Draco Malfoy Promises To Be A Good Boy This Year

Part Nine

Thomas's 'Big Bang' Theory

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Those of us on the floor woke up enough the next morning to drag ourselves into my bedroom and plop down wherever we fell, as long as it was on the bed. There was nothing worse than sleeping on the floor all night long, so those of us who had been unlucky enough to not get the couch (which was everyone except for Thomas) ended up in a big pile in my bed. Snape would have had a fit to walk in to see Harry sprawled out with his head resting on Ginny's tummy, Ginny's cheek resting against my arm, and Hermione practically on top of Ron. Damn, they were a couple of nutters! At any rate, when we woke up, there was no doubt that we would all need naps after spending a rather uncomfortable night in general. Ginny said that was how sleepovers often went.

Thomas burst in at about eleven, bright eyed and bushy tailed, so to speak. "Rise and shine!" We all groaned at him. He carried a tray of buns from a little café down the street. "Time to eat! Big night tonight!"

We wanted nothing but to go to sleep again. "You're just cheerful because you had the couch!" I muttered. At any rate, somehow we woke up and started to cheerfully argue about who got to take their shower first, something else that would have made Snape's skin crawl, except that no one decided to shower together, thankfully enough.

The rest of the day passed quickly, as we were bouncing off the walls with excitement when we weren't sleeping. Ginny kept pressing her face to the window and complaining, "Is it dark yet?"

Hermione, playing 'mum', pulled her away and convinced her to have some dinner, but I knew she didn't much want to eat. My Ginny was an adventure girl!

At any rate, as soon as it was adequately dark and late, we set ourselves up. We pinned the two cloaks together, since it wouldn't do to have people under two separate cloaks, unable to see each other, banging into each other all over Hogwarts. That spelled disaster right there. So we pinned the cloaks together and lined up from left to right, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Me, Thomas, and Harry. Thomas carried the package, since he was the strongest and I was right in the middle to be the guide. Harry was under his own cloak since he was touchy about who used it, and Ginny was between Hermione and me so we could hold her hands to keep her from lagging behind since she couldn't move was fast as the rest of us. Ron was on Hermione's other side, and personally I think it was because Hermione wanted Ron to hold her hand too.

Despite how interesting it may sound, the setup really wasn't that grand. If any students should walk by, we would have to press against the wall in stealth, since the lot of us in a row would probably take up most of the smaller hallways near the Slytherin dungeon. But it was the only feasible way to make ourselves fairly undetectable, so we had to risk it.

We all stood around the portkey, Thomas clinging to the rather large box. It was rather cramped as we threw the cloak over our heads and prepared to touch the portkey. Thomas was very nervous. "I've never done this before."

"Of course you haven't," I said, "but there's nothing to be afraid of. All you do is lay a hand on the shoe and keep a tight hold on Harry's hand." I looked at the others on either side of me. "Ready?" I took the package from Thomas…he had enough to think about. Harry took his other hand and Hermione wrapped an arm around Ginny. Ron latched an arm around Hermione's waist and prepared to touch the portkey. "On three. One…Two…Three!" We reached out and were tugged away to Hogwarts.

We next appeared in Snape's classroom, in the pitch-blackness. I guess he figured no one would be using the portkey tonight if we hadn't already. Ginny gave a strangled cry and Hermione hugged her tighter. "It's all right, honey…it's just dark."

"I know it, I just don't like not being able to see!" she hissed.

"Okay, everyone, let's be quiet and make it out of the dungeons. It'll be lighter upstairs. Link arms and let's make our way along. Don't whimper, Ginny, it won't be dark for long. ("Honestly, I'm fine! Sheesh!") And don't step on my foot on purpose, Draco!!" Harry was taking charge.

"How could I step on your foot? Thomas is between us." I snapped. Of course, I had stepped on his foot on purpose, but how could he know that anyway!

We walked for some time, the passageways gradually getting lighter. "Professor Snape seems to like it dark and dismal," Thomas whispered.

"He's like that," I answered.

Of course, it never did get a lot lighter, since the Slytherin common room is practically in the dungeons. It wasn't quite as subterranean as Snape's class, but it wasn't much higher up. We approached the cement wall and lined up against it in our cloaks to make sure the coast was clear. Earlier that week, Harry had stood around outside the entrance in his cloak, waiting to hear a Slytherin say the password. No one wanted to do this, but they drew straws and lucky Harry won. So he stood for a good forty-five minutes until Pansy Parkinson came down to the common room after lunch and said the password, Serpent. Now as we stood outside the entrance to the Slytherin domain, I was praying that no one had changed the password since Harry heard it.

Now, pulling my little group along, we stood in front of the stone and I whispered, "Serpent!" We held our breath as the wall considered this, but finally opened for me. We all entered and congregated as quietly as we could in the little entryway as we peered into the main room. The entire Slytherin house was sitting lazily around the fire, some of them poking at it with sticks. They were a revolting lot. The sooner we blew up the unsuspecting bunch, the better!

A bulky seventh year was telling them all a story about how he snidely pushed around a little first year Hufflepuff today. They were riveted…any tale of torture was enough to make them happy. Torture. Merry Christmas, friends. Here comes yours!

Thomas turned his head slightly and nodded at me. He stooped and set the package on the floor. He gave it a mighty shove and it sailed across the dungeon floor until it came to rest next to a little female whom I didn't know. "Oh! Look at this!" she cried

We silently cheered. The little girl had taken the bait. Crabbe and Goyle turned to look at the gift. They were greedy fellows. "What is it, Maude?"

"It's a pretty gift! And it's all mine!" The little girl hugged it tightly.

"Brat…" muttered Ginny.

Hermione nodded.

Pansy stood up from her place by the fire like the regal bimbo she was. She was wearing a bright pink baby-doll nighty. I couldn't wait for that bomb to go off! "Excuse me, but I will open it, if you please. It's obviously for me!"

I had to give the little thing credit; she hung onto that gift and screeched like a banshee. "It's MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!!!!" She and Pansy played tug of war with it for a good amount of time, but Pansy finally managed to push the little first year over and grabbed the gift for herself.

"It's quite obviously from one of my admirers. Someday, Hon, when you're as good-looking and popular as me, you will have a package - get it?" She settled herself down on the floor to open it, and the others gathered around to watch, having been seduced from the catfight and curiosity. We all hugged onto each other, braced for the explosion. I buried Ginny's head against my chest. It was showtime.

Pansy furiously ripped off the wrapping paper and yanked off the top expectantly. "Ooo…AHHHHH!" she screamed as there was a loud boom. The six of us under the cloak were pushed backwards by the intense shock wave that flew out, and were plastered against the doorway. When we got our eyes open, the main room was filled with smoke and there were Slytherins lying all over unconscious. Flames were raging on the green curtains and on the clothing of some of the bodies. I was shocked and I could tell Harry was too.

"They're going to die! They're not supposed to be dead! They're not even supposed to be unconscious!" I shouted. "What went wrong!"

Harry nudged Thomas. "Thomas?" Thomas was watching the flames burning, his eyes alight with what looked like fear…or interest. It was hard to tell, really. Harry edged around Thomas and stood next to me. "We have to get him out of here. He doesn't look good."

Before we could stop them, Ginny and Hermione ran forward from under the cloak and started to smack the fallen Slytherins with pillows to put the flames out of their robes and pajamas.

"Come back, you'll get caught! They'll be here any second!" I cried. Ron was already pulling on my arm. If we were caught in here with the cloaks we were dead meat.

"Just go!" Hermione yelled.

"But, 'Mione!" yelled Ron.

"Ron, GO!"

I grunted in frustration and we shoved open the stone door and ran into the hallway. Just as we plastered ourselves up against the wall, the teachers came belting around the corner and saw the door standing open and smoking. They rushed in and I heard McGonagall cry out, "Hermione! Ginny! What happened here?"

"Fetch Madam Pomfrey!" squeaked Professor Flitwick.

"It was awful!" Hermione sobbed. "We had just come back from Draco's and we heard this huge explosion. We ran to see what it was, and the wall had blasted open and they were all on fire in here! We beat them with pillows until the fire was out of them, but it was so awful!" She was in hysterics. Ginny's sobbing just added to the illusion that they were innocent. And I could tell by their voices that they weren't acting. They were honestly scared to death. And so was I. What had gone wrong?

"Ginny, come away from there! Hermione, where are the boys?"

"S..still back at D..Draco's."

"All right, you two, up to the Gryffindor tower and tell everyone else to stay there. You mustn't be in the way now."

Hermione grabbed Ginny's hand and they came rushing out of the room and down the hallway. Then they were gone. Meanwhile, we boys made hasty tracks back to Snape's room and grabbed onto the portkey. We were instantly back in the flat, and we wasted no time. We shoved the cloaks into Potter's trunk, flipped the telly on and threw ourselves on the couch. As soon as we heard Snape appear in the closet to make sure it wasn't our doing, we closed our eyes and pretended we were deeply asleep. We looked like a bunch of couchpotatoes, not a group of kids who just blew up the Slytherin common room, and half of the Slytherins with it. But my heart was beating a mile a minute and I could almost hear Harry's beating next to me.

In a moment, Snape shook us by our arms to wake us up. "Potter, Weasley, get up. There has been an accident at Hogwarts and we need you two back there. No sleepover tonight. You have class tomorrow anyway, and you should be rested."

I spoke for them, since I used to be something of a pathological liar. "Professor, what happened at Hogwarts?" I rubbed my eyes 'sleepily'.

"There was an explosion in the Slytherin common room."

"Is everyone all right?" asked Thomas.

"They will all be fine, Mr…."

"Thomas."

"Fine…well, it's none of your concern. But I need these two to come back. We want everyone in their common rooms until we can figure out how the explosion was caused." He glared at Thomas and then at me. "You stay in, Draco, until I come back again."

I nodded. I certainly wasn't going to push it. Ron and Harry obediently went with Snape, but we knew we weren't in trouble. If anyone had blown up the Slytherins it would be me, not Harry and Ron. They didn't have much of a bone to pick with them anymore, but I certainly did. As I lay in bed that night, I couldn't figure out if I felt glee that they had all almost died, or if I felt terror welling up. Something had gone wrong with that potion, but what was it? Was it my fault? Or was it Thomas…?

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