Weasel and Stoat, Last Part
When the door opened and Snape and Potter stepped in, the office was quite quiet. Dumbledore was at this desk and looked up. He seemed older, and looked as if he had shrunk a bit. “Did I forget an appointment, Severus?" he asked, blinking at them.
"Yes, I think you did," Snape said, coming forward. "I hope you have time to talk to us?" He moved slowly, and the others quietly spread out on either side of the door, eyes darting about, wands out, spray bottles at hand.
"Yes, dear boy?" Dumbledore said, standing up. He began to hobble towards them, in the manner of one who has been sitting too long. Draco wondered if he had been up all night, and why.
Everything seemed to explode at once. From above their heads there came a hiss which became a scream as an acromantula dropped from the ceiling. It was not as big as Aragog, but it was almost as tall as a man, its legs ten feet long. It was a yellowish color on it's underside, each plate outlined with a darker brown. The pattern of that segmented ventral coming down would be imprinted on their nightmares for months. Shield charms went up, and the underside of the beast pressed against it, scrabbling for purchase. There were shouts, hexes, and the spray was used by five of the wizards at once, creating a cloud of green, vile smelling gas that rose up around them all. They had to let the shield charm fade to get the spray to the target.
Fangs dripping, the giant spider rushed for Snape, just as Hermione sent her leg breaking curse and Finnigan sprayed the anti-webbing spray at the sticky substance which was coming from two places at the rear of the spider. A spider foot was already gathering the web strand up, tossing loops of it out at them.
Perspective changed for Draco as he collapsed into his stoat form and headed for the walls of the room, Ron in weasel form right behind him. They ran incredibly fast, darting along beneath the shelter of the furniture when they could. The spider did not seem to see them. When they were near Dumbledore, they dashed out to the old wizard, who stood as if he was frozen. From this angle, the spider looked as big as a house. Just as Draco and Ron reached Dumbledore, the man was knocked over by one of the spiders legs, and a loop of the webbing was cast over him.
Ron and Draco had to turn back to human to lift up the old man. Thomas was using the de-webbing spray liberally on the loop of web over Dumbledore's legs, as Draco cast a protective shield charm on Dumbledore and grabbed the old man's shoulders to pull him towards the door. Draco pulling, Ron, wand out, hexing to cover their retreat, they moved towards the exit. It was hard to maneuver with a battle going on in the middle of the room. They twice they came within inches of a thrown hex from their own side, and once a spray of venom arched over their heads.
Who knew spiders could hiss and scream like that? Two students were binding the four back legs together because even broken, the spider was using them. The thing was still trying to get to them, flailing out with the front legs, spitting venom at the others. Furniture crashed and the knick knacks which filled the office rained down and some of them smashed on the floor.
But the Basilisk spray worked well. The acromantula hated it, was convulsing as the spray settled onto its furry abdomen, its eyes, it's legs. In only a few minutes, the monster was wrapped in binding spells, lying motionless in the center of the room. The Basilisk spray and the anti-webbing spray were making small oily pools on the floor and footing was tricky.
Draco and Ron got the headmaster down the stairs easily enough, but ran into a problem at the foot, where a huddle of students faced several teachers, including the deputy headmistress.
"Professor McGonnagal, the headmaster is hurt! Help us get him to the hospital wing!" Weasley called out. She didn't answer. It was like the woman was a zombie. She ignored him, and cast a stunning hex at the students in front of her. Ron countered. Draco eased the headmaster down and cast a net charm.
The instructors should have been a formidable force. But McGonnagal, Sinistra and Vector were shouting and hexing not only the students, but the other teachers. When Professor Flitwick stepped in on the side of the students, other teachers joined him.
The net charms turned the tide and soon it was over. Leaving Tole to guard the door, the rest of the students escorted the entire lot up to the hospital wing. Pomfrey was outraged to see some of the teachers tied up, but Weasley soon explained and soothed her down. Leaving the other students to help Pomfrey, Draco and Ron hurried back to the headmaster's tower.
They found two Gryffindors, Thomas and Finnigan, guarding the spider. One stood at each end, wands out, turned so that they were mostly facing the beast. Draco nodded to them and followed Weasely into a passage at the back of the office. They followed the sounds of the voices to find Snape, Potter, Amberstall and Granger in a large bedroom. They were collecting large balls the size of quaffles, and incinerating them by dropping them into Snape's fire-belching tube.
When they got closer, Draco could see why. The spheres were spider eggs, so near to hatching that they could see in almost fully formed spiders within the translucent rubbery skin. The little spiders were even moving their legs, as if trying to force their way out. Their eyes glittered, silver and malevolent, from inside.
"Twenty-four!" Granger counted out, as smoke swirled up from the crackling, burning tube.
Snape said, "They often have more than a hundred eggs in a clutch. We need to find every single one." He turned to the Malfoy and Weasely and said, "Have Granger tell you the spell we are using to locate them, and begin collecting. Did you have any problems?"
Ron said, "Dropped the entire lot off at the hospital wing. Only Tole is down below now, guarding the bottom door. Something is definitely wrong with McGonnagal, Vector, and Sinistra, too. Anybody looked under the bed?" Was that where he hid his own contraband? How unoriginal.
"Potter did, and there are some there, yes," he said briefly. "We will have to disassemble all the furniture, check all wardrobes and cabinets, just in case. Get busy. These are close to hatching."
They were, indeed. In fact, one of them even hatched, but Ron discovered it and blasted it into ash. "I hate spiders," he explained, as the smoke cleared and the bits of charred spiderling began dropping off the walls.
By mid-morning, Granger had fine-tuned her locating spell and they had found the last of the 168 eggs tucked between two robes in the wardrobe. Exhausted, they ate breakfast sitting on the floor of Dumbledore's office, the acromantula a bizarre centerpiece for the simple feast. Snape was morosely scowling at it while gnawing on a sausage roll. Then he lifted his voice. "You. Spider! Do you talk?"
The voice came out in a thin, high, ugly hiss. "How dare you call one of us a ssspiiiider! We are more than that! More!"
"Acromantula, if you will, then," Snape said. "You can speak. I am impressed. Spiders, of course, can not. How did you come to be here?"
"Not tell!" There was mocking in the hiss, a dark laughter.
"Won't you? I wonder how your kind feels pain? Did it hurt when your legs were broken?" he asked. His attitude was one of scientific curiosity.
"When I am free I am going to eat you," their captive told him.
"He'll taste bad," Ron assured the spider.
Potter elbowed him, whispering, "Ron!" quite loudly.
"I wonder if veritaserum would work," Granger said.
"It would take a whole bottle for something that big!" Harry said.
"Then it is fortunate the headmaster used to keep an entire bottle in his desk," Snape said. He got up and rummaged through the drawers until he found it. "Ah. Of course, there is the problem of how to administer it."
"Yes, spiders have filtration systems on the way to the stomach are so effective they can even screen out bacteria and viruses," Granger said. "And of course, despite her claim, acromantula as basically spiders. Perhaps injection?"
"I am afraid that my knowledge of arachnid anatomy is not as precise when a creature of this size is involved," Snape said. "I suppose we could stab here and there until we found something like the circulatory system. I have sharp Basilisk ribs we can use."
"Noooooo!" the creature screamed.
"I like that idea," Draco said promptly.
The Ravenclaw, Landra Crow, appeared in the door. "Madam Pomfrey would like me to report that she has the teachers sorted out. Very embarrassing, we had to ask everyone to undress, because we thought that we would find spider bites or wounds, where venom had been injected, but we didn't. But some of the robes had venom in the cloth. So everyone had to take a shower and get new robes, brand new ones never worn before. Everyone will be fine, eventually, she thinks. She reports that it was contact with the venom that allowed the acromantula to control the teachers. She said it spit on them, or perhaps it was a drool or drip. Affected were," she paused to count them out on her fingers. "The headmaster, he was worst. Next were Professor McGonnagal and Professor Vector. Then the ones with just a affected a little were Professor Sinistra and Madam Hooch. Madam Pomfrey has those first three tied to beds right now and says they will all have to be with her for about ten days while the toxins leave the system. The other two only have to stay for 24 hours for observation. They'll have to be confined to the room, and they can't be near any more acromantulas. She also wants to know if this one is dead and can she have some venom for testing."
Snape said, "It's alive. SO far. If it proves useless, I will just kill it. It will make useful Potion ingredients."
The beast made a clattering and hissing sound of protest.
"I may have to anyway, if it can't survive having all eight legs broken," Snape said.
"Wasp brain! Flobberworm juice!" the spider growled out.
"Wasp brain!" Ron said, giving Harry a push.
"Flobberworm juice," Harry retorted, shoving back. They both giggled.
"Gentlemen. I believe I suggested we all act with maturity during our little offfensive?" Snape said with exasperation.
"Right," said Ron, with a nod. "I vote we kill it now. Then we can get some sleep. I'm tired."
"First, we will try to discover why it is here, and how it came to be in this room. Or none of us will sleep well," Snape said. He pulled out from his robe a section of sharpened Basilisk rib, eyed the creature in front of him, and then strode up to it. His arm came up, and he swung down hard on a section of abdomen with the knife-like end of the rib. The spider screeched. Snape rather cruelly twisted the bone back and forth in the wound until it was a size he liked, and then, still holding the rib in the wound, he poured in a third of the bottle of veritaserum.
While he waited for it to become effective, Snape walked around the body, inspecting the raw, burned looking places where the Basilisk spray had touched, and the legs, whose hard shells were cracked like crab legs, and now leaked yellow puddles of goo onto the carpet.
"You are big. How did you come to be in the castle?" Snape asked after ten minutes had gone by.
"A wizard made another wizard bring me. Some wizards are good. Not all of them are food."
Snape stared at her for a moment. "You were carrying eggs. So it can't be long ago. Less than two months."
"Was too early for laying eggs, but wizards can make a web warm, make the eggs come out. They sent me here, to the warm place. Now I'm cold again. Make me warm."
To the surprise of the students, Snape lifted his wand and cast a warming charm.
"Hey," Ron protested.
Draco leaned closer to him and whispered, "Warm means better circulation, and the veritaserum will more easily find her brain. It makes him appear to be benevolent, and the prisoner talks more. We shall see if it works on spiders."
"Acromantula, if you please," Ron whispered back, grinning. Granger gave them a funny look.
Warm spider smelled even worse than a cold one. It did seem to revive her. She moved, restlessly, testing her bonds.
"After the little ones hatched, what was to happen?" Snape asked.
"Then, at last, I would be allowed to eat. I wasn't to eat anything but the smallest of prey until it was time." She was whining, and it was less attractive in a spider than even in a child. "You've taken away the nest-father. I was to eat him first. He would make me strong," she said mournfully. "He was my prize! I caught him! I moved into his web! I should be allowed to feast on him!"
Snape moved to the fireplace and took the floo powder from the pot on the mantle. "Aurors!" he called out.
A head appeared in the fire. "State the nature of your emergency, Hogwarts." The man's voice was bored, his manner one of someone going through the motions by rote.
"We have been attacked. No fatalities, but much of the faculty is unable to teach. We will need supply teachers for tomorrow, someone to take away the dying acromantula in the headmaster's study, and aurors to sort out who attacked us using this spider, and why."
"Oh, dear!" the man became much more alert. "Yes, we shall send someone right away. At once, I am sure. Do excuse me." The head vanished.
"Why send for the aurors now?" Granger asked.
Snape said, "She says wizards are involved, at least two. It implies that someone here at Hogwarts is involved. She suggested that a plan will be in place when the eggs hatched. It is not just a acromantula plot, and time seems to be of the essence. I don't have the resources to investigate this. We have done our part. We need to turn it over to the authorities and go sleep."
"Yes!" Ron said fervently.
"Weasely and Snape have agreed about something. The world is going to end," Draco pointed out.
Snape ignored it. "Right now, the two of you need to take some paper and a quill from the headmaster's desk and write out a letter to the Animagus register. Explain that because of the situation at the school you are not allowed to leave to register, but you will do it as soon as permitted. Send it off by owl before you sleep." Ron heaved himself up, grabbed Draco's hand and pulled. Everyone was staring at that, but he ignored them. The two of them settled at the desk, Draco sitting on the corner, Ron in the chair, writing out their letters. While they were writing, the aurors arrived.
The large man in auror robes who headed the contingent stepped from the floo first, followed by five others. The leader stood staring at the spider.
"Gods, I didn't know they got that big!" he said, and then, belatedly, "Oscar Brushfeather, head of this investigation. You are?" he was facing Snape now, although nervously casting glances at the acromantula all the while.
"Professor Snape, temporarily acting as headmaster until a more qualified person is appointed. Both Headmaster Dumbledore and his assistant, Minerva McGonnagal, are in the hospital wing." Snape gave a polite bow and the short version of events of the last day. Upon finding out the spider was dosed with the truth drug, Brushfeather assigned one auror to question it. Then he turned back to Snape.
The temporary headmaster of Hogwarts said, "Please question these young men and women briefly if you need to, and send them to bed. They have been up all night," Snape said. "I will remain to answer what I can, but I must confess to also wanting my bed."
"I'll stay, too," Harry said, putting his hand out to the auror. "Harry Potter," he introduced himself. They watched the auror shake hands, his manner respectful.
Ron had finished his letter and sat watching the elegant fingers of Malfoy's hand as he finished his letter. "I used to be jealous of Harry's fame. Now I'm glad to leave him to it. I'd rather be the one going home to bed."
"I thought you wanted to be an auror?" Draco said as he folded his letter and placed it in an envelope. He handed one over to Ron, who muttered an absent thanks and sealed his own letter inside.
Ron printed carefully on the envelope. "Yeah. I'm going to try."
"You don't wish to observe how they work?" Draco asked.
"I want to crawl into my bed. For a year."
The room was getting crowded. The aurors sent for more aurors. The young men were evicted from the chair as a tall, well muscled woman took over the desk. She ordered the students in the room to line up. Because of working on their letters, Ron and Draco ended up near the end of the line. When it was his turn, Ron finally had an opportunity to report about the encroaching forest, and get a properly horrified response. He also pointed out that as acromantula from the Forbidden Forest go, this one wasn't even very big. The woman looked over at the monster still tied up in the middle of the room and said, "I didn't realize," in a faint voice.
It was an hour before the last of the students were released to return to their dormitories.
Weasley and Malfoy walked up to the owlry, and mailed off their letters. "So much for plans to just enjoy my animagus form for awhile before registering." Malfoy said.
"It was important to rescue the headmaster. You're a hero," Ron teased.
"Right." Draco flashed a couple of fingers in his direction. Ron gave him a shove to the shoulder. They started down the steps. "I really want a mouse," Draco said suddenly.
"Well, don't. Not inside the castle. Who knows who it could be," Ron said. His hand came up to cover a yawn.
"Let's go back to the guest room," Draco said next.
"Are you crazy? If we go missing now, the entire castle will be torn apart looking for us. They'll think an acromantula got us!" Then his eyes lit up and he stopped on the stair. "You want to be with me!" he exclaimed.
"So?" Draco made his tone gruff. It wasn't the sort of thing he wanted to admit out loud, but he really wanted to snuggle into a nice warm bed with the nice warm Weasley.
"Enough to come sleep with me in Gryffindor tower?"
"They'd kill me," Draco said with certainty.
"Not necessarily. I'll fix it so they won't, and we'll put protective spells around the bed. Please?"
He could not resist the warm begging eyes, or the big hand on his shoulder.
"Insane," he said.
"The whole day's been insane," Ron replied. "Come sleep with me. Please?"
"Fine." He'd lost his mind. The sex hadn't been that good. Well, it had, but was it worth leaving a message with his head of house actually saying he was bedding down with Weasely? He turned around.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked anxiously.
"I'll just owl Snape. I don't fancy hunting up a Slytherin prefect to say I'll be napping with a Gryffindor."
"Oh. Brilliant. Do you suppose the rest of the castle is having classes?" Ron asked as he followed Draco back. Draco took a piece of parchment from the pile in the corner, and Ron transfigured a feather into a proper quill and handed it to him.
"Ink?" Draco suggested, waving the quill around.
"Oh, right." Ron's wand tapped the bench, and a small bottle of ink appeared. Draco penned a few words and folded the note, and tied it to a school owl. They watched it fly off before they once again started down the stairs. They didn't say much all the way down the owlry stairs.
They met Hermione Granger on the way up to the Gryffindor tower. "Oh! I'm so glad to see you both," she said, with far too much animation for someone who had been up all night. "I need to warn you about the snails."
"Snails," Ron repeated.
"Don't eat them, ever, in your weasel forms. Raw, they carry parasites," she went on with a nod.
"Parasites." Draco echoed.
"I read about them once," she explained. "They travel up to the brain from the stomach and live out the rest of their life cycle there eating the brain tissue. It's very uncomfortable for the weasels."
Draco mentally gave up escargot on the spot.
"Thanks, Hermione, I didn't know that," Ron said.
"You're welcome." They had arrived at the portrait of the fat lady. Ron mumbled the password and they stepped in through the round door. Hermione gave them a very odd look.
It was clear that students had been sent back from class or had never been allowed to go. Almost a hundred Gryffindors turned to look as they came in. The room went silent, and then a babble of voices started up.
"Hey!" Ron yelled, to get their attention. When the room was mostly quiet again, he stood up on a low table and pulled Draco up to stand beside him. "We just got done taking out an acromantula and saving the headmaster."
"Not just you," Thomas shouted at him.
"That's right," Ron shouted back. "People from all the houses worked together for it. Including Draco, here." The noise rose again. He yelled louder. "Shut up and listen!" he said rather rudely. It worked, though, and the room became quieter again. "Change," he whispered to Draco, who shrugged and did so. Ron's arms caught him in mid air and lifted him up. "This is my stoat!" He turned in place so that everyone could see the small animal in his hands. From the all sides of the room there came an "Aww!" mostly from the girls. Well, Draco thought, he was rather cute, even in this form. Especially in this form.
"This is my stoat, and I'm his weasel. Don't hurt my stoat. He's a reformed stoat. He's not going to make any trouble here. We're dead exhausted and going up to bed. Don't bother us." He jumped down from the table and headed for the stairs. He folded his big hand over his stoat and pulled him close to his chest. Everyone wanted to see, hands came out to pet him, but Weasley blocked them all. He realized that his fellow seventh years were climbing the stairs with them and blocking the worst of the reaching hands. Neville pulled the door to their room open, and Thomas and Finnigan pushed in after Ron, closing the door firmly behind them.
"Where's Harry?" Neville asked.
"He was still up there making nice to aurors," Thomas answered. "Helping Snape. Which is almost as weird as you and Draco here," he said.
Draco changed back into himself. "You all sleep in this one big room?" he asked, looking around, slightly horrified. Like first years?
"Everyone knows silencing spells and the like," Finnigan told him. "Curtains on every bed. What are you and Weasely planning, anyway?" he asked with a leer.
"Nothing you'll ever get to watch," Ron said, with a grin. "Go away. We are actually going to sleep," he added. He sat down on his bed and began to take off his shoes. With a scowl at the others, Draco did the same. Then they took off the robes and Draco scowled again because he was not going to strip down in front of Gryffindors. Ron nudged him over onto the middle of the bed, used his wand to close the curtains, and then as Draco did lumos, he finished off with the silencing and guarding spells.
It was not as nice as his own bed, but it had warm blankets and two pillows. They contorted and twisted themselves out of their clothing and under the bedding. It was nice. Warm. Draco switched to stoat form, rubbed his body along Weasely's naked chest, and then changed back.
"You naughty little beast," Ron said, and just to tease him, he did the same. He lay clasped to Draco's chest, making chirky purring sounds as the lovely hands drew along his entire body over and over. When he turned himself back into human, Draco kissed him, but it didn't lead to anything except a quick hug. Ron fell asleep almost at once.
Draco gave a soundless laugh. There was always tomorrow. Maybe they could go outside and catch mice and play in the sun. Unless they had more spiders to kill, or the aurors were keeping everyone inside. It didn't matter, he decided as he turned on his side and snuggled back against Ron. It didn't matter, as long as they were together. Weasel and stoat.