The Merging: Hackles Academy Of Witchcraft And Wizardry.

Chapter 11

The second week started off with a bang. Students were turning into frogs left, right and centre. The staff had attempted to turn them back, but had so far been unsuccessful.

It was pure luck that they had managed to track down the cause and had been able to get the spell reversed, finally returning the students back to their normal forms.

As it happened, while the frog-students were taking over the Hackles halls, someone else had been causing their own mayhem, which turned out to be lucky. And on discovering Dumbledore's diary, they had charmed it to shout out random excerpts at anyone who came within five feet of him. For some reason, he carried it around with him a lot of the time.

Five days after the students had started transforming, Professor McGonagall had approached Dumbledore to ask him what his thoughts of it all were, when out of his pocket there was a shout of:

'Dear diary, I've had THE BEST idea ever!!! I'm a genius, I know! I got a bulk deal on twelve gold rings, so I've decided to hand them out to my favourite students. I got the idea from the Lord of the Rings. I've told them that I'm entrusting them with the rings and they aren't to tell anyone or to put them on. Anyone who doesn't follow the rules gets transformed into a frog, which only I can reverse. Hilarious, right? And now I'll be able to separate the worthy from the weak. I may even find myself another main man like my Hazza P. I didn't realise how many wouldn't listen. So far only Hazza and the Mouth-Boy seems to have listened because they're not hopping around catching flies. I think I boat them. I boat them so hard. And it's all thanks to me, Albus Dumbledore. Laters diary.'

The hall went silent and McGonagall was red-faced with fury. 'Albus Dumbledore, what have you got to say for yourself? How completely inappropriate and unprofessional. You're supposed to be responsible.'

'Now now, Minnie. It was all in good fun, I assure you. I'm sure everyone will find this as hilarious as I do.'

'Hilarious? Hilarious? You've left them like this for five days Albus and you've not said a word. Classes have been interrupted. We've had Ethel Hallow eating the fly wings in Potions class, resulting in exploding potions, when they were missing the most important ingredient. Mildred Hubble has been swimming in the soup and we've had Hermione Granger trying to ribbet out all the answers and getting so frustrated that she's knocked everyone's books to the ground when someone didn't answer correctly.'

'I know. I've been laughing so hard,' smirked Dumbledore.

'I'm not laughing Albus. You have ten seconds to transform them all back before I cast a permanent hair loss charm on you. Don't think I won't do it.'

'But Minnie...' whined Dumbledore.

'No buts, Albus. Do it now...'

'Fine! But I'm right about drarry, they belong together.'

Minerva lifted her wand and pointed it at him.

'OK, OK.' Albus waved his wand and all the bespelled students returned to their regular human selves. Ethel was absolutely furious. She was covered head to toe in slime and had a slight hop as she walked over to the Slytherin table. Everyone else seemed to take it with good humour, though. There was even some laughter as they exchanged their stories on what they had experienced.

Harry was greeting Hermione happily and Draco was surreptitiously glancing in his direction when he thought nobody was looking. He had a confused look on his face.

Meanwhile, in the teachers' lounge, Hecate and Ada were discussing the possible culprits behind the charming of Albus' diary.

'It must have happened over the weekend, Hecate. We were all so focused on the parents visiting and the knitting competition, that we seem to have become quite distracted,' said Ada.