Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been in the library doing homework for an hour, seated alone at a table near the back so they wouldn't be overheard discussing the talent contest. Every few seconds for the first ten minutes, one of them had sneezed repeatedly, owing to the large amounts of dust on the tabletop.
"You'd think Filch could take a load off harassing us students to get to his job!" Ron had said disgustedly— Hermione had finally gotten fed up with saying "bless you" so she'd put an Anti-Dust Charm she'd gotten from a book called Fabulous Fixin's For the House and Home on the table. Now their books and elbows were sliding distractingly across the shining table, and Hermione frowned at the spellbook in imitation of Ron.
"You'd think the library could buy some spellbooks without such annoying side effects!"
"Yeah, the 'singed textbook' scent isn't very attractive either," said Harry, muffling another sneeze.
"Okay, I've got the perfect act for the contest," Hermione said breathlessly. "Want to hear?"
"No, I thought I'd just sit here and wonder a bit more, y'know, just for kicks," snapped Ron.
"He means yes," explained Harry.
"Well," said Hermione placidly, "d'you two remember way back in our second year, when Professor Binns told us about the Chamber of Secrets?" At their nods, she went on, "Well, before he got to that part, he said some things about the founders, and how they created Hogwarts. Also," she stated loftily, "the entire story with lots of details is in Hogwarts, A History, which I take it neither of you have read. Still haven't read, I might say.
"Anyway, the fact is, it's really very interesting how it came to be, so I figured that for our act we could have one of us (probably me) stand by and read a story about the creation of our school while you two do effects, like make things float around and such, to compliment my words. What do you think?"
Harry and Ron stared at her. Ron's elbow slid off the table, and he toppled out of sight. Harry roared with laughter, and Hermione remained composed, a smile on her face. Ron's head popped up. "It's brilliant!" he breathed.
"Very clever," Harry choked out, still laughing at Ron.
A lofty, familiar voice spoke from behind a bookshelf near them. "Yes, but have you thought of exactly how much magic it'll require? I mean, you people need an electric generator or something— hey, my Muggle Studies classes are paying off!— um, to make it work. Have you any idea what a complex story it is?"
Hermione felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach— no, this had been her best idea, and who had to ruin it—
"Malfoy!"
Harry had pushed a row of books aside and to his dismay, found Draco Malfoy's pale, smirking face in what should have been a clear view of the bookshelf across from him.
Ron jumped up. "How much did you hear?"
Malfoy shook his silver-haired head slowly. "Everything."
"GET HIM!" yelled Harry and Hermione at the same time.
Malfoy jumped and ran past a confused-turning-into-angry looking Madam Pince, who had just returned from her lunch break. He streaked toward the door—
"Petrificus totalus!" shouted Hermione, who had pulled her wand ominously out of her robes and pointed it at him.
Draco stiffened, tripped over his own feet, and flew nearly to the door, where he landed on his behind. Eyes wide with rage, he tried to move but couldn't.
Ron and Harry stood over him and laughed, while Hermione stood back a bit and looked around nervously. "Um, guys, I really think we shouldn't have done that; Madam Pince might have seen!" This was very logical of Hermione, since the strict librarian was now out of sight. "I need an idea..." She bit her lip, and thought for approximately two point five seconds. "Oh! Stand back, you two!"
Ron and Harry, looking cheerful at their enemy's state, backed away. Hermione ran right up to Draco, pulled out her wand again, and whispered, "Oblivimus! Finite Incantatem!"
She had first put a short-term memory charm on him, causing the unfortunate Malfoy to lose any memory of the last hour, and took him off the body bind curse. Looking anxious, she beckoned Harry and Ron toward her and they ran to the table to get their things.
"Shh! And hurry, before he sees us!"
They ran as quietly as possibly to the door, but Malfoy was standing in the doorway facing them. He smirked. Again. "And what might you be doing, Potter? Running around inside, why, you should have detention for that!" he sneered, his voice cold and faking concern.
"Shove off, Malfoy," said Ron, and they pushed past him out the door. Hermione fired another temporary memory charm over her shoulder as they walked down the corridor.
"Ugh, he is the single most nosy, annoying, evil git ever to walk the planet," she snarled. "I wish I could have kept the body bind curse on him."
"Well. I think the act you proposed is a very good idea," commented Harry, changing the subject before Hermione got too graphic, "and we should get started as soon as possible; we only have three weeks till auditions."
Ron looked thoughtful. "Well, Malfoy had a point, I've heard the story is complex. Maybe we should downsize it so we don't have to look up hundreds of spells to simulate the, um, events."
"Sounds good to me, especially since the whole thing would take ages to act out, much longer than ten minutes. Let's go plan!" Hermione said happily. She headed toward the common room.
Ron sighed. "She likes planning too much."
Harry replied, "At least she stopped making us color-coded study schedules."
They looked at each other, and the image of the study schedules combined with the last hours' events played over in their minds, and they laughed. They laughed, in fact, until Hermione came back and dragged them to the Fat Lady's portrait.
