Rinaula - this soon enough for you? *grin*

duj - thank you

Monday - *grin* You made my day.

Empire and Exigency
Chapter 11: Incident
by Annie B

Rated PG-13

JKR owns all things Hogwarts. But I would pay *big* for Draco.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Potter." Draco muttered, just loud enough to be heard by his usual attendants. Crabbe, Goyle, and possibly Pansy Parkinson.

Giving a 'watch this' wink. Draco slid into the narrow space between a large potted plant and the Charms classroom door. None of the students rushing to class noticed him in this shelter - distracted as they were by morning classes. They did notice Crabbe and Goyle, who had indeed stayed to watch, but only as a sort of human road block. A few pushes, a few shoves, and the patch was clear again as a sort of living tidal wave forced the two boy up past earshot.

Grinning from his hide away, Draco waited until he saw Ron Weasley step past. Harry, he knew, would be right behind that mop of red hair.

He stuck out his foot.

Harry walked right into it.

Draco stepped out, adding a shove.

Harry hit the floor. Loudly.

Draco followed, clearly tripping over his own guilty foot.

"Fudge?" Harry grunted, the sound of a boy with the wind knocked out of him. He had been expecting this. Well - some contact. Breakfast had been marked by another interesting delivery to the Slytherin table, this one a Ministry Owl, its letter sealed in official red tape.

Draco flailed out, the roundhouse punch too wide to land with any power."They want to dig up the grave."

"Damn..." Harry kicked. His foot slammed into the floor just past Draco with an impressive *thud*. "If they do that.."

Draco rolled, pinning Harry's shoulders to the floor. "They'll find a dead Dementor."

"And then." Ron Weasley joined the pile up. "The Auror's will come for Dragon-face here and toss him into his fathers old cell." Ron did not sound particularly heartbroken at the prospect, although Draco's fist might also have accounted for the high note in his voice.

"Which would..." Draco gasped as Ron's counter-punch landed. "Screw up our plans."

"Always a down side." Ron sent an elbow into Draco's ribs, hard enough to make the blond boy gasp. (Ron had difficulty with the idea of faking a fight - at least when it came to beating up on Draco.)

"Just delay them." Harry rolled, pulling Draco beneath him.

"How?" Draco asked quickly, blocked a kick from Ron. He knew this meeting was almost over. Crabbe and Goyle had spotted the uneven odds and were swimming against the tide of bodies to come to their master's rescue.

"I don't care." Harry stumbled back as Draco fought his way free.

"How is your problem. Cry. Roll on the carpet. Bite someone. Call your mom." Ron grabbed Draco under the arms, pulling him off his friend. "Hell - piss on the paperwork."

"Draco!" Crabbe was almost there.

"BOYS!" Hermione's posture was the very picture of offended prefect-dom. "I am *shocked*! SHOCKED!"

Ron stepped away.

So did Crabbe.

The fight was over.

Draco knelt, collecting the books that had fallen beside Potter.

Harry sat up, rubbing his jaw as if to test a bruise. "Do whatever it takes." he whispered. "Just as long as you delay them at least a week."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Halfway though Potions class another owl came and Draco left. Snape didn't seem to happy about that - but then - when was Snape ever happy.

Harry, working with his back to Hermione, whispered. "I need to follow him."

"No problem." Hermione snipped off a bit of harpy fur and (checking first to make sure Snape was still occupied berating a student at the other end of the classroom ) folded it into a wedge of fresh shrivilfig.Then she dropped it onto the classroom floor.

Harry palmed the package.

"Mr. Potter?"

"Just checking my shoelace, sir. Wouldn't want to trip."

"Two points. Carelessness. Keep your wand-motion *even*, Potter."

Edging to the end of his table ( in order to get a better angle for stirring his cauldron ) he passed the bit of shrivilfig underhand to Ron.

Ron watched until Snape was next to Neville and they could be sure his attention would be again distracted. A quick toss (Ron may have been only average at Quidditch but over the summer Hermione had introduced him to Muggle basketball, and at that he was a natural ) sent it over Goyle's bent back. The speck of contaminated shrivilfig plopped into the bubbling cauldron.

*boom*

"What the..." Snape spun. "Fifty points from Gryffindor!"

Ron looked astounded. "But it was Goyle's cauldron."

"For not being more observant of your classmates safety." Snape finished, not missing a beat. "Plus...Two from Slytherin..." Because blatant favoritism could only go so far before the headmaster would be called in. Although from Snape's bitter expression, he would clearly rather have parted with two vital organs. "For misapplication of materials."

Black ooze was spilling on to the classroom floor, and green smoke billowed towards the ceiling. Where either touched, the paint melted.

"Now get out! All of you!" Snape pointed his wand, forcing back the growing mess. "Before I let this dissolve your bones as an object lesson."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Percy!" When Ron had gone to the infirmary for a burn cream ( the cauldron had splashed slightly.) he had not expected to find one of his brothers. Certainly not Percy, and certainly not Percy looking more battered and wilted then he could ever remember his rather fastidious older sibling being. "What happened to you?"

"That demon brat you go to school with."

"Malfoy?" Among Weasley's - even strange and frankly rather pansy Weasleys - there was still only one name that 'demon' would bring instantly to mind.

Percy nodded importantly. "There are suspicions about his fathers death."

"I know." More then you, Ron's mind finished the sentence. But that wouldn't be smart ( or safe ) to say, so he settled for... "It was in the Daily Prophet."

Of course, the idea sprung belatedly to Ron's mind, if Percy was here and not kissing up at the Ministry there had to be more than the newspaper knew. Well - more then *RON* knew that the newspaper knew - which would mean that Harry would want to know whatever Percy might *think* he knew. Anyway - he had better fins out what he could. And since Percy was here? And Ron was here?

"But there has got to me more to it. I mean, if Minister Fudge sent *you* all the way here."

Unless Fudge just wanted self-important Percy out of the office. Lord knew that Ron would have. Hermione's lectures were hard enough to live with, and at least that girl *knew* what she was going on about. Which was more then Ron would say about his prat brother.

Still - information. Harry would want information. And since appealing to Percy's vanity was the best way to get him to talk? Ron did his best to look impressed.

Ron's acting was improving.

It worked.

"We..." Percy looked dramatically over each shoulder, as if Death Eaters might be lurking behind the infirmary screens. "I should not tell you this. It's top secret - but you are my brother and I *am* the Minister of Magic's personal confidential aide so..."

Ron moved closer, wide eyed and smiling.

"Minister Fudge wants to exhume the body." Percy whispered. "Check if it's really Malfoy."

"Corr." Ron's expression changed to utter awe. "Can he?"

Percy sat taller. "I myself gave him the ministry Decree for Exhuming his fathers body." Then he slumped. "The boy went mad. He bit me. Then he dropped trou and..." Percy held up a soaking, stinking mess of blurred parchment. "Now I'll have to go back and rewrite the whole order."

*********

"So that bought us some time." Ron finished. He had repeated to story (with a minimum of snide editorials ) to Harry and Hermione as soon as he got back to the Gryffindor common room.

"Enough?" Hermione worried.

"It will have to be." Harry fingered wand, drawing serpentine curves along the polished length. :Hermione? Have you?" With his other finger, he made a 'dial the phone' motion.

"I was going to wait until Hogsmede weekend. You knew it's hard to get a good signal in the castle."


Hermione's parents had , after only minimal begging, given her a cell phone over the summer. It had proven invaluable, first for ordering pizza ( Yes, Domino's would in fact deliver to 'the big tree right past the mile marker' as long as here was a credit card to assure payment. Said card was Harry's, thanks to a well-bribed Goblin and Petunia's carelessness in letting Harry collect the post. ) and later for more... tactical... contacts with the Muggle world.

"Move it up."

He meant *up* literally. Unfortunately, the Hogwart's Wards made it the planet's worse dead spot. You could only pick up from the Forbidden Forest or from the top of the Astronomy Tower. Since she could hardly stroll out into the forest in the middle of class time?

Harry turned to Ron. "We go tonight. As soon as it's quiet."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Many folks fates are in doubt. Especially mine. *grin* Won't you tell me how I'm doing?

OH - and also - I'm trying to decide. For Harry - Luna, Ginny, or someone else?