--   Author's Note:   Yes, another chapter. Go me. Either my plot nifflers are mating like bunnies or the Mother of all things sacred and holy took mercy on my poor, writer's block-ridden soul. It might be a little of both, considering I completely changed the plot from what I originally planned. ^__^; Anyway, thanks to everyone for reviewing and, again, to Josh and Jude for putting up with my whining and beta reading everything. Love you guys!





Quidditch practice . . . Quidditch practice. That was how much Ron didn't get it. Don't forget about Quidditch practice. How could Harry forget about playing Quidditch with a Beater who begged Draco Malfoy for . . . for something he couldn't even imagine her doing? It was impossible for her to do something like that, but he had witnessed it with his own eyes. Draco Malfoy could lie about anything, but how could Harry be absolutely sure he wasn't gloating what something that actually happened?

Harry stopped in mid-step upon realizing that Malfoy was right -- there was only one way to be sure. Settling down upon one of the steps of the random staircase he had been ascending, Harry began to contemplate exactly how to go about it. Allowing his hand to drift to the pewter cauldron at his side, he felt around for the vial of truth serum, eventually removing the glass container of light purple, water-looking liquid and holding it in the palm of his hand. He hadn't paid enough attention to Professor Snape to know how much of the serum should be given, but he knew it wasn't anywhere near as powerful as Veritaserum. Still, as the idea was forming in his head, he began to estimate how much should be given and what the consequences would be. What was the harm?

Lying was horrible, anyway, he concluded, apparently forgetting the number of lies he had told in his brief lifetime and what sort of cascading effect they would have if he suddenly went around telling everyone.

Standing from the stair, he tucked the vial into his robes and picked up his cauldron, hurrying up to the Gryffindor common room as fast as he could.



"What do you reckon's wrong with Harry?"

"Reckon it's got something to do with Malfoy. Did you see them in Potions today?"

"Looked like Harry was about to kill him, didn't it?"

Dean and Seamus walked idly along the fourth floor corridor, talking between themselves, on their way to the nearest stairwell and the Great Hall several floors below for an early dinner. Even through the thick walls of stone, they could hear a storm raging outside. It was the storm which prompted the two avid Quidditch fans to stay inside, instead of out in the stands of the Pitch, where they could usually be found during a Gryffindor practice or any such game between school teams.

"Wonder why Snape had him be Malfoy's partner, anyway. Didn't seem to help him with that serum, did it?" Dean inquired.

Seamus gave a shrug. "Mine turned out all right. Even Neville's was okay. I wonder what's gotten into Harry, then? Even Snape's tormenting doesn't make him screw up that bad, mind."

Dean appeared to be thinking as that dawned on him. "Still, all the pieces don't fit, do they? He disappears from the Masquerade Ball, doesn't show up all night in the tower, then stops talking to everyone, and then this Malfoy shit. What's that supposed to mean?"

"Doesn't seem to mean anything, mate. Maybe he's just -- " but, as they reached the stairs to the entrance hall and started down them, Seamus was halted in his comments by the muffled voices of none other than Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle. Raising both eyebrows in question, he nodded towards the entrance to the dungeons. "Malfoy's goons. Maybe they know?"

"What, follow them?"

"Why not?"

"What're you, insane?"

"There's no law against going down there. If we get caught, we'll make up some story." Without waiting for Dean's answer, Seamus started down the steps towards the dungeon, following Crabbe, Goyle, and a very clear trail of used cupcake holders.

It wasn't too long before the trail thinned out and stopped altogether and the two Gryffindors found Malfoy's brainless minions perched on a stone bench along the moldy corridor wall, talking and sharing what appeared to be a load of desserts from dinner. "D'ja hear?" Crabbe snickered through clenched teeth, spraying his companion with bits of saliva-soaked chocolate cupcake.

"Nah, wha?" Goyle snickered, too, if only because Crabbe was snickering. Instead of spraying bits of food, however, he snorted and nearly choked on the piece of candy in his mouth.

"Draco's plan worked." After swallowing the chocolate cupcake, he was almost understandable. "He got Potter to believe it."

"Believe wha?" Goyle asked, his large, pink tongue intent on licking off the icing of a cupcake.

Crabbe paused, thought, then finally replied (as if he had momentarily forgotten where he was and what he was talking about), "The thing with that Weasel girl. You know?"

"Nah." Once the cupcake was free of icing, he stuffed it in his mouth, only afterwards realizing that the paper holder was still around the bottom and nearly choking again. He made no move to take the paper out, however, and simply swallowed it with the rest of the cupcake.

Upset that he was, clearly, the more intelligent of the two, Crabbe reached out and smacked the back of Goyle's head (only serving to choke him more on the cupcake holder). "At the ball, right? He took Blaise down here and was . . . heh, heh, heh . . ." This time, he nudged Goyle in the ribs.

Goyle started laughing like a complete idiot as well, though he didn't understand what his friend was talking about until Crabbe made some vague (but thoroughly vulgar) motions with his hands and fingers, mumbling some explanation. When understanding dawned on him (a very rare occurrence), Goyle began to laugh so hard and so stupidly he nearly fell off the bench.

"Yeah. And, Potter came along and thought she was that Weasel girl." That, apparently, was the end of his rather idiotic explanation, because Crabbe went back to stuffing his face with assorted goodies, covering his lips and cheeks with various types of sugar.

Dean looked at Seamus and Seamus looked right back at Dean. Then, before either of the two idiotic Slytherins could stuff themselves with another bite of dessert, both Gryffindors leapt from behind the corner they were eavesdropping from, wands drawn.

"Stupefy!"



By the time the team made it from the castle to the Quidditch Pitch, they were soaked to the bone by the icy November rain which fell from the sky in huge sheets, as if someone was throwing large buckets of water onto them from above. "You can go back to the castle, if you want!" Ron yelled over the rumble of thunder to Hermione, who had agreed to come and watch the practice (and perhaps take Harry to the Hospital Wing after).

"I'm fine!" she yelled back as another explosion of thunder erupted, this time offset by a flash of lightning which electrified the expanse of the grounds, the thick storm clouds overhead having cast it into darkness hours before. Huddling beneath an umbrella, which was continually threatened to be blown away by the torrent of wind, with Ginny, she slowly made her way to the Pitch and through the doors leading to the locker room.

Surprisingly, Harry was already there. It wasn't unusual for the team's Captain to show up early, but he looked as though he had been there for a while, if only because he was standing next to a table with seven mugs, boiling water, and packages of hot chocolate. "Thought we might need this before and after," he announced, sounding (though not looking) as if he were in a much better mood than earlier that day. Setting to mixing the hot chocolate for the team, Harry noticed after glancing up that Hermione was there. "Oh, Hermione, I didn't bring another mug. You want mine?"

"That's fine, Harry. You'll need it more than me if you want to practice in this rain. I have an umbrella to keep be dry." Although flattered that he offered, Hermione was suspicious. She almost always attended Gryffindor practices -- at least, anyway, since Ron had made Keeper and Harry became Captain. And, why was Harry so suddenly recovered from his bad mood that had lasted nearly two days? What had happened in Potions that caused him to speak again, anyway?

"You can share mine," Ron offered, grinning and going a light shade of pink at the same time. Picking up a newly mixed mug of hot chocolate, he offered it to Hermione first and foremost. "I didn't get too wet, anyway."

Noting that Ron looked like someone had thrown him into the lake, Hermione nevertheless took the mug and a sip of the hot chocolate. It tasted fine, didn't it? Well, she hadn't ever tasted hot chocolate with that funny aftertaste, but it was better than what her mother usually made (since her mother could burn water without turning the stove on). "It's great, Harry," she noted, handing the mug to Ron. He, of course, gulped down the entire contents of the cup and went for more.

"It's from a package," Harry shrugged, not out of modesty, though. He seemed a bit shifty to Hermione.

"Why don't you have some, Harry?" she inquired, while the other teammates started in on their own cups. Except for Ginny. She was still upset over Harry's behavior and had stalked off to the locker room.

Harry watched her go, then looked back to the team with a look of pure dismay on his face. "Huh? I'm ... I'm fine."

"You're soaked, too. You might as well," she urged. "What's the point of making something for everyone and not drinking a little yourself?"

Harry's brow knit in either extreme confusion or the state of being extremely torn between two things. After a lengthy moment, followed by a deep sigh of resignation, he picked up a cup and gulped down a large swig of the steaming hot chocolate. "All right, everyone. Let's get out there and practice."



There really was something strange about that hot chocolate, Hermione realized after watching the practice for several minutes. Her mind was filled with thoughts that would have otherwise been locked up and she was left with this insatiable urge to speak all of them aloud. In fact, she was sure that if someone else had been sitting next to her, she would have told them everything that came to her mind: how much she hated doing Potions work, how terribly uninteresting History of Magic was, what she really thought of Professor Trelawney, and even how incredibly cute Ron was trying to defend the goals in the pouring rain but only ending up looking like a lost puppy dog.

There was something really strange about that hot chocolate.

It wasn't just her, either. The entire Gryffindor team was beginning to falter away from practicing and towards whatever they, apparently, felt like doing. Finally, Harry said it was time for a break (or, rather, it was time to get out of the rain, since they had only been practicing for ten minutes). Before long, they were all huddling within the Pitch away from the rain and Harry was offering everyone -- most especially Ginny -- the hot chocolate.

"I don't want any hot chocolate," she said, obviously set on the fact that she wasn't going to take anything from Harry -- most especially his ill treatment of late. Turning her nose up, she strode a few feet down the corridor to lean against the wall.

"Just drink the damn hot chocolate, Ginny!" Harry burst out suddenly.

Ginny was taken aback by this, but Hermione finally understood. Harry had taken someone's truth serum and put it in the hot chocolate, which was why she felt like telling the entire world that Rita Skeeter was really a bug and Ron was cutest when his ears were red. And, for some reason, he wanted Ginny to drink the serum and tell him something. Somehow, Hermione knew it wasn't some childish question that had been bugging him, either.

"Why did you put truth serum in the hot chocolate, Harry?" Hermione demanded, having no reason to hold back her question. Or, at least, none that she could see. It was hard enough to hold back the fact that she wore white cotton underwear with little pink flowers and Parvati had gotten an electric blue thong from her sister, Padma, for Christmas last year.

Harry's face turned white, then red, as he stared at her, looking much like a fish, opening and closing his mouth as no answer immediately came to him. Then, with much signs of inward struggle on his part (too bad the truth serum was working within him, as well), he burst out once more, "So Ginny will tell me the truth!"

Ginny blinked at being accused of lying about something, but Hermione, the ever curious, pressed on, "The truth about what?"

"Whether or not she has sex with Draco Malfoy!"

The series of events that happened after Harry's shouted statement was not easy to follow, at all. In fact, only afterwards was Hermione able to figure out what happened. Ginny had screamed -- though from shock or disgust, no one could tell -- and nearly collapsed into a faint onto the other Beater for the team. The shower of blood which poured down Harry's robes came, undoubtedly, from the fact that Ron had lurched forward without restraint or care and punched him right in the nose. There was a sickening crunch and within seconds Ron was being pried away from a very bloody and disoriented Harry.

Hermione simply stared through his whole series of events, the fact that Harry had accused Virginia Weasley of having sex with Draco Malfoy not fully settling properly within her mind for quite a bit of time. Finally, when Ron was fully restrained by the team's Chasers and Harry was on his feet holding his bloodied nose, Hermione was able to blink. "What are you talking about, Harry?"

"I saw the two of them together during the Masquerade Ball! Pansy took me to the dungeon and showed me and there they were and he was calling her name and -- "

" -- That's enough!" Thinking he would go into more details, send Ginny into full catatonic shock, and Ron (who was lunging unsuccessfully against the three Chaser's arms) into a mad rage, Hermione held up her hand to silence Harry. "Was that what Malfoy was talking to you about today?"

Harry looked like a little child who had been forced to stand in a room full of adults and talk about the 'bad thing' he had done. "Yes! He said that she had begged him and was on her hands and knees and -- "

" -- Harry!" Hermione screamed, barely able to hear herself over Ron's frustrated and enraged yells and Ginny's swooning noises. "Whose bloody truth serum did you steal? They obviously put one too many drops of venom in it, because now it's not only a truth serum, but an uninhibited one!"

Ron stopped and blinked. Harry blinked also, finally lowering his hands from his nose (which made a whistling sound when he breathed). Ginny sat up and paid attention suddenly, as if no one had ever accused her of doing anything with Malfoy. "What?" almost everyone asked at once.

Hermione felt like telling them off right then and there. Didn't anyone pay attention in Potions anymore? After a groan of annoyance, she broke into a lengthy explanation. "The truth serum we brewed today in class is one that only works when someone is asked a question. Like, if someone were to ask me right now what I thought of Ron, I would say that he's cutest when his ears are red and -- "

" -- Hermione!" Ron interrupted, his cheeks, and ears, turning scarlet.

"Well, anyway," she continued, blushing also. "It's difficult to make because three too many drops of the venom you add in the last stage of brewing can make it uninhibited." That would have been the conclusion of her explanation, had she not received to many confused looks from those gathered. " . . . It means you don't have to be asked any questions or one question will have you telling everything," Hermione added glumly, sounding almost pained to inform them.

Silence filled the room, the various Gryffindors (only three of which happened to know what truth serum Hermione was talking about, herself included) thinking over the explanation in their heads and attempting to fill in the missing portions, completely forgetting the fact that Harry had just burst out with a very disgusting accusation. After several minutes of working it out in her head, Ginny stood up from swooning against the other Beater and gave Harry a curious look. "I didn't do anything with Malfoy, Harry. I was with Ron and Hermione the whole last part of the ball."

"But, you didn't have any truth serum, Ginny!" Harry burst out, his voice wheezy and nasal from the fact that his nose was more than likely broken.

It was one thing to claim that Malfoy had tricked Harry into believing that he had been doing something thoroughly disgusting with his sister. It was another thing entirely to claim that she was a liar. Ron pulled away from the Chasers and lunged at Harry, pushing him back against the double doors that led directly out onto the field.

"Ronald Weasley!" Hermione called after him, running to the doors in time to see them both wrestling on the muddy ground that would have been the Quidditch field, had the rain not saturated it entirely. "Stop it!"

During the random flashes of lightning the gathered Gryffindors could see the two best friends battling it out without the typical use of wands. Harry's glasses had become almost immediately askew to go with the blood running from both nostril, Ron's hair was discolored with mud and his right eye was beginning to swell with a bruise. It was more than just about Ginny, Hermione realized. It was pretty much six and a half years of not lashing out at your best friend coming unhinged due to the insane serum. Where did Harry get it, anyway?

"Hermione!" Ginny called frantically from somewhere behind her, causing her to halt before jumping out into the fray to pull them both away from each other. Turning, Hermione saw what had sent her friend into a frantic state.

Dean and Seamus had just entered the locker area, dragging Crabbe and Goyle with them in a very stupefied state.