Snape who took them down to the dungeons and brought McGonagall and Dumbledore. Apparently they had been seen by six muggles."
"Oh god, Harry's warning!" James stopped smiling.
"No he wasn't blamed, he didn't technically enchant the car but they got a detention each and a letter home."
"So wait," Remus spoke, "being out of bed with you and Neville had resulted in losing 150 points and a very dangerous detention and nearly breaking the International Statute of Secrecy got them one detention and a letter home?"
"Yeah it never made much sense to me either but it was one those 'don't look a gift horse in the mouth' scenarios. James yes you were right, they got a hero's welcome when they got back to the dorm."
"Nothing really changes," Sirius chuckled.
"Poor Ron got a howler in the mail the next morning though," Hermione worked hard to keep the amusement out of her voice. The marauders grimaced in sympathy.
"So just like last year it was pretty normal in the beginning. I should mention here that Harry had gotten himself a bigger follower than Ginny in the form of a shutterbug named Colin. You want to talk about hero worship, look no further." Hermione smiled sadly remembering. Colin had been at no age to go, maybe he could be one of the people saved.
"Shutterbug? I've never heard of them before." James asked.
"Honey it just means that Colin liked to take pictures," Lily explained.
"Yep, he pretty much had a camera glued to his hands," Hermione confirmed. "Now before you ask Lockhart was a disaster. He thought that it would make an interesting first lesson to unleash a cage full of Cornish pixies and then leave it to us to handle while he hid in his office."
"Didn't he try to help?" Remus was caught between being highly appalled and highly entertained.
"He tried some rubbish spell that I'm pretty sure isn't a spell in the first place." Hermione rolled her eyes. "I suppose the trouble gets started during the Gryffindor quidditch practice. The Slytherins were trying to take the pitch from our team. They claimed they needed to train their seeker, Malfoy -"
"So how did he buy his way on with?" Sirius casually asked.
Hermione replied with faux shock, "Oh no Sirius he didn't buy his way on the team, perish the thought. His father donated seven state-of-art racing brooms."
"Typical," Sirius snorted, "In Lucius's time he donated new quidditch balls and got the team tickets to a game."
"Thank goodness our teams are based on pure talent although I wouldn't mind making a donation myself," James mulled, "after Harry gets on the team, of course. I'll have no one say my son bought his way on to the team."
"Well that kind of what I said to them and Malfoy…well…he called me something rather unpleasant." Hermione frowned and Lily gasped.
"He didn't!" Lily exclaimed.
"He did, in front of everyone." Hermione said grimly.
"What did he do?" Sirius asked looking between the two.
Lily's gaze never left Hermione, "He called her a mudblood." The marauders looked murderous whereas Hermione and Lily were having a silent conversation. Not a word was said but at the end they nodded.
"Anyway Ron tried to curse Malfoy but his wand backfired and slugs started to pour from his mouth."
"I swear that this time around, Ron will have a properly functioning wand and plenty of practice beforehand." Sirius vowed with James and Remus nodding.
"Teach him another hex if you must. Slugs…ugh gross," Lily wrinkled her nose.
James looked at his wife with an awed expression, "Did you just agree to hexing someone?" Lily ignored him and he kept staring at her like he fallen in love all over again.
Hermione ignored him too, "You can say that again. We took him to Hagrid who said the only thing we could do was wait for it stop. On our way back to the common room, McGonagall met with Ron and Harry to give them their detentions. Ron was to clean the trophy room with no magic under Filch's supervision."
"Brutal but doable," James critiqued. Remus and Sirius made conceding gestures.
"And Harry was to spend the evening with Lockhart answering his fan mail."
"Torture," everyone including Lily said in unison.
"Well he tried to switch with Ron but McGonagall wouldn't hear of it. So he went there and had to put up Lockhart's babbling for almost four hours. Towards midnight something strange happened, he heard a voice coming from nowhere."
"Okay am I the only one remembering what happened last time he heard some disembodied voice?" Sirius asked but no one answered.
"The voice was saying something about killing. Lockhart thought he was just over-tired so he sent him to bed and now we enter October. Again a couple weeks of normality until one day after Quidditch practice Harry met up with Nearly Headless Nick who had, yet again, been denied membership to the Headless Hunt."
"He's still trying for that?" Lily shook her head.
"Anyway it had been raining that day so Harry was dripping mud and was spotted by Mrs. Norris who of course went straight to Filch. He hauled Harry to his office and was just about to punish him when he was distracted by a loud crash from above so he ran out and left Harry there. Harry noticed an envelope for a Kwikspell course and that's how he found out Filch is a squib. Then Filch came back in because the crash was Peeves breaking that Vanishing Cabinet, when he saw Harry had seen the letter, he made him get out and swear never to tell anyone."
"You know Prongs I think your son is only student ever to go into Filch's office and get out without punishment even after doing something bad," Sirius commented.
"I think so too," James beamed happily until catching sight of his wife's face he added quickly, "Of course Harry should not be breaking rules in the first place and I for one shall certainly discourage him from reading people's personal mail especially a member of the staff." Lily simply rolled her eyes.
Hermione rubbed her forehead, she wondered if Harry and Ginny were going to be like this. "So Harry bolted out of there and saw Nick again. It turned out that Nick persuaded Peeves to break the cabinet as a diversion."
"YAY NICK!" cried the Marauders.
"So then he asked Harry if he would attend his 500th deathday party on Halloween. Harry agreed and myself and Ron went with him."
"What was it like?" Remus asked.
"Cold and creepy. Imagine an entire dungeon full of ghosts listening to musical saws and gliding their mouths through rotten food. Needless to say we left early but as we were coming out, Harry heard the voice again. He ran after it and we came upon something awful."
"What?" everyone asked.
"The hall was flooded and there was Mrs. Norris. Only she had attacked by something. She was as stiff as board and hanging from one of the torch brackets." Hermione shivered, she had never been fond of that cat but that image would stay with her for a while. "Above her was a message written in red paint in big letters, 'THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED. ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE." Now everyone was shivering, Hermione felt goose bumps break out over her skin.
"I thought the Chamber was just a legend," said Remus. All eyes went to him, "I read about it in Hogwarts: A History"
"Oh believe me Remus it is very real." Hermione assured him.
"And the monster within?" Hermione just nodded at the werewolf, knowing all too well how real that monster was.
She continued, "Just then dinner ended, so everyone was in the halls and saw us with the message. Malfoy made the comment, 'You'll be next mudbloods'. (cue growls) Then professors came and we all went to Lockhart's office to examine the cat and give our side of the story. Dumbledore said Mrs. Norris had been petrified but thankfully Professor Sprout was growing mandrakes so they would be able to cure her soon. For our part, we told them everything except the hearing voices bit but Dumbledore let us go. Now nobody knew the legend so we ended up asking Professor Binns and after a fashion he told us. So -"
"Does someone mind enlightening us?" James requested gesturing to himself, Lily, and Sirius who nodded vigorously.
"Well according to the legend, it was created by Slytherin after the founders had built the school and began taking students. Gryffindor and Slytherin apparently had fought because Slytherin wanted to keep magical learning within magical families and so Slytherin left. But before doing so he made a secret chamber unbeknownst to the others and sealed it so none but his one true heir could open it and unleash a monster that would rid the school of all those unworthy to study magic." This pronouncement was greeted with a heavy silence.
"Come to think of it," Sirius spoke, "that story sounds familiar. I think dear old mum used to tell the pureblood friendly version to me and my little brother when we were young."
"Pureblood friendly version?" asked Lily disgustedly.
"Yeah," Sirius's brow became furrowed as he thought back, "I don't remember the specific story – god forbid I actually listened to anything my mother would say – but if memory serves it was more like Slytherin was this wise, valiant man who tried to stand up for the right order of things but was overruled by the stupidity and ignorance of the other founders and was unable to make them see the light. So he had to run for his own safety lest they try to convert him and tarnish his pure and true thoughts and become like that filth loving swine Gryffindor. But such was his power that he left his legacy to be one day taken up by his heir, the prince she called him, and rid the school and this world of the evil, dirty muggles and mudbloods and give rise to the reign of purity as it was meant to be all along." By the end, everyone looked like they were going to be sick especially Sirius.
"Geez Pads," James said with a sour grimace, "your mum is a piece of work."
Hermione burst out laughing and they all looked at her, questioning her sanity, "Sorry I shouldn't be saying this so early but in my time, Sirius's mum is a portrait so for us she really is a piece of work." Lily, Remus, and James chuckled now understanding the joke but Sirius rubbed his temples.
"You mean to say she found a way to hang around after death?" Hermione threw the dog animagus a sympathetic glance and bobbed her head.
Sirius groaned, "We'll never get rid of that bat!"
"It could be worse Siri," Remus tried to soothe his friend, "She could have come back as ghost and then there would have been no way to escape her."
Sirius huffed, "She picked the next best thing." His mouth twitched, "Besides it's impossible for her to come back, to return as a ghost my mother would've had to have possessed a soul." This got a few quiet laughs and Sirius looked mildly cheered so Hermione went on.
"Getting back to the story, now knowing the legend, we checked out the place we found Norris. It was curious; we saw the spiders running in single file out of the castle."
"That's odd," Remus frowned.
"Yes but we'll come back to it. The water had come from a bathroom close to the scene."
"Oh was it who I think it was?" Lily inquired.
"Yep dear old Moaning Myrtle, she was at the deathday party but Peeves had been teasing her so she came back and flooded the place. Unfortunately she wasn't paying attention to anything else so we left and ran into Percy who told us off. Back in the common room we tried to figure out who the heir might be. Our first and really only suspect was - "
"Malfoy," Said the room
"Right but then came the problem of how to find out. I was the one to suggest polyjuice potion."
Sirius gasped and clutched his heart dramatically, "Hermione Granger!" he tried to sound scandalized, "that would be breaking the rules!"
"Of course it would," Hermione replied impishly, "however for that we needed to get the recipe but the book was in the restricted section of the library so we needed a teacher to sign for it."
"Let me guess…" Remus and Lily said together.
"Lockhart. It was really easy – big shocker there – but we had to figure out how to get a hold of the ingredients necessary some of which could only be found in Snape's private stores. I said it would be best for me to do that bit."
"First an illegal potion now stealing from a teacher? Mya I am shocked." Sirius gaped at the girl who he had pegged as another Lily.
"Desperate times, desperate measures. I guess it was a little more personal for me given that I'm muggleborn and my recent run-ins with blood discrimination. But at any rate, we had our plan. But first was Harry's Quidditch match."
"More commentary Mya?" asked James eagerly.
"Sorry James not this time because from literally the start of the game Harry was being tailed by a rogue bludger."
"You're kidding!" The Quidditch fans cried. Hermione shook her head in the negative.
"But that means someone deliberately tampered with it," Sirius said.
"Good thing McGonagall isn't here," muttered James. "She'd go crazy if she heard someone was trying take out one of her team's members."
Hermione privately agreed, remembering McGonagall's reaction from the stands. It had not been pretty. "Yes well eventually it came to the point where our beaters, the Weasley twins, were flanking him making it impossible for Harry to catch the snitch. Wood called a time out and Harry demanded to be left to deal with the bludger himself rather than call off the match and lose."
"Sounds like something James would say," muttered Lily glowering at her husband who had a sheepish expression on.
Hermione giggled, "In the end, Wood gave in to Harry and let him deal with the bludger on his own. It required some very fancy flying to avoid getting hit and then he spotted the snitch and went after it. Just as his closed on it, the bludger hit his arm and broke it."
"Considering what else could have happened he was very lucky," noted Remus.
"I wouldn't be so sure Remus. You see Harry passed out after he caught the snitch and when he awoke Lockhart was standing over him. Rather than letting Harry go to the hospital wing, he tried to mend the arm himself and ended up removing all the bones from it."
"The idiot removed all the bones from my son's arm!" Lily hissed menacingly.
"What kind of defence teacher is he?" asked Remus incredulously. "I hope you guys get at least one good one."
Hermione hid a smile, "We do Remus don't worry. Anyway, missing an arm's worth of bones Harry spent the night in the hospital wing re-growing them when he got a visitor."
"Fan girl?" Sirius asked with a wolfish grin, "I know me and James had plenty of those visiting us after hours."
Hermione face-palmed, "Sirius! Harry is only twelve! What were you doing at that age - you know what? Don't answer that. The visitor was Dobby. It turned out that the elf had been responsible for the barrier not letting him and Ron through and the bludger attack. He said he wanted Harry to be sent home so that Harry would not get hurt. Harry deduced that he was talking about the Chamber and questioned Dobby but all he could out of him was that the Chamber had been opened in the past before they were interrupted. The professors came in carrying another victim, this time a human, Colin."
"Oh dear god," Lily gasped through her hand.
"They thought he was sneaking up to see Harry when he was attacked. He tried to take a picture of who or what hurt him but whatever it was fried the film. The next day Harry was released from the hospital wing and he found Ron and me in the Moaning Myrtle's bathroom starting the potion. We had overheard the professors discussing what had happened to Colin and decided to start as soon as possible and we chose that bathroom simply because no one ever goes in there."
"Well thought out Mya," complimented Remus. The other marauders nodded along, listening intently to what they considered Harry's first true marauding feat.
"Thanks Remus but there was the small matter of a few key ingredients located in Snape's private stores. The plan was to cause a diversion in class and one of us sneaks into the stores to get the ingredients. Harry set off a Filibuster's firework and launched into Goyle's potion while I slipped out to grab the stuff. Harry was certain Snape knew it was him but really everything worked without a hitch."
"How did it feel Mya?" James smirked, "Getting away with it?"
Hermione turned pink, inwardly flushing, "I would never admit it to Harry and Ron but it was a rush. It was so nerve-wracking when I was in the store room, not knowing if Snape was going to come bursting in. Then when I was finished if the class would have settled down and noticed me, I just felt pure adrenaline coupled with my dislike of Snape and making progress in catching the heir, I was euphoric."
"Ah the joys of rule-breaking," beamed Sirius. All three marauders had a reminiscent gleam in their eyes.
Hermione shook her head fondly, "Anyway at the same time a duelling club was started. Unfortunately Lockhart was the one heading it. At our first meeting, he and Snape were doing a demonstration and Snape beat him flat."
"Probably the only time I would root for Snape," Sirius muttered.
"Then we were partnered to practice disarming only. Snape paired me with this Slytherin girl Millicent Bulstrode and Harry partnered with Malfoy. Needless to say the minute Lockhart told us to start all hell broke loose. Harry and Malfoy had a full blown duel whereas I got into a fist fight with Millicent. So then Snape suggested another demonstration, Malfoy and Harry were chosen, Snape whispered something to Malfoy but Lockhart didn't show Harry anything. Then the duel started and Malfoy conjured a snake which started going after this other student Justin and Harry spoke to it, telling it back off. But for the rest of us it looked he was egging it on and that was the first time we heard Harry speak parseltongue." This pronouncement was met with gasps of shock and bewilderment.
Remus on the otherhand became shrewd, "That was the first time you heard it but not the first time he did it?"
"Well no, I didn't bring this up earlier because I thought it would be better now to help understand Harry's point of view versus ours. A couple months before Harry's eleventh birthday the Dursleys and one of Dudley's friends went to the zoo for his cousin's own birthday. They were in the reptile house when Harry began talking to boa constrictor but he honestly didn't realise it. It didn't help that right after he performed some accidental magic, he vanished the glass on the boa's tank letting the boa escape. So Harry chalked it up to accidental magic and thought nothing of it."
"And having never come across another snake, no one would've known," Lily added understandingly.
Hermione nodded, "So now Harry became the object of scrutiny. Everyone thought he was Slytherin's heir. We were in the library when he overheard some Hufflepuffs discussing him, pretty much accusing him of being the attacker. Harry left the library upset and ran into Hagrid who had come to ask the headmaster permission to place some protective charms around his chicken coop because something was killing his roosters. But Harry had to go get his books for his next class so he left Hagrid and found Justin and Nearly Headless Nick petrified in the corridor."
"Oh my poor son," Lily looked almost tearful, "things are going to be unbearable for him now." James looped his arm around her. He wished Harry had written another note to help them, then again what could he write, but the lack of a note seemed ominous that worse was yet to come.
"Well Peeves found him so it wasn't long before the halls were swamped again. McGonagall had no choice but to take Harry to see Dumbledore. There he met Fawkes the phoenix. Fortunately Dumbledore didn't believe for a second that Harry was behind these attacks however unfortunately the same couldn't be said for the rest of the school. The Weasley twin were of some comfort to Harry, making the whole thing seem like a big joke which included walking in front him shouting something like 'make way for the heir of Slytherin, seriously evil wizard coming through', They even - " Hermione giggled, "pretended to try ward Harry off with a piece of garlic." The others gave low chuckles. "Christmas came around and the polyjuice potion was ready. We had to make another plan to obtain the hairs we needed. Harry and Ron were going to take Crabbe and Goyle's hairs because they were his best friends and I was going to be Millicent Bulstrode who had gone home for the holidays, I got some hairs off her robes from the duelling club. The boys had some work to do, they placed these cupcakes that I had filled with a sleeping draft where the two Slytherins would find them. After that, they hid them in the broom closet and took their shoes and hairs. Back in the bathroom, we split the potion, added the hairs, and went into separate cubicles to drink it. Harry and Ron's transformations went perfectly but something went wrong with mine so I told them to go on without me before our time ran out. They wanted to argue but we only had an hour so they went ahead. They went to the dungeons where Malfoy found them and took them to the common room. They had to put up with Malfoy bashing the Weasleys, Colin, and Harry before finally getting on to the topic of the chamber. He clearly said he didn't know anything about but Lucius did. Apparently Malfoy's father had warned him not to interfere and keep his nose clean. The only thing he did tell his son was that last time, someone had died and Malfoy…" Hermione took a deep breath, Malfoy was somewhat reformed in her time but it didn't change how much it hurt her when she found out about this. "Malfoy said he was hoping it was me." The silence was heavy and you could feel the tension rolling off the marauders who were seething in fury. No one spoke word but Lily stood up and left the room, James followed.
Sirius stood and went over to Hermione and pulled her close, "I'm so sorry Mya," he said softly.
Hermione allowed herself to receive his comfort, "It's all over and done Sirius." Hermione pulled away and looked up at the animagus, "Is Lily going to be okay?"
Sirius sighed, "Don't know, Lily is no stranger to receiving death threats herself so I guess this hit close to home for her."
"Lily received death threats?" Hermione asked shocked,
"Yes I did," Lily appeared again, holding James's hand, "Being a talented muggleborn witch, I too defied the pureblood ideology. Obviously I would never join the dark side so there are quite a few who wouldn't mind seeing me dead. Then I married a pureblood and things only got worse. I just thought that seeing as how Voldemort is supposed to be dead in some capacity in your time, such things would be gone. Clearly I thought wrong." Lily resumed her place, as did James and Sirius. "Just go on with the story Mya."
Hermione nodded, "Well at that point the potion started to wear off so the guys had to get out of there and they barely made it back to the bathroom in time. However my potion didn't wear off, turns out it wasn't human hair I pulled off of Millicent's robes, it was cat hair. I had been turned into a cat."
"Well it could have been much worse," James pointed out.
"True, but I did need to spend a few weeks in the hospital wing." Hermione decided to stop here. "I think it's time for a short break."