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Hermione hurried through he castle's corridors, cloaked in stolen invisibility. Her hair was in bushy spurts and knots about her head and she still wore her warm blue pajamas. Her only other cover was the cloak; her feets were bare, the better to sneak around.

She finally approached the library, letting out a breath of relief that she hadn't come across anyone along the way. As if on cue, Hermione heard a sound to her right from around the corner.

Hermione's breath caught in her throat as she turned to see who is was.

"Research..." whispered Hermione, taking off the cloak. "On the deaths."

Ron and Harry nodded and the three of them made their way into the library.

The book read: "Alexander Morrick, one of the most highly notorious Death Eaters that has ever served He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Although being a wizard, Morrick does not resort to maigc in order to kill or cause great pain. Instead he uses his own concoctions of Potions and poisons. His most infamous massacre was the one which happened 15 years ago at Ravenclaw's Pass, a small wizarding village on the east of London. A shocking total of 50 wizards were poisoned to death on the night of June 5th. After the fall of You-Know-Who, Morrick was captured and sent to imprisonment for life."
Ron quickly closed the book as he heard footsteps coming in their direction.
'Someone's coming!' he said with a slight panic in his voice.

They were all trying to get their bearings when someone rushed toward them and tore the cloak off. "I hope no one heard that! Are you all all right?" It was Neville Longbottom.
"Neville! What are you doing here?" yelled Ron, who was immediately smacked for being so loud.
"I'm sorry! I was doing a favor for Fred and George. They wanted to know if the Exploding Gumballs of theirs glowed in the dark, and they said if I tested it they would give me ten for free!"
"Oh Neville," moaned Hermoine, "you could have given us all away!"
"Um, I think he has." said Harry. "Filtch is headed this way, and he's not taking his time!"
"Right, fine." Hermoine whispered. "Everyone under the cloak, and we'll talk this out in the common room."
Little did they know that all that time, someone had overheard their conversation and was planning a meeting of their own.

'Whew, thank goodness for you Bashing Spell Hermione' Harry whispered under the cloak.
'One way or another the ugly git was destined for one anyway' Ron said as he dragged Malfroys unconcious body under the cloak.
'What are we going to do with him now? He's bound to tell Snape when he wakes up' Ron added.
'Not unless he never heard what we said...' said Hermione with a grin.
'What are you going to do? Use a Memory Charm on him?' Ron replied sarcastically.
Hermione continued to grin.
'Don't tell me you actually learned how to use a Memory Charm?!' proclaimed the red headed boy.
'Quiet! Something's moving over there' Harry said while pointing in to a dark corridor.

Unfortunately for him, no one was waiting for Draco to wake up. He had the strange feeling that he had found out somthing incredibly important, but he couldn't quite remember what it was. After the nurse discharged him, he shuffled back to the Slitherin common room to sort things out.

Meanwhile, Harry, Ron, and Hermoine were discussing their recent adventure on the way to see Hagarid.
"Lucky we didn't get caught be Snape the other night!" exclaimed Ron.
"I would have liked to see what he would have done if he caught us," said Harry. "Why do you suppose he was lurking around at the same time we were?"
"It was no coincedence," Hermoine explained. "Put the pieces together. Draco followed us to the Library just to find out what we were up to and get us in trouble AGAIN. Snape obviously gave him permission to do that. Malfoy was probably going to check in when we bashed in his skull."
Harry was suspicious. "But I wonder, was it just Malfoy sneaking around as usual, or did he know what we were looking for and want to stop us before we found it?"
Just then, the group reached Hagrid's, and saw the strangest sight through his little window........

They had been deceived!

Since Hermoine had found out about Alexander Morrick from one of the books in the Library, she knew that some very important people would be looking for him, and not with any good intentions. So, she had gone to Hagrid knowing full well his loathing for Morrick and asked if he would let her curse his home so that people with the intention to find Morrick would find him, bound and gagged in Hagrid's kitchen. Luckily the curse worked on Harry and Ron; Hermoine hadn't told them because she wanted to see if the curse was believable.
But once she explained the whole situation to Harry and Ron, they weren't at all happy with her.

"You could have filled us in on this!"
"How could you have kept this a secret from us?!"
"Well, there's nothing you can do about it now. Are you willing to help me now? This is a very dire situation, and I Hagrid and I can't handle it by ourselves." Both boys nodded solemnly. "Ok, good." said Hermoine, pacing back and forth thoughtfully. "So, here's the deal. As you already know, we are not the only ones looking for Morrick. But what you don't know is who else is looking for him and who actually knows where he is. From what Hagrid has heard from his sources in the Leaky Caouldron and my research, we should find Morrick where we least expect him. In fact, I have it on very good authority that he might already be here at Hogworts.
"WHAT??" Ron shouted. "He's dangerous, right? Why on earth would Dubledore bring him here?
"Because Dumbledore knows how importnat he is in the fight against Voldemort. He's a major player, and could help us find new weapons to use against Voldemort."

During this whole conversation, Harry and Ron had been so focused on what Hermoine was saying that they didn't even notice Hagrid slip out the door and into the Dark Forest. They also failed to notice the creature that slipped inside Hagrid's hut when he closed the door, the creature that was creeping up behind Hermoine, fangs dripping with poison...