Revelations
Leo clapped a hand over his mouth, eyes quickly filling with fear.
Draco stared at Leo in shock. "W-what?"
"I'm sorry," Leo whispered, his eyes quickly filled with tears and his breaths became shorter and faster. "Draco I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you, I swear I did. But then you were saying all that stuff about Professor Lupin, and I had just got you to kind of agree with me-"
Draco watched as Leo continued to ramble on as he explained himself. Meanwhile, Draco's thoughts were a flurry of emotions. Leo was a werewolf? How? he was nothing like those monsters. No, Leo wouldn't like him using that word, they're still people. But why should he care what Leo thinks? Leo lied to him! Leo could've told him at any time, he wouldn't have cared! Except he would've. He would've cared. If Leo had told Draco earlier, Draco would've done cut him off, would've gotten him expelled. Draco would've pushed his first real friend, all for something Leo would probably do anything to change.
"Leo,"
Leo's mouth clicked shut as he stared fearfully up at Draco. Leo's dirty blonde hair with how often he had tugged on it. "Y-yeah?"
"Shut up and come here before I change my mind," Draco looked off to the side and spread his arms. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Leo turn his honey colored puppy dog eyes on him. Leo surged forward and wrapped his arms around Draco's chest, forcing him back a step. Draco's arms closed around Leo's shoulders, squeezing him in. Leo's shoulders begun to shake and he buried his head in Draco's chest.
"I'm so sorry,'
"Just hurry up and calm down so you can explain your conspiracy theory," as if to contradict his words, Draco squeezed Leo a bit harder, Keeping Leo against his chest.
It took a little bit, but eventually Leo pushed out of Draco's arms and brought his own arm up to wipe his tears away. Draco stepped back and stuck his hands in his pockets, looking off the the side.
"You're really okay with it? With me?"
Draco sighed and looked back at Leo. "No matter how I look at it you're still my best friend,"
Leo looked at Draco in shock before it turned into a teasing grin. "Aw Draco! You're my best friend too!"
Draco's face rapidly flushed. He needed to change the subject. "What were you saying about Professor Moody?"
Leo's teasing grin slipped off his face at Draco's words. " I don't think that's actually Professor Moody? I smelled polyjuice on him and I think the thump I heard in defense was the actual Professor Moody," Leo explained at a reasonable speed.
"If it's not Professor Moody, then whoever it is probably put Potter's name in the goblet," Draco jumped on the explanation.
"Which means someone's trying to kill Potter,"
"Again," Draco deadpanned. "We have to tell somebody then. Someone we trust. I could tell Professor Sna-"
"Snape outed Professor Lupin as a werewolf and made him quit,"
Surely he wouldn't. If they told Professor Snape surely he'd help them. But one look at Leo squashed that thought. He couldn't risk it. "Or our friends. Gail and Luna could help. If-if you want to tell them,"
"I-I don't know, you're the first person I've ever told,"
"Then we leave that part out. We'll tweak our story enough to still be truthful and not out you,"
"You make it sound like I'm gay,"
"I've seen the way you look at the Weasley twins, which one?"
"...Fred. Come on we've wasted enough time as is," Leo stalked away and around the corner. "Gail's this way!" he called back.
Draco started to jog to catch up. "How do you-"
"Take a guess,"
"Oh, right,"
"So Professor Moody's trying to kill Harry Potter?" Gail looked at her two friends in confusion.
"Except he's not Professor Moody," Leo clapped his hands together and pointed at Gail with them.
Gail sighed, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose. "Oh right, my bad," she rubbed her hand down her face, opening her eyes to look at Leo and Draco. "So whoever the imposter is wants to kill Potter via Triwizard Tournament? Okay, who's the imposter?"
Draco and Leo went quiet and looked at each other as if they were trying to communicate with just looks.
"You don't know?!"
"I didn't think I'd get this far," Leo spoke quietly.
"I found out about all of this today," Draco shrugged.
"Fucking hell," Gail whispered, looking to the ceiling.
"We can narrow it down though," Leo grabbed Gail and Draco's attention. "I think Dumbledore hired the real Alastor Moody, which means something happened between his hire date and September first,"
"We'll need his hiring date," Draco pointed out.
"So we break into Dumbledore's office," Gail filled in.
"You say that like it's easy," Draco side eyed her.
Gail shrugged. I've done it before,"
"Okay we're revisiting that late. But first, we need to fill Luna in," Leo interjected.
"Will she believe us?" Gail asked.
"I had a feeling,"
Leo, Draco, and Gail looked at Luna in shock.
"You believe us? Just like that?" Gail asked, skepticism heavily lacing her voice.
Draco sneered. "Why are you acting shocked? You basically has the same reaction,"
"Did not!"
"Ehh, you kind of did. But anyways, we need to figure out who the imposter is, expose him, and keep Potter alive," Leo counted on his fingers.
"We need to figure out the first task," Gail added on.
"Dragons. Harry told Cedric that it's dragons," Luna answered the hidden question.
"Fuck, when is the first task?" Gail asked.
"One week," Leo answered.
"That's not enough time to gather proof and keep Potter alive," Gail pointed out.
"So we focus on Potter, try to expose the imposter before the second task," Draco spoke up.
"Potter doesn't know or trust any of us though," Leo pointed out.
"Discretion is a great friend," Luna spoke cryptically.
"Alright, to the library,"
For the next couple of hours the group compiled a list of dragons most likely to be used in the tournament before Leo suddenly perked up.
"You know, if it is actually dragons, they'd probably keep them in the forbidden forest,"
"And why didn't you mention this before?" Draco gritted out.
"Just realized it myself," Leo shrugged.
Gail groaned and stood up. "I'll go,"
"Why you?" Draco asked.
"I'm an animagus," Gail smirked before turning and heading out of the library.
"So that's why she smells like that," Leo mumbled. "Ow! What the fuck Draco?!"
Draco yanked Leo close and quietly snarled out. "Are you trying to out yourself? It's a wonder how no one's figured it out yet,"
Leo grimaced, turning his head to Luna who was currently scribbling notes on Hungarian Horntails.
A fluffy red fox trotted through the forest, nose to the ground, following the burning scent deeper into the forest. When the scent became over powering, the red fox sat behind a tree and transformed into a girl with long red hair and a Hufflepuff uniform.
Abigail White grimaced as she picked up a strand of her hair. "Ugh!" she turned her hair back into a purple bob "Maybe I should go curly?" she whispered, she shook herself from her thoughts and continued walking into the forest. The burning scent was so strong it was overwhelming even in her human form.
With an arm across her nose, she crept further into the forest. Eventually she saw massive cages containing huge shadows. A stream of fire shot out of one of the shadows, the heat forcing Gail back a step.
"Hungarian Horntail," she whispered in awe. Gail spun on her heel, transforming back into a fox, and running back the way she came.
"It's a Hungarian Horntail," Gail slammed her hands on the table. Her small group of friends looked up as she spoke. Leo had a grimace on his face as he buried his face into his scarf.
"You saw it?" Draco asked, leaning forward.
"Saw it? Almost had my eyebrows singed off,"
"So we were right?" Leo asked, voice muffled by his scarf.
"Seems like it, now we need to learn all we can about them," Gail stood up straight, placing her hands on her hips.
"Done," Luna, who had been writing the whole time, slid a stack of parchment into the center of the table.
"Well that covers that," Draco looked at Luna in slight awe.
"Now we just have to get Potter to trust us so we can pass on the info. Any ideas?" Leo asked. The group went silent as they processed the difficulty of this part of their plan.
"Well fuck,"