Harry Potter and the Prince of Slytherin

Chapter 7: Meet The Visitors

25 October 1994
The Great Hall
3:00 p.m.

"You ready for this?" muttered Harry Black.

"Please," Draco Malfoy answered contemptuously. "Is anyone ever ready for the sort of business we keep getting up to?"

Harry sighed at the truth of the statement before opening the door to the Great Hall so that the two could slip inside. No one seemed to notice their late arrival, as the attention of most of those present in the Hall was fixed on an open area in the center of the room, where a group of burly boys in brown uniforms were engaged in what appeared to be strenuous calisthenics while occasionally spitting out gouts of flame from their mouths. However, their arrival was not completely unnoticed.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in a loud whisper as she drew near. "Where have you two been?"

"We were off ... doing stuff," he said. Hermione frowned. "Stuff" was often Harry's shorthand codeword for Azkabal-related business. "Have we missed the Frog Choir?" he added.

"No, it's up next."

"Damn!" he spat angrily.

"Never mind the Frog Choir. I mean, do mind the Frog Choir because Neville is in it, and we should support him. But right now, I need to talk to you two. Well, mainly you, Draco Malfoy!"

Draco was nonplussed. "Me? What did I do?!"

"You pulled strings to get me assigned as chaperone to a Quidditch star who is constantly surrounded by an entourage of screaming fangirls. And fanboys! I don't even like Quidditch!"

Both boys gave her looks suggesting that admission represented her single greatest character flaw.

"Okay, Hermione," Draco said, "just come out into the hall and I'll explain things."

"Use a Muffliato," Harry said as he scanned the room for Rita Skeeter in either her human or insectoid form. "You never know who might be listening in."

Draco scowled at that before taking Hermione by the arm and pulling her outside. Meanwhile, Harry finally found the person he was looking for: Severus Snape, who stood on the far side of the Hall, clapping perfunctorily for the Durmstrang pyromancy drill team with an utter lack of enthusiasm.

Harry also noted that he was standing quite near Igor Karkaroff, the Durmstrang Headmaster, but the two wizards (and former Death Eaters) were somehow managing to completely ignore one another while simultaneously conveying seething contempt for one another. Meanwhile, both of them were studiously ignoring Alastor Moody, who stood just behind them, presumably so that he would be in a position to intervene if either of the "dark wizards" dared show his true colors. Harry managed to make eye contact with Snape and then thought very loudly "Problem." Snape nodded slightly and then turned and made his way to the nearest exit. Harry followed, making his way as quickly as he could through the throng of excitable teens while trying to avoid being set on fire by some overexcited Slavic wizard.

Meanwhile ...

"Okay, can you do the Muffle-thingy?" Draco asked. "I don't actually know that Charm."

"Muffliato, and of course I can."

Seconds later, the Sound-Cancelling Charm was up, and Hermione was studying Draco's expression. He seemed very on edge, even more so than when they'd met over the summer and his father had dumped everything about the Azkabal—the Azkaban breakout, Horcruxes, Regulus and Bellatrix being alive—on him all at once after swearing him to secrecy.

"Now then ... stuff?" she asked, but Draco just shook his head.

"Sorry, but right now, I'm too paranoid to trust even your special anti-eavesdropping Charm. There is someone ... flittering about who has a power that lets her spy on people and that can defeat most security Charms. Talk to Harry about all that later. He has the means to detect her."