"taiim lu naxtuula." :D
Harry sat on the outskirts of the lake with Theodore and gazed across the murky waters. Neither spoke as they sat there recalling this morning's events and Draco nearly dying from the poisoned mead. How many people had they been forced to tell? Dumbledore. Snape. Pomfrey. Narcissa Malfoy who had arrived a couple hours later after receiving word. They were tired of relaying the story, but Harry still had a question left unanswered.
"How'd you know?" Harry asked, eying Theodore.
"Could smell it." Theo explained with a casual shrug. "The moment I brought it up, I could smell the faint scent of the poison, nearly masked by the mead."
"Oh." Harry played with his robe and then gave a heavy sigh. "Well, not much to go about it, huh? Just looks like I'll have to sub Malfoy again this coming game."
"Yeah." Theo gave Harry a worried look. "Try not to get slaughtered this coming game. Don't think our House would forgive you if we lost to Hufflepuff."
"No...I can't imagine they would."
Finding someone to replace Malfoy had been nearly impossible as no one wanted to be in the same shoes as Tracey and Pansy had been, both of whom were still sulking over the last game. In the end, the only person willing was Crabbe and this turned out to be a terrible idea because Harry found himself waking up in the hospital wing in a bed next to Draco with bandages wrapped around his head.
"Ah, so pleasant of you to visit." Draco gave him a small smile.
"What happened?" Harry questioned, fingering the bandages.
"Cracked skull." Pomfrey explained as she came over. "Nothing to worry about, I mended it at once, but I'm keeping you in overnight. You shouldn't overexert yourself for a few hours."
"I don't want to stay here overnight." Harry sat up and tried to throw off his covers, but the medi-witch quickly wrestled him back into his bed. "I want to find Crabbe and kill him."
"I'm afraid that would come under the heading of 'overexertion'." She gave him a dark look. "You will stay here until I discharge you, Potter, or I shall call the headmaster."
She left the two alone and Harry, disgruntled, gave Draco a glare. "D'you know how much we lost by?"
"Be prepared to smother yourself with your pillow, Harry." Draco replied coyly. "You're not going to want to live after you hear. Of course, you'll only want to die because what the Slytherins will do to you for losing another match, especially against Hufflepuff of all things, is going to be much worse."
"Just give me the points." Harry sighed.
"Three hundred and twenty to sixty."
"Brilliant." Harry snarled. "Really brilliant! When I get hold of Crabbe..."
"You couldn't hold Crabbe." Draco told him calmly. "He's five times bigger than you. Besides...the Slytherins should have drowned him in the lake by now."
This didn't seem to be a satisfactory enough a punishment for Crabbe and the two began to discuss a better one until they went to sleep.
Harry had himself another meeting with Dumbledore and found himself under a disappointed look when Dumbledore learned that Harry had not acquired the memory. Then they continued through the story, which lead Harry to even more questions and made him want even more to have someone to confide in.
Pressured even more now to get the memory for Slughorn, Harry began to stress harder, going through Snape's old school book as if it would help him, and finally fleeing to Snape's office with hopes of a suggestion.
"What is it you need?"
"I need to get a memory from Slughorn for Dumbledore. I can't tell you anymore about it because I'm not sure I'm aloud to."
Snape's brow twitched, clearly irritated that Dumbledore didn't trust him enough with this task. "Well, I would have thought the answer to your predicament was clear."
Harry raised his head and stared at him, startled the man had reached a conclusion so quickly, "What is it?"
The Potions Master made a tsking sound and shook his head. "Oh, come, Potter. You're intelligent enough to figure it out on your own. If not, then I really can't understand how you manage to do so well in all your classes, in particular in Potions."
Harry eyed him and then did something he knew he'd regret: he tried to use a nonverbal Legilimens on Snape.
He had never seen Snape get so mad before and to be honest he thought fighting a dragon and facing Voldemort was a million times a greater experience than enduring Snape's wrath. He swore his head was nearly blown off and how many jars he had thrown his direction as he rushed from the classroom was well beyond him. Wisely, he decided to send a letter of apology rather than visit the man personally.
Now, though, he was thinking frantically. Snape was brilliant and a bit of a genius (if his writing as the Prince was any indicator), therefore it didn't really surprise Harry that he had seen the solution right away. It was simply that it annoyed Harry that he himself hadn't seen it and he didn't want to remain an idiot in the eyes of Snape while he struggled to complete this task.
At the same time as stressing over this, he, Theodore, and Draco were trying to get hold of the Marauders' Map. They had figured out the schedule of how the Map jumped around, so now all they had to do was grab the Map off one of them. Draco thought it would be easier to use the Imperius Curse, but Harry refused to be involved in the use of Unforgiveables while on Hogwarts' Grounds.
"Only at Hogwarts?" Draco gave a coy grin.
Harry smiled back. "I would really hate to be expelled. I'd have to go back and live with those Muggles and lose my wand. It'd be a real bummer."
Theodore made a few suggestions, but it took working out a collection of ideas before they were finally able to come up with a decent enough a plan.
They decided to corner the Mudblood, who didn't always share the same classes as his two friends. It all began with Muffliato, which silenced the hall, and then a spell to break the strap of his bag, which scattered his books. Oppugno was cast next, and all his papers began to attack him in a fury while Harry, hidden beneath the Invisibility Cloak rushed forward and hoped against all hope the Map wasn't currently flapping around Dean's face. He was in luck as it still lay on the ground and he quickly hid it into his Invisibility Cloak and took off back towards Theodore and Draco, who were pointing at Dean and laughing at his struggle with the papers.
Soon the three of them were hiding in an abandoned classroom investigating the map, Draco absolutely enthralled with it.
"You've had this map before and you haven't tried to get it back from Weasel and his gang of mutts?"
Harry grinned. "They're not all mutts, are they?"
"Neville's figured it out." Theodore inspected the map. "Are not taking the best care of this. Is tea spilled all over this side and it's ripping on that corner. Say we keep it from now and make sure they don't continue it's destruction."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Harry replied and then turned to Draco. "Okay, when are we doing this?"
"Tomorrow."
The next day, Harry was staring in the mirror at a far prettier him...though to be frank, the short and thin blonde-haired brown-eyed beauty staring back at him was the furthest thing from resembling him. Stuffing away his glasses, Harry pulled on the girl's robes that Draco had provided (nearly getting lost in them too) and pocketed the flask full of Polyjuice Potion to ensure he didn't return to normal in any inconvenient place. When he left the bathroom he found a brunette with brown eyes staring at him from beside Draco, looking very sullen and not wanting to be there.
"Hello, Thesa." Harry giggled at Theo, giving him a wave, to which Theo responded by making a very inappropriate symbol with his hand.
"Come on." Draco growled at them. "We shouldn't waste too much time."
"Right." Harry walked over to Draco and then, feeling a bit amused by everything, hooked arms with him. "Mind?"
"A bit, actually." Draco sneered. "What if Pansy sees?"
"And I think I mind it too." Theo gave a disgusted look and shifted his heavy bag on his now much smaller shoulder.
"Well, it doesn't look like you want to go out with Pansy." Harry mumbled and then added, "Besides weren't you singing Laura Madley's tune not that long ago."
Theodore burst out laughing instantly and Draco scowled darkly ahead.
"If you hadn't saved me embarrassment and my life, Harrietta, I would kill you right now." Draco's words were venom, but they only made Harry laugh along with Theo.
For some reason, making light of their current predicament seemed the only way to keep Harry from bursting into tears over being turned into a girl.
Harry couldn't believe how many times Draco kept asking him and Theodore to guard the Room of Requirement while he was inside doing whatever it was he was doing. He also couldn't believe how many girls he posed as.
"Can't we be boys at least once?" Harry grumbled as they walked towards the Room of Requirement for what felt like the twentieth time. "I mean, seriously! I don't want to get used to...to...this!" He indicated his body with a wave of his hand.
"Girls look less suspicious than boys." Draco snapped back. "And I'm paying you, aren't I?"
"I sometimes get the feeling you can't pay me enough."
"Just tack it up as experience than, Harrietta."
Harry wasn't pleased to see the nicknames were sticking.
He did have to say his foul mood wasn't just because he was spending a good chunk of his time as a girl. There were loads of reasons to be irritated. Firstly, Blaise wasn't being much help, despite Harry giving him as much information as he could, and seemed to think Harry was alone in assuming that staying close to Draco would help Harry figure out what he was up to. Secondly, Snape was still infuriated at Harry's attempted Legilimency on him and showed this in class, where he had taken to humiliating him before his peers whenever he was given the chance (forcing Harry to explain the difference between an Inferius and a ghost and then mocking him when he gave a description). Thirdly, he still hadn't figured out how to handle Slughorn and this was causing him a great deal of distress. And finally and seemingly far more important than the rest of these combined, Harry still didn't feel like he and Theodore were dating. Doing Draco's dirty work was helping to draw them closer and they were spending more time together than they had in a long while, but they weren't really doing anything different from what Harry could tell.
He brought this up one time while they were sitting outside the Room of Requirement, Harry staring at the ceiling in boredom and Theodore working hard on homework.
"Just because we haven't ravaged each other's faces off doesn't mean we're not dating." Theodore scribbled away on his notes. "Anyways, what's it matter? Are far too busy to actually date and Hogsmeade visits are done with thanks to Bell's hospitalization and Draco's poisoning. Is no chance they'll be returned at this rate. Too dangerous."
"I wonder who did it." Harry mumbled, scrutinizing the ceiling. "Who cursed Bell and poisoned that mead?"
"Whoever was clearly trying to get it to Dumbledore." Theodore replied smoothly. "You've heard the rumors and you heard Slughorn himself."
"Yes..." Harry mused. "I wonder why though..."
"Thought that was obvious."
"All right...I wonder who."
"Could be any number of people, really." Theodore shrugged. "Am simply wondering who is acting under those other's orders."
"It's probably You-Know-Who and it's probably one of his followers." He cast Theodore a meaningful look.
Theodore gave a disgusted snort. "Wouldn't be stupid enough to use such pathetic means. If it was me then it'd be straight to the Killing Curse. Much quicker."
Harry couldn't help, but agree and they didn't breach the topic again.
Translation: "careful of bats" is similar to saying "break a leg" when one is learning to levitate him/herself. The word for bat, "naxtuula" is a combined word of "nax" for 'night' and "tuula" for 'wing(s)', therefore meaning together 'nightwing'. It is also the name of the most famous of those who speak this language.