A/N – This damn website is driving me nuts. Just as I'm back to writing and want to start thinking about adding additional update days, it decides to play up and not send me any e-mail notifications. It means I'm checking for reviews on the site, and while that is fine for the two stories I'm currently working on, it's too hard to check every story regularly, so I might be missing reviews. I have to say, I am also missing the e-mails letting me know people are favouriting and following my stories. Little things like that really does keep my motivation up. Still, I hope the problem will be fixed soon and I can think about adding extra updates and sorting my Christmas stories.
But for now, I want to thank people for their kind thoughts in regards to my Mam's recent trip to hospital. Luckily she's getting better every day and is nearly back to normal. Her improvement has also meant I've been able to write again, and I have finally finished this story, so in the end Slytherin Princess will have 59 chapters. As I said, I hope to add additional updates soon, but I would like the e-mail issue resolved first. But I'll keep people updated and let you all know if I do decide to add extra updates. But for the time being, thanks for reading and I hope you're all still enjoying this story.
Following their disastrous meeting with Dean and Seamus, Harry and Ron were pretty dejected as they came to terms with how alone they were in their fight against Voldemort and Hermione. They really were down to just the most loyal members of The Order. Luckily, the people who had stuck by them were truly loyal and despite the disappointment in being unable to enlarge their fighting force, the plan to target Draco and get Hermione to show her true colours swept into action. And of course they still harboured the hope that once the dark showed their hand, and proved how untrustworthy they truly were, they would have more people fighting alongside them.
Bill and Charlie had been the ones to work on the plan for Draco, and deciding on the second Hogsmeade visit, they filled everyone in on their plan the day before they struck. On the morning of their trip to Hogsmeade, they double checked everyone was certain they wanted to be involved before handing around vials of polyjuice potion. Along with the two eldest Weasleys, the two youngest and Harry the other people involved in the plan were an eager Sirius and a slightly reluctant Remus.
"What if they aren't there?" Ron questioned.
"Yeah, the weather is still pretty bad and it's always worse up at Hogwarts," Ginny agreed. The predicted snow had actually arrived on the last Hogsmeade visit, and in the three weeks since then it had snowed virtually every day.
"If they don't show up we'll try again next time," Bill answered with a shrug.
"But let's hope they do turn up today," Charlie added. "The snow will make what we've got planned even better. It will look more like an accident in this weather."
"Let's hope for the best," Bill said, checking everyone was ready. "Then let's go."
As arranged the group headed to Hogsmeade, arriving in the secluded street behind The Hog's Head. Unlike The Three Broomsticks, which was popular and always busy, The Hog's Head was often deserted and there was never a lot of people around the pub. It meant that no-one noticed the group arrive, and it also meant it was easy for Harry, Ron, Ginny, Sirius and Remus to remain behind the pub while Bill and Charlie used some spare polyjuice potion so they could head off to find their prey.
Bill and Charlie were gone almost an hour, before they returned. After so long, everyone was preparing themselves for a negative result, but the pair surprised them by revealing that Draco was indeed in the village.
"Are we all sure of the plan?" Charlie checked one final time.
"Yes, we know what we're doing," Harry replied with a slight roll of his eyes.
"In that case, bottoms up," Bill said with a grin, gesturing for everyone to drink their polyjuice potion.
Within minutes the group had transformed into a group of teenagers, none of whom had ever attended Hogwarts. Bill and Charlie had sourced the hairs from muggle neighbourhoods, and they'd been careful to pick young people who were pretty nondescript. With the transformations complete, everyone had then pulled on hats and scarves to hide their faces even further, which thanks to the cold weather wouldn't seem at all suspicious.
"Let's go," Harry said as the group turned and strolled into the centre of Hogsmeade.
Once they were in Hogsmeade were plenty of people could see them, the group then started horsing around. They threw snowballs at one another, making sure several of them missed their targets and hit off shop windows and walls. They yelled and made lots of noise, while pushing at each other, not bothering if they bumped into other people as they did so. They even went as far as to knock over a display in the doorway of the quidditch shop. All in all they made a complete nuisance of themselves, and caused trouble all over the village.
Throughout it all they kept an eye out for Draco, and once Harry spotted him, he made sure the others were aware of his presence. With Draco sighted the group began rowdily making their way in his direction, while making it appear as though they were just wandering through the village aimlessly. Initiating the snowball fight again, Harry craftily threw a barrage of snowballs towards where Draco and Hermione were walking, under the pretence of hitting Ron. The snowballs went right between them, slamming against Honeydukes window as they did so, but more importantly it had the effect of causing them both to step away from the snowballs in opposite directions.
The second there was a bit of a gap between the two Slytherins, the group pounced. Still making it look as though they were engaged in their snowball fight, they barrelled right past Draco, knocking the blond to the floor. With so many of them it was impossible for anyone to notice anything when Sirius deliberately stepped on Draco's leg, silently using magic to add more weight to the pressure on the blond, causing his leg to crack. Harry and Ron also used the chance to get a few sneaky kicks in at the blond's head and body, but again it looked as though they were merely being boisterous and not caring about the boy under their feet.
Within seconds their task was complete and they carried on past the fallen Slytherin, acting as though nothing had happened. Although to be fair, they'd managed it perfectly so it genuinely did look as though they'd just bumped into Draco and caused him to fall accidentally.
"Sorry mate," Bill called back over his shoulder as he dodged a snowball thrown by Charlie.
The snowball whizzed past Bill's head and landed beside Draco, where Hermione was now rushing to his side. Not waiting to hang around and see her reaction when she realised her boyfriend had been hurt, the group hurried around a nearby corner. Not waiting for the polyjuice potion to wear off, they prepared to return home. As they were leaving they heard shouts of anger heading in their direction, but no-one took the time to find out who was shouting as they quickly left the scene of the accident.
"That was great," Ron enthused when they arrived back at Grimmauld Place. "Did you hear Malfoy's leg crack? It was awesome."
"It was pretty satisfying," Harry agreed with a grin. "Do we think it seemed accidental enough?"
"I would say so," Sirius replied with a nod. "Anyone in the village can confirm the fact there was a gang of youths acting recklessly. Malfoy wasn't the only person we bumped into, he just happened to be the only one we knocked down. And no-one could have seen that his leg was damaged deliberately. It will go down as an accident."
"For the moment," Bill said with a smirk. "I've managed to get my hands on some ink which vanishes the second it is read by the recipient. In a few days, Harry and Ron can write to Hermione to let her know what we've done. And the beauty of it is, once Hermione has read the letter, it will vanish from sight. She won't have any proof of what she is claiming. So when she attacks, it'll be her at fault, not us."
"I can't wait for everyone to see her true colours," Ron said eagerly.
"You'll have to be patient for another couple of days, but until then, let's focus on your lessons," Bill said. "Mum won't be back for another couple of hours, so we can sharpen your fighting skills some more."
Heading off to hone their fighting skills, Harry, Ron and Ginny couldn't help but wonder what was going on back in Hogsmeade and how Draco's accident was being handled.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Hermione and Draco had been enjoying a romantic stroll around Hogsmeade until the peace had been shattered by a gang of youths acting like yobs. It was impossible to miss the commotion they were causing, and quite rightly the shopkeepers of Hogsmeade were not at all impressed with their antics. Hermione heard more than one person threaten to get in touch with Severus to report the gang, but she knew that wouldn't work unless any of them could be identified. She personally didn't recognise anyone, but she didn't know everyone in the school and rather craftily the group had avoided wearing their house scarves, or anything else that would at least indicate which house they were from.
"Arseholes," Draco muttered as the group knocked down a display in the doorway of the quidditch shop and ran off laughing, rather than apologising or stopping to help clean up their mess. "Do you want to get back to school? They way they're throwing those snowballs, someone is going to be hit sooner rather than later, and I would rather it wasn't us."
More than happy to call it a day, and get away from the idiots causing chaos in the village, Hermione turned to head back towards the castle. However, as she and Draco were passing Honeydukes a barrage of snowballs narrowly missed slamming into them. Instead they rattled into the shop window and the owner ran outside, yelling at the misbehaving youths. Moving away from the snowballs, Hermione only realised Draco had moved the other way when the group of youths quickly moved away from the irate shop owner, knocking into Draco as they went.
"Idiots," Hermione cried as she watched her boyfriend tumble to the ground.
Hermione was on her way towards Draco, when the group moved past her boyfriend, one of them casually calling out an apology as they went, still throwing snowballs at each other.
"Are you okay?" she asked, crouching down beside Draco, expecting him to be more annoyed that he'd been knocked down than actually hurt. Only once she was down beside Draco, she could see that he was in pain. "Draco?"
"My leg," Draco panted, his voice thick with pain. "I think I've broken my leg."
"You bastards," Hermione yelled, jumping to her feet and calling after the group of idiots who had disappeared around the corner.
"Don't, they're not worth it," Draco said, tugging on Hermione's arm to get her to refocus on him. "It was just a stupid accident. I wasn't prepared for them knocking into me."
"That's no reason for them to break your leg," Hermione huffed as she turned around and called for the owner of Honeydukes to help them.
"I'll contact the school," the shop owner vowed before heading back into their shop.
"They didn't do it in purpose," Draco snorted. "I just got crushed in the crowd."
"I don't care, they hurt you and they need to pay," Hermione hissed. "When Severus finds out who those arseholes were, I'm going to teach them a lesson they'll never forget."
"I do love it when you get all vengeful," Draco remarked, his smile turning into a wince of pain.
"Vengeance later, right now, let's make sure you don't freeze to death before help arrives," Hermione muttered as a woman from the bookshop rushed over with some blankets.
Luckily, aid quickly arrived from the castle and Draco was transported to the hospital wing where he was diagnosed with a broken leg and some bruising to his torso. It also looked as though he'd suffered a blow to the head, but thankfully it wasn't too bad and a few potions alleviated the headache that was brewing. However, the leg needed expert magic to fix, so Draco was transferred to St Mungo's, while his parents were informed of what had happened.
With Draco safely tucked up in St Mungo's, Severus arranged for the students to return from Hogsmeade early. He then gathered everyone in The Great Hall and the investigation began to find the idiots responsible for Draco's accident, and the damage in Hogsmeade. However, no-one realised that those responsible weren't in Hogwarts, and while the school was being punished for bad behaviour the real culprits were at Grimmauld Place celebrating the successful first phase of their plan to get Hermione to show the world just how evil she truly was.