Harry Potter Hullaballoo - The Polyjuice Potion

The Polyjuice Potion

In which Christmas arrives, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione finally use their Polyjuice Potion.

We begin in Dumbledore's office, immediately after Harry and the rest of the school finds Justin and Nearly Headless Nick post-petrification. Dumbledore's office seems really cool, full of old gadgets, his beloved phoenix, the Sorting Hat, and portraits of all of the previous headmasters and headmistresses.

Out of curiosity, Harry tries on the Sorting Hat again, and once again it tells him that he would make a good Slytherin, leaving Harry to doubt his placement in Gryffindor. I think Harry has the ambition and cunningness to be a Slytherin, but he's much braver.

Then Fawkes the Phoenix dies. It's funny that Fawkes's name means Falcon. But after it dies, it is reborn as a wee little baby bird. Dumbledore tells Harry all about Phoenixes and that he doesn't doubt Harry's innocence to the situation, even though Harry looks very guilty right now. That's one of the great things about Dumbledore: he isn't condescending and he is very trusting. Maybe too trusting, but he's smart enough to have those amazing sorts of hunches that are nearly always right.

Another of Hagrid's roosters is dead.

Christmas arrives, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione as well as the rest of the Weasleys choose to stay at Hogwarts over holiday. Draco Malfoy is staying, too, so it'll be the perfect time to test out their Polyjuice Potion on him. After the feast Christmas night, they run off to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to drink their potion. Ron and Harry make a detour to put Crabbe and Goyle to sleep and steal some hairs.

After drinking the potion, Hermione decides she doesn't want to go, so Harry and Ron are left to find the Slytherin Common Room and Malfoy on their own. It's surprising Malfoy chose to stay over holiday, given his attachment to his parents.

When they find Malfoy, he shows them an article that says Arthur Weasley was fined fifty galleons for bewitching the car. Maybe it is solely based on blood, but I'm not sure why Lucius and Arthur have an ongoing feud. They aren't the same age, so they can't have met at school, and they are entirely different people. He also tells them how his father knows that the last person to open the chamber of secrets was expelled—and someone died.

When the potion wears off Ron and Harry hightail it back to Myrtle's bathroom. They find Moaning Myrtle cracking up at Hermione, who looks like a cat, because she accidentally took cat hair from Millicent, not Millicent hair. Not the best year for Hermione in terms of magic-related injuries, not that Harry's any better off with his arm bone situation.