Harry McGonagall (Completed)

Chapter 16: October Attacks

"Come…come to me….Let me rip you….Let me tear you….Let me kill you…."

"What?" exclaimed Harry as he gave a huge jump, looking at his companions with his pale face. The voice he'd just heard chilled him to the bone. It was a voice of breath-taking, ice-cold venom. Fred, George, Hermione, and Padma looked at him strangely. They were currently inside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom preparing a prank on Lockhart. It was after curfew, and Padma was keeping an eye on the Marauder's Map while the others performed spells and set up potions where they needed to be.

"What is it, Harry?" asked Hermione, looking concerned.

"Didn't you hear it?" he asked.

"Hear what?" asked Fred.

"Is there a teacher coming?" asked George.

"No. It wasn't a teacher. It said it wanted to kill."

"Maybe it was Filch," suggested George.

"Is he near here?" asked Fred, looking at Padma.

"No," she answered, after double-checking. "No one's near here. Your little sister's wondering the corridors, though."

Fred and George looked proud and solemn. "Little Ginny's first time violating Hogwarts' curfew."

"She's growing up."

"Where's she at?" asked Harry, curious.

"On the second floor," answered Padma. "Almost directly above us."

"I wonder if she pranked Lockhart's office," commented Fred.

"That would be funny," said Padma. "To be pranked twice in the same day."

They all chuckled at that, continued working and made their way to Ravenclaw Tower, where Padma gave the twins their map back so they could make it to Gryffindor Tower.

-HM-HM-HM-

The next morning began normally, with the 'golden trio' eating breakfast together at the Ravenclaw table with Luna.

"I wonder if Aunt Minnie'll be in class today," said Harry.

"I hope it's Professor Shapon," commented Padma dreamily, reminding Harry of the crush his friend had on his aunt's assistant.

"I hope it's McGonagall," countered Hermione. "I have an extra credit paper to hand in, and I wanted to speak to her about it." Harry and Padma looked at Hermione like she'd grown a third eye while Luna was staring blankly in front of her as she filled her mouth with scrambled eggs. "What?"

"Hermione," said Harry gently, "You are at the top of the class, and we're both over a month ahead in our assignments. You honestly don't need extra credit."

"I wanted to write that essay," she said defensively. "I took my notes about primates from the zoo and cross-referenced it with information from a Guide to Advanced Transfiguration that I borrowed from the library…"

"That's the N.E.W.T. Transfiguration book," interrupted Padma.

"Exactly," replied Hermione, sounding slightly irritated at being interrupted. "The point is that I wrote a comparative analysis about the difficulties of transfiguring various different primates into water goblets."