6

* * * September 21, 1997 * * *

"Dray! Perfect timing! You gotta see this!" Blaise had apparently walked out of his dormitory just as Draco had entered the Slytherin common room.

"I hope it's funny," he said, following Blaise back into the dormitory. "Granger's got the suite like a funeral parlor. She must be on the rag; she just sits around moping in the common room all the time."

Blaise shook his head in empathetically. "Can't even be bothered to keep it in her own room, eh?" Draco scoffed. "Bitch," he continued. "Well, this'll put a smile on your face. Check out this shit." He waved toward the bed, and Draco took a seat, already grinning in anticipation.

Blaise locked and warded the door, then, with a gleefully conspiratorial grin, removed several wards on his trunk and took out a stoppered glass decanter. "I've been working on this for almost a year," he chortled, pouring out a single drop of the potion into a cup of water. "My granddad helped. He had this Charm, see, that he used to use at Hogwarts. He said he got it from someone else, it's been handed down... Anyway, it's for spying. You recite the incantation in front of any little hole--a crack in the wall, or a keyhole--and it works like a projector, making the image in the hole big enough that you can sit back comfortably and watch it."

I knew I could count on you, Draco thought warmly. "Oh, this ought to be rich."

"Not so fast!" laughed Blaise. He began pointing his wand at the wall sconces and extinguishing the candles. "Here's the thing: There were a bunch of conditions for the Charm to work. Your room had to be darker than the room you were watching--otherwise it would backfire and they would see you. And there had to be a hole to look through, with a clear view. Obviously, it's not much better than putting your eye to the keyhole in the first place. So I thought I'd try to modify it... and voila!"

Blaise had been swirling the drop of potion into the cup of water as he spoke, and he tossed the contents onto the bedroom wall with a splash. Taking his wand, he Noxed the last candle and murmured an incantation. The wall began to wave and shimmer like a hot road on a summer day. Within a few seconds, it was transparent, affording them a view of Millicent Bulstrode hunched over her desk scribbling on parchment, as Pansy Parkinson stretched prone on her bed reading a magazine.

"MotherFUCK, man, you're a genius!" crowed Draco. They exchanged a high five and Draco put him in a headlock and gave him a noogie, just for good measure. Laughing, they both flopped onto Knott's bed and piled up pillows behind them to watch the show. "We need to send out for some crisps or something."

"Next time," said Blaise. "I haven't had a chance to see if the potion puts an end to that business of backfiring if the room is too bright. Rather tricky to set it up, and I don't want to leave it on and go round to another room. Maybe you and I can test it later. But I suspect it works all right, because this method also lets in sound as well, and I know for sure that only goes one way."

"We can hear them?" Draco whispered.

"Just wait," Blaised laughed. "But they don't hear us, any more than whatever normally leaks through the walls."

Draco was truly impressed. "You need to patent this, man! You'll make a fortune!"

Blaise's smile faltered slightly. "I can't. The potion's not mine--I got it from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. All I did was combine it with the incantation, with a few modifications. But I might try to sell them the spell; all the potion does by itself is make temporary holes in doors so you can sneak out without opening the thing."

Draco nodded. "Still brilliant. You're an innovator, my friend."

"Tell me about it! I feel like I've created my legacy for the wizarding world. I just wish Pansy had a prettier roommate. Millie gets a bit dull after a few seconds."

Even though the girls did nothing in particular, it was immensely fun to sit and watch them. Pansy finished her magazine and rolled onto her back. "Anything good?" asked Millie, without looking up from her parchment.

"Eh, the usual," said Pansy. "It's practically all Harry and Ron."

"Any decent photographs?"

Pansy frowned, then took up the tabloid and flipped through it again. "A couple were all right." She tore out a page and handed it to her roommate who appraised it while she rifled the pages some more.

"Not bad," murmered Millie. "A bit humdrum. The Italian magazines are always better." Pansy nodded, ripping out another page.

Draco and Blaise eyed each other in disbelief as Millie took the second page and eyed it more carefully. "Say, this one's pretty hot!"

"You can keep it," said Pansy. "You're the Ron fan, after all."

Millie scribbled on the wall over her desk with her wand to create a Sticking Charm and posted the picture. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Pansy laughed. "No, no, it's just... I like my men dark and handsome, not freckled and gangly." Millie rewarded her insolence by grabbing a small stuffed hippogriff from her own bed and sending it flying into Pansy's head, making her laugh even harder. "Oh, now, that doesn't change a thing!" she giggled.

Scoffing, Millie added a stuffed Kneazel to the assault. "What can I say? I like a man I can break in half if I ever need to," she said with a shrug.

Pansy sighed loudly and hugged the toys to her chest. "What idiots we've been, Mil. All that time they were right here and we never even gave them a second look. Shite! He sat right behind me in Potions."

Millie rolled her eyes as though she'd been through this argument before. "He hasn't always been hot. And what were you going to do, jump him right there under Snape's nose? You'd be Our Lady of Perpetual Detention. You just want him because for the first time ever, there's no way you could have him, Pans."

"That's not true!" she said with a pout. Draco knew that tone; it was the only warning he ever received before she ripped him a new one. Millie, however, was either too thick to notice or too ballsy to care. She simply gave Pansy a provocative glare, daring her to prove otherwise.

When her voice came out an octave lower than usual, Draco reflexively braced for impact. "Mum has tickets for the luncheon they're doing in Prague next month, and I'm going." Millie dropped her quill and gave Pansy her full attention. "It's true. We're sitting only once removed from the head table. I'm going to get close to Harry, and when I do, I'm going to tell him I'll give him anything he wants."

"Pans, you have to bring me, too."

Turning her nose up even further, Pansy gave Millie a sour look. "You don't say? Well, Mum did reserve the entire table... but she's got people to bring, too."

Millie turned so hard her chair seemed on the verge of torquing into a twisted pile of rubble. "You have a TABLE? Omighod, Pans, PLEASE! You have to let me come! You just have to! Whatever you want, it's yours. That emerald necklace I have. I'll do all your homework for the whole year. I'll Polyjuice myself and do that thing with Malfoy that you hate!"

Draco's stomach clenched into one-onehundredth of its former size.

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Oh, right! That's what got him started in the first place! No, thanks, girlfriend; you'll probably just teach him some other disgusting trick that I'll be stuck with."

Looking genuinely apologetic, Millie began to plead in earnest. "I said I was sorry about that! Blaise taught me it, you know--I thought it was just something everyone did!"

"Oh, right! Like anyone would WANT to--"

Blaise closed the viewport with a flick of his wand. "Holy fucking shit!" he said. It was just as well that the room was pitch dark; neither of them really felt like looking the other in the eye.

"I've fucked Millie Bulstrode?" Draco squeaked miserably.

"Don't go there, Dray," growled Blaise.