A/N: Sorry for updating a few hours later than usual. Real Life decided that bugging me is funny.
Right now we're entering - sort of - a new arc of this story. I'm not a big fan of following the canon stuff up close, so instead of rewriting the whole, well-known scenes, I'm going to dance around them, so I can deliver something more or less fresh.
All the reviews are greatly appreciated. Also, over 200 favorites! That's definitely a lot, at least in my book! Thank You!
Chater 11
"Zoe"
Molly Weasley sighed, longing for the days where the life was making sense. But these were long gone and not coming back ever again.
While her days looked mostly the same, filled with taking care of the house, cooking and other things a decent housewife was filling her time with, Molly worries twisted and changed. Once, she was getting her migraines from trying to find a way to stop the twins from sending home yet another toilet bowl or doing other ridiculous things. Then, when the Death Eaters risen once again, following their master, she started to fear for her children lives. After all, her whole family was known for being quite tolerant if not fond of muggle world and supporting Dumbledore.
Then, it turned out to be even worse, when the exorcist barged into their small magical world, flipping everything on its head and introducing a whole new reality, one so terrifying, she could barely find the right words to describe it. The horrifying image of pale monster leaping towards her will be forever burned into her mind. The twins, Harry, even her precious little Ginny, they all found themselves dragged right in the middle of this madness, with no way out.
Molly was awaiting the beginning of school year, hoping that the insanity would end as soon as the kids would return to the safety of school grounds. But while it definitely turned out to be much quieter after they left, it definitely wasn't any less strange.
Suguro and his friend decided to stick around, waiting for Sirius to finish at least one two–way mirror. It made sense, since the only way of contacting Harry and their other friend – who Molly didn't even wanted to think about, because Muggles! Infiltrating Hogwarts of all places and with Dumbledore's blessing! – was through magical means. While Molly somewhat got used to Suguro, the other young man was… well.
While she was getting into constant fights with Suguro over every silly thing possible, Rin just took over the kitchen the moment he appeared and refused to let her in. ever. Molly actually tried more than once to sneak in there, just for a few minutes, but the young man always managed to catch her red–handed and then shoo her back for more quality–time with family. How he was even doing that?
On the other hand, people that rarely were invited in the kitchen while Molly was around, tended to visit the place too often for her comfort. Like that time, when Rin decided to demonstrate the muggle way of science. He used two coins, two nails and raw potatoes to do so. After wrapping the entire ridiculous thing in wire he attached a small light–bulb and said "Ta–daah!", because there was light. Honestly, the Muggles were getting more and more ridiculous with every passing century. Of course, both Sirius and her husband were in the absolute awe about the whole potato deal and Molly ended up finding entire chains of raw vegetables all around the place.
This morning Arthur was acting slightly weird too, she noted with a small frown. Instead of just apparting to his job after giving her a kiss on the cheek, he looked almost like he was trying to crept out of her like of sight, curling... and definitely hiding something. Molly knew all too well what exactly.
"Arthur," she groaned, crossing his path and stopping right in front of him in a way that he had no escape route at all. "You are not stealing potatoes from my kitchen!"
"But Honey!" the man wailed miserably. "I need them!"
"Work is not where you can play with your potatoes and you know it!"
"This is such a brilliant muggle thing, Molly!" he continued to argue. "I bet all Muggle kids are doing it at school! And many other things! How we are supposed to work efficiently, when we don't understand their traditions?"
"This is not a tradition, this is a potato."
"Yes Honey!" Arthur nodded vigorously. "A very important potato that makes stuff shine!"
"Are you even hearing yourself?" she shook her head. "This is beyond ridiculous! You are going to work, not on the playground, for Merlin sake!"
He whined some more, getting dangerously close to being late for work.
"Arthur, I'm going to say it one last time," Molly put hands on her hips. "Put the potatoes down. Now."
He sighed heavily, lowering his head in defeat. "Yes, Honey..." he murmured. A few minutes later he finally aparted to his work, leaving Molly alone in the house, with a handful of potatoes lying on the table beside her.
She looked at them, sulking.
"Why couldn't I marry a wizard who was not insane?" she groaned. "Potatoes! Of all things!"
She was definitely going to have her words with that boy the next time she meets him. Filling Arthurs mind with all that muggle nonsense! She understood that sharing culture was important and all, but not when that culture was made from vegetable and wasn't doing anything besides making a single light–bulb shine. It was just ridiculous. But of course Arthur was absolutely amazed by the whole thing and so, stealing random food items from her kitchen began, because the man wouldn't be himself if he hasn't checked every option available.
Molly was pretty sure Suguro knew it too and he was also aware how she was going to react. t was probably the sole reason why they showed (or rather Rin got the permission to do so) that dumb trick to Arthur in the first place. For somebody wearing such long list of titles, the young exorcist was ridiculously bratty at times.
She groaned once more and then picked up the potatoes, noting that now she would have to clean the table too; the potatoes left dirt on it. And inside Arthurs pockets too, but now it was too late to catch him and do the quick cleaning charm. Why couldn't he just spend that few seconds and wash these blasted things?
xxx
Arthur walked into his office with his chin raised high and looked around at the innocent faces of his co-workers, all of them oblivious to what was coming.
"Behold," he said, trying to maintain a serious expression on his face. But it was so hard to not grin triumphantly! "Because I bring you the potato!"
xxx
Arthur Weasley wasn't the only one who was too interested in their muggle guests for his own good.
"So, instead of being bored out of your mind, why not do something interesting?" Moody developed a habit of sorts, to bug at least one of the exorcist for a fight. While Rin usually rolled his eyes and then disappeared in the kitchen – or someplace else in the mansion – his friend usually smiled back. "I would really like to have my rematch."
"You want another fight?" Suguro raised his eyebrows.
"Well, nothing else to do here, unless you really like to be bored," Moody shrugged. "Besides, with the kids out we finally don't need to keep things pretty."
Suguro considered his options, his brow furrowed. The boredom wasn't a real issue for him; he was able to find a way to occupy himself easily. It would be actually quite relaxing, first time in many weeks he actually had time to sit down and meditate, recite his sutras or just to recall every book he memorized, just to make sure he still could recite even the least useful of them without stumbling on his words. It was quite important thing to do, even if it was taking a lot of time.
On the other hand, a perspective of beating the man up was a tempting one. Especially since the guy asked for it. Literally.
The wizards already knew what he was capable of - mostly. As Moody said, with the kids around they were keeping everything clean and pretty. However he still knew only a little about their abilities and the man called Moody seemed to be a seasoned warrior. It looked like catching a glimpse of the ugly would be beneficial.
"I don't see why not," Ryuji said out loud, looking around with disinterest. "But I don't think it would be wise to play around here. This is quite a nice room, it would be a shame to trash it."
"Black hates this place guts anyway," Moody shrugged. "But there is that huge and useless room that we filled up with unnecessary stuff. That might be fun."
The room would be quite spacious indeed, with a really high ceiling. Well, it would be if it wasn't filled with piles of stuff. There was a real labyrinth created with tables and chairs and truly old looking chests, lamps and other items. There was quite a collections of paintings lying by one of the walls and even a few rather ugly sculptures.
Suguro whistled.
"Usually you're supposed to use empty rooms for that sort of fun."
"What, are you afraid that a little obstacle is going to screw you?" Moody smirked.
"Are you going to need the obstacles to hide from me?" Ryuji grinned back.
It was a very interesting playground, to say the least. Many piles of random cluster created a perfect hiding spots and the narrow corridors between them made impossible to run very fast or even in a straight line. The situation called for being very inventive. It also caused a lot of spectacular destruction, hence one of the wall was charmed to be transparent. The current owner of the house wanted to enjoy the show without being constantly hit with bits and pieces of what once was his legacy.
"What in Merlin's name is going on here?!" Molly gasped.
Another crash came out of the ballroom.
Tonks, Sirius and even Lupin were sitting in the rows of chairs in front of the transparent wall, observing a fight inside with a fascination. Sirius was there to, welcoming every single crash with a glee.
"Why are they fighting?" Molly demanded. "And why aren't you stopping them?"
"Moody asked!" Tonks explained, then cheered loudly.
"Asked?" Molly grimaced. "Why would he ask...?"
"Because that guy stepped on him and he didn't like it," Sirius explained with a toothy grin. "This is the third time they're at it."
"Third?" Mrs. Weasley shook her head. "Why on Earth would they fight so many times?"
"They have a row, I think," this time it was Remus, who explained. "Well, if you count the time when they all showed up. If not, then Moody is having a slight advantage…"
Molly shook her head, still unsure how she should react. Meanwhile a very old, definitely very expensive coffee table flew through the clustered ballroom, smacked into antique chandelier with a painful, high–pitched shriek of breaking glass and landed on the other side of the room. The bits and chunks of glass weren't done raining down on the room, when the two men clashed with each other.
Then, they froze, both grinning and breathing heavily. Suguro had his hand on Moody's throat, but he also could feel a wand digging under his collarbone.
"Well," Alastor said, his smile widening. "What a drag. It looks like we still have a tie."
"This was fun," Suguro agreed, then stepped away.
"You're pretty crafty for somebody who just saw the magic for the first time."
"Or you just meet all the wrong people before," Suguro shrugged.
"You know that you have a nasty habit of checking the ceiling when you're looking around, right?"
"And?"
"This is a bad thing," Moody grimaced. "I think you would've got me this time if you didn't waste time for that. What were you looking for there anyway?"
"You don't really want to know," he said.
Moody hmpfed.
Molly decided to just leave and forget the whole thing ever happened. It was the best way to keep her sanity intact.
xxx
After the feast ended, Draco sighed deeply and hoped that it wouldn't take him too long to shoo the first year Slytherins at least in the general direction of their dormitory. He was tired and probably ate too much, but this year these dumb house elves finally get the recipe right and the slytherin's taste buds weren't suffering anymore.
"Slytherin, this way!" Pansy seemed to be enjoying herself, even if the other people couldn't possible enjoy her voice; it was way to high when she was speaking to loudly and now she really wanted to be heard.
At least Draco himself was not needed to waste his throat on calling clueless brats. If Pansy was going to stay so eager in doing her job, than his stay at Hogwarts was to be even better than he expected it to be.. all the power to destroy the day of Potter and his merry group and no obligations whatsoever.
Well, besides of being required to stand there and wait for the brats to go to sleep. It took awhile.
After almost an hour - it felt like eternity - most of the first years finally were where they belong. Most of them. There was that particular brat, with two puffy black ponytails and big, brown eyes that followed him the whole evening like a puppy.
"Why are you following me?" Draco frowned, giving the little girl a nasty glare and hoping it would be enough to scary her off.
No such luck.
"I am Zoe Falana," she said, raising proudly her chin.
"And...?"
"And you are a Prefect, aren't you?" her lips formed a smile full of satisfaction. "You are supposed to help first years and answer the questions when they have some. Isn't that right?"
Draco groaned. He wasn't allowed to curse other Slytherins, Snape was always giving the worst detentions when he found out about something like that. And he was always able to learn about such things.
"What do you want?" He moaned, hoping that it would end soon. "Just hurry up, you're supposed to be in your bed like half an hour ago."
"I am looking for a husband," she stated in a manner that was supposed to mean business, but in a high pitched voice of an eleven year old girl it sounded just ridiculous.
"You what?" Draco shook his head. "And what possibly I have to do with that?"
"You are pureblood, aren't you?" Zoe huffed impatiently. "And you know who is who in the whole Magical Britain. Ain't that right?"
Draco furrowed his brow, forcing himself to think. Considering her odd accent, he wasn't from around here. The fact that she ended up in the Slytherin and her first question was about Purebloods and marriage gave him even more information.
It wasn't unheard of parents to send their children to foreign schools to let them meet peers they were not related too, thought it wasn't a very usual thing to do. The heirs of ancient lines traveled the world for a few years after finishing the school and besides looking at the sight they were looking at the women too. It wasn't a good idea to mix the blood too close and if one wanted to keep the line nice and pure, one had to think carefully.
If this little girl was of a ancient line like her words suggested, than she was more than useful. He definitely could use a favor or two from some people and all he needed to do to gain them, was to introduce her to them. By all means, with a bit of manipulation he could demand a favor from her too.
"I might consider it," Draco generously agreed. "Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself first?"
This happened to be not the best of his ideas. Once Zoe opened her mouth and started to talk about her bloodline, she wasn't shutting up, feeling the need to share all the accomplishment of her entire dynasty. It was long, complicated and he desperately tried to memorize as much as possible, while fighting a battle with his own mind to not feel asleep.
"Can we continue tomorrow?" Draco gave up after awhile. "It is going to be an important day for you, after all. First lessons, and all... you should be rested."
"Ah!" Zoe gasped, then grinned widely. "How considerate of you! "
Then finally, finally she bowed to him and jogged back to her room.
Draco sighed in relief, feeling that even five more minutes was going to reduce him to sleeping in the Common Room in one of the armchairs.
"Your new girlfriend finally let you go?" Zabini joked, welcoming him in their dormitory.
"Want to meet her?" Draco groaned and dropped gracelessly onto his bed. "I guarantee all day completely filled."
"Uh, no," Zabini grimaced. "I prefer more silent partners, thank you very much."
"Then you and your mother had something in common," Nott joked from his side of the room.
"Ugh," Draco grimaced. "Please, stop thinking you have a sense of humor. You don't. This was terrible."
"Whatever," Zabini shrugged. He was too used to people alluding to his mother love-life and husbands suddenly dying to really care. "What do you think about our new addiction to our humble teaching staff?"
"You mean Madam Umbridge?" Draco raised one eyebrow. "Well, she is here to put Dumbledore and his people in their places. Maybe she will do something about that half-human. I have no idea why he's even here, after that monster of his almost tore my arm off..."
"You're still going at it?" Zabini snorted. "You don't even have a scar!"
"I have. Mental one." Draco huffed. "Do you know how it felt like, to have that kind of a monster charging at you?"
"Umbridge is somewhat sore on the eyes," Nott muttered. "But the foreign one is quite a looker. Shame she lacks an eye."
Draco suppressed a frustrated groan. One–tracked mind of Nott wasn't too big of a surprise, considering the fact that the poor sap was already meeting up with every promising lady his father wanted in the family for one reason or another. As far as he knew, they either were around four or forty. Nott Junior had all the reasons for looking around for a lady that he would be able to at least look at without dying on the inside.
"Aren't she a bit too old for you?"
"Young enough to carry children," Nott shrugged. "And they are saying that Asian chicks turns into old hags very late."
"Maybe she has a sister. One with both eyes. And without weird things painted on the face."
"Good idea," Nott smiled lazily. "We should pick her brain about it."
Later that evening, Draco was lying in his bed, thinking. Was the foreign teacher assistant here for the same reason Zoe was?
People were talking about the Dark Lord return and even if the Ministry was calling it a complete lie, all the filth seemed to be much more unsure, walking less proudly and generally being more silent than ever.
The Purebloods, true ones and not the Bloodtraitors or these dumb people who were screaming about purity of blood only after four or five generations, were much easier to tell apart from other people. Some of them were thinking about moving out of the country, just to avoid all that mess that will come with putting old, demented Dumbledore away. This was quite a treat for all the foreigners who were looking for fresh blood to revitalize their lines and on their own ground too.
Draco hummed to himself. He probably should write to his father about all that.
While he liked Pansy and knew that Pansy liked him - way too much but it was a good thing, she let him hug herself and never said anything about his hands wandering too low or to high - he doubted that she was going to be his wife. Her blood was pure enough, but he was sure that his parents preferred somebody more... dignified.
But a perspective of a foreign marriage would be at least an interesting thing to occupy mind for his father.
xxx
Hogwarts was much more annoying that Mamushi ever though any building had right to be. The staircases were moving and she could swear that at least two corridors had a nasty habit of rearranging themselves daily. Not to mention the portraits. These were just plain disturbing, always observing, always there and sometimes loudly commenting whatever was going on in front of them.
It wasn't helping that she had to be on guard day and night, keeping the masquerade going.
"Elf!" she barked in demanding tone, playing her role.
A small goblin-like creature obediently showed up a few steps in front of her, awaiting orders. It was pretty hard for her to get used to feeling the presence of the House Elves all around, but Mamushi was very adaptable. Besides, she banned all of the servant not–demons from her bedroom, after their sudden appearance startled her awake in the middle of the night.
The call was answered by the weird one once again, the one that keep on wearing way too much clothing and talked in a strangest way.
"Get the room ready," Mamushi demanded, sitting in her chair and crossing legs. "I plan to introduce the group to the meditation techniques."
"Dobby will do his best!" the creature shouted enthusiastically and disappeared with a loud popping noise.
"Mind you answering me what have you planned?" Dolores asked sweetly. As far as Mamushi knew, the woman was still not quite sure how to place her. She was a foreigner observer that decided to visit England to learn, but she was also capable of forcing a favor out of Dumbledore – or so the cover story went. Mamushi was not even a full member of the faculty; she was named an Assistant in the Muggle Studies, but it looked more like she was running a small club about religion and philosophy of the faraway land she came from.
"Meditation," Mamushi answered shortly. "It help to clear mind and that's always useful."
"I see you are working the elves hard," Dolores changed the topic, clearly trying to carefully poke at the things that interested her most.
"Why do it myself when I do have servants?" Mamushi frowned. "I honestly admire you, British people. You are so... tolerant and eager to help, even if the task is far below you."
"Oh, well!" The woman blushed and started babbling nonsense about how tolerant indeed they were and how troubling it was, to live with all the muggleborns trying to force their ways on honest people of old families.
Mamushi listened, nodding in agreement and gasping in all of the right moments, while her mind worked.
Getting in the woman's good graces was a child's play. All she needed to do was to play a role of a sheltered princess that wished to learn about oh so great and civilized Magical Britain and Umbridge was getting out of her way to help as much as possible.
That didn't mean it was all easy. The trouble, naturally started when the Potter boy and his friends had to sit through the very first lesson of Defense and couldn't keep their mouths shut.
Just what was the point in arguing with someone like that, Mamushi had no idea. It's not like Umbridge would actually nod and thank them for voicing their opinion about the lesson schedule. She wasn't that sort of person. She would take any sort of criticism as an attack and proceed accordingly.
At some point the Potter boy stood up – because of course he had to – and was about to start spilling his well–known story once again.
Mamushi decided to interfere before it went any further in aggravating the Ministry Official anymore and grabbed the boy's arm. He stopped in the middle of the sentence, startled by the sudden touch.
"I have heard things about you," she said in a cold voice. "Poor thing, only fourteen and forced to face dragons! No wonder the mere through about Defense against any creature troubles you so much!"
Harry just gaped at her.
"Do not worry, I am sure that Madam Healer got just the right thing for your poor nerves!" Mamushi continued, then looked at Umbridge.
The woman's expression turned from angry to baffled. Good.
"I shall walk with him to the Hospital Wing. Is that fine?"
"Naturally, my dear!" Umbridge agreed quickly, nodding with enthusiasm. "It is so good of you, to help that poor, distraught boy!"
"I'm not–!" Harry protested.
"Shush!" Mamushi chirped sweetly and forced the boy out of the classroom, before he landed himself in more trouble than he already was.
"The hell was that?!" he hissed at her as soon as they turned around the corner.
"I have the same question to ask you," Mamushi grit her teeth. "You know what sort of a person she is. You know that she's not going to change her mind and you know she is a coward. The more you fight against her, the more ridiculous weaponry she's going to bring on the battlefield, just to feel safe."
"People need to hear the truth!"
Mamushi sighed, unpleasant memories crashing on her like a waterfall. "People usually want anything but that."
xxx
"And then," Harry finished his story. "She dragged me by the ear all the way to the Hospital Winds. I'm pretty sure the portraits are going to gossip about that till next month!"
It was late in the evening and he was still so angry he just had to talk to someone. He talked to Ron and Hermione for awhile, but it didn't take the edge of him. So when they went to sleep – or to re–read the books once again – he decided to bug the exorcist for awhile. He was Hojo's boss after all.
With the curtains carefully shielding his bed from the view and silencing charm cast, he proceed to vent, while Ryuji was observing him with a baffled expression on his face.
"That's good," Suguro said, unable to not chuckle.
"Good?!" Harry protested. "It was embarrassing! It still is!"
"Well, we do want everybody to think that you hate each other guts, don't we?"
Harry pouted.
"The good news is, Umbridge is definitely going to hear it and in more than one version," Suguro said. "I'm actually quite curious how modified it will end up."
"And I'm not," Harry grunted, blushing furiously.
"Look at the bright side," Ryuji changed position to more comfortable one. "You are going to have life easier now. And Mamushi is going to teach you something useful during the detentions."
"She don't know any spells..."
"But she know hand to hand combat and can at least show you how to snatch a weapon out of somebody's hands."
"Huh," Harry blinked.
"She is – was – an exorcist for much longer than I," Suguro continued. "So you are going to have somebody on hand at any times."
"And a reputation of a crazy person."
"That one you have anyway. Use it, since it was so generously given."
"I'm not too good liar," Harry admitted.
"Whatever, you are supposed to be a crazy person anyway," Suguro shrugged. "Just try to not give the Ministry woman any reason to use more power than she already is."
"Then what I'm supposed to do?" Harry frowned. "I can't just sit there and do nothing when she spills lies like that!"
"That's exactly what are you supposed to do. The more you are going to oppose her, the more power she's going to use. Since she is not going anywhere anytime soon, why make your life more difficult than it already is?"
"But there are others... They should have at least a chance to learn something...!" Harry protested.
"You do have exams this year, right?"
"Yes," Harry sighed. "OWLs. And with her teaching us the Defense, everybody is going to fail."
"Goodie!"
"What?" Harry spluttered. "Why are you happy? That's terrible!"
"On the opposite, that's brilliant! And it's just a grade anyway. The nice thing here is, all the years before people were passing these exams without too much trouble, even with teachers changing sometimes more than once during single year. Am I right?"
Harry slowly nodded.
"Then," Suguro continued with a smirk. "It won't be too much of a problem to prove that the students suddenly failing en masse are her fault."
"I don't like it," Harry decided after a moment of consideration. "Using others like that... it just doesn't sit with me right."
Suguro tapped a fast melody with his fingers, thinking.
"Try to talk it through with that stern lady or Dumbledore before doing anything," he finally said. "But you might try to teach yourself."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you do have a clear instructions in the books? Even with a picture that moves on the side," the exorcist pointed out. "Find a place where nobody can find or follow you and have all the fun you want. Just don't choose anything fancy. Fancy is always bad."
"How come?"
"Remember when I and Moody were having fun?"
"Hard not to," Harry smiled. "I have no idea how many chairs you two destroyed."
"Do you remember the spell he was using to mark me as hit?"
Harry nodded. He and Ron hoped to catch something interesting while Moody and Suguro were going at it and even Hermione was observing the fights with a pen in her hand, but not a single useful spell was cast. Only one, useless charm that temporary changed color of things. It was a first–year material and it was too easy to even be on the exams.
""Red"," he said.
"And what can you tell me about that spell?"
"It leave a red mark on the target? Like somebody spilled a bit of paint, or something like that."
"Anything more?" Suguro raised eyebrows.
"Uh," Harry chewed on his lip, thinking. "It's very short. Much shorter than usual curses, so you have to be really fast to dodge it..."
He blinked.
"You want me to find the shortest spells possible, because this way I won't give anybody time for counter–curses, right?"
"Wizards tend to just stand there and blab nonsense," Suguro shrugged. "While anybody capable of using brain could kill them at least five times."
"That... actually makes sense."
"Try to do the things you're familiar with without saying a word too," Suguro continued. "You don't need to tell your enemy what are you about to do, that's just dumb."
Harry furrowed his brow. "Isn't that what you do?"
"That's exactly what I do," Ryuji grinned. "There's a reason why Aria are always working with a partner."
xxx
"What are you doing up so late?" Draco groaned, when she noticed Zoe creeping into the common room on her toenails. The little girl was trying to not make a noise at all, while imitating some sort of a spy from a book.
Draco himself was up only because he and Pansy were on patrol - and they were supposed to catch first years which were out of their beds at night.
Well, they might have wasted some time in that nice corner, but Draco still felt somewhat offended by missing a first year. Especially that first year who had a serious problem with shutting up for even a minute.
"Um..." Zoe giggled nervously and blushed. "Bathroom break?"
"There are bathrooms in the Slytherin Dungeons," Draco snorted. "Try again."
"Busted," the little girl rolled her eyes. "Look, I'm sort of... bad with telling left and right, okay?"
"So you get absolutely lost in the castle, but asking somebody for directions was beyond you?"
"It was sort of late and Professor Snape told us to not lose any points," she explained.
Draco massaged his temples.
Right. First years and house points. He still remember how every single one was such a big deal when he was her age. For him and everybody else. He probably didn't end up mercilessly pranked inside the Slytherin Dorms only because he caused Gryffindor to lose much more points at the same time.
"This time I'll let it pass," he finally decided.
"Yay!" Zoe jumped into the air with happiness. Then she crossed the distance between them and hugged him. "Thank you!"
"H-hey, hey!" Draco protested. "What's up with you?! Let me go!"
"...I'm trying to gain a favor right now," she explained her actions into his sleeve, then raised her head to look him straight into the eyes. "Did I gained one already, or should I proceed?"
"You cheeky brat!"
"Calling names is not very nice," Zoe pointed out, then continued to rub her face into his robes. "Huh, this is really nice in touch."
"Oh, just let me go already!"
"Favor?"
"Fine," Draco groaned. "Just don't try to use this trick even again!"
Zoe finally backed away with a satisfied smile on her face.
"So, what do you want?"
"I don't you," she pouted. "I have a problem with directions. So I want somebody to have my back if I end up in trouble."
Draco raised eyebrows. It wasn't what he expected. Especially considering how cunning she was and what a nice strategy she used to have him wherever she wanted.
All that, for something stupid like this?
Draco shook his head in amusement. For all her sly planning, Zoe was still childish.
"There are spells for directions, you know?"
"There are?" She gasped, her eyes widened in excitement.
"The most basic one is the "Point me" spell," he continued. "Have you heard about it?"
"Of course!" Zoe said. Then looked away with embarrassed blush on her face. "But I sort of... keep dropping my wand in the middle of it."
"Huh," Draco blinked. "Well, it's still pretty early in the year and you just started. It can't be helped."
"Is there something else?"
"I might charm your robes, but it's... a little bit troublesome," Draco scratched his chin, thinking. "You will need make notes about how to get to the classrooms anyway."
"So... how it will work, exactly?"
"You will need to say out loud where the class you're heading toward is. Full sentence, not something mumbled under your nose," Draco explained. "Then you will feel a small tug on your sleeve, directing you the right way."
"Sounds useful."
"The problem is, at every crossroad you have to tell where the class is located."
"A bit less useful, but still useful," Zoe shrugged.
"It's a spell you usually use when you want to teach kids speak in full sentences," Draco massaged back of his neck. "But it help with finding your way around too."
"I might try it," Zoe said cheerfully. "Just... how much time it is going to take to charm my robes?"
"What, are you telling me that you don't want to waste too much of my time," Draco eyed the clock in a rather theatrical manner. "Now?"
"No, I'm just counting on it to be pretty soon, because this castle is made of madness."
Draco snorted.
"Off to bed," he ordered. "Or I'll be forced to send miss Parkinson to drag you out of the bed tomorrow."
Zoe whined a little, but nonetheless she walked towards where girl's part of the Slytherin Dorms was.
Draco exhaled with relief.
"That," Pansy said, sitting on the sofa next to him. "Was pretty cute. I didn't know you know spells like that one."
"Why do you think I was talking in full sentences when I was four?"
"Oh, don't remind me!" she groaned. "My mother was so angry about me spitting out nonsense that she hired a really nasty teacher the next day!"
"Sorry about that?" Draco chuckled.
"That, you are not," Pansy rolled her eyes. Then moved closer towards him with a mischievous smile.
He raised eyebrow at that action. But it was a nice surprise and they were alone, in the middle of the night.
xxx
Zoe should have been more careful. She knew that even after getting her robes charmed by Draco Malfoy, she still could get lost in the castle easily.
But the thrill was too strong and all the paintings, walking set of old armors all to fascinating to just let them be.
Zoe was just too curious for her own good. And horribly, miserably lost. In the late evening. Again.
"Draco is going to kill me now!" she groaned, desperately looking around searching for something, anything familiar.
But she could be in a whole different magical castle. Even view outside the window seemed to be different.
By all means, Zoe felt bad enough that she actually would ask somebody on the painting for directions, but she was a very unlucky girl today. There was no people in the frames. Pretty clouds, pretty fruits, weird... something, but all the people from the paintings decided to wander off.
Suddenly, there was a noise coming out from behind the corner.
At this point Zoe was resigned, so even if she was to be found by one of the teachers, it still would be a good thing.
"Hello...?" she called, carefully approaching, looking for the source on the noise.
But only after Zoe found it, she discovered it wasn't so good idea after all.
Two Gryffindors were towering over her like giants, big, with wide shoulders and identical faces.
Zoe swallowed. People from all years were warning her and every other firsties to avoid the Weasley twins at all costs.
"Well, well! What do we have here?" The one on the left said, his mouth twisted in not particularly kind smile.
"It looks like a wee little Slytherin to me, Mr. Forge."
"I must agree, Mr. Gred," the other nodded. "What do you think we should do?"
"Oh, I don't know!" the "Gred" twin laughed darkly. "Maybe we're going to paint her some fancy color? Black robes are so overrated..."
"You think she will look good in yellow?" the one called "Forge" tilted his head, like he was considering it seriously. "Besides, it was a long time since we turned anybody into a canary, don't you think?"
"Slytherins do make pretty birds," the other agreed, wand suddenly appearing in his hand. "They always trash around like crazy."
"Ten points for hitting a portrait?"
Zoe looked around, now seeking a way to escape, but the twins already backed her into a corner.
"Weasleys! Should've expected you. Who else would sneak around, scaring little kids?"
Zoe never in her entire life was so happy to hear somebody sneer than she was at this moment.
Draco was standing on the stairs nearby, looking down at the twins.
"Ah!" Forge gasped. "Isn't it the ferret himself?"
"Hadn't wearing fur lately?" the other one snickered.
"And here I was thinking you couldn't fell any lower," Draco winked his nose. "Can't you pick up a fight with somebody who can curse you back at the very least?"
"What, you want in?"
"Or are here to just take off more points from Gryffindor?" the second twin raised his eyebrow. "Though I'm not exactly sure how are you planning to do that, it seems we're all out of points."
"Like you care," Draco huffed, gesturing Zoe to join him on the stairs. She gladly did that, barely keeping herself from beating the distance by running. She didn't want the nasty twins to see how scared she was. She had her pride.
But she decided to hide behind Draco anyway. Pride was important, but Zoe knew that there was a fine line between pride and stupidity.
"And what you are going to do now, then?"
"Try to give us detention?"
They both laughed.
"Zoe," Draco hissed quietly. "Straight up then to the left. Run."
There was no time to ask any questions, so Zoe did what she was told. Well, till the reached the nearest corner. Then she stopped, just for a short moment, to listen if there was any noise coming from down there. But then, she wasn't too sure if silence was a good thing either. She decided that turning back would be a rather stupid thing to do, so she proceed onward with a heavy sigh.
It was so stupid, that finding the right way back to the Slytherin Dungeon was so close for her to find. If only she hadn't called when she heard the twins approaching!
Zoe sniffed. At least she was able to hold a brave face until she returned where only the Slytherins could see her. She dropped on the sofa in the common room, because it was the best spot to observe the entrance. She was not going anywhere until Draco was back. And if he was not going to be back in a short time, Zoe decided she would go talk to Professor Snape.
She curled her legs up, since it was a rather cold day and even with the fire buzzing in the chimney, the floor was still freezing cold.
"And what are you still doing here?"
Zoe jumped, absolutely startled. Moment later, she felt her face burning with embarrassment. Did she fell asleep?
"How many times," Draco, who was perfectly fine and without any additional fur or feathers continued to scold her. "Am I supposed to send you to bed before the message sink?"
"You are fine!" She gasped with a smile. "I was so worried!"
Draco blinked, like she surprised him.
"Look," he said with a sigh. "I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me or any other upper year. We know how to hold our ground against the Weasley twins."
"They are scary."
"They are a menace, but so is that Potter jerk," Draco said. "Just try to not get in their way and you will be fine. Now off to bed with you, tomorrow I'm going to talk to Snape or maybe Umbridge."
Zoe nodded stood up, grimacing as she felt a cold draft on her legs. All she wanted to do now, was to go straight to her dorm and hide under the covers. Partially because she still felt ashamed about causing trouble and partially because she was suddenly dead–tired on her legs.
Only when the doors leading to the girls dorms were closed with a thud, Draco groaned and lowered his head.
He was lucky that they preferred to humiliate him and other well known pureblood in public. Or maybe they recognized that terrifying a little girl was a bit much, even for them. Draco had no idea what would make them to think that turning people into giant birds was funny in the first place. He never could tell what they were planning. Or why.
Draco groaned, longing for the days, when he was not running around the corridors of Hogwarts in the middle of the night, saving little brats from insufferable pranksters.
xxx
Fred and George were sure that Malfoy would go to Snape or maybe Umbridge, demanding some sort of justice from them, even if they were not actually planning to do anything to the Slytherin brat. It was just funny to see kids act like that, shooting eyes all around the place like they were some sort of a rabbit that sniffed out a cat nearby.
They expected Umbridge to produce some new and even more ridiculous set of orders to keep them in check, which would provoke all of Hogwarts to jump right into chaos and madness. The woman was such an easy target they sometimes almost felt bad for picking on her. Almost.
All would be well, if not for Malfoy to go to Ma'am Hojo instead. She fell on their back like pile of the bricks. She was supposed to be one of the good guys, but sometimes – or rather, most of the times – acted like she was completely against Gryffindor.
Like right now.
She was standing a few steps away from them, her back straight and with a stern expression on her face - though that one wasn't different from any other moment. Compared to her McGonagall looked like a very cheerful and easy-going person - holding in her hands a bucket with a two rags and two brushes inside.
Behind her, Filch was almost dancing with happiness.
And behind them was the corridor leading to the Defense Against Dark Arts Office, where Umbridge was residing. Currently, the place was a complete mess. Somebody had the found idea of drenching several meters of it in dungbombs and then, stricken by a moment of genius, added a bunch of Weasleys joke products. The result was a moody goo covering not only the floor, but almost half of the walls too. The smell alone was repulsing.
"What do you mean, without a wand?" Fred asked, feeling that he really didn't want to hear the answer.
"That mean you are going to clean all this mess by hand," Ma'am Hojo said coldly. "Since you appear to fell disregard for honest, hard work, you need to learn firsthand."
Filch made a small, happy noise and was almost jumping in one place with an excitement.
George could swear, that there was a camera in his ragged bag.
"But... it stinks!"
"I'm under the impression that it was the general idea behind this prank?" she raised eyebrows.
"But it's not ours!"
"Well, then you are simply unlucky," Mamushi said and clapped her hands. "Proceed, we don't have a whole day to waste just standing here."
Filch pulled out the camera. It looked like the one that belonged to this funny little kid that followed Harry since the second year. There was even possibility it was exactly the same one, since thanks to Umbridge all sorts of things was taken from the students in the name of keeping them away from bad influences.
Fred and George looked at each other, then grabbed the brushes.
xxx
Ron sniffed and then sniffed some more, frowning. When he walked into the common room, hoping that he would bump into somebody who had the Herbology homework already done - preferably Neville - he expected it to smell like any other time. Actually he never paid attention to how the common room smelled like. It was just a room. With a bunch of teenagers in it. But this time the odor was weird. Almost like lemons, but not quite, with a distant aroma of dungbombs in the mix.
He followed his nose, deciding he was curious enough to check it out, even if the experience was opposing the actions. He was living with his brother long enough to know, that anything unusual at all, even an innocent toast on the place, could end up nasty.
The trail led straight to his brothers.
Who were lying on the ground and not bothering to move an inch even when he was standing right over them.
"Uh," Ron blinked, then carefully, slowly, kicked George on the side. "Guys? Are you alright?"
"Let us be," Fred groaned.
"The carpet is comfortable," George agreed.
"What in the Merlin's...?"
"They had a detention," Lee Jordan explained, looking at the twins with a concern painted on his face. "They barely got back and when they did, they dropped here."
"Detention?" Ron gasped. "What it was this time? What that pink toad came up with? What she did to them?"
"It wasn't Umbridge," George groaned.
"Then who? And what's with you? Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing?"
"Aw," Fred chuckled. "That's cute. Ronniekins worried about us!"
"I would laugh if I had the strength for it," George agreed. "It was that Hojo person. She made us clean."
"Clean?" Ron blinked.
"Without a wand. A whole corridor," Fred groaned, then prepped himself up on the elbow and looker around the common room. "Now who had the bright idea to mess up the corridor next to the Umbridge's room?"
Lee Jordan gulped and carefully, slowly stepped back.
Lucky for him, the twins decided it was a good time to continue their story. "Filch got himself a camera. At some point we were afraid that he will set it on fire, shooting one photo after another!"
"His dreams came true, I reckon," Ron muttered. "But blimey, guys! You look completely ragged!"
"It's about right," George nodded. "We definitely feel ragged."
"Let's all make a mental note," Fred continued. "That we should avoid that Hojo chick at all costs. She's insane!"
Ron felt tempted to go to the Filch office and beg the man to share one or two of his precious new photos, just to send it to mom. She definitely would enjoy something like that. It would made a perfect memoir from the twins time at Hogwarts, even more precious one than all the accomplishments the oldest three of Weasleys managed to gather during they stay at school.
But the twins would never forgive him and call it all-out war, or something like that.
So he just backed away, promising to treasure the memory.
"They deserved it, you know," Hermione said later in the evening, when they were finishing homework.
"But cleaning all of it, by hand?" Ron shuddered at the mere thought. "We have wands for something!"
"And Muggle's don't," she merely shrugged.
"Don't tell me you agree with her! It was totally unfair! It wasn't even their prank!"
"So?" she merely raised eyebrows and continued to skimming through her book. "They made a mess more than once. It's about time for them to learn how hard is to keep this place clean."
"Bt this is what House E-" he stopped, noticing her icy glare. "I guess I'm going to shut up now?"
"You better be," Hermione said and returned to making notes.
Xxx
"Darling?" Undersecretary Umbridge hurried towards her with a sweet, small smile on her mouth. She stopped a few meters into the room, though, unsure how she was supposed to act around this place. Mamushi learned long ago that the small shrine was putting almost everyone on the edge. Apparently all you needed to freak people out was a small, open cabinet a few sticks of incense and a Buddha statue. "Could we have a little chat?"
"Of course," Mamushi stood up from the altar and bowed slightly towards the woman. Then she straightened up and barked. "Elf!"
Immediately, a little creature showed up in front of her, awaiting commands.
"We require tea," Mamushi said, not even looking at the House-elf. "And do make the table comfortable for my guest!"
With a quiet pop the elf disappeared.
"This way," she gestured, inviting the woman further inside.
The elves were fast enough to switch her low table for one of the European style and set up chairs by it. When they were sitting down, the teapot and elegant, porcelain cups with a pretty rose patterns showed up. A moment later, a platter full of biscuits joined them.
Mamushi nodded shortly in approval.
"You keep them on a short leash, I see," the short woman murmured with approval.
"That what they are for," she just shrugged. "Are they not?"
"Oh, yes, indeed!" Ms. Umbridge nodded enthusiastically. "You wouldn't believe how many people treat them like they were humans!"
"That's idiotic," Mamushi snorted. "And offensive."
She was telling the truth and if the witch in pink understood her wrongly... Well, Mamushi was a foreigner here, after all. It was expected of her to not have the best way with the words. They talked a bit, exchanging meaningless sentences, before the older woman finally decided to tell her what she wanted.
"I must ask," Umbridge said, after she added unholy amount of sugar to her tea and stirred it with a silver spoon. "Why you decided to give the Weasley both that sort of punishment, my dear."
"It seemed appropriate," Mamushi said keeping her face blank. "They are the source of misery in this school, are they not?"
"Oh!" Umbridge put the spoon down. "They do have a certain reputation, that is sure! But still, cleaning by hand... it just doesn't seem right, to force a wizard into a manual labor, like a Muggle!"
The woman shook her head energetically, like even thinking about the whole situation disturbed her greatly.
"I might not fully understand your customs," Mamushi explained and bowed her head slightly. "For that I am sorry. But it appears that a small lesson in humidity would do them good. Especially considering their family... decision."
"What do you mean, my dear?" Ms. Umbridge chirped sweetly, instantly forgetting about being offended.
"Since they are..." Mamushi stopped as if she was looking for the right word. "Friendly with the bad-blood, they should learn where exactly is their place. Is it not right?"
"Oh, certainly!" Umbridge covered her mouth with fingers when she chuckled. "I do agree, I really do! But sadly, we still can do nothing with the situation. Muggleborns are forcing they way through, demanding change in customs, abandoning traditions. Always demanding, never trying to understand!"
Mamushi nodded, listening to the rant.
"This is sad, really," she said, when Umbridge finally stopped, probably only to catch her breath. "But the Muggleborns seems to be even more oblivious towards your culture than I am."
Umbridge nodded enthusiastically.
"It is a shame that you are so occupied teaching these children Defense and putting this place back in order," Mamushi sighed sadly. "Because somebody with your experience surely could teach all these miserable kids how the Magical World really works."
Umbridge hummed, deep in thought. She sipped her tea, before speaking. "Actually, this is a sound idea, my dear. Somebody ought to tell these children how the society works, but people like Dumbledore are too afraid that the Muggleborn will decide to not join the magical world at all. Can you imagine?"
"No," Mamushi said. "That would be ridiculous. There is nothing in the muggle world that could possibly rival the magical one."
xxx
"Hey, Suguro," Harry asked lazily in one late October evening. "Do you think I should start a secret society centered around learning how to fight other wizards and breaking school rules?"
Ryuji blinked, completely dumb folded. "What." Was all he had to say.
"I mean," Harry continued lazily. "Umbridge is not going to teach us anything at all. And it is kinda cool to get my butt smacked by Mamushi, but I'm worried about others. There are a lot of Muggleborn kids around and the Death Eaters might try to hunt them down..."
"So you want to at least give them a fighting chance?" Suguro guessed.
"Yeah," Harry nodded. "Pretty much that."
"This is a good idea," he said after a moment of consideration. "But risky. Do you have a place in mind?"
"Well, right now me, Hermione and Ron are just hanging around empty classrooms. There's loads of them here," Harry explained.
"But you're just a group of friends hanging around," Suguro shook his head. "You are talking about something, that could very quickly escalate to something much bigger than one classroom would suffice. No mention to keeping the whole ordeal secret from Umbridge. Mamushi can help you only so much."
"Yeah," Harry sighed. "But where else I could do something like that?"
"You told me once about that fancy chamber where you killed a basilisk."
"The Chamber of Secrets?!" Harry gasped.
"Well, nobody is going to get inside without your permission," Suguro smirked. "And with that map of yours, you can safely get people in and out without anybody seeing."
"Huh," Harry massaged his scalp. "This could actually work."
"Just before you ask anybody to go with you... go grab that friendly elf of yours and ask him to help you clean down there. There's no need for kids to bump into a very dead basilisk."
Harry shuddered at the mere thought. The basilisk was really giant and really dead. For over two years. It was also very damp down there, so the stench must be unimaginable by now. Unless the venom killed all the bacteria's around, but then they would have a whole new sort of a problem down there.
Asking Dobby for help would be definitely a good idea, house elves were always astonishing when it came to banishing all sorts of trash. He will just have warn Dobby to be very, very careful, because it might still be poisonous.
"You need to have a plan how to get people in and out of there," Ryuji continued. "And some tricks up your sleeve for emergencies."
"Yeah," he nodded. "It would suck to get stuck down there."
"Maybe try to talk to Sirius about making a copy of the map?" Ryuji proposed. "He dealt with the mirrors nicely. You could hang the map down in the Chamber, charm in bigger on something, so everybody could have an eye on it."
"You think he's going to agree?"
"He will jump at any chance to get out of morning jogging," Ryuji snickered. "Mbali is running him ragged."
"I still can't get used to the new looks," Harry shook his head. "And the self–tanning cream is starting to show too."
"That's good," Suguro said. "Nobody is going to expect Sirius Black to look like... well."
"Are you going to add an Hawaiian shirt to the whole image too?"
"It might be an overkill," Suguro grimaced. "But I doubt he will have anything against it. The clothes, he actually enjoys. It is Mbali, who he don't like."
"She took him to the doggy hairdresser," Harry pointed out.
Xxx
Entering the Chamber of Secrets happened to be much more complicated than it was the last time. Not the sneaking into the girl's bathroom part. That one went just fine. Besides, they had years of practice in wandering into places they were not supposed to be. No, the problem was slightly different.
Harry was standing in the front of the sink with discreet snake emblem on it, with Hermione and Ron a few steps behind and nothing was going on. No matter how many times he tried to concentrate and recall the ability to speak in tongue different than English, he just kept saying things that his friends could understand.
"I don't get it!" Harry groaned with irritation, smacking the sides of the sink. "Why this isn't working?!"
"I think we should talk about it with Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said, furrowing her brows. "Abilities like that should just appear and disappear as they please."
"You were doing everything as usual, right?" Ron nudged him on the side.
"Yes," Harry forced himself to not growl at his friend. It still came out much more harsh than he expected, but he felt like he was boiling on the inside. They were so very close! "I was doing exactly the same thing I did two years ago. Looking at the snake and talking to it. But now the Parseltongue just don't want to turn on!"
"Hey, don't take it out on me, mate!"
Harry suddenly felt really stupid. He didn't want to blow up at Ron like that, especially since it wasn't his fault.
"Sorry," he sighed, his anger swallowed up by embarrassment.
Ron just nodded with a small shrug of his shoulders. "Anyhow, do you know when you stopped talking to the snakes?"
"Uh..." Harry blinked. "I never really tried to find a snake to talk to. You know, after the whole issue with it being a stuff of Dark Lords and so on? It was the last thing I wanted to do."
"Sounds understandable," Hermione smiled slightly and Ron patted him on the shoulder. "But he is right. Pinpointing the timeline could tell us what exactly caused you to stop being a Parseltongue. And we should better get out of here."
"Yeah," both boys agreed. "It would be awkward to get a detention for hanging out in a girl's loo."
They quickly walked out of the restroom and then away from the second floor with the help of the Marauders Map. Right now they hadn't time to deal with Filch, or, Merlin forbid, Umbridge herself.
They quickly found nice and empty classroom, far away from the nasty woman.
"You think here is safe to talk?" Hermione asked, looking at the map.
"I don't see any portraits to blab about us to anyone," Ron mumbled and looked at the map. "Here we're all clear too, but I don't know."
"So," Hermione carefully cleaned up one of the chairs with a hand chief. Then she looked like she was about to smack herself over the head and used magic to banish the rest of the dirt. "What was the last time you remember talking to a snake? Or hearing it?"
"Straight to the point, huh?" Ron muttered.
"Well, Ronald, we need all the facts, so we - or just Harry - can ask Professor Dumbledore the right questions and get the answers as soon as possible."
He shuddered. "Don't "Ronald" me!" he whined. "My mum is always doing that and it's always a bad sign! A really bad one!"
While they were bickering, Harry was deep in thoughts, trying to recall all the events when he talked to snakes. There was the second year, of course and during his third, he was trying to avoid even looking at snake emblem on Slytherin quest.
"During the fourth year," he started slowly. "I had that dream with an old man listening on Voldemort and Wormtail talking. He died, because the snake ratted him out."
"Yeah, I think I remember you telling us about that one," Ron nodded.
"Then, during the vacations this year I had a lot of nasty dreams," he sighed. "The snake, same snake, was showing up and I still could understand it. But I stopped having these dreams, after-" his eyes widened.
Hermione gasped, realizing the same thing too. There was only one thing that could possibly cause a change like that.
"Dear God, Harry... I might be wrong, but I think that the Parseltongue... it wasn't your ability. It was the ability of the thing on your forehead."