A/N: hello all, sorry for the lack of updates lately...work has been getting stressful and backed up, we're pushing to catch up since we've been running low on supplies to finish or start orders...but to make up for the lack i am posting two chapters at once....but theres another problem i'm having besides RL...most of my stories i have started have been put on hold on lack of ideas and writer's block...please feed my muse any and all ideas and/or questions u may have for any story i am currently working (whether or not their sequels in progress) perhaps that can wake him up enough to get me writing so i can get my other stories done, especially for this series

Chapter Seven

"Have you talked to your brother?" Hermione felt bad for Ember but she wanted her friend to understand. Everyone had always looked down on the Potter boy simply because he was a Slytherin and befriend the worst supporters of Purebloods only. They shrank back in fear of his weird trances and blank looks. But it was only going to be worse now that it would be told that The-Girl-Who-Lived was the sister of a Dark Wizard, simply because he could speak Parseltongue. She felt even sorrier for the Potter family for all of this. When she first heard of the magical world, she read all about the various powerful families. The Potters were one of the top Light families; to hear what their son could do could possibly ruin them.

"No. The Slytherins have him squirreled away every time I come around."

But Ron couldn't read their friend as easily, at least not as prejudice as he was towards those who were Dark. "Of course they would. They wouldn't want their new Death Eater-in-training to be out in the open without back up. I bet it's Potter with Malfoy helping."

"Ronald!"

He glared at Hermione until she pointed her head in Ember's direction. He glanced over with shame in his eyes to see the teary Gryffindor not bothering to defend her brother or looking at them as she helped Hermione. "Oh, sorry." He looked away, trying to find something to distract such an awkward moment before realizing where they were. He had wanted to question that earlier but Hermione had tried cheering Ember up. "Why am I in a girl's bathroom? Wouldn't anyone suspect that?"

This time Ember fell for the distraction, wanting not to think upon what Harry could be dealing with, "No one really comes here anymore."

"Why? I mean, it's a bathroom! Who wouldn't come here?"

"Because of Moaning Myrtle," both girls pointed to something behind him as he snooped around the room.

"Moaning…" his confused tone cut off when he twisted around at a chilly feeling to find a mopey looking female ghost glaring at him, "Ah!" He jumped backwards, trying to avoid falling into the stall's toilet.

"I'm Moaning Myrtle," the ghost giggled shyly as she watched his floundering. "I live here."

"The bathroom?!" Ron was stunned, who would live in a bathroom?

Myrtle looked away, whether with embarrassment or shame or even shyness, they weren't sure. "Always have."

"But why? I mean, all the other ghosts live throughout the castle. Who would want to live in a bathroom? That's just stupid."

That seemed to strike a bad chord with the young ghost. She jerked back from them, eyes blazing with angry tears, "Oh yes, stupid Myrtle has to live in a bathroom! Who cares where and what miserable, moping, stupid, ugly, Moaning Myrtle does! Right!" With those words she flung herself, shrieking loudly, into a stall and down a toilet.

All three Gryffindors flinched at the splashing water, though Hermione quietly berated Ron, "That wasn't nice, Ronald. She's very sensitive about that."

"A bit! She's bloody insane!"

Hermione shook her head. There was no getting through Ron no matter how many times they tried. "It will soon be done. You will need the hairs of two Slytherins. We also need their uniforms."

"Why can't Ember be her brother?"

Ember had already disagreed being Harry, trying to explain, "Because, Harry isn't as dumb as you believe, Ron. Plus, I can't pull off what he does. Believe me, I've tried but it never comes out right. Besides, most likely he'll already know."

"What!" Ron couldn't believe what he heard, "How? No, wait, how do we know he won't blab our secret the second we show up? If he knows, then Malfoy knows. It'll be a trap with Malfoy lying to us."

"It's a chance we have to risk, Ron. It's just as possible Harry decided to go home for the holiday at the last minute or will be off somewhere else when we go. Malfoy's the only lead we have. You said so yourself. He seemed too confident when we saw that message; you remember what he said right after that."

"Yeah but," Ron didn't feel so sure now that he knew Potter might know their plan, "McGonagall said that someone of Slytherin's blood could control the monster. How do we know it's not Potter? We heard him taunting the snake Malfoy conjured! You saw how well he controlled it!"

Hermione's eyes suddenly lit up, as if a piece of puzzle had finally fallen into place. Ember knew her friend would end up in the library before the night was over. But their argument came to an end when she felt something slither through her mind, but I only felt that when he was around? He can't be back already, can he? Curious and maybe a bit fearful, Ember carefully peered out the bathroom doors, "Em?"

"Shush!" She quieted her friends, "stay here. I'll be back." She slipped away, never looking back to see if they listened. She moved around the corridors until she found the source of her irritation, gasping at the sight.

There before her was a frozen student, according to his robes a Hufflepuff. Just above him was an equally stiff ghost, Gryffindor's resident ghost, Sir Nicholas. And scurrying out another conveniently opened window were rows of tiny black spiders. "Oh no, not again."

"Miss Potter!" She jumped to find a surprised McGonagall. She opened her mouth to explain but her Head of House wouldn't hear of it, "No. This I cannot handle for it's out of my control. Come with me." One last look at the frozen student and back towards Myrtle's bathroom, Ember had no choice but to follow. She would just make sure that Hermione's pet project remained secretive. "We're here." Hazel eyes blinked at the sight of a revolving staircase. A soft nudge from the elder witch had her stepping forward onto it.

"Come in, Miss Potter." Again she blinked, this time hearing the Headmaster's inside a closed door where the stairs stopped. Nervous all the sudden, she trembled as she entered.

Only to find, not just the Headmaster, but a silent Harry.

"Harry!" He barely acknowledged her.

"Ah, Miss Potter, come, come." Dumbledore pointed to a seat, "what brings you to my office?"

"Professor McGonagall found me by a student who was frozen. She said she couldn't help and told me to follow her to here."

Dumbledore eyed the twins. Once again, young Harry had come to warn him of another incident with his Head of House at his side. Several of the other Professors, who had been in a meeting with him, thought it convenient that he had found each victim on his own. Then their suspicions grew when they learned he could speak the language of the snakes. But nothing they found could really link the boy to those crimes and the Potters were coming down hard any time an accusation was made.

Perhaps he'll talk with his sister here now. Sending Severus and the other Professors off hadn't loosened the boy's tongue much. He even offered to floo the boy's parents but nothing. He only hoped something would break soon, Harry was too much a mystery to let simmer, "Yes, your brother had found the young Hufflepuff and Sir Nicholas just before you arrived. He came to inform me and I had sent out Professor McGonagall to aid getting the two to Madame Pomfrey. They will rest in a private room with the others until the restorative potion has been made. May I ask how you came upon them?" He was curious of the events in his school. Not one had sounded very good. Earlier, Hagrid had stormed in, crying about his precious roosters being strangled and left in their coops. Before that, a student had been frozen in the middle of the night. And now another child could be added to the list. He really didn't like where his thoughts were heading.

"I found them."

"Yes, but how, Miss Potter? I am wondering if maybe you saw something your brother did not. After all I do believe I have yet to see you without your two friends. Much like your father and his friends, they were determined to find all the secrets this school offered. Hmmm, I wonder if they have. No need for a student to outshine the Headmaster, now is there?"

Ember giggled, her father did like to brag he knew a lot about Hogwarts that the Headmaster probably didn't. "Dad does say that." She didn't want to lie to the Headmaster or her brother but she had promised Hermione, so she settled for a condensed version, "I left them behind. We were just wandering around, trying to keep Hermione from running off the library for hours on end," this Dumbledore knew well, as had as all his staff. They've all seen her scurrying off to the library since the very first day she had arrived. Madame Pince had talked of how she watched the young girl stay for hours just reading any book she could get her hands on. They all believed Hermione Granger would finish every book, except in the Restricted Section unless with permission, before she would graduated. "I felt something, it felt weird, almost like he was back but it was only a tingle. I had to follow it so I went ahead. Ron probably headed back to the Common Room before Hermione dragged him off."

"I see," oh, Dumbledore saw all right. He knew that wasn't the whole story but he would worry about it later for what Ember was feeling worried him even more than the possibility of the school closing. "I applaud your efforts, my dear, but I ask you do not go off on your own next time."

"I won't."

"Good." Then he turned back to the still silent Harry. He had yet to get anything more than the story of the frozen duo in the halls. "And you, Mister Potter?" Harry said nothing, so he took that as a promise, "Very well, I believe you can head to your Common Rooms now. Feel free to return if you feel the need to. My door is always open." Blue eyes watched as the twins slipped from his office.

***Gryffindor Common Room***

"See! I told you!" Ron seemed gleeful that Dumbledore was onto Potter.

Hermione quickly intervened, "Stop it, Ronald! We will wait until we have proof. Here," she handed out two cupcakes, trying to stem off a fight if possible, to two confused friends, "oh, for Gryffindor's sake! They are filled with a powerful sedative. We can't wait much longer. The potion is done. I found that Crabbe and Goyle like to go to the Great Hall and eat sweets on the weekends, especially at dinnertime. Then they carry what they can to their Common Room. They won't be able to resist these once they see them. You'll need to place them elsewhere for a few hours and don't forget to pluck out a few of their hairs."

Ember smiled as she got an idea, "I guess that means we're using my Dad's old cloak again."

Hermione grinned back, though disagreeing at the same time, "Only for you and Ron. I can't. I forgot I promised to join a couple girls in the library today for some last minute research. I plan on using that time to do some side research as well. All you need to do is gather the outer robes, ties, and hairs after you hide them away. Then head to Myrtle's bathroom. She promised to watch over the potion. I have two cups sitting there waiting for you. Dress and add the hairs. Then all you have to do is find and talk to Malfoy but be careful. The polyjuice only lasts for about an hour, unless you plan on taking another dose."