Lost Memories

liii. problems

I was super excited because I'd be able to take the Apparation test; Ron had panicked on reading the notice because he still hadn't managed to Apparate yet; Hermione was confident because she finally managed twice; Harry, on the other hand, couldn't take the test for he would be seventeen for another four months.

"At least you can Apparate, though!" said Ron tensely. "You'll have no trouble come July!"

"I've only done it once," Harry reminded him; he had finally managed to disappear and rematerialize inside his hoop during their previous lesson.

"Once is better than none-ce," I tried to lighten the mood.

"You're only saying that because you've Apparated since the second lesson," Ron narrowed his eyes.

"Actually, she almost did the first one," added Hermione, looking up from her book.

"Hermione!"

"It's only because you're tiny," Ron huffed. "That's why Fred and George call you Mini!"

"Ron," I threw a pillow at him.

"God, I've been stupid," Harry suddenly said. "It's obvious, isn't it? There was a great vat of it down in the dungeon. He could've nicked some any time during that lesson..."

"Nicked what?" said Ron. "What are you going on about?"

"Malfoy and his Death Eater plan! He nicked Polyjuice Potion. Slughorn showed us in our first Potions lesson. There aren't a whole variety of students standing guard for Malfoy— it's just Crabbe and Goyle as usual... Yeah, it all fits!" said Harry, jumping up and starting to pace in front of the fire. "They're stupid enough to do what they're told even if he won't tell them what he's up to... but he doesn't want them to be seen lurking around outside the Room of Requirement, so he's got them taking Polyjuice to make them look like other people... Those two girls I saw him with when he missed Quidditch — ha! Crabbe and Goyle!"

I felt my face heat up at the memory of reading about Draco's mischievousness. "Wait, so they weren't—"

"He might be a git, but at least he's not a cheating prat," Hermione sounded.

"I wish I knew what he was up to," Harry paced.

"I'm going to go find out," I shout up and slipped on the shoes I had discarded.

"I'm coming—"

"No," I stopped him. "No Invisibility Cloaks, no following, nothing. Let me talk to him, I can figure it out! He trusts me."

I left the common room, through the portrait hole, but not before hearing Harry bitterly say, "wow, and she still trusts him."

From the Gryffindor Tower, I had to go down two floors, across the castle, and then up three just to get to the area where the Room of Requirements was located. Although the Room of Requirements was hidden, it was pretty easy to find with two big oafs pacing in front of where the door should be.

"What are you doing here?"

"What'cha standing guard for?" I asked them.

"We're not standing guard," Goyle scoffed.

"You are a horrible liar. Where's Draco?"

"Ah, the tramp wants to—"

"Say that again," I raised my wand to Goyle's face.

"Put your wand down, Harring," Crabbe called from next to me.

"I'm leaving anyway," I lowered my wand and walked around the corner, out of their view.