Agent V

Chapter Three

Where we find out virtually nothing, but it could be funny.

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Slam. Rustle. Thunk. Click click. Crinkle.

Amanda, one of Ginny's dorm mates, was digging in her trunk ridiculously loudly. Or maybe it was just the hour of sleep talking. But what an hour it had been, she thought, stretching before opening her eyes.

Bang. Plop. Creak.

"Amanda!" Ginny screeched so loud that two girls who had still been asleep sat bolt upright in bed. Amanda stared at Ginny innocently, waiting for her to speak. "Um, could you be a little quieter?"

"Uh, I suppose so . . ." Amanda looked perturbed.

Olivia was having none of it. "It's not like you don't make enough noise, sneaking in here at all hours of the night."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at Olivia. "I don't make any noise," she said quietly.

"Well, you aren't invisible, anyway."

Julie pulled her hair up into a ponytail. "Who's the boy?"

Everyone in the room turned to look at the little red-haired girl, who suddenly felt naked despite her dressing gown. "I-- um . . ." The truth was that there hadn't been a boy in years. On the other hand, it was a decent cover story that apparently everyone already believed. She tried to think of a name. All that would come up was Ron . . . Fred . . . George . . . Percy . . . Charlie . . . Bill . . . Damn all her brothers, polluting her mind with useless names.

Olivia flipped her hair and sprayed. Her normally mousy brown tresses turned a purply-black. Ginny scrunched her nose. That can was hers, and it was invaluable when you were a Weasley undercover. Before she could figure out what to say to a cosmetic thief, Olivia flipped her head back over and gave a superior look to the rest of the room (somewhat humorously because it looks odd when someone's eyebrows don't match their head hair). "It's Draco Malfoy, obviously. She sneaks around because her brother and the Potter boy would Rapunzel her."

"They do have the same boots," Amanda said thoughtfully, and everyone nodded.

Ginny was appalled. "Have you been speaking behind my back?" Nobody would meet her eye. "I can't believe you twits." It was the type of thing she said all the time, so they assumed she was just being friendly. Except she always meant it from the bottom of her heart.

"Is he a good kisser?" Julie looked embarrassed at herself. "I mean, he's Malfoy and everything, but he has that walk . . ."

Ginny knew what she meant. You could really tell what a guy was like by the way he walked. And Agent D never shuffled or loped. He walked with a determined confidence that could be appealing, if she were the kind of girl who needed someone to walk into her life and take charge.

She played it coy, and just smiled at her bedspread as she tucked in the corners. That would be more convincing than any declaration of dark forbidden passion that she could come up with.

"I knew it!" Amanda squealed. Ginny was sure that none of the adult S.P. agents had to worry about this kind of thing. Now she had a story she had to maintain.

Agent V finished tying her boots--which were, in fact, the same issue as Agent D's--and slipped out of the room down to breakfast.

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Ron, Harry, and Hermione were in the middle of a conversation when she sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Right in the middle of the Forbidden Forest, all banged up," Ron was nodding at Harry fervently.

"Do they know who did it?" Harry was in his quidditch robes wolfing down eggs, which explained why everyone was eating so early. Ginny cursed quidditch.

"Nobody knows." Hermione bit her toast primly. "Dumbledore and Madam Pomfrey tried, and even I can't get anything out of them. Hello, Ginny."

"What are you guys talking about?" she grabbed a bite off of her brother's plate. "Nobody needs that much bacon, Ron, honestly."

"It's my bacon and I'll do what I please, you baby cow."

Hermione rolled her eyes at Ron and took another piece of bacon from his plate. He looked flabbergasted, but she ignored him. "Killian James and Lucy Hamish were having a pash in this tunnel under the castle, and then they woke up in the Forbidden Forest with tentacles for arms."

"Oh," Ginny said quietly, trying to maintain appearances. When Ducky and Ringo saw that they had a couple of lovesick Hufflepuffs on their hands, why didn't they lay off? They were probably trying to impress Snake. Who was, basically, not impressable, so she didn't know why they bothered.

But Hermione wasn't finished. "Luckily I got Killian to tell me where the tunnel was before Madam Pomfrey tossed me out of the hospital wing."

"Really?" Ginny asked weakly. This could be really bad news for Hogwarts S.P.

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Agent D was impressed to see Red at breakfast before him after their late night. She got up and walked straight toward him. He got in her way.

"Watch where you're going, Weasley," he said loudly, knocking the books out of her arms.

She knelt down to gather her stuff. "Meet me during lunch. Priority eleven," she muttered.

He scooped up her Arithmancy book and held it too high for her to reach. "The scale only goes to ten," he said under his breath as she pretended to hop for her book.

"I said, this is an eleven," she whispered through gritted teeth as she put a hand on his shoulder and jumped, using the extra few inches she gained to grab her book and yank it out if his hand. Draco was silently amused, but then realized they were in front of a half-full hall and switched his face around into a scowl.

Ginny pushed past him to leave the hall, and Agent D avoided the eyes of the Slytherin quidditch team as he sat down. There was another thing him and the girl had in common. Giving up the sport for the S.P. He'd tried a little longer to maintain, but he couldn't stand the late nights, early mornings, and split loyalties after a while.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a small group of Gryffindor girls giggling and squealing around Red as she tried to leave the hall. It was an unusual sight, the girl without makeup, with her hair back in a serviceable ponytail and combat boots on her feet, being worshipped in the middle of a gossip circle. He put it in the back of his mind to tease her about later, and went back to his breakfast.

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Agent V waited in an alcove near the entrance to the lunch room. She knew her brother and his friends, well intentioned but the kind of people who thought the curious cat was awarded more lives. They had to wait on this one. Hermione wouldn't want to go into this new mystery without some research, right?

Her biggest fear was that the trio would dash right to that hidden passageway during lunch hour, before she and Agent D had time to hide their tracks. Drat those Hufflepuffs! It had been a good office for nearly a year. But there was always moving, because of curious students with too much time on their hands being given free reign of the castle. It had been six months of research to get the Marauder's map to show herself and the other agents where they were supposed to be instead of where they actually were. The trio were always causing problems.

Snake was back at headquarters if this did blow up, but she really didn't want him to find them, either. If he did, if they rushed into this and he had no other choice, then of course she would have him do as he saw fit. Her first loyalty was to the Secret Protectorate. And, really, he wasn't the mad sadist that some Gryffindors thought he was. That was his cover story, and it was even less true than hers about the boyfriend. She cringed, thinking about having to deal with the aftermath of that. Those girls couldn't keep their mouths shut for more than a few seconds. Ron would be calling her worse than 'baby cow.'

Ginny heard a familiar voice coming down the staircase, and breathed a sigh of relief as Harry, Ron, and Hermione headed into lunch.

"I know you want to go busting in and putting yourselves in all kinds of danger, but I'm not even telling you two where the tunnel is until I get a little more information," Hermione was saying.

Harry and Ron looked exasperated with her. "You know," Ron was saying, "we could just go to the hospital wing and ask them ourselves."

"No, we can't. I already tried." Harry was given the evil eye by Hermione. "They're not letting anybody anywhere near. Apparently some Slytherins were taunting Killian and Lucy through the door, so now nobody is allowed."

Ron snorted. "Probably Malfoy and his lot."

Agent V high-tailed it to headquarters, armed with at least the lunch hour. Ron had no idea how little interest Agent D would have in taunting a couple down-on-their-luck Hufflepuffs. And even if he did feel compelled to hurl a couple insults, he would refrain because it would give him an overt connection to the victims. And Snake was always professionally covert. It was how he'd earned the name. Snakes didn't leave tracks.

She performed the opposite set of knocks and verbal messages, and Agent D opened the door for her.

"Should I get Ducky and Ringo?" Snake had his wand poised over his chest, where his brand was. You-Know-Who had stolen the idea from a corrupt S.C. agent.

Agent V shook her head. "Leave them out of it. If the trio sees them leave the lunchroom, they might get suspicious." The trio were a constant source of annoyance to the S.P.

"Suit yourself. What's going on?" He put his wand back in his pocket.

"Our location's been compromised. Those two that I fairy dusted last night . . . Ducky and Ringo went a bit overboard. So the trio investigated. And now they know there's something up with our tunnel. Time to move on." She looked around the office. This was where they'd been the longest. They'd relaxed, and made it home. Ringo had never known another location. There were pillows on the floor, a screen to change behind instead of trusting that the boys had their backs turned, rugs on the floor and a cabinet for Agent D's files. It was probably a good thing they'd been forced to move. A good H.Q., according to the S.P. rules, should be able to be wiped clean of all evidence of the S.P. within ten minutes. Ginny doubted they'd get it all in the hour they had.

Snake appeared to be having the same thoughts. "We'd better get started." He pulled open his cabinet and stacked the files on his desk, performing encoding charms on the papers within.

Agent V was gathering the uniforms, equipment, mission packs, and tools into boxes and transfiguring them into everyday items, then shrinking them so they fit in her pockets.

"So what were all those girls gaggling all over you in the lunchroom for?"

Ginny tried to sink into the floor. It didn't work. But then again, he was probably the best person she had to talk to about this sort of thing. "You know how cover stories can get way out of hand?"

"No." He said a little too quickly.

Agent V narrowed her eyes. "Remember that time you worked in Zonko's tracking that export ring, and a Hogsmeade weekend came up so you tried to make two of yourself?"

"Vaguely." He cleared his throat. "So what does this have to do with you and those girls?"

"You're the one who asked. Besides, I always wondered which parts doubled in size and which you got two of . . . can't imagine why you wouldn't let me help reverse it."

"I'm begging you Red, get on with your own story."

"Fine. They think, you know, because of my late nights and sneaking away and all, they think I have a boyfriend I have to hide from my friends."

"That doesn't seem like it's out of hand."

Ginny raised an eyebrow at him. "Oh?"

"Apart from the fact that they believe you could catch one, that is."

Insults she was used to. "You haven't heard the out of hand part yet. I didn't say anything, I swear, and they're all over me with, 'Isn't Malfoy dreamy?' and 'you have the same boots.' Like nobody ever had the same shoes before."

"Really?" He had a self-satisfied grin on his face.

"You're enjoying this, aren't you?"

"A little. So, am I a good kisser?"

"According to Julie, you walk sexy, which implies it. According to me, you're an ass."

"Excellent. I didn't know I had so much sway with those Gryffindors. That Julie, she's the blonde, right?"

"Wait a second, you're my boyfriend. You're not supposed to blow my cover."

"I thought blowing your cover was a big part of being your boyfriend." He winked at her and waggled his eyebrows.

She just stared at her vulgar partner.

"Hey, according to my girlfriend, I'm an ass, so maybe I philander a bit." He shut the last folder. "I don't think this is out of hand. It's a good cover. In fact, for the sake of realism, would you like to go under cover in my dorm tonight?"

"You are so lucky you're . . ." Agent V trailed off.

"What? So adorable?"

"My superior. Or else I'd have Ducky and Ringo take care of your adorable arse a bit."

"You couldn't stand to do that to your boyfriend, could you?" He sashayed across the room with his box of files. "What about my sexy walk?"

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Author's Note: Um, yeah, a bit more set up with a couple of suggestive comments. The story, for the most part, will be more about the S.P. thwarting the trio and perhaps another mission, and the toll that the S.P. has versus her friends and all that, but there is the cover story for a bit of comic relief. Not really a D/G fic, but they flirt with it so you D/G shippers, enjoy.

Thanks to: Sabina, mell8, shamrock rocker, and Francis Flute who reviewed and encouraged me to keep writing. Also to a day spent skipping class and watching Cody Banks and The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy which gave me the idea.