Chapter 4

Befriending Hermione Granger had been a mistake. Harry had realised this within days of the deed having been done. It wasn't that she wasn't nice, she seemed perfectly amiable, however if she mentioned 'Study guides' or 'OWL's' one more time, he was sure he would bludgeon her. As it was, he and his Slytherin friends casually and routinely palmed her off onto Neville, who seemed to enjoy her company in Gryffindor. At first, this was done subtly. They would call Neville into a conversation, before gradually extracting themselves, leaving the two alone, but it soon developed into an odd game which amused all but Gryffindors in question. The boys began to think up new ways to send Hermione to sit with Neville each day. It was when Draco ordered Crabbe and Goyle to physically carry Hermione to Neville that the girl decided it wasn't worth the trouble of trying to converse with them, and, with a huff, made a habit of sitting beside Neville. Nevertheless, the Gryffindors and Slytherins, in an unusual disregard of the house rules, would smile at each other in the hallways, and even occasionally share a snigger at the fate of Ron Weasley, who somehow managed to scrape a couple of friends in his own house, though their IQ was debatably lower then his.

"He had the audacity to ask me if he can copy my homework!" Hermione exclaimed one evening, to the Slytherin's delight and Neville's bemusement, having witnessed the event first hand, "He put his arm around me as though we're friends, and says 'Hermione, please.' obviously I told him to get stuffed, but-"

"She more then told him!" Neville interjected, "She used that curse you used on Seamus, Draco, the boil one, and the leg locker curse!"

"So that's why I saw Weasley being escorted to the hospital wing." Blaise said thoughtfully,

"Hermione, you are a legend." Harry said cheerfully, mind full of a cursed Weasley, "You know what they say, 'The only good Weasley-'

"'is an injured Weasley!'" finished Draco with a flourish. Hermione stared at them,

"Do you guys sit down and think these up?" she asked, frowning, the two boys shook their heads with a grin, and Blaise said,

"they talk about them before bed, it's annoying."

Harry snorted, "You would miss our banter if it wasn't there."

"Debatable," commented Theodore with a smirk. Despite his initial discomfort, the boy had become part of the group relatively smoothly, though he was still quiet.

"But anyway, speaking of Weasley…" Hermione said, leaning forwards, "I didn't have anyone to tell before, but myself and Neville may have got caught up in an unwilling adventure with him." Neville blanched at the memory,

"I was just getting ready to forget about that…" he muttered sadly, Hermione patted his hand consolingly,

"For some reason, Weasley and Finnegan were trying to sneak down to the trophy room in the middle of the night, a couple of months ago." she said, but paused as Harry and Draco exchanged a look, "Why do I have the feeling you two were involved somehow?"

"The idiot was under the impression that I challenged him to a duel." Draco said, by means of explanation,

"Did you?" Hermione asked,

"Nope, if the imbecile bothered to read, he would've known that I used the wrong challenge phrase, making the duel meaningless. I was under no obligation to attend." Draco said smugly,

"And you were involved in this, how?" Hermione asked Harry, frowning slightly,

"I was his second." Harry chirped cheerfully, "Also I ratted out the Weasel to Filtch." he added as an afterthought. Hermione huffed,

"Well, evil schemes aside, there is a giant three headed dog on the third floor corridor, and it's standing on a trap door. It's all very mysterious." she said in a rush. The Slytherins stared at her before Theodore asked,

"You don't think that might link in to the giant bite mark on Snape's leg, do you?" Hermione and Neville stared at him blankly, but Blaise nodded thoughtfully,

"That would imply that the troll incident wasn't an accident, because for whatever reason, rather then dealing with the troll, professor Snape was on the third floor corridor. That sounds to me like a distraction technique."

"So Snape wants whatever the dog is guarding?" Harry guessed, glancing up from his textbook, Theodore and Blaise shook their heads whilst Draco continued to watch the proceedings silently.

"It's possible, but why would he? A troll wouldn't be his style of distraction anyway, I don't think, but I guess we wont know unless he succeeds…" Blaise said forebodingly, Neville cleared his throat,

"I think we're missing something?" he said questioningly, Draco cast him a disparaging glance,

"Snape came into our room on Halloween to shout at us, and had a big bite ark on his leg, when Harry asked him about it, he left pretty quickly." he said by means of explanation, Neville nodded and Draco glanced at Harry, "Say, don't you know Hagrid, the giant man who lives in that hovel by the forest? Maybe he knows."

Harry shrugged, eyes flickering down before he spoke, "We can try if you want, but I don't reckon it will be any use, he was pretty vocal in his hate of Slytherins, 'there's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin'" Harry recalled the man's words, which at the time he had accepted, but now felt more then slightly injured by. Hermione scowled,

"That's such an unprofessional thing to say!" she said irritated, Harry shrugged,

"It didn't change where I ended up though, and he hasn't been in contact since." he tried to keep his voice neutral, but the slight hurt was almost palpable in his tone.

"Who would've thought," Draco said with a sneer, "The halfbreed has standards." the Slytherins snickered at that, whilst Hermione and Neville pretended not to hear the more bigoted side to their friend's humour.

"Maybe me and Neville could go down and find something out, we are Gryffindors, so he'll be more receptive, right?" Hermione said, Neville nodded in agreement.

"If you want," said Draco, "but I think we'll probably stay out of this adventure. Saving friends from trolls is one thing, but I don't think I'm Gryffindor enough to actively seek out adventure at this point in my life." the friends laughed before parting ways.

Christmas was getting closer with each day, and Harry felt a reluctance for the holiday season to come. All of his friends would be going home for the coming weeks, and Harry was going to be left alone.

"It's a shame that some people don't have families that want them home for Christmas…" Weasley said loudly as he passed the Slytherin table, eyeing Harry meaningfully as he did so. His words were met with filthy looks from the table of green, and the boy strolled on, lacking desire to stay and be insulted. Nonetheless, his words had struck a chord in Harry, because as cruel as they were, they were equally true. The Dursleys certainly didn't want him home for Christmas.

"Harry, you could always come to my house for the holidays…" Blaise had said tentatively. Harry reluctantly shook his head, the offer had been extended to him from both Theodore and Draco as well, but it felt wrong to intrude on their family times.

"Don't worry about me," Harry said, forcing a smile that was almost convincing, "I'll explore the school over the holidays, I'm thinking of making a map."

"We'll help you when we get back!" Draco said with a grin, slinging his arm across the boy's shoulders, "then we can get around the school fast enough to prank Weasley without getting caught!" Pranking had been a common topic amongst the four boys. Whilst the idea of giving the Weasel a good taste of revenge was appealing, the detentions they would definitely receive made them less eager to act.

"We'll miss you, Harry." said Theodore sadly, Harry grinned, placing a hand over his heart dramatically,

"Stop, you're going to make me blush!" he exclaimed, though his face warmed at his friend's care, "But I'll miss you guys too! Hope you have a good Christmas! I'm going to go bag a good seat in the common room." having been engulfed in a large group hug, as well as a tight hug that left him struggling to breathe from Hermione, Harry ducked away, to sit in the common room and pore over his textbooks, and later, explore.

His friends were true to their words, sending him frequent letters, and despite being alone, Harry felt his friend's presence. Christmas morning was one Harry would remember for a long time. He awoke at gone twelve, and felt his heart stop at the pile of presents at the end of his bed. With trembling hands, he reached out, checking the label of the top parcel, 'To Harry, Merry Christmas, best wishes Blaise.'. There was one from each of his friends. They were his first christmas presents. Harry unwrapped each gift with sweaty palms, careful not to tear any of the wrapping paper as he gently stowed it away in his trunk, along with each label saying what was from who. He got several new books from Theodore and Hermione, a pair of quidditch gloves and 'The Basics of Quidditch' from Draco, a wand holster from Blaise and a large amount of candy from Neville, however it was the last gift that truly took his breath away. Packaged in unmemorable brown paper, with string binding it shut, was a gift without a name. It merely had a small note attached, which read,

"Your father gave this to me before he died, use it well." within the parcel was an invisibility cloak. Harry initially didn't know what it was, but upon wrapping the item around his shoulders and realising with a jolt that his body had disappeared, it didn't take much research to find out the name of his new favourite possession. Harry stowed it away in his trunk, deciding to tour the castle late in the night using it at some point. After opening his presents with delight, he ambled down to lunch, to find that Dumbledore had decided to push all of the tables together in order to give a unified image of the school during the holiday season. Harry slid into a seat next to a girl with blonde hair tied into two bunches who glanced at him worriedly, but said nothing. Harry offered her a hand and made his introductions, learning that the girl was called Hannah Abbot and she was in Hufflepuff. The two chatted amiably during the christmas dinner, and Hannah confided in Harry that she was at school for christmas because she didn't like her sister's fiancé and didn't want to spend a holiday with them.

"He's unbearable!" she complained, "All he ever talks about is finance and fancy cars!" Harry snorted,

"Sounds like my uncle," he laughed, "I don't like him very much either, and my aunt always concerns herself about the neighbours more then anything!" the two had a fun time bemoaning their relatives and Harry offered the proverbial branch of friendship in the form of a Christmas cracker. It was only half way through the lunch that Harry realised that the Weasel was glaring daggers at him from across the table. Harry smirked slightly but otherwise ignored the boy in favour of his new friend.

Despite his misgivings, Harry ended up enjoying Christmas, having an acquaintance in Hannah Abbot, and riling up Weasley with subtle smirks and jabs meant the joys never ceased, however, he was still delighted at the return of his friends, who came bearings stories of christmas parties and presents they had received. Harry showed them his invisibility cloak with wild hand gestures and excited whispers. Trying to keep the item secret from Crabbe and Goyle was proving to be a slight challenge, but the boys made plans to go exploring during the night nonetheless. They kept the cloak hidden from Hermione too, for fear she would claim it for late night library visits, this was only enforced by her frantic searching for the identity of Nicholas Flamel. Upon visiting Hagrid, Hermione and Neville had been more then slightly successful in gaining information, leading the boys to ponder why they weren't in Slytherin. Hermione was frantically searching the library for a project worked on by Nicholas Flamel and Albus Dumbledore, that was valuable enough to be guarded by a three headed dog named Fluffy. The Slytherin boys were far from interested in her quest, and routinely pondered whether or not to show her the Dumbledore chocolate frog card, which would have told her exactly what she wanted to know. Theodore religiously collected the cards, and had instantly known what Hermione was searching for. Neville seemed to suspect that they knew more then they were letting on, but otherwise made no effort to confront them on the issue.

"Aren't you in the least bit curious?" she asked them irritably, her hair was wilder then usual and there was a smudge of ink on her cheek. Blaise shook his head,

"Why would we be?" he asked, not looking up from his transfiguration homework, "Clearly we aren't supposed to know."

"But there is a three headed dog, and a series of challenges stopping someone from stealing whatever this thing is, doesn't it interest you in the slightest?" there was no response from her friends, the boys merely focusing on their work, even Neville seemed reluctant to argue her case, "guys?" there was no answer, "guys?" she tried again, gaining no reaction from the boys. She huffed, "fine, be that way, I was just going to tell you some interesting information about Hagrid…" suddenly, she had regained their attention, "but never mind, if you're all going to just ignore me…"

"Hermione, we're sorry, please tell us the dirt on Hagrid?" Theodore asked, a pleading look entering his eyes, Hermione's face softened before she smiled, leaning forwards,

"Before I tell you, you have to promise not to do anything to get Hagrid into trouble, okay?" she said, a pleading note entering her voice, "I know what you guys are like." upon securing their vow that no harm would come to Hagrid she leaned forwards, "Hagrid has a dragon."

"A dragon?" said Blaise, glancing at Neville for confirmation, the boy nodded sombrely,

"That lumbering ape got hold of a dragon?" said Draco, eyes wide,

"He lives in a wooden house…" murmured Harry

"I know…" said Hermione, answering all three statements at once. The Slytherin quartet looked at each other, before Harry leapt to his feet, Draco right next to him, the other two boys followed suit, delight colouring their facial features.

"We've got to go." Draco said, hastily, "We'll talk to you later!" he said, as the four began to hurry towards the exit,

"Where are you going?" Neville called, worriedly, "Don't forget your promise!" he said, Theodore cast him a grin,

"Don't worry about it." he said, eyes sparkling, "Hagrid is perfectly safe from us." The moment the four were out of earshot of the worried Gryffindors, Harry said excitedly,

"Operation Weasel trap is a-go. Ok, here's the plan: we need to discuss busting Hagrid in front of him, me and Draco should probably do that, he hates us the most, then, we need someone who knows the locking charm…" the boys looked at Theodore, who nodded in acceptance, "and someone to alert the teachers that Weasley is out of bed." Blaise grinned and volunteered,

"Snape hates me the least right now." he said, running a hand through his dark hair confidently, Draco snorted,

"Whatever. Harry, Weasley is probably still at dinner, we can pass him as he's leaving." he said, the two boys sprinted down the hall, to lurk outside the entrance and look suspicious enough to get Weasley eavesdropping. Blaise and Theodore exchanged an amused glance,

"It's about time something like this happened, we've needed to get Weasley back all the crap he's been talking for a while now." Theodore said, and Blaise nodded in agreement.

Harry and Draco stood close together, heads bowed as they talked in faux-whispers, Draco was grinning and Harry was nodding along with what the boy was saying, they had gone through the conversation enough times while waiting for Weasley to leave the dinner hall, it was almost convincing.

"The lousy oaf has a dragon!" he said to Harry just as the boy they had been waiting for finally exited the hall, neither boy glanced his way as Harry shook his head,

"You're kidding?" he asked, their voices were quiet but still audible to the eavesdropping red-head,

"No joke," said Draco, "he's keeping it in his hut, how Hagrid acquired it is beyond me, but-"

"Once your father hears about this that freak will be gone from the school for good!" Harry cried, suppressing a smirk as Weasley gasped, "How long till your letter to him arrives?" Draco shrugged,

"three days, probably, it's not like we don't have time on our side, no one knows we know!" his words were clearly staged but the Weasel was drinking up every single bit, Harry grinned,

"You'd need a professional Dragon handler to get rid of that thing!" he said, "Hagrid isn't going to know what hit him." with those words, the two boys turned and headed away, leaving Weasley to form a heroic plan to save the day. Later, when regaling their friends with their words, Blaise asked,

"How did you know Weasley's brother worked with dragons?" Draco grinned in response,

"Father told me, he hates the Weasley breed more then I do!" the boy's laughed quietly,

"On to stage two…" Theodore said, turning to Harry, "You need to follow him with the cloak and get the details of his plan." Harry nodded,

"Sir, yes sir!" he gave a military salute, eyes twinkling. Thankfully, the next day was Saturday, so Harry's absence from class being noted wasn't a problem. Harry returned to the dormitory later the following day, looking exhausted.

"He sent a letter, to his brother, but he didn't do anything else except tell Finnegan and Thomas that he sent said letter to his brother and about Hagrid's dragon. He'll probably get a response by tomorrow." Malfoy nodded and patted Harry on the back,

"I'm sorry that you had to endure a day of pure Weasley, mate, that's a fate I wouldn't wish upon anyone." Harry sighed and nodded sadly, before he said,

"I have to give it to him though, that guy is a pro at chess, he could probably beat you, Blaise!" the boy in question shrugged,

"He may be good on the board, but his strategy in normal life is pure Gryffindor." Blaise's tone let them know that this was far from a good thing, before he buried his head back in his textbook.

"I think you injured his pride, Harry." said Theodore, frowning. Harry shrugged,

"Sorry Blaise…" he called, the boy grunted in response, and Harry pulled out the map that he had been working on. It wasn't perfect, he had sketched it out in pencil as he travelled through the building, and gone over it in ink once he had completed it; there were smudges and stains, and Harry was well aware that he had likely missed out on hundreds of Hogwart's secret passages, but he was proud of it nonetheless. He held up the map,

"Once we know where he's going, we will block off all of the exits as he passes through them, then, he'll be trapped." he said, Draco laughed from the bed next door, and Blaise stopped sulking as he sat up,

"So are you, Draco and Theodore going under the cloak, while I alert the teacher?" he asked, Harry nodded, and casually reminded him,

"Remember, you heard Weasley and Finnegan talking about sneaking out during dinner, and you wanted to tell him what they were saying just in case, they are planning on going to fly." Blaise nodded, already having memorised what he was to say to Snape,

"I still don't reckon he'll believe me." he said,

"Of course he won't." said Draco, "But as long as he doesn't catch us doing anything, he wont ask questions, he hates Gryffindors as much as we do." The boys lapsed into silence, before Harry asked,

"Why do the other houses hate us?" his question wasn't said in an upset tone, he was merely curious, everyone expected him to be unfriendly just because he was a Slytherin, from Blaise's bed came the answer,

"It's the house that all the bad guys come from." came his amused voice,

"All hail the Dark Lord Theodore!" Draco's scoff was thrown from his bed and the other boys began to titter, Theo cleared his throat indignantly,

"I'll have you know I could be a Dark Lord if I wanted to! Why do you guys find that so funny?" he cried, the boys didn't respond, merely laughing harder. Finally Blaise said,

"Guys shut up, I want to sleep now." and, after an impromptu lullaby from Harry and Draco, the Slytherin first years fell asleep.

The next morning came and the Slytherin boys awoke to find Harry's bed had already been vacated, the boy had clearly taken his duty as Weasley's personal stalker to the heart, and had slipped off to follow the boy to breakfast. The boys gradually made their way to breakfast and Harry emerged as they were finishing their food, his eyes were bright and excited as he slid into a spare seat, shovelling bacon onto his plate,

"They're meeting in the astronomy tower, tonight, Weasley and Finnegan are going to carry the Dragon together in a box. Apparently it's called Norbert." he said, between mouthfuls of food, "We need to go map out his route after this." The four boys sped to their dormitory the moment everyone had finished their breakfast. From the Gryffindor table, Hermione looked at their retreating forms suspiciously,

"They're up to something." she said, Neville stared at her

"What tipped you off? The fact that they have barely left their rooms since you told them about the dragon, or the fact that Harry has been suspiciously absent from their company on the rare times they did venture outside?" he asked, voice sarcastic, Hermione threw a piece of egg at him, scowling,

"Should we try and find out what they're up to?" she asked, ignoring her friend's sass, Neville shook his head,

"There's no use trying, they know how to keep their secrets." he said, continuing to eat his breakfast,

"What secrets?" she asked eagerly, Neville looked uneasy,

"I'm not getting involved in this." he said determinately. Later, once Gryffindor had been demoted to last in the house competition, having lost one hundred points, he would regret his choice.

Once night had fallen, Harry, Theo and Draco slid from their dormitories, small forms hidden beneath Harry's invisibility cloak as they crept through the corridors, despite all their talk, this was their first time out of the dormitories at night, the idea of travelling into the dark of the dungeons was previously deemed too scary for even the bravest first years. Their slipper clad feet padded silently on the cold floor as they travelled to the Astronomy tower. They were just in time, the flickering of a lit wand disappeared up the stairs to the tower, alerting them to Weasley and Finnegan's presence. Even from the bottom of the steps they could hear Weasley's loud voice. The three boys routinely travelled along the corridor, locking all of the doors as they went, before stepping through the final door and locking it behind them with a click. Their silent laughter was cut short as the sound of footsteps caused the three boys to shrink back into the wall, despite the presence of the invisibility cloak. Professor Snape stepped into their line of vision, and his black eyes rested upon them for several long seconds, almost as though he could see them, before he continued on his way, stopping at the door to the astronomy tower and trying the handle, a knowing smirk curved his lips as he realised it was locked. Wordlessly, he tapped the lock which opened with a click. The man walked purposefully through the entrance, and the Slytherin boys took their chance to escape, moving as fast as they could away from the scene before they alerted the professor to their presence through their laughter. Finally, they reached the Slytherin common room, bursting through the entrance the moment it creaked open, their laughter echoing off the walls. Blaise sat in an armchair waiting for them, his eyes amused as he demanded all of the details, which were readily given. The four eventually went to bed with smiles upon their lips, delighted with themselves.

The next morning, each boy grinned at Ron as they passed, and the boy glowered in turn, he sat alone with Finnegan, the both of them having been ostracised from their house due to the great loss of points that had accompanied their capture. Hermione and Neville cast them reproachful looks from where they were sitting, but the Slytherin four were too delighted with themselves to pay them much attention.

"I think that we're rather good at this pranking business…" said Draco, a smile curving his lips, this declaration was met with nods and smiles from the others, and their fellow Slytherins, who clearly suspected their involvement, looked upon the boys with delight.

Overall, Harry thought, as he helped himself to extra bacon, the whole thing had been a great success.


Ok, a new update, hopefully the next capture will be within the next two days. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, please come back and review again, I love reviews and any suggestions are welcome. Whilst I know how the plot is going to go already, if theres anyone you think should become friends with the Slytherin gang, let me know. PLEASE REVIEW