Chapter 11:

Meetings, Conspiracies, and Severed Feet

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Murmuring enveloped the Slytherin common room as Blaise stood in front of the fire place and cleared his throat for silence.

"I have called you all here to discuss an important matter…"

"Hurry it up Blaise; I have a date with Colin in fifteen minutes!"

"Er. That's very um- different." Blaise inwardly shuddered as the thought of Pansy and Colin Creevey snogging bounded to the front of his mind.

"Right then, down to business. I discovered that our common room's security has been breached!"

"By whom?" Draco glanced around rapidly.

"By…" Blaise paused for suspense. "By Hermione Granger!"

---Meanwhile in the Gryffindor common room…---

"Harry?"

Harry lazily opened an eye and assessed the figure in front of him. Even from his position on the couch he could recognize the infamous hair of Hermione.

"Harry, can I talk to you…alone?"

Glancing at the only other occupants of the room, two first years playing chess, he cleared his throat reminiscent of Blaise. Squeaking, the two children ran up to their dormitories prepared to tell the story of when Harry Potter acknowledged them.

"Can I help you Hermione?"

"I hope. I am prepared to trade you the Slytherin password for the use of your cloak."

Rocketing up, he grinned at the girl opposite him. "Gee whiz, that'd be great! Wait…" Eyes narrowing, he leaned forward. "What do you need the cloak for?"

Smiling nervously, Hermione twiddled her thumbs. "Um…nothing?"

"Right, nothing."

Nodding furiously, she stood and started pacing the length of the room.

"Not even indefinite use of the cloak. Just once or twice. Really, it is quite a bargain for you. Think of it- wreaking insurmountable havoc on the Slytherins in exchange for one measly night without being invisible."

"Well, it would be nice…I'll admit that." Sighing he finished, "Alright, consider it a deal."

"Wonderful, I'll just run up and get the cloak- I need it tonight, you know."

"Wait! Hermione, I need the password!"

"Oh sorry, it's defaeco." In a flash she sprinted up the stairs and ran back down the next instant amid shouts of "I've been violated!" and "Don't look, don't look!"

"Thanks Harry!" And then, she was gone.

Harry smiled wickedly, plotting plots concerning the Slytherin house.

---However, in the Slytherin common room far, far away…. ---

"Right. So it's decided then. We change the password and check the wards."

Pansy raised her hand while checking her watch.

"Yes Pansy?"

"Blaisey-poo, I don't mean to be rude, but Colin is waiting."

Collapsing onto his makeshift podium (a stack of books stuck together with Spell-O-Tape), Blaise massaged his temples exasperatedly.

"We still have to decide on a new password."

"Oh, oh!" Draco's hand shot into the air.

Blaise groaned and dragged himself back into a proper position. "Yes Draco?"

"I vote 'Les lapins duveteux résident ici'. What do you think?"

Millicent Bullstrode's brow wrinkled, "Doesn't that mean 'the fluffy rabbits reside here'?"

Draco glanced at her shiftily, "Maybe…"

"Ugh, enough of this! Draco, please nothing involving rabbits. Anyone else have an idea- a good idea?"

A timid third year stood gazing at the floor, "How about 'imperiosus'?"

Blaise smirked at Draco while applauding the contributor.

"Bravo. 'Imperiosus' it is."

A snort came from a shadowy corner as Hermione, under the cover of Harry's cloak, discovered their newest password. 'Honestly, do they really think they can keep anything from me?' Hermione smirked identically to Blaise and clutched the cloak tighter around her. 'Now to be sneaky…'

She left her corner and proceeded to climb the stairs to what Ernie had told her was the boy's dormitory. Upon arrival, Hermione immediately spotted Malfoy's bed, identifying it by the hair products strewn across the surface. Passing two four-posters with crumbs upon them, she finally arrived at what she assumed could only be Blaise's. Clean except for a roll of parchment and a book entitled Potions for Experts, his bed was the neatest of the dark room.

A sinister grin appeared on her face as she dove under his bed searching for dirty laundry- figuratively, not literally, of course. Only unearthing school books and a leather pocket book, Hermione failed to notice the cloak had slipped off of her right foot. Unfortunately that was the foot that was left out in the open, and even more unfortunately Crabbe and Goyle chose that very instant to walk into the room.

Hermione inhaled sharply and let out a whispered "bloody hell". But by the time she realized her foot was exposed, they had already seen what seemed to be a severed foot right at the side of Blaise's bed.

Goyle, the smarter of the two by 6 I.Q. points, jumped back at the sight. Seeing as there was only one conclusion to a severed foot, he whirled on Crabbe and announced, "Vince, Blaise is a serial murderer with a foot fetish!"

Crabbe simply blinked and looked back at the disembodied foot on the ground.

Goyle, a bit frustrated at this point, tried again for a reaction. "He'll come after us next, he will! I have very nice feet, you know. Yours aren't bad either though…"

Crabbe stared at his companion and grimaced slightly, "I…have nice feet?"

"Yes, yes of course. But, Blaise is going to kill us! And then chop off our feet and then get off just watching them sit there…"

"Um," Crabbe scratched his head and shrugged. "I'm hungry, let's go get cake."

"Ooh, cake!"

And with that, both boys turned on their heels and went off to harass the house elves, Goyle still shaking from the encounter with the disembodied foot.

Meanwhile Hermione, currently under the bed, decided that boys, Slytherins more specifically, were sloppy and stupid pigs with short attention spans, excepting Zabini of course.

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