A/N: Thanks for reading! Standard disclaimers apply. I got the years of Lily and James Potters' Hogwarts attendants from Harry Potter Wiki.
Chapter Two: A Hallway Venture
"Hey Gin, have you been practicing with Katie and Dean? We need to be ready for the match next week."
Ginny nodded. "We've been getting together for a couple hours before dinner the last few days. Ron even joined us once. I think we've got that new formation down now."
"SHH, Gin!" Harry hissed. He looked pointedly toward Malfoy. "Careful what you say around the enemy."
Malfoy didn't look up from the large tome on his lap. He sighed, "Don't get your knickers in a bunch, Potter. I wasn't even listening until you started doing snake impressions. SSSHHHH!" he teased.
"What's that you're looking at?" Ginny asked.
The pale boy smirked. "Old Hogwarts annuals. You wouldn't believe some of the fashions wizards and witches used to wear. Look at this!"
He held the book up and turned it on his lap so that she could see. Almost every student in the rows of photos was sporting a large fake wart on his or her nose. "1872: The Year of the Wart," Draco snickered.
Harry had a pensive look on his face. "Where did you find that?"
Malfoy continued to flip through the annual as he answered. "Where do you think, Scarhead? There's a whole section on the history of Hogwarts over near the biographies."
Harry left and returned with seven annuals of his own.
"What years are those, Harry?"
"1971 thru '78."
A look of understanding filled Ginny's face. "Ah."
Malfoy looked up. "What's so special about those years?"
"That was when Harry's parents attended Hogwarts," Ginny explained.
Harry didn't say anything, as he was already flipping through the pages, searching for mention of Lily Evans or James Potter.
Draco sniffed disinterestedly but then grinned. "Hey, let me see one of those—I want to find an embarrassing photo of Snape!"
Ginny snorted and passed him 1975. "Can't be much worse than how he looks at present."
Malfoy smirked and opened the annual. "We'll see."
It was quiet as the two boys flipped through the age-worn pages of their respective books. The only sound was the scratch of Ginny's quill on her parchment, where she'd begun to doodle a caricature of the greasy Potions Master.
The silence was broken, surprisingly, by Luna. "Tom Riddle was really quite handsome, wasn't he?"
Both Harry and Ginny's heads snapped up in surprised horror at Luna's casual mention of Lord Voldemort's younger self. Colin looked confused and Draco asked, "Who?"
Luna turned her large protuberant blue eyes on the Slytherin. "Tom Riddle. Lord Voldemort."
Draco nearly fell off his chair. "Are you saying you know who the Dark Lord was before he was… the Dark Lord?"
"Of course," Luna replied. "Doesn't everyone?"
Draco looked around at Harry for confirmation. The look on the Boy Who Lived's face seemed to convince him, for he got up and walked back to Luna's seat to look over her shoulder.
He was quiet for a moment. Then he said, "He was quite the handsome bloke in school, wasn't he?" He raised one pale eyebrow, "Wonder what happened."
Harry finally spoke. "I guess when you surrender your soul, you give up your good looks too," he said darkly.
Malfoy looked up and opened his mouth to reply, but closed it suddenly. Then he opened it again and said, "What's wrong with you, Weasley? You've gone as green as a fresh-pickled toad."
Ginny was indeed looking sick and Harry asked concernedly, "You okay, Gin?"
She nodded determinedly, fighting down the feeling of nausea. "I'm fine. Can we please just change the subject?"
Draco seemed confused, but sat again in his own seat and resumed his search for young Severus Snape without comment.
By 11:30, the five students in Saturday detention were bored out of their skulls.
Ginny was tying and retying her Gryffindor tie with her wand. Harry had pulled a snitch out of his pocket and was letting it go and catching it lethargically. Colin had started on his essay, to much scoffing from Malfoy, who was shuffling and reshuffling a pack of Wizard's Playing Cards. Every now and then he'd play a quick game of Goblin Run with himself. Luna was writing 'Hermione Granger was here' on the inside of the front covers of a large stack of library books.
When she had finished the last one, Luna looked at the other bored students. Though she hadn't said much all day, she'd had a swell time listening to the others' conversations and/or arguments. Bored herself, she began to whistle.
Draco was the first to recognize the tune, and, as Weasley is Our King's creator, he joined in. Colin was next, and then Ginny and even Harry began whistling it absentmindedly. Soon they'd struck up a rousing orchestra of the song that filled the room.
Their chorus cut off abruptly as the door swung open and Professor Hines strode in. "Lunchtime, rule breakers. You have exactly one hour to eat." He turned to leave.
Harry raised his hand, but spoke without waiting to be called on, "Er, Professor Hines? Isn't lunch being provided for us? We didn't bring anything."
He turned around. "Why would it be provided?"
Malfoy rolled his eyes. "Maybe because this is a boarding school, and all meals are provided?"
"We aren't in possession of any food, sir. We couldn't have brought our own anyway," Ginny added.
Harry stood in his seat. "I'll go down to the kitchens and get us some things, Professor," he offered.
"Oh-ho, eager to leave, aren't you, Mr. Potter?" Professor Hines looked rather proud to have foiled Harry's dastardly plans. "You," he pointed to Ginny, "and you," he pointed to Draco, "go to the kitchen and tell the house elves to put together five sack lunches."
"Yes, sir," they both said and hurried out the door before he could change his mind.
Draco and Ginny walked through the halls silently side by side. Their footsteps echoed in the strangely quiet corridors. Only the third years and up were in Hogsmeade; shouldn't the first and second years be running around?
Dismissing the thought, Draco turned to the 16-year-old. "So, I told you my story. What did you do to get detention?"
Ginny figured that fair was fair, so she answered, "I asked Snape who had shoved the ten foot wand up his ass."
Draco's eyes widened in shock and then he burst out laughing. A hearty, sincere laugh.
Ginny watched him with a smile. "I've never heard you laugh before," she told him, "Not unless you were being condescending."
Draco shrugged and didn't say anything.
"I like it."
He looked at her strangely. "You like what?"
"Your laugh. It's nice."
Draco snorted, "Yeah, well, don't get used to it."
Ginny rolled her eyes and they continued their trek to the kitchens.
Meanwhile, back in the library, Colin had fallen asleep and Harry had moved to sit beside Luna. She had stolen Draco's cards and challenged him to a game of Lucky Hippogriffs. They began to chat as they played, Harry realizing he hadn't spoken to Luna much since the incident at the Ministry the previous June.
"Are you and your dad going to Sweden this summer?"
Luna nodded. "Yes. I've been thinking of inviting Malfoy to go along."
When Harry's head shot up in surprise, Luna laughed her soft tinkling giggle. "I'm kidding, Harry."
Harry laughed with her. "I didn't know you'd been listening to us."
"Oh, yes," Luna said. "It's very entertaining."
They played quietly for a few minutes, the only sound coming from Colin in the form of light snores.
"Say, Luna," Harry began. "Why are you in detention?"
Luna shrugged and averted her eyes. "I just had nothing better to do."
Harry could tell that she was lying, but he didn't press the issue.
"What about you, Harry?"
He was saved from answering by the return of Ginny and Malfoy.
Draco woke Colin, none too gently, and gave him one of the brown paper bag lunches put together by the house elves. Each bag was labeled specifically for one of them, the elves being blessed with the knowledge of every student's favorite foods.
Colin's lunch was fairly average: PB&J, apple juice, chicken soup, and an orange. Harry was pleased to find treacle tart in his. Ginny had chicken salad and still-warm bread. Draco's lunch was much fancier than all of theirs, but at least void of snails and fish eggs. It was what Luna's lunch bag contained, though, that drew their attention.
From her bag, she pulled out pomegranate juice, egg whites, and a radish-pickle-onion sandwich.
Draco's pointed nose wrinkled as she took a large bite.
"Luna…" Ginny asked with a disgusted look on her face. "What… why are you eating that?"
"To protect myself from the were-thylacines," she replied as though it should be obvious. She then took another big bite.
The boys just turned away slowly, still a bit unbelieving of what they'd just seen and heard.
Draco slowly and silently opened the library door with practiced ease. He looked across at Professor Hines' classroom and saw that it was empty. Motioning to the others that the coast was clear, he crept out into the hall. Out of the door behind him came Ginny, Harry, Colin, and Luna. The five marched down the hall in single file.
"How do you know where Hines went?" Colin asked in a loud whisper.
"I don't," Draco replied, not even attempting to keep his voice down.
"Then how do you know when he'll be back?" Colin persisted.
"I don't."
"Then why are we risking getting caught?"
"You'll see."
"Where—"
"If you ask me one more question, Gryffindork, I'm beating the shit out of you."
Colin shut up.
Harry pulled even with Ginny and whispered to her, "Why are we going along with Malfoy?"
Ginny shrugged, "Because there's nothing else to do."
They followed him all the way down to the dungeons and paused before the wall that was the entrance to the Slytherin common room. Draco said the password under his breath and told them to wait there.
Not five minutes later he returned with a frustrated look on his face. "Damn house elves must have taken it!"
"Taken what?" Ginny asked.
"My Firewhiskey!"
Colin's voice cracked as he said, "Firewhiskey? We broke the rules and came all the way down here for Firewhiskey?"
"Nobody made you come, Creevey," Malfoy snarled.
Suddenly Harry said, "Follow me."
They did, Draco somewhat reluctantly. They walked for a while before coming to a stop in front of Beatrice the Benevolent's statue.
Harry knelt before it and pulled the name plate of the stone foundation out like a drawer, revealing it to be stocked with three bottles of Firewhiskey.
As he passed the bottles to the others, Draco couldn't help but say, "Well, well, well. Golden Boy's got a secret stash."
"Shut up, Malfoy!" But Draco seemed impressed.
Draco began to lead the way back to the library when they suddenly heard footsteps around the corner. They quickly ducked behind a tapestry.
It was Filch. He shuffled by them grumbling to himself about Peeves and broken doors. The five rule-breakers' eyes widened. Filch knew that they had detention! If he was on his way to fix the library door and they weren't there…
"Run," Draco whispered.
They took off in the direction Filch had come from. As they ran Draco panted, "If we take a left at the painting of the sleeping dragon and then head up to the third floor to use Marta the Mysterious' secret passage-way we should get back before he does." The others nodded their consent and ran harder.
As they were climbing the staircase to the third floor, they felt sudden movement below them. The stairs were changing position!
"Shit!"
When the steps finally settled, they climbed to the new landing and attempted to get their bearings.
Ginny had an idea. "Harry! Do you have the Map with you?"
Harry nodded and pulled the rolled parchment from inside his sock. He activated the Marauder's Map and searched intently for Filch. He was right below the library. Then he looked for their own dots and groaned. "We're on the other side of the castle!"
Draco grabbed the map away from him and studied it carefully. "Okay, if we head back downstairs and cut through the Great Hall—"
"No!" Harry exclaimed. "The last time you tried to tell us where to go, it was a disaster. Well, we're not listening to you any more! We're going this way—come on, guys."
He headed down the corridor, Colin and Ginny following after him. Luna began to go as well; she turned and looked at Draco beseechingly. He rolled his eyes and followed the others.
They had been running hard for a couple of minutes when Harry ran around a corner and skidded to a stop. "Wait a minute," he said, looking around, "This isn't right…"
Ginny looked at the map. "We were supposed to turn right two lefts ago!" She looked again. "And Filch is right down the hall from the library!"
"Way to go, Scarface!"
"Screw you, Malfoy!"
"Screw you," Ginny said, eyes blazing, "Why didn't you listen to Draco?"
"We're busted," Colin whimpered.
"No," Draco said suddenly. "Just me."
They looked at him, confused.
"Malfoy…"
"No, Potter, why don't you just shut up once and let someone else play the hero, eh?" Draco shoved his bottle of Firewhiskey into Colin's arms. "Hold this." He performed a Sonorus charm on himself, and then he started sprinting down the halls, singing at the top of his lungs:
"HIS EYES ARE AS GREEN AS A FRESH PICKLED TOAD,
HIS HAIR IS AS DARK AS A BLACKBOARD…!"
He turned the corner and was lost from sight. The remaining four watched the Map with bated breath. The Filch dot seemed to pause for a moment… and then it turned and began moving in the opposite direction!
They didn't take the time to celebrate, just booked it back to the library.
A/N 2: YES! I FINALLY UPLOADED CHAPTER TWO! I know, I know, I'm sorry it took so long. I couldn't find much time to write because I was out of state, and then I didn't think it was long enough so I had to think of things to add, and then my friend who I haven't seen since Christmas came to visit... yes, yes, lame excuses, I know.
Reviews = Motivation = Faster Updates :)