A/n: Hi everyone, I'm not sure why I wrote this. Let's just say the plot bunny (finally) approached me this morning while I was lying in bed. This is my first Harry Potter fiction, and I guess I wrote it because I wanted to break the whole 'write LotR, read HP' thing. I dunno.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything in here. Except the plot – if that's what you can call it.
Have fun :)
Tracking Down a Mudblood – by iced1
The birds in the canopy of birch leaves were there, yet they were perched on the branches unmoving; the crickets had leapt away long ago. Even the whistling of the wind through the trees had ceased. It was oddly quiet in the small clearing.
Or that's what it would have been, if not for the guffawing of two large, lumbering idiots. The two were recognizable from far off as their large bulk and deep grunting were unique to them and them alone. Who else but Crabbe and Goyle?
"Shut up you two, your speech is nothing but irritation." A drawl rang through the still air, and the tittering stopped.
"Yeah, you heard Draco." One elbowed the other in the stomach.
"You started it, pie-head." The other returned the gesture.
"Did not!" Crabbe pushed Goyle.
"Did too!" Crabbe fell over and Goyle leaped upon him with a defeaning oof. The two rolled around scrabbling at each other's faces with their pudgy hands. Cries of 'Did not, did too' became shrieks and the birds took flight.
"I did!" Goyle yelled.
"Did not!" Crabbe screamed back at his opponent.
"Har har, you just admitted it!" Goyle chuckled at his own wittiness, but soon stopped when Crabbe's fist connected with his jaw.
"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" The two belligerents gasped as their arms snapped to their torso and their kneecaps joined together. The two landed one on top of each other.
Malfoy rubbed his wand on his black robe and slipped it back into his pocket. "Enough you two, we don't have time to waste. Our master awaits us." He turned around and took a few steps. "oh yeah, that's right." He took out his wand again in a somewhat reluctant manner and muttered the counter-curse almost lazily.
"Uh... what exactly are we doing anyway?" One of the two asked stupidly, lifting himself off the ground.
"We're tracking the mudblood that escaped our clutches last night, you brainless skrewts." Malfoy replied in a calm, menacing tone.
"oh... right..." Crabbe and Goyle exchanged puzzled looks and hurried to catch up with their silver-haired idol.
"So... uh... how exactly do we do that?"
Malfoy groaned and said slowly, "We look for footprints or any sign of the mudblood, then we follow them. Get it?"
No reply.
Crabbe looked around him, and gave a cry and lumbered over to the middle of the clearing where they had had their brawl. "Look at what I found!"
If Malfoy was surprised, he showed no trace of it. He held his palm out to the beaming Crabbe and looked at the candy wrapper that was dropped into it. The legend Chocolate Frog glared up at him. "Are you stupid? Why would a muggle have wizarding chocolate?"
"Uh... I dunno."
"Vin-cent. It dropped," Malfoy let the wrapper fall to the ground, "out of your pocket." He pointed his finger at Crabbe and then his own pocket.
"Oh..." His head dropped in disappointment. "Oh! Look behind you, Draco! Footprints!"
"Yeah! Those could be the mudblood's!" exclaimed Goyle excitedly.
"Yes, and they stop at exactly where I'm standing. In fact, watch," he stepped forward, "another just appeared."
Crabbe and Goyle wore matching looks of confusion. "They're mine, you gits!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm quite sure, Goyle." He thought for a second, walked to where they had been before Crabbe's discovery of his own candy wrapper, then said, "Okay, this is what we'll do." He pointed his wand at a pebble and turned it into 12 thick shoelaces. Black, of all colors.
"Woah... how'd you do that?" Crabbe said in awe.
"If you had paid any attention in Transfiguration." Malfoy muttered. He tied one shoelace around his shoe diagonally, and tied another to form a cross on the sole of his shoe. "See?" HE threw the shoelaces at his cronies and did the same thing on his other shoe.
"Hey, cool dude, it like... crosses out our footprints!" Crabbe called to Malfoy, who was searching the edge of the clearing.
Yes, that's the point Malfoy thought. There was a few minutes of silence, in which Crabbe and Goyle had traipsed around the clearing thoroughly.
"Blimey! Look! Footprints!" Crabbe pointed at the ground dramatically. Malfoy and Goyle jogged over, and malfoy whapped Crabbe across the head. "Those are ours, glutton."
"But they don't have crosses on them! They have two lines!"
"Yes, but if our friend Gregory had tied the laces correctly, then there would be crosses, not laces."
Goyle shrunk into his wide neck and his face began to redden, and sulked off with a crestfallen Crabbe. There was silence once more in the clearing.
"Guys! Look! Footprints without marks! Normal Footprints!" Malfoy spun around, his head narrowly missing a low branch, and saw Goyle standing in the middle of the clearing, following the footprints to a glistening brown candy wrapper, and then following another set of footprints back to where he had been standing before.
"Funny, check this out. It goes here, and then goes back again. Cool, the mudblood must have been running around in circles for a while."
Malfoy's cool demeanor burst. He gripped his wand and he let out a cry of fury.
CRACK!
Two heads, the only two left in the clearing, whipped towards the source of the noise. The owners of the heads shrugged, stood still before timidly calling, "er... Draco?"
End
It's kind of stupid, I know, but I'd still like any constructive criticism or any comments you want to make. I'd just like to say that I know that you cannot tie crosses on the soles of your shoes that will stay for very long – but c'mon, they're wizards, they can do (almost) anything! Also, if anyone knows the counter-curse to the Full Body Bind spell, then I'd be greatly obliged (: