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Draco left the kitchens quite pleased with himself. He made his way back to Slytherin. He fell asleep, feeling like for once, things might actually work out the way he wanted them to.

The next morning, he got up really early and made his way down to the Great Hall before everyone else, even though everyone else was getting up early as well.

He took his books with him so he could study a bit. He had a feeling that he would spend a big part of his day in the Entrance Hall.

The only two other people already there were a sleepy looking Neville, who sat down next to Draco at the Slytherin table, and Bagman who was sitting at the Head Table.

"Good morning, my fellow conspirator," Draco greeted happily.

Neville, apparently, wasn't in such a good mood. "Mornin'," he mumbled.

"Had a long night?" Draco asked empathetically.

"You have no idea. Cedric brought me to the infirmary alright. But then he wanted to leave, so I had to pretend to be in horrible pain, so he wouldn't," Neville sighed heavily, "Pomfrey used all kinds of diagnostic spells and charms, but obviously nothing was wrong with me. She shrunk my teeth back to their normal size – thanks for that, by the way," he glowered at Draco.

"I'm sorry," Draco said, but he was grinning so brightly that Neville only rolled his eyes.

"Then I asked Cedric to bring me back to my dorm. I said I was too scared to go on my own, since, you know, the attacker might come back."

"That was brilliant," said Draco.

"That was embarrassing," countered Neville. He grabbed a pear from a fruit bowl on the table. "That stopped him from putting his name in yesterday but what should we do about today?"

"Oh, I already have a plan. I got the house elves to put the aging potion from Fred and George on everyone's breakfast."

Neville dropped the pear he was just about to bite into.

"What?" He shrieked.

"That will lead to a commotion of epic proportions and will keep everyone in the infirmary for half the day," he said gleefully.

"Hmm... Draco?" Neville asked innocently.

"Yes?"

"How to put this?" Neville rubbed his chin contemplatively, "You are crazy. Completely mental."

Draco chuckled. "If you don't want people to think you were in on the joke, you should eat some of the food, too."

Neville glanced at the food on the table. "No thanks. I think I lost my appetite."

Draco laughed and Neville tried to look angry, but couldn't hide his amusement.

"But what if he throws his name in before he eats anything? He'll pass the goblet in the Entrance Hall before he comes to the Great Hall."

"Well, we'll just have to make sure that that doesn't happen. Now, eat something." Draco pushed his own plate towards Neville. "I made sure the house elves would give me one that hasn't been tampered with."

Neville looked wary, but ate some toast anyway.

Then they made their way back into the Entrance Hall, where the first students were now arriving.

A few students put their names in the goblet and the steadily growing crowd watched them. Draco kept scanning the room for Diggory, but couldn't see him.

"'Mornin' guys," greeted Theo sleepily. "Anything interesting happened?"

"Hmm... not really. Couple of people put their names in the cup. Cassius Warrington. You know him, he's in our house. Then that Gryffindor girl that plays Chaser for Gryffindor..."

"Angelina Johnson?" supplied Neville.

"That's the one," said Draco.

They watched the Durmstrang students arrive. All of them put their names into the goblet.

"I did it," exclaimed Johanna excitedly, walking over to Draco, Neville and Theo.

"Awesome," said Theo. "I wish I could put my name in, too. But we're too young," he sighed.

"I am sure there will be another competition, yah," said Johanna, trying to cheer him up. "When you are older."

Theo shrugged his shoulders. "One can only hope."

Viktor and Serge soon joined them and they chatted for a while, observing the Entrance Hall and the people that put their names in the cup.

Then Cedric Diggory arrived and Draco and Neville walked over to him. Draco as thinking of what to tell him, but needn't have worried. Right behind Diggory was the whole of Beauxbatons Academy of Magic arrived in the Entrance Hall (or at least everyone off age who had decided to come to Hogwarts). At the same time, the Weasley twins arrived, too. A huge line was forming before the cup.

"Hi Cedric," Neville started. "Thanks again for yesterday. Don't know what I would have done without you."

"No problem," said Cedric.

"Are you going to throw your name in?" asked Draco, motioning his head toward the goblet.

"Yeah, but wow, I didn't expect their to be such a long line. I wanted to get up earlier, but I was so tired..."

"Maybe you should go eat breakfast first," offered Draco, "and put your name in when there are less people around."

The Hufflepuff studied Draco for a while. "Not a bad idea, actually."

Cedric and his friends went into the Great Hall. Draco and Neville followed them, both sitting down at their respective tables.

The Great Hall was now slowly filling with people who were eagerly eating their breakfast.

Draco didn't talk to Pansy, Tracey or Daphne and didn't eat anything. He told them he wasn't hungry. He chose to watch Cedric eat instead.

Diggory was already halfway through his porridge, when the first signs of something being wrong could be observed. It was most obvious with the first years. They were the smallest. Or rather, they were usually the smallest. Suddenly, even the shortest first year was at least as tall as Draco, their faces sporting zits and the beginnings of what might one day be called a beard. But the firsties weren't the only ones, just the most obvious ones. Soon, every student in the hall had reached varying states of adulthood, depending on how much they had eaten. Crabbe and Goyle's faces were now full of wrinkles and their white, long hair matched their Dumbledore-style beards.

Draco couldn't help it and started to laugh when he saw them. He wasn't the only one who had noticed, though. Shrieks and laughter could be heard all over the hall.

"Not hungry my ass," growled Pansy. "You did this," she said, gesturing up and down her body, which looked to be in its twenties.

"I don't know," Draco said, laughing, "what you are talking about." He swiped away a tear form the corner of his right eye.

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked Daphne, indignantly.

"Plausible deniability," grinned Draco.

"The teachers too?" asked Tracey worriedly.

"What?" Draco's face fell and he looked up to the head table. Only Bagman, Snape and McGonagall were sitting there. Bagman still looked the same, McGonagall looked only slightly older and Snape looked about twenty years older and quite annoyed. "Shit," muttered Draco. The house elves must have taken his words too literally. When he said everyone's food he had meant every student.

"Wow," mused Daphne, "age sure looks good on Snape."

"Daphne!" giggled Pansy, but nodded her head in agreement.

It looked like Snape and McGonagall were about to make their displeasure known, when Dumbledore entered the Great Hall. He assessed the situation and told everyone effected to go to the Infirmary.

Draco chanced a look at Cedric and was pleased to see that he was in his thirties at least and walking towards the Infirmary with everyone else.

To his dismay, Snape made his way towards Draco. "Mr. Malfoy. I hope you feel well, seeing that you haven't eaten anything today."

"I am fine, Professor. Thank you for asking, though," said Draco cheekily.

"Have you done this? Did you put an aging potion into the food?"

"You can give me Veritaserum, sir, I swear I did not brew an aging potion." That was true, he wasn't the one who had brewed it. Whether Snape believed him or not was irrelevant as he could not prove that Draco had done it.

Giving Draco a calculating look, he walked away.

Theo, Viktor, Serge and Johanna joined Draco at his table, where he was now pretty much alone.

"There you are," said Theo, "you suddenly disappeared on us. Missed the most amazing thing. The twins tried to trick the goblet of fire. Got catapulted back out of the Age Line and grew immense beards... But you were probably entertained enough..."

"Are things alvays this chaotic here?" asked Krum, motioning his head towards the door, through which the last effected student had just left.

"Pretty much," laughed Draco.

"Wait- It was you, wasn't it?" asked Theo, eyeing the food at their table.

"It's fine, you can eat it. Dumbledore had a talk with the elves," Draco said, choosing not to answer his question.

Theo shook his head and grabbed a baguette. "What are your plans for today?"

"Uhm- I thought I'd hang around the Entrance Hall, see who all puts their name in."

"The whole day? Sounds pretty boring."

Draco shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps I'll start a gambling business. I'm sure there's plenty of students who'll want to bet on the outcome."

Theo shook his head. "I think you are in enough trouble already. If you do any more today, Snape will kill you."

When everyone had eaten and left the Great Hall, Draco got out his books on Herbology and Occlumency. He was soon joined by Neville.

"I can't believe your stupid plan actually worked," Neville shook his head.

"Whose plan are you calling stupid?" asked Draco, mock-hurt.

Neville rolled his eyes. "Any more strokes of genius?" he asked. "Cedric will be back sooner or later."

Draco thought for a while. "No, not really." Draco frowned. He doubted that they would succeed in keeping him from the cup a third time.

Neville looked at Draco for a long time before he talked again. "I have given this some thought and... seeing how important this is, I think I want to take a sip of my Felix Felicis."

Draco opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it again. "What?" he finally managed to ask.

"Only a sip. A drop. Not all of it. Not even half of it. But we're trying to save a life here. This is important."

Draco could see how serious Neville was. "Fine. If that's what you want to do." He would have preferred to keep the potion for more important things, but then again, it wasn't his potion.

"It is," said Neville, sounding determined. He pulled the tiny vial out of his pocket. "Alright, here goes nothing," he said and let a drop of what looked like molten gold fall onto his tongue.

"Okay," Neville said, jumping up, knocking Draco's books of the table, "let's-" but he stopped mid-sentence when his eyes fell onto the books.

"That... was surprisingly clumsy for someone who should be as lucky as a leprechaun. Maybe the potion has gone bad. Who knows how long Slughorn has sat on it..." Draco said but trailed off, "Are you even listening to me?"

"Sorry Draco," Neville said, grabbing his books from the ground, "got to go."

"What- Wait! What?" Draco stammered, but Neville had already scurried away. "Great," Draco huffed. So it was up to him to save the day. Again.

TBC