When Dumbledore told everyone to stay in the Great Hall while he and some of the teachers left, it didn’t take long for Harry to notice that someone was missing. “Where’s Neville?”
“Went back to get his Remembrall”, Hermione replied immediately. Then, realisation dawned on her face. “Oh no! Do you think there’s a troll again?“
„Could be anything”, Harry said. “We have to do something.”
“Something sensible, this time.” Hermione got up. „I’ll tell Professor Sprout.“
„Professor Sprout can’t do anything“, Ron protested, but followed them to the High Table.
Hermione told the professor that Neville had gone back to fetch his Remembrall.
“The Headmaster got a message from Professor Snape”, the Herbology teacher explained. “Which means that even if your friend is in danger, Professor Snape is there to protect him.”
“That’s not exactly reassuring”, Ron mumbled under his breath when they returned to the Gryffindor table.
“Come on, I don’t like Professor Snape, either, but you have to admit that he is a good fighter”, Hermione replied. “Just think of the duelling club. He absolutely wiped the floor with Professor Lockhart.”
“Well, anyone could do that.”
“Professor Snape did save me after the Basilisk got me”, Harry reminded Ron. “I’m sure Neville is okay.” Well, except for the accusations of foolishness that would probably follow his rescue, but Neville would recover from those.
The door opened. Professor Sinistra and Professor Vector had returned. They talked to Professor Sprout, who then asked for silence.
“It is now safe to leave the Great Hall”, she announced. “However, Gryffindor Tower is off limits for half an hour, as the damages done by the criminal who was caught there have to be repaired.”
After that, Professor Sprout walked towards Gryffindor table, ignoring all the questions thrown at her until she arrived at where Hermione, Ron and Harry were sitting.
“Neville is alright”, she told them. “Madam Pomfrey might have taken him to the Hospital Wing for the shock, but there is no need to worry.”
“So that criminal did attack him?”, Hermione asked.
“He seems to have tried, but it looks like Professor Snape was able to subdue him before he could hurt Neville.”
“Was Professor Snape hurt?” She’d probably have mentioned it if Snape had been killed, but somehow, Harry was still worried.
Professor Sprout frowned. “Not very seriously, in any case”, she said slowly. “He sat on the couch when my colleagues arrived.”
She didn’t say any more, and left to talk to the Hufflepuffs, but Harry had heard enough.
So, apparently, had Hermione. “Sat on the couch? In Gryffindor common room? He must be half dead.“
„At least unable to stand“, Harry agreed. Considering that Snape had walked around on a leg that Fluffy had chewed on for much of last year, and considering how much he hated Gryffindor, it was hard to imagine he would sit down in their common room unless he absolutely had to.
On the way to the hospital wing, they met Neville.
“I’m so sorry”, he blurted out.
They stared at him. “What are you sorry for?”, Hermione finally asked.
“Um. Uh. You know the rooster you rescued from Malfoy?”
Harry felt like there was a ball of ice in his stomach all of a sudden. “The criminal got him?”
“No, but ... he’s gone. I wanted to check on him after everything was over, and he was gone. I looked under the beds and everything. And I didn’t open the window, honest!“
Hermione took charge and led them to an empty classroom where she got the entire story from Neville.
“Where did Professor Snape come from so suddenly?”, she asked after hearing it.
“I had my eyes closed”, Neville replied.
“Did you hear the door open?”
“No. It was like he apparated. Perhaps it was because I mentioned him ...”
Hermione shook her head. “You can’t apparate in Hogwarts. So … you didn’t see that man hit Professor Snape with a spell?”
“No, but he must have.”
“There is one other explanation”, Hermione said slowly. “An explanation you are not going to like, Harry. Not at all.”
“What? Why me?”
“We have a black rooster who vanished. We have a Professor Snape who appeared seemingly out of nowhere. The rooster was attacked by Malfoy and was in a real bad state. Professor Snape has a concussion and Neville didn’t witness a curse ...”
Ron paled. “You mean ...?”
„You think he accidentally ate some of Fred and George’s Chicken Candy?“ But that wouldn’t be an explanation Harry would dislike. Quite the opposite. He would be happy the rooster hadn’t been killed, and he certainly wouldn’t regret having saved Snape. Surely Hermione wouldn’t think that?
“No. I think he might be an animagus. Like Professor McGonagall. I heard she can turn herself into a cat.”
Harry frowned. “How does she remember to turn back?“
“That’s the thing about animagi, Harry! It’s completely different from the normal transfiguration spells. They keep their human mind when they’re animals.”
Harry thought about it. The rooster had not been in Hagrid’s chicken pen. It had been all alone, without any other chickens nearby. It had swallowed the medicine without complaint, and not tried to peck at him when in extreme pain. And the incident with the basilisk ... there had been a rooster, there, too, and a mysteriously appearing potions master. „Oh. Shit.“ Hermione was right, it all made sense, and ... Snape would remember. Harry had petted that rooster!
He was so dead.
The things he had said …
So, so, dead.
“He’ll murder me.” It was the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened in his life!
And with Dudley’s hobby of humiliating Harry in front of other children, that was saying something.
“Don’t be silly. Why would he murder you for saving his life?”
Hermione had a point, and Harry didn’t actually think Snape would murder him, not after going to all this trouble in order to save his life, but still. “He’ll make my life hell, then.”
“Harry, he can’t do anything without admitting that he’s an animagus. And I don’t think he wants anyone to know.”
“So far, he has managed to make my life hell without any reason at all.”
“You thought he was an animal, he won’t hold it against you that you treated him like one, I mean, that would be very unreasonable - ” Hermione interrupted herself, probably she had remembered just who they were talking about.
“We could blackmail him into being ni-“ Ron, too, interrupted himself. “Um. I mean, we could blackmail him into not being as nasty as he wants to.”
“Right now, it is just a theory”, Hermione reminded them. “I mean, I am pretty sure I am right, but I could still be wrong. We need more information. Harry, you said that rooster reminded you of the one you met at the Burrow?”
“Yeah.” Which was strange. Unless completely black chickens were a lot more common than Harry had thought they were.
“Could that rooster have been Professor Snape, too? Did you see them both at the same time, Ron?”
“He couldn’t have. He was actually nice to Harry. Besides, Dumbledore checked that rooster, so he couldn’t have been an animagus.”
“Checked him? For what? Which spells did he use?“
“No idea, he went to the shed to do it. Said the chicken was totally harmless when he got back.”
Hermione looked at him thoughtfully. “He didn’t say the rooster was not an animagus, did he?”
“Er, no?”
“And he trusts Professor Snape, so if he knew it was him, he wouldn’t have been worried.”
“He didn’t tell me who the rooster belongs to”, Harry said, blood rising to his face. If Snape didn’t only know about the chicken incident, but had been there the whole time ... “I really wanted to know, but Dumbledore refused to tell me ...”
Ron shook his head. “Calm down, mate. Hermione, I’m not saying you’re wrong about the rooster we found here, but the one back at the Burrow ... Ginny cooed over him. It was horrible. Snape would have murdered her after five minutes, tops.“
„I don’t think Professor Snape would murder anyone“, Neville said quietly.
Everyone stared at him. Harry realized, with a pang of conscience, that he had almost forgotten Neville was even there.
It was so easy to forget about him.
“Well, obviously not, he’s a teacher, he can’t - ” Hermione began, but then she seemed to remember Quirrell and fell silent.
“He didn’t kill that man who attacked me”, Neville stated calmly. “If he doesn’t even kill criminals who attack Hogwarts students, then he wouldn’t murder Ginny for – for being a bit silly. I think you are right, Hermione.”
Ron stared at him. “But you used to be terrified of Snape. Are you sure?”
“I’m still scared of him”, Neville admitted. “But he’s not a killer.” He looked thoughtful. “Actually”, he added. „My uncle Algie came closer to getting me killed than Snape.“
“What?!”
Neville told Hermione about his uncle, and she stared at him in shock. “Your uncle tried to kill you?”
“He didn’t want me dead, he just wanted me to show some magic”, Neville said, shrugging.
Now, with Hermione’s reaction, Harry wondered if he shouldn’t have been more shocked. Back then, an uncle who almost got his nephew killed hadn’t seemed much out of the ordinary. Uncle Vernon was the same, after all.
“Yeah, it’s not meant to kill anyone”, Ron agreed. “Lots of people do that sort of thing. Mum thinks it’s barbaric, obviously. Fred and George used to pretend doing it with Ginny, but just to get a rise out of Percy, they’d never actually throw her in the pond.”
Eventually, they returned to Gryffindor common room and went back to their usual pastimes.
Harry only thought of the discussion again when he entered the dormitory. The towel he had placed under the rooster was still there, and so were the saucers with food and water.
The only peculiar thing was that the towel was entirely clean.
Surely, a real chicken would have needed to go to the toilet once in a while?
A wizard could have used a cleaning charm ... especially if said wizard was Snape.
Harry followed Ron to the bathroom. “When I was a chick ...”, he began.
Ron nodded, finished brushing his teeth and spit out the foam. “Yeah?”
“That’s a bit embarrassing, but ... did I go to the toilet?”
“Well, you didn’t exactly go anywhere, but yeah. You behaved like a normal chick.”
“And the rooster?”
Ron frowned. “Oh Merlin. Mum did rave about how well behaved he was, he only ever used the old newspapers in that cardboard box …“ He had gone very pale, his freckles standing out more than ever. “Sometimes I wish Hermione wasn’t always right.”
„Me too, me too.“
Later, when he was in his bed with the curtains drawn around him, he had plenty of time to think about the whole matter.
And to remember all the things he had told that rooster. While petting him.
Chapter 14