Chapter 192

"I thought we were past the name calling Harry," Lockhart said disapprovingly before exclaiming, "And of course there is a reason! The sales of my latest book Magical Me are going down fast, and my editor is pissed off to high heavens about it. A little appearance in the Malfoy party and a few pictures with you and the minister will definitely boost the sales enough to keep me afloat for the next month until the school closes down and I can get back out there for signings and book tours."

Harry sighed. Of course, it was another publicity thing. Lockhart had quite the penchant for those. He impatiently asked, "Do we leave now or is there anything else left to do?"

"One moment," said Lockhart, dabbing some Sleakeazy's hair potion onto a toothbrush and combing it through his hair before putting it down and turning towards Harry, "All done. Now young man, I'm supposed to tell you that you are to maintain a proper and appropriate demeanor all throughout the ball and not stay long after the New Year bell rings, but I'm sure that we can bend the rules for you a bit, Harry. Just grab the Floo powder and head in when you're ready. I'll follow through."

Harry picked up the powder, and idly recalled the last time he had headed into the floo for this party. The last time he had been there, he had wanted to use Malfoy to solidify his own future political power. Now, in the light of recent events, including the petrifactions and Terry's leaving, Harry had found that he had quite a bone to pick with the blond pure-blood magnate. As such, using this occasion to humiliate and take down his reputation almost felt like the natural thing to do.

Dumbledore had once mentioned that his father James used to be quite the big prankster. Harry wondered if the genes had passed down to him at all.

Oh well. He'd soon find out.

Ping!

Quest Alert

Fuck up the Party as hard as you can!

Reward,

50,000 Exp

5 stat points

New Perk!

Failure,

-2 Level to Politics

YES/NO?

Pressing yes on the quest with a calm smile, Harry walked into the fireplace, ducking to avoid hitting the mantelpiece. He stared through the green flames flickering around him as he clearly intoned the Floo address.

"Malfoy Manor"

...

The beginnings of a plan started forming in his mind, and he pushed himself off the barstool and headed towards the cage holding what looked like a three-headed Runespoor to test his initial hypothesis.

"Observe," he muttered, focusing on the glass and trying to ignore the conversation amongst the snakes about which head could rhyme the fastest.

Unbreakable Glass

Transparent glass that is enchanted to not break, no matter how hard it is impacted upon. Used for a variety of purposes. Since unbreakable charms do not have easily usable counterspells, they are often built with a specific failsafe to shatter them down completely when removal is required.

Failsafe: Small explosion near the bottom left corner

Harry grinned. This was beyond convenient. This was downright begging to be used.

"That's the one that father likes the most," came a voice from beside him, "Do you like it?"

It was Draco, Harry realized when he turned and checked before answering, "I think it's a bit creepy myself, but it's really curious how it ever gets anything done with three heads arguing amongst themselves all the time."

"It's been a long time since we last talked Harry," Draco said, "Are your new guardians treating you well?"

"They have. It has been a bit surreal, but they are good people," he honestly answered before asking, "And how have you been Draco?"

Draco's eyes gained an uneasy look, "Not good. The other students have been bullying any Slytherins they can get alone, so I have to stick together with the others and stay inside the dorm. Then there are the half-bloods getting petrified. So now we have to worry about the Heir as well since no one knows whether he's just started on a killing spree or not."

"Let's hope not," Harry said, before changing the topic, "In your letter, you mentioned something about your father not wanting you to meet me. What was that all about? Didn't your father want you to get close to me?"

Draco shuffled around a bit, looking a bit uncomfortable, "It's not really just you. Students from every other house have been beating up Slytherin students and getting away with it. Father wanted me to completely keep away from other house students, no exceptions."

"And you don't believe that he's doing it just for your safety?" Harry asked with a frown.

The blond's face grew even more uncomfortable, "I…It was something about the way he put it in the letter. It seemed…pre-written somehow. Like he had written this letter a while back and was sending it to me months later. I don't know. It was probably just me."

It took Harry seconds to process that information. Malfoy must have written that warning letter to his son before Obliviating himself of the knowledge of how he got the heir into Hogwarts. "Is there any way you can get that letter to me? Maybe I could take a look and see if it was just you or not?"

Draco shook his head, "He had me burn the letter the moment I finished reading it. Even put one of those compulsion charms onto it to make sure I did put it into the fire."

'Damn it!' Harry thought.

A pleasant voice echoed across the hall at that moment, "Attention, please. All the guests interested in a guided tour of the lovely Scamander Sanctuary Creatures please join your guide Mister Booplesnoot near the entry door in five minutes. Thank you for your time, and have a good evening"

"I think I'll go. I haven't seen most of the animals here yet. Will you be coming, Harry?" Draco asked as soon as the announcement finished.

It was time to start the set up for his pranks, Harry thought as he replied, "I will. I'll just pop over to the loo for a bit before meeting you near the entrance for the tour, alright?"

After getting a nod from Draco, he headed out of a side door into the bathroom, where he shut himself in, before muttering, "ID Create."

The sky outside turned red, and Harry quickly converted Gandiva into its bow form, before he notched a Doom arrow. Instead of firing it, he picked the explosive arrow up and set it to the side, before repeating it a couple of dozen times. After he had all the arrows he needed, he returned Gandiva to its ring form, before turning to the arrows and started to remove their arrowheads.

He was left with a couple of dozen explosive arrowheads, upon which he used Reducios to shrink and reduce their effects from huge explosions to a tiny concentrated hot blast.

When they were all as small as the size of his fingertips, he put them in an inventory box. It read,

27 minimized explosive arrowheads

Satisfied with his preparation, Harry dropped out of the ID and made his way out of the loo and to the entrance of the Ballroom to join Draco, Mr. Booplesnoot and half a dozen other guests who joined them. Harry could see Parkinson and Greengrass in the group as well, but they were religiously ignoring Harry, so he simply followed suit and ignored them, sticking close to Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.

"Velcome efferybody!" Mr Booplesnoot exclaimed in a heavy German accent, "Totay ve shall be taking a tour of the farious animals of the Zanctuary zat ve haffe brought here, and ve vill learn zome zings about zem. It vill be fun. Do ve haffe efferyone for zis batch here? Let's go zen!"

And with that, they started towards the first animal cage.

"The first animal you are zeeing here," he said, pointing towards the giant reptilian creature with a tail as long as its body and armoured scaly skin resting on a rock in a glass cage, "He is Quasimodo the magical Komodo Drakon. He is the last of his kind on the world. Muggles haffe discoffered his non-magical couzins, but zey cannot find him becauze of one reazon. Let me show you vat zat is."

He rapped the front of the glass cage with his knuckle, and in the blink of an eye, the Komodo dragon vanished.

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