Student

Harry walked hurriedly down the hallway towards the dungeons. He gulped, drawing the invisibility cloak tighter around his shoulders. He had never taken time to look at the walls near the Slytherin common room. Even when he had used the Polyjuice potion he was too busy trying to look as stupid as possible. Now he could look. The walls were plain stone with a few portraits here and there. Most of the frames were vacant. He turned looking at the other wall. There were two witches consulting in a frame. He heard one say "I never stay here at night; in fact I try never to come here!"

Harry approached the door leading to the common room. There was a portal, but no picture sat in it. Instead, it was a wooden door with two large knockers. The knockers were snakes with emeralds set where the eyes should be. Harry took a deep breath and stepped up to the door. Suddenly, one of the knockers uncoiled itself and raised its head, looking intently at Harry. "Password?" it hissed. Harry could have hit himself. He had no idea what the password was. Then, before he knew what was happening, he spoke in a voice that was not his own.

"Gagne," he said. He knew that he had just spoken in parseltounge.

The snake reared up and struck the door with its head. The door creaked open. "Enter," it hissed. Harry hurried on. He stepped inside.

He found himself in a corridor lined with green carpet. He heard the faint sounds of Slytherins chatting further up. The door closed with a bang that made Harry jump. He made sure that he was enclosed in the cloak and set off down the corridor.

He saw a common room that was much like his own. It was spacious and well furnished. In the center of the room, there were several small tables where many Slytherins sat. Well, they didn't sit. They lounged. All of the boys were sprawling on their chairs while the girls leaned back casually. They were regarding each other with apathy, engaging in small talk. Harry had a feeling that that was all that they ever said to each other.

He knew that Draco was a prefect and that prefects got their own rooms so he continued on, being careful not to step on anybody or anything. Finally, he found a door with a small gold plaque. It read: Draco Malfoy. Slytherin Prefect.

Harry took a deep breath and pulled open the door. He was quite surprised by what he saw.

****

Hermione couldn't move. She looked around and saw that she was on a bed with the curtains drawn. She looked down at herself. Ahh! she thought. The body bind. For some reason she couldn't remember what had happened. She just remembered Harry talking to her. She remembered that he hadn't taken her news about Doctor Laura well. Could it be that.....that he did this to her? She tried to shake her head. No. He would never do that.

The only thing to do now was to wait for it to wear off.

****

Ron started up. He was still on the stairs. He groaned as he turned over onto his back. Hermione and Harry were gone. Huh, he thought. I wonder if they're off finishing the job. He sat up, rubbing his head. It was morning. "Oh my GOD!" he said out loud. "How late am I?" Then he remembered. It was Saturday. He groaned and fell back, hitting the stairs with a thud. "Ow," he moaned weakly. He could already tell that this day was going to be awful.

****

Draco was standing in the middle of the room, his back to Harry. His hair was sticking up and looked burnt, mad scientist style. He turned as Harry came in. Harry caught a glimpse of a bubbling cauldron that was emitting green smoke. Wait! Was that boomslang skin? What was Malfoy up to?

Harry had taken his cloak off and now stood with his back to the wall. Draco looked surprised. "What are you doing here? How on earth did you get in?"

"Umm....by magic," Harry said quickly. "Listen. Hermione's gone mad. She keeps making up these death predictions and telling me that I have various diseases. I was wondering....if you could...you know....take her out....get her mind off school...."

Draco stared at him. "Take Granger out?" he asked incredulously. "Sure. Why not." Harry had opened his mouth to make an argument.

"Oh! Right then. Thank you very much, Malfoy. I'll see you later then." He started out the door. He fixed his eyes on a point beyond Draco's head. "Oh my GOD! What is that??"

"Where?" exclaimed Malfoy, whipping his head around. When he turned back, Harry had vanished. Malfoy turned back to his potion, muttering to himself.

"Ok, let's test it." He picked up an owl feather and plopped it into the potion. Then he got out a rat and fed him a drop of the potion. He set the rat down and watched it intently. With an almighty pop the rat turned into a snowy owl. "Now I'll have to wait to see what happens," Draco muttered. He put the owl in a cage and left the room.

****

Hermione felt the spell begin to wear off. She slipped out of bed and rubbed her head. For some reason she had almost no memory of last night. She looked up when Harry came in.

"Hermione?" he said quietly. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Look, Harry, did anything happen last night that I should know about?"

Harry looked shifty. "Um, well, we kissed...." Hermione looked bored.

"Yes, yes, I know that much. The thing is that I don't remember anything after that."

Harry looked startled. "Not even....not even Doctor Laura?"

"Who?" Hermione stared at Harry. "What in hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing..." Harry looked very concerned. Hermione decided not to think about it.

"So," she said softly. "Shall we pick up from where I last remember?" Harry smiled as the two of them come together in a kiss.

****

Ron sat gloomily, picking at his porridge. This day was not getting any better. In fact, he had, so far, tripped over a bucket of water, received a howler and had an owl land on his head. Apparently the twins had been as good as their word and told his mother about....well, about his issues. The howler, thank God, didn't go into many details. It just had his mother screaming about being normal and about his duty to his family. Ron knew that she was right. But now all his hope seemed lost. He feared that he would never be rid of this. He sighed, looking around absentmindedly. He just wished that none of this had ever happened.