Professor Snape's explanation of Draco's narrow escape from Black's clutches made it sound even worse than Draco had been meaning to make it sound. Draco sat stiff-backed and proud under the headmaster's eye, mind clear except for what had been running through his head when faced with Black threatening him with his own wand.
I need to say whatever I have to say to get out of this.
Draco explained, when prompted, almost everything Black had said in his ramble about Pettigrew and murdering Pettigrew and everything being his fault. The headmaster's face grew grave, especially at the description of the rat and the photograph Draco had been shown in the Daily Prophet of the rat and the Weasleys in Egypt.
"This has gone on long enough," was Professor Snape's contribution. "Surely you must see now that they were all involved, in one way or another. Let me question him."
"I think I will do that, Severus. You may witness, if you like."
"That would be appreciated, headmaster," Snape said stiffly.
"Is there anything else you want to tell me, Draco?" the headmaster said, twinkling at him. It reminded Draco of a snitch, which reminded him of the feel of pouncing on mice with his paws and bearing down. Snap of teeth, breaking bone.
Draco shook his head, more because he could tell he was nervous when he started fantasizing about going hunting than because he remembered the question.
"Shall we call it 25 points from Slytherin for putting yourself in unnecessary danger and reckless use of Animagus transformation... and 50 points to Slytherin for quick thinking in a dangerous situation?"
Dumbledore thought he was very clever. Draco bowed shortly, and made himself scarce.
"Fawkes, if you would fetch Remus for me," he heard the headmaster saying.
They were probably going to institute a search. Well, Draco would do his own searching, later. He'd more or less given his word to try to locate Pettigrew, and while he didn't feel any particular attachment to promises made to a disaster like Black, the plausible deniability of attempting to keep his word appealed to him. After all, then it wouldn't be his fault if he failed. Pettigrew was supposedly an adult wizard, after all.
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Draco had time to think over dinner and pumpkin juice. If he was, for once, unusually quiet, none of his classmates commented, which was just as he liked it. Most of the staff were missing from the head table, apparently scrambled to deal with the new problem of another dark wizard running around Hogwarts unchecked. It was good to have incompetent enemies, but really, why they hadn't fired Dumbledore before now.
Black wanted Pettigrew, and would rescue Buckbeak in return.
Professor Snape wanted Black, and Pettigrew was an afterthought.
Professor Dumbledore wanted Black and Pettigrew, and wanted Draco to stay out of it.
Pettigrew, presumably, wanted to avoid everyone on the aforementioned list because they wanted to throw him to the Dementors, but might possibly have a soft spot for Ronald Weasley.
Ronald Weasley probably wanted his rat back, come to think of it.
Harry Potter wanted Black dead, but Harry was, as usual, ignorant.
Draco wanted the hippogriff rescued, preferably in a way he could blame on Hermione Granger or Harry Potter. Other than that, he wanted this all sorted out before exams and in a way that no one felt the need to inform his father he was mucking around with disgraced Death Eaters and mass murderers. He also wanted the Dementors out of his school already.
So. The fastest solution to this problem was to find Pettigrew and... fight him? No, that was stupid. Warn him to get out of the school, because everyone was onto him. Tell him he had to get out of the country, give him a little pocket money for travel... directions to the nearest Muggle train station? Let Black know what direction he'd gone so they could have their big confrontation someplace else, and Draco could sit his exams in peace.
Kill Pettigrew if the opportunity came up, probably. It's not as if anyone would miss him, and there were some curses Draco had been curious about trying that couldn't be solved by the hospital wing....
It was self defense, sir! Draco rehearsed in his head, and smiled.
Now, let's see. What could he add to this situation to attain maximum chaos. The headmaster was the most tricky part of this whole plan, but there was only one of him....
Draco's gaze slid around the great hall and settled firmly on Ronald Weasley and Harry Potter. Yes, that would be perfect.