“It’s no wonder no-one can stand Hermione. She’s a nightmare, honestly.”
Draco, who was coming up behind the crowd from a different class, looked up to where Weasley’s words were coming from. He was talking to Harry- and, Draco saw with a twinge in his heart, Hermione was right behind them, dashing past in tears.
Draco quickly glanced behind him, to make sure nobody was watching, then, very glad that he had never dismissed his form spell since the night of the ‘duel’, he shifted into a Gryffindor and ran after her. As he passed Weasley, it seemed like Harry was berating him.
It only took him a minute to catch up to Hermione. It didn’t exactly hurt that she wasn’t accustomed to running, and so wasn’t running nearly as quickly as he. He grabbed her hand. “Hermione!”
She wrenched her hand free again, whirling to face him. “What?” she demanded, tears rolling down her face.
“Don’t listen to Weasley,” he told her. “I like you. And unless I miss my guess, Twilight does too.”
“But- But you’re in slytherin!” She didn’t say it very loudly.
Draco glanced up and down the passage, checking for eavesdroppers. There were none. “That-!” He sighed. “Some things are more important, you know? Besides, between you and me, the Hat really wanted to put me in Gryffindor.”
She stared at him. “Y-You… You didn’t let it?”
He stepped forwards and wrapped her in a hug. “I chose what I did… because I had to, Hermione. The Blood of a Malfoy must never be seen in Gryffindor House- popularly referred to, amongst the pure-blood noble circles at least, as the ‘blood traitor house’.” He sighed. “But honestly, does it even matter? It’s not like they teach us any differently or something. We just sleep in the dungeons while you sleep in a tower.”
“But Ron- Ron was right,” she cried, hugging him back. “I- I have no friends. I’m the odd one out!”
He smiled weakly. “Then own that distinction,” he said. “Show them what they’re missing out on- prove to them that it’s not they who are shunning you, but you shunning them for not being good enough. Heck, show- show the Foreigners that there is nothing they can do that you cannot!”
She looked up into his face, and smiled weakly. “That I can do what they cannot,” she muttered.
He raised his eyebrows. “You can?”
She nodded. “I can bring the strange magics they talk about having in their homeworld to ours. I, erm, haven’t tested it yet, but it should work, and be mostly painless.”
There was silence for perhaps five seconds.
“Do you need a test subject?” Draco asked.
She baulked. “A test subject!? You’re better than that!”
He shrugged. “I’m sure I am,” he answered. “But that’s not the point.”
She scowled at him. “Then what is the point?”
“The point is that I’m offering to let you test it on me,” he told her. “It’ll be much safer than testing it on yourself- and if it has side effects, like maybe extra-large ears, I can deal with those very, very easily.”
She laughed outright. “You won’t have extra-large ears,” she told him. “There are possible side-effects, up to and including a total transfiguration, but it wasn’t hard to work in an Animagus-like reverse transformation ability. You’ll have nothing to worry about.”
“So why not give it a try?”
She broke out of his hug, and held his shoulders at arm’s length, looking very seriously into his eyes. “There will be all sorts of temporary side-effects,” she told him. “Probably one of the worst illnesses you’ll ever have. And I don’t expect even Madam Pomfrey will be able to reduce the symptoms.”
He shrugged. “I might get extra candy from my father as a get-well present.”
“A possibly ongoing reaction, possibly aversive, to such dramatic changes to your innate magic?”
“I’ll be able to get all the other nobles to dote on me too,” he observed.
“A reduced ability to use even your own wand when not… transfigured into whatever it turns you into?”
“What a tragedy,” he scoffed. “Probably refill the family Vault off of that one alone.”
“Absolutely no control or prediction as to what that… new form, I guess, looks like?”
He shrugged. “If I can easily morph myself back into, well, me, nobody need ever know what that new form looks like.”
“You will,” she told him. “And there will be a short period before you will be able to make that shift.”
He tilted his head. “How long?”
She shrugged. “Shouldn’t be longer than two hours.”
“My form spell can make me invisible for that long,” he told her.
“Aaaand, a potentially hazardous amplification of your wand magic when in that new form?”
He shrugged. “Sounds fun.”
“You’re sure you want it?”
He smiled. “You haven’t yet given me a reason not to.”
She sighed. “Whatever.” She looked to the side, then peered into a classroom. “We can do it in here. Though you’ll want to be in your base form- I don’t know how it might react to an active transformation other than an animagus one, and I know it wouldn’t react well to an active animagus transformation.”
“What do you mean by ‘not react well’?” he asked.
She looked at him. “Loss of limb or life,” she stated simply. “I wrote safeties into it to prevent that, but it would still cause at least temporary disablement and not do what it’s supposed to and make it permanently dangerous, at best, to try it again on that same person. And there’s always a chance the safeties won’t be quite fast enough.”
“Ahh. It’s going to be another few minutes before I can revert without cancelling my form spell, so…”
“And I’m already at the top of the class in Transfiguration,” she told him. “And considering Instructor Switch and Instructor Rarity have today set aside for the others to catch up…” She shrugged. “Rarity already told me my attendance today is strictly optional. They won’t have anything for me to do.”
“Instructor Switch?” he asked, somewhat alarmed.
She nodded. “Yes, Instructor Accurate Switch. Quite the lady, though I think Rarity out-ladies her.” She giggled. “She doesn’t like that.”
“... Oh. So not the Instructor Hard Switch I had, an incompetent fool they removed earlier today.”
“Uh… Instructor Switch did mention that her brother, Hard Switch, was a bit skittish and didn’t like teaching one bit.” She paused. “What about your next class?”
“Herbology,” he answered. “Cancelled this week- got a letter this morning. Instructor Applejack came down with the flu, and Instructor Thumb relies on her too much to be willing to try it alone.”
“Oh. You again.”
Harry put his hands on his hips. His wide hips, as different from his practically nonexistent hips when he was a boy; it was still strange to him to be able to put anything on them, let alone expect it to stay there without effort- but he needed the pose to make his point. “Do you always greet girls like that?” he demanded. He was still mad at Ron for insulting Hermione earlier.
Ron looked confused. “Like…?” he began. “Uh, yes?”
“Have you any idea how rude it is?” Harry barked.
Ron looked at him. “You sound like Harry,” he complained, and turned away, to continue down the passage. Harry had run into him on purpose after class, and the rest of the class had already gone past. “I say good riddance.”
Harry marched forward, seized Ron’s shoulder, spun him around, and slammed him against the wall. “Ron!” he barked. “That is not how you treat a fellow human being!”
“So what?”
“So what!?” Harry yelled. “So everything, Ron! Have you any idea how hurtful your comments are?”
“Why should I care?”
Harry pressed the tip of his wand against Ron’s chest. He wasn’t going to use it, but Ron didn’t need to know that. “Why should you care?” he repeated. “Because it’s hurtful, Ron. If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all. And this includes Hermione. Speaking of which, what in the world did girl-kind ever do to you?”
Ron stared at him. “What? Why do you ask?”
“I’ve been watching you, Ron,” he told his best friend. “You’re not exactly invisible next to the Boy who Lived. And the boys you treat okay- except that Malfoy bloke, I guess- but the girls? No, always so antagonistic. Why?”
Ron averted his eyes, and sank down the wall to his knees. Harry was astonished to see tears in his eyes. “I… My sister, I think,” he began.
They had moved to a classroom, where Ron had continued his explanation, and actually started crying on Harry’s shoulder. Ron was the second-youngest in his family- and his only sister, the very youngest, was his mother’s favorite. It didn’t exactly help that he had five over-achieving older brothers- so he usually ended up getting the short end of the stick, and had begun to- rather unreasonably, he had realized himself- project his woes onto his mother and sister, rather than realizing that he wasn’t getting the short end of the stick, so much as the normal end of the stick.
In short, he was comparing himself against his brothers, who had achieved so much… when he couldn’t start on their achievements just yet.
Harry patted his shoulder when he finished. “Hey. Don’t sweat it. They might have the time advantage, but guess who has the advantage of learning from all their mistakes?”
He looked up. “Me?”
He nodded. “Yep. You. Meaning, you can be the best of all of them if you want. Be the highest achiever, and show them what it’s like to achieve.” He paused, and looked up sharply. “What…?” He could hear something… strange, almost like Hagrid was slowly shuffling down the hallway- except the grunts didn’t sound anything like Hagrid, and he couldn’t think of any reason that Hagrid would be dragging something on the floor.
Ron looked up as well. “What are you… Oh.” He scowled. “What’s that?”
Harry got up, and walked to the door to peek out. He closed the door again with a snap, and leaned back against it. “Big, smelly, looks stupid, dragging a club. Ideas?” The heavy footfalls passed the room.
Ron scowled. “Might be a troll,” he muttered, coming to join Harry.
A sudden, high-pitched scream came from outside.
Harry whirled to face the door again, and yanked it open. “Hermione!”
Ron charged after him- and they followed the scent of the troll a little ways down the passage to another open classroom door.
Draco looked up when the door shook from the massive blow. “What the?” He quickly activated his form spell, morphing back into Alastor Abraxis. Hermione’s spell had involved a very bright flash of blue light, and made his body tingle, but had no other immediately noticeable effect. He’d been discussing the various unique magics he knew with her, and she was helping him find ways to improve them.
Hermione looked up as well. “Hagrid? Is that you?”
Then something struck the door again, and it flew off its hinges.
Hermione screamed, stumbling backwards.
Draco ducked under the flying door and drew his wand before he even had a clear look at what was entering. “What are you even-!” He gasped. “That’s a troll!” He ran back to where Hermione had backed up against the wall, terrified. “Hermione! Come on, snap out of it! Trolls are really stupid, and this room is plenty large enough to get around it!”
“Oy! Peabrain!” It sounded like Weasley.
Draco looked up just in time to see a piece of shattered wood bounce off the troll’s shoulder from behind. It looked like it might once have been the leg of a chair; the troll had already smashed a few chairs and desks to pieces with the door, and had marched into the room.
The troll, blinking stupidly, lumbered around to look.
As it did, another girl- it looked like the Potter girl, the one that had gotten the broomstick and become the Gryffindor seeker- darted out from behind the troll, running around to stay behind it. She stopped at the blackboard, seized the tin of chalk, and scraped the metal tin across the blackboard, making an unearthly screeching noise. The troll roared, turning to see what had made the noise.
Weasley ran around the other way, and carefully aimed another ex-chair-leg at the back of its head. “Your Attention Please, Noodle Arms!” he yelled.
The girl finished running around to where Hermione and Draco stood. “What are you waiting for?” she asked. “Let’s go!”
“It’s no good,” Draco told her. “She won’t move.”
The troll let out a massive roar, and started towards Weasley.
The girl hissed, and her wand flashed up. “Impedimenta!”
The troll froze.
“That worked,” Draco observed.
“For three seconds,” she answered him. “Confringo!”
A bolt of bright red light lanced forward and struck the troll on the back of its head, almost as soon as it unfroze- where it exploded.
The troll lurched forwards, roaring in pain, then whirled around to charge at the girl, who was working her way back across the room.
“Great,” she grumbled. “Impedimenta! Um…”
The troll froze, but shortly resumed its charge.
“Lookout!” Draco cried, simultaneously firing a huge stream of sparks right into the troll’s eyes.
Her wand flashed up one last time. “Impedimenta!”
At the same time, he heard Weasley yell “Wingardium Leviosa!”
The troll’s club flew suddenly straight up in the air, right out of its grasp, turned slowly over, and fell, with a sickening crack, onto its owner’s head- almost the moment it unfroze once again.
The troll swayed on the spot, then fell, flat on its face, with a crash that shook the room.
Finally, Hermione spoke. “Is… Is it dead?”
Draco shook his head. “A blow like that wouldn’t kill a troll,” he said. “Probably knocked it out, though.”
The girl jogged over to them. “You two okay?” she asked.
Draco nodded. “Yeah. What was your name again?”
“Hailey,” she answered, without hesitation. “And this is Ron.” She indicated Weasley. “Any idea how it got in?” She held out a hand to help Hermione, who had sunk to the floor during the fight, back to her feet.
Draco shook his head. “They’re supposed to be really stupid.”
There was a sudden crash, then loud footsteps outside while Peeves shot past. None of them had time to do much before three Professors came streaming into the room- Professor McGonagall, whom Draco recognized mostly because of his first encounter with Hailey back when she got her broom, Professor Snape, who Draco was now seeing from closer than he’d ever seen the Slytherin Head of House from before, and last was Professor Quirrell, who he only remembered because one of the Slytherin upper years had said that’s who he must have been at the welcoming feast and his turban had looked so ridiculous at the staff table.
The last teacher in the line took one look at the troll and sat on a damaged chair, clutching his heart, moments before it collapsed under him, dropping him painfully on his back.
Professor Snape walked much more sedately over to the troll and began inspecting it for something.
Professor McGonagall, however, approached Hailey, Draco, Ron, and Hermione, evidently absolutely furious. Draco wasn’t sure exactly what they had done wrong, though- unless she was angry about the damage the troll had done.
“What on earth were you thinking of?” she demanded. “You could have been killed! Why aren’t you in your dormitory?”
“Uh-!” Draco began, unsure how to ask what she was asking about.
“We were supposed to be in the dormitories?” Hailey asked suddenly, sounding genuinely surprised.
McGonagall didn’t seem pleased. “Did you not hear Dumbledore’s orders?”
“Huh?” Hailey seemed briefly confused. “Um, none of us went to dinner, yet- is that where…?”
Her nostrils flared. “Why?”
She shrugged. “Well, some things are more important,” she told the professor. “I was helping Ron with some emotional baggage, and I expect they were doing something similar.” She gestured towards Draco and Hermione. “We heard the troll, and were just about ready to run for someone when we heard the scream.”
“Oh!” Hermione gasped, seeming to understand something. “It blasted its way into this room, where we were…” She trailed off, gesturing towards Hailey. “Anyways, it was about to finish us off when they appeared and attacked it from behind. They made a lot of noise, and Hailey used both the Impediment Jinx and the Blasting Charm on it, before Ron knocked it out with its own club.”
“Well… in that case…” McGonagall seemed somewhat confused. “I still say you were lucky. Not many first-years could have taken down a fully grown mountain troll. You each win Gryffindor five points. Professor Dumbledore will be informed of this.” She sighed. “And if you’re not hurt at all, you’d better get off to Gryffindor Tower. Students are finishing the feast in their Houses.”
The four of them left together, and headed for Gryffindor Tower.
Dumbledore watched Bonbon place the latest ‘report’ on his desk, this time wondering where they found all the paper; the report was almost a foot thick this time. Which, fortunately, it had stopped growing at, so he had his hopes that it wouldn’t resume getting bigger.
Bonbon then sat down in her normal chair, completely without comment.
He let out a sigh. “How many this time?” By now, it was almost a running gag that she’d open with the number of students that had skipped Professor Quirrell’s class and still gotten full marks for attendance.
“All of them,” she stated. “Not a single student showed.” She swiftly slid the manilla envelope off the bottom of the pile. It was new; she’d never had something like that in it before.
She slid it swiftly to the middle of the desk, then towards Dumbledore, before stopping it with her fingertips. “I sat in on it.”
He looked down at the envelope, and the bright red stamp across the front. A solid, rectangular line, wrapped around exactly two words, in all capital letters.
Top Secret.
“Everything you do is shrouded in secrecy,” he commented lightly, but is tone betrayed his foreboding feeling.
Bonbon didn’t move.
“That’s… your report?” he asked, touching the envelope himself.
“Yes,” she stated simply.
The envelope looked like it held at least thirty or forty pages of that paper. Dumbledore let out a sigh as he accepted it, slipping it quickly into one of the heavily charmed drawers in his desk. He would have to make it a point to read it in full as quickly as possible- but also without letting on that he even had it, even to the other Heads of House, until he had finished it and fully understood why it was secret.
“We’re down to only three recycled Potions instructors this week,” she stated. “What we really need is someone like Harry… that Snape doesn’t snarl at all the time. He’s pretty darned good at Potions as well- but they both seem to hate each other’s guts, non-maliciously.” She scowled. “And our Defense Against the Dark Arts teams have stagnated again, trying to find something they can learn and teach. Which is why I really want to get Hailey on as Head Student Instructor for Defense Against the Dark Arts, but first I have to find her. It’s been a month, but the last time I saw her was when she got that broom, and I haven’t been able to find any paperwork on her either!” It was the first time the normally stony girl had shown irritation in his office.
“Can’t say I haven’t been looking for her too,” he muttered, glancing sideways at Hagrid’s now well-worn letter from only three months prior. It had been changing back and forth almost daily for a while now. He needed to ask her what kind of magic she was using to alter it- and anything else he wrote about Harry- to reflect her name and gender and back again so much.
Bonbon sighed. “Anyways, on the Instructor front, we’ve done a bit more shuffling. With only three out of the five new Potions instructors giving up, we were up two- and could finally start releasing our management team to some of their other duties. Which means we now have a prospective Head Student Instructor for Transfiguration, as well as… Well. One of our Charms teams was showing up poorly on progress and producing far fewer graded assignments than the rest, so when our HSI for Charms was freed up from Potions lessons to sit in on their class…” She sighed. “At least one of them was trying, albeit a bit hopelessly, but we had to fire the other one- and remind him of his position, somewhat forcibly. That entire class is so far behind by now that we had to bring Hermione Granger in to bring them up to pace. I kinda hope it doesn’t hurt her, ahh, exploration too much, but we need her raw ability there. Frankly, we need it everywhere, but there just aren’t enough of her.”
He scowled. “What about… the troll? Did it change anything?”
“Not really,” Bonbon told him. “We already knew that Hailey seems to have a habit of using spells that are way outside her age range, so it really wasn’t all that surprising that she’d defeated it. The part I was surprised about was that it survived- she must’ve been going for a nonlethal takedown, and those are a lot harder.”
“How about the others that were with her?”
“Alastor Abraxis isn’t on the schedule,” Bonbon stated simply. “We’re certain he’s a fictional cover for another student, though we’re not sure which; pretty sure he’s British, because he’s definitely not…” She scowled. “As for the others, they were Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley, correct?”
Dumbledore nodded. Bonbon hadn’t been present in that scene, but the word had gotten around.
She shrugged. “Whatever emotional talk Hailey had with Ron must’ve been a really powerful one. He’s turning himself around- and is now blowing the top off of what we previously thought he could do, even though we knew he wasn’t giving it his all before.” She shrugged again. “We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. Hopefully, this new energy of his lasts- even this quickly, he’s showing a little bit of a knack for Defense Against the Dark Arts himself, and we’re dangerously low on non-combat instructors there. Naturally, he’s not as good as Hailey, but…” She shrugged a third time. “It’s going to take him some time to hit his stride anyways, and I’d like to let him do that before we start trying to judge him again.”