Beware of the Fat Muggle In Love

-----------Beware of the fat Muggle in love part 14, 'Silent Night'-----------

The Christmas holiday arrived and the castle was , as it always was at that part of the year, silent and just a handful of student had stayed, as after the tragedy in Hogsmeade hadn't made anyone feel up to The Yule Ball.

Instead it had been cancelled.

The day before Christmas Eve, Harry, Neville, Ron and Dudley were walking around the Lake, dead quiet.

Dudley couldn't help but think of his parents, as he'd never spent one single Christmas without them.

Harry, however, could definately live without them.

This was also Neville's first Christmas without his family and he also felt as if it was a bit wrong.

"Too bad Hermione and Cho went home this Christmas," Neville said, trying to strike up a conversation.

"Yeah," said Ron, clearly thinking about Hermione.

She had planned on staying for the Yule Ball (she and Harry were supposed to show their Animagus transformation for the school) but since it was cancelled there was no reason for her to stay and she wanted to get away from Hogwarts to get some distance between herself and the Hogsmeade tragedy, much to Ron's disapointment.

"What about you, Dudley? Does it feel strange to be spending Christmas with us and not Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia?" Harry asked suddenly.

"You have no idea!" Dudley said and let out a small laugh.

"It must have been the same for you when you first got here, right Harry?" he continued.

Harry did not agree.

"Not bloody likely!" Harry exclaimed.

"I was releaved to not spend Christmas with you and your parents, to say the least!"

Dudley couldn´t see the reason to why Harry wouldn´t feel the same way as he felt now.

"What? Why? I know they treated you bad and all, but Christmas was always fun for us all, right?" Dudley asked, frowning.

Harry laughed.

"You didn´t see it because you were too busy with opening your own presents to notice that mine were most often things like a used pair of underwear, yours I might add, and even worse things like buttons or a teabag. And that´s when they were generous!"

"What? There must have been one decent present! It can´t have been all bad!" Dudley said in awe.

He really had been such a prat that such a petty and cruel treatment had been dealt Harry every single Christmas(not to mention every other day that Harry was present)

"The only thing that actually cost more than five pounds that those people ever gave me was my glasses, Dudley!" Harry said and pointed to his black glasses.

"And these are the same pair of glasses they bought me when I was a kid. I never got a second pair. Didn´t you ever notice all the scotch tape I used to keep them in one piece with?" he continued.

"Which, if I am to believe all the stories Harry has told me, you helped break more than once," Ron said and tried not to sound accusing, but failing enourmously.

Dudley felt sorry for someone else for the first time. He didn´t like the feeling, knowing he helped with the reason for the feeling.

"I´m sorry, Harry." Dudley said looking at his shoes as they walked on through the snow.

"It´s ok. I´m over it and have been for some time," Harry replied.

"And at least you´ve gotten a whole lot better since you came to Hogwarts!" Ron said and slapped Dudley´s back in a friendly manor.

"Yeah, but I still put Colin in the hospital wing and..." Dudley started saying but was cut off by Neville.

"But that was when you still listened to Malfoy! And he´s such a fucking..."

"I know he is! But he´s the only one I can talk to in Slytherin, sad to say! If there only was a way for me to change houses," Dudley said sighing deeply.

"Yeah, you sure don´t have much of the typical Slytherin student in you anymore," Harry said.

"I don´t?" Dudley asked and looked at Harry.

"No. You have turned into a pretty ok guy, Dudley," Harry answered and smiled.

"And pretty good in the sack, if we´re to believe what Neville´s been saying in his sleep for the past few weeks!" Ron cut in and laughed when he saw Neville´s facial expression.

Harry and Dudley laughed too, and even harder when Neville levitated several snowballs at Ron, hitting him with almost every one.

They continued to talk about all sorts of things as they finished their walk and headed back to the castle.

It was time for dinner and as they entered, Dudley caught Malfoy´s eye.

He tried to look as posh as he could, talking to Crabbe and Goyle.

He whispered something in Crabbe´s ear, still looking at Dudley, and they both started laughing.

Dudley looked away from them.

"Is it ok if I sit with you guys for dinner?" he asked.

The Gryffindors looked surprised.

"Erh, no-one from another house has sat at another house. Ever," Ron said.

"Well, I guess there´s a time for everything," Dudley said and took a seat at the Gryffindor table.

Neville noticed the teachers surprised looks.

It didn´t take long for Dumbledore to walk over and ask about the situation.

"I just don´t want to sit with those fuckhea..." Dudley started but stopped, midsentance, as he caught himself almost cussing infront of the Headmaster.

"Fuckheads? That´s a new one!" Dumbledore said and laughed heartily, much to everyone´s surprise.

"Sir?" Harry said.

"Oh come now, boys! Do you really think an old fogey like me has´nt heard a few profanities? I quite enjoy some of them," Dumbledore answered.

"So the reason for you to do what no-one has ever done at Hogwarts is simply because you don´t like Draco and his fellows?" he asked Dudley.

"Not just them. My entire house, actually! Especially those sick lamps in the common room," Dudley answered.

"Oh yes! Those lamps are dreadful! I would have changed them for something more bright and happy but Severus just won´t hear of it! He says it´s good for his students."

"Well. Quite frankly, I think it´s because of those lamps that there has been so many evil wizards from Slytherin. I mean, they drive you mad!" Dudley said irritated.

Dumbledore seemed to think about the reality in such a theory seriously.

After about a minute he seemed to snap out of it and turned to Dudley again.

"Well, if that is how you feel about Slytherin, we could always consult the Sorting Hat a second time to ask whether it made a mistake."

"We..we could? Is that possible? To just change houses like that?" Ron asked with his mouth full of meatballs and sausages.

"Of course we can. There´s no point in keeping a student in a house if he hates it there, is there?" Dumbledore said.

"Oh yes, Professor McGonagall asked me to inform you that you are to meet with her in the Underground, dome three, for the Animagus test at ten o´clock tonight," he continued and started to walk towards the teachers table again when Neville stopped him.

"The Underground? Where´s that?" he asked.

"Harry knows where it is. Just follow him," Dumbledore said and kept on walking.

Ron, Neville and Dudley were nervous about the test.

What if they would fail the test? How embarrassing!

But it was a rare ability, after all so it wouldn´t be that embarrassing if they failed.

But what if they didn´t fail?

What animal would they choose to transform into?

That made Ron think of something.

"Harry? We know you and Hermione have been training to become Animagi, but you haven´t told us, let alone showed us, what animal you transform into," Ron said as he helped himself to a portion of cheese omelette.

"You´re right. I haven´t," Harry replied and continued eating his ham and light-boiled eggs.

"So? Aren´t you going to tell us?"

"You´ll see it tonight at ten," Harry teased him with a broad grin.

Ron sighed at his stubborness.

"Can you at least give us a hint about how the test will be done?" Dudley asked. He´d been dead silent since Dumbledore had left, pigging out on the various Christmas related dishes served in front of them.

"Sorry. It ruins what species you have a nack for completely if I tell you," Harry said and wiped his chin clean from the yolk that had missed his mouth.

This made the three boys even more curious, but Harry wouldn´t give any more clues so they eventually stopped trying to get more out of him.

At at nine thirty, Harry told the rest that it was time to head for the Underground.

The walked, unexpectedly enough, up to the fifth floor and as they reached the third broom closet on the left, Harry opened the door and let the others pass through it, with strange looks on their faces.

"What are we doing in here?" Neville asked.

"You´ll see," Harry said.

"It´s nothing kinky, I hope," Ron said and frowned.

The others just looked at him and giggled at the thought, clearly appealing to more than one of them.

Harry got in and closed the door.

"Now, hold on!" he said and soon the broom closet started shaking violently.

Suddenly, all of the boys felt themselves sinking at an incredible velocity, so fast that they actually bumped their heads in the ceiling.

Then they all fell to the floor in a thud!

"We´re here," Harry said and stood up, helping Ron to his feet.

He opened the door and they stepped out into an extremely large room, three times the size of the Great Hall, with a domed ceiling which had a huge painting in tones of green and purple.

"Welcome to the Animagus trial room," McGonagall said.

They hadn´t noticed her where she stood to the left of the broom closet door.

They walked to the center of the huge room, where there was a small desk and four chairs in front of it and one chair behind it, in which McGonagall sat.

"You are allowed to sit down, you know," she said to the boys.

They did and watched her arrange some parchements for a good five minutes.

Then, suddenly, she rose and walked over to a spot about ten feet away from the desk, calling Neville as the first to be tested.

He stood in front of her and she took out her wand and pointed it at him.

"Now, when I say the spell I want you to just react. Don´t think of an animal and try to relax," she instructed him.

"Revelare Naturusium Animali." she said and a spark of pink shot out around Neville´s body, and lifted him four feet in the air.

Suddenly he felt the pink field shrink around him and as it got smaller and smaller, he thought he might suffocate if he didn´t get out of it. Fast.

He held out his hands, trying to keep it away from his face and started kicking away at it.

Then the field popped and sent him tumbling to the floor.

"Oh, interesting!" McGonagall said and scribbled something down on a piece of parchement.

"Take your seat, Neville. Ron? Come up here please," she said in a friendly, but still strict, tone of voice.

Ron underwent the same spell, but he didn´t try to keep the shrinking field from his face at all.

Instead, he clawed away at it frenetically with his fingers in wide slashes.

The field popped and sent him to the floor, as it had done with Neville.

"This was very interesting, indeed!" McGonagall said and scribbled something else in her parchement.

"Dudley! You know the drill by now."

Dudley tried to fight the shrinking field, but he found that he was completely paralysed!

When the field popped open, Dudley landed on his feet and waited for McGonagall´s reaction.

"Oh, dear! That´s a shame, but I should have known, really," she said.

"Well, I have your results! It seems that both Neville and Ron has a potential for becoming Animagi! But unfortunately, since Dudley is a Withcard I don´t think he can become an Animagi at all."

She sat down behind her desk again.

"Neville? It seems that you have the qualities of becoming a bird Animagi! Here´s a list over the birds available that you can choose from. Ron? You have potential for becoming a Magical animal!

"What? Magical?" he exclaimed.

"Yes. Here´s you list over Magical animals. Although, you should choose one that is a violent one, as you, in the trial, did your red hair justice. I would recommend a Vampire or a Werewolf or maybe even a Dragon!" she said.

Ron was stunned, as was the rest.

They were given each a book on some standard information about Animagus training and the "Animagus, step by step" book, Neville´s labelled "Birds" and Ron´s "Violent Magical Creatures".

They were dissmissed and took the broom closet to the fifth floor, but on the way to the Gryffindor common room Ron remembered something.

"Harry? It´s time. You can´t put it of any longer," he said sternly.

Harry looked innocent as if he had no idea of Ron was talking about.

"Don´t play dumb. Show it to us!" Ron continued.

Harry looked shocked.

"Why Ron! What would Hermione say if she found out you wanted to see my thingy?" he said.

"What?!? No, your Animagus transformation," Ron replied, brow furrowed.

"Well, allright then! If it´ll shut you up!"

Harry´s hands shrunk into paws and grew long claws.

His body shrunk and took on a flat but flexible form.

His teeth grew into sharp fangs and he grew fur all over, with two yellowish stripes on each side where his ribs were, shaped like two lightning bolts.

The three boys were surprised that Harry had chosen this particular animal, as neither of them thought it represented him.

"A Wolverine!!" they exclaimed in unison.

Harry snarled a little and sat down on the floor looking from left to right as if he was completely bored.

He changed back to his human form and stretched his back.

"That was amazing, Harry!" said Neville.

"Really was," said Ron, equally impressed.

"Fucking awesome!!" said Dudley and slapped Harry´s back.

"With Hermione as a Panther and me as a beautiful blond, who uses sex as a weapon, and Harry as a Wolverine, that means that when you guys learn how to transform too, we will be a kickass crew who doesn´t take shit from anyone! And we´ll stamp out that Voldemort piece of shit too!" Dudley said and tried to sound like an italian gangster, but didn´t really do a good job.

They all laughed anyway and Dudley went to the Slytherin Dungeon while the rest walked up to Gryffindor Tower and quickly fell asleep.

Christmas Eve.

Neville was sitting in the common room reading about the different birds he could choose as his Animagus form.

Harry and Ron had gone to visit Hagrid to get some first hand reviews of the dangerous animals living in the Forbidden Forrest, so Ron could simply choose the most dangerous one as his Animagus form.

Neville was quite taken with the idea of a bald headed eagle.

Yeah, that´s the one, he thought to himself.

He got to think about what Dudley had said about how they would make a kickass team in their animal forms, and silently agreed.

He heard someone coming up the stairs to the common room and assumed it was Harry or Ron or maybe even Professor McGonagall, so he didn´t stop reading to check who it was.

Who ever it was was very unlikely to murder him anyway.

"Hello Longbottom!"

Neville turned his head lightning fast when he identified the voice; Malfoy.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Neville shouted in anger at the mere sight of him.

Malfoy went looking around the place and ignored Neville´s question.

"My, my! This sure does beat the Slytherin common room. Nice windows! We don´t have any," Malfoy said and pointed to the large frost covered window right behind Neville.

"How did you get in here?" Neville said.

Malfoy snorted.

"A little something I learned from my father. You know my father don´t you?" Malfoy said.

Neville didn´t say anything.

"Of course you do! And I´m sorry your first task as a Death Eater was ruined and so is my father. He sent me to deliver you a new task and if you do it well, you might just get your Dark mark together with me," Malfoy said and handed a small letter to Neville.

Neville realised what was going on; Malfoy was obviously also being recruited, but was very happy about it, unlike Neville. Malgoy also thought Neville wanted to be a Death Eater and apparantly, so did Lucius Malfoy.

But did this mean that all that Argyle had said about his father was true? If it was, what should he do?

Neville decided to play along.

"What´s this?" Neville asked.

"Duh! The letter containing your new task, idiot!" Malfoy said and slapped his forehead.

Neville opened it and started to read.

"Mr Longbottom. I am sorry to hear that you didn´t get a chance to carry out your first job as a Death Eater.

Although most unhappy for you, it was a great succes for us that Draco executed his first task with such brilliance.

Therefore, your new task will be this.

It has come to our knowledge that Harry Potter is learning to become an Animagus!

Your job is to find out which animal he is learning to become and how far along in his training he has come.

This may not be such a fun job as committing murder, but it is of interest of the Dark Lord, and that is all that matters.

When you have gathered the above information you will give it to Draco and he will send it onward to me.

I hardly need to remind you of the consequenses of a poorly done job, do I?

     L. Malfoy."

As soon as he´d read the signature, the letter crumbled in his hands and turned into dust.

"So? What is your job this time?" Malfoy asked, curiously.

Neville felt nothing but hatred for this blond bastard standing not four feet away from him.

Now Neville knew who had blown up the pub in Hogsmeade.

Who was responsible for that massmurder.

This piece of shit and his father.

But Neville kept up the act.

"You will find out soon enough. When I give you the information to pass on to your father," Neville said and tried to smile, but couldn´t.

"All right. I must say I was surprised to learn that you were also being recruited. I mean, you are known for being the most clumsy fullblooded wizard in Hogwarts and all. Plus, you´re a Gryffindor!" Malfoy said and started to walk towards the exit.

"Don´t be surprised when I finally show my real potential, Malfoy," Neville said.

Malfoy walked out of the common room and left Neville with his anger.

Neville told Harry and Ron about what had happened when he bumbed into them on their way to the Great Hall for dinner.

"That bastard!!" Ron cursed and punched the wall.

"This was unexpected, but at least now we have a better chance of nailing the Death Eaters," Harry said.

Both Ron and Neville looked at him.

"What?" said Ron.

"That is our goal, isn´t it?" said Harry.

"We haven´t really talked about goals and quite frankly, I just want to stay alive," said Neville.

"Unless we don´t get a hold of all of the Death Eaters and put a stop to Voldemort, you are definately one of their targets once they find out that you are indirectly spying on them," Harry replied and crossed his arms.

Both Ron and Neville were about to dismiss Harry´s comment, but realised he was completely right and reluctantly agreed with him.

They proceeded into the Great Hall and immediately noticed that all of the students were cowering under the tables, while the teachers were staring up in the ceiling. The Slytherin table was reduced to a dissarray of splinters.

"Come down, it´s all right! He´s getting the detention of his life, I promise you!" Snape said, irritated and stared at Malfoy with fury.

Harry, Ron and Neville walked up to the teachers and stared up also.

They were terrified at the sight they saw.

Colin was hanging up there, and seemed to be moping.

"What happened?" asked Harry.

"Colin has been released from the infirmary and came down here to see who was spending Christmas in the Castle when Malfoy started throwing food at him and calling him names. So he destroyed the Slytherin table with one punch and flew up there." said Flitwick.

Harry looked at Malfoy and if looks could kill...

"Colin! It´s me, Harry! Come down and let´s talk over dinner, ok?" Harry tried.

"I can´t eat normal food anymore. I´m half vampire, remember?" Colin said in a fairly normal voice, but an eerie echoe was heard at the same time.

"Oh, yeah! Well, Screw dinner, then. Let´s go up to Gryffindor Tower instead. Then we don´t have to be near stupid people like Malfoy!" Harry said the last part directed to Malfoy, intended as a direct insult to his face.

"Sure?" asked Colin.

"Yeah! Just you, me and the other Gryffindors!" Harry said.

Suddenly Colin dropped from the ceiling and landed next to Harry.

His eyes were pink and his hair looked as if it was made out of metal or something of equal hardness.

He was wearing normal clothes but didn´t have any shoes on, revealing his long toes.

"Just you and me! Outside. And bring your broom," Colin said and in the next minute he was gone.

--------To be continued in chapter 15 "Training Day"---------