CH 234

Granger smirked and his nerve broke. He shielded one more time and dove for the door, grabbing for the handle and twisting madly, only for it to not move a Merlin damned inch. He rattled the doorknob. "Let me out!" he squeaked.

"No way, Granger!" came a muffled shout from the other side.

A spell shattered his shield behind him.

"It's me, you idiots! Draco!" "It doesn't sound like you."

He rattled the door again, and turned around to shield again.

"It's a spell!"

Granger was now only a dozen feet away, smiling like a demon from the nether world.

"Sure, it is."

He had just enough time to say, "Granger, how about it we—" before sparkly lights flashed towards him and a half dozen hexes hit him, one after the other, and his world become one whirling ball of weirdness.

Later that night, the Slytherin common room was almost perfectly divided. A third were howling with laughter, a third were quietly sniggering, and the final third were doing their best to look outraged while occasionally hiding a snort into a pillow or a giggle behind a raised book.

The wizarding photos this time showed a Draco Malfoy with gorgeous pink tresses so long they dragged on the floor, wearing his fine robes as normal, but lined with lace and frills, with deer antlers on his head, walking on his hands and knees, vomiting up slugs, with pink polka dotted skin, and occasionally shouting something that the lip readers of the room could identify as, "I love my Mummy!"

"You see," Tracey giggled, sitting with the rest of the Gray students to the right of the large empty Slytherin throne in the middle of the common room, "this is why you should declare yourself for us, Potter. Because we're awesome." It was the next afternoon, just after lunch, and Harry had to agree with Tracey pronouncement the previous night…. They were awesome.

Harry casually ducked behind a tapestry secret passageway, ran at full tilt up the corridor, turned the next corner, arrived into a tall hallway, disillusioned and silenced himself, wiped his cloak around him, and flew up into the rafters, sitting himself on the huge wood beam and dangling his cloaked feet over the edge.

Seconds later, Dumbledore barged into the hallway, looking around in obvious frustration.

Harry stayed quiet and watched as the man slid his own wand from its holster. "Homenum Revelo."

Harry smirked.

After a few more moments, a rather confused looking Dumbledore left, and Harry descended back down to the ground.

He made his way towards the library, hoping to squeeze in some restricted section reading before dinner — but as he arrived, he spotted just who was facing off against each other just outside the library door.

"C'mon, Hermione!" wheedled.

His

brother's

voice

"I said no — I'm not interested."

Wow, Hermione was attracting all the trouble these days, wasn't she? First Draco, now John.

John Potter ran his hand through his hair. "But why? Is that what Slytherin told you?"

"That," Hermione said in a frosty tone, "is none of your business."

Harry surreptitiously drew closer, keeping his wand in hand, just in case.

"I just don't understand how you could allow someone so much power over you. It's not like you."

"Again, none of your business."

John Potter looked away, obviously frustrated. "Shouldn't Slytherin want his vassal to pair up with someone like me? I'm the heir to an Ancient and Noble House, one of the wealthiest houses in Britain, with family magic going back over a thousand years. You couldn't ask for a better suitor."

Harry's lip curled. Oh, that whiny look on his brother's face when he wasn't getting his way.

"Have you considered the idea that maybe my lord simply wishes me to wait until I'm older before accepting such gifts? No one else is giving them out yet."

John scoffed. "Puuurleeze. Slytherin signed contracts with two witches when they were eight. I don't think he much cares about that."

"Well, if you weren't going to accept my reasoning then you shouldn't have asked for it," Hermione snapped, before turning and starting to walk away. "You won't be able to run away forever, Hermione!" John called from behind her. "This is part of our culture!"

Harry followed the furious Hermione around the castle until he managed to get her alone.

"Harry," Hermione whispered softly when he finally whipped the cloak off himself and dragged her into an empty classroom. "Did you hear all that?"

"Yeah," Harry smiled. "He didn't look too happy did he?"

Hermione huffed and folded her arms. "Can you believe him! I wanted to hex him to hell and back for that last comment. As though the only reason I couldn't possibly want his stupid gift is because I'm a stupid muggleborn who doesn't understand the culture. GrraAAhhhh!" She threw her hands in the air. "It makes me so mad!"

Harry chuckled. "Well, at least he won't be able to force anything. Even if he somehow managed to trap your parents. We made sure of that."

Hermione stopped silently ranting and shivered. "Oh Merlin, you don't think he'd try something like that, do you?"

"I wouldn't put it past him, but probably not." Harry frowned. "I'd advise checking your food and drink for love potions from now on anyway, just in case."

Hermione nodded. "Are you sure I can't just Hex him to hell like I did Malfoy?"

Harry grinned. "As tempting as that is, we still want stay under his radar as much as possible, at least for the moment. And besides, it may not be illegal, but you might still get detention or whatnot. Best not to give Dumbledore any good reason to get you in trouble.

Hermione pouted.

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