Chapter 114

At last, the term ended, and a silence deep as the snow on the grounds descended on the castle. Harry found it peaceful, rather than gloomy and enjoyed the fact that he, Hermione, and the Weasleys had the run of Gryffindor Tower, which meant they could play Exploding Snap loudly without bothering anyone, and practice dueling in private together with Thomas and the others.

While Harry was finding the quiet castle pleasant, the same thing can't be said for Thomas, who found Hogwarts similar to a crypt… Empty and devoid of any life wasn't exactly a welcoming holiday place, then again having his friends with him did the trick to some degree. Even now, Thomas can't believe that his friends chose to stay over the holidays rather than spend time with their family, especially when someone or something was hunting muggle-born students.

As for the Weasley kids, well Fred, George, and Ginny had chosen to stay at school rather than visit Bill in Egypt with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. Percy disapproved of their childish behavior, but he didn't spend much time in the Gryffindor common room. He had already told them pompously that he was only staying over Christmas because it was his duty as a prefect to support the teachers during this troubled time. But they all knew better than to believe this lie from their older brother.

Christmas morning dawned, cold and white. Harry and Ron, the only ones left in their dormitory, were woken very early by Hermione, who burst in, fully dressed and carrying presents for them both.

"Wake up," she said loudly, pulling back the curtains at the window.

"Hermione, for Merlin's sake… you're not supposed to be in here …" Ron argued while shielding his eyes against the light.

Hermione ignored Ron's protest and threw the presents on their beds. "You are complaining about rules, Ron? This morning… Daphne managed to sneak inside the Ravenclaw common room and wake up Tom with a present. A beautiful black and white scarf, no less."

Both boys could see that their friend was angry, so Harry decided to change the subject to something less dangerous before something bad happened to them.

"What about the potion?"

Hermione gave Harry a death glare before she sighed, accepting her defeat.

"Thomas, Michael, Adam, and Daphne woke up an hour or so ago and after Tracey and Daphne woke me up, we added more lacewings to the potion. Tom says that it's ready."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm not Snape, but even I can't beat Tom when it comes to potions. Not even Adam can make better potions than him and that says a lot, I'd say. So yeah, Harry, the potion's ready."

At that moment, Hedwig swooped into the room, carrying a very small package in her beak.

"Hello," Harry said happily as she landed on his bed. "Are you speaking to me again?"

She nibbled his ear in an affectionate sort of way, which was a far better present than the one that she had brought him, which turned out to be from the Dursleys. They had sent Harry a toothpick and a note telling him to find out whether he'd be able to stay at Hogwarts for the summer vacation, too. Something that Harry was thinking about, after all, he'd rather spend his summer with one of his friends' families if they allow him of course, rather than with the Dursleys.

A while later, after properly waking up and taking care of their morning needs, the boys followed Hermione to the Great Hall where the rest of their friends were waiting for them. The Great Hall looked magnificent. Not only were there a dozen frost-covered Christmas trees and thick streamers of holly and mistletoe crisscrossing the ceiling, but enchanted snow was falling, warm and dry, from the ceiling. Dumbledore led them in a few of his favorite carols, Hagrid booming more and more loudly with every goblet of eggnog he consumed. Percy, who hadn't noticed that Fred had bewitched his prefect badge so that it now read "Pinhead," kept asking them all what they were sniggering at.

As Thomas, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Daphne, Tracey, Adam, and Michael were enjoying some pudding, they all heard Malfoy's voice making fun of the boys' sweaters, the very same sweaters Mrs. Weasley had made for all of them.

"Look at them, the pathetic Weasley wannabes," Malfoy sneered, pointing at Thomas and the boys who were wearing sweaters with their initials on them. "They think they're so special, but they're really just a bunch of losers. I bet those sweaters are made of cheap wool and have holes in them. And what's with the colors? Red and green? How festive. Are you trying to blend in with the Christmas trees?"

Malfoy's cronies, Crabbe and Goyle, laughed along with him, something that seemed more forced than a kid at a dentist. Ron and his brothers felt their faces heat up since they knew just how much these sweaters meant for their mother, while the girls glared at Malfoy.

"Shut up, Malfoy," Ron snapped. "You're just jealous because you don't have anyone who cares enough to make you a sweater. Or anything else for that matter."

Malfoy snorted. "Jealous? Of you? Don't make me laugh, Weasley. I have everything I want and more. My father bought me the best clothes, the best brooms, the best gifts. Unlike your father, who can barely afford to feed you and your horde of siblings. And unlike these other losers, who have to rely on charity from your poor excuse of a family."

Malfoy then sneered at Harry for wearing the sweater, but he didn't dare to say anything about Thomas, especially after his embarrassing defeat at the hand of the blonde Ravenclaw monster.

"And you," Malfoy said, turning to Harry. "The boy who lived. The hero of Hogwarts. The heir of Slytherin. What a joke. You're nothing but a fake hero who doesn't belong here. You should be grateful that Mrs. Weasley took pity on you and gave you that ugly sweater. It's the only thing you'll ever get from anyone."

Malfoy smirked and waited for a reaction from Harry. Yet Harry just stood there, not falling for such a poor excuse. Seeing that Harry wasn't going to fall for his tricks, Malfoy turned his head towards Thomas. But he didn't say anything about him, who was sitting next to Harry and wearing a similar sweater. Malfoy knew better than to mess with the Ravenclaw monster, after all not even his father could save him if the blonde boy wanted to end his life.

However, that didn't stop Thomas from throwing him a glare that almost gave Malfoy a heart attack. "What's the matter Draco? Cat got your tongue or is it because your hair is on fire?"

As soon as he heard Thomas's words, Draco realized that his hair was on fire and when he did, he screamed out worse than a girl who got her favorite toy stolen, before running out of the Great Hall, followed by his goons, who for some reason tripped on the floor and conveniently lost some of their hair, courtesy of Thomas's magic of course.

The Wesley siblings as well as the rest of their friends burst out in a laugh when they saw that scene while Thomas smiled and winked at his friends, who were clearly enjoying Draco's misfortune.

"That was brilliant, Tom!" Ron exclaimed.

"Why did you do it?" Hermione asked while crossing her arms around her chest and looking at Thomas with a serious look on her face.

"I did it for you." Thomas paused as soon as Hermione's face went beet red before continuing with a smile on his face. "After all, you did say that we need more hair from Crabbe and Goyle, no?"

In response to his words, Thomas got himself attacked by a red-faced Hermione while the rest of their friends were clearly enjoying her embarrassed reaction, at least the vast majority of them. Daphne on the other hand was glaring dagger at her friend, who for some reason unknown to her seemed to be on the offensive today… Maybe, just maybe, she shouldn't have woken Thomas today with a present, then again if she hadn't, someone else would have done it…

Once Hermione calmed down, she turned her head towards Harry who was eating some sweet orange pudding. "Anyways, we need to make sure the real Crabbe and Goyle can't burst in on us while we're interrogating him."

Frankly, that was something quite hard to make happen, but thankfully for them, there was someone in their group who knew some unconventional magic that might work wonders here. And so, as soon as all of his friends turned their heads at him, Thomas let out a sigh.

"Don't worry about them. Once Hermione puts the hair inside the potions, I'll take the two boys out for an hour or two. That should give us plenty of time to find out everything we need from that bloke."

True to his words, half an hour later, Thomas returned to the girls' bathroom on the second floor where the rest of his friends were already waiting for him. As soon as he walked inside, Michael and Adam who were near the entrance, guarding it just in case someone was brave enough to walk inside asked him if he dealt with the two goons.

"Are they out?" Adam asks while looking quite excitedly as he and Michael wait for Thomas's response.

Hearing his roommate's question, Thomas smiles before nodding his head.

"Yeah, I took care of them. Used the Confundus Charm on them to make them go to the library before eating some sleeping cookies I had the house-elves bake."

"And here I was thinking you might do something over the top like sending them into the forest or worse." Michael joked as he, Adam, and Thomas made their way to the others. Harry and Ron were watching as Hermione poured some of the potions into the vials that Tracey and Daphne were holding.

Once the potion was in the vials, Harry and Ron added the hair that they had taken from Crabbe and Goyle's heads earlier. They watched as the potion changed color and consistency, becoming a murky brown liquid that looked like mud.

"Ugh, that looks disgusting," Ron said, making a face.

"Well, it's supposed to make us look like them, isn't it?"

"Are we following the same plan?"

"More or less I guess… Michael and I will drink the potion while you, Adam, and Daphne cover us, just in case Draco realizes that we aren't his friends."

Thomas then turned towards Michael, who for a good reason was not so keen on drinking that murky liquid. "Are you ready?"

"Is anyone really ready at his point?"

With that said, Tracey took two rather large robes from her pack and gave them to Harry and Michael, who quickly went inside two separate stalls to change. Once the two boys were changed into the oversized Slytherin robes, Thomas gave them the vials with the Polyjuice potion.

"Ready?" Thomas called.

"Ready," came Harry's and Michael's responses.

"One, two, three …"

Pinching their noses, Harry and Michael drank the potion down in two large gulps. And by Merlin's sake, it tasted like overcooked cabbage.

Their insides started writhing as though they had just swallowed live snakes. Doubled up, they wondered whether they were going to be sick. Then a burning sensation spread rapidly from their stomachs to the very ends of their fingers and toes. Next, bringing them gasping to all fours, came a horrible melting feeling, as the skin all over their bodies bubbled like hot wax. And before their eyes, their hands began to grow, the fingers thickened, the nails broadened, and the knuckles were bulging like bolts. Their shoulders stretched painfully and a prickling on their foreheads told them that hair was creeping down toward their eyebrows. Their robes ripped as their chests expanded like barrels bursting their hoops. Their feet were agony in shoes four sizes too small.

"Are you two, okay?" Came Tracey's voice.

"Yeah," came the deep grunt from a Crabbe that was wearing glasses.

"Heavens, Tom tell me I'm not going to remain like this." Michael barely managed to mutter as he pointed at his own body.

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