Harry sat nervously on a chair in the Headmaster's office. He was very nervous, and every now and then he turned his gaze toward the door for any sign of Dumbledore. Suddenly the office door opened, making Harry jump up in his seat.
Dumbledore walked towards his desk; the look upon his face chilled Harry to the core. Never before had he seen Dumbledore look so angry or terrifying.
The Headmaster sat down in his chair behind the desk and turned to face Harry. Harry said nothing, just looked straight down at his lap and began to twiddle his fingers.
"Harry, I must talk to you about something very serious," said Dumbledore. Harry looked up to find Dumbledore surveying him through his half-moon spectacles. "Professor Snape has informed me that you have attempted to blackmail him on a personal issue," Dumbledore continued. "Is this true, Harry?"
Harry was about to answer when a mighty bang was heard from outside the room. It was so loud it shook the room slgihtly. Dumbledore looked around the office, startled, and then stood up. "I'm afraid we will have to continue this conversation later," he said, and with a swish of his cloak he was gone, leaving Harry to wonder what had just happened.
Harry was heading back to the Gryffindor common room when Ron and Hermione ran up to him.
"Harry, did Professor Dumbledore fall for it?" Hermione asked, looking worried.
Harry looked puzzled. "What are you two talking about?" he asked.
"We made that loud noise as a distraction to get you out of there," said Ron.
"That was you two?" Harry gasped.
Ron and Hermione nodded. Harry started to look worried.
"Look, you two, I appreciate your help," said Harry, "but I think eventually Dumbledore will want to talk to me because he already knows it was me."
"But Harry, it wasn't you," Hermione said quickly.
Harry looked at Hermione and waited for her to continue; when she didn't, he spoke.
"What do you mean, it wasn't me?" he asked.
"After you showed me the letter you'd written to Snape in Defence Against the Dark Arts I knew I had to stop you," said Hermione. "After class I ran to Snape's office and took the letter back. Then I went to the common room and put it into the bin, so either someone else knows about Snape and McGonagall or someone found your letter."
Harry looked at Hermione in shock. "You mean it wasn't my letter Snape was showing to Dumbledore,then?" he asked.
"It can't have been, mate," said Ron. "That's why we had to get you out of there before you confessed to doing something you hadn't done."
Harry smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was good timing, you two," he said. "A second or two later and I would have confessed to the whole thing."
"Oh, Harry," said Hermione. "We have to hurry up and find out who really tried to blackmail Snape, before everything gets blamed on you."
"Now hold on a minute," said Ron. "Now that Harry knows he's in the clear, why can't he just protest his innocence? After all, they have nothing to go on."
"Oh, don't be stupid, Ron," Hermione said dismissively. "Snape knows we saw him and McGonagall kissing, and as far as he's concerned we're the only ones who know."
"But Snape tried to blackmail me first, remember?" Harry reminded her.
"We don't have any proof of that," said Hermione. "Dumbledore has got concrete evidence that someone's tried to blackmail Snape—we've got nothing except your word that he blackmailed you, Harry."
"What a load of codswallop," said Ron. "Snape blackmails Harry but he gets away with it. Someone else blackmails Snape and Harry gets the blame!"
"No one said the world was fair, Ronald," Hermione said primly. "Now let's go and find Harry's letter so we can clear his name."
With that the three of them took off at a run for the Gryffindor common room.
"It's not here," Hermione said after a frantic search of the bin in the common room.
"Are you sure you put it in the bin?" asked Ron. "Maybe you chucked it on the fire."
Hermione rounded on him. "Of course I'm sure, Ronald!" she said furiously. "Harry will back me up, won't you, Harry?"
Harry didn't know what to say, so he just stood there awkwardly and said, "Erm..."
"Oh, you must remember, Harry," Hermione insisted. "I put it in this bin here, then I turned to you and said it was wrong."
Harry suddenly had a flashback.
Hermione turned to leave the common room but then seemed to remember something. She took the pieces of parchment she was holding and threw them in the bin. Harry gave her a funny look but Hermione just tossed her hair out of her face and said, "It was wrong."
"So that's what you meant!" said Harry. "I just thought you were chucking your homework in the bin and telling me it was wrong."
"That's stupid, Harry," said Hermione. "I'm never wrong."
Just at that moment the portrait swung open and Fred and George walked into the room, carrying what look like a bag full of round purple sweets.
"Want to buy some paralysing gum?" George asked.
"You just offer some to your enemies and it renders them completely immobile for a few minutes, giving you the opportunity to curse them or run away," Fred added.
"That doesn't sound very safe," Hermione said, somewhat abstractedly as she was searching through the bin again.
"Besides, we've got bigger problems," said Ron. "We're looking for something Hermione put in the bin."
"Sounds like fun," said George.
"Yeah, count us out," Fred chimed in.
"This isn't funny," said Hermione. "We need to find Harry's letter to Snape or he's in big trouble."
Suddenly Fred dropped the bag of purple sweets he'd been holding onto the floor; quickly he bent down and started to pick them up.
"So that was your letter, Harry?" George asked. "I must say, I'm impressed. I didn't think you'd have the courage to say those sorts of things to a teacher."
Ron, Hermione, and Harry gasped. "You're the ones who found it?" Harry cried.
"Yep. I've got to say, though, it was a bit stupid to leave it lying around," George said in an annoyingly superior tone.
"Even though it didn't have your name on it someone could still have traced it back to you if they really wanted to, by using a revealing spell," said Fred.
"I didn't—"Harry began.
"That's not the point," said Hermione, cutting Harry off. "Do you have the letter?"
Harry's stomach dropped as George shook his head. "We used it to write our own little blackmail letter to Snape," said George, looking smug.
"We figured you weren't going to use it," Fred added.
"And we disguised our handwriting with the Undetectable Quill, so even if someone was to use the revealing spell on the letter there'sno way they could trace it back to us," George said triumphantly.
"So why is Harry in trouble about it?" said Fred. "We burnt his original letter, so how would anyone trace it back to him?"
"It doesn't matter," said Harry. "It's not important."
"But Harry—"Ron began, but that was as far as he got before Harry kicked him in the ankle, making him yelp in pain.
"All right, then," said George. "Well, if you want any paralysing gum we'll be in the Great Hall."
"We're going to try and flog some in there," said Fred, and with a flourish they left the common room.
"What am I going to do now?" Harry asked, looking at Ron and Hermione.
"What do you mean, what are you going to do?" asked Ron. "We know who did it."
"But I can't rat out Fred and George, can I?" Harry said glumly. "They're your brothers and my friends."
"But then what can we do, Harry?" asked Hermione "They burnt your letter to Snape."
"I don't know," said Harry. "All this is because of a stupid flipping love spell."
"I know, mate," said Ron, looking directly at Hermione. "This spell makes you feel things you don't really feel, right, Hermione?"
"Oh, for pity's sake, Ron," she said. Without warning she suddenly grabbed Ron and kissed him. He just stood there with a dazed look.
"I'm in the middle of a crisis here," Harry said rather pointedly. "Couldn't you two snog later?"
Hermione turned to him, red-faced. "I really don't know what you're going to do, Harry," she said. "You're either going to have to confess to doing it yourself or rat out Fred and George."
"What do you think, Ron?" Harry asked.
Ron said nothing; he was still standing there with a look that suggested he had just taken a Bludger to the head. Hermione turned to look at Ron, smiled as if she was amused at something, and then looked away. All of a sudden Ron seemed to come to his senses.
"Sorry, mate," he said. "Miles away. What did you say?"
"I said, what do you think I should do?" Harry repeated. "What am I going to tell Dumbledore?"
Ron shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, mate."
"I guess I'm taking the fall, then," Harry said. Hermione tried to cut him off, but he ignored her.
"None of this would have happened if I hadn't written that stupid letter to Snape in the first place," said Harry. "I can't blame Fred and George for finding it and using my idea themselves, can I? I'm going to go find Dumbledore and confess."
Before Ron or Hermione could say anything else, Harry hurried from the common room.
He found himself at the entrance to Dumbledore's office in no time. He knocked on the door and then opened it. He walked in to find Dumbledore sitting in his usual chair at his desk. Harry went directly to the chair opposite the Headmaster and sat down without waiting for an invitation. Dumbledore said nothing but simply waited for Harry to speak.
"I'm sorry, Professor Dumbledore," Harry began. "It was me who tried to blackmail Professor Snape. I really wish I hadn't done it. I only—"
Dumbledore held up his hand to stop the flood of words, and Harry fell silent.
"Thank you, Harry, for telling me," said Dumbledore. "I must ask you to think about the seriousness of what you have done in attempting to blackmail a Hogwarts teacher."
Harry nodded and braced himself, ready to hear his punishment. When Dumbledore said nothing, Harry decided it was best to speak.
"I'll go and get my stuff, then, Professor Dumbledore," he said. "You're expelling me...aren't you?"
Dumbledore shook his head. "No, Harry, I am not going to expel you," he replied gravely. "I am, however, going to give you a week's worth of detention."
Is that all? thought Harry, though he dared not say it aloud.
"You may go now, Harry," said Dumbledore. Harry stood and prepared to leave.
"Oh, and one more thing, Harry," Dumbledore said, almost offhandedly. Harry stopped and turned to look at him.
"You should consider yourself lucky to have a good friend like Miss Granger who stops you from doing stupid things, Harry," Dumbledore continued ."And equally Mr Fred and George Weasley should be glad they have a friend like you who is quite prepared to shoulder the blame even though it was not entirely your fault."
Harry stood for a few moments in shock.
"But—sir—" he finally said. "How did you—"
Dumbledore smiled. "Ah, Harry" he said. "There is rarely anything that goes on in Hogwarts that I do not know or hear about."
Harry smiled at Dumbledore and Dumbledore smiled back; then Harry turned and left the office.
He felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders and he was just beginning to feel happy again when he saw something down the corridor in front of him that filled him with horror.
End of Chapter Ten
Title of next chapter: Love is a Strange Thing
"I can't believe you did that!" Ron said in disgust, rounding on Hermione. "I can't believe you kissed Malfoy!" Hermione went beet-red.
"Let's focus on the real issue here," said Harry. "What are we going to do about Neville?"
Author note: I really hope you like it so far as I am really enjoying writing it. Only two more chapters to go, and I don't mind telling you there will be one or two big twists in the end. Please review!