The Golden Trio appeared with a crack in front of a familiar building. There was a rumble as number 12 Grimmauld Place broke out from between 11 and 13.

Hermione raised her wand as she opened the door and walked in. "Lumos," she whispered. The hallway ahead was clear so she beckoned for Harry and Ron to follow her.

The quietly made their way into the living room and turned on the lights.

"Let's get some rest," Herimone suggested. "We've had a taxing day."

With a yawn, Ron asked, "What time is it?"

"Must be after midnight," Harry told him. "C'mon, I'll take the armchair."

Hermione made her way across the room. "I'll be back with some pillows and blankets." She climbed the stairs slowly, just in case Kreacher was still around, and found herself back in her old room. She grabbed the necessities from her and Ginny's old beds as well as the spares in the wardrobe before returning to the living room.

"Here," she handed out the bedding. "I'll take the couch, if you don't mind, Ronald."

The redhead just shrugged. "That's fine, I was going to ask if you can transfigure this table into a mattress."

"Yeah, shouldn't be a problem."

"Alright, I'm off to the loo."

"Harry, can you help me with this?" No response. "Harry?" Hermione looked over to find her best friend staring off into space as he mindlessly situated an ottoman at the foot of the reclining chair.

"Harry!"

He jolted and turned to her. "Sorry, I was just remembering..."

"Sirius?" Hermione guessed.

"I hadn't heard a single thing about him since he was captured. And then the Daily Prophet at the end of last year published that article about "the rightful death of a fugitive," but who knows if that was just Death Eater propaganda? On the other hand, maybe I'm being too hopeful."

"There's no such thing as too much hope," Hermione said. "I mean, it hurts when you're disappointed, but it's better than thinking negatively the whole time and therefore not putting in any effort."

Harry sighed as he sat down. "And what about you? You must really miss your family."

And Draco, she thought.

"After this war is over, I plan to go to Australia and give them their memories back."

Frowning, Harry asked, "Can that be done?"

"Not to my knowledge. But I have to figure it out." Hermione finished transfiguring the table into a bed.

"Oh, sorry, I should have helped you," Harry told her.

"It's fine. Anyway, I've been thinking how there's no way their memories are really gone forever."

"Hope," Harry simply said.

"Hope," Hermione repeated.

"Hope," Ron spoke as he re-entered the room. "Clearly I missed something."

"Just remembering our family," Hermione explained.

Ron approached the makeshift bed. "Thanks, Hermione." As soon as they were all settled, he turned off the lights with the Deluminator and they were fast asleep with no idea who was also asleep just up the stairs.

The following morning, Draco woke to the sound of clanging down below. Groaning, he pulled on a robe and made his way downstairs.

"For Merlin's sake, what the bloody hell is that?" he shouted as he approached the kitchen. To his surprise, it was Wormtail fumbling around while Snape was putting together a potion.

"You're still alive," Draco noted, looking at the rat, who gave him an evil grin in return.

"And thanks to his insolence, he's under MY care," Snape grumpily informed him. "Wormtail, for the three-hundred and ninety-fourth time, put that down!"

Peter Pettigrew's grin turned into a glare as he placed a flask on the counter.

"Can we just keep him in the dungeon?" Draco asked his former professor.

"Unfortunately, no. The Dark Lord wills him to be watched at all times."

An awkward silence spread as Wormtail kept glaring and Snape went back to his potion.

"I'll be back in fifteen minutes," Draco finally spoke, ready to get out of there and take a shower.

As Draco began heading up the stairs, he heard a crash and a thud. With a sigh, he returned to the kitchen to see Snape directing some broken glass into a trash can. And Wormtail was on the floor.

"His incompetence is rather timely," Snape remarked. "Come, there is something we must attend to."

"I just woke up," Draco complained.

"And I have not slept."

Draco rolled his eyes as he attempted to glimpse into the cauldron. "So what's this for? Didn't Wormtail see the ingredients?"

Snape raised an eyebrow. "I am more cautious than you would like to believe." He poured some of the potion into a flask and stoppered it. "I need you to visit my home and retrieve the sword of Godric Gryffindor."

There was a pause. "I'm sorry, what was that? The missing sword of Godric Bloody Gryffindor? And what do you propose you'll do with that?"

"Just do it. Once you're there, you'll know where to find it."

"Brilliant. You'd best hope that our beloved master doesn't suddenly show up while I'm spending hours searching for something that's lost." With that, Draco vanished into the air and reappeared in Spinner's End.

"You'll know where to find it," Draco mocked to himself as he took in the surroundings. The skull was gone from the mantle. He remembered seeing Bellatrix play with it on two separate occasions since her personality was apparently restored, and this made him uneasy.

Why couldn't Snape himself have come to retrieve the sword? Unless Voldemort would know if Snape and Wormtail were separated. But his directions to find it were useless anyway.

Suddenly, a shimmery figure appeared in front of him and seemed to beckon him. The figure, which Draco deduced was a patronus in the form of a doe, led him outside to Snape's backyard. Ahead of him was a large pasture that seemed to go on until a creek surrounded by a small wood. Draco followed the doe to the creek and over the rocks to the other side until he came upon a modest abandoned house. Slowly, he approached the front door as he slipped his wand out. The doe entered straight through the side of the house so Draco stepped through the open door. He watched as the doe sank into one of the floorboards.

What was it with people and hiding treasured or valuable items under the floorboards?

"Lumos maxima," he muttered, lighting up the whole room. He pointed to the floorboard and spoke, "Diffindo." The board split into pieces, which Draco carefully levitated away. Carefully, he inched forward until the sword of Godric Gryffindor came into his view. Pulling out his wand, he said, "Accio sword!"

He knew it wouldn't work, but the last thing he wanted was to lose his hand the moment he stuck it under the floor. Surely, Snape wouldn't send him to retrieve something so well guarded without instructions, but he also wouldn't leave something so priceless out in the open.

He attempted to levitate the wand and tried just about every other spell he could think of to retrieve the sword or get rid of protective enchantments before realizing magic wouldn't help him. Ever so slowly, Draco held out his wand and began inching it into the hole.

Suddenly, there was a loud crack and a burst of light as Draco flew back. He hit the wall with a thud and instantly rushed forward. The sword was still there, and lying next to it was half of Draco's wand. He reluctantly glanced down at his hand to find the other half of the wand.

It was always difficult to deal with losing a wand, but when he realized that his wand, Merlin's wand, was destroyed, he could only feel the agony of losing his only daily reminder of the legacy he was living up to, the thing that shaped his ambition, his whole person.

And there it was, split in two pieces.

Without thinking, he reached his hand into the hole and pulled out the other half of the wand.

"That's strange," he remarked upon seeing that his hand was unharmed. He reached back in, cautiously, for the sword, and pulled it out without a problem. He frowned. What had just happened?

Quickly, he pulled out the Elder wand and attempted to mend Merlin's wand.

"Reparo! Otero! Episkey?" He continued to use every spell he could recall, but even the Elder wand couldn't help him.

With a sigh, he collected the pieces, hid the Elder wand, grabbed the sword, and made his way back to Snape's house, from where he vaporized back to the manor.

"Thanks a lot," Draco spat, throwing the sword at Snape's feet, followed by the two broken bits of wand.

The former potions master remained expressionless as he picked them up and asked, "Did you not remember to undo the enchantments?"

"I undid every one I could think of! I even sent sparks into the space under the floorboard and they went straight through so I thought I would stick my wand down there rather than my hand and it just snapped."

Furrowing his brows, Snape said, "You should have been able to retrieve the wand if the sparks went through."

"Well, I couldn't so never mind that anymore. How do I fix it?"

"It can't be fixed, Draco, you understand that."

"But it has to be!" Draco couldn't just walk around using the Elder Wand, and he wouldn't settle for some average wand. "I'll figure it out. Although it should be interesting when the Dark Lord asks what happened to my wand." He took the wand pieces back and gestured to the sword. "Now, will you tell me what you're up to?"

Snape lay the sword on the counter and began sprinkling the potion on top. With his wand, he ensured levitated the sword and ensured that all of it was covered. Unexpectedly, another sword grew out of the old one until there were two separate ones. Snape took the new sword by the hilt and conjured a sheath for it before shrinking them both. He tucked the sheathed sword into his robe and grabbed the real sword.

"Take this back where you found it and place the following enchantments on the area," Snape instructed, handing Draco a piece of parchment. "When school begins, I will put the fake sword in the headmaster's office to pass off as the real one to both sides of the war."

"Bloody fantastic," Draco groaned.

After completing Snape's task without being harmed, Draco returned home to find it empty. With a glance out the window at the bright sun, he made his way back up the stairs and flopped into his bed.

A/N: I felt almost as bad about destroying Draco's wand as he felt about losing it. How is he supposed to do magic in front of others? How will he regain the most important part of himself? Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter!

As always, I encourage you all to share this book with your friends, comment, vote, and keep on reading! Thank you all so much!