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r best to put up the pretence of enjoying Christmas dinner for the sake of her family and Ron's alike, and in a way, she did. The atmosphere was cosy and warm. The food was some of the best she had ever had the pleasure of consuming. The absence of Squire also tasted incredible. But the fact that she was going to have to help Harry and Ron pretend to be Crabbe and Goyle, who sat across the hall eating away delightedly, in order to confirm that Draco was the heir of Slytherin.

She was glad that she poked a hole in Hermione's original plan that involved all four of them going, as it had managed to save her and Hermione from taking the potion. As much as she trusted that Hermione had made it perfectly, she was glad she didn't have to try it as apparently it tasted disgusting.

It was after Christmas pudding that Hermione decided to commence with the plan. Saffron bid her siblings and the Weasleys goodbye and followed her out of the hall. In turn, they were followed by Harry and Ron who seemed rather crestfallen to have left as soon as they did.

"We need to be ready for when Crabbe and Goyle leave," Hermione told the three of them matter-of-factly. "I've got it all worked out," She held up two small appetizing chocolate cakes. "I've filled these with a simple Sleeping Draught. All you have to do is make sure Crabbe and Goyle find them. You know how greedy they are, they're bound to eat them. Once they're asleep, pull out a few of their hairs and hide them in a broom closet."

Harry and Ron exchanged confused looks. They looked dumbfounded.

"Hermione, I don't think--" started Ron.

"That could go seriously wrong--" Harry protested.

Saffron rolled her eyes at them. They had agreed to do this. She was shocked that they had decided to back out of it so quickly. Especially Harry, considering the majority of the school thought he was the Heir of Slytherin. Unbeknownst to him, some of his closest friends had their suspicions about him. Him deciding that he didn't want to do it only made Saffron feel more on edge about the likelihood of him being Slytherins' heir.

"The potion will be useless without Crabbe's and Goyle's hair," she snapped furiously. "You do want to investigate Malfoy, don't you?"

"Of course we do," said Ron exasperatedly as though it were obvious

"Then do this one thing for me," Hermione told him with a hint of desperation and exhaustion. "I've done most of this potion myself, this really is the least the both of you could do. I'd do it for you, but I have to keep watch on the potion,"

"Oh, all right, all right," sighed Harry.

"I'll stay with the two of you," Saffron offered, but that didn't make Harry nor Ron feel any better. Hermione left a few moments later, furious at how Harry and Ron had contemplated cowering out of the plan they had spent months on.

"Let's just get this over with," said Ron, and to Saffron's surprise, it ended very quickly. The Great Hall had cleared out very quickly. Cygnus and Draco had both left the Slytherin table leaving Crabbe and Goyle alone at the Slytherin table, wolfing down more desert. Harry merely left the cakes at the end of the bannisters and as soon as Crabbe and Goyle saw them, they took the bait and were asleep in a matter of seconds.

"Now we just have to move them," Saffron groaned, looking at the giant bodies of Crabbe and Goyle on the floor. It took a lot of effort for the three Gryffindors to heave the Slytherins, one by one, into a broom closet opposite them. Harry and Ron took off a few of their hairs and took their shoes too. Without delay, they alongside Saffron hurried back to where Hermione would be.

"I can't believe how easy that was," Saffron remarked, as they opened the door to the bathroom and headed over to the locked cubicle that Hermione was inside of.

"Let's hope the rest of the night is the same," replied Harry nervously, knocking on the door to the toilet. "Hermione?"

Hermione unlocked the door and ushered them in, looking sweaty and apprehensive. She had two glasses on the toilet seat beside the potion and was holding a metal ladle in her hand.

"Did you get them?" Hermione asked them before smiling upon seeing the hairs in Harry and Ron's hands. "Good. And I sneaked these spare robes out of the laundry, you'll need bigger sizes once you're Crabbe and Goyle."

There was a prolonged silence in which Harry and Ron stared despairingly down at the bubbling potion.

"I'm sure I've done everything right," Hermione assured them, quadruple checking the final instructions. "It looks like the book says it should... once you drink it, you'll have exactly an hour before you change back into yourselves."

"Now what?" Ron whispered.

"You'll take the potions," Hermione informed him bracingly. She poured the potion into the two glasses, using the ladle. Then, she took the hairs from Harry and Ron before dropping them into the glasses. She sighed. "Oh, good luck. I wish I could take it with you, but anyway . . . " She bit her lip. "Maybe it would be better to go into your own cubicles?"

Harry and Ron obliged. Holding onto their glasses tightly, Harry and Ron left the stall that the girls were in and went into a cubicle on either side of them.

"Ready, Ron?" Harry asked his friend shakily.

"Ready," replied Ron, sounding just as shaky.

"One - two - three--"

Saffron held onto Hermione's hand as they listened to the boys gulp down the potion. On either side of them, there were clatters and sparkling sounds, and for several moments, Saffron was worried that something had gone wrong. But after a minute, a voice confirmed that it hadn't.

"It worked," Goyle also known as Harry asked them. Saffron and Hermione jumped up and down in the cubicle, hugging in triumph, as Ron responded sounding like Crabbe.

"Yeah," responded Crabbe also known as Ron in a low voice.

Saffron and Hermione got out of the cubicle and watched in a mixture of awe and horror as Crabbe and Goyle got out of the cubicles.

"It worked," Hermione exclaimed breathlessly, narrowing her eyes as she examined Harry and Ron closely.

"You sound like you had no confidence," said Ron in Crabbe's voice.

"I was confident, but mistakes can happen," said Hermione with honesty. "Remember what you have to do, act like Crabbe and Goyle to make Malfoy feel like he can trust you. But be careful of time, every second is going to count, and you only have three thousand six hundred of them, and counting, so let's get going,"

"You know where the Slytherin common room is?" Harry asked her, which made Saffron realise that she hadn't even thought about that detail. Perhaps she would have been better served to have followed Draco so they could have known where he was.

Naturally, Hermione knew. "Yes, you can follow me. Just stay a bit behind us, we don't want to be seen together. It might look suspicious to people,"

"Okay," nodded Harry. And so, Saffron stuck close to Hermione as the pair of them navigated their way through the halls towards where Hermione said the Slytherin common room would be. With Crabbe and Goyle hot on their tails.

Saffron blinked when she thought of that. She couldn't help but crack a smile. What a crazy year it had been, and if last year was anything to go by, it was only going to get more intense.