The New Trio and the Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 8: Deathdays and Petrifications

Notes: Okay, so I'm really sorry, but I'm going to be rather busyfor the next two weeks with uni stuff, and I'm falling behind on writing chapters ahead of time, so I don't think I'll be publishing for the next two weeks. Expect a chapter on the 13th of April (or, at least, that's what it'll be for me in Australia).

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Harry thought that giving everyone the snouts or noses of their inner animal was their best prank by far. Even the professors had been affected! Dumbledore looked hilarious with the snout of a goat sticking out from his long beard, and Severus' bat nose was slightly disconcerting. However, it appeared that the prank had an unintended side-effect: those with full animal snouts could now only make the noises that their animal could, so the rest of breakfast just sounded like a zoo's animals had been released in the Great Hall. Overall, Harry was happy with his ermine snout, Draco delighted in the forked tongue that his snake mouth provided, Hermione looked ridiculous with a Barn owl's beak, Neville spent breakfast joyously roaring with his lion's muzzle, and the twins looked hilarious with their identical chipmunk cheeks and mouths.

Hogwarts was actually downright peaceful for Harry and his friends with Lockhart unable to go anywhere near Harry, and so September faded into October without issue, causing a damp chill to permeate the castle. Madam Pomfrey was constantly found fussing over the latest cold victim, student or teacher. Neville, who'd gone to the Hospital Wing because Peeves had stuck out a suit of armour's leg and tripped him up, thought seeing Snape in a pile of blankets and with a red nose, trying to bat away Madam Pomfrey's hands as she tucked him in even more, was absolutely hilarious. Luckily, Snape was out of there quickly, since her Pepper-up Potions worked almost instantly, although they left the drinker smoking out of their ears for several hours afterwards. Even Ginny, Luna, and Blaise had managed to get a cold, and the smoke pouring out of the red-headed girl's ears gave the impression that her whole head was on fire.

Hogwarts' grounds were constantly muddy and miserable, but that didn't stop Oliver from summoning his usual fanatic enthusiasm over Quidditch. The Gryffindor Quidditch team members were worked to the maximum extent humanly possible, and always returned to Gryffindor Tower drenched to the skin and splattered with mud.

One stormy Saturday afternoon, during practice, Fred and George reported back to Oliver that an anonymous benefactor ("Ugh, my father's impossible, isn't he?" said Draco) had gifted the whole Slytherin team with Nimbus Two Thousand and Ones. The twins, having had turns riding on Harry's and Draco's brooms, knew how good they were, and so had decided that they were all royally screwed.

Once that day's practice, which was even more torturous than usual, was over, Harry, Draco, and the twins made their way up to the Tower, and in a deserted corridor, came across a muttering Nearly Headless Nick. "... don't fulfil their requirements... honestly, half and inch, if that..."

"Hello, Sir Nicholas," said Draco politely.

"Hello, hello," the ghost said, starting and looking at the four bedraggled students. "You four look rather troubled." He folded a transparent letter and tucked it inside his doublet.

"I'd say you look more troubled than we do," remarked Harry.

"Ah," he said, waving an elegant hand, "A matter of no importance... it's not as though I really wanted to join... but apparently even if I wanted to apply, I 'don't fulfil requirements'."

Fred and George shot each other a look at the extremely bitter expression on Nick's face.

"But you would think, wouldn't you," he erupted, pulling the letter back out if his doublet, "that getting hit forty-five times in the neck with a blunt axe would qualify you to join the Headless Hunt?"