Chapter 4 – Mistaken Identity
After seeing that message, Harry wasn't much in the mood for eating anymore. He ran outside, leaving Ron and Hermione in the lurch.
"Sorry, Selena," Hermione shouted as they ran past the pit to catch their friend, "I'm sure we'll be back soon."
"Oh, it's okay. I know you'll be back soon," she replied to a breeze that was drifting past.
They caught Harry outside, as he was racing back to the valley where they hid their brooms. "What just happened in there? Are you okay?" Ron asked.
"There's something strange about that message. I just want to get out of Hogsmeade to make sure nothing happens to us," Harry explained. "I want to make sure there are no suspects back at school. If we come back, it'll be tomorrow; I'm not sleeping here tonight."
They retrieved the brooms out of the tree they hid them in, and proceeded to race back to Hagrid's hut. Once they had landed and were back at school, Harry was fuming.
"I'm going to give that prick a piece of my mind," he stated. Ron and Hermione just stood in amazement at Harry's anger, which just seemed to be steadily building. They were not positive, but had a pretty good idea who he was talking about.
The group returned to Gryffindor's common room, but Harry was unusually impatient that night. Hermione had settled next to the fire in an armchair with another huge book for "light reading". Ron had pulled out his chess set, in hopes of trying to figure out how Hermione had beaten him at The Great Hall. Harry had slipped upstairs, claiming he was tired from the day's adventure. His friends thought this was strange, but did not give it much thought.
Harry really was not going to bed though; it was only nine o'clock. He sprinted up the stairs and grabbed the invisibility cloak from under his bed. Since there were still people in the common room, he had to be careful on his way out. Fortunately, all the regular pictures that usually stopped Harry for conversation were visiting other pictures somewhere else in the castle. In no time at all, Harry was hovering around the entrance to the Slytherin common room, waiting to confront Draco. He only had to wait for a group of second years to speak the password, and he followed them into the slimy Slytherin sitting room.
Draco had his back to Harry upon his entrance to the lair. Wanting to catch him by surprise, Harry crept right behind Draco's chair. "Expelliarmus," Harry said, throwing off the hood of the invisibility cloak. "May I have a word with you outside, Draco? There's something I need to ask you."
Totally caught off-guard, Draco turned around to face the floating head of Harry. "I don't see why you would need to talk to me, but why not, it might be humorous," Draco snottily replied. Unbeknownst to Harry, Draco picked up his wand on his way out of the Slytherin dungeon.
"What do you want with me?" Draco asked.
"Why are you doing this? Do you find pleasure in tormenting me?"
"Me? Torment you? Oh, that's a good one, Potter."
Being sick of Draco's attitude, Harry decided to take action. "Limbus Excrucio," Harry said, and before his eyes, a thousand little human feet started growing out of Malfoy's scalp.
Draco yelped as the little appendages began protruding through his hair. "What have you done?" he shouted angrily.
"Don't worry, it's just a simple extra appendage spell."
"What do you mean don't worry? I have no clue what you're asking me about, I can't answer your questions, and I have a head full of feet. Tuftus," Draco whispered, pointing his wand at Harry. Suddenly, Harry found himself covered in full plumage, just like one of the mail owls, minus the beak and talons. The duel had begun.
"Tarantellegra!" Harry whispered again, stifling a giggle. Malfoy began dancing in uncontrollable circles around Harry. As Harry spun around to watch Malfoy's antics, he heard feet rushing down the hall toward where they were standing.
"Stupefy!" a voice boomed as its owner rounded the corner. Harry was just standing, but Malfoy was frozen in a very strange position because he had started dancing on his head.
"What is going on here," Snape demanded. "I have never seen such foolery," as he stifled a laugh. Here were his two favorite students, standing in a hallway, albeit awkwardly, obviously victims of misused magical powers. Having regained his composure, he began again. "Can one of you explain what is going on here?"
"I was pulled out of the common room unexpectedly by Mr. Potter, sir," Draco said, trying to sound as innocent as possible.
"And why are you standing on your head, Malfoy?
"It was all Potter's doing, sir," he replied, not caring that Harry was standing frozen only a foot away from him.
Snape turned to Potter and almost laughed again. He then turned back to Malfoy and asked, "Why does Potter look like an owl?"
"He told me he wanted to do the owl dance. I don't think he knew what he was talking about."
"I see…" Snape said, pondering what to do next. "Seventy points from Gryffindor," Draco giggled here, unintentionally. "And thirty points from Slytherin."
Both boys looked absolutely shocked. Harry at how many points were taken, and Draco at the fact that points were taken from Slytherin at all, even though none of this mess was his fault.
"I hope you have both learned your lesson," Snape said. He undid the stupefy spell before walking away, still chuckling from the strange positions he found the boys in.
"Thanks, Potter," Draco sneered before returning to his common room.
Harry returned into the Gryffindor tower quickly, not wanting to get into any more trouble. No sooner had he collapsed behind the Fat Lady than he was assaulted by questions and worries from his friends.
"Don't lie," Ron said. "We knew you were gone the second Seamus came down from the room and said, 'He's gone again!'"
"What on earth do you think you were doing? Where the heck did you go?" Hermione asked.
"I only went to give Malfoy a piece of my mind. Unfortunately, we were caught by Snape."
"He obviously didn't undo whatever Malfoy did to you, Harry. You're still covered in feathers." Hermione began rifling through the nearest book to find a "defeathering" spell to use on Harry. Finally, she found one and luckily it worked.
"It isn't Malfoy," Harry said as soon as he was free of feathers.
"Huh?" Ron had a very quizzical look on his face.
"The person, or thing, whatever left that note in the restaurant. It isn't Malfoy. He had no clue what I was talking about when I asked him. I could've done something horrible to him, but Snape caught us and now we're down seventy points," he said sullenly.
"Have you told Dumbledore? You know he'd look out for you, Harry," Hermione said, sounding almost motherly.
"No, I haven't told him yet. What could he do besides give me a bunch of bodyguards and house arrest? I'm going to figure this out on my own."
"How do you plan on doing that?" Hermione queried, hoping against all hope that she and Ron wouldn't be dragged into the mess.
"We're going back to The Great Hall."
