bacchusnovels Chapter 148 Hermione's Transformation Journey
Chapter 148 Hermione's Transformation Journey
Chapter 148 Hermione's Transformation Journey (Part 1)
Harry and Ron had just finished their third Christmas pudding when Hermione led them out of the Great Hall to begin their special operation for the night.
"We still need something from the people we're supposed to become," Hermione said casually, as if she were sending them to the supermarket to buy laundry detergent.
"Needless to say, if you can get your hands on something from Crabbe and Goyle, that would be best; they are Malfoy's best friends, and he'll tell them everything. We also need to make sure that the real Crabbe and Goyle don't barge in while we're interrogating Malfoy."
"I've planned everything out," she said in one breath, ignoring the stunned expressions on Harry and Ron's faces, and held up two pieces of chocolate cake.
"I've put some common sleeping pills in here. All you have to do is make sure Crabbe and Goyle find them. You know how greedy they are, they'll definitely eat them. Once they're asleep, pluck a few strands of their hair and hide them in the broom cabinet."
Harry and Ron looked at each other in disbelief.
"Hermione, I think this—"
"This could cause big problems—"
But Hermione's gaze was as firm as iron, quite similar to Professor McGonagall's gaze at certain moments.
"Without Crabbe and Goyle's hair, the compound remedy won't work," she said firmly.
"Didn't you want to interrogate Malfoy?"
"Okay, okay," Harry conceded, "but what about yourself? How are you going to get your hair?"
"I'm all set!" Hermione exclaimed, proudly displaying a small bottle in her pocket containing a strand of hair. "Remember at the Duel Club? I took this from her robes when I dueled with Bersde. She's home for Christmas now, and all I have to do is tell the Slytherin students I've decided to stay."
Hermione rushed off to check the Polyjuice Potion, while Ron turned to Harry with a worried expression.
"Have you ever heard of a project where so many steps could go wrong?"
However, to their surprise, the first phase of the operation went remarkably smoothly.
After the Christmas tea, they quietly entered the empty foyer and waited for Crabbe and Goyle to leave the hall.
Harry cleverly placed the chocolate cake next to the railing.
As the two Slytherin students walked out of the Great Hall, Harry and Ron quickly hid behind a suit of armor.
"They're so stupid!" Ron whispered excitedly.
He saw Crabbe point the cake at Goyle, then snatch it away. The two grinned foolishly, stuffing the cake into their mouths and chewing greedily, their faces beaming with satisfaction.
Then, without warning, they fell backward and drifted off to sleep on the floor.
The most difficult part was hiding them in the cabinet at the far end of the entrance hall.
But after some effort, they finally managed to place the two people between the mop and the bucket.
Harry quickly plucked two thick, short hairs from Goyle's head, while Ron plucked a few from Crabbe's head.
They also stole the two men's shoes, since their own shoes were far too small for Crabbe and Goyle's large feet. Afterwards, they ran towards the weeping Myrtle's washroom, still shaken by their recent adventure.
Hermione was stirring the potion in the cauldron in the small room, thick black smoke billowing out, making her vision blurry.
Harry and Ron pulled up their robes to cover their faces and gently knocked on the door.
"Hermione?"
They heard a screeching sound from the door lock, and then Hermione appeared before them, her face full of anxiety.
Behind her, they could hear the bubbling of the potion.
Three flat-bottomed wine glasses were already placed on the toilet seat.
"Did you get it?" Hermione asked nervously.
Harry showed her Goyle's hair.
"Very good. I stole some changes of clothes from the laundry room," Hermione said, holding up a small cloth bag. "You'll need to wear larger sizes when you become Crabbe and Goyle."
The three of them stared intently at the medicine in the crucible.
Upon closer inspection, the medicine looked like a lazy, bubbling black slurry.
"I believe every step of my design is flawless," Hermione said nervously, flipping through the stained book of "The Powerful Potion" again. "It looks exactly like the description in the book—we'll have an hour to turn back into ourselves after drinking it."
"What should we do next?" Ron asked in a low voice.
"We'll divide it equally into three glasses and add the hair." Hermione carefully used a long-handled spoon to scoop the potion into each glass.
Then, with trembling hands, she poured Milison's hair from the bottle into the first glass.
The medicine immediately made a loud bubbling sound and foamed violently, turning an unpleasant yellow color a second later.
"Oh—this must be Milison Burst's essence," Ron said, staring at it with disgust. "I bet it tastes awful."
"Alright, hurry up and add your hair in too," Hermione urged.
Harry carefully dropped Goyle's hair into the middle glass, while Ron cautiously added Crabbe's hair into the last glass.
The two cups of potion immediately hissed and bubbled: Gore's turned into a yellowish-brown like tank armor, while Crabbe's turned into a deep, night-like brown.
Ron and Hermione prepared to reach for their respective cups.
“Wait a minute,” Harry said. “We’d better not all drink here. Once we become Crabbe and Goyle, there won’t be enough room. And Burst isn’t exactly a small man either.”
"You're right." Ron nodded, then opened the door. "Let's each find a private room."
Hermione carefully carried the potion, making sure not a drop was spilled, and entered the small private room in the middle.
"Are you ready?" she asked.
"Ready?" Ron and Harry's voices came at the same time.
Hermione closed her eyes tightly, held her breath, and gulped down the potion in her hand.
The taste was indescribable, like rotten cabbage that had been cooked for hours.
Immediately afterwards, a raging storm seemed to surge within her body, as if she had swallowed a swarm of writhing venomous snakes—she bent over, worried that she might collapse—suddenly, a searing flame spread rapidly from her stomach throughout her entire body, down to her fingertips and toes.
Then, a terrible melting sensation came over her, as if her skin was bubbling in scalding wax, forcing her to lie on the ground panting.
She watched helplessly as her hands began to swell, her fingers becoming longer and her knuckles protruding like bolts.
Her shoulders were also stretching, causing her excruciating pain; as her chest expanded, her robe tore apart, like a bucket breaking free of its restraints; her feet were squeezed into shoes that were too small, causing her immense suffering.
All of this came quickly and went just as fast.
In the blink of an eye, everything returned to calm.
Hermione lay face down on the cold brick floor, the sound of Myrtle's muffled gurgling coming from the toilet in the distance reaching her ears.
She struggled to take off her shoes and stood up with difficulty.
So this is what it feels like to be a Bersde.
Her trembling hands removed her long robe—which now hung a foot above her ankles—and she changed into new clothes, then slipped on Burst's enormous shoes.
Wait... why are these shoes still a bit big?
Hermione realized something was amiss. She ran her hand through her hair, touching the smooth, short strands... In her memory, Burst washed her hair almost once a week; how could she possibly have such healthy hair?
And she looked down.
Her ample bosom, slender waist, and long legs—all these features told a story about her.
She's mistaken!
Who did it become?
Just as she realized this, Goyle's (Harry's) deep, hoarse voice came from the next cubicle, "Are you all alright?"
"It's alright," Crabbe (Ron) replied gruffly from the right.
Harry unlocked the door and stood in front of the broken mirror.
In the mirror, Gore's deep-set eyes were staring blankly at him.
Harry scratched his ear, and Goyle in the mirror did the same thing, exactly the same.
Ron's door opened, and the two men faced each other.
Ron was now a carbon copy of Crabbe, from his signature short hair to his gibbon-like arms, only his face was slightly pale and frightened.
“It’s unbelievable,” Ron said, walking up to the mirror and poking Crabbe’s flat nose. “Unbelievable.”
"Let's hurry," Harry said, loosening his grip on Goyle's thick wrist with his watch. "We still need to figure out where the Slytherin common room is. I really hope we can find someone to come with us."
Ron, who had been watching Harry closely, said, "You have no idea how strange it is to see Goyle actually thinking." He banged on Hermione's door. "Hurry up, we have to go—"
The door to Hermione's cubicle slowly opened.
They saw Hermione, but she was no longer the Hermione they knew; instead...:
"Professor Tonks?" Harry called out first.
"Professor Tonks!" Ron exclaimed in surprise, following closely behind.
The two shouted in unison, their voices echoing in the empty washroom.
Hermione was momentarily dazed by their way of addressing her.
Through the broken mirror, she saw what she looked like now.
"I am Hermione."
Harry and Ron stared at her in astonishment—they couldn't believe those words would ever come out of Professor Tonks' mouth.
After a long while, Harry finally found his voice, "Hermione, you—what happened to you?"
"I—I don't know." Hermione, or rather Tonks, shook her head helplessly. "I clearly mixed the potion according to Burst's hair, how did it turn into Professor Tonks?"
Harry frowned. "What do we do now? Can our plan still continue?"
Hermione took a deep breath. "Our plan must continue. You two go ahead... I can't go with you."
Harry nodded understandingly, but the expression on Goyle's face was strangely odd. He glanced at his watch; five minutes of their precious sixty minutes had already passed.
"Be careful not to let anyone see you," Harry said before leaving. "We'll come back here to see you in a little while."
With that, Harry and Ron carefully opened the bathroom door, and after making sure no one was around, they set off.
So, the empty bathroom was left with only "Tonks".
Hermione stared silently at the face of Professor Tonks reflected in the shattered mirror. She straightened her back slightly, but then came a tearing sound—the sound of her robe being ripped.
Clearly, Burst's robe could not conceal Professor Tonks's impressive figure; on the contrary, the unexpected tear revealed his graceful curves.
Hermione looked down in alarm at the patch of white, somewhat at a loss.
Just then, a steady footstep came from the washroom, growing clearer and clearer as it approached.
Hermione's heart tightened; she didn't want anyone to see her current embarrassing state.
In her panic, she looked around for something to cover herself with, but the bathroom contained almost nothing except for the sink and a broken mirror.
The footsteps grew closer, and Hermione's heart pounded faster.
In desperation, Hermione hid back in the small cubicle she had just been in.
Meanwhile, a person suspiciously poked their head out of the restroom.
It's Sean.
He had just finished his meal in the auditorium and was walking back to his office, feeling quite satisfied, when he suddenly heard a faint but continuous noise coming from the direction of the restroom.
Because the bathroom contained a passage to the Chamber of Secrets in Slytherin, he was afraid that someone might accidentally discover it, so he came to check on the situation.
But unexpectedly...
He had just seen a familiar figure slip into a toilet stall. (After all, he had only ever seen Tonks naked at Hogwarts.)
That familiar hairstyle and that stunning figure could only belong to Tonks.
What is she doing here?
Could it be that she also noticed the unusual thing about this bathroom?
And... why is Tonks here when he was eating in the cafeteria before he left? Did he walk faster than him?
Of course, the most important thing right now is to get Tonks out of here and prevent her from discovering the anomaly. So, having made up his mind, Sean walked in. His footsteps echoed in the empty bathroom, each one like a heavy blow to Hermione's heart.
Hermione, inside the cubicle, held her breath, her hands unconsciously clenching together, her palms already sweaty.
The footsteps grew closer and closer, and she felt her heart pounding faster, as if it were about to leap out of her chest.
She kept telling herself to stay calm, but the unknown tension felt like an invisible force gripping her throat.
She held her breath and couldn't help but swallow, but unexpectedly... she heard a very familiar voice.
"Tonks, my junior?" Sean asked softly.
When that voice appeared, Hermione's mind naturally conjured up the image of Professor Sean.
Are you going to pretend you're not here...?
This approach doesn't seem to be working.
Professor Sean was already standing in the doorway of her cubicle, clearly aware that she was there... Pretending not to be there would only arouse Professor Sean's suspicion.
Having figured this out, Hermione hesitated, mimicking Tonks's tone, and replied uncertainly, "Shaw...Shaw-senpai?"
Sean raised his eyebrows slightly; for some reason, he had an inexplicable sense of unease.
He suppressed this feeling; the most important thing right now was to figure out why Tonks had come here.
And he took her back to his office. He hadn't even had a chance to give her the Christmas present he'd prepared.
"What happened, junior?" Sean asked, feigning concern.
"N-nothing," Hermione replied nervously, trying to make her voice sound more natural. "I just..."
Hermione was momentarily speechless. She glanced at the toilet seat beneath her and blurted out, "I just came here to use the restroom..."
Sean was stunned for a moment. This reason... was very reasonable. There was no more reasonable reason than this. If you come to the washroom but don't come to use the toilet, are you here to eat?
He smiled knowingly. "I see. Sorry to bother you, junior."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief. She knew that although her excuse was a bit far-fetched (this washroom had been abandoned for a long time and no one usually came here to use the toilet), it seemed to have temporarily fooled Professor Sean. Just when she thought the matter was over, Sean's next words made her nervous again.
"Junior, I'll wait for you at the bathroom door. I need to talk to you about something later." With that, Sean turned and was about to walk towards the door when "Tonks" in the stall suddenly called out to him.
"Wait, wait a minute, senior..." Tonks' voice was barely audible, trembling slightly.
(The next chapter is in the dark room, it will be released later)