Chapter 22: The Snake Pit

Many of the students at Hogwarts were simply leery of the Slytherins because of the prejudices their parents passed down, some simply unnerved by snakes and thought it crazy for people to want to be in a house that was represented by them, others would get bullied by Malfoy or his like and avoid them after, but the true Slytherins weren't ones that stood out in the crowd and made waves. Oh no, the true Slytherins were the people you never noticed as they slipped into the background, quietly collecting information that may or may not be used at a later time. However, the importance was in knowing those things...whether or not they would need it was a different matter entirely. Because of that Daphne didn't mind accepting Harry Potter's idea. Getting that sort of dirt on Malfoy could only benefit her in the future. Now it was simply a matter of what tactic to employ, and there were a number of options that had already come to mind.

The first of her many ideas was a tried-and-true tactic of most teenage girls trying to get something from a teenage boy...flirting. Normally she would have full confidence in that idea and not even worry about it, but Draco had been much more introspective and preoccupied this year than any other. While she might be able to briefly get his attention she doubted only flirting would produce results, and she wasn't willing to go further than that with him. So, that led to option two...spying. Crabbe and Goyle were idiots, but they were idiots who could be manipulated into doing her dirty work. All it would take is some cleverly placed questions in a few conversations and they'd probably be asking Draco about them for her. Once the conversation started listening in on it became a much easier task for her. Be at the right time and place with blank parchment and pretend you're writing an essay while instead you take down the necessary notes. Not only did she have excellent hearing but she'd learned how to read lips at a young age. The skill had proved truly invaluable in the Noble House of Slytherin. Option three and one she really didn't intend on using unless all else failed was polyjuice potion. There were too many variables to try and control for her liking on top of the ingredients themselves being quite challenging to procure.

With her mind made up, she began to write out different questions on scratch paper. As she crossed out line after line she narrowed down what she really needed to know. It wasn't how he accomplished the cursed necklace or who he was ordering him to do these things that she needed to know, all she needed to know was what the next step was. Obviously the previous curse hadn't reached its intended recipient. There was no value in Katie Bell being harmed like that. If she could get him to reveal when his next plan was supposed to happen it would be an easy matter for Harry to inform a teacher and catch him red-handed. To make matters easier for her, there was the Marauder's Map. She could follow them on the day it was supposed to go down and send Potter an owl if she saw anything suspicious. To goad Crabbe and Goyle into asking should be fairly straightforward as Draco had distanced himself a bit more from them than any previous year. Perhaps a bit of food and a question of why they'd been left on their own would get them wanting to ask him that themselves, and try to get a straight answer out of him.

In spite of what some would say is a lot of evidence to the contrary, Daphne was well aware that Draco was far from stupid when he actually focused. This year he had most assuredly been that, letting everything but his classes fall to the wayside. To be honest he looked burnt out from how hard he'd been pushing himself. If they had any sort of friendship she would have tried to convince him to go to Madam Pomfrey for help, but that was not the case so she'd minded her own business up until now. As she thought about the best way to hear their conversation she remembered some of the things that had been discussed as soon as the school year had started. Chief among them had been all of the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes joke products. Most of them were just that, but some of them like the instant darkness powder, love potions, and the extendable ears seemed particularly useful. If she ordered mutiple sets of extendable ears she felt confident she could combine the string from them and make it extra long. Set it up in advance at the place they usually discuss their plots and voila...mystery solved.

Humming to herself, Daphne walked off to the Owlery and sent a request for the extendable ears. She had enough spending money to cover it easily and she expected it wouldn't take more than a day or two for them to arrive. Until then she could focus on the first step of the plan, which was goading Crabbe and Goyle into the right mindset she wanted for the confrontation. Goyle was usually the one who initiated things with Crabbe following along, so at the next meal she started talking to him about how the year was going. "I couldn't help but notice you and Draco don't seem to be spending as much time together. You didn't have a falling out, did you? I thought you three were the best of friends." she asked innocently, feigning interest in his life with practiced grace as she gave him a sympathetic smile.

Goyle's eyes narrowed slightly at that comment and he shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous, we are still the best of friends. Nobody in Slytherin can touch the three of us when we work together." he said, rolling his eyes like the very idea of anything else was utterly ridiculous. "He's just been busy with his studies and some business his Father asked him to do." Goyle told her. Everybody knew that Lucius Malfoy was a powerful and influential figure, so his son placing a prioerity on his orders made perfect sense to him.

Daphne raised a delicate eyebrow at that, looking a little bemused. "Oh, and he doesn't want his two best men helping him? Look, I'm not trying to get between you three...quite the opposite. Slytherin isn't the same without the three of you leading our house to glory, we need you to get Draco back on track with us. Can I count on you to do that, or do I need to step in myself?" she asked, a hint of cool ice slipping into her voice at the end. She had a reputation as the Ice Queen for a reason, and it was never good for anybody on the receiving end when she took matters into her own hands. To her pleasure she saw Goyle gulp a little bit as her threat sunk in.

"No, no...don't worry about it. Crabbe and me can handle him, right Crabbe?" Goyle asked him, nudging him with his elbow to get him to stop staring at a Seventh Year Slytherin further down the table. Crabbe looked up, annoyed and nodded before going back to his food and leering. "See, we have the problem under control. Our house will be back on course before you know it, Heiress Greengrass." he said.

It was clear he seemed eager to end the conversation and Daphne regarded him for a lengthy pause before slowly nodding and let out a dramatic sigh. "Well, if you're sure you can handle it I suppose I can give you a chance. I'd hate to have to tell the girls Goyle can't keep his word, so you make sure you follow through for me okay?" she asked. As she saw the threat to sabotage his chances of dating sink in she bared her teeth in a light smile. "Excellent, enjoy the rest of your food." she said with a wink before going over to join her friend Tracey further down the table. It looked like her friend wanted to ask what that was all about, but she shook her as she mouthed 'later'. Instead they ate the rest of their meal and talked of the regular things happening at school. Boys, classes, possible career paths, and inevitably back to boys.

There were a few issues on the subject of boys though, namely the available ones to choose from. The ones that were available either weren't mature enough to be ready for a relationship or from one of the other houses. While personally she didn't care to date anybody at Hogwarts she had been sorted into Slytherin because she was an ambitious and cunning in how she accomplished her goals. Sadly, Slytherins usually only dated within their house and quite frankly the options were horrid. Blaise Zabini had some potential but she simply wasn't attracted to him. Tracey was, though, and she saw her friend glancing at him sidelong between their bites and conversation. "Why don't you just go for it already. The worst he can possibly say is no, and then you'll be no worse off than you are right now." she reasoned before taking a bite of a buttered roll.

Her friend Tracey let out a dramatic sigh and rolled her eyes. "Daphne, it's not that simple. You are allowed to date, but choose not to. My parents don't want me dating period until I'm done with school. Maybe once we graduate I can send him an owl or something. Now stop nagging and tell me what Potter's actually like. Malfoy exaggerates and lies so we can't trust him to tell us anything real." she told her friend. "Plus, his mom is literally known as the black widow because we think she kills her husbands. Uh uh, no way. He's cute, but even if I did decide to rebel against stupid parental rules he's too risky." she told her.

Daphne just shrugged her shoulders. Tracey was gorgeous with olive skin and long brown hair, she was thin and looked like a knockout model, more importantly she could see it was killing her friend not to date Blaise and she just wanted her to be happy. But if that's how she really felt she wouldn't push any more. "Fine, suit yourself. You're one of the most attractive girls in our year and I simply think it's a waste. As for Potter he's actually smarter than he appears. Or maybe that is just Luna rubbing off on him. Regardless, he came up with a decent plan and I agreed to it. Nothing more to say, really. Well, except the fact his eyes are gorgeous. They try to draw you inside their emerald depths." she said with a sigh. "If Luna hadn't taken him already I might have considered it even with the house we belong to. But, I did get him to agree to show me how to use that magic room they were using last year." she explained. She saw her friend's eyes widen at that and she let out a soft giggle. It was rather fun seeing her shocked like that.

"Daphne, I'm serious. You can't get that close to Potter. Even if it's not a date if the other Slytherins find out they will eat you alive. Secrets don't stay secrets at Hogwarts, you know that. Even if you aren't seen by other Slytherins the portraits might gossip. Why take such a stupid risk?" Tracey hissed out her question, clearly annoyed that she was being so stubborn on this. She understood that the other Houses weren't as awful as most Slytherins made out but some people took things to the extremes in their house and weren't afraid to rough people up to keep them in line.

Both of their voices were kept low as they talked and she doubted anybody had overheard them with the general clamor of silverware and conversation all around. Still, it was obvious her friend was perturbed by this new information. "Quite frankly, I'm sick of this house prejudice nonsense, and if people out they find out. For once I want to actually have some fun and he seems like he knows how to do that much, at least when he's not fighting for his life. I'll see you later, Tracey." she said, getting up and grabbing her things as she walked off to vent.


`(OvO)´

With her first seed of discord planted within Malfoy's camp she just had to wait and watch to know when the time was right for the confrontation. As she was working on homework later that day in the common room she saw Draco arguing with his cronies. Quickly finding a spare bit of parchment to write down what was happening, her quill flying as she kept glancing up to read their lips as his voice was pitched fairly low. Other observant Slytherins might catch on to what she was up to, but she was hopeful Draco and his cronies were too preoccupied with their argument to pay too much attention to her. Plus if anyone questioned her she could always just claim she was taking notes on her homework as she had that out as well and had done exactly that earlier.

"Goyle, just drop it okay. This was a sensitive mission assigned to me, and me alone. If anyone finds out I told you as much as I did they'd kill me. Now drop it!" he hissed at him, his hand in his pocket presumably fingering his wand. Draco's features softened just a little. "Look, I know you two are loyal friends and would do anything for me. This isn't something you can help with even if I wanted you to. It has to be subtle, untraceable magic that they can't figure out or death through other mundane means. I'm the brains, this is a brain problem. Leave it." he told them. Obviously Draco thought this was trickier than his goons could handle and wasn't shy about telling them so.

She watched as Draco walked off and smiled, just another push and maybe she could actually find out who he was trying to harm or where the order came from. It was only her ability to read lips that allowed her to make out most of it, and beside her homework she'd quickly taken notes of what she'd overheard. Something about a mission, death through mundane means. Maybe Potter wasn't delusional after all and he really was trying to get into the Dark Lord's camp. Whistling to herself, she packed up her homework and started to go up to her dorm before walking over to Goyle. "I told you, he thinks he's above you now. You've seen how tired he looks, his eyes are sunken in from how little sleep he's getting. Keep pushing, he can't do this on his own." she told Goyle. "That goes for you too, Crabbe. Nobody else is up for this kind of work and you are his closest friends. Don't take no for an answer and find out why he won't bring you in on this." she told them both, giving a stern look before heading off to her dormitory.

Goyle and Crabbe were stunned she had the gall to talk to them like that and she heard Goyle complain as she left. "Honestly, I don't know why she thinks it's her business. Come on, maybe we can grab a snack and that'll help us take our mind off of things for a bit." he told his friend. Crabbe simply nodded and they left together. "The worst part is she's right, which bugs me more than anything else. He does need us right now." he told him before they left.

Daphne had turned a corner before listening in one of the extendable ear strings tossed to the bottom of the stairs that led to the dorms. It seemed her fusing the strings together had worked perfectly and she smiled. "Oh, this is more fun than I've had in ages." she said, before heading up to her dormitory and taking out the Marauder's Map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." she said, before tapping it as Harry had instructed. As he'd shown her, this allowed her access to the map and she marveled at the delicate details that had gone into the making of this artifact. This team of Marauders was truly remarkable. Her eyes scanned the map, finding Draco in the boys' showers and Harry out near the Gryffindor common room, heading towards the entrance. He was probably just coming back from something. With a sigh, she tapped it with her wand again. "Mischief managed." she said, before doing some reading to get ahead in her classes. Wouldn't do to fall behind just because she had a plot going on at present.

At seven that night Potter showed her the basics of how to work the room and only once she managed to make it work for herself did she let out a wide smile. Oh, this was perfect. Daphne was looking forward to putting this place to good use, maybe even bringing Tracey in on the secret at some point but maybe just keeping it to herself. Obviously, there was a small catch with people not being able to use it if someone else was inside but aside from the DA from last year not many knew how it worked even if they did remember where it was located. "Thanks, I'm making a lot of progress but nothing substantial yet, I'll let you know when I find that hard evidence." she told him, before going back to her dorms to take a hot shower before bed.


`(OvO)´

It was the next day as she was walking the grounds when she saw Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle talking by the lake. Nobody else was near then and as she moved closer she was frustrated to see there was no real cover for her in this area. She got down onto her hands and knees, crawling forward until she was close enough to toss her double length extendable ears closer. Daphne was a fair shot and she grinned as it landed, their conversation coming to her clearly. she didn't have any parchment on her as she was going for a walk to loosen up but she paid close attention as she caught Draco explaining something.

"Father expects me to deliver. He's always in the way of the Dark Lord's plan and he gave me this task to complete. I realize trying to kill the leader of both the Order and Hogwarts is a nigh impossible task, but if I do it I'll be accepted within his ranks." Draco told the before letting out a sigh. "Snape keeps trying to help, but honestly it's hard to tell if he's even really on our side. Part of me thinks he really is buying into the bull the old man is selling. I'm sorry that I didn't tell either of you sooner, but it's a risk and puts you in danger. You two...well, you're the closest things I have to real friends. I was worried if you knew than it could not only ruin things, but get you thrown in prison with me if I ever get caught." he told the both.

There was a lengthy pause as Crabbe and Goyle digested that information before Goyle finally spoke up. "Well, if what you say is true I suppose that makes a lot of sense. So all your trips up to that seventh floor? That's to help with your plot to kill Dumbledore?" he asked in a whisper. He shook his head and let out a chuckle. "If anything, nobody could doubt the fact you've got guts after trying to follow through on something like this. If you feel going it alone gives you a better chance, we'll stay out of it from now on. we don't need any more details. You are our friend." he told Draco.

She heard the sound of the boys getting up and she quickly reeled in the ears as fast as she could. "Shit. This is bloody serious." Daphne said to herself, catching the ear and slipping it into her pocket along with the other end before hurrying to get away. If any of them saw her, they weren't going to play around. To be perfectly frank, she had thought Harry was overreacting when he'd brought this to her. Instead, it turned out that his paranoid delusion was accurate. The fact Draco was willing to do this meant he had well and truly cast his die in the Dark Lord's camp instead of merely following orders. Thankfully, she was able to make it to the castle without being noticed as far as she could tell. Maybe she was a little out of breath, a little pale, and more than a little scared but she'd followed through on her end. All she had to do is meet with Potter, tell her what she knew, and she would be done with this nightmare.

Daphne made her way to her dormitory and quickly wrote down what she'd just learned on the spare parchment she'd taken notes on the other day. Once that was done she went to the owlery and wrote a quick note to Harry before attaching it to one of the school owls. 'Meet me at four thirty in the boat house, urgent news. Make sure you come alone and are not followed. If you have to skip a class do it, the news I have can't wait. I wasn't able to find actual evidence, but this is a time sensitive issue. You were right, Malfoy is more dangerous than most people give him credit for.' she wrote. She attached the letter to an owl but left it unsigned, as she she was confident by this point Harry was at least smart enough to put two and two together and guess it was her. Today was a day she had the late afternoon free after she finished her ancient runes lesson and she went to the boat house, waiting for Harry to show up.

However, before she got a chance to her eyes widened as she saw Malfoy show up, wand in hand. She began to walk towards the water but that was when she turned and saw a summoned snake making its way towards her and hissing. How long Malfoy had known she wasn't sure, but clearly he'd caught her out and she cursed. "Well, it seems you aren't as stupid as I thought. Ten points to Slytherin for capturing the Ice Queen." she said, before her eyes narrowed. Her own wand was in her hand in a flash, and she stepped closer to Draco. "Do it, go ahead. You kill me and your plan is dead in the water because you'll be out of here faster than you can say Snitch. Move, Malfoy." she told him, the calm facade she kept up being replaced with cold steel.

Draco wasn't going anywhere though. Instead, he pointed his wand and his summoned snake began to wrap its way around her ankle before slowly progress towards her thigh. "This snake here is native to the UK, it's an adder. If it bites you it will hurt but you won't die. Usually they're pretty shy, but you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. No, the only snake you have to worry about crossing is me." he said, happy to walk forward until they were inches apart. "I don't know what you think you're doing, trying to turn Crabbe and Goyle against me and then eavesdrop on a private conversation. Yes, you're right in me having been a little preoccupied this year. That's because I have more important things to do than date around or try and play the hero by helping Potter like immature girls like you. You don't support the cause, that's fine...but, I won't let you impede the progress we're making. One little Obliviate should fix this." he said, his wand moving to aim at her head as the tip glowed light blue. "Any last words?" he asked.

Daphne gulped, truly in shock at how quickly she'd gotten in over her head. This wasn't the same Draco from before. He'd grown up in the course of a summer, and there was no wavering as he held the wand to her head, ready to wipe her memories of the things she'd learned about his plot. "Yeah, just one thing Malfoy. Look behind you." she said, having heard other footfalls and seen Potter coming around the corner. Before he was close enough to see what was happening she wanted to take care of this. Otherwise he would think she was another damsel in distress that needed saving, and Daphne was the Ice Queen for a reason, not a helpless princess in need of rescuing.

Draco laughed at that, shaking his head. "How stupid do you think I am?" he asked her, not having noticed Potter's approach. His wand stayed trained on her and he let out a sigh. "I was really hoping you'd come to your senses and not make me do this, but it seems I was placing too much faith in your ability to use cool logic and reason. If this is how you want it to go down, you leave me no choice. "Oblivi-" he began, before being cut off in the middle of his word as Potter threw a rock that nailed him right in the side of the head, nailing him and leaving a cut where it had hit. "Potter! This is none of your business." he said, whirling to move and attack him as the snake bit down on Daphne's leg per Malfoy's control of it.

Letting out a hiss of pain, she pulled the snake off of her and tossed it aside before aiming at Malfoy's back. "Stupefy!" she yelled, the stunner hitting him without a damn thing he could do about it. Thinking back to second year and the dueling lessons, she focused on the snake. "Vipera Evanesca." she said clearly, remembering the spell Snape had used to get rid of the other one Malfoy had summoned. It worked like a charm, and she let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "We need a teacher, now!" she yelled, seeing Potter freeze for a moment. "All I have is me listening in on a conversation, I wasn't able to get hard proof on him yet. If we're not careful, we could get expelled for this because we attacked him too. Go! I'll stay with him to make sure he doesn't wake and get away." she told him.

From the look on his face it was obvious Potter wanted to do anything but leave, but he eventually gave her a nod. "Fine, if that's what you really want. Tie his hands and take his wand at the very least." he suggested, before taking off at a sprint. Harry could move when he wanted to, and he took off like a shot towards the castle in search of either Dumbledore or McGonagall.

Meanwhile, Daphne took Harry's advice and cast an Incarcerous on Malfoy after pocketing his wand. It was the only rope spell she knew of and once it was fixed where she wanted it she cut all the bonds save for the ones around his feet and hands. After all she didn't want to make it seem like they'd been too harsh in how they reacted to his appearing there. "Well, I guess this is my own fault for getting involved with Harry Potter. Trouble follows him like a magnet." she said with an exasperated sigh. In reality, it had been frightening, but exciting at the same time. She was curious to see what would happen next.

A/N: So sorry about the long wait guys. Currently in the process of buying a house, packing stuff up as well as going through things, planning a wedding, and working full time. This story is the longest one I've ever written though, and I promise I'm not giving up on it. A lot of action in this story and a little surprise for our spy slytherin. This is when things start to truly diverge from canon as I accelerate the timeline and start to make things my own. Hope you enjoy. Please read and review!

I know a lot of you have complained about the dialogue not being separated out from the exposition and all I have to say on that is this. There are plenty of authors both in other fanfictions and regular books that have paragraphs filled with a mix of both. My preference is a mix, and sometimes I will have paragraphs mainly filled with dialogue instead of exposition but a lot of the time I like a balance of both. If you don't like it, I'm sorry. I realize having enough dialogue can be a weakness of mine and I need to work on flow but at the moment this is only me working on it. If anybody would want to take on the role of beta for this story and give tips on stuff like this that would be great but so far nobody has asked to take that on so it's only me. Usually I read through once and then post, so at times I might miss things.

Another small note I notice some of you think I write my characters as too formal instead of being casual with each other. In general, I'm a fairly formal person even when I was their age. To me it's more of people paying respect to others and whether they are the same age or teachers I think that respect and formality should exist until people truly get to know each other and let their guards down. So yeah, it wasn't an intentional oh let's make them stick in the muds so much as a this is just how works in my brain. Sorry if that seems weird, lol.

That's all, let me know what you all think.