𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 (𝟐) || HARRY POTTER LOVE STORY

26

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Julie chose seats as far as possible from Percy in the common room that night.

Ron was still in a very bad temper and kept blotting his Charms homework. When he reached absently for his wand to remove the smudges, it ignited the parchment. Fuming almost as much as his homework, Ron slammed The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2 shut.

"Who can it be, though?" Julie asked in a quiet voice, starting a new conversation while shutting her book. "Who'd want all the Squibs and Muggle-borns out of Hogwarts?"

"Let's think" said Ron in mock puzzlement. "Who do we know who thinks Muggle-borns are scum?"

Julie looked at Ron, unconvinced.

"You think it's Malfoy?" she asked.

"Of course" said Ron. "You heard him: 'You'll be next, Mudbloods!' Come on, you've only got to look at his foul rat face to know it's him-"

"Malfoy, the heir of Slytherin?" said Hermione sceptically, while shutting her book.

"Look at his family" said Harry, closing his book too. "The whole lot of them have been in Slytherin, he's always boasting about it. They could easily be Slytherin's descendants. His father's definitely evil enough!"

"They could've had the key to the Chamber of Secrets for centuries!" said Ron. "Handing it down, father to son..."

"Well" said Hermione cautiously "I suppose it's possible..."

"But how do we prove it?" askd Harry darkly.

"There might be a way" said Hermione slowly, dropping her voice still further with a quick glance across the room at Percy. "Of course, it would be difficult. And dangerous, very dangerous. We'd be breaking about fifty school rules."

"I expect' If, in a month or so, you feel like explaining, you will let us know, won't you?" said Ron irritably.

"All right" said Hermione coldly. "What we'd need to do is to get inside the Slytherin common room and ask Malfoy a few questions without him realising it's us."

"But that's impossible" Harry said, as Ron laughed.

"No, it's not" Julie whispered quietly, realising what she meant. "Mione, we'd definitely be expelled if someone found out-"

"I know, but-" Hermione said but was cut off.

"Will somebody please tell us what you're talking about" Ron said impatiently.

"Polyjuice Potion!" Hermione and Julie said at the same time.

"What's that?" asked Ron and Harry together.

"Snape mentioned it in class a few weeks ago-"

"D'you think we've got nothing better to do in Potions than listen to Snape?" muttered Ron.

"It transforms you into somebody else. Think about it! We could change into four of the Slytherins. No one would know it was us. Malfoy would probably tell us anything. He's probably boasting about it in the Slytherin common room right now, if only we could hear him..." Hermione said.

"This Polyjuice stuff sounds a bit dodgy to me" said Ron, frowning. "What if we were stuck looking like four of the Slytherins for ever?"

"It wears off after a while" Julei said, waving her hand impatiently "but getting hold of the recipe will be very difficult. Snape said it was in a book called Most Potente Potions. It's probably in the Restricted Section of the library!"

There was only one way to get out a book from the Restricted Section: you needed a signed note of permission from a teacher.

"Hard to see why we'd want the book, really" said Ron, "if we weren't going to try and make one of the potions." 

"I think" said Hermione, "that if we made it sound as though we were just interested in the theory, we might stand a chance..."

"Oh, come on, no teacher's going to fall for that." said Ron. "They'd have to be really thick..."

"Then we stand a chance" Julie said, thinking about a certain teacher.