Snakeskin (A Harry Potter Fanfic)

Chapter 8: Lockhart is Unhelpful

Chapter 8: Lockhart is Unhelpful

Halloween approaches. I'm not sure why, but I've never been fond of the holiday. I think it's the masks. People hiding their faces – hiding who they are – it makes me nervous. Siri jumped out at me wearing a vampire mask, and I punched him in the face reflexively. I didn't even feel guilty this time – and the rest of the group found it hilarious. Perhaps Halloween isn't so bad after all.

**

October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. During that time, Leo exchanged many letters with both Remus and Sirius, either asking for advice, keeping them filled in on what was happening in his life or complaining about how the Quidditch pitch was about to become the world's largest swimming pool. Raindrops the size of bullets had been thundering on the castle windows for days on end; the lake rose, the flower beds turned into muddy streams, and Hagrid's pumpkins swelled to the size of garden sheds. Oliver Wood's enthusiasm for regular training sessions, however, was not dampened, as he often pulled the team out to train during the early hours of the morning. This didn't bother Leo in the slightest, given that he still wasn't sleeping well.

He continued to find himself in McGonagall's office during the wee hours of the morning and had even been allowed to help her grade some first year assignments (the names were magically hidden, of course). She still hadn't asked Leo why he continued to roam the castle every night, but he just assumed that she knew because Dumbledore had told her what happened under the trap door. Her knowing didn't worry Leo. Harry knowing did.

Leo had recalled his slip-up in Lockhart's office and often noticed Harry, Ron, and Hermione looking at him oddly ever since. He had been wary at first that they would bring it up and try to force him to talk about it, but thankfully they just resorted to continuously staring when they thought he wasn't looking.

In an effort to escape the stares, Leo had been spending increasing amounts of time with the Weasley twins or Draco – sometimes both. The group had discovered that – after years of being an insufferable prat – Draco was actually quite the cunning prankster and a brilliant potioneer. He had been recruited onto their team – which Leo lovingly called the Marauders Part Two, for lack of a better option – and invited onto their secret project involving the colour-changing potion Leo and the twins had been working on.

That was what Leo found himself doing one Saturday afternoon a few days before Halloween after Quidditch practice. He, the twins, and Draco were crammed into a small passage behind a mirror – which was covered up for Leo's sake - on the fourth floor. The passage had caved in following a rather nasty explosion from one of their potion attempts, but still left the four of them room to sit, brew their potion, and debate how they could best modify it.

"- I'm just saying, certain words or phrases should trigger it," Leo was arguing hotly. "He makes a comment about his teeth and boom – they turn pink. Says something about his hair and it turns green -"

"And I'm telling you that's next to impossible," Draco shouted back, throwing his hands in the air. "You can't activate and deactivate potions with just a word or set of words -"

Fred and George stared on in amusement as the two bickered, content to stay out of the argument and just observe. The last time they had intervened, the group had devolved into fisticuffs and the twins had come off the worst for it. They had sported bloody noses and split lips by the end of it, and had decided to stay out of all future arguments. At least until now.

"What if we combined the potion with a spell?" Fred suggested.

The two blondes stopped arguing for a moment to stare at him before looking thoughtful. After a moment, Draco said that it could work, but that it would most likely have to be a very complex transfiguration spell combined with a timing charm and a phrasing spell that would activate the transfiguration properties of the potion. In short: they had their work cut out for them.