kbinnz - Harry's New Home

"Good spellwork, that!"

"Well done, that witch!"

"Living plants from stone тАУ y'don't see that every day, y'know."

"She was one of my students, I'll have you know." The portraits were loud in their praise for the two witches, who stared first at the troll then at each other, before heaving twin sighs of relief and turning to the children.

"What were you thinking?" Minerva began angrily, only to have two children burst into tears and cling to her robes. She sputtered to a halt, nonplused, as Hermione sobbed that her wrist hurt, and Ron wailed about his broken wand. Harry stood to the side, feeling sick and shaky, until Sprout put an arm around his shoulder. Then he gave into the shock and began to cry as well.

"There, there," Sprout soothed. "It's all right now. The big mean troll is just a silly old panda bear now."

That was the point at which Hagrid and Snape charged up, closely followed by Dumbledore and Flitwick. Like McGonagall and Sprout, they had been summoned by a combination of hysterical portraits and frantic ghosts.

"Harry!" Snape's heart nearly stopped as he saw the sobbing boy. Hurt! Injured! Maybe dying!

The instant he heard his professor's voice, Harry pulled away from Sprout and threw himself at the tall man. Snape snatched him up and held him close, even as he tried to work his wand free to see where the boy was hurt.

"Professor, my wand got snapped!" Ron wailed, turning to Sprout while McGonagall fussed over Hermione's arm.

"Oh dear, oh dear," the gentle Hufflepuff patted his shoulder gently even as she accio'd the remains. "I'm afraid it's too badly damaged to be repaired," she admitted sadly, then hugged the boy as he began to bawl. "There, there, love."

"Ooooh, ye're a fine lookin' beastie," Hagrid said admiringly, peering through the thicket at the purple panda, who gazed uninterestedly back while chewing on his bamboo.

Meanwhile Dumbledore was quietly moving among the children, casting diagnostic spells. "There now, it's all over," he said soothingly.

"Albus! Why are you just standing there?" Snape demanded furiously, as a sniffling Harry hiccupped into his neck. "Summon Poppy immediately! There are injured children here!"

"Now, my boy, amazingly as it appears, none of the children are seriously injured; they are just badly frightened. Miss Granger has a sprained wrist and Mr Weasley sustained a cut on his тАУ erm тАУ hip when his wand was broken, but that's all, apart from a few bumps and bruises."

"But Harry is тАУ"

"Uninjured, my boy."

"WHAT?" Snape shouted тАУ snatching the boy out to arms' length. "Are you unhurt?"

Harry sniffled and nodded. "It was just really scary."

"For the love of Merlin," Snape gritted his teeth. "You nearly scared the life out of me, you miserable little wretch. I thought the troll had broken you into pieces!"

Harry smiled through his tears. Professor Snape always said the nicest things. The Dursleys would never have been worried that the troll could have hurt him. "He would've," he assured the professor, "if Professors McGonagall and Sprout hadn't arrived just when they did an' turned him into a panda."

"A panda?" Snape raised an eyebrow at Minerva.

"I needed a quick transfiguration, Severus. Animate to animate is easiest, especially with noncombatants in the line of fire, and the biggest, calmest creature I could think of on the spur of the moment was a panda bear!" she retorted with some asperity.

"And the color?" he pressed.

She looked a little awkward. "Perhaps I have been spending too much time with the Headmaster." Dumbledore twinkled at her.

"Now, children," Albus said kindly, "could you please explain how you came to be in such danger?"

"Put another way," Snape said, fixing Harry with a gimlet eye, "why exactly were you not where you were supposed to be?"

"ErmтАж" Harry looked very guilty. Oh, Professor Snape was going to be furious with him!

"I'm waiting," Snape told him dangerously.

"What ho, Headmaster! You've found our sledging party!" Nick floated around the corner and up to the Headmaster. "These three rode that troll down the stairs as if he were a sledge down a mountainside! Sheer brilliance, my children! True Gryffindors, the lot of you!"

Harry noticed that the ghost's praise didn't make Professor Snape seem any happier, even if it did distract the Headmaster and their Head of House. "What do you mean?" Albus asked blankly.

So they had to explain and show the adults where everything had happened, and put the shield and pikestaff back where they belonged and explain how Ron had come running to warn them just as Harry and Hermione were about to leave the library. "An' we were trying to get to the Tower, Professor," Harry blurted. "We were going as fast as we could, until we met Peeves and he tricked us тАУ"

"But then he did try to help Nick distract the troll so we could get away," Hermione reminded him, her wrist now immobilized in a conjured splint.

"Well, it seems that, as usual, the castle's portraits and ghosts have proven their devotion to the school and its students," Albus smiled.

"And Gryffindors have proven their brainless inability to follow the simplest commands," Snape said nastily. "Why were you in the library when you were supposed to be at the Feast?"

Hermione glanced at Harry, who was staring at the floor. "Erm, well, Professor, I didn't really want to go to the Feast. There's so many sugary treats, and my parents are dentistsтАж" She hoped that the "D-word" might make Snape back off, but he was unfazed.

"Indeed. And did you ask permission to be absent from the Feast?"

"N-no, sir."

"And why, precisely, did Mr Weasley inform me that Mr Potter was in the loo when I inquired as to your whereabouts?"

Ron gulped and unconsciously covered his already-sore bum. "ErmтАж"

"I told him to pretend we were around," Harry confessed unhappily.

"And why did you do that if you were merely studying quietly тАУ if illicitly тАУ in the library?" Snape asked suspiciously.

"We were, Professor!" Hermione protested, correctly interpreting Snape's expression of extreme skepticism. "I swear. We were just working on homework and things."

Snape stepped away from the children for a moment and asked Minerva quietly, "Any signs that someone was on the third floor?"

"No," she shook her head. "Fluffy was fast asleep and the trap door was undisturbed. If someone meant the troll as a distraction, it failed."

He gave her a look of poorly hidden concern. "And you were not harmed by that beast?"

McGonagall hid her smirk. Severus was such a mother hen! "I only had to glance in, Severus. What kind of clumsy oaf would be injured doing so simple a task? Besides, why тАУ Merlin! You don't think the children were tryingтАж?"

"I am learning not to underestimate the idiocy of Gryffindors," he retorted snarkily. "Particularly first years." He ignored her glare and returned to the children.

"If I find out that you were anywhere but the library, Mr Potter," Snape said very quietly and silkily, "you will be a very sorry Potter. Do you understand me?"

"I wasn't!" Harry protested. "I swear. We just didn't want to go to the Feast, and I didn't want to bother anybody, but we weren't doing anything bad. Honest!"

"If you are lying, your punishment will be doubled," Snape warned chillingly.

"You can triple it," Harry offered. "Or use the belt. I promise I'm not lying."

Snape scowled at him. "There is no reason to bring up ridiculous punishments that you are well aware I have no intention of using. It is as absurd to offer to allow me to turn you into a flobberworm or use your digits for potion ingredients as it is to offer to allow me to use a belt on you. You are well aware that I would never do any such thing, so therefore such statements are meaningless," he scolded, "and do nothing but waste everyone's time."