It Could Have Gone That Way; A Harmione Fanfiction

Chapter 20: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

"Brilliant, Hermione." Harry grinned as the trio left the library, a copy of Moste Potente Potions now in Hermione's bag.

"It's not that hard," she said,"not really. You just need to know when it's best to play to someone's weaknesses. For example, Lockhart's love for himself wasn't that hard to figure out, now was it?"

Harry shrugged,"Still brilliant."

They made a beeline for Myrtle's bathroom and sat down in a circle by the sinks. Hermione opened the book and flipped through the rather gruesome pages until she found the one titled Polyjuice Potion.

"Right...wow...this is the most complicated potion I think I've ever seen..." Hermione murmured, reading the ingredients list,"Lacewing flies, leeches, fluxweed and knotgrass...they'll be easy enough to get. Then powdered horn of bicorn - I'm not sure how we can get that - shredded skin of boomslang - that'll be tricky as well - then, of course, a bit of whoever we want to change into."

Ron protested as he was not willing to drink anything with a bit of Crabbe in it. Then he started moaning about how they were supposed to get all of the rare ingredients.

"Well, if you're going to chicken out then that's fine by me." Harry noticed that Hermione had gone quite pink and rather bright-eyed,"I don't want to break the rules, you know. I just think that threatening Muggleborns is far worse than brewing one tricky potion, but if you don't want to find anything out that could potentially save half of the school, then I can easily go and return this book to the library right now."

Ron nudged Harry and smirked,"Never thought I'd see the day Hermione was trying to persuade me to break the rules." He spoke back up to a now narrow-eyed Hermione,"Fine. I'll do it."

Something else was on Harry's mind, however,"How long is it going to take to brew?"

Hermione scanned the recipe again, muttering to herself about full moons and stewing, then said,"About a month, I suppose."

"A month?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Yes." Hermione sighed gravely,"I just hope that we won't be too late."

***********

"Potter! Duck!" Wood roared at him.

Harry whipped his head around to see that same rouge bludger that had been chasing him around for the entirety of the match pelting towards him. He darted upwards, trying in vain to shake it off. Unfortunately, Harry soon found himself spinning about in circles trying to avoid being hit. To make matters worse, Malfoy was watching him, and found it very amusing.

"Training for the ballet, Potter?" He snarled as Harry pulled to a stop in front of the Slytherin Seeker. What Malfoy hadn't noticed, however, was that the Golden Snitch was hovering inches from his right shoulder. Without thinking, Harry sped towards it, launching an all-out Snitch chase between the two boys. Malfoy had the advantage as Harry was the only thing chasing him. But, in Harry's case Malfoy and the bludger were after him, making the task a lot more stressful than it already was.

WHAM.

The bludger hit Harry hard in the arm.

"Oh no!" Harry heard Alicia Spinnet exclaim.

"Blimey..." One of the Weasley twins said.

"Harry!" It was Hermione.