2

Sneaking

The tunnel led directly to Honeydukes Sweetshop, and ended in the dusty cellar beneath the shop where lots of crates and boxes were stored. Some of the crates held only packing material, while others had candy within them and were sealed with magical charms. Harry lit up his wand as he emerged from the tunnel, illuminating the cellar. Draco followed close on his heels, his wand also glowing brightly.

Both boys couldn't believe their luck. They had actually gotten away from the school with no one the wiser. Filled with supreme overconfidence, Harry whispered to his Housemate, "We did it! Look at all the things in here." He waved his wand at all the boxes and crates and large sacks containing sweets.

"This is just the storeroom, Harry. The real good stuff's all in the store above." Draco reminded. "Don't touch anything in here. It's probably all charmed with alarm spells."

"I know that!" Harry growled. "I'm not stupid." He crept towards the stairs, at the top was a trapdoor that he prayed wasn't locked. "Let me go first," he hissed. "I'll let you know when it's safe to come up."

"Okay. If you run into a problem, stamp on the door three times so I'll know to hide."

"Right," Harry agreed, then he reached the trapdoor and pushed on it gently.

It was stuck, so he put a little more muscle into it and the door silently lifted.

Harry quickly stuck his head out to check if anyone was watching.

But there was no one back in the small office watching the trapdoor rise up. Harry crawled out, gently letting the door close.

There was a small desk and a calendar on the wall. To Harry's surprise, he saw that a date was marked in green ink that read: Check-up with Healer Snape at 8:45.

So, the shop owner was a patient of his father's. Harry shook his head. It figured! Everyone he met nowadays seemed to be a patient of his dad's, the Healer's popularity had risen tenfold ever since he'd become an object of affection to half the female student body at Hogwarts.

He glanced about, hearing children's voices coming from the shop and the sound of many feet walking. He quickly went back to the trapdoor and yanked it up. "Draco, come on!" he hissed.

Soon his fellow Slytherin had joined him, carefully brushing off the dust from his uniform, making Harry do the same.

"Now what?" asked Harry, peering through the flimsy curtain that separated the office from the rest of the shop.

"Now we go out," Draco nudged Harry through the curtain, whispering, "Just act like we wandered back here by mistake if anyone sees."

"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain," Harry quoted from The Wizard of Oz, snickering.

Draco eyed him. "What are you talking about, Potter?"

"Muggle reference, never mind." Harry said. "It'll take too long to explain right now."

But no one saw the two boys come out from behind the curtain and enter the shop.

The scrumptious smell of sugar and luscious chocolate filled the air and Harry was sure he was in heaven. His mouth watered and he made straight for a large rack with all kinds of chocolates on display. There were all sorts of chocolate bars, chocolate truffles, bonbons, dark chocolate squares, chocolate turtles, just about every kind of chocolate you could name.

There were also things he'd never seen before, like Hot Fudge Cauldrons and Nutty Caramel Cakes. Draco explained about the Hot Fudge Cauldrons. "Those're chocolate cupcakes with melted hot fudge inside. When you take off the top, the fudge is all hot and gooey inside and you can drink it like cocoa. It's delicious! Mother always gets me a few for my birthday and on Christmas."

Harry licked his lips. "I've never had those before. Dad doesn't like me to eat too many sweets. He says they make me too hyper. Are they new?"

"They came out last year," Draco replied. "Let's buy some."

Harry always carried a small bag of money, in case he ever needed something, like ice cream or sweets from Diagon Alley, his dad gave him an allowance for doing certain chores without being told around the house and helping him in his office.

Together, he and Draco bought two bags of all kinds of sweets, including the wonderful Hot Fudge Cauldrons and Nutty Caramel Cakes. Harry couldn't wait to sample them and wished he could share them with Lexy. Maybe he could, if he didn't tell his sister how he'd gotten them himself.

They exited the sweetshop, munching on some truffles, Harry wanted to save the Fudge Cauldrons for later.

Draco looked about, deciding to wait until later to sample the butterbeer at The Three Broomsticks. He'd seen several members of the Slytherin Quidditch team enter the establishment and didn't want to risk their disguises being seen through. "Let's go visit the Shrieking Shack."

"All right. But first, let's go to the stationary shop." Harry said.

"What for?"

Harry leaned in and whispered, "So I can get some of my dad's letterhead to write the note, remember? He gets it made there, and orders it in every couple of weeks or so. He mentioned picking some up last time he owled me, before he had the emergency."

"Oh, right."

As they walked to Scrivenshaft's Quill Shop, Harry murmured, "You know the witch who owns Honeydukes had an appointment with my dad written on her calendar. Funny that she's a patient of his."

"Why? Half the school's a patient of Healer Sev's." Draco pointed out. "He's my Healer and Mother's too. And the other half of the school probably sees Healer Morgan. They're the two most popular Healers in St. Mungos."

"Right, I knew that. It's just . . . kind of weird to see that as we were sneaking into the shop," Harry said.

"How are you going to get the stationary?" Draco asked then.

"Oh, that's easy." Harry said dismissively. "They know me over there. Dad sends me there a lot to pick it up if he's shopping with Lexy or Mum here and doesn't want to run over there himself. It's already paid for, so all I need to do is say I'm here to pick it up."

Harry hurried over to the shop and entered it, Draco opted to wait outside and sample some more sweets.

The bell over the door tinkled gently as Harry entered, and Madam Tynsdale looked up from fixing a display of self-writing quills and smiled when she saw who had entered her shop. "Why, hello, Harry! What brings you here this weekend?"

Harry flashed her his most innocent look. "Hello, Madam Tynsdale. My dad sent me here to pick up his letterhead for the office. Is it ready?"

"Of course, Harry. I owled him this morning that it was ready to pick up," the small bird-like woman said. She went behind her counter and picked up a thick rectangular package wrapped in brown paper with the Scrivenshaft quill and ink logo stamped on it. "Here you go! Tell your dad I'll be seeing him soon for my yearly and bringing along my little grandbaby for his first check-up."

"Will do, ma'am." Harry said, picking up one of the sample quills that were always available on the counter, they were free and filled with enough ink for a single sheet of parchment. "Thanks! Bye!"

He walked out of the door, trying not to run, for it would look odd.

So far, so good.

Now he simply had to find a place to write the note.

"Okay, got it," Harry announced to his Housemate. "Is there somewhere I can go to write without being seen?"

"Uh . . .I think there's a bench halfway up the path to the Shrieking Shack," Draco said, recalling it from a discussion he'd heard by some third-years.

They reached the bench, and Harry sat down, the sheaf of stationary in his lap. "You go on up to the Shack. I'll write the note and then I'll join you."

Malfoy eyed him, smirking. "Oh, sure. You're not afraid, are you, Harry?" he teased, making sure no one was in earshot before he said Harry's name.

"You wish," snorted his friend. "I've faced worse than ghosts, Draco. Go on." He waved his Housemate on wards before he untied the bundle and slipped a clean sheet of letterhead from the stack. Leaning upon the stack of parchment, he took the quill from his pocket and began to write carefully in Severus' neat script, which defied the normal scrawl of a Healer.

Professor Binns,

Please excuse my son, Harry Potter, and his Housemate, Draco Malfoy, from History of Magic this Friday, April 12th, 1993, as they have come down with a stomach virus and are highly contagious and cannot attend class. They will make up any work you have assigned.

Sincerely,

Master Healer Severus Snape

Harry signed the missive with his father's usual flourish, he'd had lots of practice as Severus had used old letters for Harry to copy when he was old enough to learn how to write with a quill.

Once the excuse had dried, Harry carefully folded it and slipped it inside his pocket. He would have Hedwig deliver it to Binns' classroom just before they left Hogsmeade. He had been going to wait until tomorrow, but decided he might as well deliver the note sooner rather than later, especially because Severus was supposed to be at Hogwarts watching the game.

Harry felt slightly guilty writing that forgery, but he tried to brush away the feeling by telling himself it was only a small lie. After all, he and Draco had been sick and thrown up, and if his dad had known about it, he would have told them both to go and lie down and not go to class.

Harry rose and followed the path up the hill to the Shack, and saw Draco slowly creep up and lay his hand on the door, which was barred and locked with a large silver padlock and a thick chain. Smirking, Harry slipped up behind Malfoy and screamed, "Ahhh! Run for your life!"

Draco nearly jumped out of his robes!

Harry burst out laughing. "Scared much?"

Draco whirled around, his eyes flashing. "You dumb twit!" he snapped. He smacked Harry across the back of the head. "I almost had a heart attack."

"You mean you almost wet yourself," Harry corrected, snickering.

"Shut up, Potter!" Draco snarled. "Now it's your turn. Go touch the door."

"Okay. I ain't afraid of no ghost," Harry replied and trotted up to the ramshackle building and tapped the door with his palm. "Guess they're all out haunting someone else."

"Keep your hand there for two minutes," ordered the blond Slytherin.

"Ooh, I'm really scared," Harry mocked softly. Then he began to jerk and twitch as if he were having a fit, and slurring his words. His eyes rolled back in his head and he let out a mournful wail. "Oh, they've got me! They've come to take me away, heeheehaha!"

Draco was horrified. He ran up and yanked Harry's hand off the door and cried, "Harry! What's wrong with you?" he thought his friend had been possessed by an evil spirit.

Suddenly Harry stopped his trembling and jerking and winked, then doubled over laughing. "Fooled you, didn't I?"

Draco flushed. "Someday, Potter, you're going to make me so mad I'm going to send you on a one way trip around the world without a broom."

"Yeah, right. Can't you take a joke?"

Draco pretended to be insulted, then he took a sweet from his bag and popped it in his mouth.

Suddenly he began retching and gagging.

"Draco! Are you okay?" Harry cried, sure his friend was choking to death on his bonbon. He tried frantically to recall the spell Severus had shown him for a choking person or the Heimlich maneuver Alaina had taught him and Lexy but his mind was coming up blank.

He drew in a breath to call for help when Draco suddenly spit out the piece of candy and said, "Now the joke's on you."

Harry glared at him. "You idiot! I thought you were really choking."

"Now you know how it feels," Draco retorted smugly.

Harry socked him in the shoulder. "Prat!" Then he grinned. "That was almost as good as the twins' pranks."

"It was way better," argued Draco, then he challenged, "Race you around the Shack!"

Harry sprinted after his agile and sneaky teammate, and the two chased each other, laughing.

When they had enough, they stopped, panting, and Draco suggested they get a cold butterbeer.

"Sounds good. Just let me whistle Hedwig to come and drop off the note." Harry said, and proceeded to summon his familiar. He fed the owl a treat and told her to deliver the note to Binns quickly.

Then he walked into the restaurant and took a table in the far corner, Draco following.

Draco saw to his relief that none of the Slytherin team was still in there.

The boys ordered two butterbeers and sipped them leisurely. They ordered more and began eating their sweets, including the Hot Fudge Cauldrons.

Finally they were stuffed and Harry suggested they stop before they really made themselves sick. Feeling flushed with their triumphant caper, they paid their tab and left, walking quickly back to Honeydukes. Three and a half hours was plenty for a visit, and Harry wanted to get back to his dorm so he could take a nap and pretend to be sick.

They quickly slipped back down the trapdoor, as the shop was now even more crowded and returned to the school.

It was nearly suppertime, but Harry wasn't hungry after eating all the sweets. Neither was Draco. Upon reaching the Slytherin portrait hole, Draco spoke the password, "Runespoor fangs."

The picture of a naga slid aside and the boys stepped through. The portrait hole shut softly behind them.

The common room was deserted. Harry thought nothing of it, as most of his Housemates were probably still at Hogsmeade or returning from class.

He turned to Draco and crowed, "We did it! Are we good or what?"

Before Draco could reply, someone else did.

"What you are, Harry James Severus Potter, is in serious trouble," said a familiar silky voice, sharp with anger.

Harry gulped and looked up to see a furious Master Healer Snape step out from the corridor of the second year dormitory and glare at him ferociously. He was accompanied by the Head of Slytherin, Professor Ivana Markham. They were not amused.

Harry gave them a weak smile and said, "Uh . . . hi, Dad! It's too bad you missed the Quidditch game. Right, Draco?"

Draco too wore a sickly grin. "Absolutely, Healer Sev. It was the best game we ever played."

Severus just glared at them, his eyes glittering.

"Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Potter, my office," ordered Professor Markham. "You have some explaining to do."