Muggle | 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

Chapter 139

That night, a few hours after Draco had left, I was visited by Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny.

       Harry looked guiltier than ever, barely being able to look me in the eye. The whole time he was there, I was trying to explain to him that I knew it wasn't his fault, and that he didn't know what that curse actually did.

       Hermione, however, had another view on the matter, telling Harry how it was his fault for keeping the Half-Blood Prince's book in the first place.

       Harry had already hidden the book in the Room of Requirements, but he seemed too attached to it be able to let it go.

        "You know I wouldn't've used a spell like that, not even on Malfoy," Harry told Hermione, "but you can't blame the Prince, he hadn't written 'try this out, it's really good' — he was just making notes for himself, wasn't he, not for anyone else..."

        "Are you telling me," said Hermione, "that you're going to go back —?"

       "And get the book? Yeah, I am," said Harry forcefully. "Listen, without the Prince I'd never have won the Felix Felicis. I'd never have known how to save Ron from poisoning, I'd never have —"

      "— got a reputation for Potions brilliance you don't deserve," said Hermione nastily.

        "Give it a rest, Hermione!" said Ginny. We all took aback at her tone. "By the sound of it, Malfoy was trying to use an Unforgivable Curse!"

       "Well, of course I'm glad Harry wasn't cursed!" said Hermione, clearly stung. "But you can't call that Sectumsempra spell good, Ginny, look what it did to Lexi! And I'd have thought, seeing what Harry's detention with Snape has done to your chances in the match —"

        "Oh, don't start acting as though you understand Quidditch," snapped Ginny, "you'll only embarrass yourself."

         Harry and Ron were shocked to see Ginny and Hermione argue back and forth, but I only smiled, remembering what was going to happen on the night of the Quidditch match between Harry and Ginny.

***

It was one week before the final Quidditch match against Ravenclaw. Even though I already knew the results, I was still excited to watch the game as always. 

        Harry had appointment Ginny the new Seeker, seeing as he had detention once a week for the rest of the term with Snape, one of them being on the day of the Quidditch match.

       That day after Madam Pomfrey had finally allowed me to leave the hospital, I was walking toward the Great Hall along with Hermione.

       "...and Snape also set that essay on Dementors, and Slughorn wants us to do a research on Golpalott's Third Law," Hermione explained. "Oh, and McGonagall expects us to be able to change our hair color nonverbally by next session."

       "Damn, I only missed one day and we have to do all that?" I groaned.

      Hermione opened her mouth to respond, probably to say it wasn't too much work, but we stopped in our tracks when we reached the entrance hall and saw Pansy Parkinson with her friends, picking on a blonde girl as they laughed.

       Moving closer, we saw that it was Kathrine.

        "Leave her alone, Pansy!" Hermione said fiercely, catching their attention.

      Using their distraction to her advantage, Katherine quickly moved away from the group, giving us a look as if to thank us.

      "Ooh, Hogwarts's two Mudbloods to the rescue," said Pansy as she saw me and Hermione.

        "Don't make me take points off you!" Hermione said firmly.

       "You can't take points from Prefects, Granger," said Pansy with a smug face, pointing at her own badge.

      "Then I'll take it off your friends!"

       "I would certainly like to see you try."

       Knowing that we were in the entrance hall and only a door away from the Great Hall which was full of teachers, I knew that if Hermione got into an argument with Pansy, we would all get into trouble.

      So suddenly coming up with an idea to get back at Pansy, I started tugging at Hermione's sleeve.

       "C'mon, Mione," I whispered. "Let's get out of here. These idiots aren't worth it."

       The Slytherin girls laughed at us mockingly. So glaring at them, Hermione finally nodded and turned on her heels to leave with me.

       But just then, I accidentally on purpose dropped a beautifully wrapped up sweet from my pocket and it fell on the ground.

       "Oh, no!" I gasped as if that sweet was my most precious possession, and so I walked back to pick it up.

       But my plan worked when Pansy leaped forward in a quick motion and took it off the floor before me, smirking.

        "You want this, Hooper?" she asked, looking at the wrapped up toffee in her hand.

       "Give it back, Parkinson," I said, acting worried. "Fred gave that to me!"

       "Fred?" she raised a brow at me.

        "One of those Weasley twins," one of her friends told her.

        Pansy's grin widened. "Oooh, your weasel boyfriend." Her friends sniggered behind her at that. "I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I took this one."

       "No! Don't eat that!" I yelled, but she had already opened up the wrapper and put the toffee in her mouth.

       Not five seconds later, her friends screamed and squealed when Pansy's tongue started swelling up ten times its normal size.

        They kept screaming as Hermione and I laughed, watching Pansy's tongue reach the floor as she tried to shriek in horror.

       "What's going on here!?" Turning around at that hoarse voice, we saw Professor McGonagall rushing into the entrance hall. "Oh, good Gracious!" she gasped at Pansy's sight.

       I was still grinning, but it faded when Snape too came out of the Great Hall at the sound of the screaming girl.

       "Explain!" McGonagall said sharply, looking at everyone who was around angrily.

       "It was Hooper, Professor!" one of the Slytherin girls said, pointing at me. "She gave Pansy the toffee!"

      "I didn't give her anything!" I said defensively, trying to hold back my smile. "I dropped it and she picked it up! I told her not to eat it but she did it anyway!"

        "That's true, Professor," said Hermione, nodding firmly. "It wasn't Lexi's fault."

        "But Hooper was carrying that toffee either way, which makes her guilty all the same," said Snape, his deadly gaze falling upon me. "Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products are banned, Hooper. Surely you know that?"

        "Let's get you to the hospital wing! Quickly!" McGonagall said and hurried toward Pansy, and so with the help of her friends, they carried her away with her long tongue hanging as she kept whimpering.

       By that, Snape turned to look down at me coldly once more. "Detention tomorrow, Hooper. Saturday, ten O'clock. My office."