Chapter 2
"Have you got everything?"
"Just go, Potter. I'll be right over."
Harry stepped into the fireplace with the salve for Hermione and a bundle of books on the Báthory family and estate that they'd been reading without much result. Draco Malfoy watched him disappear, kissed his mother on the cheek and took the ornate wooden chest she held towards him, containing his family's pensieve.
"I'll owl you if we need any more advice, Mother."
"You do that, darling. Meanwhile I do think I'll look into a few matters myself and see what I can find." Narcissa Malfoy replied.
Draco, arms still clasped around the very large chest, spun around and disappeared with a loud crack.
Reappearing in Grimmauld Place, he almost collapsed onto Ginny Potter in her foyer. Harry quickly gave him a hand as Ginny levitated the chest away from him onto a nearby table.
"I told you I should have taken the pensieve. You're still weak."
"Don't mother me, Potter. Like I'd trust your grubby paws with my family heirlooms. Besides," he added, sinking into the armchair Harry summoned up behind him, "Floo's just as bad."
Harry ignored his guest's insults and started upstairs to Hermione's bedroom, the chest levitating in front of him.
"Can you make it up the stairs?"
"Who knows, in this rotting mausoleum," Draco muttered, following Harry up the stairs, clutching the banister for dear life.
They met Hermione sitting up in bed, dressed and looking much better, sipping a cup of tea using her left hand, Ron sitting beside her, stirring his own cup.
"Oh, good." Ron got up as Harry and Draco entered, the pensieve drifting away to occupy a side table that had been reinforced with magic. "Got the salve, then?"
Harry threw a small bottle over to Ron and said,
"Alright, Hermione? Gave us a scare."
Hermione smiled and replied,
"Why is it I always end up in bed after you drag me into something reckless?"
"We've all been there," Ron muttered, opening the small bottle and spilling a glob of it onto his hands.
"What in Merlin's name, give that here." Draco snatched the bottle away and siphoned the salve off back into the bottle using his wand, whispering a purifying charm as he did so.
"What?"
"It's not Essence of Dittany or Calamine potion. You don't apply it with your hands, you apply it with your wand."
"Oh, well how-"
"I'll do it." Draco cut him off.
He motioned for Hermione to finish her tea, but she set it down on her bedside table and started to tug at the bandages wrapped around her right hand.
"I'll take them off." Draco offered, but Hermione had already gotten most of it away.
"No, it's gone. Here." She pulled away the last round and held forward her arm, which was shaking slightly. Her hand looked burned, but not by fire. More like molten lava was poured on it and hardened around parts, while other parts had burned away.
"Mine was worse, I think," Draco reassured her. "Even gave me another scar." He held his hand forward to show her the long thin 'X' shaped scar over his right hand.
He set the salve bottle on the bed, took out his wand and took Hermione's hand in his own. Just as he was about to start the incantation. He felt a sudden warmth and a rush of euphoria, which startled him. Looking at Hermione's shocked expression, he could see she felt it too.
"Whoa, that salve is fast. Didn't it take an hour for yours to heal?" Ron asked, seemingly unaware of the magical frisson the other two had experienced. Harry, who was fiddling with the Pensieve, turned to inspect Hermione's wound.
"Malfoy." Hermione's shaky voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked down at her hand, now completely healed, with the exception of a similar 'X' shaped scar over her hand.
"But, I didn't use any salve," Draco muttered, almost to himself.
"You didn't?" Harry asked. "But it's completely healed, not even pink and stretched like yours was in the beginning."
"You did feel that, didn't you?" Hermione questioned warily.
"Yeah, but I didn't do anything."
"I think your magic healed me, somehow. If that's not absurd." She looked at him questioningly, but he was still fixated with her hand.
"You've got a scar." He traced the thin lines with his finger, still a little high from the magic.
Harry cleared his throat and Draco immediately dropped her hand.
"Maybe we should find some answers then, yeah?" He motioned to the Pensieve.
"Yeah." Draco answered.
Hermione got up and flexing her newly healed hand a few times asked,
"How are we going to do this? I don't remember much so how will I place memories in the pensieve?"
Harry replied, looking a little guilty,
"Well, the Department of Mysteries have created a spell the Auror department uses occasionally to find memories that have been tampered with or hidden in subjects, always with their approval. We don't use it in interrogation or anything."
Hermione gave him sceptical look.
"You mean, you don't, Harry."
"Hey-" Ron said, but Draco interrupted.
"Never mind that, now. Like it's really a surprise. What do we have to do then, Potter?"
Harry raised his wand.
"Just stand still, I haven't used this spell that much so I'm a bit rusty."
"Brilliant. This must be the one time being morally uptight doesn't pay off."
Hermione glared at him and Draco rolled his eyes before fixing them on Harry. Harry muttered,
"Revelabis"
A sudden whoosh seemed to reverberate inside his brain and Draco felt for the back of the chair to regain his balance. He could feel the spell searching, searching and then a sudden yank.
"Aah!" Draco cried, falling to his knees.
Harry quickly deposited the silvery substance in a waiting container and hurried to haul Draco up, with Ron's help.
"You alright, Malfoy?"
"I suppose." He got up and felt his head as though wanting to be sure it was still on his shoulders. "I think my memories will be enough, though. They're both probably the same."
"I suppose we could see these and if needed, you could do the spell afterwards on me," Hermione answered, looking mildly apprehensive.
They went to stand around the pensieve and Harry deposited the contents in a thin stream.
"Wait, I want to try something," Hermione interrupted, just as Harry opened his mouth to begin the countdown. She addressed Draco,
"Do you have a headache or anything?"
"Look, Hermione, the spell's not that bad, I'm just bad at casting it because it feels weird," Harry explained exasperatedly.
"No, it's not that," Hermione said, waving her hand at Harry to shush him. "Do you?"
"Yes, like a weight inside my head. Also, a little dizzy, I suppose."
"Touch my hand."
"What?"
"What?" echoed Harry and Ron.
"No, I just want to see if what happened earlier can be repeated. Here." She held her hand forward over the pensieve.
Draco reached out and placed his hand lightly over her palm, and felt the similar frisson of energy, like a light, sweet summer breeze washing over him. Hermione looked amazed.
"You felt that, too?"
"Felt what?" Ron asked, looking at both of them curiously.
"Yes," replied Draco, "And the headache's gone as well."
All four of them looked at the scar on Draco's hand, then at each other.
"Ready to go in, then?"
"On three. One, two, three!"
