Snakes and Chocolate Cupcakes

(Y/N)'s POV

When we got back to the common room, I found Bones perched on an armchair, I picked her up and took her to the boys' dormitories, she paid me no mind.

I plopped her down on my bed, "So, I hear you have been getting up to some mischief" I spoke to her, her head bolted up she let out a panicked meow then went to scurry out of the room, "Get back here", she froze and slowly walked back.

"Fighting with Mrs Norris?" she looked at me and made a noise, as if to say "Let me explain" jumped back off the bed and went to go and get something from under Ron's, she came back with several large dead spiders, presenting them to me.

"And?" I asked, she loomed over them and let out a soft hiss, "She was taking them from you?" I guessed, she mewled so I guessed again "She was stopping you from killing spiders?" I said exasperated trying not to shake my head, I must have been right because Bones purred at me and rubbed her face on mine.

"Oh my..." I stopped myself out of shock and looked at her "Really? That's what this was about?" She looked at me, I got the feeling she felt it was important, so I relented "Ok, but I don't want to hear anything like this again" I said trying to act stern, she looked up at me and did something very similar to a grin, meowing so I would follow her.

She jumped off yet again and led me to a hole in a nearby brick, there were several spiders, each of them trying to crawl through the hole, she began to paw at them, she looked up at me as if to tell me "Look, it's so fun".

"Weird, well now that's over I'm off to Harry's Quidditch match, want to come?" she slumped down beside the wall and continued swiping at the spiders, "Lazy butt."

We made it to the stands after wishing Harry good luck, I noticed Hermione was wearing the scarf I got her, I cheered for Harry as loudly as I could, but something seemed off after a while, I had been looking at one of the Bludgers and it was acting strangely.

No matter where Harry went it was always on his tail. Hagrid noticed too "Blimey, Harry's got himself a rogue Bludger" I was immediately worried and transfixed on Harry, so much so I hadn't noticed I was gripping Hermione's hand in my own and squeezing it in panic.

Ron was about to try and cast a spell to stop it but Hermione warned against it, especially with his broken wand, I continued to watch Harry dart about the field to dodge it, at one point I saw someone on the field in front of Harry.

It was Colin Creevey, trying to get a picture as Harry and the Bludger screeched towards him, "COLIN GET DOWN!" I screamed at him as loud as I could, he seemed to hear me and dropped onto his belly in fright, the Bludger flying where he would have been a second ago. 

We all sprinted down the stands and onto the field, as did some teachers Somehow in all of this madness Harry had managed to catch the snitch, but the Bludger kept going, almost hitting him several times. 

I got my wand out to stop it "Immobulus" I stopped it in its tracks, I was about to smash it but Hermione was faster "Finite Incantatum" she cast the spell and the Bludger fell to the ground, no longer cursed, the Weasleys then quickly put it back in its case.

We ran up to check on our friend, as we got to his side I said, "It's always something with you isn't it", he gave a weak laugh. "I think my arms broken" I looked at it and got out my wand again but then decided against it when I saw his arm up close.

"Sorry Harry this is above my skill level, Episkey is only for small stuff, but don't worry Madam Pomfrey will sort you" "Not to worry" said Lockhart, rushing to the scene "I will fix that arm of yours, straight away" he tried to protest, as did I.

"He doesn't need you to, let's just take him up to the hospital wing." Apparently not listening to me, Lockhart cast yet another spell I'd never heard of, then the most disgusting thing I had ever seen happened, Harrys arm turned all rubbery, the bones in his arms were gone.

"Wha' ya don' ya ruddy fool!?" said Hagrid angrily. "Well, you're a lot more flexible now, and an arm can't be broken if there is nothing to break" he reasoned, pushing Harry's wrist back to rest on his shoulder, I tried my best not to look at it, I was starting to feel queasy.

"I hate him so much" I sulked as we walked to the hospital wing. "He was just trying to help" reasoned Hermione, "Badly" I added, she proceeded to storm off in front of me in a huff.

As Harry had returned from the Hospital wing he told us of his encounter with Dobby and the horrible news that little Colin Creevey had been petrified, I visited him a few times in the coming weeks, leaving my autograph behind, as well as new film for his camera, hopefully to cheer him up with our inside joke when he was revived.

The weeks dragged on I finished my detentions with Professor McGonagall, I started my extra charms classes with Professor Flitwick, but he made me swear not to use them for "ill thought out ventures" as he put it.

Colin getting petrified made me push myself harder to learn, I was close to mastering the protection charm and he kept making comments about how well I could adapt to new magic, so I think I was making progress.

Any spare time we had we spent brewing the Polyjuice potion, unfortunately the room Hermione had chosen wasn't the best, especially for me. "Hello again (Y/N)" Myrtle waved at me, apparently, she had taken quite a liking to me.

"Hi" I said, exhausted from my lessons I slumped down next to Hermione. "How did you two meet again?" asked Hermione, sounding a bit cross. "This is Myrtle Warren" I said, gesturing at Moaning Myrtle, who was giggling in the corner.

"I know who she is I-" "Read about her in Hogwarts, A History?" I laughed, she glared at me and continued "Why are you so friendly?" "When I got lost going to Transfiguration class last year I ended up in here." 

"She gave me directions and I made a promise that I would come and speak to her again, and because I'm a man of my word I visit her between classes sometimes for a chat." Hermione accepted this but still looked cross for some reason.

The only break I got from all my work was the new duelling club that had been established, we made our way to it the next day, honestly it sounded brilliant, only problem was Lockhart being here, but I wasn't worried, I was sure that I would be excellent at duelling, "It's in my blood" I mumbled, mum told me so once, I realised I spaced out a bit.

Eventually, after he and Professor Snape had shown us how to duel, and they called up people, almost everyone put their hands up. I was called up to duel first, I was pulled out of my thoughts and finally saw my opponent "Great, I'm about to get my butt handed to me in front of the whole school."

Hermione's POV

Gilderoy Lockhart was teaching us, I was delighted, the boys all let out a huff as he gave his presentation. After some instruction, to set an example Professor Snape and Gilderoy got into stances, they counted down, as soon as the count ended Snape said "EX...pelliarmus" and Gilderoy was blown back.

"Well done, but it was obvious what you would do" "Of course, Gilderoy had taken a fall to be polite" I kicked myself for not realising. Eventually, after he and Professor Snape had shown us how to duel, they called up people, almost everyone put their hands up.

Gilderoy scanned the crowd "How about you, Miss Granger?" I nodded quickly and made my way up, eager to impress. Snape smirked, it was his turn to pick, he stretched a long finger "Mr (L/N) perhaps" he said with a sly smile, clearly, he was having fun setting us against each other.

Pulled out of his thoughts, (Y/N) approached the stage muttering something to himself, he saw me, and his eyes went wide, "Did he not realise he was fighting me?" I thought, the teachers went over the rules and we approached each other to bow.

"So, come here often?" said (Y/N) under his breath, probably trying to calm himself down with jokes as usual. "Prat" I replied, he just smirked.

(Y/N)'s POV

"Disarm only, disarm only", I repeated to myself, she was my friend, I didn't want to hurt her, and the offensive charms Flitwick taught me was for emergencies only.

When it came time to start, she was faster on the draw then me as always, "Rictusempra" she said, and I was suddenly struggling to keep hold of my wand through laughter, I countered "Flipendo" in a panic "Oops not a disarming spell" I panicked but it missed so I tried something else, the spell Snape used, I had never tried it before but I heard it was very good for disarming so I went out on a limb.

"Expelliarmus" I cast, what I didn't notice was she had already tried the same spell as a follow up from her last, after my spell left my wand, my wand left my hand, I would have felt more embarrassed but Hermione's wand also flew from her grip, her arm was blown back a bit.

"That's enough", said Snape with a scowl, we both collected our wands and walked down to our spaces, there was clapping following our performance. I leaned over to Hermione who was holding her wrist,

"You ok?" I asked, she nodded. "Let's call that a draw" I smirked. "If it makes you feel better" she said sassily.

(Y/N)'s POV

The next duel was awesome, Harry was fighting Draco, I got to watch as Harry tried Rictusempra, and he said it wrong or something so Draco got blasted back, that must have frustrated him because he cast "Serpensortia" 

A live snake slithered out of his wand. It headed to Harry but suddenly turned and looked directly at Justin Finch-Fletchly who looked terrified. Harry then approached it and said something weird, it looked at him and turned back to Justin, still slowly advancing.

I tried to get a read on the snake, but it seemed like it didn't care about anything else, it was angry but it didn't know why, it was going to attack, and I didn't know if I could stop it.

So I did the next best thing, I walked in front of it, keeping constant eye contact, I tried to soothe it like I did with Bones, I lowered my head and swayed quietly, this was how I got Bones to calm down if she got scared as a kitten.

To be fair she was in my arms whenever I did it to her, not glaring into my eyes with the intention of attacking. The snake followed my eyes for a few seconds, and I felt it start to calm down, "You're not going to do anything are you?" I asked.

The feeling of peace bubbled up to the surface of my thoughts, I couldn't do much else as Snape walked up and set it on fire, killing it. Suddenly I felt lightheaded and groggy and was overcome with a wave of sadness and pain, the room suddenly felt a lot hotter.

I was pulled out of my grogginess when a hand wrapped around my wrist and pulled me away, we had already entered an empty classroom before I realised the hand was Hermione's, I sank down into a chair, fearing my legs would give out, she put her hand to my forehead and sighed with relief.

"What was that?" Said Ron to Harry. He looked very confused "What?" "I tried to stop the snake, you all heard me" he said adamantly. "So that's what you said" I commented, Harry looked even more confused.

"I heard you speaking parceltongue, snake language, it sounded like you were egging it on or something" Ron added. Harry then explained to us that he didn't know he could speak another language, and reasoned if he didn't know he could, how could he? It was hard to deny his logic.

"What about you (Y/N) what were you doing?" asked Harry. "Trying to calm the snake down, same as you, it wasn't going to attack anymore, it was calming down when Snape killed it" I said sadly, they looked at me funny.

"How could you tell?" asked Hermione. "Yeah, it looked pretty deadly from where I was standing" tacked on Ron. "I don't know how I knew; I just did, it didn't feel angry anymore I guess."

I didn't want to have to ask my next question, but I felt like it was necessary. "Harry I'm going to ask you this once, I will believe whatever you tell me, but I want the truth" I stated, he knew what was coming but let me ask anyway.

"Are you the heir of Slytherin? Did you open the chamber? Even by accident?" "No" he said firmly, I let out a breath. "Good, at least the sorting hat can keep his flawless record" I said, trying to break the tension. It seemed to work, all three of them rolled their eyes at me.

"Oh, and by the way, it's not me either, if you were wondering". "Well, with that sorted, I'm going to go for a lie down" I said walking out to the Gryffindor common room.

I awoke the next day and Lavender Brown immediately filled me in with the juicy details about what I missed and all the rumours now surrounding Harry, as well as the saddening news that Justin had been petrified, it looked like she had been dying to tell me since she was basically jumping up and down when she did.

"Thanks Lavender, I owe you one" I said rushing out the common room to find the gang. I found them in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, "I just found out, what happened?" Harry explained his side of the story, "Looking real suspicious Potter" I wagged a finger and laughed sarcastically.

By the time the potion was done it was near Christmas, we had all decided to stay back to fulfil our plans, I had to send an awkward letter to mum and dad making excuses as to why I wanted to stay, I even attached their presents. As well as some gifts for Hagrid and Mrs Weasley.

On Christmas day Hermione woke us up bright and early by barging into the dorm. "How'd you ev'n get in 'ere" I said sleepily as she woke me up, "Merry Christmas" she said, I rolled back over into bed until she threw a present that hit me in the head.

I shot up from bed, suddenly filled with energy, "You're getting it now Granger" I jumped out of bed and chased her around the room, when I finally caught her I started tickling her, yelling "Vengeance" and telling her that I had already warned her once.

After that, we all exchanged gifts and pleasantries with the Weasleys, Mrs Weasley had made me another sweater, I loved it, I gave everyone their gifts, Harry got arm braces for Quidditch "By sixth year, you're going to look like a flying tank" I commented, I got Ron some stuff from Zonko's and a leaflet on wand care "Might come in handy one day", I said slyly, I got Hermione a glove and hat set to go with her scarf "Ta-da" I said as she opened them.

When we were finished, it was back to business, Hermione explained the potion was ready but said we should probably do it tonight, all we needed now was hair. "Gross" I commented, "There is another issue."

 I looked at her curiously, "The cauldron I used only held enough for 3 people to use, I may have miscalculated the boiling process." "Rock paper scissors?" I offered, "Wizards chess?" Offered Ron, I looked at him unhappily.

Turns out I suck at rock paper scissors, I lost, so I had to stay back while these three did something fun, again. "Well, how are we getting the hairs?" I asked, downtrodden.

Hermione explained she had already got some from Millicent Bulstrode and then her plan to get the others but said she couldn't remember how to make a sleeping draught, and that the book she needed had been checked out in the library.

"What would you do without me?" I said, "I know it, should have it sorted by dinnertime." Later, we filled some chocolate cupcakes with the amazing sleeping draught I made and gave them to Harry and Ron with instructions. 

I decided it was best to go with them to make sure everything went over smoothly. "How thick can you get?" said Ron in amazement as Crabbe and Goyle ate the cakes without a second thought and fell to sleep, we plucked a few hairs from their heads and began to drag them away.

"That was brilliant, did you see their faces, hehehe" I laughed, I realised it was lucky I came because while I stuffed Crabbe in the broom closet alone, I looked back and saw the others struggling to lift Goyle even with a joint effort.

We rushed back to Moaning Myrtle's toilet and upon seeing the potion, I was suddenly very happy I had lost rock paper scissors. It was a brown sludge, it kept bubbling, it looked horrid, they added the hairs and looked at the potion.

"Well, bottoms up" I patted all three of them on the back. Each of them drank their fill and Ron and Hermione ran into stalls, I watched as Harry changed in front of me, his skin started to bubble, he looked at his hand as it gained some more weight, part of me was amazed, part of me felt like I needed to vomit.

I turned away to retch, and when I looked back, I was staring at Gregory Goyle. When Ron came out, or Crabbe really, I charmed their robes to be Slytherin colours and then knocked on Hermione's stall, "Come on Hermione, we are on a timer here."

"I'm not going!" she said adamantly, so I tried to coax her out "It can't be that bad, I'm sure Millie Bulstrode will grow into her looks, now hurry up." "I'm NOT GOING!" she said, sounding teary eyed.

I motioned the guy's out of the bathroom, "Go on, I will stay and check on her" I whispered, they looked reluctant but eventually ran off. "Hermione it's just me now, can I come in?" I pleaded, "NO!" she screeched. 

"Just let me know you're ok, you're not hurt, are you?" "No" she said quietly, I sighed in relief. "Fine, I'm just going to sit here and wait then" I said sliding my back down the stall door and sitting on my butt.

 We sat there in silence for what felt like hours the only thing that broke the silence was Myrtle, who would occasionally stick her head in the door and start laughing. "Oh, it's terrible" she said between giggles, I heard Hermione start crying in the stall, I snapped.

"OH, SHUT UP YOU CREEPY WIERDO" I said, shocking myself, I was about to apologise when Myrtle disappeared down a nearby sink drain, wailing as she went. "You ok?" I said quietly to Hermione. "Yes" she answered softly.

This wasn't getting me anywhere, so I tried a different tactic, "Do you know how I knew how to make sleeping draught?" I offered, she quietly replied "No."

"When I was a kid, I used to have terrible nightmares, for obvious reasons, I couldn't sleep a wink, so my mum started brewing them for me every night, eventually it became a routine, so I watched her do it for years"

"You know the funny thing though; I think watching her make them for me helped me sleep more than the potion did" I let out a hollow laugh "They tasted terrible." "Not as bad as Polyjuice potion" she said, the lock on the door opened, "You can come in, but promise not to laugh."

"Me? Never" I slowly opened the bathroom stall, I saw her there in the corner, she was covered in fur, she had a tail between her legs and cat like eyes, with some ears to go with them.

"Millicent Bulstrode has a pet cat, that was the hair I used" she said, tears in her eyes, I tried to calm her down. "Oh, thank god! I came in expecting Millicent Bulstrode and it was only this, what a relief" I wiped fake sweat from my brow.

"Listen" I wiped her tears, "Don't worry about it, potions go wrong all the time, I remember one time after mum brewed me a sleep draught, I was up all night bouncing off the walls, Literally." I pulled her into a hug.

"Besides, everyone knows I'm a cat lover, and I think it makes you look cute" she giggled at me and softly hit my arm, "Prat." I couldn't help myself, as we were embraced, I slowly reached my arm up and started rubbing her ears.

She immediately pushed me off and I came stumbling out of the stall and landed on my back "I deserved that." As I got up Harry and Ron came running in, looking like themselves again, they started to tell me all about what had happened.

 I explained to them what happened to Hermione, she came out to show them after a while. "Look at your tail" said Ron in shock pointing at it swaying back and forth I smacked him upside the head out of reflex.

"Sorry" I apologised when he looked at me confused. It took me another twenty minutes to persuade Hermione to get checked out in the hospital wing because of that comment.

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