Grimm's Tales of Beedle of the Bard

A Brilliant Plan

"I'm telling you, Hermione, it's a fool proof!" exclaimed Ron.

Ron had been bragging throughout lunch about a wonderful plan he came up with to get the book into Malfoy's hands.

"What exactly is the plan?"Hermione asked.

"This," Ron said.

Ron walked over to  Draco and his friends with the book in his hands.

"Malfoy," Ron said pretty confident. "You know how we saved you last year? Great, so you owe us one, here, take this book."

Ron threw the book to Draco and left.

"See, the perfect plan!" Ron said proudly.

Hermione rolled her eyes and continued to eat.

*                                        *                                        *

"Alright class, I'm assigning a little essay-oh but only a paragraph or two- on a defense plan you would use during battle. Since most of you have fought in the war, I'm having you write this so just in case you find yourelf in that situation again, you will be a little bit more prepared. Oh look at the time I'll let you guys pack up a little early, have a nice day!" said Profesor Mills.  "Oh, Harry, I need to talk for you for a moment."

Harry gathered his belongings and walked over to Professor Mills's desk.

"Harry, dear, I couldn't help but notice that Mr.Weasley had the fairy tale book I slipped and then gave it Mr.Malfoy," Professor Mills said.

"You were the one who gave me the book?" Harry questioned.

"Yes, I slipped it into your bag hoping it would help-"

"Help? Help with what? After I read a story I have to keep myself awake! And Lavander's shoe is constantly falling!" Harry burst.

"Harry, I'm not sure what this has to do with the book-"

"And, when we tried to burn it it came out of the fire!"

"Oh, Harry, dear, you must be so stressed," Professor Mills said soothingly. "You poor boy, you just want to have a normal year. You probably having a hard time sleeping because of last year's events which is causing you to hallucinate."

"But I didn't hallucinate-"

"Now, dear, I'll talk to the rest of the Professors so that you can have a night off of homework and rest. In fact don't do my homework assignments for the rest of the week."

Harry didn't argue and decided that Professor Mills had nothing but good intentions.

*                                                       *                                        *

That night in the Gryffindor common room, Harry tried extremely hard to not fall asleep while studying for a charms quiz.Meanwhile,  Lavender was considering going barefoot or wearing just socks around school to solve her shoe problem.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Lavender complained. "I can't even walk in a straight line without my shoe falling off now!"

Hermione rolled her eyes and continued to study, blocking out Lavender's complaining.

"I should'nt have read that stupid book! I hope that this stupid jinx or whatever stops now since we got rid of the book."

"I wonder if Professor Mills knew that the book was enchanted..." Harry said drowsly to himself.

"What was that, Harry?" Hermione perked up.

"Nothing, I was just talking to myself..."

"No, you said that Professor Mills gave you the book," Hermione said.

"Yeah, she told me today... Hermione, can we discuss this later, I'm tired..."

"Did she enchant the book?" Hermione pressed.

"I don't even think she knew it was enchanted..."

"Hermione, Professor Mills is too sweet, she wouldn't enchant anything to harm a fly," Ron said.

"Wait, are you saying you believe that the book is the cause of our little 'coincidence'?" Lavender said slyly.

"Yes, your falling of your shoe is not a coincidence... you happy?" Hermione said dryly.

"I am, now are you sure she isn't the cause of this?" Lavender asked.

"Well, she thinks its just me being tired and I told her about your shoe.... she said i hallucinated..." Harry said, falling asleep.

"She was obviously covering up her fault. Did she say why she gave you the book?" Hermione interrogated.

"She said to help..."

"I have a plan," said Ron.

"Another brilliant plan like before?" Hermione sassed.

"Hey, it was better than a complicated sneaky plan!" Ron defended himself.

"Alright, what's the plan now?" Harry asked.

"How about we pressure her into telling us the truth," Ginny suggested.

"How do we do that?" Lavender questioned.

"We could fake something bad happening and blame it on the book. If she runs she's guilty,and if she doesn't and helps she's innocent," Ginny explained.

"That is a good plan," Neville said.

"Alright, what are we going to fake?" Hermione asked.

At that moment, everyone turned to Harry.