THE POLYJUICE POTION
“What’s the new password again?” he said to Harry.
“Er —” said Harry.
“Oh, yeah — pure-blood !” said Malfoy, not listening, and a
stone door concealed in the wall slid open. Malfoy marched
through it, and Harry and Ron followed him.
The Slytherin common room was a long, low underground
room with rough stone walls and ceiling from which round, green-
ish lamps were hanging on chains. A fire was crackling under an
elaborately carved mantelpiece ahead of them, and several Slyth-
erins were silhouetted around it in high-backed chairs.
“Wait here,” said Malfoy to Harry and Ron, motioning them to
a pair of empty chairs set back from the fire. “I’ll go and get it —
my father’s just sent it to me —”
Wondering what Malfoy was going to show them, Harry and
Ron sat down, doing their best to look at home.
Malfoy came back a minute later, holding what looked like a
newspaper clipping. He thrust it under Ron’s nose.
“That’ll give you a laugh,” he said.
Harry saw Ron's eyes widen in shock. He read the clipping
quickly, gave a very forced laugh, and handed it to Harry.
It had been clipped out of the Daily Prophet, and it said:
INQUIRY AT THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
Arthur Weasley, Head of the Misuse of Muggle Ar-
tifacts Office, was today fined fifty Galleons for be-
witching a Muggle car.
Mr. Lucius Malfoy, a governor of Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the
221