Harry Potter & The Thousand Mysteries

‘Pass the marshmallows.’

‘They’re beside you.’

‘Where? Oh, yes!’ Cho giggled as she picked up the bag of pink and white marshmallows from beside her sleeping bag, and popped one in her mouth.

‘You want one?’ she asked, offering the bag to Harry.

‘No thanks,’ he said, not looking up as he stirred the simmering cauldron in between them. ‘What does it say now?’

Cho looked at the thick, heavy, open book that was propped between her knees.

‘Half a rats spleen,’ she said, stuffing another marshmallow in her mouth.

Harry allowed the small piece of tissue to slide from the phial it was contained in and plop softly into the cauldron.

‘Is that it?’ he asked, stirring it one last time.

‘Yeah, we’ll just have to wait now.’ She pulled her thick black fur cloak around her shoulders, making her look very fat, as she was also wrapped in a squashy blue sleeping bag.

Harry and Cho had chosen Wednesday night to execute their plan, because there were five different parties on that night, all in different places. Alexandra was in the one in the dungeons, hosted by the sixth year Slytherins but open to all- Harry had also sent Hermione and Ron to keep an eye on her.

‘Chilly, isn’t it?’ said Harry, as he curled down in his sleeping bag. They were making their potion in a corner of the battlements of the West Tower- they had chosen here, as it was the place they were least likely to be discovered.

The draught of the Inebriation Potion was stewing nicely in the pot- it was a simple green tonic, which made the drinker, appear drunk, while their mind worked perfectly well underneath. Harry and Cho planned to stumble into Cho’s dormitory later that night, when Alexandra was in bed, seemingly drunk, and pretend to cavort behind Cho’s drawn bed hangings. The next morning, Harry would go into their bathroom, *accidentally* walk into the shower, and see the dark mark on Alexandra’s forearm.

At that point, he would stun her, and report her to the headmaster immediately, while Cho would pretend to be shocked that her dorm mate was in fact the illusive Hogwartian Death Eater. They had already prepared a draught of the Tearfulness Potion, which Cho would take to make her appear weeping and inconsolable after such a traumatic ordeal. It was a cunning, dastardly plan, and Harry hoped against hope that he could pull it off.

Harry and Cho sat on the battlements, wrapped in cloaks and sleeping bags, sharing bottles of butter beer and eating sweets, as the potion gently simmered beside them. They laughed at each other’s jokes several times, and at points Harry thought Cho would wake the whole castle with her throaty laugh.

However, they remained undisturbed until Ron and Hermione appeared through the wooden trapdoor, telling them that Alexandra had made her way to the Ravenclaw Common Room alone ten minutes ago.

‘Is she sober?’ asked Cho.

‘Completely,’ said Hermione. ‘I watched her all night- she didn’t have a drop.’

‘Thanks,’ said Harry. Hermione and Ron disappeared down the trap door, while Cho placed two glasses on the floor.

‘Okay?’ asked Harry, after he had poured the murky brown liquid into the glasses.

‘On three,’ said Cho. ‘One, two, three!’

They both downed their glass in a oner. It tasted quite pleasant, actually.

‘C…Come on,’ said Cho, standing up. She immediately fell back down again.

‘Ha ha ha!’ They both lay their for a while, laughing uproariously.

‘Come on.’

They both staggered down the stairs, and along the corridor.

‘Miss… Miss…Miss Piggy!’ said Cho, giggling ridiculously at the stone eagle, which allowed them passage to the dorms.

They stumbled into the common room- a few people looked at them with snooty looks on their faces.

‘Cho, what are you doing?’ asked a small, egg headed boy.

‘What are you doing, Edmund?’ she said, lunging backwards and forwards on the spot, arm in arm with Harry, who was laughing giddily.

‘We’re discussing the impact of the neo-renaissance on the werewolf and were wolverine community,’ he said pompously. Harry was put in mind of Percy- the thought made him laugh even harder.

‘Well we,’ said Cho drunkenly, ‘are going upstairs! Come on, big boy!’ She shrieked with laughter, and they both began crawling up the staircase on all fours.

Cho’s dorm was quiet and serene, until the door burst open and the dark haired, supposedly drunken pair staggered through.

‘Cho,’ said Alexandra from her bed. ‘Have you been drinking?’

‘No!’ she said, flopping onto her bed.