A/N: Thank you for all the follows and reviews on the last chapter. I'm glad y'all liked that last chapter!
Disclaimer: If you know it, I don't own it.
"YOU WHAT?"
The entire Common Room turned to stare. Draco sank down in the overstuffed chair he was seated at in. Harry was in a similar position in the chair next to him. Hermione was in a right state after Harry told her what they'd gotten up to the night before.
Draco told him not to tell her.
True to his word, Harry had had Draco shown him the kitchens. The House Elves seemed a bit confused on what Harry wanted fifty pounds of raw meat, but due to their natures, they didn't ask. They handed it over and Harry and Myrtle went down to visit Medusa to feed her(Draco had seen enough of the snake for an entire lifetime, thank you very much). Harry had returned jabbering on about this and that having to do with his new friend. Draco began to ponder maybe Harry had more in common with Hagrid than Draco originally thought. Draco had spent the night having nightmares about Medusa. He nearly died several times last night, but he kept waking up just in time.
Harry assured Draco he only had to visit his new snake friend once a year during his duration at Hogwarts. She didn't need to eat often, due to the fact she could hibernate for hundreds of years at a time, but she was lonely.
That was something Harry could identify with.
Hermione, however, could not, thus the yelling.
"Do you have any IDEA how dangerous basilisks are? They KILL PEOPLE!"
"Oh? They do? Harry, did you know that?" Draco mockingly asked.
Harry glared at him. "She's harmless. And quiet down."
Hermione looked livid.
"The potion is almost done and we need a plan," Harry quickly offered, hoping to distract her. "From what I've heard, this Voldemort guy is kind of dangerous."
Hermione looked torn. She glared at Draco, looking disappointed Draco had failed to keep Harry in line. Draco rolled his eyes. He could not control the Insane One on his own. How Potter hadn't died within five-seconds of entering Hogwarts the first time around was simply amazing.
Draco pushed those thoughts aside and sat up properly in the chair.
"Harry is right. We need a plan. Let's…go somewhere else."
People were still staring at them, looking curious. Hermione was still standing stiff as a board in front of the two boys, her fists balled up tightly and her bushy hair looking even bushier. Hermione huffed, but gathered up her belongings. She began grumbling about studying for exams. Harry rolled his eyes, but heaved himself out of his chair. Draco led the pair to the seventh floor corridor where the Room of Requirement was located. After thinking of a safe place to talk and walking passed the spot three times, a simple door appeared.
"Oh," Hermione gasped, anger suddenly forgotten. "How did you do that?"
"I'll explain inside," Draco said, looking around. He opened the door and waited for the pair to enter.
Inside, the room took the appearance of a combination of the Gryffindor and Slytherin common room. There was a fire and three cozy chairs for each to sit in. One green, one blue and one red. The ceiling was glass and reflected the bottom of a lake, just like the Slytherin Common room, bathing the room in a soft green light. Harry sat in the red chair, looking around in wonder. Hermione took the blue chair. Draco eyed the green chair, wondering what the room was trying to tell him.
"So, what is this room?"
"My creation. The room is called the Room of Requirement. It becomes what the person needs at the time. Need a bathroom, it'll be a bathroom. Need a place to hide, it'll become somewhere to hide. Need a safe place to talk about secrets, it'll do that for you. I wanted somewhere the three of us could talk without behind overheard. This is what it gave me. If we needed a space to practice spells, it'd look different."
"And no one can get in?" Harry asked.
"Not unless they know exactly what we're doing," Draco said. "It's perfect to discuss our Quirrellmort plan."
"Why didn't you brew the potion in here?"
"Because it took too long to brew. Once you leave the room, the potion would keep the room we created for it active. And anyone could stumble upon it. You'd be amazed at the number of people come and go without knowing it. Trust me, it's safer in the loo."
Hermione didn't look convinced, but let it go. She pulled out a sheet of parchment and quill. She frowned, looking around. Suddenly, on the coffee table, a small portable writing desk appeared.
"Oh!" Hermione gasped, picking up the writing desk. "This is brilliant."
"So, we need a plan," Harry announced loudly.
"Clearly. The potion still has a ways to go as it's still the wrong color. But not lime green."
"So, what should we do till the potion is done?"
"Come up with an attack plan," Draco said. "I think it'll be easer said than done to get that turban off and expose Voldy. We need to figure out how to get it off."
Hermione sighed deeply, quill scratching across the parchment. "I have a bad feeling about this."
"I could use my broom. Snatching the turban off his head can't be harder than catching a Snitch, right?"
Draco stared at Harry, trying to imagine him flying into a classroom without being seen.
"Didn't you get a cloak that makes you invisible?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded. "The broom could work then. You fly in under cover and take it off. If there's indeed a face there, Draco and I will throw the potion at the face. If not, we'll run for it."
"We will need to make sure he's alone," Draco added quietly. "The potion might take ten minutes to work. I don't fancy having Snake Face attacking students."
Hermione nodded. "We'll have to catch him alone. I will begin to keep track of his movements and see if he follows a pattern. Next point: we have the ten minutes it might take the potion to work before the spirit is expelled."
"If we knew some spells," Harry began to lament. "Quirrell hasn't taught us anything to use to defend ourselves. His class is a totally pants."
Draco mouthed the word pants, trying to figure out what Harry meant.
"If he is possessed by Voldemort, then of course he doesn't want you to be able to defend yourself," Hermione snapped. She reached into her bag and pulled out a book. "This has a list of simple defensive charms. They won't protect against really Dark magic, but they'll help."
"Shield spells," Draco offered, going to stand over Hermione's shoulder. "We need to be able to shield ourselves. We don't need to fight him."
"Shield charms," Hermione breathed. "Why didn't I think of that? We don't need to fight, just shield ourselves. You're totally right."
"Here. There are a few in here. Stand up. I'm going to think away the chairs."
Harry leapt up and Hermione followed suit. The room understood what Draco wanted. Besides vanishing the chairs, the room got larger to give them more room. The trio practice for an hour and a half. Hermione managed to produce a weak shield (which was rather strong for a first year). Draco had produced a normal strength one. Harry had shocked them both when he produced a rather strong shield. It didn't last very long, as he'd surprised himself and dropped his wand. At the end of the practice session, Harry was exhausted to the point he flopped on the floor and lay spread eagle.
"We'll need different types of shields," Hermione insisted, eyeing Harry. Draco agreed.
"To the library?" Harry asked, rolling over to his stomach.
Hermione agreed quickly, grabbing her bag and hurrying out. Harry and Draco followed at a slower speed.
"Why aren't you tried?" Harry asked. "Hermione's pretending she's not tired, but after all the spells we cast, why aren't you exhausted?"
"I wasn't trying very hard," Draco admitted. "You used up a lot of your strength when you produced that super shield. What did you do?"
"Cast the spell. Something…well, it felt natural and kind of burst out of me."
Draco nodded. "We might have to put off using the potion till we can shield ourselves, though."
"I agree. I don't want to fight Voldemort. I'm eleven!"
Over the next few weeks, any spare moment they had was given to researching charms and spells to shield themselves from hexes and curses. Some of the spells were much too advanced for a first year, so those were tossed off right away by Harry. Hermione and Draco decided they'd try them out without Harry. Draco assumed they'd need to protect the Mentally-Unbalanced-One-Who-Was-Scared-of-Bunnies as he was apt to do something reckless and stupid to save the day.
The weeks melted away and spring sprung. Quirrellmort went on to stutter and seemed more freaked out by his own shadow, Snape kept on belittling Harry at any turn and Fluffy continued to bark and growl when the door was knocked upon.
One night in April, shortly after Easter break, Harry appeared in the Common Room and informed Draco Hagrid had a dragon egg, having met it that afternoon when he'd gone to see Hagrid. Harry could not understand why Hagrid thought it'd be a good idea to raise a dragon in a wooden house. Draco didn't bother to point out that Hagrid's love of dragon's more than likely overrode any common sense the man possessed.
Draco instantly stood up and requested the twins write their dragon loving brother because Hagrid had dragon egg in his possession and it needed to be dealt with. The twins, who were slightly grumpy Draco hadn't pulled off his prank on Quirrellmort yet, didn't act till Harry showed up one morning at breakfast with a note that the dragon had hatched. Upon hearing this, the twins wrote a letter to their brother.
Unlike last time, the dragon got off without a hitch. Nott clearly had not found out about the dragon, as no one ended up loosing a boat load of points or getting detention till the end of time the night the dragon was sent off to where ever the dragon loving Weasley was located. Involving the twins was a good idea. They knew their way around Hogwarts and had an uncanny skill for going undetected in their movements.
One day in early May, Hermione and Harry produced a very strong shield charm and didn't fall over afterwards. Or drop their wands.
"Did you see that?" Hermione asked, awe in her tone. "That was amazing."
"Yeah," Harry breathed.
"We ready then?" Draco asked, his gut sinking. "The potion is nearing the right shade of blue. It's finally not purple."
"Or lime green," Hermione giggled. Draco rolled his eyes.
"So. We got our plan set?" Harry asked.
Hermione sobered up right away.
Draco nodded, gulping. So many things could go wrong with their plan. Hermione had written a detailed explanation of their plan, but Draco knew they'd not follow it at all, passed maybe using the plan to get the turban off. After throwing the potion on Voldemort, anything could happen.
While Draco was nervous, scared and wanted to run away like a girl screaming, there was a feeling of satisfaction somewhere within him. He was doing something, he was fighting. Hopefully when they threw the potion at Quirrell's head, Voldemort would leave and all their work on shield charms wouldn't be needed.
Oh, who was he kidding. It was Harry Potter. Of course they'd need the charms.