Appearances Can Be Deceiving
Chapter 9: Harry and Pink Toads
DISCLAIMER: The characters of Harry Potters world came to me in a dream last night. They sang in hauntingly sweet voices: "You don't own me, I'm not just one of your many toys, You don't own me, don't say i can't go with other boys! And don't tell me what to do, and don't tell me what to say." by this time i had gotten the point, and i was getting bored, so i hit them all and went back to dreaming about my marriage to Shane West. Then the nice men in white coats came and took me away :) The song is out of the film First Wives Club, btw, i highly recommend it :) (Sorry, I have had A LOT of coffee this morning)
A/N – Thanks to ALL my reviewers, I would name you individually, but I'm a very lazy person! More about the potion is coming up. I will just clear up (I really should have done it a few chapters ago when Rizahawkeye21 asked, but I'm afraid I forgot) that it doesn't matter whether Hermione thinks it's Harry that she's fallen in love with, but she has to be in love or at least think she's in love with the person that drinks the potion, even if she thinks he's someone else. There's more information about the potion to come, don't worry! Anyway, enjoy the chapter:
The corridors were deserted. No-one roamed the halls at 1 o'clock in the morning during the Christmas holidays.
No-one but the tall figure clutching a map, an invisibility cloak around his shoulders.
Potter did have some useful possessions, Draco had to admit as he made his way up to the seventh floor.
Truthfully he didn't need the invisibility cloak, he just wanted to try it out. He didn't really need the Marauders Map either but he didn't want to run the risk of Granger finding it and seeing his name again.
He reached the door to the Room of Requirement and slipped the heavy key out of his pocket.
"Evening Potter." He muttered to the still form on the bed, removing the cloak and dropping it onto the floor. He'd only been back here once since he first dumped Harry on the bed the night before the end of term, and that was only very briefly, in order to chop some more of Potters hair off and add it to the Polyjuice Potion.
It had been a week and a half since Patil had slipped Potter the drink, give or take a few hours, so any moment now he should be waking up.
Draco sat in the comfy armchair that had appeared in the room this time – obviously because he required it – and examined the map he held in his hands.
Eventually he looked up from it at the sounds of stirring coming from the bed.
Harry's bleary eyes blinked up at him, focusing surprisingly quickly for someone who had been asleep for the past ten days.
Draco watched his eyes widen in surprise and his hand reach to search automatically for his wand.
"Looking for this?" Draco stood, twirling Harry's wand between his fingers, a movement which reminded Harry strongly of Tom Riddle in the chamber of secrets.
"What the hell is going on?" Draco had to hand it to Harry; his voice was strong and calm, despite being faced with…himself, basically.
"What does it look like Potter?"
Harry stood, staring at the boy in front of him. The one who looked exactly like him, from the raven hair of his father to the emerald eyes of his mother.
"It looks like you're me." Harry stood, his voice low and even.
"Somebody give the boy an award! Being asleep for over a week really has done wonders for your mental skills."
"Ok, so now what? Who are you really? And why exactly do you look like me? What do you want?"
Slowly but surely, during their conversation, Harry was sidling towards the door.
"Not so fast," Draco slowly raised the wand he held and pointed it at Harry. "One more step and we'll see how many adventures St. Potter has without his head."
"Are you really going to kill me? Because surely you would have done it by now if that was going to happen."
"Aahh, you always were an arrogant little prick Potter." Draco drawled, "no, I'm not going to kill you, even though I would love to. Really."
Instead he motioned with the wand and thin cords shot out of the end of it with a bang, curling themselves around Harry. Another motion sent him flying back on to the bed.
"But I can't have you running off and telling Granger that the guy she's been banging for the past week isn't really you. At least not until she's finished that favour she's doing for me."
"What?" Harry's voice rang with emotion now. "What did you do to Hermione? And what about Ron?" His voice was getting louder with every word.
"Oh, calm down, Potter, I didn't do anything to the Mudblood, as I recall, she did it to me. Well, you. And as for the Weasel, him and the rest of his pathetic flea ridden blood traitor family are away for the holidays." Draco was enjoying his first chance in too long to be as insulting and venomous as he liked. And being able to say what he was thinking, instead of listening to that weird little voice in his head.
"What exactly are you talking about, Malfoy?" Harry's voice was calmer now that he knew who he was dealing with.
"Very good, Potter, I see you're not completely thick. How'd you guess?" He asked, more to keep the insults flowing than because he actually wanted to know.
"Come on? Weasel and Granger? Blood traitors? It was too easy."
"Whatever." Draco was getting bored. Where had he put the sleeping potion?
Harry watched…himself (this is too weird) look around the room, as though searching for something.
"What have you lost, Malfoy? And what favour is Hermione doing for you?"
"Quite a few favours," Draco leered.
"I swear, if you've laid one finger on her…," Harry struggled at the ropes binding him.
"You'll do what, Potter? Snore at me? Besides, she started it, 'Oh, Harry,'" he simpered, " 'Harry, just touch me. Please!'" his laugh was cold and mocking.
"You're lying. I know you're lying. Hermione knows I like Ginny. Everyone knows I like Ginny. Besides, she'd see right through you. She's the smartest witch in the school, and, no offence Ferret, but you're not exactly a great actor."
"I'm good enough, Potter." He put on a falsetto voice and Harry's heart sank as he heard the words that came next: "I love you, Harry."
He sniggered as Harry lay on the bed looking stunned. Harry didn't want to believe Malfoy, but the fact that he was tied up on a bed in what he could only imagine to be the Room of Requirement, did offer some sort of credence to what the Ferret was saying.
"Anyway, much as I've enjoyed our nice little chat, if I don't get back to the Gryffindor tower soon I'm not going to be much use in making that potion tomorrow." He found the bottle containing the sleeping potion and started towards Harry."
"What potion?" Harry was desperate to keep him talking, hoping that there was some way he would get out of his bonds and escape while Malfoy was busy boasting about his plan. Hey, it worked in the movies.
"I'm not that stupid Potter, " Malfoy clearly knew what he was thinking as he approached him slowly, the potion held in his hands. "You don't need to know anyway. You're going to be unconscious, and in about seven or eight days I will be more powerful than you could ever imagine. So I think it's safe to say you'll never wake up. Imagine, Potter," He forced Harry's mouth open and dropped the potion down his throat, "You are the last person you will ever see."
Harry struggled against the enveloping darkness, Malfoy's laughter echoing through his mind.
The potion simmered gently in the corner of the common room, the mini blue fire flickering merrily beneath the small cauldron.
"So, how long does it actually take?"
Hermione checked the book in front of her, part of her Christmas present off Harry. "Well, in three days time we add the mandrake root, and two days after that it's the powdered boomslang skin and the unicorn tail hair, then it simmers for another day, so it will be six days from now." She ran over the instructions again, ensuring that they'd carried them out properly so far.
"I can see why you needed my help with this Harry, it's the most complicated potion in this book. But why do you need a potion to turn toads and frogs pink? And why is it so difficult?"
Obviously he had to make the potion seem harmless – Granger would never brew it if she knew it was really the inamorata potency potion – but Draco had to wonder why his father had decided that in the book the potions use should be labelled as making frogs turn pink. Didn't his father have any imagination?
"Er…Seamus's idea. He's going to turn every frog and toad in the school pink, starting with …oh, what the hell is the name of that stupid toad of Longbottom's? Begins with F…or is it T? Yeah, T. Tom, Timothy, Topher. That sounds right, yeah, it's Topher, Neville's toad, Topher. He thought it would liven things up a bit. And I think it's really hard because toads can be used for magical purposes, so it's difficult to work magic on them." He congratulated himself for that smooth lie. He was definitely getting better at thinking on his feet.
"Well, it certainly will liven things up." Hermione said slowly. What was going on? Harry knew as well as she did that Neville's toad was called Trevor, but as she looked up into his face, her mouth opening in order to correct him (she couldn't help it, it was a habit), she saw something flicker in his eyes as he looked back at her. Something she couldn't put her finger on or a name to, but it brought flooding back all the feelings she'd had before, her doubt in Harry, her insecurities from the dreams.
She'd learned last time though, that confronting Harry about it wasn't the best thing to do, unless she wanted another blazing row. So she just shut her mouth again and smiled at him, resolving to search his trunk again as soon as he was out of the way.
Harry wandered out of the common room at lunchtime that day, Hermione watching him go. She'd told him she wasn't hungry and that she'd been neglecting her homework – which she had – and that she had planned on spending the rest of the day doing it – which she hadn't.
The moment the portrait hole closed behind him, she was out of her seat like a shot and halfway up the stairs to his bedroom. She hurried straight over to his trunk and threw the lid off it.
It was the same as the last time she'd seen it, except for the fact that the note, potions bottles and Marauders Map weren't there anymore.
It didn't surprise her that the map wasn't there, Harry had barely let it out of his sight for a week. He still hadn't wiped it and wouldn't even let her look at it.
But the note and the potions bottles. Hermione had her suspicions about them. She'd even been to the library and looked up something to help her test the potion in the bottles and find out what it was.
Well, he probably just moved them because you were snooping. She thought to herself, but the mere fact of them being missing made her suspicious. Why move them if you had nothing to hide?
She began methodically searching the rest of the room, quickly but thoroughly; she was extremely aware that at any second Harry could walk into the room.
She found the bottles surprisingly quickly, stuffed under Ron's bed, along with a sock, three Bertie Bott's jellybeans, a lot of chocolate frog wrappers and a half-eaten mouldy piece of toast.
Wrinkling her nose in disgust, she removed one of the potions, leaving the other two where they were, and straightened up, holding it up to the light.
Where could she go to test it? If Harry walked in to the common room and she was testing his potions, not only would he know that Hermione didn't trust him, but also that she'd been searching his bedroom.
A smile spread over her face. Of course! Why hadn't she thought of it before? The Room of Requirement...
A/N - hope you liked it. Please review! I'll love you forever!