Disclaimer: I think we've been through this enough. JK Rowling owns all.


"I can't believe it," Scorpius said for what must have been the fifteenth time. He anxiously paced the room that they were in - Malfoy Manor's exquisite sitting room. Lily and Rose sat on opposite ends of the couch, both sprawled out but barely touching each other, which just went to show how large the couch was. "I can't believe that my father would do something like that."

"Will you stop?" Lily said, for what was also the fifteenth time. "It could be a mistake. It doesn't make sense for your dad to attack my dad over a stupid schoolboy grudge, and you know it. Besides, once he's questioned by the Aurors, they'll see his innocence. They are very careful not to imprison innocent people, especially after the Sirius Black fiasco back in the 90s. Everything will be fine." She adjusted her position on the large couch. "He'll be fine."

"I know they're careful," Scorpius snapped, "but the problem is that the family name isn't exactly pristine. After my dad's involvement in the Second Wizarding War, well, you've seen how a lot of adults look down on Malfoys. They would have looked down on me, too, if it weren't for Miss Famous over there - " he gestured to Lily "being friends with me. It's only because two of the Potter-Weasley clan are seen with me all over Hogwarts that I'm not the school outcast. And I can't imagine that the Aurors are going to put their full energy into finding somebody else when Draco Malfoy is sitting right in front of them, and no one will believe him when he says he didn't do it. Then they'll just put him in Azkaban."

"We could - " Lily started, but Rose interrupted her.

"Lily Luna Potter, we are not breaking into Azkaban in any way, shape, or form. Even with your Invisibility Cloak, and your irritatingly prodigious skill at magic - "Lily grinned at that "- three teenagers have no chance."

"That wasn't what I was going to say!" Lily argued, but her sulky posture said otherwise.

Despite his bad mood, Scorpius had to chuckle. "Lily, you're going to end up trying to break out of Azkaban at this rate, not into it."

"I will not be in prison!" The fourth-year glared fiercely.

"Uh-huh," Rose said sagely. "You will be. You will - " here she pretended to gaze into a crystal ball - "be put in Azkaban for causing all the teachers of Hogwarts to die from too much stress, caused by your constant prank-playing."

"You can really shut up now," Lily grumbled. "Besides, I'm going to be an Auror. My talent of sneaking around and gathering information that no one wants to reveal will finally be put to real use."

"James will love that," Rose said dryly. Lily's older brother James also wanted to be an Auror. "Can you imagine what will happen when you outshine him in basically everything, despite being three years younger and a girl?"

"It will be lovely," Lily replied. "He needs to be taken down a peg. Or three. Hmmm...speaking of that, I wonder what I could do to prank him."

"Dye his hair some obnoxious color," Scorpius suggested.

Rose sat bolt upright. "Merlin!"

"What?"

"I just figured it out! Draco Malfoy didn't attack Uncle Harry." Rose's words were coming frantically, all at once. "It was Teddy! He's a bloody Metamorphmagus - I don't know why we couldn't have guessed this before - and he would have changed his appearance so that he looks like Malfoy. It was just a play, worthy of a Slytherin to be honest. Attack Harry Potter, because that will make everybody nervous. But do it looking like Malfoy, so that way the blame will fall on him. You're kind of right about what you said before, Scorpius. If the Aurors have Draco Malfoy sitting in front of them, they won't put too much energy into finding somebody else! Then...then that will sully the Malfoy name even worse than it already is!"

"Excuse me?" Scorpius said.

"You know what I mean. It will push the Malfoys down even further, which wouldn't look good for you, or anyone who hangs around you - Lily and I," Rose continued, still speaking fast. "It will discredit the three of us, and if we come up with anything in this mystery, we'll look like people just trying to get attention. It will also make it easier for him to corner us, because we'd be alone more often. He was able to equal the three of us the other night, so he could probably finish us off if he really tried hard. It makes perfect sense, all of it. Teddy - he's cunning. I don't see how he was in Gryffindor during his Hogwarts years. He's a Slytherin through and through."

Lily decided not to be offended. "He probably asked the hat not to put him in Slytherin. That's what my dad did, because he thought Slytherin would make him evil. Teddy wouldn't have had that mentality, though. Andromeda Tonks was in Slytherin. He probably didn't want people to realize his Slytherin potential. You know how everyone assumes that Gryffindors are heroic do-gooders? Well, no one suspects anything bad out of them. It's probably why no one thought of him when the attacks actually took place at Hogwarts. He was a Gryffindor, how could he do something bad? If he really did have Slytherin cunning, he would have asked the Hat not to put him in that house to take any suspicion off of him when he did things later on in life. He had it all planned out, ever since he was eleven."

"Scary thought," Scorpius said. "but it does make a lot of sense."

"Yeah." Lily stretched out on the couch. "It does. The only problem is, what do we do about this? It's not like we can walk into the Ministry of Magic and say 'Oh, by the way, we unraveled this whole thing'. They would never believe us, and even if they did, catching a Metamorphmagus would be next to impossible. There's got to be another way to do this."

"Once we get back to Hogwarts," Rose said, "I have a plan."


Ending with cliffhangers is kind of fun. Review.