Harry & Ladon Extras

In early December, the routine Harry had established was upset by Hermione missing breakfast for the first time in ages. Naturally – with the troll incident having happened only a month ago – Harry was already concerned.

“Anyone seen Hermione?” Harry addressed Lavender and Padma as they sat down at the table.

“She said she wanted to stay in the dorm,” Padma replied.

“Not feeling well,” Lavender added.

They probably thought they were soothing him, but Harry was just even more concerned. “Not feeling well?! Shouldn’t she be in the hospital wing?”

“She’s fine,” Padma replied. “I’m sure you’ll see her tomorrow.”

“What about classes?” Harry demanded, growing more anxious.

“She’ll probably skip today.”

“Oh Merlin, she’s dying!” Harry moaned. “I have to go.”

He heard protests from behind him from Padma and Lavender, but ignored them. Hermione had made it clear she didn’t think the Gryffindor girls liked her very much. What if they had said or done something and she was crying again? Or she was really sick and being stubborn about going to the hospital wing?

Harry was so busy fretting, that it wasn’t until he was on his back in front of the staircase to the Gryffindor girls’ dormitories, he remembered the enchantments on the tower to prevent boys from going up the stairs. The winding staircase had turned into a slide and deposited him at the base of it.

Ladon hissed with displeasure in his robe pocket and Harry was abruptly thankful he hadn’t landed on his friend.

“My, my, what is our boy who lived doing?” Fred asked, leaning over Harry.

“Perhaps he got confused, George,” George added, joining his twin with a matching smirk.

“Perhaps a prank?”

“Or is our savior a bit of a bad boy?”

Harry groaned. “It’s not like that. Hermione won’t come down to breakfast. I just want to check on her. I forgot about the stairs.”

Fred and George rolled their eyes, and helped Harry back to his feet.

“You know, there’s more than one way into a room,” George pointed out.

“And we live in a tower. With windows.” Fred winked.

As the twins departed, Harry gaped at them. Of course! But how to get to Hermione’s window? He didn’t fancy scaling the tower. Until he remembered. He was a wizard. With a broom. It didn’t take long for Harry to scramble back to his dormitory to grab his stuff. Thankfully all the other first year boys were down at breakfast, so there was no one around to question him mounting his broom out one of the windows. Now the trick would be finding the first year girls’ dorm window. Shouldn’t be too difficult.

Thankfully with everyone down at breakfast, only a couple irate girls spotted Harry flying close by their window and peeking in. He seemed to hit every single other year until he found a nearly empty room at the top with only one person sleeping in a bed. There wasn’t a guarantee this was the first year girls’ dormitory, but it was likely. He saw an abundance of pink decorations on one bed, and he knew Lavender was slightly obsessed with the color, so it was as likely a room as any.

Harry tapped at the window, hoping he could get Hermione to wake up and unlock it herself. But the sleeping figure only seemed to curl tighter in on herself when she heard the noise.

Nothing else for it then, Harry thought, as he pressed a hand against the window and pushed his not-so-accidental magic into unlocking it. With a creak, the window opened, so Harry was able to dismount onto the ledge and slip into the room.

“Who’s there?” Hermione called out, as the lump in the bed sat up.

Harry sighed with relief when he caught sight of her bushy hair. “It’s just me,” Harry whispered.

Hermione turned to the window with wide eyes, clutching her blankets over her face. “Harry?! What on earth are you doing – How did you even – “

Harry held up his broomstick with a grin. “Can get into a room by more than just doors.” But his grin faded when he saw Hermione turn away, fully hiding herself away in her blankets. “I came to check on you when Padma and Lavender said you were staying up here. Are you alright?”

Hermione burst into tears. Harry realized that her eyes were also puffy and red-rimmed, just before she tucked her knees up and buried her face in them.

Harry raced to the side of her bed. “Shhh, Hermione. It’s alright. Well, actually it’s probably not. But I’m sure if you tell me what’s wrong, we can fix it and everything will be okay again.“

Hermione hiccupped. “You’re right, I’m being stupid.”

Harry panicked. “No, no! I didn’t say that. I’m saying…well, I don’t know what I’m saying. Listen, just tell me what’s wrong and I’ll fix it.”

Between sobs, Hermione seemed to chuckle. A good sign. “Promise you won’t laugh?”

“Laugh? Why would I laugh?”

Hermione slowly looked up, letting the Gryffindor colored quilt fall away from her face. Harry sucked in a fortifying breath when he saw that the lower half of Hermione’s face had transformed to something creature-like. Her nose transitioned to a black button, and dark brown fur covered her cheeks and neck. Long white whiskers sprouted from her cheeks, and her mouth had slightly changed shape, just enough to show off her two front teeth even more.

“Hermione…what happened? Did someone do this?”

Hermione looked away, and began sobbing again. “I-I don’t know. I think it was some fifth year girls. I just wanted to ask some questions about their OWLS. B-b-but they got annoyed, I think. Everyone does.”

“Who?” Harry demanded. He needed names to enact revenge against Hermione.

Hermione huffed. “Don’t be such a boy, Harry. I don’t need you to go defending my honor or some such nonsense.”

Harry looked down at this lap, not enjoying the way Hermione seemed to be able to read him so well.

<What’ssss wrong with the female friend? What did you do?> Ladon asked from Harry’s pocket.

Harry gently pulled Ladon out. <I didn’t do anything! Someone transfigured her face,> he explained.

<Who? They sssshhhall ssssuffer.>

Harry grinned, and deposited Ladon in Hermione’s lap. “Ladon agrees with me. Suffer upon those hurt you.”

Hermione managed a warbly smile, which looked rather bizarre on her half-transformed face. “I don’t need justice. I just want my best friend to give me a hug and tell me I’m not a insufferable chatter box.”

Considering Harry had been mostly floundering on how to help, his best friend, he did not hesitate to wrap his arms around Hermione and pull her towards his side. “Is that what they called you?” Harry asked.

Hermione nodded against Harry’s chest. “And then one of them said, ‘or an ch-otter box.’ And that’s…” Hermion sobbed again.

“That’s why you think they did it,” Harry finished. “that’s cruel.”

“I think it was a potion,” Hermione continued to explain, her puzzling mind managing to calm her some to distance herelf from the problem. “Because I woke up this way. And I don’t think a fifth year would be able to manage body transfiguration on this scale.”

Harry growled. “Either way it’s unacceptable. So much could have gone wrong. We have to tell McGonagall.”

“No!” Hermione’s arms squeezed around Harry’s middle. “No, I…I don’t want to bother her with this.”

“Hermione, you can’t let them get away with this. This was not just cruel, it could have hurt you. Especially if it was an experimental potion.”

“B-but then she’ll see me like this!”

“So? We’re going to have to find someway to fix this anyway. And I doubt even your transfiguration and potions skills are enough to break this.”

“Can’t you fix it?” Hermione pleaded. “With your not-so-accidental magic?”

Harry gaped at his best friend. “Aren’t you always the one telling me I need to be careful with it? That it’s too volatile to use on especially big magic? You yelled at me last week for trying to find a way to apparate within Hogwarts.”

Hermione slipped out of Harry’s hug, face crestfallen. “I know. I don’t why I even suggested it. I just…I really don’t want anyone else to know.”

Harry wasn’t sure what to say next. Usually their positions were reversed. Hermione was always the one to encourage Harry to reach out to adults, while Harry was the one advocating to solve their problems themselves. It was strange asking himself, what would Hermione do?, while actually comforting her. Before he could think of a reasonable and logical solution, the door to the dormitory flew open with a crash that made both Harry and Hermione very nearly fall off the bed.

Harry felt heart-stopping fear when he saw Professor McGonagall standing in the doorway, in her usual long robes and what must have been her pointiest hat, lips pressed so tightly they didn’t look visible at all. Her face pure rage. “MR. POTTER! IN ALL MY YEARS…NEVER HAVE I…TO THINK…DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA THE TROUBLE YOU ARE IN, YOUNG MAN?!”

Harry trembled. “I-it’s not what you think.”

“OH? Are you or are you not in the explicitly forbidden girls’ dormitory?”

Harry didn’t feel like pointing out that technically no one had forbidden him from it, but just told him the stairs wouldn’t let him go up. There was no way he was saying that McGonagall right now though.

<Ssshe sssounds like ssshe’s going tear your limbsss off,> Ladon remarked, which was not helpful at all.

“He was just checking on me, Professor!” Hermione piped up, which Harry thought was awfully brave of her considering McGonagall was on the warpath. “I wasn’t at breakfast and…”

“…and I panicked. Because of the troll thing. I just wanted to make sure she was alright.”

McGonagall took a deep breath, probably about to begin another tirade, but she startled at the sight of Hermione. “Miss Granger, what in Merlin’s name…what happened to your face?” Her voice was back to firm gentleness which was especially jarring after the way she had burst into the room.

Hermione ducked her head to hide her face under her hair. She didn’t reply.

Thankfully, Harry knew enough at this point to come to Hermione’s aid. “Some upper years transfigured her face. We think it was a potion.”

“Harry!” Hermione protested, slapping his arm.

“What? I told you we should tell her. She’s the transfiguration professor. If anyone can fix it, she can.”

McGonagall looked skyward for a moment, muttering something under her breath. “Mr. Potter, do not think we are done with our conversation about your blatant disregard of appropriate rules. Ms. Granger, your friend is right. This should be a simple fix from Madame Pomfrey. You are not the first unfortunate victim of a transfiguration prank, nor do I doubt you’ll be the last.”

Harry reached for and squeezed Hermione’s hand. She didn’t look at Harry, but she didn’t tear her hand away either, so Harry counted it as a success.

Hermione worried at her lip before replying. “I don’t want anyone else to see me though.”

Harry thought it was a bit late for that, considering the growing onlookers of Gryffindor girls who had followed Professor McGonagall to spy on the commotion that had led to their usually calm professor storming up the dormitory stairs.

McGonagall’s expression softened. “If you do not mind waiting, I am sure your condition can wait until morning classes commence.”

Hermione nodded, blinking back more tears.

“However, Mister Potter, you have class to get to and I think you’ve seen quite enough of the girls’ dormitories.”

Whispers followed McGonagall’s pronouncement from the hallway.

The Head of House spun around fast enough to break something. “I’m sure you all have plenty of other things to do than gawk about like a twittering titmice!”

The onlookers disappeared into the woodwork in their startlement.

Hermione held her head with embarrassment. “What’s the point? The whole school will know now.”

Harry pulled Hermion back into a hug. “Don’t worry about them. I’ll hex anyone who says something.”

Hermione half-sobbed, half-laughed. “Don’t do that. You’ll get detention.”

“Worth it.”

Professor McGonagall let out a soft sigh. “Please refrain from attempted injury of your fellow students, and I will pretend not to have heard that. Now come along, Mr. Potter.” She stood in the doorway.

Harry promised as he slipped off the bed, “I’ll visit you later. Do you want Ladon to keep you company?”

Hermione hesitated before nodding. “If he doesn’t mind.”

Harry looked to Ladon currently curled up in Hermione’s bed sheets. <Do you mind keeping our friend company for the morning?>

<Will there be lesssss hatchlingssss about?> Ladon asked. The snake still wasn’t quite comfortable being around a lot of other wix children day in and day out.

<Most likely.>

<Obvioussssly, yesss. Bring me ssssausage later.>

Harry rolled his eyes. “He said he would like to stay with you anyway. I’ll see you at lunchtime.”

Hermione gave a weak smile. “Thank you, Harry.”

“I will come back to escort you once classes have begun. I have high hopes my sixth years won’t be completely useless if I need to step out.”

Hermione nodded. “I’ll get changed.”

“Mr. Potter, that is our cue,” Professor McGonagall said crisply as she ushered him out the door. Harry waved good-bye as he was all but pushed out the door.

McGonagall picked up her admonishments where she left off, “While I will not give detention for your altruistic motivations, I will be docking ten points for your rule-breaking. Suffice to say if I ever catch you in a girls’ dormitory again, I will not be so lenient no matter how noble your intentions.”

“Yes, Professor.” Harry paused. “How did you know I was there? I went through the window.” He held up his broomstick to emphasize the point.

“Yes, and if you had been there for any other reason you would find yourself without that particular tool. You are not the first person to think of climbing through the window and you won’t be the last. They are warded, of course to alert me if anyone is going in or out.”

McGonagall’s face twitched into the smallest of smiles. “I seem to recall an incident with your father and his friends that involved a similar method of reaching the sixth year girls’ dormitory.”

Harry wrinkled his nose. “Do I want to know?”

“I believe it was a prank they wished to act upon on a Mary MacDonald’s bed curtains for a rude remark she had made earlier in the week. The details are unimportant. But your mother, Lily, caught them in the act. By the time I arrived she had hexed them six ways to Sunday, a far more fitting punishment in my opinion than anything I could have done.”

Harry smiled. “And my Dad still wanted to date her after all that?”

“Your father was in love with your mother for years. I hardly think a bit of well-deserved hexing could have swayed him otherwise. Besides, they were already dating at that point, I believe. And your mother was somewhat mollified to notice your father had taken the opportunity to leave a fresh bouquet of flowers at her bedside.”

“That was sweet of him.” Harry’s heart warmed, thinking of his parents that might fight sometimes, but also did sweet normal gestures. It made him ache for what had been taken from him.

That moment was immediately broken when McGonagall and Harry entered the common room to cheers and wolf-whistles from Gryffindors who had heard the gossip of Harry’s escapades and wanted to see the fallout.

McGonagall pointed a finger at Harry. “Never again, do you understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Harry nodded solemnly.

“Is this a school or not?” She addressed the crowd. “Go to class before I dock enough points to put us in the negatives.” And with that, the room scrambled, as McGonagall pushed through the chaos and out the common room door.

“Ah, Harry,” Fred greeted wiping away a tear from laughter and swinging his arm around Harry’s shoulder. “This just made our term.”

George swung his arm on Harry’s other side. “We thought you were about to be the boy-who-died when we saw McGonagall storm up there.”

“But like the hero you are, you emerged victorious. The boy who lived again!” Fred crowed. “How’s Hermione?” He asked much more quietly.

“Feeling ill, but going to Madam Pomfrey’s. She’ll be okay,” Harry replied.

“Good. Would hate to lose Gryffindor’s favorite little nerd,” George remarked.

“Then we’d be left with just Percy,” Fred said with a fake gag.

George shuddered.

Harry just grinned, shouldering his broom and giving the twins a lazy salute as he took it back up to his own dormitory.