ooc: Suddenly I have the urge to eat Scooby snacks and yelp "Zoiinks"! I'm not going to bother with the colors this time, since they're both talking to each other...

"How 'bout Miss Pushy back there?" Gideon indicated the girl who'd been on their tail earlier as he followed Theodore. "Or...I donno, maybe Ginny wouldn' mind...Luna loves a mystery...I sure wish t'Weasleys were still 'round. Two o' my best mates, brilliant minds...they always knew how t'get 'round things..."

Gideon blinked, once to take into consideration that someone had been listening in on his conversation, twice to register that Potter and two other students--Granger and Ron? was involved, thrice to register the Headmaster was in the vicinity. "Busted..." he muttered to himself. But maybe it wasn't for the worse...actually, he thought as he looked at the now famous trio, it could work...his mouth fell open when he heard the Minister's challenge. Was he serious? Well, not really, but it looked like he was confident that they would not get the answer right. It would be so much fun to best the Minister of Magic at something, and this was a prime opportunity. "Awlright Minister, you're on," Gideon proclaimed with an infuriating grin and a nod to Fudge, before turning to Ron. "Fire away, Gryffy."

"It had better not be You-Know-Who," he murmured offhandedly to himself, "because that would be so...uninterestin'."

Ron was taken by surprise that Dumbledore and Fudge seemed to have followed them here, also because none other than Theodore Nott was in the classroom he was trying to get in, and some other Ravenclaw boy who looked vaguely familiar, for reasons Ron could not place. He turned to look at Hermione in surprise, glanced at Harry, then gawked at Fudge. Apparently Fudge's last comments had yet to sink into his brain, for he could not believe what he had just heard. "Uh...well...ah..." Ron stammered, searching vaguely for some sort of cue. Something else clicked while he was at it, and instead of asking for an opinion of the matter he blurted, "Hang on, who said we were all working together?"

"Donno, but I'm goin' with it," Gideon replied with a shrug. "Well?"

"Well what?" Ron demanded, slightly defensively. He wasn't sure if he could trust a Ravenclaw who conspired with a Slytherin, expecially one that was quite plainly bent on lying about the whole incident.

"Well you're the one who's seen anythin' at all. What d'you figure?"

"And why should I tell you? Hasn't that bloke--" Ron jerked his head at Nott, "--told you anything?"

Gideon shrugged again, glancing at Fudge and Dumbledore. "I know a smatterin' o' stuff...and then some, bein' a 'claw." He winked at Ron, grinning childishly as if this was the best fun he'd ever had. "Come'on, let's give Minister Fudge a run for his money, shall we?"

It's big, an' mean, an' gives Hagrid the willies, Gideon thought to himself. Not many things give Mr. Blast-Ended-Whatchamacallits the willies, no? An' it howls...I like a good riddle, but i' sounds like there was several different beasties on the loose...maybe there was?

Ron was beginning to become fairly annoyed at this Ravenclaw boy who was starting to remind him of two people he never did like, but another thought intruded. He turned to Hermione after glancing once again at Fudge. "How many ways do you think a dirty great beast could get into the castle and grab Malfoy without making a racket?" He murmured to her, loud enough so that only the assembled group of students could hear. Chimeras probably don't fly, but a dragon couldn't fit through the window...Norbert? I suppose...You-Know-Who or someone could tame a dragon, or, I donno, use the Imperius Curse on it--nah, Hermione would probably think that was daft...