CHAPTER 2


18 December 1998 – Enchanted Forest

"Hurry up Granger!" Draco called as he marched on ahead, "We haven't got all day."

"I'm going as fast as I can Malfoy!" Hermione snapped, "We've been hiking all day and still haven't found anything! Are you sure you're reading the map correctly?"

"I know how to read a bloody map!" he called back angrily; "It must be around here somewhere…" he had stopped to look around him and hadn't noticed that Hermione had finally caught up to him.

"Let me have a look," she said from beside him, startling Draco. When he didn't respond she rolled her eyes and took the map from his reluctant hands. She frowned as she regarded the map. "None of this makes sense! We've been walking for hours, surely we would have passed the Fairies Yard at this point?" she questioned looking at the man beside her, but his stoic expression gave her nothing. "How are we suppose to find the cave?"

Draco sighed dramatically, "Think Granger, you're a witch!"

"Malfoy, we're not allowed to use magic," she said deadpan, "And might I remind you that The Wizard took our wands."

Draco scoffed, "Don't tell me a brilliant witch like yourself can't perform wandless magic."

Hermione narrowed her eyes at him, easily understanding the game he was playing, "Of course I can, but that's not the point. It would be cheating! Besides if you're so eager to use magic then maybe you should perform some wandless magic yourself… or is the problem that you can't?" she smirked.

"Of course I can bloody well perform wandless magic." He glared at her.

"Well now that we have our priorities sorted out perhaps we could get back to the mission at hand?" she suggest waving the map in his face. She didn't wait for his reply but simply marched ahead focusing on the map as she did so.

"Sweet Merlin! Just fucking kill me now," Draco muttered under his breath as he begrudgingly followed her.

"Uuugh! How can this be?" Hermione cried out twenty minutes later. "We should be deep within the Moors right now." As Hermione looked up, scanning the area around her, she didn't notice the map shifting. Draco however did.

Grinning in victory, he reached forward and snatched the map from Hermione's fingers.

"Hey!" she objected but was immediately shushed by her blonde counterpart.

"I told you Granger, the answer was magic." He said looking down at the map keenly.

"And I've already told you that we can't use magic," she replied exasperated.

"We can't… but the map can." Draco said simply. Hermione's brows furrowed in confusion and then her chocolate orbs grew in size as realisation dawned on her.

"The map's shifting!" she almost cried, "We feel like we're walking in circles… because we are!"

"Exactly! That soddy old bastard gave us a magical map without telling us!" Draco exclaimed.

Both Draco and Hermione stood silent for a moment as they realised they had both agreed to something without the other losing their head.

"So… now what?" Hermione asked tentatively.

"How the bloody hell should I know?" Draco questioned back.

Hermione sighed and resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Well we can't use magic to break the map… which means we'll have to use logic instead."

"Tell me Granger, how do you plan on breaking a magically enchanted map using logic?" he asked sarcastically.

"I haven't figured that part out yet!" she shouted highly annoyed, "But it would help if you stopped your whining and focused on actually being useful!" Hermione looked back to the map but then frowned as she looked to the sky.

"Oh crap!" she swore biting her bottom lip with worry, "Look Malfoy it's going to rain soon, and I have no intentions of getting caught in it. So either help me solve this bloody thing or sod of!"

Draco had a snappy come back ready but as the heavy clouds rolled around and a strong clap of thunder rang though the air, he knew Hermione was right. "Fine," he muttered. "Come on we need to move." He said taking the lead once more, "Put that away before it gets washed away." Draco said indicating to the map in Hermione's hand. She safely tucked the magical map into her jacket pocket and followed the blonde. It didn't take them long to find a cave that would provide them with sufficient cover until the storm passed. They had managed to start a decent enough fire, just as the rain descended on them. Thankful for the coverage Hermione pulled out the map once more inspecting the changes that had now occurred. Silence settled on them as Draco shuffled beside her as he too inspected the changes.

"Maybe it needs an incentive to reveal itself?" Draco offered quietly. Hermione was shocked at the gentleness of his tone but didn't comment on it.

"The map needs an incentive?" she questioned, "How would that work?"

"Depends on the creator I guess." Draco answered nonchalantly, "Some maps require promises of spoken words and writing, others jewels and the more… uh darker ones require blood."

"Blood," Hermione murmured under her breath and then looked keenly at the map. "What do you think this map requires?"

Draco looked surprised that she had asked his opinion so easily, "I… I can't say. Depends what The Wizard's end game was when he created this blasted thing."

Hermione couldn't help but chuckle at the pouting look Draco sported as he regarded his current situation. "Well I don't fancy getting lost again so let's give it a try?"

Draco numbly nodded as Hermione reached into her bag and pulled out a quill and ink. Uncapping the bottle she gently dipped the quill inside and hovered over the parchment. The ink splashed onto the page and both Draco and Hermione held their breaths for a moment as they watched the ink slowly disappear. Taking that as a good sign Hermione began to neatly scrawl various sentences over the middle of the map. But nothing happened. She tried again and then handed the quill over to Draco who tried but still nothing. Not one to give up she used the pointy end of the quill to prick her finger. A small drop of blood formed at the tip.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked with wide eyes.

"Trying to solve the map," she answered then handed the quill to Draco.

"No!" he objected, "You have no idea what you could be agreeing to! Blood magic is a very dangerous thing Granger!"

Hermione thought about it for a moment but reasoned that The Wizard would not have set anything too drastic for them to agree to… well anymore drastic then their current situation that is.

"Oh hush Malfoy, it can't be anything to serious," she soothed before taking the quill and pricking his finger.

"Ow!" he squealed.

"Oh don't be such a pansy," Hermione teased.

Slowly she turned her finger the other way and watched as the blood fell onto the page. Draco immediately followed suit. They both waited with baited breath hoping and praying that they had solved the map. The droplets of blood seeped through the parchment and red veins grew from the centre of the page. Hermione grew excited at having solved the puzzle but Draco watched with apprehension. The veins spread to the end of the parchment as more and more started appearing. Eventually the entire map was covered in red veins, but it didn't last for every long as the entire thing glowed red and then the parchment went blank.

Hermione gasped waiting to see if the next bit would be revealed but as the seconds ticked by it was clear that it had not worked. "Oh! No! No! No!" she cried clutching the map in her shaking hands. "No! That was supposed to work!"

Draco frowned; he should have guessed this would happen. It had all seemed too easy now. He couldn't help but feel bad for the witch beside him as he watched her tearful eyes imploringly scan the map.

"I don't believe this!" she groaned, "I can't solve a bloody map! Some witch I am!"

Draco opened his mouth to retort but the desolate look on her face stole away the harsh words. For some reason he couldn't hurt her any further now knowing that she was already hurting. It didn't help that he was doing nothing to help their situation.

"What happens if we can't solve it?" she asked fearfully, "Will we be stuck here forever?

"We're not going to be stuck here forever Granger," Malfoy answered easily, "And we're going to solve it. There's a reason he chose us." he said firmly though only half believing his words.

"Malfoy, before we had an enchanted map that seemed pretty hell-bent on keeping us off the right path… now we have no map!" she cried exasperatedly. "Maybe Harry was right. Maybe it was too early for me too leave?" she muttered under her breath, but Draco had heard her.

"Look Granger," he started, "Whether I want to admit it or not, and whether you choose to believe it or not but the truth remains such that if we're going to solve this thing, we need to work together." Draco said barely believing the words leaving his mouth. Shut up! Shut up! He cried to himself, "So don't worry about what Saint Potter had to say because that's not going to help us in any way." He finished trying to sound more like himself.

Hermione begrudgingly accepted that there was truth behind what Draco had said. Draco took hold of one end of the parchment as Hermione held the other, "You're right," she said but didn't look at him knowing he was smirking like an idiot, "And no I will not repeat that. If we're going to solve this thing… we need to work together." The moment the words left her mouth the map burned under their fingers, earning a shocked gasp from both apprentices.

"What the…" Draco started as he saw words write itself onto the parchment.

Night has fallen and now darkness looms,

To seek the answers beyond your shadows,

Look to the starry sky,

For happiness can be found even in the darkest

Of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light.

Hermione couldn't help but chuckle, "It's a riddle," she said more to herself.

"Of course it had to be a bloody riddle," Draco muttered. "How is this funny?" he asked the witch beside him puzzled.

"It's The Wizard, Malfoy." she said simply, "How could we not have seen this?"

"But… how did you break the enchantment?" He asked looking between her and the parchment.

Hermione thought about it for a moment and then a small smile formed on her lips, "Not I… we broke the enchantment." She said earning a surprised look from the blonde, "We broke it the minute we agreed that we needed to work together, and when we actually did…the map opened itself up to us."

"So this was some weird team work lesson?" Draco asked scowling. To his surprise Hermione laughed again.

"I guess so." Looking down at the parchment she frowned again, "Now we have to solve the riddle."

"Right, so…" Draco started reading the riddle again, "To seek the answers beyond you shadows, Look to the starry night." He frowned and then looked outside the cave as the rain continued to descend upon them hard. "We're not going to see much in this weather."

"And it's not something we'd find during the day either…" Hermione stated. "For happiness can be found even in the darkest of times… Where have I heard that before?" she asked herself. She got up and let the words of the riddle run around in her mind. Draco took the map from her fingers and studied it further as she paced before the fire, repeating the last two lines from the riddle.

"If only one remembers to turn on the light…" Draco finished for her. Realisation hit him hard as the familiarity of the words came back to him, "No… It's not possible," he said in shock, "It can't be."

"What?" Hermione asked eagerly, "Malfoy what is it?"

"I know where I've heard this before," he answered dazed.

"What? Where?" She asked quickly, "Malfoy!" she called a little impatiently when he didn't answer.

"D-Dumbledore." was all he said as he looked at her with wide eyes.

She stared at him with equally shocked eyes, racking her brain to try and remember if that was the truth. Memories of Professor Dumbledore came to mind, and she searched her mind for what she was looking for. It hit her like a train, when she realised Draco was right; because now she remembered where she had heard those words.

"Pro-Professor Dumbledore…" She muttered retaking her seat beside Draco. She looked back to the riddle hoping the rest would make sense now… but all she could do was stare into the fire as a heavy silence filled the cave.

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Taken from: Coveted Chapter 3