A/N Hope you enjoy this latest installment. Please leave a review, it is much appreciated, NV
There was a scuffle of rubber soled shoes and tapping on the underside of the door. Ginny realized their mistake, as the intruders pointed to a liquid pool that gave away her and Hermione's position. Her heart sank. Before she even had time to think of what to do next, her wand flew out of her hand into the iron grip of the man facing her. Ginny whimpered, craning her neck upwards at her stone-faced assailant. "Yew, as well?"
You as well?
She mistook his meaning. "You caught the others?"
Nott held the gaze of the trembling little wretch, who hugged herself and looked down at her feet. The wizard leaned to the left and caught sight of a limp foot behind a stack of duffle bags. He recognized that muggle design anywhere, having been confronted by its owner mere hours ago. Theo's mask slipped for a moment, and the gravity of the situation dawned on him. Soundlessly, Theo muttered, "Collovaria." He reached into the broom cupboard and pulled Ginny Weasley into the open with one sharp tug. The girl crumpled the second he removed his grip on her upper arm. Knees buckling underneath, she slid down the doorframe and sank onto her bottom unceremoniously.
Montague who put his head around the door, drew up in confusion. "What is going on?"
"I caught her drinking alone in the kit cupboard," Nott answered, picking up the empty bottle of fire whisky from behind Ginny's feet. He displayed it to both of his housemates like an auction exhibit and closed the door silently behind him. "She thought she wasn't going to be disturbed." He gestured to Montague to reapply the wards, sealing an incumbent Granger inside, and watched Montague intently out of the corner of his eye.
"There is a curfew on. Girls are meant to be back in the dormitories." Montague said imperiously, back to them. "I'm amazed you can still stand."
Blaise took the bottle, turning it upside down, almost impressed with her constitution. His brows furrowed as his gaze rested on Ginny's features. "Where have I seen you before?"
She shook her head, hiding her face in her hands, sniveling and sniffling even louder. "At yesterday's quidditch game."
"You and half the school." Blaise snorted.
Nott intervened swiftly. "I had noticed one of the fourth-year girls' beds was empty. Guess we know why."
"It's nothing to do with me," Ginny said, despite herself. She cupped her mouth again in shock.
Nott looked at her sharply, willing her to remain silent. Was she trying to get caught?
"That head of hair is unmistakable," Montague remarked as Ginny whimpered. "A distant cousin of yours, perhaps?"
Ginny looked at Nott sharply as though she had never seen him before in her life. She really hadn't.
"Certainly not." Theo snapped.
"She has a propensity for hard liquor." Montague baited.
Blaise smirked but dropped his gaze onto the floor to avoid the ire of his roommate.
"Even so."
"I am a Weasley." Ginny squeaked.
Theo's eyes could have rolled back in their sockets. Infuriated beyond measure with the Gryffindor girl, he waited impatiently for Montague's response, considering his limited options for salvaging the situation.
"You have the deportment of a Weasley." Blaise harrumphed at her crass display. "And you are dressed like one too."
Theo cleared his throat. "Rather than making personal remarks, Zabini, perhaps we should focus on the issue in hand." He tipped his chin toward the empty liquor bottle.
"Precisely." Montague turned his full attention on the miscreant. "We have a huge security issue at present which you are making light of. This is a needless distraction. Honestly, I am disgusted at the lies, not to mention the complete lack of remorse. I feel compelled to act," said Montague, his pastoral duties as a prefect, a rare compulsion. "Five points off Slytherin."
Ginny's jaw dropped.
"Not a word!" Montague warned with a jab of his index finger. "Now, run along before I change my mind. You've been let off lightly."
Nott proffered, "It's probably best if I escorted her back to the dorms in case. Where shall I meet you both?"
Blaise sighed. "Flint wants us to check the common room."
Ginny's shock wore off as they rounded the corner, and she caught a glimpse of herself in the chest plate of a suit of armor. She could barely recognize her puffy face, alabaster white skin, and freckles that had darkened to snow leopard spots. She wondered at the exceptionally high contrast between her hair and skin. Marveling, she brought a wispy lock of her red hair closer to her face. Except it was no longer red but black as a raven's wing. It was almost the same color as her companion's hair, who seemed intent on frog-marching her to Slytherin girls' dormitories.
"Jenny, isn't it?" He said in a gravelly voice that made her start.
"Ginny." She corrected him automatically, "Who are you?"
He regarded her coolly. "I ask the questions." Suddenly, he steered her to the left through a door and down a spiral staircase. Ginny fumbled for the handrail in the dark. The walls closed around them, the radius of the passage less than arm's-length. She gripped the railing with whitened knuckles and tucked her flexed elbow into her side. Ginny stumbled on an uneven angled step. Before she completely lost her footing, Nott pulled her to her feet with one sharp tug on the scruff of her collar. An indignant Ginny could have sprained her ankle, not that her captor had paused to check. Alarm bells began to ring in her head. Ginny's fingers itched to pull out the marauder's map to determine her location, but the staircase continued dropping further into the bowels of the school. She could only liken it to climbing down a well while holding her breath, waiting for water to splash on her ankles. His piercing gaze tracked her movement with the elasticity of a switchblade. She dropped her arm and deliberately wiped her sweaty palm against her thigh, showing her efforts. Forcing herself to disregard the traitorous thought, Ginny cleared her mind and steeled herself for what was to come. Her captor seemed to relax, too, though he maintained an unrelenting pace. At some point, Ginny must have slowed down. The unnamed boy jabbed her hard in the shoulder blades with his wand in response. She swung wildly at him and would have kicked him in the shins, but he lifted her clean off the ground with a casual flick of his wand and a decidedly bored expression. "Are you quite finished?"
"Yes." Ginny gasped, suspended like a starfish pinned to the stone wall, a meter above the nearest step. If she had dropped, Ginny would have missed it anyway and broken her neck in the freefall. "Put me down," she croaked.
The stranger cocked his head sideways in question. She dared look at her feet dangling in midair in the black chasm, and panic began to set in. "Put me down!" She thrashed helplessly at her invisible restraints.
"Who did you bring with you besides Granger?"
The only thing strong enough to momentarily mute the effect of Veritaserum was rabid fear. She shook her head pleadingly.
"Answer my question. Who is using the invisibility cloak if not the two of you?" Nott tightened his grip on his wand and refocused his attention on the hysterical Gryffindor student whose very life depended on it. He liked a challenge. Now was a good time to find out what he wanted to know.
She screamed. "Parvati, Katie, and Angelina!"
Nott bit his lip in confusion with the force to puncture a tire.
"Why have you all come here?"
"To return Snape's Veritaserum bottle!"
"What?" He drew up short, and for a split second, his concentration wavered. His wand hand slipped, as did his hold on the girl. Ginny screamed in terror as she slid, the rough stones at her back now transformed into a slide. He caught her with a second spell and hooked her to the wall like a painting. A life-size portrait of "A Girl Afraid" by Theodore Nott. A sinister smile pulled the corner of his mouth. The Weasley girl coughed and snorted mucous mixed with tears. Before she had a chance to recover her composure, he pressed his advantage. "Tell me more, Jenny."
She explained everything in a wretched torrent of saliva, tears, and phlegm, mixed and streamed freely down her face onto her neck. Theo did his best to maintain his composure (and interest) listening to a nonsensical hormonally charged version of events, thin on logic and linear chronology. In short, he understood that in the Gryffindor Quidditch celebrations that had gotten out of hand, Professor McGonagall had meted out corporal punishment to the winning team, namely the boys. There was a side quest to return a bottle of Veritaserum, stolen from Snape's stores, something else about an active tracing charm and a sordid love triangle with Harry Potter at its apex, Ginny Weasley at the base, and Hermione Granger as a reluctant third party. It was at this point in the story that the Weasley girl started wailing in earnest. Theo pinched the bridge of his nose and counted to ten. He made it as far as four before asking curtly. "Where were you planning on going just now? The pointed question distracted Ginny momentarily from her imploding psychological distress.
"To get help for Hermione?" she said, as though it should have been apparent from her long-winded monologue.
"Hermione Granger - your arch nemesis and rival for Potter's affections?"
"She is hardly competition." Ginny sniffled.
"Where exactly where you planning on going to find help?"
"I… was going to have to look at the map to find the other girls." She said with the expression of a puppy dog rapidly digging a hole to bury herself in.
"What map?"
Ginny shook her head nervously, realizing her second mistake. She refused to meet his probing gaze, and bit her lip, fearful of what she would say next, what question he might ask, and what he would glean from this open book.
"Where is the map?" Theo demanded.
"It's in my inside robes pocket." She gestured, bobbing her tear-streaked face.
He relented and lowered her to the step below slowly. Let out a long shaky breath, her legs folded under her, and Ginny clung to the handrail like a life jacket. His nostrils pinched at the unfiltered display of emotion and stiffly, Theo offered his handkerchief. She pushed her whole face into the stark white cotton and blew noisily. Before she could wipe away the snot clinging to her chin, her Slytherin captor made fresh demands. "Show me the map or I will take it by force."
Ginny said, her voice quivering. "It's Harry's map. I borrowed it. I can't say anymore. It's meant to be a secret."
"You are not very good at keeping secrets, are you?"
"I should not have been drinking."
Theo mused. "You have had something stronger than alcohol. I think your drink was spiked with Veritaserum, which is ironic."
Little Jenny looked like she would burst into fresh tears any minute. "Harry won't forgive me if anything happens to the map. He'll never talk to me again. It was his father's. Please don't ask me to do this." Her lower lip trembled.
"You compromised yourself," Nott stated bluntly, immune to her theatrics. "Give the map to me now or I will skewer you against the far wall and wait for you to change your mind." He could be patient.
Paling at the threat, Ginny shoved a hand inside her robes and gave it to him. Theo unfolded the parchment with care and when he saw it was blank, his voice acquired a hard edge. "Well?"
"Well, what?" she said haughtily as she slung the used handkerchief over the crook of her folded elbows.
"You keep it. You might need it again." It was not a threat. It was a guarantee.
"I need to help Hermione!" Ginny said snootily. It was difficult to command respect when she had previously been inhaling her own mucous. "You're wasting my time here."
"You will tell me everything I need to know about the map in your possession," Nott said in a commanding tone. Despite any misgivings and thoughts of house loyalties, Ginny opened her mouth and told this stranger everything she knew about the Marauder's map. She talked about how the map came to Harry, how her brothers had used it before him, how to open it, how Harry had once found Peter Pettigrew on the map, how to seal it shut, and how the map seemed to repel Professor Snape. Judging by the stranger's intent unblinkered stare, it made for a riveting conversation.
Nott was silent for almost thirty seconds after she stopped talking as though taking in every word and committing it to memory. The clear grey eyes became shrouded with calculation, as he mulled over the details. He turned his attention to the parchment with renewed vigor. "I solemnly swear I am up to no good." Theo was not sure what to expect from Weasley's verbose description. From the beaten withered parchment sprang intricate lines like a fountain of ink, which curled and swept like parallel brushstrokes across the page. The lines meandered like streams in adjacent valleys, that widened and dropped into rivers, and converged to form canals. Theo's breath caught. He opened the parchment in full, marveling at the extraordinary detail as the ink lines traced the outline of every room, corridor, and secret passageway into and out of Hogwarts. His attention was seized by the appearance of multiple moving dots, that seemed to represent people moving in real time. Patil, Bell, and Johnson were still trapped in the girls' dormitories where he had left them. Hermione Granger collapsed in the kit cupboard. He saw Blaise and Montague milling in the Slytherin common room. Harry Potter ran slow laps of Hogwarts's grounds, with Neville Longbottom and the Weasley twins trailing behind him. Theo could not even fathom how such a map came to be in existence. The work and thinking behind it was incredible. It had to be related to the Homunculus charm. His mind explored the innumerable possibilities that it presented and what would happen if such a map fell into the hands of the Dark Lord. What riches would await the individual who brought Him such a gift.
Ginny's heart clenched in her chest with slow despair. "It's not yours."
"You gave it to me." He said evenly.
"It's not mine to give." She whimpered. "It belongs to Harry."
"Potter should look after his possessions better then." His lips twitched in a half smile as he regarded her coolly, as though he counted her one of them.
She stiffened. "I'm going to tell Harry you stole it."
"Mischief managed!" He folded the map and tucked it into his trouser pocket. "Do you even know where you are, little lion? Are you any position to be issuing threats?" Theo sighed while Ginny's tears tracked silently down her cheeks. "You could not find your way out of this dungeon even if I gave you, his map. You were holding onto it when I found you, remember?"
Ginny hiccuped. "Who are you?"
"You don't know my name? What will you tell Harry Potter about the man who saved his underage girlfriend and took his Marauder's map as recompense."
"You haven't saved me from anyone. If anything, I am in greater danger now than when you found me in the kit cupboard."
"We are beginning to understand one another." He paused. "Maybe I should take you back to the Slytherin girls' dorms where you belong." Nott reached for her hair, and the wavy lock he picked reverted to red-gold in his hand. He dropped it artlessly and the curl bounced against her shoulder.
Ginny exhaled slowly with growing fear. "What do you want from me?" She said, and it echoed an earlier conversation with an older and wiser girl Gryffindor girl. Granger was currently incapacitated having made questionable decisions in the interim. Theo sighed deeply. A Slytherin would take the map for himself and throw the girl to the wolves. He had a different plan in mind; he would use the girl as bait to draw Potter and his Gryffindor teammates into the fray and cover his own back in the process. Theo knew what he had to say. He had rehearsed it in his mind repeatedly. As it happens, I have a job for you. I want you to relay a message to your beloved. If you keep following this passageway, you should reach a grate that feeds into the Great Lake near where Potter is running laps.
"What do you want from me?" Ginny stuttered.
I want you to tell Potter the truth. The plan has fallen apart. Granger is puking her guts out in a kit cupboard. Your friends with the invisibility cloak are surrounded and trapped in the dungeons. Tell Potter that his trinkets are soon to fall into enemy hands to be used against him or sold for a lot of money. The women he entrusted to do his dirty work for him have failed in their task. Tell him to come here and sort his mess out. Tell him it would be unwise to come alone.
An anxiety-ridden Ginny waited expectantly; brows furrowed with confusion.
The raven hair made her look like Astoria Greengrass, except for one errant auburn lock. She pushed her hair back and it disappeared into a sea of brown, and black. "I can't do this. I just want to go to bed. I never wanted to come here. It was a stupid idea." She muttered as though facing a mirror. He was the last person she should be confiding her private thoughts. Jenny looked spent; A husk of a girl, thin and gangly in appearance. Weasley fumbled her way through misadventures, biting off more than she could chew, while choking on adrenaline and apprehension. She surveyed him with wide brown eyes, the smattering of freckles on her button nose, an inference of her youth and inexperience. It was pathetic tormenting a girl who could not hope to fight back. Even his father, who would snatch the marauder's map from an opponent's grip and keep it for himself would balk at bullying a younger student, never mind a female one. Theo opened his mouth to speak. He swallowed past the lump in his throat, his tongue uncharacteristically dry. Granger could hold her own against him but not this little witch. His mind's eye retrieved a potent memory only a few hours old.
"Well, you've lost the element of surprise. I know what you are capable of."
"You haven't the faintest idea what I am capable of, and neither do I."
His hazel-eyed classmate looked over one shoulder at him in wondering, cheeks nipped till they were red, wet eyelashes clumped in rainwater, her sodden curls hanging limp in the biting wind. She jumped out of her skin when a spear of lightning struck the ground in white fury and uprooted an aged sycamore tree meters behind her. She twisted her head sharply to the noise and he caught a glimpse of her slight and pale profile framed in swirling grey mist. The ground shook as the winding branches, thick trunk and knotted roots landed sequentially. The root system that had never seen the sun in its lifetime lifted head height. It gasped and screamed a final protest at the sky before choking. Granger turned on her soles to face him. Gnarled wooden spines radiated from behind her crown like a pagan wreath. Thick sheets of rain lashed the hills and the lake as storm clouds descended further into the valley. Theo shuddered in the cold.
Wordlessly, he handed Ginny Weasley the Marauder's map. Her relief was palpable as she snatched it from him. "Follow me." He growled.
"Where are we going?"
He was not going to answer. but the spark in her eyes had returned and the lightness of her gait as she nearly bowled into him, as she bounded up the steps behind him, made him relent. "To find your friends. Tuck your hair behind your collar or I will have to take you to the girls' dormitories."
He took a meandering path to the boys' dormitories, doubling back at several points. While he walked, he talked in a low voice to Ginny who had to scramble to keep up with his long strides. He told her emphatically that a group of girls, no matter how physically strong, would struggle to move Hermione if she was indeed a dead weight. "She's not dead." Ginny countered. He sighed and continued to explain their best option would be to return the potion to Snape's. The cloak slowed them down unnecessarily. If there was Veritaserum in the cupboard there would most certainly be a batch of fresh Polyjuice. Turning into a group of Slytherin boys would enable them to move through the dungeons at speed and enable their escape. By going to the boy's rooms they could easily find locks of hair to use for the Polyjuice potions. He permitted for the Gryffindor girls to use his hair and Blaise'.
"What about Hermione?" Ginny asked.
He stonewalled. "Forget Hermione."
"Iona."
The comforting snick of a lock opening and wards falling temporarily greeted them. The girls ran inside with preternatural speed. Before even assessing their surroundings for danger, they threw off the cloak, bolted the door from the inside and sank on their haunches against it, gasping for breath.
The room they walked into contained twin beds, a wardrobe, a writing desk, and a chest of drawers. There was a battered trunk at the foot of the furthest bed. Thin strips of green carpet served as gangplanks between the furniture. The decor was masculine and consisted of a set of weights in the corner, heavy mud set walking boots, and a stack of heavily gilt tomes from the restricted section of the library. The color scheme was an oppressive green, black or brown. The room was hardly spacious for two six-foot Slytherins unless they alternated the use of carpet and furniture.
Angelina threw the cloak on the bed as though it was her residence. "The brat's a year younger than us and he gets a bloody room! For what? For being sorted into a house of insufferable gits when he was eleven!"
"Do you think they pay higher fees for rooms?" Pav asked, walked past the pair of them to the only chest of drawers, hauling the top draw out coolly for inspection. It contained carefully rolled up ties and belts. There were watches too; all branded. The next draw was flung open, and it contained an array of perfectly pressed and folded shirts. The contents of the third draw drew the most exclamations from the girls; trophies of past conquests. Parvati shoved the draw back into place. "There is a lot of Italian and leather and designer. I don't think any of this belongs to Nott." She remarked.
The three girls said simultaneously. "Blaise Zabini."
After the mystery of mysterious roommate was solved, the three girls began a thorough rummage through every container/trunk/draw for old homework diaries, editions of Hogwarts: a history, anything that would contain a map of the dungeons. The best find was a wordy description of the structural plan of the dungeons in the oldest edition of Hogwarts: A history. Katie made a quick sketch of it with borrowed parchment and ink while Angelina and Pav restored the room to a semblance of order.
"Are we ready?" Katie asked.
Angelina replied. "Katie you've got the map. I've got my wand. Pav, you have the Veritaserum." Angelina shoulder knocked into Pav's as she reached for the door handle. Parvati stiffened on impact and Angelina regretted her carelessness immediately. Parvati may have thought it was intentional. "Sorry." she said, awkwardly, but realized that was not what grabbed Parvati's attention. She turned slowly to face the door. The handle was moving of its own accord.
Ange and Katie backed away from the door reflexively pulling a semi-paralyzed Parvati with them. Tripping over a fold in the cloak, Pav stumbled and landed artlessly on her knees much to the annoyance of the two chasers.
Angelina's eyes held a stern warning, and she raised a single digit to her lips.
"It's me, guys, let me in." A small voice said on the other side of the door.
Pav's eyebrows disappeared into her hairline. Katie looked vacantly at Angelina whose eyebrows were performing a complicated quidditch maneuver.
The gentle rapping of wood continued. "It's me. It's Ginny."
The door was flung open without a second thought, and Ginny was hauled inside and marched and sat on the edge of a twin bed. Angelina stuck her head around the frame to ensure Ginny had not been followed but the corridor outside was mercifully empty. She closed the door and faced the young girl sternly. "Where the hell did you go?"
"Where is Hermione?" Parvati asked.
"How did you find us?"
Katie yelped. "What on Earth happened to your hair?"
Ginny froze, unprepared for the rapid-fire questions. In broken sentences with frequent interruptions by her audience, she told them of the events that had transpired. When she got to the part where they were discovered by the Slytherin patrol, all three girls broke out in furious mutterings and started shaking their heads in disdain. Ginny explained how she was found and sort of rescued by a Slytherin, that all three surmised to be Theodore Nott. She told them that Nott had brought her here and gone back on patrol with Montague and Blaize. He had also passed on vital information on how to find Snape's office and how to travel undetected.
"Did he tell you why he is helping us?"
"What does it matter?" Katie swatted Angelina's arm. "If it was a trap, we'd have been discovered by now. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
"Well, what does he want?" Angelina stamped her foot. "Why does this boy we have never spoken to you wants to help us?"
Ginny shook her head. "I don't know. He didn't tell me. He said that Snape's moved his office closer to the boy's dormitories after a pipe broke and flooded it." Ginny sheepishly took out the marauder's map and opened it up for their viewing. She quickly located Professor Snape on the map as Angelina pointed to a square adjacent to Snape's private quarters, where he lay blissfully sleeping. "This must be it." The girls huddled round on the bed for a closer look, calculating the best route to their intended destination.
"You had the map the whole time?" Parvati said flatly, over her shoulder.
"Yes, I may have held on to it." Ginny said awkwardly avoiding her gaze.
"Any particular reason why?"
Angelina tactfully changed the topic of discussion, as she traced a direct route with a fingertip. "That will take us through the boys' dorms." She glanced at the moving dots like a swarm of angry bees buzzing through the corridors and past Nott's room too. "I don't recognize any of these names."
Ginny frowned. "They are first, second, and third-year Slytherin boys."
"So, we have eleven-year-old boys patrolling the corridors looking for us?" Parvati hissed.
"They are looking for Harry. If they knew we were here, I don't think they make this much effort. Angelina smacked her forehead. "Do you know how long it took to get to the boys' dorms without anybody suspecting? We were under the cloak, looking around corners, trying to avoid bumping into someone while being hunted for our lives. They have just doubled the guard."
There was a collective groan, which belied a grudging and unspoken acknowledgment of Slytherin doggedness.
Parvati countered. "What's an eleven-year-old going to do against us?"
"That's beside the point!" An equally vexed Katie Bell added. "I cannot believe Flint made the younger students get out of bed at two AM on a school night!"
The Slytherin girls, whether they liked it or not were holed up in their dormitories. While Gryffindors ladies normally rallied against chauvinistic House policies, they were grateful for small mercies tonight.
"We didn't have the map," Parvati added acidly.
Katie said, diverting the discussion onto neutral territory. "Is Hermione still in the kit cupboard? Do we know what's wrong with her?"
Ginny succinctly relayed Hermione's symptoms before she collapsed.
"Lavender also complained of abdominal pain," Katie remarked. "Parvati, you were with both. How come you are not sick?" She pointed at Parvati.
Angelina asked. "Can you think of something they both consumed that you didn't?"
"We practically ate the same food. So, it's not that."
"What did they have to drink then?"
Parvati mused. "Neither of them had any alcohol to drink. Apart from fruit punch and mulled wine, Hermione is practically tee-total. Lavender was being a bore and was revising for tomorrow's Divination test so I was with Hermione most of the evening. I specifically told Hermione not to drink the punch because it was spiked."
"I drank the punch. Who told you the punch was spiked?" Angelina said sharply.
Parvati's voice trailed off. "Seamus, I think. We were talking in the kitchenette together about the potions lesson. He was asking me what happened, if Hermione was okay and then the water tap stopped working. He gave me the bottle of water he was carrying under his arm, which was sweet of him. I guess I didn't drink the water, myself."
The penny dropped. Aghast, Katie raised a hand to cover her mouth.
"Okay, Seamus used you to effectively poison Hermione and Lavender." Angelina held up her hand mid-sentence.
"The muggle word you are looking for is date rape." Said Ginny which was followed by an outpouring of shocked exclamations and fiery protests from the accused.
"Ginny, that is not helpful!"
"How could you be so crass?" Katie said, recovering her ability to speak.
Parvati came swinging. "Thankfully it won't come to that. No one has been date raped. Lavender is passed out in the Gryffindor girls' dormitories and Hermione has collapsed in the Slytherin dungeons. We are hiding in an unnamed sixth form Slytherin boy's bedroom. Seamus is not our greatest threat to anyone's virtue."
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I think…"
"I think you owe me an apology for absurd remark."
"Well, then you owe Lavender and Hermione an apology." Ginny quipped. "Seeing as how you helped Seamus."
Angelina tried to maintain order and interceded, "I think we know what happened to Lavender and Hermione. Let's move on."
"No, we can't!" Katy said forcefully, leaning over the map. "We cannot carry Hermione out of here. There's no room under the cloak for four people and if Hermione is unconscious, that makes five and we're stuck."
Angelina turned her full attention to the redhead. "Did Nott offer to help?"
"He just grunted and told me to forget about Hermione for the time being," Ginny stated.
"What did he say specifically?" said Angelina.
"He asked if she was drunk. I told him she passed out."
"So, is he willing to help move Hermione?" Angelina demanded, her patience fraying thin with the Weasley girl.
"He didn't say so specifically." Ginny said petulantly.
"You were with him for the past half an hour, and you didn't think to ask." Angelina snapped.
"He said we should use the Polyjuice potion to turn into Slytherin boys. As a group of girls under an invisibility cloak we would struggle."
"So, essentially we are carrying Hermione out ourselves after we metamorphosed into guys," Angelina concluded frankly. "He is not going to help. Thank you for wasting five minutes of my time, Ginny." She turned the the other. "We each need locks of hair, boys' robes, and shoes. We'll transfigure them into pebbles which we will each carry in our pockets. Do not lose any items. We will all have to get under the cloak. We are going to Snape's office."
Up till now, everything had running according to the plan. Exactly to plan. After much searching, Parvati, Angelina, Katy, and Ginny had located Snape's office. They successfully found access to his secret storeroom. Not only had they returned the Veritaserum bottle to a row of identical Veritaserum bottles and transfigured their pebbles back into Slytherin robes, but they had also identified Polyjuice potion- two shelves worth of it. With Hermione out of the picture, their second most skilled witch Angelina set up a tripod, gauze, and a large cauldron in the storeroom to brew a batch of Polyjuice in bulk. She instructed her fellow witches to set up individual beakers to which they added their separate Slytherin hairs. Katy kept a watch on the time and under her direction, Angelina poured the vat of liquid carefully into one beaker. The girls had changed in the meanwhile into their Slytherin robes and sat huddled and barefoot on the floor around the tripod and beakers. The cut of the cloth was expensive, Ginny's more notably so than the remaining three. The clothing was loose and baggy on their shoulders and hips as expected for boys clothing. That was soon about to change.
"This is not going to taste pleasant; I'm warning you. No, spitting it out, okay?" Angelina said as Ginny, pinching the bridge of her nose, tipped her beaker to her mouth and threw her head back. She almost gagged but held it together, scrunching her face from the distaste. She nodded at the rest of them, put the beaker down, and stood up to move towards a corner of the storeroom for privacy.
Pav turned to Katy. "Do you have any idea who you're about to turn into?"
Katy shook her head. "No. I ran into the nearest room that did not have wards and threw open the wardrobe, grabbed the first set of robes I laid eyes on. "
Parvati replied. "I am turning into Zabini. Angelina took a lock of Nott's hair."
"Mine's a brunette – that's all I can tell you." Katy gestured to the hair at the bottom of her beaker and swilled her potion absently.
Pav threw a cursory glance in the same direction and froze. "Say, have a look a look at Ginny's beaker. Look at the hair she picked. What color do you suppose that is?"
Katy shuffled closer. "I'm not sure. It looks the same color as the potion." The potion was bottle green in color and looked questionable for human consumption.
Pav picked up the beaker and held it up to the light. Still unsure, she tilted the beakers slightly, separating the remaining ten milliliters from the Slytherin hair follicle. "Do you suppose she picked up a white hair?"
"A white hair?"
"It's white hair," Pav stated and said it again with a cold realization. "Or it could be a very light blonde."
Angelina did not look up from the steaming cauldron. "Merlin, what's Ginny done now?" It was half muttered into the rising steam.
Katy said hopefully. "Premature greying can happen even at our age."
Angelina stirring the Polyjuice potion, said absently. "Has Ginny picked up the wrong hair?"
"Yes," Pav emphasized at the same time Katy said. "No." They shared a look.
That is the problem with plans. They are not foolproof. There was no accounting for human factors like Ginevra Weasley. Parvati let out a long and shaky breath. She knew like Katy and Angelina both knew that their current situation was tenuous. To gain a full appreciation for the overall situation, they also had to consider what their mortal enemies Slytherin house knew.
Earlier this evening, the overwhelming majority of Slytherin house were made aware of an unprovoked attack on one of their number. His eminence, Draco Malfoy first of his name had been hexed to a near-vegetative state by members of the Gryffindor house. It was probable that several Slytherins had helped transfer his rigid body to the hospital wing, where he could be expected to remain for several days if not weeks. Lucius Malfoy was probably preparing to flail the entire school board tomorrow morning to close Hogwarts for the remaining school year. In the interim, Draco's fellow brethren were likely plotting reprisal attacks against Gryffindor's house. Therefore, it would be highly conspicuous if the prince of Slytherin house were to be seen roaming the corridors of the Slytherin dungeon in full possession of his senses.
"Guys, how do I look?"