CHAPTER 3
Ron woke the next morning to find the dormitory empty except for himself and Harry. It must have been late because the curtains had been drawn allowing the glorious sun to light up the room.
He checked the time and was surprised to find that it was 11:30am already and nobody had bothered to wake them up.
Ron raced over to Harry’s four-poster bed and nudged him awake. ‘Harry wake up, we’ve missed breakfast!’
Harry rolled to his side, his eyes still half shut. ‘What time is it Ron?’
‘11:30’ Said Ron, his tummy grumbling uncomfortably.
‘What!’ Harry sat bolt upright. ‘But that means we won’t be able to put the spell on Malfoy, half the day is gone.’
The thought had not yet dawned on Ron until then. ‘Oh no. We’ll have to wait to do it tomorrow. On the other hand I suppose it gives us some extra time to look further into the spell and learn the incantation properly.’
‘That is one way of looking at it,’ Said Harry. But then he had an idea. He grabbed his timetable and checked what classes they had the next day.
‘Transfiguration, DADA…Yes! Double Potions.’ He said.
‘Huh?’ Ron thought he had heard wrong.
‘This is great, we have Double Potions tomorrow.’ Harry repeated.
‘Harry,’ Ron said incredulously, ‘have you gone completely out of your mind? You WANT to go to potions class?’
‘Ron I haven’t gone mad at all. You see, if the charm works on Malfoy, when he tries to humiliate us in Potions, like he usually does, it will backfire on him!’
Ron seemed to understand immediately. ‘Of course. I should have thought of that before. This is going to be better than the time Malfoy was turned into a ferret!’
Harry and Ron quickly dressed, grabbed the spell book and some snacks and ran down to the common room, which was again empty.
‘Everyone must be down in the grounds again.’ Said Ron.
‘Good, we can have a look at the charm and do some practice without prying eyes.’ Said Harry.
Ron had an idea. ‘Why don’t we sit near the window where the sun is coming in so that we don’t miss out while everyone else gets to enjoy the day?’
‘Well why not.’ Said Harry. ‘ And since there isn’t anyone here I wouldn’t mind getting a little tanned. If it is ok for girls then why not for us?’
The boys carried over a small table and some stools to the window, took off their shirts and made themselves comfortable. Harry lay down the book on the table and opened it to the correct page.
‘Alright, Backfire charms.’ He traced his finger down the page until he found the exact charm he was looking for. ‘To make the victim suffer his own evil intent. And this is the incantation.’
Ron stared at the spell. ‘Bakfirilius-vicorruphein-reversius-baktumorfius’ He turned his gaze to Harry with a queer expression on his face. ‘Whoever made up this spell must have had a really warped mind.’
Harry agreed. ‘And absolutely no imagination.’
‘As long as it works the way we want it too.’ Said Ron.
‘Yeah, we had better start working on the pronunciation.’ Harry replied.
All of a sudden there was a loud bang at the door and the boys looked up to see Hermione storm in the room, her robes saturated from head to toe.
‘Hermione what happened to you?’ Ron asked.
‘That arrogant malicious bast-’ She stopped when she noticed that the boys were baring their chests, which were nicely toned due to much Quidditch playing.
Harry and Ron realised what she was looking at and snatched up their shirts.
‘What is going on here?’ She asked suspiciously.
‘Nothing, we were just looking through some charms for Malfoy.’ Said Ron.
‘Really?’ Hermione lifted her eyebrow. ‘And you often enjoy learning charms topless in each other’s company? And I thought you two were just very close friends.’
Harry and Ron turned bright red. ‘Hermione! We were just getting some sun, that’s all!’ Said Ron, outraged that she could imply such absurdity.
Hermione giggled. ‘I know Ron, I was only teasing, you ninny.’
So anyway,’ Said Harry, hoping to change the subject, ‘would you like to explain why you decided to go swimming in your clothes?’
Hermione’s rage returned instantly. ‘I didn’t go swimming at all, this is all Malfoy’s doing. He saw that I was sitting alone peacefully reading and he just couldn’t resist the opportunity to insult and humiliate me in front of his friends.’
This grabbed their attention. ‘That horrid slime ball, what did he do?’ Said Ron.
‘After his usual jeering and fun making he decided to rid me of my book since I wasn’t paying him any attention or showing weakness. He made me go after him with the book if I wanted to get it back but when he was right next to the edge of the lake he flung it in.’ Said Hermione.
‘And you actually jumped in to get it?’ Harry asked.
‘No, I was pushed in by Goyle. They were all laughing their heads off until I swam to shore and they left because a teacher was coming from the castle.’ She said furiously.
‘And did they get into trouble?’ Ron asked hopefully.
‘Of course not. The teacher was Snape who told me not to go swimming unless I wanted a detention even if I am Head Girl. And now I’ve lost my book as well, oh that little twit. I could just, I could just-’
‘Put a good hex on him? A charm perhaps?’ Said Harry.
Hermione’s expression changed. ‘Practically, though I won’t. I won’t resort to magic to get revenge on anyone. Remember Harry, this is only something Malfoy would do himself and you two are stooping to his level.’
Harry felt a moment of shame but just as quickly dismissed the feeling knowing that Malfoy would never do anything to help anyone like he was. Hermione didn’t know what she was talking about.
‘Is that the spell?’ She asked, seeing the book open on the table in front of her.
‘That’s it.’ Said Ron.
Hermione sighed. ‘Well seeing as I can’t convince you then I’ll advise you. Make sure you follow the instructions properly because if you make a mistake, terrible things could happen.’
‘See Hermione, I told you that you would see it our way.’ Said Harry.
‘Harry, do not think for a moment that I am assenting with your plans. I simply do not want to see this charm go wrong because things could get out of hand.’ She retorted, but Harry was not convinced.
‘If you would excuse me, I have to change before the whole carpet becomes damp.’ And she made her way up to the girls dormitory with her head held high.
‘And you might want to take out that weed stuck in you hair!’ Harry shouted after her and Ron chuckled.
Harry and Ron continued to study the charm for quite some time until people began filing inside the common room. They were surprised that Hermione still had not returned from her room. Very soon they found Ginny and Louise making their way over to them. Ron attempted to pat down his hair and sit coolly as Louise drew near.
‘Where have you two been all day?’ Ginny asked.
‘Just up here studying.’ Said Ron. ‘And beating Harry at chess of course.’ His attempt at cool humour fell flat.
‘You, study?’ Ginny said. ‘That has to be some sort of miracle.’
Ron turned pink. ‘I’ll have you know that I study a lot more than you think Ginny.’
Ginny snorted and Louise smiled shyly. ‘Sure, whatever you say Ron. Anyway I wanted to know if Hermione was alright after falling in the lake.’
‘She didn’t fall, she was pushed by Malfoy.’ Said Harry.
‘Oh? We didn’t know that. We only saw her walking off to the castle in a rage and Snape following behind.’ Said Louise.
‘Yeah, Malfoy didn’t even get in trouble for it so she is pretty mad. But she is fine really.’ Said Harry.
Ginny was scanning the room and tapped Louise on the shoulder. ‘Come on let’s go. They aren’t in here yet. See you later then.’ She said to the boys and then left and went off to their rooms.
‘I wonder who they were looking for?’ Said Harry but Ron shrugged.
Then suddenly he noticed Dean and Seamus entering the room carefully and staring about them. When they decided the coast was clear they came in a sat by the fireplace.
Ron approached them. ‘Who are you hiding from?’ He asked, although he already had an idea who it was.
Seamus looked up and said. ‘Your sister of course. She’s dangerous, she is. Been looking for us ever since yesterday.’
Dean continued. ‘We don’t know what she is capable of so we are just keeping out of her way until she cools off a bit of steam.’
Ron agreed. ‘She takes after my mother so it is a good idea to keep away for a while.’ He paused then said. ‘Listen, do you think I could have a copy of one of the pictures?’
Dean grinned. ‘Sure but so many people have been asking that we decided to charge four sickles each.’
Ron reached in his pocket but couldn’t find any change. ‘Could we go to the dormitory, I should have some money in my bag.’
‘No problem.’ Said Dean.
When they opened the door to their room they found Nevil scuffling around in his bags.
‘Hi Nevil.’ Said Harry. ‘What are you looking for?’
‘Oh hi Harry.’ Said Nevil. ‘I came up to look for something that I had forgotten but now I can’t remember what it was.’
‘Did your Remembrall (sorry can’t remember how it is spelt) turn red?’ Seamus asked.
Nevil’s face dawned with comprehension. ‘That’s it, that is what I was looking for!’ The other boys rolled their eyes.
Ron found his money and took out four sickles, which he exchanged for a photograph of the girls sunbaking, being splashed and shouting furiously. They all laughed at the expression on Ginny’s face as she screamed in her fury.
‘This is a classic.’ Said Ron.
Nevil interrupted. ‘We should probably get down to supper before we miss it.’
Harry and Ron happily agreed as they had hardly eaten anything all day and were absolutely famished. They found Hermione in the Great Hall by the time they arrived there. She looked very important, her back straight, head held high and her hair was actually tied back in a loose bun.
‘Hermione, your hair?’ Said Ron. He noticed that she looked quite different with her hair back.
‘It is just far too hot to keep it down.’ She said. ‘This weather is out of the ordinary.’
Harry asked. ‘Why were you up in your room for so long?’
‘Studying. I have a History of Magic essay due tomorrow and another assignment due on Tuesday for Transfiguration, as you two do in fact.’ She eyed them knowingly. ‘You haven’t done it have you?’
‘Well we will, tonight actually. Won’t we Harry.’ Said Ron.
‘Err…of course!’ Said Harry.
Harry and Ron looked guilty. They hadn’t given much thought to homework that weekend. But fortunately they had no assignments due in the next day.
Suddenly Hermione remembered something. ‘Oh, did you hear?’
‘Hear what?’ Harry and Ron asked.
‘Apparently Dobby was cleaning in the armour room last night and accidentally tripped over something making a huge mess in there. He is in the hospital wing with a broken leg. I heard that a suit of armour collapsed onto him, poor thing.’ She said sympathetically.
Harry and Ron looked at each other with astonishment. ‘It was Dobby who was following us?’ Said Harry through a mouthful of mashed potato.
‘What do you mean followed you?’ Hermione snapped.
‘Uh…’ Ron said uneasily. ‘Well we kind of snuck into the library last night to get the Spell Book and we heard someone following us. But if it was Dobby then we won’t be in trouble.’
Hermione said crossly. ‘Haven’t you two learnt anything about sneaking about after hours? You are just lucky you weren’t caught or that it was only Dobby who was following you! As Head Girl I should be giving you detentions or reporting you to Professor McGonagall.’
‘You won’t will you?’ Ron pleaded.
‘Of course not. Then you would have to explain what you were doing and possibly drag me into it.’ She said.
Harry and Ron knew that wasn’t the real reason and were grateful that she was protecting them.
Hermione finished up her meal and pushed away her dishes. ‘I’ll see you two later then. I have some homework to finish up.’
When she was gone Ron said softly, ‘What time does Malfoy usually come down for breakfast?’
‘I am pretty sure it is in between 7:00-7:30. We should be down here tomorrow at about a quarter past then.’ Harry replied.
Ron grinned devilishly. ‘This is going to be so much fun.’