Normally, Snape would be smiling at getting them in trouble, but he just looked angry. Seeing how the professor was behaving, Neville decided to do the smart thing and just shut up. The man left, and the boy who lived just felt sick. If Snape had gone to fetch Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House, they were hardly any better off. She might be fairer than Snape, but she was still extremely strict. She was going to kill them, he knew it.
Ten minutes later, Snape returned, and sure enough, it was Professor McGonagall who accompanied him. Neville had seen Professor McGonagall angry on several occasions, but either he had forgotten just how thin her mouth could go, or he had never seen her this angry before. She raised her wand the moment she entered; Neville, Ron, and Hermione all flinched, but she merely pointed it at the empty fireplace, where flames suddenly erupted. Neville hadn't realized how cold he was until the warmth of the fire started to spread.
"Sit," she said, and they both backed into chairs by the fire.
"Explain," she said, her glasses glinting ominously.
Ron started to speak but Neville immediately stopped him. Ron's mouth was probably going to get them further in trouble, "Well, professor, it's a bit of a long story. You know how I'm a Parselmouth?"
The woman nodded and he continued, "Well, people haven't really been nice to me ever since that happened."
"What they stopped worshipping you like some sort of messiah," Snape answered with a sneer.
"No," Neville denied, "they just look at me like I'm the one who petrified my own roommate. So, I decided that finding out who the heir of Slytherin really was would clear my name. And where better to look first than the Slytherin common room? We used Polyjuice to sneak inside while Crabbe, Goyle, and Millicent were in detention, and we started interrogating people sneakily."
"You thought that whoever was responsible would just confess in the middle of the common room?" McGonagall asked with an incredulous tone.
"Well, maybe. We thought that they, at least, might know a little more about it. So, what would be the harm?"
"You're asking what would be the harm in impersonating your year mates, and breaking into a place they're supposed to feel safe in?" Snape asked.
"Well, we thought that no one would really be affected. It was only supposed to last for one hour, but for some reason, it stopped working at least twenty minutes early."
Snape looked startled for a second, "You brewed the potion?"
"Yes. Well, Hermione did…" Neville looked at his friend who was practically trembling.
"So, let me get this straight. You stole ingredients from my personal stores, used them to brew a potion that was above your capability, incorrectly from the sound of it, and snuck into the Slytherin common room because you hoped that the heir of Slytherin who has been attacking muggleborns would confess their crimes to you because you asked for it. And the potion ended up malfunctioning, causing everyone to panic and attack you at once."
Hermione interjected, "Hey, I didn't incorrectly brew the potion!"
The glare McGonagall sent her made her defiant look wither in a fraction of a second, "I'm telling you this for your best interest. Don't confess to brewing an illegal potion to your professors, one that could cause you a fine of a few hundred Galleons at least, and maybe even a short stay in Azkaban. If you weren't a minor and if you didn't brew the potion in Hogwarts, you would have been in a lot more trouble. So, please, shut up, Ms Granger."
The deputy headmistress took a deep breath and continued, "Since this is your first offence this year, you will be in detention for the rest of the semester, and this incident will be in your permanent school record. I will send a letter to your parents informing them about what happened. I am disappointed in you, Ms Granger. Now, get back to your common room, I will contact you about the details of your detentions later."
Hermione looked in tears as she left the room. The transfiguration mistress looked at the last two students in the room, "As for the two of you, after the mess you made with the flying car a few months ago, we told you that if you did something like this again, then you were going to be expelled. The truth is that you committed a crime, and now it's out of my hand. We'll have to go to the headmaster for this. Please follow me."
They marched in silence around a corner and the deputy headmistress stopped before a large and extremely ugly stone gargoyle.
"Lemon drop!" she said. This was evidently a password because the gargoyle sprang suddenly to life and hopped aside as the wall behind him split in two.
Normally, Neville would have been excited about the prospect of seeing the headmaster's office for the first time, but all he could feel was dread.
He was going to be expelled. He knew that in his bones. His grandmother was going to kill him. He was letting everyone down, even his parents. He had even dragged Ron into this scheme to clear his name, just because he couldn't handle the fact that people didn't like him anymore.
The Weasleys were going to be heartbroken, and it was all his fault. Maybe the information they had gotten from Potter could help them. Dumbledore wouldn't punish them for helping him stop the heir of Slytherin, would he?
Potter was already resentful of Dumbledore for some reason, even if he had somewhat of a point, and Neville did start having questions of his own for the headmaster. If Potter was right that the Chamber was opened during when he was in the castle, why didn't Dumbledore stop him the first time? If the culprit was obviously framed, then how did Dumbledore let that happen and why did he stop looking for the chamber altogether? And why didn't he reveal the nature of the beast? Potter had figured it out, after all, and he's a student.
Did Dumbledore just hope that the problem would just go away on its own?
Neville had many questions and even if he was going to be expelled, he wasn't leaving without answers.
Having been distracted by his thoughts, the boy who lived didn't notice the spiral staircase that appeared in front of him. As they all stood on it, it started to rise in circles, until at last, slightly dizzy, Neville saw a gleaming oak door ahead, with a brass knocker in the shape of a gryphon.
They had arrived at Dumbledore's office.
.....
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