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runaway dragon
Disclaimer 1: Draco, his parents and teachers all belong to JKR. (As if you didn't all know that.)
Disclaimer 2: Severus Snape owning a raven belongs to J.L. Matthews. (Go read her story everybody. It's great.) I found a new name for him this time though.
Disclaimer 3: The gang name Sharks is borrowed from the musical West Side Story of course. I don't remember where I found the name Rakers, but I know I read it somewhere.
Disclaimer 4: The idea for Snape having a family comes from Al's fic Time of Trial. (Thanks Al. I always seem to get the best ideas when reading your fics.)
Disclaimer 5: The Glizzard family and Gringolf Glizzard belong to my friend Pega Pony. Thanks for letting me borrow them!
A/N - Oh well, it's a little late, a little short and ends rather abruptly, but at least I managed to write something. It's turned out rather boring though, I think.
Chapter 18: Water Bombs at Mary's
The first thing Draco did that Friday morning was to check on his potion. It still looked perfectly fine and was simmering peacefully just like it was supposed to. He checked the clock. Three more hours and he could finally turn off the burner. The room was hot enough as it was.
Draco tried to open the window to let some cool morning air in, but was greeted by another wave of heat. This was a day to go swimming in the lake, not clean the Snapes' bedroom, but there wasn't much chance for that unless he got his punishment done first. Maybe he could manage, if he got started right away.
So Draco rushed to the bathroom to wash and get dressed. First order of business: Vacuum the living room. He already had the vacuum cleaner out and plugged in when Sarah intervened reminding him of breakfast.
"Oh, I'm not that hungry." Draco tried to overlook the slight grumbling of his stomach at the mention of food. "I can wait till lunch."
"No you can't!" insisted Sarah. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. You need to give your body some energy for all the work it's supposed to do today. Now sit down and eat!"
Draco sighed. There was nothing he could do or say to convince her when she took that tone. So he sat down and crammed some toast into his mouth hurriedly while Sarah went on another rant about skipping meals and how unhealthy it was. Draco toned her out and recalculated his chances at going swimming this afternoon.
He'd have to eat lunch as well as breakfast and do the dishes after both meals, then he had to vacuum both the living room and the bedroom and the later needed cleaning up first. The small entrance room needed vacuuming as well and ...
He'd forgotten about the bathroom! He'd have to scrub that too and he doubted that Severus would let him use the vacuum cleaner for that. At least it was really tiny and seemed to consist only of tiles. They'd be easy to wash and the little cupboard in there couldn't be much of a problem either. Maybe there still was a chance he could manage to get it all done before lunch?
He was almost done with the dishes when Snape calmly set down some of the glasses he'd used for his chemical separations beside him.
"This is the last time you'll have to wash those." he said when he saw Draco's disappointed face. "I've separated all the powders I could. The rest I'll have to replace on Monday."
Draco sighed again and banished all thoughts of cool lake water and lying on tree trunks beside a scantily clothed Cathy Cat from his mind. Washing the dishes and glass objects would take up too much time, so he set his mind on finishing his chores today instead. Then he'd still have tomorrow to spend with his gang, before he went to live with Jeremiah.
Or not. He was beginning to wonder if any of his relatives would want to take him in. And what if they didn't? What would Snape do with him then?
For some strange reason chores unlike homework seemed to go faster when one was distracted. Soon Draco once again picked up the metal pipe of the vacuum cleaner. He bent down to hit the switch.
BRRRING! The doorbell? Who might be visiting them now?
Draco dropped the vacuum cleaner and went to answer the door. It was Mike.
"Sorry, I can't come out yet. I've still got to clean the entire bedroom and the bathroom."
Mike looked disappointed. "Oh, sorry about that. We didn't mean to leave you guys in there like that, but we just didn't see them in time."
"That's okay. It's not your fault we got caught."
"How's the potion coming along?" Mike whispered.
"Almost done. I'll take it off the fire in a bit and then it just needs to cool down. Do you have the balloons?"
"Larry's getting those. Turns out his little brother already has some water bombs that were left over after his birthday party last month. Larry's just got to convince him to trade."
"Jack gave his okay then?"
"Yup, Jack loves your plan. And we've even got the perfect place to attack from. They won't have the slightest chance to get at us there unless they can fly."
"Won't get there unless they can fly? Where's that then and how do we get there?"
"We'll just go in by the door." Mike grinned at Draco's startled look.
"You want to do it inside? And how do we get the Sharks to come there?"
Mike grinned some more and attempted to look mysterious then admitted. "We're going to drop them from Mary's bedroom window. It's on the second floor right beside the front door where the Sharks always walk past when they leave the house. A perfect ambush point and you can bet Mary's Mum won't let any Sharks into her flat. She's a Raker too, you know."
"Mary's Mum's a Raker?" Draco repeated confused. "But I thought adults don't care about the gangs?"
"That's what they want you to believe, but they all were kids once and they always stay loyal to their gang. It's quite normal for kids to join their parents' old gang and very rare that they join a rival gang."
"So what gang you belong to depends on what gang your parents were in?"
"In many cases, but not always. Older siblings are a lot more decisive there. Joining a different gang than your brother or sister is almost unheard of. It's something you just don't do."
"So families sort of belong to certain gangs." Draco repeated thoughtfully. The gangs reminded him more and more of the Hogwarts houses. His whole family had been in Slytherin and even though his father had been out of school for almost 30 years when Draco had started Hogwarts Lucius would never have forgiven him, if he hadn't gotten into Slytherin.
But then Draco wouldn't have forgiven himself either if he'd been sorted anywhere else. Slytherin was undoubtedly the best house. And where else should he have gone?
Ravenclaw was probably the best of the other houses, but also hopelessly boring. The Ravenclaw table in the great hall was almost disgustingly quiet during meals, because most of them had their noses buried in books even while they were eating.
Hufflepuff on the other hand was hopelessly noisy. The Hufflepuffs were chatting away constantly always hanging around in big giggling groups. It might be nice to have lots of friends, but Draco also needed his privacy. Some peace and quiet were absolutely necessary from time to time. No he wouldn't fit into a house so lively and happy all the time.
Which left Gryffindor. Self-righteous, boastful, prejudiced Gryffindor. They thought they were the greatest, absolutely perfect and good. Draco shook his head in disgust as he thought of them. What fools they were. Rushing blindly ahead without a thought of the possible consequences.
Considering how highly Uncle Severus spoke of him it was hard to believe that Dumbledore could have been a Gryffindor. Well, the sorting hat did make mistakes sometimes. Neville Longbottom was the living prove of that. He'd probably have made a great Hufflepuff, but among the noisy thoughtless Gryffindors he was completely drowned. He just couldn't keep up with them. Maybe Dumbledore was a similar case, a Slytherin accidentally put onto Gryffindor. Or maybe it was just his age that had taught him to act with more foresight.
He managed to get most of the bedroom done before lunch. He might even have finished cleaning it up if Billy hadn't thought cleaning up was a great game and decided to help. The baby's help of course consisted mostly of throwing things about he room, dragging squishy toys over to Draco to play with and wanting to be cuddled. And Draco just couldn't resist the cute little baby face.
Draco sighed as he helped Severus lay out the dishes for lunch. There was so much work still to be done. At least he'd escaped another cooking lesson. Sarah had gone to visit her sister who'd caught a bad cold and as far as Draco had understood seemed to have some kind of intolerance for pepperup potion and expected Sarah to brew her a very special cold potion instead.
Thus Uncle Severus had been left to do the cooking himself once again. He didn't seem to mind having to cook though and Draco hadn't really minded either once he'd been sure that he wouldn't have to help. Professor Snape was a fine cook even though he usually left the job to his wife.
There was only one thing that confused Draco and after puzzling over the matter for a while he decided to ask.
"Why's Sarah gone to brew that potion at her sister's? Couldn't you just have brewed it here and sent it over afterwards?"
"That's just the way Samantha is." Snape grinned at the boy. "She's a rather strange person, you know. She doesn't trust any potion that wasn't brewed by Sarah and she doesn't believe it was brewed by Sarah unless she watched her brew it. At least that's what she claims."
"What she claims?" Draco repeated thoughtfully. "And what's the real reason?"
"She's lonely, I suppose. She isn't married and Sarah is her only surviving relative. I think she makes up at least half of the trouble she always gets into just so Sarah will have to come visit her."
"Trouble?"
"For example she'll misplace her glasses and send us an owl, because now she can't see well enough to go looking for them. Don't ask how she finds ink, parchment and a quill or the string to tie the letter to the owl's leg, if she can't see enough to find her glasses. She has a very complicated way of thinking and the easiest solution usually doesn't occur to her at all."
Draco shook his head in disbelief. "How can you live with her?"
"I'm not living with her, I'm living with her sister. And actually Samantha is a very nice witch once you learn to accept her oddities. Still, I wish she'd find herself a husband to help her with all her catastrophes."
"Can Sarah brew that potion without your help? It sounds complicated."
"Sarah does not need anyone's help with brewing a simple cold potion, Draco. She's been a medical brewer longer than I've been teaching. She also knows Chemistry a lot better than I do." he added after a while. "We started muggle school together, but she got the chance to continue while I got called back to the wizarding world long before I was ready." He sighed. "Sarah's taught me a lot and I try to learn as much as I can from books, but it'll never make up for everything I missed, because of the biases of my family and a misguided war."
Misguided war? "You mean the dark lord? That was the time he started his big campaign, wasn't it? But what's your family got to do with it all?"
"Too much, Draco, too much. It's a long story, but to them much like to your father Voldemort seemed the only way and I was much too young and foolish. I didn't understand a thing."
Draco waited for his teacher to say more, make sense of all that, but nothing came. Snape just stared at his empty plate obviously far away in his thoughts. Just when Draco decided to ask, he suddenly looked up.
"I think you'd better do the dishes now. I'll put Billy in your bed for his nap so you can get on with your work." he said and went to pick up the baby.
Draco watched him cuddle Billy tightly as if to reassure himself that he was still there. What was it Snape had been thinking of?
Work continued much faster without a 'helpful' baby around and Draco was done with his cleaning long before Sarah returned. To his disappointment Severus decided that it was too late to go out and look for the gang.
"You wouldn't find them." Snape told him. "They're not down in the park and you have no idea where they went."
Draco thought the lake would be a good guess, but had to admit that there was no use in going to look for them there. He still didn't own swimming trunks and Mike wouldn't have brought his second pair. Sarah had taken 'That Dog' with her and Billy seemed more interested in Munin than Draco at the moment. Draco could have done some Math, but for some reason he was feeling too restless. Maybe he'd been locked up in the flat for too long.
"We could cook dinner." Severus finally suggested.
Draco frowned. "I can't cook. I have no idea how to work the stove."
"So? I'll tell you how it's done. Knowing how to cook is a very useful skill and it isn't difficult at all."
Well, not difficult at all for a potions master it seemed. Quite difficult for a normal fifteen year old potions student. Draco burned his fingers on the stove, almost cut himself chopping onions and almost put sugar instead of salt into the water.
"You know," Snape told him afterwards. "A little concentration would have helped a lot there."
"Maybe. I had no idea that black circle gets so hot." Draco protested. He didn't mention the near cut or the sugar. Those were things he should know from first years potion class.
"You might have guessed though. We put our cauldrons on the fire to heat the potions and put the pots on the stove to heat the food. Fire heats stuff by being hot so what did you think he stove would do?"
"Heat things by being electrical?"
"It gets hot electrically."
"Well, you still could have warned me. It hurts."
"You want me to brew you a burn potion?"
Draco thought about that. The burn wasn't really that bad, just a little red, but he felt like pouting at the moment.
"Yes!"
Severus held out a hand. "Let me take a look at that."
Drao hesitantly showed him his hand. What was he going to do with it?
Severus just took it gently and regarded the burn for a moment. "It's not that bad. You won't even feel this in about half an hour."
"No it hurts really bad. I need a potion for it."
A mischievous glow Draco had never seen before suddenly appeared in Severus' eyes. "Well, if it's that bad, I'll have to bandage it as well."
"Yes, that would be good."
"Of course you wouldn't be able to go swimming tomorrow, if I did. Maybe I should even keep you at home for a day."
"No! No, it suddenly feels a lot better." Draco dashed off into the potions lab then poked his head out once more. "You still could have warned me about the stove and I wouldn't be inured this badly now."
Severus threw a towel after him. "Rascal!"
Draco quickly ducked back inside and closed the door even though the towel could hardly harm him. He went to check on his potion which he had taken off the burner several hours ago. Remembering the hot stove he touched the cauldron very carefully, but it felt entirely cold.
Now did that assure the potion inside was cold as well? Draco wasn't sure what might happen if he put the hot potion into the bottle. With magical potions you just never knew. They might explode, shrink or expand during the cooling process.
He couldn't touch it to make sure either or he'd suffer the potions effects just like the Sharks would. Maybe he should leave it over another night? But that increased the risk that Snape would get curious and he might not have enough time to bottle it in the morning. And transporting it in two small bottles that he could stuff into his pockets was the only way he could hope to smuggle this past Severus.
In the end he decided on a compromise. He filled the bottles up after dinner then put them on the bookshelf where he hoped they were less likely to attract Snape's attention then if he'd left them on the table.
That's when he realised he'd need a funnel to get the potion into the water bombs without touching it. Did Mary's family have one the right size? Would they let him borrow it, if they did? And what if they didn't? The one he'd used to bottle the potion would be perfect, but it was too big to stuff into his pockets along with the bottles and he couldn't just carry out Severus' lab equipment in plain sight. Especially not if it was Sarah's stuff as well. She'd never let him borrow it for a prank like that even if he could convince Severus. Or was only the Chemistry stuff Sarah's?
That reminded him of something. During the separation of the powders Snape had used a pipette. Draco remembered cleaning it very well. It had been one very unpleasant task. Now he was grateful for it though. That thing was small enough to fit into his pocket easily despite all the room the bottles required. He quickly checked the old trunk that held the Chemistry equipment to see if he could find it again, then closed the trunk again. It was best not to take it out until the morning to avoid getting caught. It was quite safe lying there inside the trunk anyway.
He regarded the trunk for a while. It was pretty old and shabby, but must have been rather expensive a long time ago. Was this Uncle Severus' old school trunk? For a moment he wondered what had happened to his own trunk. What use would the ministry have for it? Well, maybe they stored potions equipment in there now.
He shrugged, so what. Jeremiah or whoever else he'd end up living with would surely buy him a new one before he went back to school.
But it would be interesting to know all the things this trunk had seen back in Severus' days at Hogwarts. He wondered if he'd been a good student. Probably yes. Severus was the greatest wizard Draco knew so school had probably been almost boring for him. Maybe he'd stored some books for extra reading at the bottom of his trunk. Or would he have had a secret stash of sweets hidden there the way Draco did to keep them from Greg and Vince's greediness? Or maybe it would have been full of potion ingredients for Severus' personal experiments? Or treats for his raven? Had he even had a raven back then? Maybe he'd had an owl or a cat.
Draco sat down beside the trunk trying to imagine what Severus' school days had been like. Maybe this trunk had even been at the muggle school with Severus. If only it could tell its story. Well, maybe he'd get a chance to ask Severus what muggle school was like someday. Right now he'd better learn his Math to make sure that he could go there someday.
Thinking about school, why hadn't this year's Hogwarts letter arrived yet? Well, maybe it was a little too early to wonder about that. After all it was still July.
Saturday morning Draco could finally go out again. The weather was still unbearably hot, but the Rakers didn't have the time to go swimming. Instead they all met on the stairs on the second floor where Bloody Mary lived. Mary's mother looked a little astonished when they all trooped through into Mary's room.
Draco realised to his surprise that the flats down here seemed to be bigger than the ones up on the fourth floor. Not much bigger, but they did have one room more. Mary shared her room with her little sister Beth who looked about twelve to Draco, but according to the Rakers was only nine. Well, ogres were huge and half ogres not much smaller.
Beth hopped up eagerly the moment they came in. She was the current leader of the Raker wannabes and probably entertaining strong hopes to be accepted into the gang soon. This had to look like a great opportunity to her.
Mary drowned that hope with a single glare though. "Scoot! We've got business here today."
With a very disappointed look Beth trudged out and slammed the door shut behind her. The Rakers turned expectant glances at Draco who pulled out the bottles and pipette.
"Is that all?" Jack asked with a sneer. "I thought we were going to hit all the Sharks with this."
"And we will." promised Draco. "A few drops of this added to the water in a water bomb will be enough." He shifted his attention to Larry. "Do you have the balloons?"
"Right here." Larry presented a small plastic bag filled with empty balloons. "I had to trade a whole box of chocolate frogs and a package of every flavour beans for them."
"It will be worth it." Draco promised. "Now let's get these filled up."
The Rakers soon moved their gathering to the bathroom, but it turned out to be no bigger than the Snapes' an so the rest of them had to wait outside while, Larry filled the balloons with water, then held them out to Draco, who dripped the potion in using the pipette and then passed them on to Mike who tied them shut carefully and handed them out to the gang.
That accomplished they headed back into Mary's room each carrying two water bombs.
Mary's mother watched the procession with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you a little too old for childish pranks like that?"
"That's why the Sharks won't expect it." Mike told her calmly.
"And you always say I shouldn't always beat people up." Mary added. "I'm using different ways to resolve differences, like you always tell me to."
Mary's mother sighed. Obviously she didn't quite approve of her daughters' ogre temper. She didn't stand much of a chance to teach them diplomacy though. Beth was even more aggressive than Mary, probably because she was the younger of the two. She had to be more forceful to hold her own against her stronger sister.
The Rakers returned to Mary's room, made a point of shutting the door behind them and then squeezed themselves up to the window all trying to peer out to be the first to spot the Sharks. Once again there wasn't enough room and Draco began to fear that one of the balloons would burst from all the pushing and shoving and drench them all with the potion. If he showed up at Jeremiah's tomorrow looking like that he'd never take him in.
"Stop! This isn't working. We can't all be at the window at the same time."
"Okay, everybody gather over here and we'll make a strategy for the attack." Jack shouted from the middle of the room."
Grudgingly the Rakers trudged over to him.
"If we're squeezed together this tightly, we won't be able to aim our bombs." Mike declared calmly.
"We'll have to choose a group to throw the bombs and another to hand them the ammo." ordered Jack.
Everybody immediately started arguing.
"It's my room!" Draco heard Mary shout over the noise.
"And my balloons!" answered Larry.
"Silence!" yelled Jack at the top of his lungs.
"Mary and Larry are too big." Mike announced still sounding calm. Draco was beginning to really admire his friend's leading skills. It was almost a miracle he hadn't taken over from Jack long ago. "If we chose either of them for the throwing team we can fit only two people in there, if we want them to have enough room to aim properly. I think it would be better to have three throwers, but that means we need smaller people."
"I'm smallest!" went Sammie.
"But you have terrible aim." countered Jack.
"Sammie has improved a lot lately." Matt backed his friend.
"It's my plan." hissed Draco in his most threatening tone. "And I'm the one who got punished for it all. I've got a right."
"Very well then, Dragon and Charlie because they're the ones who got caught and Cathy, because she just barely got away."
"I was almost caught as well!" protested Sammie, but Jack didn't want to hear about it.
Draco, Charlie and Cathy sat on the windowsill and waited while the rest of the gang sat on Mary and Beth's beds watching them expectantly. Nothing happened. The Sharks were still inside probably having a band practise session.
"So how come they didn't catch you?" Draco asked Cathy after a while. "You were right behind me and both the door and the window were blocked, but still you got away before the Aurors arrived."
Cathy grinned. "I didn't. I just slipped behind the cupboard."
"Behind the cupboard?"
"There was a space between the wall and the cupboard. I slipped in there and pulled the curtain after me so they couldn't see me from the side. They only took a quick glance at every room at first anyway. When they hauled you two off I simply walked out the backdoor and was long gone before they returned to search the house more thoroughly."
"You just walked out?" Draco couldn't believe it.
"There are only two aurors in West Hogsmeade and they had two prisoners. And if you knew the kind of auror that gets stationed here, you'd know that one of them can't possibly levitate more than one person at a time."
So that was it? No wonder those aurors never caught any thieves on market day. Draco felt truly embarrassed at having been arrested by those guys.
"We should have just crouched under the table instead of trying to climb out the window."
"They'd have searched more thoroughly then and have found all of us." Charlie shrugged.
"Don't you mind having been caught at all? After the way your Mum scolded you?"
"Oh, that was just show for the aurors. Once we got out of sight of the station we both just laughed at it."
"Your mother thinks getting arrested is a joke?"
"Yes, it is."
"Uncle Severus didn't think so."
"That's because he's only used to being responsible for rich kids whose parents do mind these things." commented Mike. "And a little house arrest is hardly a big punishment."
"No, but cleaning up after an auror raid is." grumbled Draco. "And scrubbing bathroom tiles isn't much fun either."
"So? I have to help with the cleaning all the time." Cathy Cat said with a shrug.
"Not after a raid though." Sammie reminded her.
"I've seen raids. Doesn't look worse then my Mum's spring cleaning."
"They're worse with the Snapes though. I think they enjoy harrowing a Hogwarts Professor." commented Matt.
"I doubt it has anything to do with that." said Mike. "It's something different that they enjoy."
Mary looked over at him then to Larry who was staring at Mike as well trying to make sense of that. "What do you mean?"
"Isn't that obvious? Think about it."
Draco suddenly wondered how much the Rakers knew about Severus' past. Or about the politics between the ministry and Albus Dumbledore. Or was there something else Mike might have been referring to? He almost hoped that Mike would clarify his statement for Mary, Larry and probably also Sammie who'd given him a curious look at first, but then had turned away. Either he'd realised what Mike meant and lost interest in the conversation or he was pretending not to be interested because everybody else seemed to know and he didn't want to appear stupid.
Mike said nothing however and the conversation died down again until Charlie finally spotted Mark the Shark stepping out into the park.
"There they are." she whispered excitedly and the gang was on their feet at once.
Robin and Pretty Ricky showed up right after Mark and Draco got ready to throw, but the three Sharks suddenly stopped and turned to look back. Then Mark took a few steps in the direction of the Soccer lawn. Somebody must have pointed out to him that the Rakers weren't there. Instead Beth and her little wannabees had taken over there trying to imitate their idols as best they could.
"So?" They heard Ricky putting on a brave show now that there was no danger in sight. "The blue dummies have probably gone swimming. Who cares?"
Draco grinned and redirected his attention towards Pretty Ricky. He wanted to play tough? Okay, he could take a bath first. That was probably good strategy anyway, because he'd likely run off the moment he realised they were under attack and then they wouldn't get him with the potion.
Mark let that remark convince him or maybe didn't care for what attacking a bunch of little wannabees would do to his already badly tainted reputation. He came back onto the path and the rest of the Sharks soon came into sight as well.
Just a few more steps and they'd be right under the window. There!
Draco let fly his water bomb and Splash! Pretty Ricky was suddenly pretty wet Ricky.
He jumped backwards at once knocking over one of the twins. Good, that would ensure that one would be affected as well, even if they didn't manage to hit him with their bombs.
"What!" yelled Mark the Shark in outrage. Both Charlie and Cathy had obviously chosen him for their first target, but Robin had been close enough to get doused as well.
Draco threw his other bomb at Chris. That one hadn't gotten in touch with the water yet and he still owed him for his hurt arm.
"Ricky, you coward!" Mark yelled on. "Get back here! It's only water!" But Ricky was already gone running straight for his house probably setting a new speed record.
The other Sharks however hadn't realised there was anything wrong with the water and considered it nothing more than an insult. It was hot enough to make the involuntary bath comfortable after all.
"Hi there, Fishies!" Cathy Cat called down to them. "We thought to help you out a little seeing as you're all stuck on dry land. Poor helpless things."
The Sharks reacted by picking up pebbles from the path and throwing them at the window which brought them nicely together and into better reach.
Draco accepted another bomb from Mike and dropped it on one of the twins. He didn't know which one it was, but that didn't matter anymore. The Sharks were close enough that they'd all get a taste of the potion now.
As he accepted another bomb from Mike he noticed that Mark had begun scratching his arm where the first water bomb had hit him. He grinned as he dropped his new bomb on the other twin's head. The potion was starting to work.
Soon the other Sharks were scratching as well and Draco thought he could see the first small blue spots starting to grow on Mark's face.
"Itching powder!" screeched Robin. "They put itching powder into the water!"
"Not quite." Draco smiled down at her. "This is something a little more powerful than itching powder."
"You guys really look great in our colours." Charlie informed the Sharks smugly.
The Sharks took one look at each other, noticed the blue spots that were covering their skin and screamed. Had the spots been red they would have looked like measles.
"Okay, that's enough. Step back." Jack told them and the throwing team retreated into the room.
"Have fun looking for the antidote!" Jack shouted down as he closed the window.
"Didn't you say their hair would turn blue as well?" Mike asked Draco once the laughter had died down a bit.
"Yes, but it takes a few hours for the potion to take full effect. We'll have to try to catch them again sometime in the afternoon.
"So much about going swimming today then." sighed Cathy.
"We can always go tomorrow." Larry suggested.
"Yes, Dragon hasn't seen my new diving trick yet!" shouted Sammie. "Bet I'll manage to dunk you this time."
Draco sighed. "Sorry Sammie, but I'm afraid I won't be here tomorrow."
"Oh, are you leaving us again?" Jack sneered.
"We're trying Cousin Jeremiah again." Draco shrugged. "According to Eugene he's supposed to be home by now."
"And who said he's gonna keep you?"
"Nobody, but I'm hoping that he will. I kinda like his cottage and the only other candidates left are a cousin in America and my Mum's idiot of a brother."
"Well, I hope none of them want you." stated Sammie. "That way you can stay here with us."
"Sammie, I can't stay. The Snapes aren't going to keep me around forever. If nobody wants me, they'll just send me to some orphanage in the end."
"What makes you so sure about that?" Mike asked suddenly. "They've kept you this long and I think they kinda like you."
"Yes, they like me and they've been very nice, but I cost them a lot of money and they don't have enough room."
"They have room for you now."
"In their potions lab. They're gonna want to have that back sometime."
"They'll have to give it up anyway when Billy gets big enough to need his own room."
"And where would they put me then?"
"What's the problem? You're both boys." interrupted Mary calmly pointing at the two beds in the room. "And you get along much better with Billy than I do with my sister."
"Who said that's gonna stay that way?" grumbled Matt probably imagining having to share a room with his hated sister.
"Siblings with such a big difference in age usually get along perfectly. The older brother is more like another parent to the little one than a rival for their affection." Charlie announced.
"Huh?" Cathy stared at Charlie. "Where'd that come from?"
"Psychology class. I had to take something instead of Charms and my Mum thought it sounded like fun so I decided to give it a try. It's all rather boring though and I think all psychologists are mad anyway."
"Well, lets just hope they don't drive you completely mad as well."
A/N: Will Draco finally find a new home? How will Severus react when he finds out about the prank? And was this chapter even worth posting? Please R/R!
In the next chapter: We finally meet Jeremiah and he tells us the story of his little house ghost. We also might meet some blue Sharks.
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