Could've Been Saved ⇢ 𝒕𝒎𝒓 & 𝒉𝒋𝒑

3

Right in the morning of the next day after their first class Harry could watch Hermione mouth the name Pomfrey at Ron, who nodded along to what Harry was telling them both but looked rather concerned  about something else rather than Harry finding Tom Riddle's writing in his notebook.

Then finally, mid sentence Harry caught onto their dodgy behaviour and derailed from his initial story, '—Anything wrong? Neither of you seems very bothered about what I'm telling at all...'

'Well, being fair with you, in the last few months you've been sharing quite a lot of suspicions about You Know Who coming back after his disappearance...' Hermione admitted apologetically, brushing back some of her hair that had bursted out from the tight ponytail.

'Yeah!' Ron chimed in by her other side. 'And after that one time you thought Neville was one of his complies because he left his diary in the common room, we kind of stopped listening...'

'You really shouldn't have read the last entry for an audience you've assembled in a spurt of blind panic. Especially not before making sure it wasn't just something personal instead of an interaction between him and, well, your dear Tom Riddle.' Hermione said, creasing up her eyebrows so they looked like a boat had parked on top of them which began shaping them down in the middle. 'I know you were so sure about it, but...it was pretty embarrassing for him being outed to have feelings for Ron.'

They were just passing Neville in the hallway and upon seeing Harry he ducked his head, scurrying away with quicker steps.

Harry shrugged. 'Can't be too careless when it comes to diaries nowadays, and Neville would be the perfect victim to be turnt into a hocrux—'

'Harry!' Hermione cried out, horrified.

'What? He'd be stupid enough to believe that it really doesn't involve dark magic if you just tell him so kindly.'

'The hospital wing is right around the corner,' Ron pointed out helpfully, earning a scornful look from Hermione next but that one also carried a little contemplation in it as well, as if she seriously thought of dragging Harry in there for a roundabout checkup.

Harry squinted at her profile. 'I'm not getting my head checked, that's for muggles and their muggle therapists.'

'Ha—rry!'

'Okay, sorry, Hermione. I'll take that one back.'

'And the one about Neville? That one was pretty mean...'

'Hmm...' Harry thought for a second, pressing his lips together. 'I think not.'

In the following days the snake began waking up one by one until the very last one of them. Then as they settled into their seats in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Hermione decided to confess about the snakes once the right opportunity arose. And judging by his expression he didn't seem surprised in the least.

'So by the shine of it you've all handled the offspring of my home snake well enough,' He said, letting his eyes roam about the tables which were hosting ziplock bags now that crinkled with the sound of snakes sliding around in the thick plastic.

His observation halted on Harry and his face got harder. 'What about you, Potter? Where's your bunch?'

'Dead.' He said, causing gasps to rise up all around him. Then more softer he added. 'Or just haven't gotten enough sleep yet.'

'Hm,' Snape said, smirking without moving his mouth. 'Nothing to be surprised about.'

Ron gave Harry a sympathetic glance when his face suddenly took on a mischievous expression. 'Since when have you decided to breed baby snakes, sir?' He asked into the class.

Harry smirked lightly at his friends support. Even if they didn't want to hear a word about his new theories regarding Voldemort, at least they still had his back and Harry couldn't be more glad than this moment.

Snape sneered. 'Oh, you'd like to know, huh, Weasley?'

'Is it maybe...to fight those urges of having kids of your own so you act like the snakes are?' A few people sniggered, and at those Snape was scorning next.

'You've found some cheap comedy in Weasley, Finnegan, haven't you? Twenty points off Gryffindor.'

'Oh, come on!' Someone moaned.

'Five more.'

'This isn't fair, Professor Snape!' Seamus said. 'It was just a silly joke, and some laughed, not like anyone got harmed in the process.'

'This was a group effort, it's totally fair.' Snape straightened himself up and walked back to his desk, but at Malfoy's table he made a quick stop to mutter a, 'Very nice and healthy, those ones, Mister Malfoy.' Before he continued walking, leaving Malfoy to turn around and smirk at Harry.

From behind his shoulder Harry could get a glimpse in of his snakes, which were overlapping each other into some loose knots made of their slick bodies.

'Jealous? Potter?' Malfoy drawled, spitting out each word with hard pronunciations.

Maybe that was what did it for Harry, or the ongoing frustration of not being heard from anyone, but as everything accumulated in him he was starting to leak...and that he did with a whisper crawling out of his mouth, almost unintentionally.

'Break free. Bite him in his long nose.'

Draco's eyes squinted together before they widened, and just as he turned around to meet the new noise coming directly from table, he made an easy target for the snake that bursted from the ziplock bag and aimed its tiny fangs at his nose.

Harry could almost hear those Gryffindor points falling like a hailstorm over the thunder of cries Draco was responsible for....