Deceiving Draco Malfoy

Act I, Scene I: Cruel Slytherins Revelling in the Aftermath of A Faux Prank on the Muggle-born Slytherin, acted by Fred and George Weasley.

Intermission.

Let's make this convincing, Hermione thought as she walked into the common room. She put on an angry scowl and feigned being on the verge of tears, making sure that her faux dismay was in Malfoy's field of vision.

She didn't know if Fred and George had succeeded in their part of the scheme, but her role was to play was that of a distraught girl. She spotted Fred and George at the other end of the common room, about to commence a game of Wizard's chest; she sent a questioning look towards the both of them once she'd walked past them.

Fred and George responded with two jaunty thumbs-ups.

Act I, Scene II: Desperate Fury

Hermione stormed over to the twins in a confronting manner. "I know it was you two! Where are they?"

The twins kept their eyes on the red queen piece as she reduced a knight piece to white shards on the board. "Don't have the slightest clue what you're talking about, Granger," George said with an extremely punchable smirk. "Is your little Muggle-born head finally reeling from all that studying?"

A few of the nearby Slytherins rolled their eyes and simply went back to whatever they doing, while some (including Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle) looked up to observe the conflict transpiring between the three Slytherins.

Hermione sighed. "Look, those taffies are...special. I can't really explain what I mean, at the moment. Please, just give them back to me now and I won't report either of you. That's all I want."

In unison, Fred and George's mouths fell dropped into two open-mouthed simpers before laughing at Hermione's expense.

Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle giggled amongst each other while they continued to watch.

"Granger, please! We throw ourselves at your mercy!" Fred whimsically wailed, getting out of his seat and placing himself on his knees. "Don't tell big, bad Dumbledore on us! Our bums will be too sore for Quidditch from sitting in those dreadful wooden seats all night!"

With fury alight like irate brimstone in her brown eyes, the girl stormed away from the laughing twins. But it was a haughty sneer that the Lovett triplets looked up to upon her entering their shared dorm.

"What's with the grin, Hermione?" asked Laurie, who had paused her writing of notes for Potions class while in their conjoined bed.

Hermione simply threw her bookbag onto her bed, kicked off her shoes, and climbed in. "Lovely day, is all. I'm also looking forward to an entertaining tomorrow."

The sisters eyed each other; within the collective mental network that was Slytherin House, some members were able to detect when another one of their own was being subtle and cryptic with certain events to come. Out of respect for such understanding, the girls did not press for anything further than what their roommate had said.

The girls were about to return their attention to their notes when Lucie noticed that Hermione wasn't withdrawing any books and beginning to study; she just settled into bed, not even bothering to change into her pajamas.

Whatever was going to happen must be quite extraordinary to make her so mirthful, thought the triplets.

"And here I thought the Weasley twins were nothing more than a couple of low-class blood traitors," Malfoy said as he examined the contents of the bag with a grin not nearly as nefarious as his personality. "Guess they've finally come to their senses."

"You plan on sharing those taffies, Draco?" Crabbe couldn't help but ask.

"Did you not have your fill at lunch, Crabbe? Or is that gut of yours expanding more with every meal?" Malfoy taunted.

"HEY!"

Goyle sniggered lowly at Crabbe's outrage.

"What are you useless gits barking about over here?" asked Pansy Parkinson, who had just entered the common room and walked over to where the boys were seated.

"Where have you been, Pansy?" Malfoy asked as she sat next to him.

"Our poem-happy Mudblood teacher kept me after class for the poem I wrote," she sourly replied. "'In a poem, the depiction of a Dementor sucking the souls out of Muggles is a grim onset for a considerable amount of controversy,' he said."

Professor Poe may have been their teacher, but he was still a Muggle-born, and he wasn't exempt from their radar of animosity - outside of his classroom, that was.

"He made me rewrite the whole thing," she snarled with contempt. "There are so many things I could do with my time rather than listen to a ghost for two hours."

"Count your blessings! I still have two weeks of detention left..." Malfoy then looked down at the bag of taffies and then back up Pansy. "Here, have some knicked taffies, courtesy of Granger."

Pansy sneered and took the bag when Malfoy offered it. "Oh, Draco, you shouldn't have."

Across the common room, Fred and George watched as Pansy reached into the bag and shoveled several of the Puking Pastilles into her mouth.

Their eyes widened slightly before they turned back to each other.

"Not quite as we planned..." said George.

"Oh, well. The desired result will still be achieved," Fred chirped.