To Separate a Twin Chapter 2: A new school year, a harry potter fanfic

Draco Malfoy had been at school for three weeks and still hadn't found a time to use his new pet on Harry. It seemed that there was always a reason not to. He didn't want to mess up a good chance, or to get caught. No, getting caught was definitely not a good idea. He sat at dinner, letting ideas run through his head.

The Slytherin vs. Gryffindor Quidditch match was scheduled for the next day. The first match of the year. How could he use that? He couldn't, he wouldn't be anywhere near Potter then.

He could drop the creature into Potter's bag after Potions or Care of Magical Creatures…even Defense Against the Dark Arts. No, that was far too risky. Too many people. Someone might see, or it might crawl out and escape before biting Harry. A better idea would be to scrape some of the venom off of it's fangs and somehow get that to Potter. Drop it in his drink? Yeah right, how would he do that? Next idea. Really, he could just let it lose in the Gryffindor Common Room and let it bite anyone in there. It would be fun to watch no matter who it got.

Draco considered that for a while. No, he wanted to use it on Potter.

Okay, before Potions tomorrow he would put the creature in Potter's desk. It hadn't eaten for a few days so hopefully when Harry reached inside he would get a bit of a surprise. No wait, tomorrow was Saturday. No classes. Monday. Monday he would finally do it.

Draco left dinner early, telling his housemates that he had homework to do. He chuckled to himself on his way back to the Slytherin Common Room. This would be great. Better than great.
In fact, it would be - Draco entered the large room and stopped short. A dead cat lay on the floor.

It was disgusting. There were bits of fur matted in blood on the floor around the dead animal. A hole was eaten into it's belly. Draco resisted the impulse to be sick. Before he could react further, he was even more horrified. Something crawled out from inside the cat. And not just something, his something.

Draco reached down and grabbed it, wincing at the thick blood now on his hands. He ran to his room and knelt on the floor next to his bed. He reached under with one hand and kept a firm hold on the creature with his other. He was revolted at the way that it seemed to snuggle into his palm. He hadn't expected completely devoted to mean like this.

Finally he felt his fingertips brush the cage. He reached in just a bit further and pulled it out. He ran back into the Common Room after shoving the creature into it's cage and stuffing it back under his bed. He needed to find out how it had escaped, and make sure that it never happened again. But first, he needed to get that cat somewhere where no one would find it.

He looked around for anything to carry the dead animal in, and found a copy of The Daily Prophet folded on a table in the centre of the room. Quickly, he laid the cat on the paper and scooped up the fur on the floor, wrapping it all up in the paper. He could hear voices coming down the hall to the Common Room door. Draco tried not to panic, and picked up the bundle on the floor searching frantically for a place to hide it. He ran to a large figurine on a table in the corner and shoved the cat behind it. Just in time.

Millicent Bulstrode and her friend walked into the Common Room. Draco felt, once again, that he would be sick as he realized that the dead cat had belonged to none other than the girl standing in front of him.

"Alright, Malfoy," she greeted. Draco couldn't get himself respond. It was like his tongue and his brain had joined up to rebel against him. He just stared at her with his mouth open, hoping that he didn't look on the outside at all like he felt on the inside. Unfortunately for him, he did.

"Are you alright?" The friend asked, smiling nervously. "You look like someone died."

Draco tried not to freak out. It was just a coincidence that she had said that. She didn't know anything. How could she?

"I'm -" he lowered his voice to the right octave. "I'm fine. I mean, of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? Would you just stay out of my business?" He was talking way too fast. He had to calm down.

Millicent was obviously annoyed. "What are you doing over there with that statue? And what's that on your hands?" She asked demandingly.

Malfoy looked down at his hand. His knuckles were white from gripping the statue. Which made the dark red blood stand out even clearer. He let go and hurriedly put his hands in his pockets.

"I don't have anything on my hands," He could have smacked himself. Now she knew that he was lying. "Would you just clear off and leave me alone?" He was almost yelling from panic.

Millicent Bulstrode stared at him angrily. Draco could feel the sweat on the back of his neck. "Let's go, Stacey," she said to her friend, "I have to feed Miss Prissy." She turned and walked haughtily from the Common Room. Draco swayed on the spot. He felt very, very faint.

As soon as the two girls left, Draco grabbed the dead cat and ran to his room. He pushed it under his bed, making sure that it was on the opposite side of his trunk from the creature. Then he double-checked the cage to make sure that it was latched tightly.

After thoroughly washing his hands Draco went directly to bed. He was completely drained of energy and very ready for a peaceful night of sleep. That was before the rest of the Slytherins got back from dinner. Even from his room he could hear Millicent Bulstrode asking about her missing cat. That settled it. He would not be able to sleep that night. He really shouldn't leave a dead animal under his bed anyway.

He had to sneak out and bury it somewhere. Right, once the Common Room was empty and everyone in his dorm was asleep. Draco rolled onto his side and tried not to think about either of the things under his bed.

"Right, how can they honestly expect us to get this done -

- on top of all our other homework -
- and personal things we have to do -
- not to mention any detentions we might have picked up -

- all before the Quidditch game tomorrow?" Fred finished with a disgusted look.

The Gryffindor Common Room was as crowded and noisy as on any evening just after dinner. Perfect cover for the Weasley Twins to persuade their little brother to finish their homework for them.

"Ron. We've got an unbelievable amount of important work that we have to get done. And we don't have time to go down to the library for this one assignment." Fred reasoned to his younger brother.

"I've got stuff to do too." Ron said, determined to not give in this time. "I've got loads of my own homework and Harry and I were going to visit Hagrid tonight."

George rolled his eyes. "It's a Saturday! I'm sure you can find time between all that to work on one simple charm for us. Really. How many times have we helped you out when you were in need? Answer us that, little brother." he demanded, poking Ron accusingly.

"Without demanding payment, never," Ron replied bravely, glaring at George. "I'm up to my room to finish my Potions essay, and my Astronomy chart, and my Charms practice." Ron said, heading for the stairs to the Boys Dormitories.

"And while you're working on Charms," said Fred, grabbing Ron's arm before he could walk past him, "you can get us the result of the spell Trilos Oblu, right Ron?" Fred gave an exasperated sigh. "Listen, if you don't do this for us, we'll have to do it -

- and if we have to do it, we won't have time to get our stuff done and make it to the Quidditch meeting tomorrow morning -

- and if we don't make it to the Quidditch meeting, Wood will get…"

"Alright, I get it!" Ron pulled his arm free and glowered at his brothers. "…Fine, I'll do your bloody homework. One of these days I'm going to write Mum and tell her what you two gits do to me."

The Twins each raised an eyebrow and smirked identically.

Ron stomped the rest of the way to the stairs. "We'll never forget this, Ron!" They called in unison after him.

Ron didn't look back.

"Well Fred, shall we finish our important work?" George grinned. "The little whiner has Hermione do half of his homework anyway."

Fred laughed as they sat down on a couch in the corner and resumed their game of Exploding Snap.

Come 2:30 AM, Draco was creeping down the dungeon halls on his way out of the school. He was carefully carrying the cat wrapped in newspaper. He had to bury it somewhere on the grounds where no one would notice.

Malfoy stopped suddenly. Faintly, he could hear Peeves in the hall next to him, banging on the walls and singing a version of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" that does not bear repeating. Draco had to get outside, fast.

He walked quickly and quietly through the closest door leading onto the school grounds. Once outside, he decided to take the cat down to Hagrid's garden and bury it there, where nobody would notice a small lump in the dirt.

Draco hurried to finish his task, digging in the lose dirt with his bare hands. As soon as the cat was buried he ran back to the castle and crawled into bed. He felt much better now that there was no evidence against him. And in two days he would finally get to use his creature on Potter.
Draco smiled and fell asleep almost instantly.

When he woke up, Draco had forgotten about the drama of the night before. All that he was thinking about was beating Gryffindor in the Quidditch match this afternoon. He dressed quickly and walked into the Common Room, only to be confronted by Millicent Bulstrode.

"You did it, didn't you? You took my cat." She looked angry to the point of tears.

"What are you talking about?" Draco sneered. "I didn't even know that you had a cat." He found that it was much easier to lie when you had gotten rid of all proof against you.

"I don't know what you did, but I'll find out. She was fine before I left for dinner last night, and then she was gone. And you were the only person back here before me. If you've hurt her Malfoy, I swear I'll hurt you." She turned and walked to the Girl's Dormitories.

Draco tried to laugh, but was already nervous again. He really didn't need someone trying to prove that he had done something wrong while he had a most-likely illegal magical creature right under his bed.
And really, Bulstrode was bigger than him, and probably would carry through with her threat of hurting him. The best idea was probably to try and avoid her for a while. Right now he just needed to get ready for Quidditch.

Later that afternoon Draco stood in the Slytherin locker rooms minutes before the game. He pulled his green Quidditch robes over his head and reached for his gloves. But no, they weren't in his locker. Maybe he had already put them on the bench behind him? He turned and checked. No, they weren't there either. Of course! It was the first match of the year. He hadn't even taken them out of his trunk yet.

"Crabbe, Goyle!" He called to the two Slytherins waiting by the door without turning to look at them.
"Go and get my gloves from my trunk. The small one, by my bed. And be fast about it, the game's starting soon!"

Crabbe and Goyle nodded and walked out of the locker rooms and toward the dungeons. Once they reached the dorm room, Crabbe walked to Draco's bed .

"Here, he keeps it under here," he grunted, pulling a very large trunk out from under the bed.

"That's not the right one," Goyle announced bluntly.

"And what makes you think that?" Crabbe asked rudely, not fond of being told that he was wrong by anyone.

"Because," Goyle said, holding up another case. "This one is smaller and was by his bed, not under his bed."

Crabbe glared and shoved the large trunk very roughly back under the bed, while Goyle made a mess of Malfoy's things, searching for the gloves. When he finally found them he closed the case again and put it back by the bed, then left the room with Crabbe following behind.

Of course, neither of them knew that when Vincent Crabbe slammed the trunk under the bed, it knocked a small cage over. And when that small cage hit the wall, the lid un-latched, and a creature crawled out behind them and into the halls of the school.