Chapter Eight
TITLE: Harry Potter and the Technomage: Book 2
AUTHOR: Methos (ianblyth2005@btinternet.com)
DISCLAIMER: All things BtVS belong to Joss Whedon, Crusade and Technomagi belong to J M Strazynski, Harry Potter, Hogwarts and all that belong to J K Rowling... nothing is mine, only the extremely twisted idea... you’ll have to read the first story in this series to understand what’s going on, find it here...
http://www.tthfanfic.com/Story-15037/Methos+Harry+Potter+and+the+Technomage.htm
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=/^\=For the next few days the entire school was settling into a subdued state, no one dared even roam the corridors after sunset and everyone was sticking with the largest groups they could in an effort to stay together. No one knew exactly what had happened to Professor Flitwick, and Xander was remaining tight-lipped about that night, even to Ron, Harry and Hermione, who kept asking him questions.
Classes had settled back down though, with Professor McGonagall taking over the charms lessons for the moment and, much to the Ravenclaw house student’s disappointment, Professor Lockhart had taken over as their head of house until the end of the year. After two weeks, and no further attacks, the school was settling back into a moderately normal routine, with Quiddich and Duelling clubs reinstated; and to resume the following week, while Xander, Hermione, Harry and Ron were getting closer to actually perfecting their polyjuice potion in the privacy of their room.
“How do you think the match is going?” Hermione asked, looking out the window for the third time and trying to see the Quiddich pitch on the far side of the school grounds.
“Dunno,” Xander shook his head as he concentrated on adding the bits to the potion before stirring it four times clockwise, as specified in the book. “Slytherin still has those fancy brooms, but we’ve got better players, could go either way.”
They’d decided that during matches was the best time to do the potion, after Professor Snape had come to ask them about ‘mysterious smells’ coming from their room, and Xander covered it up saying he was trying some small spells out. Now they were even more careful, keeping the window wide open to allow air to flow freely around the room while they took their time over the potion.
“Are you coming to duelling club tonight?” Hermione asked, pretty much out of the blue as she sat on Xander’s bed and watched him add the last few touches to the potion for today.
“Don’t think I’d be welcome,” Xander laughed, remembering how their last, and only so far, duelling club meeting had gone. “Something tells me Lockhart isn’t going to forget that.” He knew that for a fact, Lockhart had done everything he could to make Xander’s Dark Art’s classes unbearable for him, asking him questions that he knew he couldn’t answer and trying to humiliate him in front of the class.
“Well you did drench him in front of the entire school,” Hermione stated in a tone that was as neutral as she could make it. “He’ll forget it sooner or later though.”
“Maybe,” Xander shrugged, blowing out the small fire that Hermione had cast for them. “I'll come to watch,” He smiled as Hermione beamed at him. “No duelling, just watching.”
“Lockhart might ask you to demonstrate again,” Hermione giggled at him.
“Doubt it,” Xander laughed. “Shouldn’t have thrown that fireball at me anyway,” He frowned, he still didn’t like the fact that Lockhart was being so aggressive towards him, something wasn’t adding up and he was sure he’d get to the bottom of it sooner or later. “Go on,” He nodded to the window. “I'll clean up here; you go and see how the match is going, you could catch the last half hour or so.”
“Are you sure, I mean...” Hermione started, she didn’t mind staying to clean up, these evenings spent with Xander while they worked on the potions were now the highlight of her week.
“Go on,” Xander laughed, pointing to the door. “Harry’ll be annoyed if we both keep missing his games, tell him I'll make the next one.” He smiled as Hermione nodded at him before jogging out of their room and closing the door behind her.
=/^\=“Is it true?” Neville asked as he moved over to Xander in the duelling hall where they were all waiting for Lockhart. “You know, that you’re a...” Neville trailed off, not sure if he was making a fool of himself by bringing this rumour to Xander’s attention.
“What?” Xander asked, puzzlement showing on his face as he turned to Neville and saw quite a few faces around the hall were now watching him, waiting for his answer. “I’m a what?”
“You know...” Neville continued with a pause until he finally whispered it out. “Muggle.”
“Who told you that?” Xander asked, eying around the room to where Ron, Harry and Hermione had finally made their way into the hall.
“Draco, he’s been telling everyone, said his father told him.” Neville relayed the rumour in a whisper. “So is it?”
“Don’t be stupid Neville,” Hermione came to Xander’s defence before he had a chance to respond. “You’ve all seen him use magic,” This time she was addressing the entire hall instead of just Neville. “And muggles can’t use magic, can they?” She smiled as pretty much the entire hall agreed with her.
“Would it matter?” Xander asked, turning to Neville now and watching for his reaction. “If I were a muggle?”
“Well, no, but...” Neville trailed off as Lockhart entered the hall and called for everyone’s attention.
“Well now,” Lockhart smiled as he got up onto the stage. “Nice to see another grand turnout, can you all see me?” He smiled as everyone nodded. “Now, today Professor Snape has graciously offered to help me train you in the art of duelling, so, if you’d all like to split into pairs we will begin.”
Xander frowned as Lockhart glared at him before he started moving through the crowd with Professor Snape, teaming people up from separate houses.
“Weasley, you’re with Finnegan,” Snape stated in a tone that left no room for argument as he pushed Ron towards his assigned partner. “Potter, you’re with Malfoy.”
Neither Xander nor Harry missed the look of joy that flushed Draco’s face as he crossed the hall to stand opposite Harry with a sneer. “Joy,” Harry muttered as he moved away from Xander and Hermione.
“Miss Granger, you can partner with Miss Bulstrode,” Snape stated as he pushed another Slytherin over to where Hermione was stood. “Harris...”
Xander cut him off first. “I’m not here to duel, just to watch.”
“Nevertheless, it might be prudent for you to actually learn some control,” Snape paused, looking around the room to where Lockhart was still paring students up on the far side of the hall. “You will train with me.”
Xander looked around, Ron and Harry were looking at Xander as if he had been given a death sentence, and Malfoy was just sneering at him while Hermione was watching him with a worried expression. “Ok,” Xander nodded weakly.
“Mister Harris, why don’t you and Professor Snape show us how it’s done?” Lockhart smiled over to where Xander stood.
“An excellent idea,” Professor Snape sneered. “The students might actually learn how to duel correctly.” He smirked as he made his way to the stage followed by Xander who was looking worried at the prospect of actually duelling with Professor Snape.
One they had taken their positions Lockhart moved to the center of the stage again. “When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm your opponent, only to disarm,” He paused, looking towards Xander before he stepped aside. “One... two... three...”
“Expelliarmus!” Both Xander and Professor Snape shouted at the same time with a flick of their wands, Xander’s white energy met with Professor Snape’s red energy in the middle of the stage with an amazingly bright flash of light and a crack that made most of the students jump back from the stage.
The two beams held contact for a second with both Xander and Professor Snape pushing their charms towards the other, after a few moments the charm seemed to break in the air as Xander stumbled from the pressure of pressing the charm back.
“Excellent, excellent,” Lockhart smiled as he moved back onto the stage. “It seems you’re been practicing,” Lockhart smiled over to Professor Snape who just sneered back at him while Xander recovered. “Now, shall we see who was paying attention?” He smiled as he looked around the hall.
“Malfoy, Potter,” Snape nodded sharply at the pair, who were still glaring at each other. “Take your places.”
Xander just watched while he climbed off the stage as Draco and Harry moved to where he and Professor Snape had been stood facing each other before the duel, you could see the hostility in their eyes as they glared at each other.
“This isn’t going to go well,” Xander muttered as he looked over to where Hermione was smiling weakly at her partner.
"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart smiled at the two as he stepped off the stage. "When I count to three I want you to cast your charms to disarm your opponent, only to disarm them, one ... two ...”
Unfortunately Draco had obviously been paying attention to Lockhart’s earlier performance and didn’t really care about honour, no sooner had Lockhart said ‘Two’ when Draco raised his wand high in a flashy post and fired off a curse that Xander wasn’t familiar with, but the effect was obvious as it knocked Harry back a few feet, causing him to stumble and nearly fall to the floor.
“Rictumsepra!” Harry shouted once he’d got his balance back as he fired a blast of silver light across the stage which hit Draco clean in the stomach causing him to double over in pain.
“I said disarm only!” Lockhart shouted from the side of the stage but he made no move to interfere as Draco fired another curse over at Harry which he quickly ducked.
“Enough!” Snape shouted before Harry could fire off a retaliation curse, causing him to freeze in mid pose. “You two, stop it!” He shouted again, this time it wasn’t aimed at Harry and Draco but at Hermione and her partner who seemed to have forgone wands and were practically wrestling on the floor where Bulstrode seemed to have the upper hand holding Hermione in a tight headlock. “I said enough!” Snape shouted again as the fight continued, neither of them seemed to be paying attention as Hermione finally broke away but Bulstrode charged at her again.
“He said enough.” Xander said simply, creating a platform between the two that caused Bulstrode to crash into it, flattening her nose against the invisible barrier between them.
Snape turned, nodding almost imperceivably at Xander before turning to Hermione and Bulstrode. “Five points from each of you, now behave or you will be partnering with me for the rest of the evening.”He paused, looking around the room where everyone was staring at him. “I believe we should start by seeing how strong your offensive spells are,” He paused, looking at Xander for a moment. “Do you have your staff?”
“No,” Xander shook his head slowly, wondering where Professor Snape was going with this.
“Go and get it,” Snape bit out, watching as Xander ran out of the hall to go and get the staff from his bedroom on the floor above. “Potter, off the stage,” He sneered as Harry looked at him for a moment before moving away. “Stay where you are Malfoy,” He interrupted Draco before he moved off the stage to follow Harry. “You will be practicing against Harris for the remainder of the evening.”
“But...” Draco stammered out, remembering what had happened when Lockhart had gone up against Xander. “But he’s a muggle!” Draco finally sneered out, voicing his objection is such a way that it wouldn’t look like he was a coward.
“Then you should have no problem breaking his shield then, should you?” Snape sneered as Draco paled, realizing he couldn’t get out of this.
The entire hall went silent as they all waited for Xander to return to move on with the practice session; Draco didn’t seem to actually like being the focus of everyone’s attention anymore as he stood alone on the stage and tried to think of all the charms and curses he knew that he could use against Xander.
“Maybe we should let some others have some fun as well,” Lockhart laughed as he stepped up onto the stage, breaking the silence of the hall and drawing everyone’s attention to himself again. “If Harris’ shield is that strong, it should be able to stand up to a few friendly curses and charms.” Lockhart laughed again, tossing his hair back as he stepped onto the stage. “Why not let Granger have a go? Perhaps some of the older students as well?”
“Maybe,” Snape sneered out, thinking that it was actually a good idea to let others practice against Xander, it would give him an idea of how strong Xander’s shield actually was, as so far they only had his and Potter’s word that it stood up to the killing curse. “Granger, up here, Malfoy,” He waved his hand, dismissing Draco as he scurried off the stage so quickly it looked like he was just a blur.
“Right, ready,” Xander smiled as he jogged back into the hall, breaking the silence as everyone span to look at him. “What?” He asked, looking around until his eyes fell on Hermione who was standing alone on the stage. “Ok...” He muttered curiously as he made his way over to the stage and hopped up onto it.
“Now,” Snape paused, moving in front of Lockhart on the stage. “You will all have your turn at this, so queue up behind Granger,” He smirked as the entire hall seemed to rush to the other side of the stage, eagerly awaiting their turn to duel with the person that had taken Lockhart down so easily. “Harris will not fight back,” He turned to stare at Xander. “He will defend only, got that?” He paused as Xander nodded slowly, unsure as to what Snape wanted him to do.
“But sir...” Hermione tried to interrupt, staring at her wand as if it was a completely unfamiliar item to her now.
“Don’t worry Granger,” Snape sneered over at her. “I’m sure Harris can stand up to whatever you throw at him.” Snape paused, turning to Xander cautiously. “Your shield spell, cast it.”
“Are you sure? I mean...” Xander started to voice his objections at using such a strong spell in front of everyone.
“I would not ask if I wasn’t sure,” Snape bit out. “Now, do as I say.”
“Alright,” Xander mumbled. “Umbra Protego!” He shouted as he lifted his staff up, he felt the cool sensation of the shadow skin moving across his body and heard several gasps as students backed away from him as the oily thick shield crawled over his body and up his neck before oozing across his face to cover him completely.
“Now, as you all take your turn, I want you all to practice firing the Expelliarmus charm towards Harris, if that is successful,” Snape sneered. “Then you may try one other curse.”
“But sir...” Hermione tried to object again as she looked over at the black form where Xander was stood.
“He will be fine Miss Granger,” Snape waved off her complaint. “His shield has stood up to an Unforgivable, I am sure it can withstand a simple disarming charm.”
There was a murmur though the hall as Snape had confirmed the rumour that Xander had managed to withstand an Unforgivable, but now even more students were moving out of the queue to face Xander, leaving only a handful left that were brave enough to step on the stage against the black oily shield that was covering Xander’s body.
“Don’t worry,” Xander grinned, even though he knew Hermione couldn’t see it under the black shifting shield. “I'll be fine.” He nodded to Snape for him to get everyone ready as he braced himself for the attack. For some reason now Lockhart had fallen very quiet and was refusing to even look at Xander, the mere mention that he had withstood an Unforgivable seemed to have shaken the man quite badly.
“On the count of three you will launch your first charm, ready?” Snape paused as Hermione took her stance. “One... Two... Three...”
Hermione faltered for a second before raising her wand and shouting the charm. “Expelliarmus!” The silvery light shot out of her wand and its aim held true, impacting Xander’s shield before skittering over the black surface and disappearing.
“Acceptable,” Snape nodded. “Another?” He sneered as Hermione shook her head and moved off the stage to let another student take her place. “Longbottom!” Snape barked out. “Your next, take your place and on the count of three use the charm Miss Granger did.”
“Y... yes sir.” Neville stuttered as he got up onto the stage.
“One... Two... Three...”
“Ex... Expelliarmus!” Neville stuttered out as his wand lit up for a second before fading.
“Useless,” Snape muttered. “Again, louder!”
“Expelliarmus!” Neville shouted again, still not as loud as Hermione, as he shook his wand at Xander before it slipped out of his grasp and fell to the stage.
“Malfoy,” Snape barked out, wanting to get through this as quick as he could so he could actually see what Xander’s shield was really made of. “Show Longbottom how it’s done.” He paused as Malfoy got up on the stage and pushed Neville aside.
“On the count of three...” Snape started to order but Draco had already raised his wand.
“Expelliarmus!” He shouted, aiming directly at Xander as the silver light shot out of his wand and crashed into Xander.
“Good. Another?” Snape paused, waiting for Malfoy to actually choose a curse.
As Malfoy twirled his wand he sneered over at where Xander was stood, he’d found the perfect curse, or so he thought, one that should be able to show everyone what a muggle Harris really was. “Serpensortia!” He shouted with a flourish as a black shower of sparks exploded from his wand, shooting them right over the stage to where Xander was stood.
For a moment it looked as if the black sparks had done nothing until at the end of the sparks a long black form shot out of Malfoy’s wand and landed on the floor in front of Xander before it coalesced into a large black python that must have been easily ten feet long. There was screams as everyone backed away from the stage in a hurry as Xander just stared at the snake, unsure what to do.
“Don’t move Harris,” Snape interfered as Xander moved to back away from the giant snake. “I'll get rid of it...”
“Allow me,” Lockhart shouted, moving to barge in front of Professor Snape before he flicked his wand at the snake before it shot up into the air and landed on top of Xander, startling him and making him fall to the floor where the snake slithered across the shield on his chest, obviously looking for a way around the shield that was between it and Xander.
“Thanks,” Xander growled out, feeling ready to launch another set of fireballs at Lockhart as he stared down his chest at the giant snake that was slowly wrapping itself around him. “Anyone else?” He shouted, wondering what he could actually use to get rid of a giant snake, he didn’t want to fire any spells at it in case he missed at this range and accidentally hit another student, or Lockhart, but that wouldn’t be accidental. His thoughts were brought back to the present when he heard a hissing coming from somewhere else as Harry started moving towards the snake.
“What the hell?” Xander shouted, moving his hands slowly to put himself between the snake and Harry. “Get back!” He muttered in a low voice, trying not to freak out the snake that was now hissing at Harry instead as he coiled up on Xander’s chest.
Harry just kept moving slowly towards him, hissing something at the snake which actually seemed to be coiling up on Xander’s chest ready to relax.
“Freaky,” Xander muttered as he looked at Snape for help getting rid of the snake. “Do something.” He mouthed over at Snape as Harry got closer and closer. Snape took a few steps forward before waving his wand at the snake before it disappeared in a puff of black smoke and sparks. “What the hell was that?” Xander shouted, dissolving the shield as he stood up. Everyone was now looking at Harry as if he was a demon.
“Everyone, back to your rooms!” Snape barked out as Harry and Xander just stared at each other. “Now!” He shouted again when everyone just stood where they were watching, aside from Draco who had a satisfied smirk on his face before he moved to leave the hall with Crabbe and Goyle congratulating him.
=/^\=“What the hell was that?” Xander asked once they were back in their private room, he hated snakes, always had. Just the thought of that giant snake crawling over him made him want to go and shower repeatedly, he hated them nearly as much as clowns.
“It looked like a snake,” Ron said helpfully as he flopped down on his bed while Harry just stood there in the center of the room.
“Helpful Ron,” Xander muttered as he threw his staff on his bed before sitting on the covers. “I mean the hissing,” He turned to Harry and shook his head. “I hate snakes...” He muttered before Hermione butted in.
“You’re a parselmouth,” Hermione stated simply. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“What’s a parselmouth?” Xander asked, confused at more wizard terms he hadn’t come across yet.
“He can talk to snakes,” Hermione explained simply, waving off any further questions. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
“So?” Harry shook his head. “I bet tons of people can do it, I didn’t even realize I was doing it, I just told the snake to leave Xander alone.”
“Nope,” Xander shook his head. “You hissed at it, sounded pretty angry as well.”
“You spoke snake language,” Ron explained at Harry’s confused look. “Parseltongue,” He explained for Xander. “We just heard hissing.”
“Wait, how can I speak another language...” Harry broke off in thought as Xander laughed.
“Right, so you can talk to snakes, next time, just tell it to get the hell away from me,” He gave a theatrical shudder as he sat on the bed. “What?” He turned to look at Hermione and Ron. “Come on, it’s just another language like German or French or something, what’s the big deal?”
“Salazar Slytherin could talk to snakes,” Hermione explained quietly. “So now...”
“Everyone will think he’s the heir of Slytherin or whatever it is,” Xander flopped back on the bed. “Great.”
“But I’m not,” Harry said, his eyes flicking around the room, hoping that everyone would believe him.
“He lives thousands of years ago,” Hermione explained. “For all we know, you could be.”
“Wait, this Slytherin guy was evil right?” Xander asked, waiting for the slow nods from everyone. “Harry’s not evil, I can’t see him letting a giant monster loose in the castle,” He trailed off adding ‘or murdering Professor Flitwick’ in his head. “Just ignore anyone who says anything different.
=/^\=Following Xander’s advice proved to be harder work than any of them realized however, over the next few weeks the rumour that Harry was the heir of Slytherin had spread like wildfire though the school, as had the rumour that Xander was a muggle, soon practically the entire school was avoiding them both like the plague, going so far as to empty corridors when they were both walking down them.
Thankfully, Fred and George could always be counted on to turn something like this into a joke and were forever following Harry and Xander around the school, shouting things like “Clear the way, here comes the heir of Slytherin and his muggle servant.” At first Xander didn’t know whether to be annoyed at being called the ‘muggle servant’, but then he realized it could have been a lot worse so he just let them get on with it, laughing whenever the twins brandished crosses or made up charms at them before running away down the corridors.
This all came with the added bonus of really annoying Malfoy and his group of ‘friends’ who were looking increasingly annoyed every time they saw Xander and Harry strolling through the halls, shouting insults at them before running off when Xander turned to face them. He wouldn’t have done anything but it was fun to watch the group of Slytherin’s, that were infamous for bullying others in their year, run away from him at the slightest movement, it made him feel better and made Harry smile, so it was worth it in his book.
As the end of term came around and the snow started falling, Xander had gone back to wearing his long black trench coat with the hood up, which might have kept him warm but made him seem all the more imposing when he walked around the school with his staff clutched in one hand. Then, on Christmas morning they were all woken up early by Hermione, who had managed to come into their room while they were all sleeping and continue the potion, as she lit up the room with her wand and woke them all up.
“Come on, it’s ready.” Hermione whispered as she woke Harry up first then Ron before letting those two awaken Xander while she moved back to adding some last ingredients to the polyjuice potion to make sure it lasted long enough. "We just need the bits of the people we’re changing into," Hermione explained.
“Got mine,” Xander muttered as he tried to wake himself up, pulling his long coat on over his t-shirt and jogging bottoms to keep himself warm. Moving over to the drawers on the far side of the room he pulled out a bit of folded paper with several blonde hairs in. “Peterson, from where him and Draco were sat in front of my during History, got it off the table afterwards.”
“Millicent Bulstrode,” Hermione explained, pulling put a small test tube like the ones they used it potions. “Pulled it off her jumper during duelling.”
“Looks like it’s just you two then,” Xander grinned. “Crabbe and Goyle?” He smiled as Harry and Ron nodded before moving into the bathroom to get dressed.
The Christmas feast was something that was still enjoyed by everyone, even under the dire conditions at the school Christmas spirits were soaring as the hall was decorated out brighter than it had been last year. There were a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe dancing magically around the ceiling while enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry from the enchantment.
Shockingly it had been a lot easier to get the hairs than any of them had thought as Crabbe and Goyle followed Draco as he came into the feast hall, their clothes covered in snow from where they had obviously been outside as the roughly rubbed themselves off with towels that had been left by great doors for such times. After the feast when everyone had left, Harry and Ron simply plucked several hairs off the towels before they all went back to their main room to work on the potion.
“Ready?” Hermione asked as they all waited in the large bathroom, staring at the potion that was bubbling away like thick mud, the entire room smelt like boiled cabbage and even though it was freezing they had both the windows open as far as they could to let the smell out.
“Got them.” Harry grinned as he held out the hairs he had while Ron held out the ones he’d picked up.
“Great, now, the book says that once we take the potions we’ll have an hour before we change back,” Hermione paused, pointing to the bed where she had dumped several spare Slytherin robes that she had snuck out of the laundry room. “I'll drink mine in here, you three in there.”
“Cool,” Xander nodded, pulling his jacket off and slipping the smaller Slytherin robes on which hung around his knees. “Now what?” He asked as he walked back into the bathroom.
“Now we just pour it out into separate glasses and add the hairs.” Hermione explained as she separated the potion out into the four glasses that they had taken from the great hall. As the potion settled in her glass she quickly dropped in her hair before watching it froth over before turning a dark yellow colour.
“Ready?” Xander asked as he turned to Harry and Ron who each nodded. “Here goes,” He muttered as he dropped in the hair, watching his glass of potion do exactly the same as Hermione’s had done but turn nearly a white colour while Ron’s turned purple and Harry’s went a dark brown. “Rainbow drink,” He grinned as he lifted up the muddy white liquid and eyed it cautiously.
“Well, go out there and drink it then,” Hermione nodded to the main room. “I'll drink it here and then we can all head down to the Slytherin common room together.”
“Gotcha,” Xander nodded as he led Ron and Harry out of the bathroom as they were both still eying the muddy concoction in their glasses. “Well, bottom’s up.” He grinned as he took a mouthful of the drink first, it tasted like overcooked cabbage but he forced himself to keep drinking as Ron and Harry started taking mouthfuls of the drink as well.
At first it didn’t seem like there was any effect, Harry was the first one though as he nearly screamed as he doubled over, his face and arms bulging and bubbling like there was something under the skin trying to get out. Ron’s transformation seemed a little easier but still had him holding onto the bed as he dropped his glass, shaking as his arms and chest bulged outwards while his hair and head seemed to shrink in on it self.
Xander nearly screamed himself, holding tightly onto the cushions on the bed he crushed them between his hands as he felt like his muscles were going to tear themselves apart, for a moment it felt like his entire body was on fire until it stopped and an icy calm feeling washed over his body as he righted himself. Looking around the room Ron and Harry still seemed to be going through the worst of it but he could see them slowly changing into the people they were supposed to look like.
“Harry?” He asked out loud, surprised that the voice that came out belonged to himself. “Ron? You alright?”
“Yeah,” Harry’s faint voice came first as he stood up from where he had sunk to his knees. He looked perfect, it was as if he was actually staring at Goyle, even the scar on his forehead had gone and he was at least twice the weight than he normally was. “Xander...” Whatever he was about to say was broken off when Ron stood up, looking at him.
“Bloody hell,” Ron blurted out. Ron was the perfect image of Crabbe, the pudding-bowl brown haircut to the long, gorilla arms that seemed to swing on their own as he moved. “It’s perfect!”
“Yeah,” Xander nodded, causing them both to spin round to see him. “We’ll be able to get whatever we want out of Malfoy,” Xander grinned as both Harry and Ron laughed at him. “What?” He asked when the continued to laugh, nearly falling over themselves on the beds they were laughing so hard. “What?” He asked again before darting into the bathroom to see himself in the mirror.
“Oh god!” He nearly screamed out loud, he was still his normal size but the face in the mirror wasn’t his, it was Malfoy’s. He looked like a seventeen year old Malfoy with ill-fitting robes on. The blonde hair was now falling untidily around his face and he had the sneer even though he didn’t mean to do it. “Hermione, this isn’t right!” He shouted turning around to see her, then it hit him, her transformation had been even worse than his had. “Uh, you two better go on without us,” Xander shouted out. “We’ve only got an hour, go on.”
“What about Hermione?” Harry shouted back.
“Um... she’s going to help me sort out what went wrong.” Xander shouted back after a moment and seeing Hermione’s grateful face he nodded before moving out of the bathroom to stop them from coming in. “I can’t really go wandering around like this,” He gestured to himself. “I'll get kicked out,”
“Suppose,” Ron nodded.
“Go on, you’ve got less than an hour now, get going.” He smiled as Ron and Harry dashed out of the room, pausing at the doorway to make sure no one saw them leave the room before they ran down the corridors, closing the painting behind them.
“So,” He asked, turning to Hermione’s now catlike figure, looking carefully he could see her eyes were now catlike yellow with slits instead of pupils, she also had fur instead of skin and even stranger had a tail that was swishing about from under her skirt. “Um, what happened?” He grinned, looking at the large catlike ears that poked out from Hermione’s normal brown hair. “You look like a manga catgirl,” Xander laughed before he could stop himself and received a glare from Hermione that would have been fitting more on Professor Snape.
“And you look like Malfoy!” Hermione bit out angrily, looking at the mirror behind them to see them both. “How are we going to explain this?”
“Draco has an anthromorph fetish?” Xander grinned before laughing madly as the situation they had got themselves into.
=/^\=AN: Massive thanks to T and Girlfriend for the amazingly quick beta read... good work guys :D
Thanks to all who are enjoying this and sending reviews :D
M
