Harry woke up early the following morning, before any one else. He got up out of bed, dressed and left the dorm room. Down the stairs in the common room the Hermione was sitting on the couch looking worried and stressed about something.
"Hermione, you okay?"
"I'm okay. Why you ask?"
"You just seem to be really stressed and worried about something."
"Well, I have been thinking about what you might have done. What ever it was, it won't cause Gryffindor to lose more house points will it? I can't make it up alone and it sucks that we have already lost some. Don't get me wrong Harry I know it's not you fault, Snape is an ass."
"No, Hermione we won't lose more house points. It's not even a possibility."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure Hermione. Don't worry so much, seriously."
"Well, what did you do? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to though."
Harry didn't know what to say to that. Hermione obviously wanted to know. He wondered if he should tell her, how would she react? Harry noticed that she seemed to be desperate for friends but didn't know how to go about it. It seemed to Harry that all she really knew was to be a bossy know it all, not that it was bad thing, which was Hermione. 'Maybe she would get a kick out of it?' Harry thought. He looked around the common room to see if anyone else had come down with out him realizing it. When he knew it was just him and Hermione he decided to tell her.
"It's not some kind of genius thing or anything real clever. And nothing probably came of it; I don't think that they showed up anyway. Do you still want to know?"
"Yes! More know than before with you descript rambling."
"Okay. I wrote a note, copied it twice so that I would have three copies all together, went to the owlery and sent three different owls out to deliver them to three different people."
"What did the note say? And who all got them?"
"Just that there would possibly be students up on the third floor, down the hall from the trophy room at eleven-thirty that night. The notes went to…"Harry trailed off, looked around and finished "Professor McGonagall, Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore."
"Harry you didn't!" Hermione exclaimed with a smile on her face.
"Oh, I did. It was the only way I could think of to get Malfoy without getting me into trouble or lose house points."
"Well, I think that was clever. Harry, I get why you used different owls, you wanted to be anonymous. The only thing though won't they know who was behind it by recognizing you hand writing. Aren't you worried bout that?"
"No I am not worried about that at all. There is no way that it could get back to me. Other than myself, the only people that will know it was me are those I tell and Malfoy, but he won't be able to prove it."
"I don't understand. How are you not worried about then recognizing your handwriting? How could they not know?"
"I changed my handwriting."
"But how?'
"With a simple spell that changes your handwriting" Harry noticed a look on Hermione's face and continued, "I read about it somewhere, don't remember where though."
"Wait a second, I know what spell you are talking about. But that's a spell more advanced than first year spells. How could you have worked it?"
"Don't know. But, it worked."
"I'm sorry Harry. I didn't mean to question you on your ability to perform magic. You have been doing really well in class, just as good as me. I think is was real clever of you to think of changing your handwriting and I think that it is great you were able to make it work."
Hermione was quiet after that. She was thinking about how nice it was to just talk with someone, the feeling of being included in something and the feeling of possible friendship. Hermione smiled at the thought of friends and also the possibility of Draco getting in trouble and hopefully house points lost to Slytherin.
"What are you smiling about? Don't get me wrong it's nice to see you smile since you basically never do."
"I was just thinking about what…"Hermione stopped in mid sentence as she had hear someone on the stairs.
Harry was sure that Hermione was going to say something about possibly that Draco would have gotten into trouble as well as Crabbe and Goyle if they were there too. He also had heard someone on the stairs. Harry was relieved that it was Ron. He knew he had to tell Ron about what he had done and was going to as soon as Ron was off the stairs.
Before Harry could tell Ron anything, Ron had started talking.
"What's going on?"
"Nothing." They replied together.
"We were just talking." Hermione added.
"Okay, really what is going on? You're both acting weird."
"Seriously, Ron we were just talking." Hermione replied.
"I was just telling Hermione…"Harry trailed off when her heard several footsteps on the stairs.
"You were telling Hermione what?"
"I'll tell you later. I promise that I will Ron."
"Why later? Why not now?"
"Because…."was all Harry got out when a group of housemates came down the stairs.
Ron was confused why Harry couldn't say what he had told Hermione just because a few housemates had come down. If Harry was going to say the he and Hermione were together, then he would stop talking to Harry. Hermione would always be there and he couldn't stand her. She was so bossy and annoying. Ron considered giving Hermione a chance of maybe being friends in the future. But only if she relaxed, not be so annoying and not be quite so bossy. Though he didn't really see Hermione not being bossy.
Harry and Hermione noticed the time, looked at each other, smiled and took off for the dining hall for breakfast and to see how Malfoy, Draco, Crabbe and Goyle were doing. See if they could find out if they had indeed gotten in trouble and with any luck, lost house points.
They entered the dinning hall, walked to their house table, sat down where they could easily see the Slytherin table with out being too obvious.
Finally after several minutes Harry and Hermione saw the three they were looking for. Draco, Crabbe and Goyle had been slightly hanging their heads down. The looked as though they had been severely punished and or lectured. It occurred to them that maybe even lost a substantial amount of house points. Harry then took a look at the high table to see if he could read anything off of Snape. Sure enough Snape looked pretty upset and a bit pissed. Hermione also noticed this, looked at Harry who was looking back at her and then looked back towards Draco who was intensely glaring at them. Harry and Hermione looked at each other and quietly laughed.
By this time Ron had finally found his way down to breakfast.
"Guess what I just found out on my way down?"
"What did you find out?" Hermione asked.
Ron ignored her, looked at Harry and told him "I heard a group of Slytherin's talking about Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle. I guess they got caught doing something they shouldn't have and ended up with a hundred and sixty points taken away. Snape is pretty pissed about it too."
Harry and Hermione started laughing, not quietly but so loud that the whole dinning hall could hear.
"Harry, do you thing that they actually showed up?" Hermione asked Harry.
"I think so. If that is the case then Snape wasn't the one to catch them. He would not have taken that many points from them if any at all." Harry said.
"Uh…am I missing something here?" Ron asked
"It has to do with what I told Hermione early. Like I promised, I'll tell you but later. Not here."
That afternoon, Harry and Ron were in the common room. Harry looks around, not too many people were there. He noticed that there really wasn't anywhere to sit and talk to Ron without being overheard. Harry wanted to tell Ron, so he waited a few minutes. Some of them left and opened up a spot for Harry and Ron to sit and for Harry to fill Ron in.
Once they had taken their seats Harry got Ron's attention, "So do you still want to know what Hermione and I were talking about this morning?"
"I think so. It really depends on what you two were talking about."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Is there something going on between the two of you?"
"What do you mean by that, Ron."
"Well, are you two going out or something?"
"NO!" Harry yelled.
"Okay then what were you two talking about?"
"Just what I did and now knowing that it lead to Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle getting into trouble."
"I'm listening."
"I wrote three notes, they all said the exact same thing, and sent them to Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore."
"What did you say in the notes to them that would lead to those three getting in so much trouble?"
"Just that there might be some students up on the third floor, down the hall from the trophy room that night around eleven-thirty. And don't worry; no one will know other than you, Hermione and probably Malfoy. I don't plan on telling anyone else. As for how can be so sure that no one will know it was me, well I had read about a handwriting changing spell and tried it out and it worked."
"Hold on. You told Hermione first?"
"Ron she was already down here when I came down. She was sitting on the couch looking as though she was going to have an aneurysm. She was stressing out and worrying about what I might have done and if what ever it was would cause Gryffindor to lose more house points. And you know how she is about breaking the rules…completely against it. Not that I am all that for breaking the rules, but there comes a time when it is necessary. Before you get your boxers in a knot, I was about to tell you when you had come down but remember others had started to come down. I told you that I would tell you later, I even promised."
"Oh. Okay. But you told Hermione first. Why couldn't you have woken me up and told me before you left?"
"Uh, Ron you have no idea how hard it is to wake you up. I probably would have ended up waking everyone else up as well. Besides I didn't have any intention on telling Hermione, at least not before I told you. I got up early so that I could see how Malfoy and his lackey's were faring. And like I said she was down here when I came down."
Ron finally let it go. To Harry's surprise Ron then looked down at his books and started working on his school work and Hermione had not even been there to tell him that he should do his school work.
The following day, in the Gryffindor common room Fred and George were in a discussion about something when they saw Harry climb down the stairs.
Harry had over slept a little but had enough time to get a bite to eat before class.
"Harry, come over here for a moment." Fred called out.
"We need to talk to you." George added.
Harry turned and walked towards the twins. He really was wondering what the twins wanted to talk to him about. "What do you want to talk to me about?"
"Well, we thought you should know something before you go to breakfast." Said George.
"See, we were just there and people are talking…. about you. And it's not very kindly." Said Fred.
"Talk? About me? What are you two talking about? Please just spit it out so that I can get a little something to eat before class."
"First of all, after we tell you what is being said…"Fred began.
"You have to tell us what it's all about." George finished.
"Deal?" they said together.
"Deal." Harry agreed so that they would just tell him and he could go. He also knew that he was going to have to tell the twins about the notes and every thing else.
Together the twins said, "Draco is telling every one that you were too scared to face and duel with him the other night and ratted him out?"
"WHAT! That is complete rubbish. I am not afraid of that weasel! Look guys I swear I'll tell you what really happened. I need to eat. I promise I'll tell you, it just has to be later on though."
Harry ran to the dining hall, grabbed a seat and begun to shovel food into his mouth. He didn't get much in when he had hall ass to his first class, but at least it was something.
As the morning went on, Harry found Hermione and Ron (at different times) and told them to meet him in the common room during lunch. Harry then ran into Fred and George. He told them to meet him in the common room during lunch as well. Maybe between the five of them they could figure out away to prepare for the revenge that Harry knew Malfoy was planning.
