Chapter 2
"Well, well, well. Isn't this fascinating." Snape sounded almost gleeful, and McGonagall shot him a disproving glare.
"Severus, the poor girl is a hawk! We must find a way to change her back!"
Snape's good humor vanished. "How can we do that when we don't even know what the issue is? Use your brains, all of you! The girl has clearly been ingesting her own Transfiguration potions and something has gone awry!"
Silence reigned in the office until Hagrid burst into tears. "What're we gonna do?" he wailed, clutching Hermione tighter in his anguish. She squawked and freed herself, coming to rest on McGonagall's desk again and glaring at Professor Snape. The dour man simply crossed his arms and glared back.
"Calm yourself, Hagrid," McGonagall said, patting the half-giant on the arm. "Severus will figure it out, won't you?"
"Me?" The Potions master spun on his heel to face her. "Minerva, I hardly think—"
"You said yourself—she's ingested a potion. Potions are your expertise. Besides, her lab is next to yours—I'm sure she's kept detailed notes. Maybe there's something useful there."
Snape scoffed but McGonagall forged ahead. "Filius and I shall help in any way we can, of course, but I do think you're the one best suited to undo—whatever has happened here." She looked sadly at the hawk, which was backing up on the desk and shaking its head no again. Snape was scowling fiercely, but in the end, he simply strode out the door, calling back "Come, Miss Granger," imperiously as he went.
McGonagall was forced to revise her opinion of the hawk's expressions, because the look Hermione shot her way now was most certainly terrified. Nevertheless, she eventually flew out the door, leaving McGonagall and Flitwick to comfort a still-sniffling Hagrid.
In the end, it had taken the considerable skills of both McGonagall and Snape to release Hermione from her hawk form. Snape's eyes had widened comically when she had tumbled, human again and entirely naked, off her perch on his laboratory table and into his chest. She would have been embarrassed, except that she was so utterly relieved to be back to herself that she hadn't thought a thing of it; instead simply throwing her arms around him and bursting into tears. McGonagall had quickly Transfigured her some robes then set about making tea. An hour later, Hermione had revealed the entire tale of her experimentation, and endured a blistering set-down from Professor Snape. She knew she deserved that and worse, however, so endure it she did, nodding meekly at all the right points.
Eventually McGonagall had bundled her off to her rooms for a rest, patting her arm sympathetically even as she expressed her disapproval of Hermione's reckless endangerment of herself and others. Once again, Hermione agreed with McGonagall's assessment of her rash behavior, so she ducked her head and promised McGonagall it wouldn't happen again. Once she was alone, she climbed into bed and fell into an uneasy sleep.
She was rudely awakened, however, when she spontaneously transformed back into the goshawk.
A/N: Oh, Hermione. Tsk tsk.