I'd like to thank fredfred and InquisitorCOC for beta-reading.

Chapter 5: The Trap

Diagon Alley, London, July 6th, 1996

"You should've called me at once," Sirius Black said, frowning at his best friend. At least James should've done so before informing the DMLE - that's what best friends were for. And Sirius was much more competent than the Aurors, anyway.

"I called you as soon as I realised that Harry was actually missing," James replied. "I can't call you every time Harry is late."

"Of course you can!" Sirius protested. "He's my godson! You know I'd drop everything for him!" And even if it was nothing but a kid forgetting the time while out with a girl - Sirius had used that excuse himself more times than he could count - getting dragged home by a Marauder would teach his godson to be sneakier. "It's not as if I have anything more important to do, anyway," he added.

"You're a member of the Wizengamot," James said.

"Exactly." Sirius grinned.

His friend sighed. "So… do you think you can do something?" He gestured at the ice-cream parlour. "It's been hours, but this is the last place that we know Harry visited."

Sirius grinned. "Only hours? Don't worry. I'll have him tracked down in no time!" And then whoever had kidnapped his godson would pay! They might have warded Harry against magical spells, but Padfoot's nose was much harder to beat. He had once tracked a unicorn through the Forbidden Forest on a dare, after all! Granted, he had almost been killed by a particularly grumpy centaur, and he had had to run from an enraged herd of unicorns when he had blundered into their glade, but he had won the dare, and that was what counted. "Be right back!" he told James, then stepped into a nearby side alley.

A quick check if anyone was watching - nope - and he changed.

Padfoot snorted when he trotted out of the side alley. Diagon Alley had changed - as he had changed. It had lost colour, but gained so many interesting scents… He inhaled, then growled - there was a cat nearby!

"Did you get his scent?"

Right. He wasn't here to teach some stupid cats that they weren't half as clever as they thought they were and that they should stay away from rats. He was here to save his godson, Harry!

He shook his head and trotted over to the entrance to the ice-cream place. Mmm… ice-cream! So many delicious scents... he could feel himself drooling.

No, Harry. Remember Harry! He shook his head to clear it, sending some drops of drool flying, then entered the parlour.

"Hey! No dogs in here!" some witch yelled.

"That's an Auror search dog," James told the silly witch.

"Oh, I'm sorry, sir, we've had trouble with pets in the shop, and…"

Padfoot ignored the witch and went to the table James had shown him before. Harry had been sitting here. He sniffed the seats. Ron. Ron's girlfriend. Harry's nemesis. And Harry! Yes!

He barked, then started to follow his godson's trail. Out the door, taking a right, towards the joke shop - the best joke shop. Yes, yes. The trail was clear. It hadn't rained, and no one had cleaned the street. Yes, yes!

Nose down, he followed Harry's scent. Some silly wizard was too slow to get out of his way, but Padfoot easily shouldered the man aside - he was a big dog. A good dog and best friend, no matter what Lily claimed. And yes, the trace led to the joke shop… no. No?

The trail took a turn. Towards… Knockturn Alley. He growled.

And James, behind him, cursed. "Don't tell me that Harry went there," he muttered.

Silly James, Padfoot couldn't talk. But he could follow a trail through anything. Almost anything - Lily had once used some really nasty concoction to make him lose his sense of smell for a week after he had tracked them down during their honeymoon!

And Harry's trail led into Knockturn Alley. A place with even more interesting scents than Diagon Alley. But also a place with far more dangerous residents.

Well, nothing and no one in there was as dangerous as Padfoot and James!

"Knockturn Alley… I told him not to go there! What was he thinking?"

Probably that it was interesting, Padfoot thought. That was why the Marauders had visited the alley, after all. Before the war, at least. During the war, they had visited mainly to kill a Death Eater or sympathiser hiding there - they hadn't been able to hide from Padfoot's nose!

And Harry's kidnapper wouldn't be able to hide from him, either!

He entered the alley, following Harry's scent.

Wait… there was another scent he knew. He had smelt it before… recently. He barked. Harry's nemesis. Both of them went into Knockturn Alley?

For a moment, Padfoot wondered if they had had a secret rendezvous there. Wouldn't that be just like James? Actually, no, it wouldn't. James and Lily hadn't dated in secret - James had told his friends and everyone else who hadn't been able to get away when she agreed to go to Hogsmeade with him.

No, it probably was their rivalry or something.

"Padfoot?"

He shook his head and continued tracking Harry, nose on the cobblestones. The girl's scent diverted after a bit, but Harry's led him… to a shop.

"Hey! No pets allowed!"

"Auror business! Have you seen this boy?"

Padfoot let his tongue loll out his mouth and barked. 'Auror business' - best way to shut someone up! But he had to track Harry. As soon as James was done questioning the clerk. Who, as expected, hadn't seen anyone in years.

Back to Harry. The scent left the shop. He was tempted to still check inside, but… they didn't have the time for that. Back during the war, if anyone went missing… He growled. He didn't want to remember that time. Few of those who went missing had returned. Some hadn't been found to this day.

But all the Death Eaters had been taken care of. Peter and Remus had gotten the Carrows five years ago, in Romania. So who would… He smelt a hag and growled. If that monster had hurt… but Harry's scent led into the next shop.

Had his godson really gone to Knockturn Alley to shop? Had his rivalry with his nemesis gone too far and he was looking for dark items? And why wouldn't he have come to Padfoot about that? His family had the best dark stuff!

"Padfoot?"

Right. Focus. He smelt the cobblestones again and followed Harry's trail. At least the trail didn't lead further into the alley.

Another shop. And another clerk who hadn't seen anything or anyone. And so on. They should've set the alley ablaze, back during the war. But James and Lily had shot down his idea. He was vindicated now, though - if the alley had been burned down, Harry wouldn't have been able to get lost here.

And another shop. 'Leopold's Slightly-Used Goods'. Oh, there was the scent of the girl again! But no trail leading out of the shop. Neither Harry's nor the girl's.

Padfoot growled.

"What?" James asked.

Padfoot nodded towards the shop's entrance.

"Harry went in and didn't come out?"

He barked.

James raised his wand.

They entered.

"Hey! No pets allowed!" a wizard told them. He smelt like firewhiskey - the cheap stuff. And tobacco. And… the man just smelt.

"Auror business. Have you seen this boy?"

"What? No…"

"We know he's been here!" James snapped. "Are you lying to me?"

"N-no. I might've seen the boy… right… I remember. There was some sort of scuffle. And he left. Yes."

Padfoot growled.

"He didn't leave," James said, trembling with anger.

"But… He did! There was a scuffle, they toppled a few shelves - and when I went to check, they were gone."

"They?" James pointed his wand at the scumbag.

Padfoot sniffed the floor, then followed the scent trail. Both the girl and Harry had gone… there.

"The girl and the boy. They had a quarrel or something. Lover's spat? I don't know; they had sneaked out when I went to check, really!"

Padfoot barked.

"Yes, there," the clerk said. "By the books. Everything was spread over the floor."

"Was anything missing?" James asked, still tense.

"Uh… the Alarm Charm didn't trigger, so they didn't take anything with them."

"You didn't check whether anything is missing?"

"No?"

Padfoot wanted to bite the idiot.

"Is there another exit?"

"Uh, yes. But that's behind the counter - and I was there." The clerk nodded with a weak smile. He smelt sweaty now, Padfoot noticed. Guilty.

But then, most everyone in Knockturn Alley smelt like that when talking to an Auror.

James was baring his teeth, but he wasn't growling. He was talking in tight, controlled sentences. "You didn't see them sneak out even though you were watching the door. So clearly they could've sneaked past you."

Well, not without the Cloak, Padfoot thought. Although the clerk was so stupid, Harry probably would have managed without his Cloak.

He went to check. No scent of Harry or the girl near the back door. He returned to James and barked, shaking his head.

"They didn't leave through the back door either," James said. "Where are they?"

"I don't know! I'm just a clerk! I swear! I don't know anything!"

"We'll see."

Padfoot wondered if the clerk would end up pissing himself.

Unknown Location, July 6th, 1996

Hermione Granger shook her head. Potter's Quidditch obsession really was just ridiculous. At least he realised it. Sometimes. Unfortunately, he wasn't alone - most of Wizarding Britain was obsessed with the silly game. Flying dozens of yards in the air, chased by enchanted iron balls, and most of the time, the match was decided by the Seeker, anyway. That the game was so popular despite this was almost as vexing as Potter thinking she didn't take part in any sporting activities. She did - just not as obsessively as Potter. She might not run around the Black Lake every day, but she was fit enough to do so if she wanted to. Which she didn't - there were more important things to do in her limited free time. And walking was a sport as well - there were even walking races at the Olympics.

And they did have more important things to discuss now as well. Such as finding out whether the monster had actually left or simply didn't like the taste of birds. She cleared her throat. "So, how do you suggest to find out whether or not it's safe to leave this cave without putting ourselves in danger?"

Potter frowned in that manner of his that she knew meant he didn't have a good idea. "I can go take a peek, with you ready to summon me back to you at my signal."

She pinched the bridge of her nose. "If the monster is lying in ambush, then it might be too fast for you to notice and alert me in time to summon you."

"You said that it's probably left." He grinned, proving that, just as she'd suspected, he didn't have an alternative and just wanted to be contrarian. "And you've proved that you can summon me quickly enough to avoid the wyvern."

"As long as I have sufficient advance warning," she pointed out. "Given that you have to notice it, then alert me, at which point I have to react and cast the spell, that might not be the case. You should use a decoy, anyway."

"If the wyvern didn't fall for your birds, then it won't fall for a decoy, either."

"The monster could be relying on its sense of smell to identify prey," she said.

He scoffed. "It spotted us from a high altitude."

She pressed her lips together. That was true, but risking your life over it? But she didn't have a better plan, either. "Make sure your glasses are protected by an Impervious Charm," she said. "Otherwise, you won't see anything after sticking your head through the waterfall." His glasses were probably enchanted with that charm anyway, but if your life might depend on something, it was better to verify any relevant assumptions.

"They're already charmed," he replied - and frowned at her as if she had suggested cancelling the spell instead. What was his problem?

"Good."

He nodded. "Keep your wand ready."

Did he think she'd holster it? She hadn't let go of her wand since before this whole mess started. She nodded. Curtly. "Be careful."

"Always."

She had to snort at that lie despite herself. Potter was anything but careful, as anyone who had ever had to work with him or had seen him play Quidditch could attest. Well, he wouldn't die on her watch. Not if she could help it. Someone had to look out for the idiot.

His grin slipped into something a little more toothy as he turned and started to walk towards the waterfall at the cave's entrance. He stopped in front of it, but stayed near the wall of the cave, peering through the small gap on this side of the waterfall. Then he took a deep breath - she could see his chest moving - and leaned forward, into the waterfall.

She held her breath. If the monster was waiting above the entrance, it could swoop down and rip his head off before either Potter or she could react, 'Seeker reflexes' be damned.

But nothing happened. Potter took a step forward, then another, and then he was outside the cave - she could see his blurred form on the other side of the waterfall.

She slowly released her breath through clenched teeth but kept her wand trained on his form. If the creature was flying overhead…

Potter turned and stuck his head through the waterfall. "It's clear. The wyvern's not around."

"Did you check the pond?" she asked.

"It's too small to hide inside," he retorted.

So he hadn't checked it. But he was still alive, so it should be safe.

Taking a deep breath herself, she walked towards him - keeping her wand ready, of course.

She tensed when she stepped through the waterfall, shivering when she got doused again, and looked around quickly once she was outside in the sun.

But Potter had been correct - there was no sign of the monster. Not on the ground nor in the air.

She sighed with relief and turned to address him. "So, what do we do now?"

He blinked, and she sighed again. As she had feared, he didn't have a plan.

Harry Potter blinked. Granger was… well, she had been drenched from head to toe by the waterfall. And her top clung to her chest like… He blinked again and forced himself to look away. She probably had done that on purpose, seeing how she had reacted back in the cave.

"I see. You've got no idea."

What? He narrowed his eyes at her. First, Granger shot down his ideas, and then she blamed him for not having a plan? Yeah, right. "We still need to kill the wyvern. We won't be safe until we manage that." And they had to keep an eye out for it, too - he checked the sky.

"Or until we get rescued."

She was doing this deliberately! "Who argued against just waiting for a rescue, huh?" he snapped.

"That was before we encountered this monster, back when the environment was our greatest challenge," she replied, putting her hands on her hips and huffing. "Attacking a man-eating giant flying monster is a lot more dangerous than gathering coconuts."

"I wasn't thinking of attacking it," he told her with a scoff. "I was thinking of laying a trap for it." That was much less dangerous - he had heard Charlie's stories about his work at the dragon reserve, after all.

"Like preparing poisoned bait?" She inclined her head, making a point of looking at the enlarged birds still flying around above the pond.

"Since that plan didn't work, no, not like that." He refrained from scowling. Better not let her know that she was getting to him.

She huffed in response and crossed her arms under her chest. Which lifted her… He wouldn't let her get him like that. Instead of looking away, he maintained eye contact, then deliberately looked at her chest before scoffing.

She gasped, then turned away. "You…" She trailed off, and he saw her cast the Drying Charm again.

Point Potter, he thought with a grin. "Anyway," he went on, after a brief check of the sky, "I was thinking of an iron spike with a barb - place some bait on top of it, the wyvern dives and impales itself on it."

"And what if that doesn't hold it? Or the monster avoids the spike?"

"Then we say 'tough shit' and try another plan, of course," he replied. "But we don't have to be near the trap for it to work, so it's quite safe."

"Unless you try to play bait again." She huffed again.

That probably meant she didn't have a better argument against his idea. Good. "I'm not planning to impale myself on a spike."

"Good." She nodded rather sharply.

"But that means we need bait," he pointed out.

"There's bound to be fish in the pond." She nodded at the water. "That's why we came here, after all."

"You only wanted to bribe the wyvern, though," he reminded her.

"That was before it tried to kill us." She bared her teeth, then looked up at the sky.

Right. Granger was vindictive as hell. She'd take even a harmless joke personally, he reminded himself, and didn't believe in proportional responses. "Anyway, let's get some fish."

"Using fish as bait might also attract other animals. And it'll spoil quickly in this heat."

"Good. That means the wyvern will smell it as well." He grinned.

"We still have no indication that the monster hunts by scent."

He shrugged. "But odds are it'll notice, and check it out."

"We'll see."

"Well, not directly - we'll be far away when the trap goes off," he corrected her.

"How far? Because if we're caught outside the cave by the monster, we'll be in trouble. And if we place the trap close to the pond, it might attract predators that are small enough to fit into the cave."

"If they're small enough to fit into the cave, we can easily deal with them," he replied.

"There's also the stench and the insects it'll attract."

"We've got spells for that." Well, Harry did, anyway. With Rose still stubbornly trying - and failing - to prove that she wasn't inept at Potions, learning a charm to clear the air had been a necessity. Not even Mum had made much of a fuss about him doing magic over the holidays that time.

"I guess that'll have to do," she conceded with all the grace of a particularly drunk troll.

"Yes. So, you get the fish, I'll make the spike." Harry nodded at her, then turned to eye the closest tree. After checking the sky for the wyvern, of course. He'd need a decently-sized branch, ideally with a fork that could be sharpened into a barb. Although in a pinch, he could use a Sticking Charm to add some barbs.

'You get the fish.' Hermione Granger swallowed her first response. Typical - Potter took any agreement as an acknowledgement of his supposed leadership. Leadership by someone who had made his plan up on the spot!

But - after some adjustments - the plan did seem workable, and the risks it presented were acceptable. And she knew that they had to work together to survive this, so pointing out Potter's failures wouldn't help their situation. Quite the contrary, in fact.

So she swallowed her second comment as well and walked to the pond - after checking the sky for flying monsters bent on eating her or Potter, of course. Someone had to watch out for them.

The sky was clear. Unfortunately, so was the pond - or so it seemed. She couldn't believe that there were no fish in it - it was an almost ideal spot for fish. And she couldn't see any predators… Oh. Large birds circling over the pond would probably be seen as dangerous by a fish in the pond. Especially after the monster had disturbed the pond by landing in it.

But the birds also served as a potential distraction for the monster - which, so far, as a quick check confirmed, hadn't returned. Dismissing them would, therefore, be a waste, and potentially dangerous.

A flick of her wand sent the birds to circle over the trees to the east of the pond. That should do it. Now she just had to lure the fish out. If only she had some bread… Oh. Insects would do just as well. Turning a button into a beetle required a button, but… She moved her wand and a line of ants appeared and marched straight into the water.

She watched them float around, waving their legs in a futile attempt to swim, then looked up again. Still clear.

Looking down, she was just in time to see the first ant vanish - something had snapped it up. A fish! Probably - but what else lived underwater and ate drifting insects?

Perhaps a snake. Well, a snake would serve as bait as well, if properly enlarged, but… there was the Parseltongue problem. Snakes weren't sapient, but a Parselmouth could talk to them. And hold a discussion as if the snakes were human. Even if one assumed - which was the generally accepted explanation according to her research - that the Parselmouth's magic made snakes temporarily sapient, everything she had read about it agreed that the snakes did rely on their memories for the conversation. That made them at least proto-sapient. And if one followed the Lovegood hypothesis, which stated that all snakes were sapient, but cursed not to understand humans except for Parselmouths...

Hermione couldn't kill a snake. It would feel like murder.

Another ant disappeared. She spotted a silvery shadow in the water. Hah! "Accio fish!"

A small fish rose out of the water, wriggling and thrashing desperately in an attempt to escape the grip of her spell.

Hemione could kill a fish, though. She gripped it by the tail, then slammed its head against the closest rock a few times. The result was a dead or unconscious fish - and if it was unconscious, then it would painlessly suffocate without water soon enough.

She waited for a little while to be sure that it was dead - she didn't want to be hit by a dog-sized fish's tail fin - then cast the Engorgement Charm on it. It instantly grew to the size of a large dog, and Hermione smiled widely - this had been her best result to date! If Professor Flitwick could see it, she'd get at least five points!

She cast a Levitation Charm to transport the fish and looked at the sky again. Still clear. Whew.

Then she walked towards Potter - or where she had last seen the boy. He shouldn't have gone far - they had agreed to stay close to the cave - but Potter wasn't exactly good at sticking to the rules. Or at showing any common sense. "Potter?"

"What?"

Ah, that sounded close! Just behind the denser underbrush at the edge of the jungle, where the light allowed many more plants to grow than in the shadow below the canopy. "I've got the fish."

"Ah? Good! I'm almost done with the spike! Start on the pit!"

The pit? What? "What pit?"

"For the trap, duh!"

"You want to dig a pit trap large enough for the monster?" He couldn't mean it! And, speaking of traps… she looked up. Still clear.

"No, to anchor the spike."

Why didn't he say so in the first place? "And how wide should it be?"

He didn't reply. Just as she was about to repeat her question, the underbrush parted and Potter walked out, followed by a floating iron spike as thick as her thigh and as tall as Potter himself. With a wicked barb.

And with an open shirt. Potter, that was - not the spike. Damn, Lavender had been right - Quidditch did build nice bodies. At least if a maniac like Wood was responsible for the training regime.

She blinked. She was staring at Potter? Like some hormone-crazed superficial bint with no sense or class? And why had he opened his shirt anyway? It wasn't as if he had used his muscles to move the spike.

Damn - he must have done it on purpose, trying to impress her out of some stupid sense of machismo.

Well, it wouldn't work!

Harry Potter wiped some sweat from his neck. Even with his shirt open, he felt hot. And not the good kind of hot. Just the sweaty kind. He didn't even want to imagine how he would have felt if he'd had to lug the spike around without magic.

And Granger was frowning at him. He scoffed. She was only wearing shorts and a small top, and she hadn't had to do anything but summon some fish from the pond; she didn't get to sneer at him for sweating.

But he wouldn't make a scene; he could be the better person. Besides, they had a more urgent problem. "It should be this wide," he told her, pointing at the base of the spike.

"Ah." She looked up before looking around. "And where do we do this? Opposite the entrance to the cave, I presume, so we can keep an eye on it."

"Obviously," he replied, refraining from frowning. Again, she was making it look as if stating the obvious was smart. He glanced at the huge fish she was levitating. "That won't hide the entire spike."

"We can use plants to hide it."

"That might not fool the wyvern," he pointed out. They didn't know whether the monster had seen the birds or not, but you should never underestimate your enemy, as Remus had taught him.

"If it recognises a trap, then we won't catch it anyway," she retorted. "Let's go - I don't feel safe out here."

"Well, the lack of books must be disturbing," he joked, chuckling.

She rolled her eyes at him. Typical.

They quickly reached the other side of the pond, opposite the waterfall. "I think that's visible from the back of the cave," she said. "But we should check."

"Alright. Go check," he told her. He would have liked walking through the waterfall to cool off a little, but if the wyvern returned, he had a better chance of escaping it.

She frowned again but nodded - tersely - and dropped the fish on the ground as she walked towards the cave.

He shook his head behind her back - he couldn't imagine what had gotten her goat this time. The whole situation was probably getting to her. Granger wasn't good at dealing with problems when she couldn't prepare; her performance in the duelling hall - and in the hallways - proved that.

He watched her step through the waterfall, then checked the sky again. Still clear. Perhaps Granger was correct, and the wyvern was hunting in the sea. Probably large fishes, dolphins and whales and the like - creatures like dragons needed a lot of food.

"Move a little to your right!"

Ah - Granger had reappeared and pointed to her left. He took a few steps to the right.

She went into the cave again, then came back. "That's it!"

While he started creating a hole for the spike, she walked towards him, wading through the shallower part of the pond.

"We'll have to watch our shoes," she said when she reached him. "They might rot and fall apart in this humidity without constant care."

"That's what the Mending Charm is for," he replied without looking at her.

"That's what I meant." She sounded annoyed - he knew that tone; she usually sounded annoyed when she was talking to him.

"Ah." He checked the sky again, then dug a little deeper with another Vanishing Spell. "I think that's deep enough."

She knelt down and checked. "Perhaps a foot deeper?"

"Then there won't be much of the spike left," he pointed out.

"Right." She nodded and stood. "It'll have to do."

He waved his wand and cast another Levitation Charm before she could find something else to criticise. Manoeuvring such a heavy object with enough precision to get it into a hole was tricky, but Harry managed it easily. "There!" he announced, kicking the spike to show it was set firmly in the ground.

"Watch out!"

He ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the fish she was floating above his head. "Watch it!" he snapped.

"I do."

Oh, damn…

He bit back a comeback while she lowered the fish on to the spike until the tip and barb were hidden inside it. "That should hold for a while, but as the cadaver starts to rot, it'll slide down the spike."

"We can replace the bait then," he told her, "though we'll be saved before that happens."

She snorted. "We'll see."

"Yes, we will." He frowned at her. His parents would notice that he was missing by dinner time at the latest. Then they would send out Patronus Messengers, as usual. And then Mum, Dad and their friends would track them down. They might even call Dumbledore - the Headmaster was the Supreme Mugwump of the ICW, so if they were in some other country, he could probably deal with any issues.

"The sky's still clear," Granger said, interrupting his thoughts. "Let's cover up the rest of the spike and head back into the cave. We don't want it coming back and avoiding the spike."

"Of course not," he replied with a fake smile. Then he blinked. "Damn. One more thing."

"What?" She sounded concerned as she turned to look at him.

"We don't tell Hagrid about this, understand?"

She gaped at him for a moment before nodding with a grimace. "Of course not! He'd fail us for the rest of our time at Hogwarts if he knew we'd tried to kill such a creature." After a moment, she added: "We probably shouldn't tell Luna, either."

"Oh, right." Harry winced. Luna would probably cry at hearing about this.

Hermione Granger shook her head as they walked back to the cave. This was bad. Professor Hagrid was a good teacher and an acknowledged expert on magical creatures, but he liked his subject matter a little too much and tended to underestimate how dangerous magical creatures could be. And he loved dragons. If he ever heard that they had killed a wy... a monster that displayed some similarities to a dragon, he'd probably get angrier than the time Malfoy had deliberately stepped on Neville's Puffskein.

And Luna… Dear Lord, Luna would probably think Hermione was the worst witch in the world for killing such a beast. Hermione shivered at the thought. But they had no choice - they couldn't survive on the island with such a creature hunting them.

She looked up and checked the sky - still clear.

They reached the edge of the pond, where the water was shallow, and she waded towards the waterfall. Having to get wet entering and leaving was really inconvenient.

She recast her Drying Charm as soon as she was inside the cave. She wouldn't give Potter another show. She caught him staring at her with a frown and huffed. Typical! Huffing, she sat down across the entrance, squinting at the waterfall. She could just make out the blur that would be the fish - the bait - across the pond.

Potter sat down as well - too close to her for her taste. Didn't he trust her to keep an eye on the trap? "So now we wait," he said.

How eloquent! "Yes, now we wait," she repeated, rolling her eyes. It was obvious, wasn't it?

"Hey, Granger, cheer up - we're safe here and we managed to prepare our trap."

"And we don't know if it'll work," she replied.

He shrugged as if that wasn't of any concern at all. "Even if it doesn't work, we'll still gain more information about the wyvern."

"Information we'll use to build a better trap?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Exactly!" He grinned at her. "That's the spirit, Granger! To boldly experiment and create new things!"

"Killing a rare magical creature in innovative and increasingly desperate ways until it sticks?" She snorted. "That sounds like A Fish Called Wanda."

He blinked, then snorted as well. "Let's hope we fare better than the animal lover."

"Michael Palin," she told him. "That was the actor."

"Ah." He didn't sound interested. "It was a very funny movie."

"Yes." She hesitated a moment, then asked: "Where did you see it?" It was eight years old, after all - he couldn't have seen it at the cinema. And TVs didn't work in magical homes - the wards interfered with electronics. She suppressed a wince, remembering how she had tested that at home. Getting punished by both the Ministry and her parents… That summer vacation a few years ago really hadn't been fun.

"My cousin's home."

"Ah." He had mentioned his muggle relatives earlier, hadn't he?

"I'm not an ignorant pureblood," he said, sounding more than a little defensive.

"Well, you act like one often enough," she said.

"How so?" He glared at her.

"Always talking about your new broom, your special library, your special training, your family…" She scoffed.

"I don't always talk like that!" he protested. "And talking about your family is normal!"

"I don't talk about my family nearly as often as you do. Neither does Lavender. How often does your cousin talk about his family?"

She saw him press his lips together before answering: "Ron often talks about his family!"

"Ron's a pureblood," she pointed out. "But even he doesn't brag nearly as often as you do!"

"He doesn't brag nearly as often as you do, either!"

"Pardon me?" He couldn't mean that she was…

"You always go on about your tests and exams and books you've read!" He shook his head. "Oh, I hope I did the bonus question correctly! I only had fifteen minutes to do it after finishing the rest of the test, and I'm not sure if that seventh year book I read contained the answer!"

"I'm not like that!" she hissed. She wasn't!

"Yes, you are. And it's annoying!"

"Not nearly as annoying as you incessantly going on about your family and wealth!" she spat.

"So, what am I supposed to do, pretend that I'm an orphan?"

"You could be more humble!" It was certainly impossible for him to be more arrogant!

"I'm very humble. I don't brag nearly as much as certain others!"

It was clear that he meant her. Hah! "Oh, sure you don't, Mr 'God's Gift to Quidditch'!"

"That was a joke!"

"Well, it wasn't funny, so how would anyone be supposed to be able to tell?" She scoffed again. She loathed the sort of 'jokes' Potter and his friends made.

"You wouldn't know funny if it hit you with a curse!"

"You would think that was funny, wouldn't you? Hitting someone with a curse!"

"A curse? Of course not!" he shook his head. "They're banned in duelling for a reason!"

She scoffed once more. "But hexes and jinxes are OK?"

"They're easily dealt with - if you know what spell it is. Unlike curses," he said.

"Just because they're easily dealt with doesn't mean they don't hurt."

"Says Miss 'Look at the hex I found in some obscure and probably banned book'!"

He was imitating her now, was he? "I'm only defending myself against you!" she corrected him.

"Yeah, sure you do when you ambush me at night!"

"That was justified revenge for your attack the day before! And if you hadn't broken curfew, you wouldn't have been outside in a hallway!" she pointed out. It was all his fault, anyway.

"You broke curfew as well to ambush me!" He huffed. "And I still got you back before McGonagall arrived!"

That was true - she should've withdrawn at once after hitting him with that hex. But the temptation to rub it in a little had been too great. "You started this!" she spat. It was his fault.

"I started this? You started it! I was just getting even!" he blurted out.

"Getting even? For what?"

"The Gastric Garlic Hex!"

Oh, right - that had been fun. Not for anyone in his room or nearby, of course. But… "That was revenge for the Squeaky Voice Potion in my tea!"

"That was a harmless prank! And revenge for the Balding Head Jinx!" He blinked. "Wait… are you really going to list every spell I've ever cast on you?"

"Are you?" she shot back. If he was going there, she'd beat him at it!

"In any case, you started it by claiming that we had stolen Neville's toad on the train!"

"You acted like you had, the way you were joking about it!" She knew how bullies acted well enough - and who would joke about the loss of a pet? Only a heartless bully!

"Everyone jokes about Trevor getting lost. Even Neville!"

She huffed. "In any case" - she imitated his tone - "I was perfectly justified in suspecting you and informing a prefect!"

"And I was perfectly justified in hexing your shoes to get back at you!"

"Showing off that you got special training." And rubbing it in.

"What?" He gaped at her. "You learned every damn spell in every first year book before you even got to Hogwarts!"

"And none of them were hexes that remove all traction from your shoes!" She had slipped, fallen to the ground and slipped out of her shoes as well. That had been so embarrassing!

He was still staring at her with his mouth slightly open. "Are you honestly angry because you didn't learn a hex before Hogwarts started?"

"No," she lied. "It's the principle of the thing. Anyone could've learned all the spells I did by studying our books. But no one could've learned that hex since it's not in any book that's been published." And that was terribly unfair.

"And why is that a problem? There are hundreds of hexes you can learn that work just as well - and I bet you know most of them!"

Of course she did - having a wide arsenal of spells was her best chance of beating Potter by using a spell he couldn't counter. "It's the principle of the thing," she repeated herself. "Information shouldn't be hoarded by individual families! It should be free!"

"So spellcrafters should work for free?" He sniffed. "I'll have to tell Mum that."

She rolled her eyes. "I didn't mean that. But spells shouldn't be secret. The Ministry should make all of them available. All legal spells, at least. They could buy them." And then place them in the public domain!

"Good luck with that in the Wizengamot."

Of course the Wizengamot wouldn't do anything - the Old Families must have more secret spells than the rest of Britain combined. She clenched her teeth. It was so frustrating! "Your birth shouldn't matter so much!"

"Of course it shouldn't," he agreed, to her surprise. "But the world won't change when you whine about it. You have to change it."

That was… "You're quoting your mother?" She raised her eyebrows at him.

He blushed a little and pressed his lips together again.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean it like that."

He huffed again, then looked at the waterfall. "Look, I know how you feel. Mum felt the same. It's not easy for muggleborns. But you can't blame everyone else for it. Not everyone's like Malfoy and his cronies."

"Enough are like him for this situation to continue," she pointed out.

"But you're not helping things by accusing everyone."

She knew that. And she wasn't - but Potter just… She took a deep breath. "It's just so frustrating to know that I have to work twice as hard to get as far as some pureblood twit who was born into the right family."

"Well, that's the same as in muggle Britain, isn't it? You can…"

A roar outside interrupted him.

The monster was back!

Hermione froze for a moment as her stomach dropped.