Draco's PoV

I couldn't sleep so I got up and ready for classes. For some odd reason I feel more depressed than normal. Maybe it might be that I haven't fully slept in four days. Or I it could have the fact that I've been feeling sick for about a week. Who knows?

I keep pacing the common room. Back and forth, back and forth. I feel sick. That was all I could think. Then an owl flew in from the window; it had a small piece of parchment in its beak. I ripped open the black seal it was from Lucius. It stated:

Draco-

I regret to inform you that you mother, Nassicora, has killed herself. She shot herself in the head with a Muggle gun after drinking poison last night.

Lucius Malfoy

Christ... Was what I thought before running into the bathroom and puking up blood. I couldn't stop until about three in the morning. I brushed my teeth and went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. Not that I'd be eating anything.

It was three in the morning and no one was ever up at this time, or so was thought. When I turned the last corridor I ran into the famous trio.

"What are you doing up Malfoy?" Weasley sneered at me.

"What do you think? Going to the Great Hall, ass!" I was pissed off that someone could be that stupid.

"Ha ha, you're so funny!" Granger said sarcastically.

"I've got one question." I said.

"What might that be?" Potter asked me with a mix of confusion and curiosity on his face.

"What in bloody hell are we fighting over? I mean really? What is the point? Neither of us will ever win!" I was tired, tired of them and tired of having everything bad happen to me! "There is no point is there? I quite this little war of ours! You can keep fighting all you want but, I won't!" I thought to myself, well, at least I put three of my least favorite people into shock.

All the time they started at me, until people filled in. When everyone had came and was eating or in a conversation Dumbledore came over to the Slytheirn table.

"Draco, may I see you for a minute in my office."

"Sure." I said getting up and walking behind him.

Dumbledore's PoV

On the way to my office I couldn't help but think of Draco's unusual personality. He always had a bad attitude about everything and everyone. He only favored Severus Snape, and I even doubt he really likes him a lot. His mother once described him as a rusted padlock. If you try to open it, you can't, and you'll just end up discouraged.

When Draco and I entered my office he sat down and I started up conversation.

"Draco, you are aware that you mother past away last night, aren't you?" I asked him.

"Of course I know she's dead! I'm fifteen, not stupid! Is that all we have to do?" he snapped at me with his normal tone.

"I never said you were stupid." I replied as calmly as I could.

"No. No, you didn't, but you implied that I wouldn't know if my own mother died." He always found a way to twist words and concepts for the worst.

"Nassicora was planning an important talk with Me." he cut me off.

"Did she SAY it was important?" he asked me. I do not know how this could possibly be relevant.

"Well, no not directly. Why do you ask?" he looked at me funny.

"Oh, no reason, just asking." For some reason he looked paler than natural, even for him.

"I was wondering if you knew what that had been about."

"No, I never even knew she had a meeting with you," he said the 'you' with heavy dislike, even an ounce of hate. "Much less what it was about."

Just as he finished his sentence Professor Moody came in. He paused and stared at Draco for a few minutes. For some unknown reason Draco wouldn't meet his eye.

Draco's PoV

"I think I know who." Was all the Professor announced to Dumbledore, but he seemed to understand.

"Who?" Moody whispered a few things in his ear, and then Dumbledore stared at me as he nodded.

"Well, just to make sure we need to get the other three." His voice trailed off. "Draco will you excuse us for one moment, please?" I nodded.

When they left I was free to my thoughts. Dumbledore's bird flew on to my arm and made a cooing sound. I remembered the photo of my mother in the Daily Prophet from that morning; I saw it very clearly. That's when I noticed- it was all wrong, the glass she was holding with the poison, it was far too full, if she wanted to die with it the glass would be empty. The gun too, it was at the wrong angle, oh course I couldn't prove anything. Not yet.

That was when it hit me, she didn't kill herself. The meeting with Dumbledore, it was for. I didn't have time to finish because right then Dumbledore and Moody walked in with, oh no! Just what I need, Potter & co., goody!

"Yes, yes" Moody was whispering.

"You four will meet with us in four months over the winter brake, on the fourteenth. That will be all, you may go to your classes.

Three and 1/2 months later on 12/12

(Sorry, I needed to speed things up!)

Harry's PoV

It was Care Of Magical Creatures and Hagrid was explaining about a project that we were about to start. We were to have a partner and to finish in a week. We need a three-parchment report and a visual. He also said if we could get a photo that WE took of the animal we that would get 10 more points. The bad news was no one in the same house could work together. He started calling partners.

"Lavender, Crabbe. Hermione and, Goyle. Ron, Pansy. Harry, Malfoy." That was all I could hear. MALFOY AND ME! PARTNERS! Hagrid must be insane! We'll kill each other! Just then someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and it was Malfoy.

"Hello! Earth to Potter. Wake up." He was looking at me with strong hate. "We need to look up fairies."

"Oh great, how are we going to get a picture of fairies?"

"That's the easy part!" Is he crazy? Harry thought, raising an eyebrow.

"How ya gonna do THAT? No one has seen or heard from a fairy is over a century!" he started to make a sound, a very high pitched sound. Something started to move in the trees and out popped a oh my God, is that what I think it is? No way it can't be it's a

What Harry saw almost put him in shock, it was a fairy, not just a fairy, and a fairy riding on a small green dragon! Is this possible? Was what Harry and everyone else in Hagrid's class thought to themselves.

The fairy had light brown hair; it was messy yet, not at the same time. She had sky blue eyes and tan skin. The fairy had close made of flowers and different plants. The dragon had green scaly skin with sharp yellow eyes that seemed to look right through you.

That wasn't the half of it. Draco was acting like it was nothing out of the ordinary. He was talking to her. The tough sounded graceful and smooth. It was like music in a way.

"So what's been up, Alitena?" Draco asked the fairy.

"Well, the elders gave me this and I can't figure out how to open it! It turns out they forgot how you open it! How on Earth do you forget how to open a sacred book? HOW?" Alitena snapped her fingers and a huge book popped up in Draco's hands.

"I'll take a look and call you if I find anything."

"Thanks Dragon! Say 'bye', Elicani!" the mini dragon screeched in a good-bye type way. Then they disappeared. All the Slytheirns ran except Draco ran.

"That was a-ah-ah-ah" Hagrid was dumbfounded.

"A small dragon and a fairy! Impossible! Fairies and small dragons haven't been heard from since our ancestors betrayed them in 1432! Not to mention, Malfoy couldn't have spoken a forgotten language! It's just ludicrous!" Hermione said in a pricing voice, eyes bugged.

"Well, if that wasn't a mini dragon and a fairy I don't know what is!" Hagrid exclaimed. Draco had started looking at the book, turning it over, and so on.

"How did you talk to her?" Seamus asked Draco.

"You mean Alitena? I've been talking to her and her kind since um, forever I guess. Now if you'll excuse me I've gotta go check this little thing out." He said walking away.

"Wow, that was odd." Dean said staring after Draco.

"I can't believe I saw a fairy AND a small dragon all in one go!" Hagrid said in awe.

"This can't be, it just can't" Hermione's voice faded. The bell rang for dinner and they all walked in, shocked and amazed.

Hagrid was mumbling," I know Dumbledore said he was different then anyone else, but I didn't know he was THIS different!"

When they walked in Dumbledore came right over to their group and asked, "What in God's name happened? You all look like you have seen a seven hundred foot dragon!"

"It was more like seven inches." Harry said.

"Excuse me?" he asked them.

"Well we were in Care of Magical Creatures." Dean started.

"And Hagrid was giving out partners for the project on different creatures" Ron said.

"And I got partnered with Draco Malfoy, we got fairies, and I said we'd never get extra credit because, we'd never see a fairy. Then he said something like 'I wouldn't be so sure.' Or something." Harry said next.

"Then he started to talk in a strange language and pop, in came a fairy riding a seven inch, small dragon! Then they started to talk and she gave him a book. He was lookin' over it like it was a puzzle." Seamus spoke after Harry.

"We was all in awe, and Seamus, here was asken' how he was speakin' to her." Hagrid explained, " Then he said he'd always been speakin to that kind!"

"Well, I think we need to find Mr. Malfoy and discuss all this." Dumbledore suggested. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, will you all come with me to talk to Mr. Malfoy. The rest of you may go on and eat dinner. Hagrid, would you be so kind as to ask Professor Moody to come to my office as soon as possible?" Hagrid nodded. "Thank you."

"Why did you ask just us to come with you Professor?" Hermione asked him.

"Well, I decided since Mr. Malfoy goes home for winter break I decided to have our little meeting the day before break. Harry, do you have that map, it would be easier than looking all over the school?" Dumbledore asked.

"Uh, yeah." Harry pulled out the map and mumbled the spell to open it. "He is. In the library." He finally said.

"Well, on to the library!" Dumbledore said joyously. However, when they got there it was not a happy place.

Draco was with a fairy; this one was pale with dirty blonde hair and pale green eyes. She was talking away to him, but he spoke in English.

"HOW DARE HIM! AND HE WANTS ME TO GO! ONLY MONTHS AFTER SHE DIES AND THIS? MAY GOD DAMN THAT BASTARD AND HIS PIECE OF PLASTIC!" Draco was booming, waving a piece of parchment around. The fairy seemed to agree. "Okay, Luclia, its only months after your spouse dies, what would you do?" he asked her.

She thought and barely said, "M-m-m-m mourn." She said in ENGLISH!

"Mourn, right so would I, but he goes and decides I'll go get married!"

"Excuse me, but what is going on here?" Dumbledore asked.

"Dra-agon and III weree tttallkiing." Luclia managed to say.

Draco started to clap with enthusiasm, "Very good, very good! That was marvelous Luclia!"

"Amazing! Not only a fairy but, one that is learning to speak English!" Hermione said mouth-hanging open.

"She can understand English and working on speaking it. And if your wondering why I'm pissed, just read THIS!" he said shoving it at Ron, he read it and looked like, 'Ouch, that has got to hurt!' Hermione was like, 'How could anyone do that?' Harry was 'Damn this is not good!' and Dumbledore said, "I'm sorry Draco."

A very uneasy silence followed. No one knew what to say.

The note read:

You are invited to attend Mr.. L. Malfoy and Ms. A. Smith wedding. It is to be held on December 17.

Draco started to speck rapidly in fairy. Luclia nodding with agreement.

"If he thinks I'm showing up, he's gone mad! Off his rocker!" Draco said with fury. Luclia nodded.

"Yes, well, we must get to my office to discus something;" Dumbledore lead the group.

Luclia was speaking to Draco. No one had noticed she had been sitting on Draco's shoulder.

"Not yet, I'm working on it. It's a hard code, but I think I've got lead." Luclia asked him something.

"No I won't tell you! Nosy, aren't we?" Draco said with a faint grin on his face as they entered the office.

"Figured what out?" Hermione questioned.

"Oh, just some accent fairy book that no one can seem to open, nothing special." Everyone in the room looked at him.

"Dd-rag-oon is good aat tt-that!" Luclia managed to say.

"Why dose she call you Dragon?" Ron asked looking very uncomfortable asking Draco a question.

"That's what Draco means in Latin." He answered.

Someone turned the doorknob. Professor Moody walked in, looking everyone over carefully before sitting down.

"Ah, our little party is all here, now to get started! Moody will you please explain this, you know much more than I on this one." Dumbledore said happily.

"Now, not many of you may know about the "Great" Maferin K. Wilnesfur. He was a psychic, if you will. Now in his time, late eighteen hundreds, he was considered crazy, so they locked him up. When he was in the mental hospital, he made his final prediction. He loved riddles, so that's how he made it as a riddle. Here it is:

Five to set out,

Four to return

So be thought,

To the fire, that is burn;

The first to be

Of strong heart and loyalty

She is not a he

Library;

The second to be choose

Codes he breaks and

His faith has doze

Hard to get is he;

On to the third we go

He is to be hard at work

His true love be named Cho

But, he only works when pleases;

Fourth the game plan

This one is the chess player

He his having the upper hand

His love is the first;

Fifth the most unusual

Wings she has

Unless a fairy is usual

Hair of dark-blond she has" Moody paused.

"That's all fine and good, but why should I give a rat's ass?" Draco drawled.

"Is that it? What else?" Harry asked anxiously.

"Yes, what else?" Hermione chimed in.

"It states your mission." Dumbledore announced.

"Our what?" Ron asked.

"Mission, you know something we have to complete; a quest. What is the supposed mission'?" Draco asked the Professor.

"We are not too clear. Apparently Lord Voldmort" everyone in the room except Dumbledore, Draco, and Harry flinched at the name. "Wants four power stones. Water, Fire, Air, and Earth. It would make North (Earth), East (Air), South (Fire), and West (Water). Your job is to try to find them first. Once anyone has possession of them gets control of the Earth, the Air, the Water, and Fire. They are very dangerous in the wrong hands." Dumbledore informed them.

"Well what if we don't want to do this?" Draco asked. Luclia scolded him in fairy and he just scold at her.

"We need each of you. You have powers that can only be developed by experience! We need all of you to complete the balance."

"Professor, is there any indication on where these stones might be? I mean this man, or prophet, must have left us some clue. Right?" Hermione looked around at everyone else as if asking if they approved of the question.

"He did, but he was in a hospital and they took it away. They still have it too." Moody growled at them.

"So, we go the this hospital get more riddles or whatever he left us and find the stones before out friend Voldie?" Harry said hopefully.

"Far from it, Harry. First you have to get inside the hospital, and then you have to figure out how to get the papers. Every stone is hidden in various parts of the world, you must find a way to know where to go then where they are all hidden." Ron and Harry looked at Dumbledore like he had just gone completely mad.

Luclia fluttered over to Draco who was still holding the book she given him earlier. She pointed at it and started to talk so rapidly Draco even looked a bit confused. He looked down at the book and studied it. Old scripture was on the font, just barely noticeable on top of the faded brown leather. On the edge were leaves that changed from green to red, yellow, or orange. Draco turned it over in his hands, trying to see where it could be opened; pure force can't open pure magical books. He looked at Luclia and started a conversation up with her. They spoke for ten continuous minutes before Ron stopped them.

"Do you mind telling us what the hell you two are talking about?" Ron didn't like left out of things; nor does anyone really.

"That's none of your business!" Draco scowled and went on. "Further more, why should you give a damn?" Ron was just about to respond when Harry cut him off.

"Where is this hospital?"

"Dublin, Ireland. You all may pack and leave as soon as possible. Pack fairly light, but enough for awhile. Meet me at the lake, where you will be leaving." Dumbledore sighed to himself.

"But, Professor, what about school and my grades?" Harry, Ron, and Draco rolled their eyes over that remark.

"You will be excused form all assignments, of course."

"As in, we get all A's?" Ron's eyes light up.

"Yes Mr. Weasley, as in you get all A's." Dumbledore smiled.

"If we all make it back alive, if we don't it really won't matter now will it?" Draco got up and started to leave first.

"Way to think positive Malfoy." Hermione shot him a look as Luclia gave her a nasty look and made a threatening sound deep in her throat.

Draco and Luclia made their way down to the Slytheirn common room silently. When he got there it was empty; everyone else was in another class. Draco walked into his dorm and pulled out a medium sized bag. He threw in some clothing and a few of his favorite books, including the magic book. That's when he realized he had nothing else he really wanted to pack. He had no pictures he liked or cared about, nothing that either of his parents had given him or anything. Draco had nothing or anyone he wanted to say good bye to.

"Guess that's it." Draco said half to himself, half to Luclia.

He and the fairy walked slowly down to the lake and were surprised to see they were the first ones to arrive. Draco plopped down on the bank and took out the old book to study it some more. There seemed to be no way to open it. Luclia buzzed around, flying in and out of a near by tree. As Draco looked at it closer and longer he started to see things he hadn't noticed before. Like this little hole that seemed to be like a key or something on the spine If he looked close enough he could see a bit of a design in it. It seemed to be in the shape of a star with what looked like ruin symbols around it.

Draco put the book back into bag and looked at his watch. They had only had their discussion of this "mission" twenty-five minutes ago. How long does it take theses people to pack? Draco thought to himself just as Dumbledore arrived. Oh God, please spare me of his weird little "I'm really your friend" speeches!

No one spoke until the other three arrived. Luclia came down and listened as Dumbledore explained how they were to be transported directly to the hospital. As he put it there was this water nymph that had just made a path for them at Hogwarts by request. In return she was allowed to live in the lake; Muggles that had drained her pond and put a building over it had kicked her out of her old home. She said she would help the travelers cross. All they had to do was say in unison a spell that went like this:

Waters that give way,

Give me help this very day,

Make a path down below,

A very dry place to go!

A bubble like worm path emerged from the water. Everyone grabbed their bag (with the exception of Luclia) and started down the passageway until they ran into a beautiful woman. Ron stared at her until Hermione jabbed him. She looked like she was water, almost gel like.

"Hello. You must be the travelers! I am Inishu; Dumbledore probably already told you I am a water nymph. The path we will be traveling is mainly easy to follow, with the pardon of the travel warp, of course." She chuckled to herself.

"Excuse me, Inishu, right?" Hermione asked in her I'm-so-smart-but-have-never-heard-of-this tone. "What exactly is a travel warp?"

"Just like it sounds, it's like a time warp, only you go to different places! Lots of spinning. Now, follow me!"

The students followed Inishu down the long path for at least an hour before they stopped for a few moments. Everyone dragged his or her feet for another hour, even Luclia looked tired and she was flying. They stopped in front of a multi-colored twisted thing in the left side of the walls.

"Here we are, the travel warp! Now, go through one at a time, the fairy can go with a person."

"Luclia." Draco said sternly.

"What?" Inishu looked at him, as if he were mad.

"She has a name, and it's Luclia. I'll go first." He stepped up to the warp with Luclia at his side and disappeared.

Next were Ron, then Harry, and last Hermione. Inside the travel warp was like being in a roller coaster that spun upside down over and over and over again. Ron felt sick the whole time. When he fell down on the hard ground he saw Draco looking around.

They were just outside a formal looking building. To the right there was a sign with a map on it, the sign stated that the building was Wild Flower Hospital. There was a cement path with patches of grass on the side. Some of them had neatly painted benches or perfectly shaped hedges. Harry and Hermione soon appeared.

"So this is the institution nice." Hermione remarked unconvincingly.

"The Dursley's would like it, nice and ordinary." Harry looked around at the perfectly trimmed hedges.

"This is creepy, everything's the same." Draco remained silent for another ten minutes while the others talked.

"Nothing looks out of place, with the exception of us. That's what we need to fix. Potter, Granger, Weasley, come here." The trio came up to where he was standing. "Now, look ahead and look up."

When Hermione look forward she saw a middle aged man fighting with the guards as what looked like a girl age ten sunk one of the guards ID cards. Oddly enough, they didn't notice. Looking up into one of the windows she saw similar acts taking place. It was then that she realized how tall this building was. There must be thousands of mentally ill people here. No one could know all of them.

"Now, I've got an idea. Two of us need to go in the front office and act as insane and violent as possible. Try to get everyone in the main office out. While that is going on the other two of us go through the files to find Wilnesfur's and get the other riddles or whatever the hell it is he wrote. Now, who volunteers to be one the distracters?" Draco looked around the group, Harry and Ron agreed.

"We have to change the way we look. If we break in and get caught we have to give them fake names and look as different as possible. If the Muggle police are after us they're going to have pictures drawn of what we looked like. We should try the illusion spell."

After the spell had been explained everyone used it. Hermione's hair went straight and up in a bob, it also turned blond, while her eyes became a copper color. Harry's hair turned light brown and his eyes turned brown. Ron's hair grew longer until it looked like the style his brother Bill wore; his eyes turned a dark blue. Draco's hair went into spikes and turned blue at the edges and his eyes turned one gray and one green.

"Can we go now, or is there something else we need to do?" Ron, like everyone else, just wanted to get this over with.

"Everyone got a fake name?" Hermione asked slowly.

"Yes!" the rest of the group, shouted at her.

"Lets go then!"

The group made their way up to the second floor, that was were the main office was. Once they got there Ron and Harry started to act as violent as they could. Thrashing around, breaking things, and cursing. Draco and Hermione tried to act as surprised as possible, and while pretending to try to help, created more of a problem. After ten minutes of this they managed to get guards in there and all of the people in the file room out. Hermione and Draco suck into the filing room and started in the cabinets. When they got to Wilnesfur all they could find was a file.

"What the bloody hell? Where's his map, riddle, or whatever it is?"

"Maybe they keep it somewhere else, like over there!" Hermione pointed to another file cabinet that was locked with keys. "Now, the only thing we have to do is find the keys!"

"And that's hard? Come now Granger! You're forgetting who I am. Now, were would I hide them" he thought for a few moments while looking around the room.

Carefully he moved a picture off the wall that had been at a strange tilt. On the hook where the picture was hung so were five keys on a ring. Draco went over to the cabinet and undid every lock.

"You've done this before?"

"A million times."

All of the items had names attached to them. The third one held the items of Wilnesfur. An old mirror, a picture, an old hat, and some cards. Which one was suppose to lead them? They had no time to sit and think about this, the guards were starting to take Harry and Ron away- so they took it all and stuffed it in their bags. They locked everything up and Draco put the keys and picture where they had been.

By the time they got back outside, it was too late; Harry and Ron were taken to one of the rooms in the hospital, leaving Draco and Hermione to explain why they were in the office to the nurses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Where were all the bloody nurses? I swear, the service here is shit!" Draco yelled at the shocked nurses. "Now where the fuck did you take them? Jesus! What the hell are you people on?"

"What he means to say, is where did you take our brothers? We were just here to get the names of the medicines your doctors prescribed them and then never mailed to us, and then you just haul them off somewhere! Bring me them, now! Or I'll be calling my lawyers!" Hermione told everyone in the office sternly.

"Damn straight we will!" a stout women about Draco's height ran up to them and introduced herself.

"Keep your brothers under better control and we won't have to haul them off! Follow me, I am head nurse Kate, and I will take you to where we are keeping your brothers." they followed her up ten floors and twelve doors to the left.

After opening it with a skeleton key Kate opened the door and dropped the key into her pocket. Hermione continued to follow her into the room, while Draco lingered in the hall. While she was being explained what happened to her "brothers" by Kate, he was making a double of the skeleton key. A girl, about fourteen, wondered over to Draco and touched his face.

"I think you are real. So I'm not totally insane!" she said hoarsely, as if she hadn't spoken in some time.

"Depends, what do you see?"

"I see you, with a wand, using magic to make a duplicate key. Am I right or do I need more meds for psychosis?"

"You're right."

"So I'm not totally screwed over. That's good, I was worried for a while now. Then again I don't trust the doctors here, but they say it's just paranoia. They think I'm crazy because when I was eleven I said an owl brought be a letter inviting me to some school of magic. Hogwallious, or Wart... something. I dunno."

"Hogwarts, the name of the school is Hogwarts. I think you shouldn't trust the doctors here either. If you can prove you're a witch, I'll bust you out of here. Okay?" Draco didn't know why he was offering this; usually he would just ignore a crazy.

"Yes, okay. How do I do that?" he checked that Kate and Hermione were busy and handed the girl his wand.

"Say Lumos! And then flick the wand with your hand." she did as he said and the wand light up.

"You passed. Here, give me the wand and I'll change how you look." she handed over the wand and stood in front of him. He made her hair black, and made it considerably longer, he turned her eyes a deep blue, and changed her hospital clothes into street clothes. "What's your name?"

"Maddy."

"If anyone asks, it's Rowan." Hermione came out with Ron, Harry, and the head nurse. "Hermione, Rowan got worried and came up when we didn't come up. Ms. Kate, I believe you dropped this." Draco handed her the key she "dropped" and continued talking. "I think we'll be able to find our way out, thank you and good-bye."

Everyone waited until they were safe out of the hospital to ask questions. All of which were directed to Draco, seeing as he had the bag and had a strange girl with him. As Draco was explaining Rowan / Maddy they all started to walk into a deserted park. Seemingly empty they all sat down as Draco finished the story.

"So, Rowan-Maddy, you spent three years in an institution? That's gotta take its toll! How did you stay sane?" Hermione asked.

"I was convinced I was insane! When people are always telling you how sick you are, it's hard to keep your will about you. You guys wanna explain what's going on here? I don't even know why you came to Wild Flower!" Maddy looked around and finally Draco explained it.

"So know we have to find out what is what, and which one leads up where. And I think we should get you to Hogwarts, someone should write Dumbledore. Potter, I think you should, you or one of your friends." Hermione then saw a problem, but before she could comment Maddy cut in.

"Wait- what if each item you found directs you. There are four items, and four stones. Each one could lead to a stone."

"You know, I think you could be right!" Ron exclaimed and Harry nodded in strong agreement.

"Hermi- do you have parchment, and a quill, and some ink?" Harry asked.

"Ahh- no, anyone got any?"

"No," Ron looked at Draco, who grabbed the materials from his bag and handed to Harry without a word about it.

"Thanks," Harry told him uncertainly, and he nodded to acknowledge him.

"We have a problem!" Hermione informed them all abruptly.

"What are you talking about Hermi?" Ron inquired.

"This, this separation between you, Harry, and I from Mal- Draco. If this is going to work we have to try and get along, and that means being a little more than civilized. We have to all become the closest to friends we can be."

"I'm game if everyone else is-" Harry blurted out. Ron and Draco eyed each other with distrust and hate.

No one spoke for at least ten minutes, Maddy felt awkward. No one said a word when Harry sent the letter, or when Draco started to walk away from the group. No one followed him either; they just stared, lost in their own thoughts. Thirty minutes passed and Draco was still out of sight, the trio had been talking and was now growing worried. Dumbledore had written a reply, telling them he'd come by to pick her up as soon as possible, and to just stay where they were.

"Where do you think he is?" Ron demanded, obviously annoyed.

"Ron, if this is gonna work we all have to get along! His name is Draco, use it!" Hermione told him sternly.

"I can't just go from a four year rivalry to a first-name basis! It's just not possible! It'll take much longer than a day and little pity for me to get over it! Where the hell is he then, huh? If he really wants this buddy-buddy relationship crap then where the hell did he run off to?"

"I'm going to look for him." Maddy stood up and started to leave when Harry ran after her.

"You can't! Dumbledore told us to wait!"

"Then you wait!" her eyes flashed with a deep anger. "I know you three don't like Draco, but he helped me! He is my friend! My only friend! You guys have been great, but if it weren't for Draco I'd still be in my room in Wild Flower! And now you're telling me to wait for some Headmaster, who didn't even know I existed until Draco found me and helped me escape, and then just leave Draco to whatever the hell is going on? I. Don't. Think. So! You can leave, you can stay, I don't care, and I'm going to find Draco! NOW!" Maddy left, and no one tried to stop her.

"Well, if she doesn't come back by the time Dumbledore gets here..." Hermione stared after her.

It only took about forty-five minutes to find Draco. Sitting on an almost disintegrated bench that was once painted red. He was staring at the old cement under his feet, obviously deep in thought. Maddy came and sat down next to him, neither of them saying anything for quite some time.

"How are you doing?" Maddy finally asked.

"I've been much better."