Chapter 29: Preparing for Confrontation
Hermione and Draco sat in Headmistress McGonagall’s office, in order to discuss their plan to protect Draco from his father. When Lucius escaped from Azkaban, he sent a message to Draco, demanding that he and his mother meet him in a secret location. Draco refused to go, and asked McGonagall to alert the Ministry of Magic of the secret location. By the time the Aurors arrived, however, Lucius had fled. Draco had received a Floo-Ash letter from his mother as well, who expressed great fear that Azkaban had warped Lucius’s mind and that he was set on revenge against anyone who played a role in his incarceration. She was fearful for her own safety, but felt she must join Lucius. She was going to try to communicate her location to Draco if she had the opportunity.
“Mr. Malfoy, it is imperative that we do all that we can to assure your safety until your father is apprehended,” Headmistress McGonagall began. “I have already asked Professor Slughorn to begin brewing a Vestigium Potion[1], which, once ingested, will allow us to monitor your location should you be kidnapped. The potion takes twenty-four hours to brew and then must be consumed over three successive days in order to take effect. This must be repeated every three months, but hopefully we will not have to use it a second time.”
Hermione felt a sense of panic rise in her. “But Draco needs round the clock protection so that it never comes to that!” she argued.
“Yes, of course. I have already spoken to the Gawain Robards, Head of the Auror Office. A contingent has already been sent to patrol the grounds. Furthermore, Ron Weasley and Harry Potter will join you in your suite starting Monday morning. This should not arouse any suspicion, if we are being watched, because they have been frequent visitors this year. Together with the other Aurors, they hope to develop a plan to hunt down and capture your father before any violence occurs.”
“If my mother is able to send me their location…” Draco began.
“Yes, Mr. Malfoy, you can discuss these details with the Aurors on Monday, when Mr. Weasley and Mr. Potter arrive. My concern right now is to protect you from harm. To that end, I’d like Miss Granger to immediately begin teaching you how to cast a Patronus. You do not yet know how to do that, correct?”
“No, I do not.”
“How are your Occlumency skills?” Headmistress McGonagall asked next.
“Probably a bit rusty,” Draco confessed. “But I’ll work on getting them back up to where they were during the war. I was able to hold everyone at bay, except Voldemort, of course. But I can keep my father out of my head, I believe. Are there any Legilimens at Hogwarts who could help me?” Draco asked.
“Unfortunately, no. With Headmasters Dumbledore and Snape gone from us, few good Legilimens remain at all, to my knowledge,” Headmistress McGonagall lamented. Hermione looked up at Snape’s Headmaster portrait for the first time. She noticed he was sneering down at her, even now. She looked instead to Headmaster Dumbledore’s portrait. He still had a kind twinkle in his eye, despite the problematic situation they found themselves in.
“Tomorrow is Sunday,” Headmistress McGonagall continued. “You can spend the day learning how to cast a Patronus charm with Miss Granger and practicing your Occlumency skills, albeit on your own. When Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley arrive, we will discuss the viability of your attending classes on Monday. I should think the odds are quite low, but Miss Granger can share her notes with you.”
Draco looked panicked. He had to earn excellent NEWT grades in order to attend WUP in Paris.
“It’ll be fine, Draco,” Hermione said, touching his arm. Headmistress McGonagall noticed the exchange and glanced up at the portrait of Albus Dumbledore behind her.
“All right, stand back and I’ll show you how to cast a Patronus,” Hermione instructed. She had moved all the furniture in their suite to the sides of the room first thing that morning, making a large space for them to practice in. "You need to think of an extremely happy memory or idea, and then say the incantation, ‘Expecto Patronum.’ It must be a powerful memory, the happiest you can remember. Allow it to fill you up… Just remember, your Patronus can only protect you as long as you stay focused… So you should think of the happiest thing you that can.”
She demonstrated, calling out, “Expecto Patronum,” and her otter Patronus appeared. Draco tried to think of something happy and spoke the enchantment, but nothing much happened. A few smoky billows seemed to ooze out of his wand. After about half an hour of trying, he was only able to produce a small cloud of smoke.
“Hermione, this isn’t working.” Draco appeared ready to give up.
“You have to have a little more perseverance, Draco. This is a difficult spell. It may take you days to get it right.”
“I’m having a hard time focusing on a happy memory.”
“What are you thinking about?”
“Well, I started with the day my father gave me my first broomstick, but then the current situation with my father kept crowding out the happy memory.”
“I can see the problem there,” Hermione agreed.
“So next I tried thinking about the day we got our acceptance letters from WUP, but the problem there is I still have to earn high marks on my NEWT exams, and the situation with my father is not helping there either.”
“We need to find something to think of that has nothing to do with your father,” Hermione said thoughtfully.
Draco walked over and stood very close to Hermione, placing his arms around her in a loose hug. “Make love to me, Hermione. That will be the happiest memory I can think of.”
Hermione rolled her eyes. “You are such a flirt. I am not going to make love to you to help you cast a Patronus!”
“Can I at least kiss you?”
“Now you start asking permission?” Hermione laughed.
Draco leaned in and kissed Hermione softly, reminiscent of their kiss under the mistletoe back in December.
“How about you just agree to be my girlfriend, now that you and Ron have split?”
“Draco, I’m not ready for that. I need more time. Ron was part of my life for eight years.”
“He’s still your friend and that’s what he was for most of those eight years.”
“Can’t we just take it slow?”
“Yes, we can, we are, aren’t we? It feels slow to me.” Draco smiled. “But this conversation is not creating the happy memory I need here.”
“Let me give you some happiness, then,” Hermione said, leaning in to kiss him again.
After another hour of practicing the spell, Draco was ready to give up. “Please keep trying,” Hermione urged him. “This is important. I’m very worried about you. I have no idea what your father is capable of doing.”
Draco kept at it, and finally produced a very faint, small lizard like animal, that appeared to be on fire. Draco couldn’t be sure. Perhaps it was in a cloud of smoke, since most of the day his wand had merely produced a smoky cloud. He laughed, happy he had produced something, but a bit discouraged by the size of the animal.
“I was kind of hoping for a huge, fierce dragon,” he admitted to Hermione.
“My Patronus is an otter – not very frightening,” Hermione said. “Try again, I want to get a better look at it.”
Draco said, “Expecto Patronum,” and the small lizard appeared again, clearly engulfed in flames.
“Why is it on fire?” Draco asked. “Your otter doesn’t look like that.”
“That’s because your Patronus is a Salamander, silly.”
“A what?”
“A Salamander, the magical creature used in the Runic alphabet to represent the number six, because it can only live out of fire for six hours.”
“This is my punishment for dropping Ancient Runes,” Draco groused.
“No, you should be happy. It’s a cool Patronus. The only other person I’ve ever met with a magical creature for a Patronus, rather than just a mundane animal, was Albus Dumbledore. His Patronus was a Phoenix.”
“But it’s a lizard!”
“It could have been worse. It could have been a snake.” Hermione laughed, both at her joke and in relief that Draco had been able to produce a Patronus after many hours of trying.
“What’s wrong with snakes?”
“Nothing, Mr. Slytherin.”
“The worst part is: it’s tiny,” Draco lamented.
“’Size doesn’t matter,’” Hermione quoted.
“Yes, yes it does,” Draco argued. “That’s just something they say to make the guys who have small… you know… feel better about themselves.”
“I promise you, Draco, size doesn’t matter.” Hermione was giggling.
“And how would you know?” Draco laughed along with her. “You’ve seen what, one?”
“I’ve seen one and I’ve felt another,” Hermione teased. Draco had the decency to blush. “And I am telling you, honestly, size doesn’t matter.”
“You can’t possibly know that.”
“Yes, I do, because Ron is huge!” Hermione burst into embarrassment-fueled laughter, while Draco just stared at her in amused amazement.
About nine-thirty in the evening, Professor Slughorn came to the Head Suite, bringing with him the Vestigium Potion he had brewed over the last twenty-four hours. Headmistress McGonagall had clearly informed Professor Slughorn of the need for the Potion immediately upon receiving news of Lucius’s letter to Draco.
“Mr. Malfoy, I have your first dose of Vestigium Potion here, along with vials containing the two additional doses. You must have three doses for the Potion to work properly.”
Draco took the first vial from Professor Slughorn. “Do I just drink it? Do I need to avoid certain foods or anything?”
“It would be best if you ingested the Potion without any other food or liquids until is it absorbed into your system. I’d say an hour ought to be enough time.”
“Alright, here she goes.” Draco drank the liquid in the vial quickly. He made a horrible face afterwards. “That is nasty!”
“Yes, well, it is not easy to track a person around the globe, my boy,” Professor Slughorn replied. He handed the two additional vials to Hermione. “My dear, can you put these somewhere safe? They should be stored in a dark, cool location. Draco must have another dose at exactly this time tomorrow, followed by the third dose at this same time the day after.”
By this time, Draco was looking a little pale. “Sir, are there any known side effects to the Potion? I’m starting to feel rather dizzy.”
“Oh yes, how thoughtless of me. Sit down, my boy. You may faint. I should have warned you. It’s a very common side effect.”
Draco sat down on the sofa. Hermione had magically repositioned all the furniture back to its proper location after Draco had successfully cast his Salamander Patronus multiple times. She sat down next to Draco, looking concerned. “I suppose there’s nothing we can do to make him feel better?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t recommend it. Not for at least an hour,” Slughorn replied. Beads of sweat broke out on Draco’s forehead.
“Here, lie down,” Hermione instructed, helping Draco stretch out on the couch. “I’ll get you a cool compress,” she said to Draco. “I assume that’s alright, Professor Slughorn? If I put a damp flannel on his forehead?”
“Certainly, my dear, excellent idea. I’m going to get back to work now. I had to drop everything to work on this Potion for Draco. I hope it keeps you safe, my boy. I’m leaving you in excellent hands with Hermione here.” And with that he exited the suite.
Hermione put the vials in a small, enclosed box on their Potions table, in order to keep them cool and in the dark. Then she went to her bathroom and wet a small hand cloth in cool water. By the time she came back, Draco had passed out on the sofa. She patted his forehead with the cloth and waited for him to wake up, which occurred about twenty minutes later.
Hermione had just fallen asleep after tossing and turning, worried about Draco, when she heard a soft knock on her door. “Hermione, it’s me,” Draco said.
“Come in,” she replied.
Draco entered her room, walked over to the small chair in the corner and sat down.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t sleep and I’m climbing up the walls out there.”
“Don’t worry, I understand.”
“I just can’t relax. My stomach is all queasy from the Vestigium Potion. But mostly, I’m afraid my father may already be in the castle. He could be lurking somewhere, waiting to snatch me. This place is huge, there’s no way the Aurors can protect it – I know that first hand, because I beat the system with the Vanishing Cabinets.”
Hermione was torn. She knew that she had the means to comfort Draco; the Marauders’ Map was still at the bottom of her trunk. But she had promised Harry she would not share the map with anyone. She looked over at Draco, his hair disheveled and his face tear-stained. She made a decision.
“Draco, come sit with me on the bed. I want to show you something.” Draco complied, sitting awkwardly on one side of the wide bed. “You must promise me, absolutely swear, that you will never mention what I am about to show you to anyone, ever.”
Draco looked confused, but trusting Hermione, he said, “I promise.”
Hermione got up, retrieved the Marauders’ Map out of her trunk, and lay it out on the bed in front of them. She took her wand from the side table, tapped the map, and recited, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good." Draco gasped when the map revealed itself.
“Is this, is this Hogwarts?”
“Yes, every inch of it, except the Room of Requriment, which is unplottable. And it shows you every person who is currently in the Castle or on the grounds.”
“Where did you get this?”
“It was created by James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Petigrew when they were students here,” Hermione explained. “George and Fred Weasley had it and gave it to Harry in his third year.”
“He had it all that time?” Draco sounded both amazed and a little bitter.
“Yes, and he tracked you extensively in our sixth year, trying to learn what you were up to. You kept disappearing, although now we know you were simply using the Room of Requirement.”
“So, unless my father is camping out in the Room of Requirement, we know from this map that he is definitely not in the castle.”
“Correct.”
“And since my father was in Azkaban when I repaired the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Hidden Things, he probably doesn’t even know of the existence of the Room of Requirement.”
“I think not.”
“Why do you have the map?” Draco wondered.
“I used it to catch Liam Blogas.”
“So that’s how you did it! I wondered about that. I mean, I know you are brilliant, but that capture seemed miraculous!” Draco smiled at her.
“All right, so now that that’s cleared up, you should be able to sleep soundly tonight.” Draco made a move to get under the covers and gave Hermione a hopeful look.
“What do you think you are doing?”
“Come on, Hermione, I need comforting tonight. When the Weasel and Potter come to protect me tomorrow, I won’t even get to flirt with you, unless you want Ron to find out that I’ve fancied you for months now.”
“If you think you’re going to sweet talk your way into my bed…”
“Just for tonight and no funny business, I promise.” Draco held up his hand as if making a pledge. “There’s plenty of room…”
Hermione smiled ruefully at Draco and shook her head in mock annoyance. “All right, just this once, and definitely not when Harry and Ron are here. I haven’t decided yet what to do about your big Durmstrang confession.”
“Well, the way I see it, you have two choices: either be my girlfriend or we’ll just be friends with benefits.”
“What about just friends?” Hermione stammered.
“I thought we’d already established a mutual attraction.” Draco tickled her arm softly. “So as I see it, it all depends on that essay you owe me on the third dimension of relationships and whether or not I evoke the necessary emotional spark,” Draco pronounced.
“You are impossible,” Hermione said, laughingly.
“Just get in here and hug me. It’s not every day I have the excuse of a mad father on the warpath,” Draco answered.
Hermione sunk back down into the bed, adjusted the covers, and let Draco hug her until they both fell asleep.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Hermione helps Draco prepare for a confrontation with his father.
Chapter End Notes:
[1] I made this Potion up. Vestigium means footprint in Latin.