Better Be Slytherin!

Teddy looked at Harry sidelong as the three of them went back down to their common room. 'Why'd you tell him that?' he asked.

Harry bit his lip and shrugged. 'What do you mean?'

'Why'd you lie to the Professor?' Millie asked. 'He wouldn't have--'

'Wouldn't have what?' Harry interrupted. 'Taken a million points off us? Given us all detention forever?'

Millicent sighed and tucked the end of a long strand of hair into her mouth to nibble at it. 'Well, yeah, okay. He might have. But he's gonna be worse when he finds out what we really did.'

Harry nodded. He knew that. 'Don't worry. I'll take the heat for it.'

Teddy rolled his eyes. 'Oh no, you don't. We didn't tell him, either, and you're not going to take all the blame on your own.'

'But it was my fault. If I hadn't--'

'Don't, Harry,' Millie interrupted. 'Don't blame yourself.'

'Well, but it's true. You both should've been at the feast.'

Teddy stopped them, putting a hand on Harry's arm. Harry held himself very still, even as Teddy said, 'But we weren't. We were with you, because you're our friend, and we wanted to be supportive today. You know, and stuff.'

Harry nodded slowly. 'Okay. Yeah, all right.' He shrugged, not accidentally dislodging Teddy's hand, but Teddy didn't seem to notice, or mind, if he did. 'But I'll tell the Professor what happened. Later.'

Millie shook her head with a sly smile. 'No, you won't. 'Cause I have an idea.'

With identical raised eyebrows, Teddy and Harry gave her the Look. But she refused to say any more, just kept that smug little smile all the way back to the dungeons.

The three of them huddled at a corner table in the Slytherin common room, sipping hot chocolate and talking in low voices but not actually whispering. Whispering tended to attract attention, according to Teddy.

'Okay, so all we have to do is stick with the plan,' Millie said. She took a long drink of her cocoa and gave Harry a pointed look. 'And that means you can't go and do anything heroic.'

'What do you think I am, a Griffindork?'

Teddy snickered, pausing in the process of stacking pumpkin pasties in a lopsided pyramid across his end of the table. 'Well, you did leap on the troll's back . . .'

Harry rolled his eyes. 'Ted-dy,' he said in an almost whine, 'you were there. You know I didn't.'

'But you do have terribly Gryffindork tendencies,' Millie put in. 'Rescuing that other kid's Remembrall, chasing bludgers, you know, things like that.'

'Maybe I'm only dorky when I'm on a broom?' Harry suggested hopefully.

'Yeah, maybe.' She didn't look convinced.

'Great,' Harry huffed dramatically, and put his head in his hands. 'Even my friends think I've gone round the bend.'

'No, no,' Teddy said with mock concern, and patted fingers sticky with pasty on the sleeve of Harry's robe. 'You're fine. Just a bit . . . lionish.'

Millie laughed. 'Hopefully he'll ask to see us all together again. It'll be easier that way.'

'Easier to lie,' Harry said and sighed. 'To Snape. We're all mad.'

'Don't worry about it,' Millie insisted. 'Nothing can go wrong.'

The only thing that Harry could think when Snape called him into his office after class the next day was, How could Millie have been so wrong?

Snape glared at him from behind his desk, with Harry perched on the rather uncomfortable chair in front of it. 'Explain.'

Harry stared at his hands. Snape could see his thoughts and memories with just a look, he remembered from one of their earliest encounters, and he was not going to give the man that opportunity. 'Explain what, sir?'

The professor's hand slapped the surface of his desk, making Harry jump off his seat. He eased back on slowly, trembling. 'Do not play me for a fool, Potter! I know very well that your story about last night's events was more than half fabrication. I do not know why your friends find it necessary to lie for you as well, but I will not have it!'

'They didn't lie!' Harry's hands clenched into fists as he glared at the professor. 'They didn't say any--'

'Lies of complicity, Mr. Potter, are just as despicable.' The corners of Snape's lips curled up in a sneer. 'Would you care to rectify the situation now, or would you rather all three of you face the consequences?'

Harry swallowed hard. With a silent apology to Teddy and Millie, for going against their wishes, he nodded. 'I'll tell you. But please, it wasn't their fault.'

Snape held his gaze for a long moment, then nodded sharply. 'If I am satisfied with your rendition, I shall not pursue any punishment for your cohorts.'

'Okay.' Harry nodded. 'We were in the common room during the feast. But then the Bloody Baron came in, looking for me, I think, and said we had to stay in there. I asked why, and he said there was something dangerous set loose in the school, but not what it was. He told me I would be safe in the common room.'

'And you decided it would be in your best interests to disregard his warning?' Snape's voice had dropped to a