Chapter 11: On the Train

At the end of two weeks, Narcissa accompanied Draco and Moira to King's Cross Station. Moira had put a Disillusionment Charm on herself and had told Draco not to let his mother know that he could still see her. He'd looked confused at this but she would explain it to him later. He understood and let it be.

Moira's belongings were in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, so all they had to carry were Draco's things. He had a small case with him for the few books he'd brought home. They found an empty compartment and sat down opposite each other. At eleven o'clock, the train let off a loud whistle and they began to move. It was a while before either of them spoke. They were tired; traveling was always tiring.

She hadn't seen Draco's homework but eventually he started asking her questions as he looked it over, making sure it was all correct. She answered them and he never ceased to be astounded and how much she knew. He asked her how she knew about everything he was asking without ever consulting a book. "I've read the books," she replied. "I just remember the stuff I guess. That basic stuff you're doing."

"This is basic?" He held up the paper he had been looking at. "This is N.E.W.T. level. That's not basic."

"It's in my lineage."

"Your lineage?" Now she had to be kidding. Her lineage?

"Yeah. I've got a cousin who does all this stuff in his sleep. I guess it sort of runs in my blood that I know all this and I'm good at it. That and I've gone beyond N.E.W.T. level without books and I needed to know how to do that stuff without consulting one."

"Speaking of that: why can I see you with this Disillusionment Charm and no one else can?"

"It's easier for me that way. I can sleep with the Charm on and not have to worry about putting it on every time I leave the Room. I just say the spell and make sure the magic knows not to block me from your sight. When I have it on no one else can see, hear, or feel me around. It's a special Charm, one I came up with after N.E.W.T."

"Show off," he joked.

"You're jealous and you know it."

"No. I have you helping me. I don't need to be jealous of you knowing everything if we're on the same side." She rolled her eyes, thinking that what he was saying was not a very good way to be; he should want to learn, not simply finish the work he'd been set. He understood what the look on her face meant, "I am learning this stuff, you know. Promise. It's just weird that you know all of it."

"You haven't spent much time out of Slytherin House have you? A lot of Ravenclaws are smart like me."

"The best girl in my year is in Gryffindor and she's smart, don't get me wrong, but not like you. Nor does she have your guts." He didn't like Hermione Granger but he could not deny that she was the best witch in the year.

"Referring to my lovely chat with our favorite Dark Lord?" She always had something clever to say.

"It was less a lovely chat than a stand off," Draco countered.

"True. Are you finished reading that?" She indicated his homework.

"Want to look it over?" She held out her hand and he passed her the parchment. She curled up on her seat, leaning against the windowsill. Draco sat, staring out the window, waiting.

"You're good," Moira said after she had read the sheet. "It's right."

"Yeah?" He took the sheet back, looking mildly surprised.

"Did you not expect it to be right?"

"I guess not. Didn't you ever do that? You write something down, thinking it's right, and then get it back only to find out that it's not?"

She looked genuinely confused. "No." He rolled his eyes.

"Of course not, Miss I Read the Book." She laughed.

"It does help."

The compartment door opened and Draco jumped, probably worried the woman pushing the trolley thought him insane for talking to himself. "Anything off the trolley, dear?" she asked him in a sweet, non-judging voice.

Draco's eyes flicked to Moira, who shrugged. He asked for some sweets, paid for them, and the woman continued down the train. "Here," Draco handed Moira a chocolate frog. She opened it, broke a piece off and ate it. "Could you make these?" Draco asked.

"Do I know the spell to make chocolate hop around like a frog? No. Could I figure it out? Yeah, of course. Would I? No, the cards are the best parts about these things. Look." She pulled out the card and showed it to him.

"You collect them?"

"No. I read them." He should have guessed. "Here." She handed him the card she had read. "Do you collect them?" He shook his head. "Then you should read them. And any questions you have you should look up, or ask me." Naturally she would offer to answer any question he came up with from reading the chocolate frog cards.

"You know how many of these things there are don't you?" She nodded. "And you've read them all and remember what each of them say?"

"No. But I've read a ton of them and you know how they always make references to the things that people have accomplished? Well I looked them up. Every time I came across something new in a card I read about it or asked someone. I think I remember most of them."

"Ok, so this one," Draco opened another frog, ignored it when it jumped aside, pulled out the card and held it up to Moira's face so that she could see the picture and he could read the paragraph on the other side.

"You're going to quiz me?" Moira asked, leaning forward to catch the frog before it jumped away. "Haven't we spent two weeks doing this already? Have you noticed whose card that is?" Draco flipped the card around and looked mildly surprised. "Awkward," Moira commented, breaking the frog apart.

Draco shrugged and turned the card around again. "It says that Dumbledore is responsible for finding the twelve uses of dragons' blood. What are they?"

"Two things before I tell you: one, those aren't written on the card, and two, you should know them."

"I know. You said you'll know about the stuff written on here and two I do know them...well some of them."

"Well Mr. N.E.W.T. Level, you should know all of them." She then rattled off the twelve uses of dragons' blood. "Proof enough?" He was looking at her and she took that to mean that it was. She broke off another piece of chocolate frog.

"So, with this Disillusionment Charm on you, does that frog appear floating in midair to someone looking in here?" he asked.

Moira shook her head. "Just like my clothes don't appear floating. But even if it did look like you were levitating a chocolate frog, that wouldn't be beyond your skill level. You could do that."

He rolled his eyes as if to say 'of course I could!' but them commented, "The way you eat those things is weird." Moira looked down at the broken, half-eaten chocolate frog in her hands.

"Am I supposed to shove the whole thing in my mouth?"

"I can't tell you why but a lot of the things you do are just strange." Moira nodded knowingly.

Most of the rest of the afternoon passed like this. Draco and Moira talked and laughed, messed around, made each other feel uncomfortable, laughed that off too, and generally enjoyed the fact that the train was mostly empty and that they were no longer at Malfoy Manor, constantly stalked by a living embodiment of insanity and evil.

Disclaimer: Don't own.

AN: "Always seriously joking and rambunctiously soft-spoken"

Hmm, here's something fun, tell me where the quotes come from.