The Confectionary Chronicles || HP/SPN

Sweets and Studies- CH23

TWENTY-THREE:

Under normal circumstances, Hermione thought she'd have enjoyed the train ride back from Hogwarts. It was taking her to her god and her family, after all, and she had missed them all so much– she couldn't wait to see them again! Leaving Hogwarts with a stolen, shrunken Cerberus in her pocket, however, was not "normal circumstances" and Hermione didn't think anyone could blame her for her anxiety. Not that Millie or Nev knew why she was so jumpy on the train, much to their ever-increasing concern. But Barkimedes had fallen asleep after eating his biscuits, so Hermione tried to relax.

It didn't work.

"Is something wrong?" Millie finally asked, following Hermione twitching (yet again) when the train seemed to rattle– almost as if it was slowing for someone, or multiple someones, to board? Possibly in search of a missing cerberus?

"Nope!" Hermione said brightly, knowing that at least her voice was not giving her away as she smiled beatifically at an increasingly suspicious Millie. She might be nervous, but she was still the priestess of Loki Silvertongue.

"Hmm," Millie gave her a judgmental look but didn't press. Neville, Loki bless him, looked more concerned than suspicious. Hermione wondered how long it would take him to learn.

It was during the final hour of the train ride that disaster struck. Lulled into a false sense of security, Hermione's paranoia had finally settled to a low simmer and Millie's sudden gasp took her by surprise.

"What is that?!" Millie demanded loudly. Hermione looked to where Millie was pointing and her own eyes widened in horror.

Barkimedes had apparently freed himself from her pocket while she was distracted by her book and was now sniffing about the compartment floor, looking a touch bigger than she remembered last seeing him.

"Oh no!" She squeaked, quickly sliding from her seat to the floor of the compartment, pulling out what was left of the shrinking solution from her pocket and pouring it onto her palm. Barkimedes took one sniff of the proffered potion and growled, his lips pulled back from three sets of wicked sharp teeth. He wasn't so small now that the sound was all squeaky and adorable.

'No! Yuck! We're not taking that again!' The cerberus barked, bristling.

"You have to drink it!" Hermione hissed, glancing worriedly out the clear glass panes that made up the door to the compartment. Barkimedes was now the size of a cat and continuing to slowly grow. Anyone walking down the corridor of the train would be able to look through into their compartment and see him.

'Noooo!' Barkimedes complained. 'It made us feel all funny!'

"Please!" Hermione begged, "I'll give you more biscuits!" She glanced out the compartment again and her heart sunk as she saw one of the Ravenclaw prefects making their way up the corridor, knocking on the door of a compartment as he did so, poking his head in.

Desperate, Hermione summoned her fiercest glare and reached out to sharply 'bop' the cerberus on one of his noses, making him sneeze and look up at her in wounded confusion. She leaned forwards, ignoring how it put her in range of Barkimedes' rapidly growing jaws filled with wicked sharp fangs, bared her own blunt teeth and gave her very best growl, copying the sound from Loki's more wolf-like kin– Váli had a particularly impressive growl.

Projecting 'alpha of the pack' as hard as she could, Hermione loomed over the now Labrador-sized cerberus, letting her magic lens weight to her presence, stiflingly thick and wild in the compartment. "You will do as I say, Barkimedes, or they will catch you and put you back in that corridor and I will not be able to rescue you again!" She growled. Mostly because she'd be very expelled– and unlike that time she'd been expelled for setting her bully's hair on fire, she didn't think Loki would be able to get her out of this mess.