Draco Malfoy and the Muggle Contraption

Draco Malfoy and the Muggle Contraption

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Chapter 1

Death Eaters Hogwarts Platform

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It was only a few hours after the new school year had begun and Severus Snape had managed to get all of Slytherin House angry at him. He had just informed his students that because of Voldemort's second rise, they were all required to take Muggle Studies this year. He dreaded having to tell them what Professor Albus Dumbledore planned to teach them in this course. "You will all learn how to use a Muggle machine called a computer," he said.

"They want us to learn how to use a what?" said a cold voice that Snape immediately knew belonged to Draco Malfoy.

"A computer, Mister Malfoy," Snape said very calmly. "It's a Muggle writing and communication device."

"Why?" Malfoy asked.

"I was getting to that," Snape said. "Using the skills you acquire in this class, you will be able to communicate without using owl post. E-mail, the computer communication process we will be using, is very hard to intercept without certain skills, so we know that there is a much lower chance of messages being interrupted. Your computers professor will pick the top five students from each house and they will be taught how to hack into ministry computers and find important information. Any questions?"

"Yes, Professor Snape," Malfoy said. "Why the bloody hell do they want us to learn this garbage?"

"I believe I said that already, Mister Malfoy," Snape answered calmly. "And please do not use such language in my presence or I will be forced to report you to Professor Dumbledore, who, I hope, will not hesitate to expell you. Any other questions?"

When he saw that there were no more questions, Professor Snape left the common room and went to his private living quarters. Many students quickly ran up to their dormitories, exhausted after that evening's Welcoming Feast. A few students remained in the common room to discuss Professor Snape's announcement.

From the conversations going on in the common room, it seemed as if most of the students were not happy with this new course. Surprisingly enough, Draco Malfoy, a known Muggle-hater, seemed very happy with this news.

"Father will be most interested in this new course," Malfoy said smugly. "I think this will be the final proof he needs to convince Mother to allow him to send me to Durmstrang. The new Headmaster, Professor Ivanich, is an old friend of his, and hates this Defense Against the Dark Arts business. With the Dark Lord's second rise, Father thinks it's even more important to learn the Dark Arts, not the defense rubbish we learn here."

"I think this class is a perfect idea," someone said from behind Malfoy.

Malfoy turned to look at the boy who had spoken. Malcolm Baddock was a second year whose parents were new Death Eater recruits. They were initiated as Death Eaters in August, and Malcolm became one of the first members of the Death Eaters Hogwarts Platform. DEHP was started at the same meeting where the Baddocks were initiated as an undercover operation at Hogwarts. The job of the DEHP was to keep Death Eaters aware of what was going on in Hogwarts and in the Ministry of Magic, and to recruit new DEHPers and future Death Eaters. Draco Malfoy, the president of this group, was pleased with the work Malcolm had been doing. For a 12-year-old, Baddock was very intelligent. Malfoy knew that he could prove very useful in the future.

"Why do you say that, Baddock?" Malfoy asked. He was very interested in why Malcolm Baddock, a future Death Eater and great Muggle-hater, wanted to learn how to use some wretched Muggle contraption.

"Spy work," he said. "All we have to do is get a few DEHPers into the hacking group, and we have all the ministry information to send home."

Malfoy sat back in his chair and thought about what Malcolm had said. He was right, this was an easy way to get important ministry information, but it was also a Muggle contraption! Still, it would be a good idea to get a few DEHPers into the hacking group to keep the Death Eaters informed of the Ministry's actions. But who?

"I'll try and get into the hacking group," Malcolm said, as if he could read Draco's mind. "I think we should prepare the top seven DEHP Slytherins for entry into the hacking group. If we train them well, five of them should make it into the committee as Slytherin representatives."

"Okay, good idea," Malfoy said. "I don't want anything to do with this except choosing whom we train. You can be in charge of this whole operation. Crabbe," he said, turning to the boy sitting next to him, "go wake up all the DEHPers for an emergency meeting. We'll reconvene here in 10 minutes, at 10:30."

Crabbe went to all the boys dormitories to wake up the male DEHPers, while Pansy Parkinson went to wake up the female DEHPers. By 10:30, all the DEHPers in Slytherin House were sitting in the common room, and Draco Malfoy was ready to call the meeting to order.

"Order, Order, Order," Draco Malfoy said, standing on a chair at the head of the common room. "I, Draco Malfoy, president of the Death Eaters Hogwarts Platform, call this meeting of the Death Eaters Hogwarts Platform, Sytherin House subsection, to order.--"

Suddenly, two boys in the back of the room could be heard singing. Jonathan and Jacob Kane were American twins who had been sent to Hogwarts because there were no Death Eater groups in American schools. The Kane twins were only first-years, but they were already on their way to being well-known troublemakers. They chose to disrupt this DEHP meeting by singing a variation of a popular American song to honor the President.

"Hail to the chief, Hail the leader of our Platform,

If he were honest and true, he wouldn't be a Slytherin.--"

By this point, Malfoy was getting annoyed with this unnecessary distraction. "Order, order everyone!" he cried. When the room was quiet, Malfoy continued his speech. "Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe, take the roll."

Goyle and Crabbe walked through the room, making sure that all DEHPers in Slytherin House were present or accounted for (one unfortunate first-year fell out of his boat and into the Lake, and was spending the night in the infirmary).

"All present or accounted for, President Malfoy," Crabbe said.

"Thank you, Mister Crabbe and Mister Goyle. Are you prepared to take the minutes, Blaise Zabini?"

"Yes, Mr. President," Zabini replied.

"Then let's proceed to the subject of this emergency meeting. As Professor Snape informed us earlier this evening, this year we will be learning how to use a Muggle contraption. We were also informed that a small group of 'hackers' will have easy access to Ministry of Magic information. We feel that we can use this to our advantage. Here to tell you about this new project is Mr. Malcolm Baddock."

Malcolm stood from the chair he was sitting in, walked to the front of the room, and climbed onto the chair Malfoy had just vacated. "Thank you very much, Mr. President," he said, looking at Malfoy. He then turned to look at the students gathered before him, and began his speech.

"It is my absolute pleasure to introduce you all to the newest DEHP Slytherin project, Operation Hacker. Operation Hacker was started by myself and President Malfoy in response to the news presented to us earlier this evening by Professor Snape. As you all know, there will be an elite group of Hogwarts students who will be given the opportunity to gain access to classified Ministry information. This elite group of 20 students, containing five Slytherin students, will hack into Ministry computers and get as much Ministry information as they can and then pass that information on to Professor Dumbledore. We believe that information should also be passed to Death Eaters.

"President Malfoy and I have created a plan to achieve a smooth passage of this information to the Death Eaters. We will pick seven of the more talented Slytherin DEHPers and I will assist in training them to be the best computer students they can be. It is our great hope that the Slytherin representatives to the hacker group will be from these elite seven. The DEHPers in the hacking group will pass any information on to myself and President Malfoy, and we will make sure that the Death Eaters receive this information.

"This project may be one of the most important projects we initiate this year. The information we find is essential to Death Eater operations. For many months, the Death Eaters have been restricted in what size operations they can carry out because they never knew what the Ministry knew. We can get them over the only obstacle that prevents Voldemort from taking over the entire British magical community and getting rid of mudbloods and Muggle-lovers.

"This assignment is very difficult, as we have to make sure nobody outside of DEHP, Slytherin subsection finds out about it. If anybody that is not part of DEHP Slytherin subsection finds out anything about this operation, even if s/he is in another subsection of DEHP, the entire operation must be suspended, and whoever allowed for this criminal leak of information will be expelled from DEHP.

"If you wish to be part of this group of hackers, please see myself and President Malfoy after this meeting is adjourned. The list of our seven selected students will be posted on the Slytherin House bulletin board in five days. After that, I will be taking over full responsibility for this group, and President Malfoy should only be contacted with information about the running of this group or any of its members if it is a life or death situation. Again, if you wish to be a part of this group, please see myself and President Malfoy after this meeting. I now give the floor to President Malfoy for closing remarks. Thank you."

Malcolm stepped down from the chair and made his way back to his seat. Malfoy quickly ended the meeting and went to talk to Blaise Zabini to review the minutes. He then went to stand next to Malcolm and waited for the rush of people coming to sign up for Operation Hacker. In the few minutes of pandemonium that followed the meeting, 15 eager students had signed up for Operation Hacker.

After everyone else had gone up to the dormitories, Malcolm and Draco sat down to go over the list of volunteers. One by one, they discussed which members they thought had potential, and which they could eliminate automatically.

"Vincent Crabbe."

"No way," Malcolm said. "I know he's one of your best friends and everything, but he has no brain."

"Okay, we can cross out Crabbe," Malfoy replied. " We can cross out Gregory Goyle too, because he's even stupider than Crabbe, if that's even possible."

"2 down, 6 to go," Malcolm said. "Graham Pritchard."

"I don't know him," Malfoy replied.

"I do. He's in my year. I think he could be okay, if he works hard enough. Put him down as a maybe."

"Millicent Bulstrode."

"I don't think she's right for this project," Malcolm said. "She's too . . . rough. Computers require a certain amount of . . . gentleness, which I don't think she has."

"Can I ask how you know so much about these Mocupters?" Draco said.

"Computers," Malcolm corrected. "I have a second cousin who's a squib so he works with Muggles, at a computer place. His family disowned him and usually nobody mentions him, but once my whole family went on a vacation and they didn't want to take me, so they left me at his house. I went to work with him and he taught me a little about computers. So I know a little bit about computers, but not much. I probably know more than the rest of the House though, so that's why I volunteered to head Operation Hacker."

"Well we can cross off Millicent Bullstrode then," Draco said. "3 down, 5 to go."

After many such discussions, Draco and Malcolm eliminated 5 people. They decided to wait and see how the other 10 people performed in class to see who could be eliminated and who would make the final list.