"I might have figured it out. It's going to take a bit of tinkering you know and I still probably won't be able to deal with the power issues for a while…I'm mostly just hoping for the radio I guess…what?"
Hermione's mouth snapped closed and she shook her head. "And they tell me I'm the genius…" Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, you two, let's check on the potion," Hermione said over her shoulder.
"You know, Harry," Neville said following their friend, "you could always just set up a Wizarding Wireless instead of creating an entirely new rune cluster."
"Oh." Harry at least had the decency to blush at the mention of a mundane solution. "Yeah, I guess that could work too…"
"So why exactly am I going with you three to talk with the Headmaster?" Shiva asked Harry. He was currently leading Hermione, Neville and Shiva down the halls towards Dumbledore's office.
"Because I need backup in case this doesn't go well," Harry said with a shrug. "I figure Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick will probably be on my side. Snape is likely to shoot it down just because it's me bringing it up. I'm not sure about Professor Sprout. I wanted to make sure we had a swing vote just in case."
Shiva snorted. "And how are you so sure that I'm going to like this brilliant plan of yours?"
"Because you and Hermione are always yelling at me to look for mundane solutions instead of resorting to runes all the time. So I talked with Neville and we came up with a mundane solution. I'm actually a little surprised none of the adults brought it up already." He turned to give her puppy dog eyes. "And because you said you'd back me up on anything."
Shiva gave a deep laugh at that. "Cute and I give you points for the eyes, kid! But your delivery timing needs some serious work!"
Harry chuckled before turning back. "Well it was worth a shot. I'm not as good as Hermione," he ignored her shout of protest and continued, "but in all seriousness, Shiva, I really do believe you'll think this is a good idea."
"Alright, but no promises if it needs work, Harry. Sugar Quill," Shiva said to the gargoyle and motioned for the trio to head on up as it stepped out of the way.
"Ah, Harry, my boy, come in, come in," Dumbledore said gesturing to the seats in front of his desk. Harry ground his teeth. This was not the time to remind Dumbledore that he was certainly not the man's boy.
"Thank you, Professor." Harry, Neville and Hermione took their seats while Shiva moved to the side with Dumbledore and the other Heads of House.
"And just what are you doing here Babbling?" Snape sneered at the younger woman.
Inside Harry seethed at the man but he schooled his features before calmly stating, "I've been consulting with her, Sir."
"Severus," Dumbledore said with a small glance at the Potions Master. The greasy haired man ground his teeth but fell quiet. "Now, Harry. You mentioned in your request that you had a solution to our problem with Mrs. Norris and young Mr. Creevy?"
"Well actually, Sir – "
Snape again cut off Harry. "We will not be using any of your experiments on school children, Potter."
"Severus, be quiet!" Eight heads turned to goggle at McGonagall who blushed slightly but returned her harsh stare onto Snape. "We are all worried about the petrification. Let the boy speak."
"Thanks, Professor," Harry said shocked. He shook his head and turned back to Dumbledore setting his features again. "As I was saying. It was actually mostly Neville's idea." The other boy blushed. "We know that the mandrake drought is the best way to restore Mrs. Norris and Colin but we think it's stupid to wait for the mandrakes here to mature."
"You arrogant little – "
"Severus!" McGonagall snapped. He cut off and the Deputy Headmistress nodded for Harry to go on.
"We don't see why Hogwarts can't just order mature mandrakes via owl post. Hermione helped Neville make the list of all the suppliers in Britain who have mature mandrakes currently." Neville handed the list to Dumbledore while the other teachers present just stared at the trio with varying shades of shock flickering over their features. "We sorted it by price and delivery time. Going the middle of the road option, would have both Colin and Mrs. Norris up and about by the end of the week. Two tops if you choose one of the slower delivery venues."
"This is…" McGonagall seemed almost speechless as she leaned over to look at the list Neville had provided.
"An excellent idea, Mr. Potter, Mr. Longbottom, Miss Granger!" Flitwick exclaimed. "50 points to Gryffindor for each of you!"
"I agree," Professor Sprout said peering at the list as well. "I think some of these top options are a bit too much for our current budget but these others should be perfectly within reason."
"Excellent mundane solution, Harry," Shiva said flashing them a thumbs up.
Snape just sneered but at least he didn't say anything against it.
"This was an ingenious idea, my boy," Dumbledore said peering at Harry. He got a slight headache as he met the man's gaze but resisted reaching up to scratch at his forehead. "I will bring this up with the board as soon as possible."
"Okay, everybody got their doses?" Hermione asked for the third time. She received rolled eyes and nodded heads from Harry and Neville as both held up their potion vials along with Hermione. "Excellent. Now remember, we only have an hour after we drink this. Harry you found the Slytherin Common Room already right?" Another nod. "And you know the password?"
"Like I said before, Hermione, it's Balderdash. Can we please just do this already?" Harry said in exasperation. Her attention to detail was generally welcome but after going over the same information for the fourth time it got frustrating.
"Yes. Yes, I think we're ready. Bottoms up everyone." Hermione chugged back her potion vial as the boys did the same with theirs. A few nauseating moments later, Pansy Parkinson, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were staring back at each other in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom with varying degrees of cringing and fascination.
"Hugh, I feel dirty," Crabbe-Neville rumbled. "Polyjuice tastes disgusting!"
"Well," Pansy-Hermione replied, "it's supposed to change taste and color based on the target. Perhaps it's just these three that are…"
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