Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark violation is intended.

Added note/disclaimer: I also use quotes from other places. If you find a quote that wasn't cited, please notify me.


VI

Thy Blood's Gifts

"God, this car is so wicked," said Harry looking at the sleekness of it. "How much was it?"

"Fifty thousand American dollars – don't you dare ask," said Draco. Harry closed his mouth.

"This is a Muggle-design but wizard-made car, isn't it?" asked Hermione, keenly, "I know that technically that's illegal, but it's there's a loophole in the law. So, how high are we?"

"We're in the stratosphere, I think," said Draco. "And trust me, this car is not meant to fly."

"It's not?" asked Ron, looking at Draco, "Why not? The invisibility thing works, doesn't it? Oh, look there're the train tracks."

"I see them. I also see the map on the computer screen too."

"So, what exactly do you plan on doing?" asked Ron, "None of us can drive – except you – not really …"

"I'm the driver and the cook," said Draco, dryly, "but this car – well, the way Stu designed it was to fly – as in go really fast."

"Stu? Who's Stu?" asked Hermione.

"Some American bloke living in Wiltshire," Draco laughed, "he's been stranded here since before the Second War. Calls the Death Eaters the British Wizarding Mob."

Hermione choked. Harry raised his eyebrows, "James Bond, eh?"

"Yeah, James Bond and MI6," said Draco, shocking both Harry and Hermione.

"They didn't – they don't teach that in Muggle Studies do they, by any chance?" asked Harry.

"No," said Draco, sounding amused. "Not on your life." He turned the wheel so they were travelling parallel to the tracks. "Ugh. Do you want to take a shortcut? I mean, we need to head to Scotland before we can find Hogwarts."

"Hogwarts is in Scotland?"

"Uh-huh," said Draco. "Did you know that? It's near the ocean, so it'll be along the coastline."

"Do your worse," said Harry, with a slight shrug. With a laugh, that echoed off the twinkling stars above them, Draco pushed down on the accelerator and the silver car shot forward into the night.

Far down below them, a muggle girl looked up and saw a flash in the night sky, and made a wish, thinking that the silver that shot through the air was a shooting star.

xxx

"They're gone!"

Mrs. Weasley cry echoed in the still air of the morning. Mr. Weasley looked up. Most of the guests had already left, leaving in the early morning hours. Lavender and Parvati had left together, saying they would be spending the rest of the summer together. Dean, Seamus had left the night before, their parents – well Seamus parents' left with them. Neville and his grandmother had gone as well.

Bill and Fleur had also left, heading to Venice for their honeymoon, in which they would travel to all the continents.

"Who's gone?" asked Charlie.

"What's wrong, mum?" asked Ginny. Fred and George both looked at their mother.

"Ron, Harry, and Hermione are gone! They left me this!" Mrs. Weasley cried, waving around a note.

"Did they take Pig with them?" asked Ginny, "I mean if they took Pig, then they're not coming back this year."

Mrs. Weasley looked at her only daughter and sighed, "No. Pig's off delivering a letter to someone."

"What about Malfoy?" asked George.

"Is he gone too?" asked Fred.

"His car is gone, isn't it?" asked Ginny, looking outside. Sure enough, Draco's silver car was nowhere in sight.

"He's gone too," said Mr. Weasley, calmly. "He came and spoke to me last night. He said that there was a plan – that they weren't just running off in the middle of the night." Mr. Weasley looked at them as Tonks, Lupin, Moody, and Kingsley walked into the room.

"We need the rest of the Order here. As soon as we possibly can get them to come without arousing suspicion," said Mr. Weasley.

"Why?" asked Ginny, "What's going on?"

"Draco Malfoy showed me something." said Mr. Weasley, "Something that gives me a hint that there's more to him than meets the eye. He's with Harry on someone's orders. And the question is whose orders."

"You think Malfoy's a Death Eater trying to worm his way into Harry's circle," said Fred.

"He would be." said George with great dislike, "From what Harry told me, I don't even know why they accept him! Ron says it's because he's a good cook, but Harry can cook for them. Draco Malfoy doesn't have to feed them."

"No," said Mr. Weasley slowly, "I don't think Draco Malfoy is a Death Eater. He's something all right. And what he showed me last night were three things – ah – their here. I didn't expect them to come this quickly."

When the Order gathered around them, Mr. Weasley quickly explained what had occurred – Draco Malfoy's being found with Harry, his gate-crashing the wedding reception (literally) – then he said, "And he showed me something too. Three some-things. The first was intentional. He gave me this," Mr. Weasley bent down and then lifted up what appeared to be a backpack. From this backpack, he pulled out a thick folder that was filled with documents.

"These are Dumbledore's personal notes and files. The things he'd planned for us to do. What he thought of things. And Draco Malfoy also showed me something else while he was giving me these things. It was an accident, I believe and he doesn't know he showed it to me."

Mr. Weasley met their eyes and said, "He showed me a pendant he wears around his neck. I've seen that pendant before, and Dumbledore could barely hold it. According to Dumbledore, no one can hold that pendant, not if they don't have the blood of a Founder. And even then, they can only touch it, not wear it. An heir could possibly wear it for a few hours – days at the most before going mad. Dumbledore said the reason was because that pendant was made using the blood of all the Four Founders."

"And…?" said Fred

"You can't be trying to say what I think you are," said George, "I mean, it's Draco Malfoy – Lucius Malfoy's son?"

"Draco Malfoy may very well be the heir to Hogwarts." said Mr. Weasley, "And if he claims his inheritance and does not die or lose his mind in the process of claiming his blood inheritance, he'll be an even more powerful wizard than You-Know-Who … perhaps more powerful than Dumbledore ever was."

"What about Harry? Harry's powerful…" said Ginny.

Kingsley was frowning and Moody … well it was hard to tell, with his scarred face, what he was feeling.

"Claiming that pendant he wears, wearing it even." said Mr. Weasley, "From what I gathered in reading Dumbledore's notes on it, means he's already claimed at least half of his inheritance. That he accepts it. Now all that's left if for him is to go to Hogwarts and use his own blood to claim everything of that ever belonged to them. If the shock of getting that much power all at once doesn't kill him…"

"It'd be much better for him to be on our side than Voldemort's," said Lupin softly.

Tonks nodded, "Didn't Dumbledore say, once before…"

"During the first war with Voldemort… I remember, that before the Prophecy was told, Dumbledore said that perhaps it would take the Founders' heir to defeat him."

Mr. Weasley nodded and Fred and George, who were always curious, both looked up from the papers.

"Hey, Dad, look at this – Dumbledore wrote a note here on the margins."

They turned to look at them.

"Look," said Fred handing him the paper. George looked startled, as though a small daisy had just hit him with a broomstick.

Mr. Weasley looked at it then looked at Lupin. "He also wrote down here that if the Founders' Heir was to ever side with us, he could very well defeat You-Know-Who if Harry failed."

xxx

"Are we there yet?" asked Ron.

"No," said Harry.

There was a pause, allowing silence.

"Are we there yet?" asked Ron.

"No," said Hermione.

There was another pause. Nothing happened, and Draco dared to look into the mirror so he could look at Ron who was sitting in the back.

"Are we there yet?" asked Ron.

"No," said Draco. Draco leaned forward slightly, peering out. It was cloudy, and he let the car hover down a little so he could peer into the world below. There was a sudden loud crack that sounded like the car backfiring. They all paused. Then Hermione shrieked as she found herself with a strange person sitting in her lap.

"Hey, man." said Stu, "Sorry, man, Apparated into the wrong boat. See ya, Drake. Oh, yeah, Drake?"

"What do you want, Stu?" asked Draco.

"Your damned cat – it died. Sorry, man, but ya never fed it. Bye," he said as he Disapparated

"What do you mean I never fed it? And what cat? Oh, you bleeding idiot, come back here!" yelled Draco, but Stu was gone.

"Right," Ron said, "Malfoy, you've got some strange friends. So are we there yet?"

"No!" said Harry, Draco, and Hermione in unison. Ron shrank back, slumping back into his seat and turned to stare out the window.

xxx

Ron woke up with a jolt as Draco landed with the car in front of the Whomping Willow. Ron shuddered, remembering another incident when they had arrived by flying car. His wand had snapped then and he'd spent his second year trying to work with a broken wand. This thought brought him back to one of the myriad of reasons Ron found to hate Draco Malfoy. Well, two, actually, Ron thought. Because the second year was when Draco started calling Hermione a Mudblood and Ron had leapt to her defense only to find himself throwing up slugs instead of Malfoy. Ron hadn't hated Malfoy until second year … not really. But the humiliation of having had a broken wand all year … he'd seen Malfoy and seen that he was so rich that if he broke his wand, he'd get a new one right away. He'd noticed that Malfoy never got a Howler from home. To Ron's twelve year old mind, it had made sense to hate him. To hate the blonde who he'd heard girls – older girls – girls he'd liked in the way only a twelve year old boy can like a girl, whispering about his looks, how he was gorgeous … how Malfoy would get all the girls when he was older, that Malfoy had had a such perfect life. He was rich, and that was enough in Ron's mind.

But that Ron Weasley hadn't known Draco Malfoy. The seventeen year old Ron did know Draco Malfoy. He'd seen him lost in dark memories, despite an attempt at telling them lightly. Ron admired Draco's ability to stay somewhat normal despite his upbringing. An upbringing that hadn't been as perfect as Ron had thought it was. But Ron was afraid of being left behind. All his life, Ron had followed someone … been in their shadows. He was popular because Harry was popular. He got good marks because Hermione was smart enough to help him out when he didn't understand. Draco Malfoy upset the balance in their group. But Ron didn't hate him anymore – how could he, not after what he now knew.

"So, are you coming or what?" asked Draco, interrupting his thoughts. Ron hesitated. He didn't know whether or not he wanted to accept Draco Malfoy as part of their group. For so long, it had been just him, Harry, and Hermione. Now there was Draco, who was standing there waiting for an answer.

The hell with it, Ron thought, and he said, "All right, I'm coming."

And with that, Ron left behind the twelve-year-old boy he had once been, he left the five-year-old hatred that had begun when he was twelve there by the Whomping Willow. And as he left it, he left his heart and steps lightened without its load.

xxx

There was something strange going on about Ron, Draco thought. Then again, there was something strange about this whole thing.

"Okay, so what do we do?" asked Harry once they arrived at the door. Harry turned to look at Draco and blinked, "Hey, Malfoy, what's that?"

Draco looked down at where Harry was pointing. "Oh. This, yeah, I'd forgotten about this thing," said Draco, pulling the pendant out. He let it dangle there against his chest.

"Okay, come on, let's do it!" said Ron, "We're here to claim your inheritance, right."

"Right," said Draco. "Okay, who's got a knife on them?"

"Can I stab you with it?" asked Ron hopefully.

"No!" said Draco, "What kind of moron do you think I am … on second thought, sure, go ahead."

"I'm not handing over my knife if Ron's going to stab you with it," said Harry brandishing a pocket knife with a flourish.

"Sure, why the hell not?" said Draco, "Want to throw it at me?"

"No!" said Hermione, "Bill said we need blood, not a bloody corpse to claim Draco's inheritance."

"Bill didn't tell us how much blood we needed."

"Let's try all of it," said Ron. When they all turned to look at him, he shrugged, saying, "Hey, I'm just saying that we need blood, now don't we?"

"Oh, give me that," said Hermione and she grabbed the knife out of Harry's hand and grabbed Draco's arm and slashed it.

"Hey!" said Draco. "Oh, ow. That hurt."

"That's not what you're supposed to say," said Ron. "I think it was …sumo something sangius."

"That's helpful," said Draco staring at his blood as it spilled all over the steps in front of the front entrance doors.

"Maybe we should go inside?" asked Harry.

"Yeah, great idea. Like …how?" asked Draco.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Draco, just claim your bloody inheritance!" yelled Hermione.

"Oh. Right, then, um," said Draco, trying to think – which was hard seeing as he was losing blood. "Sumo hereditas sangius!"

Ron looked around.

"Nothing's happening." he said.

Then Draco saw the world tilt sideways and he wondered why the ground was rushing up to meet him.

xxx

"Oh my God! We killed him! We've killed Draco Malfoy," wailed Ron hysterically.

"Oh, shut up! We didn't do anything!" said Harry, "Hermione do something!"

Hermione shook her head and sat down next to Draco, holding his head. "Oh, calm down, he's just having a seizure."

"Yeah, and blood's coming out of his nose and ears! Is it just me or is that not normal?" Ron asked, still hysterically.

xxx

Draco was standing in a light-filled room.

"Where am I?" he asked, and in this odd room, his voice bounded back at him. He glanced around the room curiously.

There was a mirror on the wall and he walked towards it. He looked at it oddly. His reflection was light, all light – a white light that seemed to be some sort of calming light. Draco touched it, noticing as he did so that there was an etching of snake in the corner of the silver mirror. Then he was engulfed by the white light that lifted him up into the air, filling his head with a light buzzing sound.

xxx

"He's dead. Oh, God. He's dead. How are we going to explain this?" asked Ron's voice.

I'm not dead, Draco tried to say.

"What?" somebody – Hermione, Draco thought as he slowly opened his eyes.

"I didn't say anything."

"Look, he's stopped glowing!" said Ron.

"Ron, did you say …"

What light? I was glowing? Draco thought, feeling the oddness as his thoughts left him.

Then he realized it what was going on and immediately pulled up his mental shields.

"Malfoy …" said Harry staring at him.

"Yeah? What?" asked Draco.

"I think you're telepathic now," said Hermione. Draco shot her a sideways glance and thought at her, I know I am.

"So," he said aloud, "I don't feel any different. Well, maybe a little. Like I've got a warm presence in my head, but other than that, I feel … normal."

Hermione looked at him then, said, "Well, we all heard you talking in our heads, so … they did say that telepathy ran inside your blood. Seer blood runs in it too, but I don't think that will help us at all."

"What were the powers I was supposed to inherit?" asked Draco.

"Well you were a Medium and a Seer to begin with …" said Hermione, "My guess is that your Seer's ability is probably stronger now. Telepathy because I'm pretty sure I heard you tell us you weren't dead …"

"And a Healer, too," said Ron, "because we were pretty sure you were dead. You were bleeding like crazy."

Hermione shook her head, and grabbed Draco's arm, intending to heal the cut and stopped. The cut was gone. Not even a scar remained.

"Okay," she said, "I suppose you're Healer now as well."

Draco nodded, "That's Helga Hufflepuff's talent. And Gryffindor never had much except the ability to set things on fire.""

"Hey, Malfoy," said Harry, and Draco looked at him, wondering what he wanted.

"Er – have you ever done an exchange program?"

"My father tried to sell me to some Armenian trolls once. Does that count?" asked Draco.

"What?" asked Hermione, staring from Harry to Draco.

"That's so ace!" yelled Harry, "You understood me!"

"Sorry, mate," said Ron, "but Idon't, actually."

"I think he was talking to me." said Draco, "Were you talking to me?"

"Yeah, I was. And I was talking in Parseltongue too!" said Harry and danced a little jig right there, "We're both Parselmouths and that is, like, so wicked!"

"Do I know you?" asked Draco, "Have we met?"

Harry rolled his eyes, and said, "Oh, sod off. Come on, let's go home."


A/N: I don't know if any of you are going, 'oh no,' or not because of the list of "gifts" he's inheriting or already has. He's an Occulmens as JK Rowling herself stated it, giving the idea there's more to Draco Malfoy that meets the eye. The list of gifts he has are: Pryo, Seer, Medium, Healer, and Parselmouth – but he won't really admit it until later on (well, eventually). The Pryo is not something I invented. Pryo is like the guy in the Fantastic Four who can burst into flames and burn things. However, I'm taking artistic license with it. Don't worry; the gifts aren't a big deal. Seriously. Arwen and I were just bored.

See, this is what happens when you put a hyper-crazy writer and a muse high on caffeine together!

Citation/Disclaimer(s)/Reference:

1. "Have you ever done an exchange program?"

"My father tried to sell me to some Armenian trolls once. Does that count?" – From Buffy, (I added the word troll and changed the word "dad" to "father")

Review Response:

NinjaoftheDarkness

Chaney: lol!

MikaPotter

Ranma Higurashi

Night Essence: The pairings... well, you'll see when we come to it.

Thank you!

P.S: Constructive criticism is welcomed!

(Okay, I don't know exactly what this means, but this is supposedly "see you later" in Burmese)

Nauq twe dhe da paw!

Keir, the Evil Genius

P.S.: Look at the Profile for a preview of the next chapter (hey, it's only a little scene of it!)