Scarred from the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter Fan Fiction Retelling)

Chapter 8: You Two Do Not Look Good in Night Vision

The dungeons felt unusually cold that Halloween afternoon. Snape had them brew a Freezing Potion, which was supposed to freeze the air around the drinker. After arguing with Snape about why anyone would find a potion like that useful and losing 200 points for Gryffindor in the process, Hermione ended the class by drinking her potion and turning the air around her below zero degrees to point out that it really was entirely useless.

"Ms. Granger, another 100 points from Gryffindor," Snape drawled, tossing a scarf embroidered with lilies around his neck, "for unnecessarily drinking your potion to prove a point that you had no business in proving."

"But it's literally useless," Hermione said through chattering teeth. Her entire face was blue. "Look at me. How is this potion useful? I can barely breathe."

"That," Snape said, curling his lip, "is what makes the potion entirely useful."

"He just insulted you, Hermione," Terry said.

"I know! Shut up, Ravenclopper!"

"Stop shouting so tumultuously!" Lavender hissed beside them. "Mannie's taking a nap."

"So inconsiderate," Parvati huffed.

"Who's Mannie?" Hermione asked.

Lavender pulled her cauldron closer to her. "No one."

Once the Freezing Potion wore off, Hermione was free to follow Harry and Ron through the dungeons. They were all excited about the Halloween feast. Fred and George told them there were going to be live werewolves serving appetizers.

"But how are they werewolves when it's not a full moon out?" Ron wondered, looking through one of the very few windows on the dungeon walls. He withdrew his hand when he saw a bunch of spiders again scurrying through a crack.

"They were obviously lying," Hermione said, breathing on her hands to warm herself.

"But Ernie MacMillan told them."

"And Ernie MacMillan is a gossiper. His lips should be frozen shut."

"Watch where you're going, losers," Malfoy spat, running by with Crabbe and Goyle on his heels.

"We didn't walk into anything," Harry pointed out. "We're not even walking."

Malfoy swiveled around and grinned. "You better not follow us, Potter. Only Slytherins are allowed in the Slytherin common room. Ha!" He high-fived Crabbe and Goyle and followed them down the dark corridor.

Harry rolled his eyes. "He does realize he just told us something that's super obvious, right?"

"His dumbness is what's obvious," Hermione said. "Well, I'm finally unfrozen. I think." She rubbed her eyebrows to make sure all the ice had melted from them. "We better get going to the feast. Filch is in a really bad mood, and if he finds us just loitering here, he'll probably blame us for leaving ice all over the floor."

"Hermione, you did that," Ron said, pointing at the ice trail that ended at Hermione's feet.

"Oh yeah."

"How do you know Filch is in a bad mood?" Harry asked.

"I saw him yelling at Dean and Seamus for leaving a mess after carving some pumpkins in the Entrance Hall. They were a mess too. Filch thinks all students should be clean and spotless and not leave behind any kind of mess."

"Why doesn't he ever use magic to clean?" Harry said. "I feel like he puts unnecessary stress on himself trying to clean everything up by hand."

"He's a Squib," Hermione said.