Chapter 17 – Cheat
Over two weeks had passed since Darren had questioned Neville about that night at the Ministry of Magic. As the weeks had passed, Darren had stopped paying as much attention to Neville as he had right after the interrogation. At first he had been scared that the Veritaserum might have left some indication that it had been used and that a teacher might figure it out. But thankfully nobody had deduced that he had used it on Neville. After the second week had passed Darren had allowed himself to go back to his usual routine. But before he had done that he had sent a letter to Lucius Malfoy to detail the questioning of Neville. He had of course left the part about Neville's parents out, but the rest he had included.
Sir,
Questioning complete. No information to be gained.
Darren had read and re-read and re-written the note several times before sending it. He had even used a school owl instead of Janus to deliver it. That had been a week ago. He had waited to send the message because he had planned on trying to get more from Neville but had finally decided that Neville had no more information to give regarding the incident or prophecy. Instead he had put all his energy into his schoolwork. Snape was giving a test tomorrow on the uses of the Borage plant in potions that gave the drinker courage. Darren was having a hard time with the text about the plant but it was nothing next to what Neville was experiencing. Neville, as usual, was absolutely terrified of taking a test in Shape's class. He had gotten better in the other classes but whenever Snape so much looked at Neville poor Neville would fall apart and go to pieces in front of the whole class.
The formula used to make the potion was also very complicated and the class would have to mix the ingredients in a very precise and meticulous manner. Not that that had surprised Darren at all. Never once had Snape given them an easy test. He always made the exams as hard as possible and he seemed to get great joy from the tension that the students labored under while he walked around the classroom and tried to find anything that might give him a reason to denigrate a student, especially a Gryffindor. Darren had no reason to feel that this test would be any different as he stood in the hallway outside Snape's Potions dungeon.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were next to him. Hermione was looking through her parchment as if she was trying to find something.
"Oh no, its not here," she said.
"What isn't there?" Ron asked.
"My notes on the Draught of Courage. I can't find them."
"Where would they be otherwise?" Harry asked. "Besides, the test is in about ten minutes anyway."
"I know, but a little last minute studying never hurts Harry," she said with a sigh.
Darren could also see Malfoy huddled with his cronies at the end of the hallway. What they were saying was inaudible to him but he had a good idea what they were talking about. Malfoy had vowed to his friends that he would get Hermione for cheating and Darren had even overheard him discussing how it would be done the week before the Halloween Ball. He stood and acted as if he was looking at his book but actually he was eyeing them out of the side of his eye. Darren had been taught to watch and observe and now he was putting that skill to great use. Then the bell rang and the students went in and sat down. Neville and Darren took their usual places at their usual table and waited for Snape to call the class to quiet.
"Settle down, settle down," Snape said with is usual veiled anger. "Today you will be required to make the Draught of Courage. This exam will count as twenty five percent of your grade for this term. If you fail, you will more than likely fail this course, so I would suggest that you do not fail."
As he said that he was staring straight at Daren but Neville must have thought he was looking at him because he made a small squeak that brought derisive laughter from the Slytherin side of the room.
"Now," Snape continued, "you will be required to make the potion from memory. The ingredients are already on your desks. You have exactly one hour. Begin."
And with that he turned over a large hourglass on his desk and took a seat to watch the students work. After a few minutes he had taken out a book and started to read it. That seemed unusual to Darren, as Snape always wandered the classroom so as to terrorize the students.
Something told Darren that the situation was not quite right and when he caught pansy Parkinson out of the side of his eye take a piece of paper from Malfoy he knew what was about to happen. Pansy took out her wand and quietly used what appeared to be a Banishing Charm to make the paper land in Hermione's lap. Darren could not believe that Hermione didn't notice, but she didn't. Malfoy then threw up his hand as if he was having a fit and caught Snape's attention. Professor Snape came over and Malfoy leaned towards him so that nobody else could hear what he was saying but Darren could tell by the look on Snape's face that he was about to go into a full blown rage.
He walked straight towards Hermione and grabbed her by the collar of her robes and jerked her to her feet. Since Hermione was only about half his size, she was pulled to her toes and almost lost her balance. Darren saw the small piece of parchment fall to the floor from her lap, and so did Snape. Snape bent down and picked it. As he read it his eyes grew wider and wider and then an evil grin broke out on his face. He looked as if Christmas had come early for him that year.
"Well, well, well, it looks as if I have finally found the secret of your success Miss Granger," he said.
Hermione looked at him as if he was crazy.
"What are you talking about Professor?" she asked.
"This Miss Granger!" he shouted as he shook the paper in front of her face.
The rest of the class was quiet as they all had stopped working on their potions and were watching Snape with rapt attention. Malfoy and Pansy were trying to keep themselves from laughing and Darren could feel his anger rising inside him.
Hermione had looked at the paper with a look that told Darren she was absolutely shocked to see it. Not until Snape's next question did he realize why Hermione would be so shocked to see it.
"Is this not you handwriting Miss Granger?"
A small "yes" came from Hermione.
Snape stood straight up and crossed his arms. His eyes glowed with excitement as he stared at her with nothing but absolute revulsion.
"As I said just a moment ago, we now know the secret of your success, don't we. You, Miss Granger, are nothing more than a common cheater and now I have the ability to prove it to the Headmaster."
The Gryffindors erupted in protest. Ron and Harry jumped to their feet and began to yell at and berate Snape for everything from his obvious hatred of the Gryffindors to his greasy hair. Snape ignored the insults that were being hurled at him and concentrated on Hermione.
"You will come with me to the Headmaster's office girl, now! Everyone else, the test is over. Return to your common rooms immediately, or face my wrath. Mr. Malfoy and Miss Parkinson, please accompany me."
Snape then led Hermione half pushed half threw Hermione out of the room and followed behind her. Malfoy and Pansy were behind them and almost in a laughing fit. Darren knew what had happened because he not only had seen it, he, along with Neville, had heard Draco plan it. He knew he had to do something about it, but what? He didn't know where the Headmaster's office was located and had no time to search in vain for it. He grabbed Neville on the way out and told him what he had in mind.
"Neville, we heard Malfoy talking about this, remember? That afternoon after the Hogsmeade trip the weekend before the Halloween Ball. We have to tell Dumbledore that Malfoy set her up."
"Okay, but how? Where is his office Darren?"
"I don't know. We need to find somebody that knows where it is."
Neville seemed to be thinking for a minute and then said, "Harry!"
"Harry what?"
"Harry knows where the office is. We can ask him."
Darren turned to look around for Harry but he didn't see him in the hallway. At the end of the corridor he saw Ron's red hair round a corner and he knew that Harry had to be with him so he set off at a run to catch up with them.
"Come on Neville, hurry up!" he yelled as he ran off.
It took three floors of following Harry and Ron's voices and footsteps to catch up to them but they finally did.
"Harry, Ron! Wait up a minute!" Darren called out on a stairwell. "Wait up!"
He heard them stop and he caught them at the next turn in the steps.
"What are you doing Darren?" Ron asked.
Neville came running up as Darren started talking to them.
"I saw Pansy use a Banishing Charm to put the parchment in Hermione's lap."
Ron took a step towards him with malice on his face. "What do you mean you saw it? You saw it and didn't say anything?"
"It happened so quick I didn't know what to do. Besides, you know perfectly well that Snape would never listen to me, or any other Gryffindor for that matter."
Ron didn't seem to believe him but he could see that Harry at least seemed to understand his reasoning. After all, Harry knew exactly what it felt like to be treated badly by Snape.
"Besides, Neville and I heard Malfoy talking to his usual cronies about it over three weeks ago. He was also talking on the train before the start of term that he was going to get Hermione this year."
"Will you come with us to Dumbledore's office?" Harry asked quickly.
"Sure, let's go."
They all ran as fast as they could go with Harry leading them. They took the steps in twos until they reached the second floor corridor. Harry stopped in front of a great stone gargoyle and just stood there.
"What are we waiting for?" Ron asked impatiently.
"The entrance to Dumbledore's office is right here behind the gargoyle, but I don't know the password."
"Great, just great. What do we do now?" Ron said and Darren could see he was growing more impatient with each passing moment.
"Well, Dumbledore always uses candy names for his passwords, so we could just start naming them off until we get lucky," Harry told them.
Then the four of them started naming off every candy they could think of that Honeydukes carried.
"Acid pop!"
"Fizzing Whizbees!"
"Chocolate Frogs!"
"Jelly Slugs!"
"Pepper Imps!"
"Ice Mice!"
They went on and on but not one of them got the password right. They all could feel that time was running out. They all knew the truth but they were outside of the office while Hermione was trapped in there with Snape and the people that had framed her. It was her word against theirs, and Darren was not sure if that would be good enough even for Dumbledore.
Harry and Ron were still trying passwords, "Fudge Flies", "Chocoballs", when Darren heard footsteps coming up the corridor. When he turned eh saw Professor McGonagall, Professor Sprout and Professor Flitwick, the heads of the other three houses. Snape was head of Slytherin, and he was already in Dumbledore's office. Darren could not help but think that if they all were being called it meant that they were going to help decide what to do with Hermione. McGonagall looked apoplectic when she saw them and demanded to know why they were trying to get into the Headmaster's office.
"We know who framed her. It was Malfoy. Pansy Parkinson used a Banishing Charm to do it."
"Hermione had been looking for her notes for that test. They must have stolen them somehow."
"We overheard them talking about doing this three weeks ago," they all said in unison.
Only Neville was quiet.
Professor McGonagall raised her hand for quiet. All of them stopped talking and she started asking questions.
"What do you mean you know who framed her. How do you know she was framed?"
Darren explained what he had seen in the classroom and then Harry and Ron told her how Hermione had been looking for her notes and that they were apparently missing just before class. Then Darren told her how he and Neville had heard Malfoy and his friends discussing how to get Hermione for cheating and Darren told her how Draco had talked about getting her in trouble on the Hogwarts Express.
Professor McGonagall listened quietly and then asked Neville if he had heard the same thing Darren had just described to her.
"Yes ma'am," he answered quietly. He didn't seem too excited about going to Dumbledore's office, even it was in Hermione's defense.
Professor McGonagall turned and talked quietly to the other teachers for a moment and then turned back to the four boys who were growing more impatient with each passing moment.
"You will come with us to the Headmaster's office. I am sure he will want to hear this from you in person."
He turned to the gargoyle and said "Blood Pops."
Darren caught himself wondering why on earth Dumbledore would pick that password when his thoughts were interrupted by the gargoyle as it started spinning to reveal a staircase. Professor McGonagall got on the steps and told Darren and Neville to get on with her. When they stepped on the staircase began to twist and raise them up. After what seemed to be an hour the slowly moving staircase came to a stop.
They stepped out and Professor McGonagall opened the large door that led into the Headmaster's office. Darren could see a huge amount of books on shelves and a lot of portraits on the walls. The portraits all seemed to be empty however. When Darren and Neville got to the part of the office that had Dumbledore's desk he could see why. The figures were all in three large frames that were next to a sobbing Hermione and they were all straining to listen to the conversation that had just been interrupted.
"…demand that she be expelled immediately," could hear Snape saying, but Dumbledore seemed to ignore him when he saw Darren and Neville accompanied by Professor McGonagall.
"Hello Minerva and boys. I am glad to see you boys, but I am afraid I have urgent business to attend to right now," he said politely.
"Headmaster, these boys say they know who framed Hermione and that they also heard these people talking about it several weeks ago."
Before Dumbledore could ask anything of them the door to his office opened and Harry, Ron, and Professors Flitwick and Sprout came in. But Darren was as shocked as Draco Malfoy to see that they were accompanied by Blaise Zabini.
"Ah yes, that little Gryffindor clique has grown I see," Snape said vehemently.
"Severus, I have listened to you for the last fifteen minutes and if there is another version of the event you have described I feel it is in the name of fairness that I listen to them as well."
Snape went paler than any of them had ever seen but he held his tongue and remained silent. However, it was obvious to then all that he was not very happy about it at all. Draco and pansy looked a lot less certain since the boys had shown up in Dumbledore's office, and even less so now that Blaise had shown up as well.
"Now, who heard someone talking about doing this to Miss Granger?"
"We did sir," Darren said as he pointed between himself and Neville.
"Headmaster, I do not see the importance of what these two boys may claim to have heard. I think it is not necessary to even listen to this rubbish," said Snape.
"I believe that as headmaster of this school it is I who will have to decide what is necessary and what is not," Dumbledore replied. Snape looked like he had been physically slapped, but Darren had the distinct impression that this was probably not the first time that Dumbledore had to rebuke Snape about a student.
"Now," Dumbledore said as he turned back to Darren, "what was it you heard and when did you hear it?"
Darren explained how he had heard the conversation between Draco, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle three Saturday s ago and what the conversation entailed.
Dumbledore stood totally upright after Darren finished. Darren was surprised how tall Dumbledore was up close. "So, you are telling us that this was a deliberate act of treachery and that Mr. Malfoy here was the person that thought up the plan?" Dumbledore asked Darren.
"Yes sir. That is exactly what happened," Darren replied confidently.
Dumbledore then asked Neville if he had heard the same thing and got the same story Darren had told. Snape did not care who told the story, he did not want Dumbledore or anyone else believing it. He started in about how Harry, Ron and Hermione had always hated Draco and that they had somehow gotten Darren and Neville to go along with an elaborate ruse to get them out of trouble if necessary. Dumbledore's only answer was a severely raised eyebrow that made Snape be quiet immediately.
"Is there any other information that you can give me about this Darren? Or Neville?" Dumbledore asked.
"No sir," Neville told him.
"Yes sir," Darren answered.
"Go on then Darren, if you would."
"Well, I shared a compartment for most of the ride on the Hogwarts Express with Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle and Draco was ranting about how he was going to get Hermione in trouble this year. He kept telling everyone that she is a cheater and that he would be the one to catch her and he kept asking me if I believed it too."
"You see Headmaster," Snape blurted out, "Mr. Malfoy has obviously known for some time that Granger was cheating and he had his opportunity to prove it today."
Another raised eyebrow ended Snape's attempt at proving Malfoy right.
"Is there anything else that you can tell me Darren?"
"Yes, there is. I saw Pansy Parkinson use a Banishing Charm to make the piece of parchment land in Hermione's lap. It was after then that Draco told Snape to look for the paper. Pansy has always been good with Banishing Charms sir," he added.
"Professor Flitwick, is that true about Miss Parkinson?" Dumbledore asked the tiny teacher.
"Yes, it is true. She has always shown great aptitude for that particular spell," Flitwick answered.
"I see," was all that Dumbledore said.
"Mrs. Weasley and Potter, what would you like to add?"
Harry spoke first. "Right before class Hermione was looking for her notes and she could not find them. She had been reading them at breakfast, but they were missing before class started."
Dumbledore then spoke to Ron. "Is that true Mr. Weasley?"
"Yes, absolutely sir," Ron said in response.
"Then, I wonder where Miss Granger's notes could be?" Dumbledore pondered out loud.
No one said anything in reply to Dumbledore's question. It was obvious he was talking out loud and not to the people in the room with him. One of the figures I the portrait was snapping his fingers loudly and Dumbledore looked at him in puzzlement. A second later he walked over to the portrait and leaned in close as the figure talked to him in hushed tones. A minute later Dumbledore turned back to them and began talking again.
"May I ask why Mr. Zabini is present? Does he have any information that may be pertinent to this?"
Professor Sprout spoke up to answer the question. "Mr. Zabini met with us downstairs. He said he had information about this sir, so we brought him up with us."
"Well, it is no surprise that he knew where the entrance to my office is. He has been here before, haven't you Mr. Zabini?"
"Yes sir," Blaise replied.
"Now, what would you like to tell me?"
"It is just how they all have said sir. Draco has talked about getting Hermione Granger in trouble for weeks now. Every night in the dormitory he rambles on and on about it and he won't shut up about it sir."
Everyone present was shocked that a Slytherin had ratted another Slytherin out, especially when that Slytherin was Draco Malfoy, Slytherin's resident ruler. Professor Snape looked like he could not speak and Draco had a look of absolute hatred on his face as he tried in vain to hide his anger at Blaise.
Dumbledore then turned his attention to Malfoy. "Mr. Malfoy, is there something you wish to tell me at this time?"
Draco snorted at Dumbledore. "I am not afraid of these lies. My father will make sure that nothing happens to me."
Darren could not help but laugh out loud at Draco's presumption that his father actually gave a damn about him.
"Mr. Malfoy, I am inclined to believe the other students on this matter. I would hope that you would be willing to tell me your version of the truth now so as to help the case that has been put against you. After all, both you and Miss Parkinson are facing permanent expulsion and suspension of school privileges at the least."
Pansy broke then. She had not looked well for the last en minutes or so, but now she broke down and told the truth. Of course, she made it look as if Draco had forced her to go along. Professor Dumbledore listened attentively and then when she had finished he told them what he had decided.
"Miss Parkinson, you are to have no more Hogsmeade visits for the rest of the year and you will serve detention with Mr. Filch for the next twenty evenings. Mr. Malfoy, you will also have no more Hogsmeade visits for the rest of the year, you will serve detention with Mr. Filch every night for the next thirty days, and you will also be suspended from the Slytherin quidditch team for the next two games."
Everyone in the room other than Snape, Malfoy and Pansy was about to burst with happiness. Draco had finally, after almost six years, gotten his comeuppance. He had even done it to himself with his own stupidity. Darren could not believe that he was so dumb as to talk to anyone but Pansy about his plan, and to talk about it openly in the dormitory was even more stupid. Darren was still thinking how wonderful this was when they were all dismissed by Professor Dumbledore. Draco and Pansy left first with Professor Snape, and surprisingly they left quietly. Even Snape seemed to know when he had been beaten. Darren then left with Professor Sprout, Neville and Blaise. On the way down he asked Blaise why he had stepped up and told what he knew.
"Let's just say that I am as sick of Malfoy now as I was when you went to Gryffindor, and I was getting tired of his big mouth anyway," he said.
Darren just smiled at Blaise's blunt honesty and shook his hand when they parted in the corridor below the office.
"I can't believe a Slytherin stood up for a Gryffindor," Neville said.
"I don't think he so much stood up for a Gryffindor as he stood up to Malfoy Neville," Darren said as they made their way back to the common room.