Chapter Five

The Slytherin Marauder

After a month at Hogwarts, Draco had noticed Lexi's frequent disappearances. He saw her sneaking out of the common room one night in late October and followed her. He made sure to stay back, so she wouldn't hear him. At first he thought she was going to the library, but Lexi went past the library and ducked into an unused classroom down the hall from the library. Weird. What could Lexi be doing in an unused classroom?

Lexi was so focused on the mirror that she didn't even notice Draco approach.

"This is what you've been sneaking out for? To look at yourself in a mirror?" Draco said, a hint of disappointment in his voice.

He didn't know what he'd been expecting. Not a mirror. That was for sure.

Lexi recognized Draco's voice and turned around to face him.

"It's not a normal mirror. Here, see for yourself," Lexi said defensively, stepping aside for Draco.

Draco stepped in front of the mirror with a bored expression that only lasted a second. He stared at the mirror with grey eyes that shone with excitement.

"What is it? Who do you see?" Lexi asked curiously.

"Me. Only I'm older. Must be my fifth year. I'm a prefect. I'm captain of the Quidditch team, too. And Slytherin's won the house cup. The Great Hall is emerald and silver. The Gryffindors look like they're at a funeral. I think Weasley and Potter might cry," Draco said in an amused tone. He glanced back at Lexi. "Father will be pleased. Does this show the future?"

Lexi hadn't expected that. How could she and Draco see such different things in the mirror? What did her dead father and Draco's future have in common? She looked at the mirror with a frown on her face.

"No," Lexi muttered. "I don't know what it shows. When I look in it, I see my father."

"But your father's dead," Draco pointed out, completely unaware of how insensitive he sounded.

"Yes, I know, thank you very much," Lexi snapped.

"Sorry," Draco said. "But you never knew him. I mean, you can't miss him if you didn't know him."

"No, I never knew him," Lexi muttered, irritation in her voice. "I always wanted to know him. When I was little, I used to dream he would come take me away from my mother. And then I realized my mother didn't even know who my father was, and my father didn't know about me."

"It must've been horrible living with the Muggles. I think I'd kill myself if I had to live with them," Draco said.

"Well, it wasn't a picnic," Lexi said.

"So how'd you find this anyway?" Draco asked.

"I think a better question is, how did you find this? Have you been following me?" Lexi said.

"I've noticed you sneaking around. I wanted to know what you've been up to," Draco said honestly. "Now, it's your turn. How'd you find this?"

"I don't owe you an explanation," Lexi said. "I don't owe anyone an explanation. My father's dead, remember?"

"You don't think you owe anyone an explanation?" Draco said, raising his eyebrows. "Not even Professor Snape?"

Draco's lips curved in a half-smirk. He thought he had Lexi right where he wanted her. She would tell him what he wanted to know because he knew she'd been sneaking out at night, and she wouldn't want Snape to know what she'd been doing. He wouldn't really tell Snape, but Lexi didn't know that.

"You're tattling now? Fine. Go right ahead. Snape'll give me detention. Oh, wait! He does that even when I haven't done anything," Lexi said sarcastically.

Draco realized that the threat had no effect on Lexi and changed tactics.

"Look, I'm sorry," Draco said. "I wouldn't have really told on you, you know."

"Sure you wouldn't," Lexi said dryly.

"I wouldn't!" Draco said. "You're my cousin. You're family. I care about that."

Lexi tilted her head, considering. The Malfoys – Draco included - had proven that they cared about family. This was the first time he'd been anything less than friendly. And he had asked nicely first. While she didn't owe him an explanation (he wasn't her father, after all), she did owe him. She didn't know what she would have done in the wizarding world without him.

"All right. I'll tell you what. I'll forget that you followed me and threatened to tell on me, and I'll even let you in on a little secret, cousin," Lexi said. "But you can't tell anyone. Not Crabbe. Not Goyle. Not Pansy. No one. This has to stay between us."

"I won't tell anyone, I swear," Draco said at once.

"You want to know what I've been doing?" Lexi said. "Well, at first I just wanted a few hours to myself. I was going for a walk around the castle, but then I ducked into this room because I heard Filch coming. I knew there had to be other rooms like this, so I've been looking for them."

"And? What did you find?" Draco said.

"I've found a couple. I also found a secret passageway." Lexi said with a grin.

Draco looked surprised and impressed.

"Come on," Lexi said, motioning for Draco to follow her.

Lexi led the way to the fourth floor. She stopped in front of another mirror.

"Another mirror?" Draco said, shaking his head. "Girls!"

Lexi glared at him, but it lacked any real anger. She pulled her wand out, tapped the mirror three times, and said, "Dissendium."

They saw a door appear in the mirror, and Lexi walked forward. It looked like she would hit the glass, but instead she disappeared through it. Draco followed her into a narrow stone passageway.

"How'd you know about this?" Draco asked.

"I wish I could take credit, but I can't," Lexi said. "I saw the Weasley twins go through here. It's hard to believe they're related to Ron Weasley."

They followed the passageway for close to an hour. There were stone steps at the end of the passageway that led up to a trapdoor. Draco pushed the trapdoor open and held it for Lexi before following her into a cellar filled with crates and boxes.

"Where are we?" Draco said, looking around.

But Lexi had already disappeared down a staircase. Draco hurried after her.

"Where are we?" Draco said again.

"Hmm? Oh, I don't really know. A joke shop of some sort," Lexi said. She pulled her wand out. "Lumos."

Lexi's wand lit the dark shop. There was a shelf of Shocking Wands and a shelf of Disappearing Ink and Quills. There was a bin of exploding quaffles. There was a counter filled with sweets that weren't really very sweet. Hiccough Sweets. Belch Powder. Teeth-Blackening Chewing Gum. There was another counter filled with fake bugs and snakes that looked – and acted - real. There was a barrel filled with Stink Pellets on one side of the entrance and a barrel filled with Dungbombs on the other side.

"Cool, huh?" Lexi said, walking towards the entrance. She eyed the Dungbombs. "I was thinking, we should set Dungbombs off outside the entrance to the Gryffindor common room."

Draco looked at her curiously. "Do you know where the entrance to their common room is?"

"Yeah. I've followed the Weasley twins around a couple of times." Lexi said.

Draco looked at her like he thought anyone who actually wanted to be anywhere near the Weasleys was insane.

Lexi shrugged. "I thought they might know about some other secret passageways. Anyway, the entrance is on the seventh floor through this ugly portrait of a fat lady wearing a pink dress."

"Say, did you happen to hear the password?" Draco asked casually.

Lexi pulled a face. "Yeah. Pig snout! What kind of password is that?" She rolled her eyes.

Draco smiled nastily. "I have a better idea. Let's set Dungbombs off inside their common room. They'll all be asleep by the time we get back. When they wake up, it'll smell like a toilet in there."

The joke shop was closed, but Draco wanted to pay for the Dungbombs. He thought his father would think the joke on Gryffindor was funny, but he knew his father would not think there was anything funny about thievery. So, much to Lexi's amusement, Draco left a galleon on the counter by the cash register.

They headed back to Hogwarts with their pockets filled with Dungbombs. They stopped in the laundry to trade their own robes for Gryffindor robes. They also found hooded winter cloaks and pulled them on. They didn't want the fat lady in the portrait to be able to identify them to Dumbledore. Or at least Draco didn't anyway. Lexi was still getting used to the idea that portraits could talk. It had never occurred to her that a portrait would tell on them. Draco was useful because he knew these things.

Lexi and Draco didn't have any problems getting into the Gryffindor common room. It had a very different look and feel to it than the Slytherin common room. Instead of leather couches, it had worn, squashy armchairs. Instead of gleaming dark wood tabletops, the tables were cluttered with books and homework that had been left out. Draco looked around and shook his head at the mess. They did what they came there for and got out of there as fast as they could. They were laughing all the way back to their own common room.

That was how Lexi Black and Draco Malfoy became friends. Not just cousins who were nice to each other because they were family. Now, they had a secret together, a secret no one else knew. And if anyone found out what they'd done, they would both get in trouble.

Lexi and Draco both had a hard time keeping a straight face the next morning when the Gryffindors turned up to breakfast. The Dungbombs had stunk up Gryffindor Tower. The house-elves were in the process of scrubbing the tower top to bottom.

Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown looked miserable and tried desperately to tell anyone that wrinkled their nose or pulled a face as they walked by that they'd showered twice and the smell wouldn't come out.

The Weasley twins were late to breakfast. It had taken the twins a long time to convince Dumbledore and McGonagall that they weren't responsible for the prank. They were the usual suspects. Lexi almost felt bad for them. Almost.

Draco looked over his shoulder at the Gryffindors, smirked, and then turned back to his table and leaned forward. "If you're wondering what that smell is, it's an entire table full of mudbloods and blood traitors."

Everyone sniggered.

Lexi frowned slightly. She didn't know what a mudblood or blood traitor was yet, but she could very well be one. She knew she wasn't a pureblood. Niccole was a Muggle.

Draco noticed that Lexi was the only one not laughing and looked at her with as much concern as possible for Draco Malfoy. "What's up with you, Lexi?"

"Draco, am I a blood traitor or a- a mudblood?" Lexi asked in a hushed voice.

"What? No!" Draco said loudly. He cast a surreptitious glance around the table and lowered his voice. "You're a half-blood. You're all right."

Lexi bit her bottom lip. "But my mother-"

"Your mother's a Muggle and your father's a pureblood, Lexi. That makes you a half-blood," Draco said.

When she was satisfied, Draco and Lexi turned their attention back to the conversation that had been going on around them at the Slytherin table.

"I don't know who did it, but they deserve a medal," Pansy said.

Draco and Lexi exchanged an amused glance.

"I don't think McGonagall agrees with you," Millicent said with a glance at the staff table. "Look at her!"

They glanced discreetly in the direction of the staff table. McGonagall's face was very white. Her expression was stern as per usual, but the lines on her face were unusually tight. She was looking around the great hall as though she'd know who was behind the prank when she saw them. Her hard gaze paused on Lexi.

Lexi wasn't worried. She knew no one could prove anything. They didn't get caught. No one saw anything. There was no proof. Without any proof, the only way to prove they did it was if they confessed. And Lexi knew when to keep quiet.

"What?" Lexi said to Millicent. "She always looks like that."

"I feel sorry for whoever has Transfiguration today," Draco said.

"I don't. Hufflepuff's got Transfiguration on Fridays," Blaise said with a wicked grin.

"You ought to feel a bit less sorry for them and a bit sorrier for us. We've got Potions with the Gryffindors, and they stink," Pansy pulled a face.

Lexi hadn't thought about that, but Pansy was right. Thursday night probably hadn't been the best night to prank the Gryffindors. She had expected Gryffindor Tower to stink. She hadn't expected the Gryffindors that lived in Gryffindor Tower to stink.

The Slytherins sat as far away from the Gryffindors as they possibly could in Potions. Snape set them to mixing a simple wound-cleaning potion. It smelled like antiseptic. Instead of covering up the smell coming from the Gryffindors' side of the dungeon, it just smelled like antiseptic and Dungbombs. It was a strong, overpowering smell. Snape went around the dungeon opening the windows to let some fresh air in.

Snape stopped at Potter and Weasley's table and sneered at Weasley. He didn't know how the Weasley twins had managed to convince Dumbledore and McGonagall that they weren't behind the prank. The twins were always behind it. They were almost as bad as Potter and Black had been. Black…a seed of suspicion was planted firmly in his mind, but he pushed it to the back of his mind for the moment.

"Amusing boys, your brothers, aren't they?" Snape said to Weasley in a low voice.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Weasley said.

"The Dungbombs in Gryffindor Tower, Weasley," Snape spat.

"That wasn't Fred and George!" Weasley said angrily.

"I find that hard to believe," Snape said silkily.

"Good thing you're not our head of house then, isn't it?" Potter said.

"I assure you the feeling is mutual," Snape said.

It was bad enough that he had Sirius Black's niece or daughter in his house. If he'd had the Black brat and James Potter's son in his house, Snape would've handed in his resignation right after the sorting.

"And a point will be taken from Gryffindor for your cheek, Potter," Snape called over his shoulder as he swept away.

Snape stopped to critique a few particularly sorry looking potions on his way to Lexi's table. Lexi and Goyle's wound-healing potion wasn't the worst in the class, but it wasn't perfect either. It was supposed to be purple and the liquid in Lexi's cauldron was more of a periwinkle. Lexi did her best to ignore Snape standing over them, but he would not be ignored.

"Blue, Miss Black," Snape said. "Blue. Tell me, girl, are you simply too big a dunderhead to brew even the most simple potion, or were you not listening when I stated that a dash of leech juice would suffice?"

Lexi sighed and looked up from the onion she was chopping to meet Snape's gaze.

"Are those my only two choices, sir?" Lexi said.

Snape's expression twisted with fury. He stared down at Lexi with cold, black eyes. There was a flicker of defiance in her eyes. She wasn't going to look down. She wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. Only he didn't want her to look down. Eye contact was essential to Legilimency. He saw the memory of Lexi and Draco in Gryffindor Tower in her weak mind. Yes, Lexi was just like Sirius.

Snape wanted to go to Dumbledore and show him the memory. He wanted Lexi Black expelled. But if Lexi were expelled, Draco would be, too. The memory clearly implicated Draco. She had chosen her partner in crime well. Snape did not want to make an enemy out of Lucius Malfoy, and expelling his only son was a surefire way to do that.

"Detention for your cheek, Miss Black," Snape said finally. "And another zero," he added with a final glance at the periwinkle potion.

It took everything Lexi had to keep her mouth shut. She knew that anything she said would just get her another detention. She should at least get half credit for the day. Even Longbottom didn't get a zero, and he'd melted another cauldron. It wasn't the grade. She didn't care about her grades. It was the principle of the thing. It was so unfair.

Lexi was in a bad mood by the time the bell rang. She practically ran out of the dungeon. She wanted to get away from Snape before she said something she would regret. She stopped to wait for Draco just outside the Potions classroom. As she was waiting, Potter and Weasley came out and walked by. They had apparently noticed the Slytherins laughing at them in the Great Hall that morning and decided to confront Lexi.

"If you ask me, Black, the Slytherins are enjoying our misery a bit too much," Weasley said. "It almost makes me think you all had something to do with it."

"I had to smell you all morning," Lexi sneered. "There is nothing enjoyable about that."

Weasley's face turned red. "Eat dung, Black!"

Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle appeared behind Weasley and Potter.

"Manners, Weasley," Draco said. "You ought to be a bit politer in mixed company. Crabbe and Goyle here could teach you some manners."

Crabbe and Goyle clenched their fists, exchanged a glance, and then looked at Weasley threateningly.

Granger came out of the Potions classroom and saw them. Of course she couldn't keep her big nose out of their business.

"You're not fighting, are you?" Granger said, looking from the Slytherins to Potter and Weasley. "You're right outside the Potions classroom. It's no secret that Professor Snape favors the Slytherins. Think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if he catches you. Don't you think you've already lost enough points for one day?"

Potter and Weasley looked almost as irritated as the Slytherins were.

"You! Go away," Weasley said with a sigh.

"Never mind. C'mon, Ron," Potter said.

As they went up a flight of stairs, Weasley glanced back over his shoulder at the Slytherins and scowled.

"Notice Black didn't deny they had something to do with it," Weasley said darkly.

"And you saw the look on Malfoy's face as breakfast," Potter said. "He was gloating."

"They all were. The whole Slytherin table looked like Christmas had come early," Weasley said.

"But especially Malfoy," Potter said. "He was probably boasting about it. I bet he was the leader."

"But how'd they get into our common room?" Weasley asked.

Fred and George appeared on either side of them.

"How did who get into our common room?" George asked.

"Malfoy," Ron muttered.

"Lucius Malfoy's son?" Fred pulled a face.

"We think he was the one who let off the Dungbombs," Harry told them.

"Malfoy's an ickle firstie," George said.

"And there's no way an ickle firstie could pull that off!" Fred said.

"Zonko's is the only place you can get Dungbombs," George told them.

"And it's in Hogsmeade," Fred added. "Ickle firsties can't go to Hogsmeade."

"Yeah, they might get lost," George said with a grin.

"Well, then, maybe Malfoy wasn't by himself, but I know he knows who did it," Harry said.

"Slytherin," Fred and George said at the same time, exchanging a look.

"It was a bloody good prank," Fred said with a sigh.

"I only wish we'd thought of it first," George said.

"Well, we'll just have to think of something better," Fred said with a determined glint in his eyes.

The twins exchanged a sinister glance. And that was how the prank war between Slytherin and Gryffindor started.