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Chapter 9

The Unmasking of Harmonica.

The trio went wide-eyed. Everything in the vicinity that heard what Malfoy said fell silent The idea seemed perpostrious, but the way Dumbledore squirmed suggested that it was infact true. The trio stared on ahead and didn't attempt to move, they tried to say something but the shock seemed to leave them tongue tied. Dumbledore..wait, Snape looked at Malfoy for a long period of time then stood up and straightened his robes. He seemed to be rather embarassed by the turn of events, and looked quite vulnerable.

"Stay here, I will inform Dumbledore that you are all aware of this predicament. Don't move." ordered Snape, as he exited the room.

Harry immediatly looked over to Hermione and Ron as soon as Snape was out of sight. Ron's reaction fitted well with Hermiones, they both looked like they had just swallowed half a dozen rattle snakes. In unision, they turned there heads towards Harry and gulped. Harry just shrugged, and looked over at a rather satisfied Malfoy. No doubt reeling in the fact he knew something that they didn't. He's gaze seemed to wander over to Hermione more times than Harry cared to witness. He felt a sense of anger rise inside of him, and he had to grasp every inch of discipline not to beat Malfoy senseless, right then and there. He hated the fact that Malfoy would be using Hermione to get information about himself out of her. It left him feeling rather guilty. He's thoughts were paused, as Malfoy moved closer to the trio.

"So, have you been down to visit that great oaf?" asked Malfoy.

"Hagrid is not a great oaf." Ron backfired, he was feeling rather uneasy, he had also noticed the way that Malfoy had been looking at Hermione and it was something that made him uneasy aswell.

"I am just making conversation, or is that another area in expertise that Granger has to help you with." Replied Malfoy, with a great big smirk.

"This coming from a guy she's tutoring. Must be really hard to come up with insults that won't ruin your chances, huh." Harry questioned, immediatly regretting what he had said. Malfoy's expression changed from a smirk to a stunned stare like he had just heard something rather alarming. Which, by all means, he did. Harry cursed quietly and then caught Hermiones wide-eyed gaze. Ron seemed to catch on as he slouched down in his seat. Malfoy, on the other hand was lost in thought. Hermione crossed her fingers hoping he didn't question further. That's all she needed, Malfoy to figure out that they knew of his plan and were conducting an even devious one of their own.

Hermione's prayers had been answered for the time being as Dumbledore and Snape entered the room. By now you could kinda sense the difference between the two. If you thought about it enough, you could easily figure out that Dumbledore was Snape and Snape was Dumbeldore. But no-one would blame you if you were at least a little stupid when it came to things. This kind of thing rarely ever happens. Correction. The professors hope this kind of thing won't happen. But, it usually does. In third year it happened to Professor Trelawny and Professor Sprout. We don't have to tell you which Weasley/s did that. Ron had a little feeling in the pit of his stomach that his twin brothers were up to this little extragant as well. They'd been hanging around Hogwarts for awhile. Setting up a temporary joke shop in Hogsmeade, hoping to branch there business. Ron knew it was only because his mother begged them to be closer to Ron and Ginny "just in case" something happened. Back to the dilemma at hand and the obvious difference between the two...Dumbledore wore a rather massive smile dressed in his purple tailor made suit. Snape wore the usual clothes that the headmaster would normally wear, but clearly Dumbledore didn't show the same curtesy.

"Evening students."Dumbledore said enthiestically, apologising for the unusual circumstances as he sat down behind his desk, which looked rather peculiar due to the far cry of a predicament. The body of Snape sitting in Dumbledores usual seat, while the body of Dumbledore stood aggravatingly aside. Malfoy, used this opportunity to sit beside Hermione, who failed to notice him move his seat rather close to hers. Only Harry witnessed this, and was fuming inside, but was distracted as Dumbledore began talking.

"Now students, we must excuse ourselves for another brief moment. We seem to have fallen victim to a practical joke, Snape has the required antidote in his hand, we will be taking it shortly. As for our meeting if you three would like to postpone it. I am quite happy to schedule you in for Thursday." Dumbledore proclaimed. Hermione nodded, wanting desperately to get out of there as soon as possiple, just realising who was sitting next to her as she felt a hot breath on her neck. She quickly turned to see what it was and was greeted with a huge smile from Malfoy. It stunned her a bit, the last time she saw Malfoy smile was in second year in Diagon Alley. He looked rather better when he smiled, but the thought of him still turned Hermione off and she pleaded with the gods for sanctuary. Harry and Ron were contemplating whether to postpone the meeting, but Harry wanted information now. Ron, was utterly keen to find out what was in the forest, and Hermione, well she had her own issues to deal with. Harry took it upon himself to answer.

"If you are up to discussing it tonight, we would be very grateful to hear the explanation?" He said, smiling nervously. Dumbledore nodded and rose from his sitting position.

"Very well. Excuse us. The transformation is rather embarrassing and we've had enough embarrasement to last a lifetime. Snape, if you will follow me into my chambers we will have this mess fixed up in no time."

Snape nodded, and followed Dumbeldore into his room. As soon as the door closed Hermione immediatly arose from her seat and moved over to sit near Harry. Malfoy was clearly disappionted but hid it well, in no time the two professors stumbled out of the room looking rather like themselves. Well, as opposed to Snape, who looked rather weird wearing the purple suit. It was funny though, the three of them couldn't help but laugh. He almost looked as bad as in third year when Neville made the Snape Boggart wear his grandmothers clothes. That was hilarious. Snape didn't find it amusing as he stalked out of Dumbledore's office followed closely by Malfoy, who made sure to catch Hermiones gaze before he vacated the room. Hermione silently grieved and said a quick, "Here we go." to Harry. She, of course, was referring to Malfoys weird behaviour which she would now have to play along with. If tonight was anything to go by she would have no problem acting disgusted. She was minutes away from vomiting up a years worth of food. Pushing her thoughts aside she focused her attention on the real Dumbledore, who was making gestures that he was about to speak. Harry and Ron became interested too.

"Now students I understand you have a lot of questions that you would like answered." Dumbledore began "I have a fairly good idea what you would like to know, so I will explain it accordingly...Yes, I purposely told Mr Weasley that Hagrid was indeed missing and presumed dead, only because I needed Malfoy to believe it...Yes, Mrs Granger I know of Malfoys plans to use you in order to get to Harry. I learned of the circumstances thanks to our spies that are closely linked to Voldemort . The Order has been working around the clock trying to gather enough information up to finally go after Voldemort . What Mr Malfoy knows is a key link into our investigation, so if you three would kindly continue with your plans to quietly give Mr Malfoy a truth potion. We would like to know the results right away."

"Sure don't miss a thing. Do you Dumbledore." Harry said outload.

Not really meaning too.

Dumbledore just smiled and nodded his head.

"What about the thing in the forest? And what about sending us into the forest? What was with that?" Ron asked, each question popping into his head one after the other. Harry completely forgot about that, as did Hermione. Well, not about that humungus beast, not even a blind man could forget that.

"While you four were gone, the Order conducted a search on Malfoys chambers. Trying to gather leads in there investigation, they search proved successful. We found letters that Lucius Malfoy had written to his son. We made copies of them, they tell us things I am not obliged to say, but will help us a great deal. As for the monster in the forest, well you caught Loricaous as he was on the way to eat his dinner. He is perfectly harmless as I said earlier."

Ron found this highly unlikely, anything that huge, with that many teeth has got to be dangerous.

"Why me professor, Why would Malfoy choose me. There's plenty of other girls in Gryffindor who come in close contact with Harry."

Dumbeldore nodded. "But you are the closest girl to Mr Potter. The only other person who's closer is Mr Weasley, and I highly doubt Mr Malfoy would agree to seduce Mr Weasley."

Oh my god. Hermione you had to ask. Harry and Ron thought to themselves. The idea of Malfoy seducing Ron really made them feel sick and they covered there mouth knowing that vomit was about to come up. Hermione rolled her eyes and nodded.

"What kind of information does Voldemort want from Harry?"

"That is unsure as of yet. We just need to keep our eyes peeled, and watch very closely. Any more questions you would like answered?"

Before they could say anything more Dumbeldore nodded and arose from his seat.

"I must be off. We are questioning some students as to who set the potion on Professor Snape and myself. If there's anything more I can do for you, don't hesistate to ask. I will set a time when we can talk more, and I will see you on Saturday Mr Potter. Shall we say 10 o'clock. Yes, you may leave now."

Without warning, Dumbledore pushed Harry, Ron and Hermione out of his office and shut the door silently. Shrugging off the Professors weird behaviour, they parted ways after discussing what Dumbledore had told them. Hermione waved goodbye to Harry and Ron setting off for Head Dormitories. Her mind replayed the past 78 hours. She knew that starting tomorrow her plan must take a front seat and everything else must be second priortie. Malfoy must know something really important if Dumbledore has got the Order searching his room. Then it hit Hermione, she couldn't believe that she hadn't thought of it before.

Malfoy knew.

He knew about the potion that changed Snape and Dumbeldore. He knew that they weren't the same person. How could he have known unless he was the one who gave Snape the potion. It made perfect sense. Why was the question she was asking herself. Why would he do it?. The thought lingered in her mind as she ran into the common room, the fire was still burning and the room felt like it had been occupied with the person she was looking for. She raced over too the portrait of a dragon, which lead into Mafloy's room. Banging on the door, she heard a groan and then a squeaky voice tell her to hold on. Pacing around the door, she locked eyes with a previous student who's portrait hung proudly on top of the bookcase. She smiled, and the portrait looked away disgusted. Just then, the door swung open and out strolled Malfoy.

"Granger, what can I do for you?"

"I am just curious, how did you know what potion Snape took to turn him into Dumbledore."

Malfoy smirked. "I didn't do it, if that's what your implying. A little birdy told me."

"Would this little birdy have a name."

"Yes. Everyone has a name. This birdies name unfortunetly is classifed. It didn't tell me.

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Then how did you know?"

Malfoy hesistated telling her, but figured that he needed to gain her trust before he tried to do anything else.

"I got a letter during lunch. Explaining in detail what had happened and why. I aint going to share this juicy bit of info with you, I trust your smart enough to figure it out for yourself." He smiled, at each compliment he gave her. He figured that would keep her thinking about him for days to come. But, her expression didn't change. She didn't look disgusted or worried or anything. It made Malfoy wonder if he's plan was working faster than he thought. Or maybe the Mudblood already liked him. He had no idea that she knew of his plans and the thought never really crossed her mind. He did sometimes wonder what would happen if she had found out, what would he do then?. But, it was impossible for her to find out about this plan. He smiled at her seductively and then slowly pushed past her. Hermione turned around with a glare, and watched him open the door, walk in and then turn back around.

"Oh and Granger, we should set a date. I am falling behind on my anchient runes homework. You being my tutor and all. Sweet dreams."

With that he shut the door and Hermione could hear a slight snicker coming from inside then laughing. No doubt Pansy was in there, a bolt of jealousy raced through Hermione and she dismissed it. Heading off to her room, she threw herself on her bed and stared up at the ceiling which she had magically made look like the night sky. Thinking off everything she had to do, Hermione dozed off. Malfoy however was staying up to go over his plans with Hermione. Pansy had already left because she believed he was ignoring her. He just had more important things to do. Right in the middle of his devious planning, he heard a tap at the window. Smiling, he let his owl inside and took the letter from her foot. Giving her some treats, he sat down on his bed and opened the letter.

Dear Draco,

I hope you are doing well. I have arranged for you to spend Christmas at Hogwarts as you asked. Your father wanted you to come home, but I told him it was best for you to stay there. Due to the circumstances. I hope that your still doing your studies and not just wasting you time on that girl. How is Pansy by the way?

Malfoy laughed at this. His grandmother had no idea of what they were planning. She would rather disapprove of Draco hurting a Mudblood intentionally. She was the only Malfoy who cared for everything and didn't discriminate. He continued reading

Well send me a letter and let me know how your doing. I will continue to write, seen as there is nothing else for an old lady like me to do. Have a nice week Draco.

Love you, your sweet and caring

Grandmother

Harmonica.

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