Chapter 45: The Third Attack

A few Slytherin students sitting by the fire watched in astonishment as Crabbe and Goyle beat up Malfoy.

"My God, what are they doing?" asked a shocked fifth year student.

"I'm sick of him!" shouted Ivan.

"That's right, so am I," Harry replied loudly.

The two people became even more enraged, Ivan kicked Malfoy again, and they escaped from the Slytherin common room running towards the third floor bathroom.

Harry grinned, and after making sure no one was around, said, "Ivan, that was great! Beating up Malfoy on Christmas Day is like the best Christmas present I've ever gotten in my life!"

"The look on Malfoy's face, I wish I could have taken a picture and put it in the paper," Ivan said.

"But we were a bit impulsive," Harry said as the excitement wore off, and he began to worry.

Ivan waved his hands nonchalantly as he said, "Don't worry, no one knows it was us. From making the Multijuice potion to becoming Slytherin students to beating up Malfoy, it was all a series of violations of school rules. If we were caught, we were bound to be expelled. In the eyes of the others, it was Crabbe and Goyle, the ones who beat up Malfoy."

Harry nodded and said, "That's right, as long as we act normally, nothing will happen...."

Harry suddenly stopped and said, "Wait, we can't go back yet, Hermione is still in Snape's office."

Ivan froze for a moment and said quickly, "I almost forgot, we need to find a way to rescue her."

The two snuck quietly to the door of Snape's office, they listened but there was no sound inside.

"I don't hear anything," Ivan said quietly.

"Maybe we can cause a commotion to get Snape out," Harry said.

As soon as his voice dropped, he saw that they were switching back.

Their time was up, and they were slowly changing themselves back.

It was horrible, and worse, Hermione was still in Snape's office.

The thought of Hermione changing back into herself under Snape's cold gaze was horrible.

"No, no time!" said Ivan as he kicked the door.

Then they saw Snape sitting at his desk with a terrifying smile on his face and a vial of potion in front of him.

Hermione was sitting across from him, her face pale.

Snape scowled at them and said, "Crabbe, Goyle, what are you doing here?"

"Professor, something big has happened! It's Draco, someone attacked him in the living room, he's lying on the floor covered in blood, and we don't know what to do," Ivan shouted.

"Yes, you should go take a look," Harry said hurriedly.

Snape narrowed his eyes and said, "Attacked?! You two idiots, why didn't you send him to the school hospital?"

Ivan paused, panicked, and said, "WE.... WE weren't sure it had anything to do with the two previous attacks."

Because of the dim light in the office, Snape didn't notice that Ivan's face didn't look like Crabbe's.

"Wait here, keep an eye on her until I get back.", Snape said as he pulled out his wand and ran towards the Slytherin common room.

Seeing Snape's figure disappear from inside the corridor, Ivan and Harry pulled Hermione and broke into a run, saying " Let's go."

"Thank goodness, he threatened to give me Veritaserum if I didn't tell him the truth," Hermione said as she sighed in relief,

Ivan repeated with disbelief in his tone, "Veritaserum?"

Hermione nodded and said, "Yes, but he didn't, he certainly guessed who I was, so he was just waiting for the effects of the Multijuice potion to wear off. But thanks to you bursting in just then, the effects didn't wear off yet."

Harry felt his feet were getting smaller, so his shoes were too big and now he had to pick up his clothes as he ran, so he quickly said, "We'd better hurry back to the third floor bathroom."

Then she seemed to trip over something and fell heavily to the floor.

Ivan and Hermione stopped, and in the dim candlelight, they could see what Harry had tripped over.

The two people were startled.

"It was Justin, he's been attacked....," Hermione said, covering her mouth with her hands to keep from screaming.

In front of them, lying on the floor, Justin was stiff with a horrified expression. What lay in front of him were the shattered remains of a large mirror, shards of glass covered Justin's entire body.

Harry stood up and saw Justin on the floor, petrified.

Harry looked at him hurriedly, his face was terrified with a strange red tinge.

It was too late to comment, and the next second, Ivan realized that the three of them had completely changed again.

This was the worst case scenario, the third attack had occurred and they were the first to arrive on the scene again.

What would people say if they saw them?

Thinking about it, Justin had a conflict with Harry at the Dueling Club recently, and there are rumors going around that Harry was going to attack him and now he's petrified right in front of him. In particular, they're now wearing the Slytherin uniform, so if people saw them, they'd think Harry was the heir.

But Ivan wasn't sure if Snape would give them a welcome.

"Leave it, let's go," Ivan said excitedly.

But Hermione shook her head and said, "We can't leave him here, we have to find someone to help us."

"Don't be stupid, Hermione, if we are present, can you prove that Harry is not the heir? Especially since we're wearing the Slytherin uniform, how do we explain it to the others? do we just tell them we took a Multijugos potion and beat up Malfoy, without doing anything else?"

"It's Christmas now, he might not be found for a while," Hermione said hesitantly.

"Don't worry, Snape will be back soon, and he'll send Justin to the school hospital," Harry said.

Hermione tried to say, "But...."

But Ivan interrupted her, "Don't worry, even if you want to help him, you'll have to wait until we get back to the washroom and put on our own clothes."

After Ivan finished speaking, he took Hermione's hand hand and started running again.