Chapter 7 - Howler

An: I do not own Harry Potter.

Ron was steadfast in his decision not to clean Malfoy Manor. Draco disappeared from the table for a few minutes while Neville explained why the Order was asking them to assist in cleaning the Manor. The Malfoys had a tradition of passing the ownership of the Manor from father to son through a few magical spells. Lucius Malfoy had died before he could magically sync his son to the Manor. As a result the Manor doesn't recognise Draco as the owner and doesn't give him the right to go anywhere he pleases. Draco only has the rights of the heir to the Manor and as far as the wards and spells are concerned, Lucius is still the owner. There are several areas of the Manor that Draco can't enter and the Order has been working on a way to undo the magical spells that prevent entry.

Draco returned a few minutes later with a smug smile on his face and sat down at the table. Hermione tilted her head to the side to study him. Harry watched them lock eyes. A silent conversation seemed to go on between them with Hermione frowning slightly. He assumed she was expressing her dislike for whatever Draco had done. It unnerved him to see his favourite Gryffindor witch so close to the Slytherin he loathed the most.

A brown owl flew into the kitchen and delivered a red envelope straight to Ron. Ron's eyes widened. Harry still remembered the one Ron received in their second year from Mrs. Weasley. It had been horrifying. Ron stared at the howler.

"It's best to open it Ron," Hermione advised, "Those envelopes have no patience and we are not cleaning up whatever mess it makes."

Ron continued to stare at the envelope.

"Oh for heaven's sake I thought the Gryffindors were supposed to be brave and yet you're scared of a little red letter," Draco sneered.

Ron glared back at the Slytherin and then opened the letter, much to Draco's amusement.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley! Draco has so kindly agreed to put you up and you turn around and repay that kindness by nastily saying you will not help the Order clean the Manor! I am sorely disappointed in you. I know I didn't raise an ungrateful child. Now stop stuffing your face full of food and pick up a broom and clean. You don't want to make me come over there any earlier than I had planned!" the voice of Molly Weasley bellowed from the envelope at such a loud volume that made everyone wince.

"Taddle tale!" Neville said as soon as the envelope finished.

"I prefer to think of it as an efficient management of time. I am not going to sit here all day and debate with him about cleaning the Manor," Draco said before turning to Luna, "I think we should start with the Dark Room. I thought I heard some noises coming from there the other night," Draco said thoughtfully.

"I told you, what you heard was Nargles mating," Luna said as she finished up the last of her breakfast.

Draco was about to dispute the existence for Nargles when a loud beeping noise went off causing everyone to quickly cover their ears from the piercing noise.

Seamus hurriedly reached into his robes and pulled out a black oblong stone. He tapped it once with his wand and the noise abruptly stopped.

"Must that thing be so bloodly loud?" Draco muttered angrily.

"I still don't understand how you two do covert opps with that stone," Neville stated as he looked intently at it.

"What is that?" Ginny asked as she looked disdainfully at the offending object.

"It's a communicator stone. It allows Kingsley to call us when we're needed." Hermione stated in a professor's tone.

"More like summon his slaves," Seamus added grudgingly.

Hermione calmly reached into her robes and pulled out a similar stone and tapped it once with her wand.

"How come yours didn't make that sound?" Harry asked as he noted Hermione's graceful movements.

"Because this one vibrates like a cell phone, Seamus slept through a page once and Kingsley personally set his stone to wail like a Banshee. He hasn't slept through one page since, but we got to get going, I'll be damned if Cormac beats us." Hermione explained calmly to Harry before yanking a reluctant Seamus out of his seat and heading towards the door.

"Do you need any help?" Harry asked curiously. He didn't want her to go just yet.

Hermione turned around and examined Harry's features. His warm green eyes held a lot of concern for her wellbeing and she knew he sincerely wanted to come with her. She also knew he was a stubborn hero and he might get himself killed. Suddenly, she had a flash back to her recurrent nightmare of the last few months and a pale Harry looked up at her with cold dead eyes. She shook herself from that disturbing picture; she would not allow that to happen.

"No," Hermione said firmly leaving no room for argument.

"I wonder what's wrong." Neville asked as he took Seamus's vacated seat.

"Can't be anything to bad or the order would have alerted everyone," Draco pointed out.

Dobby appeared at the table. All the dishes disappeared and were replaced with cleaning utensils.

"It's cleaning time. Molly suggested that Neville, Potter and I'll handle my father's personal study, Ginerva should do the kitchen pantry, Luna and Ron will sweep the Dark Room and if the Aurors had stuck around, they were to do the potions lab," Draco said.

"This place has a potions lab?" Ginny asked surprised.

"The Manor has everything a wizard requires," Draco said smugly. "Come on Potter and Longbottom let's get a move on. I have business meetings to attend to this evening."

S-2

Luna and Ron stood in the drawing room of Malfoy Manor. Ron was staring at the lighting fixtures on the wall that looked like they were made out of gold. Everything in this Manor was so lavish.

"You're going to have to get off the rug Ron," Luna commented.

"What rug?" Ron asked looking down to see that he was in fact standing on a rug that picture a castle in the desert.

"The Dark Room is under the rug. I thought you might want to stand to the side while I move the rug. From previous experience I have discovered that most people don't like it when the rug is pulled right out from under them," the blonde witch shared with him.

Ron nodded absently remembering a similar Muggle saying. He had felt like the rug had been pulled out from underneath him over the last two days. He also remembered in second year when he and Harry had used Polyjuice potion to disguise themselves as Crab and Goyle to enter Slytherin house. Draco had revealed a secret room to them. Ron had immediately written his father and the Ministry raided it shortly afterwards. That room had to be the Dark Room.

While Luna levitated the rug to a spot in the corner of the room, she explained that the Dark Room had been the first placed cleaned when the Manor had become the headquarters of the Order but recently Draco suspected they might have missed something. She then focused on the solid wooden floor that the rug had been covering. She performed a series of complicated wand movements while stating incantations that he had never heard of. He watched her completely astonished that she was capable of such strong magic.

"What you thought it would be easy to open a well-hidden secret door?" She queried in a sarcastic tone.

"Ahh no," Ron said reluctant to reveal that he had thought so little of her. "Shouldn't the Order have removed this?" Ron asked.

"Why? It's a great hiding spot and the wards around it are very complicated. We had Kinglsey wipe all records of the Ministry's raid here, so only a few people know of its existence," Luna explained seriously.

"Oh" was all he could reply.

The dark hole in the floor opened up and Luna walked regally forward. Ron's hand automatically shot out to stop her from entering the hole. It looked bottomless and all of his senses told him to stay away from it lest he plunge to his death.

"Relax Ron," Luna said while gently prying his fingers off her wrist. She continued to walk forward until she stepped down into the hole. Half of her calf appeared to be cut off into the darkness below.

"There are steps. Just follow me down," she said as she went down another step, causing the rest of her calves to disappear.

Ron swallowed. He always hated illusion spells. He walked forward and carefully moved his foot towards the edge of the darkness. He slowly eased his foot down, watching as it disappeared from his sight. Eventually he felt solid ground beneath his foot and he transferred his weight on to it. His next foot followed.

"There are no giant spiders lurking around down there?" Ron asked hesitantly.

Luna rolled her eyes at him, "There are worse things than spiders Ron."

Luna continued descending the staircase until she had disappeared into the darkness.

Ron followed suit but stopped just before his head submersed into the darkness. He lit the tip of his wand and found that it did light about three feet in front of him and he could see the stairs. He wondered why the hell Luna hadn't done that earlier and spare him the heartache. She was just on the edge of the lighted area when she stepped out of view.

"Wait," Ron called out in a slight panic as he took sped up to catch up to her.

He found her three stairs lower. She had stopped and turned to face him. Ron felt as though her blue eyes were looking straight through him.

"Shouldn't we be cautious? I thought I heard Malfoy say there was something down here," Ron said as he looked uneasily behind her.

"Not yet, when we reach the bottom. It's a long way down and there's a charm at the bottom to prevent things from leaving. You wouldn't believe some of the things that Lucius kept down there," Luna said as she resumed her calm descent down the stairs.

Regardless of what Luna said Ron was still very worried. It was indeed a rather long staircase and he hated that his wand only lit a few feet in front of him at a time. Luna would occasionally step out of range of his light and Ron hurried to keep up with her. He wondered how the witch could descend the stairs so quickly in the dark. Suddenly Luna paused and Ron stopped ready to throw the first hex that came to mind.

"There's a bend here that leads into the room," Luna said as she turned her blue eyes on him. The wand light added a slight twinkle to her eyes and he thought she had gone stark raving mad. His light only showed stairs with two solid walls on each side. What bend could she be talking about?

"Just follow me Scully," Luna said with a humours tone and Ron wondered if she could possibly be referring to the muggle TV show "The X Files".

Ron watched as she descended two more stairs before disappearing into the wall on the left. Ron almost dropped his wand in shock as he heard Luna's disembodied voice telling him that the wall was charmed to look as though the staircase continued straight and the entrance was charmed to look as the wall. It was kind of disturbing to hear Luna's airy voice and not see her.

Luna's head popped back out, "Ron are you going to stand there and catch Pixies in your mouth or are you going to follow me?" her disembodied head said in an annoyingly calm voice.

Ron closed his mouth and sucked in his gut. "I'm not catching Pixies," he said angrily as he descended four stairs and turned left, hitting a solid brick wall.

"Bloody Hell," Ron exclaimed as he rubbed his nose.

Luna giggled softly, "Come back up one step," she said in a reproachful voice

Ron stepped back up and put his hand on the wall he was to walk through. When his hand slowly disappeared from his sight, he thought it safe for his nose and stepped forward. He felt a cold shiver as his body passed through the illusion charm. He emerged into a black room lined with shelves, unusual instruments and a foul stench that made Ron want to puke.

"I thought you said you cleaned this placed!" Ron exclaimed sourly as he tried to pinch his nose closed only to discover it was very sore from his earlier collision with the wall. He would have to live with the smell.

"We did but as we stated before, we missed something," Luna said with her usual calm voice as she peered around the dark room.

"Why is it so dark and what is that?" Ron asked pointing to the shelf nearest to him where a white ball hovered in the air.

"Iapetus Malfoy, Draco's great grandfather, apparently enjoyed dark colours and painted this place black. He had charmed the paint so that future generations of Malfoys would not be able to change the room that he designed. We estimate that the paint won't come off for another hundred years and nobody has the time to try and counteract the charm, besides its great if you're in a depressing mood," Luna said as she began to walk further into the room.

Ron got the distinct feeling that Luna spent a great deal of time in this room which made him worry about the witch's mental health. He couldn't tell the dimensions of the room and he realised that the further Luna headed into the room the less he could see of her. If she ventured to far he would lose her completely and Ron lengthened his stride to keep up with her.

"How are we supposed to find anything in here?" Ron asked.

"Rhea Malfoy, Iapetus's wife organized things magically. Call for what you want and it will come to you," Luna explained.

"But if we don't know what we want how can we call for it?" Ron asked.

"Usually if you give a very close description the item will come to you," Luna replied nonchalantly.

Ron had the instant image of an acromantula the size of Aragog being summoned to him. He decided to stay away from descriptions that involved the number eight.

"How big is this room? Couldn't we just search through it?" Ron asked opting for an option that would not have unknown objects flying at him.

"It isn't very big, probably as big as the standard Quidditch pitch," Luna answered.

Ron understood but he disagreed with a Quidditch pitch not being very big. Ron was beginning to shiver as the cold air cut through his shirt and caused unwanted goose bumps.

"Aren't you cold?" Ron asked as he wrapped his hands around himself.

"The cold is nice, it matches what I feel inside," she said glancing at him briefly. "I could cast a heating spell on you but Phymsies are attracted to heat."

A slow rumbling noise erupted through the room and Ron turned quickly in the direction of the noise. He raised his wand and blood red eyes were staring at him from a distance away.

"This isn't good," Luna said with a slight tremble in her voice that really caused Ron to re-evaluate the situation.

His heart started to pound in his chest as a surge of adrenaline went through his system. He could feel a slight panic that he hadn't felt since the war, threatening to take control of him. He felt Luna step closer to him and slide her hand into his. She slowly tugged him back towards what he hoped was the entrance. Ron kept his eyes trained on the creature as Luna steered them away. He became increasingly alarmed as the eyes slowly disappeared into the darkness in front of him.

"Can we go a bit faster?" Ron whispered when he couldn't see the eyes anymore.

Luna slowed down and told Ron to be ready in case it attacked. That response did nothing for Ron's nerves and he imagined a horde of spiders converging on them from each side. After a few heart-wrenching moments they were out on the stairwell and Ron was yelling at Luna at the top his lungs.

"Are you trying to kill us? I asked you to speed up and you slowed down. That thing could have attacked at any moment."

"Did it?" a calm Luna asked him.

"Did it what?" Ron snapped at her.

"Attack," she said watching him straight in his eyes.

"No but that's not the point," Ron said angrily.

"That is the point Ronald. If you had turned and ran out of there as fast as you could it would have attacked. That creature was a bloodhound. It senses fear. In fact it prays on it. If you had turned and ran it would have pounced on you in no time. The fact that we left calmly and slowly meant we weren't suitable prey and it ignored us," Luna explained irritably.

"Bloodhound, it wasn't a spider?" Ron asked as he scratched his neck embarrassed.

"Most spiders have eight eyes Ronald," Luna said as she rolled her eyes at him.

A slight colour tinted Ron's face and the tips of his ears, "How did one of those get in there?"

"Now that's the million galleon question," Luna said as she started the ascent back up the stairs towards the pinprick of light that they could see in the distance.

S-3

Lucius's study had never been touched as the wards were proving to be quite difficult to break through. It seemed like the task that would take a team of wizards days to complete. Neville had recently come up with an ingenious idea to break through the wards and he was hoping it would be successful.

Harry reluctantly stood besides Draco as Neville placed a thorny plant in front of the door to the study. The wards were set to attack anything that wasn't Lucius. Once the wards were tripped, the door was locked and the windows were shut. The anti-apparition ward around the study increased in strength and nothing was allowed in until Lucius reset the wards himself. Naturally, the wards haven't been reset for the last seven years and the study had been locked to everyone.

Neville's idea was to use the plant to distract the wards. Once attacked the plant would shoot its thorns at its attacker. What was special about these thorns, were that as soon as they left the mother plant, a new plant would shoot from the thorn. Thus, eventually the attacker would be over loaded with multiple plants. It was a chain reaction that could overwhelm even the most trained wizard. Neville was hoping that the multitude of plants would cause the wards to use most of its energy in attacking the plant. Once all the magical energy was used on dealing with the plant, they were going to attempt to unlock and open the door from a safe distance. If the door opened, they were going to run through the mass of plants and hopefully make it into the office unscathed.

Harry hoped that once the wards were down, it would be easily sailing from there. Draco was sure inside had more protection but he didn't believe it would be in the form of a ward. He thought it would be something subtler to trick the intruder into doing something deadly.

The wards, as predicted, had started attacking the plant and pretty soon there was a jungle of plants in front of them. It required Harry, Draco and Neville to combine their magic to disable the wards and open the door. The new challenge was getting through the plants unharmed.

Draco turned to Neville just before he sprinted forward, "Stay here, I want these plants gone by the time I get out."

Neville was about to argue but Draco had already run forward trying unsuccessfully to avoid the spray of thorns as he dived over the plants into the open study. Harry reluctantly followed behind. Neville was left by himself staring at the mass of plants in front of him. The plant was still multiplying and he was reluctant to move them. He thought he would let them settled down before he attempted to move them. He struggled to transfigure a few pieces of furniture to act as a physical barrier so the plants would not wander through the house. When he thought the barrier was sufficient, he decided to check on Ginny in the parnty.

S-4

The problem in the kitchen pantry was a mystery. Food was disappearing from the room and the house elves didn't know why. The elves insisted that there was dark magic behind the disappearance of the food and they wanted the problem solved. Mindy refused to enter the storeroom anymore and Dobby was forced to do most of the cooking.

Ginny had been sitting in the storeroom for the last half an hour and still had no clue what to do. She had done a preliminary scan and found no traces of dark magic. She then asked Dobby for a list of all the missing items as well as the approximate date and time of the disappearances. The parchment Dobby gave her was at least twenty feet long.

She was hoping that there might be some pattern to it but some items weren't noticed missing until they were looking for them. A good example of that was Toad's eye, an ingredient mainly used in beauty potions. The last time it was checked was some time last year and nobody noticed it was missing until earlier this year. Ginny could not determine any pattern for the time of the disappearances. She then studied the items to see if they were items for a particular potion or recipe but Ginny didn't know of anything that required that amount of ingredients.

Ginny stared down the long length of the pantry again. It was the length of the great hall at Hogwarts and each wall was lined with various ingredients. As Ginny looked along each shelf she realised that the majority of the ingredients she didn't recognize.

"How're you doing?" said a quiet voice from the doorway.

Ginny spun around and came face to face with Neville, who was leaning casually at the storeroom entrance. His hands were crossed in front of him and it only served to emphasize his small potbelly.

"Fine," Ginny mumbled.

"Any signs of our thief yet?" Neville said as he moved from the entranceway towards her.

"I have no clue what's going on. I checked for signs of dark magic, I looked over the list of stuff taken, I looked at the time taken and I can't seem to find a pattern to anything," Ginny said exasperatedly.

"Well you seem to be as stumped as we are," Neville said as he surveyed the large storeroom causing Ginny to follow his gaze.

"What is all this?" Ginny asked indicating to the mass of ingredients on the shelves.

"The cooking ingredients are up front on the first few shelves. After that is healing ingredients, then ingredients for some of the draughts, then for some nasty potions and so on and last is the alcohol," Neville said pointing to the back of the room.

"How can you tell where they start and stop?" Ginny asked

"You see the slight difference in colour along the vertical support shelving?" Neville asked

Ginny looked closer and she could indeed see a colour difference between different sections.

"That's how you tell the difference," Neville said as he walked to the back of the storeroom.

"Where are you going?" Ginny asked.

"For some firewhiskey, I'm going to need it to clean up that mass of plants outside the study," the Hogwarts Professor told her.

"I didn't think you were the firewhiskey type," Ginny stated with a small smile as she followed him.

"I wasn't, blame this on Dean and Seamus," Neville said as he picked up a bottle and poured himself a small amount in a shot glass he had picked up from the kitchen. He downed it in one gulp and offered the bottle to Ginny but she refused. He resealed the bottle and placed it back on the shelf.

"Was that wise?" Ginny asked indicating to the drink he just took.

"Not really but it certainly makes me feel better. I better get back," Neville said as he started walking back to the exit.

"You left Harry with Draco?" Ginny said very concerned. The last thing they needed was Harry being charged with Draco's murder.

"Relax, they're fine. Draco can take care of himself," Neville said.

"Why is everyone so relaxed around Draco? He is a Slytherin," Ginny pointed out.

"Ginny, you're probably not going to believe this but with his parents out of his life Draco has changed quite a bit. We've been a good influence on him and I think if you give him a chance you might like the new Draco," Neville said looking her squarely in the eye something he had always been shy to do before.

"I'm impressed. You never had this much confidence before," Ginny commented as they both walked towards the door.

"Thanks, I've been working on it." Neville said with a cute smile that made Ginny wobble slightly on her feet.

"You ok?" He asked with concern in his voice.

"Yeah, must be the dust in here," Ginny said as she walked ahead of him to hide the slight blush that appeared on her cheeks.

Neville let his eyes rove Ginny's body. She certainly had kept her lean figure and she still carried that air of confidence about her. She had gone to the yule ball with him in his fourth year but nothing happened after that. He wondered if he could make things happen this time.

"I'm going to head back to the study. You can come and help if you want. Nothing much seems to be happening here," Neville said charmingly.

Ginny looked into the empty room. There was nothing there. She certainly wasn't accomplishing anything just sitting in the pantry so she decided to accompany Neville but before they could leave Fred and George appeared.

As soon as the door to the pantry closed a soft yellow glow appeared around a few items and once the glow subsided five more items were missing.

S-5

Harry and Draco paused when they entered the study and immediately looked around for any attacking objects. Once they were satisfied that they were both safe Harry and Draco stopped to remove the thorns they had been bombarded with. Draco used his wand to remove them and incinerated them as soon as they cleared his robes. Harry was standing scowling at Draco.

"Potter, the thorns of that plant multiply or did you not notice that! Kill it now before I have a horde of those plants in this office," Draco spat nastily at him.

"Listen Malfoy, let's get a couple things straight, shall we," Harry said ignoring Draco's advice. "One, I'm not your friend, so don't speak to me as if I am. Two, I don't trust you so don't pretend to be trustworthy and three OW!" Harry exclaimed as pain burst through his arm.

One of the thorns on Harry's arm had started growing and it was trying to put roots into him. Harry brushed it off quickly but he was soon in enormous pain as multiple thorns wanted to root into him. He frantically tried to get rid of the terrible plant but he realised with horror that as he threw the growing plant off it would start coming back to him as if he was its mother.

Draco watched the scene with a huge smirk, "Gee Potter, I guess you found yet another adoring fan."

Harry managed to get the thorns off of his wand arm so that he could remove the other thorns around his body. By the time he was finished he was exhausted and in pain. He was going to sit down but Draco discouraged him as they didn't know if the chairs were jinxed. Harry decided to take Draco's advice this time and remain standing.

"Now Potter, let's get a few things straight," Draco said with that annoying smile of his. "One, I am not your friend nor will I ever pretend to be. Two, I don't trust you. Who knows how long you'll be here before you get bored and leave and Three, I saw you watching Hermione, hurt her again and you're dead," Draco finished in a threatening tone.

Harry was about to retort but Draco cut him off.

"Now that that's finished, let's get down to business," Draco said as he pointed his wand around the room scanning for dark magic.

Half way through their scanning, they heard a loud noise followed by Ron Weasley screaming at the top of his voice.

"Why did that sound like one of the twins' pranks?" Draco asked suspiciously.

"Whatever it was it pissed Ron off," Harry said as he focused on his friend's distressed voice.

"The ward is down, we'll come back later. I sure hope Neville moved that damn plant," Draco grumbled as he opened the door to be greeted with a crowded hallway full of plants and no way to get out. Draco slammed the door shut and turned to Harry.

"We're going to have to burn our way out Potter," Draco said "You ready."

Harry nodded and they were both out the door in a flash.

S-6

Ron was covered in red fur that he disliked intensely. He was screaming madly at the twins but they ignored him. Instead they prodded and poked him and recorded his reaction on parchment they held in their hands.

"I'm not some wizard to experiment on!" Ron screamed as they circled him.

"Hmm slight blood pressure rise," Observed Fred or was it George. Ron was too angry to tell his brothers apart.

"What is going on in here?" Draco said as he entered the kitchen with Harry.

"Nothing," Fred and George chorused together.

Draco couldn't withhold his laugh nor did he try when he saw Ron. Harry on the other hand tried very hard to suppress his laugh and ended up clearing his throat in a very suspicious manner.

"Undo this now," Ron demanded

"Subject objects to state," George noted in a clinical voice.

"Gee, I wonder why?" Ron screamed at him.

Luna, Ginny and Neville were there when the twins first tricked Ron into shaking their hands which were coated with a special liquid that triggered hair growth. It was absorbed through the skin and moved quickly through the body.

"What are you guys doing here?" Draco asked pointedly.

"Isn't it obvious!" They declared as they pointed at Ron.

Draco levelled them with a steely gaze eerily reminiscent of the late Lucius Malfoy. The look sent shivers up Ginny's spine as it reminded her of the time Lucius had captured her during the war.

"We reserved the club in Hogsmeade for a private Weasley party. We need to celebrate their return without the party poopers," Fred said.

"We made sure that nobody would be there except us. It's perfectly safe for them. Nobody will see them," George insisted.

"And your wives know about this?" Luna queried.

"They will be told later today," the twins assured Luna who nodded though the twinkle in her eyes suggested that telling Alicia and Katie would not go as smoothly as the twins seemed to think.

"And your mom," Draco asked his voice laced with scepticism.

"Will discover when she has all the children to baby sit!" They responded.

Draco snorted. "This is going to be entertaining," he mumbled only loud enough for Harry to hear.

"Good, start getting ready, tonight's going to be a blast," Fred and George said as they left the room.

"Wait," cried Ron as he ran out of the room after them but it was too late as they had already disappeared down the corridor.

"It'll wear off soon," Luna assured him kindly.

"How can you be so sure?" he spat at her.

"Because it lasted two hours on Draco," Neville said with the hint of a smile of his face.

Draco glared at him for reminding him of the terrible experience. Malfoy's weren't hairy creatures and to suddenly be inundated with hair was quite a traumatic experience for him.

"He made the cutest polar bear," Luna reminisced fondly.

"Enough talk, Neville needs to pick up the burnt remains of his plants!" Draco sneered at him.

"You burnt them all!" Neville asked horrified.

"They were in the way," Draco replied in a haughty tone.

"But that was my only one. They're extremely rare and hard to find," Neville declared.

"How could they be rare?" Harry asked knowing how that plant had reproduced hundreds of smaller ones in minutes.

"Nobody ever attacks them, so they don't reproduce," Neville explained with a shrug.

"Oh" Harry said as the answer made sense. Now that he knew what would happen he sure as hell would not be picking a fight with that plant any time soon.

"Relax Neville, the original plant is still there. I left it untouched for you," Draco revealed.

A huge smile broke out on Neville's face. "Thanks, you had me there for a second. You're spending too much time with the twins."

"Well, what you're waiting for go clean up the mess," Draco demanded.

Neville rolled his eyes and exited the room.

Draco turned to Luna, "What was in the dark room?"

Luna fidgeted for a bit knowing that Draco wouldn't take the answer very well, "A Bloodhound."

Draco's face drained of all colour, he was deathly afraid of bloodhounds. He had been attacked when he was four and the experience left him with terrible nightmares.

"That wasn't there before," Draco stated firmly.

"I know someone must have put it there recently," Luna said

"Who would put a bloodhound …" Draco stopped halfway through as the answer came to his head. He frowned and left Luna in the room with a red howler monkey, Ginny and Harry.