The classes for the day finished 2 hours prior and Draco was standing near the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. He was covered by the invisibility cloak gifted to him by his father, the smooth material covering not only the boy but also a good chunk of the stone floor. While Draco appreciated the fact that he will be able to use it as a fully grown-up wizard, at the moment it was simply far too big for his eleven-years old body.
Hoping he really was invisible, the blond boy sat down with a sigh of relief in a manner that would surely scandalise his parents. What is taking him so long? He had been waiting for his newest master spy companion for more than 20 minutes, and there was still no sign of the chubby Gryffindor boy.
Neville had agreed to accompany him during his attempt to spy on the Dark Lord but informed Draco that he would meet with Hannah Abbott, the girl with who he went on the date with, immediately after classes were over. While Draco never spoke to the Hufflepuff girl, he found himself irritated that she took his friend away from him for so long.
Hoping that Neville wasn't in any trouble, Draco went over his plan one more time. Harry doesn't speak to any of us and leaves the common room by himself in the evenings. Just where is he always going to?
While Draco's mind was contemplating various horrifying possibilities, Neville finally appeared, walking towards the common room from the opposite direction. Before Draco managed to say reveal himself, he noticed with a frown that his friend wasn't alone.
A blonde girl, who Draco assumed had to be Hannah Abbott was at Neville's side, walking with visible excitement in her step. They couldn't spot Draco from his hiding place, so the blond boy took a few seconds to stand up and compose himself. He took a deep breath in and swung the invisibility cloak off from his body.
Neville and Hannah both yelped in surprise and Draco gave himself a mental pat on the back for a successful dramatic entrance. Uncle Severus would be proud.
"Hey Draco," said Neville after he regained his composure.
Draco gave him a smile. "Hi, Neville, what took you so long? And also, why is she with you?"
Neville blushed and scratched the back of his head. "Really sorry about that, we were playing Aurors vs Dark Wizards vs Giant Squid and I didn't notice it was so late already," he explained. "And when I told Hannah that we will be having a spy mission, she just insisted on coming along."
The blonde girl smiled at Draco and waved. "Hello, nice to meet you, I'm Hannah, Neville told me a lot about you," she said.
"Umm, hello, I'm Draco. Why did you want to come along?"
Hannah's face turned very serious at that. She came a bit closer to Draco and looked around to check if nobody was eavesdropping. "I know that you want to spy on Harry Potter," she whispered. "I thought that I could help you with that, I'm actually something of a spy myself."
Draco looked at Neville, who just shrugged in an I have no idea either fashion.
"What do you mean?" the blond boy asked.
The girl pumped her fists into the air. "I read this amazing book during the summer, it was about a master wizard spy," she said excitedly. "So I know some tricks."
Draco looked at the girl calculatingly. He didn't know much about her abilities, but she seemed quite excited and that had to count for something. However, he couldn't just accept her because she wanted to help, that wouldn't feel right. The blond boy assumed his best Severus Snape's impression and looked at the girl coldly.
"Very well, I can see your excitement. However, before I can accept you as a spy, you need to pass a test so I can judge your worth," he said.
Hannah's eyes lit up. "What is the test?"
The blond boy paused at that. If I knew she would be coming along I would have prepared something… "It's simple," he said. "I will ask you a question and you will have to answer. If I like your answer, you will earn your place in our spy team."
The girl took on a determined expression. "Ask."
"How would you spy on someone who is much more powerful than you and can read, and change your thoughts?" he asked.
Hannah took a moment to think this through. "I… I probably wouldn't," she admitted.
Draco couldn't hide his surprise. "That's something only a real spy would say! Hannah Abbott, congratulations, you are officially accepted as a spy," he said with a smile.
The girl in question looked flabbergasted and glanced at Neville, who just shrugged and chuckled.
"Thank you! I promise to do my best," Hannah said and the trio of spies glanced at each other. "So, what do we do now?" the girl asked.
Draco motioned for them to come closer. "Harry should leave the common room anytime now, we should all hide," he offered and they all hid under the big invisibility cloak.
"Cool," Hannah said.
Neville seemed a bit stressed by having the blonde girl so close to him, which confused Draco. Didn't he bring her here?
As the blond boy mused about what could possibly be stressing his friend so badly, the door to the Gryffindor common room finally opened.
Harry Potter walked out of it, looked around the corridor quickly, and, seeing nothing, walked off briskly in one direction.
"It's him, stay silent and let's follow him," Draco whispered and they started walking behind the Dark Lord. Unfortunately, it proved extremely difficult to keep up with the boy. The three spies kept bumping into each other and nearly falling down every few steps of the way. Walking together under the invisibility cloak was much more troublesome than Draco expected.
"Ouch!" Hannah cried out. "Stop kicking me!"
"Sorry," Neville replied.
"Shhh, be quiet!" Draco whispered to his annoyingly loud companions.
They managed to follow Harry for a few minutes, but they slowly started to lose distance, not able to match the brisk pace of the Dark Lord. After two more minutes of bumping into each other and groaning, they lost him completely.
"Where did he go?" Draco asked, not caring about being quiet anymore.
"I don't know where he is, but we might have a bigger problem," Neville offered, as Draco took the invisibility cloak off of them all.
"I'm sorry, maybe if I didn't go with you, you could have been faster," Hannah said quietly.
Draco shook his head. "It's okay, it's not your fault," he answered immediately. "What problem?" he asked Neville.
The chubby boy spread his hands out. "Do any of you know where are we? I wasn't paying attention when we were following Harry, but I don't recognise this corridor."
At that, Draco took the time to look around. Neville was right, he had no idea where they ended up. After just a few weeks of being in this castle, many areas still remained a mystery to the blond boy. The sun was slowly setting and the stony corridor was getting darker and darker by the minute.
After confirming that none of them knew where they were, they decided to just try and follow back their steps. However, just before they got going, a sudden noise interrupted them.
"Quickly, hide!" Draco said and after a second, the trio of spies was once again covered by the dramatically oversized invisibility cloak.
"What is that sound?" Hannah asked quietly.
"Sounds like… someone giggling?" Neville offered.
True to his assumption, after a moment, a pair of students appeared in the corridor. A boy and a girl, both of them seemingly from the seventh year. The girl was giggling quite loudly while they practically skipped through the corridor, holding hands. Just before they would pass the invisible trio of first-years, they turned and stopped in front of a door. With one more giggle, the girl opened the door and the pair disappeared inside, leaving the corridor empty and quiet once again.
Still hidden under the cloak, Draco and his companions approached the mysterious doors slowly.
"What is this place?" Neville whispered as they all stared at the wooden door.
"Let's check," Draco said and pulled out his wand. "Lumos," he cast quietly and pointed his wand at a small door plate in the middle.
"A broom closet?" Neville read out loud.
The two boys looked at each other in confusion.
"Why would anyone be so happy to go into a broom closet of all things?" Draco asked.
His chubby friend grimaced. "There are so many weird people at this school," he concluded.
"Oh…" Hannah said suddenly. "I overheard some older girls talking about taking boys to the broom closets."
"Is this some kind of a cleaning club or something?" Draco mused.
Hannah shrugged. "Sorry, I don't really know."
"Anyway, we really should get going, it's almost curfew already," Neville said.
The trio left the mysterious broom closet behind and tried to follow their own path. Fortunately, after a few wrong turns, they managed to find their way back into a better-known part of the castle, and soon enough, they were in front of the Hufflepuff common room.
"Thank you for accepting me and I'm sorry for making it more difficult today," Hannah said.
"It's okay, we're happy to have you as a spy," Draco said. "We'll catch Harry next time."
Hannah smiled at the two boys and they said their goodbyes.
Even though the mission was a failure, Draco was happy when he went to sleep that day. Hogwarts was really getting more and more fun lately and as much as he was still obsessed with the Dark Lord, he grew to enjoy the company of his new friends.