Disclaimer: Characters and setting belong to J.K. Rowling. Dancing spoons and potatoes with personalities belong to me.
Chapter 7When Harry returned to the Slytherin common room that night, he found his invisibility cloak lying on the bed. It was, without a doubt, left there by Draco the other night. He suddenly thought of something that made him angry: Draco Malfoy had put on his father's cloak. Harry treasured the cloak dearly; it was the only relic that linked Harry to his father. He tried to shake a horrible image of the pale Slytherin with his pointed face sneering with glee as he wrapped Harry's cloak around himself…. Harry shuddered angrily at the thought and gently folded the cloak and put it under his pillow.
* * * * *
Past midnight, Draco was finishing Harry's homework in the empty Gryffindor common room. He needed to consult Advanced Transfiguration, which was in Harry's trunk up in the dormitory, and went to fetch it.
Quietly as not to wake the other 6th years, he rifled through the contents of Harry's trunk. Underneath a box of old quills, Draco found a handsome, leather-bound book he'd never seen before. Curiosity getting the best of him, he opened it.
On the first page was a photograph of two people waving. On one side stood a young woman with dark red hair in simple green robes. Holding her hand was somebody who looked like an older version of Harry.
Draco stared hard at the photograph for a few seconds, and then it hit him. These were Harry's parents.
Instead of hastily putting it away as he knew he should have done, Draco took the photo album back to the common room, forgetting about Advanced Transfiguration.
He sat at the table and once again opened the book. Harry's parents continued to wave merrily. He turned the page and there they were again, waving and looking happy.
Suddenly aware of what he was doing, Draco slammed the album shut. The bang echoed throughout the empty common room.
What the hell am I doing? He thought. He pushed the book away from him as if it were poisonous.
Draco sat unmoving in his chair for a moment. He always knew Harry's parents were dead. He knew the whole story, just like everybody else in the wizard world. Yet, when he saw the actual pictures of Lily and James Potter, he became strangely aware that they were real. Voldemort killed them and Harry had grown up without them, the loving and happy people in the photographs. Draco realized they were really dead and Harry was really an orphan.
This thought disturbed Draco more greatly than he realized. Disregarding his homework, he grabbed the album and headed back up to the dormitory.
* * * * *
The following day passed devoid of unusual activity. Draco felt himself getting sick when he saw Ron and Hermione scribble loving little notes on each other's parchments. At the same time a few corridors away in Transfiguration, Harry was missing them as he watched a confused Crabbe prod a tissue with his wand (which he happened to be holding backwards). Both were quite depressed and more than willing to switch back in an instant.
After dinner, both boys headed towards the dungeons, Harry to the common room and Draco to detention.
By an unfortunate coincidence, they almost ran into each other.
" Where are you going?" Harry spat, though he could honestly care less.
" Detention," Draco muttered grumpily. It wasn't like the boys were ever on good terms with each other, but Draco's nighttime incident increased the tension between them massively.
They shuffled their feet onward in the quiet corridor. " It's not like you didn't deserve it," said Harry. His gray eyes shot at Draco coldly.
" Get over it Potter. And speak for yourself. It's your cloak. You probably use it for the same reasons too."
Something that had been bothering Harry for a while was released. " You're damn right, it's my cloak. Why were you using it?"
Draco looked away and pursed his lips together tightly. He didn't want to say how much he's wanted such a cloak since he was a child, how much he loved the feeling of it shrouded over his body, and the wonderful sense of freedom it gave him.
Draco was 'saved' from Harry's penetrating stare when the door of Snape's office opened and out walked Professor Dumbledore.
" Ah, Mr. Potter and Mr. Malfoy." He gave a warm yet faintly forced smile and his eyes twinkled like stars in the sky.
Snape walked out as well, his expression contrasting that of the headmaster's greatly. He gave one look at the green- eyed boy in front of him and contorted his face into one somebody would have upon meeting a blast-ended-skrewt for the first time: intense dislike and disgust.
" Mr. Potter, I believe you have detention with Professor Snape at this moment." Dumbledore nodded towards Draco. "I just spoke with Professor Snape, however, and you will not be going into the forest today. Kindly report to the Great Hall where Mr. Filch will be."
Draco mumbled something incoherent, shot an annoyed glance at Harry, then turned on his heels and walked away.
" Mr. Malfoy, I would like to discuss something with you," said Dumbledore to Harry. He turned to Snape. " Would you be kind enough to allow us to borrow your office for a moment, Severus?"
Snape nodded importantly. His face had changed completely. He actually smiled slightly at Harry and walked away.
Harry entered Snape's creepy office. He studied, with disgust, the pickled ingredients that the nasty potions professor had placed around the room.
" Please sit down, Harry. I have something important to say." Dumbledore looked grave. He had locked the door of the office and was now walking to Snape's desk, his hands locked together in front of him.
Harry sat and followed Dumbledore with his eyes. What was this about?
Dumbledore seemed to have read his mind. With a sigh, he said, " It's Voldemort, Harry. The Ministry has caught six death eaters in Romania just two hours ago. The Minister just owled me to tell me so himself."
Harry had grown inured to Dumbledore's grave messages. It was no surprised to either of them whenever bad news came up. Dumbledore even stopped beating around the bush after so many conversations and just went straight to the point as he did that day.
" Just recently, the Ministry began using Verisaterum to a high extent. All the death eaters caught were questioned and they all said the same thing. I regret to inform you that Voldemort has become Animagi."
Harry's eyes practically bulged out of his head. He was, in no way, expecting that. " What animal can he turn into?"
Dumbledore just shook his head. " As to that, nobody has any idea. That is why we must take extra precautions. First of all, I cannot allow you to leave the castle without my permission. You will not be able to leave at all after dark."
Harry sat numb in his seat. He somehow had always associated Animagi with good people. Sure, Pettigrew and Rita Skeeter were animagus, but so were Sirius and his dad. The connection, though insignificant, bothered Harry.
" Now, Harry. The circumstances at this moment change many things. Voldemort, most likely, doesn't know about the effects of the Devejuice Potion. That is why Mr. Malfoy is being closely monitored from now on as well. I did not want him in the Forbidden Forest, of all places." Dumbledore looked quite worn out, but the twinkle in his eye burned with a strong passion, a passion to overcome the obstacles Voldemort threw at him. " This isn't just for you or him though. No, I don't want any students near the forest at this time."
Harry opened his mouth to say something but Dumbledore read his mind again. " The closest you will get to the forest is the Quidditch pitch."
And that was all. Both Harry and Dumbledore knew what would come, would come, and they would meet it when it did.
* * * * *
Draco met Filch in the Great Hall, who was feeling particularly nasty because of his cold. He was wearing an old tartan scarf and wheezing like he had a hairball stuck in his throat. Speaking of hairballs, Mrs. Norris was wrapped in a fuzzy blanket and Filch was holding her like a baby.
Filch thrust a sponge in Draco's hand and pointed to a door behind the head table. " There's a corridor in there with food paintings. Take a bucket down with you. You're gonna scrub each painting till it's spotless. And NO MAGIC!"
Filch marched away. The veins in his temple had twitched at the mention of Magic. He despised it dearly because he didn't have it. Draco picked up a bucket of water with one hand and gave Filch's retreating back a very rude gesture with the other.
He reached the corridor and heard the sound of water being wrung from a sponge.
" Hey Harry," Ginny said. She was scrubbing the frame of a large painting of a spoon and a knife waltzing.
Draco groaned under his breath. Not her, he thought.
Wordlessly, Draco stepped in front of a painting of a potato. He stood with the old sponge in his left hand and suddenly realized he had no idea what to do.
He glanced at Ginny. She had her sleeves rolled up and her hair pulled back. She doused her sponge in the bucket, and then squeezed the water out into it.
Draco also rolled up his sleeves and wet his sponge. He honestly had no idea what to do. Draco had never touched a sponge in his life. In the Malfoy manor, there were over a dozen house-elves to do that for him. Ginny, being the only girl in her family helped Mrs. Weasley with chores often.
This time, Ginny was scrubbing the ornate silver frame with her sponge in circular motions. Draco did the same. He scrubbed the frame and saw the dust wear off, revealing the bronze beneath.
Watching Ginny occasionally to see if he was doing it right, Draco scrubbed the frame until it shone. Ginny had finished with her first painting already. The spoon and knife were sparkling, dancing happily together in their clean frame.
Draco looked at his potato. It simply sat there as a normal potato did. Draco reached for it with his sponge, but it suddenly rolled over and out of the picture.
" What the hell? Where did it go?"
Ginny turned around from the fruit bowl painting she was now working on. She saw Draco facing the empty painting and laughed lightly.
" You scared it."
" I what?"
Ginny, still smiling, approached the painting. " You scared it away."
" How do you scare a potato?"
Ginny didn't answer him. She was peering into the depths of the painting as if it were a room. " Come out now, it's okay. Nobody's going to hurt you."
Draco raised his eyebrows at the girl who was trying to soothe a potato in a painting.
" It's okay," she said, and sure enough, the terrified potato bounced back in, trembling from head to foot… as if it had any.
Draco watched in alarm as Ginny took her sponge and started gently running it across the potato.
" Go ahead," she said, stepping back. " Scrub the potato."
Draco was still trying to get over just how peculiar the scene was. He reached up with his sponge and scrubbed the potato softly, as Ginny had.
" I told you Harry," she said. " You scared him."
" Him?" remarked Draco. " How do you know it's a him?" He asked the question before he could stop himself.
Ginny just giggled nervously. " Because boys get scared easily."
Before a witty remark escaped his lips, he stopped himself. He turned around and continued scrubbing the potato, which seemed to be enjoying itself.
Ginny gasped suddenly. Draco turned to see the painting that she had been working on was opened on hinges, like a door. There seemed to be another room on the other side, for Ginny was peering into it.
" Oh my… Harry, come here!" Draco heard her excited voice exclaim from behind the door. Ginny had stepped into the other room.
Draco approached the opening and stepped in, and his mouth opened in consternation.
They were in the school kitchens.
The house elves seemed not to mind their unexpected visitors. A squat and slightly overweight one wearing a tea towel approached them and bowed so low, he was threatening to tip over and fall from his weight.
" Is you needing anything, Mister and Miss?" he asked. His voice was high and croaky, like a toad's.
Ginny just stared at the elf in amazement. Draco, however, was used to the sight of elves. He ignored the servant and looked around.
The kitchen was the biggest he had ever seen; million of pots and pans were stacked up on the high shelves that touched the ceiling. There were elves everywhere he looked, working diligently even though dinner was over.
Leaving Ginny to a stammering lady elf, he walked deeper into the kitchens. He passed four long house tables, the replicas of the ones in the Great Hall. There was a huge brick fireplace a little beyond that, and Draco saw the oddest and most conspicuous elf of the lot.
He was wearing a knobbly mustard- colored sock on one foot, and a violet wool one on the other. Over a t-shirt that read "West Ham Soccer", he wore a gold tie with horseshoes print. Atop his head was a worn out Chudley Cannons hat.
The elf looked up. Something about him was very familiar to Draco. His eyes filled up with tears and before Draco knew what was happening, the elf had crashed into his abdomen at full speed.
" Harry Potter, sir!" a muffled cry sounded below him.
Dobby looked up at Draco with adoration in his eyes. " You has come to visit me, sir! Harry Potter has come to visit Dobby! Dobby is most pleased!"
Dobby. Suddenly, Draco remembered. Dobby used to belong to his family. Draco racked his memories. His father told him that in Draco's second year, Dobby was set free by… Harry Potter.
Draco looked down at Dobby, who had stopped hugging him. He had the biggest grin on his face. " Can Dobby gets anything for sir?"
" Er…" Draco could hardly utter a word. He reckoned the elf was free, for it was wearing real clothes. Then why was he so happy? How peculiar of an elf.
Ginny strolled over nibbling on a piece of chestnut pound cake. " Harry, you must try these! They're so good."
" Dobby is getting cake for Harry Potter!" Dobby ran away so fast, his hat fell off, revealing his brown, hairless head and large ears.
In no time, Dobby was back with a whole plate of cake. Next to him stood another elf with a tray of tea and milk and sugar.
" Harry Potter must sit and enjoy the cake with Lady Friend of Harry Potter!" Dobby, who was strong for a little elf, led Draco by the arm to an old-fashioned cottage chair near the fireplace. Ginny, who was not used to all the attention, enjoyed it and sat across from him.
" Would you like to sit down with us?" Ginny asked Dobby. She seemed to have taken a great liking to him.
Dobby was so taken back, he dropped the plate of cakes and tears fell down his front. " Lady Friend of Harry Potter is so kind, just like Harry Potter himself. Dobby has been asked by Lady Friend of Harry Potter to sit with them, as a equal!" Draco rolled his eyes, but nobody noticed. " Of course Lady Friend of Harry Potter is as righteous and noble as Harry Potter! That is why you is in love with Harry Potter and Harry Potter is in love with you!"
Ginny's eyes widened and she blushed furiously. " Oh, we're not…."
" We're not in love," said Draco coldly. Another set of elves had left a new plate of cake on the table. " And we have to get back to detention."
Ginny looked genuinely sad. " But…." She glanced at the elves that were staring at her with very eager eyes. They looked as if they would break down in tears if she left.
Draco read her thoughts. " Fine," he said, standing up. He wasn't exactly in the mood for cake in cookies. Dobby hugged him. " Farewell, Harry Potter, sir! You are brave and courageous and…."
Draco made a disgusted face a shook Dobby of his robes as if he were a piece of lint. " Harry Potter isn't all that great."
Draco left the kitchens. He stepped out into the corridor, and the portrait shut behind him. He didn't want to be surrounded by all those elves, and especially not Dobby.
Draco picked up a sponge and went to scrub the potato, but it jumped away as he reached for it. " Come on!" Draco exclaimed, throwing the sponge down. " Get back out here!"
He shouted into the frame, then tried to soothe it as Ginny had done. " It's no use," he said aloud.
" It doesn't trust the voice of men," another voice said. Draco whirled around. It was the spoon.
" What? How can a potato be so complicated?!"
The spoon shook its head (the round part). " Why don't you go fetch the girl?"
Draco crossed his arms. " 'Cause I don't want to."
" Yes, you do," said the spoon, twirling around in its frame. " You want to go fetch her."
" No, I don't!" Draco exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air. He couldn't believe he was arguing with a spoon.
" Tickle the pear and it'll turn into a doorknob." At that moment, the knife waltzed in a swept the spoon off its handle.
Draco scoffed – loudly. Like I'm gonna listen to a bloody spoon.
He did. Only three seconds later, before he could stop himself, he tickled the pear.
When Draco entered the kitchens again, the elves bowed to him. He ignored them and headed towards where Ginny was sitting alone, sipping tea.
" The potato left again," said Draco.
Ginny looked up. " Why, hello," she said; she didn't seem to have heard him.
" The potato, Weasley. You have to call it back."
Ginny frowned at being addressed by her last name. " Why should I?"
Draco felt himself getting unnerved. " 'Cause we're in detention! We have to!" he exclaimed. He didn't know why he was getting so worked up.
Ginny seemed to have been struck by a thought. " We are in detention."
Draco scoffed. He opened his mouth to speak, but Ginny interrupted. " Sit down, Harry, please? We'll eat some cake for a while and then we can go back." Her brown eyes lit up with innocence. " I promise."
Something about the way Ginny said 'I promise' compelled Draco to sit down across from her. Dobby returned with more tea.
" Harry Potter has come back!" he squeaked. Ginny leaned towards Dobby.
" Hey, how do you know Harry?"
Dobby beamed with pride. " Harry Potter is helping Dobby in time of need. Dobby used to live with --- with ---," He peered around nervously and made sure no other elves were near. " Bad wizards!"
Draco, who was sipping his tea, spit in out in his cup and glared at the elf. What if Dobby told Ginny about Lucius Malfoy's collection of Dark Arts items, or the fact that he was a death eater and had served the Dark Lord himself in their manor?
Ginny just gasped. " What happened?" she asked sincerely.
" Well miss, the family was planning for the most terrible incident to occur in Hogwarts history! They wanted to open ----,"
Draco coughed, loudly. " Aren't you supposed to be a good little elf and keep your master's secrets?"
" Oh come off it, Harry. Let him finish. What were they going to open, Dobby?"
Draco felt himself sweat. What would he do if Dobby revealed that his father had been responsible? Lucius was in enough trouble as it was. According to his mother's letter, the Ministry was looking for him. At least he's well hidden, Draco thought, in Romania.
" DOBBY!"
Dobby spun around and a very thin house-elf wearing glasses and a tea-towel stood two feet away with her tiny fists on her hips. " You is supposed to be working!" She pushed her glasses up and pointed her feeble finger in the opposite direction.
Dobby glanced at Ginny and Draco and whispered. " That is Minnie. She is being the head elf. Dobby must get back to work." He slouched away, being scolded by Minnie's high, shrieking voice.
Ginny drained her teacup. " What a funny little guy," she remarked.
" You're finished," Draco said. " We've got to return to detention." He couldn't risk Dobby spilling his family's secrets to Ginny.
" Now hold on a second…. I didn't finish my cake," she replied.
Draco waited in his seat, the fire in the fireplace to his right turning his ear bright red.
Not taking her eyes off Harry (Draco, of course), Ginny said. " So… what did you do to get detention?" She had asked the same question the previous night in the forest, but they were distracted when she was attacked by a jarvey a moment later.
Draco felt a slight flush in his cheeks, recalling the reason why he was in detention to begin with.
Reading his thoughts, Ginny swallowed and said, " Come on, Harry. I'll tell you why I'm here."
It suddenly occurred to Draco that Ginny was serving for trouble as well. What could innocent Ginny Weasley possibly have done to get detention? He pondered this for a while.
" What did you do?" he asked.
Ginny laughed and shook her head. " It's not the most innocent thing I ever did, I'll tell you that!" She grinned slyly at Harry (Draco). "I'm not telling until you tell me."
Draco began tearing the cake on his plate. He didn't really want to tell her, but he was curious as to why she was there just the same. Besides, what was the harm?
" I lit some beds on fire."
Ginny gasped. " Intentionally?"
Draco nodded.
" Oh my goodness…. Who's?"
Draco wasn't sure he wanted to get into the details, but he realized that Ginny thought he was Harry, and Draco couldn't care less for Harry's humiliation. " The Slytherins'. I snuck into their dorm and lit their beds on fire."
Ginny's eyes became the size of donut holes. The side of her mouth twitched, and she suddenly burst out laughing.
" Nice, Harry! Very impressive!" she exclaimed between laughs, clapping her hands. " The Slytherins! Well, they deserved it, the whole slimy lot of them."
Draco did not laugh with her. He wanted to snap back with an insult about Gryffindors, but stopped himself in time.
" So what did you do?" Draco asked Ginny. He had to admit he was quite curious now.
Ginny simply shrugged, still smiling. " I was late to Snape's class."
She stuffed the rest of the cake in her mouth and Draco just gaped at her with his mouth open. " That isn't fair, now! That's all you did?"
Ginny shook her head. " I know it isn't fair. A week's detention because I was ten minutes late!"
" That's not what I --- ,"
But Ginny was giggling. " I knew what you meant." She smiled cunningly. " I tricked you into thinking I did something real bad. Truth is, I just wanted to know what you did."
" How very Slytherin of you," he remarked, putting a piece of cake in his mouth. Despite Ginny's disgusted expression, he had meant it as a compliment.
* * * * *
A/N: not sure if anyone spotted this: it's very minor: The name Minnie is short for Minerva. The house-elf named Minnie was strict and bossy just like McGonagall. Alright, just a stupid little thing I threw into the story.
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