Disclaimer: I still don't own the Harry Potter universe.

The Problem with Plants: The Slytherin Sequel

By: sjcw99

Draco Malfoy waited for Professor Sprout to finish her spiel about the plants they were to take care of for the term. It really didn't matter to him. He picked up the key phrases of the assignment "work in groups" and "keep records". Therefore someone else could do the work and Draco would take credit for it.

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For three weeks, Draco and his henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle, left their plants in the Slytherin common room. They occasionally took notes on what was happening to the plants, which wasn't much of anything. Draco padded his records with the accounts of others. A seventh year entered the common room snickering. "You won't believe what I just saw." He said.

Draco looked up from writing down that sticking the plant in fire didn't work. He'd gotten that information from a Ravenclaw student. Sprout wouldn't have a clue that he didn't actually do the work himself. He asked, "What?"

"The Gryfindors just got kicked out of the greenhouses. Apparently they were messing with the temperature controls and killed a bunch of Sprout's plants with heat. I saw them walking dismally back to the castle with those plants in hand. Their plants don't look much better then yours." The seventh year headed to his room still snickering.

Draco smiled he just got a more information to put into his record. He realized that he didn't have to actually do anything to the plant. He just had to make his write up convincing enough, so Sprout would think he was actually doing the work. He revised his record to read, "During week three, the subject plant was placed near a heat source a small amount of growth was observed (see chart 3). The subject was moved closer and closer to the heat source. No new growth was observed. The experiment was dropped when the subject started to wilt, so as to avoid burning up the subject."

A few days later, Draco and Crabbe were in the common room looking at their plants. Crabbe, showing a brief moment of brainpower, said, "No one else's ideas are working. Maybe we should come up with an idea of our own?"

Draco replied with, "I know, why don't I come up with my own idea for dealing with the plants. Let's see, my father keeps plants at home, there's one that he has to feed with blood once a month. Crabbe!"

Crabbe looked at Draco, "Huh?"

Draco handed Crabbe a pocketknife. "Give the plant some blood." He ordered. Crabbe took the knife and looked at Draco blankly. Draco nearly exploded at Crabbe's stupidity. "Take the knife and cut your hand. Let the blood dribble over the plant. I'd do it myself, but I wouldn't want to mess up my hand. Not with a quidditch match coming up."

Crabbe took the knife and followed Draco's orders. Draco watched the plant intensely, nothing happened. In fact the plant seemed to droop even more. Crabbe meanwhile was clutching his bleeding hand against his chest. He started shouting, "Help! My hand won't stop bleeding. Do something."

Draco ignored him, and continued to ponder the plant situation. Goyle heard Crabbe's shouting and entered the common room. The moment he saw the blood being soaked into Crabbe's shirt, he turned a sickly shade of green and passed out. As he fell he hit the table with the plants on it. One of the plants fell over and Draco ended up with a lapful of fertilized plant mud. He jumped up, spilling dirt on the carpet, and ordered, "Crabbe, you imbecile, go up to the hospital wing and take Goyle with you. When you get back the two of you can clean up this mess you caused."

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More then a week after the blood incident, Draco entered the common room infuriated. He threw his bag into a chair and hit Goyle, who was sitting in the chair. Both Goyle and Crabbe moved away from Draco as he fumed, "Those stinking Gryfindors have figured it out! And the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws claim that they've only got two and three more days, respectively, of observation left. We can't be the last of the houses to figure it out. Which means we need to find out how to make the plant thrive by tonight, and falsify our records to show that we've had it for a while."

Crabbe asked, "How are we going to do that?"

"Stupid, we're going to break into Sprout's office and steal the Gryfindor's records. Then we'll know what they know." Draco said, matter- of-factly. "Let's go now. Everyone else is going to lunch."

Goyle and Crabbe didn't want to miss lunch, but figured they could miss one meal as long as Draco stopped yelling. The three boys walked down to Sprout's office and waited around the corner until she left for lunch. Draco grinned, this was going to be one of the easiest assignments he did since he got to Hogwarts. He gestured for Crabbe to open the door. To their surprise, the door was unlocked. Draco whispered to the others, "Get in there. Hurry up and find the records, and Sprout's class planner, we might as well find out what she's got up her sleeve for the rest of the term. I'll keep watch by the door, in case she comes back."

In reality, Draco didn't want to accidentally leave any evidence that he'd been in the office. He stayed just outside the door, as the other two went in and started rummaging through Sprout's things. It took them a few minutes, but they found the records and Sprout's assignment planner. They headed towards the door to leave. The second they crossed the threshold something strange happened. The vines surrounding the doorframe started moving and twined themselves around all three boys before they could run off. Draco struggled to no avail. He was stuck and he couldn't get his wand out of his pocket to try any spells. Crabbe and Goyle were calling for help.

Four hours later, Sprout was walking towards her office when she heard a couple of hoarse voices calling for help, and one loud commanding voice telling someone to "Shut up, so I can think of a way out of this mess, before were caught with the records."

Sprout turned the corner and saw that her guardian plant had wound itself around Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle. Crabbe was clutching a few roles of parchment in his hand, while Goyle had a small book in his hand. Sprout cleared her voice and said, "Well, what do we have here? Three would be thieves, or innocent victims of a clinging plant?"

Draco opened his mouth to make up some excuse, but a vine quickly muffled his voice. Sprout looked at the boys and said, "I doubt you're innocent, because that's the Gryfindor's plant reports and my assignment book. This does not look good. My guardian plant only catches people that try to take things out of my office and their assistants. Ten points from Slytherin apiece, and all three of you get detention. Since this is considered cheating, I expect to see all three of your plants and whatever records you have on them, in my office by tomorrow morning, you have just failed this assignment."

Sprout took the papers and the book from Crabbe and Goyle. The moment the objects were out of the boy's hands the plant released all three of them. "It is rather easy to figure out how to get away from this plant, just like it's simple to figure out the Have a Nice Day plants I handed out. However when you look for an even easier way out, you end up making things harder. "

The End

Notes: Thanks to Fictitous for reviewing the first story. It's my first review ever.