A/N I keep forgetting to apologize for my mistakes, so here it is. In the first chapter I put that they used dollars instead of pounds. I'm sorry, I'm American if you didn't figure that out. I was distracted by things like the adapter and the joke about Nevill that I didn't think about it. Speaking of Nevill, I'm sorry that I misspelled his name, I might have done it again just now. I am the worst speller in the world, so live with it or stop reading, it's not going to get any better. As for my lack of confidence in my writing, which a few of you have addressed, my friend says that I brag about my writing so it can't be that bad. (I only get excited about all my reviewers, I love you guys! And the lack of confidence thing was mostly on hpff, for my fanfiction readers who are wondering what in the world I'm talking about.) Well! That was a long authors note! I should let you guys get to reading.
As soon as breakfast was over, many of the Gryffindors returned to the common room. A few went to gossip with their friends in other houses. When Hermione, Harry, and Ron had finished their breakfast, they went to visit Hagrid. On their way out of the Great Hall, Hermione caught Blaise's eye. He winked at her to say that everything was under control then turned back to talking with his friends.
Nobody mentioned fan fiction at Hagrid's, and he didn't suspect a thing. They stayed for lunch, then had to leave because Snape had assigned a very lengthy assignment for Monday on the use of potions for theatrical purposes. "What's he on to now?" Ron had said about it.
The library was strangely empty as they worked on the essay, but that was to be expected. The few slytherins who did use the library were there, the hard core perfectionists were there, and people like Nevil, who needed every study minute left before finals, were there. That may sound like a lot, but Hogwart's library is pretty big. There was plenty of space.
"I still feel like Snape is up to something," Ron said as he looked up stage make-up potions.
"Well, even if he is, it dose no good for us to fret over it, that's probably exactly what he wants us to do," Hermione replied smoothly as she scratched out a mistake on her parchment.
"No doubt it's something that will make us all miserable," Harry said with out looking up.
"No doubt," Hermione sighed and went back to her essay.
The Gryffindors remembered dinner, even the Creevys and Seamus came down. When Hermione said something about it to Dean, he said that they had come down for lunch, and that the Creevy brothers were very excited about something. Dean didn't sound very excited himself over that last bit. Hermione looked over at the trio. Seamus was talking animatedly to second year who looked like he was trying to escape. Denis was hurriedly scribbling on a piece of parchment while Colin dictated.
Hermione excused herself and went over to check it out. "Harry flew in with his wand out. The girl looked up from her captor's arms and said, "Oh look! Harry's come to save me!" Colin looked up when he noticed Hermione, "Oh, Hi Hermione! We're writing a fan fiction! You wanna see?" He sounded so excited that Hermione knew she couldn't refuse.
"Sure, why not?" she told him.
Dennis finished the last thing that Colin had said and handed the parchment over. Hermione scanned the document and found that it portrayed Harry as a hero of almost legendary proportions. The basic story line was damsel in distress. She fought to keep down a giggle before she handed to story back to Dennis.
"So, what do you think?" Colin asked her.
Hermione was suddenly struck with an idea. "That's really good, but do you know what it needs?" They shook their heads. "It needs work on the villain. Villains need depth, they can't just kidnap someone without a reason!" she was making this up as she went, but as long as it was believable, that was okay. "You know what I think would help? Make the villain someone that you already know. That way you already know their motives." She smiled and went back to her seat just in time for the meal to arrive.
The talk of the meal for all the tables but slytherin was fan fiction. To Harry's relief, the focus had turned off him and on to all the other students who had been mentioned in the books. To Hermione's relief, the teachers didn't seem to notice the new topic of conversation. Ron and Harry chatted about normal stuff, while Hermione pondered her next task. From the looks of the Slytherin table Malfoy hadn't cracked yet. What was she going to do to get him on it?
Ron and Harry didn't worry about Hermione's silence; it was close to final time anyway.
Hermione finished her dinner early and went up to the owlery to send a letter, she had a hunch that it might be useful.
Later that night Hermione met with the others involved in Project Wired. Everyone was excited about the day's progress. Terry and Angelica both reported situations that reminded Hermione eerily of the Gryffindor common room. Blaise said that the computer hadn't been touched all day.
"But I wouldn't put it past him to get on it in the middle of the night, when no one's looking," he said.
"I'm not sure that we can do anything with that, other than know that we've gotten him on it. In the mean time, I have an idea."
She proceeded to tell them about her new plan. It involved bringing the fan fiction to Draco. Hermione knew that the plan had dangers. They were going to break a rule. Filch would skin them alive if he found out who the perpetrator was. But it would be worth it, if only to see Malfoy's face.
They were each to find one fan fiction and make lots and lots of copies. Blaise was to find one where Draco was the Villian. Angelica was to find one where he reformed and became a nice guy. Terry was to find one where he just plain got humiliated. Hermione saved the best job for herself. She would find a romance. If for some reason someone couldn't find a story of the type they were assigned, they were supposed to find something that achieved the basic goal. Once they found a suitable story they would get the good parts all on one sheet and print it out. To conserve ink they would magically copy them. The theory was that one of these would either embarrass or intrigue him enough to get on the computer.
This was where the rule breaking part came in. They would get up early and magically distribute the stories throughout the school. People were bound to pick them up and read them. Hermione knew some that would read them aloud.
"I'm not sure if this will work," Blaise admitted uncertainly.
"But you have to admit, it will be funny," Angelica said.
"Are you positive that we have to get Malfoy to get the rest of Slytherin House?" Terry asked Blaise.
"Maybe not, but this plan is as good as any to catch everyone else. If they were willing to do something with out his approval it would be to get something on him if for any reason," Blaise said.
"So everyone knows their assignment? Well, we've got a lot of work to do tonight, see you in the morning," Hermione ended and they went their separate ways.
In Gryffindor tower Colin Creevey was still typing up his story on the computer, but the common room was otherwise deserted. "Hey Colin, how's the story goin?" Hermione asked him.
"I'm just about done typing it, we used your idea," he said and then resumed typing.
"Really? Who'd you use?" she asked.
"Draco Malfoy," he replied.
"Good choice. I have to get on the computer to do something for the Project. Do you know when you'll be off?"
"I can finish in the morning, just let me save."
"Thanks Colin," she said and got on the computer. Before clicking on the Romance category she looked at the total number of stories. It had grown by hundreds since she was on last. She let out a low whistle. "I wonder if it always grows so much," she whispered.
She clicked on Draco Malfoy in the character selecter. She swallowed when she saw that almost ALL of them were with her. And most of the ones that weren't were Harry or Ginny. She switched the rating to mature and the ratios didn't change much. She swallowed and closed her eyes as she clicked on a one-shot with her in it. "Open your eyes Hermione," she whispered to herself.
After a minute her body obeyed. What met her eyes sent her into a coughing fit. Maybe this wasn't going to be so easy. She knew that she should use a story like this, but it was hard. It would make Malfoy SO angry if the story put him with a muggle born and Hermione was the worst of them all. An explicit one would be the best. And it would clear Hermione's name from Filch's list of suspects. Why would she do that to herself?
"I can do this. I can do this," she said to herself as she forced herself to look again. "Ew!" she whispered. This one will have to work, she thought and copied the whole thing. Once she had pasted it in the word processer she noticed that it was two pages: one page too long. She groaned aloud. Now she had to actually read the thing and take out anything unnecessary.
"Okay, I'll just take out anything that I can bear reading. That's simple enough," she said to herself. It was difficult. After awhile she was able to block out the names, and that helped a little. Until she actually began to get turned on. "Oooooh no," she said. At least I can read it, she thought and kept going.
When she had finished, the story fit neatly inside one page. She clicked print, no don't save, and sat back in her chair. Just one more thing then I can go to bed, she thought. Once the page had printed she mentally sorted through all the spells that she knew to copy something. She settled on a mass copy, low quality version for organic and inorganic materials.
Once she had finished the spell, she levitated the papers behind a couch in a corner, where she put Harry's cloak, which she had nicked earlier, on top of them. It just barely fit. Once she was satisfied, she went to bed and set her alarm clock for an hour and half early. That would be plenty of time to get up, do what she needed to do, then get back in bed before anyone got up.
As she got into her bed, she had to admit that even if it didn't work in the way she hoped it would, it would be worth it to see the look on Malfoy's face. He deserves it, she thought as she drifted off to sleep.