Draco pulled himself further into the dark niche created by a well-placed statue of a big-nosed warlock. He could hear footsteps coming closer, he knew Pansy must be on her way to meet with Skeeter. She'd made the mistake of telling him that Skeeter used some sort of small animagus form to enter Hogwarts and that they liked to meet in the old potions storeroom in the dungeons. Tonight he'd overheard her telling Daphne that she would be late to the library, she'd said she had to talk to someone.
He'd quite purposefully not mentioned That Skeeter was an animagus to Black. He didn't want it to become common knowledge, and he was sure she'd tell all her friends. And one of them would tell a responsible adult, and then he'd lose his chance to catch that nasty woman. Because someone would think to put up an anti-animagus ward rather than trap her.
He supposed that there wasn't already an animagus ward because this was a school and some seventh year transfiguration students liked to try working on it. Not to mention McGonagall and her cat trick.
No, it was better if only he knew until he caught her.
He'd meant what he said, once something was shared, it can't be unshared. He'd made the mistake of trusting Pansy not to share his secrets. She'd failed him. He was pretending he didn't know at the moment, keeping her close.
But once he caught Skeeter...
Well, let's just say Pansy was going to rue the day she betrayed him.
He felt a pang of pain at the thought. He'd really liked Pansy. He could hold real conversations with her, unlike Crabbe and Goyle. And she always had interesting comments about other students.
His father would probably tell him to keep her close, don't let her know he didn't trust her, and then use her. But he couldn't stomach the thought. Maybe he had too much of his mother in him, but he disliked the idea of even pretending to forgive a betrayer.
No, Pansy had destroyed their friendship. And he refused to forgive her.
She walked right past him, her stride confident. She didn't even look around as she slipped into the old storeroom just down the hall from his hiding place.
The door shut with a small click and he cautiously moved closer so he could hear what was said.
"Miss Parkinson, so lovely to see you again. Any more delightful tidbits for me?"
"Why did you portray Draco that way? He had no interest in going to the Yule Ball with Black. You were supposed to write an article on how stupid and ridiculous arranged marriages are! And imply it would be dangerous for all parties involved. Not directly attack Black and paint Draco as a dutifully lovesick lapdog!"
"Why, Miss Parkinson, what do you care if I attacked Black? I thought you hated her?"
"I do! But what you insinuated... Don't you understand what they could do to her?!?"
"So?"
"So!?! So?!? It's atrocious! It's one thing to willingly lock your magic, but quite another to have the choice taken from you!"
"I don't quite see the difference. After all, every pureblood girl does it. And quite a few half-bloods."
"Of course you wouldn't! Your parents are mudbloods! You're almost one yourself! What would you understand about family magic?"
"Be careful, Miss Parkinson. The quill is mightier than the wand."
Draco slipped his hand inside his open robes, finding the pocket he had sewn there. He didn't think Skeeter would attack Pansy, but he wanted to be prepared.
Obviously, Pansy hadn't meant to betray him. She'd just been too stupid to understand the ramifications of her actions. He felt a brief pang of jealousy for Black and her group of friends. Potter and the Weasels may not have been the smartest, but they were at least intelligent enough to bring plans to Black or Lovegood before they acted on their own.
Luckily Crabbe and Goyle never had ideas.
Now he had to team up with Black to clean up this mess Pansy made. His father was probably already on a warpath at the Daily Prophet.
And his mother...
She was likely already picking out wedding colors.
Obviously it wasn't Pansy being quoted in the article. He wondered who it was. He needed to find that out.
"True, but I can use words just as well as you Skeeter. One letter to my father and you'll be in terrible trouble for being an illegal animagus. Not to mention all of the future spying possibilities you'll miss out on."
"Now, Miss Parkinson, I'm sure we can come to an arrangement. There's no need to reveal that."
"There's no need if you stop this nonsense and recant this article."
"Is that the only deal you'll take?"
"Yes."
"Fine, I'll recant the article and find other things to sell papers. Now, did you bring me any information?"
"Yes, it turns out Zabini's mother is on the look out for a new husband. And she still has a current one. Blaise said..."
Draco tuned her out and moved back to the statue of the warlock. He didn't believe Skeeter. And that meant he had to catch her.
He pulled out a sturdy glass jar he'd just charmed today. She had to be a very small animagus to get into the dungeons undetected. So he was guessing some kind of insect or a rodent.
Unless she was a giant rat she'd fit in the jar.
Merlin, Pansy was possibly a bigger idiot than the Weasels if she believed Skeeter would give in so easily. She had to have something up her sleeve. Perhaps some dirt on Pansy's father. Maybe he even knew Skeeter was an illegal animagus and it was more useful to keep the secret than keep his daughter happy.
He knew all about parents picking others over you.
His father had missed his eleventh birthday, the last one he had at home, to meet with Fudge for dinner. His mother had been livid.
But his mother was now doing it too. Honestly, did she really think Black deserved him? He freely admitted she was a talented witch, and she was a Black more than a mud-. His thoughts froze, he wondered if thinking the word counted.
Better to be safe than sorry.
She was more of a Black than a muggleborn, but that didn't mean it was acceptable for a Malfoy to marry her. After all, their motto was Tourjours Pur. Always Pure.
And marrying a muggleborn adopted into a pureblood family had to be against that.
The door began to open and Draco pushed himself back into the niche. Pansy was sure to leave-
"Oh, Miss Parkinson. One more thing."
"Yes?"
"Obliviate!"
Draco couldn't help it. He gasped in shock and almost dropped the jar.
He hadn't been expecting that tactic.
The dungeon was filled with such silence for a moment that it was if all sound had been obliviated with that spell.
And then the small sound of insect wings cut through.
Years of playing quidditch was the only thing that saved Draco's plan.
He didn't even think.
His feet moved forwards and his hand snapped forwards, closing around the small, buzzing beetle. A second later and it was in the jar, the lid screwed tight.
He was, after all, the second best seeker at Hogwarts. Only Potter had ever beaten him to the snitch, and he'd spent all summer practicing to fix that, only to have quidditch canceled.
But catching Skeeter after she just mind-raped his friend, albeit his well-meaning but idiotic friend, more than made up for it.
"Draco? What are you doing? And why are we here?"
He slipped the jar into his bag and turned to look at Pansy, standing in the doorway.
This was going to complicate things. He'd planned to keep Skeeter trapped for awhile. Make sure she understood things. Then take her to Black and work out the rest of the details.
But now...
It all depended on how much Pansy had lost. Because if it was more than this past conversation he couldn't let her go without help. She might have stupidly betrayed him, but she'd done it with good intentions. And he didn't have enough friends he could throw them away. Even if he was extremely angry at her right now.
He sighed, so mich for getting that Transfiguration paper written before curfew.
"Pansy, what's the last thing you remember?"
"I don't...." She frowned, wrinkling up her pug-like nose.
"What's your last CLEAR memory?"
"I think... Yes, that's it. I was walking back from visiting Heidi on the Durmstrang ship. I was borrowing some of her makeup for the ball. Then I saw...something. I don't know what. Everything after that is hazy. What day is it?"
Draco said a word that would terribly upset his mother.
Skeeter had apparently tried to erase all knowledge of her animagus form, but she'd failed to understand just how much Pansy would dwell on a problem or a new piece of information. Which meant she'd erased over three weeks worth of memories.
Did he have to be surrounded by idiots? It was as if the only competent person that was part of his life was Black. And wasn't that a terrible thought?
"Draco, what's going on?"
Pansy was beginning to look more scared than confused and he felt a pang of pity for his well-meaning - if incompetent - friend. It wasn't her fault she wasn't as clever as she thought she was.
Not everyone could be him.
"The Yule Ball was three weeks ago."
Her jaw dropped, "THREE WEEKS? What in Merlin's Beard did you do!?!"
"I didn't do a bloody thing. But I'm about to."
He settled his bag more carefully on his shoulder and then grabbed her wrist. Luckily she was still in a state of shock, so she failed to fight or protest as he dragged her out of the dungeon and off to possibly the only other competent person in the entire castle.
Merlin, he hated the fact that that person was Black.
But at least she was better than Potter.
He shoved open the old classroom's door and stopped in his tracks, Pansy letting out a small squeak as she ran into him.
Black wasn't alone this time.
The entire bloody Ottery St. Catchpole group was here. Plus Longbottom.
The Weaselette was sitting with Lovegood, working on what looked like an essay. Potter was reading some old book and taking notes. The Weasel was next to him, and he was poking at what was likely supposed to be a dancing quill - it looked more like it was having a seizure.
And Black was sitting with her face to the door. For some reason it struck him as particularly interesting that her tongue was sticking out and she appeared to be in deep thought. She was looking over an essay, Longbottom's he was guessing, from the fact that the boy was watching her with a worried expression.
He took all of this in with a single glance. Since as soon as Pansy squeaked they all looked up. Potter and Black drew their wands as they did so.
It was a little spooky how quickly those wands were trained on him.
Apparently he'd heard correctly about their training sessions with Sirius Black.
Black started to lower her wand when she saw it was him, but froze when he stepped into the room, revealing Pansy behind him.
"Why is she with you?"
He phrased his next words very carefully.
"Because circumstances have changed and I think WE need to reevaluate the situation."
She caught the emphasis he put on the word 'we' and relaxed a bit, though she didn't lower her wand.
Nor did Potter.
He let go of Pansy's wrist and pulled his bag open. He grabbed the jar and then walked over to the desk in front of Black. Ignoring the wands trained on him, he plunked the jar down, enjoying the way the beetle skittered around rather angrily.
Black eyed the jar skeptically.
"Are you implying this beetle is Skeeter?"
"Not implying, I know it is. She transformed right after she obliviated the past few weeks from Pansy's memory."
Black eyes flew away from the beetle and landed on Pansy, measuring her, before moving to meet his eyes.
"Are you saying she has no idea she betrayed you?"
Pansy let out a quite audible gasp.
"Yes, and I want it fixed. It's hard to be angry at someone that doesn't remember what they did to make you angry."
A snicker cut through the room and he threw a glare over at the Weasel. He wasn't in the mood to be laughed at.
"I betrayed Draco? But... I would never!" Pansy said, a hint of panic in her voice. "Black! This has to all be your fault! What did you do?!?"
"Hermione didn't do anything. You're the one that told Rita Skeeter about Mrs. Malfoys marriage plans and helped her write this nasty article." The Weaselette dug around in her bag and pulled out a folded piece of newspaper, which she then stuck rather forcefully in Pansy's face.
And while Draco liked Pansy more than any Weasel, he took a great deal of pleasure in the look on Pansy's face as she narrowly avoided having the paper hit her nose.
Pansy snatched the paper and began to silently read it.
"Malfoy, is this really Skeeter?"
He turned back to look at Black. "Yes, just look at the markings around the eyes."
The Gryffindors and Lovegood crowded around the jar, checking out the markings. After a moment, Black pulled out of the circle and came up to him.
"How did you find out she was an animagus?"
"I was in an unused part of the dungeon, eavesdropping on Pansy and Skeeter, when Skeeter obliviated Pansy, then a beetle flew past. Not many beetles in the dungeon - alive that is - so I snagged her."
"And you just happened to be carrying an unbreakable jar with you?"
He shrugged, "I was prepared for all possibilities."
"So what else did you come prepared with?"
He opened his mouth, then realized he had no clue what else he could've been prepared to find. He'd been completely certain she was an animagus, so had failed to think of other methods she could have used to sneak into Hogwarts. He really needed to plan ahead better when dealing with Black. She wasn't like his friends, she didn't take him at his word.
"Do you really need to know?"
"No, but I think you lied to me yesterday when you said you didn't know how she came into the castle."
"Information, once shared, can't be unshared," he took refuge in one of his father's favorite sayings.
"Oh, don't give me that. You were going to tell me eventually anyway. It wouldn't have hurt you to share it yesterday. We were supposed to be working on this together."
"No, you tasked me with stopping Skeeter. Far as I can tell you aren't working on anything."
She tried to raise one eyebrow at him, but the other one tagged along for part of the way, ruining the effect.
"Draco Lucius Malfoy I am NOT doing nothing!" She gestured at a massive stack of books near where she had been sitting. "I've been ignoring my schoolwork and doing research on family magic. Preparing a defense in case the worst occurs. Padfoot is working with our family friends on his end to stop it, but nothing is certain. Besides, I'm not a Slytherin, it's not like I could easily spy on Parkinson to catch Skeeter."
She had a point. And heaven knew, if her magic was bound and the Black family line ended his mother would be impossible to live with. Which would make his father grumpy, and that would mean he'd see him even less. Maybe it was in his best interest to let her do her research.
Not that he'd tell her that.
"Okay, fine, I could do a better job of catching Skeeter. I did that. Now what? I'm not letting her getting away with attacking Pansy."
"I thought you were angry at Pansy for betraying you. You seemed pretty sure yesterday you wouldn't forgive her."
He sighed, "Apparently she was more of an idiot than a traitor. She expected Skeeter to write a different article. She was actually demanding Skeeter recant the article - which is why she's like this."
He made a gesture at Pansy, who looked to be almost finished with the article. She seemed completely appalled at it's contents.
"I find that hard to believe. You weren't portrayed that negatively in there."
"I think you're misunderstanding what part she took umbrage with."
"Oh Merlin!" Pansy exclaimed, her hands tightening on the paper, crumpling it up. She looked over at Black, her face full of disbelief. "I did this? Black, I'm so sorry! What...what she's implying...what they could do to you...the loss of choice..."
The room hung silent for a moment, Black looked totally lost for words.
"Blimey. I've seen it all now," the Weasel exclaimed.
"Everyone has a limit. No one is pure evil," Lovegood remarked.
Draco found those words to be very true, but didn't quite like what they implied.
"I'd say Voldemort is pure evil," Potter said.
"Point," the Weaselette said.
"I'd say Skeeter may not be pure evil, but she is rather close. It takes something pretty nasty to delete part of someone, just to sell more newspapers." Longbottom said, making Draco look at him in surprise. He rarely heard the boy speak. It was said he hated talking, which is why he preffered plants to people. Or at least Slytherins said that. Maybe he was different when Slytherins weren't around.
"So what do we do now? We can't keep Skeeter in a jar forever," Potter asked.
"Aw, but I've always wanted a pet. And if it's an evil one I won't mind when the twins do things to it," the Weasel said.
That drew some snickers and smiles. Even Draco felt himself smile. The idea of letting the doppelgangers loose on Skeeter....
Sadly, that wasn't really an option.
"I think we need to go to a teacher. We can't let Parkinson live without her memories. And none of us know enough about mind magic to help her," Black stated.
"I suppose you think we should go to Dumbledore?" Draco asked.
She shook her head, her hair moving in such a way that he found himself staring at it. Watching how it trailed over he shoulder and fell across her face. She absently pushed it back behind her ear.
"No, Dumbledore is a great man, but he tends to like to keep things like this quiet. And we don't need quiet. We need Skeeter prosecuted and her articles called into doubt. So no one can use any information she's gathered as evidence. I think we should go to Snape."
His eyes flew to meet hers in surprise. Her usually soft brown eyes were as hard as stone. He remembered what he'd once thought about Black confusing justice and revenge.
He almost felt sorry for Skeeter. She'd attacked the wrong person.
"What! Snape?" Potter exclaimed.
"Harry, I know he hates you, but he loves his little snakes. I'm sure you can see that. Once he learns someone snuck into Hogwarts and hurt one of his own..."
Black trailed off as everyone stared at her in shock.
"Blimey, Hermione. I'm glad we're on the same side."
For once, Draco found himself agreeing with the Weasel. He hadn't even thought of going to Professor Snape.
But now that she'd said something it sounded ridiculously obvious.
Hadn't his father told him to go to Professor Snape if he ever had a problem and didn't have time to send an owl home?
"I shouldn't go with you. Snape hates my guts since I look like my father and not my mother," Potter said.
Draco sensed an interesting story there, but didn't ask, he could look into it later, once he dealt with more important things. He might even be able to ask Black, if she was in an amiable mood and it wasn't a huge secret. And if it was a huge secret...
Well, then he'd definitely have to find it out.
"You're right, Harry. I think I should go with, and Neville too. Snape pays a lot less attention to him than any of the rest of us." Black grabbed the jar and slipped in her own bag. Draco wanted to protest, but didn't have an good enough reason that wouldn't lead to a pointless, time wasting argument.
The Weaselette spoke, "Are you sure it's smart to go, 'Mione? Doesn't he hate you almost as much as Harry? Because of Padfoot?"
Now he really wanted to hear that story.
"Yes, but I'm intimately involved with this situation. I doubt Snape knew about Mrs. Malfoy's matrimonial ambitions for Malfoy and me. Also, I want to know what he decides to do, I don't want to hear about it second-hand."
"Don't you trust me to tell it accurately?" Longbottom asked.
Black flushed, "Well, yes, but..."
"But Hermione likes primary sources. It helps her make sense of the world. Not that it really ever makes sense," Lovegood answered. Cutting Black off.
Draco had no idea what primary sources were, but he assumed it meant hearing information from the original source.
"Are we going to go see Professor Snape now? It's not getting any earlier and I'd like to be able to spend part of tonight studying," Draco said, trying to get them moving. Since Black had Skeeter he couldn't just leave.
"Point," Black said, "Let's go."
The four of them left the room, leaving the Weasels, Lovegood and Potter behind.
"Why did you say 'point' back there? The Weaselette said it earlier, too," Draco asked Black as they made their way down a spiral staircase. Longbottom was walking behind them with Pansy, who still looked incredibly shocked and out of it.
"Really, Malfoy, the Weaselette?" she said.
He shrugged, "You hang out with two people with the same last name and I have to get creative. I'm certainly not going to call her Ginny. I barely know her."
"Okay, point."
"There you go again."
"Oh, sorry, it's just a thing we do in our family." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a strange reddish coin. "We carry these coins. They can be set to track certain things. Uncle Remus got the idea from the Hogwarts House points system. We used them in lessons to keep track of behavior and right answers and such. It's a complicated bit of magic, but it tracks when you say 'point' and who you're referring to. The adults even started doing it. We have a chart at home that is kept magically updated. It also adds new names, so you're now on it. We reset it on Christmas. And the winner gets an extra Christmas gift from everyone else. We did more when we were younger."
He felt a little odd knowing his name was on something in her home, but the entire idea was interesting. It suited his sense of competition. He casually jumped over one of the trick steps, she followed him.
"So shouldn't I have gotten a point for catching Skeeter?"
"Point."
He grinned at that, and noticed that she smiled a bit too.
This was getting weird.
"Ah!"
He jumped and turned around to see Longbottom holding Pansy's arm. Stopping her from falling on her face as her foot passed right through the now disappeared step.
She looked even more shaken than before. He started to come back up the steps.
"You alright, Pans?"
She reached out and gripped Longbottom's arm with both of her hands and shifted so that she was now standing on her own two feet.
"I-I'm fine. Let's just go."
And for the first time in his life, Draco deliberately decided not to punish Pansy for stupidly betraying him. She'd been punished enough.
They continued on their way to Professor Snape's office with no more conversation. He thought about asking Black why Snape hated her dad so much, but he had a feeling it wasn't the right time.
Interestingly, Pansy held onto Longbottom's arm until Black knocked very sharply on Professor Snape's door.
And, even more interestingly, Longbottom didn't seem to mind at all.