Playing Dumb

"Wait here." Malfoy told Harry and Ron, pointing at two empty chairs by the fireplace not far from Su Yu. "I'm going to get something. My father just sent it to me."

Harry and Ron sat down nervously, not knowing what Malfoy was going to show them. The fire in the fireplace blazed brightly, turning their faces red, and they tried their best to treat the place like home.

Sister Ka even had Egg Beater bring them two cups of hot tea. Watching their enthusiastic manner and their endless polite chatter, she became even more certain that they were not Crabbe and Goyle. The real Crabbe and Goyle would only pick up the cups, drain them in one gulp, then grin stupidly and ask whether there was anything to eat.

Still, she said nothing. Su Yu had not spoken either, so why not let them keep playing? She enjoyed a good show too.

A minute later, Malfoy returned. He held something resembling a newspaper clipping and shoved it beneath Ron's nose.

"You're guaranteed to laugh," Malfoy said.

Harry saw Ron's eyes widen in terror. Ron skimmed through the clipping, let out a helpless laugh, then handed it to Harry.

It had been cut from the Daily Prophet. It read:

An Investigation by the Ministry of Magic.

Arthur Weasley, an administrator at the Ministry of Magic, was fined fifty Galleons today for enchanting a car. Mr. Lucius Malfoy, an official, called for Mr. Weasley's resignation today. Earlier this year, the enchanted car crashed at Hogwarts.

"Weasley has disgraced the position of Ministry of Magic enforcement officer," Mr. Lucius told reporters. "Clearly, he is entirely unfit to make our laws. His ridiculous Muggle Protection Act should be abolished immediately."

Mr. Weasley had no comment, though his wife told reporters that they could either withdraw the reports or she would have the household ghosts haunt them.

"Well?" Malfoy said as Harry handed the clipping back to him. "Don't you think it's funny?"

"Ha, ha!" Harry laughed miserably. His laugh was even drier than Ron's, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.

"Arthur Weasley likes Muggles so much, he ought to snap his wand and go join them," Malfoy said contemptuously, lifting his chin even higher. "You'd never know the Weasleys were pure-bloods from the way they behave."

Ron's—or rather, Crabbe's—face was full of vengeance.

"What's wrong with you, Crabbe?" Malfoy asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Stomachache," Ron muttered.

"Oh, go up to the Hospital Wing, then, and give every one of those people who have offended me a kick for me."

"Ahem, ahem." Su Yu truly could not listen any longer. He coughed lightly to cover the laugh that had nearly escaped, while Sister Ka lowered her head beside him, her shoulders shaking.

"You see, I find it strange that the Daily Prophet didn't report everything," Malfoy continued thoughtfully, narrowing his gray eyes. "I suppose Dumbledore is trying to keep things quiet. If this doesn't stop at once, he'll come under attack. My father always says Dumbledore is the worst thing that ever happened to this place. He likes Muggle-borns, and no proper headmaster would let useless idiots like Colin in."

Malfoy began taking pictures with an imaginary camera. He shaped his hands into a camera, held them up before his eyes, and made clicking noises with his mouth.

"Potter, can I take a picture of you? Hmm? Potter? Can you give me your autograph? Can I lick your shoes? Huh? Potter?"

He lowered his hands and looked at Harry and Ron.

"What's wrong with you two?" he asked.

Harry and Ron forced themselves to laugh. Though the laughter came rather late, Malfoy still seemed quite satisfied. Perhaps Crabbe and Goyle had always been slow to react, so he did not grow suspicious.

"Saint Potter," Malfoy drawled. "Him? He couldn't even touch my feet, yet everyone thinks he's Slytherin's heir. Slytherin would rise from the grave and smack Harry's backside to pieces if he heard that. How embarrassing."

Harry and Ron suppressed their fury. They were certain Malfoy was just about to tell them the truth. Yet Malfoy merely said arrogantly, "If only I knew who the heir was. Then I could help them."

Ron stretched out his jaw to make Crabbe's face look even stupider than usual. Fortunately, Malfoy did not notice. Harry's mind raced, and he said, "You must have guessed who it is, right?"

"You know perfectly well I haven't, Goyle. How many times do I have to tell you?" Malfoy said, with a trace of impatience in his voice. "My father told me the Chamber of Secrets was opened fifty years ago. That time, a Muggle-born student was killed, and another student was expelled."

Harry then asked Malfoy whether he knew if the person who had opened the Chamber of Secrets had been caught. Malfoy said he did not know. Maybe they were still in Azkaban now...

Although Malfoy did not agree with his father's extreme beliefs—his father wanted to drive out all Muggle wizards—right now, Malfoy only wanted to give the people he hated a hard kick in the backside, whether they were Muggle wizards or pure-blood wizards.

Still, Malfoy might truly never have suspected Goyle and Crabbe. He even revealed the most secret room beneath his family's studio...

Until Ron's nose slowly began to lengthen.

Then he turned around, his expression utterly terrifying.

Harry and Ron took off running.

"I need stomach medicine," Ron muttered, his voice no longer sounding like Crabbe's and more like his own. They shoved at stone walls and crashed through corridors, their robes billowing behind them. They hoped Malfoy had not noticed anything. Harry felt his feet slipping inside Goyle's enormous shoes; every step was like trudging through mud, and he had to lift his crumpled robes to keep from tripping.

What they did not notice was that Su Yu had already left his sofa and was no longer in the Slytherin common room.

Su Yu went to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom on the second floor. He had come to find his kitty Hermione.

The bathroom was quiet, save for the sound of water dripping from a broken faucet. Moaning Myrtle was not there. Su Yu opened the stalls one by one until he reached Hermione's, whose door would not budge.

Su Yu said softly, "Good girl, Hermione, open the door!"

"Su Yu? How did you know I was here? No! Go away!" Hermione shouted from inside.

"Be good, it's all right. Open the door and let me see my kitty Hermione. How do you know I wouldn't like you like this?"

"??? How do you know everything?" Hermione refused to open the door, pulling it tightly from inside.

With no other choice, Su Yu flashed into the stall in an instant. He gently embraced big kitty Hermione—furry cat ears poked out from her hair, their tips trembling slightly. An orange tail extended from beneath her robes, curled into a question mark, while several whiskers protruded from both corners of her mouth.

Hermione had nearly fluffed up in fright at Su Yu's sudden appearance, but when she heard his familiar heartbeat and felt that warm embrace, she gradually calmed down. Her body softened, her face buried in Su Yu's chest, her fingers clutching his robe.

"Don't look at me, Su Yu. I... I look so ugly right now..." Hermione cried, her voice carrying indescribable grievance and shame.

"Who says so?" Su Yu's voice was gentle. One hand rested on the back of her head, his fingers threading into her fluffy curls. "Is it possible that I quite like this?"

As he spoke, he kept stroking Hermione's cat ears. Her ears twitched once, then again. Whenever Su Yu's fingers touched their tips, she would dodge away.

With a little cry from Hermione, Su Yu picked her up and kissed her adorable cheek.

Su Yu draped a wizarding robe over her, covering her completely, without even the tip of her tail showing. Then he carried her out of the bathroom.

"Where are you taking me, Su Yu?" Hermione cried anxiously from inside the robe.

"Of course I'm taking you to the Hospital Wing, silly girl," Su Yu said as he walked. "Didn't you know Polyjuice Potion can only transform people, not animals? If you turn into an animal, you'll be stuck that way permanently and won't change back on your own..."

"Huh? How could this happen? Wuwu..." Hermione cried even harder.

There was no helping it. Su Yu could only carry Hermione across the ceiling, keeping anyone from seeing them, until he handed her over to Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing.

When Madam Pomfrey saw Hermione, her eyes widened and her mouth fell open, but she quickly regained her composure.

Hermione stayed in the Hospital Wing's side ward for several weeks. After the other students returned to school following Christmas, rumors spread for a time that she had disappeared, because everyone naturally assumed she had been attacked. So many students lined up outside the side ward to catch a glimpse of her that Madam Pomfrey put curtains around Hermione's bed again, lest she feel ashamed of others seeing her furry face.

Harry and Ron visited her every evening. After the new term began, they brought her the day's homework.

As for Su Yu, every night after Harry and Ron left, he would slowly walk to Hermione's bedside, tell her stories, and coax her to sleep. As she listened, she would ask, "What happened next?" He kept telling stories until her eyes gradually closed and her breathing became even.

After all, girls in adolescence were sensitive, and Hermione was even more sensitive now. Her cat ears drooped against the pillow, her whiskers trembled softly with each breath, and her tail stretched out from beneath the blanket, resting on the edge of the bed. Every time, Su Yu would gently tuck the tail back under the blanket, then sit by her bedside and wait until she was sound asleep before leaving.