Life Study

Ron finally plunged into the infirmary and was promptly scolded by Madam Pomfrey for running.

"I wasn't running."

"You were walking entirely too fast for indoors, then -- though I suppose I can excuse you; I did hear what happened. Here, give her here --"

"She's going to be all right, isn't she?" Tom asked. "I mean, she seemed okay except for the rash and nerves."

"Acromantula hairs are envenomed," Madam Pomfrey said absently as she bustled. "Rather more irritating than those on some of the smaller spiders that'll give you a rash. It's not strong venom, though," she added, seeing the looks on their faces. "Easy enough to counter, and it wouldn't be likely to kill her anyway. Leave scars, maybe, if they were untreated." She dabbed something on Ginny's face, and the spots underneath it faded.

"Why," Ron asked faintly, "were you riding that... thing, Ginny?"

"Because it was going to either step on me or eat me otherwise, and I didn't want it to." She paused. "It wasn't exactly something I had been planning."

"Couldn't you have gone inside?" Ron asked a bit plaintively.

"I would," Ginny replied, eyes closed against the dabbing, "have loved to."

"The acro-thing was between her and the shed."

"Acromantula," Ginny said absently.

"Why wasn't she with the rest of the class?" Ron sounded as if he thought this might somehow be Tom's fault. Or possibly Colin's, but that seemed less likely.

"I was chasing a loose graphorn."

"Well, Hagrid had us working with baby graphorns," Colin began, "and yeah, one got loose."

"And it wasn't really Hagrid's fault either," Tom said. "He was wrestling four of them at the time."

Colin added, "And it wasn't Tom's graphorn that got loose. She handed him hers on a leash, too."

Ron looked slightly disoriented at this chain of defense. "The acromantula was his fault," he muttered under his breath.

Tom blinked. "I don't see how. It came right out of the Forest, not his creature pens."

Ron paused. "Never... mind."

"Try asking Harry," advised Colin. "I bet he knows."

Ron sighed and waited until Madam Pomfrey disappeared to deal with minor puncture wounds that had apparently resulted from being crammed into a small hut with frightened graphorns. "The oldest one in there used to be his pet. Harry and I, er, met it once. Don't ask." He punctuated this with a shudder.

"Oh," Tom said. Something tickled the back of his mind about that, but he shied away from it. "You'd think he'd have trained it better than to attack people."

"It said he did. That wasn't it, its eyes are clear. The old one's blind now."

"Oh. So where'd that one come from? Did he have two of them? ...It said?"

"They talk," Ginny pointed out. "Couldn't you hear it?"

"No, I was trying to keep hold of two graphorns in a crowd of panicked students. What did it say?"

"Mostly that the assorted students and graphorns looked tasty." Ginny shuddered. "And then it yelled at me after I told it to chase Toby. The fat one that can still outrun all the others," she added explanatorily to Ron. "And good job, Tom. With the graphorns."

"Oh," Tom said, his ears turning pink. "Well, I wasn't really thinking, I just didn't have time for them to act up."

"They could probably tell you weren't going to put up with anything." She grinned at him. "It doesn't work on Fred and George, by the way. Except occasionally for Mum."

"Well, I didn't think it would. So the trick to magical creatures is to be utterly terrified of something that isn't them?"

Ginny laughed helplessly. "Not... necessary," she finally spluttered. "At least not usually."

Two heads adorned with unruly hair poked into the room and, seeing that Madam Pomfrey was not in the immediate vicinity to shoo away the excess visitors, were promptly followed by the rest of Harry and Hermione.

"Hi. Are you all right?"

"I brought you your textbooks."

This set Ginny laughing again.

Tom looked from her to the new arrivals. "She's, um, a little... giggly."

"I can see that," Harry said cautiously.

"I'm fine," Ginny said with as much dignity as she could muster. "It was funny."

"Textbooks are funny?"

"It was just... very Hermione. As a greeting."

Tom considered that. She had a point.

"She rode an acromantula," said Ron a bit numbly, "and she's giggly."

Harry yelped. "She what?"

"One came out of the Forest and attacked our Care of Magical Creatures class. I was away from the rest of the class and it got between me and the hut."

"And somehow she decided it would be a good idea to climb it."

Ginny glared briefly at Tom. "It was going to step on me!"

"So... you decided to return the favor."

Ginny giggled again. "Something like that. I couldn't get away, so the only thing left to do was grab hold and try to get somewhere it couldn't reach."

"This isn't funny," Ron muttered.

"I was terrified at the time."

"Well, I suppose I wouldn't have been able to get you that message if you hadn't been sitting relatively still. I hope Colin's picture turns out."

"I'm sure it will." Colin sounded rather confident.

"I don't think the spider could have heard me if I hadn't been sitting on it. The graphorns kept squealing."

"What picture?" Ron and Harry broke in.

"Oh, Colin got a picture of Ginny on the acrobatty while we were all in the hut."

"Acromantula," Ginny murmured. "I thought you'd memorized the textbook, Tom."

"I did. It's just funnier this way."

Hermione looked at him with some surprise. "How did you make it stay open?"

"I hit it with a stick. Over and over again. And stayed within easy walking distance of Madam Pomfrey's bandages."

"Hagrid says you have to stroke them," Harry put in.

"I think that only works when you've got hands as big as he does. Nearly took my fingers off when I tried. Anyway, finally I took it out on my broom over the moat, and told it if it didn't behave it'd have to learn to swim."

Hermione looked somewhat appalled. "But you're using a school copy, aren't you? You can't drop it in the moat."

"I didn't end up having to."

"...I finally gave up and checked out some of the other references." She relented. "Did it behave after that?"

"Mostly. I kept a bucket of water on the desk next to it, and that seemed to help."

"That was resourceful."

"It wasn't much help after all, as it turns out. Hagrid grades mostly on performance."

"But at least you got to read the book!"

"...Yes, I suppose so." Tom raised his eyebrows helplessly at Ginny -- who started laughing again.

Harry cleared his throat. "So how IS class going when it isn't being invaded by giant spiders?"

"Oh, much better now. I think I may actually pass. Ginny's been supervising me in some extra credit."

"We've heard. It's been the subject of an astonishing amount of debate over meals."

"...Oh?"

Ginny got control of herself and shrugged. "Some people think it's a bad idea."

"I suppose they haven't considered that flunking out of Hogwarts is the kind of thing that might make somebody frustrated enough to turn evil," Tom said, grinning.

Ginny swatted in something vaguely resembling Tom's general direction, rather ineffectively since she had her eyes shut at the time.

"They're silly. Something about thinking you're using me to improve your grades... which obviously is partly the point for Care of Magical Creatures, but they're apparently missing the fact that I think it's fun and for at least half our other classes it'd probably be the other way around. Of course, one of your housemates accused me of plotting to get you killed, so...."

Tom snickered. "Aww, and here's me thinking they didn't care."

"I'm afraid I was too dumbfounded to deny it properly, unfortunately...."

"Actually, they probably would've taken denial as proof you really were. Most Slytherins don't tend to remember that Gryffindors don't generally have the time of day for subtlety."

Ginny opened eyes that looked suddenly very mischievous. "Well, that could be an advantage, couldn't it?"

"Oh, definitely. And that was the toned-down version, usually it goes something like --" Tom stuck his nose in the air as if he were smelling something vile, and affected a clipped upper-class accent. "The Gryffindor mind is incapable of true subtlety, you know. Associating with Muggles and Mudbloods dulls the intellect, everyone knows that." He grinned and winked at Hermione. Ron grimaced.

"Which is why I'm ahead of Malfoy in every class, I'm sure," Hermione responded sweetly in between snickers.

"You're ahead of everybody in every class," Harry pointed out. "It's not exactly personal."

"He thinks it is. If he wants to take it as an insult, I don't really mind."

"Hermione found a point of agreement with Malfoy," Ginny said gravely. "Any other portents of impending doom lately?"

Ron snorted. "We have Professor Trelawney, and you have to ask?"

"Giant spiders aren't portents of impending doom?" Colin asked wryly.

"I think they usually are the impending doom, Colin."

"Except when they're decoys," Harry murmured.

"Decoys?"

Harry sighed and glanced around for Madam Pomfrey. "You know Hagrid got expelled? It was because the, ah, other you claimed Aragog -- that was his first pet acromantula -- had killed Moaning Myrtle when it was the basilisk. As it turns out, Aragog doesn't eat humans for Hagrid's sake, but, um, if you get close enough to his descendants, he doesn't think it's quite fair to stop them."

Tom's face went blank. "Oh."

"He got sent to Azkaban for part of last year over it."

Ginny flinched.

Tom's face went even blanker, if possible. "Well. That... explains a couple of things. I'm surprised he's giving me a chance."

"He's not holding it against you," Harry said awkwardly. "I mean... it's uncomfortable... but I don't think he would."

"No, he's been... nicer than I expected. For a while now. But sometimes the way he looks at me... And earlier when Ron said he'd had a pet acromantula, I... almost remembered something, but I didn't want to pursue it."

"...That could be worrying. But," Harry shrugged. "If I'm a Parselmouth because of Voldemort not quite killing me, it'd be stupid to think your remembering a few things was all that ominous."

"Well, I didn't think it meant anything beyond being a disturbing leftover memory. It doesn't need to mean anything beyond being a disturbing leftover memory to be, well, disturbing. In first person, yet."

"I guess not." Harry sighed. "Anyway, he let Aragog loose in the Forbidden Forest and then apparently found him a wife named Mosag. Aragog said he still visits them sometimes."

"Thus Ginny's new friend."

Ron leaned over his sister's bed and told her earnestly, "You do realize you're insane, right?"

"I'm also neither squished nor eaten. I'll manage."

Tom rubbed his arms. "I can get around the idea of giant bugs. It's talking giant bugs that throw me. Something about having the blood-sucking process described to you beforehand is just wrong."

"It slurps, too," Ginny remarked plaintively. "I could hear it eating the graphorns."

"Ick."

"Definitely," Ginny agreed.

Ron looked nauseated.

"Although I suppose in a way a talking giant bug with perfect table manners would be even creepier. I keep imagining it spinning itself a fresh napkin, or something."

Ginny blinked. So did Harry and Hermione. "I think," Hermione said slowly, "that you've just edged from creepy right into surreal."

"Sorry. Long day."

"That's all right." Ginny reached up and patted his hand. "It was a very interesting mental image."

"So," Tom said, "what've you got planned for tomorrow? Taming a dragon? Or something simple, like becoming the first Hogwarts student ever to be Minister of Magic?" He grinned. "After all, now you've got a reputation to live up to."

"Dragons are Charlie's department. Although I suppose making Draco Malfoy behave would be really impressive...."

Tom grimaced. "You're right. Try for the Ministry first, it'd be a good warmup. That's the worst thing about coming 'back' here this many years later."

Ginny blinked at him and propped herself up on her elbows. "Malfoy is? Wait. Which one, and is this about that visit?"

""Both. Yes. Or no." Tom sighed. "Slytherin didn't used to be this way. Oh, sure, we were always sneaky, always a little more wary of students with Muggle ancestry... but now, I'd be willing to bet half the house would at least consider signing up with the next power-hungry Dark Wizard. One of them might very well be the next power-hungry Dark Wizard, given a few years. And I bet I know exactly where to place the blame for that, too."

The Gryffindors looked at one another somewhat uncomfortably. If it hadn't been like that when Tom started, they had a pretty good idea where to put the blame too, but they didn't quite like to say it. (All right, so nobody quite liked to say it, resulting in assorted and varyingly silly circumlocutions, but it was especially awkward to say around Tom.)

"The last power-hungry Dark Wizard?" Ginny finally suggested wryly.

Tom quirked one corner of his mouth up in a wry smile. "Don't know what I can do about the older ones, but I've been trying to help the first-years along as much as I can on the quiet. The shy ones, like that little Peony Parkinson -- I've mentioned her to you, I think, Ginny, she was the one who thought of charming the chameleons into staying the same color -- well, I'm trying to get her out of the shadow of that sister of hers."

He propped his chin on one hand. "I remember the older ones talking, my first year. Time was, all the best diplomats used to come out of Slytherin, and a lot of Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers too."

"They do say Snape wants that job," Harry remarked.

"I don't know. I can't see him giving up Potions." Hermione looked thoughtful. "Aside from taking away points from Gryffindor and the occasional matter of life and death, it seems to be the only thing I've ever seen him enthusiastic about."

"I can see diplomats," Ginny said thoughtfully, not paying a great deal of attention to the absent Potions Master. Even the evil Tom had been very charming when he chose; that had been the problem. Part of it. It was probably simply a matter of trying to do that instead of making an effort to be as obnoxious as possible.

"Anyway," Tom said, "sorry. Didn't mean to go off like that -- I've just been thinking, lately, that if I can't apologize to everyone, I can at least... try to fix things."

"Don't apologize," Harry said, "at least, certainly not for the speech." He grinned. "And it wasn't you who did the rest of it, so don't try to apologize for that either. But trying to fix things still sounds like a good idea." He shook his head a little. "I don't think I ever realized Slytherin hadn't always had that reputation."

"That's part of the problem! We're in the second generation of largely bad seeds. You ask me, the Ministry didn't do nearly as good a job as it should've cleaning up after... Voldemort."

Both Weasleys flinched. Colin and Hermione didn't as much, and Harry... just didn't. "Probably not. I don't... really know whether they could have done better though."

"Eh, maybe. We're the ones saddled with the results, though."

"True."

"I think," Ginny said suddenly, "that you probably could get some of the older ones to listen to you if you tried."

"Maybe. It's harder to tell, with them, though, and second-years don't have a lot of influence. There's some of the seventh-years even Malfoy doesn't try anything around."

"Mm. I suppose you'd know."

"Not that it wouldn't be nice if I could, though. I could do a lot better if I had somebody senior backing me."

"...Well, they can't all be bad, can they?"

"They can't?" Ron muttered.

"...I hadn't really thought about it."

Ginny removed the pillow from behind her head and threw it at her brother, then resumed. "Well, you're the one who estimated about half would consider turning to the Dark Side. Which would mean half wouldn't consider it, presumably. Of course, figuring out which is which would be the hard part, wouldn't it?"

Tom nodded. "I meant I hadn't seriously thought about trying them, because of that. Not without a fair time to watch and try to work it out. And there's.... That's another thing: I can't do it all at once. Partly because I really can't, and partly because... well, it wouldn't do any good to split the House down the middle."

"No." She tilted her head and sat up the rest of the way, just in time for her brother to return the pillow-whacking. "Particularly since the ones who wouldn't consider it aren't the ones you really want to influence, are they?"

"Right. At either end of the spectrum. I want the undecided ones -- or, well, the ones who would be undecided. The trouble is, I can't think of a way to bring up the subject without everybody looking at me funny because I'm twelve and I remember the 1940s. It's too bad we don't have a more... active... History of Magic professor."

"Well," Hermione said, "at least he's dedicated."

"I suppose he has tenure." Tom grinned. "But he isn't much help."

"Dedicated." Harry shook his head. "He's dead. I think that goes beyond dedicated. And to think I used to think haunted houses were imaginary. You're right, though. Maybe Dumbledore."

"He doesn't carry as much weight with Slytherin as he used to after last year. Or, er, the year before, really."

Harry looked slightly grumpy about this. "At least everybody expects him to remember the 1940s, though." He paused, then blinked and closed his mouth on what would have been his next word. Hagrid. Hagrid would remember that time -- it couldn't have all gone sour in two years, could it? -- but he'd been the one to warn Harry about Slytherin in the first place.

Understandable, Harry supposed. Getting expelled for something that wasn't your fault would probably sour anybody on the culprit and associates.

That was a good question, though. Whom WOULD Slytherins listen to?

"Who would Slytherins listen to?" he finally said aloud.

"Snape," Ron suggested sourly.

"Older than him. He was at school the same time as my parents."

"I thought about him," Tom said. "Except he doesn't like me, so he wouldn't listen to me."

"There's a Slytherin Snape doesn't like? What did I miss?" Ron raised an eyebrow. "Or is this only after you drenched him?"

"No, it was before that, although that certainly didn't help. And in case you were wondering, dumping a potion onto the head of your House is a bad idea. No, I think it's... an older grudge. Though I don't know about what."

"Weird."

Ginny frowned at Tom suddenly. "Consequences worse than you were planning?"

Tom shook his head reassuringly. "Nothing I couldn't handle. A dressing-down in front of the entire House and some extra private detention."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. "That sounds ominous."

"Only if you consider six hours of cleaning glass tubing ominous."

"Depends on what was in it before you cleaned it." She seemed generally reassured, though.

Tom elected not to mention the slug slime/bat guano mixture that had congealed in the bottom of one cauldron. "So, any other ideas? And can I maybe ask that you guys work on your end of the problem? You've got more pull than I do anyway, and everybody expects Hermione to spout historical trivia at every opportunity. Just... focus the trivia a little bit. Draw attention to, I don't know, the way Hogwarts didn't always change Dark Arts professors every year."

Hermione smiled sweetly at him. "I could give you a list of them. With dates of employ."

"Please don't," said Harry.

Tom, to his credit, only looked slightly alarmed. "Tell the Gryffindors instead. I already know most of the Slytherin ones -- been doing some research on my own."

"Extra history lectures in the common room?" Colin asked. "You've decided you don't like us after all, haven't you, Tom."

He kept his face utterly straight until Hermione snatched the pillow and smacked him with it.

Tom snickered at Colin, then ducked a pillow-swipe of his own. "Trade you Malfoy for Hermione, lectures and all?"

"No bloody way," Colin replied with a grin.

"So if I can put up with hourly paeans of self-glorification, you can stand a little more education."

"Although," Ron interjected thoughtfully, "the idea of having Malfoy surrounded...."

"Oh, and you'd throw me to the wolves for it? I mean snakes?" Hermione demanded of Ron. Her mouth was twitching, though.

"But we know you can take care of yourself," he told her gravely.

"I thought," Ginny said to Tom, "it was more often than that."

"He's probably averaging," Hermione suggested. "Surely Malfoy has to sleep occasionally."

"It is. I just leave the room every so often."

"Okay." Ginny shook her head. "Entertaining as it is, I don't think mocking Malfoy is exactly productive in terms of inter-House relations."

"True."

She looked thoughtful. "I don't think I exactly qualify as influential.... What you said about Peony and the chameleons, though.... It could be interesting to work on my color-changing charm with her. Although we have a Malfoy problem again, if she told her sister and she told him."

"I... doubt she would. They don't talk much. Peony's very bright, and small for her age, and Pansy is... well, not. Or at least, she doesn't choose to show off her brain and she tends to come across as bigger than she is. They don't get on."

"Would Peony be interested, though? It sounds like she might, but the only specific indication I have is her idea about the chameleons." Ginny grinned sheepishly. "She sounds nice enough from what you say, but that doesn't automatically translate to wanting to play with color-charms."

"Well, I'd have to talk to her. She's very shy, and easily intimidated -- having Pansy for a sister can't be much fun -- but I think if I invited her to one of our study sessions the first time instead of just sending her to beard the Gryffindor in her lair, so to speak, she might go for it. She's honestly at least a year ahead in several subjects, so it's not like she'd be out of her depth."

Shy and easily intimidated? That sounded like... well... her, her first year, away from everything familiar and awfully confused. Although in all fairness she hadn't been like that with her brothers before, as a rule. "Sounds good. Easier for me with you around, too, to tell the truth...."

"What I'd really like to do is introduce her to Hermione, eventually. And maybe a couple of the Ravenclaws, but I don't know any of them very well. But that's a little further off, once she's managed to find some self-confidence."

Ginny laughed a bit. "Well, I am definitely less intimidating than Hermione."

Hermione, for her part, looked a bit disconcerted, but offered, "I can talk to some of the Ravenclaws... say, in Arithromancy."

"That'd be a help, thanks. I didn't mean any offense, it's just, well, Peony's very shy."

"Of a Muggle-born?" Hermione muttered. She had been actively not getting along with Pansy of late.

"Of anyone, pretty much. She mostly goes from her room to classes and back -- I think the time with the chameleons was the first time she'd ever spoken at meals."

Hermione felt slightly ashamed of herself, even if sneering at Muggle-borns did seem to be some sort of official pastime for most Slytherins. Tom, admittedly, did not do this except to mock the others. And apparently Peony barely spoke to anyone, regardless of ancestry, which was at least even-handed. "That explains why I don't think I've seen her since Sorting." Cute little thing, though. She'd been surprised to see her go to Slytherin, somehow.

"Yes, well, the two of you would probably get along, if I can work her around to the idea. She's a little in awe of you on top of everything else, though, so don't hold your breath."

Hermione looked slightly bemused. "All right."

"Do they have any other sisters?" Ginny asked suddenly. "And are they also named for p-flowers?"

"I hope not," Harry muttered.

"Peony hasn't mentioned any, but we haven't talked that much yet."

Ginny looked at Harry a bit oddly. "Why do you hope not?"

"Because," he explained, "my aunt's name is Petunia."

Madam Pomfrey returned at that point and scattered the other students to check Ginny's response to treatment. "The venom's gone," she announced after a moment. "Good as new. Try to be careful, now."

Tom snorted softly and muttered "A careful Weasley? That'll be the day."

Ron laughed. "You haven't met Percy, have you?"

"Just briefly, at that Quidditch match. Seemed to have a good head on his shoulders. Right then."

Ginny nodded and slid off the bed. "Come on, though, Tom." She arched an eyebrow. "I want to see how that writing charm works."