A/N: I'm sorry I haven't updated! I've had serious writer's block and no time at all. I don't really know if anyone is still reading this story, but here's the next chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 7: The Idea

For the next few weeks, Draco conveniently pushed the thought of his task out of his mind. He didn't feel like working on it much, and thought that, once he did start working on it, it wouldn't take too long.

On the Monday of the second week after Draco had decided to put off his task, Snape cornered him after DADA.

"Draco," he said softly. "I'd like to remind you of what you should be doing right now."

Draco was confused. "What?" He asked, a bit surprised.

"Your task," Snape said in a reprimanding tone.

Draco's heart sank. "Oh, yeah...I'm working on it," he mumbled.

Snape raised an eyebrow, then looked at Draco for a moment. "Do you know what's at stake here?"

"Yes," Draco said firmly

"You know that your life, your mother's life, your-"

"I know," Draco said through gritted teeth. Why did Snape care, anyway? "I'll work on it this afternoon."

He turned to leave, but stopped when Snape asked softly, "What are you doing to complete the task?"

Suddenly, Draco understood. Of course, Snape was trying to help him. "Nothing. I don't have to tell you, you know."

"Draco," Snape growled, but Draco had already left the room. He was going to have to find a way to get Snape to leave him alone. School had only been going on for three weeks and Snape was already pestering him! Angry with Snape, Draco rushed off to Herbology, which Snape had conveniently made him late for.

When he reached the greenhouse, class had already started. Draco slipped surreptitiously next to Theo next to a large, rather leafy plant.

"What took you so long?" Asked Theo, pulling on a pair of gloves.

"Nothing," Draco muttered. "What're we working on?"

"We have to collect the leaves from this shrub," Theo replied, gesturing to the leafy plant they were standing next to.

"Easy enough," said Draco after he'd pulled his own gloves on. He reached out to grab hold of one of the leaves when the leaf stretched out and bit him hard.

"Ah!" Draco cried out in pain while Theo and Blaise laughed. "How 'bout you try?"

Still laughing, Theo and Blaise reached for the plant, but this time, the leaves curled up, and then sprayed them with a foul-smelling pus.

Draco rolled around laughing while Blaise muttered, "Bloody plant," under his breath darkly.

By the end of Herbology, they had managed to pick three leaves each, a surprisingly difficult feat. Draco was covered in scratches and goo by the end of the lesson.

"Well, that was no fun," he said to Blaise and Theo as they headed up to the castle.

"No kidding," Blaise replied. He had been attacked by the plant a total of ten times.

Laughing, Draco hurried up the path. "C'mon, I want to wash this pus off before br-." Draco suddenly stopped talking as Snape walked by them with a significant look at Draco.

"Er, actually, I'll meet you in the common room in a bit," Draco said, watching Snape continue walking. "I have to..."

Draco hurried up the stairs, through the entrance hall, and ran to the owlery, pulling the list of problems with the Vanishing Cabinet out of his bag as he did.

Once he got to the owlery, he started to call out to his gray eagle owl, Ace, but then stopped quickly. He didn't want anyone to be able to tell that he was sending letters to Borgin. Waving Ace away, Draco approached one of the school owls and tied the letter to its leg. He was just about to let it go when a small notice caught his eye

"PLEASE BE AWARE THAT ALL LETTERS AND OWLS ARE BEING SEARCHED."

Draco's heart sank. How was he supposed to get the letter to Borgin? He sat down on the small owlery bench and stared at the scroll of parchment.

Suddenly, Draco heard footsteps. He looked up to see Hermione Granger walking into the owlery, a scroll of parchment clutched tightly in her hand. He was quite surprised to see that Potter and Weasley were not with her.

Hermione stopped suddenly as she saw Malfoy, apparently startled. Then a strange expression appeared on her face, a cross between a smirk and curiosity. Glancing at the letter, she asked, "Trying to figure out a way to send your Death Eater friends a letter?"

Draco gripped the letter tighter in his hand as he drawled back, "No. But if I were, do you really think I would tell you? What're you doing, anyway, sending a letter to Weaselbee's mum to ask her how best to approach her son?"

Much to Draco's surprise, Hermione blushed. "No..." She mumbled, though it was quite obvious she was lying.

"Well," Draco said, gesturing to the sign about the owl searches, "If Peeves finds that letter, you won't hear the end of it. Not that everybody doesn't already know."

"Know what?" Asked Hermione, blushing even more.

Draco rolled his eyes. "You two are perfect for eachother anyway, a blood traitor and a mudblood."

Hermione paled. She pressed her lips together and turned to the owl she had been tying the letter to. She walked over to the window and let it out, then stomped out of the owlery, pushing past Draco.

Draco was surprised she hadn't slapped him again. Maybe she was getting better at managing her anger or something.

Shrugging to himself, Draco strode out of the owlery and toward the library. Why he was going there, he had honestly no idea. He just wanted to go somewhere where he might be able to find out how to get his letter to Borgin.

Once he got to the library, Draco pulled a book at random off of the shelf and sat down at the nearest table. He opened the book-which was about various types of butterbeer-and stared blankly down at the page.

It was a really boring book. The words blurred in front of Draco's eyes as he began to listen to the soft buzz of conversation around him. He could hear a tiny first year muttering to himself as he read a Transfiguration book. A small group of third year girls was giggling in the corner as they looked at a copy of Witch Weekly. A fifth year boy was in deep conversation with Professor Slughorn.

"...Ah, yes, the Polyjuice Potion," Slughorn was saying. "Quite an interesting potion, and good to know about these days. No, you won't be making it, but I have some in my office if you want to take a look at it. Drop by after dinner today, I can show you some other potions as well..."

Draco's head snapped up. Of course! He looked down at the book in front of him. The page which it was open to had a list of pubs that sold the variation of butterbeer that the page was about. One of them was the Three Broomsticks.

Draco looked from the book to Slughorn a few times, then jumped up. He grabbed his bag, leaving the book on the table, and rushed off to Slughorn's office, not noticing Hermione Granger looking at him curiously as he ran off

Draco skidded to a halt in front of Slughorn's office. He tried the doorknob, and was not surprised to discover that it was locked.

"Alohomora," Draco whispered as he pointed his wand at the door, glancing around to make sure no one was nearby. Once the door clicked open, he hurried into the office and closed the door behind him.

Looking around the office, Draco could see only framed pictures of Professor Slughorn with various groups of students. Where was the potion.

Glancing around again, a small door at the back of the room caught Draco's eye. Draco hurried toward the door, then froze.

What if there was a charm on the door? What if, as soon as Draco opened the door, Slughorn would be alerted and would come running?

Draco stood in front of the door for a moment, thinking. Finally, he decided to risk it. Getting detention would be nothing compared to being able to make some progress on his task.

Wand aloft. Draco pushed the door open. He waited for a moment for something to happen. When nothing did, he passed through the door.

The room was small, but the walls were lined with shelves full of cauldrons and potion ingredients. Draco searched for the cauldron if Polyjuice Potion Slughorn had shown them during their first potions lesson.

After a few minutes, Draco spotted the cauldron on one of the bottom shelves. He heaved it out, the put it in the floor, grabbing an empty cauldron off of another shelf after he did so. He then filled this cauldron with water and a jar of dirt-or at least it looked like dirt- that was on another shelf, making the contents of the new cauldron look just like Polyjuice Potion. Placing this cauldron on the shelf where the real Polyjuice used to be, Draco picked up the cauldron of the real Polyjuice, then stepped out of the closet.

Now an alarm sounded. Panicking a bit, Draco grabbed a few strands of hair from a hairbrush that was lying on Slughorn's desk, then dashed out of the office, making sure none of the potion spilled.

Once he was a safe distance away from the office, Draco slowed down to a walk as he headed straight for the seventh floor corridor. Draco paced in front of the wall across from the tapestry thrice, thinking about the Room of Hidden Things, then looked up to see the huge wooden door.

Draco stepped into the room and headed to the back where the Vanishing Cabinet was. Here, Draco placed the cauldron behind the cabinet, along with the hairs. After making sure the cauldron was hidden completely, Draco left the Room of Requirement and went down to the Slytherin common room, silently forming his plan.