Disclaimer - All JKR's, nothing mine! Except for a few characters I added.
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
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A/N - The first chapter of the Russian version of My Name's Severus is now out, in case any of you know the language. It's really pretty to look at, but since I don't even know a single Russian letter, I have no idea what it sais.
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Chapter 7: Headaches
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"I was teachin' the fifth years, yes." Hagrid told them apparently thinking nothing of the question. "Such a nice class. I really love working with them. Not that I don' love you as well."
The students laughed. Draco leaned back against the wooden fence behind them and looked up to the sky.
"Hey, isn't Minx Hutchings in that class? Or was she a fourth year?" he asked the huge cloud drifting past over their heads.
"Minx Hutchings?" Vincent asked him. "Whoever is Minx Hutchings?"
"I know." Neville grinned. Now that Trevor was better he was much happier and taking more interest in the goings on around him once again. "Isn't that the girl that's always teasing Luna Lovegood? A bit mean, if you ask me."
"Yes, that's her." Draco confirmed, even though he wasn't entirely sure. Luna Lovegood definitely was a fifth year Ravenclaw and Minx was more than a bit mean, so it fit.
"What about her?" Theodore asked not looking up from the stick he was skinning.
"Nothing. Just wondering what year she's in." Draco mumbled watching the clouds once again.
"Fifth." Neville reported. "Just like Luna."
"Who cares?" Theodore shrugged flicking another strip of bark into the wind.
It landed on Pansy's robes.
"Hey, watch where you're throwing that!" Pansy yelled picking it off and throwing it against the next gust of wind. Naturally it came right back at her. "Those things leave ugly stains!"
"Whatever are you doing that for anyway?" Blaise asked Theodore nodding towards the mistreated stick.
Theodore shrugged. "Don't know. Just for fun, I guess."
Hagrid's class was exceedingly boring today. He kept promising that he had something special for them, but unfortunately whatever the animal was, it hadn't been delivered, yet, so Hagrid had announced they'd do a quick recap of what they'd learned last year. Of course Hagrid wasn't entirely sure exactly what he'd taught which year himself, so the conversation had soon drifted off to other classes and the incident at lunch the day before.
"You don't think Minx would want to kill Harry?" Neville asked Draco a little too loudly. Hagrid was looking their way.
Then again, that was exactly what Draco wanted.
"How would I know." he shrugged. "I hardly know the girl."
"Minx?" Harry had apparently heard it too. "Who's Minx?"
"Minx Hutchings." Neville explained obligingly. "You know, the one that's always bothering Luna."
"Oh her." Harry nodded in recognition. "You think she's the spy?"
"Killer." Dean Thomas corrected. "Face it, Harry, someone's out to murder you."
"Yeah, but Minx Hutchings?" Ron Weasley commented. "She's just a little girl. I mean, she's the same age as Ginny, Harry."
"Fifteen." Seamus reminded him. "That's hardly a baby anymore."
"Well, she probably was in class anyway." Draco commented with a shrug.
Ron shot him an angry glance. Everybody knew he hated the thought of Malfoy dating his sister even though Draco had been much nicer to him since then.
"Hey Hagrid!" Ron called out. "Was Minx Hutchings in that class?"
"What class, Ron?" Hagrid asked with a smile. He'd already drifted on to another topic.
"Yesterday's fifth year class." Harry explained with a slight sigh. He looked a little depressed today. Having an assassin after him was apparently getting to him.
"Yes, yes, little Minx takes Care for Magical Creatures." Hagrid answered beaming. "Such a beautiful name Minx."
"But was she here yesterday?" Ron demanded.
"Well, where else would she have been?" Hagrid asked confused.
"Oh, she might have decided to skip class." Draco suggested sarcastically. "Or been sick, or have gone to the bathroom."
"Nah, they were all here." Hagrid said. "I'm sure they were."
"And she wouldn't have missed the whole class, if she'd gone to the bathroom." Harry pointed out.
"It would have given her an excuse to return to the castle, though." Neville suggested.
"Nonsense." Hermione scoffed. "We always use Hagrid's bathroom, if we have to go during his class. Why would the fifth years go back to the castle for it?"
"Right." Hagrid confirmed. "I never send them back to the castle. It takes too long."
Draco smirked to himself. Mission accomplished.
Or at least as accomplished as it could be with Hagrid. The buffoon didn't seem all that sure of his facts, but it was probably the best answer he could give. Now he just had to explain that to Severus.
That turned out to be a problem, though. Severus wasn't in the common room when Draco got back and there was no time to look for him. They were already late for Latin class.
Well, most likely Severus was already there.
He wasn't, though, and he didn't show up for lunch either though Draco waited through the entire meal. Greenie's cage stood open on Severus' bed, but the hedgehog wasn't inside. Draco waited in the common room for a while, then went to check he library. Nothing.
By now he was seriously worried, but he had to go to Transfigrations and skipping McGonagall's class was never wise. Hopefully Severus knew that too and would be there.
At first Draco's hopes were disappointed once again, but about halfway through the class Severus walked in and handed McGonagall a slip of parchment.
"Where were you?" Draco hissed as Severus slipped into his seat beside him. "I already thought . . ."
"I just went to the hospital wing for some headache potion." Severus declared loud enough for the whole class to hear. "Of course Madame Pomfrey immediately decided she had to give me a full check-up, just in case it wasn't just a headache."
"Hagrid thinks that ..." Draco started.
"Later." Severus hissed. "Not in the middle of class with everybody staring at us."
Draco sighed but had to admit that they were only attracting attention.
Severus took his time packing up after class and finally went up to McGonagall's desk when everybody except him and Draco had left.
"You'll be late for your next class, Severus." McGonagall warned him, but Severus just shrugged.
"I'll just say I had to ask you what I missed." he explained. "You taught the Gryffindor and Slytherin fourth years yesterday before the incident?"
Minerva nodded. "Yes, but I'm sure Albus already told you."
"Mattis Parker was missing, Iago Orson left early and some students left temporarily to go to the bathroom?"
"Rudolph Rash and Sally Arden, yes." Minerva confirmed. "But you can't actually suspect them. They're Gryffindors."
"Peter Pettigrew, Professor." Severus told her once again calmly.
"Maybe so, but not either of those two. I know these children, Severus."
"I didn't come to ask about them anyway." Severus said noncommittally. "I wanted to talk about Diana Bardon."
"Diana Bardon?" Minerva blinked. "She's one of yours. I hardly know her."
"But you were in that class at the time." Severus pointed out. "Did she ever leave, even if just for a minute?"
Minerva closed her eyes for a moment trying to remember. "No, she was here the entire time."
"Are you completely sure of that?"
"Yes, completely." Minrva confirmed without hesitation.
Severus nodded. "Thank you, Professor, that's all I needed to know."
Draco finally got to tell Severus what Hagrid had said on the way to Ancient Runes. The classes had already started, so there was nobody in the halls to overhear them.
"We can't be sure, though." Severus finally said. "Hagrid thinks Minx was there, but what if he's wrong? We'll still have to keep an eye on her."
"So what did you learn from your search?" Draco asked not really interested.
"Maximius Mattels uses poisoned needles to protect his trunk."
"Oh." Draco commented with a shrug. "Wait a minute! Needles? Like the shards that hurt Ginny?"
"I don't think they were transfigured, and the shards weren't poisoned, but the basic idea is similar." Severus admitted. "We'll have to watch Maximius closely."
"What about Hieronymus?" Draco suggested. "If I were Voldemort, I'd use the older brother."
"Maximius might have skills that Hieronymus doesn't." Severus explained. "At least Hieronymus didn't have such an elaborate trap on his trunk. None of the others used poison in fact."
"Are you absolutely sure he used poison? How do you know?"
"Did you really think I went to the hospital wing because I had a headache?" Severus grinned at him and before Draco could ask anything more slipped into the Ancient Runes class.
Draco stared after him in shock for a moment, then remembered that he'd better get inside, if he didn't want a detention.
Professor Rosetta wasn't there, though. He should probably have expected that. That teacher was always late, at least he always had been in Latin class, so why should he suddenly be punctual just because he was teaching Runes now.
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Friday evening the boys made a new more detailed list of all their suspects that also listed the various clues they had for and against each of them. Severus even invented a way to rearrange the sequence of names according to how suspicious each suspect was without having to rewrite the list each time, but Draco found that the charm was a little too complicated for him. He only got it right two out of five times and finally decided to leave the rearranging of the list to Severus.
Draco reluctantly went to visit his father in his office on Saturday and tried to talk to him about Voldemort and his plans and even the attack on Harry Potter, but Lucius didn't seem to be in the mood to boast. Instead he took the boy to task about his Transfigurations grades, which, as usual, didn't meet his expectations.
Draco frowned at Lucius already regretting his visit. "I'm not in any danger of failing the class and my grades are much better than Severus'.
"You could still do better, though. It's a shame to the Malfoy name, if you don't do your best. You have the necessary intelligence and more than enough magical talent. But of course you don't care about your future. You'd much rather be lazy and rely on me to do everything for you. You think I have the time to ..."
Draco stopped listening at that point. He'd heard the speech a thousand times before. Next Lucius would rant about how he was letting down his mother and then he'd usually go and scold his mother for not seeing to it that their son had better morals and grades. Well, he couldn't do that now.
Why had he come here again? This was useless. He'd never learn anything about Voldemort's plans like that.
The worst of it was that when he left he noticed Ron Weasley peeking out of the Potions classroom right next doors. So the Weasel had overheard their whole conversation.
Well, it wasn't like it was anything embarrassing, right? Of course Arthur Weasley talked just the same way to his son, didn't he?
Ron smirked at him when he realised Draco had seen him.
"Are you done with all your scrubbing, Weasel?" Draco asked him acidly. "Father takes your detentions seriously, doesn't he?"
"At least he isn't my father." Ron shrugged surprisingly docile for once. "My father loves his children."
Draco glared at him, but decided it wasn't worth the trouble he might get in with Ginny, if he beat up her brother. Instead he returned to the common room to report his failure to Severus.
Severus however wasn't there at the moment. He was shadowing the Mattels brothers today. Apparently this had turned into a personal vendetta for him. Draco sighed and decided to get some more useful work done by attaching himself to Blaise and Theodore who were playing chess in a corner. They ended up playing a little tournament, which was actually fun, even though Theodore won.
Sunday Draco had planned to spend with Ginny, but she never came to their meeting. Dejectedly Draco trudged back to the Slytherin dorms and ended up helping Severus to set a few traps in their teachers' offices.
Ginny didn't show up all day, not even at mealtimes, nor did her brother. Not that Draco missed the weasel.
The next morning at breakfast Estella finally solved the mystery for him.
"Look, Draco!" she shouted excitedly and shoved her copy of the Daily Prophet down the table towards him.
Theodore, who feared the paper might end up in his porridge picked it up with a quick levitation charm and transported it right into Draco's hands.
"What is it?" Vincent demanded as Draco and Severus buried their noses in the paper. "Something exciting?"
"Ministry employee survives He Who Must Not Be Named's torture." Draco read out the headline for his friends. "They found Percy Weasley and he's actually alive! That's why Ginny isn't here. She must have gone to London to visit him."
"Our Lord actually let him out alive?" Gregory asked surprised.
"No, it was an accident." Draco reported. "He was tortured and left to die out in the moor. Coincidentally Lee Jordan happened to walk past on a walk with his girlfriend and heard Percy groan. He was rushed to St. Mungos just in time to save his life."
"Well, that's good for you, isn't it?" Vincent asked. "Ginny will be happy to have her brother back."
"She'll be unhappy about him being in so much pain, though." Severus interjected. "Still, considering that we already thought Percy was dead, it is good news."
Indeed it was. Ginny returned later that morning and she couldn't stop telling Draco about how glad they all were that Percy was alive and back.
"He's in terrible pain, but he'll live." she said with tears in her eyes. "He's back! I just can't believe he got away when all the others died. He even woke up for a bit while we were there. Mum was so happy when he said her name."
Neville was unusually happy, too and celebrated the day by placing a mouse trap under their homework scrolls on Lucius' desk. It only caught Professor Malfoy's sleeve unfortunately, but that was better than nothing and Lucius' surprised yelp was much enjoyed by the whole class.
"We're going to pay for that." Draco whispered to Severus when he saw the angry look with which his father regarded the class.
"Weasley, detention!" Lucius roared to everybody's surprise.
The students stared at their teacher.
"But . . . but that wasn't even me!" Ron stuttered clearly just as unprepared for this as everybody else.
"I don't care." Lucius shrugged. "Somebody has to pay for this prank and I know I have no chance of identifying the culprit. You are the most obnoxious student in this class and I don't like your face. Now get on with your study projects."
The students exchanged even more surprised glances.
"The independent study projects, Professor?" Alice asked in disbelief. They'd been lucky to get away with this once. She'd never thought that Lucius would let them spend another lesson, a double lesson at that, on such frivolities.
"Of course." Lucius answered. "What else?"
"But our project is complete." Neville reminded Lucius.
"Then join one of the other groups to help them or start a new one. Just report to me what you're doing." Lucius answered annoyed.
"I've already thought of something." Severus reported. "I have brought samples of various commercial potions, that Draco and I are going to analyse to determine their contents. Neville is welcome to join us, if he wants to. We could use another cauldron for this."
Neville was delighted by the idea and thus they pulled two worktables together so they could coordinate their work better. Harry Potter joined the group with his latest cooking project. He'd apparently given up the idea of caramel and was now trying to make some sort of soup that was actually supposed to have some magic in it as well.
"There has to be a way to make it have any taste you want it to." Harry explained wistfully.
Lucius nodded contentedly and started reading homework essays. He was beginning to doubt that between ten and twenty inches had been a good limit to set his students. Gregory Goyle's writing was large enough that he'd reached ten inches in only nine lines, while Severus Snape and Hermione Granger had written so small it was impossible to read.
Lucius sighed to himself. He refused to wear reading glasses.
Maybe a limit of one hundred words would serve his purpose better?
He pondered that while adding another line of plusses in his notebook.
Meanwhile at the other end of the classroom Neville was inspecting the samples Severus had taken from the potions he'd found in his house mates' trunks.
"So why are we really doing this?" he asked Severus. "I'm sure you could come up with something more interesting to brew than this."
To Draco's surprise Severus nodded admitting to having hidden motives. "Lucius is practically inviting us to steal ingredients and I've seen evidence of a drug ring in the school lately." Severus explained. "I'm trying to figure out just how bad the problem is."
"By analysing potions?" Neville asked surprised.
"These all claimed to be make up or hair styling potions on the bottles, but that doesn't mean they really are. It would be a clever way of disguising illegal potions to fill them into your empty hair styling potion bottle." Severus said softly.
"Are you sure?" Harry Potter asked surprised. "Drugs at Hogwarts?"
"Shhh!" Draco hissed at him. "Not so loud."
"Yes, drugs." Severus told him. "I'm hoping the problem is limited to a small group of Slytherins, but so far I have no proof."
"Who?" Harry asked eagerly.
"Nobody from our year as far as I can tell so far." was all Severus told him. "We'd best start with only one potion at a time." he said to his two partners. "We'll prepare a different analysing solution in each cauldron."
Harry watched them work for a bit, but then returned to his soup recipe. He wasn't really interested in how to recognise drugs. He wanted to know more about the people who took them.
At the teachers desk Lucius was leaning back in his chair furrowing his forehead at the article about Percy Weasley.
"Can't we do something else?" Dean Thomas complained to Seamus and Ron. He'd agreed to join them in their attempts at brewing mind control potion and pulled over his desk to work wit them. but his heart wasn't in it.
He'd probably have preferred to try one of the Weasley twins' old recipes, or maybe invisible ink, Severus suspected.
Hermione Granger had actually removed her cauldron from their group and was now working next to Estella Rashton. Those two seemed to get along surprisingly well for a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, but then neither of them was very typical for their house. They would both have made good Ravenclaws, if the sorting hat had decided differently.
Lucius was relaxed and happy with his paper until the first explosion.
This time it was Alice and Juliana's cauldron that went off first.
"Too many dragon claws." Severus informed Juliana when she almost collided with him in her frightened jump backwards.
"Well, the recipe called for lizard claws." she admitted while they watched Lucius and Alice try to wave away the smoke so they could see the extent of the damage. "There weren't any left and a dragon is a big lizard after all."
Lucius had only just sat down again when red sparks flying from Neville's cauldron drew him back to that end of the classroom.
"Firecaps." Severus calmly dictated to Draco, who was currently taking the notes of their results.
"Didn't you say this was lip balm potion?" Neville asked sounding a little doubtfull.
"Well, that's what the bottle said." Severus answered with a shrug for Lucius' benefit. Of course it was by now obvious to him that Blaise's lip balm was definitely not any kind of balm.
"Maybe the engorgio charm we used to have enough potion for the test screwed up the amounts?" Draco suggested.
"No," Severus shook his head. "This is how aurors work when examining potion traces found at murder sites. The potency of the potion is affected by the charm, but it's composition doesn't change at all."
Lucius took a relieved breath when the sparks stopped and returned to his desk until Gregory Goyle's cauldron boiled over.
Then Hermione Granger required a solid gold ladle from the potions office. Dean Thomas' cauldron sprayed it's contents onto the ceiling where they congealed into a fluorescent blue slime and Ron Weasley's cauldron melted, while Seamus Finnigan's potion turned his ladle and the bottle he tried to fill it into to stone.
Lavender Brown's potion evaporated and Harry Potter somehow managed to turn the fire under his cauldron black.
Lucius suspected that some of Potter's soup had spilled and fallen into the fire, but didn't really care. It was much more important that he didn't know how to extinguish the flame.
Turning it off had no more effect on it than an extinquo charm and freezing it only stopped its growth.
The whole class crowded around Potter's fire to gawk and Lucius was beginning to feel a little embarrassed about his helplessness. Dared he ask the students for suggestions?
"Convoco aquam!" a girl's voice sounded behind him and seconds later the flames died in a loud splash. Water dripped down from Harry's desk and into his book bag.
"Sorry." Hermione Granger said sheepishly. "I guess I should have warned you to remove your books first."
"My robes are soaked." Harry complained and Lucius had to agree with the boy wholeheartedly, even though he'd been lucky enough only to have his boots and the hem of his robes get wet.
"Idiot Mudblood!" Lucius cursed, then ordered the class to clean up their mess and get the hell out of his classroom. He hated teaching!
As the students left the room he suddenly remembered the attendance list. They'd all been here, considering that he had added a plus behind each name for their essays, but he had to write it down.
He pulled out his list. Just where was his quill? Well, there was another in his desk drawer. He pulled at it, but it seemed to be stuck. Bending down to see what was wrong he pulled a little harder and white foam sprayed into his face.
His eyes burning from the unidentified substance he could only imagine the looks of Severus, Draco and Neville as he heard them leave the class laughing and congratulating each other. He wasn't quite sure what for.
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DADA turned out very interesting as well. In honour of the full moon on Tuesday they had a discussion on what it would be like to be a werewolf and Remus told them some of his own experiences, which made it all seem much more real.
Transfiguration however put an end to the boys' good mood. Minerva McGonagall knew exactly whom she had to thank for the whipped cream to her face she had received in much the same way as Lucius and was accordingly very hard on them today.
Severus was still unable to age his plant properly, though he recited the recipe for plant growth potion for Minerva.
Draco was scowling at everybody remembering his father's scolding, while Neville was worried that ageing it might shorten his poor plant's lifetime and insisted that the plants all required larger pots.
Harry and Ron got into some strange argument about something to do with Percy and Seamus Finnigan threw his plant against the wall in a fit of rage startling Dean so much that he dropped his plant as well.
Neville raced to save the plants, but in his panic couldn't perform a proper reparo spell and had to ask Estella for help.
Lavender was pouting, because Pansy had managed to get a rose, while she only had ivy and Alice and Juliana got detention for incessant talking.
When Vincent and Blaise got into an argument as well and Millicent just barely managed to stop Gregory before he smashed his plant over Blaise's head Minerva finally had had enough.
"Everybody, sit down at once!" she thundered into the class.
Estella and Neville promptly sat on the floor next to Seamus' broken plant. Dean's had already been repotted and returned to its owner who was trying to revive it with a little water.
"In your chairs!" Minerva yelled at the two plant saviours. "Just what is wrong with you today!"
"There's a full moon tomorrow." Estella answered placatingly. After all they'd just talked about it in DADA. "That affects not only werewolves' tempers."
Minerva glared at her, but before she could find anything to say to that Theodore's voice broke the nervous silence in he classroom.
"I've got a headache." he announced. "I'm going to the hospital wing for some potion."
Minerva's wrath found a new target when he walked out without even waiting for her permission. It was a huge advantage that Theodore wasn't there to hear what she had to say about his behaviour, though he probably wouldn't be happy when his detention slip arrived at dinnertime.
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Severus once again used Tuesday's Care for Magical Creatures lesson to sneak into the girls' dorms. The common room was silent as last week and he was hoping to finish his trunk searching today. With a little luck another trip into the girls' dormitories would be unnecessary unless one of the first years made herself suspicious.
His first destination was the third years' dorm. He opened the door and. . .
"What the hell are you doing in here!"
Severus stared at Marsha Alton. "Why the hell are you in bed?"
"Madame Pomfrey told me to stay in bed today." Marsha declared haughtily. "I haven't been sleeping well and she gave me a potion that I'm supposed to sleep off. What's your excuse?'
"Diana Bardon's diary." Severus had caught himself by now and held up the little book. "I found it in the common room and thought I'd just come and see whether she's here, so I could give it back."
"Idiot." Marsha rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Diana's a fourth year. Next door over."
"Oh thanks." Severus smiled. "I thought she was a third year."
He closed the door again, but went into the opposite direction from where Marsha had pointed. No chance to search the third years' dorm today, but he could at least get the second years out of the way, if he worked quietly. Whatever Poppy had given Marsha should put her to sleep soon enough anyway. Then she wouldn't hear Severus sneak out.
The first trunk Severus opened was Clarissa Charlton's. An army of stuffed toys stared back at him. Severus wondered how Clarissa had managed to get her clothes and school supplies in along with all the toys. Maybe the trunk was charmed.
There were also a few comics and a romance novel, but nothing at all suspicious. Clarissa apparently was still very much a little girl.
The next trunk turned out to belong to Annie Morris, who wasn't suspicious at all. Severus gently closed it again and went on to the next one.
Monique Lassiter had about as many romance novels in her trunk as Clarissa Charlton had stuffed toys. There also was a considerable number of issues of teen witch, one of them opened to an instruction page on French kissing.
This one was definitely not so little a girl anymore, but nothing indicated that she had an interest in the dark arts either. Her interests clearly were of a more legal, though not necessarily approved of, kind.
There were a few beauty potions in there as well, that Severus took samples of before going on to the next trunk.
Luisa Hunter-Moor's protection spell managed to resist him for almost a minute. Her trunk contained a teddy bear, a stuffed owl, sweets, a large box of owl treats, several books on owls, two on the dark arts and a small collection of potions ingredients, mostly legal.
After making sure that there were no finished potions in there Severus snuck out again and into the fourth years' dorm. He laid Diana's diary on top of her bed with a note saying that he'd found it in the common room and left it here for her to find, since she had been in class, just in case Diana talked to Marsha.
Since there still was some time left he then slipped into the sixth years' dorm. After already having opened Pansy's and Millicent's trunks once he had no problems doing it again to take samples of their beauty products for his 'study project' in Potions.
Quite satisfied with himself he returned to the common room to wait for Draco.
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Remus didn't visit his house today. He was probably already locked up inside his office waiting for his transformation.
That of course meant that they had to put up with the Mattels brothers and their werewolf jokes. The third years happily joined in and even Quiddich captain Stephan LaCroix showed of his best wolf howl.
Severus went to bed early that night leaving Draco to watch their suspects make fun of his friend. He had a promise to keep after all. A certain rope still hadn't been replaced.
Theodore Nott found a mousetrap in his bed when it caught his right big toe that night.
The subsequent yelling match woke almost the entire house. Even the first second and third years came up from their dorms below to see what was going on.
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Severus and Draco were on their way out of the great hall after breakfast the next morning when they met the Gryffindor Quidditch team on its way out in full Quidditch gear.
"Hey, where are you going?" Draco called after them. "Classes start in ten minutes."
"We don't have class right now." Harry yelled back. "We decided to get a practise in since the whole team was free. See you later!"
"Shouldn't Potter and Weasley be in Divination?" Draco asked Severus a touch of doubt in his voice.
"Maybe Trelawney's sick?" Severus suggested. "I've got to go to Arithmancy, but you're free right now. Maybe you should follow them and keep an eye on what they're doing. At the very least you might learn something about their Quidditch strategy."
They went back to their common room, Severus to get his book bag, Draco for his cloak. The weather was already beginning to get cold and if he was going to stay outside for an entire hour, he might need the cloak.
As soon as he got outside he was glad he'd taken the precaution. The weather was sunny, but there was a cold wind that was very unpleasant. The Gryffindors were nowhere in sight.
Maybe they were still in the broom shed.
Draco decided that that was good news. After all he intended to spy on them.
He climbed the stands only partially until he was high enough to have a good view of the pitch then huddled into a corner. The walls would protect him from the wind on three sides and the players were very unlikely to notice him as long as he stayed away from the top of the stands.
Still no sign of the Gryffindors. Maybe they were discussing their strategy?
Voices from the castle doors.
Students from one of the lower years were hurrying in groups towards Hagrid's hut, laughing and joking, while two other groups were making their way towards the greenhouses, each staying close together apparently mistrusting the other. Draco thought he recognised one of the girls as a first year Slytherin, but was too far away to be sure.
Then they were inside and Draco couldn't hear them anymore.
He had to wait for what seemed like an eternity until the Gryffndors finally swarmed onto the pitch. They rose into the air with delighted shouts enjoying the rush of the wind.
There was Ginny with her long red hair flying, there Harry Potter rose above the rest with his wild mop of black hair. Another redhead hovered behind the team near the goalposts. Ron Weasley.
The new pair of beaters was a disaster compared to the Weasley twins, though, if Draco was entirely honest he wasn't even sure they were really any worse than Vincent and Gregory. The Gryffindor players just weren't used to having to look out for bludgers this much.
The Chasers on the other hand were doing great. It was hard to believe that Ginny was new to the trio. They seemed to read each other's minds.
Potter climbed higher in his search for the practise snitch Katie Bell had launched before she'd followed the team onto the pitch. Draco had to admit that she was a good choice as team captain. He'd hoped they'd choose Weasley, or maybe Potter for his fame. Bell would give the Slytherin team a hard time in their game.
Ron called out to the beaters angrily as he narrowly avoided another bludger. The balls seemed to have it in for him today.
Harry swooped down to check whether his friend had been hurt, but Ron waved at him and pointed at something on the other end of the pitch. The snitch!
Harry turned his broom in a tight spin and shot towards it, rising higher again so he wouldn't collide with the chasers. He swept over the girls in an elegant bow. Draco saw him push the broom handle down into a straight line for the snitch.
And suddenly Harry was falling. The broom handle still in his hand he was tumbling towards the ground while his broom's tail was spinning along beside him.
Before he could even think about it Draco was on his feet with his wand out. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Of course he could never hope to stop Harry's fall at this distance. The broom tail perhaps, but not something as heavy as an actual person. Still it would slow Harry's fall slightly. If some of the others tried as well . . .
There, the chasers now had their wands on Harry as he rushed past them and they were much closer. The boys however seemed too panicked to react. Weasley had his wand out, but was just clutching it ineffectively. Draco absently wondered whether he was even aware that he was holding it.
One of the beaters finally pulled his wand while the other was still just screaming in horror, but it was too late by now anyway. Draco thought he heard a thud as Harry hit the ground, though he was probably still too far away. He scrambled down the stairs and raced over while the Gryffindor Quidditch team landed around Harry.
The smaller beater raced past him on he way, not even sparing the older Slytherin a glance in his rush for the castle, and most certainly Madame Pomfrey.
Out of breath Draco let himself drop to his knees beside Harry's unmoving form. "Is he alright?"
Ginny sagged against him sobbing and he put his arms around her.
Professor Sprout was suddenly beside them conjuring a stretcher, a horde of screaming, crying, pale first years rushing up behind her.
"You!" Ron Weasley yelled pointing at Draco. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm trying to help!" Draco shouted back angrily. "I saw the accident and tried to slow Harry's fall while you were just staring."
"Oh yeah?" that beater he didn't even know he name of scoffed. "You probably caused this so Slytherin would win the cup. Why else would you be here in the first place?"
"To see our new players and spy on our tactics." Alicia said in an oddly calm tone. "Malfoy had no reason to sabotage us now. Our first game is months away and it isn't even against Slytherin."
"That tight spin must have been too much for his broom." Draco suggested. "Maybe it already had a crack he overlooked. After a few years of intensive use brooms sometimes just break."
Sprout gently levitated Harry onto the stretcher and pried the broom handle out of his hands. Apparently not knowing what to do with it afterwards she pressed it into Draco's hand, because he was closest and started to guide the stretcher back towards the castle.
Draco absently took the stick while his mind was on his still sobbing girlfriend. gently he directed her after the floating stretcher.
The beater bent down and picked up the broom's tail. "Do you think this can be repaired?" he asked nobody in particular.
Katie Bell took the bundle of twigs from his hands to inspect the breaking point. "This doesn't look like a break." she said wide eyed. "It looks like there never was a handle. As if the tail had just been cut off right there."
Draco quickly turned the stick in his hand over to inspect the other half of the break. Indeed there were no uneven splinters, no cracks, nothing. Just a straight clean cut. For a moment he could only stare at it blankly as thoughts raced through his head much too fast to hold on to any of them.
"Severing charm?" he finally suggested hardly noticing that he'd spoken out loud.
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TatraMegami - Well, Corvus always had a way of picking names for people. Sevi, as you've just seen is fine, but what about Harry?
Thistle - Why did Corvus name Luci Cockroach? Why did he name Draco Rascal? (Harry will be Bandit if the two ever get acquainted. . . . Slipped out? Who might have slipped out where? (tries to whistle innocently . . . Damn, I have absolutely no talent for music!)
Tia - Well, the characters' likes and dislikes just developed on the way. I guess I just like playing with these things. . . . Mike is actually the luckiest of the Rakers. He still has both parents and they even get along okay (not splendidly, but okay) and they also both have jobs. I think he might be secretly in love with somebody else's girl. (Definitely not one of the Rakers, but maybe a classmate?) . . . I wanted to have all of the students named so I could keep them apart. I knew what student from Draco's year was in what class at what time during all the West Hogsmeade chapters, but never meant for the reader to remember them all, just to get an idea of how huge the student body really was compared to Hogwarts. They're just part of the scenery. . . . You lucky thing! You actually managed to forget Martha? She was born in answer to a challenge by my friend PegaPony and ended up horrifying even her. . . . Marty is a fat squib boy that Draco had Astronomy with. He is rather antisocial, likes to sit alone, but proved that he could hold his own in a verbal duel with the Demons just fine. As a Squib he couldn't be in any of Draco's magical subjects, and he isn't a good enough student in most of the others, so we didn't meet him often. He asked Draco for Potions tutoring, but Draco refused him, because he didn't know enough about Squibs' Potions classes and abilities. . . . Tim did get a lot of attention in his first scene, though. . . . Actually, Harry tells Hagrid that he has no money to pay his tuition in the first book, but Hagrid takes Harry to his vault and shows him the money saying that that should be enough for seven years of school. I always assumed that that meant the school was paid automatically through his Gringotts account. . . . About the phones: Be glad that I accidentally learned the word cell phone a few weeks before writing that chapter. Here in Austria we call them Handys and usually assume that we adopted the English term. I bet very few readers would have been able to decipher that. . . . Yes, Soccer is called Football in Britain, but I deliberately decided for the American word there. I didn't want any American readers getting pictures of American Football in their heads whenever I mentioned the Rakers. . . . Actually I don't have a real beta. PegaPony read many chapters in advance, but her first language is German too, so she doesn't count as grammar or spelling beta. I use Word's spell check, but the grammar check comes up with the weirdest things and rarely an actual mistake, so I switched that off. The problem with a beta is that it would slow me down and I can't quite expect of anyone to go through all the mass of writing I put out al the time. Also I'm not sure I could take it. I've got low self esteem and I'm not sure I'd dare write any more, if I really knew how many mistakes I make. . . . There'll be a mini sequel to RD once I'm done with this, but I've got another fic waiting to be written and two waiting to be continued (different fandoms and unpublished, because I only ever want to work on one fic at a time), so I can't keep returning to the old ones forever. There's so much that still wants to be written. . . . West Hogsmeade was not left without a Charms tutor. Mike kept the business going and soon had several new partners. They even added Transfigurations tutoring to their programme by the end of the year. . . . Yes, Charlie's first boyfriend will be Neville. . . . Albus will help out with the school money to an extent, but mostly Sevi and Sarah will pay the money. It's only two more years, so they'll manage (Maybe Aunt Sabrina did take a share as well, since she has no other family. She does cling to the Snapes a lot, after all.) . . . I really shouldn't answer all those questions now. Some of them will be answered in the sequel, the rest have an answer only in my head, but feel free to think up your own, if you like. Or ask me again at the end of the sequel and I'll answer you then. . . .
Teri - I did consider making Susan a suspect, which would have given her more presence in the fic, but it just doesn't fit her. I'll try to give her a few more cameos, though.
Pam Briggs - I think I also said in a review response sometime, that there was no imperius curse involved. I'll expand on that and say there's no magical control of any sort involved. The one doing this is knowingly working for Voldemort.
moojja - They added Luci, because they're hoping the traitor will make the mistake of being too openly friendly with him. He was originally their only lead. Luci sin't unsupervised, by the way. Corvus stops all his mail and there's a house elf 'coincidentally' working just outside the door of every room he's in at all times. Luci could not have been in the great hall when the trap was sat, though. He was teaching at the time (and Albus made sure he had no time turner) and the students would have noticed their teacher leaving class. They'd have told immediately, especially after the headmaster announced there was a murderer loose in the school.
holly - Sorry, I just wrote another cliffhanger! They just suit mysteries so well! . . . Well, the original idea was for this to be about the same size as MNS. It definitely won't reach RD's length.
Elsa (You're no number to me!) - I know about that problem, but there wasn't really anything fitting I could have put in there. I like to occasionally run a list of suspects for anyone keeping score as it slowly shortens until . . . No, not until only one name remains, but I can't tell you, yet. . . . I like Remus, too and he makes a good adult friend for Sevi, the boy. Albus just doesn't fit the part. . . . Yes, I think naming myself after my horse would have been a good idea, though. Haven't seen anyone called Gisha around, yet. (I consider her a separate individual from myself, though. I'm Silverfox, she's Gisha and the other way round just doesn't fit.)
Iremione - Harry knows Sevi isn't out to murder him, that's all. . . . Yes, Curtis is one of those scary types. He probably ought to be in St. Mungo's, rather than school, but his parents are trying to tell themselves nothing's wrong. . . . Yes, the third years are a mean bunch. Curtis and Maximius have a rather bad influence on the rest of them. . . . I think I have to explain hat all our essays were written for the language classes in school, they never were actual scientific work. (You can't really ask students to do research, if you don't offer them a library, so they don't have to buy all the books, and study hours to use it in.) . . . Oh, the rest of the class was slightly taken aback by Luci's length requirements (as much as by his lack of clear topic), but they don't care about the sense behind their homework assignments as much as Hermione. (Sevi considers Luci's class a joke anyway. He never expected his students to learn anything from him in the first place.) . . . Okay, here's a hint: aga and matris are separate words. Aga is a nominative, but matris isn't and I'm not sure I formed it correctly. It's been 11 years since my last Latin class and we only translated from Latin into German after the second year of learning it. . . . Sex on cartoons? Is that legal in America? (Considering they have problems telling teenagers about safe sex I'd be surprised.) Don't think it is here.
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A/N: What does the name Harry gave Hermione's potion actually mean? (Still nobody answered that. Hint: aga, matris) Is draco really that bad in Transfigurations? Will Harry survive? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
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Next: Sevi looks for Draco, Draco had a glaring match with the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Lucius attends a meeting.
Disclaimer 2 - Draco drawing dragons belongs to PikaCheeka. Sorry I forgot to mention that in the first chapter of MNS. I sort of adopted the idea subconsciously.
Disclaimer 3 - Severus' raven belongs to J. L. Matthews. I just borrowed him because he's such a perfect pet for Sevi and promise to return him unharmed.
The catar however are all mine and I love them so please don't use without asking me first.
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A/N - The first chapter of the Russian version of My Name's Severus is now out, in case any of you know the language. It's really pretty to look at, but since I don't even know a single Russian letter, I have no idea what it sais.
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Chapter 7: Headaches
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"I was teachin' the fifth years, yes." Hagrid told them apparently thinking nothing of the question. "Such a nice class. I really love working with them. Not that I don' love you as well."
The students laughed. Draco leaned back against the wooden fence behind them and looked up to the sky.
"Hey, isn't Minx Hutchings in that class? Or was she a fourth year?" he asked the huge cloud drifting past over their heads.
"Minx Hutchings?" Vincent asked him. "Whoever is Minx Hutchings?"
"I know." Neville grinned. Now that Trevor was better he was much happier and taking more interest in the goings on around him once again. "Isn't that the girl that's always teasing Luna Lovegood? A bit mean, if you ask me."
"Yes, that's her." Draco confirmed, even though he wasn't entirely sure. Luna Lovegood definitely was a fifth year Ravenclaw and Minx was more than a bit mean, so it fit.
"What about her?" Theodore asked not looking up from the stick he was skinning.
"Nothing. Just wondering what year she's in." Draco mumbled watching the clouds once again.
"Fifth." Neville reported. "Just like Luna."
"Who cares?" Theodore shrugged flicking another strip of bark into the wind.
It landed on Pansy's robes.
"Hey, watch where you're throwing that!" Pansy yelled picking it off and throwing it against the next gust of wind. Naturally it came right back at her. "Those things leave ugly stains!"
"Whatever are you doing that for anyway?" Blaise asked Theodore nodding towards the mistreated stick.
Theodore shrugged. "Don't know. Just for fun, I guess."
Hagrid's class was exceedingly boring today. He kept promising that he had something special for them, but unfortunately whatever the animal was, it hadn't been delivered, yet, so Hagrid had announced they'd do a quick recap of what they'd learned last year. Of course Hagrid wasn't entirely sure exactly what he'd taught which year himself, so the conversation had soon drifted off to other classes and the incident at lunch the day before.
"You don't think Minx would want to kill Harry?" Neville asked Draco a little too loudly. Hagrid was looking their way.
Then again, that was exactly what Draco wanted.
"How would I know." he shrugged. "I hardly know the girl."
"Minx?" Harry had apparently heard it too. "Who's Minx?"
"Minx Hutchings." Neville explained obligingly. "You know, the one that's always bothering Luna."
"Oh her." Harry nodded in recognition. "You think she's the spy?"
"Killer." Dean Thomas corrected. "Face it, Harry, someone's out to murder you."
"Yeah, but Minx Hutchings?" Ron Weasley commented. "She's just a little girl. I mean, she's the same age as Ginny, Harry."
"Fifteen." Seamus reminded him. "That's hardly a baby anymore."
"Well, she probably was in class anyway." Draco commented with a shrug.
Ron shot him an angry glance. Everybody knew he hated the thought of Malfoy dating his sister even though Draco had been much nicer to him since then.
"Hey Hagrid!" Ron called out. "Was Minx Hutchings in that class?"
"What class, Ron?" Hagrid asked with a smile. He'd already drifted on to another topic.
"Yesterday's fifth year class." Harry explained with a slight sigh. He looked a little depressed today. Having an assassin after him was apparently getting to him.
"Yes, yes, little Minx takes Care for Magical Creatures." Hagrid answered beaming. "Such a beautiful name Minx."
"But was she here yesterday?" Ron demanded.
"Well, where else would she have been?" Hagrid asked confused.
"Oh, she might have decided to skip class." Draco suggested sarcastically. "Or been sick, or have gone to the bathroom."
"Nah, they were all here." Hagrid said. "I'm sure they were."
"And she wouldn't have missed the whole class, if she'd gone to the bathroom." Harry pointed out.
"It would have given her an excuse to return to the castle, though." Neville suggested.
"Nonsense." Hermione scoffed. "We always use Hagrid's bathroom, if we have to go during his class. Why would the fifth years go back to the castle for it?"
"Right." Hagrid confirmed. "I never send them back to the castle. It takes too long."
Draco smirked to himself. Mission accomplished.
Or at least as accomplished as it could be with Hagrid. The buffoon didn't seem all that sure of his facts, but it was probably the best answer he could give. Now he just had to explain that to Severus.
That turned out to be a problem, though. Severus wasn't in the common room when Draco got back and there was no time to look for him. They were already late for Latin class.
Well, most likely Severus was already there.
He wasn't, though, and he didn't show up for lunch either though Draco waited through the entire meal. Greenie's cage stood open on Severus' bed, but the hedgehog wasn't inside. Draco waited in the common room for a while, then went to check he library. Nothing.
By now he was seriously worried, but he had to go to Transfigrations and skipping McGonagall's class was never wise. Hopefully Severus knew that too and would be there.
At first Draco's hopes were disappointed once again, but about halfway through the class Severus walked in and handed McGonagall a slip of parchment.
"Where were you?" Draco hissed as Severus slipped into his seat beside him. "I already thought . . ."
"I just went to the hospital wing for some headache potion." Severus declared loud enough for the whole class to hear. "Of course Madame Pomfrey immediately decided she had to give me a full check-up, just in case it wasn't just a headache."
"Hagrid thinks that ..." Draco started.
"Later." Severus hissed. "Not in the middle of class with everybody staring at us."
Draco sighed but had to admit that they were only attracting attention.
Severus took his time packing up after class and finally went up to McGonagall's desk when everybody except him and Draco had left.
"You'll be late for your next class, Severus." McGonagall warned him, but Severus just shrugged.
"I'll just say I had to ask you what I missed." he explained. "You taught the Gryffindor and Slytherin fourth years yesterday before the incident?"
Minerva nodded. "Yes, but I'm sure Albus already told you."
"Mattis Parker was missing, Iago Orson left early and some students left temporarily to go to the bathroom?"
"Rudolph Rash and Sally Arden, yes." Minerva confirmed. "But you can't actually suspect them. They're Gryffindors."
"Peter Pettigrew, Professor." Severus told her once again calmly.
"Maybe so, but not either of those two. I know these children, Severus."
"I didn't come to ask about them anyway." Severus said noncommittally. "I wanted to talk about Diana Bardon."
"Diana Bardon?" Minerva blinked. "She's one of yours. I hardly know her."
"But you were in that class at the time." Severus pointed out. "Did she ever leave, even if just for a minute?"
Minerva closed her eyes for a moment trying to remember. "No, she was here the entire time."
"Are you completely sure of that?"
"Yes, completely." Minrva confirmed without hesitation.
Severus nodded. "Thank you, Professor, that's all I needed to know."
Draco finally got to tell Severus what Hagrid had said on the way to Ancient Runes. The classes had already started, so there was nobody in the halls to overhear them.
"We can't be sure, though." Severus finally said. "Hagrid thinks Minx was there, but what if he's wrong? We'll still have to keep an eye on her."
"So what did you learn from your search?" Draco asked not really interested.
"Maximius Mattels uses poisoned needles to protect his trunk."
"Oh." Draco commented with a shrug. "Wait a minute! Needles? Like the shards that hurt Ginny?"
"I don't think they were transfigured, and the shards weren't poisoned, but the basic idea is similar." Severus admitted. "We'll have to watch Maximius closely."
"What about Hieronymus?" Draco suggested. "If I were Voldemort, I'd use the older brother."
"Maximius might have skills that Hieronymus doesn't." Severus explained. "At least Hieronymus didn't have such an elaborate trap on his trunk. None of the others used poison in fact."
"Are you absolutely sure he used poison? How do you know?"
"Did you really think I went to the hospital wing because I had a headache?" Severus grinned at him and before Draco could ask anything more slipped into the Ancient Runes class.
Draco stared after him in shock for a moment, then remembered that he'd better get inside, if he didn't want a detention.
Professor Rosetta wasn't there, though. He should probably have expected that. That teacher was always late, at least he always had been in Latin class, so why should he suddenly be punctual just because he was teaching Runes now.
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Friday evening the boys made a new more detailed list of all their suspects that also listed the various clues they had for and against each of them. Severus even invented a way to rearrange the sequence of names according to how suspicious each suspect was without having to rewrite the list each time, but Draco found that the charm was a little too complicated for him. He only got it right two out of five times and finally decided to leave the rearranging of the list to Severus.
Draco reluctantly went to visit his father in his office on Saturday and tried to talk to him about Voldemort and his plans and even the attack on Harry Potter, but Lucius didn't seem to be in the mood to boast. Instead he took the boy to task about his Transfigurations grades, which, as usual, didn't meet his expectations.
Draco frowned at Lucius already regretting his visit. "I'm not in any danger of failing the class and my grades are much better than Severus'.
"You could still do better, though. It's a shame to the Malfoy name, if you don't do your best. You have the necessary intelligence and more than enough magical talent. But of course you don't care about your future. You'd much rather be lazy and rely on me to do everything for you. You think I have the time to ..."
Draco stopped listening at that point. He'd heard the speech a thousand times before. Next Lucius would rant about how he was letting down his mother and then he'd usually go and scold his mother for not seeing to it that their son had better morals and grades. Well, he couldn't do that now.
Why had he come here again? This was useless. He'd never learn anything about Voldemort's plans like that.
The worst of it was that when he left he noticed Ron Weasley peeking out of the Potions classroom right next doors. So the Weasel had overheard their whole conversation.
Well, it wasn't like it was anything embarrassing, right? Of course Arthur Weasley talked just the same way to his son, didn't he?
Ron smirked at him when he realised Draco had seen him.
"Are you done with all your scrubbing, Weasel?" Draco asked him acidly. "Father takes your detentions seriously, doesn't he?"
"At least he isn't my father." Ron shrugged surprisingly docile for once. "My father loves his children."
Draco glared at him, but decided it wasn't worth the trouble he might get in with Ginny, if he beat up her brother. Instead he returned to the common room to report his failure to Severus.
Severus however wasn't there at the moment. He was shadowing the Mattels brothers today. Apparently this had turned into a personal vendetta for him. Draco sighed and decided to get some more useful work done by attaching himself to Blaise and Theodore who were playing chess in a corner. They ended up playing a little tournament, which was actually fun, even though Theodore won.
Sunday Draco had planned to spend with Ginny, but she never came to their meeting. Dejectedly Draco trudged back to the Slytherin dorms and ended up helping Severus to set a few traps in their teachers' offices.
Ginny didn't show up all day, not even at mealtimes, nor did her brother. Not that Draco missed the weasel.
The next morning at breakfast Estella finally solved the mystery for him.
"Look, Draco!" she shouted excitedly and shoved her copy of the Daily Prophet down the table towards him.
Theodore, who feared the paper might end up in his porridge picked it up with a quick levitation charm and transported it right into Draco's hands.
"What is it?" Vincent demanded as Draco and Severus buried their noses in the paper. "Something exciting?"
"Ministry employee survives He Who Must Not Be Named's torture." Draco read out the headline for his friends. "They found Percy Weasley and he's actually alive! That's why Ginny isn't here. She must have gone to London to visit him."
"Our Lord actually let him out alive?" Gregory asked surprised.
"No, it was an accident." Draco reported. "He was tortured and left to die out in the moor. Coincidentally Lee Jordan happened to walk past on a walk with his girlfriend and heard Percy groan. He was rushed to St. Mungos just in time to save his life."
"Well, that's good for you, isn't it?" Vincent asked. "Ginny will be happy to have her brother back."
"She'll be unhappy about him being in so much pain, though." Severus interjected. "Still, considering that we already thought Percy was dead, it is good news."
Indeed it was. Ginny returned later that morning and she couldn't stop telling Draco about how glad they all were that Percy was alive and back.
"He's in terrible pain, but he'll live." she said with tears in her eyes. "He's back! I just can't believe he got away when all the others died. He even woke up for a bit while we were there. Mum was so happy when he said her name."
Neville was unusually happy, too and celebrated the day by placing a mouse trap under their homework scrolls on Lucius' desk. It only caught Professor Malfoy's sleeve unfortunately, but that was better than nothing and Lucius' surprised yelp was much enjoyed by the whole class.
"We're going to pay for that." Draco whispered to Severus when he saw the angry look with which his father regarded the class.
"Weasley, detention!" Lucius roared to everybody's surprise.
The students stared at their teacher.
"But . . . but that wasn't even me!" Ron stuttered clearly just as unprepared for this as everybody else.
"I don't care." Lucius shrugged. "Somebody has to pay for this prank and I know I have no chance of identifying the culprit. You are the most obnoxious student in this class and I don't like your face. Now get on with your study projects."
The students exchanged even more surprised glances.
"The independent study projects, Professor?" Alice asked in disbelief. They'd been lucky to get away with this once. She'd never thought that Lucius would let them spend another lesson, a double lesson at that, on such frivolities.
"Of course." Lucius answered. "What else?"
"But our project is complete." Neville reminded Lucius.
"Then join one of the other groups to help them or start a new one. Just report to me what you're doing." Lucius answered annoyed.
"I've already thought of something." Severus reported. "I have brought samples of various commercial potions, that Draco and I are going to analyse to determine their contents. Neville is welcome to join us, if he wants to. We could use another cauldron for this."
Neville was delighted by the idea and thus they pulled two worktables together so they could coordinate their work better. Harry Potter joined the group with his latest cooking project. He'd apparently given up the idea of caramel and was now trying to make some sort of soup that was actually supposed to have some magic in it as well.
"There has to be a way to make it have any taste you want it to." Harry explained wistfully.
Lucius nodded contentedly and started reading homework essays. He was beginning to doubt that between ten and twenty inches had been a good limit to set his students. Gregory Goyle's writing was large enough that he'd reached ten inches in only nine lines, while Severus Snape and Hermione Granger had written so small it was impossible to read.
Lucius sighed to himself. He refused to wear reading glasses.
Maybe a limit of one hundred words would serve his purpose better?
He pondered that while adding another line of plusses in his notebook.
Meanwhile at the other end of the classroom Neville was inspecting the samples Severus had taken from the potions he'd found in his house mates' trunks.
"So why are we really doing this?" he asked Severus. "I'm sure you could come up with something more interesting to brew than this."
To Draco's surprise Severus nodded admitting to having hidden motives. "Lucius is practically inviting us to steal ingredients and I've seen evidence of a drug ring in the school lately." Severus explained. "I'm trying to figure out just how bad the problem is."
"By analysing potions?" Neville asked surprised.
"These all claimed to be make up or hair styling potions on the bottles, but that doesn't mean they really are. It would be a clever way of disguising illegal potions to fill them into your empty hair styling potion bottle." Severus said softly.
"Are you sure?" Harry Potter asked surprised. "Drugs at Hogwarts?"
"Shhh!" Draco hissed at him. "Not so loud."
"Yes, drugs." Severus told him. "I'm hoping the problem is limited to a small group of Slytherins, but so far I have no proof."
"Who?" Harry asked eagerly.
"Nobody from our year as far as I can tell so far." was all Severus told him. "We'd best start with only one potion at a time." he said to his two partners. "We'll prepare a different analysing solution in each cauldron."
Harry watched them work for a bit, but then returned to his soup recipe. He wasn't really interested in how to recognise drugs. He wanted to know more about the people who took them.
At the teachers desk Lucius was leaning back in his chair furrowing his forehead at the article about Percy Weasley.
"Can't we do something else?" Dean Thomas complained to Seamus and Ron. He'd agreed to join them in their attempts at brewing mind control potion and pulled over his desk to work wit them. but his heart wasn't in it.
He'd probably have preferred to try one of the Weasley twins' old recipes, or maybe invisible ink, Severus suspected.
Hermione Granger had actually removed her cauldron from their group and was now working next to Estella Rashton. Those two seemed to get along surprisingly well for a Gryffindor and a Slytherin, but then neither of them was very typical for their house. They would both have made good Ravenclaws, if the sorting hat had decided differently.
Lucius was relaxed and happy with his paper until the first explosion.
This time it was Alice and Juliana's cauldron that went off first.
"Too many dragon claws." Severus informed Juliana when she almost collided with him in her frightened jump backwards.
"Well, the recipe called for lizard claws." she admitted while they watched Lucius and Alice try to wave away the smoke so they could see the extent of the damage. "There weren't any left and a dragon is a big lizard after all."
Lucius had only just sat down again when red sparks flying from Neville's cauldron drew him back to that end of the classroom.
"Firecaps." Severus calmly dictated to Draco, who was currently taking the notes of their results.
"Didn't you say this was lip balm potion?" Neville asked sounding a little doubtfull.
"Well, that's what the bottle said." Severus answered with a shrug for Lucius' benefit. Of course it was by now obvious to him that Blaise's lip balm was definitely not any kind of balm.
"Maybe the engorgio charm we used to have enough potion for the test screwed up the amounts?" Draco suggested.
"No," Severus shook his head. "This is how aurors work when examining potion traces found at murder sites. The potency of the potion is affected by the charm, but it's composition doesn't change at all."
Lucius took a relieved breath when the sparks stopped and returned to his desk until Gregory Goyle's cauldron boiled over.
Then Hermione Granger required a solid gold ladle from the potions office. Dean Thomas' cauldron sprayed it's contents onto the ceiling where they congealed into a fluorescent blue slime and Ron Weasley's cauldron melted, while Seamus Finnigan's potion turned his ladle and the bottle he tried to fill it into to stone.
Lavender Brown's potion evaporated and Harry Potter somehow managed to turn the fire under his cauldron black.
Lucius suspected that some of Potter's soup had spilled and fallen into the fire, but didn't really care. It was much more important that he didn't know how to extinguish the flame.
Turning it off had no more effect on it than an extinquo charm and freezing it only stopped its growth.
The whole class crowded around Potter's fire to gawk and Lucius was beginning to feel a little embarrassed about his helplessness. Dared he ask the students for suggestions?
"Convoco aquam!" a girl's voice sounded behind him and seconds later the flames died in a loud splash. Water dripped down from Harry's desk and into his book bag.
"Sorry." Hermione Granger said sheepishly. "I guess I should have warned you to remove your books first."
"My robes are soaked." Harry complained and Lucius had to agree with the boy wholeheartedly, even though he'd been lucky enough only to have his boots and the hem of his robes get wet.
"Idiot Mudblood!" Lucius cursed, then ordered the class to clean up their mess and get the hell out of his classroom. He hated teaching!
As the students left the room he suddenly remembered the attendance list. They'd all been here, considering that he had added a plus behind each name for their essays, but he had to write it down.
He pulled out his list. Just where was his quill? Well, there was another in his desk drawer. He pulled at it, but it seemed to be stuck. Bending down to see what was wrong he pulled a little harder and white foam sprayed into his face.
His eyes burning from the unidentified substance he could only imagine the looks of Severus, Draco and Neville as he heard them leave the class laughing and congratulating each other. He wasn't quite sure what for.
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DADA turned out very interesting as well. In honour of the full moon on Tuesday they had a discussion on what it would be like to be a werewolf and Remus told them some of his own experiences, which made it all seem much more real.
Transfiguration however put an end to the boys' good mood. Minerva McGonagall knew exactly whom she had to thank for the whipped cream to her face she had received in much the same way as Lucius and was accordingly very hard on them today.
Severus was still unable to age his plant properly, though he recited the recipe for plant growth potion for Minerva.
Draco was scowling at everybody remembering his father's scolding, while Neville was worried that ageing it might shorten his poor plant's lifetime and insisted that the plants all required larger pots.
Harry and Ron got into some strange argument about something to do with Percy and Seamus Finnigan threw his plant against the wall in a fit of rage startling Dean so much that he dropped his plant as well.
Neville raced to save the plants, but in his panic couldn't perform a proper reparo spell and had to ask Estella for help.
Lavender was pouting, because Pansy had managed to get a rose, while she only had ivy and Alice and Juliana got detention for incessant talking.
When Vincent and Blaise got into an argument as well and Millicent just barely managed to stop Gregory before he smashed his plant over Blaise's head Minerva finally had had enough.
"Everybody, sit down at once!" she thundered into the class.
Estella and Neville promptly sat on the floor next to Seamus' broken plant. Dean's had already been repotted and returned to its owner who was trying to revive it with a little water.
"In your chairs!" Minerva yelled at the two plant saviours. "Just what is wrong with you today!"
"There's a full moon tomorrow." Estella answered placatingly. After all they'd just talked about it in DADA. "That affects not only werewolves' tempers."
Minerva glared at her, but before she could find anything to say to that Theodore's voice broke the nervous silence in he classroom.
"I've got a headache." he announced. "I'm going to the hospital wing for some potion."
Minerva's wrath found a new target when he walked out without even waiting for her permission. It was a huge advantage that Theodore wasn't there to hear what she had to say about his behaviour, though he probably wouldn't be happy when his detention slip arrived at dinnertime.
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Severus once again used Tuesday's Care for Magical Creatures lesson to sneak into the girls' dorms. The common room was silent as last week and he was hoping to finish his trunk searching today. With a little luck another trip into the girls' dormitories would be unnecessary unless one of the first years made herself suspicious.
His first destination was the third years' dorm. He opened the door and. . .
"What the hell are you doing in here!"
Severus stared at Marsha Alton. "Why the hell are you in bed?"
"Madame Pomfrey told me to stay in bed today." Marsha declared haughtily. "I haven't been sleeping well and she gave me a potion that I'm supposed to sleep off. What's your excuse?'
"Diana Bardon's diary." Severus had caught himself by now and held up the little book. "I found it in the common room and thought I'd just come and see whether she's here, so I could give it back."
"Idiot." Marsha rolled her eyes exasperatedly. "Diana's a fourth year. Next door over."
"Oh thanks." Severus smiled. "I thought she was a third year."
He closed the door again, but went into the opposite direction from where Marsha had pointed. No chance to search the third years' dorm today, but he could at least get the second years out of the way, if he worked quietly. Whatever Poppy had given Marsha should put her to sleep soon enough anyway. Then she wouldn't hear Severus sneak out.
The first trunk Severus opened was Clarissa Charlton's. An army of stuffed toys stared back at him. Severus wondered how Clarissa had managed to get her clothes and school supplies in along with all the toys. Maybe the trunk was charmed.
There were also a few comics and a romance novel, but nothing at all suspicious. Clarissa apparently was still very much a little girl.
The next trunk turned out to belong to Annie Morris, who wasn't suspicious at all. Severus gently closed it again and went on to the next one.
Monique Lassiter had about as many romance novels in her trunk as Clarissa Charlton had stuffed toys. There also was a considerable number of issues of teen witch, one of them opened to an instruction page on French kissing.
This one was definitely not so little a girl anymore, but nothing indicated that she had an interest in the dark arts either. Her interests clearly were of a more legal, though not necessarily approved of, kind.
There were a few beauty potions in there as well, that Severus took samples of before going on to the next trunk.
Luisa Hunter-Moor's protection spell managed to resist him for almost a minute. Her trunk contained a teddy bear, a stuffed owl, sweets, a large box of owl treats, several books on owls, two on the dark arts and a small collection of potions ingredients, mostly legal.
After making sure that there were no finished potions in there Severus snuck out again and into the fourth years' dorm. He laid Diana's diary on top of her bed with a note saying that he'd found it in the common room and left it here for her to find, since she had been in class, just in case Diana talked to Marsha.
Since there still was some time left he then slipped into the sixth years' dorm. After already having opened Pansy's and Millicent's trunks once he had no problems doing it again to take samples of their beauty products for his 'study project' in Potions.
Quite satisfied with himself he returned to the common room to wait for Draco.
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Remus didn't visit his house today. He was probably already locked up inside his office waiting for his transformation.
That of course meant that they had to put up with the Mattels brothers and their werewolf jokes. The third years happily joined in and even Quiddich captain Stephan LaCroix showed of his best wolf howl.
Severus went to bed early that night leaving Draco to watch their suspects make fun of his friend. He had a promise to keep after all. A certain rope still hadn't been replaced.
Theodore Nott found a mousetrap in his bed when it caught his right big toe that night.
The subsequent yelling match woke almost the entire house. Even the first second and third years came up from their dorms below to see what was going on.
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Severus and Draco were on their way out of the great hall after breakfast the next morning when they met the Gryffindor Quidditch team on its way out in full Quidditch gear.
"Hey, where are you going?" Draco called after them. "Classes start in ten minutes."
"We don't have class right now." Harry yelled back. "We decided to get a practise in since the whole team was free. See you later!"
"Shouldn't Potter and Weasley be in Divination?" Draco asked Severus a touch of doubt in his voice.
"Maybe Trelawney's sick?" Severus suggested. "I've got to go to Arithmancy, but you're free right now. Maybe you should follow them and keep an eye on what they're doing. At the very least you might learn something about their Quidditch strategy."
They went back to their common room, Severus to get his book bag, Draco for his cloak. The weather was already beginning to get cold and if he was going to stay outside for an entire hour, he might need the cloak.
As soon as he got outside he was glad he'd taken the precaution. The weather was sunny, but there was a cold wind that was very unpleasant. The Gryffindors were nowhere in sight.
Maybe they were still in the broom shed.
Draco decided that that was good news. After all he intended to spy on them.
He climbed the stands only partially until he was high enough to have a good view of the pitch then huddled into a corner. The walls would protect him from the wind on three sides and the players were very unlikely to notice him as long as he stayed away from the top of the stands.
Still no sign of the Gryffindors. Maybe they were discussing their strategy?
Voices from the castle doors.
Students from one of the lower years were hurrying in groups towards Hagrid's hut, laughing and joking, while two other groups were making their way towards the greenhouses, each staying close together apparently mistrusting the other. Draco thought he recognised one of the girls as a first year Slytherin, but was too far away to be sure.
Then they were inside and Draco couldn't hear them anymore.
He had to wait for what seemed like an eternity until the Gryffndors finally swarmed onto the pitch. They rose into the air with delighted shouts enjoying the rush of the wind.
There was Ginny with her long red hair flying, there Harry Potter rose above the rest with his wild mop of black hair. Another redhead hovered behind the team near the goalposts. Ron Weasley.
The new pair of beaters was a disaster compared to the Weasley twins, though, if Draco was entirely honest he wasn't even sure they were really any worse than Vincent and Gregory. The Gryffindor players just weren't used to having to look out for bludgers this much.
The Chasers on the other hand were doing great. It was hard to believe that Ginny was new to the trio. They seemed to read each other's minds.
Potter climbed higher in his search for the practise snitch Katie Bell had launched before she'd followed the team onto the pitch. Draco had to admit that she was a good choice as team captain. He'd hoped they'd choose Weasley, or maybe Potter for his fame. Bell would give the Slytherin team a hard time in their game.
Ron called out to the beaters angrily as he narrowly avoided another bludger. The balls seemed to have it in for him today.
Harry swooped down to check whether his friend had been hurt, but Ron waved at him and pointed at something on the other end of the pitch. The snitch!
Harry turned his broom in a tight spin and shot towards it, rising higher again so he wouldn't collide with the chasers. He swept over the girls in an elegant bow. Draco saw him push the broom handle down into a straight line for the snitch.
And suddenly Harry was falling. The broom handle still in his hand he was tumbling towards the ground while his broom's tail was spinning along beside him.
Before he could even think about it Draco was on his feet with his wand out. "Wingardium Leviosa!"
Of course he could never hope to stop Harry's fall at this distance. The broom tail perhaps, but not something as heavy as an actual person. Still it would slow Harry's fall slightly. If some of the others tried as well . . .
There, the chasers now had their wands on Harry as he rushed past them and they were much closer. The boys however seemed too panicked to react. Weasley had his wand out, but was just clutching it ineffectively. Draco absently wondered whether he was even aware that he was holding it.
One of the beaters finally pulled his wand while the other was still just screaming in horror, but it was too late by now anyway. Draco thought he heard a thud as Harry hit the ground, though he was probably still too far away. He scrambled down the stairs and raced over while the Gryffindor Quidditch team landed around Harry.
The smaller beater raced past him on he way, not even sparing the older Slytherin a glance in his rush for the castle, and most certainly Madame Pomfrey.
Out of breath Draco let himself drop to his knees beside Harry's unmoving form. "Is he alright?"
Ginny sagged against him sobbing and he put his arms around her.
Professor Sprout was suddenly beside them conjuring a stretcher, a horde of screaming, crying, pale first years rushing up behind her.
"You!" Ron Weasley yelled pointing at Draco. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"
"I'm trying to help!" Draco shouted back angrily. "I saw the accident and tried to slow Harry's fall while you were just staring."
"Oh yeah?" that beater he didn't even know he name of scoffed. "You probably caused this so Slytherin would win the cup. Why else would you be here in the first place?"
"To see our new players and spy on our tactics." Alicia said in an oddly calm tone. "Malfoy had no reason to sabotage us now. Our first game is months away and it isn't even against Slytherin."
"That tight spin must have been too much for his broom." Draco suggested. "Maybe it already had a crack he overlooked. After a few years of intensive use brooms sometimes just break."
Sprout gently levitated Harry onto the stretcher and pried the broom handle out of his hands. Apparently not knowing what to do with it afterwards she pressed it into Draco's hand, because he was closest and started to guide the stretcher back towards the castle.
Draco absently took the stick while his mind was on his still sobbing girlfriend. gently he directed her after the floating stretcher.
The beater bent down and picked up the broom's tail. "Do you think this can be repaired?" he asked nobody in particular.
Katie Bell took the bundle of twigs from his hands to inspect the breaking point. "This doesn't look like a break." she said wide eyed. "It looks like there never was a handle. As if the tail had just been cut off right there."
Draco quickly turned the stick in his hand over to inspect the other half of the break. Indeed there were no uneven splinters, no cracks, nothing. Just a straight clean cut. For a moment he could only stare at it blankly as thoughts raced through his head much too fast to hold on to any of them.
"Severing charm?" he finally suggested hardly noticing that he'd spoken out loud.
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TatraMegami - Well, Corvus always had a way of picking names for people. Sevi, as you've just seen is fine, but what about Harry?
Thistle - Why did Corvus name Luci Cockroach? Why did he name Draco Rascal? (Harry will be Bandit if the two ever get acquainted. . . . Slipped out? Who might have slipped out where? (tries to whistle innocently . . . Damn, I have absolutely no talent for music!)
Tia - Well, the characters' likes and dislikes just developed on the way. I guess I just like playing with these things. . . . Mike is actually the luckiest of the Rakers. He still has both parents and they even get along okay (not splendidly, but okay) and they also both have jobs. I think he might be secretly in love with somebody else's girl. (Definitely not one of the Rakers, but maybe a classmate?) . . . I wanted to have all of the students named so I could keep them apart. I knew what student from Draco's year was in what class at what time during all the West Hogsmeade chapters, but never meant for the reader to remember them all, just to get an idea of how huge the student body really was compared to Hogwarts. They're just part of the scenery. . . . You lucky thing! You actually managed to forget Martha? She was born in answer to a challenge by my friend PegaPony and ended up horrifying even her. . . . Marty is a fat squib boy that Draco had Astronomy with. He is rather antisocial, likes to sit alone, but proved that he could hold his own in a verbal duel with the Demons just fine. As a Squib he couldn't be in any of Draco's magical subjects, and he isn't a good enough student in most of the others, so we didn't meet him often. He asked Draco for Potions tutoring, but Draco refused him, because he didn't know enough about Squibs' Potions classes and abilities. . . . Tim did get a lot of attention in his first scene, though. . . . Actually, Harry tells Hagrid that he has no money to pay his tuition in the first book, but Hagrid takes Harry to his vault and shows him the money saying that that should be enough for seven years of school. I always assumed that that meant the school was paid automatically through his Gringotts account. . . . About the phones: Be glad that I accidentally learned the word cell phone a few weeks before writing that chapter. Here in Austria we call them Handys and usually assume that we adopted the English term. I bet very few readers would have been able to decipher that. . . . Yes, Soccer is called Football in Britain, but I deliberately decided for the American word there. I didn't want any American readers getting pictures of American Football in their heads whenever I mentioned the Rakers. . . . Actually I don't have a real beta. PegaPony read many chapters in advance, but her first language is German too, so she doesn't count as grammar or spelling beta. I use Word's spell check, but the grammar check comes up with the weirdest things and rarely an actual mistake, so I switched that off. The problem with a beta is that it would slow me down and I can't quite expect of anyone to go through all the mass of writing I put out al the time. Also I'm not sure I could take it. I've got low self esteem and I'm not sure I'd dare write any more, if I really knew how many mistakes I make. . . . There'll be a mini sequel to RD once I'm done with this, but I've got another fic waiting to be written and two waiting to be continued (different fandoms and unpublished, because I only ever want to work on one fic at a time), so I can't keep returning to the old ones forever. There's so much that still wants to be written. . . . West Hogsmeade was not left without a Charms tutor. Mike kept the business going and soon had several new partners. They even added Transfigurations tutoring to their programme by the end of the year. . . . Yes, Charlie's first boyfriend will be Neville. . . . Albus will help out with the school money to an extent, but mostly Sevi and Sarah will pay the money. It's only two more years, so they'll manage (Maybe Aunt Sabrina did take a share as well, since she has no other family. She does cling to the Snapes a lot, after all.) . . . I really shouldn't answer all those questions now. Some of them will be answered in the sequel, the rest have an answer only in my head, but feel free to think up your own, if you like. Or ask me again at the end of the sequel and I'll answer you then. . . .
Teri - I did consider making Susan a suspect, which would have given her more presence in the fic, but it just doesn't fit her. I'll try to give her a few more cameos, though.
Pam Briggs - I think I also said in a review response sometime, that there was no imperius curse involved. I'll expand on that and say there's no magical control of any sort involved. The one doing this is knowingly working for Voldemort.
moojja - They added Luci, because they're hoping the traitor will make the mistake of being too openly friendly with him. He was originally their only lead. Luci sin't unsupervised, by the way. Corvus stops all his mail and there's a house elf 'coincidentally' working just outside the door of every room he's in at all times. Luci could not have been in the great hall when the trap was sat, though. He was teaching at the time (and Albus made sure he had no time turner) and the students would have noticed their teacher leaving class. They'd have told immediately, especially after the headmaster announced there was a murderer loose in the school.
holly - Sorry, I just wrote another cliffhanger! They just suit mysteries so well! . . . Well, the original idea was for this to be about the same size as MNS. It definitely won't reach RD's length.
Elsa (You're no number to me!) - I know about that problem, but there wasn't really anything fitting I could have put in there. I like to occasionally run a list of suspects for anyone keeping score as it slowly shortens until . . . No, not until only one name remains, but I can't tell you, yet. . . . I like Remus, too and he makes a good adult friend for Sevi, the boy. Albus just doesn't fit the part. . . . Yes, I think naming myself after my horse would have been a good idea, though. Haven't seen anyone called Gisha around, yet. (I consider her a separate individual from myself, though. I'm Silverfox, she's Gisha and the other way round just doesn't fit.)
Iremione - Harry knows Sevi isn't out to murder him, that's all. . . . Yes, Curtis is one of those scary types. He probably ought to be in St. Mungo's, rather than school, but his parents are trying to tell themselves nothing's wrong. . . . Yes, the third years are a mean bunch. Curtis and Maximius have a rather bad influence on the rest of them. . . . I think I have to explain hat all our essays were written for the language classes in school, they never were actual scientific work. (You can't really ask students to do research, if you don't offer them a library, so they don't have to buy all the books, and study hours to use it in.) . . . Oh, the rest of the class was slightly taken aback by Luci's length requirements (as much as by his lack of clear topic), but they don't care about the sense behind their homework assignments as much as Hermione. (Sevi considers Luci's class a joke anyway. He never expected his students to learn anything from him in the first place.) . . . Okay, here's a hint: aga and matris are separate words. Aga is a nominative, but matris isn't and I'm not sure I formed it correctly. It's been 11 years since my last Latin class and we only translated from Latin into German after the second year of learning it. . . . Sex on cartoons? Is that legal in America? (Considering they have problems telling teenagers about safe sex I'd be surprised.) Don't think it is here.
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A/N: What does the name Harry gave Hermione's potion actually mean? (Still nobody answered that. Hint: aga, matris) Is draco really that bad in Transfigurations? Will Harry survive? (Guesses about the identity of the traitor as always will be read with great interest, but not answered, yet.) Please R/R.
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Next: Sevi looks for Draco, Draco had a glaring match with the Gryffindor Quidditch team and Lucius attends a meeting.